Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Inspired by the dramatic increase of girl-on-girl violence, Williams-Garcia has given us a day in high school leading up to a violent incident.  Dominique is already angry that her grades are keeping her off the basketball court, but when Trina pushes past her that is the last straw.  She knows that she can’t just take the disrespect, she has to react.  Trina is oblivious to the what happened with Dominique since she is rushing to hang her artwork in the gallery.  Trina is self-absorbed and very confident knowing that everyone in the school likes her. Leticia witnesses the event and knows that Dominique is angry and has threatened revenge.  But what if she didn’t see what she thought she did?  Is it worth getting involved?

In rotating chapters, the reader gets to see the school day from each girl’s point of view.  Each girl has her own unique voice, way of speaking and way of approaching the world of school.  Williams-Garcia excels at making internal dialogue gripping and at the same time revealing.  She has also created characters that will get readers thinking.  All of the girls are complicated and so the fight is complicated as well.  This is not a stark world where there is good and evil, but a real place where all of us are a mix of the two.  It is a treat to read a book where the author is not afraid of making the victim vain and the instigator a sympathetic character.

This book is ripe for discussion.  Recommended for both school and public libraries.  Appropriate for ages 14-16.

Mousetraps by Pat Schmatz

Maxie is a person who looks at the world through her cartoon lens as she draws pictures of everything around her.  Her family is large, boisterous and close and little has happened to challenge her security.  Except that incident with Roddy her friend in grade school whom she abandoned when things got tough.  Now Roddy, who calls himself Rick, has returned to the community, high school and Maxie’s life.  Maxie is confronted on many fronts by how her own choices and her familial security have kept her blind to many complex situations right in front of her. 

It is a joy to watch Maxie make realizations and change in believable and interesting ways without losing what makes her herself.  Schmatz writes with an intriguing mixture of forthright plot-based writing and occasional glimpses of poetry and musing.  Maxie is an intriguing character who is neither pretty nor ugly, girly or tomboyish, lonely or popular.  She is what most teens are: somewhere in the middle but also very special and talented in her own way.

The book is also very timely in its subject matter.  Readers will get to explore the issues of being gay, bullying and violence in a book that takes each of them seriously and offers hope and solutions.  The homosexual characters in the book are far from stereotypical and offer a look at how modern families have adapted and grown to not just accept but embrace all family members.  This is done very believably and lacks any heavy-handedness.  The tone is perfection.

Appropriate for ages 14-16, this is a clever, interesting and often surprising novel.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

Terra plans to leave her controlling father and weak mother behind when she heads to college a year early across the country.  But it will not be so easy to leave her history behind her, she carries it with her every day.  Just like the large port wine stain on half of her face, her ego and every thought are marked by her family life.  And just like that birthmark, she tries to cover over and mask the truth.  When she literally bumps into Jacob, an intriguing Goth boy who immediately understands her like no one else has, her life begins to change.   She starts to face the truth of what her family is and what her own role is in the dysfunction.  But will she ever be able to face the world without her mask?

Beautifully written, this book is like gazing into someone’s soul put to paper.  At times it is filled with such raw honesty that it is painful to read.  Each reader will bring their own stain to the book, see themselves reflected within, and take heart away from it.  Headley writes with a confidence and gentle natural rhythm that carries one through the novel.  It is as impossible to put down as any book I have read recently. 

Headley’s touch with the love story in the novel is deft and brilliant.  From the tiny touches that mean so much, to the electricity in eye contact, it brings all of those feelings vividly to life.  She also weaves cartography into the text with a beautiful touch that allows it to have symbolic meaning to the reader but not over take the book by being heavy handed. 

This book will speak to any reader who picks it up.  It is for those who fit in and those who don’t, those who are in love and those who think they never will be.  Simply brilliant, this is definitely one of the top teen novels of the year.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Lament: the Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

A new voice in urban fantasy has entered the scene.  In the tradition of Melissa Marr and Holly Black, Stiefvater has created a world filled with the strangeness of faerie, strafed by their cruelty and endangered by their attention.  Deirdre is a gifted musician who plays the harp and sings, but she gets horrible stage fright.  While throwing up before a competition, she is helped by a boy from her dreams, Luke Dillon.  Luke performs with Deirdre, together creating incredible music and winning the grand prize.  But Luke is the first sign that Deirdre’s life is about to change dramatically.  Deirdre starts to see four-leaf clovers everywhere and her grandmother asks her to wear an iron ring for protection.  But nothing can protect her from falling in love with Luke, who turns out to be far more dangerous than she would ever have dreamed.

First, I have to say that I really dislike the cover of this book.  While I can stand back and see it as a thing of beauty, it doesn’t work to sell this novel to readers.  The back cover has a tumble of red nails and twisted designs that may have worked better.  Stiefvater’s web site has a new cover on display which really fits the story better.

This book is hauntingly lovely, achingly filled with passion, and scarily vivid.  I love the pacing of the novel where just like Deirdre, the reader is trying to figure out what Luke is.  Once they and Deirdre know the truth it is impossible to extricate themselves from the situation.  The book is gripping and fascinating.  There are points where the reader can be a little lost, especially at the beginning, but those few moments aside the book is well crafted.  The achingly tragic scenes of the love of Deirdre and Luke are the best written in the novel.  Readers who enjoy doomed love affairs will find this novel very satisfying.

Recommended as a great book to hand Marr and Black fans, this novel is appropriate for ages 14-17. 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

It starts with a day off of school where a light snow in the Portland area brings everything to a halt.  The snow melts by mid-morning and Mia heads off for a day with her family in their car.  They argue about what to listen to on the radio, tease her mother about her cooking, and all is near bliss.  Until the accident.  Now Mia has to decide.  She is the one in control though she doesn’t want to be.  She has to choose life…or death.

This slim volume contains such heartache, such wonder and such tenderness that it should take twice the amount of words it does!  Somehow in under 200 pages, Forman has created a character who becomes not only real, but open and vulnerable and achingly available to the reader.  Through flashbacks, we get to learn about her love of the cello, the gift for music, her early relationship with her boyfriend, and her amazing parents.  Things are beautiful but honest: life with a boyfriend is not perfect and her parents are different from most.  This is real life with all of the troubles but all of the joy too.  Forman’s writing is gripping,honest and at times so gentle that it’s a caress.  Her writing is what makes this book work.  It never tumbles down the slope of melodrama, instead keeping true and unflinching.

Make sure you have a box of Kleenex handy for this one.  It’s nearly impossible to put down and equally difficult to get out of your head.  Readers of Lurlene McDaniel will love this, and find a book with writing to match the emotions.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.