Deb Caletti. THE STORY OF US

Cricket has just graduated high school, but is still pondering if she’s going away to college. She is torn between spreading her wings or staying home. In addition to her life being at a crossroads, two relationships in her life are also evolving. Cricket has just told her longtime boyfriend, Janssen, that she isn’t sure about their future. Plus, her mother is getting married. Her mother has been at the threshold of marriage twice before just before suddenly ditching those previous boyfriends. Cricket feels anxious for her mother. She hopes this marriage will work. Cricket, her brother Ben, and their mother go stay at a bed and breakfast for the wedding. They meet up with extended family, as well as her future family members.

Deb Caletti is really stretching her legs in this novel. It feels more complex than her books. She uses an interesting technique to tell the story of Cricket and Janssen. Since Cricket is separated from him, she writes him letters. Their love story is revealed through these letters as she is telling him how she got to this point in their relationship. The novel is told in alternating chapters between her letters and the events leading up to the wedding.

The novel is character driven, as expected from Deb Caletti. It’s contemplative and philosophical. I felt Cricket’s ambivalence to moving on with her life. I vividly remember that point in my life when I had moved out of my family home and needed to take that next step. I feel Cricket’s trepidation about leaving her family and her entire life.

I continue to love Deb Caletti’s writing. She brilliantly picks just the right word at the right time. Again, I have beautiful quotes to share:

Doesn’t this perfectly capture that feeling when you've just graduated high school:

“Gavin said, you could be anyone now that you graduated? You could sit inside the warm, familiar room of someone’s idea of you. Or you could step out the front door and see if they’d been right, or wrong, all along.”

So insightful:

“Egos were hungry things. Like Ben and Janssen, you could feed it breakfast, and a half hour later it would want pizza. You could start out using and end up being used, and by the time I got back up to the house, Amy and Hailey seemed full and happy, and I felt nothing but empty and exhausted.”

My favorite:

“Stories are what you have when the place is gone and the dried-up roses have crumbled and the ring is lost and that old car is finally junked. Stories are where the meaning ends up.”

THE STORY OF US is beautiful, insightful and thoughtful book. Check out Deb Caletti and her other books here. I really loved STAY and THE FORTUNES OF INDIGO SKYE

Garth Stein. THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN

Wow, what a brilliantly written, lovely, moving story! If you have a dog, you'll love this, period. You don't even need to keep reading. Done. But...be polite and read anyway.

We join Enzo on the night before his death. He's telling us a little about his life and then he flashes back to the beginning when his owner, Denny picked him out of the litter. Oh - Enzo's a dog, by the way.

Enzo is lovable right from the start. He is learning all that he can because he believes he will be a man in his next life. (He learned that from television special about Mongolia.) Denny is a race car driver. Enzo watches videos of his races and loves racing just as much as Denny. He and Denny become the best of friends. They understand each other.

Then when Denny brings home Eve, his new wife, the balance changes a little. Enzo isn't the only one Denny loves. Eve doesn't trust or love Enzo yet. However, by the time their baby is born, Enzo is able to win over Eve by vowing to protect Zoe, which he does faithfully throughout the book.

Remember, this is from Enzo's point of view. That may sound strange at first, but the author pulls it off brilliantly. We feel Enzo's struggle to communicate through gestures alone. We feel his love for his family. Most of all, we feel the strong bond between Denny and Enzo - a man and his dog.

The story is dramatic and heart-wrenching. But the writing is what really shines. I have so many post-it note pages that I can't even choose one to share here, like I normally would. There are too many wonderful parts. You must read it for yourself to understand. You will love it! If you're like me, you've often pondered what your dog might be thinking or if he understands you. Well, after this book, you may never look at your dog the way same again.

While reading it, I couldn't help thinking how it would be such an amazing movie. Well, lo and behold, a movie is in development. I'm so excited! Patrick Dempsey is said to be the lead, which is perfect casting, since he races cars in real life. I hope they cast the Enzo narration perfectly too. (Morgan Freeman would be my choice).

One final note - this is an adult book. It's on many of those lists of "adult books for older teens," and teens will love it. But it is an adult book. I just want to be clear.

There is another adapted version of the story for younger readers.

But you'll notice that the title is slightly different, which keeps you from confusing the two. I'm not sure how much is changed in this younger version, although the reviews say that the themes may still be too mature. Younger readers may not enjoy it as much as older readers. I'm sure the demand will be high though, especially after the movie.


If you'd like to see what other books Garth Stein has written, check him out here.

Rebecca Stead. FIRST LIGHT

Peter finally gets to see his father as an exploring scientist, rather than just a stuffy professor. His mom and dad have decided to let him come along on a scientific study in Greenland. His dad is a glaciologist and will be studying weather changes on the glaciers. His mom plans to continue writing her book on DNA. Peter is thrilled to leave school for a few months and go on the adventure with his family.

The secrets he uncovers there turn out to be beyond all comprehension. One day he goes exploring and stumbles upon a girl named Thea trying to pry a boy out of a crack in the ice. Peter helps Thea pull him to safety and continues to help her carry him to her “camp.” But what he finds isn’t a camp, but a huge community living underneath the ice in secret. After Peter has amassed a truckload of questions, they hustle him back to the surface refusing to answer any of them. He’s sent on his way and told to keep their secret.

Then when Peter sees his mom doodling a symbol that he saw down in the secret community, more questions come up. What is going on with that place and how is his mother involved?

The author has woven such an amazing story out of so many interesting topics.
There are many aspects of this story that I loved: The sled dogs that work so hard for their people and become members of their families, the science of fireflies, the igloo building, the mitochondrial DNA…I was continually intrigued and entertained! I’m not even going into some of the other cool aspects, so I won’t divulge any spoilers!

I’m floored that this is the author’s first published book. (but not totally surprised, since she just won the Newbery for her second book, which I also loved and reviewed here.) Also, what this author does better than anyone is tie up loose ends. You know how sometimes when you read a book or see a movie and something happened early on & you think “why didn’t they ever explain such & such.. or why did they bring that up & never finish it.” Well, every little thing you’re curious about in the book is neatly explained along the way or at the end. I love that! She did that with her second book too.

There is a really nifty website for this book here. The author's website is here.  I will be FIRST in line for her next book!

WELCOME TO THE ARK, LISTEN

Stephanie S. Tolan. WELCOME TO THE ARK
This novel is set in the near future in a world full of terrorist attacks and bombings all over the world. Four brilliant kids, who seem to be connected in some way, are chosen to live together in an experimental home. The two doctors who direct the experiment live with them as parental figures. They give the kids access to the Internet to connect with kids all around the world who are similarly gifted. The house where they live is called the Ark. They kids are hoping to find a way to ensure survival in the bleak current state of violence an mayhem in the world. This book had some really cool ideas. I couldn’t believe that Tolan wrote this back before 9/11.





Stephanie S. Tolan. LISTEN

Charley is looking at a boring summer recovering from an accident that injured her leg. Her mother passed away, her friend is away at camp and her father works all the time. Then an encounter with a stray dog changes everything. Charley meet the dog in the woods near her house. He won’t let anyone come near him. She names him Coyote and sets out to tame him. Charley has an amazing summer with the dog and reminiscing about her mother. This was a really heartfelt novel. It is well written and beautiful! (Suitable for readers as young as around 5th grade)