Shelter Me-- Alex McAulay

So I wish there were more books about boarding schools that weren't so off-base. But that is neither here nor there. I've had this book, Shelter Me, sitting on my desk waiting for me to review it for over a week now... but it was just so bad, I don't think I can even produce a well-written review about it! But still, I must try...

Shelter Me takes place in England during WWII. Maggie and her fanatically religious mother were already struggling to make ends meet when a bomb hits too close to home. Maggie's mom sends her to a strict boarding school in Wales, where girls with money have privileges and poor girls are treated inhumanely. And then, well, it's hard to describe. Four girls run away and end up in terrible situations.

Now typically, I shy away from giving away any major plot points... but this book was so terribly bad that I hope you don't read it anyway. This book is being marketed as historical fiction, but really it's a very poorly written novel that doesn't have a path or purpose. In this story there is an evil nun with a melted face who thinks she is god on earth. There is a German soldier with an infant, an odd Mae West-type character who drugs and steals children, a weird dude who smuggles vegetables in caskets, and a whore house... how can we forget the whore house. The worst part is there was no attempt to make the language or thoughts of the characters fitting with the historical time or setting. There were so many uses of modern slang that I literally found myself laughing out loud.

So I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. But if you had to, I guess you could give it to girls who like historical fiction but don't care if it's inaccurate, or maybe fan of School for Dangerous Girls.

Viola in the Reel World-- Adriana Trigiani

What happens when your documentary filmmaker parents take off for a year in Afghanistan? You have to leave your Brooklyn home behind and spend a year in a boarding school in the middle of nowhere: South Bend, IN.

Viola is never seen without a camera in hand. She views life through the lens of a digital video camera, and will one day be a famous filmmaker. Settling into dorm life isn't easy, especially when only child Viola has to share a room with three other girls. But when she finally puts her prejudices aside and really starts living her life, Viola finds that friendship is powerful... maybe just as powerful as a really excellent movie.

I found this book to be pleasant, but not groundbreaking in any way. It's a great read-alike for Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants readers, or really any girl who wants a clean book about friendships. I was bored by the way the plot threads easily wrapped up, but teens might appreciate that they weren't left hanging at the end of the book.

Breathless-- Jessica Warman

I have to admit that I love this cover. Something about those underwater shots always grab me. Anyway, on to the book!

Katie's family wasn't always rich. They used to live in a cottage, hang out together, and be a "real family." But as her father started to make more money, he became more controlling... her mother in now an alcoholic, and her brother suffers from drug induced schizophrenia. When he tries to kill himself, Katie's father decides to ship her off to boarding school rather than deal with a family embarrassment... and her brother is shipped off to a mental institution.

Swimming has always been Katie's escape. When the captain of the swim team at her new school asks Katie what her best swimming stroke is, Katie shrugs and says all of them... and it's true. We follow Katie as she succeeds at swimming, but basically fails at the rest of her life. Compelling supporting characters, like her roommate Mazzie and her brother Will, really round out the story. I was tricked into thinking this was going to be another one of those rich girl boarding school books, but it's not... it goes deeper than that and teen readers will likely become engrossed in Katie's struggles.

I would recommend this to teen girls who like family dramas, boarding school books, stories that include lots of teen partying, and sports (swimming especially).

Headlong-- Kathe Koja

The Vaughn School is for serious academics. If you attend this school, you are serious about your education, future, and life in general. This isn't boarding school for social deviants or rich girls in headbands and knee socks. The Vaughn School girls work hard for their grades, will attend Ivy League universities, and will have careers.

But for whatever reason, the administration has decided to diversify a little bit and admitted Hazel, the artist/rebel/speak-your-mind bad girl. Lily is a lifer at Vaughn and a legacy student. When she decides to switch from day to boarding her sophomore year, she realizes that she has less in common with the other girls, and more with Hazel. This is a story of self-discovery, friendship, and life in general.

My summary honestly doesn't do this book justice. It's told in first person, from Lily's perspective. She kindof hero-worships Hazel ala Pudge and Alaska from Green's Looking for Alaska except Lily's feelings for Hazel are platonic. Also the chapters are not sequential... we get bits of the story here and there, but somehow it all falls together just right. I would recommend this book to girls who want to read about real not fluffy friendship, and those who enjoy boarding school books like Looking for Alaska and Jellicoe Road.

