Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar - 181 pages

Tamaya and Marshall have been walking to and from school together for years.  It is a long walk around the woods they are forbidden to enter.  Then one day, Marshall decides to take a "short cut" through the woods to avoid a bully and Tamaya follows along into the woods.  First they get lost.  Then they are found by the bully.  Next they escape only to discover that the mud that saved them in the woods was a lot more dangerous than any of them thought.

I listened to this on audio.  It was narrated by Kathleen McInerney with a full cast that filled in flashbacks and flash forwards.  I really enjoyed this book.  There was no real mystery as to the danger from the fuzzy mud from the beginning.  The true mystery was the solution to the danger.  I would highly recommend this book to all kids.

I Am Here by Ema Toyama

I Am Here!, v.1 by Ema Toyama - 405 pages
I Am Here!, v.2 by Ema Toyama - 425 pages

Sumino is virtually invisible to everybody.  Classmates even sit on her thinking there is nobody at her desk.  The only people she connects with are the two anonymous posters on her blog.  Then one day the most popular boy at school, Hinata, notices her.  With the encouragement of her online friends, Sumino starts making herself known so that she can connect with Hinata.

This manga took a little time for me to get into it.  I was nearly two-thirds of the way through the first manga before I really started getting interested in the story.  Sumino was just too weak and annoying in the first book for anybody to root for her.  However, by the time I got to the second volume I was really enjoying the story.  The story ends kind of abruptly.  I was thinking there was going to be a third volume but I can't find any information about one.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth  525 pages

One choice can transform you - or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves - and herself - while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable - and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.