The Last Summer Of The Death Warriors Review

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(More customer reviews)At seventeen, Pancho has decided the last thing he needs to do with his life: kill the man he thinks responsible for the death of his sister. It's not so simple, though...first he has to figure out who exactly the man is, how to find him, and how to get past the annoying, aggravatingly happy D.Q., another teen boy with a mission of his own: live life to the fullest in his last months...before he dies of brain cancer. And...honestly...I can't do justice to the plot here. Throw in some conversations about life, death, faith, love. Mix up with heart-wrenching backgrounds, wise children, foolish adults, and sucking every drop of marrow from life.
As my little synopsis probably makes clear, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors is one of those fathoms-deep, meaningful stories that you rarely come across in YA lit. It is also an extremely subtle story--almost too subtle for my taste (the ending didn't feel wrapped-up enough for me), yet I love the way it left me thinking after I finished it. I can guarantee that it will make you question the way you're living your life, embrace the beauty of every day, and appreciate things you never thought to notice. You will never forget Pancho and D.Q. or the friends they make on their journey--Francisco Stork is a master at character and relationship development, and these aspects of the story are truly what make it shine. Even every description, although technically all of them are extremely basic and simply worded, serves to develop character--and does so perfectly.
As a bit of a warning, this is a very difficult book to read...certainly not in actual pacing or readability, but simply because it delves into topics and a world that are hard to be in. This is not a story to be read casually, and it is certainly for mature readers who can handle its issues. Yet it is a beautiful book, and it is an important book.


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Crash Into Me: A Survivor's Search for Justice Review

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(More customer reviews)There are several books on the market today that have been written by sexual assault survivors. "Crash Into Me" stands out among them because of its precise attention to every detail, the quality of the writing that makes you feel like you are sitting down talking with your best friend, and the intensely compelling indictment of the most notorious revictimizing college administration in the nation of rape survivors - the University of Virginia. I worked in the Dean of Student's office at the University of Virginia for several years with every living member of the administration talked about in this book. Everything Liz Seccuro says about them is consistent with my experience there. It is about time someone as brave as she has come forward to tell the truth.
"Crash Into Me" is not only a substantial contribution to the scholarship on rape trauma, it is a must read for everyone who cares about other people. Sexual assault survivors will find themselves in the words of Liz Seccuro's experience. College students will learn more about the reality of campus rape and the systems that aren't always there to help them. Present and future college administrators will learn everything not to do from the way he University of Virginia mishandled most every aspect of the situation. Police officers will learn how to treat a survivor with respect from the heroic actions of the police chief who went back decades later to help right a wrong done so many year ago. Criminologists will get a look into the motivations of a deeply disturbing offender who came back to haunt a woman years after a brutally raping her. Everyone who reads this compelling book will be a better person, a more informed potential juror, and a more empathetic individual for the next rape survivor who decides to open up to them. Everyone should read this book!


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Dreaming Anastasia: A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams Review

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(More customer reviews)I didn't really know what to expect from this book. I'm drawn to books about the Romanovs, so I thought I'd like this story.
Unfortunately, this is a badly edited book that uses the currently popular YA theme of the very-old-but-smokin'-hot man lusting after a teenage girl. The plot had promise, but the characters were so one-dimensional that they all but killed my interest in the story.
I liked the inclusion of the Baba Yaga element, but that sort of fell flat for me, too. For a much better novel that incorporates this folk tale, try Orson Scott Card's Enchantment.
After reading this book, I'm left with a fairly sour taste in my mouth. But at least I know that Ethan's eyes are blue. How could I forget that fact, after Anne mentions it more than 30 times?

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Follow My Leader Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm James Garfield's granddaughter. He dedicated the book to my mother, Carolyn Lazarus, who is now 81 years old. My granddad lived to be 102 years old, living half of his life blind. He had a seeing eye dog, Coral, a golden retriever who was the sweetest animal I've ever met and she was so very attentive to him. He would have been very flattered to read these reviews so I thank all of you who have taken the time to write about Follow My Leader.

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After Jimmy is blinded in an accident with a firecracker, he has to relearn all the things he used to know. With the help of a determined therapist, he learns to read Braille and to use a cane. Then he's given the chance to have a guide dog. Learning to work with Leader is not easy, but Jimmy tries harder than he ever has before.

