Rubber Houses by Ellen Yeomans

Do you like novels in verse? Do you know what a novel in verse is? It's a book -- fiction or nonfiction, written like poetry. I just did booktalks and was reminded again how much I like this style.

Rubber Houses is heartbreaking. Kit's younger brother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. How can cancer take a vibrant, baseball-loving 9 year old boy? Kit and her parents try to live without Buddy. The grieving process is shared through the seasons of baseball that Buddy loved. Sad and realistic.......hopefully you won't experience the sadness that this family does.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Love this new book by a Wisconsin author!!! Love the genre ---- Dystopia! Love the setting --- Upper Michigan. Enough said?

As the book begins there is an EMP ---electromagnetic pulse that kills off most of the world's population. The people who remain, like the main character Alex, have greatly enhanced senses. It turns others into zombies.

Did you like Hunger Games? I bet you'll like this book.

The Glass Castle

This memoir by Jeannette Walls certainly isn't new. The copyright date is 2005. It is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for a long time. I started it last night about 7:30 and read until after midnight. I couldn't put it down.

Jeannette had a childhood unlike mine. She and her family traveled across the United States --- from the deserts of Arizona and Nevada to the mountains of West Virginia. When her dad, Rex, was sober he was a fascinating man -- a great father and teacher. But more often than not, he was drunk and out of work. Mom, Rose Mary, was an eccentric artist. She homeschooled the 4 kids.....but was really most interested in her art.

From the beginning of the book when Jeannette recounts an event when she was 3 years old, I was hooked. She was boiling hotdogs on the stove of their camper/home and she was terribly burned. The dysfunction of the family escalates....no food, terrible living conditions.....yet the kids persevered. You have to read the book!!