black box

black box

by Julie Schumacher

How far should we go to protect the people we love? Sisters Dora and Ella have always been close. Now Dora is diagnosed with depression and has to be admitted to the hospital. Ella feels alone and helpless. Home has become a fighting ground for her parents and she feels alone at school. How much of this is her responsibility?

Impossible

Impossible

by Nancy Werlin

Inspired by the lyrics to the ballad "Scarborough Fair", Werlin tells the story of Lucy, a seventeen year old girl whose family has been cursed with the promise of eventual madness. In order to break the curse and free her unborn child from this curse, Lucy must complete the three impossible tasks enumerated in the song: make a magical shirt without any seam or needlework, find an acre of land between the salt water and the sea strand, plow it with just a goat's horn and sow it with one grain of corn.

It is an interesting premise. Although the setting and characters are contemporary, the reader must be willing to suspend belief and enter into the world of fantasy and romance. But if you're willing to do that, it makes a wonderful read.

Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin

Parker is called the ice princess - she tries to hold herself apart from the rest of the students in her high school. But one student uses her blog to bully and shame her. Trouble in school, trouble with her boyfriend, trouble at home - who is she and what does she want?

- Jeri

Absolute Brightness

Absolute Brightness by James Lucesne

Leonard Pelkey comes to live with Phoebe, Deirdre, and their divorced mother. This strange boy enters into their lives and the lives of the people in the small New Jersey town of Neptune and they begin to see themselves in new ways. Suddenly Leonard disppears. As Phoebe and her family search for him, they make discoveries about their family, their friends and themselves that cause them all to wonder what evil is. What is darkness and what is light and what is absolute brightness? A story worth reading and rereading.

Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott

Danielle and her mother move from town to town, never staying anywhere, never having a home. Her mother is a thief, specializing in stealing silver from rich people's homes, and that is what she is raising Danielle to be. Until they reach a town called Heaven, where for the first time, Danielle meets people who want to be her friends and has a place she wants to stay.

- Jeri

Black Box by Julie Schumacher

What happens to a family when a teenager is diagnosed with depression? How do the different family members deal? This short book is the story of one family, and two sisters.

Jeri

Saga by Conor Kostick

This is a sequel to Epic. Saga is the name of a world founded by humans hundreds of years ago as a game - but the game evolved and turned into a real world. Then the humans of new earth access it as players, brought in by Saga's ruler, the Dark Queen, in a bid for immortality.

- Jeri