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Jane Freeman doesn't remember how she  ended up splayed across a rosebush like a horror movie Cinderella. But it's definitely her in the police picture, looking pretty, but dead. Fortunately, she's not. Dead, that is. And she's not very pretty right now, either, since things have bruised and swollen. She can't remember anything from the night before, not the party, and not the hit and run. Her mom and the doctor keep saying it was an accident, but Jane has a feeling it wasn't. Friends visit, and what they tell her doesn't add up, somehow. With only flashes of memory, she can't sort truth from lie. Why is her friendship ring on a different hand? Who was she arguing with? Why did she just sit in the street while the headlights raced toward her? Where was her boyfriend? Jane begins to question what friendship and love mean to her, and what she's been thinking is "wonderful," may not be, after all. Is she going crazy, imagining threatening phone calls? Or is there a killer waiting to finish the job... Read Rosebush to find out.

Okay...I admit that I'm art-challenged.  So, to remedy the situation, I picked up How to Survive Modern Art, by Susie Hodge.  And did I ever score.  Hodge describes modern art movements, profiles artists, and explains what to look for in art and what makes particular works important. 

My favorite sections (scattered throughout the book) are "Art in Context" and "Facts in a Frame." 

For example, check out this tip about how to look at art (p.54):

If you get an opportunity to see any of these abstract works, don't try to associate them with anything you've seen before.  Look at each work, relax, don't talk and try not to think of anything in particular.  What do you feel or think of?

Or how about this bit of trivia about Post-its (p.100):

In 2000 the 20th anniversary of Post-it notes was celebrated by asking several artists to create images on Post-it notes.  The charcoal and pastel note that Kitaj made sold for L640 ($925) at auction, making it the most expensive Post-it note in history.

People say they know what they like (when it comes to art) and if you like to break the rules, then you'll be well-equipped to survive modern art.

 

Russel feels like the only gay student at his high school.  Well, he's pretty sure he's gay, but he's never dated or kissed a guy before.  He's a pretty average guy, has friends, gets good grades, and has a decent social life.  But if anyone knew he was gay, he knows his reputation would be ruined.  So he keeps this secret to himself, and even goes on dates with girls to avoid questions about his sexuality.  One night Russel goes online in a chat room, and discovers he's not the only gay student at his school.  Turns out that Kevin, the star baseball player, is also in the closet, and Russel learns that other gay students feel just as isolated as he does.   How can they hang out together and talk about these issues without being discovered?  Start an after-school club that sounds so boring and lame that no one would ever want to join.  That is how the Geography Club got founded.  Meeting after school, the group members learn about each other, and start to realize how important it is to be true to yourself and be honest with your friends.   

Geography Club is a great GLBT novel about discovering yourself.

What's New Cupcake: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion 

by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson (641.8653)

Those fabulous rubber duckies on the cover aren't actully rubber: they're cupcakes. They also aren't the stuff of professional decorators. As the title says, the authors of this book replace "this could be hard to do" with really clever.

Open the front pages to see the decorating accessories you'll need: Tootsie Rolls, donut holes, and other candies and colored sugars you can find at any grocery store. Flip a few pages more, and the authors will show you the tools required: stuff most people have in their kitchen. For example, Tack and Richardson don't assume that their readers will have a professional pastry bag with which to to pipe the cupcake icing: They give step-by-step instructions for using zip-lock baggies, instead.

Even experienced bakers will find lots of clever designs to spark their imaginations. And there are a few cupcakes that require serious decorating skills to accomplish: cupcake sand-castles or haunted houses. But most of the designs in this book are rated EZ: including the cupcakes on the cover.

Whether you're going for the gross (from the Halloween section) like cockroach cupcakes, or the adorable (those rubber ducks on the cover, or the goldfish design, below) there's something for every occasion and every taste. Not to mention how yummy it is to eat the practice designs!

