Teen

2012 Great Graphic Novels

| Tasha

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) has named the top ten graphic novels as well as a longer list of graphic novels perfect for teen readers.  Here is the top ten list: 

  

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgal

Axe Cop, Volume 1 by Malachai Nicolle and Ethan Nicolle

A Bride’s Story, Volume 1 by Kaoru Mori

   

Daybreak by Brian Ralph

Infinite Kung Fu by Kagan McLeod

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media by Brooke Gladstone, Josh Neufeld & others

Scarlet by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev

   

Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Volumes 1 & 2 by Roger Langridge, Chris Samnee, & others

Wandering Son, Volume 1 by Shimura Takako

Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Khalil

Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

| Tasha

fault in our stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Hazel has known she is terminal since she was diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at age 12.  But then a drug that worked on only a small percentage of the population actually worked on her and her tumors shrunk.  At age 16, she’s still not healthy: her lungs need to be drained regularly and she has to cart around an oxygen tank.  She also doesn’t attend high school, having gotten her GED.  Hazel spends her days watching trashy TV and reading books, forced out of the house only to go to a support group for teens with cancer.  It’s there that she meets Augustus Waters, a boy whose leg was lost to cancer.  The two form a bond almost immediately, but Hazel doesn’t want to get close to anyone who could be hurt by her death.  However, Augustus is not the type of person to be ignored easily and Hazel may just have a lot more life to lead than she ever imagined.

Green manages to write a book with characters who have cancer that is not a “cancer book.”  It bears absolutely no resemblance to those teary paperbacks filled with maudlin sentimentality.  Instead it is a purely John Green book, filled with witty remarks, complex characters, and a vast intelligence.  Both Hazel and Augustus are characters who are breathtakingly rendered, whole people, who just happen to come fully to life when together.

Green’s writing is incredible here.  His phrasing is beautiful and inventive, creating new imagery as he builds this amazing romance and human story.  One of my favorite sentences in the book comes on page 25, “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”  Throughout the book, there are profound moments of insight, things that give pause, make you think, and create beauty from the ordinary.

Intensely personal, vibrantly romantic, and wildly successful, this book may just be the best that John Green has written.  Get this into the hands of teens and adults, perhaps with a tissue or two.  It is simply incredible.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

| Tasha

million suns

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

The second book in the Across the Universe series takes up the story three months after Amy was awoken from her cryosleep.  Elder has become Eldest and has taken control of the ship.  The population has stopped being drugged by Phydus but that has created new problems of controlling the suddenly unruly population.  Amy gets a clue that starts both her and Elder on a quest to figure out the truth behind the ship no longer moving through space.  It quickly becomes a race against time as killings start with the ominous phrase “Follow the leader” on each body.  The truth may set you free, but getting to it can be deadly.

I was thrilled to get my hands on this second book, because I found the first so fresh and fascinating.  The story continues with the same claustrophobic feeling aboard the ship, where readers will think that they know the truth of the situation but will quickly realize that there is much more to the story of their journey into space.  I did find the book hard to get into at first because the beginning was slow moving.  That is quickly remedied and the pacing of the rest of the book is very successful.

The setting of Godspeed is a compelling one that Revis uses to great effect throughout the story.  The ship itself holds many of the secrets, making it a vital part of the tale.  The characters are equally complex.  Elder and Amy have a relationship that is romantic yet troubled.  Combined with the tight setting, the desperation of their quest, and the killings, it makes for a riveting read of mystery, science fiction and romance.

This complex and engaging science fiction novel will be embraced by fans of the series, who will immediately start thinking about what will happen in book three.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Review: Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin

| Tasha

girls of no return

The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin

Released February 1, 2012.

A tense, riveting tale told in flashbacks, this book hints from the beginning about terrible things that aren’t fully revealed to the reader until the very end.  The result is a book that is tinglingly tantalizing and has you jumping at shadows. 

Lida has been sent to the Alice Marshall school where troubled girls are sent to try to rehabilitate.  It’s located at the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area in northern Idaho, where the students are surrounded by nature and removed from the temptations of modern life.  They live in cabins with bunk beds.  Lida lives with several other girls, including Boone who is something of a legend as she terrorizes the new students.  There is also Jules, who is so sweet and friendly that Lida can’t guess what she could have done wrong to be there.  And finally the luminous Gia, whose friendship is addictive and elusive.  Lida refuses to talk at first, drawing more and more deeply inside herself, but slowly she starts to reveal herself to the other girls and to the reader.  As the tension in the story mounts and secrets are revealed, readers are caught in the web of truths, lies, and betrayals.

Saldin’s debut is a book that mixes juvenile detention with nature, combining it all with a swirl of illicit drugs and alcohol.  The characters are all complex, especially when the reader thinks they have that character pegged, they will reveal even more of themselves.  The setting is gorgeously described from the lake to the mountains.  It serves as an important plot device throughout the book with its isolation. 

Saldin does the near impossible here, not revealing the horrible truth of what happened until the very end of the book.  Twenty pages from the end, the tension was so thick that my eyes could not read the words quickly enough.  Yet at the same time, I didn’t want this exquisite read to end.  Even better, the ending really works, offering no easy solutions to the complexity of the storyline.

The writing is vibrant and creative, the plot inventive and revealing.  This book is a stellar read that would make a great book talk.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Arthur A. Levine Books.

Review: Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

| Tasha

beneath a meth moon

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Released February 2, 2012.

Laurel survived Hurricane Katrina, but unfortunately her mother and grandmother died in the storm.  With her father and little brother, they moved away from the destruction and loss to start a new life.  Laurel made new friends, joined the cheerleading squad, and hooked up with one of the coolest boys on the basketball team, T-Boom.  T-Boom was the person who introduced her to meth.  The meth erased all of Laurel’s needs, all of her grief.  Before she knew it, she was addicted and she had lost her friends and family.  Laurel is alone on the streets, begging for cash to support her habit when readers first meet her.  This is a story of loss, the destruction of addiction, and what must happen to return from that abyss. 

Woodson has written a raw and painful book that does not shrink away from any of the emotions, torment and horror of drug addiction.  At the same time though, the book is filled with hope and chances for change.  It reveals the dark truths but is never without some light.  At times I read the book without being able to breath deeply, the tension and tightrope of Laurel’s life was so tangible.

Woodson’s writing is glorious even as it speaks about addiction. Here is a passage from early in the novel, Page 18, where Laurel is walking in the snow after taking meth:

Something warm and wet was surrounding me, and I laughed at the heat inside the snow.  The hurt of wanting to moon was gone now, replaced by something heavy.  Not heavy.  Light.  Free.  I was free.  Tears.  The warm thing wasn’t snow.  Where were the tears coming from?  Who was crying on me?  I stopped walking and wiped at my eyes, but whoever was crying on me kept on crying.

As we see Laurel disintegrate before our eyes under the influence of the drug, we also see why the drug is luring her to use it, understand the pull of this beauty.  Laurel is a character filled with emptiness and need, yet she is able to put into words the grip of the drug and its power. 

This book is short, powerful, and wrenching, yet at the same time it is filled with incandescent writing.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin Young Reader’s Group.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

| Tasha

tempest

Tempest by Julie Cross

Jackson is a college kid with a girlfriend, oh and one other thing, he’s a time traveler.  He can travel to the past and then back to 2009.  Nothing he does in the past has any impact on 2009.  He even got run over by a bus on one trip back in time and ended up with only a sore leg and a bruise in 2009.  But time travel does take a toll on him, making him tired and achy.  Jackson was just figuring out how his ability worked with the help of Adam, a brilliant science geek.  Then everything changed when his girlfriend was shot.  In the midst of his panic, Jackson traveled back into the past out of instinct.   Then he was not able to return to 2009.  Stuck in 2007, he has to figure out who to trust and why people are trying to kill him. 

This book was a challenge for me to get into.  I chafed at the way that consequences of time travel were ignored in the story.  As I kept reading though, it all made sense and the pacing and rush of the storyline made it compelling.  Even better, whenever I thought I had figured things out, the story took another twist.  I love it when that happens! 

This book is less about characters and more about action, and that is not a criticism.  The action is thrillingly written and riveting.  The book also has mystery elements to it, where glimpses of the past and current experiences meld together to form the complete truth.  It is a diverting read, almost impossible to put down and definitely one that lingers in your mind long after you finish reading. 

A great pick for teen collections, where the age of the protagonist at 19 and the action/mystery elements will keep them riveted.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from St. Martin’s Press.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

| Tasha

cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is the best mechanic in New Beijing, so it is natural that the prince would bring his broken android to her for repair.  What he doesn’t know is that Cinder herself is also an android.  She is owned by her cruel stepmother, who uses Cinder to bring in the income for the entire household.  As a plague ravages Earth, the world is also under threat from above as the Lunar queen arrives to pressure the prince into marriage.  As the plague reaches her own family, Cinder is given away to become a test subject.  This brings her into direct contact again with the prince and also gives her new information about her unknown past.  It’s a past that may just be the key to the entire planet’s safety.

This is a glorious melding of science fiction and fairy tale where androids and Cinderella mash up.  It is the strength of the story itself that works well here.  The blend makes the book compulsively readable with the science fiction giving a grittiness to the expected fairy tale story.  At the same time, one looks for the fairy tale components and how they are reinterpreted.  The entire concept works brilliantly.

