She's So Dead to Us

Release date: 5.25.10

From Good Reads:

Perfect, picturesque Orchard Hill. It was the last thing Ally Ryan saw in the rear-view mirror as her mother drove them out of town and away from the shame of the scandal her father caused when his hedge fund went south and practically bankrupted all their friends — friends that liked having trust funds and new cars, and that didn’t like constant reminders that they had been swindled. So it was adios, Orchard Hill. Thanks for nothing.
Now, two years later, Ally’s mother has landed a job back at the site of their downfall. So instead of Ally’s new low-key, happy life, it’ll be back into the snake pit with the likes of Shannen Moore and Hammond Ross.
But then there’s Jake Graydon. Handsome, wealthy, bored Jake Graydon. He moved to town after Ally left and knows nothing of her scandal, but does know that he likes her. And she likes him. So off into the sunset they can go, right? Too bad Jake’s friends have a problem with his new crush since it would make Ally happy. And if anyone deserves to be unhappy, it’s Ally Ryan.


Ally was hoping to have left all the drama in the past, but some things just can’t be forgotten. Isn’t there more to life than money?

My thoughts:

     Oh, the woes of this book. It filled me with happiness and anger at the same time. The cover intriged me but many times I was frustrated, not so much with the plot as with the choices made.    Old  friends Faith, Hannah, Shannon, and Chloe are still angry with Ally’s family-not just with her dad for making bad investment choices and they take it out on Ally and her mom.  Ally used to be part of this group and now she has to learn what it’s like to be on the outside.  Lucky for Ally, two kids from the regular group of students (Annie and David) hitch up with her and become good friends.  Life would be fine if she weren’t so in love with Jake-her crush on him circles her too close to her old gang of Cresties and these old friends make it impossible for her and Jake to get together.  

     Each chapter changes perspective so we get to understand both Ally and Jake’s point-of-view. I liked this back and forth perspective-it makes it interesting to hear Jake’s take on certain situations.  Jake is adorable but has a hard time finding his own true feelings.  He takes part in several pranks against Ally, which makes it surprising that she chooses him over sweet guy, David,  who (of course) has a crush on her. This book offers  strange twists that  happen at many high schools and gave me the sense of being in a John Hughes movie. 

     I loved most of the characters, even the mean ones, except for Hammond.  Hammond was okay but I feel negative vibes from him.  I especially appreciated Ally and her ability to see herself in real time-Ally now with no money and Ally before
who perhaps could have pulled some of these mean stunts herself.  She had honest growth and depth, prodded sometimes by her new sidekick, Annie. 

     Three terms used in the book  bugged me a lot:  Cresties (rich kids)  and Norms (regular all-around normal)-they actually use these ridiculous names to talk about each other. I did live in one small town in Minnesota where the economic divide was a hill so it was said in normal conversation “oh, you live on the hill” and that implied that you had some money.  We did not call each other “hillies” though.   The other term the book uses was backslappers, a cheerleading- type group that decorates lockers and rubs the back of their assigned player.  Isn’t that the same thing as a cheerleader or a pep squad-I just couldn’t figure out why a new name had to be invented for this high school group.  Backslappers does not roll off the tongue nor does it conjure a fun image (for me). Does anyone know of a high school that uses this term??    It’s odd the weird things that bother me when reading.  Small details in an otherwise entertaining read.

I’ve heard this is the first of a trilogy.  I will be anxious to see what’s in the future for Ally and Jake!
I think the author has a very cool name-Kieran

This book is an advanced reader copy sent to me by Lucille at Simon and Schuster.  
This didn’t in any way influence my enjoyment of the book.
3.5/5 peaceful stars
Recommended for YA

Other reviews:

Just Your Typical Book Blog reviews it here.

Corinne at The Book Nest reviews it here.

Peaceful Reading…

Wendy Mass

     I met Wendy Mass tonight.  She was here as our guest author for Cedar Valley’s Youth Read, which brings in one author a year and fifth grade students in the area read one book from the author.  Our students all read 11 Birthdays.   She’s been here all week talking with groups of fifth graders about her books, her writing process and her dreams.  I went today with a school group to hear her talk and then again tonight when she did a public talk.  She seemed so natural and at ease.  I enjoyed listening to her and even though I didn’t get to interview her I learned some interesting tidbits.

