NEW, AMAZING YA Book Blog...Check It Out!

As if I didn't have enough on my plate (hey, I guess my kids can skip a few dinners this month, right?!), I've launched a new young adult book blog fueled entirely by middle school writing. My students are a talented bunch of kiddos, and they've written exceptional book reviews throughout this year. I couldn't let their impressive writings go to waste, so I've decided to post their reviews on a new book blog titled On the Middle Shelf. I'm also going to be teaching classes of Gifted & Talented students next year, and I hope to add music reviews, movie critiques and the random musings of 7th and 8th grade students (yikes!). Add our blog to your frequently visited sites, and I promise you will find all kinds of interesting information to keep you entertained!

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Oh, man....are you in for a treat! I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore is the quintacenstial teen sci-fi hit of 2010. I know I'm not known for my analysis of literary classics, but my mantra is that "reading should be fun." Yes, a very complicated and deep mantra, but I'm not a big believer in only reading crap that is written for book snobs. I like to be entertained when I read, and this book definitely fits the bill for entertainment value! From what I've read about the book, it was totally written just so they could make an interesting movie about it, but whoever they hired to write the book was a great writer. No lie. Usually ghost writers for big-budget books or celebrity-written novels seem to blow (Hello, L.A. Candy?), but the fictional Pittacus Lore is worth the money Disney paid him or her to write the novel. I totally bought in the the marketing scheme...count me in for the next in the series, please!

So how did I get hooked on this pop-culture series? Every month, I copy the book review section from Justine Magazine (our school library has a subscription to this publication). If you aren't familiar with their SPARK book club, then you need to be. This magazine reviews teen fiction on a monthly basis and it usually has reviews written by teen readers. We like to read these book reviews because they really do "SPARK" interest in books. I have my students circle and discuss the top two books off of the reviews that they would like to read most. If I have enough money left in my class budget, I buy the books they voted as the most interesting. I usually can't keep these books on my shelves for the duration of the year. However, after my classes read the review page that contained I am Number Four and voted that book (as well as The Body Finder) as a book they would like to read, I discovered I didn't have enough school funds to buy the book. Books are to me what shoes are to other women: I can't say no to a good pair. I bought both books the other day and devoured I am Number Four in two days.

Nine Lorien children were sent to planet Earth in the midst of a full-scale attack by the evil and Mogadarian race. They plan to strip Lorien of it's natural resources and wipe out the Lorien population in the process. The plan is for the Lorien children to hide out on Earth, and wait for their Legacies (or superhuman talents) to grow and develop so they can come together to fight the Mogadarians for control of their homeland. A special Lorien charm protects the children when they arrive on Earth. Each is numbered, and each must live seperately from the other nine with their protector, or Cepan, or the charm will not work. The only way the Mogadarian can kill the Lorien teens is in the order that they were numbered. The nine children live in hiding on Earth, but the Mogadarians have discovered that they are on our planet and begin hunting them one by one. The first three are dead. Our narrator is number four. He knows that he is next and he also is aware that the Mogadarians have other reasons for being on Earth besides just hunting down the Lorien teens. Can the remaining six Loriens develop their Legacies and fight the Mogadarians before Earth as we know it is lost? You try starting this book tonight and see if YOU can put it down...not so easy, people!

What is also cool about this book is that it already has a movie coming out in February. Alex Pettyfer plays John, or Number Four. He is also the actor that many are lobbying for him to nab the role of Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games movie. He's quite literally the hottie in the trailer. The chick from Glee plays Number Four's love interest, Sarah, in the movie. Check out the trailer below and then go buy the book. It's awesome!

Bloodline by Kate Cary

Kate Cary's contribution to the teen vampire phenomenon with her novel, Bloodline, will leave readers with a true definition of what an evil vampire should be, and they definitely do not sparkle in Cary's adaptation! As a sort of sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Cary tells a majority of the Bloodline tale through the journal of John Shaw. Recovering from wounds sustained in World War I, Shaw has vivid flashbacks and nightmares of his time in the trenches. The horrors he witnessed are not only from enemies encountered on the battlefield. A majority of his shocking visions are memories of watching his commanding officer, Quincy Harker perform superhuman, impossible feats and although John blames his memories on the side effects of trench fever, he's almost certain that he witnessed Harker drink the blood of their battle enemies. John doesn't want to face the evil truth behind his commanding officer's abilities, but when Quincey Harker shows up to check on John in his England hospital, John must question who his commanding officer truly is. Harker also begins to show interest in John's younger sister, Lucy, and this recent infatuation which makes knowing the truth of Harker's origins all the more imperative to John. He begins researching Harker's bloodline, and makes chilling discoveries about the war hero and himself.

