Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

"At least I tried."

In this 5th book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Ann Brashares brings back the characters we knew and loved as they enter their thirties. Four friends ten years later. How has the sisterhood fared - how has life treated them and where are they now?

Although the girls had gone their separate ways and had sort of lost touch with each other, Lena, Carmen and Bee gather in Greece for a reunion arranged by Tibby. What they find there changes their lives forever.This is a story of enduring friendship and love. Although at times almost maudlin and certainly sentimental, the narrative makes us root for each of the girls to finally find true happiness.


I enjoyed the book and recommend it as a fitting conclusion to the series introduced to the world of young adult readers in 2001. Some have said that this novel is not for that YA market, but I think teens who enjoyed the other 4 books (and movies) will want to follow this sisterhood of best friends into adulthood.

Ms C

Life as we knew it - a review by George Morejon

Life as we knew it
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
*** stars

In Life as we knew it, Miranda is just an average teenager living in suburban Pennsylvania. She has a diary she writes in all the time, she worries about her friends, and has problems with her parents' marriage. A huge event that's suppose to be once in a lifetime is happening; the moon is going to be hit by a giant asteroid. This is something everyone's excited for... until it actually happens. The are natural disasters everywhere, and the moon is much larger than it used to be. When the summer came, the weather just gets worse. In the winter, the snow is much higher than normal, over 2 metres. Everyone's getting sick, and Miranda's the last hope for her sick family. Everyone's left the town, and now she has to journey out to see what's left...

I thought this book was alright. I really only got to the summer, but I liked what I read. I'd have to give it 3 stars because I didn't get to finish it.

Between Shades of Gray-- A Review by Sarah Gnefkow

Between Shades of Gray
by Ruta Sepetys

*** Stars

Lina is a sixteen year old who has a normal life just like any Lithuanian girl. She does normal activities, she lives the same way as everyone else, and she even likes boys. All is normal until the Russian Invasion tears apart everything that her and her family has ever known by barging in their home one night. Lina is separated from her father and shoved in a train car with her mother and her brother. The three of them head to the coldest work camp in Northern Siberia. While they are in this work camp they have to dig for beats and fight to stay alive under the horrible conditions they are given to survive. Lina has been drawing to try and communicate with her father who is at a different work camp thousands of miles away. Will her will to survive be enough? Or will the harsh conditions of work camp life defeat her?

Between Shades of Gray was a pretty good book. Sometimes it got way too boring but overall it was pretty interesting. Keeping up with what was going on was sort of a challenge but if you like work camp stories I really do think you will like this. 

Here is a video of the author discussing her novel. (added by Ms C)
http://vimeo.com/12589530

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-- A Review by Sarah Gnefkow

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
by Ann Brashares

**** Stars

Bridget, Lena, Carmen, and Tibby's mothers all met in pregnancy yoga, and they have been best friends ever since. Every summer they spend together but this summer they are all going their separate ways. Before they part they go on one last shopping adventure together where they find a pair of jeans that fits all of them perfectly, regardless of their different body types. The girls decide to make a pact that over the summer they will send the pants to each other with stories of the amazing things that happened to them while wearing the jeans. Each of the girls summer is very different and dramatic and will test their time apart.

I really enjoyed this book and the movie! The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is really a good story about friendship and it has a lot of drama. Some parts of it were kind of slow and boring but most of the time I just wanted to keep reading. If you like dramatic romance books you will definitely like this.

Words in the Dust-- A Review by Sarah Gnefkow

Words in the Dust
by Trent Reedy

*** Stars

Zulaikhas a young girl living in Afghanistan whos life is definitely not very easy. She has a face deformity which she is constantly harassed about. The Taliban is no longer in power but it has still taken her mother away from her, leaving her with her father and his ill-tempered wife. She is afraid of her culture and her features until one day when she meets a woman named Meena who helps her with her writing and poetry. Then an opportunity of a life time is presented when an American Soldier offers her the chance to fix her facial deformity. Will she accept this mans offer? Or will she refuse and follow traditions of her culture?

This book was alright. I expected a lot more from it but most of the time I was just really confused. Some parts I got really into but a lot of the time I just wanted to give up because I had no idea what was happening because a lot was going on all at once. I recommend this to people who love books that have a lot of tradition and values of yound woman in it.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

3.0 out of 5 stars Just a little too much..., May 18, 2011

I eagerly anticipated this book after having read Going Bovine with my teen book club. Because I read that novel, I realized that Libba Bray could present some crazy scenarios and over-the-top characters. She certainly does it again with this maybe too clever satire on beauty queens, beauty pageants, and all the implements and "talents" a girl needs in order to become a Miss Teen Dream.

A plane carrying the 50 contestants for a beauty pageant crashes on a deserted island. The surviving girls must figure out how to feed and shelter themselves until they are rescued. Because they are competitive, a few girls vie for the leadership role; the winner of that vote decides that while they are busy trying to stay alive that they will also keep practicing for the pageant that each desperately wants to win.

