TLC Book Tour - Body Scoop for Girls by Dr. Jennifer Ashton

When I was asked to be a part of Dr. Ashton's book tour, I hesitated a little. I'm not usually one to review books like this. But with 2 girls in the house, I was a bit intrigued and figured I'd give it a go. The Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You by Dr. Jennifer Ashton (304 pgs, Avery Trade, 2009) is a no-nonsense look at the teenage girl's every changing body.

First off, just let me say this: Dr. Ashton is not your mother's OB. She is young, hip, and understanding of the teenage girl. From page 1, she becomes an advocate for her patients. In her practice, she specializes in treating teenagers. This book is written as a guide to help those teens understand their bodies just a little bit better.

The book is laid out in 3 sections: What to Expect When You're Adolescent, The Straight Talk on Sex, and Your Body's Lifetime Warranty: Staying Healthy for Life.

"The way health, sex, and physical information is handled by schools, teachers, doctors and even some parents, you'd think today's girls were living in a time warp. Sex ed is still taught exactly the same way it was 30 years ago (often it's all-abstinence-all-the-time). Most parents still have a tough time talking with their daughters about their bodies. Even doctors don't seem to want to talk straight with girls. Old-school doctors always seem to fall into two groups: The "Just-Say-No" group (as in "Can we talk about safe sex?" "No.") and the "Free Love" group ("Whatever you do is beautiful. Just use condoms.") Come on people! This is the information age! If you ask me, both these approaches are disrespectful to girls. I believe in giving you all the information you need, at the right age, so you can make smart choices for your body and your emotional health. That doesn't mean I'd tell you it's OK to have sex at a young age. In fact, I'll tell you the medical reasons why that's not a good idea. But I'll also expect you to use your own best judgement and I'll treat you accordingly, with respect for the choices you make."

That paragraph pretty much sets the tone for the entire book. She is frank and honest, and treats the reader as an adult. Dr. Ashton doesn't preach to girls at all. Instead she gives them all the information necessary for THEM to make informed decisions. I think this book is perfect for the young, teenage girl because it's an excellent resource. It was hard being a teenage girl when I grew up. I can't even imagine what it's like today. The world we are living in has changed immensely since I was a teen. and I know the pressure has increased exponentially.

In the first section, she guides you through explanations about your changing body, from puberty to piercings. In an easy to read format, complete with Dr. Ashton's "Playlists" (certain advice that she offers over and over) and questions to ask yourself, Dr. Ashton gives a no-holds barred explanation for all topics, especially those that girls might find embarrassing to talk about. Each chapter is filled with facts, do's and don'ts, and "myths" to be debunked.

The second section is a forthright discussion on sex. I am under no delusions that girls are having sex at younger and younger ages all the time. I hope to be able to talk to my own daughters about it, and using this book would be a great idea. Dr. Ashton gives many reason why it's important for your physical and emotional health to wait until you are older. But if you aren't going to wait, she gives the 4-1-1 on birth control and information about STD's.

The final chapter deals with a girl's overall health and welfare. One chapter deals with weight and how to keep and maintain a HEALTHY weight. Another discusses smoking, drinking and drugs. And a final chapter on mood disorders.

I find it extremely hard to review a book like this one. Not fiction or story, but all information. I sat down and read Body Scoop in a couple of hours. It is definitely one that I will be putting on the shelf and saving for a few years till my daughters are at the age to need it. That time seems to be creeping up on my faster than I would like. As for Dr. Ashton and Body Scoop, I will have to give both a definite thumbs up!

A Book to Leave you in Knots

I love Young Adult books. I think I like them more now than when I WAS a Young Adult. I don't know why. When I was younger, I wanted to grow up fast. We all did. Now, I just want to go back! Life is funny that way. Or maybe I'm just trying to analyze it all way too much. Regardless, I'm thoroughly enjoying the YA Challenge, and Twisted is the second book by Laurie Halse Anderson (272 pgs, Viking Juvenile 2007) that I've picked up for this challenge. She is one amazing writer!

I spent the last Friday of summer vacation spreading hot, sticky tar across the roof of George Washington High. My companions were Dopey, Toothless, and Joe, the brain surgeons in charge of building maintenance. At least they were getting paid. I was working forty feet above the ground, breathing in sulfur fumes from Satan's vomitorium, for free. "Character building", my father said. "Mandatory Community Service" the judge said. Court ordered restitution for the "Foul Deed". He nailed me with the bill for the damage I had done, which meant I had sell my car and bust my hump at a landscaping company all summer.

Tyler Miller was getting ready to start his Senior year in high school. For years, he had been the quiet, geeky kid that most of the football team had picked on. Then a couple of somethings had happened. Tyler had grown taller and filled out. A summer of working at the landscape company had pumped up muscles he didn't even know he had. Now he was taller and stronger than most of the football players. And of course, the "foul deed". Tyler had spray painted a couple of thousand dollars worth of damage at school and had gotten caught. Now he was "dangerous", a bad boy. The kids at school were definitely looking at him differently. Including, Bethany Millbury, only the most beautiful, popular girl at school. A girl Tyler had a crush on forever. Oh yeah, and the daughter of his father's boss.

Tyler's dad was tough and cold. Working for Millbury trust, he spent so much time at work and traveling that he wasn't around that much. But when he was, tension at home was unusually high. Both Tyler and his sister Hannah had to walk on eggshells around him. And Tyler's mom spent a lot of time with either a migraine, or a gin and tonic in her hand.

When Bethany started eating lunch with Tyler, he couldn't have been more amazed. And neither could Chip, Bethany's brother. He was Tyler's mortal enemy and hated that his sister was interested in Tyler. When the Homecoming Bonfire came around, Bethany invited Tyler to go to a party with her and her friends. Since he didn't have his car any longer, Tyler had to walk to the party. Showing up late, Bethany was around drunk when he got there. She practically threw herself at him.....and Tyler being the good kid he really was, tried to sober her up instead of taking advantage of the situation. But Bethany took it as an insult and got mad. She started making out with one of Chip's friends, and left Tyler alone at the party.

Tyler figured this would probably be the end of his dreams with Bethany. But when pictures of a half-naked Bethany got posted on the Internet, Tyler became suspect number one. Now his new found popularity is gone. And he has to prove to everyone, including his dad, that he isn't the kind of person that would do something like this.

Laurie Halse Anderson has this uncanny ability to think like a teenager. And not only that, she can WRITE like a teenager. Twisted is told from Tyler's point of view, and it's hard to believe it wasn't actually written by a teenage boy. Anderson tackles some really deep issues including sex, depression, and teenage suicide. And she does so with such realism and honesty that it's scary. I haven't been in high school for a long time, but I remember a lot of those raw feelings. Anderson just puts them all down on a page. And it's gut-wrenching to read.

It makes me a little frightened to read books like this. My son will be in 7th grade this year, and I just want to hold him and protect him from all the bad things that High School can bring. I know that I can't. I can give him love, encouragement and the tools to try to do the right thing. Then I have to let him go and trust that he will be ok. It scares the hell out of me, it really does.

Even if you don't have kids in school, this book will take you back to the torturous days of high school. It's honest, insightful, and at times, very bleak. But, in the end, there is hope. And that's all that anyone can ask for. This book is definitely not for children (and it plainly states that on the opening page of the book). But for older kids and teens, it's a wonderful look at the world of high school, and the pitfalls and temptations that could possibly face them. Highly recommended. 4.5/5

Magically Delicious!

Slowly, but surely, I'm finding my way through a vast number of challenge books!! My year in reading started out very slow. I think I only read 2 books in January and 2 in February...if that. But in June, I managed 6, and I've already read 3 in July. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen is my first book read for Maggie's Southern Reading Challenge. What a treat it was!! What is it about me and books dealing with magic??

Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade.

Pretty, isn't it?? Being a Waverly in Bascom, North Carolina, meant people looked at you a little differently. For many generations, the Waverly's were considered odd. Claire Waverly, from the age of 6, grew up in Bascom at her Grandmother's house. The Waverly garden has been a legend for many years. If you ate an apple from the tree you would see the most important thing that would happen to you in your lifetime. Not really a good thing, to be honest. The flowers were all edible, and had some remarkable affects on people. It was one of the reasons Claire had become such a successful caterer. She could make all sorts of delectable items, each containing some mystical flower from the Waverly garden.

Sydney Waverly was Claire's younger sister. For her, growing up a Waverly was awful. She hated the fact that her family was different and went out of her way to be like the other kids in school. In the end, she took off right out of high school and never looked back at Bascom....until now. Sydney and her 5-year-old daughter were on the run, from an abusive man. The only place Sydney could think of going that would be safe was back to Bascom and Claire.

