Teen

Review: The Bird King by Shaun Tan

| Tasha

bird king

The Bird King: An Artist’s Notebook by Shaun Tan

This book opens the curtain to Tan’s creative process, allowing readers to view art from stories that have not yet been full formed, art from books that have been completed, and beautiful illustrations that may not be stories at all.  The courage this book took to produce is to be applauded.  Allowing readers and other artists to see a process of creativity is raw and soul baring. 

This book is stellar.  One turns the pages slowly, lingering in worlds undreamed of, wondering at ideas, and pausing to allow a particular image to sink in more deeply.  It is a journey, specially designed for a young creative to see that mistakes can be joyous, that creation is messy, and that works in progress are breathtaking.

This is a book to get in the hands of teens who enjoy art and writing, for it is a look at the unformed and the just formed.  It is a book of pure creativity and the creative process.  Beautiful.  Haunting.  Inspiring.  Appropriate for ages 10-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

Review: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

| Tasha

maggot moon

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Standish Treadwell thinks differently than all of the others.  He can’t read and can’t write because the letters move around in front of his eyes, but he does come up with amazing thoughts.  That’s one of the reasons that he and his best friend Hector get along so well.  Hector sees past Standish’s different colored eyes and understands that Standish is really brilliant.  So when Hector disappears, Standish is left alone to be bullied.  It’s all because Hector went to the other side of the wall and saw what was happening there.  It’s a secret that the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know about, but Standish starts to figure everything out when the Lush family is taken and the Moon Man appears.  This dark, violent novel shows us a bleak future where differences are stomped out but as Standish demonstrates are just as vital as they are today.

This is one of those novels that unfolds as you read it, layered and complex.  Science fiction set in the 1950s, readers will try to figure out where the book is set and how this happened.  Set in a totalitarian regime in what appears to be England where World War II ended very differently, this book is stark and tension filled.  Just the illustrations alone with the fly and the rat mark this as an unusual read. 

What I found most amazing about this book is that we are not just told that Standish thinks differently than others, we are shown it in his narrative voice.  The book is far from linear, journeying almost as a stream of consciousness through the past.  Standish will have readers themselves looking at the world through his eyes and what an accomplishment that is!

This book defies description by genre and really is impossible to summarize well.  Let me just say that it is powerful, brutal and set in bleakness but never far from hope.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

| Tasha

if you find me

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

Released March 26, 2013.

Carey’s mother has been gone for over a month, leaving Carey alone with her little sister, Jenessa.  They live in a large woods and sleep in an old camper with no heat.  Her mother had left them before, but usually not this long, just long enough to get more meth.  But this time, their mother was not the one who came to their camp, a man and woman arrive, claiming that the man is Carey’s father.  They take the girls back with them.  Carey and Jenessa have never had a hamburger, never watched TV and never really been cared for.  Carey was the only reason that Nessa had survived at all, often serving as the only love she had.  But now the girls were expected to live with Carey’s father, his wife and their stepsister in their home.  It’s a new life filled with challenges that Carey will only be able to accept if she can see the truth of why her mother took her away and also the truth of what she had been forced to do in the woods.

Murdoch has written a book that has a very compelling premise and happily, she is able to make the book about far more than that first bit ripped from the headlines.  She writes about the power of music to heal, the ability of family and love to make things right again, but also the agony of betrayal, the ferocious power of abuse, and the building danger of lies.  Carey is a heroine who has undergone real tragedy in her life, but here is she far from being a victim.  She is instead immensely resourceful, caring and desperate to do what is right for her little sister.

Murdoch also weaves into so much of the book Carey’s connection with nature.  It is the place she turns when in distress, moving even to the outdoor courtyard at the high school in order to find solace outdoors.  Her love of music in also part of it, having played her music under the open sky for so long.  When Murdoch writes of nature, she is part poet, creating a depth in this novel that lifts it to another level.

This story is one of a tough heroine who has to be strong for both herself and her little sister.  It is a tale of survival but also one of recovery and honesty.  I’d think this one would booktalk extremely well thanks to its strong premise that will nicely tantalize teen readers.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Macmillan and Netgalley.