Fans of Bram Stoker's classic will love the writing style of Kate Cary. She mimics the era of writing that encompassed the Gothic literature movement in the late 1800s. Telling the story through the journal entries and letters of different characters was also interesting, but at times kept the story from flowing as easy as it would have if the novel was told from third person POV, and interspersed with journal entries.

Descriptions of the vampire castle and the Transylvania vamps were truly chilling. Cary is a master of imagery when it came to her descriptions of the castle and the dark, shadowy chambers of the castle. I found myself unable to read this novel at night, for fear of Mina, Quincey, and the other vampires watching me from the shadows! There were a few scenes that intertwined blood lust and actual sexual desire that may be too much for teen readers. I would definitely say that grades 8-12 should be the target age-rage for this novel. Any younger might find the scenes from World War I and the Transylvania castle too graphic and gory. Teen vampire enthusiasts also need to take heed: Quincey Harker is NOT Edward Cullen's long-lost cousin. The Harker vampires embrace evil, blood lust, and find human life worthless.This chilling read will definitely leave you searching for the sequel, Bloodline Book Two: Reckoning.

'A Northern Light' by Jennifer Donnelly

In my quest to purchase individual titles for my classroom library, author Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light kept popping up as a recommendation. Winner of The Carnegie Medal, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and A Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, 'A Northern Light' needn't earn my seal of approval to be deemed a worthy teen read, yet I was eager to put my two cents in to the pot! I love turn-of-the-century novels and devoured the book in the car ride to and from Dallas.

After the death of her mother, Mattie, the eldest Gokey daughter is expected to help her father run the family farm. Not an easy task in itself, never mind the three younger sisters she must also tend to and manage. Burdened with the workload of the farm and her family, Mattie's dream of going to college in New York City at Barnard College seems impossible. That is, until her charismatic and feminist teacher Miss Wilcox enables Mattie to land a full scholarship by submitting Mattie's short stories to the college admissions board. However, Mattie still refuses to believe that obtaining her dream is possible, especially when at every turn someone is telling her that women do not belong in college and that an education is worthless and a waste of resources and precious time.

"It's not pride I'm feeling. It's another sin. Worse than all the other ones, which are immediate, violent and hot. This one sits inside you quietly and eats you from the inside out like the trichina worms the pigs get. It's the Eight Deadly Sin. The one God left out.
Hope."

Eager to earn money for college and to help her family's struggling farm, Mattie takes a summer

job at the Glenmore - where she meets hotel guest Grace Brown, whose only interaction with Mattie is to ask her to burn a bundle of letters to her lover. After Grace's lifeless body is fished from the waters surrounding the Glenmore, Mattie hesitantly begins reading the letters that not only foreshadow Grace's demise, but oddly parallel the taxing life decisions Mattie is refusing to face.

Jennifer Donnelly and her gift for character development is remarkable. Even characters that only exist in Mattie Gokey's memories are exquisite. In her longing for her mother who died of breast cancer only a year before, was so easy for me (or anyone who has endured the hell that is cancer) to identify with Mattie's pain and suffering.

“I remembered her singing as she cooked. And standing downstairs in the root cellar in November, smiling at all the food she'd put up. I remember how she made us fancy braided hairdos and how she trudged through the winter fields on snowshoes to bring Emmie Hubbard's kids a pot of stew. I tried very hard to remember only the good things about my mama. To remember her the way she was before she got sick. I wished I could cut the rest out of me the way the doctor tried to cut the cancer out of her, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I struggled to keep my last images of her at bay, they came anyway."

Mattie's memories of her mother and the warmth that her house once shared are palatable...I feel as if I know Mattie's mother, and her father is just as well-developed. Her sisters, friends, uncles, teacher, neighbors - each are critical pieces to the development of the plot and are so rich and dimensional, I would readily a novel written from the perspectives of each.
The murder-mystery surrounding Grace Brown is actually the least interesting sub-plot binding this novel together; this statement is meant as a complement to Donnely's writing. She's developed a cast of characters whose ordinary lives and struggles are just as gut-wrenching and page-turning as an action-packed murder mystery.

