[LM_NET] SHARE: YA book reviews (Girl at Sea and Choices)

[Naomi Bates <naomi.bates@GMAIL.COM>]

Johnson, Maureen.  (2007).  Girl at Sea.  New York:  HarperCollins
Clio loves life.  Well, right now she does.  She lives with her mother in an
old Victorian in Boston.  She landed her dream job in an art store and is
going to work with Ollie, her dream god.  All she wants is a KISS!!  It's
never happened, either because of fate or bad luck, but she's determined
that Ollie will break the curse.
But then, as luck would have it, plans change.  Her mother moves to the
middle of Kansas on a research grant and Clio has no option but to tour
southern Europe in a yacht with her dad….and she absolutely hates it!
Being cooped up with her father is no picnic, but add a beautiful Swedish
teen named Elsa (think milk goddess) and an snobby young research assistant
named Aiden (cute in his arrogance), Clio begins to have an adventure she
won't soon forget.  But will she get her kiss?
Like Johnson's last book, 13 Little Blue Envlopes, this will become a must
read for teen girls out there.  Full of love, adventure, friendships broken
and repaired and misunderstood parents, girls will devour this one.  Johnson
is surely making her foothold in this genre alongside Deb Caletti, Meg Cabot
and Sarah Dessen.


Jacobs, Deborah Lynn.  (2007).  Choices.  New York:  Roaring Brook Press.
Kathleen blames herself for the accidental death of her brother.  If she
hadn't gone to that stupid party!!  But now her brother Nick is gone and she
is left to pick up the pieces.  Her mother starts drinking, her friends
begin to hate her, her dad isolates himself…then the next day….
Her mother will be repainting the house, her father will be making dinner
and her friends?  They love her and understand her….then the next day…
The only constant in Kathleen's crazy life is Luke, a stranger whom her best
friend thinks is a stalker.  Kathleen meets him at her brother's funeral and
is drawn to him.
Is Kathleen (on good days) and Katy (on really bad days) crazy?  Or is she
sane and parallel universes are to explain?  Just who is Luke anyway and how
come he's the only constant in her bizarre worlds?
At first, this book was a little difficult to understand, and the reader
must make the choice of whether Kathleen has multiple personalities or
something else entirely, but the story slowly begins to unravel and you are
drawn into her worlds, hoping she makes the right choices, and the end will
definitely grab you.  This book left me wanting to know more after the story
was told.


-- 
Naomi Bates
Librarian, Northwest High School
Justin TX
nbates@nisdtx.org
817.215.0203

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