Christian Fiction: "New York Debut"

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Carlson, Melody. New York Debut, carter house girls series: Book Six. Carlson, Melody. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009.

Six teenage girls in a boarding house run by a retired fashion icon get ready for their debut in New York's Fashion Week. As the competition heats up DJ struggles with the attitudes and behaviors of herself and those around her. Can Christianity survive the catwalks of Manhattan?

Mrs. Carter is running a tight ship at her boardinghouse full of future models. Her granddaughter DJ is starting to wonder though if she's more concerned about their looks than their higher selves. She's also worried about her best friend Taylor who's checked herself into rehab and Kriti who's beginning to show signs of an eating disorder. On top of all this she's beginning to question her own motives concerning the ever shallow Eliza.

"You ever get the feeling we're running some kind of clinic here?" joked DJ. "Like maybe my grandmother should switch her focus from fashion to mental health. We could be the Carter House Rehabilitation Center for Young Women."

They all laughed, but DJ actually thought it was sort of pathetic. She also thought her grandmother should bear some of the blame if the girls under her care got any more messed up. Oh, sure, maybe these things would've happened anyway. But maybe not this latest problem with Kriti. It seemed a direct result of the atmosphere in this house. Not that Grandmother would be that concerned to hear about it.

"So how do we intervene?" asked Casey.

As the Carter House Girls prepare for the runway there are lessons to be learned that have nothing to do with posture and posing and everything to do with faith and good works.

Classic: "Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones"

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Head, Ann. Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones. New York: Signet, 1968.

An honest account of an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent joining-together in marriage of two teenagers in the late 1960's.

When someone spikes the punch at the party, Trilby High's football star and his girlfriend July end up on the beach for a night that will change their lives forever. First comes regret, then comes pregnancy, and then a hasty marriage. All while two sets of parents push them in different directions. Will these two be driven apart by the sacrifices an unplanned pregnancy forces them to make? Can love grow between two teenagers who sway between being moody, loving, rigid, patient, and the other hundred emotions their situation provokes? For better or for worse, will July and BoJo find out what it really means to be Mr. and Mrs. BoJo Jones?

Supernatural: "The Graveyard Book"

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Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. New York: Harper Collins, 2008.

Mr. and Mrs. Owens find a wee baby toddling in the green grass of the graveyard. They name him Nobody, Bod for short, and love him and try to protect him from the world outside. The world where his family was murdered by the man Jack.

Well: Just Who is Nobody Owens? This book set in the shimmering world of the graveyard has the answer and a cast of characters that you will never forget.

Set in England, Bod is an orphan who toddles out of his house where his family is being brutally murdered. He ends up in the graveyard where several centuries old ghosts raise him as their own. Mr. and Mrs. Owens love him and, along with his guardian, try to educate him to get through the dangers he will face. And dangers he does face as he embarks on adventures within and without the rattling gates of the graveyard.

As you read this story and meet it's characters including Bod, the Owen's, the Indigo Man, the terrible sleer, and the man Jack whose hand wields a knife, you will cheer for Nobody Owens. And Bod himself will learn the answer to the question Just Who is Nobody Owens?

Hugo Awards: Best Novel, Newbery Medal, Oprah's Kids' Reading Lists - New Releases: 10-to-12 Years, Locus Young Adult Book Award, Wisconsin Library Association Children's Book Awards: Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award, Booklist Editors' Choice - Books for Youth - Older Readers Category: 2008, YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2009, USBBY Outstanding International Books - Grades 6-8: 2009, ALA Notable Children's Books - Middle Readers Category: 2009

Historical: "The Luxe"

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Godbersen, Anna. The Luxe. New York: Harper Collins, 2007.

One longs for love, one longs for luxury, two long for Henry Schoonmaker, who will his truelove be?

Elizabeth, Penelope, Diana, and Lina swirl through mists of love and intrigue in 1899 New York. Wrapped in miles of antique shell pink satin, but with a modern heart, Elizabeth Holland is torn by the twin motivations of conscience and craving. As for her "best friend" Penelope, jealously fuels her every move. And poor Lina's feeling a little put out. Well, who wouldn't be a little put out when your childhood friend starts treating you like her maid? Which you are. And finally there's Diana...

"Diana was about to slip away quickly when she looked at Henry and decided that she wasn't done with him. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the parlor on the east side of the house...When they were on the other side of the oak door, she reluctantly let go of his hand. She looked up at the great canvases above, with their dark, roiling seas. They seemed to Diana like an approximation of her own feelings at the moment."

