Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel

In a 21st century world full of pet memes and cellphone memory cards packed of images of your dog or cat sleeping, this is a fun change. The photographer meant to capture the dogs doing ordinary things and when his muse dove into the pool after a toy, the project shifted gears. The book is a collection of photographs of different sizes and breeds of dogs, taken with the camera underwater shooting up.

Why I picked up the book: I saw it on the cart of books that were just returned and the cover drew me in. I love labs!

Why I finished it: It is cute and fun and an interesting perspective. Some of the teeth pictures were almost a bit scary. Made me wonder what I would look like underwater.

I'd give it to: Anyone, especially those who love dogs, animals, or photography. It could be paired with "Monkey Portraits" (I like to take it and see how long it takes students to start making the faces!). Teachers could use it for a creative writing class, photography assignment on perspective, etc.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be different, so different that others would stop and stare, or worse? Have you ever wondered why we judge people based on their physical appearances? Have you ever stopped to wonder how you treat others and if it is always with kindness?

August Pullman was born with a facial deformity. He has been homeschooled his entire life due to his health. Finally Auggie has the opportunity to attend public school for fifth grade. Wonder is the story of his fifth grade year, told from the points-of-view of August, her sister Via, Via's boyfriend Justin, her best friend Miranda, as well as Auggie's friend Jack.

Why I picked up the book: It has been recommended to me numerous times by a variety of people.

Why I finished it: I could not put the book down. I especially loved Auggie's parents. I would hope to be that great of a parent in that type of situation.

I'd give it to: Absolutely anyone. It has a great message about kindness, love, and acceptance that we all (teens, adults, parents, teachers, students) need to hear and be reminded of on a frequent basis. I took the book with me to school visits, in case I had a few minutes to read between classes, and anyone who had read it and saw it in my hand always said "Wow! That's such a great book."

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Paige Torn (Paige Adler #1) by Erynn Mangum

Paige Adler stays plenty busy and thought she was happy with her life. But after a year she thought her job as a receptionist at an adoption lawayer's office would turn into a counselor position. Is it possible to be too good at your job? Her bff has asked for help planning an anniversary party for her parents and then her upcoming wedding. Paige helps with various ministries at church (toddler Sunday school, teen youth groups) and has trouble finding time for her own study and reflection time. Where do you drawn the line? Is it possible to give too much of yourself in the attempt to serve God and others? Paige is torn but about to discover some answers, with a little help from Tyler, a cute Christian guy who thinks she needs to take some time for herself.

Why I picked up the book: I love this author's previous series (Maya Davis & Lauren Holbrook) and I needed something light and fun to read.

Why I finished it: I could relate to Paige. She likes to help but that could be more of a detriment to herself rather than a blessing. I liked the message that just because you are single doesn't mean you don't have an opportunity to serve God and others.

I'd give it to: fans of Christian fiction and "chick-lit". Teens and adults would both like it.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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Ouran High School Host Club

Name: Serina

Grade: 12+

Title: Ouran High School Host Club

Author/illustrator: Bisco Hatori

Haruhi is a poor scholarship student at a prestigious school called Ouran High, where only the richest and most cultured people can attend. Haruhi breaks this norm by being neither. Haruhi can't even afford the stupidly expensive uniform. One day, while looking for a place to study quietly and in private, Haruhi encounters the Host Club, a group of dashing male students that sell their time and charm to young women. Overwhelmed by their enthusiastic greeting, Haruhi bumps into an expensive vase and smashes it. The Host Club then demands that Haruhi pay for it by taking on clients as a member of their club. There's just one problem. Haruhi is a girl. With her short, disheveled hair and gender neutral shape, the Host Club mistakes Haruhi for a boy, and Haruhi, who is used to the mistake and thinks gender identification is overrated anyway, doesn't tell them otherwise. Even after discovering Haruhi is a girl, Tamaki, the eccentric head of the Host Club, insists that she stay and hide her true identity. But secretly, Tamaki wishes to see a feminine Haruhi, and often fantasizes about it while Haruhi learns the trade of charming women with the other members. Is this the start of love for Tamaki, who has never truly loved anything but his own reflection? Will the dense and easygoing Haruhi even notice his feelings?

This manga is full of slapstick humor, cliches, and bountiful breaking of the fourth wall.

I picked this book up because I have always been curious about it.

I finished the first book because it was a funny play on traditional shojo series and doesn't take itself too seriously.

I'd give this book to any fan of shojo manga, or anyone who isn't a fan of it and wants to see jokes about it in an endearing way.

Rating: **** Really liked it!

Three Brides No Groom

Name: Michelle Sherwin
Grade: 12+
Title: Three Brides No Groom
Author: Debbie Macomber

Three friends Gretchen, Maddie and Carol are about to reunite at their 50 year reunion. Many things have changed over the course of those years, but one thing that has not changed in that they all remember all the old flames. Every one of them was expecting they knew exactly who they were going to come back to the reunion with, but every one of them is also wrong. After not having seen each other since their college years they have all changed so much. Each one has their own story of how they loved and lost in the years following their separation. Each found that the guy they thought was forever was just not for them and each finds an unlikely match in people they never would have even though of. Each of these women has a story to tell and a husband to bring to the reunion in Three Brides no Groom.

