Lee,+Chara

My goal for this summer: 20 books!!! Alright, so here goes!!! First I want to say thanks to all of you (as you might have heard) for such a great year! It was awesome- I'm looking forward to being freshmen in the new school! YEAH!!!!!!!!! And a special thanks to Mr. McFadden! You have taught me so many things and helped me to improve my writing by at least 300%. Also, you have boosted my confidence so much. I used write, and want to share it, but I didn’t like getting up in front of a group to say it. Now I love speaking in front of a group (although I do get a bit nervous sometimes, I’ll admit. Or maybe a lot. hahaha). In health we talked about how good it is to have a natural high, and how it will give us something to enjoy, or to get an adrenaline rush from, without involving drugs, alcohol, etc. Public speaking is my natural high, and you helped me find it. Thank you. 1. //Watching Jimmy//… Nancy Hartry This book is about a girl whose “cousin” gets hurt in the head and gets brain damage. She is the only one who knows how it really happens. I won’t ruin it for you, but you should read it! 2. //Fat Cat//… Robin Brande This book is about a “fat” girl who decides to do something incredibly different with her science project. It turns out absolutely amazing! And she’s so brave to do it… You just have to read it to find out!!! I recommend it to all y’alls I guess… but it’s kinda more meant for girls I think. lol But the book is one of my favorites so whatever!!! :) 3. //The Adoration of Jenna Fox//... Mary E. Pearson Okay, first I'm gonna say this book is... what's the word? Weird? //Different?// A girl named Jenna wakes up from a year long coma and doesn't remember anything. The story was going fine at first but then there was a really huge twist and it honestly kind of made me not enjoy the rest of the story that well but oh well... well. 4. //Waiting for You//... Susane Colasanti I really enjoyed reading //Waiting for You//. A girl named Marisa with an anxiety disorder is going back to school after summer and is trying to prove to everyone that she's not "crazy," as they might have thought the year before. She also realizes that her childhood friend, Nash, is different than she thinks, and they become friends again. 5. //Thirteen plus One//… Lauren Myracle // Thirteen plus One // followed //Eleven//, //Twelve//, and //Thirteen// (all of which I read before, in order) by Lauren Myracle. I really liked this book-the main character, Winnie, is going to be in high school after the summer. But the book takes place during summer. Anyways, she goes to a camp with her best friend, Dinah, and their other best friend, Cinnamon, surprises them by going there too. Many adventures take place at the camp, but I won’t tell about them all! :) 6. //To Kill a Mockingbird//… Harper Lee This may very well be one of the most interesting stories I have ever read. Interesting as in, well, sometimes confusing… Well, also, there was slang and cussing from young girls… ahem. Anyways, I did really enjoy reading //To Kill a Mockingbird//. The fact that it’s narrated by young “Scout,” who, I believe, is about six at the beginning of the story, makes it more fun to read than if it was in third person. The story fans over a series of summers. In the beginning, Dill comes. He then stays with his aunt every summer. The pages of this book hold countless adventures, including numerous attempts at making “Boo” Radley come out of hiding, making up and performing skits, watching a house burn down, and sneaking into court. I couldn’t put it down. 7. //Onion John//… Joseph Krumgold In this book, the main character Andy’s dad has really big plans for him in the future: to fly to the moon, for example. But Andy just wants to be like his dad, who owns a small hardware store. Anyways, Andy becomes friends with Onion John, an odd man, but a good man. He is possibly the best gardener around. Also, no one can understand what he says when he’s talking. But Andy realizes that the way to understand is not to listen hard, but to pay no attention to what Onion John is saying, and before long he knows what he is saying. They become friends. When the Rotary Club decides on their next project: building a new house for Onion John, things sort of fall apart, though… 8. //Number the Stars//… Lois Lowry I read this book in fifth grade, but I decided to read it again, since it’s been almost four years!!! Number the Stars takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Soldiers roam the place constantly. The main character, Annemarie, is neighbors with her best friend, Ellen, and they are both very afraid of the soldiers, just like everyone else. When the time comes that Jews are being captured, Ellen’s parents are forced to leave, and Ellen stays with Annemarie. Along with Annemarie’s mother and little sister, they go to visit her uncle in Gilleleje, where Uncle Henrick eventually helps Ellen’s family escape to free Sweden. This is a good book, and based on real life, too. I would recommend it to all you history buffs out there. 