I am reading a book now where the mother has died and in this book their mother has died too. I have to say that growing up I never knew a single person whose mother had died, yet it happens ALL THE TIME IN YA. I bet I could name twenty YAs where the mother has died. Not as many fathers seem to die. I did know someone whose father had died when he was a teenager, but I was 19 when I met him. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but if you based your statistics on YA, you’d think that parents dropping off early was a common phenomenon.

I also read Joan Bauer’s RULES OF THE ROAD yesterday. If you read this blog, you’ll know that I accidentally read the sequel first (BEST FOOT FORWARD). You could read BFF on its own, no problem, but reading it first did sort of spoil the BIG MOMENT in the first one. Still, I really enjoyed it a lot and have a whole stack of JB’s books to read now that I’ve discovered her.

Here’s what I read while I was gone:

BLIND FAITH by Ellen Wittlinger - EW writes the kind of books you can count on. They’re all going to be anywhere from pretty good to damn good. This one falls somewhere in between there for me. I thought it was a bit too predictable at times, but the emotions were strong enough to carry it. It’s about mothers and daughters.

BEST FOOT FORWARD by Joan Bauer - This was my first JB book, and I have to say, I’ll be reading others. Namely RULES OF THE ROAD which actually comes before this one! That is one drawback to not reading the flaps before I start a book, sometimes I end up reading a sequel before reading the first book. This has only happened three or four times though, so I can live with it. It’s much better than the flap giving something away. Ironically, when I got home, I had a letter from my 11 year old friend who often recommends books to me and she told me I should read RULES because she loved it. I really, really liked the voice and the strong characters in BFF and the plot was neat and unusual too. A very good read.

MUCH ADO ABOUT GRUBSTAKE by Jean Ferris - Well…Jean Ferris…she is an unclassifiable writer. I’ve never read anyone who writes like her except maybe Polly Horvath. I just love her writing and in all honesty, it really doesn’t seem like something I would like! I thought this one had a few weak spots, but overall it was really a fun read.

NOTHING TO DO BUT STAY by Carrie Young. This is a memoir that my grandmother gave me to read while I was there. She was adamant about me not taking it with me, which is unusual because we often trade books. The reason she doesn’t lend this book out is because Carrie Young (who is 4 years younger than my grandmother) was raised on a farm in ND, much like the one my grandmother was raised on in Montana. Their lives were very parallel and she wanted me to read it to know what her growing up days were like, but she wants to have it on hand in case she ever wants to read it again on a whim. It was a lovely read and a book I’ll probably buy. It also got my grandmother talking and telling me stories about her childhood, which was priceless.

THE MELENDY QUARTET by Elizabeth Enright. This includes the four books THE SATURDAYS, THE FOUR STORY MISTAKE, AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE, and SPIDERWEB FOR TWO. When I was in fifth grade these were my all-time hands down favorite books after BETSY-TACY. No contest. I hadn’t read them in thirty years though and when I ran across them in the library in Portland, I decided to see if they stood the test of time. I think that they are BRILLIANT. EE is such an amazing writer. She does things I’ve never seen anyone else do and uses words in ways I never would think of. I am just blown away by these books and am so glad I picked them up again. I actually own one of them from my fifth grade days and another that I’d picked up at a used bookstore. I will be getting the other two ASAP. I don’t want to be without them. You could say that the characters are a bit good, like Trixie Belden or Nancy Drew, but it doesn’t matter to me. I just love them and I’m so happy to have come across them again.