Keeper written by Mal Peet

Keeper- Mal Peet

I read this book knowing it was about a goal keeper. This isn't a biography. It is about a keeper, at the age of 15 signed to play for a professional team. A keeper for a World Cup team, he learned the game and how to be one of the greatest goal keepers to ever had play the game. But who was the teacher? In the beginning, each day the 'student' would enter the dense jungle to find a soccer field and the 'teacher' waiting for him, to train the student to be a goal keeper. What was the teacher training the student for?

This story is an interview with 'the Gato', the reporter is Paul Faustino. Faustino shows 'the Gato' a picture of a team. Who is the team? Who are the members of the team? Why does the picture take the Gato back to his home town?

You play the game, read about the game, feel the game, learn the game.

This is one of 10 books from the Virginia Readers Choice selection.

The Wednesday Wars written by Gary D. Schmidt

Holling Hoodhood has many things on his mind. The U.S. is at war with Vietnam. His older sister has painted a flower on her face. His father is trying to run the town’s other architect out of business. And Holling’s teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. You see, every Wednesday after lunch, half of the kids in Holling’s 7th grade class go to the Temple Beth-El for Hebrew School. The other half goes to St. Adelbert’s for Catechism. Holling, the lone Presbyterian, is the only student keeping Mrs. Baker from an afternoon to herself. To avenge her privacy, Mrs. Baker decides to bore Holling to death by reading Shakespeare with him, but the joke’s on her- Holling actually likes Shakespeare! It may help him secure the heart of Meryl Lee Kowalski, get Doug Swieteck’s older brother off his back, and run faster with the cross country team. Or, it may help him right into a pair of yellow tights with feathers on the behind. But maybe, just maybe, it will help him tell his father how he feels.

This laugh-out-loud novel from Gary Schmidt (author of Newbery Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy) will reel in readers with Holling’s wry yet innocent narration. Schmidt, a professor of English, grew up in Long Island just like Holling.

This book is one of 10 from the Virginia Readers Choice selection.

What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know written by Sonya Sones

I just finished reading this book. It is written in free verse. I enjoy reading novels written in free verse. They tend to read quick.

This book is a boys book. It is a sequel to What My Mother Doesnt Know. In My Girlfriend..., Robin is telling the story about getting a girlfriend, the moves he wants to make on her but doesn't get to second base, the ups and downs of the relationship he has with Sophie, dealing with obnoxious boys at his high school, and being able to audit an Art class at Harvard. There are laughs throughout the book. Enjoy the book.

Now for me to read What My Mother Doesn't Know

The Black Book of Secrets written by F E Higgins

Ludlow arrives in a remote village, he is running away from the city. Ludlow can read and write. Joe Zabbidou is a pawnbroker, he hires Ludlow to work in his shop. Joe is a special kind of pawnbroker. He is a pawnbroker of secrets. The villagers of Pagus Parvus have worrisome thoughts but who will listen to their secrects? What kind of book is the Black Book? Why won't Joe permit anyone to hold Saluki? How does Mr. Ratchet die?

Read The Black Book of Secrets to find the answers and learn more about Ludlow.

This book is one of 10 from the Virginia Readers Choice selection

Digital Fortress written by Dan Brown

"without wax" that is the secret code David keeps from his soon to be wife, Susan Fletcher. The code is for her to solve, break the codes is her business, what does 'without wax' mean, is it a code for something else?

NSA is being held hostage by a code so complex that if released it would cripple US intelligence. Transltr is the NSA's 'invincible' code breaking machine. It encounters a mysterious code, it cannot break, the agency calls in its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher. Is the code a virus or a worm? What is the prime number, can it be the key code to stop the virus or worm?

P. 521 Renaissance, Spanish sculptors who made mistakes while carving marble often patched their flaws with cera- "wax". Now how does knowing that bit of information solve the code???

Savvy written by Ingrid Law

What if your Grandpa moves mountains, One of your brothers causes hurricanes, another creates electricity, and now it's your turn?


Mibs is about to become a teenager. Thirteen is when a Beaumont's savvy strikes, when one brother can create electricity and another cause hurricanes, it promises to be outrageous and positively thrilling.

Poppa is in an auto accident and all Mibs wants is a savvy to save Poppa. Mibs sneaks a ride to the hospital on a rickety bus with her siblings and preacher's kids in tow. After an extraordinary adventure, not a soul will be the same.

This is one of 10 from the Virginia Readers Choice selection.

one of those hideous books where the mother dies written by Sonya Sones

Her name is Ruby, this book is about her. It tells the deeply hideous story of what happens when her mother dies and she is dragged 3000 miles away from her boyfriend, Ray, to live in L.A. with her father, who she has never met because he divorced my mom before she was born.

The only way I've ever even seen him is in the movies, since he's this mega-star who's been way too busy trying to win Oscars to even visit Ruby once in fifteen years.

Everyone loves her father, Everyone but Ruby!

This book is written in free verse, quick and easy read.

Stargirl written by Jerry Spinelli

From the day Stargirl arrives at quiet Mica High School, the hallways hum with the name Stargirl. She captures Leo Borlock's heart with just one smile. She sparks a school spirit revolution with one cheer. The students of Mica High School are enchanted, at first. Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal.

Almost Forever written by Maria Testa

This simple narrative about a father who goes to war in Vietnam unfolds in spare free verse. Although he reassures his family that a year will pass quickly, and that by the time he returns she will be seven and in the second grade, the girl thinks: "I did not tell Daddy that he was wrong- that second grade was half a hallway and a whole world away from first, -and that one year was forever." The daily rituals hold the mother and her children together: walking to the post office, watching Roger Mudd on the news, nightly prayers. There is tension in the novel when the father's letters stop, but the celebration at the end as he steps off the plane will have readers rejoicing,

This book is written in free verse. A quick read and enjoyable.

Midnight For Charlie Bone written by Jenny Nimmo

Book 1 in the Charlie Bone series

Charlie can hear the thoughts of people in photographs. His horrible aunts are delighted, it means that he is one of the chosen and must attend the Bloor's Academy for gifted children. Once Charlie is at the academy he realizes that some of his other class mates have equal mysterious powers. Charlie quickly finds life at Bloor's pretty tough, with its strict rules and the malevolent head boy, Manfred, set against him. When Charlie discovers that the child in the photograph is being held, hypnotised, against her will, he and his new friends with 'gifts' try to awaken her. But can they overcome Manfred's sinister hypnotic gifts?

(similar to the Harry Potter series, give it a try. I at least read this book, I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books)

Under A War-Torn Sky written by Laura M. Elliott

Laura Elliott will be visiting my school in September. Under a War-Torn Sky has Henry a pilot in the US Air Force is shot down behind enemy lines. Henry finds himself struggling to get to freedom. He is left to rely on the kindness and cunning of members of the French Resistance to reach the next town alive.Each day brings him nearer to home and closer to danger. Henry realizes the peril that surrounds all of the French people who risk death to protect him.
This book brings to life the terror of being behind enemy lines. Its a good read but what happened to Pierre and his mother? There is a sequel due out in September.