Ms Rush Reads

copyright date: May 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (high school) Shine by Lauren Myracle is one of those books I felt an itch to talk about as soon as I finished reading.   The story is that powerful, the craft that stunning, the characters that compelling.   It is a book that will surely linger in my mind for days to come. Ever since I took a summer literature class in Southern American Fiction, I have been in love with stories set in the South.   So, I am sure that element drew me further into what is already a captivating story.   Shine begins with a fictitious, yet chilling, newspaper article reporting the brutal beating of sixteen-year-old Patrick Truman, apparently driven by his homosexuality.   From that point on, while Patrick lies comatose in a hospital, the story becomes Cat’s.   Cat used to be one of Patrick’s closest friends, before a traumatic event in her own life caused her to quietly withdraw fr...

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (8 and up) This is another book for younger readers.   So, although the time you spend actually reading Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli won’t be long, the time this story spends traveling around in your heart will be immeasurable. Spinelli is a master at getting straight to the heart of what keeps people from accepting one another: differences.   Through the story of young twins Jake and Lily, he tells a story of tolerance, acceptance, and ultimately friendship.   Jake and Lily have a very special relationship.   They are able to connect with one another through dreams and across distances.   In fact, as they write their stories for us in alternating chapters, they don’t even need to read to know what they other has written.   Conflict settles into their lives when growing up threatens to come between them.   As Jake begins to spend more time with a g...

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) I am a sucker for a novel told in verse.   I am a sucker for anything having to do with Mexican culture.   I am a sucker for a metaphor involving a tree.   I am a sucker for a novel that makes me feel .   So, needless to say, Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall has found its way into my heart. The protagonist, Lupita, is the oldest of 8 siblings!   She is used to caring for her brothers and sisters and almost has a friendship with her mother as opposed to a mother-daughter relationship.   But there are still some things her mother doesn’t think Lupita is ready to hear.   When Lupita hears her parents whispering and realizes they are keeping something from her, she demands to know the truth, and finds out that her mother has cancer.   From that point forward, Lupita’s life will never be the same.   She does all she can to keep...

copyright date: November 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (14 and up) This book was a gift to me from Mrs. Wisniewski.  If you know Mrs. Wisniewski, you know that means it is going to be Good (notice the capital ‘G’).   When the story opens, Juliette is imprisoned.  She has not touched or spoken to anyone in 264 days.  The story starts inside of this isolation.  She has been locked up because she touched someone.  And her touch is lethal.  The story picks up when someone is thrown into the cell with her (and her deadly touch).  She remembers him from her life before.  Before she used her touch to kill someone.  She knew Adam when they were kids, before the world destroyed itself, but he doesn’t seem to remember her. Soon, Juliette is released from the darkness of her prison only to be imprisoned by a dangerous leader who wants to use her touch as if it is his own power to advance himself politically. While Juliette...