Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Glass is the continuing story of Kristina, a girl who suffers from meth addiction she obtained while visiting her father (also a meth addict) for the summer. Due to her lifestyle the previous summer, Kristina now finds herself a seventeen year-old mother. She had, thankfully, given up her addiction during her pregnancy, but four months after her son's birth, she starts up again. Kristina's life quickly goes down the toilet. She gives up her son to her mother, gets kicked out of her house, lives with two different drug dealers and becomes a dealer herself. With her "boyfriend", Trey, she gets herself arrested for felony transport of drugs across state lines and, while in jail, learns she is pregnant yet again. Her statement is, "I'll change, hopefully."

This book was seriously dark, pathetic, depressing and yucky (for lack of a better word). I just went through the death of my mother-in-law due to alcoholism and have a cousin who is messed up in the whole meth world. I don't ever want to get close to any kind of addiction and get drawn into this kind of existence, but I guess we don't always have control over that. I think middle-school kids through high school need to be exposed to this book and the real realities of drug abuse. I know a lot of the kids I teach have seen this first hand, but many of the other kids think getting high is "cool." They need to see it is, in no way, a cool way to live.

Marked: A House of Night Novel by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

I'm a big fan of the Twilight series. When I read the summary of this book, I thought, "Great! A Twilight knock-off! This is going to be cheesy!!" I was so wrong! Now, I'm going to have to read the rest of the series!

Zoey is a typical high school student with typical family problems in a not so typical world where vampyres are a way of life and have their own training school in town. Contrary to popular belief, you are not bitten by a vampyre in order to become one. You are marked and forced to make the change to vampyre, or die. Sometimes, the change doesn't work and you die as well. Since things aren't good at home, Zoey goes off to school at the House of Night and encounters a new world full of the same high school cliques and problems she is used to. She makes friends with Stevie Rae, Damien, Erin, Shaunee and her new love interest, Erik. There's also the the "bully, Aphrodite, and her group of Dark Daughters that cause havoc around the school. Along Harry Potter lines, Zoey has to learn to deal with the great powers she has been gifted while keeping the real dark powers at bay including the "ghosts" of fledgling vampyres who didn't make the change.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

I didn't think I was ever a fan of the Science-fiction genre, but the more I read, the more I realize I may very well be. Unwind is one of those books that made me rethink my own preferences.

Unwanted pregnancies that result in unwanted children are running rampant. The government decides to step in and make some changes. As seems to be status quo for government intervention, things getting taken a little further than intended and blown completely out of proportion. In this mess of bureaucracy and bipartisan politics is created the idea of unwinding. Rather than allowing abortions, the government has decided it is better to allow people to "stork" their unwanted babies. This means you leave the baby on a doorstep and the first person to see the baby is now responsible for them. You are off the hook and it is totally legal! The main purpose of unwinding, however, is to allow parents a sort of "reverse abortion." If their child is "troublesome" or not really going to amount to much in their opinion, they can sign papers to have their child "unwound." The child is not killed, but rather all of their body parts are harvested and used to repair medical conditions in others. In this way, the child is spread all over, but continues to live. Unwinding is an option until the child turns 18. Then, they are safe from this fate. This creates an entire group of unwanted teens with nothing to lose. Connor is one of those teens. His parents have decided to have him unwound do to his constant fighting, temper issues and low performance at school. Connor learns of their plan and escapes before he can be harvested. Risa is another unwind, as they are called. She is a ward of the state and is being unwound to save money and make room for others since she has no outstanding abilities or qualities. Lev is an unwind of a different type. He is a tithe, a religious offering born for the sole purpose of being unwound as his families offering on his 13th birthday. All three of these characters are thrust together in a strange twist of fate that leaves them running for their lives, literally. They run until they reach a sequence of safe houses that will lead them to a camp in Arizona bent on keeping the Unwinds safe until their 18th birthday.

Things seem to be going well until the bully, Roland, blows their cover. Roland, Connor and Risa are sent to a harvesting camp to be unwind. At this same camp, they run into Lev who they have been separated from for quite some time. Lev is changed. He is now a clapper and ready to detonate himself and close down the harvesting camp for good. In the end, all but Roland are saved from a horrible fate. However, part of Roland will always live on with Connor...

It may sound quite far-fetched, but in reality, is it? In a time where you can pick the sex of your baby, where cloning is a real life occurrence and no long science-fiction is this really that far off?

Safe by Susan Shaw

Rape is a difficult subject to discuss by itself. Add teenagers into the mix and it is almost unimaginable. Susan Shaw does a wonderful job portraying Tracy, a 13-year old girl raped by an 18-year old neighborhood kid on her way home from school. What should be an enjoyable summer vacation before her first year in high school becomes a time full of anxiety and fear as Tracy strives to feel safe again, even in her own home. The rape has even taken away Tracy's childhood memories of her mother who died.As she struggles with the reality of what happened to her and the fact that she can't hide forever, Tracy has the love and support of her father and friends like Caroline and the new found safety and security she finds in the music she makes on the piano. Piano lessons she once dreaded are now her outlet for all of her emotions. Tracy slowly realized her life can be "normal" and she can feel safe again. She also regains the memories of her mother.

I think this book is a very realistic look at the aftermath of traumatic events. Even if the perpetrator in in custody, the victim struggles to recover and feel safe. I think any adult would benefit from reading this book as well as any young adult.

Quaking by Kathryn Erskine

I read the summary for this book on the inside flap. It didn't grab my interest. As I sat down to start reading, I anticipating a boring book I would not be drawn into. I should have known better. It's a Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers for a reason! I was taken aback when I actually found myself enjoying the story.

Matilda, pardon me, Matt, is 14- years old and has all ready lived through more than any adult would care to even think about. She grew up with an an alcohol-abusing father who would also abuse her and her mother. From the young age of 4 or 5, Matt has memories of crouching under her bed and cowering with her mother to escape her father's anger. It only works for so long. Eventually, her father kills her mother and Matt is on her way to numerous "foster" homes with distant family members. Ultimately, she winds up with Sam and Jessica; two Quakers living in Pennsylvania. She enrolls in Franklin High School and is placed in AP classes for the first time in her life. She sees this as an escape. She can graduate early and move to Canada in order to escape her past. All she has to do is avoid detection on anyone's radar and avoid any sort of emotional connections. That'll make leaving easier. Unfortunately, the town is in turmoil over the war in Iraq. Living with Quakers, Matt is a sitting duck for the bullies (teachers included) such as the Rat and the Vermin (as she calls them). Against her will, Matt finds herself drawn into the family of Sam, Jessica and their adopted son, Rory. She starts to care. That caring helps her overcome her fear of confrontation and find her place in the world.

This book had the capability of being very predictable. A standard hard-case loved straight story. Although the ending was what I expected, the story itself was very well written and enjoyable.