Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Description: Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether. In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia. (read more about it here)

Epic Wins:

• Anderson basically cracked a girls head open, stole the thoughts, and wrote them down. You can tell she worked hard to master this book and it paid off.
• It’s real, raw, and yeah maybe a little depressing a times but it showed me a window into the soul of another person as their darkest hour came to a close and the sun rose.
• Hope. Yes the world is awful and helpless at times but there is hope for a better future.
• Lia- I loved watching Lia change and make serious realizations about herself and her situation. She was complex, relatable, and stubborn.
• Lia would have a thought and but it would be crossed out and a new one replaced it. At first I thought this was odd but as Lia told me her story it all made sense and it went well with her personality. I found that I enjoyed it in the end.
• Elijah- He was one of those characters that Lia runs into and he changes her way of thinking, he changes her life dramatically.
• The way Lia loves Emma is so cute. They have this adorable relationship that is nice to see. Emma is her one ray of sunshine through her grim days.
• No romance. This sounds like it should be a fail but I have my reasons. Every book presents a problem and usually it is solved via the romance. Not this one. This one proved that you have to go through these things alone sometimes; there won’t always be a cute boy as a reward. I liked that.
• This book had an eerie beauty to it. It was bold, daring, and raw but most of all it was beautiful.

Overall: Heart-breakingly beautiful. This is a story that you don't want to miss!

Adieu,

-Kare

NOLICHUCK! TJ's Wild Adventures by Jackson Keene

**TJ is a typical fourteen-year-old who struggles with divorced parents, frequent bullying and having difficulty with schoolwork. He especially dislikes his history class, which is a bit ironic as his father is a big historian. After a particularly difficult day, TJ is home alone when he finally discovers a secret that his father's been keeping for years. This discovery changes his life forever.**

My Thoughts-
The Good:

1. Time Travel -- This is (again) time travel. Like I have said before, time travel is amazing!
2. History -- I LOVE history. The battles, the politics, the people, and of course, the romance. This book was chock-full of amazing historical facts. Most of the story takes place in Tennessee, near the Nolichucky River.
3. Romance -- What I thought was amazing is how right when one of TJ's few ramances started, he found something very awesome when he got home. Very amusing in my opinion.
4. Life in the 19th Century -- The things that TJ had to do in the 1800's, served as a life lesson that he will NEVER forget. Hunting, murderous and lusty Indians, and of course the food. I thought it was very intriguing that it was safer to drink whiskey than water.

The Bad:

1. The Tavern Brawl -- I thought it wasn't very pleasing to have a man hurt like that, but that is just my opinion. I blame the circle of life. People get hurt (some worse than others) and some die. This is all I have to say for the bad.

Recommendation-
I only recommend this book to people who do not have weak stomachs or do not have a sense of adventure.

~Adiós,

Dallin


**This is not  a n official summary. It was written by Jackson Keene on goodreads.com**