I loved, loved, loved the ending and how the plot was parceled neatly its well-wrapped package. Endings that tie to the beginnings always do me in...I love the small revelations I have during the moments after the last line of such books are read. Jennifer Donnelly did that for me, and that's why I'm giving this book a ten out ten stars and an exuberant "thumbs up".

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I will admit that my love of all things Robert Pattinson is what enticed me to read this novel that I've skimmed over, but never purchased . After seeing a few screen shots of the movie that is currently in production, I decided I wanted to know more about Rob's character, Jacob Jankowski. He's uber hot in these pics. Can you blame me? There are so many more fabulous pictures @ http://waterforelephantsfilm.com/ Oh, my. Suspenders never looked so good!

Reading the book with the mental images of Rob as Jacob might have made the book better for me than if I'd read it before movie production began. Call me shallow and a petty, but I thoroughly enjoyed the entire novel because of Rob and let's not forget the fabulous writing of Sara Gruen. I can't imagine the effort and research it took to know so much about the Depression era circus business. Gruen creates a seamless world of circus life that was engrossing and real. I'm hoping the movie can recreate the amazing imagery Gruen supplied producers with, and from looking at the movie stills, I'm seeing that they may be on the right track. I also love the juxtaposition of narration between old Jacob and young Jacob. It reminds me of The Notebook, but with less Alzheimer's and more elephants.

Gruen begins the novel with a 90 year old (or 93 year old....he's not quiet sure. What do a few years matter when he's already this old, he wanders?) Jacob. He's lonely and stuck in a nursing home, with ample time to reflect upon his life. The arrival of a traveling circus in the adjacent lot next to his nursing home stirs memories of his young-adult life. Jacob begins the long and mysterious track down memory lane, and his involvement with a traveling circus in the 1930s....

Jacob Jankowski is days away from completing his degree in veterinary medicine at Cornell University when he receives heartbreaking news about his parents. This news rattles him to the core, and sends him in a tailspin that leads him to the moving train of the Benzini Brothers Circus. Hoping aboard the train with only the clothes on his back, Jacob leaves behind everything and everyone he has ever known. His almost-degree in veterinary medicine makes him a perfect candidate to care for the rare and exotic animals on the tour, yet also separates him from the other working-class men he is surrounded by.

Immediately enamored by the beautiful and talented horse trainer and performer, Marlena, Jacob decides to stay on with the circus. Never mind that Marlena is married to the paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer, August. A man who immediately identifies Jacob as a threat, and has no qualms about getting rid of the new vet.

The gritty, often terrifying world of the Benzini Brothers Circus is the most unique and rare settings of any novel I've read this year. Water for Elephants is a brilliant novel, and will hopefully be complemented by an equally spectacular movie!

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

Nina is an American born Pakistani-Muslim girl doing her best to fit in to her suburban town. Never mind the fact that she was born and raised in Deer Hook, her ethnicity and religion separate her from her predominately white friends. Nina is a hysterical narrator, who keeps the reader thoroughly entertained with her humorous outlook on her situation. Any teenager could relate to her plight and perhaps find humor in their own situation after reading Skunk Girl. An entertaining addition to my teen fiction collection!

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

I love reading books that make me angry. It's either this side effect or the other that makes a book golden in my eyes: angry vs. blissfully happy. Great books stir emotions in their reader, and The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams did that for me. I read with rapt attention and disgust. Yes, disgust. Read the rest of my review to understand why...


Thirteen year old Kyra lives a quiet, simple life with her 19 brothers and sisters, her father, and his three wives. (Yes. She is one of 19...and I thought I got the short end of the stick being the middle child of three girls. No complaints here!) As a member of the polygamist cult, The Chosen Ones, Kyra lives in isolation with her people; only learning about the outside world through the books she sneaks into the compound from the nearest town's mobile library. (She likes to go for walks around the dirt roads surrounding the compound, and happens to encounter the County Mobile Library on one of her walks. She sneaks the books into the compound in her dress to read at night.) Reading these forbidden books has planted seeds of doubt in Kyra's mind about the preachings of Prophet Childs - the iron-fisted leader of The Chosen Ones, who claims to have a direct line of communication with Jesus himself. Prophet Childs has forbidden books and travel to the nearby town, warning the cult members that only the devil and his evil can be found outside the chainlink fences of the compound.

