Acampora, Paul Defining Dulcie Nice ideas but a bit thin. Dulcie’s janitor father died in a freak accident involving cleaning products; now she’s working at the school, living with her grandpa, mad at her mom for moving to CA, and befriending a girl who’s mom abuses her.
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia Demon In My View Written by a 15-year-old goth girl, and feels like it, but still pretty inventive vampire story.
Cohn, Rachel & David Levithan Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist Totally great punk NY 18-year-old lust and love story, insecurities, joyful discoveries, snappy badass dialogue, loud music and all.
Douglas, Lola True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet Teen movie star Morgan Carter retreats to Fort Wayne, IN, to attend H.S. anonymously after months of rehab. Things get complicated (duh) but most characters are believably complex, Morgan (aka Claudia) doesn’t become angelic, and the story is totally fun.
Gardner, Sally I, Coriander In 17th century London, Coriander lives a charmed life as the daughter of a wealthy merchant and his beloved wife (of fairy blood). Their fortunes turn several times against the backdrop of Cromwell’s London. The voice is solid and lyrical, and the storytelling is very good in the family but drops the ball in the hazy fairyland and especially when she falls in love with the beleaguered fairy knight for absolutely no reason and in about a paragraph.
Going, K.L. Saint Iggy Remarkable voice. Iggy has a crappy life—drugged out parents (mom on meth and currently missing); fighting and failing school; dangerous (and totally inadequate) public housing; his only advocate a drop-out law student whiny stoner rich kid. Iggy’s trying to do good so he can get his life back on track, but the circumstances of poverty and drug culture conspire against him. Tragic. Highly discussable.
Green, John An Abundance of Katherines Just terrific. Witty, warm, thoughtful, with beautifully rendered characters. “Having been recently dumped [by his 19th] Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend [a smart, funny Muslim kid named Hassan] to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships."
Headley, Justina Chen Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) Okay but overwritten novel about a half-Chinese, half-white high school girl whose demanding single (Taiwanese) mother sends her to math camp. All about learning biracial girl pride.
Hooper, Mary The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose Great flavor of 17th-century London. Eliza has been kicked out of her house by her stepmother for being a “cuckoo in the nest”; she goes to London to try to find her father, goes hungry, steals a pasty, and ends up in the Clink, where the story starts. It’s not long before she’s taken in by a procurer of bawds, rescued by Nell (aspiring to be Charles II’s mistress), working in the theater, and befriending a highwayman. Convincing full sensory descriptions of the time and place, plus rich characters with mores quite different from those of today.
Howe, James The Misfits Excellent story of 4 smart, interesting, not “in” kids in middle school twho invent a new political party: The No-Name Party, to put the kibosh on name-calling. Bobby (narrator) happens to be fat, Joe is gay, Addie is too tall and outspoken and political, and Skeezie is sort of a 50’s greaser. All feel very real, as do supporting characters of teachers and principal and Bobby’s dad.
Howe, James Totally Joe Sweet middle school story of a gay boy and his good friends and nice family. Gimmick is he’s writing his “alphabiography” for class (each chapter about a different letter).
Jones, Diana Wynne The Pinhoe Egg Vintage DWJ. Totally fun.
Koertge, Ron Boy Girl Boy 3 friends grow apart during senior year, but they might run off to California together anyway, who knows?
Knox, Elizabeth Dreamhunter Very unusual flavor. “In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission.” First of a “duet.”
Koja, Kathe Buddha Boy Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Koja, Kathe Talk Hoping to escape from himself for awhile, Kit auditions for a controversial school play and discovers his talent for acting, struggles with coming out, and both he and his costar face crises in their view of themselves and in their close relationships. Told from two points of view.
Langrish, Katherine Troll Fell When 12-year-old Peter’s father dies, he is snatched up by his diabolical, identical-twin uncles and brought to live in their dismal mill, where he tries to find a way to stop their plan to sell the him and a neighbor girl to the trolls. Very atmospheric—Norse villages in the cold lonely mountains. Good.
Langrish, Katherine Troll Mill 3 years later. In the first few pages Bjorn’s wild-eyed wife Kersten hands off her baby to Peer and flings herself—wearing her sealskin—into the sea. Bjorn is wild with grief, Peer’s angry that Bjorn would—did he really?—imprison a selkie woman, and meanwhile, ominous things are afoot at night with the mill. Eerie, fast-paced, tangibly atmospheric, with a loving family and friends at the heart of it all.
Larochelle, David Absolutely, Positively Not “Chronicles a teenage boy's humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, "Playboy" pinup-displaying heterosexual.” Totally sweet coming out (to self and family) story.
Leavitt, Martine Keturah and Lord Death “When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.” Stylized but with a surprising ending.
Les Becquets, Diane Love, Cajun Style One hot Louisiana summer Lucy, 17, follows the mysterious love lives of her mother (and, she hopes, her father), Tante Pearl, and two best friends, while falling for the nice new boy and having the moves put on her by the new drama teacher. Good.