I liked how it was almost like each one of the girls had their own book within the book. Each one told their own story. There was no overlapping so the focus was on whichever girl was telling their story at that time. It was also nice that there was some introduction to the story so that the reader would know the story behind the school and the fountain and how these three girls met up. I wish that the story would have told more about the girls and their husbands during the reunion. I would have liked to known what the reactions were of the women towards the husbands.

Why I picked this book up: I picked this book up because it looked like an interesting story that was about how not everyone is what they seem to be at first.

Why I finished this book: I finished this book because each one of the stories told something new about the girls and what they felt. Each story also revealed more about how the girls lived their lives and how each experience changed them.


I'd give this book to someone who would enjoy the a story  unlike any typical romance story. In order for someone to enjoy this book they would need to put away all of their previous experiences with romance novels.

My rating for this book is a ****

Barefoot in Baghdad

Kaitlin
11th grade
Barefoot in Baghdad: A Story of Identity- My Own and What it Means to be a Woman in Chaos
By: Manal Omar
Manal M. Omar, author of Barefoot in Baghdad, an international aid worker from an Arab and Muslim heritage, has provided valuable first-hand insights into events a world away following the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster. One of the book's major characters is now a prominent member of San Diego's Iraqi community.Her book also provides a landscape of emotions and love between men and women in a war-torn environment. She uses a Charles Dickens’ analogy in her description of Baghdad: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The best of times could be Omar stating, “I enrolled in the prestigious Hunting Club in Mansour and went swimming every Tuesday and played Bingo every Friday night.” The worst of times included harrowing close calls with checkpoints and roadside bombs, as well as poignant losses of people she came to know and love. I chose this book because I am fascinated by the historical background of this story. I kept reading because of the suspense involved. I would give this book to anyone interested about women's rights in the Middle East. I give this book 4 stars! ****

Leslee
11th Grade
Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
By: Richard Louv

In 'Last Child in the Woods,' Richard Louv addresses the troubling fact that many children in today's society are lacking an exposure to nature, thereby hindering their emotional and physical development.  Through demonstration of numerous studies, Louv explains that nature is crucial for our health.  Evidence has shown correlations between health issues such as obesity, attention disorders, and depression.  Throughout the novel, factors are presented as to why there is a decline in exposure to nature occurring.  These include society's increasing dependence on technology, a growing fear (most people do not let their children go roam around outside unattended like past generations have done), etc.  The effects that this lack of nature seems to be having on society is deemed as the Nature-Deficit Disorder, and this novel encourages people to get outside in an attempt to save future generations from the severe consequences this deficit may cause.

I picked up this book right before I attended the Wyoming Youth Congress.  Upon being accepted to go up to Teton Science School to participate in the event, they asked all attendees to read it before coming.  I kept reading because I found the points very fascinating and alarming.  It made me consider how frightening society's dependency on technology truly is.  However, while I think the information presented in the book are important and worthwhile, I found it to be a very slow, boring read. 

I would recommend this book to adults who love being outside, have kids, realize the negative effects technology could be having on society, or simply want to make a difference in the world.

I give this book a 3*** rating. 

Anna Dressed in Blood

Name: Serina

Grade: 12+

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood has an interesting job for a teenage boy, one that he took up after his father's terrible death. Cas hunts and kills ghosts. One might wonder how you can kill something that is already dead, and the answer is with a magical blade called an athame. Cas lives with his kitchen-witch mother and their ghost sensing cat, and their odd family is constantly moving for Cas' occupation. Their most recent place to call home is Thunder Bay, Ontario, where Cas is determined to go after one particularly bad spook that the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood. Anna was murdered on her way to a school dance, and she still wears the same white dress from that deadly night in 1958, only now the dress is soaked and dripping with blood. Anna haunts her old family home, and brutally kills anyone that dares to step inside. Cas has never dealt with such a bloodthirsty ghost, and things go less than ideal when his new schoolmates' 'prank' goes very wrong after a party and Cas wakes up from unconsciousness to find himself inside Anna's domain. To his great surprise, Anna spares his life. Cas doesn't know why Anna let him live when she hasn't let anyone else leave her house without being in pieces, or why she seems more self aware than any of the other ghosts he has faced, but Cas is determined to unravel the mystery or join Anna in death by trying.

I picked this book up because it had a cool cover and sounded interesting.

I finished this book because I wanted to know what was going on.

I'd give this book to any ghost fan, or any romance fan looking for a dark twist.

Rating: *** Liked it

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock

Sweet revenge
Would mean
Everything to Celia. An opportunity to
Even the score and show 
The world (or at least the mean girls).

