“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
Neil Gaiman

Monday, September 24, 2012

Is Money Everything?




All You Never Wanted 
By Adele Griffin




Alex and Thea have been thrown into wealth by the marriage of their mother to a multimillionaire after years of living on the edge of poverty with their mother as a single parent raising them. Overnight they've gone from mac and cheese to sushi.  But it's not necessarily all that one would think it might be.  This YA novel is written in the alternating voices of the two teens as they grapple with the new world they’ve been thrust into and the host of issues both from their past and their present situation that they are dealing with as individuals and as a family.  While the story as a whole is a little far-fetched since most teens don’t have parents marrying multimillionaires (although many may secretly wish for it...), the issues the girls themselves are dealing with are very real to today’s teens.  Jealousy, eating disorders, reaching out for attention, and teen choices are strong prevalent themes.  In addition, Griffin packs everything into an enjoyable teen read that will hold many teens attention, especially reluctant readers.  It gets a thumbs up from me for that!

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