Hush by Jacqueline Woodson

Daddy stared out the window without saying anything.  I wanted to tell him he did the right thing, that it was better this way.  I lay my head on his shoulder.  It felt bonier than I remembered.  His legs felt bony, too.  Outside, the sky was off-white, like a dirty sheet had been laid across it.  The words didn't come.  We just sat their like two empty bags of skin and bone... staring at the dirty-sheet sky.
- Hush

Think of your favorite toy.  The posters that hang on your bedroom walls.  The photographs that sit propped up on your nightstand.  Your pet.  Your best friend.

Now imagine leaving it all behind. All of it.  Everything.  Even your name.  Well, that is what happens to Toswaih Greene... or should I say Evie Thomas... the moment her father chooses to defend his race instead of his fellow police officers. 

When two cops from Mr. Greene's department shoot an innocent 15 year old boy, Toswaih's father must make a difficult decision.  Turning the cops in will mean putting his family in danger and forcing them to leave their home in Denver and enter into the Witness Protection Program.

Hush is a beautifully woven tale about the difficulty of doing the right thing and the way our choices have inevitable effects on those around us. It is about the power of love in the face of loss and the unique strength of the human spirit to overcome.  It is about all of the parts of who we are.

Good Reads!

Hey, Readers!

I joined a really neat new site!  Just go to www.goodreads.com.  Check out my widget in the left hand sidebar!  It shows all the books I have marked in my "to read" pile!  Let me know if you are planning to read any of them, already have, or if you want to recommend one for me to add!  If you join, you can track the books you read, get recommendations, and mark books you would like to read.  When you sign up, you create a profile and the site suggests books for you to rate!  It is lots of fun!  Once you rate a certain number, Goodreads creates a recommendation page for you!

Have a Facebook account?  Link it!  Everything you do on Goodreads will pop up as a status on FB and you can hook up with your friends too!

:)  Happy good-reading!

NEW to the GCMS Library: Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

A beautifully woven and candidly accurate account of how quickly life can change, Beneath a Meth Moon is a realistic depiction of how loss can open up a hole in someone so big that it needs to be filled.  It shows how quickly someone can fall into a drug moon in desperation to make herself whole again.  Laurel Daneau is just the average teenager with hair so blonde it falls down like snow.  Growing up in Pass Christian with a grandmother who insists on being called M'lady, Laurel has a idyllic life full of sunlight and the warm salt smell that rises off of the ocean.  M'lady teaches Laurel about life and maps out for her a beautiful future, but that future is irrevocably shattered when a storm rises angrily off of Laurel's beautiful ocean and comes down like a fist on Pass Christian, washing away her world and taking with it Laurel's mother and M'lady.  Just washing them away, washing it all away.  Laurel, her father, and her baby brother Jesse Jr.become displaced, having only each other's love to keep them from breaking apart in a million tiny pieces scattered on the wind.  When Laurel and her little family, changed by the cruelty of fate, end up in the hands of a little town called Galilee, she quickly trades the sun of her past life for a a beautiful boy and his meth moon .  Under that moon, all of Laurel's hurt washes away just like her world did, but under that moon, bits of Laurel slowly wash away, too.  Piece by piece by piece.  Is the powerful love of her family, her friends, enough to save her?  That love which never wavers, even when Laurel is so far from home? Will she make it out of the darkness to see the sunshine again?

I just finished Beneath a Meth Moon, and I absolutely LOVED it!  I picked it up yesterday morning because I had forgotten to bring the book I was already reading with me...and I finished it this morning.  The narrative grabbed me hard from the opening scene and I fell deep into it.  It would not let go its grip until I turned the final page and slowly had to crawl over the back cover!  Woodson's book is an easy read and a gripping story; the narrative is beautifully moving.  It brought tears to my eyes several times.  Read Beneath a Meth Moon!

Pottermore Sneak Peek!

Hey, Readers!

Are you a Potter fan?  Check out Pottermore.com, which offers an interactive, behind the scenes look at the magical world of Harry Potter.   Sign up and get your own wand, get sorted into a house, cast spells, and brew potions in this exciting realm guided by noted author, J.K. Rowling!  If you have not yet read the Potter series, it is recommended that you read the book ALONG with your journey at Pottermore.  Only book one has been released at this point, but the rest will come!  Happy spell casting!

100 Books in 2012 Challenge!

Interested in participating in this challenge? Think you have the reading guts? Click the link below! I plan on doing it! So far this year I have read....

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (adult)
Night Road by Kristin (adult)
Wintergarden by Kristin Hannah (adult)
Dead to You by Lisa McMann
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks (adult)
Beneath a Meth Moonby Jacqueline Woodson

I am pretty behind if I plan to make 100 by December, but let's see how it goes! Post your progress by commenting!

Read LEVIATHAN! New book by the author of UGLIES!

Did you like <i>Uglies</i> by Scott Westerfeld?  Well, check out his NEW steam punk series!  We, at The Reading Games have been getting many recommendations for this one! Leave a comment if you read it!  Happy reading!

Spring Reading!

Hey, readers! I was so happy to see a huge turnout at our blog interest session yesterday! Our next meeting is the Wednesday after break right after school. Our goal is to get everyone set up with their Google apps account so we can get a move on posting! Spread the word! Anyone who would like to join our ranks may do so; just have them see me for a permission slip. I will accept slips between now and our Wednesday meeting.

I hope everyone enjoys their spring break before the big NJ ASK tests! I also hope you all will use some of your time to read some books for pleasure! I am working on reading Dead to You by Lisa McMann... what are YOU reading? Tell us about it by leaving a comment! Is it any good? Happy spring reading! :)