A Riddle Challenge and Book Recommendation

First of all, a riddle challenge for all my smart, smart readers. Please tell me in the comments if you figure it out.
See if you can figure out what these words have in common..

1. Banana
2. Dresser
3. Grammar
4. Potato
5. Revive
6. Uneven
7. Assess
I offered this one up to my soccer carpool of 7th and 8th graders last week and one of them got it (yes, it was my own daughter--I was so proud).

Secondly, I have to tell you this story. When I got home from my trip to NYC on Sunday, it was Mother's Day, of course. I got out of the car and all my children were outside--two were lying in the hammock together, one was lying on the trampoline, and one was curled up in a chair on the porch and they were all READING A BOOK! It just made my life, and finally, after much pressure at dinner, they admitted that it was a set-up for Mother's Day. It made me laugh but I always liked that they KNOW what I want to see them doing!

Lastly, I have another book recommendation. At least 8 of you have contacted me about how much you loved STORY OF A GIRL by Sara Zarr which I recommended a couple of months back. I loved it, too, and I began to nose around about Sara Zarr. Last week I found SWEETHEARTS by Sara Zarr, and fell right in love with this one, too. This story is about a boy and girl who share a childhood bond of being outcasts at their school. They become great friends, share a traumatic experience, then the boy doesn't show up at school one day. His devastated friend hears that he's died in a horrible accident, and she returns to the lonely life of being the only outcast, ridiculed and abused by the others at school. Flash forward ten years, and armed with a new name, she has moved to a new school, is beautiful, well-liked and has a cute boyfriend on her arm, but she continues to be haunted by the outcast child inside that she considers to be the 'real' her.

Sara Zarr has mastered the art of emotional tension in the YA novel. I would highly recommend this book to YA readers and writers. I didn't want to put it down. p.s. Hope there's a sequel.

Enjoy this beautiful Tuesday. I'm counting down to my 40th this week-end.