Teen

2014 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten Nominees

| Tasha

YALSA has announced the 25 titles nominated for the Teens’ Top Ten.  Teens are encouraged to read the nominees before they vote, which starts on August 15 and goes through Teen Read Week ending on October 18. 

Here are the 25 nominees:

The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave, #1) Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Between, #1) The Clockwork Scarab (Stoker & Holmes, #1)

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tucholke

The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

Earth Girl (Earth Girl, #1) Eleanor & Park The Eye of Minds (The Mortality Doctrine, #1)

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die In the Shadow of Blackbirds Love in the Time of Global Warming (Love in the Time of Global Warming, #1)

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block

Maybe I Will A Midsummer Night's Scream Sky on Fire (Monument 14, #2) 

Maybe I Will by Laurie Gray

A Midsummer Night’s Scream by R. L. Stine

Monument 14: Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne

The Nightmare Affair (The Arkwell Academy, #1) Of Triton (The Syrena Legacy, #2) Openly Straight 

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

Of Triton by Anna Banks

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

The Rithmatist (Rithmatist, #1) Siege and Storm (The Grisha, #2) Six Months Later 

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards

Splintered (Splintered, #1) Steelheart (Reckoners, #1) Teardrop (Teardrop, #1)

Splintered by A. G. Howard

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Teardrop by Lauren Kate

The Testing (The Testing, #1) This is What Happy Looks Like

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

This Song Will Save Your Life Winger (Winger, #1)

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Winger by Andrew Smith

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

| Tasha

we were liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Cady has been spending her summers on the family’s private island for her entire life.  She and her two cousins Johnny and Mirren were joined by Gat, a boy who became almost a cousin but also so much more for Cady.  The foursome call themselves The Liars, and during the summers were inseparable but barely contacted one another during the rest of the year.  But then one summer it all changed and now Cady can’t remember what happened.  She was found bedraggled and wet on the beach of the island, alone.  Now she suffers from amnesia and migraines, spending days in bed in severe pain.  But she is determined to find out what happened, even if the other three refuse to contact her any more, so she returns to the island.

Lockhart has created a mystery and thriller that is written like modern poetry.  She plays with construction in her novel, dancing between verse and prose masterfully.  This disjointed approach to construction also speaks to the way the entire novel is deconstructed and put back together again.  The book moves in time, flashing forward and backward, yet is never confusing.  Still, readers will be caught in this sparkling web, unable to piece together the mystery until Lockhart is ready for the reveal.  And she does it with great style and technique.

With such a character-driven book, the depiction of the characters is of paramount importance.  Lockhart excels in all of her books in creating characters who are real people, human and flawed.  She does the same here, creating in Cady a very complicated character that readers have to put together as a puzzle until it clicks together in the end.  The other supporting characters are equally well rendered.  Even the parental figures who seem stereotypical at first reveal surprising depth as the story continues.

Superbly crafted and brilliantly written, this book is one of the best of the year.  Get your hands on it now!  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Delacorte Press and Edelweiss.

Review: Noggin by John Corey Whaley

| Tasha

noggin

Noggin by John Corey Whaley

Travis died five years ago.  Now he’s alive again.  But not the same and nothing else is the same either.  Travis’ head is now attached to a different body, a healthy body, one not dying of cancer.  You see, when Travis was dying of cancer, he and his parents took a huge risk and had his head severed from his body and frozen.  Now Travis is one of two survivors of the cryogenic procedure and he has returned to the same home, the same parents, the same friends, but not the same life.  His girlfriend is now engaged to someone else.  His best friend who had admitted he was gay just before Travis died is now dating a girl and about to move in with her.  His mother can’t look at him without crying.  And Travis’ room which used to be his haven now is sterile and hotel-like.  But Travis is the same except for his body.  It was as if he closed his eyes and reopened them.  So what is a guy to do?  Well, he still has to finish high school, get his driver’s license and of course try to regain the girl.  But nothing is simple when you are on a completely different timeframe than everyone else!

Whaley blends immense amounts of humor into his novel.  Though Travis’ experience is unique, it also speaks to the universal experience of being a teen, of not fitting in, of making bad decisions, and yet of being vitally alive at the same time.  Whaley also cleverly turns the trend of books about dying teens on its head (pun intended).  This is a book about life but also deeply about loss, grief and death and how funny it can all be. 

