"Lily B. on the Brink of Cool- 1"

I decided to stop reading "Rules" by Cynthia Lord, and picked up the book "Lily B. on the Brink of Cool" by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. Lily Blennerhasset is an aspiring writer and writes in her summer journal/notebook, which she claims is the "notebook of soon-to-be internationally recognized Lily Blennerhasset". She loves writing, and says she is "recording her life for the benefit of future scholars devoting their professional lives to her Collected Works and for the benefit of readers, writers, and all who Seek the Truth." (It also counts as a summer project for Advanced English, she tells us.) Anyways, Lily B. is POSITIVE that her life could not be ANY more boring. She says her Dad never drives past the speed limit and her mother makes the beds... in hotels! Lily's mom tells Lily, "I can't think clearly with the beds unmade." As you can see, her family is pretty crazy. Lily is sure her summer will be terrible.

But then at her cousin Delia's wedding, she meets Charles, Veronique, and Karma LeBlanc. Lily is stunned when she finds out that they are related to her family. They are tan, beautiful, and gorgeous. And, lucky for Lily, Karma is her age! The LeBlancs add adventure to Lily B's life. They take her midnight swimming, and whenever she's with them, she feels noticed. She soon finds out that they are moving to where the Blennerhasset family lives. She is ecstatic. Well, that's all for right now! Stay tuned to see what happens!

"Bollywood Babes"

Yesterday, I picked up the book "Bollywood Babes" by Narinder Dhami. This book is a sequel to "Bindi Babes" which I read last year. I really liked Bindi Babes, and saw this one in the library and decided to try it. In Bindi Babes, the three sisters meddle in their evil aunts life and try to get her married off. Their mother died a year or two ago, and their father is a workaholic. So, their "Auntie" came down from India to set the girls straight. What she did though, was meddle in their lives and was way to strict. The girls did not like this. So far, I'm only on page 15. But I think I should explain some of the characters: The main characters are sisters. Jazz, Amber, and Geena. Amber narrates the story.

Jazz: Jazz is the youngest out of the sisters, and quite the whiner. Where I left off, she was currently limping with her sisters to the front office, to go to the nurse, because she "hurt her ankle".
Amber: Amber is the narrator of the story, and also the middle sister. Amber is the one who started the plan to try to get "Auntie" married off last year. She is also the one who is trying to get Auntie married off once again! The girls have a "dashing teacher", Mr. Arora, who is Amber's teacher at their school. They dream of getting him married off to Auntie...but could that dream ever come true?
Geena: Geena is the oldest out of the sisters, and is the most "mature". She always tries her hardest to stop her two other sisters from interfering in other people's lives, but somehow, that just makes her that much more involved!

Hopefully, I'll finish this book soon, and get to tell you how it ends!

"Lily B. on the Brink of Cool-2"

When they come home from the wedding, Lily is grounded because of her late night swimming with the LeBlancs. Lily is starting to realize that her parents don't like the Charles, Veronique and Karma very much. But after Lily is free from being grounded, Karma calls her. She tells her that they have started a save-the-environment business right down the street and that Lily should visit! Of course, even though Lily knows her parents wouldn't like it, she goes to visit the LeBlancs at their "Hug the Planet" office. When Karma and Lily are at the grocery store together to get picnic supplies, the Hug the Planet credit card is denied and Karma makes Lily pay with her EMERGENCY credit card from Lily's parents. Lily is starting to feel suspicious, but never shows it.

Soon, the LeBlancs bring up that their house is going to go for testing and that oh how they wish they had a place to stay. Lily, without thinking, lets them use the Blennerhassets lake house. Charles hesitates, but finally agrees. Lily decides to keep them staying at the lake house a secret. A couple weeks after the LeBlancs get settled into the Blennerhasset lake house, Lily decides to visit them to see how they are doing. She tells her parents she's staying at Charlotte's, but doesn't tell Charlotte. When Lily gets to the lake house, Karma comes down and tells her she's been working on the bathroom. Lily ponders this for a second, but soon forgets it. Charles tells Lily that because her parents don't know that the LeBlancs are staying at the lake house, she can only stay for one night. Of course, her parents find out that she's not at Charlotte's, and call the police. By the time Lily gets home, Charlotte, Charlotte's family and Lily's family are all worried sick! Lily gets into HUGE trouble, again, and is grounded... again. What will happen? Stay tuned!

"Rules" By Cynthia Lord

I recently started reading "Rules" by Cynthia Lord. The book is about a 12 year old girl, Catherine, and her autistic little brother, David. Catherine rights rules for David on how to act. An example is, "Sometimes people laugh when they like you. But sometimes they laugh to hurt you." Sometimes the rules can be very harsh, and as I read through more of the book, I'm starting to notice how self-conscious Catherine is.

There's a new family moving in next-door to Catherine and David's family, and Catherine is very exited because apparently there is a girl her age moving in. I just read where the new family gets out of their car, and suddenly, Catherine becomes super self-conscious of herself and especially David. It got me thinking, but don't we all do this? And then, why do we do this?