School for Dangerous Girls-- Eliot Schrefer

It's pretty straight-forward, actually. If you're a bad girl, you're gonna get in trouble. And if you keep getting in trouble, you'll get kicked out of school. And when you get kicked out of school, there's only one place for you to go: Hidden Oak aka the School for Dangerous Girls.

Hidden Oak. Doesn't that sound like a summer camp? Unfortunately for Angela and her classmates, there is nothing quaint about Hidden Oak. It's the last chance for all the girls who attend, and they have one month to prove to the administration that they're reformable. Girls who have a spark of change are "gold thread" and girls who are too rebellious and bad become "purple thread". Gold thread girls live a normal-ish reform school life... but the purple thread girls are locked in the tunnels under the school and left to Lord of the Flies-esque self-ruling.

Angela isn't really a bad kid... she has made some mistakes, responded to abuses inflicted upon her at a young age, and is unendlingly loyal. It's this loyalty combined with a strong stubborn streak that gets her thrown from gold to purple thread... and when she is left in a life or death situation, she has to make tough choices or die trying.

I have to admit this book was pretty unrealistic. Still, it was a page turner. I didn't love it, but found myself compelled to finish it quickly because of Angela's sassy, honest voice. Teen girls will like this book, especially those who want to read about the "bad girl" or who enjoyed Todd Strasser's Boot Camp.

Dirty Laundry-- Daniel Ehrenhaft

Boarding school. Kidnapping mystery. Undercover Hollywood actress. High School musical production of "Grease". That about sums it up.

Actually, it really doesn't. While Dirty Laundry doesn't tell a new or innovative story, it was still a fairly engaging read. Beautiful senior Darcy Novak goes missing during the first week of school while she is walking to the on-campus laundromat. The Winchester School is a collection of freaks and geeks who have been kicked out of every other boarding school on the east coast. When their lone "normal" girl, Darcy, goes missing, the whole school is in an uproar. Enter Carli, a teen Hollywood actress who is going undercover to study for a role, and FUN (short for Fellini Udall Newport) who is on his third strike for his fabulous art-erm-graffiti that covers the school walls. Together, with the help their roommates, Carli and FUN aim to solve the mystery of Dary's disappearance before her kidnapper snatches another victim.

Honestly, the best thing about this book was that it's a relatively tame mystery. I know some teens really like mysteries, but don't like the violence or murder that often accompanies them. I would easily recommend this book to older or younger teens. It's fairly light, has a bit of comedy, and the characters are engaging enough to keep you reading, even though they are slightly stereotypical and maybe a little flat. I'll bet the same type of reader who enjoys Ally Carter's I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You would enjoy this book too.

Evernight-- Claudia Gray

Ugh, after all my gushing about books at Mock Printz this weekend, it almost feels GOOD to blog about a stinker.

What to say about Evernight? Well first I should admit that I had to force myself to finish this book. For whatever reason, I truly thought if I just stuck with it long enough, it might get good. WRONG. I'm having a hard time not being snarky today, so I'll just put those comments in italics... So the basic premise of this novel is that a gal named Bianca is forced to attend a creepy boarding school called Evernight. Really? Couldn't think of a more subtle same for the school? She decides to run away and gets caught by an alarmingly alluring guy named Lucas. She falls totally and completely, instantly in love with him ala Bella Swan. Greeaaaaat. Another creepy stalker boyfriend guy we are all supposed to love. Hey, I loved Twilight too, but come on, another one?? Bianca is somehow clueless to the fact that all her creepy, beautiful, perfect, rich, pale, and undead classmates are actually vampires, despite the fact they never eat except when they sneak out at night to munch on squirrels. Don't you sneak out to suck down some squirrel blood? I know I do!

But the part that made me throw the book in a fit of rage, and in the process knock myself off the elliptical machine on which I was reading this book, was this:

Halfway through the book, Bianca and her boytoy Lucas are making out, like bigtime. She gets all steamy and then, because she can't help herself, she BITES HIS NECK AND DRINKS HIS BLOOD. WTH? Like she didn't know she was a vampire surrounded by other vampires at the vampire school? She JUST REALIZES that the blood her parents put in her baby bottle and fed her with dinner in place of warm milk wasn't normal?! Puhleeese!

