I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain by Will Walton

From Goodreads,

"How do you deal with a hole in your life?

Do you grieve?

Do you drink?

Do you make out with your best friend?

Do you turn to poets and pop songs?

Do you question everything?

Do you lash out?

Do you turn the lashing inward?

If you're Avery, you do all of these things. And you write it all down in an attempt to understand what's happened -- and is happening -- to you.

I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain is an astonishing novel about navigating death and navigating life, at a time when the only map you have is the one you can draw for yourself."

Goodreads - I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain

I purchase a LOT of my books through Scholastic.  I get a flat rate, no tax, and free shipping.  Since I had purchased so much, I earned free money to spend on books.  I just searched through by price and ended up stumbling across this book.  After reading the synopsis I was convinced this was a book I would enjoy.  Needless to say, I'm glad I'm finished with it because it was a huge disappointment.

I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain is told by Avery who is recovering from an injury after a car accident.  The book alternates between stories as Avery tries to deal with the past and the present of what is happening and has happened in his life.  The present sections of the book deal with Avery at his grandpal's funeral, while the past sections deal with the events leading up to his death including his mother and grandpal's alcoholism.

I don't have a lot of positive things to say about this book sadly.  The whole concept of this book is great, but the execution of this book was absolutely terrible.  The book bounced around.  I despised the fact that in a single chapter the story went from being in the present, to being in the actual current present of grandpal's funeral, then back to the present.  It was absolutely confusing to keep up with.  There were multiple times that I was lost in the book.  I think that if Walton would have written the book to be from beginning to end and in order it would have been more enjoyable.  More details could have been included and the reader wouldn't have to sort and figure out what was happening.

Another complaint that I have with this book is that it is marketed as a novel and as poetry.  This book was honestly neither.  I really thought that there would be more poetry in it.  But the "poetry" that was in the book wasn't poetry at all.  It was just a hodge podge of words and thoughts made by Avery.  A lot of the poetry went along with what was happening in the book, but it was completely confusing and took a lot to decipher.

If you enjoy analyzing and deciphering literature then this is definitely the book for you.  It was very scattered and scrambled, making it hard to read.  I give this 1 star.

Time Bomb by Joelle Charbonneau

From Goodreads,

"A congressman's daughter who has to be perfect. A star quarterback with a secret. A guy who's tired of being ignored. A clarinet player who's done trying to fit in. An orphaned rebel who wants to teach someone a lesson. A guy who wants people to see him, not his religion.

They couldn't be more different, but before the morning's over, they'll all be trapped in a school that's been rocked by a bombing. When they hear that someone inside is the bomber, they'll also be looking to one another for answers."

Goodreads - Time Bomb

Any time that I go into Books A Million I check out the teen reads section.  I glance over the covers to find one that is appealing and then I read the synopsis to decide if I want to read it.  This was a book that I picked up, read the synopsis and put down.  But after roaming the store a while longer I decided to go back and get the book.

This book is told from the perspective of six very different students who attend the same high school.  On one day before school starts they are all in the school for various reasons when a bomb goes off.  Each student has to fight to survive and get out.  Eventually the students realize that one of the bombers is among them and they need to figure out who it is quickly before another bomb goes off.

This book wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be.  One of the things that I was upset with at the beginning was sorting the characters and the character progression.  I found it hard to keep the different characters sorted and organized at the beginning.  As the book progressed I was able to connect small details to names to help me better remember them and keep them sorted.  As the book went on I was glad it was a slow progression because we got to learn about the characters through the others' eyes.  I also thought that the students would all be trapped in the same room when the bomb exploded, but that wasn't the case.  The students were all in varying locations and slowly started finding each other and working together.  At first I was kind of irritated about it, but I found that having the students progress through the burning building alone or in pairs helped me to better figure out who the bomber was and why they were doing it.  The slow progression and the placement of characters during the bombing really helped this book keep a level of excitement and mystery to it.

When I first started reading this book I immediately knew the direction the book was headed.  One of the students has a father who is a senator.  I knew immediately that the bombing would have some relation to him and his trying to pass a bill called Safety Through Education.  While the ending ended up being different than I expected there was still the agenda to gain attention for the bill.  I was disappointed because I had called it from the beginning and had hoped the entire time that it would turn out differently.

The book was a little bit predictable, but the character's being scattered in the book and slowly getting to know them helped keep a sense of mystery to the story.  I was constantly wondering who was the bomber and why, even though deep down I knew.  I give this book 4 stars and recommend it to people who like mystery or thriller books.

Love, Lucas by Chantele Sedgwick

From Goodreads,

"When Oakley Nelson loses her older brother, Lucas, to cancer, she thinks she'll never recover. Between her parents' arguing and the battle she's fighting with depression, she feels nothing inside but a hollow emptiness. When Mom suggests they spend a few months in California with Aunt Jo, Oakley isn't sure a change of scenery will alter anything, but she's willing to give it a try. In California, Oakley discovers a sort of safety and freedom in Aunt Jo's beach house. Once they're settled, Mom hands her a notebook full of letters addressed to her-from Lucas. As Oakley reads one each day, she realizes how much he loved her, and each letter challenges her to be better and to continue to enjoy her life. He wants her to move on. If only it were that easy. But then a surfer named Carson comes into her life, and Oakley is blindsided. He makes her feel again. As she lets him in, she is surprised by how much she cares for him, and that's when things get complicated. How can she fall in love and be happy when Lucas never got the chance to do those very same things? With her brother's dying words as guidance, Oakley knows she must learn to listen and trust again. But will she have to leave the past behind to find happiness in the future?"

