I read SOOO many good books this year and its going to be very hard to choose the best two...and here they are!
Chasing Orion by Kathryn Lasky:
Chasing Orion is set in Indiana in 1952 during a spread of polio. Eleven year old Georgie is telling the story, and at first she is frustrated with polio as all the swimming pools and movie theatres are closing. Despite all the headlines in the paper, Georgie never thought she’d come as close to the fearful disease as she does when she spies a silver glint in her neighbor’s yard. There she discovers a monstrous, hissing machine, and inside is Phyllis, a girl encased in an iron lung. "I have eighty-seven cubic centimeters of air, but you have the world," Phyllis tells her. Phyllis may not be able to breathe without the help of the iron lung, but her strength to manipulate is terrifying. Slowly Phillis weaves a web of lies that snare Georgie and Georgies brother Emmet too. Will Georgie discover Phyllis's false pretences or will it be too late? Read it to find out!
I liked this story because I love history and the polio epedemic was a period of history I hadn't learnt much about!
Rosie and Skate by Beth Bauman:
Rosie and Skate is acctually the book I picked out for the blind book challenge! And it was really good so that just goes to show that a book you might never have picked out for yourself might actually be pretty good! Rosie and Skate is set on the Jersey Shore after all the tourists have packed up and left. Rosie and Skate are sisters, and the story alternates between both of them speaking. The girls father is an alchoholic and is in jail for shoplifting. While Skate refuses to speak to her father, Rosie goes to visit him in prison every sunday. This novel includes heartbreak, courage, and standing up for what you believe in.
I liked this book because it was the kind of topic you never really think somebody will discover and write about!
So - which book do you think sounds better? Which one would you like to read?
