Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Auden has always been dedicated to school work, hoping that achieving in the academic world her parents work in will gain her attention and recognition from them.  She aslo doesn’t sleep any more, which started when she had to listen to her parents night-time arguments before they divorced.  Now Auden has just graduated from high school and faces a summer of work preparing for college.  To get away from her overbearing mother, she decides to go to stay with her father, his new wife and their new baby at the beach.  Prepared to spend the summer alone with her books, Auden is surprised when she finds herself getting drawn more and more into the lives of the people she is staying with.  She even volunteers to do the book at her stepmother’s boutique where she is surrounded by the pink of girly things for the first time.  As she becomes more involved with her family, she is also drawn into the lives of the local teens.  She and a brooding ex-biker named Eli find that neither of them sleep at night so a connection is made.  Will Auden have to change to fit into this new place or perhaps is there a hidden Auden that has always been there?

This book is magic.  The writing is done with an assurance and style that offer insight to the characters and important statements about being female in our culture without ever being overbearing about it.  The lightness of the writing works well with the deeper truths of the novel: loneliness, self-perception, and self-awareness.  All are beautifully woven into the book.

Dessen has an ear for dialogue so that every phrase rings true, effortlessly changing between characters.  She also has created a cast of characters who are individuals, unique and all intriguing right down to the parents and other adults.  I see novels in each of the teens, they are so well drawn and interesting in their own right.  Each adult character carries their own youth with them, just as we all do, offering them a depth and level of understanding unusual in teen novels.

I was sincerely amazed by this novel.  It was an interesting, fluffy, deep, fast read that I could not put down.  Expect this to be a huge hit of the summer.  It has summer beach read written all over it, but even better it has a lot of brain behind it too.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has been raised in a sheltered polygamist society.  Her father has three wives, and she has twenty siblings.  Though she questions things, she tries to live within the rules of the society.  But she does break two very important rules.  First, she reads books from the local Library on Wheels that stops on a neighboring road, far enough away for her not to be seen.  Second, she has fallen in love with Joshua, a boy about her age.  But at a very important meeting of her family, the leader of the society declares that God has said she must marry her uncle instead of Joshua.  Kyra is repulsed and frightened by the very thought of marrying her sixty-year-old uncle.  But there is no easy solution to her predicament, even if she is courageous enough to stand up to the community.

Grippingly written, this book races along with the reader breathlessly hanging on.  Kyra is a compelling character who has chosen books over obedience.  Williams does an admirable job of creating a loving home life and family for Kyra, balancing the violence of the leaders of the community.  It creates a great tension in the book and allows readers to better relate to Kyra and her impossible decision.

Though the book is written for quick devouring, Williams’ writing is lovely.  She uses images and other senses to really create a world for her readers.  One of my favorite lines comes early in the novel:

I wait until all the lights have switched off.  I hide near the chicken coop, the smells so thick I could have hurled them at someone.

Delightfully crisp yet wonderfully evocative writing.

This book comes directly from the headlines.  It is also very well crafted, so expect demand and lots of word of mouth praise for it.  This belongs in every teen library collection.  Appropriate for 12-15 year olds.

King of the Screwups by K L Going.

Liam messes up everything that he touches, especially in his father’s eyes.  When screws up again, Liam is kicked out of the house.  His mother engineers it so that Liam is sent to live with his gay, glam-rocker uncle in a trailer in the middle of nowhere.  This is Liam’s chance to be different, be what his father wants, and not mess up.  But things aren’t that easy.  Liam tries to be unpopular, but can’t seem to manage it.  He tries to befriend the next-door neighbor but she dislikes him at first glance.  Though he tries to be a great student, he continues to get into all sorts of trouble at school: being late, not finishing assignments, and never bringing his materials to class.  What can a handsome, well-dressed teen do to make himself something he’s not!

Going has created a teen novel that takes stereotypes and turns them on their heads.  Here we have a straight kid with an eye for fashion, a popular kid who wants to be unpopular.  There is a delight to reading this novel.  One never knows what is going to turn out to be a screwup and what will be an amazing success.  That unexpected nature combines perfectly with Liam’s voice, creating a novel that is impossible to put down.  The strength of Liam’s characterization is central to this book, avoiding anything that could be stereotypical and instead being about an individual living in a world of unique people. 

A great teen novel, this book deserves to be widely read and applauded and shared with friends.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.