| Patricia E. Kefalas Dudek |
Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families |
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Books For Young Readers (And The Young At Heart) |
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| 13
Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson Patti's Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is about 17-year-old Ginny who is very shy. She lives in New Jersey until a letter arrives from her quirky Aunt Peg the artist (who reminds me a little bit of my beloved Uncle Frank). The letter contains a thousand dollars in cash and instructions: get a passport, book a one-way flight to London, then go to an address in New York to pick up a package before heading to the airport. The rest of the story is Ginny following her Aunt's instructions via the 13 little blue envelopes…. I enjoyed Maureen Johnson's writing so much that I have a number of quotes that I will be posting this weekend from it. It made me laugh out loud and cry. The most disappointing part of the story to me was the ending…sort of feels like she left us hanging. I started to read this book because of a recommendation from my daughter, Stephanie. She kept telling me how much she enjoyed this book and how she would love a chance like this…HA! |
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| A
Little Princess -
Frances Hodgson Burnett I love this and the movie is wonderful as well. |
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| A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle | ||||
| Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Judy Blume | ||||
| Artemis Fowl series - Eoin Colfer | ||||
| Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale | ||||
| Books of Ember series - Jeanne DuPrau | ||||
| Brave
New World - Aldous Huxley I want to fight for the bad things so I know what good is and have to remind myself of this during dark and difficult days. |
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| Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson | ||||
| Charlotte's Web - E. B. White | ||||
| Complete Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis | ||||
| Edward's
Eyes - Patricia MacLachlan Sad but touching book. I enjoyed it. |
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| Eragon (Inheritance) - Christopher Paolini | ||||
| Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything - E. Lockhart | ||||
| Gilda
Joyce, Psychic Investigator -
Jennifer Allison The author is from Michigan and the books take place in Michigan. Ms. Allison came to my husband's school and Stephanie got signed books and had the chance to speak with her. www.gildajoyce.com |
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| Green Eggs and Ham - Dr Seuss | ||||
| Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift | ||||
| Half Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer | ||||
| Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh | ||||
| Holes - Louis Sachar | ||||
| How to Be Bad - E. Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle | ||||
| If You Give a Mouse a Cookie - Laura Joffe | ||||
| Jessica's
Guide to Dating on the Dark Side - Beth Fantaskey This book was a bit too much like Twilight for my daughter and I, but we laughed all the way through listening to the audio book. It is MUCH better than Twilight. The accent of the male lead is great, and his impression of American teenagers will have you cracking up. Enjoy reading or listening!! |
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| Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein | ||||
| Little Women - Louisa May Alcott | ||||
| Looking
for Alaska -
John Green This is an amazing book. I laughed, I cried, and I learned several things. Not bad for a young adult book. |
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| Lost and Found - Andrew Clements | ||||
| Love,
Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli Still moping months after being dumped by her Arizona boyfriend Leo, fifteen-year-old Stargirl, a home-schooled free spirit, writes "the world's longest letter" to Leo, describing her new life in Pennsylvania. I JUST LOVE THIS BOOK. One of my all time favorites!! Jerry Spinelli website |
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| Matilda - Roald Dahl | ||||
| Masterpiece
- Elise Broach Way better than any book about bugs should be! |
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| No Talking - Andrew Clements | ||||
| Oh, the Places You'll Go! - Dr. Seuss | ||||
| One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish - Dr. Seuss | ||||
| Outsiders - S Hinton | ||||
| Princess Academy - Shannon Hale | ||||
| Prom Nights from Hell - Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle | ||||
| Sahara
Special - Esme Codell Her blog and website are down right now, but she has a wonderful list of books and reviews. She also wrote Diary of a Fairy Godmother (which I loved) and How to Get Your Children to Love to Read. SHE IS ALMOST AS WONDERFUL AS JK ROWLINGS. |
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| Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares | ||||
| Sisters
Grimm books - Michael Buckley See www.sistersgrimm.com/books.html |
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| Sleep
Ponies - Gudrun Ongman Elaina loves horses, so she loves this book. |
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| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain | ||||
| The
Anybodies - Julianna Baggott The girls love her kids books, and I like both her books for kids and her books for those of us that pretend to be grown ups. The Anybodies was a "Battle of the Books" book in our school district and then we all went to our public library to hear her speak. She was great. She told the kids to thank their parents for the moments of boredom as that is when they will have time to use their imagination. I loved that. The third in the Anybodies, Nobodies series by N. E. Bode is as wonderful as the first two. I must share some of my favorite parts with you: 1) In one of the scariest scenes ever written for a book lover like me, there is a scene where the souls of the writers of the book are ripped out of the book. This is because, of course, anyone that writes a book puts bits of themselves and their soul into their book (so true). So, the quote I love is: "And I can't speak for Terry Practchett or Neil Gaiman or Kate DiCamillo on how it felt for them to have that bit of their souls that they'd stitched into their own books ripped out. No, I cannot. But I can tell you that I was in a donut shop at the moment, and although I didn't know what was happening, I felt something awful - as if a corner of my own soul, the one I walk around with day in and day our went dark." I love these writers, and love books. I've never written one with my soul stitched into it yet; but I can tell you I would dearly love to, so I could empathize with this part of the book. My girls did not get it, but I LOVED it. 2) Another great quote that I believe with all my heart, and that I am trying to teach my girls: "The more I get to know...the more I'm sure that they were wrong. And the more I get to know people in the world--readers, you know, like you, who sometimes write me letters about your own amazing lives, sometimes rowdy lives, but always full, complicated lives, -- I start to think that nobody is truly ordinary....not if you look hard enough. I've come to believe that we all have our own gifts - strange and lovely and true." 3) Last but not least: "The world is always changing, but there's a part of you that never changes. It's essentially you, and you can always rely on it to be true....You've really got to be yourself in this life. You have to rely on something deep inside..." |
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| The
Araminta Spook - Angie Sage Click here for website. |
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| The Boyfriend List - E. Lockhart | ||||
| The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank | ||||
| The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart | ||||
| The Giver - Lois Lowry | ||||
| The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein | ||||
| The Legend of Spud Murphy - Eoin Colfer | ||||
| The
Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan I LOVE THIS SERIES…but it is still not Harry Potter! Great way to relearn about the Greek Gods. Enjoy it! |
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| The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure - William Goldman | ||||
| The Report Card - Andrew Clements | ||||
| Things Not Seen - Andrew Clements | ||||
| Things That Are - Andrew Clements | ||||
| Thirteen
Reasons Why -
Jay Asher This book ROCKED my world. A must for teenagers to read, and a good way to talk about depression and suicide with your kids. |
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| Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson | ||||
| Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt | ||||
| Twilight series - Stephenie Meyer | ||||
| Uglies
Trilogy (The Uglies) - Scott Westerfield I have read all of his books. Love this author. Highly recommended! |
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| Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls | ||||
| Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings - Shel Silverstein | ||||
| Willa
by Heart (Wedding Planner's Daughter) -
Coleen Murtagh Paratore I just love this author and the first two before this book, The Wedding Planner's Daughter and The Cupid Chronicles. Good books for young girls. |
