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Bj neary's Blog (179)

Response by Paul Volponi

Paul Volponi's latest novel, Response, takes on the dilemma of a hate crime in a racially divided community. Three African American teens go into Hillsboro, mostly white and Italian, to steal a car and make quick money. The car theft never happens, but as the boys walk home, they are chased by three white teens in a black Land Rover. Asa and Bonds, run for their lives, never looking back. If they did, they would have seen that their friend, Noah, tripped, and fell flat on the sidewalk. With a… Continue

Added by bj neary on March 5, 2009 at 7:02pm — No Comments

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is a sure winner! Two friends are lured into starving themselves with a bet they make to each other "to to be the thinnest." Lia is destroyed when her best friend, Cassie, is found dead in a motel room. After two times in rehab, Lia now lies to everyone about her disease, seeing and talking to the ghost of Cassie, hating her parents and being really,really confused. Anderson does a great job of letting the reader see the compulsive, secretive life of an… Continue

Added by bj neary on February 15, 2009 at 4:26pm — 12 Comments

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles

bookshelves: read, mystery, realistic-fiction, ya

status: Read in January, 2009

review: Sunny is a tough teen who doesn't really miss her sister, Jazz who died in a fire at college. Jazz was a master manipulator who tortured Sunny,impressed and beguiled everyone, especially her parents. Now her mom is a zombie, crying and laying around all day. Her father is a drunk who has fled their home and Sunny is left to care for her, go to school and keep things together. All that changes on… Continue

Added by bj neary on January 18, 2009 at 2:13pm — No Comments

Trouble by Gary Schmidt

bookshelves: read, multicultural-fiction, realistic-fiction, ya

status: Read in January, 2009

review: Just finished this 3rd book by Schmidt and I was sooooo moved by this tense, funny, suspenseful story and you really get to know each character and will love them, hate them or decide you can just plain accept them. Henry, just like Holling in The Wednesday Wars, is unforgettable. I love the way they both look at the world, their families and how they make decisions, good, bad or… Continue

Added by bj neary on January 18, 2009 at 2:10pm — No Comments

One Night by Margaret Wild

bookshelves: read, novels-in-verse, realistic-fiction, ya (edit)
status: Read in December, 2008
review: Wow, what a great novel in verse!!!I loved Wild's other book, Jinx----but this one is even better about four teens with their own kind of baggage and the mistakes they make and the changes they make to correct. A compelling read with a very sweet satisfying conclusion.

Added by bj neary on January 18, 2009 at 2:07pm — No Comments

Tweak by Nic Sheff

bookshelves: read, biography (edit)

status: Read in December, 2008

review: I found Nic Sheff's account of his many relapses and ongoing battle with addictions very believable. Addictions make you a person who doesn't care what you do to others as long as you are high on meth, cocaine, whatever your drug or alchohol of choice is....until the next time and the next time. You become a liar, a thief, an enemy to your family and friends just to continue your craving for the next and even… Continue

Added by bj neary on January 18, 2009 at 2:05pm — No Comments

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

bookshelves: read, historical-fiction (edit)

status: Read in January, 2009

review: I love Holling Hoodhood---where does someone think up a name like that? I totally enjoyed his voice, his humor, his angst. The Shakespeare plays during the afternoons with Mrs Baker were so much fun to read about (helped me remember why I liked them!!!) and Holling's father was a complete A_ _ who became even more annoying and threatening as the book progressed. The coverage of the times--the Vietnam… Continue

Added by bj neary on January 18, 2009 at 2:03pm — No Comments

Playing Traffic by Gail Giles

Love Gail Giles---Playing in Traffic is aptly titled, about a teen, Matt, who is pretty pathetic when it comes to girls, he has about 2 friends and mostly absentee parents. He is really close to his kid sister, Katy, because of his hands off parents and something he overheard when he was 10 years old. After that, Matt was Kayt's parents, best friend and confidant. Now Matt is being set up and seduced by bad girl, Skye. He knows "she plays in traffic"----and he doesn't, but it feels so exciting… Continue

Added by bj neary on January 18, 2009 at 2:01pm — No Comments

Right Behind You by Gail Giles

Gail Giles has done it again, a superb psychological thriller with a 9 year old boy setting his friend on fire, being sent to a juvenile detention center and learning through many mistakes, good psychiatrists and a supportive family that he doesn't deserve the unhappiness and self hate for the rest of his life. This book kind of reminded me of Boy Toy by Barry Lyga and how kids can be so damaged by what has been done to them or by them. They feel insecure, are not honest with their own feelings… Continue

