I have frozen entries to this book recommendation blog and started a new one.

"Bevy of Books" has all these book recommendations exported to it as well as the news ones I have written.

Enjoy "Bevy of Books" at http://bookbevy.wordpress.com/.

Cheers, Joan

Never have I read a book that made me feel the gut-wrenching sorrow of the person left behind like this scrapbook/novel has. Evan was the best bud of Ariel, who took her life. Or did she? How are all these photographs showing up at his locker, in her bedroom shrine, in the countryside? Has his grief gone too far? Did Ariel commit suicide? What part did her boyfriend have in all this? The final two pages give the answers and hope. Few people could pull this off. But David Levithan can.

ENDERS' Rating: ****
David's Website

Woot woot!

The two characters that my high school readers wanted MORE written about are here! I did a happy dance about reviewing the continuing saga of Ben and Colleen and their roller coaster relationship. When we left the two in Stoner and Spaz, Colleen had returned to her life of addiction. Now she has returned to Ben, to the chagrin of Ben’s grandmother who is excited to have him pursue his film career and the cultured life. Colleen leaves, returns, leaves, returns, moves in, for a short time. Can she be trusted to make a new life for herself? If the ending scene is any indication, my YAs will be happy. This is such a great book for character studies. I will encourage teachers to use it in the classroom.

ENDERS' Rating: ****
Ron's Website

Janeczko bases all the poems on his research of events and facts about the Terein Ghetto, known to be the last stop before the furnaces. All but one, “Altre Eisinger/11956 was a found poem, who was shot at Buchenwald in 1945. The composers mentioned in “Anna Teller/12727” were inmates at Terezin before their journey to the Nazi gas chambers. This will be an excellent addition to our senior English classes study of Night. The poems are haunting and beautiful

ENDERS' Rating: *****
Paul's Website

Thea has been her own care-giver, since mom is flighty and dad seems Aspergers-esque. At the prestigious high school she meets a mesmerizing young man and falls immediately in love with him, Will. Hooked. He is a girl’s dream come true, even keeping their romance hot after he leaves for Columbia. During one love-making session, they do not use protection and Thea becomes pregnant. She tells everyone that she is aborting the baby, but leaves the procedure table, never to return. Both set of parents give them money to begin their lives together with Ian, the baby to which Thea is eternally hooked. Columbia is a must in this arrangement, and Thea worries their relationship into confrontations. Will has been traumatized since Ian’s birth, and when Thea accidentally burns Ian, Will explodes with a demand the adoption of Ian so their lives can go forward. That night Thea packs up to live with her father, the fellow I feel has AS. There are bumps, but things work out. Thea crochets adult replicas of her childhood bikini, and despite her father’s negativity, she persists in her hooked hobby becoming a money-maker. And Dad uses his mathematical skills to admit the market, and help with production. Will? They talk weekly, and there is room for more in their relationship. This is an powerful novel about the fears of a teen mom coming into being a parent, her fears, concern for her baby’s safety, and the epiphanies she has about parenthood, particularly about her parents. Will and Thea’s sex scenes are a bit too much for younger readers. But this would be excellent for a teen parenting class’s novel.

ENDERS' Rating: ****
Catherine's Website

Tess, in servitude to a rich, unfeeling matron, plans to escape once the Titanic lands in New York City. The night before boarding, she is bullied by a frightening man on the streets of Southhampton, being saved by an equally unsettling, but handsome, young man. As bad luck would have it, both were in first class on the gigantic ship’s maiden voyage. Without much fanfare, Tess finds herself in the middle of a werewolf supremacy battle, and in love with one of them, mysterious, handsome, rich Alec. Paralleling the amazing Titanic movie, these star-crossed lovers transverse 1st to 3rd class navigating the tense war between werewolves. Tess is saved from death, even her beautiful BLONDE locks, which the cover does not depict. (Old cover, new cover seen here is correct. But does she looks like a servant?) Though Alec and his nemesis lie with the dead for identification, can she be sure of their state? I can see another series brewing. Gothic/ supernatural/love fans will enjoy the book.

