Posts filed under 'Young Adult'
How far away is our society from televising survival games that culminate in the last man standing? Watch a little cable TV, and you’ll quickly realize that depravity and debauchery abounds and that sanctioned killing (voluntary of course, just sign here on the dotted line) can’t be far off. Suzanne Collins’ new novel The Hunger Games takes this premise and cuts a little deeper.
To celebrate reaping day, the twelve districts that comprise what was formerly North America must each submit a boy and girl tribute to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised survival game in which children fight to the death. Kat’s little sister’s name is drawn in the lottery and Kat volunteers to take her place in the games. At sixteen, she has been caring for her family for years, hunting game, gathering food and developing some pretty savvy survival girl skills in the forbidden woods outside the Seam, the mining district where she lives.
Kat can hold her own, but what about the boy tribute from her district? Peeta is the son of the baker and completely and secretly in love with Kat. Will this help him or hurt him? Does he have any useful skills? And what does it mean for Kat?
All I can say is, “wow.” This book is beyond beyond. The Hunger Games are outrageous. Parades, interviews, professional stylists and sponsors are involved. The contestants range from trained child soldiers to starving children from the poorest districts. Add to that multiple love stories woven into a setting where children fight to the death? You will not be able to put this book down. Absolutely, this was my favorite book of 2008. How about you?
January 6th, 2009
Molly - Central
- these are the well-known lyrics of the folk song Scarborough Fair. Nancy Werlin weaves the tasks featured in a variation of verse two of the song into the suspenseful plot of Impossible. Seventeen-year-old Lucy Scarborough must break the curse of the Elfin Knight by completing the following:
- make a magical shirt…without any seam or needlework.
- find an acre of land…between the salt water and the sea strand…
- plow it with just a goat’s horn…and sow it all over with one grain of corn…
This book is fantastical and fast-paced and impossible to put down. I am not generally a fantasy reader (I know, I know, I said the same thing about vampires), but I would say this book is primarily a romance with thrills and fantasy thrown into the mix. Lucy is a modern American teen, heading off to prom. She is also struggling with an apparent genetic tendency towards mental illness, a horrific date rape, an unexpected pregnancy and a possible family curse. If you like a story where true love battles evil and prevails against all odds, Impossible fits the bill.
This book has been garnering lots of attention and is on the YALSA 2009 Nominations list of Best Books for Young Adults. The modern-day setting serves as a great contrast to the medieval lyrics and elfin curse and is a surprising, spellbinding read. Impossible is my second favorite YA book of the year: stay tuned for my #1 read in an upcoming review.
December 29th, 2008
Molly - Central
M
ariko Tamaki’s two new graphic novels featuring arty biracial punk/Goth girls provide similar glimpses into teen angst. Both novels take place in Canada, in different decades, but could easily be set anywhere and anytime because the plots are so character driven.
Skim is generating a lot of buzz and is on the 2009 nominations list of Best Books for Young Adults from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, as well as the short list for Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards. The main character, Kimberly “Skim” Keiko Cameron is a wannabe Wicca with a classmate whose boyfriend commits suicide. Because of the suicide, the community is on alert and Kim is targeted as being “at risk” because she is a loner and wears a lot of black. While everyone is keeping an eye on Kim, the girl who really is at risk goes unnoticed.
Emiko Superstar is one of the final graphic 
novels in the much hyped but slow selling Minx series published by DC Comics. Emiko is a geek turned freak that performs on Friday nights at a performance art venue known as The Factory. Auditions for the Friday night show are judged gong style and it takes Emi weeks to get up the nerve to finally try out. She finds a stage persona by costuming herself in her grandmother’s sixties era go-go boots and Twiggy dresses and her performance material is stolen from the diary of the woman she baby-sits for. Emi achieves the stardom she yearns for, but feels that she has earned it through false pretenses.
In addition to the arty biracial punk/Goth Canadian girl main characters, the plots of both books are similar in that Kim and Emi need to reconcile who they are with who they are perceived to be. They are labeled geeks and itching to break free from their peers. Both books also deal with some heavy issues: key authority figures take advantage of teens in each novel, the girls grapple with different forms of abuse, the highs and lows of first loves and lesbian romances are explored.
