As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth

"Your threshold of what makes 'strange' is raised way up for a while."

Hmmm, how to categorize this book!?!  I think adventurous, bizarre, mystery about sums it up.  Ry thought he was going to summer camp, but instead he ends up on a strange adventure with a friend/poet.  This is the type of book where you have no idea what to expect next or where it will end up.  I'm not sure how realistic it was for Ry to go that long without his parents being really worried, but it COULD happen and made for a very extraordinary story. I think that this book might not be serious enough for Newbery judges, but I could be surprised.

Rating: *****

Criss Cross

This is another "growing up" story. But, I liked it enought to wish I could stay around to hear more about the characters lives after the book ended. More than the characters the best part of this book was the words that the author uses. If you are a person who loves words (and learning new ones) this is the book for you.