Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

When Ashley suggested this book for our blog, she described it as, "the story of a young relationship gone wrong." The story starts with Nick in a courthouse where his ex girlfriend is getting a restraining order against him. Talk about love gone wrong! Nick is rich, an honors student, a football player, the most popular guy in school. How did it come to this? His father hits him, so he knows better than to ever hit someone in return, right? Especially not Caitlin, his one true love. But somehow he did. Through court mandated family violence councelling and keeping a journal where he recounts his relationship with Caitlin, we grow to understand how he got to where he is and where he can go from there.

You can find this book at Y LIN

Chu Ju's House by Gloria Whelan

Teen guess blogger Sarah recommended Chu Ju’s House. She said, “this book shows the life of a Chinese girl who needs to leave home so her parents will be allowed to have another child. I love Chu Ju’s courage and endurance throughout all of the adverse situations she lives through. This novel helped me understand the difficult situations many girls in China must live through."

In China, families are limited to two children so when fourteen-year-old Chu Ju's mother gets pregnant again the entire family prays for a boy. When a girl is born, Chu Ju overhears her grandmother trying to talk her mother into sending the baby to an orphanage so they can try again for a boy. To save her sister, Chu Ju runs away and thus begin her adventures in modern day China. She explores her country as she travels from one place she think might be her new home to the next, finally being taken under the wing of the gentle farmerwoman Han Na.

Find this book shelved under Y WHE

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

Bobby's sixteenth birthday brings change to his life, but not the usual sort of change. His girlfriend, Nia, is pregnant. The book alternates chapters between now, where Bobby is struggling to raise his baby Feather on his own, and then, the story of Bobby and Nia and how their family and friends deal with Nia's pregnancy. Bobby's love for Feather is achingly beautiful, and his attempts to balance school, work, a social life, and being a father are realistic, poignant, and provocative.



Find this book shelved under Y JOH on the Coretta Scott King shelf.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline and her parents have just moved to a new house. The house is very large and has been divided up into four seperate apartments, so the door in her living room now opens up onto a boarded up wall. One night Coraline opens the door in the middle of the night and finds, instead of a wall, another apartment with another mother and another father. These creepy parents have shiny black buttons sewn on their eyes and want Coraline to stay with them. When she escapes back to her apartment she discovers that the Other Mother has kidnapped her real parents and she must go back over there and use all her cunning to rescue her parents. Coraline is a creepy, pulse pounding ghost story that will have you gripping the book and reading the whole thing in one sitting. Just be sure not to read it alone!

Find this book shelved at Y GAI.