ENDERS' Rating: ****
Claudia's Website

Okay, I have to get this off my chest right now: panty hose were invented in the 1950s. Outside of that anachronism, I enjoyed reading the continuing soap opera of the lives of Cordelia, Letty and Astrid. Cordelia is fitting well into the gangster society of her half-brother. Letty has lost her one love, but her singing career is taking off due to being in the right place at the right time. Astrid is kidnapped with a gunny sack over her head, but a blood bath saves her to marry her true love, Cordilia’s brother. What will these girls face next in The Lucky Ones? The big D? Let’s all tune in for the third novel and see. Godbersen is a fine author who keeps the reader wrapped around her little finger.

ENDERS' Rating: *****
Anna's Website

Move over zombies, vampires and werewolves for the capaill uisce, the sea monsters that are faster than the winter wind and blood-thirsty for whatever throbs with blood. Well, there goes a girl’s romantic dream of horses! Actually the novel has been the dream of Maggie Stiefvater for years, and we all should cheer that she followed through with writing her finest novel to date. On the isle of Thisby water horses come ashore. Some are captured and trained for the Scorpio Race each November, full of blood, mayhem, death and a prize. Sean Kendrick is the undisputed king of four of the races and trains a capall named Corr, the other half of the team that is to be beat. Another orphan on the island, Puck Donelly, enters the race to pay off the back rent owed by her and her two brothers, to the horrid landlord threatening eviction. Of course the race is the climax of the story boiling with hatred, sexual prejudice, intimidation, attempted murder, and love. The narrative is shared by Sean and Puck. What I love about the writing is that Maggie allows the reader to incrementally piece the stories of these characters together from the evidences of the narration with zero omniscient presence. It is brilliant! I didn’t want to put it down, but I did. I wanted the story to also last longer. I want it to win awards.

ENDERS' Rating: *****
Maggie's Blog

It is prom night for popular Bliss, bad girl Jolene, and nerdy Meg. Their prom night is far from imagined perfection. In alternating chapters the girls tell the story of their shared all night adventures that are reminiscent of the feel of “Adventures in Babysitting.” Bliss interrupts a lap dance of her best friend and boyfriend in the limo. Jolene is stood up. Meg’s date shows, but ditches her. A comedy and tragedy of errors follows Bliss’ decision to seek revenge, dragging her new posse’ along on each escapade. Highly entertaining, and ending with a feel-good but unsappy ending, this one will fly off the shelves in libraries. I reminds me again how fun creating stories from different perspectives can be.

ENDERS' Rating: ****
Abby's Website

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene.” I remembered that line often as I read this amazing book that better receive some awards. In this story of “star-crossed lovers” those two households are crumbling under the stress of lies, harassment, brutality and rape. Mikey sister, Karyn, was raped at a private party by Tom Parker at his unsupervised home. The only witness was Tom’s younger, bookish sister, Ellie. But what did Ellie witness? She told police and her family that she was asleep and saw nothing.

Mikey and his mate, Jacko, infiltrate the Parker manor to beat Tom to a pulp only to discover a huge party to welcome Tom home from jail. Mikey ends up trying to pump Ellie for information and their mutual attraction snowballs immediately. Deftly executed prose entangles Mikey and Ellie’s love story with Karyn’s slow progression to a new normalcy, with the exposure of emotional abuse of Ellie by her father whose son is following his harassing footsteps. Younger teen readers will not appreciate the depth of plot and character development of the story, but will be tantalized about the intimate scenes. Older teens will appreciate the raw emotions of the love story and easily see the pressures on all the characters in this story of family deception and manipulation, and a story of a relationship that is bruised and bandaged but surviving.

ENDERS' Rating: ***** Jenny's Website

ENDERS' Rating: ENTER HERE Kelly's Website

For those who think there is no creativity any more in fantasy writing, you obviously need to read Chime! For those who think that young adult lit has no meat, you obviously need to read Chime! For those who think there are no more deliciously creepy stories, you obviously need to read Chime!

Biony is a beautiful teenager who blames herself for the death of her wonderful stepmother, the condition of her twin sister Rose and the fire that destroyed all her stories in the library. When lion-maned Eldric becomes a boarder of her father she slowly begins to turn on the switch about herself, the Old Ones in the swamp, and other amazing revelations.

Rose's outbursts and commentaries made me laugh out loud. Biony's musings were innocent, complex, amazing. Here is a sample: "Slicing yourself is harder than you'd think. Your skin doesn't slice, not like bread or cheese. Your flesh pushes back. It's resilient, like the skin of a mushroom."

