On the bookshelf -- December

This month's book review is going to be a little bit different. My sisters & I teamed up & are sharing some good books we've read recently that are geared more towards the adolescent population. The following books would be great options if you're looking for some books to get an adolescent for Christmas! Keep scrolling to check them out.

This book, Every Day, was recommended to me by my sister, Avery. It's about an individual who wakes up in a different person's body every day. It's never been the same body twice, & it's never lasted longer than a day. Basically every chapter is a new day. The main character falls in love with someone & every day tries to see her, which proves to be a challenge because every day they're in a new body. To be honest, the book was a little bizarre, but it did make me think & reflect a lot on life, & it was a very easy read. I think this book would be better read by adolescents. Still, I was glad that Avery recommended it to me & I was happy to read it, especially because it made me think deeper about certain things & I genuinely enjoy when books make me dig deeper.

I picked up this book, The Sun Is Also A Star, because I had heard that it was made into a movie (which I haven't seen yet). If a book has been made into a movie, I like to read the book first & then watch the movie. I love how my imagination can take such a different path while reading a book & then compare it to movies & see what other people have created for us visually. Oftentimes, my mind pictures something totally different than what the movies look like. For this book, since the characters on the front page are the characters portrayed in the movie, it was pretty similar.

The entire book tells the story between these two individuals & their interactions in one day. That's right, the whole book is written about one day. Because of this, it's very detailed & goes pretty in depth. Confession: I'm a hopeless romantic. I think that's why I enjoyed this book. It's very far from reality, but it's a story of "true love" & "love at first sight". Although I don't really believe that this story could actually happen in reality, it was kind of fun to step into their world & be fully immersed in something different than my daily life. I would probably recommend this book to my teenage sisters & not to my mom or her friends as I think it fits in with the adolescent population's mindset a little bit better.

This Jenny Han series is one that you're probably familiar with if 1) you have Netflix, & 2) you're a teenage girl. What girl doesn't love a good dramatic love story? These series follow a girl on her journey of love. It has sweet moments, awkward moments, funny moments. You name it! & let's not forget the best part!

Two words. Peter Kavinsky.

I watched the Netflix movie called 'To all the boys I've loved before' which is the first book in this series & I actually thought it was pretty cute! It's pretty innocent & quirky & my control freak self related the main character, Lara Jean, a little bit too much. I saw the second book called 'P.S. I still love you' in Target one day & snatched it up. I was really excited to read it because of how much I enjoyed the Netflix movie. I figured it would be a light & easy read, which it was. While I didn't read the first book & haven't read the third one (yet), I would say that this book followed pretty closely to the plot & the story line that had already taken place. The one thing I didn't like was that about the first half of the book is a lot of what happened in the Netflix movie so I already knew what was going on. The second half though is where things got good. I was not at all expecting what happened & it left me wanting to read the third called 'Always & forever, Lara Jean'! I believe I heard that Netflix is busy in the works of making the second book into a movie already. Yay, more Peter Kavinsky!

Here's a set on Amazon that includes all three books for less than $13! What a steal!

Hi this is Bethany! I read Sold for school to meet my historical fiction requirement. To be honest I was not at all excited about reading it at first, but I ended up loving it! This book takes place in India & is about a girl that was sold into human trafficking. She thinks she is going to the city to work as a maid but soon realizes that is not the truth. This book will make you cry & absolutely break your heart. But I think it is important for us to know about these things. It's definitely hard to put down & hard to read at times too, just be sure you keep reading until the end!

Hi, this is Avery! I really enjoyed this book as weird as that may sound when I start telling you about it! In 27 Days is about a girl who travels back in time to stop a boy from committing suicide. She has never spoken to this guy & only has 27 days to make a big enough impact in his life to stop him (without telling him). The book has many twists and turns that make you want to keep reading & I must admit that I found some parts kind of scary. It really made me think about being more intentional about including others & was a good reminder that we don't often know what is going on in someone else's mind. It's a very intense book, but a good read nonetheless.

Have you ever heard of the "goodreads" app? It's a free app that lets you track your reading progress, rate books you've read, keep a list of your want-to-read books, set yearly reading goals & follow along with what your friends are reading as well! It even gives you suggestions based off of your ratings & the types of books you read. We both really like it. You should check it out!

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