Added by bj neary on November 30, 2008 at 12:46pm — No Comments

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin ("Q") is a teen who has loved from afar crazy, sexy neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman (and you must always say all three when you mention her name). When they were nine, they came upon a dead man in the park where they went to play. Q's parents told him to take a nap and forget about it but Margo slipped out of her house and investigated the suicide. That is just how Margo Roth Spiegelman is, adventurous, alluring but also lots of scary fun. One night she slips in Q's window and she takes… Continue

Added by bj neary on November 30, 2008 at 12:44pm — 1 Comment

Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson

Gripping, intense and thrilled to go to Paranoid Park to use his skateboard, a 16 year old kid ventures back a 2nd time without his friend and meets up with scary skater dudes and decides to hop the train with him, just for fun. What happens when they get to the train yard forever changes his life. A guard tries to yank them off the train with a fierce club that he uses visiously on both guys. In their effort to defend themselves, they kick him and then hit him with his skateboard. The guard… Continue

Added by bj neary on November 30, 2008 at 12:42pm — No Comments

Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi

Wow! Once again, Paul Volponi has written a stunningly awesome book and the horror of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is all too crushingly real from Miles' point of view. He has only been living with his jazz playing dad for a short time when he, his uncle and his dad take their possessions in a hefty bag and head for the Super Dome. I was afraid of the gangs preying upon the families, so sad for the meaningless deaths of so many and the squalor, and oppressive heat that they had to endure.… Continue

Added by bj neary on August 20, 2008 at 9:23am — No Comments

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, wow, wow! My friends Mary Alice and Doris highly recommended this book (thank you!)and I must confess it took me toooo long to get to finally read it---along the way---I lent it to a mom and she lent it to her daughter and they CRIED but oh did they love it AND SO DID I!!!! I just love the way Jordan Sonneblick gets it- the right on 13 year old musings of Steven, his fear and anger and his constantly annoying little brother. I couldn't put this book down, polished… Continue

Added by bj neary on August 12, 2008 at 7:32pm — 2 Comments

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Deanna Lambert was thirteen when her life changed from good to bad. In a car with her brother's best friend, her dad discovers his little girl is no more. Deanna has a hell of a life since her dad doesn't speak to her anymore- now she is a junior, her brother got a girl pregnant and they live in the family basement with adorable, April and dead end jobs. Deanna has a horrible reputation she has never been able to escape---so what did I learn- Deanna takes a life of… Continue

Added by bj neary on August 12, 2008 at 7:18pm — No Comments

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

This book is over 400 pages and I couldn't stop reading it- what a super read- very unsettling and compelling. Josh Mendel was 12 when his middle school teacher molested him. I learned that individuals can't always TRULY confront what happens to them even with psychological help....it takes Josh over 5 years to finally come to terms with what happened to him...how he has pushed everyone away and really can't deal with many issues due to the trauma of not understanding sex, love and many other… Continue

Added by bj neary on July 17, 2008 at 8:56am — No Comments

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle ZevinPosted by BJ Neary on June 30, 2008 at 8:52am

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle ZevinPosted by BJ Neary on June 30, 2008 at 8:52am

This is a Reading Olympic book I read (give it 5 stars out of 5!) and now I have to make up 5 questions and the answers with pg # and chapters... I really liked the main character, Naomi,a teen of 16 years who falls while returning to school to get the yearbook camera. Zevin nailed the protagonist's angst, humor, anger and introspective thoughts. You could really feel Naomi's… Continue

Added by bj neary on July 17, 2008 at 8:54am — No Comments

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and I found it achingly poignant, just as riveting as Kite Runner and I was so drawn to Mariam and Laila's lives in Afghanistan. This novel speaks volumes about the travesty of revolution in this country, the never ending travails of its people and they are still so resilient. I highly recommend this novel because of its cultural significance, the horrors that young girls must endure marrying when they 13 or 14 and strict adherence to… Continue

Added by bj neary on September 23, 2007 at 8:49pm — No Comments

Stephenie Meyer books

I am the kind of person who reads and loves almost everything I read, but I was never a reader of horror fiction- vampires in particular. But students kept asking for the books after Twilight in the spring and since Twilight was on the Reading Olympic list for '08 I decided to take it home for the summer, read it and make up questions. Well, I am hooked! I read Twilight in July and I couldn't put it down, Meyer has a unique way of writing… Continue

Added by bj neary on August 28, 2007 at 8:57am — 2 Comments

Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat

What a wonderful, poignant story about a Haitian family whose father, Papa, now lives in New York, toiling for years to bring his family to live with him. Told in first person by Celiane in entries to her notebook, we…

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Added by bj neary on August 14, 2007 at 10:23am — No Comments

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