Book Review: How to Say I Love You Out Loud by Karole Cozzo

How to Say I Love You Out Loud by Karole Cozzo

Summary by Goodreads:

When Jordyn Michaelson’s autistic brother joins her at her elite school, she’s determined not to let anyone know they're related. Even if that means closing herself off to all her closest friends, including charming football stud Alex Colby. But despite her best intentions, she just can't shake the memory of kissing Alex last summer, and the desire to do it again. Can Jordyn find the courage to tell Alex how she really feels—and the truth about her family—before he slips away forever?

My Review:

I loved this story so much that I couldn't put it down. There are two stories that weave throughout this book:  one focuses on Alex and Jordyn - a romantic tale of two who just can't seem to find a way to be together.  And then there is the story about Jordyn and her brother.  This part of the story hit home the most for me.

I think there are many students who can relate to Jordyn in that their siblings are different than they are.  Jordyn made a choice to hide her family life from those she called her friends.  "I just wanted normalcy." she shares.  Whether it be embarrassment or fear of being judged, she hid everything from those who cared.  When her brother started attending her school, word spread that they were related.  She was devastated. Those Jordyn cared about most, were hurt by her lies and her unwillingness to trust them and judge her. Jordyn had to learn to trust those closest to her that they won't let her down.  

If you are looking for a realistic book that focuses on family, friendships, relationships, honesty, and choices, this one is for you. 

Book Review: Circling the Sun

Book Review:  Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

Summary by Goodreads:

Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa.

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.

Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

Set against the majestic landscape of early-twentieth-century Africa, McLain’s powerful tale reveals the extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

My Thoughts:

When I first began Circling the Sun, I thought it would be all about Beryl Markham's dream to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.  It starts out on the very day that Beryl Markham takes off on her extraordinary journey to fly across the Atlantic. Instead, this story was about so much more.  

I was unaware of the truth behind this fictional autobiography until I researched a little deeper about Markham.  Not a fan of McClain's book, The Paris Wife, I was a bit leary of requesting this from NetGalley, but I am so glad that I did. Circling the Sun caught my attention in the Prologue and continued to engage me as I learned about Markham's childhood in Kenya, where she was raised solely by her father on his horse farm 

Circling the Sun is a story about this young woman's life.  One that is lived outside the norm.  Beryl Markham never followed the path that most young women did during the 1920s.  She was forced to grow up quickly - both her mother and father left her behind before she was seventeen.  Married by sixteen and ready for a divorce by eighteen.  Formal schooling was not for her as she learned everything by doing.  Beryl worked harder than most women to make a life of her own.  She was the first woman to receive her English horse training certification and then went on to train several winning horses over the years.  Throughout all of her young success, Beryl never found true happiness.  She was always looking for it in the wrong places and made some horrible choices that affected herself and well as friends and family around her.  In the end, she does become the first woman to attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. While I thought this would be the focus from the beginning, I realized there was so much more to Beryl Markham's life. 

Overall, I gave this book 4 stars.  While I didn't agree with many of the choices that Beryl made in her life, I kept hoping in the end she would find true love and happiness. 

Book Review: What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi

What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi

What would you do if your girlfriend is dying of cancer and gets pregnant with your child?  Would you be able to raise this child on your own?  I received an electronic copy of What You Left Behind via NetGalley and I have already recommended it to our librarian.

Summary from Goodreads:

It’s all Ryden’s fault. If he hadn’t gotten Meg pregnant, she would have never stopped her chemo treatments and would still be alive. Instead, he’s failing fatherhood one dirty diaper at a time. And it’s not like he’s had time to grieve while struggling to care for their infant daughter, start his senior year, and earn the soccer scholarship he needs to go to college.

The one person who makes Ryden feel like his old self is Joni. She’s fun and energetic—and doesn’t know he has a baby. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to keep his two worlds separate. Finding one of Meg’s journals only stirs up old emotions, and Ryden’s convinced Meg left other notebooks for him to find, some message to help his new life make sense. But how is he going to have a future if he can’t let go of the past?

My Thoughts:

I love how the main character, Ryden, is written in such a realistic manner.  Every decision he makes as a 17-year old single father are ones I see teen parents struggling with today. He faces difficulties trying to raise his daughter while still grappling with the death of his girlfriend in childbirth.  It is hard enough for teens to balance playing varsity soccer, school, and working, but adding being a father into the mix makes Ryden's life a lot more complicated.  Throughout the whole book, I pictured students connecting with some tough yet very realistic issues:

• Teenage cancer
• Teenage pregnancy
• Being a single parent
• Abortion
• Birth control
• Balancing school, sports, and work
• Parental responsibilities
• Involvement of grandparents
• Friendships
• New relationships
• Teenage drinking
• Lies

One can not read this book without want to discuss Ryden's decisions (whether right or wrong) with a friend.  This is one of those books I know students will fall in love with and I can't wait to share

Book Review: The Last Good Day of the Year by Jessica Warman

The Last Good Day of the Year by Jessica Warman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary by Goodreads:

A new powerful thriller from the globally-embraced author of Between.

