Dairy Queen by:Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Hello fellow readers,
My friend recommended this book to me after reading it. That was last year. I now very much regret having having waited this long to read it. I have always had this dream when I'm the only girl on the baseball team and I hit a home run and then we win the state championship. This has never even come close to happening to me. I don't play baseball, well OK can pitch. But I know that this dream will never come true. But, for DJ its a reality. Her brothers have always been the stars of the Red Bend football team, but she doesn't see them anymore. DJ has had to leave her high school before her sophomore year ends to run the family farm. That summer she gets the job to be the personal trainer of the QB for Red Bends cross town rival, Hawley. Brian Nelson is a baby, at first. He doesn't do anything. He wines, he sits when he should be working, and he complains that he could be having more fun, and then at the end of the day he quits. He just walks away. But as you probably would have guessed, he is made to come back by his coach. He and DJ strike up a friendship that not even a crazy summer can shake. And then when DJ decides to join the football team with out telling Brian, things get a little ugly. With a crazy Best Friend, a maybe crush, and a family feud DJ's summer is turned upside down as she questions who she really is and her entire life's direction.
I give Dairy Queen:
3 1/4 stars

This book really makes you think but not in a way that you would think. (If that makes sense) This book makes you question wither you really are a cow. (no offense)
- L.E. Klasing

The Secret Life of Bees by:Sue Monk Kidd

Hello fellow readers,
Have you ever felt that you are completely alone in the world. Completely cut off. Unloved. Uninvolved. Alone. Lily does. She is 14 years old growing up in the time of the Civil Rights Movement. her nanny Rosaleen is black and Lily and her father are white. Everyone thinks that they are crazy to keep her because they have some of the most racist people in the state living right in their town. So when Rosaleen tries to register to vote she is confronted and carted off to jail with Lily kicking and screaming that she did nothing wrong. T. Ray Lily's father is only able to spring Lily but he leaves Rosaleen saying only that she was crazy to "try a stunt like that". Lily decides that she needs Rosaleen and some answers about her life because T.Ray has refused to tell her anything, especially her mother. Lily has one memory of her mother, When she accidentally killed her at age four. Lily leaves with one town in mind Tiburon, SC which is what her mother had scrolled on the back of a picture. She breaks Rosaleen out of jail and together they hit the road looking for a Negro Virgin Mary and Tiburon. When they reach their destination they meet the Calender-Boatwright Sisters: May, June, and August. Together they form a relationship that is touching, cry-worthy, and dangerous. So strong it may be stronger and more complex than a beehive.
I give Secret Life of Bees:
4 stars

Part Love story, part heart break, part hurt, and part loss, everyone who enjoys books will love this novel. After you read it see the movie. It's just as good. Check back soon and happy reading.
-Lily Klasing

P.S. for all us Lily's out there keep fighting, the world is a better place than you think. Look at me.