Roomies by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando

Two girls, one on each coast, are counting down the days until they start college where they will be each other's roommate. They e-mail each other to get acquainted and share more than just who is bringing the microwave.

Elizabeth lives in New Jersey, and even though all her friends are staying in state she cannot wait to leave for California. She wants to escape her beach town life and her mom and, who knows, maybe she will even get to know her dad who left years ago to live in San Francisco.

Lauren lives in San Francisco with her parents and her five younger siblings. Even though she is just going across the bay, she worries that her parents will not be able to deal with all the children without her. She has never had room to herself, so she was disappointed when she learned that she had been assigned a roommate.

A complication neither girl foresaw happening over the summer was boys. Yes, they each start dating - if that's what it is. Who wants to get serious over a guy when you only have a few months until you both go away? Just one of the many discussions that happen between Lauren and Elizabeth who find that sharing some topics through e-mail are easier than facing them in person and are sometimes more difficult when you really don't know the other person.

Each girl's story is told in alternating chapters, but is not entirely told through e-mails. We know what is going on with each girl including what they are not sharing with each other.

For more info, check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog and Sara Zarr's site.

The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando

I was on vacation for a few weeks and did not blog anything. I did read a few books, but was not impressed enough with most of them to blog. This is the only one I blog for you.

A few weeks before high school is over, seniors in the small town of Oyster Point participate in an unofficial scavenger hunt. For Mary, it is so important to not just be a part of the hunt but to win it. She wants to prove that she can do something important before heading off to college. A big part of her motivation is to beat Jake Barbone who is not only a bully (particularly to her friend Dez) but is going to her dream college of Georgetown on an athletic scholarship while she was rejected based solely on her academic record. In her thinking, Barbone took her spot.

The scavenger hunt items are many and vary in points (with the possibility of more points for creativity). Some items the teams just have to get (like a crown from Burger King), others have to be acted out (like picture of the team with an alien), and others are clues that must be solved. It's a race against time to earn enough points to qualify for the final round. And what does the winning team get for all the trouble? Some money, but more importantly a Yeti statue that they keep until the next year's hunt.

The night is so full of hope, but quickly becomes complicated when Mary's best friend since childhood confesses his love for her and she pines over another guy who is dating one of her friends. Actually the relationship issues gets even worse, but I will leave that for the author to explain.

When I read books about teens, I often find bits of myself in the characters. I am transported back to the time when I was a teen. I never participated in anything like this scavenger hunt, but I know the emotions Mary is feeling about moving on with life and trying to hold onto the last bit of your high school before going off into 'the real world'. Ultimately, what Mary needs to find most in the hunt is herself.

For more information about this book, check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog.