Lucy Jane Bledsoe

This non-fictional book tells the story of the authors trip and journey to Antarctica, but at the same time it offers a lot of factual information about Antarctica. Some of this information includes survival tips if you plan on staying there, where to look for wildlife and how to identify the different wildlife, and other features of the frozen desert. On almost every page of the book are pictures that the author took herself while on her trip, along with little short stories of the history of Antarctica. I think this book would be great for a 4th or 5th grade classroom and can be used in helping students learn about the different parts of the world and grow their interest in something specific. Maybe a student loves penguins, this book offers some information about penguins that the student might now know yet. The book is 101 pages long.… (mer)

I received this book from LibraryThings early reviewers program. The premise was that Delia returned to her home town for a job as well as to confront and come to terms with her forced attendance at a conversion camp for gay/homosexual/queer teens. Also to come to terms with her relationship with the pastor of the church that held the camp. A parallel plot line was the character returning to her high school as the new basketball coach for the women's team. The chapters alternate from her current coaching to her relationship with two other teens who were at the camp. I wish the book would have held to her return and finding some closure with the camp experience and her relationships with the other teens she met and escaped the camp with. However, the book veered into the plot line of her return to coaching, her relationship with the players, the players back stories, and their quest for a championship. I don't know if the author was trying to draw parallels between the camp experience and the return to basketball, but for me this drug the book down into a basketball story instead of her experiences at the conversion camp and the demons she faced in her life because of it. If the novel would have stayed with only one plot line, I feel I would have enjoyed it more.… (mer)