FINISHED:

Volponi, Paul. (2008). The hand you're dealt. New York: Atheneum.

[Review will be posted here when I've written it. I can say, though, that I wasn't a huge fan.

You didn't ask for it, but here it is:

Huck, a high school senior, takes part in his town’s annual poker tournament in an effort to exact revenge on last year’s winner, the high school math teacher, Mr. Abbott. The tournament winner gets a watch blessed by the Pope passed to them that they may wear until the next champion is announced – the watch that Abbott had the gaul to steal off the wrist of previous year’s winner: Huck’s father, who was in a coma at the time. There isn’t a whole lot of compelling action, the subplot involving Huck trying to woo a female classmate is thin, and a roaring flash forward at the very beginning of the novel then falls flat without a suitable payoff when the story comes back around to that moment again. Although the Texas hold-em’ variation of poker is described early on in terms of how cards are dealt, there is never any explanation of how poker itself is played, thus rendering those without any knowledge of the game/sport shut out of the action. Further, the Abbott character is over-drawn as a villain, boasting, complaining, and even going so far as to trick kids in his classroom into thinking they are doing poorly while taking math tests – he’s just too much of a horrible teacher to be believed. While this one may appeal to those young adults or reluctant readers looking for a brisk read and caught up in the current popularity of televised poker tournaments, all others are advised to place their bets elsewhere.]

STARTED:
Urban, Linda. (2007). A crooked kind of perfect. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.

[At the Distinguished Books round-up last weekend, when this book was brought up there was an overwhelming positive buzz about this one. Next to the name of this one on the list I wrote "READ IT".]

*