What is most surprising about this book is the honesty it has and that through its humor there are deep truths revealed.  Whaley deals with the emotions of Travis’ return beautifully like in this scene on page 40 when he sees his best friend for the first time:

He let go for a second and wiped his face with the back of one sleeve before holding me by each shoulder and sort of just staring at me for a while with this expression that I’m still convinced no other person has ever had, a combination of shock, joy, pain, and terror.  It was like I could see all his memories of me projected into the air between us, rushing and swirling around and enveloping us both in a nostalgic haze.

This book has tremendous heart and a strong sense of its absurdity.  It has depth, humor and cool scars too.  Pure teen reading perfection.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

2014 Street Literature Book Award Medal Winners

| Tasha

The 2014 Street Lit Book Award Medal winners have been announced.  The books are nominated based on their popularity in school, academic and public libraries.  They have a category for Young Adult literature.

The winner is a series:

16245125 Nicki Minaj Lil Wayne (Hip-Hop Biographies)

Hip Hop Biographies published by Saddleback Educational Publishing.

 

There are also three honor books:

Grace, Gold, and Glory: My Leap of Faith Way Too Much Drama Butterfly: A Novel

Grace, Gold and Glory: My Leap of Faith by Gabrielle Douglas and Michelle Burdord

Way Too Much Drama by Earl Sewell

Butterfly by Sylvester Stephens

Review: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

| Tasha

winners curse

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Kestrel refuses to join the military like her father wants her to.  They live on an island conquered by the Valorian army and her father is a general, but Kestel wants to continue playing her music not killing people.   She also doesn’t want to get married, which is her other option in Valerian society.  When in the markets with her best friend one day, Kestrel finds herself at the slave market and then against her better judgment she buys a young man.  Arin is an unusual slave, a gifted blacksmith, he also has a connection to music though he tries to hide it.  The two of them slowly begin to fall in love with one another, though both of their societies forbid it.  But the world is about to twist and turn around them, bringing their love into question, their motives into doubt, and placing their very lives at risk. 

Rutkoski has created a world tinged with magic but not overflowing with it.  While her book has the feel of a light romance, it has much more depth than that.  It is a book that explores questions about slavery, about what victors in a war should be able to take and own, about protection and when that becomes a sort of slavery or jail.  There is romance, definitely, but it is a romance built on unequal footing and even lies. 

This is a society in a precarious state, delicately balanced and written so that  the reader is very aware not only of how uncertain things are but also of the forces at work to destroy that balance.  Rutkoski does a great job of creating a world where the enslaved people had recently lived in the homes where they now work as servants.  The tug and pull of this and their connection to the land is a vital part of the book and makes the world unique and riveting.

The two main characters each have chapters of the book from their points of view.  Kestrel struggles against the constraints of her warrior upbringing, a society that is strict and formal but also bloodthirsty.  Arin has lost everything and much of the story is the reader trying to figure out what and who Arin once was.  Their relationship mirrors the world they are caught in.  It is rebellious, as delicate as blown glass, and yet with a core of strength. 

A stunning cover will have teens finding themselves thrown headlong into a world of corruption, war and slavery but also one of romance and beauty.  Powerful and magnificent, there are no easy answers between these covers but the questions are certainly worthy of exploration. Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar Straus Giroux.

Review: The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston

| Tasha

story of owen

The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston

When the world saw Lottie Thorskard fall from a girder, everyone wondered what she would do next.  No one expected her to move to the tiny town of Trondheim and start slaying dragons there with her wife, her brother and his son.  But that is how Owen started attending the same school as Siobhan.  Siobhan is not a popular student, but she gets good grades and loves to play and write music.  None of this should have made her even noticeable by Owen, whom everyone wanted to know better.  Somehow though Siobhan with her biting wit gets invited over to Owen’s home for dinner and Owen’s family including the famous Lottie have a plan that involves Siobhan.  They want her to be Owen’s bard.  Which will involve being nearby when they fight dragons.  So Siobhan must train to defend herself with a sword, learn more about different types of dragons, and she becomes an important piece of Owen’s story herself.