     She had a great slideshow that accompanied her talk.  Here is what I learned about Wendy Mass tonight:

1.  Her first dream was to be an astronaut= cool because Every Soul a Star used her original love of space.
2. She adored some of the same authors I did growing up;  Judy Blume and E.L. Konigsburg.
3.In the beginning she wrote a lot and was frustrated.  Luckily she kept going.  I write just a little and am also frustrated.
4. She recieved a ton of rejection letters for her very first book,  A Mango-Shaped Space and has them all laminated together!! 
4.  Her first book published is a nonfiction book about Stonehenge.
5.   She recently finished Scott Westerfield’s trilogy-I think she said she listened to it on audio.
6. She has three retold fairy tales-I want to read these!
7.  She talked about how writers get paid-I’ve never heard anyone be so frank on this topic.

8.  The topic of covers came up with several of her books.  This makes me think how awful it is to lose control of your “baby” and have awful choices made.  This would make me want to pull my hair out. When  Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall  came out in paperback they put a gumball machine on the front even though their isn’t a gumball machine in the book.  Common Sense would say remove the gumball machine picture and add something from the d#@* book but no, they asked her to re-edit and add a gumball machine into the story!!!  How maddening.

9.  She said ideas come from three things: experience, observation, and imagination. 
10.  She kept her ideas in a notebook-which she learned from Harriet the Spy and she still keeps a notebook to jot down ideas. 

11.  She works really hard on character development by filling out an idea form showing character traits, friends, thoughts, etc. 

Thank you Wendy for visiting and making such a huge impression on students throughout the Cedar Valley.  After the fifth grade students from my school heard her-they came to library the next day, pumped and looking for all the Mass’ books we had and many could quote her, telling me bits of advise from her talk; like you have to have a pet-its like a rule that if you write you have to have a pet.  They took this to heart!!  I’m happy to have their thinking influenced by such an at-ease and talented author!!

    
Peaceful Reading…

Happy Birthday to you

     My son turns 15 tomorrow at 7:11 in the evening.  I drove myself to the hospital-this is something to brag about.  He’s turned out to be a smart, handsome, and very humorous young man.  He is also a wiseacre and quite often too smart for his own good.  I am glad he is still curious about the world and he has his own unique outlook.  I whipped him up a homemade angel food cake for dessert tomorrow night.  He asks for the same cake every year and sometimes I’ve purchased it (really, really short on time) and sometimes I’ve made it from a box (just a little short on time)-a few times though I’ve made it from scratch and this year peaceful girl helped me out.  She was a little miffed that I didn’t let her crack any of the twelve eggs but I explained that I needed each and every one of the egg whites to be separated just right from the yolk.  She helped with lots of other parts though and it is now successfully in the oven.  I still have to wrap a few of his gifts and then I will be reclining to finish Look Again.

     I still have to write about She’s So Dead To Us by Kieran Scott and Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  I had a post composed in my mind about my experiences at the Reading Conference I attended last Friday-and I promise to get all those done.  Today my thoughts are focused on this almost monumental birthday celebration.  It is only almost monumental because 16 is hanging in the air so close I can feel it in my bones-that, and he reminds me of it frequently.  This child is in a hurry to drive and we differ on many topics but mostly this one.  It terrifies me to have my baby alone in the car driving off, me waving!  I say-Hell, No!!!  So somehow after tomorrow I have 365 days to get adjusted to that or convince him the laws have simply changed.  It will help ease my worries that it will be required of him to keep his GPA up in order to get said licence but you can see my fear. 

