Vojtech Sojka Sojka من عند Le Cergne, فرنسا من عند Le Cergne, فرنسا

Fun debut YA novel, likely to be most popular with teen girls (13-16). Although the emotional/mental breakdown of Francesca's mother is trivialized, the coming-of-age aspect of the novel is well-developed. Francesca's voice is frank, hysterical at points, and endearingly real. Thank goodness someone finally wrote a female, teenage protagonist who actually stands up for herself. [Booktalk this! 7th-9th grade, F]

the main character had to choose whether he wanted to be "a momma's boy or a daddy's boy, he couldn't be both." and he chooses to pursue the love of his father, because his mother's love was too easy to obtain; he didn't need to try for it. the story itself is very other-worldly, so kind of hard to relate to, but albom's writing is great and at times you just have to sit back and think about what he says.