I think I've picked up Eve Bunting's The Presence (2003) before and didn't like it, but this time I enjoyed it very much. It is about a girl who goes to visit her grandmother in California. The girl is feeling guilty about a car crash which she survived but which took the life of a friend, and an evili spirit who lives in a church and preys upon young, guilt-ridden girls targets her. Pleasantly creepy with a good side romance. It will be well read.
Kristen D. Randle's Breaking Rank(1999) was great, and I hope I will be able to find a copy. A boy who is a member of a threatening but morally upright gang gets chosen to be in honor classes despite a history of these gang members not even speaking in school. He is given a tutor, a young girl who thinks he deserves a chance. It is a very complex novel, filled with teen angst, but bears the important message that education is always a good thing and worth the struggle. The fans of The Outsiders will love this one. The ending confused me a bit by being abrupt, but I was also dealing with the aftermath of finding out the dog we were going to adopt was not going to be coming to live with us.
Carrie Rosten's Chloe Leiberman (Sometimes Wong) (2006) irritated me. It went on for pages and pages about what everyone was wearing, until I got bored. Sure, girls are interested in fashion, but there needs to be some other character development as well.
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