This is one of those books that surprises right from the beginning.  Somehow I didn’t realize that this is a modern-day dragon tale set in Canada.  In this book, the world has always had dragons and they form the heart of literature and song going back into history.  Johnston takes the time to rewrite the lives of famous people for the reader, building her world so successfully that it all makes perfect sense that dragons are here and have always been. 

The juxtaposition between the two main characters is brilliantly done.  But perhaps the very best part is that this is not a romance.  Yes, a male and female main character but no sparks, no kissing, no sex.  Instead they are busy trying to save their community together.  Siobhan and Owen are both vibrant and intelligent.  They have the sort of brilliant dialogue that one would expect from a John Green book.  Except they do it while fighting dragons!  Amazing.

A completely incredible debut book, this takes fantasy and turns it on its head with a thoroughly modern take on battling dragons and extraordinarily deep world building.  This is one of the best and most unique fantasy novels I’ve read in years.

Reviewed from digital galley received from NetGalley and Carolrhoda Books.

Review: Half Bad by Sally Green

| Tasha

half bad

Half Bad by Sally Green

I always approach fantasies that are supposed to be the “Next Big Thing” with a lot of caution.  But this one is a wonderful surprise.  Nathan lives in a cage outside of the house where the woman paid to keep him lives.  He is let out of his shackles at dawn, forced to run for miles, train in combat, and kept close to home by wristbands filled with acid that will detonate if he goes too far.  Nathan is a witch.  But that is not why he is in a cage.  He is in a cage because he is a mix of white witch and black witch and worse, he is the son of the most notorious black witch of all time.  The white witches who keep Nathan imprisoned are training him to kill his father.  Through a series of flashbacks, Nathan’s childhood and the abuse he suffers from the white witches is exposed.  The question quickly becomes who the bad guys really are and how Nathan can survive in a world where no one trusts half of him.

Set in an alternative England where witches are real and in a constant battle for power, Nathan is trapped not just in a cage but also in between the two powerful factions.  The writing here is wonderfully clean and clear, even when it turns to violence which it does often.  Thanks to the quality of the writing, the moral questions shine on the page, clearly linking this witch world to the various moral questions at play in our own world.  Yet this does not become overbearing at all, since the world is compellingly built.

The characters are also well done.  While the “white” and “black” labels designate the factions, the question of good and evil goes much deeper.  Nathan is an exceptional protagonist.  He is complex and both in his character and the world, nothing is simple.  As he learns the truth about his parents, his family and himself, his reactions are honest, violent and superbly done.

This book is worthy of all of the fanfare it has received, but the reason to read it is to enter the violent world of witches where everyone is at least half bad.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Viking.

Maze Runner – The Movie Trailer

| Tasha

Review: She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

| Tasha

she is not invisible

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

Released April 22, 2014.

Laureth keeps tabs on her famous father’s emails, making sure that his fans are responded to in a kind and timely way.  But one day, she gets an email from someone claiming to have her father’s writing journal.  The problem is, her father is supposed to be in Europe, but this person is in New York City.  Laureth’s mother doesn’t seem to care about her father being missing, so it is up to Laureth to figure out how to reach him and find out what happened.  But Laureth has an additional obstacle to her rescue mission: she is blind.  So she must fool her 7-year-old brother into joining her on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean to a huge city to find her father.  This is a quest unlike any other, written by a master.

Sedgwick’s writing is beautiful and effortless.  He has created a truly incredible character in Laureth, a girl who doesn’t even realize how brave she is.  Her blindness is both a huge factor in the novel but also never a factor in Laureth’s self perception.  She tries to pass as sighted throughout the novel, managing it at times and failing at others.  There are frightening encounters, moments of disorientation, and other times where blindness is the reason she survives. 

Sedgwick’s book is about far more than a girl who is blind making a quest.  It is about moments of coincidence too.  Sedgwick works this theme in by pulling quotes from Laureth’s father and his research into coincidence.  But it is also a large theme of the book itself, those breathtaking moments where the universe seems to be speaking just to you.  And it is those moments that make the connections we have with others stand out clearly.

A remarkable protagonist in a magical book, this is another winner for Sedgwick.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from digital copy received from NetGalley and Roaring Brook Press.