Teen

Once a Witch

| Tasha

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Tamsin comes from a family with magical Talents, but she doesn’t have any herself.  While working in her family’s bookstore, she is asked to help find a lost object, something others in her family do for people.  Tamsin is tired of being overlooked and pretends to be her older and very Talented sister Rowena and takes the job.  She goes to boarding school in New York City, against her family’s recommendations, and finds that the man looking for a unique clock also lives there.  He’s a professor at NYC.  At the same time, a Talented childhood friend reappears into Tamsin’s life and agrees to help her find the clock.  But all is not what it seems in this twisting book filled with romance, magic, and danger.

This book is light and lovely.  It is a refreshing fantasy filled with enough angst and action to move it along briskly.  There is also enough danger to make it difficult to put down, enough mystery to keep the pages turning, and enough romantic tension to keep any romance-lover happy.  MacCullough has created a protagonist who is bright, snarky and very funny.  Tasmin is the brilliant star of the novel even though she feels ordinary and dull.  MacCullough’s light touch keeps the book breezy and a pleasure to read.

Perfect for reading under the covers with a flashlight, this novel is simply a lot of fun to read with its captivating blend of fantasy and romance.  A light and lovely book appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.

When the Whistle Blows

| Tasha

When the Whistle Blows by Fran Cannon Slayton

Every once in awhile a debut novel takes your breath away.  This is one of those novels.

Jimmy Cannon’s life is surrounded by trains.  His bedroom is right by the tracks, his father works for the railroad, and Jimmy plans to work the railroad himself as soon as he possibly can.  But Jimmy does not want to be like his father who focuses on rules.  Set in a West Virginia town during the era of steam trains in the 1940s, readers will happily follow Jimmy as he merrily breaks many of the rules.  From Halloween night to boyhood scrapes, this book has a timeless feel.

Slayton writes with a spirit and style that reads like a classic novel.  Offering a complex relationship of a boy and his father, she lightens the novel through the scenes that define Jimmy’s boyhood.  Every reader, boy or girl, will be able to relate to the escapades, enjoy laughing out loud about the close calls, and bite their nails when the tension gets thick.  This is a many layered book that teachers will look forward to reading in their classrooms.  There is so much here to discuss and yet it is so easy to read, understand and relate to.  It is frankly a masterpiece of ease and complexity not often seen in children’s books.

If there is one book you are going to read aloud to 4th and 5th graders this year, it should be this one.  Highly recommended, this should be a Newbery contender this year.  Appropriate for ages 10-14.

Reviewed from copy provided by publisher.

Check out Fran Cannon Slayton’s own blog.

Also reviewed by BookDads, Reviewed Here First, Reading, Writing, Ruminating, Susan VanHecke, WriterJenn, Charlotte’s Library, Confessions of a Bibliovore, Becky’s Book Reviews, Through the Wardrobe, The Reading Zone, Underage Reading, Sarah Miller, 100 Scope Notes, and Into the Wardrobe.

Museum of Mary Child

| Tasha

The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds

Heloise lives a lonely, subdued and severe life with her godmother.  She is not allowed to have toys, not allowed to play, and must spend her time being constructive.  Heloise yearns most of all for a doll and then she discovers a secret niche under a floorboard where a doll is hidden.  She succeeds for some time in hiding the doll from her godmother, but when her godmother discovers the doll, she flies into a rage.  Next door to their house is the Museum of Mary Child, a place where visitors come but Heloise has never been allowed to enter.  Her grandmother drags her there.  Stunned by the revelations of the museum, Heloise flees her godmother’s home with her doll in tow.  Ending up in the city, Heloise is taken in by a choir of orphans, where she begins to learn about what life is about and to feel like a real little girl.  But she cannot escape the mystery of her own upbringing for long.

This gothic tale owes a lot to folk tales with birds who guide humans, and a prince in prison.  These elements weave themselves into Heloise’s tale, offering glimpses of magic and wonder  against the darkness of madness and solitude.  Just as Heloise is a unique child, so this book is unique and fascinating.  It doesn’t fit into a genre niche neatly, offering so many different but well-worked elements.  Because of this, it is a very fun read.  Readers will be unable to figure out how the novel will end because they won’t be sure if they are reading fantasy, gothic, horror or fairy tale – perhaps it is all of them at once.

Heloise is a great character with her fierceness and inquisitiveness.  She carries this book forward, gradually learning along with the reader what her story is.  It is a delicately balanced story, never moving too far into horror, never too far from its fairy tale elements.  The setting is such a large part of the tale from the museum to the city itself and its madhouse and prison.  Golds does a great job creating and sustaining a mood though the entire book along with a tension that makes it difficult to put down and impossible not to puzzle about even when not reading.

Recommended for tweens who are a little too young for Twilight, this book has quality writing and an intriguing premise.  Children as young as ten who are looking for a little horror and creepiness will find a great read here.  Appropriate for ages 10-14.

Reviewed from copy provided by publisher.

All the Broken Pieces

| Tasha

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Matt Pin was airlifted from war torn Vietnam to the United States and has been adopted into a loving family.  Now at age 12, Matt is struggling with the internal scars of war, combined with his questions of identity.  He has haunting memories of his mother and brother whom he left behind in Vietnam.  Matt has trouble giving a voice to his internal struggles, while externally he is having difficulties at school and is being bullied by boys on his baseball team.  Can Matt manage to make peace with his past so he can embrace his future?  Or are the two so intertwined that they are one and the same?

A searing verse novel, this book offers powerful poetry that clearly conveys the emotional scars of Matt and of the community around him.  Vietnam is a multi-faceted subject and Burg does an admirable job in paying tribute to its many aspects.  Poetry is a wonderful medium for this sort of exploration, allowing things to be said clearly that would have to be danced around in prose.  Burg’s poems create a cohesive novel yet offer verses that will linger in the memory and mind, that speak to our humanity and our past.

Here is one verse from the early part of the novel that captures the power and talent of the writing:

He never saw my face.

But she was already swelled

with love for him when he left,

taking with him

his blue-eyed promise

that it would not end there,

with the smell of burnt flesh

and the sound of crying children.

Highly recommended for tween and teen readers, this book covers powerful subjects without turning away or flinching.  Readers who are not poetry readers and those who claim not to like verse novels should be encouraged to try this one.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by A Year of Reading.

Jumping Off Swings

| Tasha

Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles

When Ellie gets pregnant, it changes her life and that of three of her friends and classmates.  Coming from an outwardly perfect but very distant family, Ellie tries to find comfort and love by having sexual relationships with boys.  Josh, finding Ellie willing, loses his virginity to her and then ignores her.  When Ellie discovers she is pregnant, she turns to her best friend Corinne for advice.  Caleb, a classmate and friend of Josh’s, is furious about the way Ellie has been treated.  The four lives of these teens are now entwined in a larger way, giving readers a chance to see how they cope with an overwhelming situation and series of choices.

Knowles, author of Letters from a Dead Girl, has created a novel filled with sensitivity and grace.  Her deep exploration of the impact of an unexpected pregnancy offers insight into not only this issue but any momentous occurrence in the lives of teens.  The inner strength it takes to deal with such situations is a large focus of the novel.  Knowles’ writing is easy to read and keeps itself simple while exploring such complex subjects.

The various choices of a pregnant teen are shown not only through Ellie but through the families of all of the characters.  There are sisters who had abortions, parents who got married because of a pregnancy, and the option of adoption.  The beauty of the novel is that there is no judgment about any of the decisions made.  They simply are.

Knowles also excels at creating four distinct types of families for the teens.  Ellie’s distant aloof family, Josh’s dysfunctional one, Corinne’s loving parents, and Caleb’s nearly-perfect but embarrassing single mother.  Again, Knowles offers a banquet of diversity without judgment.

Highly recommended, this novel is deep, moving and lovely.  Appropriate for teens 14-18.

Reviewed from ARC gotten at ALA.

Also reviewed on Sharon Loves Books and Cats, Kate’s Book Blog, and The Unnamed Forest.  You can check out Jo Knowles’ blog too!

Going Bovine

| Tasha

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

What a departure from her Gemma Doyle Trilogy!  And what an example of how a skilled author can write just about anything.  Bray displays her wacky sense of humor and love of smart-ass comments with nary a single ribbon, lace or corset in sight. 

The brightest moment in Cameron’s 16-year life was when he jumped off of the It’s a Small World ride at Disney World and almost drowned.  Now he finds out that he has mad cow disease and is going to die.  But perhaps salvation lies with an angel who has ever-changing wings and wants Cam to save the world and also himself, rather than lie in a hospital bed.  Of course, she just might be a figment of his disease-riddled mind.  But when the universe hands you mad-cow you may as well try to save it.  Cam is joined on his quest by Gonzo, a germ-phobic gaming dwarf, and Balder, a god trapped in the body of a lawn gnome.  If you are ready for a surreal, hysterically funny road trip, jump aboard!

This book had me reading passages aloud to share the source of my laughter.  You will not giggle discretely with this novel, instead you will guffaw uncontrollably.  It is truly funny on a gut-twisting level.  At the same time, Bray is not afraid of mixing tragedy and humor, innately understanding that the pairing leads to bigger laughs.  A dark comedy of epic road trip proportions, this is also a novel that is deep, offering insights into life while making you laugh.  Bray has created a truly great character in Cam, a boy who can do nothing right and suddenly has to save the world in order to save himself. 