Now Claire's very quiet, solitary life has been turned completely upside-down. Throw in a smitten art professor that has moved next door, an aunt that has the ability to always know when a person needs something, a gay gourmet grocer that has lost the love of his life, lots of people from Sydney's past: both friends and enemies, and Claire doesn't know what has hit her. But the one thing Claire she DOES know is that she wants to reconnect with her sister. And keep her safe from the past she is running from.

Now, I never did read the book Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. But I did see the movie. And I know it's been said before, but it wasn't difficult to draw a lot of similarities between it and this story. BUT, that being said, this is a highly enjoyable read. The characters were well drawn out, and I really wanted good things to happen to them. Quirky Aunt Evanelle was a hoot! I just loved it when Fred moves in. And I thought the interaction between Claire and Sydney was very realistic of how sisters would act.

The story was a little predictable, but in the end, I still completely enjoyed it. It was a little mystical, a little romantic, a little mysterious, and a whole lot of fun! 4/5

Silence is Not Always Golden.....

Lately, I've seen the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (208 pgs, Puffin 2001) pop up all over the blogosphere. And with good reason. This is a book I chose to read for the Young Adult Reading 2008 Challenge.

"Older students are allowed to roam until the bell, but ninth graders are herded into the auditorium. We fall into class: Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, the Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders. I am clanless. I wasted the last weeks of August watching bad cartoons. I didn't go to the mall, the lake. or the pool, or answer the phone. I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with.

I am Outcast.

For Melinda Sordino, high school is not going to be easy. Something happened over the summer that left her an outcast with not only her old friends, but most of the students at Merryweather High. Now this once happy, energetic, A-Student doesn't speak, is barely passing her classes, and has no friends at all. The only thing about high school that is tolerable is art class. Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, is the one person that seems to have any luck getting Melinda to open up. He's given her an assignment, and the entire year to finish. All she has to do is look inside herself, but that is almost as painful as being alone.

There's not an easy way to review this book without giving too much of the plot away. Speak, written mostly as Melinda's inner dialogue, is sharp, funny and yet, extremely painful. High school can be such a difficult time for some kids, and reading this book left me with a bad feeling right in the pit of my stomach. Anderson's writing is just so smooth, you can FEEL Melinda's suffering.

Honestly, this is a book that should be mandatory reading for High School students, to show them the affects of peer pressure and shunning. But that will never happen because someone would deem it too "inappropriate". Kids, on both sides of the coin, should feel what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes. If they did, they might not be so quick to judge anyone else. 4.5/5

A Short Story with a Great Plot

The Black Tea Experiments by Ray Atkinson (pgs. 152 American Books) was sent to me by Lea, from Spotlight Publicity. Thanks Lea! It is only 152 pages, and is described by the author as an "airplane" book....one that can be read during a routine airplane trip.

As the book opens, we meet Brent Johnson. He seems like an average college student, except he is on his way to the Ukraine for 10 days. And he is fluent in Russian. He is searching for the infamous Dr. Rostov, a mysterious man with known Russian mafia connections and for his involvement with something known as the "Black Tea Experiments". Although everyone in the city of Sevastopal KNOWS of Dr. Rostov, no one can tell Brent where he is. The trail is cold and he has to go back to the US without any answers.

Logan Bauer is also a college student at the University of Central Illinois. Logan is on scholarship to the university, having won a science fair when he was in high school. With a little hard work and an incredibly brilliant scientific mind, Logan designed and created a digital imagining telescope that uses a new technology that he calls binary refraction. It is such an impressive feat, that scientists from NASA have traveled to Iowa just to see it. And it was Logan's ticket to college. He now has it mounted on a building near his dorm so he can scan the heavens for new images.

But one day, he goes to retrieve the images and notices the telescope had slipped out of position and was pointing at the street. A waste of imaging, he's afraid, until he hears the news. The body of college student Brent Johnson has been found along the same street his telescope was recording images. Brent was shot twice in the head and his kidney was removed. What if Logan has recorded the murder on his telescope??

Let me just begin by saying I don't generally like short stories or "Novellas". I prefer novels because it seems like the character development is much better, as is the plot. And I have to admit, I would have liked "more" with this book. The plot was fantastic, and the idea of "The Black Tea Experiments" is a really interesting one. I was fascinated by the concept. Although Atkinson did a good job with a complete story, I still would have liked more. It was sparsely written, but not in a bad way. Atkinson knew what he wanted to get across to the readers. And he did that. He created a nifty little thriller in a very small package. If you like shorter tales, this one is definitely for you. Personally, I would have liked to see more, but that's just my opinion. 3.75/5