Roseland Recommends: Dreamland, Lock and Key, and Lush

I have been busy reading the past two weeks or so and wanted to add these to the list of recommended reads, all on the young adult list of course! Hoping to get one or two more in before summer is over, well, it is my last official day off today, going into work Monday and Tuesday for some small things in the classroom, but Wednesday marks the day teachers report back to start our meetings before the school year begins on August 3rd!

Sarah Dessen is a young adult author who many of the kids rave about, I just haven't picked up any of her books until this summer! I couldn't put either of them down. She deals with some pretty tough issues that go along with being a teenager and her books will leave you wanting to turn the pages even faster to see what is going to happen. So much so that I finished Lock and Key last night or should I say this morning between 2:30 and 4:30, but that had to do more with the fact that our AIR CONDITIONING went out right around then and I woke up sweating and couldn't sleep! Think our house knows we are leaving soon, as the master bedroom door came off the hinges last night randomly?! Anyway, here are the books:

Wake up, Caitlin

Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He's magnetic. He's compelling. He's dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything--her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him?

What happens when your past is not just past, but wiped clean entirely? How do you figure out where you're going when you can't even claim where you've been? These were the questions that inspired Lock and Key. It's the story of a girl named Ruby who is abandoned by her mother and determined to make it on her own, even---and especially---when she is sent to live with her long-lost sister in a whole new world of privilege, family, and relationships. As Ruby learns, there's a big difference between being given help and being able to accept it. And sometimes, it takes reaching out to someone else to save yourself.

Sam’s life is hanging by a thread. Her best friend since elementary school has turned into a typical dorky, pervy middle school moron. Although Sam has four BFFs that she spends every weekend with, they don’t have a clue about her father’s alcoholism. Sam’s mother is always zoned out on yoga, and she never wants to hold Sam’s father accountable for his drinking binges. Desperate for advice, Sam turns to an anonymous source - by leaving a letter describing her problems in a library book. Soon Sam begins corresponding back and forth with a person she’s never even met. With this support things begin to get better, though. Sam finds herself the object of a hot high school guy’s crush. She is suddenly Miss Popularity at her own school. Her father promises to make some changes. Yep - life is good. That is…until the violence starts.

Lush is an important book for anyone in middle school dealing with struggles and stress in his home life. The author does not paint a pretty picture or a happy ending in this novel. This does, however, offer hope to anyone dealing with alcoholism - and will offer the reader hope in the end.