Reading Abounds

Title: Climbing the Stairs Author: Padma Venkatraman Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 27440 Description:  In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are forced to move in with her father's etended family and become accustomed to a totally different way of life. Rubric Rating: Level 3: Laud It Why I Read It: This book was given to me by an associate as a recommended read. Lori's Notes:   Vidya wants to be independent.  She wants personal freedom - to make choices for herself and her future.  Vidya wants an education and to choose who and when to marry, customs not traditionally followed in her culture.  After her father is injured and suffers brain damage, something Vidya feels guilty for, she must live with her extended family.  While tradition suggests that you treat others with kindness and respect, her family is seen as a burden, they call her Appa an idiot, and treat her mother and her

Title: Blink and Caution Author: Tim Wynne-Jones Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 50958 Description: Two teenagers who are living on the streets and barely getting by become involved in a complicated criminal plot, and make an unexpected connection with each other. ***Canadian*** Rubric Rating: Level 2: Like It Why I Read It: The title was interesting and I have read other Wynne-Jones novels so I thought I would check out this book. Lori's Notes: Two teens, nicknamed Blink and Caution, find their lives entwined when they become part of a "kidnapping." Blink, who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, is pilfering food from a Toronto hotel when he finds himself in the middle of a mystery after witnessing an apparent "crime in progress."  Caution, a girl who ends up in Toronto after the accidental death of her brother (something she thinks is her fault), decides to help Blink after pick pocketing him at the train station.  Travelling by train across eastern

Title: 13 Treasures Series: 13 Treasures Trilogy Author: Michelle Harrison Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 44457 Description: Bedeviled by evil fairies that only she can see, thirteen-year-old Tanya is sent to stay with her cold and distant grandmother at Elvesden Manor, where she and the caretaker's son solve a disturbing mystery that leads them to the discovery that Tanya's life is in danger. Rubric Rating: Level 3: Laud It Why I Read It: My son picked this book as our read aloud and read together novel. Lori's Notes:   Tanya is horribly troubled by fairies.  She's been able to see fairies all her life.  Unfortunately, her mother doesn't seem to sense them at all, so Tanya is blamed for much (or all) of the mischief the fairies have caused.  Having had enough of her "pranks" Tanya's mother sends her to stay with her grandmother at Elvesden manor.  Tanya knows that her grandmother doesn't like her and dreads the stay but she eventually fi