Reinvention (new look and new moniker).
Enter Celia the Dark, a new
Version, hiding behind a hoodie and chunky boots.
Emptying her feelings into a poetry
Notebook. 9th
Grade should be a new start.
Evidently not. Until

Cool Drake, from New York,
Enters Celia’s world, a
Light in her darkness. 
Instantly, he entrusts her with a secret. When the mean girls strike
Again, Celia must make a choice:

Drake’s friendship and trust
Or revenge, sweet revenge.
Oh tortured soul,
Read this book!

Why I picked up the book: I love the perspective of the cover and the author's last name is really fun to say.

Why I finished it: I could immediately identify with Celia.

I'd give the book to: anyone who can identify with being the outsider (so really anyone who has ever attended middle or high school).

Interesting article on the author's back story.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Most of us have probably read a book or watched a movie about the Holocaust and the horrors the Jews went through at the hands of Germany. But until now, I wasn't aware that they were not alone. At the same time as the Nazi's reign of terror, Stalin and the Soviet Union were rounding up Eastern Europeans who opposed him and forcing them into work camps in Siberia.

Lina, her mother, and younger brother are arrested in Lithuania and forced upon a train. The trip seems endless and is full of horrors, not limited to lack of food, space, no proper bathing and bathroom facilities, and watching the weak perish. Those who didn't die on the trip are forced to live in cramped shacks and to work for no pay and barely any food rations in camps in the frigid arctic regions. Lina is an artist and uses her skill to secretly document their journey and try to contact their father, who was taken to a separate facility.

Will they survive? Who can they trust and who would allow humans to be treated this way? This novel is based in part on the author's family history.

Why I picked up the book: Several book clubs I'm in have read it and it is NCHS's one school one book this spring. I wanted to read it as a possible book club.

Why I finished the book: Like the author, I wasn't aware of this part of WWII. I couldn't put the book down. Someone from another book club I attended mentioned that she didn't think she would have been able to survive just not having being clean, much less the lack of food. I think I agree.

I'd give it to: Readers who like historical fiction and holocaust books; those who read and liked "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay and/or "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I started reading "The Storyteller" by Jodi Picoult at the same time I was reading this and they fit together well too.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are the teenage daughters of the infamous "Bonesaw Killer". The sisters live in Portero, Texas where weird is the norm. Monsters lurk and destroy at will, and no one seems a bit surprised by odd and mysterious happenstances just as long as you don't mess with one of their own. While Daddy is behind bars awaiting execution for his crimes, Kit and Fancy are receiving fan mail, hate mail and the occasional prowler looking for a piece of memorabilia. What fans, hatemongers, and their own Madda don't realize is how much like Daddy Kit and Fancy really are. 

Kit and Fancy have decided to move from dissecting animals to carving, slicing, and dicing bad guys. The prowler gives them the perfect opportunity to try out their new interests. But they have also learned from Daddy's mistakes. They don't want to get caught and need a way and a place to hide the evidence. Thankfully in Portero, Texas, it isn't unusual to find invisible, magical doorways. And the happy place in Fancy's mind might provide the opportunity they need to make the bad just disappear.

Why I picked up the book: My book club at Roosevelt High School wanted something that was horror, graphic, with lots of detail and that would hook you. I read the first scene online, where Kit & Fancy are awakened by the prowler lurking in their room and it seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Plus the cover of the book is fascinating.

Why I finished it: I'm a fan of the HBO series Dexter, so the premise is intriguing to me (killing bad guys as a service to the public). Even though the book is 500 pages, I felt the ending was a bit rushed. I'd love it if the author wrote a companion novel about Daddy so we knew more about him and the motivations behind his crimes. The world the author creates is odd and quirky, but you just have to let that go and remember that it isn't real and isn't supposed to make complete sense.

I'd give it to: high school and adult readers, who won't be offended or scared off by the serial killer aspects. Fans of the TV show Dexter.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Ashfall

Name: Serina

Grade: 12+

Title: Author

Author: Mike Mullin

Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park is home to beautiful geysers and springs, but it is in fact an enormous supervolcano just underneath the surface. Luckily, it is dormant, but unluckily, it is also overdue for an eruption that could wipe out half the states and cover the rest in poisonous fumes and ash. This actually happens unexpectedly one fine day when Alex, a teenager home for the weekend by himself while his family is on vacation, finds his house quite suddenly tipping sideways and on fire. He manages to get himself out of the burning wreckage and into the care of his next door neighbors who saw something had happened. But Alex's house is just the beginning. An earthquake rumbles under their feet and Alex and his neighbors are forced into the safety of their large plastic tub. Things go from bad to worse when a thunderous noise starts up and continues on for what seems like forever. Alex forces toilet paper into his ears and covers them with thick headphones to try and drown out the ear shattering sound. When the rumbling finally ceases and the three are sure they are not deaf, they look outside in what should be the brightest part of the day to see nothing but a black sky raining ash down in huge piles. No communications are working, and Alex becomes increasingly more desperate to find his family until he finally sets out into this new hellish world, determined to be reunited with them.

I picked this book up because it was about Yellowstone erupting.

I finished this book because it was full of action.

I'd give this book to any dystopian or apocalyptic fan.

Rating: *** Liked it.