So tomorrow say a little prayer for me as we wish this little boy a very
 happy 15th year of life and as we cut that delicious angel food cake (dipping it into chocolate sauce)
I’ll be wishing this year to slowly creep by, like the year of the turtle!
Peaceful Reading…

Look Again-Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme,
 hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
 Anyone can play along!
 Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (don’t give too much away- don’t ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here’s my teasers:

“El, here are my famous last words.  You’re single, he’s single, and life is short.  I say, go for it.” p 19
Look Again( 2009) by Lisa Scottoline
***This is supposed to be my” fluff” book after the very gritty Little Bee by Chris Cleave, which I loved but needed something a llittle easier.  I’m totally enthralled by this tale of a mother who discovers reasons to question her adoption of her three-year-old son, Will. 
Peaceful Reading…

Thinking

     I am a member of two book clubs, one that meets with food and wine and the other is three of us, meeting through letters and emails.  Both groups are reading Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  The in-person group met this past Monday  night and I wasn’t able to go.  My wee girl had gymnastics and my teenager had an at-home soccer game.  I make it to every home game I can because, well, because I want to be there.  My husband had a theatre group performing at the exact same time these other events were going on so I didn’t make it to book club or yoga for that matter.  Life is crazy busy and wonderful! 
     I digress as this post isn’t about how busy my Monday was but my reading of Little Bee!  The only reason book club comes into the conversation is that I’m sad I was not there to be part of the conversation about this book.  I’m not ready to review it yet as I still have three chapters to go but last night I went to a very casual fund-raiser for our local food bank and ran into another book club member.  I asked her about Little Bee and what she thought.  She said she wasn’t quite finished with it but she didn’t like it.  I was a little shocked!  It is well-written and she is a retired English teacher but there was more to it.  She said from the very beginning she was hesitant because she knew it was going to have yucky stuff in it.  Yucky stuff being the real life trauma Little Bee and other immigrants experience-first in their own countries and then again trying to immigrate.  I’m not picking on my book club friend but it did start me to thinking; Are some books just to real???  Too gritty!!  Too filled with the reality of how harsh our world is?? 
     I love the story Chris Cleave tells-it is fiction yet the horrors of her experience are very real.  I also loved Ismael Beah’s A Long Way Gone; memoirs of a boy soldier!  Do your prefences run towards gritty?  Or do you prefer milder fiction?  Not so much real life mixed into your fiction?  Just curious…

Peaceful Reading…

Little Bee-Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme,
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Open to a random page

  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! ( You don’t want to give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here is my teaser for today:
From Little Bee by Chrise Cleave

I will tell you what happened when the taxi driver came.  The four of us girls, we were waiting outside the Immigration Detention Centre.  We were keeping our backs to it, because that is what you do to a big gray monster who has kept you in his belly for two years, when he suddenly spits you out.  You keep your back to him and you talk in whispers, in case he remembers you and the clever idea comes into his mind to swallow you all up again. p. 50
There are beautifully poignant sentences on each page of this book so it was tough to choose. 
Happy Reading~
Peaceful Reading…

Brilliant Art Work

My 7-year-old daughter did a painting project last Friday.  Her inspiration for the project was based on a book we read together-The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larsen; a fantastic book about a girl and her grandfather who create an apartment garden with paints instead of seeds.  I brought the book home from school two weeks ago and we read it together.  I guess the book affected her more than I knew.  My husband has extra canvases at work and it was something she worked out with him.  She painted it for her room, above her bed where she recently asked for the old print of a Maxfield Parrish to be taken down.  I was a little crushed as I love Parrish’s work but we took it down.  Apparently she had other plans-her very own plans-for that wall space! Before she unveiled it on Friday night 

We never know as educators and/or parents what book will touch a child in a certain way…it is an amazing marvel when they have a positive reaction and send that love back out into the world.  I’ve commissioned her to paint another one for my room.  Isn’t her painting lovely…her own imaginary garden!  Don’t you just love it…

Kids Can Press synopsis of The Imaginary Garden–click here.

Peaceful Reading…

The Homeschool Liberation League

(2009)

Interesting book: great title,deep characters, extremely interesting topic. 
What do you do if your kid is bored out of their mind at school?  What if
that child seems to be self-motivated at home
learning about plants and animals all on their own?  Homeschooling, unschooling, or regular schooling-which path do you choose? 
 This book eventually makes the case that there are many
different answers to that question.

