Novels about Death

I have just finished reading two books that deal with death and teens, and both books were wonderful. The first one, Whrligig, by Paul Fleischman was a short novel about Brent, who has gotten very drunk at a party, then is humiliated by a girl he thought he liked. He drives away recklessly, and decides to kill himself by crashing into the highway divider. When the accident is cleared, he has taken the life of an 18-year-old girl. Brent has to learn how to go on living with this terrible guilt, and on his journey makes some remarkable discoveries about life.

The second book that deals with death, Looking for Alaska, by John Green, is a well-written story of Miles and his friends at a preppie boarding school, and how they deal with Alaska's death. The five students have formed a close relationship, but when Alsaka is killed in a terrible car accident, Miles and the Colonel are left with the not-knowing why, and the guilt of their part in it. This book is funny, serious and a wonderful story of understanding and coping with the death of a dear friend.

Hey, we're back, bigger and better than ever. What's going on at the Maxson Middle School Library? Plenty! We will be having our fall Scholastic Book Fair from Monday, November 26th to Thursday, Nov. 29th, until 3:30 every day.
Hope to see you all there.

I have a lot of great books to discuss in this blog. I'll be back.

Taking Sides by Gary Soto

I have not written in a very long time, but I have been reading some good books. I read aloud Taking Sides by Gary Soto to my 7th grade class. They really enjoyed that book. It was a short book about a young man named Linc, who is Mexican-American. As almost all of Soto's books, it takes place in California. Linc and his mom move from a "bad" neighborhood after they have been robbed. Linc has to make new friends, but he really misses his old friends very much. One thing he does have going for him is that he is really good at basketball. This story touches on a lot of problems that young people face when they have to move and change schools.