Review: Fat Boy vs the Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach

Summary-

It's geeks versus jocks in an epic battle of the beverages!
From "one of the most real, honest, and still funny male voices to come around in a while" (YALSA) comes a brand-new cast of quirky characters, pitting fat boy Gabe against the high school cheerleading team in a battle over control of the school's soda machine.
The war is ON! Never have the stakes been so high. Never have the trenches been so deep. Never has one soda vending machine been so vital. When the high school cheerleading team takes over the machine's funds previously collected by the pep band, Gabe will not stand for it. Something must be done.

 

Review-

Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleaders is a story of labels, teen angst, and how to fight for what's right. It's also a story of a fat boy, a goth girl, and a pop machine. Author Geoff Herbach chose to tell Gabe (Chunk's) story as a police report which made it comical as the reader listens to Gabe tell his woeful story to a lawyer who never verbally responds. Making the story even more funny is Gabe's life. His grandfather walks around in compaction shorts (picture a jock strap), his mother ran off with a Japanese architect, his addiction is Code Red Mountain Dew, and he compares his trombone to part of a robot's anatomy. Wacky and fast-paced, Fat Boy follows the war of Geeks against Jocks and Cheerleaders during the most hectic nine days of a teenage boy's life. I read this book in one afternoon and laughed throughout the entire story! It brought back memories of high school, some good and some bad, but memories nonetheless. And at the end of the day, Herbach reminds us that, as human beings, we can all change and grow into better people.

 

Publisher-Sourcebooks Fire

Reviewer Rating: 4.5

Reviewed by~Cindi Clubbs

Thank you to the publisher for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!

Review: Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

Summary-

A sensational YA science fiction debut from an exciting new British author. Jarra is stuck on Earth while the rest of humanity portals around the universe. But can she prove to the norms that she’s more than just an Earth Girl?
2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. While everyone else portals between worlds, 18-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’, but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.
Jarra invents a fake background for herself – as a normal child of Military parents – and joins a class of norms that is on Earth to excavate the ruins of the old cities. When an ancient skyscraper collapses, burying another research team, Jarra’s role in their rescue puts her in the spotlight. No hiding at back of class now. To make life more complicated, she finds herself falling in love with one of her classmates – a norm from another planet. Somehow, she has to keep the deception going.
A freak solar storm strikes the atmosphere, and the class is ordered to portal off-world for safety – no problem for a real child of military parents, but fatal for Jarra. The storm is so bad that the crews of the orbiting solar arrays have to escape to planet below: the first landing from space in 600 years. And one is on collision course with their shelter.

 

Review-

This was a really really good book. i don't have much to say on it other than at the end i felt like it was a little rushed for the last 5 pages. other than that i have no complaints and everything i would say would be all positive.

 

Publisher-Harper Voyager

Reviewers Rating: 4.5 Stars

Reviewed by~Selina Kreamelmeyer (Student at Middletown High School)

Thank you to the author for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!

Review: Altered (Crewel World #2) by Gennifer Albin

Summary-

Life. Possibility. Choice.
All taken from Adelice by the Guild—until she took them back.
But amid the splendid ruins of Earth, Adelice discovers how dangerous freedom can be. Hunted by soulless Remnants sent by Cormac Patton and the Guild, Adelice finds a world that’s far from deserted. Although allies are easy to find on Earth, knowing who to trust isn’t. Because everyone has secrets, especially those Adelice loves most. Secrets they would kill to protect. Secrets that will redefine each of them. Torn between two brothers and two worlds, Adelice must choose what to fight for.
In this thrilling sequel to Crewel, Adelice is about to learn how tangled up her past and future really are. Her parents ran to protect her, but nothing can save her from her destiny, and once she uncovers the truth, it will change everything.

 

Review-

its really really good. though this is the second book to a trilogy so i was kind of lost at the beginning but other than that i loved it.its different than almost anything ive ever read. cant wait to read the first and third books.

 

Publisher-Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Reviewer Rating: 4.5 Stars

Reviewed by~Selina Kreamelmeyer (Student at Middletown high School)

Thank you to the publisher for the donation of this book to the Read for your  Future book program

in exchange for a honest review.

 

Review: It's a Wild Life: How My Life Became a Zoo by by Bud DeYoung, Cindy Martinusen Coloma

Summary-

Pursuing your passion includes a whole lot of crap. For Bud DeYoung, that’s about two hundred pounds a day!
Since childhood, Bud had a passion for animals. As an adult, that passion led to the rescue of a bear who lived in his family’s house, then more animals crowding for space, until Bud eventually built an entire private zoo around his home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Along the way, a regular visitor named Carrie joined her passion for animals with Bud’s. Together they now educate the public about animal conservation, battle the harsh winters and blazing summers, and daily dole out love to the hundreds of rescued animals in their care. Meanwhile, they teach by example how to make the world a better place while pursuing their passion.
Welcome to the fascinating, heartwarming journey of one man, one woman, and an amazing cast of critters, whose stories will warm your soul. Welcome to the wild life of the DeYoung Family Zoo.

