When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

This Newbery winner is definately worth the award and the time to read! Miranda and her best friend Sal have a falling out upon entering sixth grade. Soon after she begins finding mysterious notes accurately prediciting the future. The mystery isn't that difficult to figure out. The brillance of the story rests in delivery. It's really a story about friendship but it is so uniquely wrapped up in a bit of sci-fi fantasy. Upon finishing, you'll want to check back to see if you missed some key clues. You'll also want to pick up A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle as this classic sci-fi is an intricate part of the story.

Humor with Heart

After Ever After
by Jordan Sonnenblick
When I picked this book up to read, I was clueless what I was about to experience. The story is actually I sequel to Sonneblick's Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie. You don't need to read the first, I didn't! The story picks up on the Alper family's struggle with Jeffery's cancer. In the first book, the story by Jeffery's older brother, during 8th grade. This time it's Jeffery telling the story, again during 8th grade. The story, though sad at times, is told with such ease and humor. It will make you laugh and cry...just like life. I particularly like the wording and description of following review.

"Most of all, he recognizes that humor and heart aren’t ways to lighten a story—they’re there to deliver it. As hilarious as it is tragic, and as honest as it is hopeful, don’t confuse this book with inspirational reading. It’s irresistible reading."-Booklist

Irresistible...YES!

Insight into a culture

Keeping Corner

by Kashmira Sheth

Set in India at the time of Gandhi, Leela is poised to embark on her new life with her husband when he suddenly dies. His death marks her as a widow. Keeping with tradition, Leela must shed all bight, colorful clothes and jewels; shave her head, and remain inside the family home for one year, "keeping corner". Her confinement isn't the worst of it, it is knowing that at age thirteen, she is a widow, considered bad luck with no future, and having a heart-broken family.

Sheth chronicles Leela's year juxtaposed again the revolutionary times of Gandhi. Will change come to India and to her small rural village? And if so, will it provide an opening, an outlet for Leela to learn, grow and love.

Fun fantasy

Dealing with Dragons
by Patricia C. Wrede

The first in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles series, this fantasy is a light-hearted and fun read. The main character Cimorene escapes the tedious tasks of being a princess and her pending marriage by volunteering to become a dragon's princess. Her new life is far more entertaining than her the boring proper princess lessons. It's while she is preforming her new duties that she stumbles upon a mystery. What are the wizards trying to steal from the dragons!

Dealing with Dragons is a great fantasy. Read this one and you'll be picking up the rest of the series; Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons and Talking to Dragons.

Fabulous Retelling of Folktale

A Curse as Dark as Gold
by Elizabeth c. Bunce

When Charlotte and Rosie Miller inherit the family business, a textile mill that has been in the family for generations, the two young ladies are determined to keep the mill and their small village of Stirwaters in business. But this task isn't so easy when unfortunate mishaps, competing mills and mortgage payment are working against the mill's success. Villagers rumor that the mill has been cursed for generations. Charlotte dismisses such chatter until one day her sister conjures up an odd fellow, Jack Spinner, who promises to spin a roomful of hay into gold thread...for a price. The story, told through Charlotte, question if the rumors and curse are true? Despite an uncle who apparently wants to help and a gentlemen suitor who will do anything to assist Charlotte, it's her agreement with Mr. Spinner that threatens to destroy everything the sisters hold dear. This is an enchanting retelling of Rumplestiltskin filled with magic, ghosts, witchcraft in an English Georgian setting. Strong women characters and supporting characters propel the story forward to a riveting end.

Chilling reality

Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Enter Lia's mind.  It is disturbed, especially since her former best friend, Cassie, died alone in a motel room after calling Lia 33 times on her cell.  Both girls have suffered from eating disorders.  Cassie was bulimic.  Lia is trying to recover from anorexia.  She counts each and every calorie.  Sets new and dangerously unhealthy goals.  She does everything to maintain the illusion to her parents and step-mom that she is still on the road to recovery. But Cassie's death derails her, big time.  Cassie is haunting her, beckoning her to join her.

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak, puts the reader inside the mind of a anorexia victim like nothing I've read before.  I suspect that the author must have suffered her own battle with an eating disorder.  That's how real the story reads!  Though sad and disturbing at times, I always knew the end would be the real beginning of Lia's recovery.  Wintergirls is honest and raw, and something not to miss.

When is the next installment published!!!!

Don't miss out on this fantastic series, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Her lastest installment, just released, Catching Fire, does not disappoint. The story picks up where Hunger Games left off. In case you haven't read the first in the series, I'll try to sum up the book without revealing much from the first.

Our narrarator has returned and is about to emback on a victor's tour of Panem, when President Snow pays a visit announcing that the country is on the verge of rebellion. The rebellion must be tamped down. He insist that on this victory tour, our heroine must aid in this effort or those closest to her will suffer severely.

Collins does a superb job of weaving a continuation of the story into the sequel. It is packed with shocking twists and gut-wrenching turns in the plot. Catching Fire surely will not disappoint you, except when you get to the last page and realize you must wait another year, UGH!!, for what happens next.