The Other Half of Me by Emily Franklin.  Jenny is a teenager with some typical teenage problems.  She is struggling to fit in with her athletic family.  She wants them to be more supportive of her interests.  She is jealous of her twin sisters’ close relationship and also feels that nobody understands her.  In her family of 6, she feels lonely. Jenny loves to paint.  The big art show is coming up and she wants to paint something good enough to get into the show. She has a crush on Tate, and now he seems to like her too.  Jenny also has some problems that are far from typical.   Her dadRead More →

The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 is a fantastic sci-fi book for all ages.  Excellent for reluctant readers! Johnny Turnbull, aka JT, and his little sister Ketheria never knew their parents.  Years before they were born, their parents agreed to leave Earth to make a long trip through space to work on the far-off rings of Orbis.  After a malfunction killed all of the adults on the ship, the computer raised the embryos that the adults had brought on board.  When these children, no older than twelve, arrive on Orbis they discover that they must work off their parent’s debts by being virtual slaves for theRead More →

Spanking Shakespeare is one of the funniest books I have ever read.  The main character, Shakespeare, is a senior in high school and writing his senior project.  It’s hilarious!!!  Clever!!! Intelligent!!!  When you start reading it you won’t be able to stop. Not appropriate for young readers, but enjoyable for older teens and adults. Posted by MichelleRead More →

Harmless, a book that is anything but, raises some eyebrows. Do you buy it for your child? Do you put it on the shelf as a librarian? Can it be used in the classroom? As an 8th grade Language Arts teacher I saw many heart-wrenching situations that my students wound up in, many situations that I think we as educators don’t always catch or know how to deal with. I grew up in a pretty stable environment, a fact I am thankful for, but a stable environment is not always par for the course. What I love about Harmless is that it is told fromRead More →