Review: Relish by Lucy Knisley

| Tasha

relish

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Released April 2, 2013.

This memoir in graphic novel form details Lucy Knisley’s relationship and ongoing love affair with food throughout her childhood and young adulthood.  With each chapter in the book showing an episode in her life that impacted how she related to food, Knisley has penned a book that is not at all about weight watching, but instead the story of how a gourmet is born.  The daughter of a chef, Knisley grew up helping out at farm stalls and working at her mother’s catering jobs.  She also details how her mother both introduced her to the wonders of food in both taste and the way it can connect people.  Each chapter ends with a recipe, showing readers how to create their own sushi or navigate selecting a great cheese.

Knisley’s style is reminiscent of  that of Raina Telgemeier with characters who are drawn with an innate humor but also a profound affection.  Knisley writes of her relationship with food in particular, but the book is also a love letter to her mother and the impact she had on Knisley throughout her life.  I am profoundly grateful for a book about a girl’s relationship with food that does not contain even a moment of weight concern or dieting.  Instead it is about finding or creating great food in one’s life.

Funny and delicious, this book is sure to whet the appetite for more books by Knisley.  Get it into the hands of teens who enjoyed the books by Telgemeier.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Macmillan Children’s Publishing.

Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

| Tasha

scarlet

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

The second book in the Lunar Chronicles continues the story of Cinder, who is now imprisoned waiting to be taken to Luna.  It is also the story of Scarlet, a newly introduced character, whose grandmother is missing.  Scarlet refuses to give up on her grandmother, though no one is willing to help her.  Eventually, she meets Wolf, a street fighter, who is willing to take her to where her grandmother is being held.  Along the way, the stories of the two girls draw closer and closer together as the ties between them are clarified.  The book rings with action and adventure, the echo of spaceships, and the wonder of mental Lunar abilities.  Identities are revealed, friendships are forged, and one is left breathlessly waiting for book three.

Meyer writes an amazing tale.  Her pacing is just right, lingering at moments that readers want to never end and rushing headlong into the action.  The result is a riveting read, where the author has also created a world that is believable and intriguing.  Her characterization is also strong, with now two incredible female protagonists.  Perhaps best of all is that you can rely on Meyer to not have men rescue her heroines, in fact they are much more likely to be the ones rescuing the men. 

So many series succumb to the sophomore slump, but this book is just as wild, riveting and immensely readable as the first.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel and Friends.

Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

| Tasha

etiquette and espionage

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

I must admit right up front that I haven’t read Carriger’s adult series The Parasol Protectorate.  So it is with fresh eyes that I came to the first book in her new teen series.  Here we meet Sophronia who at age 14 is rough and tumble enough for her mother to send her to a finishing school, hoping that she will learn proper manners and decorum before her older sister’s debutante ball.  Sophronia thinks she is being sent to a dull school only about curtsying and clothes, but Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality turns out to be about far more than Victorian manners and society.  Instead Sophronia is thrust into adventure right from the trip to school, finding herself the heroine when they are attacked on their travels.  As she discovers her real gifts are embraced by her new school, much of which would chagrin and alarm her mother.  This blend of boarding school and steampunk espionage will not stay on library shelves for long!

Carriger has created a great world in her book, one that I understand is the same as that in her adult novels.  Populated with vampires and werewolves as well as humans, the world that Sophronia is sent to at school reveals that there is far more to life than her mother would approve of.  The setting of a school that floats in the air also adds that distance and isolation that works so well in boarding school novels. 

Happily, Sophronia is a girl who loves adventure and though she may disdain her mother’s focus on fashion and decorum, begins to learn that as well.  She is a brave character, one that is unafraid to go against societal rules.  It makes for a book that is rambunctious and wildly fun while at the same time filled with wide skirts, hats and frippery.  It’s a charming mix.

With the popularity of steampunk, this is one book that belongs in every public library collection for teens.  With no sex and plenty of action, middle school readers will also enjoy it immensely. It’s a very fun read, so expect demand for the upcoming books as well.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from library copy.