Lockhart, E. Fly On the Wall: how one girl saw everything Gretchen Yee, a student at the ManhattanSchool for Art and Music, doesn’t get boys. Then she wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room... Smart writing, idiosyncratic, complex characters. Good!
McGowan, Anthony Hellbent Witty in a scatological, adolescent British boy way. Conor is run over by an ice cream truck and he’s now in a corner of Hell specifically designed for his maximum torture. I only read the first 35 pages.
Medley, Linda Castle Waiting: Volume One: The Lucky Road ygn MEDLEY Strange, engrossing, intimate fairy story of some of those background fairytale characters. Jain, pregnant, flees her nasty husband and takes refuge in the isolated Castle Waiting, where she makes friends with the quirky denizens, who are excited to welcome a baby into their midst.
Moriarty, Jaclyn The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie
Oppel, Kenneth Skybreaker Excellent swashbuckling. Ghost ship in the sky. Pirates. Icy corpses. Giant electrifying air jellyfish. Derring-do.
Paulsen, Gary Hatchet
Paulsen, Gary Brian’s Winter
Paulsen, Gary The River
Perkins, Lynne Rae Criss Cross Excellent. 1960s. Small town. Various POV. Young teens figuring out themselves and wishing for love.
Portman, Frank King Dork The Catcher Cult, hilarious imaginary bands, the powers of mispronunciation, dead-on descriptions of the hell that is high school. Tom (main character, king dork himself) derides Catcher in the Rye while actually following in its narrative tradition. Clever.
Sheth, Kashmira Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet Jeeta, 16, lives with family in Mumbai, India. Mom values tradition and is busy marrying off her 2 oldest daughters via arranged marriage. Jeeta and her friend Sarina are more modern in their views, and J tries to sort out respect for family and being true to herself, while watching her sisters’ disparate fortunes in marriage.
Soto, Gary Accidental Love Boring – only read half.
Stroud, Jonathan Ptolemy’s Gate Bartimaeus #3. Good. Surprising ending.
Waite, Judy Forbidden Elinor is lucky, so lucky. That’s what she and other members of the cult True Cause repeat to themselves over and over as they live in sheds at the foot of their Master Howard’s mansion. Elinor is slated to become a Bride of Howard, but faint memories of another life tug at her, and then there’s that boy she saw in town…
Westerfeld, Scott Uglies SF tale in which future generations have decided people will treat one another fairly only if everyone looks the same, within genetically defined parameters of what we all think is “pretty” (young and healthy looking). Everyone has an operation at 16 to go from “ugly” (normal adolescent) to “pretty.” Spunky heroine is Tally who (like everyone) can’t wait to be a pretty, even after she meets Shay who knows of rumors of an “ugly” resistance out in the hills… (the Smoke, because they have to burn trees for fuel, which seems shocking). Lots of hoverboarding (a descendant of skateboarding).
Westerfeld, Scott Pretties 2nd in SF series. Tally agrees to have the surgery to turn pretty so as to be the guinea pig for the new cure (turns out turning “pretty” also means having your brain altered toward compliance). But now she’s a pretty and doesn’t remember much about her old life… More desperate adventure.
Westerfeld, Scott Specials 3rd in SF series. Tally’s been captured and turned into a “Special Circumstances” operative—basically a surgically enhanced psychotic killing machine. Boyfriend Zane now looks week and pitiful to her. She and Shay (also now a special) have an assignment: track down the Smokies (the wild-living resistance) and bring them in for bubblehead (pretty) surgery. But what if the Smokies now have their own city? Cities don’t mess with each other…do they? And surgically changed people can’t rewire their own brains… can they? Very good, and rather raw.
Westerfeld, Scott Peeps Very booktalkable vampire story positing that vampirism is caused by a parasite (those afflicted are “parasite positive” or “peeps”). Narrator Cal, 19, was infected but turned out to be the 1 in 100 who is a carrier, developing plenty of hyped senses and abilities but not afflicted with cannibalism, antipathy to things he previously loved (“anathema” - for example, to the sun) or insanity. On the other hand, he can’t kiss anyone ever again, because the parasite is easily transmitted by saliva – and the parasite, wanting to be spread, causes him to REALLY WANT to kiss someone… Short, even-numbered chapters discuss plenty of other disgusting (real) parasites and tie them in with the story. Particularly booktalkable is Ch. 22, “Snakes on a Stick,” p.276.
Yolen, Jane Pay the Piper: a rock’n’roll fairy tale Cardboard-ish retelling of Pied Piper as an exiled Faerie prince. (Authored with her son Adam Stemple)
Zusak, Marcus The Book Thief Amazing storytelling and writing style but I couldn’t finish it because I got too stressed out about all the terrible things that happen in the small German town as Liesel’s foster family hides a starving Jew in the basement. Wonderfully narrated by Death. I stopped on p. 336.
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