Alton Richards, 17, has a very rich Uncle Lester who is also very old. Alton’s parents always prompted him to tell his uncle over the telephone that he (Uncle Lester) was his favourite uncle and that he (Alton) loved him. The only time Alton met his uncle was when he was six years old during the uncle’s 65th birthday party.

Uncle Lester’s health deteriorates, leaving him blind but still having a sharp mind nevertheless. He hires Alton to be his cardturner at bridge games four times a week. All Alton has to do is sit at the bridge table with his uncle beside him and turn the cards on his uncle’s behalf.

Alton was initially not jumping for joy at spending so much time with his elderly uncle at bridge games but finds himself being drawn to the game. He would watch how his uncle plays at the bridge club and then go home to share with his younger sister, Leslie, of the new things he has learnt.

He then meets Toni Castaneda who is closer to Uncle Lester than Alton or his family is with the uncle. Alton feels jealous with their closeness at first but soon discovers that he enjoys playing bridge and spending time with Toni.

The Cardturner is definitely an enjoyable read. It’s written from Alton’s point of view and I liked the short chapters as well as his easygoing personality which is reflected in the storytelling. There are also simple explanations on the basics of bridge in random parts of the book. You can skip them if you don’t want to know how bridge is played but only want to know what is going on in the story.

I really disliked Alton’s parents. They were obviously only eyeing Uncle Lester’s money and probably couldn’t care less for him. I didn’t like the way they kept telling Alton that he had to say something to Uncle Lester in order for the family to be included in his will. I’m not sure if I liked Alton but I found the characters of cranky Uncle Lester and Leslie endearing.

To me, bridge was a game played by a group of people. That’s all I know about it. And guess what? I still have no idea how to play the game BUT now I do know the basics of the game as well as the terms and phrases associated with it, thanks to the simple lessons given in the book. I didn’t realise that I would like the book so much. I don’t think that just because the book is about bridge that it should intimidate readers who have no interest in the game, like me. I also liked the book because there are funny bits in it.

I realised that bridge was about partnerships and that it’s important for bridge partners to cooperate well during games. Alton learns a thing or two about it which spurs him to want to find out more about Uncle Lester’s ‘perfect bridge partner’. Yes, there are mysteries to be unraveled in this story!

This is the second book that I’ve read by Louis Sachar. The other book was Holes, which I read and enjoyed around four years ago. He has another book, Small Steps, which is the sequel to Holes.

Now at the age of 17, Taylor is a house leader in her boarding house at Jellicoe School on Jellicoe Road. She is also in charge of all the boarders in the territory wars with the Townies (kids from town) and Cadets who are Sydney boys who come to Jellicoe for training. The leader of the Cadets also happens to be Jonah Griggs, who Taylor ran away with a few years ago to go search for her mother. However, the attempt was not successful and Taylor never wanted to see Jonah again.

Now, not only does she have to face Jonah after all these years, Taylor has to stand up to other house leaders who are unhappy with her leadership in the wars. To top it all off, Hannah disappears without an explanation and Taylor can only look for clues in some of Hannah’s manuscripts that tell a story about five kids.

I was lost when reading the first few chapters of Jellicoe Road. There was the boy in the tree in Taylor’s dreams, the Hermit and then in came the five kids named Webb, Narnie, Tate, Jude and Fitz from Hannah’s manuscripts which ran as a parallel story. I went like, ‘Who are all these people???’

There were so many names that I could not keep track of who was who and what were their roles in the story. I almost gave up after a few chapters but I kept on reading as I’ve come across many reviews that praised this book to the skies. I loved Marchetta’s Looking For Alibrandi so I felt that there should be something mind-blowing in this book as well. True enough, there was.

I was not disappointed. If you feel like quitting the story halfway, I suggest that you don’t but to continue reading. Whatever that you did not understand in the earlier part of the book will all be answered in the coming chapters. After that, you will want to keep on reading till the end! That’s how it was for me. When I finished the story, I went back to the first chapter and read it again, with a better understanding the second time around.

In a nutshell, the story is mainly about Taylor trying to find her own identity, to know why her mother left her as well as to understand her relationships with Hannah and Jonah.

It is not all depressing though as there are a few funny parts that you will laugh at. I tell you, this is one book that I will be thinking about for a while. I’m also definitely going to get my hands on a copy of another book by Marchetta! Maybe either Saving Francesca or Finnikin of the Rock or her latest one, The Piper’s Son!

April’s life in the village changes one summer with the arrival of higher class folk Barbara and her son, Tony. Barbara’s husband has dropped them from his life without warning and left them with almost nothing to live by. Tony, ashamed with this new way of life, is initially angry at his mother and blames her for causing their father to leave them.

