From the back cover: Sano's little brother Shin returns! Shin has become a rising star of the high jump, and he's determined to prove himself by beating his older brother. But that's not the only blood on the track... the one coaching Shin is their father! Can Mizuki just sit back and watch as Sano fights the father he turned away from... and the brother who never forgave … [Read more...] about Hana-Kimi 16 by Hisaya Nakajo: B+
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss: B+
From the front flap: Through sloppy usage and low standards on the Internet, in e-mail, and now "txt msgs," we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and … [Read more...] about Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss: B+
Live at Five by David Haynes: B-
From the inside flap: Brandon Wilson anchors a television newscast that is regularly trounced by reruns of "The Facts of Life." When a new producer, hell-bent on raising channel 13's ratings, decides that his middle-class African-American anchor with a penthouse isn't "black" enough, he has a brainstorm: Brandon is to redefine himself by doing a series from a new home in the … [Read more...] about Live at Five by David Haynes: B-
Holes by Louis Sachar: A
From the back cover: Stanley Yelnats isn't so surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to a juvenile detention center. After all, his family has been plagued with bad luck ever since a one-legged gypsy put a curse on his great-great grandfather. He is told that the hard labor he must perform—digging 5 foot holes in the dried up soil where Green Lake once sat—is meant … [Read more...] about Holes by Louis Sachar: A
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman: A-
From the back cover: You can't help but feel sorry for Alice Thrift, who has recently tumbled from the top of her Harvard Medical School class to the probationary wing of her student internship. It doesn't help that her social skills cause her mother to suggest she might be slightly autistic. So when Ray Russo, a social-climbing purveyor of carnival fudge, dedicates himself … [Read more...] about The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman: A-