Kyi, Tanya Lloyd. La Otra Vida de Caz.

Kyi, Tanya Lloyd.       La Otra Vida de Caz.    Orca  134p  $9.95 978-1-4598-0187-5 jr/sr       Series: Orca Soundings  Good      Realistic Fiction

It was just too much when another girl came up to Caz and told her she had slept with Caz's boyfriend.  Caz in turn went to her boyfriend and smacked him good, but it got her suspended from school.  However, compared to what happened next in her life, the suspension was nothing.  As a result of all the trouble Caz was having at school, she was transferred to a new school.  That was bad enough, but then it turns out she has a reading disability as well -- something called "dyslexia" -- and she ends up in a special education class.  Then her mother decides she wants a divorce and leaves the house for city living.  Could things get any worse?  Yes!!!

It feels like the end of the world for Caz until she meets Amanda.  Caz and Amanda hit it off immediately, but slowly Caz begins to realize that there are things she does not like about Amanda.  What will it take for Caz to realize that Amanda is bad news?        

Dyslexia-Fiction, Friendship-Fiction, Hi-lo books           --Magna Diaz

Waiting for normal. by Leslie Conner

Connor, Leslie. Waiting for normal.
Harper Collins, 2008, $17.89, 290p, 978-0-06-089088-9
Realistic fiction

Addie and her mother are moved into a tiny trailer on a busy corner under the elevated train in Schenectady, NY. Addie quickly settles in and makes friends with neighbors who run a mini-market across the street. Soula, while usually upbeat, is fighting the effects of her chemotherapy. treatment Addie misses terribly her ex-step-father Dwight and her two younger half-sisters who were taken from her mother due to neglect. Addie is used to being very resourceful at keeping herself fed when mother stays away from the trailer for days at a time. Addie’s visits with Dwight on school vacations show her a vision of normal that eventually becomes too painful for Addie to bear. The situation comes to a head when the trailer burns down. There is a happy new beginning in store for Addie.
A very believable story of abandonment, neglect, and the search for love and “normal”. The issues of neglect and a dysfunctional parent are not sensationalized nor trivialized.
Excellent read for middle school. JT