Lush

Plot: the main character in this book is an 8th grade girl name Samantha Gwynn. She lives with her mother, little brother, Luke, and alcoholic dad. She has 3 best friends; Angie, Vanessa, and Tracie. In beginning, Sam starts out by writing a letter to an unknown person, she slips it inside a book that hasnt been checked out in 13 years. The person who ends up receiving this letter is very unexpected, but helps her through a lot of things such as peer pressure, public humiliation, stress, family problems, and so on. I recommend this book for boys and girls, but mostly for girls.

Characters: the character i am going to describe is Samantha Gwynn.

• Samantha Gwynn- Sam is a young girl who is in middle school and deals with everyday problems and hears everyday gossip. I liked the way she tried to help her father by hiding the beer bottles and leaving inspirational messages. I dont like the way how she treated her father when she found him drunk, she used to yell at him and tell him that she wasnt ever going to forgive him even when he was begging his heart out. If i were in Sam's shoes, i dont think i would be able to survive one day at school or at home, but they only thing i would definitely like about her life would be being able to live with such a cute little brother.

Your Thoughts: i really liked this book a lot, i definitely liked it more than Perfect; which was the other novel written by this same author. I think that Sam has seen and lived through some things that she should never see at that age. I like the way the author described Samantha's feelings so clearly and showed what it was like to be in middle school and be stuck in the middle of lies and drama. this was a VERY good book, i cant wait to read the third novel Natasha F. has written.

Reading Strategies: In this book i definitely used mental images. the most vivid picture in my mind was when Luke spilled his grape and cranberry juice all of the Feingold blueprints and his dad cracked the empty bottle of Jim Beam on Luke's little face and blood & glass was everywhere. I had many other lively pictures and movies in my head, which helped me understand what Sam was going through in the setting of the book.

Author Information: the author of this great book is Natasha Friend, she lives in Boston with her husband and wo young kids. Before she became an amazing author she was a middle school teacher and a camp director. Her first novel, Perfect, was the winner of the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature. She puts great detail into every single sentence.