A Great Vacation Book

As promised, Kelsey & I would like to tell you about the book we both read over our vacation. A little background first. The author of this book is Margaret Haddix. She is probably best known for her Shadow Children series. She is very popular with Middle Schoolers, but even some of us out of Middle School enjoy her books. Her books always have some sort of mystery involved. My (Terri) favorite of her books is "Running out of time" which is about a girl who thinks she lives in the 1800's, but actually lives in the 1990's in a tourist attraction. (The tourists can see her, but she can't see them.)

Last week we both read her newest book which is titled "Found" and begins a new series. It is an adoption story that involves the FBI, an airplane full of babies that appears out of nowhere, and a twist that I really didn't see coming. I really enjoyed this book and didn't want to put it down even though there was one plot hole that wasn't really explained to my satisfaction. This book kept me entertained one afternoon while I sat in the van during a rainstorm waiting for the boys to get done fishing. If you are a middle schooler, know a middle schooler or just like to read YA books, this is a book I would add to your summer reading list. I'll let Kelsey follow with her review of this book.

Okay. So Haddix has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. side note here, the Shadow Children series is really great so I'd highly recommend them, but my favorite of her books is probably either Turnabout or Escape from Memory (but really I haven't read one of her books I didn't like). On a sidenote (since mom already pretty much explained Found and I agree it was pretty good) I also re-read one of my all time favorite books: Ordinary People. This is actually an adult book written about a 1970's family. It's a bit sad and depressing at parts but overall it's a really great book. It's about a boy named Conrad who tried to kill himself after his older brother's death in a boating accident (who is called both Buck and Jordan), and his struggle with trying to put his life back together after coming home from a hospital. And it is written in alternating chapters of his ponit of view and his father's who is incredibly worried about Conrad which is making his marriage suffer because his wife wants to pretend like they are just an "Ordinary Family." So if YA books aren't your thing, I'd recommend you go find a copy of Ordinary People by Judith Guest. Sidenote- the movie won some awards in 1980ish, but the book is infinitely better.

~Terri and Kelsey