Great Reading: Bookmark It!

Volume 29, Number 4, April 2002

How Individual Decisions Affect Families
Grades 7-12

Rosemary Chance

Bad boy: A memoir. Walter Dean Myers.
HarperCollins, 2001. $15.95. 0-06-029523-6. Myers tells an intimate story of his childhood revealing his love of reading and writing, his intellect, his tendency to fight, his love of Harlem, and his lack of direction.

Princess diaries, Volume II; Princess in the spotlight. Meg Cabot.
HarperCollins, 2001. $15.95. 0-06-029465-5. Mia Thermopolis continues her adventures as heir to the throne of a tiny European principality. A love interest, her mother’s impending marriage, and the relentless interference of Grandmere add up to a fast-paced, funny read.

Slap your sides. M. E. Kerr.
HarperCollins, 2001. $15.95. 0-06-029481-7. During World War II, Bud Shoemaker becomes a conscientious objector. His 14-year-old brother Jubal tells how the townspeople change their positive attitude toward the Shoemakers as a result of Bud’s decision.

What my mother doesn’t know. Sonya Sones.
Simon & Schuster, 2001. $17.00. 0-689-84114-0. Told in free verse, Sophie, a ninth grader, describes her relationships, sometimes joyful, sometimes pathetic, with three boys, focusing on what she knows she cannot tell her mother but can share with her two best friends, Rachel and Grace.

Rosemary Chance is assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. She can be reached at rchance@student.necc.cc.ms.us.