I discovered this book when a 10-year-old reader enthused about how simple she found it to follow the instructions in this book, and how impressed she was with her results. (She also recommended the other book by Tack and Richardson: Hello Cupcake.) Her mom agreed: this was easy and fun. Teens at the Carnation Library tested this for themselves: making three designs from the book at at cupcake decorating class held in the meeting room. Everyone agreed: even klutzy, non-baking decorators like this librarian found them easy and fun to make.

Why not try it yourself?

Anya wishes her figure were a little more slender.  She'd like more friends, to be popular, and to be noticed by one particularly cute guy at school. At the same time, Anya knows this is all just a fantasy that will never come true.  

But all that changes when Anya falls down a well and meets a ghost around her own age, who's been waiting for quite some time to make a new friend. 

A new friend is just what Anya wants, but is Anya's ghost the kind of friend she can trust?

Anya's Ghost is saracastic and a bit spooky while tackling real life issues such as fitting in and seeking meaningful relationships in life.  

 

 

Jill MacSweeney and Mandy Kalinowsky couldn't be more different.  Jill is razor sharp, angry, and totally unafraid to say what's on her mind.  She grew up in a nice house in a big city, surrounded by loving parents and good friends.  Mandy is quiet, shy, and reluctant to tell the truth.  She and her mom never talked much but, then again, her mom rarely had anything good to say, anyway.  And Mandy definitely didn't grow up in a nice house with lots of money; it was more like moving from apartment to apartment whenever her mom got a new boyfriend.  But Jill and Mandy have two things in common:  sadness and loneliness.  Jill lost her dad about a year ago. She is lost without him, but in her grief she has driven everyone away from her.  Mandy has no one, just the unborn baby that Jill's mom will be adopting as soon as it's born. 

Sound complicated?  It is.  But when it comes to realistic, contemporary fiction Sara Zarr is one of the best.  She deftly handles the different characters and multiple plot threads with ease and her characters are so real, so believable, that it's difficult to remember that these aren't living people.  From the first chapter I was completely caught up in the unusual story and the raw emotion of the different characters.  I wasn't sure how the story was going to resolve itself, but a perfect twist at the end made it all come together beautifully.  Like the rest of Zarr's books, How to Save a Life is a richly drawn portrait of complicated people who are just trying to figure thing out. 

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

The year is 1941.  Lina and her family share a comfortable life in their home country, Lithuania.  Her father is dean of a college and her family is well-respected in the community.  Lina is a talented artist and has been accepted into an exclusive Fine Arts Academy where she is eager to begin her studies. 

Everything changes instantly when uniformed Soviet militia break into their home and force Lina, her younger brother and her mother into a boxcar labeled "Thieves and Prostitutes".  This trainload of Lithuanian citizens, and millions of other people like them, have been targeted because they are community leaders or professionals with contacts to the outside world.  After a harrowing journey, they arrive in the hostile landscape of Siberia, victims of Stalin's "Reign of Terror".  Against all odds, the captives struggle to stay alive with almost no shelter, food or other resources in this bitterly cold, barren environment.  This book is based upon the real stories of millions of Lithuanians who were imprisoned for many years, most of whom died before being liberated.

Lina learns her father is being held captive in a distant prison camp.  She draws pictures with symbolic clues to smuggle out to him, hoping they will one day help him reunite with his family.  Despite living in the most inhumane circumstances imaginable, feelings of love grow between Lina and her fellow captive, Andrius. Each knows too well they may never survive to be together.

 

 

Without Tess by Marcella Pixley

Lizzie remembers her older sister Tess promising that she'd never leave her.  Yet from the beginning of this book it is clear that Tess did leave Lizzie when she died at age twelve.  Now Lizzie is in high school and lost in a world of guilt and grief.

After Tess died she literally snatched Tess's Pegasus Journal from her grave and has clung to it and the memories it holds ever since.  In fact she turns her sister's poetry in the journal in as her own for many years to follow.  It's as if holding on to the journal and stealing the writing means she can hold on to Tess.

