Tag Archive | California

Book Scavenger, by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (book review) – books, puzzles & mysteries in San Francisco

Jun2

book cover of Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman published by Holt Books for Young ReadersMoving again? Another new school?
Oh, well – more places to hide books…
and to find the most unique book of all!

Emily wishes that she could be as laid-back as her big brother about her family’s constant moves, but at least San Francisco is headquarters of her favorite books-puzzles-searching game. Maybe she’ll find someone to search out hidden books with her, too.

Happy book birthday to Book Scavenger, filled with puzzles, books, bad guys, and the joys of friendship!

I’m happy to see that the author was inspired by Book Crossing, which encourages readers to ‘release books into the wild’ with BookCrossing ID labels so their travels can be logged in (fun and free!).

Read an excerpt here at publisher’s site for free, then go get your own  copy – anyone can play the Book Scavenger game (learn more here)! Let me know if you’ve been lucky enough to find one of the copies hidden in each of the 50 US states already!

What other book are you intent on sharing?
**kmm

Book info: Book Scavenger / Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, with illustrations by Sarah Watts. Holt Books For Young Readers, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: If Emily’s family hadn’t moved to San Francisco, the 12 year old puzzle fan would never have met James or found The Gold-Bug book – or been chased by bad guys who attacked the creator of her favorite book game and will do anything to get that book!

Blame it on her parents’ blog about living in all 50 states – here Emily is in another new school. At least she can solve the Book Scavenger puzzles and find hidden books in beautiful San Francisco.

Luckily, James next door goes to her school and gets interested in Book Scavenger, so they team up with her big brother to find out who attacked the game’s creator Mr. Griswold, following puzzle clues all over town.

What’s different about this copy of The Gold-Bug?
Why do those non-literary thugs want it so badly?
Can they solve the mystery in this book before it’s too late for Mr. Griswold and before Mom and Dad decide to move again?

Filled with puzzles, tributes to authors in the City by the Bay, and lots of action, this adventure-mystery will have readers itching to disguise and hide books like Emily and James do. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

R for road trip Finding Paris, by Joy Preble (book review) – big sis gone? little sis searches!

Apr21

book cover of Finding Paris by Joy Preble published by Balzer + BrayA scavenger hunt!
In Las Vegas!
For sister who doesn’t want to be found…

It’s always been just-younger Leonora who’s watched over Paris as their mother’s rapid job turnover so often let the sisters loose wherever they lived.

Now Paris has set Leo on a scavenger hunt to find her – seems more like a wild-goose chase – and is promising to take care of Leo??

Happy book birthday to Finding Paris! (yes, most US books/movies/music are published on Tuesdays)

Ever have a scavenger hunt that was just perfect? Share, please!
**kmm

Book info: Finding Paris / Joy Preble.  Balzer + Bray, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: When artsy Paris disappears, the clues she leaves for little sister Leonora send the high school junior all over Las Vegas and beyond, accompanied by cute Max she met at the diner and a growing sense of dread.

Moving from Santa Monica to Las Vegas was Mom’s idea, sure that marrying so-so gambler Tommy would stabilize their lives.

Leonora just saves her money from work, studies for SAT, and counts down until she can leave for college, med school some day. Big sister Paris creates found art, fascinating jewelry, would do anything for Leo.

Then Paris abandons Leo at an all-night diner and sends her on a scavenger hunt. Max has time before work to help Leo find her sister, so they follow clues all over Las Vegas.

The clues get frantic – what trouble is Paris escaping from?
A road trip? That far? Will Max really help?
Something important has been taken from Leo – can she get it back?

Love and loyalty are tested as secrets peel away and the miles add up.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Q is questions about Things We Know By Heart, by Jessi Kirby (book review) – his heart in another body

Apr20

book cover of Things We Know By Heart by Jessi Kirby published by HarperTeenHis organs saved five lives,
Four meetings, four grateful recipients,
But where is his heart?
Hers has stopped until she knows…

Quinn knows the rules against directly contacting those who received her boyfriend’s organs after his death, but until she sees for herself that the ‘age 19 California male’ who got Trent’s heart really made it, she will have no peace.

