The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

Brothers and sisters - relationships that are for a lifetime. We love our brothers, we love our sisters but they can sure frustrate us. The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt certainly proves that true.

Levi and Boaz. You'll feel their love for each other, you'll know their pains. Boaz is the town hero. He has just returned from a tour-of-duty with the U.S. Marines in a desert country. The town is very proud of him and thankful for his service. Levi, his 17 year old brother, has always lived in Bo's shadow. Now he's benefiting from his brother's heroism: high-fives from high school students he's not known, the attention of girls, and a new, plum job. Yet the reality in their home is that Bo is NOT doing too well. He's spending his days alone in his room not willing to talk to family or friends. Everyone is willing to give Bo some time knowing it can't be easy to return to civilian life. Levi is not so sure. He believes Boaz is planning something - a trip away from home.

When Bo does set out on foot heading to Washington, DC, Levi wants to follow. Bo will have none of that, he wants to hike alone. With the help of family and friends, Levi persists and Bo reluctantly, silently accepts his presence. Mind you, they are walking hundreds of miles for days on end to DC! What can brothers do spending that much time together? Will they regain the closeness they once shared? Why DC? What is Bo looking for in our national capital?

You'll be surprised. You'll learn about what it takes to be a U.S. Marine. You'll feel sympathy for this family. You'll burst with pride for Levi and Bo. And you'll likely shed a tear - it's that good!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Dewey: The Small - Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicky Myron with Bret Witter

Look at this face! Isn't this a most precious kitty face? Who wouldn't fall in love with this cutie? Dewey Readmore Books was found in the library's book return drop box one very cold January morning in Spencer, Iowa. The library staff is used to finding all sorts of things in that drop box but this frigid morning they heard a noise - a meow! From that moment on, Dewey became a permanent resident of the library.

When you pick up Dewey: The Small - Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicky Myron, you'll read about all of his antics, his comfort spots, his temperament, and how Dewey connected with the library patrons. He was a source of comfort for many. Before long, Dewey's story was shared - he was famous! He was on the cover of Iowa library newsletters, the local Spencer newspaper, in Cat Fancy magazine, and more.

To this day, the Spencer Public Library still dedicates a web page to the story of Dewey. If you're a cat lover, a fan of libraries, or just want a comfort book to curl up with, definitely check Dewey: The Small - Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicky Myron out from your library.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Sync

Good news! Free audio books! I wrote about this last summer and Sync is back! Mark your calendars now so you don't miss any of the titles offered. You can even have Sync text reminders to you. The fun begins June 23rd. Dates, titles, and texting info are below -- see you @ Sync!

Mrs. Boehm

SYNC YA Literature into Your Earphones

2 Free Audiobook Downloads Each Week

June 23 - August 17, 2011

Teens and other readers of Young Adult Literature will have the opportunity to listen to bestselling titles and required reading classics this summer. Each week from June 23 - August 17, 2011, SYNC will offer two free audiobook downloads.

The audiobook pairings will include a popular YA title and a classic that connects with the YA title's theme and is likely to show up on a student's summer reading lists. For example, Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, the first book in a popular series with strong allusions to Romeo & Juliet, will be paired with Shakespeare's classic.

To find out when you can download titles to listen to on the run this summer, visit www.AudiobookSync.com or text syncya to 25827

SYNC Titles

Summer 2011

6/23/11 - 6/29/11

Shiver By Maggie Stiefvater

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

6/30/11-7/6/11

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Trial by Franz Kafka

7/7/11-7/13/11

Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

7/14/11-7/20/11

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney

Beowulf by Francis B. Gummere [Trans.]

7/21/11-7/27/11

Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

7/28/11-8/3/11

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Rescue: Stories of Survival From Land and Sea by Dorcas S. Miller [Ed.]

