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It is prom night for popular Bliss, bad girl Jolene, and nerdy Meg. Their prom night is far from imagined perfection. In alternating chapters the girls tell the story of their shared all night adventures that are reminiscent of the feel of “Adventures in Babysitting.” Bliss interrupts a lap dance of her best friend and boyfriend in the limo. Jolene is stood up. Meg’s date shows, but ditches her. A comedy and tragedy of errors follows Bliss’ decision to seek revenge, dragging her new posse’ along on each escapade. Highly entertaining, and ending with a feel-good but unsappy ending, this one will fly off the shelves in libraries. I reminds me again how fun creating stories from different perspectives can be.

ENDERS' Rating: ****
Abby's Website

Brooklyn seems destined to make bad choices. Not only did chasing a lizard into a hole garner nationwide coverage of her rescue, a great party and bad cooking torched her mother’s model home that used to be for sale. Grounded until she is “forty,” she decides to turn over her decision making to anyone following her new blog called “MyLifeDecided.com.” One decision she does not have to make is fulfilling the 200 hours of community service with ancient, grouchy Mrs. Moody who is obsessed about “Choose Your Own Adventure” style of stories. Brooklyn likes the new southern guy, but when she blogs and asks for a vote of YES for a date with him, the blog followers tell her NO. Then her math teacher insists that she advance to a more difficult math class. The followers vote yes on that crazy idea also. Brooklyn's parents are ecstatic about her sensible choice. Brooklyn, not so much!

ENDERS' Rating: ******

Jessica Brody's Website

If you have been under a rock the last few months, let me help you escape. The Help is an entertaining, eye-opening, jaw-dropping novel about the lives of one young woman who is white, 23 years old, and in a southern protocol prison, and how two maids, "the help," helped her escape.

The Help is about two extraordinary black maids, trying to make a living and trying to survive working for pennies for an array of fussy, social-climbing, vindictive white women. Before they know it they are authors and creating quite a stir in the town of Jackson, Mississippi. Didn't live during 1962? Not a problem. You will get this book.

ENDERS' Rating: *****

Kathryn's Website

What could be worse than being turned into a vampire while at age 15, somewhat plump. Technically always too young for a driver’s license and always too rotund to attract girls, fresh-blooded ones. Doug Lee just wants to be a normal comic book junkie, hangin’ with his bud, not-too-bright, but loyal, Jay. Doug’s search for blood makes him deliver horrid pick-up lines, attempt an attack on a sleeping panda, and rob a blood bank at a comic convention. As Doug gains vampire power, a change comes over him. The exchange student he adores knows what he is. The attractions become dangerous. A desperate vampire hunter is after him. Rex is delft at morphing a hilarious tale into a mesmerizing suspense.

ENDERS' Rating: ****

Adam's Wacky Website

Sherry falls into a Hollywood mystery when she, Junie and Sherry's dad travel to Hollywood where Sherry receives a prize for her "True Love" essay. Her mother wafts in on a coffee breeze to enjoy the moment of fame for Sherry and to try to crack the mystery of Marilyn Monroe's death. At the same time young celebrities' homes are being burglarized. In wafts a new smell, root beer. What does this ghost bring to the mix of mystery?

ENDERS' Rating: ****

Barrie's Blog

Gert Garibaldi looks at her world with its catastrophes and calls it like it is. this bright, unabashed teen picks through the mine field of high school, boys and home while making uncensored commentaries about the people in her life. Her first boyfriend is the poster child for "What you don't want in a boyfriend." If you like gutsy, Gert is your girl! The first book about her: One Butt Cheek at a Time.


ENDERS' Rating: *****
Amber's Website

Don’t you love it when you are treated to a perfectly entertaining book? Rachel and David have collaborated again creating a funny, intelligent, engaging pair of teens who need something to do to survive a boring Christmas holiday. Lily’s brother and friend have helped her create a red notebook full of scavenger hunt clues that hopefully will keep her entertained during the holiday. Dash haunts the Powells-type bookstore (NYC's Strand Book Store...Powell's wins) and noticed the red notebook, successfully following its directions. Then he writes a few of his own. The game is afoot! And it is a huge success. But as these two come closer to meeting will they be disappointed with their true selves? Is there more to this relationship that white majorette boots?


ENDERS' Rating: *****

Rachel Cohn's Website
David Levithan's Website

In the midst of dystopia, vampire and violence stories emerges a refreshing story that definitely is my “feel good” novel of the year thus far.