     Kaity, after a summer trip to Wilderness Camp, turns herself into” Katya” and decides to take herself out of school- on her very first day back!  She leaves, walks out, on a day when many students are excited to see their friends, show off new school wardrobes and be a part of something but not Katya.  She heads back home where she hides out in her treehouse for most of the day.   Katya puts together a massive binder of researched information about schools and homeschooling as well as her reasons for wanting this so much and shares it with her parents-begging to be allowed to stay home and learn what she wants to learn.  After meeting with the principal, the parents become frustrated with the school system as well so they decide to give it a try.

 Along the way Katya meets Milo, a H.S. neighbor and young violin prodigy.  Milo doesn’t want to be homeschooled any more because his dad is overbearing about the whole practicing, studying thing. 
Several middle school and high school students who homeschool hate it…
they fight to go to school while Katya fights for one year of freedom. 

There is very real conflicting feelings in the story.  It is tough to wonder, with one decision, am I going to ruin my child’s life?  I liked the emotion the book brought out in me yet I didn’t love the book.  Katya was screechy and drove me a little crazy but I also think that is how a middle school girl might be.  I think I was like that-everything very dramatic!!  I think I would like to read another Lucy Frank book to do a little compare and contrast.  I don’t homeschoo lmy own children and I do teach in the public school system but I am a fan of homeschooling as a good friend taught me homeschooling fits a variety of purposes.  My previous idea was more along the lines of parents trying hard to shelter their children from the reality of the world-don’t read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” -you know. 

My favorite quote:

 “I thought you loved school,” I lied.  “You’re Francesca Halloran, star of everything.  Teachers love  you, kids love you.  Everyone wants to be you.  You always have that sparkly, sprightly, spunky, everything is so fun and easy and interesting, I-live-for-school…You always know what you’re doing-“
Her look reminded me of Milo.  “Did you hear anything I said before?  That doesn’t mean I like it.  I’m just good at it.  It’s a game, Katya.  So I play to win, okay?  I’m so good at playing it, most of the time I don’t even know it is a game.” Her eyes shone with feeling.  “But you said no, I’m not playing.  I can’t do it.  I really admire that.” p. 187

     One of the themes I loved in the book was the idea of being true to yourself and both Katya, Milo and Francesca learn to stand up for what it is they really want. Just as it would be in real life, the hardest part was convincing parents that their children were mature enough to know themselves! 
  I discussed the book this afternoon with my friend (yes, the homeschooling mama) and she thinks it would make a great reading choice for the parents of her H.S. group!  It will be interesting to hear what they think!

Recommended-Middle Grade Fiction
3.5 /5 peaceful stars
Other Reviews:
and Jessica at Kiss the Book
***Library Book Project***
Peaceful Reading…

Fairy Tale Fridays

     Tif Talks Books hosts Fairy Tale Fridays and since I love fairy tales and I’m doing a fairy tale unit with 2nd grade I like to particpate.  This week I found a fantastic book of fairy tales in my library-that I must have ordered last year and must not have had a chance to crack the cover.  There’s a Wolf at the Door; Five Classic Tales retold by Zoe B. Alley, with pictures by R.W. Alley is the perfect combination of old school tale with a few funny twists to keep things lively.  The illustrations are comic book style with little arrows (every once in awhile) to help young ones find their way, their own bread crumbs, trailing through the book.  The five tales include The Three Little Pigs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and The Wolf and the Seven Little Goslings.  I’ve explored the first few and plan to take it home as my peaceful girl loves anything Little Red Riding Hood.  I’ll leave you with an excerpt:
Blake (the third little pig) threw an apple as hard as he could at the wolf, hit him smack on the head, and ran for home.  Surprised and hurt to the core, the wolf realized he’s been tricked again. p. 4

It’s funny and I will have a great time sharing one of these stories with 2nd grade students next week. Students will also love how tall the book is!   For now I’m heading home to blog hop without my school filter getting in the way!!  Happy Friday!
School Library Journal’s thoughts on There’s a Wolf at the Door.

Peaceful Reading…