25. Penny From Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm

I've been meaning to read this book for quite a while. I really like Jennifer Holm and she won her second Newberry Honor for this book. She also visited our library last year and the girls and I were very impressed by her fun, bouncy personality. She won her first Newberry Honor for Our Only May Amelia, which I read a while back and really liked. She also writes the Babymouse series with her brother, who does the illustrations which Emma and Mary both really enjoyed. So when they decided on this book for this month's Mother-Daughter Bookclub, I was very excited.

I loved it. The book centers around 12 year old Penny who lives with her widowed mother and maternal grandparents in 1950's New Jersey. That side of her life is pretty sedate. Her deceased father, however, came from a big Italian family that adds spice and excitement to her life. She has lots of uncles, aunts, and cousins, along with a spunky grandma, who provide her with all the excitement she could ever want. There are lots of fun characters and stories about this Italian family. But along the way, Penny begins to unravel the mystery of her father's death and uncover the hardships suffered by this Italian clan in WWII. I had never really heard a lot about the Italian-American experience in WWII so it was enlightening to me. As a kid in school, we always talked about the Japanese-American experience because Topaz (a Japanese internment camp in Delta) was so close. (I grew up in Orem.) I enjoyed learning about it. I thought I was WWIIed out, after Kate's Holocaust play, but still enjoyed reading this different perspective on the war. I also liked that it was loosely based on the author's family history (her mother being the inspiration for Penny). I would highly recommend it to anyone.

86. Nothing But The Truth: A Documentary Novel by Avi

I love this book. I think it perfectly captures the illogical thinking of teenage boys, and the out of control politics of education and patriotism. It also shows perfectly how something can be totally blown out of proportion to serve different people's personal agendas. In the book, a ninth-grader gets suspended for humming the national anthem, and the story is picked up by the national news media. The story really is not that simple, but soon grows out of control. The great thing about the novel is that you get to see everyone's viewpoint because it is written in the form of diaries, memos, letters, etc. from everyone involved. I love this book. If you really want to think about the fine line between patriotism and fascism, you should read this book. It's really short and well worth the time. It also won a Newberry Honor award. I highly recommend it.

47. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Kate chose this book for her bedtime story. This is the first time I've actually read it. (I listened to the book on CD a while back.) It was fun. It reads out loud really well. There are lots of cliff hangers and it is easy to remember what is going on in between readings. Plus Shannon Hale's language is beautiful so it just flows off your tongue. I guess that is why she won a Newberry Honor for this one. All my girls enjoyed listening to the story, and even though there is a little violence at the end, even my little girls seemed to handle it all right. It is a great story about learning to be comfortable in your own skin, a good thing for my girls to start thinking about. I loved and would highly recommend it as a read-aloud.

85. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

I can't say enough good things about this book and the whole series (also called the Dark is Rising Sequence). Every time I read it I am amazed by how complex and deftly it is written. The author weaves the mythology into an original story. This time I listened to it on CD and the guy who reads it does a really good job. It is a little intense, probably not for really small kids, but I would say about 10 and up would really like it. This is the second book in the series and about the only continuing elements from the previous book are the Merriman ( a version of Merlin) and the overall good versus bad storyline. I love this book because it gives you a lot to think about. But most of all I like it because it is just an incredible story. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you liked the Narnia books or Harry Potter. Oh yeah, there was a movie made of this book, but it really was loosely based on the book. So if you saw the movie and didn't like it, you should still give the book a try because it is about a hundred times better.

48. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

This is a book about a little polish girl who gets picked on everyday by the other girls at school because of her differences. It is told from the viewpoint the head girl's best friend. It does a good job of showing the effects of teasing others. The ending is interesting and thought provoking. It is just a short little book and only about an hour long on the CD. I liked it. It made me think and the reading on the CD was really good. I think it was originally published in the 50's but the story isn't dated at all.

17. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

I really liked this book. This is actually the second time I've read it and I think I liked it even better this time. I listened to it on CD and the production of it is amazing. I liked listening to it even better than I liked reading it because, in the production, they sing the quarry songs and they sound amazing!! This book is about a little girl, Miri, that comes from a town that is based around stone quarrying. She is unable to work in the quarry because her father won't let her. Consequently she feels isolated from the rest of the town because everyone works in the quarry except for her. Then her town is chosen to be the place the next queen will come from and the king creates a school to educate all the girls on how to be princesses so the prince can come choose. And as Miri begins to learn about things other than her isolated little village, she begins to find her place in the world. It is beautifully written and very fun. It does take some to get into though. Give it 100 pages and you'll be hooked. It won a Newberry Honor Award (basically a runner-up to the Newberry Award). I highly recommend it.