He gets even more angry and sullen as April keeps popping into their lives. His mother feels relieved however and is really thankful with the help April and her mother were extending. She treats April almost like her own daughter and teaches her ladylike manners.

No matter how he thinks he hates her, Tony feels that April is the only thing alive in the village, which is always full of gossip. Before long, he finds himself falling for her but at the same time embarrassed by her disabilities.

Loving April deals with important issues such as mistreatment towards the disabled. April is an example of an unfortunate individual who has to suffer for her condition, which she never asked for. She is misunderstood and looked down on just because she is different.

As for Tony, he definitely has a lot on his plate. He has to deal with the fact that his father deserted them, discovering the hidden side of his resourceful mother, falling in love with a deaf girl and adjusting to the life of a commoner. All Tony wants is his old life back. But he asks himself, is that what he really wants?

The story is an unforgettable one and I felt deeply for the characters. You can’t help feeling protective towards April or wanting to yell at Tony to stop being so self-centred. Also, you just gotta dislike the village gossip, Mr Riley. Definitely a thought-provoking book worth reading.

She knows that she must muster up the courage to at least have a real conversation with him at a party thrown for her elder sister, who is going away to California to work for the summer. All dressed up and with the encouragement of her best friend, Maddy, Della hits it off with Dan who then asks her out on a date.

Now that Dan is finally taking notice of her, Della feels utter blissfulness. However, she discovers that her diary is missing and she can’t figure out who took it. What’s worse, all her innermost secrets and thoughts are in that diary.

To add to her shock and embarrassment, someone sends entries from her diary to her, Maddy, Dan and even her parents! Now who would do such a thing to her?

Even the title, Della Says: OMG! is totally catchy and I’m glad to have won it from a book giveaway held at Good Golly Miss Holly last year. It was a breeze reading the book. It was as if the conversations were uttered right in front of me. One of my favourite lines is by Dan who told Della this:

‘Not exactly dancing. You walk like there’s music in your head.’

I don’t know if it’s the right line to use to a girl but it worked for Della.

Apart from Della exploring her new relationship with Dan, I was also interested in the tricky love triangle situation in which Maddy is involved. Maddy already has a boyfriend but she is attracted to his best friend.

A debut novel by Keris Stainton, it reminds me of the girly adventures in the books by Jean Ure. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining, light and fun read, perfect for teens and adults who still smile when they think of their first crush.

Keris also has a new book coming out in July, Jessie ♥ NYC.

The story starts with Anna in class, learning about the play, Macbeth, when a new boy enters the classroom. He’s not dressed in the school’s uniform, has a shaven head and looks like he’d rather be anywhere else than there. Anna is the only person to introduce herself to him after class.

Anna doesn’t really belong to a particular group or clique in school. So when a girl from her class, Karen, invites her out for the night, she was quite happy to go. Finally, some plans with friends! She found out later that Karen was only using her as a substitute friend. She then left the club and went home, feeling that there wouldn’t ever be anyone who would genuinely want to be friends with her. That’s how she was mugged on her way home. By the new boy.

His name is Craig Ritchie but Anna calls him Ritchie. Instead of reporting him to the police, she kind of bonded with him. He told her stories of his life, his perspective of the modern world and she was utterly fascinated by them. Perhaps this boy was her gateway to a much more exciting and fulfilling life.

Ritchie and his pals are thieves. They steal stuff from other people because they feel that they deserve to do that. They are like the outcasts in society: one has been bullied, Ritchie has been ridiculed in school, abandoned by his father who left his mother, etc. So they think that robbing from rich people is like taking back what should be theirs.

And suddenly Anna pitches plans and ideas to Ritchie about how both of them can steal something from a store and later give away their ‘earnings’ to somebody who needs them. They’d steal from stores that have branches and franchises all over the world. Since these big companies are already making millions, a few lost pounds wouldn’t hurt them. Anna saw themselves as Robin Hoods. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

I am familiar with the saying ‘Crime doesn’t pay’ and I’m sure most of you have heard of that too. Well, I was wondering how these two kids will end up in the end. It is interesting to read how they tried to steal from a bookshop without getting caught. But I was skeptical. Wouldn’t they be caught on the CCTV? I doubt that the shops would leave any area unguarded especially if it’s some huge store like Borders or something.

Something Wicked does make us reflect on issues like exploitation and consumerism. You should read the part where they talk about shoes and the Third World. Who made them? How much were their wages? How much are we paying for the shoes?

All right, I thought Anna really went through an extreme transformation. Since she met Ritchie, she’s become braver and in a way, happier. But not necessarily wiser. Ritchie is also another complicated character.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this book. It was a slow start but it did pick up pace when Anna and Ritchie go Robin Hooding. I guess this book tells us that we learn things by making mistakes.

