Young Adult Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Title:  Anna and the French Kiss
Author:  Stephanie Perkins
Publisher:  Speak, 2010
Grades:  9+

400 pp.

Anna and the French Kiss is a Young Adult read that's been sitting on my "to be read" shelf for-ev-er.  I snagged it from the library on audiobook a couple of weeks ago, and thanks to some back and forth driving for the SDLA library conference I got through it quicker than I normally do. 
 Anna is a senior in high school who is sent to Paris for boarding school for her final year.  Magnifique, no?  Wrong.  She's leaving behind her best friend, her little brother, and her movie theater crush slash pseudo boyfriend.  And to top it all off, she doesn't know any french.

She makes a handful of friends, including an adorable British guy, Etienne St. Claire.  The trials and tribulations she goes through in her senior year are similar to problems every 18 year old encounters, but at least she's lucky enough to go through them in grand Paris!  Oui oui!  But is she able to be lucky in love as well?  Find out in Anna and the French Kiss, either in audio or regular print (an audiobook has to be really good for me to recommend it, FYI.  I usually refer back to the book after a disc because of bad narration), and then pick up the two remaining books in the series!

My rating:  4/5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming,beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

Young Adult Book Review: Allegiant

Title:  Allegiant
Author:  Veronica Roth
Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books, 2013
Grades:  9 and up
545 pp.



Allegiant is the MUCH anticipated penultimate book in the Divergent trilogy.  If you haven't read Divergent and Insurgent, what the hell are you waiting for??  But seriously?  What?  Folks are saying it is on par with the Hunger Games obsession, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

Being the dystopian junkie that I am, I cannot wait to get my eyeballs on this book to find out how it ends.  And if you haven't read it yet, you might actually be in luck, because Roth's writing style doesn't really remind you what went on in the previous novels, so it's almost ideal to read them back to back to back.  There were numerous times in Insurgent (book 2) that I had to sit and think about what happened in Divergent.  It doesn't help that I read so many books with similar themes and sometimes it's hard to keep them straight.  :/  But perhaps Roth will be nice again and provide us with a "refresher" of the previous books via her blog.  Click here for Divergent refresher.
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Updated to add:
I got a slow start to this book. People everywhere were saying how disappointed they were with the ending. I saw many 1-2 star reviews on goodreads, and many of my friends stated "I'm not able to review this right now, still processing." gulp. These responses squelched my need to speed read the book, and I took my full three week checkout period to finish it. Luckily once I got to the halfway point, I didn't want to put it down. Without giving anything away, I'm pretty satisfied with how the series wrapped up. Get your hands on the series (or the final book) asap.

My rating: 4 stars.
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Summary of Divergent from goodreads (because I don't want to have any spoilers for those who HAVEN'T started from the beginning, only shame.  Lots and lots of shame.... jk):

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Children's Book Review: The Center of Everything

Title:  The Center of Everything
Author:  Linda UrbanPublisher:  HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013
211 pp.
Ages:  9-12



There is a group on Goodreads that discusses Newbery potential books on a monthly basis.  I coerced a couple of my co-workers in to reading the same books they have suggested and having a mini lunch time book club to discuss them.  The Center of Everything was June's book to read and discuss.  So far of the books I've read with Newbery potential, this one is my favorite.  It was a very quick read, I read it on the couch in between fever induced naps, and it took less than two hours.

The story follows Ruby Pepperdine as she prepares to read her Bunning Day speech atop a float in her city's annual parade celebration of doughnuts.  The story weaves back and forth between her present nerves, waiting on the sidewalk for the floats to pass before she steps on her float to read, while also taking us back the past few months to explain how she came to be there.  This was a great realistic fiction story for middle grade students that deals with a loss of a grandparent, trying to rectify friendships and relationships and just trying to understand life by figuring out the center of everything.  While I'm unsure if this is actually a Newbery contender (my guess is no) it's still a must read for children ages 9-12. 

My rating:  4 stars.

Goodreads summary: 
For Ruby Pepperdine, the “center of everything” is on the rooftop of Pepperdine Motors in her donut-obsessed town of Bunning, New Hampshire, stargazing from the circle of her grandmother Gigi’s hug.  That’s how everything is supposed to be—until Ruby messes up and things spin out of control. But she has one last hope. It all depends on what happens on Bunning Day, when the entire town will hear Ruby read her winning essay. And it depends on her twelfth birthday wish—unless she messes that up too. Can Ruby’s wish set everything straight in her topsy-turvy world?

Young Adult Book Review: Firecracker

Title:  Firecracker

Author:  David Iserson

Publisher:  Razorbill, 2013

336 pp.

Grades 9 and up

If I could write a novel with a quirky and awesome title character, it would be Astrid Krieger.  Calling her a Firecracker would be an understatement.  Calling her a pain in the @$$ would probably be more appropriate.  She comes from an incredibly wealthy family, and has always attended fancy private schools.  She has always caused enough problems to become expelled from said private schools.  The latest expulsion is the final straw for her father who gives her the worst punishment she could imagine--she has to attend public school..... with.. like... the public.  Part of her punishment is to continue to speak with the dean of the private school who is also a psychologist to "make her normal."  In one of their sessions, she strikes a deal:  If Astrid follows through with the Dean's orders, he has to allow her back in to private school.  To find out if she succeeds and the hilarious LOL moments en route, pick up Firecracker, written by New Girl and SNL writer David Iserson.

My rating:  3.5/5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Being Astrid Krieger is absolutely all it's cracked up to be.

She lives in a rocket ship in the backyard of her parents' estate.

She was kicked out of the elite Bristol Academy and she's intent on her own special kind of revenge to whomever betrayed her.

She only loves her grandfather, an incredibly rich politician who makes his money building nuclear warheads.

It's all good until...

"We think you should go to the public school," Dad said.
This was just a horrible, mean thing to say. Just hearing the words "public school" out loud made my mouth taste like urine (which, not coincidentally, is exactly how the public school smells).

Will Astrid finally meet her match in the form of public school? Will she find out who betrayed her and got her expelled from Bristol? Is Noah, the sweet and awkward boy she just met, hiding something?

Find out in this hilarious tragicomedy from New Girl and SNL writer David Iserson!