9. //Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood//… Ann Brashares In the third book in the //Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants// series, Lena, Carmen, Bridget, and Tibby are all going to be going to college. Bridget is the first to leave for the summer, to soccer camp. She is a coach, and Eric is also there this summer, which surprises her at first. Carmen finds out her mom is pregnant, and is mad that she didn’t tell her. Carmen also gets a difficult job: taking care of Lena’s angry, widowed grandmother who was, against her own will, brought over from Greece to live in America. Lena is attending an art school, but her father is doing anything to keep her from it… There’s a lot more to tell, but too much for a summary. It’s all a busy summer. 10. //Leave Myself Behind//… Bart Yates This book is about a 17-year-old boy named Noah York… And begins a week after his father’s death. His mother (a poet) and him now live in an old house in a small town, which they are remodeling: tearing down walls, in other words. Then one day they find an old mason jar in a wall with a poem in it… and continue to find more and more… They're not poems, though. One holds a locket; one has a newspaper clipping of a wedding. They are all from the deceased previous owner of the house, Mr. Carlisle. Life changes a little bit when they find out that the Carlisles had a baby... HALFWAY THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D 11. //The First Part Last//… Angela Johnson // The First Part Last // is about a 16-year-old boy, Bobby, who finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant. A social worker says the best choice would be to put the baby up for adoption, with college coming up, so Bobby and Nia can live their normal lives again. But when Nia gets in a car accident and is in an irreversible vegetative coma, Bobby refuses to sign the adoption papers. Therefore, he takes up all responsibility of the child… This book outlines the hard, the overwhelming, the inevitable adjustments of parenthood, and the difficult choices one has to make, whether they be right or wrong. I really liked this book, being able to see into Bobby’s mind; feel how tired he was, and over all, to experience the never-ending love he had for his daughter. 12. //Twisted Summer//… Willo Davis Roberts As soon as I picked up //Twisted Summer//, I knew I had to read it… And I did, that night. Once I started, I did not stop reading until I was finished! The main character, 14-year-old Cici, is visiting at the lake where her and her family stay every summer, with all of their relatives, at her grandma and step grandpa’s cabin. But when they get there, she finds out that a girl that she knew had been murdered the summer before, when her family had missed the lake due to a vacation in Hawaii… supposedly by her crush’s brother, Brody. Neither Cici nor Jack (the aforementioned crush) believe it was Brody… So Cici decides to look in on the mystery. This book kept me turning pages. 13. //Eight Seconds//… Jean Ferris // Eight Seconds // is about a boy named John who goes to rodeo school. He sees that when he’s there, there are no moms, sisters, or, ahem, girlfriends to worry about. He likes rodeo school because he can feel in control of himself there, and the pain of landing on the ground is only temporary… he can always get up and try again. It becomes his goal to ride a bull for eight seconds. As John improves his riding, though, he begins to find out that other people, not only him, have problems in their lives, too, and this knowledge is added onto during the rodeos he participates in. 14. // A Room on Lorelei Street // … Mary E. Pearson This is about a girl named Zoe… Zoe with an E. Zoe who has a sick mother. Zoe’s mother is not ill sick, like, pneumonia, but drug and pill sick. Zoe is tired of having her mother be the only thing she worries about, so when she discovers a room for rent on Lorelei Street, she knows it’s her chance to change things. Even if the woman renting it out, Opal, is a bit… “loony,” and even if Zoe can barely afford it, she moves in. Despite her grandma’s (very forceful) arguments and a (pretty expensive) transportation fee for tennis, she won’t give up. The room is her “one corner of control” and Zoe plans to keep it that way… or hopes, anyway…  15. // Before I Fall // … Lauren Oliver The main character in // Before I Fall // is named Samantha Kingston. The book begins on “Cupid Day,” Friday, February 12th. Samantha wakes up late and has to hurry to catch her ride with her best friend Lindsay. That day, lots of things happen… many of them bad. At the end of the day Samantha and her best friends Lindsay, Elody, and Ally go to a party, and when they leave they get in a wreck. Samantha