Things We Know By Heart will be published tomorrow, April 21, and should fly off the shelves, just as Jessi’s previous books have done. Click on a title to read my no-spoiler recommendations of Moonglass, In Honor, and Golden to meet other teens experiencing love, loss, and the difficulties of trying to move on.

Up to 8 lives can be saved by a single donor. Have you talked with your family about your organ donation wishes?
**kmm

Book info: Things We Know By Heart / Jessi Kirby. Harper Teen, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher via Edelweiss /Abovethetreeline.

My book talk: Quinn has ghosted through the 400 days since Trent died, meeting 4 of the people whose lives changed when they received her boyfriend’s organs, but the California teen can’t move on until she sees that the guy who got his heart is really okay.

She misses everything about Trent, sleepwalked through her senior year without him, waits for the heart recipient to acknowledge the letter that she and his mom wrote. Hearing nothing, she scours the internet for transplants done in her area for male, age 19 – and discovers that Colton lives in a beach town nearby, his sister blogging his decline, surgery, and recovery.

Determined that merely glimpsing Colton alive and well will ease her mind (no matter the organ donation rules against seeking him out), Quinn drives to Shelter Cove and runs into Colton – literally!

When he asks her to kayak with him, to revisit favorite places that he missed when he was not able to travel, all Quinn can do is agree. During that magical summer, he never brings up his heart surgery or the anti-rejection drugs he must take like clockwork, and she never finds the right time to tell him why she came to Shelter Cove in the first place.

What will Colt say about the connection between his new heart and Quinn?
Does moving on mean forgetting her first love?

Every chapter begins with quotations about the heart – philosophical, medical, romantic – as Quinn struggles to be true to herself and to Trent’s memory without drowning in the past. (One of 7,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

I for Infandous, by Elana K. Arnold (book review) – mom & daughter share everything?

Apr10

book cover of Infandous by Elana K Arnold published by Carolrhoda Lab| recommended on BooksYALove.comDreaming of mom as a mermaid who loved a wolf,
Creating fantabulous art pieces from discarded items,
One misstep away from homelessness…

Sephora has always loved her so-beautiful mother, disliked her own name, and wondered why her dad abandoned mom before her birth.

Snag this March 2015 book at your local library or favorite independent bookstore (those aren’t referral links; never any monetizing links on BooksYALove!) to see how Sephora copes with a fairy tale ending that’s anything but charming.

What kept secrets should remain secret?
**kmm

Book info: Infandous / Elana K. Arnold. Carolrhoda Lab, 2015.   [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Eclipsed by her beautiful mom, California teen artist Sephora steps out of her comfort zone with guys and finds the fairy tales she loved as a child transformed into something much Grimmer.

Retaking summer school geometry so she can graduate next year, Sephora swelters over her found-art pieces in a storeroom of the cruddy apartment she shares with her single mom and looks half-heartedly for a part-time job (she’ll visit her aunt and family in Atlanta soon, so really what’s the point in looking?)

Skateboarding and surfing are good ways to forget how almost-broke they are, to forget that older guy Felix from spring break, to try to be someone else like in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm (Disney lied).

Why can’t she and mom go back to sharing everything?
Why is her mom so interested in the young surfer guy down the hall?
Why isn’t working on her art taking her mind off Felix and stuff?

The Grimm versions of several fairy tales appear between sections of Sephora’s story, reminding us that rarely are their endings happily-ever-after but often as shocking as this book’s conclusion. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

H for harmonica in Echo, by Pam Munoz Ryan (book review) – 3 musicians play a promise

Apr9

book cover of Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan published by ScholasticTerror as father is taken,
fear of orphan brothers being separated,
despair at losing friends and opportunities.

Three young people whose lives are terribly disrupted in the turbulent years leading into World War II find comfort in playing a harmonica with magical music and unknowingly fulfill a pleasing prophecy.

Find this wonderful spring 2015 release at your favorite local library or independent bookstore so that you can discover the intricate music this wonderful harmonica threads through lives that need it most.

Have a story of an object that connects you to history? Please share in the comments below.
**kmm

Book info: Echo / Pam Munoz Ryan. Scholastic Press, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk:  A harmonica crafted through magic and mystery links three young people in different countries and times as they use their musical talents to overcome terrible odds.

