Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Why haven’t you gotten this book yet? Oh. Right. I haven’t actually told you about it yet. Sorry, but Shiver is probably the best book I’ve read this year - and no, I don’t always say that. Stop being sarcastic.

I kept passing Shiver on a shelf at the supermarket. The cover really interested me but I was starting to feel a little lame for always choosing books because of their covers. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and on my way to the cheese aisle, I threw the book in my cart. Best grocery ever.

Shiver involves werewolves. You may love that; normally, I don’t. Werewolves, vampires. It’s getting a bit old. It’s really the main character of this book, though, that makes up for the fact that it is yet another werewolf story.

Grace Brisbane is amazing. First of all, she’s quiet. If you taught 7th grade, like I do, you’d really appreciate a quiet girl. It’s not that she’s shy or doesn’t have anything interesting to say, it’s just that she doesn’t feel the need to be yakking about nothing all the time. Next, she loves to read. Enough said. But here’s what is most awesome about Grace: as a kid, she was pulled off a tire swing in her backyard and dragged into the woods by a pack of wolves. They bit her - and she lived to talk about it. How awesome is that: bitten by a wolf? I would love to have a story like that.

Enter Sam. Do I need to explain his deal to you? In case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, the hero of these books is generally either a vampire or a werewolf. On the menu today, a werewolf. So what do you think happens? Girl-bitten-by-wolf meets boy-part-time-werewolf (he’s only a wolf in winter, hence the “shiver” in the title). I think you can figure it out.

I couldn’t put this book down. I told lots of other people to read it and they couldn’t put it down. A few of them cursed me for keeping them from doing work because they had to keep reading. Awesome.

LAME FACTOR: Did anyone guess a zero? Correct!

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Whatever happens between Grace and Sam (and I’m not telling you what that might be) is not really described in detail, so unless your parents are very sensitive, they should be OK.

BRAIN POWER: Shiver is very well-written without being overly complicated. There aren’t many big words to hurt your head.