 

Review-

It's A Wild Life is one of the best animal-based biographies that I've ever read for one simple reason: Bud DeYoung is a wonderful down-to-Earth man who writes what he feels. This book tells Bud's true feelings about his insecurities at not going to college, his sadness when people get angry about his zoo, his guilt over his divorces. But what also shines through is his gentleness, love for animals and people, and the fact that Bud has a HUGE HEART. At the end of the book are letters from some of his visitors telling Bud and his fiancee Carrie how wonderfully they treated this young animal-crazy boy or that young handicapped girl. There is no bragging or pictures of Bud or Carrie with celebrities. There are just stories of special animals and people who have come into their lives and pictures of the same. Bud makes sure to thank everyone who helped him with the zoo and the reader can feel Bud's genuine affection for his friends and family in every written word. The story of Bud and his zoo also talks about hard work and finding hobbies as a youth that are excellent messages for the young reader. With many funny anecdotes about the animals and interesting facts about animal behavior, this was an awesome story!!!

 

Publisher-Medallion Press (

Reviewer Rating: 4 Stars

Reviewed by~Cindi

Thank you to the author for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! 

Just do the following: 

• Grab your current read. 
• Open to a random page. 
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. 
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 
• Share the title and author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

It's shape was vaguely human, but the resemblance went no further that that. Its claylike skin covered in green, bubbling warts and boils made it look like somebody had scooped a pile of mud from the bottom of a stagnant river and tried to make a person out of it. 

Pg. 289

The Beasts of Upton Puddle

by Simon West-Bulford

It's Monday! What are YOU Reading?

This is a fun meme that allows bloggers to get an idea of what everyone else is reading and perhaps help to find our next must-read. So check out what WE are reading and tell us what YOU are reading!!

Lora is Reading: 

City Of Heavenly Fire (Mortal Instruments, #6)

by Cassandra Claire

......

......

Cindi is Reading: 

The Beasts of Upton Puddle

by Simon West-Bulford

......

Waiting On Wednesday

Sooooo....what book are we waiting on here at RFYF? Who loves a good mystery/horror? ME, ME, ME!! 

Wickedpedia

......

by Chris Van Etten

Release Date: 24 June 2014

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

It's the return of Point Horror for the Internet generation! Don't open the door. Don't answer your phone. And whatever you do, DON'T turn on your computer. . . .

Cole and Greg love playing practical jokes through Wikipedia. They edit key articles and watch their classmates crash and burn giving oral reports on historical figures like Genghis Khan, the first female astronaut on Jupiter. So after the star soccer player steals Cole's girlfriend, the boys take their revenge by creating a Wikipedia page for him, an entry full of outlandish information including details about his bizarre death on the soccer field.

It's all in good fun, until the soccer player is killed in a freak accident . . . just as Cole and Greg predicted. The uneasy boys vow to leave Wikipedia alone but someone continues to edit articles about classmates dying in gruesome ways . . . and those entries start to come true as well.

(Goodreads Summary)

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! 

Just do the following: 

• Grab your current read. 
• Open to a random page. 
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. 
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 
• Share the title and author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

This whole thing is freaking me out.It's like I just stepped into one of my brother's time travel books, but those aren't real.

Pg. 51

Turning On A Dime

by Maggie Dana

It's Monday! What are YOU reading?

This is a fun meme that allows bloggers to get an idea of what everyone else is reading and perhaps help to find our next must-read. So check out what WE are reading and tell us what YOU are reading!!

Lora is Reading: 

City Of Heavenly Fire (Mortal Instruments, #6)

by Cassandra Claire

......

......

Cindi is Reading: 

Turning On A Dime

by Maggie Dana

......

Review: Countryside: The Book of the Wise (Countryside #1) by J.T. Cope IV

Summary-

You have a power within you, one that is within everyone...It s the same power that fills that building, that keeps that tree alive...and the same power that has attracted your attention...I know it s all a bit strange to you, but I assure you it is quite real...
Eleven-year-old Luke Rayburn has never seen a skyline without skyscrapers or fallen asleep to anything but the sound of traffic. But his life is about to change in ways he never imagined.When his father leaves for a year of military service, Luke and the rest of his family move into their grandparents home in the remote town of Countryside, a place like no other. There, Luke will be drawn into a centuries-old quest for an almost-forgotten book whose secrets will determine the fate of the world. He will have to reach deep to discover the power within him as he battles the forces of darkness and an alliance of sinister men who seek to destroy any who get in their way.

Review-

Countryside was an exceptionally delightful and unexpected read for me. I tend to judge a book by its cover and this cover simply looked like a young boy in front of a school. A tad bit misleading. The story is about a young man, Luke, whose father is from a different realm of the world, a realm that can be reached by stepping through magic archways with hidden symbols. This realm, or holding as it's called, is filled with Centaurs, Dryads, Angels, Demons, Darkmen, soulless creatures and a book that gives the reader the power to end the world. It's a fun and exciting world that still retains bits of modern times--the kids go to school, play on the football team, and worry about dating.

Author J.T. Cope has created in his protagonist, Luke, and the other characters, people who are ordinary humans who possess exceptional skills or abilities. I found myself connecting with Luke, his siblings, his parents and the townspeople as members of my own family--I enjoyed some of them and disliked others. To me, the ability to make a reader feel strong emotions, whether good or bad, is a mark of a very talented writer. And I definitely did feel many emotions as I worried about young Luke and Matt on their adventures, Luke's football team as they played in a stadium full of Darkmen, and Luke and his friends and siblings as the dark fog wafted its eerie way through the story. Very, very good adventure series. I will be eagerly awaiting book two!

Publisher-Village Green Press, LLC

Reviewer Rating: 4.5 Stars

Reviewed by~Cindi Clubbs

Thank you to the author for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!