The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

Back/Inside Cover:

Winner of both the Whitbread Children's Book Award and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

Who knows where the time goes?
There never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When J.J.'s mother says that what she really wants for her birthday is more time in her day, J.J. decides to find her some. But how can he find time for her, when he barely has enough time to keep up with school and his music? And where will he get time to find out if the shocking rumor is true-that his great-grandfather was a murderer?
It seems as though J.J.'s given himself an impossible task. But then a neighbor reveals a secret to him-there is a place where time stands still. J.J. realizes he's the only person who can make the journey, but to do so he'll have to vanish from his own life.
And when J.J. disappers from the village, enter the new policeman...

"There is something hallucinatory, if not delirious, about this stylish, magical book." --The Guardian

My Thoughts:
This was an entertaining novel that made me smile and sometimes laugh while reading. The idea of a parallel world existing, especially one where our socks dissapear to, is funny to imagine and will captivate anyone who picks it up to read. The twist at the end is concieled very well until the author finally reveals it. Also, it is ever so slightly predictable; at the same time there are secrets that seem to drop into the book without any preconcieved thought to the possibility of the event happening! Idk, it's a good book that for once, wasn't 100% predictable, and that has to be my favorite quality about this book :)

Reccommendations for...:
Mmmm, I'd say even older elementary school kids could read this. I only found it in highschool, but it has an easy vocabulary and the plot line isn't hard to follow. Boy + magical land + a couple more things = good novel.

Price, genre, publisher, info.:
US $8.99
CAN $11.25
Fiction
HarperCollins Publishers

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris

Back/Inside Cover:
Michael Dorris's contemporary classic novel is a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting int he present day and moving back in time, the novel is told in the voices of three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona, searching for a way to find herself; her American Indian mother, Christine, consumed by tenderness and resentment toward those she loves; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother, whose haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreams echo through the years, braiding together the strands of the shared past - and their future.

My Thoughts:
This is a good book for school because you can easily pick up on the themes and symbols in the book. I wouldn't read it outside of school because I found the story to be drawn out and some what pointless, but for school, it's great.

Reccommendations for:
Uh, only to teachers looking for a book that students wouldn't get confused with.

Price, genre, publisher, info:
US $14
CAN $20
Fiction
Picador Distributed by Holtzbrinck Publishers
http://www.picadorusa.com/

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Back/Inside Cover:
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden int he snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the mose enduring stories of our time.

My Thoughts:
I haven't exactly finished the book yet,-I have a couple of chapters left I'll confess-but this is a great book. I'm reading it for school, and it's pretty good. Not exactly something I would usually read, but still just as captivating. It can get slow at some parts, but picks up pretty quickly. I'll give you a hint right now, Death is the narrator, I didn't figure this out for a couple chapters, call me slow, so I'm just telling you that right now. This book definitely lets you in to the world of the Jewish Hollocaust and tells the story pretty well. There is suspence, fear, comedy, well, a lot of emotions really. It's a good book, but definitely not as happy as others I've read.

Reccommendations for...:
Kids in high school. It's a mature book that doesn't give the gory details, but your imagination is more than enough to scare any younger audiences.

Price, genre, publisher, info:
US $11.99
CAN $15.99
Teen fiction
Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf
http://www.randomhouse.com/teens

How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year by Cameron Dokey

Back/Inside Cover:
Rule #1: If at all possible, don't pretend to be something you're not. Specifically, don't play dead. Trust me on this one. I did it, so I should know.
Jo O'Conner has spent her whole life moving around. When it comes to new schools, there's not a trick in the book about starting over that Jo doesn't know. But life is about to teach her a new trick: how to disappear entirely.
Rule #2: Always expect the Spanish Inquisition, no matter what anyone else does.
They have to move again. Now. This very night. Jo knows better than to argue. Her dad is the key witness in a major case against a big-time bad guy. But Jo just can't resist one last visit to the school where she's been so happy. All she wants is to say good-bye. That can't cause any problems, can it?
Rule #3: Never assume you can predict the future.
Now Jo's one last visit has landed her smack in the middle of a ghost story. Specifically, her own. By the time it's over, she'll have a whole new set of rules about what's real, what's make-believe, and-most of all-what's important.

My Thoughts:
This was a great book. It is kinda misleading on the back cover, cuz it isn't exactly a ghost story, but it kinda is at the same time. I know, I know, I just totally and completely contradicted myself, but that's really the only way to say it. Anyway, it was a good book that kept me guessing and wanting to read through the end. It's a great read.

Recommendations for...:
This is for teen girls. This could work for girls as young as maybe 7th grade, but that might be a stretch. Definitely high school girls and 8th graders at the end of the year before high school. No boys on this one.

Price, genre, publisher, info.:
USA $5.99
CAN $8.99
Teen Romantic Comedy
Simon Pulse
http://www.simonsays.com/

Whale Talk by Chris Cutcher

Back/Inside Cover:

There's bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don't have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway.

A group of misfits brought together by T.J. Jones (the J is redundant), the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T.J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket-unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T.J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High0-will be an effective tool. He's right. He's also wrong.

Still, it's always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets soon becomes the space where they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to grow.

Together they'll fight for dignity in a world where tragedy and comedy dance side by side, where a moment's inattention can bring lifelong heartache, and where true acceptance is the only prescription for what ails us.

My Thoughts:

This was a very good book. Not one of my favorites, but still, it was an amazing, very well written book. It didn't jump out at me like some books do, but I will keep insisting until you get it in your head that this is a good book. It has a little bit of a slower pace than the books I'm used to reading. It has a lot of background information in it. But again, very good book.

Recommendations for...:

This could be for girls or for boys. It would probably fall under the high school level of reading. It's a simple read.

Price, genre, publisher, info.:

US $5.99

CAN $7.99

Teen Fiction

Dell Laurel-Leaf

http://www.randomhouse.com/teens