18. The Fall: Tales from the Apocalypse, edited by Matt Sinclair
This was an entertaining anthology of stories about end-of-the-world scenarios. Some of them are unusual, such as the story of a zombie apocalypse told from the POV of BBC (Big Black Cat).
19. Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
This is one of the books assigned to kids in middle school that wasn't part of the curriculum when I was that age. I read it recently on the advice of one of my students, who checked it out and re-read it because she remembered enjoying it. She was right. This tale of survival and learning was well-written, well-researched, and overall excellent. I'd read other books by this author, but not this one. (Now I will have to check out and read the others.)
20. When Lulu was Hot: a Cajun Prequel Novel, by Sandra Hill
No one knows how old Louise Rivard, the notorious Cajun folk healer/matchmaker, really is. Nor do they know what happened to make her the way she is today, bless her bleeding heart. How did she get the name of Tante or Aunt, when she’s no aunt to any of the LeDeux clan? And what is this secret she’s hidden for more than fifty years?
This novel, set in Louisiana during World War II, tells the origin story of Tante Lulu, the elderly meddler/matchmaker of Sandra Hill's Cajun series. It tells about the great love of her life and how she came to be part of the LeDeux family. Parts are funny, parts are sad, and the ending was unexpected. My only quibble is with a bit of math -- no baby conceived in April of 1944 is going to be born in January of 1946. (That may be a typo, though -- January of 1945 is entirely believable.)
