A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.

A young American Jew, who shares a name with the author, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather's life during the Nazi liquidation of Trachimbrod, his family shtetl. Armed with many copies of an old photograph of Augustine and his grandfather, maps, cigarettes, Jonathan begins his adventure with Ukrainian native and soon-to-be good friend, Alexander "Alex" Perchov, who is his own age and very fond of American pop culture, albeit culture that is already out of date in the U.S. Alex has studied English at his university and is "premium" in his knowledge of the language, therefore he becomes the translator. Alex's "blind" grandfather and his "deranged seeing-eye bitch," Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., accompany them on their journey. These three parts tie together in the end of the story. Throughout the book, the meaning of love is deeply examined.

The Washington Post says Everything is Illuminated "is madly complex, at times confusing, overlapping, unforgiving. But read it, and you'll feel altered, chastened -- seared in the fire of something new."

 

 

We never learn her name. She's 15, the daughter of a college professor. She's given LSD at a party and loves it. She dives into the drug world, and soon begins selling to children to pay for her own drugs. She runs away and is again drawn into drugs. She returns home determined to stay clean, but takes drugs one night and hitchhikes to Colorado.

She drifts, sick and in a stoned fog for months, trading sex for drugs. A priest calls her parents and she returns home again, but the druggie students at her school torment her. One puts LSD into some candy and she has a horribly bad trip, ending up imprisoned in a mental hospital. Home again with no desire to return to drugs, she feels hopeful, but fears returning to school. Three weeks after ending her diary she dies of an overdose.

"My mind possessed the wisdoms of the ages, and there were no words adequate to describe them."

Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

"I look for the shapes in my face. Could I put a face in my tree,....."

Kristina has always been a good girl, until the summer before her senior year of high school, when her life changes forever. While visiting her long lost father, Kristina takes on the persona of Bree. Bree is everything Kristina is not – wild, flirty, bold. Bree quickly gets caught up in a world of parties and romance, and begins doing crystal meth, otherwise known as crank. Even after she returns home to the quiet suburbs, Kristina/Bree continues on her downward spiral into addiction. Author Ellen Hopkins’ use of free verse poetry pushes the plot forward, creating a sense of urgency that mirrors Kristina’s growing need for crank. Crank is an emotional page-turner that is, frighteningly, all too realistic.

 "Alone,

         there is only one person inside.

                            I’ve grown to like her better
                                                than the stuck up husk of me."