Book Bits

Just in case anyone thought I stopped reading...

Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman: A Reading Olympics selection for 2009. I was a little unsure when I started this book, because like many books aimed at young adults, it seemed a little dated. As it opens, Brent is a high school student whose biggest problem is if a girl will notice him at a party. He soon has a much bigger problem, when he accidentally kills another teenager. The one thing the girl's mother asks of him is that he plant a whirligig bearing the girl's likeness in each of the four corners of the United States. The journey gives him time to reflect about his life and the life he took. I suspect a young adult might find it a little preachy, but I really enjoyed it and thought it was well crafted.

The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline. I found this book while looking for a different book of the same name and decided to give it a try. It combines two elements which have been popular recently: an online relationship and a woman working in/opening a restaurant. It's light. It's fluff. But I liked it overall.

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams. Another 2009 Reading Olympics selection. Peter Abrahams started as a writer of adult suspense novels, and this is the first in his Echo Falls series for children. Basically someone gets killed in a small town and this spunky soccer-playing, local-theater-acting, Sherlock-Holmes-reading girl sets out to solve the mystery. Really liked it (and I'm thrilled to find out there are two others available in the series!).