How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr ( Abe Book)

I LOVED this book! A librarian friend of mine gave me this book a year ago and it has been sitting on my bookshelf at home. After making the Abe List I put it on my to-read list. I was home sick this week and needed a book so grabbed How to Save a Life. I didn't know anything about the book but was familiar with the Author. I loved this book from the first page. I found the characters completely engaging and found myself wanting to see what was going to happen to Mandy, Jill and the Mom. I highly recommend this for everyone!


Summary

Jill MacSweeny just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends -- everyone who wants to support her. When her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she's somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

 

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it's like to grow up unwanted -- to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she's sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It's harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy -- or as difficult -- as it seems.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

I bought this book at the book store after it won the Newberry Award even though it skewed a little young. I have heard so much about this book and finally sat down for an hour and finished it. Quick, adorable read that will pull at your heart strings.

Summary
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.
Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King (Abe Book)

Weird title. Great Book. I highly recommend this book to everyone but especially boys. A. S. King captures the true heart of a young boy, a child being bullied, and a kid navigating trouble at home. I loved this book and I think you will too!

Amazon Summary
Lucky Linderman didn't ask for his life. He didn't ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn't ask for a father who never got over it. He didn't ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn't ask to be the target of Nader McMillan's relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far.

But Lucky has a secret--one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos--the prison his grandfather couldn't escape--where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It's dangerous and wild, and it's a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside?

Michael L. Printz Honor recipient A.S. King's smart, funny and boldly original writing shines in this powerful novel about learning to cope with the shrapnel life throws at you and taking a stand against it.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer ---Abe Book

Cinder is a great combination of Science Fiction meeting a futuristic Fairy Tale of Cinderella. The reader meets Cinder, an orphan being raised by a step mother who hates her, two step sisters, one who adores her and one who can't stand her and a robot best friend named Iko.  She is the best mechanic on New Beijing, the Commonwealth where she resides, when a scruffy stranger shows up at her work to fix his robot. The scruffy stranger turns out to be the Prince and he asks Cinder to fix his Robot. Cinder doesn't even have time to tell her step mother and family because the plague is found in the market and Cinder returns home to find her sister has also contracted the plague. Blamed for her sisters disease she is given away to science to be studied as a cyborg, half human/half robot herself. This is where the story gets interesting. Pick up a copy of Cinder to find out if Cinder had survive the medical study and if she will ever get to see the Prince again.

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez (Abe Book)

I have had this book in the Library for a while but never noticed it until it made the Abe List. I always love the Abe memoirs ( Ghosts of War, House Rules, etc) so I was excited to try this book. I enjoyed the book and I think it is an excellent read for high school students to learn about stereotypes and prejudices. I have been trying to locate the Lifetime movie now that I finished the book.

Book Description
Growing up, Gaby Rodriguez was often told she would end up a teen mom. After all, her mother and her older sisters had gotten pregnant as teenagers; from an outsider’s perspective, it was practically a family tradition. Gaby had ambitions that didn’t include teen motherhood. But she wondered: how would she be treated if she “lived down” to others’ expectations? Would everyone ignore the years she put into being a good student and see her as just another pregnant teen statistic with no future? These questions sparked Gaby’s high school senior project: faking her own pregnancy to see how her family, friends, and community would react. What she learned changed her life forever—and made international headlines in the process. In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby details how she was able to fake her own pregnancy—hiding the truth from even her siblings and boyfriend’s parents—and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future for herself.