I am sure the author was just trying to keep the reader in suspense, but really, it just made me-the-reader feel like the author thinks I am a giant idiot. Which I'm not. Seriously, I'm not! Also, to add to the pile, the characters were totally one dimensional, the love story was cheesy and lame, and the plot was 100% trite and unbelievable. But if you still want to pass it on to teens, I would give it to teen girls who have read every vampire book in the library and refuse to read anything else. But really, try to get them to read something else. Good luck with that!

Still... reading other blogger's reviews, I am finding that lots of people just loved this book. What am I missing?

Spud--John van de Ruit

I just can't help myself, I have to blog about another boarding school book. Help, I'm obsessed!

Spud is set in South Africa just as apartheid is coming to an end. John "Spud" Milton attends an all boys boarding school and we learn about his adventures with his dorm-mates, The Crazy Eight, through his witty, enticing, and thoroughly entertaining journal entries. We can live vicariously through his words as The Crazy Eight sneak out for night swims, go ghost-hunting, endure birthday hazings, dream about girls, endure zany professors and parents, and more. While this book was a bit of a slow start for me, I think teens will like it.

Throughout this book, I had this nagging feeling, like it reminded me of something but I couldn't put my finger on it. At the end, I realized: this book totally reminded me of the Dead Poets Society movie! And although thematically different from Looking for Alaska, Jellicoe Road, and What I Was, readers who enjoyed those books will also like this one. What makes Spud stand out to me, however, is the subtle messages about friendship, culture, and society that are told in Spud's journal entries. Still, what I like the best about this book was that it made me laugh out loud. I must have looked like a crazy person when I was reading this in a waiting room the other day.

This book would be good for both boys and girls, though older teens might get more out of it.

House of Night Series-- P.C. and Kristin Cast

What am I thankful for? I am thankful that I got to spend the weekend following Thanksgiving reading books in the bathtub! Seriously, what could be better?

The series I couldn't get enough of was House of Night by mother-daughter team P.C. and Kristin Cast. There are four books currently published (Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed), and according to their website, there will be nine total in the series.

House of Night is the name of the series, but also the name of the boarding school Zoey Redbird attends. After being tracked by an adult Vampyre, Zoey has to leave her normal, human life behind and join the other fledgling vampyres at the House of Night, where vampyres get a crash course in what to expect when they officially go through the change (transitioning from human to vampyre). We soon find out that Zoey is more than just a normal fledgling. She is chosen by the Goddess Nyx to be her high priestess, and the Goddess has gifted Zoey with the power to harness the elements to accomplish her goals. This is not your typical vampire story, and I think it will appeal to Twilight fans.

What made this series enjoyable for me was the magic and religion that was present. The vampyres practice Wicca, and although they don't officially call it that, the presence of Wiccan traditions (like casting a circle, calling the elements, etc) are central to the plot. Usually Wicca and witchcraft are terribly misrepresented in teen fiction (Rhymes with Witches by Lauren Myracle anyone? Ug.) Although the main character Zoey got on my nerves a bit with her goody two-shoes attitude, it was great to read a story with a strong female main character who is a Goddess worshiper. This is not a work of fine literature, but teens will love this series. AND it's a perfect bathtub read.

I would recommend the House of Night series to teen girls who liked the Twilight series, Stolarz's Blue is for Nightmares series, stories about romance or friendship, or Wicca and vampires in general.

Jellicoe Road-- Melina Marchetta

I finished reading Jellicoe Road about five days ago, but I have been waiting for some inspiration before I posted about it on my blog.

The inspiration hasn't really come to me yet.

Still, this was a GOOD BOOK. So I owe it some type of conversation, right? Then why can't I muster up excitement to spread the word about it? Hmmm.... anyway, about the book: Jellicoe Road takes place in Australia, at a boarding school. It is mostly narrated by Taylor, the protagonist, but the story of four teenagers who went to the Jellicoe School a generation prior is interspersed throughout the story. Taylor was abandoned by her drug addicted mother at a 7-11 on Jellicoe Road when she was very young. The school housemother, Hannah, took her in and raised her, yet somehow always kept her at arms length. Now a senior, Taylor is in charge of her dorm. She has been selected as the school's representative for the Territory Wars that happen ever year between the townies, boarding school students, and the cadets who participate in outdoor school/wilderness training on the Jellicoe School property. Even though she is supposed to be leading her school to victory, Taylor can't get past her mysterious family history, the emotions she feels toward Hannah and the leader of the Cadets, and her own personal drama.

