Reading - Bottled Up

Bottled Up by Jaye Murray



Pip is bottled up. He has an alcoholic father prone to violent rages, a zonked-out pill-popping mother, and a little brother who looks up to him as the biggest hero in the world. Pip has been hiding - from his smug teachers, his always-drunk father, his sweet but needy little brother, and even from himself. He's been skipping classes, drinking, getting high, and trying to avoid thinking about his life. Trying to avoid feeling.

Now Principal has given him an ultimatum : Either he shows up for all of his classes and begins seeing a counselor after school, or he' expelled. But getting expelled isn't what scares Pip. It's the thought that the Principal might call his father. His father is what really scares Pip.

Will he follow his father's ugly path, or will he invent his own future ?

Reading - The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry



n a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he alone holds the memories of the true pain an pleasure of life. Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Reading - Messenger

Messenger by Lois Lowry



Grade 6 Up-Matty, who has lived in Village with the blind Seer since running away from an abusive childhood, is looking forward to receiving his true name, which he hopes will be Messenger. But he is deeply unsettled by what is going on. He has discovered his own power to heal others and learned of disturbing changes within his community.

Under the gentle guidance of Leader, who arrived in Village on a red sled as a young boy and who has the power of Seeing Beyond, the citizens have always welcomed newcomers, especially those who are disabled. But a sinister force is at work, which has prompted them to close admission to outsiders. Also, it seems that Matty's beloved Mentor has been trading away parts of his inner self in order to become more attractive to Stocktender's widow. When the date for the close of the border is decided, Matty must make one more trip through the increasingly sinister Forest to bring back Seer's daughter, the gifted weaver Kira.

Reading - The Opposite of Fate

The Opposite of Fate ( A book of Musings) by Amy Tan



Born into a family who believed in fate, Amy Tan has always looked for alternative ways to make sense of the world. And now, in The Opposite of Fate, her first book of nonfiction, she shares her thoughts on how she escapted the expectations and curses of her past and created her own destiny.

Amy tells of her family, of the ghosts that inhabit her computer, of specters of illness, ski trips, the pliability of memory, rock and roll, and the twinned mysteries of faith and fate. Whether she is remembering arguments with her mother in suburban California, recounting trips to an outdoor market in Shanghai, or describing her love-hate relationship with the CliffsNotes edition of her first book, The Joy Luck Club, her recollections offer an intimate glimpse of a best-selling writer whose own life story is as magical and hopeful as her fiction.

In this book, also has written her participation in making the film of her book - The Joy Luck Club. I like this part.

Reading - Chinese Cinderella and The Secret Dragon Society

Chinese Cinderella and The Secret Dragon Society by Adeline Yen Mah



Ye Xian is a twelve-year-old girl living in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China during World War II. She loves spending time with Big Aunt because she teaches her English and is much kinder to Ye Xian than her father's new wife. Ye Xian loves to go by her English name Chinese Cinderella or CC.

When CC's stepmother takes her abuse too far, CC runs away and finds refuge with a group of za zhong, or unwanted "mixed-caste" children. They invite CC to join their Secret Dragon Society and help them save China from the hands of the occupying Japanese soldiers.