My Life in…

Book #68 of 2010 Title: Alice in Charge Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Publisher: Atheneum Pub Date: June 15, 2010 Grade: B+ Comments: Alice begins senior year without Patrick by her side (he’s off in college a year early) and dealing with the recent death of a friend. Her focus is on her role as Features Editor of the school paper and starting to think about college (which she probably should have started thinking about at least three books ago). The main thread of the book revolves around some hate filled letters that are received, partially as a result of a refugee from the Sudan who is attending their school. The letters and direct threats seem to be coming from a neo-Nazi group, but it appears that the person responsible attends their school. Some subplots include Alice helping Amy get involved in the school paper, a college trip with Lester that is filled with mishaps, and some bad news from Patrick. The description of this book makes it seem kind of bad, but I really enjoyed this one. The overarching plot of the hate letters is a bit overdone and seems rather farfetched for the average high school, but what I liked was how Alice handled the situation. In this book, Alice is less passive than usual. Pamela, Elizabeth and Gwen play a smaller role, and this is about how Alice deals with this serious threat both as a friend and as a journalist. I’m not sure I loved the conclusion of that storyline as it seemed almost too accepting, but I enjoyed Alice taking a stand for once. I REALLY can’t wait for the next one.

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Jacket Whys has a great post about books with girls in period dress on the covers in 2009. It’s interesting that I intensely dislike reading historical fiction but love almost all of these covers.

It’s a slow month for YA publishing, but there are two standout covers this month.

Leila at Bookshelves of Doom pointed out the similarities between the covers of Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers and Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Looking at the December 08 releases, I found yet another copycat cover.

Two books released in the same month with the same cover art? If I had any photography ability I think I would make a lot of money shooting stock photos of teenagers and exclusively licensing them for YA book covers.

Oddly, this month isn’t the best month for book covers. Some of them look nice but they aren’t anything spectacular. There are a lot of series books out this month so the covers just don’t stand out. So I crown just one book this month.