Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawlwss Years of Prohibition by Karne Blumenthal

Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book will definitely interest the student researcher with the engrossing, easy to read history of Prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment and famous Temperance leaders. Carrie Nation and Al Capone and other lively characters grace this period in time where there was so much going on with alcohol (fighting, hiding, or profiting from it). The pros and cons are explored and Blumenthal uses the final chapter to review the current state of alcohol with the creation of MADD and Red Ribbon Week. Selected Primary Source pictures are perfect and a Prohibition and Temperance Glossary and Index are included. This is a must have for American Studies research and high school libraries! BJ Neary, Abington Senior High




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Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Laurel lost her mother and grandmother when they wouldn’t leave during a hurricane, Now is it just so many sad memories as Laurel alternates chapters about her life before and her life after. For two years, Laurel, her father and little brother live with an aunt, but now there is a good job and they move to another town. With her best friend Kaylee, Laurel makes the cheerleading squad and falls forT-Boom, eleventh grade basketball co-captain. T-Boom pulls out the meth (moon) and holds it out for Laurel to sniff hard. In that instant, Laurel is hooked and as her life slides out of control with her addiction, she betrays her best friend, drops out of school, runs away from home and sinks deeper into life under the meth moon. Woodson’s words are intense, reluctant readers will love this slim novel with no easy answers.



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So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti

So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another great Colasanti read about friendship and relationships! Brooke is a genius student (which she hides with bad grades and a bad attitude about school) who has been in SECRET love with Scott Abrams for the last two years. Just when she is about to tell him, Scott’s family is moving to New York. Brooke follows him to NY since they are soul mates and moves in with her dad who left Brooke and her mom when she was a young child. She makes friends with Sadie, Scott and tutors John. As Brooke discovers New York, she begins to find out some good things about herself. A great romance with angst and warm fuzzies (in the book!) girls will pass this around to all their friends.Romance




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Stay by Deb Caletti

Stay by Deb Caletti

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Caletti, Deb. Stay. New York: Simon Pulse, 2011. 978-1-4424-0373-4. 313p. $16.99. Gr. 10-12.
Clara’s story about an obsessive boyfriend is scary, suspenseful and heartbreakingly real. Clara falls hard for a guy and he falls hard for her too, but what Clara tells you now as she relates her love story with Christian is that the tell-tale signs were there from the beginning about Christian’s insecurities. Clara alternates the chapters with her life now; she and her father have had to flee their home and go to a secret beach location because Christian has become obsessive and a stalker since she broke up with him. Caletti does a great job of showing how this relationship has made Clara so insecure about who she is. Fleeing to Washington State with her father provides a much needed time and place where they both confront secrets about themselves and their lives. A must read for teen girls about the dangers of obsessive relationships.






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Rotters by Daniel Kraus

Rotters by Daniel Kraus

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Joey Crouch is a straight-A student who lives with his mom in Chicago when she is suddenly and horribly killed by a bus. Child Services locates his father; Joey‘s mom has never told Joey anything about him. Imagine arriving in Bloughton, Iowa; your father is nowhere for 3 days; there is no food in the hovel he lives in and it is filthy and filled with old newspapers. Joey gets himself to school and finds students hate him because his father is a garbage man. Joey’s horror story begins and we follow, unable to turn away when we learn his father is a grave robber, that there is a long line of insurrectionists; and one particularly crazy one, Boggs will stop at nothing to destroy Joey and his dad. Along the way you will learn the history of grave robbers, the methods of burials and lots about rats, maggots, death, and decomposition. Joey is so miserable in school with bullying he begins to join his father and learn his trade. You can’t turn away as you follow along with Joey Crouch and meet many unforgettable characters !




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Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fifteen year old Lina’s life in Lithuania changes drastically when the Stalin regime brands her family, “thieves and prostitutes.” They are rounded up and forced from their homes and their land to the deprivation of Russian Siberia. Separated from her imprisoned father; Lina, her mother, and little brother, each try in their own way to survive the brutality of the Russian soldiers and the harshness of their environment. In the twelve years that they are brutalized, fall ill, and starve; thousands die, but it is through a determination to live to see their homeland, that drives these deportees to triumph through the hell of their imprisonment. If you loved The Book Thief, this book will speak to how the world must never let this kind of genocide ever occur again.



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Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What a wonderful, intense novel in verse concerning Lupita’s close Mexican American family who must deal with her mother’s cancer and the heartache it brings. Lupita puts her life on hold to care for her siblings as they fervently wish their mother good health. With the loss of her mother, Lupita must learn to live with life’s limitations, star in the school play, and write her deepest thoughts and fears under the shade of the mesquite in her yard. A novel of affirmation and hope, the best choice for the 2012 Pura Belpré Award Winner!







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