Charlie is the freak. Gloria is the freak magnet. So both of them think! One day at a coffee shop Charlie spots the most glorious creature to grace the earth. You guessed it: Gloria. In his over-the-top, freakish way, he hits on her despite the warnings of his best buddy. Gloria disses him and heads off in her totally black persona way. Fate interweaves their lives and they continue to intersect. Gloria hates to admit it, but Charlie is hot, but still a freak. But her admissions to his endearing personality continue during their lucky encounters. This he said/she said format digs into her blackness, his love and fear for his family, and their growing affection. Charlie’s antics at his job with his quirky co-workers are laugh-out-loud funny. Gloria’s de-icing reveals the loss that she has felt the last year. This is a book that reminds us that love is in the world, if we only trust it.

ENDERS' Rating: *****

Andrew's Website

Sherry, our fav thirteen-year-old Nancy Drew, slips into her detective ways once again to discover who is stalking her stepmother. Of course, Paula, her mother and policewoman ghost, is her partner in solving the mystery before someone or some fish is hurt. Joined by her grandpa, the wren, Sherry discovers the true identity of the stalker, but can she save her stepmother from harm? Will she win "real time" with her mother? And how does the school robot competition factor into this mystery?


ENDERS' Rating: More ghostly fun!

Barrie Summy's Blog

Sit back, relax, laugh out loud, and shake your head over the 4th in the "Mythical Misadventures" series.

Pandy and her BBFs Alcie, Iole and Homer have bagged, er, boxed the evils of jealousy, vanity and laziness and are off to grab the fourth, lust. On their way, they have a run-in with gluttony and Iole dispatches it single-handed. Hermes helps the quartet of evil-hunters by taking them back in time to the wedding of the millenium where lust raises it nasty head. The little group has to be vigilant in not changing anything so as not to affect the future.

ENDERS' Rating: Great fun!

Carolyn Hennesy's Website

Callie is piranha in her high school after voicing a strong opinion about cheerleaders, and hopes a study abroad in England will give her beaten psyche some R&R. She buys a pair of Prada heels to impress some critics on the trip, only to fall in them and black out. She awakens outside a country manor of a Duke in 1815, to be mistaken for an American childhood friend of his grace. There are fiery exchanges between Callie, aka, Rebecca, and the Duke as she tries to assists his cousin, Emily, escape an arranged marriage. Callie aghasts and astounds all with her 21st century scientific knowledge about carpal tunnel, the solar system, and "history." She is distressed that 19th century social life still has some of the same challenges as modern day. Will love find her in either century?

ENDERS Rating: Regency England...this novel keeps the fantasy of P&P alive!

Mandy Hubbard's Website

Written by Terry Pratchett with the audio book performed by Stephen Briggs, this is one of the great science fiction writings of our time. Stephen Briggs must be listened to for capturing the amazing wit of "Mr. Discworld."

This is a stand-alone novel with Mau, a thirteen-year-old plopped on a remote island for his journey into manhood, who is disrupted by an earthquake and tsunami. He is upset that his manhood welcoming party is non-existent, until he realizes what else is non-existent. His maturity comes with unique initiations, including the companionship of the Ghost Girl who is another survivor of the natural disaster. Funny, loving, adventure-filled, dangerous, Nation has it all!


ENDERS Rating: What??? You are not running to check it out yet? Sheesh!

Terry Pratchett's Website (where you will see a turtle carrying Discworld...

Stella is not a foodie. Well, if you include gourmet food and preparations, as she is a fast food girl. The catch? Her father is a world famous chef, and her mother runs a unique restaurant, Open Kitchen, where guest chefs feed eager gourmands. Stella is tantalized by the new intern at the restaurant and she enjoys the work there just a bit more. But where does this put her ever-loyal boyfriend who has declared love to her? This fun novel gives us a slice of life of a teen involved in a Food TV world, and it is delectable.

ENDERS' Rating: Yummy read

Lara M Zeiser's Website

The dynamic trio that make Van Etten has created another entertaining saga of poor Mallory, inspiration and writer for her own soap opera "Likely Story." (Sorry I have only a photo of Levithan, but he is cute and he writes amazing books). Mallory's heartaches continue as her nemesis, Alisha, has joined forces with Alexis to bring her down. Mother-dearest is still prickly. And Mallory is not going to take any of it any more! She begins an offensive against those opposed to her with the climax the night of the Emmys when her soap and actors are nominated for four awards after just a few months of televising. WHAT IS SHE THINKING??? Join the fray and read the series. Just for fun. (FYI: There is a cover band in Southern California by the same name).

ENDERS' Rating: Soap fans will enjoy the inside jokes and drama

Likely Story Website

Holy Halloween Cupcakes!

