"Imaginary Enemy" by Julie Gonzalez

Dear Bubba,
Remember when I asked you to hook me up with some visibility cream? Well, forget that. I don't need it anymore. Send vanishing cream instead. I really need to disappear.
Insincerely,
Harriet Hairdresser
(Alias Gabriel)

Jane has always survived in the same way.
Being a slacker, being sarcastic, mouthing off, not doing her homework, and writing letters to Bubba.
Bubba?
Short for Beelzebub.

Bubba is her imaginary enemy, and Jane blames him for everything in her life that goes wrong. A milk spill? It's Bubba's fault. Something stupid she says? Bubba put the words in her mouth.
Let's face it. It's just easier to blame everything on someone who doesn't exist, than it is to face up to the things that are going wrong.

And when Jane's relationships with her next door neighbors, with herself, and with her life in general start going downhill, that's exactly who she blames.
Bubba.

But what if she gets a letter back?

"You two little spies really need a new hobby,"   I said, reaching for my math book. "Have you considered stamp collecting? Quilting? Drowning each other?"

This is probably one of the more imaginative books I've read this year. (Get it? Imaginative? heh.) I usually think about imaginary friends, and how they are awesome, but I don't usually consider how the opposite would work. But this author did, and it was very interesting.

I really liked the character of Jane, but I think my absolute favorite character would have to be her half brother, Luke. Luke is a pretty cool guy. (But like I said. I like Jane as well.)

The thing I really didn't like was the main character's reaction to homeschoolers. When her next door neighbors and her brother and sister become homeschooled, she's very negative about it. I also think that the author portrayed homeschoolers in a fairly negative light, but that might just be me and my biased position.

I don't really have much else to say on this book, except that it was very well written, and very, very funny. And witty. The main character's jabs and remarks were just so creative it was hard not for my mind to be boggled.

Oh. And it's a short read. ☺

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan

Surviving the Applewhites is a book about a juvenile delinquint who has been kicked out of every school in North Carolina, including one that was supposed to be IMPOSSIBLE to be expelled from. So he has been transfered to a certain 'Wit's End, Creative Academy', and as fancy and private-schoolish that might sound, what Wits End really is, is the Applewhite Family Homeschool. The Applewhite family is a creative family that has it's hold on many arts, except for (if you want to be technical) ED who is more organized and specific then the others. Will Jake Semple turn out to be just like the other Applewhites and pick up his own special artistic talent? I cannot answer that question, you will have to read the book. :)

Ok, so I have very mixed opinions about this book alltogether. I like the subject matter and the positive view on homeschooling, as well as the character development; specifically on Jake's part. I give this book... 3 stars. I think that might be the lowest I've ever given a book since I've started reviewing books here, but I could be wrong. You see, as much as I like the story, I would never probably read it over again, and the problems lie here; I will describe them. The book is absolutely chaotic. For me it was hard to realize which character was who, what relation. I didn't know Archie was older and was Lucille's husband until almost the end of the book. I thought Randolph was a child and Hal was the husband. I was kinda unsure as to who Sybil Jameson/Debbie Applewhite was at first.... It's just, everything is really not organized in my opinion, and I just couldn't keep track of what was going on.. to my surprise. The ending; well... It was sort of like... There was no ending? I mean Jake made his decision, but it didn't just even near end there you know... He can't just become part of the family or anything like that, but it was wrecklessly left there. But that is just my personal opinion, and heck, I could've been imagining it... But it just wasn't really my type of book. Anyway, still pretty good though :)

So anyway, keep reading Bookworms. :P -Cat!

Schooled by Gordon Korman

Capricorn Anderson is a homeschool boy who lived on an isolated community with only his Grandmother, Rain for his whole life. His parents are dead and the rest of the people from the isolated 60's community have left a long time ago. When Rain falls out of a tree and breaks her hip and he has to spend some weeks in a regular school in the regular modern world, what will he do?

This is the kinda book that you can't really be neutral. You have to be sorta you like it, or you hate it. I would rate it 2 out of 5 stars... Everyone seems to like this book and I have to say that as much as I don't like giving bad opinions about books- this one was... Well it had it's strong points, like it was cool how you got to experience almost every person in the books point of view, and the developement of the characters was kind of fun, but other then that in my opinion it was unrealistic, kind of... I don't know. It'd be like I'm reading the book and the character says that they'll never do something and then next page they don't acknowledge it. The other thing is that peoples personalities change just like that without anything that would make it make sense. Some characters disapear for extended amounts of time and then just re-appear!

On a side note. I and the others in this blog are homeschooled. I wanted to tell you viewers incase you didn't know, I've never even heard of a homeschooler that was 'on an isolated farm' with a homeschooler that hadn't even ever tasted pizza, been to a dance, watched tv, didn't have a phone, and didn't use really any modern technology (cell phone, computer, ipod?). I'm just saying this because some people take Capricorn Anderson and some other characters as what Homeschoolers are really like. *gets off of soap box*
Anyway, Peace guys, -Cat