The swamp was creepy and mesmerizing at the same time. I may never walk on a boardwalk at the beach again. But at least the beach will not give me a deadly cough...

This is no book to rush through. You need to take a bite and chew sixty times. Be prepared for each bite to have another literary flavor.

ENDERS' Rating: ***** Franny's Website

Lorraine knows that Jerome and Gloria are desperate to perform and eat, so traps them with an audition ad tailored to entice. Clara faces having to choose between flirting with flapper life again and wonderful, patient, redeeming Marcus. Her foray into writing for the "Manhattanite" social rag unveiled her wonderful writing, but also lured her like a siren to her wild flapper days. Jillian joyously peppered the dialog with idioms of the time, entertained us with Clara's antics, and had us holding our breath with the building tensions of the entrapment of Jerome and Gloria. Will they make it out of their first performance alive?

ENDERS' Rating: ***
Jillian's Website

Karl is in incurable love with Fiorella, a girl in love with the written word, especially her favorite author. This all-about-me girl insists that Karl unveil his soul to her in letters. It appears that Fiorella has not noticed that Karl is a shy plumber’s assistant with a perchance for fishing and visual art. Karl shows up on the doorstep of the favorite author from whose viewpoint we witness the unfolding of this Cyrano de Bergerac-ish story. The author (Aidan?) and Karl seem to be kindred spirits and before he knows it, the author is assisting Karl, hanging out and fishing together. The unexpected friendship results in surprising pathos, tradegy and some kinks in Fiorella’s grand plan. Chambers switch-ups in writing styles were fun to read. Does the young man get the girl?

ENDERS' Rating: *****
Aiden's Website

Oh no, another Cinderella story you may say. But read on! Cinder is a cyborg and a mechanic, and the sole source of income for her evil stepmother and two stepsisters. Even a disguised Prince Kai is a customer. Her adoptive father brought her home from Europe when she was eleven, newly injured but repaired with computer and mechanical body parts. But since his death her 17-year-old life is in jeopardy. Living in a kingdom of New Bejing, all the inhabitants live in fear of a plague that has swept through earth the last ten years. When Prince Kai’s father dies of it, as does one stepsister, Cinder is faced with an over-eager scientist looking for a cure, and seeing her as the key. King-apparent Kai is attracted to her and her smarts, not knowing that she is a dreaded cyborg, considered a dreg of society. Add an eminent invasion and enslavement of the planet by the Lunars and there is ample tension in this plot. But Cinder is more than a human repaired. The surprise ending really does make me, the sequel-hater, eager for the second volume! This is the new, hot series on the planet, and maybe the moon.

ENDERS' Rating: *****

Marissa's Website

I adored these characters. My only complain was that adding editorial existential angst was not needed when the novel was poignant just because of the characters' situations. That said, having support meetings in the "literal" heart of Jesus was pretty funny. Outside of my whining about that one point, an excellent, excellent novel by one of the most clever and intelligent authors in the YA field right now. Hazel and Gus' trip to Amsterdam was so well written.

Loving my autographed copy!

ENDERS' Rating: *****
John's Website

Lyndsay's love of the word is so apparent in this historical mystery. "The dry march of data," trees "burst[ing] violently red and then faded back into line drawings" and "medical tomes, gigantic and somber" are just a few examples in a book heavy with colorful wordsmithing. Reading the story was a page-turning "plot fix" that Val would have enjoyed. At the same time, I found myself re-reading sentences and phrases just to enjoy the words frolicking with one another.

Tim Wilde, he and his brother orphans due to a barn fire, is a pretty satisfied bartender with savings and his sights on lovely Mercy Underhill. Ironically another gigantic fire changes his wealth, face and profession. His brother Val, a brilliant but a well-rounded addict to anything, snags Tim a job as a new policeman for the 5 Point area, Ward 6, of New York, pretty much the armpit of the 1848 city. Child prostitutes, disease, potato famine immigrants/rats, and ever-present corruption are punctuated with a new horror, the butchering of child-mabs.

I couldn't put it down. My more sophisticated readers at school will love and appreciate it as well. Luckily for us, there is a sequel heating up at the publisher.

ENDERS' Rating: *****

Lyndsay's Website

I am not the first to think "Watership Down" for meerkats when reading this wonderful little book in which I learned much about meerkats and, through them, about people and their conflicts.