In 1933 Germany, Friedrich apprentices in the harmonica factory with his father and uncle, away from those who mock his facial birthmark and conducting of the music he’s heard. As the tide of Nazi fervor overtakes his sister, threatens free-thinkers like his father, and condemns the harmonica as uncivilized, the melodies that 12 year old Friedrich plays are a small consolation.

At a Pennsylvania orphanage in 1935, Mike and little Frankie are determined to stay together. When a lawyer requests ‘musical children’ specifically, the brothers find themselves in a grand mansion whose owner wants to adopt one daughter! Tragedy took music out of Mrs. Sturbridge’s life years ago – perhaps 11 year old Mike’s practice for Hoxie’s Harmonica Band auditions can make her smile again.

Ivy plays harmonica concerts for her brother Fernando before he joins the army in 1942, before Papa is hired to care for a Japanese family’s California orange groves while they are detained in internment camp. The bigger cottage is nice, but not the rundown Americanization school for Mexican children – will the fifth grader be allowed to play in the new orchestra at the main school?

“Your fate is not yet sealed.
Even in the darkest night, a star will shine,
a bell will chime, a path will be revealed.”

Bracketed by the prophecy and promise fairy tale of the harmonica’s creation, the stories of Friedrich, Michael, and Ivy playing this fabulous instrument Echo with hope, joy, and longing to ensure their families’ well-being.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

D for Heather Demetrios – I’ll Meet You There (book review) – choose love or escape from sad hometown?

Apr4

book cover of I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios published by Henry HoltEndure dead-end hometown one last summer,
escape to art school and freedom…
if only it were that easy.

Skylar can’t leave her alcoholic mother now, doesn’t want Josh to face his PTSD alone, but how can she give up her dream of college?

This strong novel tackles questions of responsibility and abandonment, duty and fear, almost-good-enough and too-good-to-abandon as Sky’s narrative is punctuated with Josh’s often-anguished thoughts.

Don’t miss the author’s letter to the reader here and the book’s first chapters that she shares for free.

Have you known a serviceperson who returned from war-front duty unchanged?

**kmm

Book info: I’ll Meet You There / Heather Demetrios. Henry Holt, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: As Skylar endures one last summer before college, her growing attraction to a young Marine disabled overseas and her mother’s inability to cope with life could strand the teen artist in her rural California hometown.

Math-genius Chris and artistic Sky have vowed to escape this agricultural backwater, heading for opposite coasts on big scholarships in just a few months. It’ll be hard leaving best friend Dylan (who’s never known that Chris adores her) and her baby, but it would be unbearable to stay in Creek View.

Sky and Chris drop by the as-usual-drunk weekend party to welcome home her former co-worker just returned from Afghanistan, but no one told her that brash, womanizing Josh had left his leg behind, as well as his self-confidence.

Counting down the days until she leaves for college, Sky is stunned when Mom loses her fast-food job and crawls back into the booze bottle where she’d retreated for so long when Dad died in a drunk-driving wreck.

Josh begins working at the Paradise hotel with Sky again, between therapy appointments, and they fall into an uneasy companionship that could become something more. Motel-owner Marge’s son died in the war before she moved here, so she understands when Josh suddenly freezes as a car backfires nearby.

The parts are coming together in the collage that Sky’s creating for Marge – more of the ‘California quirky’ that’s making the Paradise its own destination – but Sky can’t put her mom’s life back on track, can’t figure out where she and Josh fit into one another’s lives, and can’t see how she can give up her dreams or go after them either.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Searching for Sky, by Jillian Cantor (book review) – from island innocence to modern conflict

Mar25

book cover of Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor published by BloomsburyMoving to Island as babies,
surrounded by beauty and bounty and love –
swept away unwillingly into modern life!

Of course, an island paradise would be better than the strife and hustle of city life, but to discover that deceit and death were used to get baby Sky and toddler River to Island in the first place?

Pick up this May 2014 release at your local library or independent bookstore to see how Sky and River adjust to modern life, or if they even can.

And read the letter than the author wrote to her teen self on the Dear Teen Me site – wise words.

**kmm

Book info: Searching For Sky / Jillian Cantor. Bloomsbury, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Taken from their remote Island home where only four lived to the frantic noise of California, teens River and Sky must learn to cope with modern life and discover whether the world’s truth is their own.

