Fiction Friday

I read two great books this week for 

I finished 50 Shades (not a kid book) as my last grown-up read of the summer. I am onto juvie lit with a vengeance now. Only about 6 weeks until school starts! I need to get shined up on all those books I want to be able to recommend.

Gregor the Overlander is written by Suzanne Collins (why does she sound familiar? She wrote Hunger Games!). This is a series that grabs you and makes it nearly impossible to put down. You'll be finishing the last page and making plans to run out to your favorite book store right after you close the cover so you can pick up book 2.

Gregor is a city kid who lost his father 2 years, 7 months and 14 days ago. And by lost, he literally means lost. He dad simply disappeared. Gregor is now responsible for taking care of his younger sister and his grandmother during the summer while his mother works. One day while doing laundry, something extraordinary happens to him and his 2-yr-old sister Boots.

Transported to an underground kingdom, Gregor learns about bravery, leadership and responsibility to a greater cause.

I would recommend this book to: girls and boys, grades 3+

I have always wondered what the hullaballoo was about with Holes. It hit the shelves long after I was out of school. I had no interest in seeing the movie. I actually thought that maybe it was about giant worms or something science-fiction.

Boy, was I wrong!

Friendship, legends, buried treasure and gypsy curses... you wouldn't think these would be major items in a book about juvie prison camp. "If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole everyday in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." That's the motto for Camp Green Lake. It's not a camp, it's not green, and there is no lake; there is just the hot texas sun glaring down on a cursed dried up lake bed. Stanley Yelnats is a truly-innocent-wrongly-convicted kid who ends up at Camp Green Lake. At first, you think that you're going to pity Stanley, but his savviness proves him to be brave, intelligent, and filled with a sense of doing the right thing.

I finished Holes in less than 24 hours. I was delighted with the agony/bravery of the characters, and the core lesson of doing the right thing, no matter how difficult.

I would recommend this book to: boys and girls, grade 3+