Bound

By: Donna Jo Napoli
Simon and Schuster

"Lazy One, bring the firewood," while Xing Xing is ordered about the cave only to make her step sister and step mother comfortable, she can't help but be happy. Xing Xing has found her spirit mother and made a friend of a raccoon in the forest where she hunts for meat. Xing Xing knows that marrying off her step sister is what is most important but, guiltily Xing Xing wonders if she will ever have the opportunity to marry. Or is carrying water for family all that Xing Xing is ment for? Donna Jo Napoli creates an oriental fairytale that is much more intricate and delicate than any modern myths.
Personal Review
I loved this story, growing up I was raised on fairy tales and I'm always thrilled to hear a new one. While this is just a rendition of a Cinderella story I found myself still cheering for Xing Xing in the end, holding my breath when the prince comes to whisk her away. Everyone knows the outline for the story but this variation has much more depth and intensity than many other tales.

Cherry Ames: Clinic Nurse

By: Julie Tatham
Springer

Cherry Ames is doing her best to keep with the clinic patients and be a comfort to them all, but the work is exhausting her! Being over-worked doesn't stop Cherry when a mysterious doctor comes to her claiming an emergency. Before long Cherry realizes that she has been kidnapped! The culprits need Cherry's help for a surgery and being a nurse Cherry can't refuse, and after Cherry does her duty the kidnappers decide that she can go free. Who will believe Cherry when she tells her wild tale? Even more important, how is she going to catch those bandits!
Personal Review
With women running for president it was difficult to read this book on occasion. I could enjoy the funny story and appreciate Cherry's dilemma but I had a difficult time over looking the disregard that some of the men showed to women in this novel. Reading books from a different time is something that we can't replace with just historical fiction, authors that lived during a specific time period write in an unbiased way; while current writers still have the way we think now to appeal to.

Stuck in Neutral

By: Terry Trueman
Harper Collins

Many people have studied Cerebral Palsy but we will never fully understand the disease because those who suffer from cerebral palsy can't tell us anything. Shawn McDaniel knows though, he could tell you everything that he has ever heard or anything that has been said about cerebral palsy, even what it feels like to have cerebral palsy. Shawn can't tell anyone anything though, suffering from this condition is something that Shawn has come to terms with. Unfortunately his family still has some reservations about how to deal with this "problem." Shawn's father is hurting because he thinks that Shawn is in pain every day. What does a parent do when their child is hurting? The problem is that Shawn isn't in pain, he just can't tell anyone. More than anything Shawn whats to tel his father this before is dad takes matters into his own hands.
Personal Review
This story takes on a whole new dimension. I only know one person with cerebral palsy and everything that Trueman talks about I do when I'm am around him. Talking to him like he is a baby or maybe talking a little louder so he can understand me better. This novel will really make you think about how you treat and even change your opinion on the mentally challenged.

Stop Pretending; What Happened when my Big Sister went Crazy

By:Sonya Sones
Harper Collins

What happens when your hero of a sister looses her mind? Sonya Sones shows us the feeling of a young girls when her older sister has a mental breakdown through a book of poems. Dealing with loosing her sister to an institution and having a discordant relationship with her parents is not easy for this young girl. She also has to deal with what the world would say if they knew... that crazy runs in her family.
Personal Review
I have only read one other book of poetry and once again I loved the separating pages that in the over all view correspond but all have separate layers to dissect. Stop Pretending was a wonderful and intriguing book that has different ideas about how to deal with something like mental illness. Sonya Sones is a wonderful author that used the poetry to its fullest extent to make this amazing novel.

Lizzy Bright and Buckminster Boy

By: Gary D. Schmidt
Laurel Leaf

Turner Buckminster just moved and he is not pleased. Being the ministers son does have its disadvantages, like when you throw rocks, not acceptable for a ministers son. Or when you get into a fight the news get to his father's ears before he does. No, things in Maine are not turning out well for Turner. Then when he meets an unusual girl named Lizzy Bright things change. Gary Schmidt creates a vivid and intriguing novel with Lizzy Bright. He shows how thing used to be and how during those time people didn't see room to change. With Turner Buckminster, Schmidt proves that with or without change, there is a sense of right and wrong that is innately given to each of us, if we let our surrounding convince us otherwise is where people loose sight of what is important in life.
Personal Review
Lizzy Bright is an amazing character. While reading this book I continually found myself wishing she were real. There is so much that is discussed and faced during the novel, using Turner to show the problems of the day Schmidt accurately describes a world that we can never experience.

Wintergirls

by:Laurie Halse Anderson
Penguin Group

Lia's ex-best friend Cassie is dead. This is something of a shock for Lia, they were the same, wintergirls. Lia has to face the haunting of Cassie's last calls and the strange guilt that she doesn't know what to do with. Having rolls and rolls of fat that want to glue themselves to Lia's body doesn't help either,so she doesn't eat. Not eating isn't new to Lia though, if she can fight through the hunger pains then she can fight through the pain of loss. Anderson gives the world a glimpse into the terrifying and degrading world of eating disorders with Wintergirls . There are things that most people who are not involved directly with an eating disorder will never understand about the disease. Reading this book everyone can see the effects that this crippling illness can have on all the people surrounding it.
Personal Review
Wintergirls really opens your eyes, if you have never dealt with anything like this. I haven't even really know anyone with an eating disorder so this was very disturbing to read and learn about. I never realized how those effected really feel. I always thought it was a vain notion, but while reading i realized that this is so much more than just wanting to be the prettiest. Many times this can be a call for attention. I think that all young readers should be aware that this is a real problem and can affect your entire life.

The Cheat

By: Amy Goldman Koss
Penguin Group

Facing mid-terms with no studying done for the geography test, cheating seems like the best options for some middle schoolers. While things go wrong on all counts when the test answers end up being wrong and all culprits seem to be punished there are many underlying problems that have been festering in these young peoples lives. Cheating brings all the problems to the surface and not there is not hiding all the things that have been avoided far too long.
Personal Review
The Cheat proved an interesting read. From a young adult prospective there are many appealing facets that this book confronts. As far a depth goes this one all sits right there on the surface bringing to light many underlying problems that many teen have to face regularly.