This sumptuous novel of luxury and extravagance will bring to life the social scene of turn of the century New York exposing the naked hearts of four of it's most captivating residents.

YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults: Fame and Fortune (2009)

Historical: "Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale"

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Napoli, Donna Jo. Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007.

When the daughter of a king is captured and enslaved, she learns that silence can be a powerful weapon.

Melkorka, daughter of one of the ancient kings of Eire land, is giddy with excitement as she sweeps through Dublin in celebration of her fifteenth birthday. At the height of her merriment, an ax sweeps through the air and a sudden scream pierces the street. Unbenownst to Melkorka that random act of aggression will split her world apart forever.

It is a time of battles and grudges and this recent act of brutality will not go unpunished. As her father plans his revenge on the vikings who have left her brother mutilated and writhing in pain, she is forced to flee with her sister Brigid. They are to follow the coastal path that will lead them to the ringfort where they will be taken in.

Disaster strikes and they are thrown onto a slave ship heading north. Stubbornness, bitter cold, and Melkorka's silence combine to create a facade that she hopes will keep her captors apprehensive so they will keep their distance. As her exterior turns to ice, inside she finds her old prejudices and beliefs melting away.

Will Melkorka's vow of silence be enough to keep them alive until they are close enough to shore to escape? What has happened to her family in Downpatrick? Read this coming-of-age tale to find out if freedom can be won with a will and a Hush.

Texas Tayshas Reading Lists. YALSA Best Books for Young Adults.

Historical: "Crispin: The Cross of Lead"

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Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead. New York: Hyperion, 2002.

Stripped of his family, his home and his possessions, thirteen year old Crispin finds himself enslaved and then befriended by a giant juggler called Bear.

Declared a "wolf's head" and on the run for a crime he did not commit, Crispin flees into the woods and into still more trouble. Enslaved by a giant of a man called Bear with ruddy red hair and beard, he is soon taught to play the recorder for his massive masters tricks. As Crispin is pursued by his enemies, he and the Bear head for Great Wexly where wolves are at the door and intrigue lines the streets.

Nearing the gate and a gauntlet of soldiers, Bear put a hand on Crispin's shoulder. "Crispen," he said softly, "try to show less worry. The worst disguise is fear."

"What if they stop me?"

"I don't think they will. But if they do, always remember what I told you; run away. Head into a crowd. Your size will hide you."

In this novel of medieval England, we learn that great friendship carries great responsibility and a cross of lead can be the key to freedom.

ALA Notable Children's Books. Newbery Medal.

Historical: "Catherine, Called Birdy"

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Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy. New York: HarperTrophy, 1994.

Looking for romance but about to be sold off to a shaggy-bearded revolting brute, Catherine plots to escape her fate.

Catherine, called Birdy, is a dainty damsel living in medieval England. Dainty that is when she's not rebelling against her "lady lessons" and a beast of a father ready to sell her to the highest bidder. "Corpus Bones!"

Catherine chronicles her young, rebellious and restless days in this day-by-day account of a young lady looking for romance while avoiding the revolting suitors her father has lined up for her.

In a time when girls were traded in marriage for wealth and status, is there hope for Catherine, a slip of a girl with big ideas, also known as Birdy?

Golden Kite Award. YALSA 100 Best Books (1950-2000). ALA Notable Children's Books. Newbery Honor Book. Booklist Editors' Choice. Parents' Choice Awards.

Historical: "Dogboy"

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Russell, Christopher. Dogboy. New York : Greenwillow Books, 2006.

Raised with dogs. Thrust into battle. Brind must find the courage to make his way home.

Who is Brind and why does he race over fallen oak and slippery mud with a pack of Sir Edmond Dowe's mastiffs? This novel of aggression and loyalty, revenge and love reads like an adventure movie complete with narrow escapes and twisting plot lines.

Set in medieval times, Brind, the Dogboy, was raised with a litter of mongrel pups and has lived with dogs ever since. When Sir Edmond heads to France to the Battle of Crécy, he takes Brind and the pack of dogs with him. He plans for Brind to control the dogs until the exact right moment when he will unleash them on the French as weapons of mass destruction.

As Brind travels across the French countryside shadows of darkness and mystery stretch far across that foreign land. But Brind is not alone and it is through Glaive, the most powerful dog in the pack, and Aurélie, a girl at war with herself, that Brind will discover just who he is and where he, the Dogboy, finally belongs.

Verse Novel: "Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?"

