Book Drops: Dead To You by Lisa McMann

Dead To You by Lisa McMann. New York: Simon Pulse, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4424-0388-8

Ethan De Wilde has been found.
He was abducted when he was 7. He is now 16.
He doesn't remember anything from the first 7 years of his life...That happens, right? Or does it?

I could not put this book down. It is a pretty intense book that explores what happens when a missing child is reunited with their family. It's painful, there's anger, but there is also hope and understanding.

I don't want to say more except that it is worth picking up. I would say this is for a mature 8th grader. There is some explicit language but it's not used excessively like in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist where the F-Bomb was used all the time!!!

Book Drops: "Living Dead Girl" by Elizabeth Scott (YA) (rated 5 stars)

Living Dead Girl

by Elizabeth Scott

If you like “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson or “Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold, you will probably like (though I am not sure “like” is the proper word) “Living Dead Girl” by Elizabeth Scott.

This book is written mainly as “Alice’s” thoughts. She has just turned 15 and is no longer looking like a “little girl,” which is what her kidnapper, Ray, craves and needs. It is really uncomfortable to read but you cannot put it down. She blocks him out when he touches her and disappears into her mind when he beats her. She replays the moments when she was kidnapped and how he keeps her as “his little girl.”
She lives in an apartment and is invisible. Or she feels invisible. No one knows and no one cares or questions why she is not in school. She wants to escape. But in order to escape, she would need to find a new “Alice.” Can she do that? She is empty and doesn’t care. She wants to be free. She really just wants to die. For the 5 years to end. 5 years of raping, abuse and death threats…

This book is 170 pages of uncomfortable intense moments. It is not for a young reader but for a mature middle schooler and high schooler. Though, it could be used as a discussion point with a younger reader (6th grade maybe 5th if they are mature). It covers issues of abuse and safety and survival. But it is disturbing so if you do have it in your collection and see a younger reader checking it out, I would warn them.

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