Kendal

Kendal's Book Selections

__CHILDREN'S BOOKS__

1. Book: We're Going On A Bear Hunt Author: Michael Rosen and Helen Oxbury "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, is one of the greatest children's books out there. It is about a dad who takes his four kids to go on a bear hunt. They have to cross over different types of weather and situations. They go through a grassy field, a river, muddy ground, a forest, and a snowstorm just to find a bear. However, when they finally get to the cave where the bear is at, they run back to their house with the bear chasing them. It does not exactly rhyme but it is very easy to ready and young children love it. This book is a favorite in my home and a must read for children who love adventure! My favorite thing about this book is that it shows children how to have a fun adventure outside away from technology and toys.

2. Book: I Love My Mommy Because... Author: Laurel Porter-Gaylord "I Love My Mommy Because.." is a great book for kids that is all about mommy. The author, Laurel Porter-Gaylord writes about why we love our mommies, from hugs and kisses, to bath time and bed time, she includes it all. What is really impressive about this book is the way that the illustrator, Ashley Wolff uses animal babies with their mom's to describe the story. I would rate this book a ten. It is cute, easy to read, and very comforting, especially as a nighttime story. My favorite part of the story shows a kangaroo with a joey in her pouch and it says, "I love my mommy because she tucks me in." It really is a sweet book that is little ones will love to read.

3. Book: Tiny Bear's Bible Author: Sally Lloyd Jones "Tiny Bear's Bible" is a starter bible for young children containing stories from God's word in the form of short poems. Kids like that they rhyme. It has a fuzzy bear cover and tells the stories of the Creation, Noah's Ark, Daniel in the Lion's Den, David and Golieth, and Jesus' resurrection. My favorite story is Jesus' resurrection. The author depicts his death and resurrection as really exciting and celebratory. She writes, "Leap and sing and dance tiny bear!" I also love the fact that there is something out there that explains these complex and wonderful stories to little ones. It has been awesome to see my own kids learn these stories and for me to be able to discuss them a little more in depth. Another cool aspect about this book is that they have blue a boy version and a pink girl version.

4. Book: Is Your Mama A Llama? Author: Deborah Guarino Illustrated by: Steven Kellogg Who doesn't love a book about a sweet little llama? And on top of that, this book rhymes and is very entertaining. It is about a llama named Lloyd who is asking all his friends if their mamas' are llamas. He asks a bat, a swan, a calf, a seal, a kangaroo, and finally, another llama. The other llama, Llyn, tells Lloyd that her mother is in fact a llama just like his. The end of the book shows Lloyd snuggled up by his mama ready for bed. I not only think that the story is really cute, but the illustrations are amazing. I love how Steven Kellogg shows every picture in almost a golden light. The colors all work really well together and the fact that the book rhymes keeps younger and older children entertained.

5. Book: Little Critter: What a Mess! Author and illustrator: Mercer Mayor The Little Critter books are a whole series of books written and illustrated by Mercer Mayor. I swear this man is a genius. The Little Critter books are absolutely wonderful. My favorite out of the series is "What a Mess!" It takes place when Little critter cannot find his baseball mitt. His mom tells him to go clean his room. He tries to enlist the help of his dad, mom, little sister, and even the baby but eventually has to do it by himself. It is a very funny story and after organizing (shoving) his toys under his bed and in the closet, he finally finds his baseball glove behind his bed. There is something so simple, yet brilliant, about these books. The illustrations also make the book great because they are so witty. Mayor uses the character of Little Critter to show us a naughty side while still being very lovable and enjoyable. I would recommend these books to any elementary teacher or parent of young children.

6. Book: Love You Forever Author: Robert N. Munsch Illustrator: Sheila McGraw Talk about a tear jerker. I remember reading this book for the first time when I was in preschool with my own mom. "Love You Forever" is the story of a mom who has a baby boy and every night when she rocks him to sleep, she sings, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." The story then goes on to show the boy growing up and at each stage of life his mother sneaks into his room to sing him the song. When the mother gets old and sick, the son goes to her, picks her up, and sings her the song instead. The book ends with the son going home and picking up his new baby daughter to carry on the tradition of his mother. I love this book. I think it is a great book for parents to read to their children to show love for them. The illustrations are really cute. I love when McGraw shows the tiny mother holding her adult son as he sleeps. It is one of those books that has a greater impact on the parent then the child and really puts things into perspective.

