For our final meeting of 2004, we each made book recommendations for winter reading.

Jamie recommends:

The Sword of the Land by Noel-Anne Brennan

Rilsin Sae Becha, a young princess who gave up her throne to keep peace after a coup, must choose between loyalty and freedom when her cousin brings the kingdom to the brink of war.

A Painted House by John Grisham

Seven-year-old Arkansas farm boy Luke Chandler loses his innocence over the course of a contentious and strenuous cotton harvest in 1952, during which time Luke's family hires several Mexicans and an Ozark family and Luke begins keeping dangerous secrets.

Katie Rose recommends:

Ordinary People by Judith Guest

After spending eight months in a mental institution following a suicide attempt, seventeen-year-old Conrad returns home and finds that he must rebuild his life.

Amanda recommends:

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Paul and his friends, both gay and straight, hang out together advising one another on the sometimes troubled progress of their various romances.

Emily recommends:

And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss

As little Marco describes the horse and wagon he saw on Mulberry Street, they are transformed into an elephant and a band wagon with a retinue of police.

Brandon recommends:

Keeping Faith : A Novel by Jodi Picoult

Seven-year-old Faith White, the object of a custody battle, becomes the focus of a much larger controversy when she begins quoting from the Bible, develops stigmata, and appears to be able to perform miraculous healings.

Mrs. Gordon recommends:

Breakout by Paul Fleischman

Interweaves the seventeen- and twenty-five-year-old voices of a runaway who comes to a life-changing realization in an all-day Los Angeles traffic jam and uses the experience eight years later as material for a one-woman show.

Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman

Divorcee Lucy Rosen moves from New York to Verity, Florida, determined to start over with her troubled twelve-year-old son, but her new life gets off to a bad start when a neighbor is murdered and Lucy's son--for some unknown reason--runs away with the victim's baby.