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Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story as Told to Jody M. Roy, Ph.D. Review

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(More customer reviews)This book changed me. I have always wondered, "How can people be so hateful?" Nobody is born a racist. Frank spells it out in absolute honesty how to build an army of haters. Page 151 reads, "I didn't need to bother recruiting racists. All I did was befriend kids who were pissed off about being picked on day in and day out. I trusted them to pay me back with loyalty. I trusted that I could turn their humiliation into hate. All I had to do was redirect their rage until it came thundering back as racism." If you get nothing else out of this book, it is the need to be compassionate. Kids aren't the only ones picked on day in and day out. I am grateful to this author for being so brutally honest about his past and present. Frank Meeinks doesn't wrap this book up with a nice bow at the end...he is still working towards making his life better...one day at a time. And I'm absolutely a better person because of his journey.

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Terror by Night: The True Story of the Brutal Texas Murder That Destroyed a Family, Restored One Man's Faith, and Shocked a Nation Review

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(More customer reviews)On March 1, 2008, author Terry Caffey's life changed forever.
Caffey and his wife of almost 19 years had set firm rules with their sixteen-year-old daughter, Erin, in regards to her romantic relationship with eighteen-year-old Charlie Wilkinson.
She saw only one way to escape her parents rigidity: their death.
And on that fateful night, Penny Caffey would die; along with her two young sons: Matthew, 13 and Tyler, 8. Erin's father Terry would (barely) survive.
Terror By Night is Caffey's first hand account of the events that would change his life in ways he could have never imagined.
From a true crime readers standpoint, it's an interesting case but only about half the book is dedicated to the actual crime.
Terror By Night should be approached with the mindset for which it was intended: inspirational.
Readers are invited into the heart and soul of a man who lost (literally) everything and struggles to understand why while coping with a daughter's betrayal.
If you're looking for strictly the cold, hard facts of the crime, this book probably isn't for you. If, however, you enjoy a story brought forth by survival and hope, then I highly recommend Terror By Night from Terry Caffey.


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At 3:00 a.m. on March 1, 2008, Terry Caffey awoke to find his daughter's boyfriend standing in his bedroom with a gun. An instant later the teen opened fire, killing Terry's wife, his two sons, and wounding him 12 times, before setting the house ablaze. Terry fell into deep depression and planned to kill himself, but God intervened. Upon visiting his burned-out property, Terry noticed a scorched scrap of paper from one of his wife's books leaning against a tree trunk. The page read: '[God,] I couldn't understand why You would take my family and leave me behind to struggle along without them. And I guess I still don't totally understand that part of it. But I do believe that You're sovereign; You're in control." That page was like a direct message from God, and it turned Terry's life around. Now, one year later, Terry is remarried, the adoptive father of two young sons, and working to rebuild his relationship with his 17-year-old daughter, who is currently serving two life sentences in a Texas state penitentiary for her involvement in the crimes. Terror by Night tells the compelling story of how Terry Caffey found peace after his wife and sons were brutally murdered and his teenage daughter implicated in the crime. Sharing never-before-told details about the night of the crime and subsequent murder trial, it explains how Terry was able to forgive the men who murdered his family, and how he even interceded with the prosecutors on their behalf. A powerful example of how the power of forgiveness can bring healing after tragedy and great loss, it shows how God can bring good out of even the darkest tragedies.

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I Heart You, You Haunt Me Review

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(More customer reviews)He's here, in this room, right now. Jackson. Ava knows he's dead, and that it's impossible, but that doesn't stop her from being able to smell his unique, sandalwood aftershave. Or seeing his image in her mirror, hearing his words in her head,and finding him in her dreams. Her boyfriend is a ghost, and it's Ava's fault he's dead to begin with.
So now what?
Ride the waves of Ava's emotions, sometimes rippling, sometimes crashing, in this haunting book. Written in verse for maximum impact, the book grips readers and keeps them turning page after page, waiting for a release that never comes. I know, because I'm still waiting to be released from the clutch of feelings invoked by Ava's tale.
That's why I'm nominating this one for the Gold Star Award for Excellence in the TeensReadToo Hall of Fame. This award is reserved for books that we'll read again and again. A definite for me in this case.
Reviewed by: Julie M. Prince

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Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy. Girl gets boy back... ...sort of. Ava can't see him or touch him, unless she's dreaming. She can't hear his voice, except for the faint whispers in her mind. Most would think she's crazy, but she knows he's here. Jackson. The boy Ava thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. He's back from the dead, as proof that love truly knows no bounds.

