Love Sick by Jake Coburn

Ted had it all in high school. He had the popularity and a full-ride scholarship to college for playing basketball.

That was before he drove drunk and smashed his knee.

He is a recovering alcoholic. Instead of going to college now, he is living with his parents, working a crappy job, and going to AA meetings to resist drinking again, because it already messed up his life once.

But then Ted gets a random opportunity...

Erica is going to college. She wants to get away from her dad and stepmother. And she wants to have more ways to binge.

She's bulimic - she deliberately goes out, buys sweet food, like donuts, eats as many as she can in a limited time, then makes herself throw up.

Her dad knows about this after she collapsed at a 4th of July outing.

So now, Erica's dad is giving Ted the chance to go to school, all expenses paid for, if he will just keep an eye on Erica.

Ted's not sure what to say. He doesn't want to pass up the opportunity to go to school for free, so he says yes.

And he meets Erica. They don't talk too much at first, but then secrets start leaking out and they get to know each other better.

But Ted has this horrible secret looming around them. He can't face Erica knowing that he's keeping the biggest omission of all. Will he confess to Erica? Will he leave when the secret too much? Because one thing's for sure: he didn't mean to fall in love with the girl he was supposed to be spying on. Read Love Sick by Jake Coburn to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This was a random book that I picked up from the used book store, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

These two topics are not easy to talk about. They are real life situations that people go through everyday, and I think Coburn portrayed the process very well.

Also, at the beginning, Coburn stated that he talked to Erica and Ted about writing this novel, so it's a true story. Sure, the names and schools, etc. are different, but this really occurred in the past and I think that hits home just as much as the topics presented in this book.

The format of this book was interesting. It was split into months, no chapters, and we got both Ted and Erica's point of view, along with reading the emails sent between Ted and his "bosses" about Erica, while also reading Erica's conversations with her shrink through online chess games.

I think this could be a good book for older teens, or any teen going through a horrible time with their health. It is very descriptive on how Erica binges, so I'm not sure if it's suitable for all readers, but I think it could be worth reading for those finding them in situations where they know they need help.

Again, a surprise from a random purchase. I love it when that happens!

Almost Astronauts

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2009. 134 pages.

     1. A succinct evaluative annotation. Plot: [Conflict] The problem is that the 13 women want to become astronauts but it was 1960 and women were not allowed to do anything but be a mother/housewife. [Rising Action] Jerri Codd started taking the tests that the Mercury 7 men took in order for them to go into space, seeing if she was capable to also go to space. [Climax] Codd excelled at the tests, making headway for all females and 12 other qualified females to try the test as well. However, NASA and the government decided that they didn’t want to send women to space. [Falling Action] Even though Codd and the rest of the women tried their hardest, they were unable to go into space. They worked different jobs, most involving flying aircrafts until they retired. [Resolution] The 13 women did get the motion started for years to come when women would be allowed to go into space, which is where the book ended on a happy note. Theme: The themes of this book included history, science, women, leaders, and fighting for what the characters believed in. Tone: The tone of this book was very serious. The female astronauts wanted to be able to go into space very much and they fought NASA, stereotypes, and the government. They were not giving up without trying every last method. Style: The authors writing style was very formal, giving facts, but doing it in a story type manner to ensnare the reader into the story. The author also used short, concise sentences rather than long sentences and paragraphs. Characterizations: This didn’t have one sole character, but it was about 13 females who all had one mindset in track: achievement, success, loyalty. They wanted to show America that with hard work and dedication that anyone can be an astronaut – even if they were female instead of male. Even though they weren’t able to make it into space, they still were able to achieve their goal when females were allowed to become astronauts years later. Readability: This novel was very, very easy to read. I finished it within a few hours and I think young readers will find it easy to read as well.

2. My reactions to the book. This book surprised me. Going in, I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it since I don’t like Non-fiction – I was dead wrong. This story not only taught me history, but I enjoyed the story like writing about the 13 women in the 60s. I think that is this books best strength – the way it’s told. The reader gets entrapped by the story and wants to find out more. A weakness, even though there aren’t many, is the format of the book. It looks like a boring, educated book. I think the author could get more readers if the book looked more interesting on the outside, because the content on the inside is amazing. The content is very accurate to what had happened in the 60s with these 13 women.

3. Comment on the cover art. I think the cover art needs to be spiced up a little bit. As I said before, many won’t want to pick this up based off of the cover, which looks like the book will be boring and “educational” to the extent that the readers will want to stay away. If the book was smaller and had 1 image of the females, or something to attract attention, I think public would want to read it more.

Lost Boy, Lost Girl

Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in the Sudan by John Bul Dau. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2010. 159 pages.

      1. A succinct evaluative annotation. Plot: [Conflict] John and Martha were children when the Civil War happened in Sudan, so they were running for their lives to stay alive during those awful years. [Rising Action] Every time John and Martha started to settle down in a new place, they would have to move again because the war followed them to their new location. [Climax] John and Martha were given the opportunity to go to America, to start over and have a life that didn’t consist of running. [Falling Action] John and Martha got great education and learned to live in America with the new culture and rules. [Resolution] John and Martha, after many years of running, got married and were part of events that were created to help the other children in Sudan during the war to try and avoid those children to live the lives they went through. Theme: The themes in this novel involved war, survival, a new life/beginning, and helping others. Tone: The tone of this novel was very serious. John and Martha were not able to be children in their childhood and they were always trying to stay alive. They were denied their freedom to follow their culture and were forced to do anything to keep moving to their next location. Style: The writers’ styles were very formal and almost “storytelling” – they were reliving their lives when they were growing up, but they kept a professional atmosphere to the story instead of showing all of the emotion they must have felt back then. Characterizations: John is a strong leader. He had to take care of 1,200 boys when he was at one location and had to keep things in order because he was the eldest. He always looked for ways to survive and tried to help everyone around him in the process. Martha was also a survivor – not only did she have to take care of herself when she lost direction with her parents, she also had to take care of her younger sister who was 3 years younger. Martha did whatever she needed to do to survive, listened to her elders, and worked twice as hard to get the education she needed in order to go to America and start her life without running. Readability: This book is very easy to read. The chapters are short and don’t involve all of the politics that were occurring during the time, so the younger readers would be able to fly through this book and understand the hard time John and Martha went through right away.

2. My reactions to the book. I loved this book. Even though I’m not a huge non-fiction book fan, this book really caught my attention and made me feel for the writers who went through that horrible time in Sudan. One of the many strengths of this book is the way it’s written. Both Martha and John wrote alternating chapters to tell their story, while different from one another, it was also similar in the way that they had to fight to live and fight to get to where they are today.  The information is very, very accurate. These writers went through the experience that they wrote about and it was what they remembered growing up.

3. Comment on the cover art. The cover art is amazing. The scenery shows the harsh weather of Sudan, showing the reader a glimpse of what the authors had to go through during the Civil War at Sudan, along with the hardships of dealing with the government that was trying to capture the Sudanese. Also, the coloring shows the reader that it was awful traveling through the desert for those many years they were running for their lives. The cover was one of the reasons I wanted to read this book!