The primary difference between the two books is in the artwork: Skim is more realistic, while Emiko is drawn in more of a comic book style. Both stories are compelling and I am wishing the author well during the upcoming awards season.
December 8th, 2008
Molly - Central
I’m short (5′3″ on a good day) and like many of the vertically challenged I’ve often wished I were taller. Perhaps that can explain why I’m drawn to books with tall women protagonists (and my strange obsession with America’s Next Top Model). The latest reads in my quest to live vicariously through the tall are Everything Nice by Ellen Shanman and Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker.
Michaela “Mike” Edwards is tall, gorgeous and could care less. She’s never been interested in the types of things other women in her office find so fascinating. She looks the way she looks and obsessing about it won’t make a bit of difference. Far more important to her is her job as an up-and-coming copy editor at her advertising firm. In fact just about her entire identity is wrapped up in that job. So when she is fired and realizes that her take-no-prisoners, blunt ways have made her persona non grata everywhere else, Mike is lost. After six months of unemployment and an eviction notice, Mike is forced to move back in with her father and take any job she can. The job she ends up with is teaching a life skills class to a group of twelve-year-old girls at a charter school. This being chick lit, there is the requisite guy that Mike has overlooked - and a very good guy he is. But what made this such a good read are Mike’s struggles. She is funny and often genuinely confused about people in general which makes it all the more interesting as she reclaims her life.
Equally awkward, if for very different reasons, is Violet Greenfield. Violet is seventeen and over six feet tall and about as unhappy about it as anyone who’s been called Jolly Green Giant for years can be. Until now. Now she’s confused. While working her job at the Palace Theater in Chapel Hill, NC, Violet meets New York modeling agent Angela Blythe. Angela is convinced Violet can be the next IT girl and presses her to come to New York for a trial run. Before you can say ‘you go girl’ Violet is swept up in the whirlwind life of a new model. But living the glamorous life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and Violet is torn between her runway life and the one she left behind. Sweet and painful in turns, Violet’s growing up is something anyone can relate to no matter how tall.
November 20th, 2008
Jane J. - Central Library
Quentin Jacobsen is your average teenager. Among his fellow classmates in the Orlando-area high school he attends, he pursues some usual adolescent vices and joys: hanging out by the band room, trying to convince his parents to let him use the car, trying to attain some medicoum of popularity, dreaming about the future. But in one aspect of his life, Quentin has always known that he is extraordinarily lucky: he lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.
Witty, popular, and something of a badass, Margo and Quentin were close friends before a time and life caused them to drift apart. But just before graduation, Quentin is suprised by Margo’s appearance outside his bedroom window. For one night, he joins her in a set of wild pranks as she settles scores. The following morning, Quentin hopes that there’s a chance to revive their friendship. But Margo has disappeared. At first, Quentin isn’t surprised. Margo had run away before, only to turn up without much explaination in nearby Mississippi. But as graduation approaches, Quentin grows increasingly concerned about Margo’s whereabouts, and begins to suspect the worst.
Author John Green blends mystery, road trip antics and ruminations on identity in his latest young adult title, Paper Towns. The title refers to places on a map that don’t actually exist, but are used by mapmakers for copyright reasons. Quentin learns that Margo has something of an obsession with the concept, and he tries to track down the nonexistant town where he thinks she is hiding. But as he pieces together clues, he finds that the question is not so much where Margo is, but whether he even knows who she really is. When Quentin and Co. hit the road, the action becomes an increasingly manic whirl in desperate pursuit of Margo.
Green has traveled smart boy/enigmatic girl territory before in his Printz Award-winning Looking for Alaska. What was a winning combination in that book works with a lighter tone beautifully in Paper Towns. Green has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, and his cast of characters throw off zingers with aplomb (”getting you a date to prom is so hard that the hypothetical idea itself is actually used to cut diamonds”). But under all the humor and pranks, there’s the looming question of the fate of friendships as childhood comes to a close. This is my second Green title, and I’m once again impressed by how adroitly he blends humor and wit with the sometimes painful aspects of growing up. I’m already waiting impatiently for his next title.