Kyra shares the secret of her books with another compound teen, Joshua. Through their secret meetings and discussion of books they become much more than friends and develop feelings for each other that also break the boundaries established by Prophet Childs. When the Prophet proclaims that he had a vision of Kyra marrying her 60 year old uncle, Hyrum, Kyra's world is tossed asunder. Is the world she lives within her books and in secret meetings with Joshua the right path to follow? Should she risk it all (and the possible safety of the family she loves dearly) to avoid marrying her cruel and aged uncle? Did I mention Uncle Hyrum is 60 and Kyra is 13. THIRTEEN! Yuck.

I read this novel in the span of two evenings - biting my fingernails and holding my breath with every turn of the page. I've always been curious about the lifestyle one must lead to be a part of a polygamist community, but I never really ventured what it must be like for the children who are brought up to know nothing but this lifestyle. I love how Williams uses books as Kyra's escape from the Compound. The view they give her of the outside world is what opens the window in Kyra's mind that her way of life might not be the only way to find fufillment and rightousness. This novel is by far and away one of the best teen reads of the summer!

My Top Teen Reads!

Teen fiction is my profession (I teach 8th grade Reading), so I make it part of my job to read as much of it as I can. Thanks to my blog follower, Ashley, I've made a list of teen fiction reads that you must get your hands on this year! This list is pretty diverse and spans many different time periods and styles of writing. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a full review of the novel. I couldn't rank these in a "top ten list", because so many of them are equal stand outs in my mind. Read them and decide for yourself which is your favorite! Enjoy!

LINGER by Maggie Stiefvater

I've been waiting for this book, ever since I read the last page of Maggie Stiefvater's first novel in this series, Shiver. Teen fiction is saturated with crap at the moment, and Stiefvater's elegant writing and style are a much-needed respite from the junk! Although the tale centers around the trials and tribulations of life as a werewolf, don't bother to make comparisons to that other popular series with buff guys shedding their skins for wolf pelts. (What was the name of that series again??? ;)
In Shiver, we were introduced to Grace Brisbane; a responsible, attractive and lonely teenage girl. Her parents are flightly ding-bats who seem to forget they have a daughter - often coming home at odd hours of the night and often leaving her to take care of herself. Her parents lackadaisical attitude toward caring for Grace is what set the chain of events in motion to tie her to the pack of Mercy Falls wolves that roamed freely in the forests behind her home. Grace was pulled from her tire swing and attacked by a pack of wolves when she was younger, only to be seemingly saved by wolf with mesmerizing yellow eyes. Grace finds an injured Sam in these same forests who also possesses the same yellow eyes as her wolf. As Sam and Grace's relationship develops, Grace is introduced to a world she didn't know existed in her own backyard; humans shifting in to wolves each time the seasons change to cooler weather. Most of Shiver is spent trying to find a way to keep Sam human, and to stop him from shifting in to a werewolf so he and Grace can be together. The two also wonder and theorize why Grace's bites from her previous wolf attack never caused her to shift. Sam's heartbreaking past and the mysteries surrounding the origin of the wolves is also explored and further explained in LINGER.

LINGER continues the love story of Grace and Sam, who are still uncertain if the "cure" they found for Sam will actually stick. Although Sam is seemingly comfortable in his human form, and finally embracing the possibility of a long future with Grace, it is Grace who is beginning to feel changes bubbling beneath the surface of her human skin. Will Sam's cure be forever? Who are the new wolves, and what will their presence mean to the future of the pack? These LINGERing questions are what shape the second novel and make it a sequel as equally enthralling as its predecessor.

