Kissing Tennessee: And Other Stories from the Stardust Dance

Rating:
Summary: Try It
Review: The book I am reading is Kissing Tennessee by Kathi Appelt.
My knowledge about this book is very good I like the way they set the plot and everything, especially in the chapter, Rachel Sister.
In this chapter it shows how a father of a family did not want there kids to do certain things like their daughter, she could not wear any makeup or put any stylish stuff in her hair.
In this book the Author used Mood,plot and Setting.
I thought that Book's was a very good, because it talk about everything, it don't actually talk about kissing and stuff like that. It mostly talk about how teenagers live and what they do when they go some place and what they do when hanging out with each other. Well, a lot of people think this book is about people doing stuff in their relationship, because of the cover, but that's not true. I think that everybody should take their chance to read this book because it's actually a very good.

Rating:
Summary: Remember your first dance?
Review: The first page issues the invite, but it is Appelt's evocative poem "Invitation" that sets the stage and brings the reader right back to his or her first dance. Through the characters, we relive the whole melodrama: the anticipation of kisses-not-given, the ecstasy of being asked to dance (and the anguish of asking), the magic that makes you see your best friend in a whole new light, crushes of one kind or another, and the disagreements with parents over what to wear from shoes to ribbons and lipstick. Appelt intersperses the heavier side of junior high life: one boy is feeling the heartache of missing one who should be there, but isn't, and one girl comes from an abusive home. In one story eerily similar to <I>Speak</I> by Laurie Halse Anderson, a young woman is hiding out in the ladies room, scratching a list on the stall as she copes with the horror of having just been raped by a football star she snuck out with. A closing poem, "Midnight" reveals the lingering essence of magic that the night custodian clears away until next year. This is a beautifully written book that includes different and distinct voices and universal experiences juxaposed with unique, but no less real, situations. Highly recommended .

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, heart-rending stories
Review: What a powerful collection of stories, full of teenage drama and lyrical language and plot moves that left me breathless. Many of the stories are sad, but many adolescent lives are sad. Mine was full of angst, and I would have loved this book when I was that age. For that matter, I loved it now.

Rating:
Summary: "I Remember When..."
Review: When I read KISSING TENNESSEE--even though I'm way past those puberty years--I was swept back to my own growing-up days: the angst, the excitement, the anticipation, the cattiness, the hopes, the fun. Kathi Appelt continues her award-winning writer's ways with this book. I want every parent I know who has pre-teens and young teens to read it; but I'm sure they will have to take it out of the hands of their children who won't put it down until they have gulped it up from start to finish.