Getting ready for new school year.

My kids have been bugging me for their new planners for the coming school year. I think the girls were jealous of my new Lilly Agenda!

Here is mine:

I found simple planners at Target for the kids. Nothing fancy, but now they can keep their own calendars with their activities. Maybe this will help with their organization this year. Maybe.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
borrowed from library
Summary from Goodreads:
Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

My thoughts:
This book was a very pleasant surprise. Not the subject, mind you, but the book.  The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian world called Panem and the children must enter a lottery to be part of the Hunger Games -- a fight to the death between the chosen boy and girl from each district. Katniss is the heroine of the books and she is a strong, independent girl trying to take care of her family when she volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games. Peeta is the boy chosen from her district to be part of the games. Will they work together to survive or each go their own way? Gale is Katniss' lifelong friend - and maybe something more - who is left back home when she goes off to the games.  Suzanne Collins has written a wonderful story that really pulls you into the world. There is quite a bit of violence in the book --kids fighting to the death and all. But it does make the reader think about this world and what could have caused things to go so horribly wrong.  I highly recommend this book.

You can also read my review of The Hunger Games at my main book blog ABookGeek.

The second book in the series is Catching Fire.
The third book, Mockingjay, should be released August 24, 2010.

Life As We Knew It

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
book received through a giveaway
Summary from Goodreads:
It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

My thoughts:
I thought this book was very easy to read and the story really pulled me in. It is written in diary form so this makes the story flow easily. I had a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to find out what happened next and if they survived.  I found nothing objectionable in the book. This story about a major catastrophe and the possible results will make the reader think about how much we take for granted and what can be necessary for survival in an emergency.

There are two more books in The Last Survivors series: The Dead and the Gone  and This World We Live In.




I haven't read the second or third book yet, but they are on my TBR list.
You can also read my review of this book at my main book blog  ABookGeek.

New Blog, Same Topic -- Books!

This will be my place to keep track of the young adult books that I feel are or will be appropriate and enjoyable for my kids as they get older.  I will also have read and reviewed any books listed here on my regular blog A Book Geek.  I will try to explain what I enjoyed about the book and how or why it is or is not appropriate for my kids.

The background, fonts, layout of this blog may change often. I am also using it as my test blog for my main book blog.