Stiefvater's talent for story telling is just as mesmerizing in LINGER as it was in SHIVER.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Tired of vampires? They ARE everywhere, but give Cronin's The Passage a shot before you say you've read enough about blood suckers! The plot is complex, and I'm lazy, so here's the synopsis from Publisher's Weekly:

Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin’s engrossingly horrific account of a post-apocalyptic America overrun by the gruesome reality behind the wish-fulfillment fantasies. When a secret project to create a super-soldier backfires, a virus leads to a plague of vampiric revenants that wipes out most of the population. One of the few bands of survivors is the Colony, a FEMA-established island of safety bunkered behind massive banks of lights that repel the “virals,” or “dracs”--but a small group realizes that the aging technological defenses will soon fail. When members of the Colony find a young girl, Amy, living outside their enclave, they realize that Amy shares the virals’ agelessness, but not the virals’ mindless hunger, and they embark on a search to find answers to her condition. PEN/Hemingway Award--winner Cronin (The Summer Guest) uses a number of tropes that may be overly familiar to genre fans, but he manages to engage the reader with a sweeping epic style. The first of a proposed trilogy, it’s already under development by director Ripley Scott and the subject of much publicity buzz (Retail Nation, Mar. 15). (June)

It's a hefty read (over 750 pages and set at 10pt font!), but man, it was a riveting novel! The virals reminded me of the creepy antogonists of the Will Smith movie, I am Legend, and I found myself unable to go outside at night for fear of being ripped open from mouth to crotch. Scary stuff, The Passage! These infected humans of Cronin's tale do not sparkle and are not the stuff of romance novels. I love dystopian fiction...take The Forrest of Hands and Teeth, mix it with Stephen King's The Stand, and you have a tiny taste of what The Passage holds for you! I can't wait to see what Cronin does with the second and third books in this trilogy. There's also talk of a movie already in the works for The Passage, so no, folks, vampires (of all shapes, sizes and temperments) are here to stay! Yikes!

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

Teen fiction is one of the few genres turning a profit in the publishing world. How shocking that many "adult" fiction authors are now penning teen fiction! Candace Bushnell, one of the founding fathers (er, mothers?) of the chick lit movement, and author of the popular Sex and the City novels, has recently released the first installment in her new teen series The Carrie Diaries. Based on the the teen years of her Sex and the City heroine, Carrie Bradshaw, the Carrie Diaries gives us a glimpse in to the awkward pubescent days of Miss B. Even though I wouldn't say the Carrie Diaries is as good as the SATC novels, it is a great start to what I'm sure is to be an even better sequel....that is, if there is a sequel, which there better be!

The novel is set in the early 70s, a time period ingenious to my mother's generation, and a decade I know relatively little about, other than the stories my mother and father have shared about their high school days. Come to think of it, my mom would probably love this book. I'm sure many of the pop culture references and clothing labels were lost on me, but I bet my mom could easily relate. Absent are the cell phones, computers, and fast-paced existence most teenagers are accustomed to today. Teens in Carrie's world take smoke breaks in between classes (the teachers are probably too busy enjoying a smoke to notice the teens puffing away in the bathroom), hang out at burger joints, and drive around in their old, clunker cars for fun. Although Carrie's boredom with small town living is palpable (the reader is bored right along with her for some of the scenes), this boredom is necessary for you to feel her anxiousness to make something more of her life. You can practically FEEL her restlessness to leave the safety of her tiny town and you find yourself cheering her on when she shares her dreams of becoming a writer in New York...a dream her family and friends just don't quite understand.

Carrie is beginning her Senior year at Castlebury High, located in a small, upper-middle class town in Connecticut. Even though Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda are no where to be found (she's yet to meet them, you see), you can easily identify with her group of life-long girlfriends, Lali, Maggie and The Mouse, or Roberta if you're calling her by her God-given name. There's also the new guy that enters onto the scene; Sebastian Kidd. Hot, rebellious, and of course, the guy Carrie can't get off her mind. Bushnell does a fabulous job transporting the reader back to high school. Even though you know Carrie shouldn't be so self-conscious and stupid about her decisions concerning boys, she acts just like most of us gals did in high school. These self-deprecating moments are what she will grow and learn from in the SATC books. We can see the strong and successful woman Carrie will become, learning and growing in the Carrie Diaries. I seriously hope that Bushnell is considering continuing the series. I can't wait to see how Carrie struggles in New York, and it will be fun to live vicariously through her first days as a new writer. If you are looking for an honest, funny and endearing coming-of-age story about one of chick lit's favorite characters, then The Carrie Diaries will be an entertaining journey down memory lane. No zit cream required. :)

Wanna Review Eclipse the Novel Before the Movie?

