City Life Books - Page 12

Cupcake

Rachel Cohn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great book but need Shrimp & Gingerbread 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Cupcake is the third installment of a 3 book series....I didn't realize this until I received the book and had a little bit of a hard time reading not knowing what happened in the previous 2 books Shrimp and also Gingerbread.
Cupcake is an extremely easy and simple read, the characters are fun, spontaneous and really down to earth. You can relate with most of the characters and you have a good time while you read it.
I enjoyed this quite a bit since it doesn't take much effort to pick it up and really get into it. The main character is very sharp, strong and smart, triple threat...you'll get it. I really would like to read the other 2 books and would strongly recommend getting them before you enjoy this cupcake. Great for young adults and young at heart individuals.
Have fun and relax with this great read!

Editorial Review:

When Cyd Charisse moves from San Francisco to start a new life in New York City, she leaves behind her family -- and her true love, Shrimp.

She wants to find a cool job, the city's best caffeination and most perfect cupcake, and a hot new love. But the reality of CC's new life hits some unexpected obstacles, including a broken leg that renders her immobile; the joy and aggravation of sharing an apartment with a roommate who's also an older brother; and a tasty selection of guys -- none of whom measure up to Shrimp.

Then, just when CC starts to get her new life on track, her old love returns. Shrimp has given up on his plans to live and surf in New Zealand and arrives in NYC with nothing to do other than to be with CC. And this time CC is determined that she and Shrimp will not repeat their old mistakes.

This third book about reformed hellion Cyd Charisse is just as unforgettable as Gingerbread and Shrimp.

The Lady in the Box

Ann McGovern

Amazon Price: $9.95 List Price: $9.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Turtle Books Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $5.29

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Lady in the Box Teaches Caring to Young Readers 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This is definitely a lap and snuggle book. It's not heavy, but BIG with warm tones and autumn colors settled on the pages. The illustrator, Marni Backer, captured snowy winter scenes that immediately draw you into any large city and any large neighborhood. Could this neighborhood by yours? With each turn of the page, the traffic muffles and city bustle blurs so that you can now be introduced to Lizzie and Ben's dilemma of seeing a homeless woman, Dorrie, and the children wanting to help despite their mother's caution about talking to strangers.

Told with the realism of a child, you'll see how Lizzie and Ben leave Dorrie peanut butter and crackers--but forget to give her a dinner knife. (They did much better when they brought her some warm vegetable noodle soup.)

When their mother takes notice of the parade of missing food items, she begins to become involved. She helps us to find out why Dorrie is homeless and the whole family spends a Saturday volunteering at a soup kitchen.I won't spoil the ending, but rest assured that there is a message of hope for Dorrie.

One of the nicest features about the book is the note from the author on the last page. Written at a level that young children can understand, she explains her idea for the book, where she has volunteered in an effort to help the homeless, and where to start if you want to find out more about homelessness.

Copyright © 2000. Hope Sykes & The RVing Volunteer. All Rights Reserved.

Editorial Review:

It is wintertime in the city and freezing cold, but not everyone is inside and warm. Ben and his sister Lizzie know that there is a lady who lives outside in a box over a warm air vent. The children worry about the kind-looking lady, and begin sneaking food and clothes out of their apartment for her. Gently told and powerfully illustrated in rich hues, The Lady in the Box deals candidly with the issue of homelessness.

All of the Above

Shelley Pearsall

Amazon Price: $12.79 List Price: $15.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Little, Brown Young Readers Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $1.18

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Richie's Picks: ALL OF THE ABOVE 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Sharice:
"As we get closer to finishing, I start having dreams about what's gonna happen when we do. In most of my dreams, there is this big flash of light when we finish the tetrahedron and our school isn't a crumbling, peeling-paint building anymore. It's rainbow colored. (I know this sounds kinda weird.) And our giant pyramid sits on top of the school roof shooting out colors all over the neighborhood, like spotlights. Houses turn shades of red, and orange, and blue. And people stop their cars and roll down their windows to take pictures of the sight."

That their one-of-a-kind tetrahedron building project gets off the ground at all is astounding in itself. ALL OF THE ABOVE is a tale of four inner city public school kids -- none of whom are initially friends -- and their math teacher. The teacher, Mr. Collins, acknowledges that he was frustrated with his teaching, his school, his students, and himself when he impulsively announced his brainstorm: a plan to have students come together in an extracurricular math club for the purpose of building a stage seven Sierpinski tetrahedron.