Ten years ago, in the early hours of New Year’s Day, seven-year-old Samantha and her next door neighbor, Remy, watched as a man broke into Sam’s home and took her younger sister, Turtle, from her sleeping bag. Remy and Sam, too afraid to intervene at the time, later identified the man as Sam’s sister Gretchen’s much older ex-boyfriend, Steven, who was sent to prison for Turtle’s murder.

Now, Sam’s shattered family is returning to her childhood home in an effort to heal. As long-buried memories begin to surface, Sam wonders if she and Remy accurately registered everything they saw. The more they re-examine the events of that fateful night, the more questions they discover about what really happened to Turtle.

Master storyteller Jessica Warman keeps readers guessing in this arresting page-turner. 

My Review:

I had nightmares after I finished this book last night. I can't say that this was the best written story, but it was engaging and scary enough that I did not want to put it down.  The ending was definitely surprising to me and freaked me out. I know there are kids in my school who will love this story and I will be book talking this one right away! A huge thank you goes out to Net Galley for giving me this ARC.



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Book Review: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley

A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary by Goodreads:

When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost birthplace half a world away, his story made global headlines. That story is being published in several languages around the world and is currently being adapted into a major feature film. Brierley was born in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India. He currently lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

My Thoughts:

I came across A Long Way Home on the new book shelf at our school library. The cover in itself intrigued me and had "pick me up" all over it. I am always looking for books that broaden my perspective of the world outside of where I live and this one introduced me to a part of Indian culture that I had not already learned about from my husband's family. Throughout the part of the story where Saroo is lost on the trains and then on the streets of Kolcata, I was in shock of how no one questioned why he was by himself or who he belonged to. I was also amazed at the survival skills he had at such a young age to figure out how to find food and bounce from train to train / street to street without something horrible happening to him. For all Saroo had been through in his life, he never gave up hope that he would figure out where he was originally from and find his Indian family. The power of social media and technology helped Saroo find home. This book may not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it and hope that it does become a movie!

Book Review: If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison

If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison

Summary by Goodreads:

Told with Beth Harbison's wit and warmth, If I Could Turn Back Time is the fantasy of every woman who has ever thought, "If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I'd do things so differently..."

Thirty-seven year old Ramie Phillips has led a very successful life. She made her fortune and now she hob nobs with the very rich and occasionally the semi-famous, and she enjoys luxuries she only dreamed of as a middle-class kid growing up in Potomac, Maryland. But despite it all, she can't ignore the fact that she isn't necessarily happy. In fact, lately Ramie has begun to feel more than a little empty.

On a boat with friends off the Florida coast, she tries to fight her feelings of discontent with steel will and hard liquor. No one even notices as she gets up and goes to the diving board and dives off...

Suddenly Ramie is waking up, straining to understand a voice calling in the distance...It's her mother: "Wake up! You're going to be late for school again. I'm not writing a note this time..."

Ramie finds herself back on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, with a second chance to see the people she's lost and change the choices she regrets. How did she get back here? Has she gone off the deep end? Is she really back in time? Above all, she'll have to answer the question that no one else can: What it is that she really wants from the past, and for her future? 

My Thoughts:

I received a copy of Beth Harbison's new book, If I Could Turn Back Time, from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is one of those books where I wish I could give an extra 1/2 star. This book deserves 3.5 stars vs 3 stars. I requested this one from NetGalley because the premise of the story interested me - a 37 year old woman has an opportunity to go back in time and redo some of the mistakes she made the first time. I think as we grow older, we all have times in our lives that we wish we could hit the "redo" button. I agree with another reviewer in that I loved the beginning of the story and loved the ending as well. The best part of the middle section was reading about how Ramie changed the time she spent with her father knowing that he would pass away a few years later. I do think there are others who will fall in love with this story so even though I gave it 3.5 stars, definitely give it a try!

Book Review: Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Summary from Goodreads:

The author of the beloved One for the Murphys gives readers an emotionally-charged, uplifting novel that will speak to anyone who’s ever thought there was something wrong with them because they didn’t fit in.
 
“Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.”
 
Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions.  She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there’s a lot more to her—and to everyone—than a label, and that great minds don’t always think alike.

My Thoughts:

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and I loved it so much that I plan to order a hard cover of this book for my own children to read.  Fish in a Tree was so wonderfully written and the message of turning the impossible into the possible is so important for children to hear.  I can't rave enough about this story.  I loved the main character, Ally.  She reminds me of so many students I have come across over the years as a reading specialist.  She is so incredibly smart but because of her learning differences, she feels so dumb and gives up on school.  She goes from year to year and school to school and no one figures out she has dyslexia - no one, that is, until Mr. Daniels comes along and believes in her and helps her see her strengths.  Ally also gets her courage from her two classmates, Albert and Keisha.  Both have struggles of their own, but together they become great friends who respect each other's differences and encourage each other throughout the story.  I have always been a fan of Lynda Mullaly Hunt's novels, but this one has now topped my recommendation list.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!