Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

In one afternoon everything changed for Jersey.  Living in a Midwest, Missouri town, she was used to storms and tornado sirens, that afternoon wasn't your average storm though, that afternoon's tornado destroyed Jersey's town and tore her life apart. Home alone at the time the tornado hit Jersey survived, but her mom and little sister, Marin were out and didn't make it. Her step father Ronnie survived the storm, but can't face life without his wife and daughter so he sends Jersey to live her biological father's family. Still reeling from the tornado Jersey is stuck with a family who has made it clear they would rather her not be there (tornado or not) and Jersey herself just wants to go home. But her home has been destroyed, not just the physical place, but the family that created it. Her last chance is with her mother's parents, a set of grandparents she has never known and who her mother stopped speaking to before Jersey was born. In spite of everything her mom said about them they do seem to want her around.

Torn Away is about getting through devastation, and sometimes everything falls apart when it feels like those left behind should be coming together. It's about learning that even those you loved might not always have made the right decisions. Jersey has to deal with the things she said in anger or frustration that can never be apologized for, and for all the wonderful moments her family shared that she can't get back. Brown's work is emotional on many levels, the reader gets not only Jersey's grief, but also her frustration and anger. How Jersey and her community deal with the devastation is heart wrenching and authentic.

Lisa

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Ezra Faulkner had almost everything going for him in high school. He was a star on the tennis team, had a hot girlfriend, and had the role of a leader in the popular group in school. Then, as his junior year came to an end he was in a hit and run car accident leaving his beloved car totaled, and him was with several severe injuries, including a leg that no longer worked properly. After spending the summer as a recluse Ezra returns to school for his senior year feeling as if everything has changed, sitting with his old group of friends in classes and during lunch feels wrong (especially now that his girlfriend is dating one of his old friends).  Luckily Ezra's childhood friend Toby comes to his rescue, sitting with him (and getting him kicked out of) the first pep rally of the year, and inviting Ezra to his lunch table. Then there's Cassidy, the new girl, with a mysterious past involving a debate championship disappearance the year before. Ezra (predictably) falls for Cassidy as she opens his eyes to new experiences, taking him on treasure hunts and to college lectures, and he starts to see the future in a different light. However, Cassidy is not just Ezra's catalyst, she has her own story and her own past that begin to come apart. While this book definitely has some stock characters (Ezra's ex girlfriend Charlotte is your standard popular mean girl) there are also many well developed characters with their own history. The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider is a good realistic fiction read that may even get some tears from readers at the end.

Lisa

Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (and shortly after one on Nagasaki, Japan), effectively ending World War II. That much is covered in history classes. Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin tells the story of how the bomb was created. German physicist, Otto Hahn was the one to discover, in 1938 that when "speeding neutrons hit uranium atoms ... the force of the collision seemed to be causing the urnaium atom to split into two," and this discovery is what made the creation of the atomic bomb possible. As news of this discovery spread and World War II was set into motion a race to be the first to build this new bomb was on. The race to build the atomic bomb involved secrecy, sabotage, the kidnapping of German scientists, and spies attempting to infiltrate the project. Even though the reader knows how the book will end (with the Americans creating and dropping the first atomic bomb) Sheinkin captures the excitement, tension, and urgency surrounding the Manhattan Project (what the project to produce the bomb was called) in the 1940s.

We'll be discussing this book, along with others, at Caudill Cafe on June 11th.

Lisa

Summer Reading 2014

Our summer reading club, Paws to Read, kicks off today!  Come in and pick up a log to start earning prizes. The teen summer reading grand prize is a Kindle Fire!

Loved the Fault in Our Stars?

Check out some of these titles!

Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Up until senior year, Greg has maintained total social invisibility. He only has one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time#151;when not playing video games and avoiding Earl's terrifying brothers#151; making movies, their own versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Greg would be the first one to tell you his movies are f*@$ing terrible, but he and Earl don't make them for other people. Until Rachel. Rachel has leukemia, and Greg's mom gets the genius idea that Greg should befriend her. Against his better judgment and despite his extreme awkwardness, he does. When Rachel decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl make her a movie, and Greg must abandon invisibility and make a stand.

Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell
Rebecca Blue is a rebel with an attitude whose life is changed by a chance encounter with a soon-to-be dead girl. Rebel (as she's known) decides to complete the dead girl's bucket list to prove that choice, not chance, controls her fate. In doing so, she unexpectedly opens her mind and heart to a world she once dismissed; a world of friendships, family, and faith. With a shaken sense of self, she must reevaluate her loner philosophy;particularly when she falls for Nate, the golden boy do-gooder who never looks out for himself.



Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Ben Wolf has big things planned for his senior year. Had big things planned. Now what he has is some very bad news and only one year left to make his mark on the world. How can a pint-sized, smart-ass seventeen-year-old do anything significant in the nowheresville of Trout, Idaho? First, Ben makes sure that no one else knows what is going on-not his superstar quarterback brother, Cody, not his parents, not his coach, no one. Next, he decides to become the best 127-pound football player Trout High has ever seen; to give his close-minded civics teacher a daily migraine; and to help the local drunk clean up his act. And then there's Dallas Suzuki. Amazingly perfect, fascinating Dallas Suzuki, who may or may not give Ben the time of day. Really, she's first on the list. Living with a secret isn't easy, though, and Ben's resolve begins to crumble . . . especially when he realizes that he isn't the only person in Trout with secrets.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Although Annabel's façade makes people think she has everything going for her, she is lonely since she and Sophie are no longer speaking and her anorexic sister gets all the attention at home, until she meets reformed bad boy Owen, who just may be the one person who can help Annabel face the imperfections of life.

This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl
A collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Photographs and essays by family and friends will help to tell Esther's story along with an introduction by award-winning author John Green who dedicated his #1 bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars to her.





If I Stay by Gayle Forman
>In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck... A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make--and the ultimate choice Mia commands.



Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
Vera's spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she's kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone--the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?





The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry
Kate's dream boyfriend has just broken up with her and she's still reeling from her diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Aidan planned on being a lifer in the army and went to Afghanistan straight out of high school. Now he's a disabled young veteran struggling to embrace his new life. When Kate and Aidan find each other neither one wants to get attached. But could they be right for each other after all?





Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon
"Chemo, radiation, a zillion surgeries, watching my mom age twenty years in twenty months . . . if that's part of the Big Dude'snbsp; plan, then it's pretty obvious, isn't it? Enough said." Smart-mouthed and funny, sometimes raunchy, Richard Casey is in most ways a typical seventeen-year-old boy. Except Richie has cancer, and he's spending his final days in a hospice unit. In this place where people go to die, Richie has plans to make the most of the life he has left. Sylvie, the only other hospice inmate under sixty, has a few plans of her own for Richie. What begins as camaraderie quickly blossoms into real love, and this star-crossed pair is determined to live on their own terms, in whatever time remains.

After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
Jeffrey isn't a little boy with cancer anymore. He's a teen who's in remission, but life still feels fragile. The aftereffects of treatment have left Jeffrey with an inability to be a great student or to walk without limping. His parents still worry about him. His older brother, Steven, lost it and took off to Africa to be in a drumming circle and "find himself." Jeffrey has a little soul searching to do, too, which begins with his escalating anger at Steven, an old friend who is keeping something secret, and a girl who is way out of his league but who thinks he's cute.



How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
New to town, Beatrice is expecting her new best friend to be one of the girls she meets on the first day. But instead, the alphabet conspires to seat her next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet loner who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. Something about him, though, gets to Bea, and soon they form an unexpected friendship. It's not romance, exactly - but it's definitely love. Still, Bea can't quite dispel Jonah's gloom and doom - and as she finds out his family history, she understands why. Can Bea help Jonah? Or is he destined to vanish?




OCD, the Dude, and Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn
With frizzy orange hair, a plus-sized body, sarcastic demeanor, and "unique learning profile," Danielle Levine doesn't fit in even at her alternative high school. While navigating her doomed social life, she writes scathing, self-aware, and sometimes downright raunchy essays for English class. As a result of her unfiltered writing style, she is forced to see the school psychologist and enroll in a "social skills" class. But when she meets Daniel, another social misfit who is obsessed with the cult classic film The Big Lebowski , Danielle's resolve to keep everyone at arm's length starts to crumble.


The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder
"Science is just not enough this time, Campbell Soup. What you need is a miracle." With thosewords, sixteen-year-old Cam knows that hopingfor a future, or even a normal life, is out the window. Her mother picks the whole family up and moves them cross-country to Promise, Maine--a place known for its mystical healing powers. Cam, a die-hard non believer, isn't buying it. There's no such thing as miracles. But the longer she spendsin Promise, the more Cam learns to believe in many things she never used to-including myself. 

Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell

Rebecca (better known as Rebel) Blue is not what anyone would consider a joiner, not even a group of misfits to have lunch with.  She has blue hair and took up smoking at age 12 because it "bugged the hell out of Aunt Evelyn."  Rebel is familiar with detention and when a teacher decides to have them make a bucket list Rebel has no plans to take it very seriously. In this particular detention though Rebel crosses paths with Kennedy Green, and aside from both having a last name that is a color and being in detention that day, they have nothing in common with one another. Kennedy is a perky over achiever who actually relishes putting her bucket list together.  However, when Kennedy dies shortly after leaving detention and Rebel is one of the last people to talk to her.  Now she can't get Kennedy's voice and bucket list out of her head. Eventually (partially to spite her cousin) Rebel decides to complete Kennedy's bucket list.  In working on the bucket list Rebel is forced to take part in a world she's being doing her best to avoid.

While Rebel completing Kennedy's bucket list and beginning to grow as a person and forge real friendships, etc. is a predictable path to take Coriell makes the path bumpy and interesting.  Even though this experiment has her working with and trying to help others she is still by no means someone with any desire to conform.  Goodbye, Rebel Blue has Rebel opening herself up to people (including a cute boy, who belongs more to Kennedy Green's world than hers - who is really a bit of a flat character at times, but his little sister is hilarious), dealing with the loss of her mother who died years earlier, and trying to do it all on her own terms.