The Princess Saves Herself in this One by Amanda Lovelace

The Princess Saves Herself in this One by Amanda Lovelace, 199 pages

I wholly enjoyed this collection. Lovelace composes her language tightly, packing words like gunpowder, giving us fireworks and bombs, each in their turn. 

This collection is also a great introduction for young adults into poetry. The language is playful yet easy to parse on a casual reading. It's raw but real. It bends and breaks traditional poetry "rules," but is still cohesive as poetry. 

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett-266 pages

This is the story of Mary Lennox, who as a young girl lives in India with her neglectful, selfish parents. An Ayah (Indian servant) attends to Mary's every need and Mary is kept out of sight of her parents and their friends. When tragedy strikes and her parents and Ayah all die of Cholera, Mary is sent to England to live at her reclusive uncle's (Mr. Archibald Craven) estate, Misslethwaite Manor. It is here that Mary finds a secret locked garden and slowly transforms from a bratty, selfish child to a mature young woman. She befriends Martha (her maid, sort of), Dickon, Ben Weatherstaff, a robin, and Colin Craven (her cousin). Colin also makes a miraculous change from a spoiled hypochondriac who lays in bed all day feeling sorry for himself to someone who is full of energy and runs around the secret garden. One thing in the book that I enjoyed that wasn't in any movie adaptation that I've seen is Dickon's and Martha's mom, Susan Sowerby. She plays a big role in helping Colin and Mary get well in the book and I enjoyed her character. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I have enjoyed 2 out of the 3 movie adaptations that I've seen, also.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

 We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - 320 pages

Cadence Sinclair is born into a wealthy family that goes to their private island every summer.  Her two cousins and her aunt's boyfriend's nephew are all the same age.  Cady so loving calls their group of four "The Liars."  Their group is inseparable until summer fifteen, where an accident happens to Cady.  Over the next two summers, everything changes as Cady remembers what has happened - what she has done. 

This book has a twist ending that I never once expected, although the back of the book literally says, "Read it.  And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE."

What Remains by Helene Dunbar

What Remains by Helene Dunbar - 259 pages

It's alwasys been Cal, Spencer, and Lizzie -- best friends since first grade.  Cal and Spencer have devoted themselves to making sure Lizzie is okay.  Then everything changes in an instant.  Lizzie is dead.  Cal required a heart transplant that takes away his life plan of playing baseball.  Now Cal must figure out how to deal with the loss of Lizzie and the aftereffects of the transplant.

I've now read all of Helene Dunbar's books that have been released.  (Another book comes out later this fall.)  I think this is my favorite of them so far.  While once again it deals with topics that are not happy, this book seems to me to be more optimistic than the others.

We Now Return to Regular Life by Martin Wilson

We Now Return to Regular Life by Martin Wilson - 379 pages

Sam Walsh disappeared three years ago.  Then he's found.  Now he's home.
This book, told by Sam's sister Beth and Sam's friend Josh, who was the last person to see Sam, tells of the first few months after Sam is found and returned home.  While it does reveal some of what Sam is going through now that he's back home, it really is more the story of how his return affects Beth and Josh.

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando - 423 pages

Eleven years ago, six kindergartners disappeared on the first day of school.
No one knows what happened to them.  The only clues were a man carrying wrapping paper and a comment one of the kids made that she was "going to the leaving".

Now, five of the kids have come back. 
They still don't know what happened as none of the kids have memories of their time away.  They were simply dropped off at a playground with maps to their homes.

Who took them?  Where have them been?  And where is the sixth kid?

This was a very strange book.  It used spacial blocking, highlighted fonts, and symbols throughout the book to help tell the story.  To be honest, I found it more annoying than adding anything to the story.  Still, the mystery was interesting and kept me reading to the end of the book.