I love the opening line in Motorcycles, Sushi and One Strange Book (Zondervan, 2010) by Nancy Rue: "I guess my life was crazy even before the day it really lost its mind." The book lived up to the opening, too.

15 year old Jessie Hatcher's life is spent dealing with her ADHD and her mother's In Bed mode, which is better than her rare Out of Bed mode. Then the father she thought was dead shows up. She can't deny he's her father as she'd look just like him if she was a boy. Then mom goes into crisis and she has to go to Florida to live with this man she's just met. Along the way she gets involved, as the title says, with motorcycles, sushi, and one strange book, along with a cute guy who isn't turned off by her ADHD.

Nancy has written books for mini-women and adult women and is now writing for teens. See her blog for teens here.

I did in this book. I wanted to tell Sarah, "Can't you see what Brianna is doing to you?" (I guess I got connected to her...)

The Unwritten Rule: "You don't like your best friend's boy friend." Yet Sarah liked Ryan first. She can't let Brianna get hurt--things are so bad for Brianna at home--so she tries to stifle her feelings. But it's not working too well. Read the book if you want to find out what happens. I think you'll find it's worth the time.

The Unwritten Rule (Simon Pulse, 2010) was written by Elizabeth Scott. On her website you can read more about this book and her others, check out her blog that has contests, and read her bio.

CHARACTERS, that is . . .

Though both of these characters and their stories are so believable, you feel as if you could meet them on the street.

In Erin Dionne's debut middle grade novel, Models don't eat chocolate cookies, (Dial, 2009), we meet 12 year old Celeste Harris. Celeste is round and doesn't mind being round, but when she tries on the bridesmaid dress for her cousin's wedding, it's a disaster. The disaster gets worse when her aunt spots the Husky Peach modeling competition and thinks Celeste should enter, in fact she enters her. To make things worse, Celeste's best friend Sandra starts hanging out with Celeste's archenemy Lively Carson who calls Celeste a cow and worse.

Who can help Celeste in this dilemma? The lady in red!

Author Erin Dionne says she's "been a Husky Peach and a Skinny Banana" so knows what it is like to struggle with weight. Read more about Erin and her next book at: www.erindionne.com And check out the book trailer:

YA novel Wintergirls (Viking, 2009) by Laurie Halse Anderson deals with anorexia and bulimia and obviously strikes a chord with many teen readers--just check out all the YouTube videos made about the book!

The opening is fascinating: "So she tells me, the words dribbling out with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee. She tells me in four sentences. No, five. I can't let me hear this, but it's too late. The facts sneak in and stab me." Doesn't that make you want to read on? It sure did me. And I discovered that Lia wants to weigh . . . 0. Don't you wonder how someone can be that desperate.

The questions is: Will finding out what happened to her ex-best friend Cassie change anything for Lia?

Laurie is the author of Speak, Chains, Fever 1793 and more. You can read about her and her books at her website: http://www.writerlady.com/. She has a "to-die-for" writer cabin that her husband built for her and shares the story on YouTube.

I don't know how I happened on two good books that both include photography, but I did. One could almost get an education in photography while enjoying the stories.

Blake in Flash Burnout (Houghton Mifflin, 2009) makes me laugh. And since he plans to be a comedian when he grows up, each day Blake counts the number of times he makes people laugh. Shannon, a total babe, is his girlfriend. Marissa is a friend and fellow photographer. Then he shows Marissa a photo of a homeless woman and it's her mother. He ends up getting involved with Marissa and her problems, which causes jealousy for Shannon.

If you want to find out what happens in this award winning book by L.K. Madigan, you'll have to read it!

I'm not surprised to discover that L.K. Madigan herself is interested in photography since she included so many wonderful technical details in this story. Check out her website at www.flashburnout.com and find out about her upcoming book there, too. She also has encouragement for writers on her site.

Author Nina LaCour's debut book hold still (Dutton, 2009) is a fascinating look at loss, friendship and photography.

Caitlyn has survived the summer without her best friend and fellow photographer, Ingrid, who committed suicide. Now it's September and she has to go back to school--surely their photography teacher will understand Caitlyn's loss, but this one-time friend ignores her. Then Caitlyn discovers the journal Ingrid left behind in her room.

Warning: if the thought of Caitlyn having a lesbian friend is offensive, you'll want to pass on this book.

Learn more about Nina at www.ninalacour.com. She and some other writers have a blog called: Chelsea I want my flannel back, where you are encouraged to submit your own stories.

memoirs of a teenage amnesiac (Farrar, Stauss and Girioux, 2007) by Gabrielle Zevin is very, very good. It's an interesting concept, and very believable.

