BookWormin'

Happy New Year!!  Thanks for reading my blog this last year!  I didn't blog as much as I would have wanted last year, so one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog at least once a week.  :) HAPPY NEW YEAR!  ~laila

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!  May all your days be merry and bright, or however that song goes!  :) ~laila

11 Birthdays is the story of Leo and Amanda.  Leo and Amanda were born on the same day, in the same hospital.  Their relatives were the best of friends, except for one fight.  After their parents meet in the hospital and with some prompting from Angelina D'Angelo, Leo and Amanda have had every birthday together for 9 years.  Last year, for their tenth birthday though, Leo and Amanda were having a party and Amanda overheard Leo tell some of his friends that he only hung out with her because his parents made him.  After that, Amanda never talked to Leo again.  It was the biggest fight they've ever had, and it's lasted for a whole year.  With their eleventh birthday approaching fast, Amanda wishes she had never heard Leo say those things.  Then, on the day of her eleventh birthday, almost everyone goes to Leo's party and not Amanda's.  He even has a hypnotist.  A pile of presents mysteriously appears on her doorstep later that night, and after that, Amanda decides she

Wendy Mass is one of my favorite authors!  I read one of her books in like sixth grade and forgot about it until I found another book by her in seventh grade.  Turns out they were a series, but I read them in the wrong order.  In eighth grade, I got the two books again and read them in the right order.  Then I read them again.  This year, I found another book!  So I got all three of them and re-read them!   Wendy Mass reminds us of the magic of friends, birthdays, what we want and what we need, and many other valuable lessons.  Each of her books about Willow Falls are covered in magic and mystery, all of them connected by the characters and especially Angelina D'Angelo. I blogged about Wendy Mass' books: 11 Birthdays Finally 12 13 Gifts

Jan Miller feels like she is living in the shadow of her best friend, who is an official It-Girl on the cover of every magazine, thanks to Jan's mom.  Jan can't get a date or get a grip.  She babbles around her crush, and college applications are stressing her out!  Jan wishes she could write a play of how her life should be.  All through the book she narrates her scenes, overlapping them with reality.  Sometimes though, all a Not-It girl has to do is make the first move. This is such a great book!  I say that about a lot of books, but it's true!  Melissa Kantor strikes again!

Jessie's sophomore year isn't working out so well.  Her brother is a punk and her best friends transform themselves into punks so Jessie's brother lets them hang with his band.  Jessie is a self proclaimed mathelete, and she needs new friends.  But when her quest brings her to the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, she needs to decide if she wants nerd friends.  Meanwhile, her brother has decided to un-punk himself to get ready for college.  He teases Jessie about her 'nerd herd' friends and she takes something he says the wrong way.  Not to mention her nerdy crush on one of the D&D boys.  Is Jessie turning into a nerd? (Sorry this is so short!)

Melissa Kantor's books are so far really good.  I've only read two, but I have another one requested at the library which I will hopefully get soon.  Melissa writes like she knows all this from experience (maybe she does), and her characters are easy to relate to.  You can easily put yourself in their place, or just imagine living their lives.  I really love authors like that.  Plus, there is drama, and suspense in her books.  Not like mystery book type, but like OH MY GOSH WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT!! type.  Her books aren't easily put down!  She's a great author and I hope I get to read more of her books soon.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to read books with hot cocoa all day, hey! So, sometimes this month or last, I forget exactly when, I went to the library.  Maybe you read my post  After a Recent Trip to the Library...  and you already knew this.  In any case, I went.  And as it just so happens, since it has now been December for officially five days, I figured I am allowed to start reading Christmas stories.  One of them is a classic little chapter book called: The Christmas Doll and it's by Elvira Woodruff.  I haven't read it yet, but I'll type up the back cover of the book for you in case I don't get to read it until after Christmas. "Lucy and Glory Wolcott are sisters and the best of friends.  They have no one but each other to rely on.  They have little to eat and their nights are cold and damp.  To keep their spirits up, Lucy invents stories about a family she barely remembers--and a lost doll named Morning Glory who Lucy

      'He spoke to the beautiful face. "Are you sleeping?"  The eyes did not open.  He could not decide if he wanted them to open.  The humped eyelids with their glittery purple were like tiny twin eggs, bird's eggs.  "Are you going to say something?"  The mouth did not move.  "You're dead, aren't you?"  The beautiful face was as still as the trees.  He was not afraid.'  - Inside front cover of Eggs by Jerry Spinelli Eggs is the story of 9 year old David and 13 year old Primrose.  After a very strange first meeting in the woods at an Easter egg hunt, David and Primrose gravitated towards each other.  Primrose constantly teases David, and they say they hate each other, but they tell each other secrets and go on adventures together.  David's mother died, and his father is at work all the time.  He never breaks any rules, except his grandma's.  He lives with his grandma, but her rules don't count.  She's trying to

I went to the library a couple days ago and picked up a bunch of books.  Some of them, I've already blogged about.  Some of them I plan to blog about in the near future.  But in the meantime, I'm going to do a quick rating of some of the books, that has the title and author of the book, and then what I give it on a scale of 1- 10. Gert Gerbaldi's Rants and Raves: One Butt Cheek at a Time by Amber Kizer (4) This was a kind of weird book, not quite like the ones I'm used to reading, but still pretty good.  Probably for around ages 14 and up. If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's my Prince by Melissa Kantor (7) Good book, to see a full review of it, scroll down! Around 10-12 and up Lemonade Mouth by Mark Hughes (8) Awesome book!  Scroll down for details! Ages 12 and up Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: My Life on the Dork Side by Julie Halpern (6) Full review coming soon! 12 and up Confessions of a Not-It Girl by Melissa Kantor (6) Full review in progress,