FINISHED:
Glass, Linzi. (2010). Finding Danny. New York: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins.

[Bree is an only child whose parents are both in the news business: mom is a TV news reporter who’s working her way up to newscaster, and dad is a journalist who travels the world to be on the frontline of world events. In an effort to alleviate Bree’s loneliness her parents give her a fluffy dog named Danny to love and take care of. When Bree’s mother, in a rush, accidentally leaves the yard gate open, Danny escapes and Bree is introduced to the “dingy, smelly, and full of sadness” world of LA animal shelters. Here she meets a wayward “hippie” waif, Rayleen, who can’t seem to stay in one place for long but who loves and takes in abandoned and found dogs. Meanwhile, Bree is dealing with typical preteen worries: are her best girlfriends drifting away? Does she even WANT to spend her friend’s birthday at the spa? Does the most popular (and UBER-richest) boy in school actually like her? While the introduction to young readers of the world of animal shelters is a valuable one, the effect is drowned in the self-congratulations of the wealthy who are drastically out of touch with the real world and who feel that they have done their part to help the less fortunate. [I mean, the characters in this book live in gated “estates” and go to a gated high school, their parents all involved in the Hollywood film and TV business.] Bree’s brilliant (and pat) idea is to host an adopt-a-thon for all of the dogs that are slated to be euthanized in the next week and, of course, somehow, EVERY dog gets adopted. Will Bree be around every week to keep all of LA’s stray dogs from being put-down, or has her one good deed for the underprivileged given her ample karma points? Clichéd and self-serving with a picture-perfect ending. Blah.]

STARTED:
Beam, Cris. (2011). I am J. New York: Little, Brown.

[Reading for ACL Distinguished.]

*

FINISHED:
Schmidt, Gary D. (2011). Okay for now. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin.

[After his abusive father is fired from his job, Doug Swieteck and his family are uprooted and replanted to a small, rural town in upstate New York. Doug gets a job making deliveries for a local market owned by the father of a cute girl from school, and follows the girl into the town library. Here, Doug discovers an old John James Audubon book of bird drawings which inspire him to refine his own drawing, and launch a search to recover some of the missing pages. (Each chapter title is that of a bird found in Audubon’s book, with the accompanying illustration included for reference.) In this companion novel to his own The Wednesday Wars (Clarion, 2007), Schmidt has made Doug a good, well-intentioned kid with whom the reader can immediately sympathize and root for. Doug’s library and drawing excursions show the transportative and transformative power of art and the written word/knowledge, and, most importantly, become a ticket of escape and a way to a better future for Doug. Loaded with humor, quirky characters and some sadness (the scenes involving Doug’s oldest brother returning from a tour in the Vietnam War are particularly striking), Okay For Now is a masterstroke for Schmidt in an already glowing body of work. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Glass, Linzi. (2010). Finding Danny. New York: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins.

[Reviewing for SFPL...]

*

FINISHED:
Holm, Jennifer L. (2010). Turtle in paradise. New York: Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Schmidt, Gary D. (2011). Okay for now. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin.

[REALLY enjoyed The Wednesday Wars so I'm excited to start this "companion novel".]

*

FINISHED:
Choldenko, Gennifer. (2011). No passengers beyond this point. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Couldn't really get into this one - as evidenced by the fact that it took me so long to read it. I really enjoyed her Al Capone books, but this one just didn't make a whole lot of sense or have much of a point... that I could find. ]

STARTED:
Holm, Jennifer L. (2010). Turtle in paradise. New York: Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Anderson, M.T. (2010). The suburb beyond the stars. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Choldenko, Gennifer. (2011). No passengers beyond this point. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Lester, Julius. (2005). Day of tears: a novel in dialogue. New York: Hyperion.

[.]

STARTED:
Anderson, M.T. (2010). The suburb beyond the stars. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Jenkins, Emily. (2011). Invisible Inkling. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Lester, Julius. (2005). Day of tears: a novel in dialogue. New York: Hyperion.

[Recommended.]

*