Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

Title: Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Year: 2002
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age: Teen
Summary: Matthew Donaghy (Big Mouth) has always had a big mouth. But it never got him into trouble — until one day when two detectives escort him out of class for questioning. The charge is that Matt has been accused of threatening to blow up Rocky River High School. Although he is innocent of the accusation, people shun him, and many adults, including the principal of Rocky River High School, get suspicious.

Ursula Riggs is a strong athlete at Rocky River High. She secretly gives herself the proper name “Ugly Girl.” Ursula has no time for petty high school distractions like friends (except for her friend Bonnie) and dating. Ursula is content to mind her own business. She hardly knows Matt Donaghy at the start of the novel.

But Ursula knows injustice when she sees it and is not afraid to speak out.

“Big Mouth & Ugly Girl.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Nov 2009, 22:37 UTC. 18 Nov 2009 .

My Thoughts: This book is a fun read on a topic that most people probably never give a thought to: being on the inside of the newspaper headline. It is about high school gossip, and how strong of a person you need to be not to get sucked into it. “Ugly Girl” is an incredibly strong female character, who I think many girls could relate to. I especially love how she compares herself to a horse throughout the story…it is just such an apt way to describe how insecurities can make you feel sometimes.
More than just the obvious, I loved how Oates shows how easily people can be thrown into hysterics, and how they are usually tricked into it by the most unreliable source. She highlights how the Salem Witch Trials happen again and again in our society, just disguised as something else.

Millennium Trilogy

Title(s):
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2005)
The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2007)
Author: Stieg Larsson
Genre: Crime/Mystery/Thriller
Age: Mature High School Students
Summary: This series follows the story of two main characters Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, an introvert with a photographic memory. The two meet through unlikely circumstances, and are kept together by even unlikelier circumstances.
My Thoughts: I had to be heavily persuaded to read this set of books, so I am a little late on the "I love the Millennium Trilogy" bandwagon, but I am there now.
I have to admit, it was difficult for me to get into the first book because roughly the first hundred pages are an introduction that involves many Swedish references that left me lost in the dust. Luckily, I had many people encouraging me to keep reading because from there on in it was like going down the most fantastic roller coaster. Each novel in the trilogy has the most sophisticated sets of twist and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat from one novel to the next.
Larsson is a master of not revealing too much at once. The stories are so complicated and well written that it takes the reader a while to realize that Larsson is 5 steps ahead of you.
I do offer one warning before picking up one of these books: there are a few graphically violent scenes throughout the trilogy, so if something like that would offend or upset you, these aren't the books for you.

Vampire Academy

Title: Vampire Academy
Author: Richelle Mead
Year: 2007
Genre: Fantasy, Vampires
Age: 7th grade up

Summary: Best friends Rose and Lissa are sent back to their vampire boarding school after two years as run aways. Readjusting to not only school but vampire politics takes its toll on the two.

Review: What a fantastic vampire book! Mead gives us a new take on vampire myths with a big helping of high school drama. But more than that, the damsel in distress does a bang up job of trying to rescue herself, and when rescuers actually come? That hero is a girl, not a love interest. Girl power, vampire power, romance-- this book is fantastic. Better than that, there’s more, an entire series! Look for it this fall in the middle school.

BOOM!

Title: Boom!
Author: Mark Haddon
Year: 2010
Genre: Adventure, Sci Fi
Age: 5th-8th grade

Summary: Jimbo and Charlie overhear their teachers speaking in a strange language and set out to investigate. They get in far too deep and Charlie is kidnapped (to another planet) and Jimbo must rescue him.

Review: Haddon is British and this book is VERY British. Words that Americans won’t understand unless they’ve watched quite a bit of BBC will throw off many readers. Even I, a complete Anglophile, had a lot of trouble figuring out what on Earth was happening at points. Other than the language barrier, this is a quick little read. I recommend it to those who love British culture and science fiction.

Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz

Title: Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz
Author: Eva Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri
Year: 2009
Genre: Holocaust Memoir
Age: 7th grade up

Summary: Eva details her captivity as a 10 year old in Auschwitz with her identical twin.

Review: This book outraged me and warmed my heart equally. That such atrocities happen to children, being experimented on by a ‘doctor’ after their families have been killed, will make you cry. That the twins survived, helped each other, kept each other human and whole will make you cry with joy. English is not Eva’s first (nor second, nor third) language and the book suffers a bit for it, but it’s still compulsively readable. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Holocaust or who would like to know more about what happens inside the camps after reading Anne Frank.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You

Title: I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You
Author: Ally Carter
Year: 2007
Genre: Adventure, romance
Age: 6th grade up

Summary: Cammie Morgan goes to your typical all girls boarding school. Well, typical except that it’s a training ground for spies. Cammie tries to incorporate some romance in what becomes her hardest operation: dating.

Review: This book is bunches of fun. Superspy girl geniuses have one thing weakness: teenage boys. Boy is a language they don’t speak and a code they want to crack. Romance takes the front seat here and leaves you wanting to know more about the school itself. The stakes aren’t high, as they are in Carter’s most recent book Heist Society, so you’ll feel free to sit back and enjoy the ride. A great book to read at the beach or by the pool.

Heist Society

Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Year: 2010
Genre: Adventure, thriller
Age: 7th grade up

Summary: Katarina Bishop uses the skills the family business taught her to con her way into the best boarding school in the world. The family business? World class thievery. Just as she’s getting used to classes and gym instead of casing museums and running from cops, Kat’s family history rears its head and sucks her back in. What follows is a globe trotting adventure with Kat planning the biggest heist of her life to save her father.

Review: I would call this book a young adult version of Ocean’s Eleven with a feisty teen girl in the George Clooney role. And instead of a casino, our group of misfit heroes is stealing art. It’s a super fun, fast read with short chapters and action that never stops. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fast adventures or Carter’s other books.