Lockdown - Walter Dean Myers

Lockdown - Myers, Walter Dean

Summary: Teenage Reese, serving time at a juvenile detention facility, gets a lesson in making it through hard times from an unlikely friend with a harrowing past.



Booklist Reviews
Myers takes readers inside the walls of a juvenile corrections facility in this gritty novel. Fourteen-year-old Reese is in the second year of his sentence for stealing prescription pads and selling them to a neighborhood dealer. He fears that his life is headed in a direction that will inevitably lead him "upstate," to the kind of prison you don't leave. His determination to claw his way out of the downward spiral is tested when he stands up to defend a weaker boy, and the resulting recriminations only seem to reinforce the impossibility of escaping a hopeless future. Reese's first-person narration rings with authenticity as he confronts the limits of his ability to describe his feelings, struggling to maintain faith in himself; Myers' storytelling skills ensure that the messages he offers are never heavy-handed. The question of how to escape the cycle of violence and crime plaguing inner-city youth is treated with a resolution that suggests hope, but doesn't guarantee it. A thoughtful book that could resonate with teens on a dangerous path. Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.


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El regalo del tiempo/The gift of time - Jorge Ramos

El regalo del tiempo/The gift of time - Ramos, Jorge

Summary: In a series of letters to his two children, Paola and Nicolás, author and television personality Jorge Ramos discusses love, death, religion, sex, family, the immigrant experience, success, and other topics.



Criticas Reviews
Ramos, coanchor of Univision News since 1986, is one the most influential, respected, and popular Latinos in the United States and Latin America. He has won seven Emmys for excellence in journalism and received countless other honors. His face and name are ubiquitous in the Latino world—his nightly news casts reach millions of Latinos, his weekly column is carried in more than 35 U.S. and Latin American newspapers, his daily commentary is heard by millions on Univision Radio, and his seven books have all been best sellers. Written as a series of 15 letters to his children, this is his most personally revealing book and will undoubtedly endear him even more to his many fans and readers. While readers will enjoy the personal details he shares, such as his fear of flying and the surgical history of his imperfect nose and inability to smell, it is the expression of his values and beliefs that will resonate with readers. In his letters, he shares important principles and perspectives that many Latinos would surely want to pass on to their children, such as spending time with family and building loving relationships, finding and dedicating yourself wholeheartedly to your passion, and appreciating different perspectives and values while honoring your own. Ramos has written an intimate and timeless book that will appeal to parents and children of all ages. Highly recommended for all public libraries, academic libraries, and bookstores.—Yolanda J. Cuesta, Cuesta MultiCultural Consulting, Sacramento, CA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.


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Confessions of a blabbermouth - Mike Carey

Confessions of a blabbermouth - Carey, Mike

Summary: Tasha Flanigan loves to talk, especially on her blog, and when her mom brings home a creepy boyfriend and his daughter, Tasha can't help but talk about them.




Library Media Connection
This hilarious, British graphic novel chronicles the misadventures of Tasha, a manic blogger whose life is one huge drama. Her divorced mother brings home yet another boyfriend, a hack writer with an exaggerated sense of his own importance. His mysterious daughter, Chloe, starts school with Tasha; the plot thickens from that point on. Reluctantly, Chloe and Tasha work together on the yearbook committee, this year staffed by the 12s instead of the 13s, creating great animosity between the classes. Sylvie and her cronies, who terrorize the school, make their lives miserable. Throw into the mix Ben, a not-quite-yet boyfriend of Tasha's, and mayhem ensues. Mike Carey teams up with his teenage daughter, Louise, to write this very funny scenario. Louise's contribution is very evident in the understanding of the school scene. Alexovich's delightful illustrations with exaggerated, bold strokes and grimacing facial expressions complement the text nicely. The humorous dialogue is quite clever and very funny. Tasha's meanderings on her blog are both a creative outlet and a vent for her intense frustration with her mother's string of boyfriends. Real world situations create a very enjoyable romp through the ups and downs of Tasha's adolescence. Recommended. Susie Nightingale, Library Media Specialist, Santa Fe Trail Junior High School, Olathe, Kansas © 2008 Linworth Publishing, Inc.