Goodreads - Love, Lucas

I tend to find myself reading books of similar themes.  Typically I lean toward books with themes about mental health, humor, cancer, or love.  This book had the two of the themes with one being cancer and the other being love.  This book wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but it was still absolutely stunning and part of me wants to read the other books in the series.

Love, Lucas is about a girl named Oakley who is trying to come to terms with the loss of her brother to cancer.  They were always very close and it seemed that Oakley would absolutely fall to pieces with him gone.  But her mother takes her to California so they can get a fresh start and maybe try to get their life going again.  While her mother tries to figure life out again, Oakley meets a boy named Carson who she finds is similar to her brother.  Carson is adventurous and finds that he cares deeply for Oakley, but Oakley has to figure out what she wants.  The book comes to an exciting climax that will absolutely shock anyone who reads this book.

This book is titled Love, Lucas because Oakley's brother Lucas decides to write letters to Oakley to help her grieve.  I was really expecting the letters to be a bigger part of the story, but they weren't.  This book really focused on Oakley falling in love with Carson with the letters being sprinkled in throughout the book.  I just feel like if the book is going to be titled Love, Lucas that it should have a tighter connection to Lucas's letters.  I felt like having Oakley fall in love with Carson kind of took away from the letter aspect of the book.

SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!!  Read with caution!

I absolutely loved the climax in this book.  Oakley and Carson were out in the water making up after their big break-up fight.  That was when Carson spotted a shark and told Oakley to get back to shore.  But the shark ended up grabbing Carson and pulling him under.  When I read this I had an immediate jaw drop moment and was trying to turn the pages faster than I could read them.  I did not see it coming and was in complete shock that the author would throw Carson under the bus like that.  The whole situation with the shark attack made me want to read the other books that go along with this book. 

This book was a tad bit slow, but it had a couple big moments that were shocking and exciting.  I'm considering reading the next book in this series and will post a review if and when I read it.  I give this book 3 stars and recommend it to people who want a teenage love story. 

Lemons by Melissa Savage

From Goodreads,

"What do you do when you lose everything that means anything?

Ten-year old Lemonade Liberty Witt doesn’t know the answer to that question, except what her mom taught her. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But what if those lemons are so big that you forget how?

How do you make lemonade out of having to leave everything you know in San Francisco to move to the small town of Willow Creek, California and live with a grandfather you’ve never even met? In a town that smells like grass and mud and bugs. With tall pines instead of skyscrapers and dirt instead of sidewalks. Not to mention one woolly beast lurking in the woods.

That’s right, Bigfoot.

A ginormous wooden statue of the ugly thing stands right at the center of town like he’s someone real important, like the mayor or something. And the people here actually believe he’s real and hiding somewhere out in the pine filled forests.

How can anyone possibly be expected to make lemonade out those rotten lemons?

Everything is different and Lem just wants to go back home. And then she meets Tobin Sky, the CEO of Bigfoot Detectives, Inc. and sole investigator for the town. He invites her to be his Assistant for the summer and she reluctantly agrees. At least until she can figure out her escape plan.

Together, Lem and Tobin try to capture a shot of the elusive beast on film and end up finding more than they ever could have even imagined."

Goodreads - Lemons

I have been doing read alouds with my class and after we finished Saving Winslow I let my students pick from a series of books.  Lemons was in the stack along with a couple other notable books.  I gave the students a one sentence summary of the book based on the summary on the back.  The students all voted and we ended up selecting this book to read.  At times the students were fully engaged in this book, at others they were somewhat bored.  It ended up that I finished reading the book for the kids because they really lost interest.

Lemons starts with a young girl named Lemonade, being taken to her grandfather's house who she has never met.  Lemonade just wants to go back home instead of live in a place she's unfamiliar with, with a man she doesn't know.  Soon Lemonade meets a young boy named Tobin who runs the Bigfoot Detectives, Inc.  Lemonade is stubborn and continues to tell Tobin she will be going back home to San Francisco.  But eventually Lemonade settles into life with her grandfather and hanging out with Tobin.  Together they search for bigfoot and along the way they find something even greater.

I absolutely loved this book, but my students were a little mixed about it.  I loved that the story was set back in the 70s, but it also had a still relevant vibe to it.  This story was really big on the connections we have between people and the value of them.  Lemonade and Tobin struggled at times in their friendship.  Lemonade had to learn to trust Tobin and Tobin had to learn how to make Lemonade realize that she belonged in Willow Creek.  Lemonade also had to learn that she needed her grandfather just as much as he needed her.  I absolutely loved the importance that was placed on relationships in this book.  A lot of young adults don't value the relationships they have and they honestly take them for granted.  This book was packed with various examples of relationships with people, and even more importantly the various strains that relationships can have.

One of the downsides of this book is that it was lengthy for a read aloud and it was pretty dull for a large chunk of the book.  I think the lack of excitement was really what put some of my kids off from this book.  About half of them were interested to find out what was living in the woods, the other half was ready to start a new book.  I adored this book as I read it aloud and finished it by myself.  It was a very good wholesome book that had a lot of good things packed in it.

Overall, this book wasn't what I expected, but it was still wonderful.  My students were a little disappointed with the book, but were glad to hear the ending.  I give this 4 out of 5 stars.  This book doesn't really have a specific crowd that I would recommend it to, but it is still really good and is a good fun read.