C. K. Kelly Martin. YESTERDAY

In 2063, Freya and her mother are captured and taken away. When she wakes up, she doesn't remember anything and....it's 1985. This is weird for us, but not for Freya, because she doesn't remember anything, at first. But she slowly begins to feel like she doesn't belong. She begins having nagging feelings that she can't explain. She even runs into a guy that she feels she's met before, although he doesn't remember her. The circumstances around her father's death are also sketchy. She begins investigating the few details she has about his death and her past.

This is an ambitious book. The author takes on time travel, dystopia, global warming, ESP, the 80's, as well as robots. For the most part she succeeds. I began to care about the characters, and that usually is the saving grace for me. If I can't care about the characters, then it's downhill with no going back on my part.

I enjoyed the time spent in 1985, but I felt the author was a little heavy handed with the 80's details. Maybe it was because I recognized them and felt they were gratuitous  Maybe I wouldn't have noticed it so much if it had been a time period I wasn't familiar with? I don't know. I'll be interested to see if other readers felt that way too.

One other aspect that I want to comment on was the chapter long exposition that took place in the middle of the book. It couldn't be helped. But it was still jarring. Since the main character left 2063 so quickly at the beginning of the book for the mystery to begin, the reader didn't know anything about her world. So, this forced the author to tell us all about it in the middle of the book. I'm not sure she had any other way to go about this large task. Nevertheless, it interrupted the flow of the book.

There were many other aspects that I did enjoy. Again, I loved the two main characters, and the relationship they formed. I liked the way the clues seeped into Freya's life in interesting ways to help her figure out the mystery. Finally, I was intrigued by the future society that Freya lived in. I was interested enough to want to read more about that, even if I was troubled by the premise of how the society ended up the way it did.

If you're intrigued by the idea of someone being thrown into the past, without any clear idea why, you'll love this. Read more about the book and the author at her nifty website below:

ROSOFF, CABOT, WESTERFELD, KORMAN, KOERTGE, CRUTCHER

Rosoff, Meg. HOW I LIVE NOW. Wow, what an amazing book. Daisy has been shipped off to live with her family in England. They live on a farm, and her cousins are all very interesting. The kids end up taking care of themselves because the aunt is out of town. Then World War 3 breaks out and they remain on their own. That is until someone finds out and comes to get them. They are split up. Daisy and her 9-year-old cousin Piper end up taking care of themselves for months. All the while, they are worrying about the rest of their family. A fascinating book!

Cabot, Meg/Carroll Jenny. SHADOWLAND-THE MEDIATOR BOOK 1. Suze has a unique talent of communicating with the dead. She helps them to cross over. Usually they have one last thing to take care of. She's just move to California from New York to live with her new family. Shortly after she finds out that she is accepted to her school because a girl, Heather, has just died. She killed herself over her boyfriend. Well, this girl is not happy that Suze is there to “take her place.” So Suze's normal mediating duties don't really work on Heather. What will she do? This is a funny, entertaining novel! Plus, there are several more in the series.

Westerfeld, Scott. SO YESTERDAY. As I told you in class, this is one of the coolest books I’ve read in a long time. This is a hot new author with many other good ones out now, including the MIDNIGHTERS series.

Korman, Gordon. SON OF THE MOB: HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE. You don’t have to have read the original SON OF THE MOB to enjoy this sequel, but it helps. It's just as funny as the original and surprisingly touching.

Koertge, Ron. MARGAUX WITH AN X. If you love language, you'll love Margaux and her vocabulary. If you read Koertge's STONER & SPAZ, you'll like this unusual paring of two seemingly opposites who find each other. Nice read.

Crutcher, Chris THE SLEDDING HILL. Wow, I can't say enough about this one. What if you finally really liked a book you were reading in English class, but all of a sudden it was banned from the school. What would you do? What would I do as a teacher...hmmm, good question.