November 15th, 2008
Katie H.
I’m not, nor have I ever been, a teenage boy, but after reading Joanne Proulx’s novel Anthem of a Reluctant Teenage Prophet, I think I can almost imagine what it might be like. Luke Hunter considers himself the epitome of average. He doesn’t think he’s particularly smart, funny, or good-looking, and he spends most of his free time in the basement hanging out with his stoner friends. One night, when he has a vision of a his good friend Stan becoming the victim of a car/skateboard accident, his life is suddenly not so ordinary. He shares this experience with his friends, but he assumes it’s some sort of strange hallucination; he doesn’t think he’s developed any kind of psychic power, until the accident actually happens, exactly as he sees it - and so do others.
This is an utterly engrossing novel that impressively manages to be universal and relatable, despite the far-fetched plot. Though Luke’s situation isn’t something every teen faces he does deal with the familiar - namely, problems with girls, friendships, school, and family. The wry honesty with which he deals with his thoughts and feelings is refreshing and funny, even when dealing with subjects as dark as death. Proulx does an excellent job foretelling the consequences of Luke’s reactions to his premonitions. She really made me care about this lost but good-hearted kid. And I have to say, I’ve always wondered what goes on in those basements full of teenage boys…
November 11th, 2008
Kylee
When No One Understands : Letters to a Teenager on Life, Loss, and the Hard Road to Adulthood presents psychologist Brad Sach’s efforts to reach an uncommunicative teen who recently attempted suicide. After his client remained mute during their first therapy session together he decided to try corresponding with her. She responded and, even though she eventually began verbalizing during their face-to-face encounters, their correspondence therapy continued.
Each chapter takes the form of a letter that responds to an opening question in the form of a chapter title. Individual chapters deal with parents, siblings, loneliness, self-mutilation, drugs and alcohol, sex, grief, death, and the future, so there’s quite a lot of information being dispensed. Most of the chapters are fairly short and, while not superficial, deal with issues on a level that a teen can relate and respond to. There’s even a happy ending. Additional sections at the end of the book are addressed to teens, parents, and other therapists, explaining the author’s intentions and offering suggestions for readers in each of the groups.
I should note that the young woman’s letter’s were not included, just Dr. Sach’s responses, and he makes clear that his letters have been edited for clarity, so his responses lay out the problem of the week in context before he begins his response and suggests an interpretation of the situation. And, really, his responses and interpretations seem almost too good at times. It’s easy to see where those stories of people falling in love with their therapists come from. My one area of discomfort with this work is that each chapter includes a farewell signature such as “With respect for your courage” or “With appreciation for your patience” or “With respect for your struggles.” It’s a little cloying for my taste, but that’s just me.
That reservation aside, it’s an extremely accessible and valuable examination of that painful transitional period between childhood and adulthood and worthwhile reading for teens and people who care about them.
Also available in a Spanish language version.
October 31st, 2008
Dennis - Central
I’m not generally a reader of graphic novels, though my associate at work is always trying to change that. However, I am a fan of the author Shannon Hale. So when a new book came across the desk by her I decided to take a look at it even though it was a graphic novel. Hale takes classic stories and themes in her books The Princess Academy and The Goose Girl, shakes them up, turns them sideways or upside down in order to look at the reality behind the fairy tale. And that is true also in this new book, Rapunzel’s Revenge.
In Rapunzel’s Revenge Hale’s strong narrative style plus the wonderfully balanced use of humor to engage the reader, which I enjoy most in her books, is very evident. But in a way, it is the wonderful graphic story by Nathan Hale (no relation) which really ties the tale together. It’s all very well to say that Rapunzel has very long hair, but seeing it braided and used to lasso a wild pig, or to whip a gun out of an outlaw’s hand is unreal but great. And setting the story in the wild, wild west is another winner. Get this book and read it!
