Rachel Vail. JUSTIN CASE: SCHOOL, DROOL, AND OTHER DAILY DISASTERS

The last book I read from Rachel Vail was a YA called LUCKY. I loved it! (I still need to read the sequel). When I saw the cover of this one, I was immediately drawn to it, especially since my move to elementary librarian.

Justin is a bit of a worrier. A week before third grade begins, he cannot sleep. He worries about not getting into a good schedule. He worries about what teacher he'll get and whether or not his best friend will be in his class. When school starts, the kids notice his worrying one day when he's devising a back up plan for their project and they nickname him Justin Case. Justin had always wanted a nickname, but not anymore.

The novel is written in a diary format, so we really get to know Justin and all of his idiosyncrasies. He has a community of stuffed animals and they are fighting over who will be mayor. He is terrified of dogs, yet he is more terrified of robbers, so he still begs his parents for a dog. He is an adorable, funny kid, with an equally adorable family. His sister is precocious and sweet. Here is an example of her personality:
After her mom tells her that there are no boyfriends or girlfriends in elementary school, she says, "I know that, Mommy, but I have three boyfriends anyway."

Because Justin is such a worrier, this leads him to believe that he isn't brave. He encounters several situations in the book that cause him to grow and become the boy he needs to be.

I loved Justin, his family and everything about the book! The illustrations were delightful and totally matched the mood of the book! I hope Rachel Vail writes more children's books. I would love more about Justin!
Click here for my review of her YA book LUCKY. Click here for her website.

Elizabeth Scott. GRACE

Holy Spicoli! Has it really been a month since I’ve blogged?! Yowza! I have been busy – with my cross country move and all, but jeez. I can’t let this happen again.

On to the ARC of one of my favorite authors! Elizabeth Scott is one of those authors where I just open her book and read. I don’t read anything on the cover or any summaries.  I just read knowing I’ll enjoy it.

 I really didn’t know what I was getting in for this time.  If it was any other author, I may not have wanted to read about this world. It’s set in a near future where a brutal leader named Keran Berj has taken over and kills in the name of freedom. He sets random rules about what to do, think or say. Then he changes them frequently enough to keep everyone in constant fear.

Grace lives on the run from the reign of Keran Berj with a group of people called the Hills. They boys are raised to be fighters and girls are chosen to be Angels. Grace was sent to be an Angel, which means that she will be chosen one day for a specific task of terror. This task will include her own death as a suicide bomber.  She’s always accepted that as her fate by rationalizing that it would bring glory to her family. But when the day comes, she decides that she doesn’t want to die. But she can’t go back home, since she would be killed for her shameful act of not dying.

Then she meets another person in a similar situation.  This boy has always represented cruelty and death to her people.  But while getting to know him, Grace realizes that the two of them aren’t really that different. Grace has blood on her hands too in the name of her cause. Isn’t death still death? Isn’t terror still terror? No matter what the reason?

She finds a way that may be an escape for her, if she is able to make it through the malicious guards along the way to the border. Grace has lived her whole life preparing to die. Can she now prepare to live?

This is an amazing book.  I can’t do it justice in this review. The back of the book says “told in spare, powerful prose….that will haunt readers long after they’ve reached the final page.” That’s exactly it! It’s haunting, intense and sad. It brings to mind so many things. There is something about the train ride that reminded me of the Holocaust. Of course, the acts of terror are all too familiar to everyone. It’s a book you want to discuss with friends. I’m intrigued about what ideas sparked the idea for this book.

This book is a departure from Scott’s other books (so is Living Dead Girl).  For example, after someone reads & loves SOMETHING, MAYBE, you wouldn’t go immediately think to recommend GRACE. But that’s just a testament to what a brilliant and talented writer she is. This is incredible range. Wow! I just have to wonder what topic she’ll tackle next! Whatever it is, I’ll be there to devour it!

Thank you Elizabeth Scott for including me in your blog tour!
GRACE is due out September 16th. Check out the author at her website.
Click HERE to scroll through all the reviews I've done on her books. (you should really check them ALL out!)

Susan Beth Pfeffer. THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN

This is a sequel that brings the characters from LIFE AS WE KNEW IT and THE DEAD & THE GONE together. It continues the story of the catastrophic events after the moon was knocked closer into orbit around the earth. It's been a year since the event, and Miranda and her family have settled into a routine of sorts. Miranda and her brothers scavenge the houses around them for whatever they can use. Food it still delivered weekly, although still only enough for two small meals a day. There really isn't much left of the town they live in. There are virtually no people left. 

Then Miranda is surprised by her father, his wife, their baby daughter and three strangers. (One of the strangers is Alex from DEAD & the GONE). Miranda has mixed emotions. It was difficult enough with the four of them alone, but with six more people, how will they manage? On the other hand, she's also thrilled to see her father again. Plus, the baby brings hope of survival. However, just when things are beginning to look up, another tragedy strikes the town, which calls for some heavy decision-making about their future.

I loved the first two novels in this world, so I was thrilled that the author decided to write another. I was eager to see how Miranda and her family continued on after such devastating events. Not to mention, the inclusion of Alex was awesome!