Talk about throwing away your prejudices about cheerleaders being all fluff and no brains. Tessa , a junior who is the Smitten Kittens squad leader, is also the leader of SOS, the clandestine "Kitty Bond" agents who search for evidences of straying boyfriends and deliver their findings to suspicious girlfriend clients.

I loved the SOS communications to clients and contributors, only a page each, interspersed throughout the novel. Tessa's laugh-out-loud "Rocky the Squirrel" expletives are G-rated. SOS has served cheated girlfriends for two years and Tessa is worried about the amazing amount of boyfriends that cheat. Is her wonderful Aiden the only faithful one left? Holy sizzling frying pan! A new, hunky guy is paying too much attention to her! What will our perky heroine do?

If you want a fun, inventive read revealing the masterminds in cheerleading squads, this is your book. My major concern about the novel is the not so much the lurid details (there are none), but the casual acceptance of teenage sex, which will cause some high school librarians will pass. Teenage girls will adore it! The Naughty List is available in February 2010.

ENDERS Rating: A fun read!

Suzanne Young's Blog

"Pandora's box:" People use the phrase without knowing the rest of the story, which Hennesy has certainly given us in the first novel about how Pandora opened that nasty little box and released all the enclosed evils and vices onto the entire world. In a light-hearted romp, Pandora and her two sidekicks, Iole and Alcie, set off on a timed quest to recover the evils, the first being Jealousy. The use of anachronistic humor is heavy on contemporary family, school and teen venacular: "Big-time phileo, Dad," "stop already" and "off limits" are just a few of the liberal sprinkling tossed throughout the book. Hera's evil designs on poor Pandy and her BBFs are thwarted by the rest of the gods who slip in handy gadgets that Maxwell Smart would love. The gods' strategy meeting in Hades interrupted by Hera is hysterical, showing their godly traits and Hera's need for a birthday party. The strength of Pandora Gets Jealous is that it peaks the reader's interesting in opening a mythology book again. Only 164 days left!

ENDERS' Rating: Fun with gods and goddesses

Carolyn Hennesy's Website

When Shelley Pearsall researched for this novel she met and interviewed and listened to Elvis impersonators. Wait a second! I thought research was dry, stuffy stuff. How dare she have fun "researching?" I have a suspicion that she was just looking for trouble with some tiger man, thankyaverymuch!

But I digress.... All Shook Up is the sad tale of one Josh Denny whose divorced parents decide that he must spend late summer and part of the school year in Chicago (A mistake right there; have you been in Chicago in the summer?) with his father while Mom takes care of her recovering mother in Florida.

Jerry Denny lost his job as a shoe salesman, and has become an Elvis impersonator after winning a local contest. He takes on gigs as "The King," dyed hair, costumes, jerky legs, the works. Josh is mortified that people at his new school will find out what his crazed father does for a "job" when nefarious notes about Elvis begin to materialize on his locker.

Enter an array of characters from elderly, forgetful Gladys to quirky Viv and her vintage-dressed daughter, Ivory and sidekick Digger for an entertaining study in characterization. Add a desperate farce by Josh to keep his dad from performing at his school and the stage is set for disaster. Speaking of stages, his dad, that is, Elvis kills his performance at Winona and even Josh believes.

I loved the playlist chapter headings, the natural growth in Josh for his love of his dad, his understanding and affection for Gladys, and his shedding of prejudices for Digger. I appreciated no preaching, just the story of a young man and his relationship with his dad during an unusual period of time.


ENDERS Rating: Fun, growing up story

Shelley Pearsall's Website

First off, congrats to the photographer whose work made the cover. Anyone will be drawn to the cover, and it does direct the reader to the book's content rather than "boing" you off in the wrong direction. Publishers are better at covers than they used to be, with online image files to choose and all. (Well, except when two books come out the same year with the same image. Ouch!) There used to be illustrators who, for example, saw the word "wedding" in their skim-through of the book, then created a cover with the setting, hair color, dress all wrong. Drives me absolutely bonkers! I so disgress....

Absolutely Maybe is absolutely a hit! Lisa does provides excellent characterization so that the reader, moi et vous, can picture even secondary characters like Chessy, Twig, Sammy and Jess so well that we move into their stories. Our three main adventurers, in Hollywood's Green Hornet, take off from Florida to Southern Cal for Hollywood/Daniel to make his mark in as a gifted film student at USC, Ted to work for an aging film star (thanks to Maybe), and for Maybe to maybe find her biological father after struggling through homelessness.

Best of all: such an entertaining romp of writing that shows how young adults have what it takes to save themselves. Brava!


ENDERS Rating: Buy it, read it, pass it on!

Lisa Yee's Website
Lisa Yee's Blog