Author: Emily Angelica Roldan

Source: Author Submission

This was a quick read for me because this book features poetry and short stories.  This book is written by a girl who is a Sophomore in High School and has already had some of her work published in magazines.  The book is poems and stories from a teen’s point of view and with each one focusing on sometimes one and sometimes many different emotions.  

If you are a fan of poetry or short stories, this would be a good book to read, especially for teen girls. I liked the style of writing and enjoyed almost every piece of work in the book.  I had some favorites, but I also had some that I didn’t like, but overall the book was great for the age of the author. 

Author: Jon Scieszka

Source: ARC from Publisher

• Product Details
• Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, June 2010
• Hardcover, 176 pages
• ISBN-10: 1416979514
• ISBN-13: 9781416979517
• Ages: 7 – 10
• Grades: 2 – 5

SYNOPSIS:

The perfect combination of the age old experience of holding and pouring over a physical book with newest media technology that kids love!

Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn’t hard enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren’t kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,400,001 kids to BE SPHDZ. But with a hamster as their leader, “kids” who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their assignment?

 

First of all, this a book I think that a boy would be more interested in than a girl. Also, it is geared for the younger teen crowd ages 7-10.  With that in mind, I tried to read it from that perspective. 

First the bad of the book.  It is very confusing to try and figure it out when trying to figure out where the plot is wanting to go.  It didn’t flow like it should, and at many times I was left scratching my head.  It has a lot of references to different internet sites throughout the story and I am guessing the author wanted to have the book correspond with these sites.  Personally, I think getting a child to read a book is more important than having a child read a little, check a website, and then read the book more.  To me it wasn’t what reading is all about.

The good points of the book are the illustrations.  I thought they were cute and funny.  They fit the feel of the book perfectly.  The cover is nice and bright and probably would be appealing to the younger readers.  Since the book is basically about space aliens, I do think it is great to have a book for the boys who read.  You just don’t see a lot of books geared for boys anymore. 

In my overall opinion, the book was just okay.  It might be a little confusing for the age group it is targeting, and might even be more confusing if the child doesn’t have access to the internet.  

 
  If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

Author: Jill Shalvis

Source: Paper Back Swap

There is nothing like a good Harlequin to read for a quick romance fix!  This time, I chose to read a Blaze series book.  This book had so much romance and steamy sex, my fingers were blazing turning the pages! Plus, look at the abs on that cover model!

The author did a wonderful job of setting the two main characters up for romance! After meeting in an elevator and sharing a steamy kiss, the two obviously can’t wait to meet each other again around the Hush hotel.  The Hush hotel is centered around letting couples explore their sexual side while in the privacy of a hotel.  Em was a strong and hopeless romantic at heart. She falls in love with Jacob very quickly and gets her hopes up that he feels the same way. Jacob has never had a serious relationship and is afraid to commit to just one woman. 

The characters were a delight and they clicked almost instantly. The only problem I had was with the side characters.  I know that side characters are suppose to fill in spots in the story, but I like to get some sort of feeling for them as well.  In this book, the stories for the side characters were extremely rushed and solved too quickly. A couple more chapters of the side characters would have made it more believable.

Overall a great read from the Harlequin books.  

Author: Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Source: Library

When I went looking at the library for a book focused more on emotional reading than paranormal reading, I came across this book in the young adult section.  Granted, it is a very short book with larger typed font, but the cover was intriguing to me and the blurb on the back seemed to be what I was looking for.

We meet Caz, who goes to a regular school and has just gotten in trouble for punching her cheating boyfriend at school.  She gets 2 sweeks suspension and gossips with her friend Mel over the phone.  Fast forward through the summer and we see her parents talking with the principle of the school and they are going over some of her test scores.  They think Caz needs to be placed in a different school because the believe she has dyslexia.  She fights her parents about this decision and finally has to give in to it.  She leaves behind her friends from school and starts at Dogwood Senior Secondary.  On the first day she is called names like Sped.  When she enters her new class she meets Amanda who has problems of her own.  Amanda becomes a bad influence on her and she falls into the traps of stealing, bullying and lieing.  It catches up to her, when another disabled student commits suicide after the bullying she receives from Amanda and Caz. 

This story was very quick. I read it in 30 minutes tops.  It felt like a book geared more for the younger teens than the older teens, maybe ages 9-12.  It gave a great lesson in accepting certain flaws you may have, but also teaching you about treating others with respect as well.  I think the author could have focused more on the suicide  and bullying instead of the mischief Amanda creates.  Everything happened  very quickly with no substance to it.  Not bad if you are looking for quick read to fill in some time with, but not one I would reread again.