"To find out what a story's really about,' the Librarian said,

'you don't ask the writer. You ask the reader."


- SNOW & ROSE by Emily Winfield Martin


Friday, July 6, 2012

A "Nobel Beehive Award" Review: Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti

by Susane Colasanti 
Release Date: May 31st, 2012
Format: Hardcover 
Publisher: Viking Juvenile (Penguin) 
Genre: YA Contemporary

SUMMARY 
(from Goodreads)

A romantic and empowering book about bullying.

Noelle's life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.

MY REVIEW 

Such a strong and empowering little book. Keep Holding On is a story that was written from the heart and should be on ever tween and teen's mandatory to-be-read pile!

Keep Holding On is about Noelle, a teen who is being neglected by her mother and bullied at school in addition to going through the normal ups and downs of a regular teen -
self doubt, insecurities and pride.
She doubts that she is able to stop the things that continue to happen to her.
Without any encouragement from anyone in her life, she has no idea as to what she is capable of.
Noelle also doesn't like to take charity from anyone when she feels that it wouldn't be necessary if things in her life were normal aka her mother would step up and make the right choices.
 She doesn't allow herself to hope that she is worthy of more.
Until something happens to one of her fellow classmates that forces her to question herself and finally realize that she is more than capable of taking matters into her own hands.

Keep Holding On is encouraging and reminds all of us, no matter the age, that we are not alone and that we should always hold on, no matter what.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Susane Colasanti 

Susane Colasanti is the author of When It HappensTake Me ThereWaiting for You,Something Like Fate, and So Much Closer
She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from New York University. 
Before becoming a full-time author, Susane was a high school science teacher for almost ten years. 
As a teenage Jersey girl, she felt like her true home was across the water in New York City. She now lives in the West Village. 






4 comments:

  1. This sounds cuteness!!!!! :-))

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  2. This looks like a real heart-warming book! I must add it to my TBR! Thanks for posting! :)

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  3. Sounds great! Running to put this on my TBR list.

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  4. Oh, Margie! This book sounds so good. I don't own it, but you may have just caused me to break my book-buying-ban. :) I love that you included the youtube clip too - I always love hearing why authors write what they write. It's the story behind the story.

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