Locus Online 2012 Recommended Reading List

| Tasha

Locus, the magazine that covers science fiction and fantasy, has put our their 2012 recommended reading list which are this year’s favorite books of the editors and reviewers of Locus.  They have a list of their top Young Adult books:

Apollo's Outcasts Be My Enemy Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3)

Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele

Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Black Heart (Curse Workers, #3) 11164791 The Broken Lands The Chaos

Black Heart by Holly Black

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

The Broken Lands by Kate Milford

The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson

The Crown of Embers (Fire and Thorns, #2) Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2) The Diviners (The Diviners, #1)

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Dodger The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2) Every Day

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

Every Day by David Levithan

A Face Like Glass The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (Fairyland, #2) Pirate Cinema

A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

Radiant Days  Railsea The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle, #1)

Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand

Railsea by China Mieville

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Son (The Giver, #4) Team Human Zeuglodon: The True Adventures of Kathleen Perkins, Cryptozoologist

Son by Lois Lowry

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sara Rees Brennan

Zeuglodon by James P. Blaylock

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

| Tasha

aristotle and dante

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

This is one of the big winners of the ALA Awards this year.  It won the Stonewall Book Award, the Pura Belpre Author Award, a Printz Honor, and was on the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults list.  So I’m not sure what I can say about it beyond that it is one incredible read!

Ari has his entire empty summer ahead of him so he one day he heads to the pool even though he can’t swim.  There he meets Dante, a confident boy just his age, who offers to teach him to swim.  Through that one act, the friendship between these two loners is formed.  They have very little in common except that they are both Mexican Americans.  Ari tends to be angry, is able and willing to fight, and can’t communicate with his father.  Dante, on the other hand, goes to a private school, reads poetry, sketches and actually gives his father kisses.  The two boys form a strong bond with one another, able to have long conversations and tell each other everything.  Well almost everything.

This book is an interplay of strength and fragility with Ari, the physically strong and more strident one, being actually the more fragile as you see deeper under the surface.  It is about the way that friendships form in unlikely places, flourish and potentially fall apart over small things.  It is a book of celebration, a book that wonders at the desert night filled with stars.  It is a book that explores what it means to be gay, what it means to have a best friend that is gay.  It is about being a hero, finding your truth and moving ahead past doubt.

Beautiful, strong and incredibly brave, this book reads like a poem read aloud by a best friend.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick

| Tasha

midwinterblood

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Intertwined stories that range from the near future of 2073 to the distant past of the Vikings, this book lures the reader in with dark promises, strange happenings, and dares you to follow your curiosity deeper and deeper.  When Eric Seven arrives at the island of Blessed to see if the claims that people have discovered how to live longer (if not forever) are true, he is greeted with warmth and immediately set up in house of his own.  No one lives on the western side of the island and the eastern side only has adults, no children.  Eric starts out with drive to discover what is wrong, but the longer he spends on the island and drinking the tea the community provides him, the less he wants to explore at all.  When he travels to the western side of the island finally, his story forms the door to those that follow.  Layer upon layer, the lives of the people on Blessed are told, each layer revealing something new and equally odd.  This impressive novel is impossible to put down until the final story and the real truth is revealed in all of its horror.

Immediately upon opening this book, the strangeness of the story was apparent.  As Eric slips into complacency, I was almost screaming at him with frustration.  It was the ideal way to open this book where so much hinges upon the moments of hair raising oddity that link the stories.  Sedgwick has built this book so exquisitely that there is no guessing at the ending until it comes.  It is a story of love but also of revenge, of brotherhood but also of murder. 

Set on a Scandinavian island that is remote, Sedgwick uses the unusual formation of the island as a large part of the story.  The two halves nearly severed from one another, they are two worlds connected only slightly.  So the island itself reflects the story of generations of people who remain connected as well.  The inclusion of the dragon orchid and the powerful tea it brews is also a great symbol within the story.  The orchids are powerful, strange but also beautiful and delicate. 

This compelling novel is amazing teen literature.  It has enough depth to be used in a classroom where the symbolism and incredible writing can be celebrated.  It is also a riveting combination of romance and horror that will thrill discriminating teen readers.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.