title: Elena Vanishing: A Memoir
author:  Elena Dunkle 
description: Gr 9 UpThis poignant memoir, cowritten by Elena Dunkle and her mother, Clare, describes the young woman's battle with anorexia, which spanned several years. Opening just before her senior year of high school, Elena relates her experiences in and out of treatment facilities in often stark detail. A rigidly self-disciplined overachiever, the author is critical, both of herself and those around her, and some readers may find her overly judgmental. Because the book only focuses on several periods when she relapsed, it often leaps forward several years, giving it a disjointed feel, and many figures in Elena's life are underdeveloped. However, this young author displays promise. Written in the present tense, her narrative presents an almost frantic sense of immediacy that is well suited to the subject matter, as Elena describes difficult therapy sessions, her sometimes strained but always loving relationship with her mother, friendships with other patients, and events in her life that contributed to her disorder. Her angry, self-critical inner monologue ("The feeding pump is swelling you up. You're not anorexic! Who do you think you're fooling?") effectively conveys her skewed perspective in a manner similar to Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls (Viking, 2009). Fans of that title and Alyssa B. Sheinmel's Stone Girl (Knopf, 2012) will appreciate this painfully honest look at a young woman's struggle. VERDICT A solid addition to memoir collections.Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal
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  **DARK**
  
  
  **REUNION**
  
  
  **The Vampire Diaries Book 4**
  
  
  **By**
  
  
  **L. J. Smith**
  
  
  [ _**One**_ ****](��)
  
  
  "Things can be just like they were before,"
  
  
  said Caroline warmly, reaching out to squeeze Bonnie's hand.
  
  
  But it wasn't true. Nothing could ever be the way it had been before Elena
  died. Nothing. And Bonnie had serious misgivings about this party Caroline was
  trying to set up. A vague nagging in the pit of her stomach told her that for
  some reason it was a very, very bad idea.
  
  
  "Meredith's birthday is already _over,"_ she pointed out. "It was last
  Saturday."
  
  
  "But she didn't have a party, not a real party like this one. We've got all
  night; my parents won't be back until Sunday morning. Come on, Bonnie—just
  think how surprised she'll be."
  
  
  Oh, she'll be surprised, all right, thought Bonnie. So surprised she just
  might kill me afterward. "Look, Caroline, the reason Meredith didn't have a
  big party is that she still doesn't feel much like celebrating. It se