As the story begins, Sheena, a bobbed-tailed, black and white kitty hops onto her people's Land Rover to make her third clandestine foray into Baragandiri National Park. She hops back into Great White when Dad drives off for firewood, only to be left in a dry section of the park, hoping to find her family before the campout ends in 10 days. Thirsty, she is sizing up an insect that looks juicy, when a young meerkat chomps down on it, getting stung at the same time by "Black Hairy Thick-Tail." Pebble, the meerkat, begins to recite the bad, bad symptoms of scorpion bites while experiencing them simultaneously. Hum, hypochondriac meerkat? Pebbles is pretty funny and the humor builds until Sheena realizes that he really is in bad shape at about symptom seven. A second meerkat, Sandstepper, determines that Sheena has the makings of an excellent furry ambulance and they maneuver Pebbles onto her back. With that rescue, Sheena is welcomed into the Duwara tribe of the meerkats, who begin each joyous day in a sunbath, the Sunwake. The Duwara are at war with the Utongo who worship a better sun. The Utongo are out for revenge against the Duwara for delivering sickness into their tribe. They attack and kidnap the Duwara's leaders' three pups. Sheena slinks across the Gorge in a Bond-like mission to infiltrate the Utongos, figuring there has to be more to this conflict. Along the way, she encounters animal friends and foes, and limps to the Utongos with severe injuries. There she was nursed by Fara until... (Fara found it hard to finish...) Sheena noted that the tribes were so similar, soaking in the warmth of the sun each morning, caring for the newborns, hunting, sleeping habits, playing. She knows that there is one solution to end the war, but she had to get the warring tribes together to make it work. Sheena is one resourceful kitty.

Can we learn about peace from slim, crew-cut fur creatures? One can hope. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about meerkats and the ten other creatures of the Baragandiri. Humor, pathos, danger, The Meerkat Wars really has it all. This is the third book about courageous Sheena and her adventures in Baragandiri National Park.

ENDERS' Rating: *****

Kelly and I have been communicating for a few years now due to our endless devotion to "The Man," Chris Crutcher. Kelly is lucky to work with Chris and is an excellent writer with a quirky sense of humor. Kids love her school visits.

Voice, voice, voice. It makes a story or novel. In this collection stories are told from the boy and girl involved in relationships from surprising to budding to flaming. Kelly pairs her story with "The Man." Wanda, fatale of the high school, has John Smith dragging his tongue on the floor whenever he sees her. John thinks that Wanda can get answers for his problems from her shrink if he lets her bring them up during her therapy sessions. The relationship spirals into a nerve-wracking situation for John and he ends up in the shrink's office for help. Wanda prides herself as a man-eater, a nice cover-up for early sexual abuse by older men. John's entering her life cracks the tough exterior and she tells him her story. But love, control, fear and the sorrow of feeling trapped ends their relationship. The next story share the unlikely pair of a tiny tribe drummer and an Amazon-sized Lady Warrior of the girls' bball team. Loved these two characters. In another pair of stories Alex suggests a meeting with Max after chatting online for a while. Max was more than a little surprised when Alexandra appeared. Now what does Max do with a girl? Sean and Raffina have to survive sitting at the same lab desk during the ever-graphic sex education class. Will this agony every pass so that he can ask her out? Kelly and Rafi love the stars, but as she gazes at them he whispers poetry about them into her chest. That's not the only contrast, Rafi is Muslim and she is a hog rancher's daughter, an a heathen, according to his family. Making out has been forbidden by both families, but that is exactly what they are doing when they discover a community problem that has to be shared. The last story is told by both characters in alternating paragraphs rather than in companion short stories. Gavin's reunion with Stephanie is nothing like he expected.


ENDERS' Rating: ****
Kelly's Website

Modo and Octavia reunite with Dr Socrates to discover the Face God hidden in an Egyptian temple is Australia. Many have died or become insane on this quest. Pursued by the bionic Miss Hakkandottir, Modo falls into the jungle of Australia during a horrific sky airship battle. Miraculously he lands more or less safely and encounters a jungle tribe who are entranced by him. More than that, they view him as a god. When the team is reunited, they discover that their enemies have arrived at the temple before them. Who will possess the Face God? Who will fall to the traps of the temple? Fans will be thrilled to read this third adventure.

ENDERS' Rating: ****

Arthur Slade Website: http://www.arthurslade.com/book_empire/