MEANWHILE, on the other side of the island is a secret compound hidden inside a volcano. Some bad men are planning some shenanigans with a greedy dictator. AND, in other evolving events, a ship of pirates lands on the same island. Guess what -- they are all young men who are stars of a reality show. Sounds crazy, right? Well the story does get somewhat ridiculous at this point and I sort of lost my taste for the continual subtle and not so subtle attempts at humor though at times I did laugh out loud at a particularly funny or sarcastic bit of prose. The real problem I had with the book, however, was that the author chose to put in TOO MUCH of everything. The graphic descriptions of sexual encounters, drug use, gays, lesbians and transgender love affairs, etc. might be way too much for the young adult age group that would be drawn to this book. I would suggest that interested parents read this first before giving it to or buying it for a younger teen. I'm also not sure that all younger readers would "get" the inside jokes.

I enjoyed the book, but after awhile it just got to be tiresome and instead of the early entertaining biting sarcasm, satire, and wit, it was ultimately predictable and a bit of a let-down.

Ms C.

Bitter End- Review by Aspen Gates

Bitter End

Jennifer Brown

**** stars

Ever since Alex's mother died, she has felt alone and unloved. Her father neglects her and her siblings so Alex tries to take comfort knowing that her two best friends, Zack and Bethany, have her back. Yet, it's still not enough so she hopes that by going to Colorado, the place her mother was trying to go to before she died, everything will make sense. And it seems that Alex's wish of being loved comes true when a new student Cole Cozen becomes her new student that she must tutor in English. She automatically falls in love with him and everything seems to be going perfect until Cole starts expressing his opinion about Alex's best friend Zack and he is always around her. Alex tries to tell Cole that nothing is going on, but he doesn't listen and instead hits her. Alex, confused is trying to understand why Cole would hit her and assumes it's something Zack and her did. But what is she supposed to assume is Cole's reason for hitting her again? Read this painful and agonizing novel in the O'Hara library to see the outcome.

I thought Bitter End was a very sad and emotional book. The main character Alex made me feel so sorry for her and angry the same time. Alex kept trying to understand his violent outbursts towards her and could only come up with an answer that everything was her fault. This book really made me emotional and wanting to understand Alex and her reasoning better and for that I gave it four stars. Jennifer Brown has really created a story that I believe affects many people and will touch many. Definitely think that this would be an amazing book for book club Mrs. Crawford

Bumped --- a review by Amy Lyon

Bumped

by Megan McCafferty

***

In a world where a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, where teen pregnancy isn't just okay, but demanded, how do two very different twins fit in? This is the story of Melody and Harmony, twins that were left on a doorstep with a note saying "Forgive me Melody and Harmony". Melody was adopted by two PhDs working on the pregnancy issue, and like her parents Melody promotes "bumping", even wants to be president of the "bumping" organization. Harmony, on the other hand, grew up in Goodside, where you must be married before you can have children. Harmony badly wants to take Melody back to Goodside, but she's harboring a secret that could ruin both of them...

Bumped was most definitely an original dystopian novel, but so confusing at times it was hard to follow. Keeping up with who was telling what became a challenge, because after a while the sisters have similar voices and the same slightly desperate tone. Overall it was an okay book. Fans of dystopian or virus books should definitely read this.

Ruined -- A Review by Sarah Gnefkow

Ruined

by Paula Morris

*** Stars

Rebecca has to go live in New Orleans with her Aunt because her father is away on business in China. The house she is staying at is really creepy because her Aunt is a tarot card reader so she is a strong believer in the after-life and warding off any evil spirits. It doesn't help that it is also across the street from an old cemetery. A cemetery where Lisette, a ghost, has hung around for over 100 years now and will remain to stay there until she gets revenge for her untimely death. Now in New Orleans Rebecca must attend a school for mean rich girls. The only good thing that seems to have come her way is Anton Grey , who is very cute. But is he such a good thing after all...?

I thought that this book was pretty good, I'm just not that into the ghost thing. It wasn't one of those books where I just couldn't put it down. But I honestly did want to know what was going to happen next. So if you are into ghosts, mystery, and shocks I definitely recommend this to you.

Cathy's Ring -- a review by Hope Austin

Cathy's Ring
by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman
***

Cathy Vickers is back, and now she's trying to disappear. After finding three dead bodies under her window one morning, Cathy realizes that someone's after her. She decides it's best thaty she just disappear instead letting her family or friends get hurt. Unfortunately, fate has other plans for her. The unfolding mystery has Cathy finding allies in former enemies and following a path to self-discovery.

What I really enjoyed about this series was how much effort the authors put in to not make it seem like your typical paranormal romance. There's a lot of other stuff going on, the romance just happens to be the trigger for it. The series also realistically (as one can get in paranormal fiction) explores how people feel being the side characters in somenone else's story. Cathy's tendency to make everything about herself is a noted character flaw. That being said, this book could have been a lot better. The ending was very cliche and anticlimactic because everyhting comes together far too nicely. Still, I'd reccomend this series.