Ginny has returned home from her travels in Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes. She and Keith are kind of something, but not official. (Can you really see Keith doing much officially?) Ginny has college apps to work on, and she swears she is going to finally get her personal statement written. Seriously. Someday. It will get [...]

Tags: art, friendship, humor, identity, interpersonal relations, road trip, secrets, travel
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Catherine Ryan Hyde’s international sensation, Pay It Forward, is the moving story of Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy who accepts his social studies teacher’s challenge to come up with a plan to change the world.Trevor’s idea is simple: Do a good deed for three people and ask them to “pay it forward” to three others [...]

Tags: activism, family life, friendship, interpersonal relations, middle schools, teachers
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Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew–just in time for Amy’s senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she’s always known toward her new [...]

Tags: death, family problems, grief, guilt, interpersonal relations, road trip, romance
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Fifteen-year-old Grace Manning is a candy striper in a nursing home, and Mr. Sands is the one patient who makes the job bearable. He keeps up with her sarcasm, teaches her to play poker . . . and one day cheerfully asks her to help him die. At first Grace says no way, but as [...]

Tags: death, illness, interpersonal relations, suicide
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At the beginning of her sophomore year, Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, more importantly, a boyfriend. So when the handsome and popular Derek asks her out, Marisa thinks her long wait for happiness is over. But several bumps in the road—including her parents’ unexpected separation, a fight with her best friend, and [...]

Tags: dating, divorce, family life, high schools, interpersonal relations, mental illness
Filed under: Book Review