high school

Another Little Piece of My Heart by Tracey Martin

Another Little Piece of My Heart

Claire’s life has been completely turned upside down, between her mom’s cancer and death, the realization that her college fund has disappeared, and the break up with her first love, Jared, which was her mother’s dying wish. And, as if that’s not enough to send any teenage girl into a sinking spiral of depression, there’s also the little detail about Jared turning their break up into a song… and getting his big break by ranting about her and their big break up. Now the radio isn’t even safe.

Then, months after all of this happened and right after her high school graduation, Claire’s family heads to the beach for the summer. At the beach, Claire really shines and shows her worth as a character because she doesn’t mope around and ignore the world, though we’d certainly understand and forgive her if she did. Instead she goes and gets herself a job in the local grocery store to try to earn back some of that college money. She’s not a helpless little whiny girl. She’s a get out there and get whatever job you can kind of girl. I like that about her.

Of course, though, she just has to run into Jared. He comes into the store while she’s working, and they spend the summer working through the break up songs, arguing, and more.

This is really a sweet story. I loved the characters and the romance of it all, and the song-writing and music focus was fun, making it stand out from your typical YA romance. I’ll definitely be checking out future Tracey Martin titles!

Another Little Piece of My Heart is available as an ebook, and is actually on sale at Amazon right now for $2.50. I’m telling you, this is a great way to spend $2.50!

Video

Divergent movie scene released… Uhh, yes please.

I need this movie to come out NOW. Theo James as Four is perfect.

http://movies.yahoo.com/video/divergent-exclusive-first-clip-012029180.html?soc_src=copyp

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando

roomies sara zarr tara altebrando This book made me want to go back to college. Not like now, as an adult, adding college classes to the insane list of everything else I already do, but like be 17 and about to start college for the first time again. (No, I’m not saying I’d wish away my family or anything crazy like that. Calm down.)

Roomies does a great job of capturing two girls’ emotions as they transition from high school at home to living on the campus of UC Berkley. Elizabeth (known as EB) is an East Coast only child living with her single mom of questionable morals. Lauren is a native San Franciscan living with her parents and seemingly dozens of siblings as one big happy family. When they find out they’re going to be roommates, EB starts off an e-mail chain of correspondence spanning the remainder of their summer as they wrestle through the important things leading up to college:

  • Who brings what stuff?
  • What happens to my high school friendships?
  • Long distance romances… yes or no?
  • How can I leave my family?
  • How can I NOT leave my family?
  • Am I really ready to grow up?
  • Will we get along and be able to live with each other?
  • Can even I do this?

On top of all of that, which was fun to watch as EB and Lauren grew up over the course of the summer and developed a great foundation of a relationship to start their college experiences off with, the story is told in alternating points of view, which I love. I’m a sucker for a well written story with multiple points of view. I find it fascinating. And in this case, with Zarr and Altebrando both writing (I assume they each wrote one of the girls), they really FELT like two completely different people instead of one person writing two characters. It was cool.

I’d recommend this for girls in high school, probably tenth grade and up, and for college/adult women as well. There’s a lot here to make you reflect on your own college experience. It made me wonder how my college years could have been different if I’d had a chance to get to know a roommate before moving in. Or what I would have done differently that summer before college knowing how those high school relationships would fade away so quickly once I moved across the country.

Anyway, I really enjoyed these two characters and seeing how their final summers at home played out. I’d also really like to see a follow-up of their first year in college or something. While the story ended well and I felt satisfied that it was sufficiently finished, I also wanted to know more about them.

Make sure you check it out! Roomies releases on December 24 and can be ordered here on Amazon.

Drawn by Cecilia Gray

Though most people who know me would probably never suspect me of it, I’m kind of fascinated my graffiti and the whole subculture around it. So, that combined along with the fact that I’ve become a pretty solid fan of Cecilia Gray’s YA work means that I enjoyed Drawn. A lot.

In this title, Sasha is riddled with a unique ability: her voice prompts people to say what they’re actually thinking rather than what they want to say. It seems like that could be fun… but then I think about all the things I think but don’t say out loud, and it’s scary instead. Sasha spends her childhood in and out of foster homes as a result of the chaos this causes in people’s lives, until she’s assigned to work with an FBI agent who takes her in at the age of twelve.

It’s easy to see how Sasha’s human lie detector abilities would be of interest to the FBI, and after successfully working with them for a few years and living with Agent Chelsea Tanner (the closest thing she’s ever had to a mom), Sasha is recruited by the CIA to work with an agent in Brussels. It’s exciting to read – Cecilia’s descriptions and choices of settings for events had me googling images of the city. She made it come alive.

I also really enjoyed the relationships Sasha made in Brussels. She finally finds a good friends, the first one she’s ever really had, in Vivi, and the only chance at romance she’s ever had comes with Sebastian. I was intrigued by the graffiti culture and loved reading the scenes involving the planning and carrying out of each graffiti hit.