"What the heck is a stage seven Sierpinski tetrahedron?" you might (or might not) be tempted to ask. Well, as I learned, thanks to Rhondell, the member of the student quartet with private dreams of one day attending college, it is a structure composed of 16,384 little tetrahedrons which, in turn, are three dimensional geometric shapes that have four faces, each of which is an equilateral triangle.

And to understand what about this particular book caught my eye -- a book that was formerly to be found amidst my stage seven mountain of review copies -- is to get a sense of my life-long affinity with numbers and mathematical concepts. For front and center on the book's cover is that key number 16,384, a number I instantly recognized as being part of my habitual childhood recitation of the exponents of 2. You know, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384...

Oh...you didn't walk around middle school with those sort of things streaming through your head? Well, regardless, readers will be intrigued by the four urban students (and the teacher) who are all facing personal challenges inside and outside of school:

James Harris III:

"I stare at the window behind Collins and think about how good it would feel to jump out that window and send all that glass flying into the air like one of those jagged comic book pictures with the word 'CRASH' written above it. Get out of school, Collins' class, all the other dumb teacher's classes -- and never come back."

Marcel:

"Ain't spending the rest of my life working at Willy Q's Barbecue. Saying sweet things to customers who don't deserve sweet. Smiling like I care about selling rib bones and chicken wings and pig meat.
"Ain't joining the Army either, like my daddy thinks. Won't salute nobody. Least of all, him."

Sharice:

"You see, foster non-parent #5 (Jolynn) doesn't allow anybody at home when she isn't there and since she isn't there most of the time, I'm not allowed to be there either. Which is why I mostly end up sitting in the blue plastic library chairs, or in the mall food court, or riding around on the city bus (or wherever I can find a seat without too many weirdos or drunks around)."

Rhondell:

"Sometimes I imagine college as a big wooden door where you have to knock and say the right password to get in. Only people who know big words like metamorphosis and epiphany are allowed inside. So, I think I try to save all the words I can because maybe, deep down, I believe they will somehow get me inside college without money or luck.
"But around here if you talk and act like you have dreams, or as if you think you are better than everybody else, it only causes trouble. So, I keep most of my college words locked up in my head, and I try to make it through each day by saying as few words as possible. 'She's quiet' is the way most people describe me, and I figure being quiet is just fine because it means you won't be bothered."

ALL OF THE ABOVE vaguely reminds me of The Breakfast Club. In this case you meet these four random students who just all happen to be in the same math class when their frustrated math teacher decides to launch a seriously wacked math project and all four kids wittingly or unwittingly find themselves captive to the process. And me, the former math team member, found myself right there with them.

So join in. Grab yourself a stack of colored paper, some scissors, a glue gun, some munchies, and partake in the Tetrahedron Club.

Editorial Review:

Based on a true story, All of the Above is the delightful and suspenseful story of four inner city students and their quest to build the world's largest tetrahedron. Weaving together the different personal stories of the kids, their teacher, and the community that surrounds them, award-winning author Shelley Pearsall has written a vividly engaging story about the math, life and good-tasting barbecue. Filled with unexpected humor, poignant characters and quiet brilliance, All of the Above is a surprising gem.

145th Street Short Stories

Walter Dean Myers

List Price: $14.53 By: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $9.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

145th street /Michelle 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

(Big Joe's funeral)

This book has many stories in this chapter it about big Joe's funeral. Many things happened in 145th that don't happen anywhere in the world. But of course ha, ha, ha, this is New York
And it is 145th and anything happens there. When I heard about Big Joe's funeral it didn't take me by surprise.

Joe's funeral took place on one of the most beautiful day of the year. And one of the hottest day of the year. That is why everyone was watching the fire works out their fire escapes and trying to catch a breeze with an ice tea in your hand.

Ms. Peaches Jones who is fifteen year's old was definitely wrong because she didn't give Joe any respect. A person ought to have respect for other people all of the time, but especially at two times during their life. The first time is when they are born. When a baby is born you shouldn't say discouraging this about it like what my grandma use to say always respect the living at time of life because when they gone they gone for ever.

Big Joe owns a Bar-B-que and burger restaurant. He decided to cancel his life insurance because he has been paying for it for twenty years. If he canceled his insurance the insurance company will pay him. Than when he got the check 2 weeks later for the amount of eighteen thousand dollars that is when he decided to have a funeral.