16-year-old John Malarkey is the new kid in town and in school, Brook High. He and his mom have just moved to this new town and his mom decides to open a store selling second hand books. (Wouldn’t I like to live near that one!)

Before this, I have never come across the word ‘malarkey’ before. On the cover of this book, the definition given for the word is ‘bullshit’. Yikes! Imagine having such a name! But I also just looked up Answers.com and it also means ‘exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive’, which in short means ‘bullshit’. Returning to the book, it suits well as the title and the name of the boy. John Malarkey did more than once tried to talk himself out of trouble.

So one day, a beautiful classmate speaks to John and points him out to two other boys who decide to nab his school bag and run away with it. He naturally chases the boys to try to get his bag back. He failed to catch them but needn’t worry because his bag showed up on his desk in his next class. With a stolen teacher’s wallet in it. John is then accused of stealing.

With John taking the blame for a couple of thefts in school, a shady group called the Tailors who loves to wear Adidas shoes, runs the school like never before. They sell stuff like cigarettes and drugs at the tuck shop but the teachers know nothing about it. They also sell signed report cards without teachers’ comments – meaning the students can be their own teacher and write out their own comments!

They don’t even spare the smart kids out of their cunning schemes. The brainy ones make up the Homework Club and they’re forced to do the Tailors’ assignments with no time to concentrate on their own. John then tries to enlist one of the Homework Club kids’ help. What he plans to do is to clear his name as a thief and also to bring down the Tailors. Both in less than 24 hours.

Malarkey is quite an exciting read and felt suspenseful. I also didn’t realize that a few hours in school could feel like a few days! The first 89 pages were focused on what John did after having his bag stolen by the Tailor boys. I thought it went on for days but it’s only hours actually.

You can say that John’s the high school James Bond. A group of trouble makers pick on him, he comes up with plans and tactics, faces the leader of the pack and then figures out on how to proceed from there. Pick up this book to read about how a new kid fights off the bullies in his new school.

Other Reviews: Chicklish

Bindy is a student at Ashbury High, in Year 11 which she thinks is the year that will determine her whole life. Yeah, I guess she’s kind of an extremist too. Anyway, there’s a new self-awareness course called Friendship and Development or FAD. Meetings are held every Wednesday in the storage room at the back of the gymnasium. Bindy’s FAD group consists of 8 people: she, Finnegan, Sergio, Emily, Astrid, Elizabeth, Briony, and Toby. Their teacher is Try Montaine from Ohio. Finnegan has been chosen to be Bindy’s FAD Buddy.

It all started from the Name Game where the members of the FAD group were supposed to write a comment on somebody on a piece of paper with the person’s name printed on it. Everyone knows Bindy is a high achiever, has weird social skills and is always ready to lend a helping hand although it’s sometimes rejected. So for the Name Game, Bindy thinks that the other seven students wrote unkind remarks about her. She has promised herself that they’ll pay for it.

Bindy chose animals to represent the members in her FAD group. For example, she compares Toby to a cane toad. She then lists out the unpleasant characteristics of the cane toad and indirectly refers them to Toby’s personality. She does this to all seven of them. However, when things got too far, Bindy deeply regrets her actions.

She decides to make up to them and begins to spend a lot of time watching their whereabouts. She keenly observes them and thinks of new animals to compare them with. Since this new personal project takes up a lot of time, her assignments and schoolwork are neglected. For the first time in her life, she thinks she might fail Year 11!

Furthermore, Bindy loves writing memos, e-mails, philosophical musings in her diary, entries in her dream diary, letters, and also transcripts. She listens to people’s conversations around her and types them out in her laptop. In other words, she loves to eavesdrop but not with bad intentions. She happened to witness the argument between two supposedly substitute teachers. When one slapped the other, Bindy quickly rushed to the victim and offered to testify about the assault. There’s your Bindy, always ready to offer help to the needy.

The book is meant to be funny but I think I only started laughing at page 387. And during the final pages of the book, it’s no laughing matter though. There are 491 pages and I can say that I enjoyed reading almost every one of them. Bindy’s fellow schoolmates were likeable enough. I thought Bindy likes Toby but she also pays a lot of attention to Finnegan. Toby seemed a little retarded in the beginning because nothing he said seemed intelligent. But later in the story, he appeared to be mature and thoughtful.

I have read reviews on Amazon that this book was really boring but I beg to differ. It is far from boring, I assure you. I like it probably because it’s a school story and I like school stories! By the way, The Kool-Aid Mom sent me this book as I was one of the winners in her book giveaway.

Other reviews: Liz B, Bibliovore

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