7. Book: Rikki Tikki Tavi Author: Rudyard Kipling This age old tale of a mongoose who protects a family from snakes is priceless. Rikki-Tikki becomes the pet of a family and patrols the garden making friends with the animals, except the snakes. Mongoose are the sworn enemies of snakes so Rikki-Tikki is willing to do whatever it takes to rid his turf of all snakes. There are two cobras that live in the garden and are planning to kill the humans so that they can rule over the house. However Rikki-Tikki finds out and waits for the male cobra to crawl into the house through the drain. He kills the male and the next day battles the angry female. While I don't condone violence, I think it fits in this book because it teaches the lesson of good verses evil. I really enjoy this book and so do my kids.

8. Book: Ruby's Cupcakes Author: Rosemary Wells Ruby's Cupcakes is one of the books in the series Max and Ruby. This brother and sister duo was made popular by the cartoon on Nick. It is about big sister bunny, Ruby, and her little brother, Max, who is always interfering with her plans. In this particular book, Ruby is preparing flyers for the Bunny Scout Bake Sale, but Max is flying his remote control planes all over and distracting her. In the end, Max hooks the flyers onto his plane and flies them around to the town people to let them know about the bake sale. This is a short little book that is really good for preschools. I like Max and Ruby because it teaches kids patience. Ruby is very patient with Max even though he is naughty sometimes.

9. Book: The Tree Billy Goats Gruff Author: P.C. Asbojornsen and J.E. Moe Illustartor: Marcia Brown The Three Billy Goats Gruff is the classic story of three brother goats who are trying to cross a bridge to go to the meadow to eat. However, they are stopped by a mean old troll who lives under the bridge. The smallest brother tries to cross first and the troll threatens to eat him. The baby is smart and tells the troll that the middle brother has much more meat on him and he'd be along in a minute. The troll lets the baby cross and the middle brother comes along and the same thing occurs. He tells the troll to eat the biggest brother. When the biggest brother comes along, the troll won't let him cross so the billy goat kills the troll. I really like this book. However, I was surprised because the ending is pretty violent and shocking compared to those children's books that wrap up nicely in a bow.

10. Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Author: Eric Carl "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is a really lovely children's book. It is about a caterpillar who is very hungry so he eats all this junk food and gets very sick. The next day he eats a leaf and feels a lot better. Then he goes into a cacoon and comes out a beautiful butterfly. I like this book because of the illustrations. Eric Carl's books are always uniquely illustrated and decorated with a lot of color. This book is also very useful in teaching counting to the children, as well as helping with learning colors and studying the process of change the caterpillar encounters.

11. Book: The Berenstein Bears: Too Much Teasing Author: Jan and Stan Berenstein The Berenstein Bear books are a series of books about a family of bears and they usually teach a good lesson. I love "Too Much Teasing." Brother Bear is always making fun of Sister Bear. When she tells her mom, Brother Bear tells her, "Its just a joke." However, when the kids at school start teasing him about being the Principles Pet, he gets really upset. All of the Berenstein Bear books are great, but I really like this one because bullying has become such a big issue in our society. Reading this in a young elementary classroom can help kids see that teasing isn't fun when its happening to you.

12. Book: Princess Polly and the Pea Author: Laurie Young Illustrator: Johanna Hantel. Talk about a fun book! "Princess Polly and the Pea" is a really fun spin off on the classic story "The Princess and the Pea." Every layer of the mattress is made of a different material and its a touch and feel book. The book rhymes and is really cute. Also, the last page of the book is this huge pop up wedding that is really awesome. The story is about this Princess named Polly and she is going to marry this Prince, but his mother is against it. If Polly is unable to feel the pea under her mattress, then she is not a true Princess. So the Queen keeps piling up mattresses, but it turns out Polly is a real Princess after all!

