An Enjoyable Rash?

My skin's a little itchy from all the dry, cold weather lately and the chemicals in the swimming pool, but I don't actually have a rash. I did enjoy reading Pete Hautman's book Rash quite a bit, though. In fact, it won the Kansas City area mock Printz award in early January. It didn't win any actual awards, but it was good enough that the librarians in the area picked it as the best book of the year. No fire-breathing dragons in this one, but there are man-eating bears. And a society in which you can get sent to jail for hurting someone's feelings. It's got a really interesting look at the direction our society could be heading, a gripping story, and football. Drop by to pick up a copy if you haven't already. We meet to discuss it in eleven days. See you then.

(On a completely unrelated note, I recently read The Burning Bridge, the second book in the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan that we started with The Ruins of Gorlan. The characters are old enough now that they're out in the world doing things instead of stuck in school. It's got much more action, yet we have the depth of character development from the first book. I recommend giving it a try if you like the first one at all.)