Catching up...new/old/assorted

It's not that I don't read. It's that I'm not always good about keeping records.

Liked and will buy:
Mackel's Can of Worms because it is a funny science fiction that boys will like. Sending out an interplanetary SOS does have its consequences! Beware the sentient poodles!

Pinder's But I don't want to be a movie star because it amused me greatly. English girl stays with former movie star grandmother who is waiting to make a come back. On eve of that, grandmother breaks leg on granddaughter's skateboard and gets granddaughter to impersonate her. Utterly silly, but I am always looking for more "Pink" books for my insatiable girl readers!

Durrant's My Last Skirt, based of the true story of Albert Cashier/Jennie Hodgers, an Irish girl who came to America and fought in the Civil War. She was the only woman who kept her pension after her true identity was discovered. The 8th grade does a historical ficition unit, and this is especially great since someone lost my copy of Clapps' Deborah Sampson last year, and it's out of print.

Meacham's A Mid-Semester Night's Dream, because the girls who like pink books generally hate fantasy, and this one about a fairy godmother's help in a romantic situation is perfect, if just a tad simplistic. The print seemed abnormally large, but I did enjoy it. Again, someone lost my last copy of Bank's The Fairy Rebel and I've yet to see about replacing it.

Still not sure about Giblin's The Boy Who Saved Cleveland. Better for the elementary schools, because it is a very slight story, even though it is pertinent to Ohio history.(1798 malaria epidemic.)

Will buy Willo Davis Robert's Kidnappers because it is thrilling enough, but not Blood on his Hands, because it is more of a problem novel.

Also am slogging through the M's. Joan Lowry Nixon's Maggie series, which was okay but a bit dated, O'Neal's In a Summer Light which just didn't capture me particularly, Naylor's Bessledorf series, which will be good during mystery units for children who like comedies (did like these, but they are slightly young). John Neufeld's Almost a Hero was a good story about homeless children and community service, but everything he has written pales in comparison to Lisa Bright and Dark. Park's Playing Beatie Bow was time travel, but set in Australia and therefore slightly odd. Neville's It's Like This, Cat was interesting, but I don't know how many children are going to care about every day life in NYC in 1963, even if it won a Newbery. Paterson's Come and Sing, Jimmy Jo was pretty good once I got into it. Country music stardom for reluctant 11 year old.

Won't be buying Klause's Freaks: Alive on the Inside. Good, but not as good as her other stuff, and a harder sell. Her vampire and werewolf books are popular, but circus freaks? No.

Also no to Wittlinger's The Long Night of Leo and Bree. Boy's sister is killed. Boy's family loses it. Boy goes out and kidnaps girl in short skirt to kill because she's "asking for it". Boy and girl bond. Just, no.

Whew. See, I'm reading, just not near a computer every day.