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The Second Base Club - Greg Trine

The Second Base Club - Trine, Greg

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Elroy will do almost anything, from joining the wrestling team to forming a band, in order to get a girlfriend, until he finally realizes the truth of a girl friend's words about being himself.




Kirkus Reviews
Full of gauche guy humor, this coming-of-age tale about a 16-year-old boy's attempts to get to second base (with a girl) takes a while to get going, but once all the plot elements come together, it becomes warm and winning. Elroy isn't exactly sure what second base is, but he knows that he wants to get there. In his quest to answer that ancient question--what do girls want?--Elroy tries wrestling, creating a band and (gasp!) talking to them. Although his efforts have a tendency to misfire, his hard work pays off in other ways, causing him to grow and develop both physically and emotionally. So when his mettle is tested--a group of jocks actually have a second-base club that involves an unsavory secret--Elroy is ready. It's hard to buy that the news of the club hasn't leaked, and the ending feels a tad rushed, but by then the reader is so squarely in Elroy's corner that it really doesn't matter. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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Dark water - Laura McNeal

Dark water - McNeal, Laura

Summary: Living in a cottage on her uncle's southern California avocado ranch since her parent's messy divorce, fifteen-year-old Pearl Dewitt meets and falls in love with an illegal migrant worker, and is trapped with him when wildfires approach his makeshift forest home.


Kirkus Reviews
This debut solo effort after several collaborations with husband Tom McNeal (The Decoding of Lana Morris, 2007, etc.) stands out in the crowded coming-of-age field. The affecting narrative springs believably from the first-person thoughts of Pearl DeWitt as she recalls her 15th summer, when, entranced by a nearly mute, illegal Mexican migrant worker, the beautiful and gifted teenage Amiel, Pearl makes choices that lead to tragedy. Evocative language electrifies the scenes between the pair, as they develop a relationship both complicated and deepened by their limited verbal communication. Her warnings to readers of impending disaster amplify rather than diminish the impact of the misguided, wrenching decisions she makes when a raging wildfire sweeps through their rural California community. Besides her poignant relationship with Amiel, Pearl navigates her father's recent abandonment of her and her mother and her complicated relationship with her cousin Robby as he blunderingly deals with his father's apparent infidelity. Notable for well-drawn characters, an engaging plot and, especially, hauntingly beautiful language, this is an outstanding book. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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I am America (and so can you) - Stephen Colbert

I am America (and so can you) - Colbert, Stephen

Summary: "From the host of television's comedy-punditry show The Colbert Report, comes the book to fill the other 23 hours of your day. This book contains all of the opinions that Stephen doesn't have time to shoehorn into his nightly broadcast, his most deeply held knee-jerk beliefs on The American Family, Race, Religion, Sex, Sports, and many more topics, conveniently arranged in chapter form. Stephen addresses why Hollywood is destroying America by inches, why evolution is a fraud, and why the elderly should be harnessed to millstones. You may not agree with everything Stephen says, but at the very least, you'll understand that your differing opinion is wrong"--From publisher description.

Kirkus Reviews
The fabulously fatuous father of "truthiness" and other neocon mantras expands his media icon with the obligatory book—and, read in the proper spirit, it's a lot of fun.So do we take Colbert, of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, seriously? Is he a persona or the real thing? Is he only in it for the money? No, that would be Ann Coulter, or maybe Friedrich Nietzsche, whose autobiography contained chapter titles such as "Why I Am Such a Genius" and "Why I Am Immortal." Colbert has a few more self-doubts than Nietzsche, if only for the sake of modesty. Would fellow blowhard Bill O'Reilly, for instance, ever confess to being frightened by baby carrots? Probably not, though, to judge by his books, O'Reilly would surely endorse Colbert's contention that such seemingly innocent but too-cute things are a gateway drug to gayness. Stranger theories have been proposed (where is Anita Bryant when you need her?), but no satisfactory argument has been mounted against it, and in all events the critics of Colbert are only those who do not "accept Jesus as my personal editor," namely "cable channels, the internet blogs, and the Hollywood celebritocracy, out there spewing ‘facts' like so many locusts descending on America's crop of ripe, tender values." Like John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise, Colbert's litmus test of a book seems meant to be taken seriously only by those who get the joke, in which case the thing is very funny indeed. If, however, it is taken seriously to the point that the reader really starts believing that baby carrots are homoerotogenic, or that Koreans are evil, or that George Bush knows what he's doing, then it's time to take the book gently from that reader and commit said person to a nice quiet spell in the home for the bewildered.The answer, therefore, is yes, take Colbert seriously. Like a heart attack. Or like Lenny Bruce. Copyright Kirkus 2007 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