This was action packed, suspenseful and sad. The author does such a wonderful job of creating the mood for this "end of the world" type atmosphere. In all three books, I was so enthralled. And frankly, I'm still not satisfied with the ending. I don't mean this in a negative way at all. I'm just not ready to give these characters up! I still want more. I want to go to more places with the characters to see how the rest of the world is handling everything. Is that asking too much?

If you haven't read the other two, you really must. 

Here are my reviews of the other two:

LIFE AS WE KNEW IT review

More about the author, check out her blog: http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com/

She's got some great stuff on there about all the novels. (pre-writing notes, interviews, etc)



THE DEAD AND THE GONE review

Elizabeth Scott. STEALING HEAVEN

All Danielle has ever known is a life of crime. Her mother and father are thieves. Her father went to prison when she was young, so it's just been Danielle and her mom most of her life. She never went to school. She was home-schooled, sort of. She didn't learn the traditional subjects from her mom. Her skills have been more "occupational" in nature: (they primarily steal silver- easier to fence than items more high-profile, like jewelry). Here is her describing her skills:

"Because of silver I can pry the molding off a window without making a sound. I know how to test for plate even though I don't usually need to. I can drive a car, climb into a house, deal with growling dogs. I know exactly how much your average nineteenth-century tea service weighs - in troy ounces, even- and how many pieces it has....For silver I learned the names of every plantation from Virginia to Florida. I can tell you which ones we've visited, which ones we want to, which ones we never will."

Although her mother thrives on their life of crime, Danielle is beginning to long for more. They travel constantly and never keep clothing or anything that would attach them to any of their burglaries. She wants a place of her own to call home. A place where she can buy things and keep them. She wants to make friends and give her real name. But she's never gone to school, so how would she even work a real job? Where would she even begin?

In this latest town that they're in, Danielle meets a guy that makes her really question her mother's lifestyle choices. She has begun to be more honest than she should with this guy. Several complications arise to thicken the plot. Danielle's mom wants her to steal from someone she's become friendly with. And the guy she's starting to really like is a cop. What will she do? Stick by her mom and do what she wants or betray her mom - the one person who has always supported her.

I've mentioned before how much I love Elizabeth Scott's books. So it's no surprise that I loved this one! I became attached to these characters. Danielle and her mom were both well developed, fascinating characters. I also loved Greg and Allison. The fact that the main characters were thieves was a nice twist. It was a refreshing plot. I highly recommend it!
More on Elizabeth Scott here.

Here are a few of her other books that I've reviewed:
Loved this one: review here


And here's the review of  her latest THE UNWRITTEN RULE  &  finally the review for SOMETHING, MAYBE. You can see I'm a huge fan! Her writing really resonates with me for some reason.
Check her out, if you haven't!

Michael Grant. GONE

I cannot believe I haven't heard about this book earlier. Well, I'm glad I stumbled across it. It is fantastic!
It begins with one seemingly normal day in social studies class. The teacher is talking about the Civil War, the students are listening. Then the teacher suddenly vanishes No flashing light or funny noise - he just disappears. After some investigating, the kids realize that all the adults are gone. In fact, anyone over fifteen is gone.
People begin to look to Sam for leadership. After all, he did save a bus full of children when the bus driver had a heart attack. Sam begins to make decisions to try to keep the kids from panicking. Sam, Astrid, the girl they call the genius, and his best friend Quinn all begin trying to figure things out. They make temporary plans, hoping this will all end soon.
Then a week or so later, Caine and a group of kids come into town from Coates. Coates is type of school for smart delinquents. Caine begins by charming everyone into making him "mayor." Of course, Sam and Astrid realize that he's trouble, but go along with Caine. Otherwise they would fall victim to his team of bullies who sit by ready and willing to enforce all of Caine's new rules.
We also met Lana, who was in the passenger seat of a truck when her grandfather vanishes. The truck crashes and she is badly hurt. After days of suffering, she's able to mysteriously save herself only to be attacked my coyotes. Fortunately some unusual creatures save her.
When it looks like things can't get any worse (no phones, no Internet, no doctors, no TV, no way to leave the area to get help) ...they do get worse. Animals are mutating. People are developing unimaginable powers, which some decide to use for evil.
I won't give too much away, because I had so much fun discovering all of the many twists and turns in this book, and I wouldn't want to deprive you of that fun. It's suspenseful. I couldn't put it down. It literally kept me up at night all last week! It has action, some mystery, some science, fantasy and a little love. (It really does cross many genres).
I haven't even mentioned how well written it is. The author did such a wonderful job with creating mood and tone. One of the most disturbing scenes is when the kids were walking through the houses to find any missing children. That deep feeling of loneliness and dread the kids were feeling hit me like a ton of bricks. And that is only one scene. There are many more unforgettable moments in this book.
It will leave you very curious for more. Lucky for us there is a sequel, and the series is planned to be 6 books.
Here is more about the author. He's married to KA Applegate, the author of the Animorphs and Everworld books.

Book 2 - which is on my "to read" pile