43 Old Cemetery Road: Over My Dead Body by Kate Klise

The sequel to the previous book I read... just as cute. This time a man named Dick Tater is out to get the trio because of their irregular arrangement of an old man, ghost, and young boy living together under the same roof writing ghost stories. Tater uses this opportunity to speak out against ghosts and to attempt to cancel Halloween. Grumply gets committed to the Illinois Home for the Deranged and has Seymour sent to the orphanage until his parents come to pick him up from their tour in France. Because the next 3 chapters in their book will not be published on time they decide to publish some of Olive's old manuscripts, but it becomes a problem since she can't remember where she hid them.Of course things get ironed out in the end, and it appears that there is a third installment to this new series. 

43 Old Cemetery Road: Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise

This was a super-quick and laughable read for young readers. The basic format of the book is set up into letters, newspaper articles, and pictures with captions. You can tell from the beginning that it is going to be a humorous read just by meeting the characters: Olive C. Spence, Seymour Hope, and I.B. Grumply. A children's author, Grumply, moves into a Victorian mansion to overcome a twenty year writer's block in order to complete his "Ghost Tamer" series. He finds out that the mansion is already occupied with a boy name Seymour and his cat, as well as a ghost of long ago deceased writer, Olive. She has vowed to haunt the house until one of her mysteries is published. The three main characters form a tight niche relationship and produce a book through collaboration. This sequel is next on my list!

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I had always seen great reviews about this book, but simply never got around to reading it. Finally, when I saw a preview of the movie based on this novel on television I decided to add this to my list of books to read. (I tend to do this quiet frequently, and find that the book is always better) In Water for Elephants, ninety-three year old Jacob Jankowski flashes back and forth between his present day in the nursing home and his past, when life went so wrong he joined the circus at twenty-one. Once there he does odds and ends for a place to stay on the train. Soon after they find out that he went to school to be a vet, and it was just his luck the circus had just found themselves short of one for their exotic animals. These animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and often abused. The sad part of all of this is that most of the events of the novel are based off of true circus events, and just added together into one story line. The author has definitely pulled in key information about circuses in that time that only thorough research could provide. Early on, he finds himself falling in love with the animal trainer's wife, Marlena... and also an elephant, Rosie. The characters and animals in this novel are well rounded, relateable, and detailed so that the reader can not help but feel a connection to each. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can not wait to see how they have interpreted it in the movie coming out next week starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. Can Pattinson pull off a role that is not a vampire? We shall see!

Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

Yet another read from Tess Gerristen, this is the first one however I'm not too sure that I was a fan of. This is one of her medical suspense stand alone books, however it seemed so far-fetched at times to pass for science fiction. It is about Dr. Toby Harper that is trying to figure out why elderly Alzheimer's patients from the same retirement home start dying mysteriously at a fast rate, all with the same symptoms. She discovers they have all chosen to receive a hormone that prolongs life, which comes from fetal cells. That's where the weird part comes in, as the cells from purposely deformed and grotesque human fetus are produced for this purpose. When it goes into detail of one of these creatures, it honestly had my stomach churning as it describes a two-limbed, cyclopes, one toothed, bundle of skin and hair. Gross. I'm just hoping her other medical suspense books rise far above this one.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

It's been a while since I have read a Jerry Spinelli book, but this one seems different from all the rest. It has his same writing style but the storyline is much different. One of the girls in my class who is obsessed with Holocaust novels was ranting and raving about this book. Since I share a liking for that genre of books as well, I had to read it. This juvenile novel shows the reader the view of World War II through the eyes of a young orphan who stays alive through stealing. This is why he calls himself Stopthief when meeting a group of orphan boys just like him that live together to survive. His new friend and protector Uri then gives him the life story that he will tell soldiers, who they call Jackboots, if asked. Now he is Misha Pilsudski, a young gypsy. The young boy has an uplifting attitude about everything going on at that time, only because he does not fully understand what's going on in the world around him. He must survive in the ghetto and faces the dangers that many people were unable to escape from. It's a truly captivating novel that I finished in less than 2 days.

The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen

I REALLY enjoyed this novel by Tess Gerritsen. It is not connected to the series I just completed, but Maura Isles makes a quick appearance when bones are found in the garden of character Julia Hamill's land. It appears as though the cause of death was murder and the ring found with the body is dated back to the 1830's. With this information, Julia begins to investigate the murder of the woman who was buried near the house she just bought following her recent divorce. The novel also has historical flashback that provides the reader with background information regarding the characters that were directly tied to the murder of the unidentified woman many years previous. In 1830, medical student Norris meets Rose in the maternity ward where her sister is slowly but surely dying from complications during childbirth. Following their meeting bodies are showing up with huge lacerations, much like a dissection. Norris and Rose are the only people that actually see the killer, who is dubbed the West End Reaper. Because Norris has reportedly seen the killer, been found at a couple murder scenes, and has the skills to butcher from being raised on the farm which are mixed with his surgical abilities, many people in the community start to point fingers at him for being the murderer. With the help of their friend Oliver they search for the truth, with involves so many twists and turns one's head starts to spin... in a good way. Finally, back in present time, Julia traces their tale of finding the killer through all the boxes of memoir and letters found in the house.Oliver Wendell Holmes is actually a real person, who was responsible for bringing the idea of the importance of washing your hands in the medical field in the United States. Common knowledge to us, but apparently blasphemy in the 1830's. Although this book received some bad reviews, I loved it! So there. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

This is the second installment of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Yes, this book is extremely juvenile... but every single one of my kids LOVE these books. Although it is mostly in cartoon/comic style, it still is at the fifth grade level, which most graphic novels are not. In the book Greg humorously tells about his problems at home and school, most of which involve his older brother, Rodrick. Other scenes in the book include Greg suffering on the swim team, his obligation to help out with the talent show as an assistant to a first grader, accidently going into the woman's bathroom, his failure at trying to cheat in school, and trying to pull on over on his mother's Mom's Bucks program. There are 3 more books in this series and eventually I will get around to reading those too. Apparently the movie for this book came out last week, and now my students are asking if we can all go together to see it.... Well, that's just doubtful, haha.