The Last Day of School.

Kirby, Jessi. Moonglass.When Anna’s father takes a job as a lifeguard supervisor in the same beach community where he met her mother, Anna is disappointed about changing schools and leaving her friends, but hopeful that she will learn more about her mother, who drowned when Anna was seven. Anna meets Ashley, who encourages her to be on the cross country team; Tyler, with whom she has a sweet romance; a friend of her mother’s, and some other local residents who all help her come to terms with the convoluted details of her mother’s death.

Strengths: NOT a paranormal romance, which is what I thought it would be because of the cover. Instead, a very nice realistic romance that involves cross country. A good romance book, right up there with Fifteen, Girlfriend Material, and Along for the Ride. The characters are varied and full of depth. The cross country details are wonderful!
Weaknesses: A bit of drinking, but used in a cautionary way, since one of the girl’s sisters left a party drunk and was killed.

Bauer, Joan. Close to Famous.
If Foster’s father hadn’t been killed in Iraq, her mother wouldn’t have dated Huck, an Elvis impersonator who was so crazy that Foster and her mother run away from their home with just a few possession and come to Culpepper, West Virginia. In that small town, they meet a number of people who help them get back on their feet: a couple who let them live in an Airstream trailer for free, the owner of the local hardware store who hires the mother, the restaurant owner who sells Foster’s cupcakes and muffins for her, and an aging Hollywood star who hires Foster and realizes that while she is an excellent cook, she needs a lot of help with her reading.

Strengths: Cupcakes on the cover and lots of details about baking. Cast of characters (which Bauer does so brilliantly, as in Rules of the Road) succeeds for me even though they verge on quirky, which I normally hate.
Weaknesses: Somehow, the Elvis impersonator former boyfriend didn’t work for me, but he has a relatively small part.

Library News:
Check out the anniversary giveaway at From the Mixed-Up Files. I really rely on their monthly round-up of just published titles; try as I may, there are always many books I manage to miss.

There are still nine overdue library books, which is not bad considering that the grand total of books we checked out this year was 35,475. Not bad for a collection of just under 11,000 books in a school of 620.

In other vaguely amusing news, I was voted "Biggest Rebel" at our staff end-of-year dinner. Think I'll change the name of this blog to "Rebel in a Polo" or perhaps "Rebel with Permission".