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Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and America - Paul Tough

Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and America - Tough, Paul

Summary: An intriguing portrait of African-American activist Geoffrey Canada, creator of the Harlem Children's Zone, describes his radical new approach to eliminating inner-city poverty, one that proposes to transform the lives of poor children by changing their schools, their families, and their neighborhoods at the same time.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Canada has captured national attention with his bold effort to offer a cradle-to-college program for thousands of underprivileged children in Harlem. Tough, a New York Times Magazine writer, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the dramatic ups and downs of the Harlem Children's Zone, a $58 million project encompassing 97 city blocks and serving 7,000 children. Tough details Canada's own personal struggle out of poverty as a motivating factor for getting into the kid-saving business. Canada devised a conveyor belt from preschool through elementary and middle schools in Promise Academy, offering enrichment programs for children and parents to compensate for their disadvantages compared to middle-class families. Tough focuses on individual families and staff to tell a compelling story of a neighborhood fighting mightily to provide its children with the educational benefits of more well-to-do communities. Tough also views Harlem Children's Zone in the broader context of raging debate among academics and economists from James Heckman to Glen Loury regarding causes and cures of urban poverty and low school performance. This is an engrossing look at a visionary man and a bold experiment that has caught the eye of a wide range of politicians, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has promised to replicate the program throughout the U.S. if elected. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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The tipping point - Malcolm Gladwell

The tipping point - Gladwell, Malcolm

Summary: An introduction to the Tipping Point theory explains how minor changes in ideas and products can increase their popularity and how small adjustments in an individual's immediate environment can alter group behavior. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
Gladwell, a New Yorker staff writer, offers an incisive and piquant theory of social dynamics that is bound to provoke a paradigm shift in our understanding of mass behavioral change. Defining such dramatic turnarounds as the abrupt drop in crime on New York's subways, or the unexpected popularity of a novel, as epidemics, Gladwell searches for catalysts that precipitate the "tipping point," or critical mass, that generates those events. What he finds, after analyzing a number of fascinating psychological studies, is that tipping points are attributable to minor alterations in the environment, such as the eradication of graffiti, and the actions of a surprisingly small number of people, who fit the profiles of personality types that he terms connectors, mavens, and salesmen. As he applies his strikingly counterintuitive hypotheses to everything from the "stickiness," or popularity, of certain children's television shows to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Gladwell reveals that our cherished belief in the autonomy of the self is based in great part on wishful thinking. ((Reviewed February 15, 2000)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

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Confessions of an economic hit man – John Perkins

Confessions of an economic hit man - Perkins, John

Summary: This is the inside story of how America turned from a respected republic into a feared empire. John Perkins should know, he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S., from Indonesia to Panama, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies.

Library Journal Reviews
According to Perkins, a former Economic Hit Man and founding president of Dream Change Coalition, "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other ‰foreign aid' organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources." Perkins began this book in the early 1980s but claims to have put it aside owing to threats and bribes. Perkins's daughter Jessica finally inspired him to finish it by declaring, "Don't worry dad. If they get you, I'll take over where you left off. We need to do this for the grandchildren I hope to give you someday." This riveting look at a world of intrigue reads like a spy novel. Perkins vividly recounts his work throughout the world, from Saudi Arabia to Panama to Ecuador, and introduces such characters as Panamanian president Omar Torrijos, who became a personal friend. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries.-Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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