Looking for books to read?

These are some books that I've read so far this year that I would definitely reccomend:

• THE TAKER by J.M. Steele
• DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie
• SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson
• MY BIG SISTER IS SO BOSSY, SHE SAYS YOU CAN'T READ THIS BOOK by Mary Hershey
• M OR F? by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts
• THE ONE WHERE THE KID NEARLY JUMPS TO HIS DEATH AND LANDS IN CALIFORNIA by Mary Hershey
• THE WIZARD, THE WITCH, AND TWO GIRLS FROM JERSEY by Lisa Papademetriou
• WAITING FOR NORMAL by Leslie Connor
• DELIVER US FROM NORMAL by Kate Klise
• FAR FROM NORMAL by Kate Klise
• REGARDING THE...SERIES by Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise
• TRIAL BY JOURNAL by Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise (actually RE-read this year, but still good)
• DAIRY QUEEN by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
• THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
• BREAKING DAWN by Stephenie Meyer
• THE HEADLESS CUPID by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• THE GYPSY GAME by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (and its prequel, THE EGYPT GAME)
• POISON IVY by Amy Goldman Koss
• SMOKE SCREEN by Amy Goldman Koss
• THE CHEAT by Amy Goldman Koss
• THE GIRLS by Amy Goldman Koss
• THE ASHWATER EXPERIMENT by Amy Goldman Koss
• FLIGHT #116 IS DOWN! by Caroline B. Cooney
• STRIKE TWO by Amy Goldman Koss
• STOLEN WORDS by Amy Goldman Koss
• GOSSIP TIMES THREE by Amy Goldman Koss
• ANASTASIA KRUPNIK by Lois Lowry (actually a series, including ANASTASIA AGAIN!; ANASTASIA ON HER OWN; ANASTASIA HAS THE ANSWERS; ANASTASIA'S CHOSEN CAREER; and ANASTASIA AT YOUR SERVICE, among others)
• THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS by Jaclyn Moriarty
• ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand

Most will be reviewed sooner or later.

Lucky Stars

Today I'll be reviewing LUCKY STARS by Lucy Frank.

Before she goes to visit her father in New York City, Kira's grandmother warns her, "Make sure your baloney detectors are on. The baloney that spills out of that man could supply Boar's Head for a year." Kira's mother left him years ago, and she had to go live with her grandmother.

Kira meets Jake when she grudgingly goes with her father and little brothers to sing on the subway for money. He instantly falls in love with her singing, and wishes he could sing as good: but he has one problem-his stutter.

Kira moves in with her father and enrolls in the same school that Jake and his best friend Eugene attend. After a series of coincidences, they all become friends- but are Jake and Kira something more?

Ms. Hill, the chorus teacher, as good as recruits them for the chorus, saying, "The alto section could use more boys." At first, Eugene refuses (for both him and Jake, because of the latter's stutter), but when Jake realizes that by signing up for Chorus he could get out of his much-hated English class, he signs up. An added bonus, of course, is that Kira signs up as well...

Lucky Stars was a funny novel about the power of friendship. It was definitely a great story.

new YA Reviewer/Catalyst

Hello everyone!

I read a lot. In fact, I read so much that it's completely dorky. You probably think I then have no time to do anything else, but actually I do. Shock.

Since I read so much, I decided to set up a blog to review different YA books that I read. The first one is CATALYST by Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the wildly successful SPEAK.

Kate Malone is trapped. Trapped in an internal battle.

She's a senior in high school who only applied to ONE college (MIT), a chemistry geek, the daughter of a reverend, and basically someone who must always act "good." Kate refers to her outside self as "Good Kate" and her inside self as "Bad Kate," because although she acts nice on the outside, sometimes she wants to do things like kill her father on the inside.

After a fire guts her neighbors' house, Kate is forced to share a room with her enemy, Teri Litch. From then on, things go downhill: MIT rejects her, and something else happens that just blows everything up.

Overall, I found Catalyst to be an engaging novel. It draws the reader in and doesn't let go.

(Weak review, I know, but it's my first.)