The only thing I really wish is that the story had continued more, or that there was a follow up ready to read right now. This felt like the beginning of Sasha’s story; I could easily see a series being centered around her, and I’d hope to see Vivi and Sebastian play main roles in future books!

Find here on Amazon!

Poor Little Dead Girls by Lizzie Friend

If you’re a fan of shows like Pretty Little Liars, then you’ll enjoy Poor Little Dead Girls – it is a really good romantic YA mystery suspense thriller.

In this book, Sadie leaves her home in Portland to attend Keating, an exculsive all-girl boarding school near DC. It’s the home to really important kids of really important, powerful people. Sadie, a West Coast normal kid there on a lacrosse scholarship, struggles with some serious culture shock when she first arrives at Keating. And that’s before she even knows about the existence of a secret society with their eyes set on Sadie as their next member.

If doesn’t take long for some strange things to start happening. First, there’s the cloud of mystery surrounding the fact that Sadie’s mom went to Keating and later suffered from mental illness, eventually killing herself. There are hints about a student who went missing the previous school year, but nobody’s willing to talk about it. And when Sadie is taken in the middle of the night, it’s all you can do to not scream at her through the book to just go home to Oregon.

There are some good things going on at Keating, too, that keep her there. One is a quickly made best friend. Another is a super cute new boy, also from the West Coast, who attends the all-boy’s school nearby. As the story goes on at the suspense climbs, these three (and some crazy supporting characters that are really pretty fun) have to depend on each other in life and death situations.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. One thing I noticed is that, while the loose ends are tied up nicely in this book, resulting in a good, satisfying, well-resolved ending, there’s definitely a possibility for more books feathuring these same settings and characters. I hope author Lizzie Friend plans to follow up with more!

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry


I am definitely not a car girl. I don’t know how my car works – nor do I want to know as long as it works. This book didn’t change that at all, but it DID give me a strange desire to go drive my car really fast. So maybe I shouldn’t recommend it to teenagers. Hahaha.

I am definitely, though, a fan of a well written chemistry-filled romance, which this is. And both characters do a lot of growing up and learning how to deal with friends and family, which I’m also a fan of.

When I read this, I hadn’t read any of the previous Pushing the Limits series, though I think I might go back and do that. That being said, I don’t think I would have even realized I was reading the third book if Goodreads hadn’t told me. It didn’t take too long to get into the story, and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything that had already happened.

Rachel, a car girl masquerading as a designer label fashionista for the sake of her emotionally unstable mom and clueless dad and brothers, crosses paths with Isaiah. Isaiah is a foster care system kid and has been since his mom went to prison, and the system hasn’t really been kind to him. At all, really. So at age 17, Isaiah has moved out of his foster home and is living in appalling conditions, on the verge of having to resort to criminal behavior to support himself. The two are instantly attracted to each other and find a strength with each other to face the hardships they both have in their lives. They’re really good together.

I will admit that I spent a lot of time wanting to reach into the pages of the book and strangle Rachel for not being more assertive in her family, and Isaiah for a few reasons, but ultimately the connection and love story between the two of them just drew me in and I couldn’t go to bed until I’d finished the book. And I’m pretty sure I had dreams of driving very fast.

I almost didn’t put it on here as a recommendation because I had some issues with language and content here. I believe McGarry included a lot of the language and rougher content to really give us a taste of Isaiah’s world, and it was effective, but it was definitely a little too much for me. I’d say you need to be upper high school or older for this one.

Jane Austen Academy novels by Cecilia Gray

I LOVE THIS SERIES!

Cecilia Gray has done an incredible job of taking all our classic Austen favorites and turning them into modern stories… all set at an amazing boarding school, Jane Austen Academy. Really, the school sounds amazing. If I could travel back to my high school years and if the Jane Austen Academy were a real place, I’d beg my mom to send me there.

Aside from the sweet Austen romances, which of course require a cast of interesting girls and swoony boys, I appreciate that Gray kept the complete appropriateness of Austen’s works while updating the stories and setting them on a current boarding school campus. She doesn’t change the morality to make them scandalous. I like that. I would feel completely comfortable with having these in a middle school classroom, and I know their appeal would go up into college and adult women as well.

Gray also focuses on the friendships between the girls equally as much as the guys are involved, so there’s a lot here that doesn’t depend on the romance. All of the characters are well rounded and intelligent, and I’m having fun working my way through the series and learning more about each character as I go. It’s great that all of the books are happening at the same school so we see characters again in future books.

I’m a fan. :)

Find Fall For You, book 1 in the series, here on Amazon FOR ONLY $2.99 (kindle edition)!

