The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The story of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old girl in Nazi Germany during World War II. Death is the narrator. Her younger brother Werner dies on a train in 1939. Her mother gives her up for adoption and she is adopted by Rosa and Hans Hubermann. The first book she steals is The Gravediggers Handbook, which she picks up in the snow at her brother's funeral. She can't read it, but it reminds her of him. Hans (Papa) teaches her to read at night when she can't sleep because of nightmares of her brother. Her best friend is Rudy, who lives down the street. He always wants to kiss her, but she refuses. Her mother does laundry and Liesel delivers it. One day the mayor's wife invites her into their home and shows her the library. She begins to read in the library and borrow the books one at a time. One day, a Jewish man, who knew Hans as a boy, shows up at their house. They hide him in the basement and Max and Liesel become friends. The Gestapo examine the basement at one point, but do not find Max. Max writes two books for Liesel, before he leaves and ends up in Dachau concentration camp. The air raids eventually begin and Liesel reads to the other people in the shelter during the raids. Her father, Hans, and Rudy's father, Alex, are drafted into the German army and Hans is assigned to the LSE who clean up the dead bodies after an air raid. He is sent there because he tried to give a Jewish man a piece of bread. He breaks his leg and is returned home. Liesel and Rudy also try to help the Jewish prisoners as they are marched through town and are whipped because of their efforts. Liesel and Rudy steal several books from Ilse Hermann's house (the mayor's wife). She knows they are doing it and leaves the window open and one time, cookies on the desk. One night Himmel Street is bombed and the air raid sirens don't go off in time. Everyone Liesel knows and loves is killed. She survives because she is down in the basement writing. The mayor's wife adopts her. She lives to an old age, marries and has children. When death comes to get her, he gives her The Book Thief, the book she has written about her life in Germany.
This was a marvelous book. Told from the viewpoint of the German people you see a different side of the war. With Death as the narrator, you also get a philosophical viewpoint of death and war. Words and books and writing are key concepts throughout the book and you realize the power of words in people's lives, especially during this time when radio and television were not available to everyone. The book is richly written with many similies, metaphors, personification. I found myself rereading sentences and paragraphs to absorb the richness of the language.

p. 9 - personification
p. 23 - conveyor belt of eternity
p. 26 - irony
p. 29 - grey - the color of Europe
p. 29 - similes and personification in bold print

Billy Creekmore by Tracey Porter

Billy Creekmore is a 10 year old boy living in West Virginia in 1905. His mother died in childbirth, his father abandoned him and he is living at the Guardian Angels Home for Boys run by Mr. and Mrs. Beadle. Life is very hard and when Billy finds out he is being sent to work for Mr. Colder at the glass factory, he decides to run away. Before he can, his Uncle Jim arrives and takes him home to live with his Aunt Agnes. He has a good life there and begins working in the coal mines as a mule driver. After a section of the mine collapses, the workers start forming a union (UMW). When Billy's uncle and friend are killed by the Baldwin-Felts agents, his aunt tells him to run away. He joins the Sparks circus and finds his father who is working for another circus. He goes with his father, but finds that he is a drunk and unscrupulous man who will do anything for money. Billy runs away again to go back to the Sparks Circus where he has friends who love him and consider him part of their family. The book is based on the author's mothers life. She was in a foster home, abandoned by her father after her mother died in childbirth and was later adopted by her aunt and uncle. The boys who work in the mines are real boys who died before the age of 17 in the coal mines. The Sparks Circus was a real circus owned by Charles Sparks who cared for his troop like family.

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

Two characters - Olus and Kezi tell this story. Each chapter is a different character talking. Both are in first person. Until you figure this out, it is very difficult to understand the story. Olus is the Akkan god of the wind. He comes to earth as a mortal and meets Kezi, who worships Admat. Kezi's father has taken an oath that if Admat will heal Kezi's mother, mati, he will sacrifice whoever first congratulates him on her recovery. Aunt Fedo comes to visit and starts to congratulate Senat on his wife's recovery. To save Aunt Fedo, Kezi congratulates her father, so she is the one to be sacrificed. Her father begs for one month's mercy. Olus falls in love with Kezi and takes her to Akka. If she can become immortal, a goddess, she will never die. Both Olus and Kezi must stand trials. Olus must rescue a friend from a well without his powers. Kezi must go to Wadir, the underworld, and take a feather from a warki to return to earth. Both are able to succeed in their trials. Kezi becomes the goddess of awareness and uncertainty. She returns to Hyte, her home village, where she is sacrificed. Because of her immortality, she doesn't die. The people of Hyte consider her disappearance a miracle and promise never to sacrifice anyone again. Olus takes her to Akka where they are married. They have three daughters and three sons. Three became gods and goddesses and three remained mortal. The moral: "Fate may be thwarted. We strive for happy outcomes." This book was very difficult to read. The change in characters with both speaking in first person, the strange names and places, the concepts of various gods. I think middle school students will have trouble reading this book.

Red Glass by Laura Resau

Sophie's family adopts a five year old Mexican immigrant boy who is without any family. They eventually discover that he still has grandparents there. Sophie and her Aunt Dika, from Bosnia, Aunt Dika's boyfriend, and his grandson Angel set off on a cross country journey to return Pablo to his relatives. Sophie is a worrier and afraid of everything, so this is a courageous adventure for her. On the trip, she and Angel fall in love. Lorenzo, Aunt Dika's boyfriend, and Angel return to Guatamala to try and recover some jewelry of Angel's mothers. When they do not return, Sophie realizes they are in trouble and manages through many very dangerous circumstances to find them and bring them home.

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin, one of the high school nerds, has always been in love with his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, one of the cool kids. One night she appears at his window and convinces him to accompany her on a revenge motivated crime spree to get back at her ex-boyfriend. After their night together, Quentin expects to continue their friendship, but Margo disappears. Has she run away or committed suicide? Quentin and his geeky friends find clues to her disappearance and decide to find her, dead or alive. Some of their antics will make adult heads spin. I think teens will identify with Margo as having the guts to do what they would like to try. Older teens.

Whale Talk

TJ Jones, high school senior whose mixed parentage and rough experiences as a neglected child have made him sensitive to anyone who's mistreated in school, decides to help out a younger kid who's being bullied. How to do it? Create a swim team and make the younger kid a successful athlete. The school doesn't have a pool. but that won't stop TJ and his crew of likable misfits.

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Simon Glass is the typical nerd of the senior class of a high school in Houston. When popular Rob decides to transform him into the coolest kid in school (as a display of his power), his power trip gets out of hand. Characters in the novel have one-paragraph quotes (told five years later) at the beginning of every chapter, and through these, we learn that Simon will die, and Young Steward, our narrator, will be involved and jailed. Rob, Young, the athletic Coop, and flirtatious Bobster (try keeping those names straight) are each involved in Simon's transformation, pushing him to be class favorite and allowing him to manipulate student computer records to make them look good. After the "Favorites dance" results are manipulated by Simon as a trick on THEM, Rob flips out, taking a baseball bat to Simon, killing him, on the last page of the book. I didn't like this book, hard to put my finger on why...Rob was just a little too much of a caricature, the boys seemed TOO mature for high school.