God Is In the Pancakes, by Robin Epstein

Grace Manning, 15, gets her first job at a local nursing home as a candy striper. She starts to enjoy her job when she meets Frank Sands, a resident with Lou Gehrig's disease. He teaches her to play poker, and is a surrogate for her father, who recently walked out on her family. Their relationship builds, and they have fun together in spite of their surroundings. And Frank asks a favor of her—"to help him die." Her inner struggle about this request is played out against her everyday concerns of school and relationships with her sister, mother, and male best friend who is slowly becoming something more. This is a great story that asks difficult questions and doesn't shy away from direct answers, or the reality that answers may not exist.

Th1rteen R3asons Why

Hey guys! This is Zeb here. I'm this year's Voyager president, and from time to time, I'll be posting reviews of books I dig. A book I've been reading lately is Th1rteen R3asons Why, by Jay Asher.

Th1rteen R3asons Why, by Jay Asher, is a fictional novel about a teenage boy dealig with the recent suicide of his friend, Hannah Baker. Hannah records thirteen cassettes, and they act as a suicide note to specific people in Hannah's life. On her tapes, Hannah explains the exact details as to why she chose to end her life. She refers to the series of events as a "snowball effect", because each incident occurs because of the previous.

Her stories are about everything from "peeping toms" to crimes she witnessed, but didn't report to the police. In her notes, Hannah explains how every event exacerbated the situation, and why she chose certain events to talk about. In Asher's novel, the reader follows along as Clay listens to these tapes, and listens to his thoughts, feelings, and actions as he struggles to cope with what he's listening to.

The reader may ask, "Why would Clay listen to the tapes if he can't cope with it? And why do the tapes continue if the stories are that bad?"The answers to these questions are explained in depth within the novel. In short, however, Clay continues to listen to Hannah's tapes because he wants the change to truly understand the reasons why a girl he thought he'd never be able to hear speak again decided living life wasn't good enough. The tapes continue to be passed around the list because Hannah threatens the listeners with a second set of tapes if they stop listening to her tapes. This second set of tapes contains information which could incriminate several people on her list.

Overall, Th1rteen R3asons Why is, in my humble opinion, one of the most well written and entertaining books ever nominated for a Georgia Peach Award. Without a doubt, this is one of the best books I've read in quite some time. I can safely say that you'll want to read it several times over to get the full effect of this book.

Zeb Ott, over and out!