16 year old Naomi fell and hit her head. She can't remember anything from the last 4 years: her boyfriend; her parent's divorce; her half sister; her best friend, Will Landsman, who calls her Chief; why she loves working on the Yearbook; French; how to drive a car. She doesn't know why she was with Ace; she's interested in James, the new guy, who rescued her when she fell. She decides she doesn't like who she was. THEN, she remembers . . . everything!

Go to author Gabrielle Zevin's website to read about all the awards this book has garnered. There's also a book trailer, and news that it's being made into a movie!

Gabrielle also wrote Elsewhere (review here) and a number of books for adults.

Invisible i - The Amanda Project (HarperTeen, 2009) by Melissa Kantor is an intriguing book with a plus--it has a website, www.theamandaproject.com, where fans can interact. And, I'm happy to say, the book has a sequel in the works.

Here's a brief introduction to the story:
9th grader Callie has problems at home and keeps thinking about how Amanda knows what those problems are. When she gets called into the office, she expects to see her dad. Instead the principal has two other students, Nia Rivera and Hal Bennett, and he accuses the three of them of helping Amanda vandalize his car. They barely know each other. But they all know Amanda and now she is missing.

Check out the author's fun website at www.melissakantor.com. There you can read the first chapter of this book, sign up for Melissa's newsletter, read about her other books, friend her on facebook and more.

LATE ADDITIONS

CONTEST

The generous Melissa Kantor has offered some goodies for my first ever contest. You could win a bookmark and Amanda Project button and best of all an Invisible i book! In fact, I'll take pick three winners.

How to enter:
1) If you don't see the comment option, click on the title of this entry and you'll be taken to another page, where at the bottom you should see "leave a comment." Sign in.

After you click on sign in, you may want to choose open ID and enter yahoo.com or google.com to sign in with your email. Others you can use to sign in are: LiveJournal, Flickr, Myspace, Blogger, Wordpress.com, Mixi, AOL, or Orange. Sorry movable type is not easier for commenting!

Judging:
I'll pick my favorite stories. If I have difficulty deciding between entries, I'll go by entry date and time.

GOING ABROAD

The Amanda Project has been sold to 9 countries! Is that cool, or what?! Read about it here!

Along with some other writers I got to read the ARC of Joni Sensel's The Timekeeper's Moon which came out this month from Bloomsbury. It continues the story of Ariel the first Farwalker in countless generations. Is she going crazy or is the moon really talking to her? Should she follow the itch in the soles of her feet? Or is death coming for all no matter what she does?

This novel is the sequel to The Farwalker's Quest (see my blog entry here)

Check out Joni's FAQ on her website where she says she gets her ideas "from her sock drawer!"

Shiver (Scholastic, 2009) by Maggie Stiefvater

Grace was attacked by the wolves when she was small, but "her" wolf saved her from the others.

When it gets cold Sam is a wolf. He's been staying a wolf longer and longer and this may be the last time he's a human.

The story is told from both Grace's and Sam's viewpoints.

You don't want to miss this story of love, betrayal, and reconciliation. Neither do you want to miss the book trailer on Maggie's site.

And wait! A sequel, Linger, is coming this summer! A third book, Forever, is also planned.

The Heart is Not a Size (2010) by Beth Kephart

Georgia talks her friend Riley into going on a humanitarian trip to Juarez, Mexico to the squatter village of Anapra where they work on building a home. How is Georgia going to deal with her anxiety attacks in another country and culture?

This book was so good - really had the feel of what it is like visiting a 3rd world country.

Read about the author here at her publisher's site and check out her blog where she recently talked about having to "kill her darlings."

The Life of Glass (2010) by Jillian Cantor deals with grief, growing up changes, and changes and adjustments within a family.

Melissa's father has died, her best friend Ryan is falling for the new girl, she's jealous of her older sister's beauty and boyfriend, and now Mom is beginning to date. Will looking at her father's journal be enough to keep him "there" for her?

Read about Jillian on her website and listen to a reading of her book on the February 28th entry on her blog.

The concepts in Leviathan (Simon Pulse, 2009) are interesting and felt real. I cared about the two main characters from opposing camps in this alternate world. It's funny, too. And had wonderful illustrations by Keith Thompson. This is another one of those books where I'm waiting not very patiently for the sequel (Behemoth coming out in October 2010).

Okay, you have to watch the book trailer on Scott Westerfeld's site for Leviathan. The ending of it made me laugh.

This book is an early YA and like The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate deals with issues of evolution, plus both are set in the early 1900s.