Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin - Fun, Fun, Fun

A laugh-out-loud high school adventure set in Greece, perfect for fans of Meg Cabot

High school sophomore Zona Lowell has lived in New York City her whole life, and plans to follow in the footsteps of her renowned-journalist father. But when he announces they’re moving to Athens for six months so he can work on an important new story, she's devastated— he must have an ulterior motive. See, when Zona's mother married an American, her huge Greek family cut off contact. But Zona never knew her mom, and now she’s supposed to uproot her entire life and meet possibly hostile relatives on their turf? Thanks... but no thanks.

In the vein of Anna and the French Kiss, Zona navigates a series of hilarious escapades, eye-opening revelations, and unexpected reunions in a foreign country—all while documenting the trip through one-of-a-kind commentary.

I loved this book! It is very funny, the characters are really charming and it made me really really want to travel to Greece it sounds like such a beautiful place! I am also a big fan of realistic fiction and this book has all of the best impression of the how real relationships work. I loved how the main character Zone goes on a journey to basically find herself and how she realizes just like many others do, that life is not perfect, but if you can trust in yourself and live life to the fullest things will always turn out to be just fine. Just like many teens, Zona finds out that life itself is a work in progress. I am a huge fan of authors like Meg Cabot, Sarah Dessen, and Jenny Han and Meredith Zeitlin is right up there with the best with this novel! I love her writing and can't wait to see if there will be more novels with Zona to come. I recommend Sophomore Year Is Greek To Me to anyone that loves a sweet coming of age story in a lovely setting. Very much like when Lena was in Greece in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Librarian Lady

Apocalyptic Dream Awakens an Awesome Idea!

Last night I dreamed that I was watching the night sky filled with massive amounts of shooting stars. In my dream, the entire sky was lit up with lights and I believed that it was an apocalyptic event. Somewhere toward the end of this dream, I was half awake and still half dreaming I remember an idea came to me. I should start a Walking Dead book club at the library! I think three things would bring in teens to join this club. One is they love anything related to zombies, two they think anything apocalyptic is cool, and three we can play the new Walking Dead Monopoly game! I absolutely adore any YA book that features an apocalyptic world gone mad. I have read a lot of dystopic YA novels and one that I think was my first love was Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I also remember fancying The Giver by Lois Lowry, but not really understanding the impact that this book would have me on much later fostering my love for the dystopic. Most recently, one of the best apocalyptic books I have read is Pure by Julianna Baggot. This book was totally awesome and freaky too. For when then world was ending an explosion occurred and anything that was near a person fused to their body. That meant that people were walking around with doll parts, other people, and bird cages fused somewhere on their persons. Yikes that is freaky! Funny enough, I have never been a big fan of zombies. They kind of scare me and I would hate to be chased by one. I postponed watching the Walking Dead television show on AMC for exactly that reason. After a long period of coaxing, my kids finally talked me into watching the first season and after me walking out of the room a few times during gruesome hoards of zombies feeding I was totally hooked on the show. I power watched to get caught up to the 4th season and now have been following the show and the after show the Talking Dead. After my dream and idea of starting a Walking Dead book club, I realized I should probably try to read the Walking Dead graphic novels by Robert Kirkman. I think it would be a great way to segue into the book club and find out if the new members have them already or plan to read for the club. I will keep you posted on the progress of the Walking Dead book club!

Happy Reading to you!

Mrs. Librarian Lady