66. Impossible by Komal Kant

listened to audio via Audible Escape
narrated by Lidia Dornet and Graham Halstead
Unabridged audio (7:21)
2012 Createspace
254 pgs.
YA Romance - and not a good one....
Finished 4/17/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.70- 6538 ratings
My rating:  2
Setting:  contemporary usa

First line/s:  " 'I bet a hundred dollars he smells like a rat-infested sewer,' my best friend, Kance said from beside me, her voice thick with disgust."

My comments:  Over-the-top mean girl becomes nice girl in a bizarrely too-impossible ridiculous way.  Emo boy becomes super-hunk overnight.  High school kids flit from hooking up to being part of a ocouple back=and=forth, back-and-forth... A pair of moms that are ridiculously permissive.  If you want to read a story that keeps your eyes rolling from beginning to end, this is the perfect book for you!  I am being really kind giving this a "2" rating.

Goodreads synopsis:  Ashton Summers is on her way to becoming the most popular girl in school and nothing—or no one—is going to stand in her way. Especially not Luca Byron, her freak neighbor, with his tattoos, loud music, and distracting green eyes.
          Luca Byron has three goals in life: get through high school with a low profile, make sure his garage band becomes something more than a hobby, and try to forget about his insufferable ex-best friend, Ashton, who he can’t get out of his mind.
          The last thing Ashton and Luca want to do is rekindle their friendship, but when Ashton takes a tumble down the social ladder, Luca—with his new makeover—is the only one who can help her rise up again by pretending to be her boyfriend. At first, being together is unbearable and annoying, but things start to change as Ashton and Luca discover the real reasons they drifted apart seven years ago.
          Now, keeping their hands off each other seems impossible.

30. Wonder - P. J. Palacio

Series information

Read on my iPhone through Audible

Audio read by Diana Steele, Nick Podehl and Kate Rudd

Unabridged (8:06)

2012, Knopf

315 pgs.

Middle School Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished 4/28/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.42

My rating:    (5) Awesome  

Contemporary NYC

My comments:  First let me say that I listened to this book, which gave additional voice to the four or five characters that had points-of-view. At times this was great, at others not-so-great. It gave a different dimension to the character of Auggie - a lightly gravelly tone that seemed to have a teeny, tiny bit feminine edge to it that every so often put me off.  August has (and will continue throughout his entire life) to see first hand reactions to a face that is grotesque, different, un-beautiful  in a world that has embraced physical beauty as a capstone. What would my reaction be when I came face to face with a ten-year-old with such a face?  OF COURSE I would want to get below the surface, but I am an adult.  I could go on and on with my thoughts about this, and that's what makes this book such a marvel.  It makes you contemplate deeply.  It makes you look at your own inner values and realities.  That is what makes this book stand apart from so many others that I've read.  And the best thing is that all this thinking comes packaged in a delightfully written story that is character AND plot driven.   A winner.

(This will have to be my primary read-aloud next year.)

Goodreads book summary:  I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.
          August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?
          R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

6. None of the Above - I. W. Gregorio

I read an ARC of this
2015 (due out in April) Balzer + Bray/ Harper Collins

328 pgs.

YA CRF

Finished 1/15/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.31

My rating:   4.5/ Super Excellent book

Acquired from my YALSA group

Setting:  contemporary Utica, NY

1st sentence/s:  "Dawn is my favorite time of day.  There's something sacred about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping, when the sky is just turning toward the light, and you can still have the sounds of night before the engines and conversations of the day drown them."

My comments:  4.5 This was an excellent, informative read.  I love when you find a book that teaches AND has a good story.  Usually it's historical fiction, but this one covered a lot of information about intersex/AIS/hermaphrodite women.  There were a few things that were sort of just "thrown in," a little off-putting because I felt it might have been missing other things too (a quick mention about an Adam's apple, as one example, sort of out-of-the-blue), but overall I ingested it in two sittings. (One comment about the cover:  yuck!)

Goodreads book summary:  A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she's intersex . . . and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.
          What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?
           When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.
           But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned--something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."
           Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?

40. Out of My Mind - Sharon M. Draper

For: Middle Grades
"ages 10 and up"
Atheneum Books, 2010
HC $16.99
292 pages
Rating: 5

Wowzer. Sounds trite. This is NOT a trite book. What a wonderful gift, this book. A fifth grader with major cerebral palsy, has never spoken a word, though she is extremely bright and has thousands of words whirling around in her head.

"Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes --each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands. .... Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs."

No one knows how smart this drooling, spastic child is. She knows she drools, she hates it. She knows that she makes weird noises and flails her arms in awkward, embarrasing ways. She hates it. No one knows the insightful thoughts that are in her mind. No one knows that that mind is practically photogenic, that she can see colors accompanying music, that is a sponge ready to learn, learn, learn. Her parents have an idea. Her next-door neighbor, the woman who takes care of her while her parents work has certainly figured it out....and we, as readers are to discover how Melody's life changes as others figure it out, too.

How prejudiced our world - me included, I'm ashamed to admit - is to people with disabilities. We stereotype. We are embarrassed. We look away...or we stare. We avoid this world at all costs. We can even be mean. In this story, we watch all this happen and see it through Melody's eyes. We see her frustrations, we look at her world differently, and we celebrate and cry with her.

This is an exceptional story. It is gut-wrenching. Sharon Draper is a brilliant, insightful author to have created this masterpiece. I will not forget it...and I will read it again and again. I want to keep reminding myself to be a better person, to look deeper.

Wowzer. Do NOT miss this book!

Sharon Draper has a blog that includes a great review - much better than mine. And on her website she even has a study guide!