School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

Madeleine is terrified of all insects, spiders, ect. Lulu is claustrophobic. Garrison is petrified of deep water. Theo is scared of dying. But they all have something in common. They will go to the School of Fear over summer break. The School of Fear is an exclusive and elusive school that rids kids of their fears. And now these four kids will be rid of theirs. Things That I Liked: It had an interesting plot filled with twists and turns and I thought that MOST of characters were well thought out defined. Things I Didn't Like: MOST of the characters were well explained. It might just have been my copy but it felt like a part of the book was missing. I found myself looking back for information on a character called Abernathy, trying to see if someone ripped the pages out. It seems as if Daneshvari added information on him whenever necessary. Lulu sees Abernathy spying on them and instantly recognizes him because she had already seen him spying on them before then. It hadn't mentioned Abernathy spying on them before then. That's pretty important information. She also wouldn't have known it was Abernathy because no one told her what he looks like. She didn't even know who he was! She had gone to bed by the time they started talking about him. All in All: I adored the book. I would give it 5 out of 5 stars if that detail had been clarified. But it isn't so I would give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald

This is an interesting book about a girl who's family owns a pharmacy that is slowly going bankrupt. She creates a makeup business at the back of the pharmacy to try to save it. When the makeup business shows potential, it's up to her and her friends to try to convince her spacey mom and stubborn grandmother to help. Things That I liked: This was something that I normally wouldn't even look at. It looked like something that was dying to be made into a chick flick. But surprisingly it was okay. The writing style drew you in and the characters had some personality. Things I didn't Like: The adult figures in this book were a little flat. Some of their decisions didn't quite make sense. And this girl finds herself falling in love with her best friends brother. Greenwald spends a lot of pages talking about how disgusting he is. And by the end they are totally in love but the guy is still disgusting and the girl is still the same. None of the characters really progressed. They built the book's ending up and then it fell short of expectations. All in all just an okay book. I'd give it 2 out of 5 stars.