On Island, River’s father Helmut and Sky’s mother Petal taught them all the skills of life – fishing in Ocean, counting, storing food in Shelter. But Helmut and Petal ate mushrooms and died, just before Sky’s 16th birthday.

Then a boat came and took them to the California place where Petal once lived. Now Sky and River are separated, and Sky must live inside a house-box with her mother’s mother and listen to Searching for Sky, by Jillian Cantor (book review) – from island innocence to modern conflictpeople who try to teach her about money and murder and reading.

Only Ben next door listens when she wants to visit Ocean, to not be called Megan.

Are these things the people say about Helmut true -murder and kidnapping?
Where has River gone?
Can Sky find any way to be herself again?

From innocence to confusion, Sky must suddenly grow up in a world she never imagined as she grapples with terrible truths and irresistible lies. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Stronger Than You Know, by Jolene Perry (book review) – moving beyond abuse

Mar5

book cover of Stronger Than You Know by Jolene Perry published by Walt Whitman TeenAway from her abusers at last,
trying to become normal…
but what is normal?

Held captive all her life by her own mother, cigarette burned and hurt by mom’s ‘friends’ – how can Joy suddenly go to high school, or feel safe with a man in the same room, or let anyone get close to her?

A powerful story that isn’t all ‘woe is me’ or suddenly happy forever, Joy relates her struggles with things most folks take for granted – learning to use a cellphone, going to a restaurant – as her aunt, uncle, and cousins help her as best they can.

**kmm

Book info: Stronger Than You Know / Jolene Perry.  Albert Whitman Teen, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Rescued from a lifetime of abuse, fifteen year old Joy tries to move forward with her life with her aunt’s family, fighting the brokenness created by her own mother.

All the changes – from being locked in a California trailer for months at a time to having her own room in Seattle with a door that locks from the inside, from never going anywhere to attending a big high school, from having no one care about her to having family and friends who want Joy to be happy – even if they are good changes, it’s so difficult to forget the past, to get over the nightmares…

Perhaps today, Joy can stay in the room with her uncle, who wants to protect her.
Maybe soon, she’ll be able to hold hands with sweet Justin from history class.
Eventually, she might have to face her tormentors again…

A candid yet hopeful portrait of the shattering effects of abuse and the many adjustments large and small that can allow some measure of healing.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Opposite of Love, by Sarah Scheerger (book review) – goodbye letter, forever? help!

Feb19

book cover of The Opposite of Love by Sarah Lynn Scheerger published by Albert WhitmanGone. Just… gone.
No forewarning, phone disconnected,
How can the love of your life disappear so completely?

Chase and Rose are very imperfect people, but they are so right together – until Rose vanishes, and her adoptive parents have no clue where she went.

The author provides an excerpt of this bittersweet story’s first chapter here for free. Check your local library or independent bookstore so you can read it all.

When you can’t keep the only thing keeping you sane in the face of abuse and indifference, what next?
**kmm

Book info: The Opposite of Love / Sarah Lynn Scheerger. Albert Whitman, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Meeting through mutual friends, artistic Rose and kid-magnet Chase fall in love, but struggle to keep parents and their pasts from tearing apart their future together.

When Chase’s long-gone abusive dad demands visitation rights and Rose’s adoptive parents lock her in the house to keep the Native American teen out of trouble, the high school couple’s plans to leave behind their California town go up in smoke.

How will Rose locate her real mother now?
How can Chase protect his little sister when he’s away at Walter’s?
Why does Rose stop answering texts and calls from Chase and her friends?

Flashing back and forth between Chase’s frantic quest to Rose now before it’s too late and their earlier days of meeting, teasing, and learning to love, this story of choices and possible redemption follows two flawed people as they try to rewrite the dismal future that others predict for them.

 

The Lost, by Sarah Beth Durst (book review) – lost her way & her self, forever?

Dec30

book cover of The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst published by Harlequin MiraBreaking out of her normal drive to work, speeding through the desert, away from cancer specialists and Mom’s insistence that everything is fine.

“Unfortunately, I seem to have packed all my emotional baggage for this impromptu road trip,” to where? Click to read more