A surreal rocketing ride of humor, this book is about as far as you can get from Victorian fantasy.  Bray lifts herself to another level of writing, showing that she is unfettered by genre.  Appropriate for 15-18 year olds and any adult who still bears scars from their teen years and needs to laugh about them.

Reviewed from Random House ARC gotten at ALA.

Also reviewed by A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy.

Break

| Tasha

Break by Hannah Moskowitz

Authored by a senior in high school, this debut novel would make a veteran author proud.  Jonah worries about a lot.  He worries about his parents, worries about the fact his baby brother cries all the time, but most of all he worries about his younger brother, Jessie, who is severe and life-threatening allergies.  After being hurt in a car accident, Jonah has started trying to break every bone in his body to make himself stronger.  He is helped by his best friend, Naomi, who films him breaking his bones.  As Jonah moves deeper and deeper into pain and breaking, the question is who is worrying enough about Jonah to help him.

The characterization here is nicely done, capturing the stress, fear and worry of being a teen as well as the dysfunction of mental illness.  Moskowitz also excels at dialogue, offering very authentic back and forth between the teens.  Jonah is a complex character, struggling with an affliction that he can’t admit to almost anyone and seeing himself though the lens of being normal. It creates a powerful dichotomy. The author also captures Jonah’s mental illness without alienating him from readers.

My only problem with the novel is the ending.  The first three-quarters of the book are taut and fascinating.  In the end, the novel starts to unravel losing its believability in action that never quite reaches a climax worthy of the previous writing.  That said, the book is still worth reading.

Start this book when you have time because it is very hard to put down.  An immersive experience that teens will really respond to, this novel is appropriate for 14-17 year olds.

Sacred Scars

| Tasha


Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey

I adored Skin Hunger when it came out, despite it’s precipitous ending.  Remember those debates?!

Now the second in the series has been released to help people recover from that ending.  And it picks up right where the last book left off, in the midst of the drama and tension.  The book has two interconnected story lines which are set 200 years apart.  Readers get to see the rediscovery of magic in one of the lines and the harsh reality of it in the other.  In both stories is Somiss, the aristocrat who struggles to find the key to magic and after finding it, runs a diabolical school to train young magicians.  Franklin, his servant, also appears in both story lines, as servant, unwilling helper, and magician.  At the heart of the stories is Sadima, who learns magic by reading Somiss’ documents and eavesdropping on his recitations.  She yearns to escape with Franklin, her love, and the street urchins they have kidnapped and caged.  But in this brutal world of magic, there are only desperate choices, evil around ever corner, and constant deception.

Nicely the novel manages to not rehash the first book at all, yet readers who have had a gap of a few years between the novels will find it offers just enough to allow you to remember the first novel.  Duey’s writing is gripping, tense, and engulfing.  She has created a world that is so dark, yet it has piercing moments of light, love and truth.  Duey excels at creating characters with depth and dimension, then immersing them into a twisted story.  It makes for a book that is not only impossible to put down but makes it difficult to breathe deeply while reading.

This novel is filled with violence.  Violence so shattering that it is hard to read, harder to process, and impossible to understand.  She is an author who pushes it to a new limit, daring the reader to read on, dancing on the knife’s edge.  All to great and dazzling effect.  She is an author I don’t trust to keep my favored characters alive.  In fact, I am constantly checking to see which of the stories is written in first person, hoping that guarantees survival.

Though I have used some of the most powerful words I have to describe this novel, it is far more dark, disturbing and taut than I can express.  Teens will love this world, react to its harshness, and eagerly await the third and final book in the series.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Eternal Smile

| Tasha

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim

Three amazingly different and yet cohesive stories create this graphic novel.  In the first, Duncan is on the way to winning the hand of the Princess.  He has a magical sword that can slice the heads off of the frog-people and a desire to win.  But soon he discovers that his story has an entirely different piece to it.  In the second story, Gran’pa Greenbax is a frog who wants enough money to be able to dive into it and never hit bottom.  He’s not afraid to sell anything to reach his goal.  He is even willing to profit from the smile that has appeared in the sky, if he can.  But soon, he too discovers that all is not what it may seem.  The final story features Janet, who is stuck in a cubicle/watercooler culture where she doesn’t get any respect.  When she is contacted by a Nigerian prince who needs money, she gets caught up in a scam.  The question is who ends up profiting by it.

Strange, beautiful tales about being an outsider and being true to yourself, these stories will resonate with teens.  The artwork is very different in each story, setting them distinctly apart from one another.  From the epic fantasy art in the first to vintage comic book in the second, and ending with modern style in the final story.  At the same time, the stories all work together as a collection.  They have similar story arcs as well as that overarching theme of identity.

Highly recommended, this book belongs in all teen graphic novel collections because it shows teens how great graphic novels can be.  And if you are an adult like me who enjoys them, make sure you get your hands on this one.

Reviewed from library copy.