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Leaving Paradise Review

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(More customer reviews)I read this book a few weeks ago and I have to tell you: I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. The story itself is simple: two people, bonded together by a tragedy, shunned by the rest of the world, who turn to each other.
The execution is anything but simple. Caleb and Maggie are both complex, real people who you in-turn, love and get infuriated at. They are people, not characters. This events are something that can actually happen, not just story. The ending is satisfying, a real ending, not a contrived, happy one. I feel like I can pick up the paper and read about an incident like this today, that's how real this story is.
Maggie's good-girl and Caleb's bad-boy personalties are an immediate catalyst for a lot of great conflict, misunderstandings and of course, excellent chemistry. I can see this becoming a movie...it has that kind of lasting visual impressions.
Maggie's hopes and dreams of leaving Paradise behind and Caleb's hopes of a "normal" life with his family, girlfriend and "the guys" are dashed quickly in the story. You realize that these people don't have anyone who understands them. Their story together is haunting and devastating and you feel your heart break for these two teenagers who have looked things in the eye that most adults would have a hard time with.
I loved the alternatiing points of view...one chapter I hated Caleb and felt so sorry for Maggie, the next chapter I HATED Kendra and felt sorry for Caleb...my emotions were in a turmoil throughout this story. Like all great books, i read this in one sitting and all I have to say is: WELL DONE Ms. Elkeles. This is not your standard fluffy HS adventure. This is what happens when HS goes wrong, leaving behind repurcussions that last a lifetime.
I read this book and Jodi Picoult's NINETEEN MINUTES around the same time. The themes are similar...when ordinary people go very wrong. I loved both...and I will not call Simone, the Jodi Picoult of YA.
Thanks for the great read Simone. I hope we see Maggie and Caleb again one day :)


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Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares—has been canceled.
After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb's free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.
Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It's a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.

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Annabel: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Being born a hermaphrodite can be a very hard row to hoe. It is especially hard when you are born in remote Labrador in 1968. The nearest specialist is miles away and this is not a town that relishes diversity. Even today, in large urban areas, there is a lot of controversy about what to do about gender when an infant is born with ambiguous sex organs. Some doctors utilize blood tests to determine gender and others go by outward appearance. A true hermaphrodite is born one in 81,000 births.
When Jacinta and Treadway have a home birth, assisted by their friend Thomasina, they are shocked to see that their infant child has one testicle and a vagina. They immediately take the baby to the hospital where the doctor determines the child to be a boy. His sex is determined because his penis is large enough to call him a boy. He is named Wayne and brought up as a son. However, he has a full set of female sex organs within him and feels that he has a shadow female self that Thomasina calls Annabel. Lifelong medication shuts off the development of Wayne's female self and promotes his development as a male.
Wayne is not told that he is a hermaphrodite. He takes pills every day that he believes are for a blood disorder. His father, Treadway, tries to get Wayne to be `one of the guys' and keeps hoping Wayne will join in with other boys in their activities. However, Wayne is not like that. He likes to draw, is fascinated with bridges, and loves to sit and talk with his mother. Treadway is a trapper who is gone for most of the year and, as tension in the home builds due to Wayne's condition, he is gone more and more. It is Jacinta who is responsible for most of Wayne's rearing.
This debut novel is about Wayne's journey through life and is a treatise on gender, especially its fluidity and ambiguity. Though Wayne lives his life as a boy he is always wrestling with the feeling that there is something else there, something in him that is different from other people. Thomasina knows his secret and it is she who rushes him to the hospital when he is going through puberty because his abdomen is filled with menstrual blood. She decides that it is important for Wayne to know about himself and she breaks the silence, informing him about his uniqueness.
Wayne struggles throughout his adolescent years and finally decides to stop taking all his pills to see what his `real' body and self are like. He is met with varied responses, some accepting and some filled with hatred. He goes in for surgery to have the original surgery reversed. (When he was an infant, his vagina was sewn shut). Now he can experience the world as both male and female.
The reader lives with Wayne throughout his life until his twenties. We yearn, with him, to know more about who he truly is and how he can fit into the world. He has one dear friend from childhood, a girl named Wallis and we are with him as he yearns for her with a physical and emotional longing that is not sexual.
Kathleen Winter has written a very interesting novel about a fascinating subject. However, there is something missing in the characterizations. We never get to know what makes Treadway and Jacinta tick. They go through tremendous changes but it is as through they are left midway in their struggles and the reader is waiting for some completion, some finality in their lives. Thomasina is very well done and she is, in many ways, the star of this book. She is willing to take risks for Wayne and she is the first person to give him a girl's name - Annabel. The novel, at 461 pages is very long and would have benefited from editing that made it tighter.
I commend the author for taking on this topic. She does it sensitively and there are parts of the novel that flow beautifully with a ring of magical realism to it. Wayne is a beautiful spirit searching for himself. We root for him as he tries to overcome a life that is that is filled with secrets and lies.

