The Big Book of How to Say It by Rosalie Maggio

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Every house should have this, it is a huge resource. Even in this age of emails and twitters, you still have to be able to write a note, a letter, a complaint, advice and references. This book tells you how. Whether you are at school and as student council secretary have to write letters, or you are working and have to deal with customers or suppliers, if you are a teacher and have to write a reference - this book tells you how.



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Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Samuel knew the forest, he loved it; he was at home in it. His skill at hunting meant that he was responsible for providing meat for nearly the whole Pennsylvania frontier settlement where he and his parents lived. That day he was hunting, deep in the forest, when it happened.

Smoke across the tops of the trees.

It couldn't be a forest fire. It hadn't been dry enough. Could it be coming from the settlement? No, he rejected the idea. For that would mean only one thing, an attack. Samuel turned and started running. He caught the smell of blood before he could see the settlement.

There had been an attack on his settlement, an attack on his home, and he hadn't been there to help. All the cabins had been burnt to the ground. Most of the settlers were dead, killed by tomahawks and arrows, and many had been scalped. It was clear from their tracks that the Indians had been lead by men on horses – soldiers, Red Coats.

But Samuel didn’t find his parents' bodies. For some reason, they had been taken captive.

Samuel swore he would get them back, but how much can a 13-year-old do?





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The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Do you ever look at the missing children pictured on your milk cartons or in the newspapers? Janie did – and she saw herself.
Janie Johnson is a normal fifteen year old, red-headed girl. She is an only child and comes from an ideal family with a respected mom and dad. She is learning to drive, has a best friend, and she even has a crush. Janie and her friends always look at the missing people on the back of their milk cartons at lunch for entertainment, but one day it was Janie's picture. Was this a joke; was it really her? She knows her face and is shocked by the picture, only, the name is not hers. Jennie Spring, three years old, is what the milk carton said. Could it be true, did her parents really kidnap her? Was her family out there still wondering what happened to their little girl? Maybe she’s not an only child; were there other awkward looking red-heads like her? Is this why her parents don't have any baby pictures of her up on the walls? What’s real and what’s not?




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Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


How do you make something of yourself when you are the 6th of 7 brothers and born into poverty? Cunxin spent his first 11 years as a dirt poor son of peasants in China. Then, quite by chance, he was chosen to be taken to Bejiing and the Madame Mao Dance Academy. With no experience of ballet let alone living in a city, Cunxin bravely endured the hardships of loneliness and the rigors of dance.

I was surprised at how involved I became in the life of Cunxin. The book is written very plainly in a declarative style. What catches your interest is this little boy's determination to become something and to make his family proud.

The book became a feature film and I was able to watch a Today Show interview, on the Internet, that Anne Curry had with Cunxin. This was interesting as I got to see the subject of the book and catch glimpses of his dancing.



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Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Fast paced novel based on the popular theme of jealousy and hatred. Plenty of soap opera bitchy-ness.



Seniors Brooke and Kathryn used to be friends. They have one thing in common, they both have beautiful voices, well they actually have two things in common if you count their hatred. Now they are bitter rivals in a vocal-music competition.

These fren-enemies battle it out at school and at home through alternating chapters. Who will you side with, rich popular Brooke, or petite awkward Kathryn?

Plenty of material to get your teeth into in this novel.





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Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer by John Grisham

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


To be a judge or a trial lawyer? Umm? Theo Boone is obsessed with all things legal. While he hasn’t taken the bar, he does offer advice to his friends, hangs out at the courthouse, and watches Perry Mason reruns. Things turn serious, however, when a witness to a murder, a young illegal immigrant, comes to Theo with evidence. So what to do with this bomb-shell?
John Grisham the well known adults’ author with best selling novels and mega-successful movies based on these books begins his YA career with a fast moving legal thriller full of explanations of many lawyer-ly issues. I read an interview with John Grisham where the author said he had talked with a group of middle-schoolers about the book. This audience where very forthright about what they wanted changed and what they liked. Therefore I am even more interested in reading the 2nd in the series to see if I can recognize differences in treatment and style.




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The Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids by Michael Pollan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Where do burgers come from? They start in feedlots where tens of thousands of cows stand on a hill of manure and eat from concrete troughs; their feed can contain chicken and cattle manure, chocolate, stale pastry, cement dust, molasses, candy, urea, hooves, feathers, meat scraps, fish meal, pasta, peanut skins, brewery wastes, cardboard, corn silage, pesticides.

And fries? Most potatoes start in huge fields sprayed with chemicals so toxic that no one's allowed to enter that field for five days after it's sprayed. Those chemicals stop the bugs, but the potatoes have to be stored for six months in a giant shed before they're safe for humans to eat.

Have you lost your appetite yet?

So what's an omnivore supposed to eat? An omnivore, someone who eats meat and vegetables, has a lot of choices. That's what Michael Pollan, the author of this book, discovered as he became a food detective and set out on a mission to understand what really goes on behind the scenes in food production.

This book will shock you with startling facts, scare you with the secrets that food producers would rather keep quiet, and probably make you a little sick when you learn some of the hidden truths behind the foods you eat.

You may not look at food quite the same way after this book.





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