Carrie’s questions:

Bookish Owlette’s questions:

In 7^th grade science class, we were watching a film. Suddenly, the kid sitting next to me smacked me on the back of the head really hard. When I touched the place he’d smacked, I found a bumper sticker. He’d stuck a massive bumper sticker to the back of my head. Everyone in the class noticed except for the teacher. I spent the rest of science class trying to de-sticker my head without ripping out all my hair. I probably should have gone to the bathroom to do this, but I wasn’t that smart. I did it in class with everybody watching. 

In 9^th grade math class, I sat next to this boy called Heavy C. Heavy C liked to draw penises. On everything. During class, he’d rip up notebook paper, draw a dick on each scrap, and then fling the scraps at me like confetti. It’s astounding how many dicks one kid can draw and throw during a 60-minute math class. I was constantly terrified that the teacher would walk past my desk and notice that it was surrounded by itty bitty dick pics. My classmates sure noticed. It’s really hard to concentrate on algebra when it’s raining men in the classroom. No matter how many times I asked him to stop, Heavy C wouldn’t quit his penis deluge, so I eventually asked the teacher if I could change desks. I didn’t tell her what was going on, but she moved me out of dick-flinging range.

The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood

Marian has a problem. A willing member of the consumer society in which she lives, she suddenly finds herself identifying with the things being consumed. She can cope with her tidy-minded fiancé, Peter, who likes shooting rabbits. She can cope with her job in market research, and the antics of her roommate. She can even cope with Duncan, a graduate student who seems to prefer laundromats to women. But not being able to eat is a different matter. Steak was the first to go. Then lamb, pork, and the rest. Next came her incapacity to face an egg. Vegetables were the final straw. But Marian has her reasons, and what happens next provides an unusual solution.

"The human mind was the last thing to be commercialized but they’re doing a good job of it now" – The Edible Woman

“What a moron I was to think you were sweet and innocent, when it turns out you were actually college-educated the whole time!” – The Edible Woman

“I know I was alright on Friday when I got up; if anything I was feeling more solid than usual.” – The Edible Woman

“Her metaphors for her children included barnacles encrusting a ship and limpets clinging to a rock.” – The Edible Woman

My Newbery TBR

She wished something would happen. 

Something good. To her. Checking her wish for loopholes, she found one. Hoping it wasn't too late, she thought the word soon. 

Meanwhile, in another part of town, he felt as if the world was opening. Life was rearranging itself; bulging in places, fraying in spots. He felt himself changing, too, but into what? 

So much can happen in a summer.

It's 1937, and while rumor has it that the worst of the Depression is over, the "Roosevelt recession" is firmly in place. It's not bad enough that Mary Alice's dad has lost his job, or that her parents are being forced to move into a "light housekeeping" room, or that her older brother Joey has gone off to plant trees out west with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Now Mary Alice must spend a year living with her feisty and formidable grandmother in a hick town where the other kids in school think of her as the "rich Chicago girl." Grandma Dowdel is well known about town and most of the residents cower in fear at the mere sight of her. It's a fear well justified, for the woman has little tolerance for fools, a rifle she knows how to use, and a knack for cooking up outrageous schemes. At first, Mary Alice finds herself an unwitting (and often unwilling) accomplice to some of Grandma's more shocking manipulations, but as time goes by, Mary Alice discovers a knack of her own when it comes to conniving.

When Billie Jo is just fourteen she must endure heart-wrenching ordeals that no child should have to face. The quiet strength she displays while dealing with unspeakable loss is as surprising as it is inspiring. 

Written in free verse, this award-winning story is set in the heart of the Great Depression. It chronicles Oklahoma's staggering dust storms, and the environmental—and emotional—turmoil they leave in their path.

How has Mrs. Olinski chosen her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team? It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski's team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen? 

It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan's grandmother and Nadia's grandfather. It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die. It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone. And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued. 

Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.

The girl known only as Brat has no family, no home, and no future until she meets Jane the Midwife and becomes her apprentice. As she helps the sharp-tempered Jane deliver babies, Brat—who renames herself Alyce—gains knowledge, confidence, and the courage to want something from life: "A full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world."

When May dies suddenly while gardening, Summer assumes she'll never see her beloved aunt again. But then Summer's Uncle Ob claims that May is on her way back—she has sent a sign from the spirit world. 

Summer isn't sure she believes in the spirit world, but her quirky classmate Cletus Underwood—who befriends Ob during his time of mourning—does. So at Cletus' suggestion, Ob and Summer (with Cletus in tow) set off in search of Miriam B. Young, Small Medium at Large, whom they hope will explain May's departure and confirm her possible return.

Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee might have lived a normal life if a freak accident hadn't made him an orphan. After living with his unhappy and uptight aunt and uncle for eight years, he decides to run—and not just run away, but run. This is where the myth of Maniac Magee begins, as he changes the lives of a racially divided small town with his amazing and legendary feats.

A shout comes echoing up the stairway “Fetch the whipping boy!”

A young orphan named Jemmy rouses from his sleep. “Ain't I already been whipped twice today? Gaw! What's the prince done now?” It was forbidden to spank, thrash, or whack the heir to the throne. Jemmy had been plucked from the streets to serve as whipping boy to the arrogant and spiteful Prince Brat.

After his parents separate, Leigh Botts moves to a new town with his mother. Struggling to make friends and deal with his anger toward his absent father, Leigh loses himself in a class assignment in which he must write to his favorite author. When Mr. Henshaw responds, the two form an unexpected friendship that will change Leigh’s life forever.

Thirteen-year-old Dicey Tillerman brings her abandoned family to the home of their eccentric grandmother to learn how to trust, and when to let go.