She often reminisces about the good times and getting pulled in to Tess's magical world.  Lizzie was too young to realize how dangerous the magical world could be and once ended up in the hospital with an infected hand after Tess stabbed it as part of a ritual.

Tess's road to death was fraught with delusion, starvation, and manipulation.  Watching Tess deteriorate broke Lizzie's and her parent's heart. Yet Lizzie also remembers her sister's creativity and tenderness.  With the assistance of a school psychologist, her neighbor Niccolo, and her parents Lizzie eventually releases her guilt and makes peace with what happened.

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci

I admit it. I was a film student and I've never seen the Star Wars or Star Trek movies. I often walk around and hang my head in shame because of this.

Victoria, on the other hand, has no shame about sci-fi. She loves it. If she could live in a sci-fi movie she would. Specifically, in the movie Terminal Earth, which she has seen 42 times at the two-dollar movie theater. She knows every line and has perfected the look of the main character, Egg, to a tee, by wearing a long white cloak, donning a shaved head, and drawing eyebrows on her pale skin. She has even successfully convinced some people to call her Egg. Not that she talks to a lot of people. She prefers to sit alone at lunch, to focus on studying and working towards becoming valedictorian. Her mother, a beautiful actress, who hasn't starred in anything in years, calls her boy proof, because guys don't notice her. Victoria doesn't care because the only guy for her is Zach Cross, from Terminal Earth. No other guy has ever caught her attention. Not until she meets Max, who transfers to her Hollywood school. He smells like skunky boy sweat, says pretentious things in Latin, makes friends with ease, and is smart. Possibly smarter than her. Possibly able to steal valedictorian away from under her. She can't stop noticing him because he pops up everywhere in her life, ruining things. But he likes sci-fi too, cares about real issues, can draw, and seems to really notice her. If she didn't hate him so much, maybe she could like him.

Finally a romance for the self proclaimed sci-fi geeks! And for those of us (anyone else out there?) who maybe haven't seen Star Wars, but still appreciate a good cosmic story.

"The first pair Opal and Amber are, Agate sings in B flat, the wolf avatar, A duet--solutio!--with Aquamarine.  Mighty Emerald next, with the lovely Citrine.  The Carnelian twins of the Scorpio sign, Number Eight is digestio, her stone is Jade fine.  E major's the key of the Black Tourmaline, Sapphire sings in F major, and bright is her sheen.  Then almost at once comes Diamond alone, Whose sign of the lion as Leo is known.  Projectio!  Time flows on, both present and past.  Ruby red is the first and is also the last." 
Gwen and her family know that her cousin Charlotte is the special one, destined to time travel.  So when Gwen starts feeling dizzy, and sort of like the bottom of her stomach is falling out, she figures she must be imagining it.  After all, Charlotte's constantly watched at home for any such signs, as they anxiously anticipate her first journey.  She's been training for years so she can fit in anywhere she gets sent back in time.  There are mysteries that Gwen hasn't been privy to, since she's not the one with the time travel gene.  Her life has been pretty ordinary, other than the fact that she can see ghosts, and her family lives in a huge old house.  Aunt Glenda, Charlotte's mother, is a pain, and Lady Arista, Gwen's grandmother, is a chilly, stiff, disapproving presence at the dinner table, but Great-aunt Maddy is very nice (and generous with the lemon sherbet candies).  But surprise, surprise.  It's not Charlotte who pops into the past.  Gwen gets plunked in at the deep end, and finds herself learning about a secret society, prophecies, more secrets, and Gideon, a time-traveling male counterpart from another family who's snotty but ever so handsome.  Her mum had hoped the gene would skip Gwen, giving her a chance at a normal life, but that is not her destiny.  Read Ruby Red and you'll be awaiting the release of Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green as impatiently as I am.