More YA Catch-ups

Solving Zoe by Barbara Dee
Zoe Bennett feels lost at her fancy private school.
She's not the star drama queen like her sister, or a brainiac math genius like her brother. Luckily her best friend, Dara, is just as content as Zoe is to stay in the shadows -- or is she? When Dara gets a part in the school musical, Zoe feels abandoned. What's worse, Zoe's practically being stalked by the weird new kid, Lucas. Then Lucas accidentally drops his notebook and Zoe finds it's written in symbols and numbers -- it's complete gibberish. Yet she sees her name in there, plain as day. Now Lucas is telling her she's a natural code-reading genius -- or some kind of mental freak.

As Zoe's daydreaming lands her in trouble at school, anonymous notes start to appear in students' lockers, and Zoe is the number one suspect. Solving word puzzles may come easily to her, but now there's more at stake -- will Zoe be able to solve her way out of this?

I learned about codes, ciphers and cryptanalysis in this quick, entertaining coming of age story. My reading of this book was enhanced by listening to An Abundance of Katherines.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

He’s a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham.

He’s a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He’s a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He’s a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels. He’s a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he’s a boy who realizes it’s safest of all to be nobody.

I choose this book as one to read for Herding Cats II challenge, having no idea what it was about only that I was familiar with the author. It was a gem! A great book for older middle school and up about the Holocaust.


An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
When it comes to relationships, everyone has a type. Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. He has dated--and been dumped by--19 Katherines. In the wake of The K-19 Debacle, Colin--an anagram-obsessed washed-up child prodigy--heads out on a road trip with his overweight, Judge Judy-loving friend Hassan. With 10,000 dollars in his pocket and a feral hog on his trail, Colin is on a mission to prove a mathematical theorem he hopes will predict the future of any relationship (and conceivably win the girl).

This was a hilarious book to listen to and I found myself looking for excuses to get in the car to hear more of the story! Their road trip takes them to Gutshot, Tennessee, living in a pink palace and working for the owner of a tampon string factory. My third John Green book that I thoroughly enjoyed and glad I choose to listen to this one.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Identity. Where does it lie? In a face? A voice? A bundled string of events we call a lifetime? Is it in our DNA, bone, flesh, ancestry? How do we define our identity, and is it a once and for all definition? Or is it always changing?

Who am I? Can anyone ever know for sure just what it takes to be who we are?

We all search for our place in this world and how we fit in, but for Jenna Fox that search reaches dark new dimensions when she wakes from a coma and can’t remember who she is. Worse, she doesn’t remember the people who claim to be her parents. There is something curious about them, about the house they all live in--in fact, curious describes her whole life, as she attempts to unlock the secrets of who she was, and who she has become.

An award and honor winning book that gets you to think about science and ethics. A page turner that had me engrossed until the very end.