Then join our Facebook fan page! Go to this link: ECLIPSE GROUP REREAD. If you will "LIKE" the page or subscribe to the page's "Notes" you can receive instant update for each chapter I post. I also have discussion questions at the end of each post I would like your input on, and would appreciate your feedback. You don't have to actually reread each chapter. We just want you discussing your opinions about the book! This also gives us something to do before the big premiere on June 30th! So join our page and DISCUSS burning questions about your favorite (or at least it's my favorite) book in the Twilight Saga! Here is a sample of some of our recent "discussions" over Chapter 1 & 2 of the novel:

Chapter 1 & 2 Discussion Questions

1. Did you like Jacob before New Moon? Did your feelings for him change after the movie?

2. Were you ever "boyfriend obsessed" like Bella? I know you probably didn't have a bf that had a "face any male model would sale his soul" for, but did you at least obsessively spend too much time with your guy/gal?

Fan of 'The Hunger Games'? Check Out More of Our Fan T-Shirts!

It's no secret that I'm a HUGE, GINORMOUS fan of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I teach it, I dress like Katniss in my spare time, and I've personally converted many, many 8th graders to the dark side! I LOVE THIS BOOK, and I hope my students continue to spread the word...I think the popularity of this book is definitely 'Catching Fire'...har, har, har! Instead of a final exam over The Hunger Games, my students were required to design a fan t-shirt based on their favorite characters, scenes, or memorable quotes from the novel. I was blown away by the variety and quality of the designs. My room will probably be forever covered in fabric paint, but it was well-worth the mess. The students wore their t-shirt on our field trip to Barnes & Noble, where they participated in a scavenger hunt that the winner won a copy of Catching Fire, the second book in Suzanne Collins's series. I'm planning on hosting a Mockingjay party on August 24th at Barnes & Noble. I hope to have tons of freshman returning to B&N to purchase the third book...let's hope they aren't "too cool" by August 24th for their 8th grade Reading teacher! ;)

This young man is CONVINCED that Megan Fox should play the part of Katniss. Ugh.

I love this kid. When a gal doesn't mind having the word "pus" on her shirt, you know she's a keeper!

A Peeta fan, apparently!

Simple, but cool shirts!


"Loverboy" is Peeta...I thought that was clever and cute! "Cinna Told Me to Wear This Shirt" was more than likely 'borrowed' from another fan t-shirt site.

Hmmmm....how do I explain this set of shirts? I can't. They were made by 8TH GRADE BOYS. Does that help at all??? LOL!

'Impossible' by Nancy Werlin

Crud! I guess my original review of the book never posted. I swear the night I wrote it, appeared on the "preview post"....now you will never know the witty and carefully crafted commentary I had over 'Impossible' by Nancy Werlin! So now you will get my It's-eleven-o'clock-and-I'm-too-tired-to-be-creative commentary on the novel. Hold on to your knickers...here goes nothin'!

Lucy Scarborough comes from a long line of women who have been cursed with madness and hysteria. The condition has began with every single Scarborough woman has been deemed "insane in the membrane" soon after giving birth to a baby girl; a baby conceived against their will with a malicious, evil Elfin Knight. Now before you say, "Whoa, I do not read books that contain elves who take advantage of young girls!", just hear me out. Although this curse thing that is the fulcrum of Werlin's plot is a little weird, the curse and Lucy attempting to break it before the birth of her own illegitimate, conceived against her will daughter is born. Whew! Can Lucy break the curse that has plagued her family for centuries? How does the Simon and Garfunkle song "Scarborough Fair" offer clues to unraveling the mystery that will soon plunge Lucy into inescapable madness? (I'll be honest. I had to YouTube the song to know what the heck they were talking about.) Lucy must also resolve her feelings for her best friend Zach, who has become MORE than a friend and is now an ally in her quest to break this centuries-old curse! 'Impossible' is a FANTASTIC novel, and is not only critically acclaimed, but LENZILIKESIT approved! If that makes much of a difference to you....;)

Hunger Games Fan T-Shirts

My students just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and are in the process of making their very own fan t-shirts. Check out a few of their designs. I'll be sure to post more as they finish them! We also made a few designs on cafepress.com. Check them out at this link:http://shops.cafepress.com/MrsHartsTees



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