TSHS Book Reviews » Drama

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

lweingarden — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:22:31 +0000

May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides. But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)–where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months–they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know. This is a novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while bound to the old.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

lweingarden — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:47:53 +0000

Seventeen-year-old Kristina Snow is introduced to crank on a trip to visit her wayward father. Caught up in a fast-paced, frightening, and unfamiliar world, she morphs into “Bree” after she “shakes hands with the monster.” Her fearless, risk-taking alter ego grows stronger, “convincing me to be someone I never dreamed I’d want to be.” When Kristina goes home, things don’t return to normal. Although she tries to reconnect with her mother and her former life as a good student, her drug use soon takes over….

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

lweingarden — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:47:32 +0000

Kristina Snow was a 17-year-old with high grades and a loving family. In Crank (S & S, 2004), one summer in California with a meth-addicted boyfriend destroys her life. Glass picks up a year later. She lives with her mother and works at a 7-11. Depressed about her post-baby figure…

Boot Camp by Todd Strasser

lweingarden — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:34:09 +0000

Taken by force from his home, Garrett is placed in a disciplinary boot camp. Not quite sure why he has been placed there, Garrett under goes unbelievable abuse, torture and humiliation. Will he be able to leave before his eighteenth birthday, if he submits to the brainwashing? Will a plot to escape succeed? Do his parents come to the rescue? Will good triumph over evil? I could not put this book down. Had to find out what happened next.