See You On a Starry Night by Lisa Schroeder

From Goodreads, 

"Juliet has just moved to a beachside town with her newly separated mother and her moody older sister. When she meets their new neighbor, Emma, the girls form an instant bond. Emma's big family takes Juliet in, and the girls have fun together -- starting with the night they throw bottles with secret messages into the sea.

Then someone writes back to Juliet's message. An email arrives, inviting her to join the Starry Beach Club. All she has to do is make someone else's wish come true.

So Juliet and Emma set off to help as many other people as they can. It's fun! But as Juliet spends more and more time away from home, enjoying her new town and Emma's family more than her own mom and sister, she starts feeling lost. It's been easy to find others to help. But maybe her star would shine a little brighter if she brought it closer to home."

Goodreads - See You On a Starry Night

I've been on a bit of a break from reading.  A few months back I flipped life upside down and made some major changes.  This led to me moving to a new town and a lot of adjustments to the new normal.  But now that summer is here and in full swing I am trying to read as much as possible.  The chair on my front porch and I have become great friends over the past few weeks. 

This book follows a girl named Juliet who has had her life completely uprooted.  Her parents are now divorced and her mom decided that they all needed a fresh start in a new town.  Juliet misses her dad and her friends and the life she used to have.  On the first day in the new town, Juliet walks down to the beach.  What she doesn't expect is that she is going to run into a girl named Emma who is the same age as her.  Emma wants Juliet to write a letter, put it in a bottle, and throw it out to the ocean. The two soon become friends but become closer when Emma's bottle is found.  The person who found the bottle wants Juliet to become a member of the Starry Beach Club and make someone's wish come true.  Juliet and Emma soon set off on a quest to make a wish come true and find out who found the bottle. 

I love that this book addresses the feelings that a child experiences when their parents get a divorce and move to a new town.  Juliet is upset about her parents getting a divorce.  We see her have full-fledged meltdowns.  I think many kids who have been through or are going through the separation of parents can connect with Juliet.  I also like that in this book we see Juliet, her mom, and her sister move to a new town for a fresh start.  Juliet struggles with the new move.  She misses her dad and her friends from her old town.  She is having to start at a new school and will be going in with no friends.  She is clearly overwhelmed with all the changes.  Kids will absolutely relate to this if they have ever had to move to a new school and leave their old friends behind.  I also really liked that this book addresses the anger that is experienced during a big life transition like Juliet was going through.  Near the end of the book, we see everything kind of pile up inside Juliet until she explodes.  Luckily, her family and Emma are there to help her through the tough time and she learns how to better express herself and her anger.  I haven't read many books written for middle school kids that address divorce and moving to a new school like this book does.  

While this book addressed the divorce/moving situation tastefully, there were a couple BIG problems.  The biggest issue with this book was that Juliet was emailing someone who she did not know.  Every time she emailed the person or they emailed her, I was thinking that it could be a predator.  Juliet was just freely talking with someone who she didn't know.  I felt like there was a missed opportunity here.  Schroeder should have written it in for Juliet or Emma's parents to find out about this mystery person so they could have a conversation about being safe online.  And even worse is that Juliet and Emma set up a time to meet this mystery person!  Which luckily it ended up being a girl that was their age and went to school with them.  But still!  These two girls have obviously not been taught about being safe online and not meeting up with strangers.  Also, I didn't like that Juliet's mom just let Juliet go to the beach unsupervised.  It felt extremely irresponsible on the part of her mom, especially since they just moved to a new town.  I also didn't like that Juliet met Emma on the very first day in town.  I felt like Juliet needed to just kind of soak in the aloneness for a chapter or two before she met Emma.  I just didn't feel like it was realistic for Juliet to meet Emma the very first day during her very first walk on the beach.  

Overall, this book had great coverage of divorce and moving to a new town.  But I was so bothered by the fact that no one in this book had ever been taught about internet safety.  And the fact that it was never addressed honestly left me upset because this is such a huge thing with kids having access to ALL kinds of technology 24/7.  I give this 2 stars.  It will of course go into my classroom library, but it isn't high on my recommendation list.  

All We Have Is Now by Lisa Schroeder

From Goodreads:

"What do you do with your last day on earth?

Just over twenty-four hours are left until an asteroid strikes North America, and for Emerson and everyone else who didn’t leave, the world will end. But Emerson’s world already ended when she ran away from home. Since then, she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and on her friend Vince to help her find places to sleep and food to eat.

The city’s quieter now that most people are gone, and no one seems to know what to do as the end approaches. But then Emerson and Vince meet Carl, who tells them he has been granting people’s wishes—and gives them his wallet full of money. 

Suddenly, this last day seems full of possibility. Emerson and Vince can grant a lot of wishes in one last day—maybe even their own."

Goodreads - All We Have Is Now

I discovered this book on Scholastic and figured it would be interesting enough for me to indulge myself in.  I recently moved and I haven't set up my cable yet.  This being said, I was EXTREMELY bored one weekend.  I had watched all the movies I could stand to watch.  I snatched a book off of my book shelf and it just so happened to be the book All We Have Is Now.  I was immediately pulled into the whole "the end of the world is coming" theme.

It starts off with the reader finding out that an asteroid is going to strike North America.  We quickly find out that most people have fled and people are panicking to get home to loved ones.  This story follows the two main characters: Emerson and Vince.  We soon find out that they are homeless and have been living on the streets (their life stories come a little later in the book).  They decide to jump off of the suicide bridge so that they don't have to wait for the asteroid.  At this point they meet Carl who is trying to help as many people as he can before the end of the world.  Emerson and Vince decide to do the same thing that Carl was doing.  We tag along as Emerson and Vince try to go fill as many bucket lists as they can before the world comes to an end.

The story continues to switch viewpoints between Carl, Emerson, and Vince.  This has almost a third person feel to it at times which gave it an interesting quality.  It was so interesting to follow and try to predict who they might meet next and who they might help.  I enjoyed reading and experiencing a relationship flourish between Emerson and Vince.

I'm trying not to give away too many spoilers, but this book was really good.  The only thing that I didn't like was that this book ended rather abruptly.  I felt like it just kept building and building and building and then KAPUT!  I would really like to read another book that steps back a little and tells what REALLY happened at the end.  Did people panic as everything started to fall apart?  Did the asteroid hit Earth or not?  Was this whole asteroid ordeal created by the government as a cover for something bigger?

I really would enjoy to read a secondary book that answers these questions and follows the characters and their journeys through the year after the asteroid. I just wanted a little more at the end of the book.  It was a really good read.  I would recommend it to junior high or high school kids.  As far as end of the world books, this one ranks pretty high on my list and I would give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

My question for everyone is...

What would you do if you knew the world would end in 24 hours?