October 28th, 2008
Liz C. - Alicia Ashman
I read Beth Kanell’s debut YA historical fiction book The Darkness Under the Water. Why re-read good old Judy? Both Blume and Kanell will be part of this week’s Wisconsin Book Festival and I intend to see them both speak.
Many people associate Vermont with pleasant outdoor vacations and tubs of Ben and Jerry’s, but Kanell’s book introduces us to a time in Vermont’s past that wasn’t so idyllic. An unsettling part of our U.S. history, the eugenics movement, is fictionalized in The Darkness and will show young readers how an attempt at social Darwinism shaped a young girl’s town and life during the early years of the Depression.
Molly Ballou is part French-Canadian and part Native American (Abenaki tribe) and this poor, ethnically diverse teenager’s life is turned upside down when multiple tragedies define the summer she turns sixteen. Not only have state nurses come to town to evaluate children, but Waterford, VT is also dealing with a logging industry that is changing the river environment and beautiful Vermont landscape around them. On top of this, Molly is haunted by the ghost of her little sister Gratia who died years ago in a river accident, which lends a spiritual twist to this debut novel.
Much of the book is standard YA material; family tragedies, opposite sex relationships and lots of challenging life lessons to show you are ready for adulthood. Kanell’s book goes beyond this standard fare by also adding historical context throughout Molly’s story. My favorite history reference was when young Molly goes into the library and the librarian has the “new” Nancy Drew set aside for her. There was also a scene where Molly attends a dance for the first time and sees other young people trying out the new Charleston dance step. These historical tidbits were nice touches and made the book seem realistic. There were some parts to the story though where the narrator’s voice sounded alittle stiff and the ending seemed contrived, but overall this was a good YA debut for Kanell.
Besides a graphic home-birthing scene, the content of The Darkness is pretty non-violent and would be a good choice for fifth and sixth grade readers that have enjoyed the Dear America or Little House series. The book also touches on some important issues about race and families that would be great starting points for some mature conversations, ones that Judy Blume books were starting twenty years ago. Go ahead read Are you there God, It’s Me Margaret it will be bring back some memories and you will be amazed at how well Blume, the original YA guru, gets it done. See you at the Book Festival!
October 14th, 2008
Katharine
A young life, full of promise, ended much too soon. By suicide. Teen suicide. In the United States it’s the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24. A fact that makes it a topic worth exploring. Something Jay Asher does so painfully and honestly in Thirteen Reasons Why.
High school student Hannah Baker is bright, attractive, someone you’d like to be around. Only she’s not there anymore. Though Hannah is gone, she’s left behind a little going-away present for some of those she’s left behind. A set of cassette tapes naming thirteen people who, in Hannah’s mind, played a part in her decision to end her life. Her tapes are heard by Clay, one of the thirteen people, who receives the tapes in the mail unexpectedly, and spends a torturous night listening to her voice and visiting places in their town where significant (to Hannah) events had transpired. Part of his motivation in listening to the tapes is fear, maybe shame? If he doesn’t listen to the tapes, then send them all on to the person whose “story” follows his, Hannah has arranged for another set of the tapes to be made public. Clay is also motivated to find out why Hannah feels he’s partly responsible for her decision to kill herself.
This was a pretty painful book to read. I kept having to put it down and go back to it later because it was just too much negativity to take in one sitting. Because Hannah’s tape recordings have turned her from an undeserving victim to a pitiless avenger, plotting cruel revenge, even at the cost of her life. And that’s much too high a price to pay.
There’s no question Hannah went through some pretty torturous stuff after transferring to her new school. Being the new kid is never easy. But telling her story in this manner can no longer save her. It can only hurt others. Her story is no longer a tragedy, it’s a revenge fantasy. And it’s a horrible thing she does to herself and to the others in her tragic tale, however deserving of blame they may be. Clay is also a victim here. His perspective of events is often at odds with what Hannah is relating. But he’ll get to find out something than Hannah will never know– that high school is something you can survive.
Also available on compact disc and as a downloadable audio file.
September 22nd, 2008
Dennis - Central
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