If You Find Me, by Emily Murdoch

I read this book because it was one of the "Spotlight Books" on www.figment.com a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed the novel, but would take caution when recommending it to my students - there was some cursing (mostly towards the end of the novel), and the main character and her sister were victims of sexual abuse.

Carey Blackburn has always been the primary caretaker of her younger sister Jenessa (Nessa). Their mother is a psychologically ill meth addict, and they live in a camper tucked away in the middle of a huge forest. No one knows they're there, and Carey and Nessa haven't been into civilization in years. Their mother goes to town on occasion for "supplies" and the random trinkets and books she brings back for them are the only connections they have to the real world.

All of that changes one day when a man and woman converge upon their campsite. The man claims to be Carey's father, and the woman is a social worker assigned to their case. Carey's world is turned upside down as she's taken into the "real" world, forced to enter high school, and face the truth about her mother.

I really loved Carey's narration and the way she talked. It just seemed so REAL and made me consider what it would be like to live in isolation for years and then be thrown into high school...scary! Also, just like I mentioned when I read Waiting to Forget a while back, this book made me ponder the blind faith children have in their parents, and how they'll do anything to defend/protect them.

I'll Be There, by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Sometimes, you read a book that stays in your head for a long time. This one did for me, but not in an "I pondered x character for weeks..." or, "this book really made me think about y issue..." kind of way. No, what really happened was that I was singing an off-key rendition of Michael Jackson's "I'll Be There" for days.

Despite the mildly annoying after taste, I truly loved this book. And I honestly wasn't expecting to. It started out kind of slow, and this was actually the third time I've attempted to read it. However, once I got past the slow start (about 70 pages in), I found that I could NOT put the book down.

In the book, Emily Bell is an average seventeen year old. Her mom is an ER nurse, and her dad is a music professor who forces her to sing "I'll Be There" at their church - the scene that is the book's namesake. During this particular performance, a stranger sits in the crowd: a boy named Sam who has lived on the road with his convict father and his little brother, Riddle, for years. In fact, his life on the road began when he stopped going to school in the second grade. Emily is captivated by this stranger, and chases him out of the church. A spark flies, but without modern conveniences like a cell phone or a car, Sam knows he won't see Emily again. Emily has other plans, though. She becomes mildly - well, maybe severely...- obsessed and is determined to find Sam and pursue their future together. As their relationship unfolds, Sam's evil father finds out, and the crew of three is on the road again, leaving Emily devastated. With the help of ill-intentioned classmate Bobby Ellis, whose parents are an attorney and a detective, Emily tries to maintain hope that she can find and rescue Sam.

The book was so riddled with unexpected twists, turns, and adventures that I found it almost invigorating. It truly was one of those books where you start to really care about the characters and one of those novels in which every detail is connected in some way, but you can't quite figure out how. I don't want to say anything more for fear I'd give something away.

One of my favorite parts about the book was the ending. I'm sure you've seen a movie before where the story ends, and then there's a slideshow-y conclusion where pictures of the characters are shown and there's a little blurb about what happened to them after where the movie leaves off. Well, that's how the end of I'll Be There felt. It was a great ending and really tied up the loose ends, but still left me wondering a little. I want to see if this author's written anything else!!