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Glenn, Mel. Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?: A Mystery in Poems. New York: Lodestar Books, 1996.

A murder mystery told in free verse poems answering the question: who killed Mr. Chippendale?

The end of Robert Chippendale, English teacher at Tower High, is the beginning of this tale. A tale told by the reactions of the students and faculty who knew him, the detective pursuing the murderer, and Angela Falcone, the guidance counselor who loved him.

According to the students:

He was the best teacher I ever had.
He was the worst teacher I ever had.
No, I'm not goin' to the funeral.
Why did he have to die?
Hey, this school is scary.
I remember that creep Chippendale saying
That the whole world is waiting for us.
I remember that wonderful Mr. Chippendale saying
That the whole world is waiting for us.

As shock turns to grief, the students at Tower High School are drawn to the door of Angela Falcone. Can she help them deal with their feelings while at the same time bowing to her own grief? Is it Angela Falcone, after all, who has the knowledge to draw the killer out and discover Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Verse Novel: "one of those hideous books where the mother dies"

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Sones, Sonya. One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004.

Ruby's mother dies and she is forced to leave Boston for Los Angeles to live with a father who abandoned her before she was born. A father who was too busy being a big Hollywood star to look her up before now.

Ruby was raised on the east coast by a mother that loved her and an Aunt she adores. When her mother dies, she finds herself on a plane to Los Angeles leaving behind her first real boyfriend, Ray, and her best friend in the world, Lizzie. Leaving her "whole entire life" behind to live with a father she's never met. A movie star father. An A-lister. A big star. A "scumbag" who divorced her mother before Ruby was even born.

"A billion flashbulbs are exploding all around us
and people are shouting and pushing and shoving
and sticking cameras in our faces
and crowding so close
that it feels like we're in a mosh pit.
"Whip! Whip!" they're calling
"Is that your long lost daughter?"

Whip may be an Oscar winning actor, but Ruby intends to make this role the most difficult he'll ever play. Will she come to terms with the past and forgive him? Will she fit in at her new school? Will next door neighbor, Cameron Diaz, who keeps breezing in borrow things, be her new stepmother? Read these heartfelt words of a girl whose life turns serious and who doesn't want her life to be just like one of those hideous books where the mother dies.

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Rhode Island Teen Book Award. Iowa Teen Award. YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults - What Makes a Family?

Verse Novel: "Crashboomlove"

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Herrera, Juan Felipe. CrashBoomLove: A Novel in Verse. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

A Mexican American navigates high school amidst racial tension, drug offerings, and blackboards swirling with words he can't read. Only when everything crashes around him, can he begin to redesign his life as a life with a future.

César Garcia is hungry. Hungry for something besides the chaos that is Rambling West High School. Hungry for more than the Welfare can provide. Hungry for an end to smashing fists and smashing words. Hungry for love, even crashboomlove.

César's world is closing in on him. He is being drawn into using drugs, the Hmongs are fighting the Chicanos, and his friends are upping their illegal activities. Is this what a migrant workers' son can expect out of life? Or is there a better place for him?

El agua es blanda, la piedra dura,
pero, gota a gota, hace cavadura.

Water is soft, rocks are hard,
but, drop by drop, water finds a way.

Will César find his way?

YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Verse Novel: "A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl"

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Stone, Tanya Lee. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl. New York: Simon & Shuster, 2004.

Three high school girls are manipulated by a bad boy with some good lines. Tables are turned when they get a revenge that's "by the book".

Who are Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva? And why are they acting so stupid? This novel is a confidential look at high school life through three girl's experiences as they cross paths with an irresistible "big jock" on campus.

Josie is a jock herself and is confident in all things until she starts her freshmen year. Doubts set in, and big jock knows just how to manipulate her. Nicolette? Well she's the girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. She'll take her pleasure where she finds it without ever looking back. Until big jock that is. And finally there's Aviva, the least likely to be taken in by big jock. A hippie by-product of enlightened parents. Did I say the least likely to be taken in?

Just who are Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva? You'll find out when they discover a peculiar pulpit from which to deliver their new insights on love. Insights gained from a bad boy who in the end probably did do them some good.

YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Texas Tayshas Reading List.

Verse Novel: "Sweetgrass Basket"

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Carvell, Marlene. Sweetgrass Basket. New York: Dutton Childrens Books, 2005.

A father is convinced to send his two daughters to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to give them a better future. Their days at the school are bleak with rare moments of hope.

