Happy Father's Day! We decided to celebrate Gramma's and Grampa's Days since we now have little grandkids. One of them will be here on Weds. and the other in August. We decided we are really are getting old because Dave Mason looks like an old guy on the DVD I gave Steve. :-)

A box of Simon & Schuster books came in yesterday and it felt like Christmas. The first one I grabbed to read is Sandpiper by Ellen Wittlinger. She is one of my favorite YA authors as Ellen writes it like it is - she doesn't pull any punches about what teens are like. My favorites are Hard Love and Leo and Bree. She certainly doesn't pull any punches in Sandpiper. She addresses an issue that we are all concerned about with today's teens - their views of oral sex as not really being sex at all. Girls "hook up" as they call it with guys they aren't even that crazy about just for the attention. This is the case with Sandpiper. She and her girlfriends learned this was a way to get guys when they were in 8th grade. The other two girls have moved on to "real" relationships with guys but Sandpiper is still hooking up, over 10 guys by her sophomore year, and is considered a slut by most teens in their small town. Knowing she needs to stop this self destructive behavior Sandpiper has sworn off guys, much to Derek's frustration. Derek's anger turns to stalking and threats toward Sandpiper's 13-year-old sister Daisy. Knowing she can't talk to her about to be remarried mother or her womanizer father about what is going on, she turns to the loner who the town has taken to called the Walker since no one knows who he is. The two teens are together when Derek decides it is time to give Sandpiper what she deserves. Every teenager girl ages 12 and up should read this book but due to the subject matter I am sure there will be libraries that will choose not to include it in their collections. What a lose if that is the case. Wittlinger has cut to the chase and told the story of a teenager girl who has gotten herself in over her head.