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Night Road Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought the author's writing style was very descriptive and vivid. Her tone was conversational and engaging.
Night Road introduces us to a young woman named Alexa "Lexi" Baill, who was a product of a heroin addicted mother. She was in and out of various foster homes until a great-aunt named Eva Lange came to claim her. I knew this book would leave me in tears when Lexi met her great-aunt for the first time and said "If you keep me, you won't regret. I swear it." I knew then that this young woman was going to captivate me.
After four days in her new home in Port George, Washington, she makes her first friend Mia Farraday, an outcast, like herself. Mia was the twin sister of Zach Farraday, a popular jock who dragged Mia along in order to try to help her fit in. Soon the three of them become a packaged deal of sorts, going everywhere together, and sleepovers at the Farradays etc.
Jude Farraday became the mother that Alexa always wanted, but never had. Jude Farraday was slightly neurotic when it came to parenting. She insisted on walking her high school kids to their lockers, checking home work, chaperoning all school dances etc.
This book weaves a story about teenagers pushing boundaries, learning responsibilities, making choices and living with the consequences of those choices. It was heart wrenching when I realized that they were going to drive home drunk that fateful night. I knew the consequences would be quite severe and it was.
I loved the easy friendship between Mia and Lexi--the way they accepted each other after experiencing so many rejections in life. I loved how Zach and Lexi fell in love and how Mia ultimately accepted their love. I also loved how hard Zach worked at protecting Mia in all things. This book is about relationships with siblings, parents, and lovers. It reminds me that sometimes in life one bad decision can completely alter the path of your future. Drinking and Driving is always a bad choice, but forgiveness can be a healing comfort.
The author told a wonderful story about acceptance, love, anger, loss and ultimately forgiveness. I was rooting for everyone. I really think Miles Farraday and Eva Lange and the attorney Scott were the unsung heros in this book. I don't want to give it all away but they were the supporting cast that held the primary characters together.
I LOVED THIS BOOK and I wish I could give it more stars

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The Devil in Pew Number Seven Review

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(More customer reviews)When my husband told me we would be receiving this book to review I was very excited and this book did not let me down. It had me from the very first page. In fact, I started it in the evening, read until 1:30 in the morning, got up at 6:30am to read some more and finished it by about 10am. It was that good.
Let me give you a little bit of info about the book and then I will tell you why you should definitely read it, too. This is the true story of Rebecca Nichols Alonzo and her family. She was born into a little community called Sellerstown. The book shares about about her parents' love story and travels as traveling preachers before she was born, but the main story mostly takes place at the Free Welcome Holiness Church in Sellerstown, North Carolina where her father took over as the pastor in 1969. A man that attended the church decided to make it his mission to terrorize the family until they left the church, as he had lost a lot of control over the congregation when Rebecca's dad came to town. He tried to accomplish this through numerous bombings of their house and church, threatening phone calls and mail, sniper fire and even trying to pay someone off to run the pastor down with a car. Throughout the entire story Rebecca's parents stand steadfast and instead of teaching their children to be fearful and hateful, they repeatedly encourage them to trust in the Lord and forgive their enemies.
I knew that I would like this book from the very beginning, but this book turned out to be so much more than I had even hoped it would be. This book truly addresses the issues that hold us back from forgiving, and the true toll that anger, bitterness, and lack of forgiveness can have on our own lives and walk with the Lord. This book made me step back and take a look at the condition of my relationships present and past. I realized that I am not as good at speaking "the language of heaven" as I thought I was. That is something that God is now working on in my heart because of Rebecca's courage to tell her story and share the wonderful lessons of forgiveness that her parents taught her and her brother. I am so thankful for this book. I plan on reading it again and again so that these lessons are never far from my mind. I am grateful that Rebecca had the courage to share her story and I hope that you will pick this book up and be blessed by it as well.

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2011 Retailers Choice Award winner!Rebecca never felt safe as a child. In 1969, her father, Robert Nichols, moved to Sellerstown, North Carolina, to serve as a pastor. There he found a small community eager to welcome him-with one exception. Glaring at him from pew number seven was a man obsessed with controlling the church. Determined to get rid of anyone who stood in his way, he unleashed a plan of terror that was more devastating and violent than the Nichols family could have ever imagined. Refusing to be driven away by acts of intimidation, Rebecca's father stood his ground until one night when an armed man walked into the family's kitchen . . . And Rebecca's life was shattered. If anyone had a reason to harbor hatred and seek personal revenge, it would be Rebecca. Yet The Devil in Pew Number Seven tells a different story. It is the amazing true saga of relentless persecution, one family's faith and courage in the face of it, and a daughter whose parents taught her the power of forgiveness.

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