Books for MEA

 The first book i finished on my MEA Holiday was MICE by Gordon Reece

I read it like I read ROOM, by Emma Donoghue.  I have a hard time reading about kids that suffer trouble and skim through books that highlight this. This is a book worth reading, like ROOM, but it is hard to read.   As a mother and a teacher, these things really eat me up.  

There are plot things that I did not like and writing that had heights of excitement, but then went down to mediocre. It was a good premise for a first book.

I read Tangerine on the way home from Duluth and it went by in a heartbeat. GREATNESS!!! And I know, I am late to the bandwagon.  Sometimes with YA there are some topics that hurt your soul and you have to take a break from all of that.  I stayed away from Tangerine because I knew it was great, but I knew it would hurt. It fulfills both prophesies.

This is a deeply moving and heart felt book.  It is in the Chris Crutcher genius mode, that made me want to be a teacher and writer.  Great characters, plot twists and emotional YA thought processes wringing through.  The ending made me want a different resolution to the character's problems, but it was satisfying non the least.  Read it.

Schooled immediately grabbed me with the characters in it's drama.  Cap Anderson is a boy whom I would love all children to be.  Let's go back to that day of innocence. Let's go back to that time of no expectations for our kids.  I do not like what I see of the mounting pressures our kids face as young adults.  Things have gotten so amped up.  Situations that use to happen as sophomores now occur to seventh graders, especially with girls.  Girls need to take a time warp vacation and chill.   

This is a book that will make kids look at the kid that is overlooked all the time.  The kid that is smart, but strange to the norm.  The kid that might irritate, but why is that irritating?  Is the only reason it's irritating is because they are different?  I am not perfect, and when I was young and was picked on, I struck first before being the one struck.  Maybe that is why it hurts so bad to read these YA books.  I was those characters.  The good and the bad.  Maybe we are these characters through all of our lives.  I want to be the good ones and I hope more people do too.

http://www.caribousmom.com/2011/08/22/mice-book-review/