In Fall For You, you’ll meet Lizzie and Dante as you get acquainted with the whole crew of Jane Austen Academy characters in a beautifully done retelling of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility! The rest of the books that have been already released are also available on Amazon for $2.99 for kindle. You’ll finish one and need to keep on going!

Surviving Social Media and Cell Phones.

A recent Rolling Stone article titled “Sexting, Shame, and Suicide” is bringing national attention to an issue those of us working with teenagers have seen all to often – how easy social media and texting makes it to spread everything. Pictures, rumors, videos, and more can be sent out to seemingly everyone in a matter of seconds, and the impact can be startling. I highly encourage everyone, teenagers and adults, to read this article.

Now, after reading the article, how can you keep yourself safe? If you’re a parent, how can you protect your own kids?

Know that it won’t necessarily be easy, but parents and teens can and should talk about the hard stuff. Parents, your kids aren’t going to come talk to you if they’re convinced all you’ll do is yell and judge. And maybe you don’t think that’s how you come across, but you have to remember what it’s like to be a teenager. Teens, your parents have been through crap before, and they can help you through it now.
Mistakes are inevitable. Parental love is unconditional. Communication is essential.

Teenagers need to know that it’s not ok, no matter what mistakes they make (drinking, drugs, etc.) to be taken advantage of sexually. There are no exceptions to this rule. None. And an inappropriate picture or video spread around via texting or social media is included in that. They need to be spoken to about the potential consequences that come from snapping semi or fully nude pictures of themselves and sending them to anyone. On the flip side of that, teens also need to be counseled in how to handle inappropriate material that’s sent TO them. Delete it. Tell the person. Talk to parents. These are things that have to be talked about.

Know that the preteen teenage years are NOT the time to back off. Parents should be involved in every social media world their kids belong to. All logins, passwords, websites, etc. should be kept up to date and shared with parents. Not so that parents can spy, but so they can monitor and protect. Cell phones should be treated the same. This may not make you the most popular parent on the block, but parenting is NOT a popularity contest.

Know how to use privacy settings and insist that they not be altered. Every social media avenue offers some way of setting a user’s information to private rather than public, and every safeguard should be used to ensure teens are not broadcasting personal information to the world. In addition, most cell phones geotag pictures with “where and when” info, which can be accessed through social media sharing (for example, if you choose to use location services on Instagram and tag your #selfiesunday at “Home,” then anyone who follows you can see on the map exactly where “Home” is… that’s dangerous).

And finally, help teens really remember that on the other side of that electronic communication is a real person. I’m noticing more and more that teenagers often disconnect themselves completely from real human emotion when they’re sitting in front of a cell screen or computer monitor. It’s really easy to send out a tweet or message somebody a picture real quick without thinking through the face-to-face ramifications of that action. Help them understand that anything sent electronically is equivalent to yelling that thing out in the middle of a crowded hallway at school.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

I totally have a crush on the cover of this book. It’s just freaking adorable.

Another thing I really like about My Life Next Door is that it totally takes that whole “the grass is always greener on the other side” saying and messes with it. The idea is supposed to be that we just think the grass is greener over there, but that’s only because we can’t see it up close… that we always want what we can’t have, and even if we got it, we’d discover it’s not much different than what we had to begin with.

If that makes any sense at all. It probably doesn’t.

But here’s the thing… sometimes things ARE better on the other side. Sometimes the family next door really is better off. Sometimes you’re going through some rough times and all you want is someone else’s problems instead of your own.

In My Life Next Door, only child Samantha spends a lot of time watching the chaos of the Garretts, the huge multiple child family that lives next door. Her mother, obsessed with presenting the illusion of a “perfect” family, strongly disapproves of the Garretts and their messiness, forbidding Samantha from making friends with the neighbors. But, from the spot on the roof outside her bedroom window, she has a prime view of their house and back yard… and she watches it all like it’s her own personal reality TV show.

One day, though, Jase Garrett climbs up to join her on the roof, shattering the illusion that her spot was hidden, and bringing her into the perfect chaos that is the Garrett family instead of letting her stay safely on the outside. Jase is sweet and caring and nurturing and everything Samantha’s mom is not. When she falls madly in love with Jase, because who wouldn’t, and gets comfortable with his family, something tragic happens that causes her to have to choose between the two families.

Like I said to begin with, I don’t know how you could pass this up just from looking at the cover. But, if that’s not enough to convince you, just know that the sweet romance and growing up experiences are so good. I loved this. I’m also super excited about the follow-up novel coming in 2014!

Find My Life Next Door on Amazon here.

Bang Release Date!

 
BANG by Lisa McMann comes out today, and you guys just have to read it. It’s the follow-up to CRASH, which came out earlier this year. I wrote about them in a previous post, but had to go ahead and let you know it was out now. Plus, the cover is super cool and you know it. Good stuff.