Overall, this story is well-written and interesting, but somehow I don't see many teens being drawn to it. Taylor is a character teens might like, but the way Marchetta intersperses the secondary story of the four teens from the past gets a little fuzzy and confusing. Until about the last quarter of the book, the secondary story is not compelling and slows the pace of the book somewhat. That being said, I did enjoy this book (being a graduate of a boarding school high school, I always like reading books that take place in boarding schools) but would only recommend it to teens who are good readers and who like to really think about what they are reading. Teens who liked Marchetta's Saving Francesca, Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell, and maybe Green's Looking for Alaska and Rosoff's What I Was migh enjoy this book.

What I Was-- Meg Rosoff

First, a confession: What I Was isn't exactly a YA book... it sort-of kind-of is, but according to the small amount of research I did through WorldCat, almost all libraries catalog it as adult fiction. However, as Meg Rosoff mostly writes YA fiction (including one of my favorite books of all time, How I Live Now), and since the characters are teens, I feel it is appropriate to review this book on a YA Lit blog.


H has been kicked out of more schools than he can count. He has been sent to St. Oswald's, a boarding school on the coast of England that time has forgotten. H is not particularly smart, athletic, or witty. However, he excels at self-preservation, secret keeping, and sneaking out... all of which are the qualities he needs to succeed in his new life's mission: to spend as much time with Finn as possible. On a school nature outing, H discovers a boy named Finn who lives by himself in a cottage by the sea. After Finn's grandmother died, he had only the sea and a cat for companionship... until H came along years later. H insinuates himself into Finn's life, and only when tragedy strikes does H find out what Finn... and H himself... is really made of. This is a story about loss, relationships, true platonic love, and boarding school.


I would recommend this book to YA readers who like well written books. While the subject matter is appropriate for teens 13 and up, the writing style is a little more advanced than the typical YA tome. Although the protagonist is male, I think boy and girls will both enjoy this book... and besides, who can resist a boarding school book? I sure can't!

Looking for Alaska- John Green

Without going into too much detail, I will say that recently a group of librarians gathered to discuss Looking for Alaska in terms of its appropriateness for teens, particularly those who participate in library sponsored Book Discussion Groups. (In case you are wondering, we unanimously agreed that it was not only appropriate, but quite a good choice for book discussion). This happens from time to time, and usually patron comment is the catalyst.

I first read Looking for Alaska in 2005 and loved it. Something about John Green's writing style really appeals to me. I reread Looking for Alaska for the book review committee and appreciated it just as much as I did in prior readings (full disclosure: I have read this book four times. I'm a dork, I know). In Looking for Alaska, we meet a group of quirky-intelligent teens who attend boarding school in the south. We follow Alaska, Pudge, the Colonel, and Takumi as they prank, party, learn, live, and basically discover who they are through their relationships with each other. Alaska is an emotionally challenged, chronically flawed, and impossibly charismatic girl who holds the rest of them in the palm of her hand. Although she does not narrate the novel, it is really her story told from the perspective of Pudge (who is predictably in love with her). When a tragically bad decision is made, and life still has to continue, Pudge and the rest of the crew discover that life is a beautiful damaged, but precious gift.

Recently, this book has been challenged in a few school districts in the south and east coast. Apparently some people don't like the cursing, drinking, smoking, drugs, sex, and frankly realistic conversations. According to a very entertaining website called Safe Libraries (which would be more appropriately named Conservatives for Censorship IMHO), there were 281 curse words (although they count pee as a curse word) and state there are 1.3 bad words on every page in this book. Also, they weren't crazy about the famous toothpaste scene when Alaska teaches the boys about... well... maybe you should just read it ;-) Anyway, John Green keeps a HILARIOUS weblog and posted a response to the Alaska book challenges:

http://www.sparksflyup.com/2008/01/i-am-not-pornographer.php

Because of the reading level, I would recommend this book for older teens who like to read about intelligent teenagers, boarding school, coming of age, and realistic fiction. Some people have called this book this decade's Catcher in the Rye... so why don't you read it and see if you agree?