It was funny that he was peeling potatoes in his own restaurant for his own funereal. No one know what Joe meant by having his own funeral party up to he explain it to people and it made sense to them, he throw himself a funeral the awesome people throw a party. Then he went to the funeral home to have someone arrange his funeral. At first Mr.tuener didn't think about it but when he saw that live people were having funerals would greatly increase his business and he said okay.

This is call am doing my own funeral wall I am alive cuz I want it my way not celebrity my death way I am dead and Turing out a mess.

Editorial Review:

A salty, wrenchingly honest collection of stories set on one block of 145th Street. We get to know the oldest resident; the cop on the beat; fine Peaches and her girl, Squeezie; Monkeyman; and Benny, a fighter on the way to a knockout. We meet Angela, who starts having prophetic dreams after her father is killed; Kitty, whose love for Mack pulls him back from the brink; and Big Joe, who wants a bang-up funeral while he's still around to enjoy it. Some of these stories are private, and some are the ones behind the headlines. In each one, characters jump off the page and pull readers right into the mix on 1-4-5.

Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl)

Cecily von Ziegesar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Welcome home Serena. 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Serena's come home after getting kicked out of boarding school and everyone wants to know if the rumors are true. Was she pregnant and did she leave her baby in France? Is she really dealing drugs with her initial "S" stamped on each pill? And what's up with her clothes? Is she getting them from a homeless shelter?

All Serena wants to do is hang with her friends and have her old life back. Unfortunately, her friends and old life don't seem to want her back. But don't waste any time feeling sorry for her. She's still rich and gorgeous, and manages to draw the attention of two photo-artists who ask her to model for them and then plaster the city with her pictures. (Well, pictures of some part of her. No one's really quite sure which part, though. Belly button, maybe?) Anyway, she also manages to make new friends and shows signs of adding some depth to her otherwise shallow world.

Don't expect to walk away feeling enlightened after reading this page turner, however. It's not great literature, but it is entertaining and a breezy bit of escapism, much like its tv namesake. Fans of the weekly drama will note some character differences: the names are the same, but physical descriptions, personality traits and economic status vary - most notably in the characters of Dan and Ginny Humphrey. Dan is a little more gritty and angst-ridden and Ginny doesn't look so much like Barbie's little sister, Skipper.

I rated the book five stars because I really enjoyed it and plan on reading the rest of the series. Would I recommend it to you? Well, if you're familiar with and enjoyed Morgan Burke's Party Room trilogy, Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods or Hobson Brown's The Upper Class, you'll probably like Gossip Girl, too. They all center around spoiled, rich kids - or, in the case of Blue Bloods, spoiled, rich vampires - and the dirty secrets that sometimes even money can't hush.

Editorial Review:

First Sentence:
Ever wondered what the lives of the chosen ones are really like? 

Hey, Al

Arthur Yorinks

Amazon Price: $6.95 List Price: $6.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) Amazon Marketplace: 80 new & used starting at $0.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great book for teaching values! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

"Paradise lost is sometimes heaven found" is the closing line in Hey, Al, a wonderful book that has a timeless moral for both kids and adults. Al is a janitor who is not happy with how is life is going. He lives in a room with his dog, Eddie, who is also not happy with his situation. One day a bird appears at the window promising to bring them to a better place, "no worries, no cares". Of course, something that sounds that good probably isn't.

This book is definitely an entertaining story. The pictures are colorful and very detailed. Kids will love looking at them and pointing out all the different birds and laugh at the silly transformation that Al and Eddie go through. I think they will also get the story, that what you have is usually better than what you lust for. Everyone, at some point in their life, dreams about something better. This book is a great reality check for us, giving a serious message in a kid's book.

Editorial Review:

Al, a janitor, and his faithful dog, Eddie, live in a single room on the West Side. They eat together, they work together, they do everything together. So what's the problem?

Thier room is crowded and cramped; their life is an endless struggle. Al and Eddie are practically at eachothers throats when a large and mysterious bird offers them a new life in paradise. After some debate, they decide to accept.

Transported to a gorgeous island in the sky, Al and Eddie are soon living a life of ease and luxury. But they come to find that the grass can be a little too green on the other side. After a dramatic, nearly tragic escape from their paradise prison, both man and dog agree: there really is no place like home.

Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 (Dear America)

Kathryn Lasky

Amazon Price: $8.76 List Price: $10.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scholastic Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 274 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

the golden country 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I thought the book was awsome. I couldn't put it down there was no part that was boring. I recccomend this book to every one. i read it so fast and i want to read it again

Could I give it ten stars? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Have you ever encountered a book for young readers so good that it gave you goose bumps? This is such a book.

Told through the viewpoint of a twelve-year-old Jewish immigrant from Russia living on the Lower East Side of New York City, we see the very real struggle of people who came to America to find a new life, but struggle over giving up the old. Despite the fact that this is a fictionalized diary, the author provides us with an intimate look into the sometimes painful personal experiences that make up our history as a whole.

No matter what your own family's history might be, we can learn from the experience of Lasky's incredible characters.

Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 (Dear America) is a book to be savored and cherished.

Editorial Review:

Twelve-year-old Zippy, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, keeps a diary account of the first eighteen months of her family's life on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1903-1904.

Sign on Rosie's Door

Maurice Sendak

List Price: $17.95 By: HarperCollins Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $1.89

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Classic that's hard to classify 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I am so glad this book is still in print. It means that you can have the enjoyment of sharing the whimsical story about the quirky Rosie and the miraculous drawings of Maurice Sendak.

This isn't a saccharine kiddy book, or a gritty true-to-life drama of childhood situations. It's just a fine read and one of those books that kids ask for again and again. In our family, it was the favorite evening book of my baby sister, and I have to say, she has exquisite taste, then and now, 30 years later.

Editorial Review:

There was a sign on Rosie's door that said, "If you want to know a secret, knock three times." Kathy, Rosie's good friend, knocked three times and learned the secret-that Rosie was no longer Rosie, but Alinda, the lovely lady singer.

Adventures with Alinda were fun for Kathy and Sal and Pudgy and Dolly. Even Lenny, who occasionally didn't believe in Alinda, was delighted by the Fourth of July celebration that Alinda, with the help of the Magic Man, held. At the end of the celebration, Alinda was gone forever, and Rosie had returned, but she soon found something else nice to be.

Maurice Sendak, the well-known artist and author-illustrator of Kenny's Window and Very Far Away, has written a story of real children, playing as only children know how. Young readers will wish that Alinda lived next door to them.

Policeman Small

Lois Lenski

List Price: $5.25 By: Random House Children's Books Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $2.48

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

an animated look at a busy policeman 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Lois Lenski's _Policeman Small_ illuminates the busy day of a traffic cop of the early twentieth century. Policeman Small directs traffic himself! He carries a sign to work which says STOP on one side, and GO on the other! Certain details of his work date the book as a whole, but my toddler son still loves _Policeman Small_.

Small visits the scene of an accident, and sorts things out. Small stops traffic so kittens don't get hit by cars. Small stops a young speeding driver, and cautions him to obey the speed limit.

All the various duties of Policeman Small can keep a curious young reader mesmerized. We are invited to watch Policeman Small as he performs all the various duties of the traffic cop; when he retires at the day's end, he is tired. Exhausted parents can sympathize. This is a good book to finish a bedtime storytime.

ken32

All that and a song 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Pure, as simple and direct as you'd expect from Lois Lenski with an added benefit, the Policeman Small song to sing along.

Editorial Review:

Describes the many daily duties of a corner traffic cop.

Dare Truth or Promise

Paula Boock

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Not yet published By: Graphia

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

INCREDIBLE and BRILLIANT 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

THE best EVER lesbian/questioning book I have read so far. You fall in love with the characters instantly and it is easy to find yourself lost in the beautiful love story of this book. I loved it so much and couldn't put it down, that I read it in one night. I first got it from the library near where I live and after reading it, I loved it so much that I simply HAD to buy it. Beautifully inspirational. You will never find a story quite as true and good as this one. Everything about it is absoltely BRILLIANT. A MUST READ for lesbian or questioning teens.

Editorial Review:

"[A] steamy, brilliant girl-on-girl romance," says Kirkus, now available in paperback in our Graphia imprint with an eye-catching new cover!

Willa and Louie could not be more different. Louie wants to be a lawyer and is an outstanding student. Willa lives in a pub and just wants to get through the year so she can graduate and become a chef. But they are completely attracted to one another when they first meet at a fast-food restaurant. Soon they fall in love fast and furiously, and everything the girls are sure of -- their plans, their faith, their families, their identities -– is called into question...