8/4/11-8/10/11

Immortal by Gillian Shields

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

8/11/11-8/17/11

Storm Runners by Roland Smith

The Cay by Theodore Taylor

Teen Summer Reading @ BDL

It's Summer!! Time to read and relax with a cool lemonade. Be sure to check out the Teen Summer Reading Program at Brighton District Library. If you read even for a little while each day, you'll be entitled to register to win some very nice prizes. Prizes include Target gift cards, Flip cameras, audio books, and more. There will be a party at the end of the reading program and activities to join in throughout the summer. Crafts, gaming, martial arts, Zumba - you name it. There's something for everyone this summer at BDL. Catch all the details at their website: Teen Summer Reading Program. Let's keep reading!

Review by Mrs. Boehm

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and my Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray

You know from the title that Liz Murray went from homeless to Harvard. As you read her memoir, Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and my Journey from Homeless to Harvard, you can't help but wonder how she managed to accomplish that. Her parents were mainline cocaine users, unemployed and spending their government issued checks within days they were cashed. This story is not nice.

Liz's descriptions are graphic and smelly. She watched them as a toddler shooting up cocaine in their kitchen. As a preschooler, she kept watch through the night for her dad to return home with his $5.00 bag of drugs. She and her older sister went hungry often and Liz stopped attending school because of the humiliation she endured from other students, after all, she did not bath, sleep, eat, have clean clothes, or any idea about what was a 'normal' life.

She left her mother's home at the age of 15 when her mother was diagnosed with AIDS. She was homeless at that very young age. She shoplifted food, slept hidden in friend's closets, and managed to elude the truant officers and child protective service social workers seeking to place her in an institutional home. At the age of 17 she realized that it was up to her to take charge of her life - no one was going to pay her rent but her. She found an alternative high school with teachers who lovingly supported her efforts without knowing her homeless state. She completed 4 years of high school in 2 years. Yes, she did enter Harvard, earning the prestigious New York Times scholarship, and graduated in 2009.

In January, 2011 it was announced that Ms. Murray's memoir won the YALSA Alex Award given to 10 books each year that were written for adults but with a strong appeal to young adults. You can read more about Liz Murray at Manifest Living - her program aimed at helping adults transform their lives.

My favorite quote from Liz Murray: "No one truly knows what is possible until they go and do it."

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition

You may be aware that there is much brouhaha about a recently published edition of Huck Finn in which "nigger" and "injun" are replaced as well as other editorial changes. I was curious to get the publisher and editor's perspectives on this and thought you may like to know as well.

This article, Auburn-Montgomery Professor Alan Gribben Not Shocked His Editing or Twain Classics Drawing Fire, gives that perspective. It also links you to an excerpt from the introduction in this new edition which is most informative.

The new edition is worthy of discussion but the brouhaha may be unfounded when you're informed by the editor and publisher of their reasoning for presenting this new edition of Huck Finn. The editor, Gribben, is a Twain scholar and certainly there are rewrites all the time on the classics - condensed, children's versions, graphic novels, etc.

Watch for a copy of this New South edition in the BHS Media Center.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Paper Towns by John Green

This should be read by all - all of us, all of YOU! There are so many facets that John Green has put into his award-winning novel, Paper Towns, that it goes well beyond a mystery - its identified genre.

First and foremost, this book is about friendship. Not just the "hi, how are ya" friends that you pass in the hall. True friends that never give up on each other. Friends that will go to the ends of the earth with/for you. Reading Paper Towns draws the reader into the mundane, the exciting, and the scary of that kind of friendship.

Quentin and Margo are neighbors, have been since they were toddlers. Their childhood friendship drifts apart as they've grown up until one night, just before their high school graduation, Margo enlists Q's help to pull some midnight pranks. The next day - she's disappeared! Not the first time she's run away, but now she is 18 so no longer the minor that her parents can compel home. Even the police take a hands-off approach to looking for her. Not Q! He finds clues among her belongings and most importantly within the notes she's made in her copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

It's a mystery because Q and friends now must try to find Margo. It's also a love story between friends and between Q and Margo. As you read you'll want Q to find her but you may or may not want Margo to love Q. That's the final question - Will they ever be able to resume their childhood friendship that was lost so many years ago as they grew up? How have they changed? Why did Margo leave town just before graduation? Do they really know each other at all? When you finish reading Paper Towns, go ahead - try to find Agloe, NY on Google maps. :-) That's what I did too!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm