One Book I Love: OK, Four, But Who’s Counting

If you read and loved Girls, Drums, and Dangerous Pie, by Jordan Sonnenblick, be sure to read his After Ever After, featuring one of the characters from that earlier book. I finished reading this in a Subway restaurant about 20 minutes before going on a school visit. Not the best idea, as I was still sniffling. This is just one of those books that changes you, I think. It deals with kids and the long-term aftereffects of cancer, but it’s funny and makes your heart bigger. These two books are two of my favorites I’ve read over the past couple of years.

I wanted to read more of Helen Frost’s amazing work, and Keesha’s House, a novel in verse told by seven teens struggling with various problems (pregnancy, DUI, staying in the closet) was amazing. These kids could so easily become cardboard stereotypes, but they don’t. They’re real people, and these poems bring them to life.

I listened to Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater, in the car, and it made my long travels so much more fun! It’s a story of first love between a girl and a boy–and a wolf. The boy and the wolf are one and the same. This isn’t a premise that would draw me in, but the voices of Grace and Sam and the yearning in this novel were mesmerizing. My only complaint was the pat ending, but overall, I loved this book.

Wow. If I Stay, by Gayle Forman, is another one I listened to in the car. I found myself almost hoping my day’s school was far away so that I’d have more time with this incredible novel. Mia, a 17-year-old girl, has been in a terrible car crash with her family, and she slowly realizes that the choice to live or die is hers. With heartbreaking detail and zero sappiness, we get to know her family through her memories. And as we really feel all that she’s lost, we know the choice to stay or go is not as easy as it sounds like it should be. An utterly amazing book.