The middle of the novel does have some pacing issues.  While the reader knows Cinder’s secret past before Cinder does, that knowledge contributes to the slowing of the novel.  There is also a pivotal plot point that is set aside what seems to be a very long time, further slowing the pace. 

Cinder is a dynamic heroine who is notably human and caring.  She is strong, but beyond that is also reassuringly sometimes clumsy and confused.  The reworking of some of the characters of the fairy tale, including one of the step sisters works well.  While the book follows the arc of the Cinderella story, Meyer also inserts new facets that fill the tale with surprises for the reader.

A riveting book that features a strong heroine and a brilliant storyline, this book will be enjoyed by dystopian and romance fans alike.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel & Friends.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Irises by Francisco X. Stork

| Tasha

irises

Irises by Francisco X. Stork

Stork explores the complicated relationship of sisters and family in his latest book for teens. Teenage sisters Mary and Kate are very different, though they have been raised in the same sheltered way.  Kate is planning to be a doctor and attend Stanford.  Mary is an artist, a painter, who has already received acclaim for her work.  But their plans are thrown into disarray when their father dies, leaving them only their mother who has been in a vegetative state for years.  While their father was loving, he was also very strict.  The girls are now free of his repressive ways, and they each respond to the new freedom in differently.  The freedom though comes with a cost of new worries, new relationships, and new pressures.  There are many decisions that have to be made, including one that is particularly heart wrenching. 

This is a complicated novel that does not summarize easily.  The characters are well developed and complex themselves, though I summarized each in a sentence, they are much more than that.  These girls are different from one another but far from opposites.  They are linked, closely and forever, together in sisterhood, a tie that strangles, binds and frees. 

Stork also looks closely at family in this book.  The cost of letting a family member go, the ways people deal with loss, and the process of recovery and reinvention are exposed here.  He weaves the lives of the girls with unexpected characters, including a gang-member who is also an artist and a young minister who has no shortage of ambition.  These characters too are complex and intriguing.

The minister is one of the pivotal characters in the book.  His ambition mirrors Kate’s and the two find themselves drawn to one another.  His logic about ambition and watching out for yourself rings true for a long time, until it changes and becomes hollow and crass.  The writing to take a character’s message and transform the way it sounds over the course of a novel without changing the tone or message itself is beautifully done, masterful.

This compelling novel is quiet, desperate, and riveting.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Arthur A. Levine Books.

Also reviewed by:

Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

| Tasha

girl of fire and thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

This one has been on my to-read list for awhile, after several blogging pals reviewed it very positively.  Then it was named a nominee for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award and I knew I had to get my hands on it. 

Elisa is a princess, but a rather reluctant one.  Her older sister is the one with the beauty and poise, and luckily also the one destined to be queen.  But Elisa has a destiny of her own, she is the bearer of the Godstone in her navel, a gem that appeared during her naming ceremony as an infant.  She is destined to be a hero, but she can’t see past her own weight and laziness to even glimpse a future where that would be possible.  On Elisa’s sixteenth birthday, she is given in marriage to the king of a nation at war.  Moving away from her family, Elisa discovers that her new husband is going to keep their marriage secret.  Elisa is caught up in the politics and cunning of the kingdom, something she has always avoided.  Now she has to figure out what her future holds.  One thing is sure, it will be a different destiny than she ever expected!

Carson’s debut novel is a stunner.  She writes with a confidence and skill, weaving together what could have been jarring combinations into a harmonious tale.  This is a story that reads as a medieval fantasy, but is set in a desert nation with camels and dunes.  It is a fantasy that is steeped in religion, something you rarely see in fantasy for teens. 

Elisa is a marvel of a character.  She is fat, something unexpected in a princess.  She is lazy, but then displays a quick mind, clever responses, and a knowledge of war and tactics.  She is dark skinned, something that she alone dwells on as it contrasts with her sister.  Yet, and this is important, the men around her are attracted to her despite her size.  Just as with most of the book, the answers are not simple.  It’s a complex world that Carson has built here.

And the world building is exceptional.  She has created a world that is similar enough to our own, but filled with magic.  It is also home to a religion that is fully realized and complicated.  It even has disparate sects that disagree. 

This book was subject to some cover controversy with an original cover that featured a very light-skinned and thin girl.  While the new cover avoids the color of skin entirely, I would have appreciated a cover that embraces a protagonist of color and of size.

Highly recommended, this book deserves its spot in the William Morris Award nominees.  It is one of the best written and most intriguing fantasies for teens this year.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

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