Mattie and Sarah, two Mohawk sisters, are sent away from their home to a boarding school back east. A school of unrelated individuals plucked from their Indian homes, promised opportunity, and delivered more cruelty than comprehension. But in between the harsher lessons, there are lessons in friendship, and a teacher's kindness, and what it really means to be a sister in your heart.

When Mrs. Dwyer shames Mattie, accusing her of stealing a brooch, she is stripped of her dignity, her strength, and the respect of her fellow students. Will Mattie and Sarah be defeated by Mrs. Dwyer, turncoat Ida, and the Carlisle Indian School? Or are there resources to be found tucked away in a basket? A basket full of hopes and dreams and made with the love of a mother. A sweetwater basket.

ALA Notable Children's Book.

Verse Novel: "Frenchtown Summer"

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Cormier, Robert. Frenchtown Summer. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999.

As Eugene comes of age in the tenements of Frenchtown, he comes face to face with tragedy, love, excitement, and mystery.

Summer is a time of maturity, a time of harvest, and for twelve year old Eugene it is a time of tremendous growth. In this story, an older Eugene is taken back to the way it was in his memory. A memory steeped in sweltering heat and the emotional conditions that capture the mind of a twelve year old dreamer.

"That was the summer of my first paper route,
and I walked the tenement canyons
of Frenchtown
delivering The Monument Times,
dodging bullies and dogs,
wondering what I was doing
here on planet Earth,
not knowing yet that the deep emptiness
inside me
was
loneliness."

But Eugene finds he is not alone in this world. There are enemies to battle, friends to find adventure with, and first loves to dream upon. And there is Uncle Med, gone suddenly. And in the middle of sadness there is an orange airplane with lightening streaks of white on the fuselage set down in the middle of a Frenchtown backyard. Impossible you say? Read Frenchtown Summer to discover for yourself.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize. School Library Journal Best Book.

Verse Novel: "Street Love"

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Myers, Walter Dean. Street Love. New York: Amistad, 2006.

Two households both alike in dignity,
In urban Harlem, where we lay our scene,
Love holds all promise if she'll let him in,
our Junice Ambers and her Damian.

Two star-crossed lovers sigh in Harlem. What forces conspire to keep them apart? Rival gangs, rival mother's, their own rival imaginations? Imaginations that keep them at cross purposes?

Damian Battle is headed to Brown where he competed for and earned a spot at one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Junice Ambers is headed to the Bedford Hills Prison where her mother has been sentenced to and earned (according to the courts) her place of despair.

This tale, breathtakingly told in elegant verse, is both tragedy and love story. Will the sadness of impoverished Harlem undue them? Or will love conquer all as Junice turns to Damian and their hearts become full and the darkness of the street is illuminated.

YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Verse Novel: "Out of the Dust"

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Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. New York: Scholastic Press, 1997.

A young girl comes of age in Oklahoma as dust storms combine with the Great Depression to create a mountain of hardships.

Dust can be angry and dust can be mean, and the dust storms that settled on Oklahoma during the great depression could break a family's heart. This is the story of one such family- a man, a woman, and a girl. A story of challenges faced when the soil dries up and partners with the wind and becomes an aggressor in a war without end.

"On Sunday,
winds came,
bringing a red dust
like prairie fire,
hot and peppery,
searing the inside of my nose,
the whites of my eyes,
Roaring dust,
turning the day from sunlight to midnight."

When Billie Jo's mother is killed, she must not only weather the storms outside, but she must also weather the silence of being neglected and overlooked by her father. This is their story. A story of dust and rain. But also a story of blossoming hopes.

Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award. Booklist Editors' Choice. YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. ALA Notable Children's Book. Newbery Medal. School Library Journal Best Book.

Science Fiction: "Mind of My Mind"

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Butler, Octavia E. Mind of My Mind. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977.

Second in the patternist series, this book features the struggle between an immortal and his creations.

Octavia Butler's chronicle of a 4000 year old Nubian and his chosen disciple will take you into a world where flesh is fleeting but the mind is for the millennia. A world where force and compassion, and caprice and justice collide. The world of Mary who will fight her father/lover/master for control of a people whose very existence may depend on her.

"She was like a living creature of fire. Not human. No more human than he was. He had lied to her about that once- lied to calm her when she was a child. And her major weakness, her vulnerable, irreplaceable human body, had made the lie seem true. But that body, like his own series of bodies, was only a mask, a shell. He saw her now as she really was, and she might have been his twin. But, no, she was not his twin. She was a smaller, much younger being. A complete version of him. A mistake that he would not make again."