13. Book: Little Critter: Little Red Riding Hood (A Lift the Flap book) Author: Mercer Mayer This is a really creative book that retells the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The little critters grandmother is sick so she is going to take her some goodies. On the way to grandma's cabin, she meets a wolf and he goes on ahead to the cabin to trap Red Riding Hood. I enjoy the fact that the wolf ties Granny up and puts her in the closet instead of eating her because it is not as graphic for younger kids. It is a lift the flap book so it is very interactive and kids enjoy it a lot. My favorite thing about this book is that there is a little mouse on every page that says something cute. I would definitely use this book in young elementary classrooms.

14. Book: Where The Wild Things Are. Author: Maurice Sendak One night, Max is in his wolf suit and causing a lot of mischief. His mother send him to his room without any dinner and then he goes on an elaborate journey. He travels across the sea to a forest of wild things. They see Max and make him their king. They all have a wild rumpus until Max decides to go home where his mother has his hot meal waiting for him in his room. I love this book because it really shows what a child's imagination can do. It is a fun book to read and kids love it because it is adventurous and the wild things are exciting yet scary. Sendak did a really good job of capturing how a child would think in terms of a long journey and how ten minutes is a long time in their mind. I would recommend this for early to middle elementary.

15. Book: The Cat In The Hat Author: Dr. Seuss Who doesn't like a good Dr. Seuss book now and again? I love "The Cat In The Hat." Seuss has the amazing ability to rhyme any words together. This book is about two kids who are home alone with their fish when a magical adult sized cat comes to visit. The fish, being the voice of reason, tries to get the cat to go but he won't. The cat proceeds to mess up the house and cause a lot of trouble for the children. The story is very comical because of the fish. He almost has a heart attack over what the cat is doing. However, everything turns out all right. I think that all children will enjoy this story because of the rhyming and the funny characters that Dr. Seuss is famous for.

16. Book: I Love You Stinky Face Author: Lisa McCourt Illustrator: Cyd Moore "I Love You Stinky Face" is about a boy who asks his mother if she would still love him if he was a monkey, a skunk, an alligator, a swamp thing, a dinosaur, an alien, and a one eyed monster. His mother replies with something cute and clever eat page for example, he asks, "If I were a big scary ape would you still love me then?" His mother replies, "If you were a big scary ape, I would make you a birthday cake out of bananas and I would tell you, 'I love you my big scary ape.'" This is a great bedtime book for young elementary aged children. It also has really great illustrations.

17. Book: The Twelve Dogs of Christmas Author: Emma Kragen This book was actually written by a seven year old. It is to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and is an absolute blast to read. It has pictures of real dogs on each page. It is full of one poodle, two St. Bernards, three Cocker Spaniels, four Basset Hounds, five Golden Retrievers, six Boxers, seven Huskies, eight Sheepdogs, nine Chihuahuas, ten Dalmatians, eleven labs, and on the twelfth day, a cat! This book could be used to not only teach children about the twelve days of Christmas but also to teach them about the different breeds of dogs.

18. Book: The Little Spider Author: Sigmund Brouwer Illustrator: Susan Kathleen Hartung This beautifully written and illustrated story, based off the song by Cindy Morgan, tells the classic Christmas story in a completely different way. It tells of Mary and Joseph trying to hide baby Jesus after an order is placed in the land to kill all baby boys. Mary and Joseph find a cave to hide in but as the soldiers get closer they become more worried about being caught. A spider spins a web over the entrance of the cave so it looks like no one has been in there. The soldiers see the web and skip the cave. I really enjoy this version of the Christmas story because it tells it from the point of view of animals.

19. Book: The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles Author: Linda Lee Maifair Illustrator: Tom Brannon "The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles" is a Sesame Street book. Snuffy gets sick with the sniffles so Big Bird decides to go and visit him. However, along the way to Snuffy's house he is stopped by a lot of his friends who want him to take a "get well present" to Snuffy. Towards the end, Big Bird becomes annoyed because it is taking him forever to get to his friend's house. When he finally gets there, he realizes that he forgot to get Snuffy a present from himself. Snuffy assures him that what he wanted most was a visit from his friend! I'm not a big fan of Sesame Street but this is a cute story and my kids really enjoy it. I think that it could be used when teaching lessons about friendship.

20. Book: Jack and The Beanstalk Author: Grace De La Touche (retold by) Illustrator: Pam Storey The classic story of "Jack and The Beanstalk" is brought to live again in this sleep tight storybook. It tells the tale of Jack, whose mother sends him into town to sell their cow. No one in town offers to buy the cow except an old man. However, all the old man is offering Jack is magical beans. Jack trades the cow for the beans and goes home. His mother is furious and throws the beans out the window. The next morning, Jack wakes up to find a huge beanstalk in his front yard. He climbs it and finds a big castle that belongs to giants. In the end, Jack ends up stealing a golden hen and harp from the giant. I like this story. I think it could be used in positive way to teach children about money. However, it is good to acknowledge that stealing is wrong.

21. Book: You Are Special Author: Max Lucado The story, "You Are Special" tells the story of the Wemmicks. They are wooden people who either get golden stars or gray dots for whatever they do. Punchinello is one of the Wemmicks who always gets gray dots. He thinks that he is a failure. However when he visits master woodcarver, Eli, he learns that he is worth so much more than he ever dreamed. Once he realizes this and develops a relationship with Eli, his ugly dots begin to fall off. I love this book because it shows kids that Christ's love for them is so much deeper and important than any earthly acknowledgement that we could every achieve. It would be awesome if public school teachers were using this book in their classrooms because there are so many kids that need love.

__Intermediate Books__

1. Book: Charlotte's Web Author: E.B. White Charlotte's Web is a classic book about a spider named Charlotte and a pig named Wilbur. This timeless classic has worked its way into the hearts of millions of adolescents and adults. The plot of this novel is that Charlotte saves Wilbur from slaughter by writing "Some pig" in her web. The farmer sees this and decides not to kill Wilbur because he isn't an ordinary pig. Charlotte ends up dying in the story after having spider babies. It is a really heartbreaking story; however, it can be used to teach kids the value of friendship and loyalty.

2. Book: T4 Author: Anne Clare LeZotte I found this intermediate book really interesting because it is written in prose form. I enjoyed it because it offered a unique perspective on the Holocaust. It is about a thirteen year old girl named Paula who is deaf. During this time, Hitler enforces T4 which is an act that makes it acceptable to kill children with disabilities. Later on, they also kill adults with disabilities too. Paula flees to a church shelter after almost being caught by the Nazis. The end of the book was very uplifting and I feel that students would benefit from seeing the hope in Paula's situation. I really enjoyed how Lezotte wrote the book. The format gives it a more dramatic feel and I would recommend it for a middle school audience.

3. Book: Number The Stars Author: Lois Lowery This is a great book about the Holocaust from a non-Jewish point of view. The main character is a little girl named Annemarie Johansen. Her best friend, Ellen Rosen, is Jewish and moves in with Annemaries's family to escape persecution from the Nazis. Throughout the book, Annemarie's has to act like an adult. She is involved in a very dangerous situation trying to make sure her best friend is safe. This is a really good historical fiction book to use in the classroom. I like how it is from the perspective of a non-Jewish girl because it shows how others were involved in this major event in history.

__Young Adult Books__

1. Book: Of Mice and Men Author: John Steinbeck "Of Mice and Men" is a classic book that involves two friends, Lennie and George. Lennie has a mental disability and George takes care of his friend. Lennie is sweet and likes to pet soft things, however, he doesn't know his strength and often ends up killing animals on accident. They go to work on a farm for the boss and his son Curley. Curley is a mean guy who is really jealous of anyone who talks to his young wife. The wife flirts with all the men. One day, upset by Curley, his wife goes and talks to Lennie. She lets him pet her hair but when he pulls it to hard she yells. Lennie tries to quiet her down but breaks her neck in the process. When George discovers what Lennie has done, he takes his friend to hide in the woods because he knows Curley will give him a painful death. While in the woods, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head, showing kindness to his friend. This book is very sad but teaches very good lessons. I would recommend it highly for high school English classes.

2. Book: Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone Author: J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone" is the first book in the seven part series. The plot of this book is that Harry first finds out that he is a wizard and goes to Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There he meets his friends Ron and Hermione. Harry likes Hogwarts a lot more than living with his Aunt and Uncle who mistreated him; however his life becomes a lot more complicated when he finds out that he is the boy who survived against the evil Voldemort. He then uncovers that he will someday face his enemy. I love the Harry Potter series. I think that they require kids to use and stretch their imaginations.

3. Book: A Raisin in the Sun Author: Loraine Hansberry "A Raisin in the Sun" is a brilliantly written play by Loraine Hansberry. I just finished reading the book and think it would be an awesome read for high schoolers. It is about an African American family who lives together in an apartment in the 1940s. The play centers around an insurance check that they are receiving for their father's death. Everyone is facing their own struggles and wants to use the money for something different. The grandmother spends some to buy the first house any of them ever have had and then gives the son the rest to split between him and his sister. The money ends up getting misused and wasted; however, at the end of the play they really come together as a family and show the problems that African Americans went through during this time. I think it would be a good book to use when studying this time period or things such as civil rights.

4. Book: The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part 1 By: L.J. Smith This book is about a girl named Cassie who moves to her mother's hometown of New Salem, Massachusetts. When Cassie gets to New Salem she feels very out of place and notices that there is a group of teenagers known as "the club." It is soon revealed that this club is a group of witches and Cassie is one of them. Soon she becomes a part of the circle. I think high school readers will enjoy this book because it is a fantasy that is along the same lines of all the Vampire and Werewolf stories that are out there. I enjoyed reading it because there is a love story involved in the plot and well developed characters. This is a series of books that is written by the same author as the vampire diaries.

5. Book: I Am Number Four Author: Pittacus Lore "I Am Number Four" is a popular young adult book and movie about a boy named John. He is one of eight young people from a different planet, that were sent here when it was destroyed. There is evil hunting them in order of the number they were given. John is number four. In the book, he learns that the first three have been killed off and that he is next. John has to move and has a secret identity to keep himself safe. I like this book because it was exciting and kept my attention the whole way through. I think that most upper level high school students would enjoy reading this because it is action packed and it has a bit of a romance in it. I would rate it a five out of five.

6. Book: Pride and Prejudice Author: Jane Austen I am a fan of anything Jane Austen; However, "Pride and Prejudice" has to be my absolute favorite book of hers. The book centers around Elizabeth Bennett, who is an awesome female protagonist. She lives with her kind father, her overbearing and pushy mother, and four sisters. Her mother wants nothing more than to see all her daughters married off to a wealthy young gentleman and goes to great lengths to see it happen. Her sister Jane falls in love with Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth is strong willed and at odds with his friend Mr. Darcy for a lot of the book but comes to find out that she really loves him. It is a great classic story that should be read in every high school classroom.

__Class Discussion Papers__

1. Book: Ashes, Ashes Author: Jo Treggiari

“Ashes, Ashes” by Jo Treggiari is a dystopian based story that centers around a girl named Lucy as she tries to cope following the end of the world. Lucy is one of a very small population of people left on earth after a small pox virus kills off the majority of the others. After her family dies, Lucy is on her own. The world looks a lot different because floods and droughts have destroyed mostly everything. She makes little shelters for herself to stay in and carries a knife to protect herself from the three groups of people left on earth: the S’ans, the Scavengers, and the Sweepers. The S’ans are those who fell ill to the smallpox virus but somehow survived death. They are mentally insane people who wonder the streets. The Scavengers are people who were living unaffected physically from the plague and took what ever they could find on the streets or in houses. Finally, the Sweepers are hunters of the scavengers. They come around in vans looking for those that have survived and take them to an island where Lucy is not sure what happens to them. Lucy tries her best to avoid all three groups of people, but when she realizes that the sweepers are after her, she joins forces with Aidan. He is a young Scavenger with whom Lucy becomes romantically involved. Lucy and Aiden eventually are taken to the island where there is a scientist and her crew who want to do experiments on them. The thing about Lucy was that she did not know who to trust because the scientist was a nice lady, but she did have evil intentions. Thankfully, Lucy and Aiden end up getting away and the book ends with a romantic scene of them getting together. To be honest, I did not enjoy this book very much. I thought I would like it because it is sounds exciting and has a romance plot! However, it turns out to be a little slow and predictable in the beginning and feels like something that I have read before. It becomes more interesting towards the middle as a story line begins to develop between Lucy and Aiden. The author brings in a love triangle which spices things up. At the same time, though, the characters do not feel fully developed, especially the Sweepers and those people who are doing the experiments. It feels like Treggiari spent too much time telling us about Lucy’s survival tactics in the beginning of the book and not enough time focusing on the people involved in the story. The end wraps somethings up nicely in a little bow but still leaves me asking questions that would have been better answered in the plot. I guess that leaves it open to a sequel though. In conclusion, I would recommend “Ashes, Ashes” to anyone who is interested in post-apocolyptic books because it does have some interesting concepts and ideas. I liked the fact that the character of Lucy was written as a strong female heroine and that she found the courage inside herself to survive without her family. However, it probably it not a book for someone who does not enjoy that particular genre.

2. Book: Paper Towns Author: John Green

Paper Towns

I believe that the best books are those that catch your attention from the very beginning, making you unable to put it down until you finish the whole thing. Paper Towns by John Green is precisely that kind of book. The author brought so many different elements to the table while writing this book. It is humorous, insightful, adventurous, deep, and mysterious all at the same time. In this paper, I will give you a peek at what makes Paper Towns so great. The story of Paper Towns is about a boy named Quentin Jacobsen. He is in love with his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelmen. As children they are friends and one day while they are playing they discover the body of a dead man in the park. They later find out that the man had killed himself. The story then fast forwards to Quentin as a senior in high school. He has a group of friends but is considered a nerdy type. Margo is of course very popular and Quentin has loved her from afar all these years. Quentin and Margo don't hangout anymore, until one night Margo shows up at Q's window. She takes him on an adventure where they do all this crazy pranking. They prank her boyfriend who cheated on her, her friends, and a guy who had picked on Quentin in middle school. They put a dead fish in their car or room and they even end up removing someone's eye brow with Nair while they sleep. After they complete all these tasks, they break into Sea World. While Q is anxious to get caught during their escapade, he has the best time of his life and hopes things between him and Margo will change. However, this is not the case. The next day, he finds out that Margo has gone missing. She has run away before and this time her parents have decided to wash their hands of her. Quentin, however, cannot let Margo go.Through a series of clues that she has left behind and a lot of personal sacrifice on his own part, he goes on a quest to find Margo Roth Spiegelman. With the help of his friends Ben, Radar, and Lacey, they work together to track Margo down. They end up finding Margo and things work out differently than I had imagined but it was a really great ending. I absolutely loved the characters in this book. They were very well developed and multidimensional. Quentin had Margo up on this pedestal of perfection. She was this quick witted, funny, adventurous girl who know one quite understood. However, throughout his journey to find her, he starts to see Margo for what she is, a human being who makes mistakes. I think this is a great book for high schoolers to read because it has a great lesson that you should be yourself and that you shouldn't expect anyone to be anything less than themselves. The only downside of the book when aimed towards a young audience is that it did have bad language and some explicit imagery. Other than the language, I would highly recommend it!

3. Book: The Devil's Arithmetic Author: Jane Yolen

"The Devil's Arithmetic"

"The Devil's Arithmetic," by Jane Yolen, is a historical fiction book for intermediate readers. In this well written story of the Holocaust, we get a glimpse at the world that Jewish people lived in during this time. This is very realistic fiction. The story starts out with twelve year old Hannah who is on her way to a passover feast with her family. Hannah is not happy about going to another Jewish holiday and complains to her mother how she is sick of always remembering the Holocaust. Her mother makes her go to the dinner where they meet with her Aunt Eva, Grandpa Will, and Grandma Belle who are all survivors of the Nazi attacks. Hannah does not fully understand why her ancestors are still so upset about what happened decades ago and she is a typical self centered junior high girl. However, this all changes when during the dinner ritual, she is transported to a different place and time. She is in a house with a woman named Gitl who calls her Chaya and she can suddenly understand yiddish. She has been transported into the body of a girl her age who is recovering from Chlorea, a disease that has claimed the lives of both her parents. As time passes, Hannah has a hard time remembering things about herself as Hannah and becomes more like Chaya. She has a hard time knowing what is real and what is a dream. One day, during a wedding that Hannah, Gitl, and others that she has met are attending, black cars pull up and a man with medals steps out. One of the wedding guest makes a comment about the angel of death and it finally occurs to Hannah where she is. She is in the year 1942 and the men in the cars are Nazis. Hannah tries to tell the people that she is with what that the Nazi's will kill them but they don't believe her. Instead, the Jews are packed into a train and sent to Auschwitz where the women and children are separated from the men and everyone's heads are shaved. At the camp, Hannah meets a girl named Rivka who is leader of the Jews and tries to help tell people what to do in order to survive. She and her brother Wolfe have been there for a year and the rest of her family has been killed. Everyday, the Commandant comes to pick people to go to the ovens and be put to death. The woman have signals to each other to hide the children when they see him coming. They call this day by day choosing the devil's arithmetic. The day comes when Rivka is chosen to go to the gas chamber; however, Hannah decides to sacrifice herself instead. When she goes into the over, she is transported by home to modern day. Once home, Hannah is very shaken and confused. Her Aunt Eva talks to her and Hannah finds out that she had changed her name from Rivka to Eva and her grandfather had changed his name from Wolfe to Will. Her Aunt reveals to her that the girl Chaya had saved her life. I loved this book. I think it was a great and realistic way to show what went on during the Holocaust. It would be a great read for middle school kids because the protagonist Hannah is twelve. From a religious point of view, I think it is very beneficial because it shows we take things for granted today and how we need to think about how bad the Jewish people were persecuted for their religion and nationality.

4. Book: Flip Author: Martyn Bedford

"FLIP" Martyn Bedford is the author of the book "Flip." This is a very interesting story and I would imagine that it took a great amount of imagination to come up with the concept of a soul being trapped in another human's body. This is Bedford's debut novel and he does a decent job of capturing the fear and confusion that is felt by the main character, Alex. The book takes place in England so a lot of sayings that we would not use in America are cooperated into the book, which I thought was a refreshing change from other books I’ve read. Bedford starts his book by throwing the audience right into the conflict. It begins with Alex, who wakes up one morning in a different bedroom with a different family. He has no idea where he is and when he looks in the mirror he sees another boys face. Soon he discovers that this boy he is inhabiting is named Philip, Flip for short. Flip is very popular, good looking, and has two girlfriends. Alex, on the other hand has never had a girlfriend and is more of a nerdy character. I really liked the character of Alex and how he was able to fulfill both his personality and learn to adapt to Flip’s so that we could understand what he was like as well. Alex is really scared and wants to get in contact with his family. When he tries, he gets a message from his mother's friend calling him sick for saying he was Alex. This leads him to believe that he has been killed. He ends up finding out that he isn't dead, he is in a coma that resulted from an accident that he had been in. He knows then that he must figure out how to get his psyche back into his body before his parents decide to let him go and take him off of the machines that are keeping him alive. He does go to the town he is from and talks to his best friend, David; however, he doesn't believe that its really Alex and has him arrested. Philip's parents come and get him. They believe that he has an obsession with this boy who is in the coma and are really worried about him. The book ends with Alex getting into the hospital room where his body, and Philip's soul, lay in a vegetative state. The end was really confusing to me, but it seemed like Alex had to smother his original body to get Flip's psyche back in the right spot. It works and the book ends with emails between Flip and Alex five weeks later. Overall, the book was well written and I think that high school boys would really enjoy it. Being female, I felt that the book was written more towards a male audience. I primarily liked it because it addressed the issue of "the soul" and I think that it could come up in discussions with students and get them thinking about Christianity and what really happens after death. Another pro of the book is that it shows two very different family dynamics and conflicts within those family units.