Dandy Books

Dandy Books for the week:

Meet Jenna Boller, star employee at Gladstone’s Shoe Store in Chicago. Standing a gawky 5'11'' at 16 years old, Jenna is the kind of girl most likely to stand out in the crowd - for all the wrong reasons. But that doesn’t stop Madeline Gladstone, the president of Gladstone's Shoes 176 outlets in 37 states, from hiring Jenna to drive her cross country in a last ditch effort to stop Elden Gladstone from taking over his mother's company and turning a quality business into a shop-and-schlock empire. Now Jenna Boller shoe salesperson is about to become a shoe-store spy as she joins her crusty old employer for an eye-opening adventure that will teach them both the rules of the road - and the rules of life.

I bought this one at a library sale a while back. It sounds pretty darn good. I have an extra copy if you want it check out this place.
Winner of the 2008 John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize * A Washington Post Best Book of 2008 * A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2008

Richly imagined and gothically spooky, The Good Thief introduces one of the most appealing young heroes in contemporary fiction and ratifies Hannah Tinti as one of our most exciting talents writing today.

Twelve year-old Ren is missing his left hand. How it was lost is a mystery that Ren has been trying to solve for his entire life, as well as who his parents are, and why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. When a young man named Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother, his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand persuades the monks at the orphanage to release the boy and to give Ren some hope. But is Benjamin really who he says he is? As Ren is introduced to a life of hardscrabble adventure filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves, he begins to suspect that Benjamin not only holds the key to his future, but to his past as well….

"Where would you like to be five years from now?" Dr. B. asks.

"Nowhere," America answers.

By age fifteen, America has already been nowhere. Been nobody. Separated from his foster mother, Mrs. Harper. A runaway living for weeks in a mall, then for months in Central Park. A patient at Applegate, the residential treatment facility north of New York City. And now at Ridgeway, a hospital.

America is a boy, he thinks to himself, who gets lost easy and is not worth the trouble of finding.

But Dr. B. takes the trouble. With abiding care, he nudges America's story from him. An against-the-odds story about America's shattered past with his mother and brothers. About Browning, a man in Mrs. Harper's house who saves America, then betrays him. About a bighearted, hardheaded girl named Liza, and Ty and Fish and Wick and Marshall and Ernie and Tom and Dr. B. himself who care more than America does about whether he lives or dies.'

I bought this one at a library sale too after having it on my TBR list for a while. Can't wait to read it! :)

Her street name is Maybe. She lives with a tribe of homeless teens — runaways and throwaways, kids who have no place to go other than the cold city streets, and no family except for one another. Abused, abandoned, and forgotten, they struggle against the cold, hunger, and constant danger.With the frigid winds of January comes a new girl: Tears, a twelve-year-old whose mother doesn't believe Tears's stepfather abuses her. As the other kids start to disappear — victims of violence, addiction, and exposure — Maybe tries to help Tears get off the streets...if it's not already too late.Piper McCloud comes from a household that does what they do because doing otherwise would break tradition—they don't handle change well. When her conservative parents realize that Piper has the ability to fly, they forbid her to do it since it's just not their way of living. It's not quite so easy for Piper to give up flying, however. Once her "gift" goes public, news crews from around the world camp out in her family's fields in the Low Country. When a government agency comes to take Piper away, saying that they help all sorts of children with exceptional gifts, Piper does not realize that she will be attending a place that has harsher punishments than her parents could ever enforce—and she still isn't allowed to fly. It is in this underground clinic that Piper determines to find the truth, while helping the others, and herself, escape the evils that entrap them. This novel is an unforgettable story that will challenge many adolescents in their quest to decide between right and wrong, good and evil. The bravery and courage of Piper McCloud will give confidence to anyone, no matter how extraordinary or ordinary their gifts may be.

I've had this one on my TBR list for ages! I read a wonderful review on it on someone's blog (I'm totally sorry I follow to many on blogger and on reader to keep track of all the places I've read reviews)