As Mary learns her true power will she be able to bring others into her pattern of minds to form a unified whole? Or will Doro manage to separate the threads, unraveling their plans and securing his place? A place he's held for 4000 years. Read Mind of My Mind to see who finds freedom in this unfree world.

Graphic Novel: "Green Arrow: Year One"

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Diggle, Andy, and Jock. Green Arrow: Year One. New York: DC Comics, 2008.

Double crossed and assumed dead, Oliver Queen drags himself up onto the beach of a deserted island. It turns out he is not alone and both friend and foe will cross paths on this jungle island of misery and intrigue.

Oliver Queen is a man on the move. Looking for adventure, a rendezvous with the latest supermodel, and his next bottle of booze. Will he never tire of trying to make it happen (whatever it is)? Or will he risk everything for those who have nothing?

Our millionaire playboy needs to get out of town fast when he creates a scene at a fundraiser for a drug rehab. It is there that he throws out the winning bid for a longbow once owned by the legendary archer Howard Hill. Leaving with the bow in his hand and his tail between his legs, he decides to travel with his assistant to Fiji where a sketchy business deal is going down. Or so he thinks.

That boat's not heading to Fiji! And Oliver Queen is in for the fight of his life. A fight brought to life in action packed living color. Marooned on a jungle island, will Queen go down in a blaze of glory? Or will our chartreuse hooded hero be a match for the evil China White? Read this compilation to see an ex-playboy with a thirst for justice take on a small army of drug dealers for a target. A fitting target as the legend begins; the legend of the Green Arrow.

YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens.

Manga: "Chibi Vampire"

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Kagesaki, Yuna. Chibi Vampire. Los Angeles: TOKYOPOP, 2003.

Karen is from an ancient line of vampires and is actually a vampire in reverse. As if gushing with extra blood every month isn't enough, a new boy arrives at school and the effect he has on her makes things even more complicated.

Who is Chibi Vampire and why is she feeling so drained? This manga, first in a series, will introduce you to the Maaka family whose middle child is a little vampire with some big problems.

Karin Maaka comes from a family of vampires including a "sexy creature of the night" older brother Ren and her bat controlling little sister Anju. Karin was not born a normal vampire like the rest of her family- she doesn't suck the blood of her victims, she deposits her blood into them. Each month she fills up like a tick and worries she might have one of her niagra nosebleeds at school if she doesn't get rid of some blood fast. Life gets even more complicated when a new boy arrives at her high school and she finds herself inexplicably blood bloated every time he comes near her.

You will be drawn into this pop-gothic world of vampires dealing with the comedy and horrors of adolescent development. The manga artwork is a perfect backdrop for this dark comedy of errors. It could get very interesting for you finding out: who is Chibi Vampire and why is she feeling so drained?

Multicultural: "A Step from Heaven"

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Na, An. A Step from Heaven. Asheville, NC: Front Street, 2001.

Young Ju Park moves from Korea to the United States when she is five. The road to a better life is long with many challenges, sadness's, and joys.

Young Ju Park, like the rose of sharon she left behind in Korea, is a delicate flower able to withstand heat, humidity, drought and poor soils. A flower so easily broken that it is hard to imagine what makes it stand through the urban heat and still find the will to bloom.

Young Ju and her parents move from Korea with the hope of finding a better life in America. As Young Ju struggles to learn the language, and her mother finds strength in faith and friendship, her father falls into the abyss of alcoholism. And so unfolds this story of an immigrant family from Young Ju's preschool years to her graduation from high school and hopes for the future.

Will her father's descent into alcohol undue them all? Or will Young Ju and her mother and brother be able to keep their footing, secure in the knowledge that they are only A Step from Heaven?

Booklist Editors' Choice. International Reading Association Children's Book Award. Michael L. Printz Award. New York Times Notable Books. YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. ALA Notable Children's Books. School Library Journal Best Books.

Fantasy: "Skellig"

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Almond, David. Skellig. NY: Dell Yearling, 1998.

Lying among the dead bluebottles and dust, Skellig inhabits the garage of Michael's new house. With the help of Mina, Michael will try to help this sorrowful creature recover.

Well: who is Skelling? This story takes us into a crumbling garage where bluebottles and spiders drop unexpectedly, and unknown things scuttle about. Where also a retched creature in a dusty black suit slowly deteriorates...

This story is set in a small town in England where David and his family have moved with the new baby who is very sick. As his parent's tend to his sister, David is full of tension and resentment. Why did they have to move? Why doesn't his sister get well? