Sometimes you need people to Just Listen.

Annabel Greene used to be one of those girls who has it all: she's pretty, popular, fashionable, and even works as a model in her spare time. Everything changed last summer, however, and she's now an outcast in her school and among her friends. Annabel sits alone at lunch, along with other kids on the sidelines of school society. One of these other loners happens to be her former best friend Clarke, who Annabel dumped as a friend the previous year when Sophie moved to town. Sophie is gorgeous, edgy, and just a tad dangerous. She can also make someone's life a living hell if you cross her. One of the first scenes of the novel is when Annabel is about to get out of her car on the first day of school, and Sophie walks by, looks at Annabel and says, "Bitch" in front of a parking lot full of students. The reader soon learns that Annabel has been accused of sleeping with Will Cash, Sophie's boyfriend.
As the novel progresses, bits and pieces of what actually happened during the summer are revealed. Annabel also becomes friends with Owen, a huge, threatening-looking kid known for punching people when provoked. Owen actually is a knowledgable music fanatic who helps Annabel get the courage to tell him and, finally, her family what happened that summer.
In addition to her own struggles with school and with the traumatic event of last summer is her older sister Whitney's eating disorder, which threatens to tear Annabel's family apart.
For anyone who enjoyed Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and likes dramatic tales of friendship and relationships, Just Listen won't disappoint. 3 out of 4 Bananas!

Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award 2011 Nominee

Inexcusable's Main Character is, well, Inexcusable

Have you read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson? If you did, and loved it, then you should give Chris Lynch's Inexcusable a try. This is a gripping, fast-paced novel from the viewpoint of an unreliable, potentially unstable, narrator. Keir Sarafian is a good guy, everybody says so. So, if he's such a stand-up, admirable person, it's impossible that he would rape a girl that he's totally in love with...right? That's what Keir is trying to convince the reader of during the course of this novel, which opens with a scene where the girl, Gigi, is screaming, crying, and accusing him of raping her. Now I would say that usually in a novel, the reader likes or identifies with the main character or narrator. In Inexcusable, however, I never felt comfortable with Keir. I was always on edge with him, and was suspicious of what he was telling me. Were my suspicions justified? Is Keir really who he thinks he is, or is there a dark side to him? I loved this book, partly because I was uncomfortable while I was reading it, and also because it was fun to question the truthfulness of the narrator. 4 out of 4 Bananas!

Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award 2010 Nominee