dies. But instead of what would normally happen: everyone cries, has a funeral, etc, Samantha wakes up again in her own bed. It was a dream, she thinks. But her phone claims it to be February 12th. Things are changing, not all of the bad things are happening, and halfway through the day Sam realizes that it’s not déjà vu: she’s been given a second chance. Turns out, she gets another second chance, and another one… // seven // second chances, to make things right. A whole week of Cupid Days. 16. //Almost Perfect//… Brian Katcher In //Almost Perfect//, the main character, Logan, has just gotten cheated on and dumped by his (now ex-) girlfriend, Brenda. He’s having a really hard time with the absence of a girl and all, but then a new student comes to school: Sage. She’s a bouncy, crazy, //unique// girl, and Logan finds himself falling for her, but when he asks her if she wants to tag along with him and his friends to the movies, she says she can’t date. But Logan sees that Sage’s little sister, Tammi, //can//. So he wonders why Sage can’t, but he finds out soon enough: Sage is really a boy. 17. //Looks//… Madeleine George This book is about two high school girls: Meghan Ball, who is extremely and undeniably huge, but still manages to stay invisible at school, and Aimee Zorn, who is extremely and undeniably skinny (cause: anorexia), but has no friends either. Aimee is a gifted poet, so she joins some sort of club or magazine or something at school (I don’t remember what it was exactly!) and becomes friends with the “leader,” Cara Roy. Meghan likes to watch Aimee, but Aimee thinks it’s creepy and stalkerish, so she doesn’t listen when Meghan tells her to be careful of Cara. But when Cara betrays/takes advantage of Aimee, she turns to Meghan for help. Turns out, Cara did something to Meghan in the past so Meghan and Aimee team up to get back at Cara. They end up like peanut butter and jelly, which goes to show you never know who could end up being your best friend! 18. //Just Ella//… Margaret Peterson Haddix Imagine a book. A big book. Imagine an eleven by sixteen book with a thick cover and cardboard pages. Imagine a delicate princess stumbling down stairs on the cover, leaving one glass slipper behind. Sounds like a childrens’ book, right? Well, this is what Just Ella is. Or, another version. Okay, there is no 11x16 cover or cardboard pages… But still, it’s the same concept. Cinderella (actually Cynthiana Eleanora, but called Cinders Ella by her [evil!!!] stepmother and sisters) goes to the ball [against the rules], sweeps the prince off of his feet, but is forced to leave at midnight to go home and scrub the cellar, and leaves one of her glass slippers [blown by the local glass-blower in a bet] when it starts to break on the stairs. You know the story: prince looks all over for her, finds her, blah blah blah. I know this sounds cheesy but it is good: Ella realizes that Prince Charming (his last name is Charming!) is actually a dull person with no say in his life, and only likes Ella for her looks (the Charmings like to have pretty kids). Anyways, so Ella tells “Charm” that she wants to call off the wedding and he freaks because of course, no one refuses royalty, then throws her in the dungeon. The End. No, actually not. Charm’s advisers actually are the ones who throw her in the dungeon but that’s not the point. It’s not The End, after all. Because Ella has a plan. 19. //The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance//… Catherine Ryan Hyde This is about a 13-year-old girl named Cynnie (short for Cynthia), who lives with her mom and little brother Bill, who has Down’s syndrome. She has to take care of Bill because her mom is pretty much out of it all of the time (she’s an alcoholic). When Cynnie runs away with her friend and “kidnaps” Bill from her grandparents’ where he’s staying, she talks her friend into letting her drive the car, and she crashes while trying to go really fast. Since she had started to follow in her mom’s footsteps, Cynnie has to go to AA meetings, and they begin to help. This book teaches a really good lesson. 20. //Peeled//… Joan Bauer // Peeled // is about young reporter Hildy Biddle. She’s not a //real// reporter, let’s say… But she works for the school newspaper, //The Core//, which, by the way, tells the truth. Not fiction, like the local newspaper, //The Bee//, written by Pen Piedmont, liar extraordinaire. When the old Ludlow house (location of two previous murders) starts acting spooky again, the citizens of happy little Banesville start wondering if the ghost of Clarence Ludlow (responsible for the murders) might be back for revenge. Hildy doesn’t believe there’s a ghost, so she decides to investigate: being a reporter, she knows how to get the information she wants… And in the end, she does…     I // made // it!!! I actually, finally __made__ it!!! Wooooooooooooooooo!!! Made mah goal! LOL… Bout time!:)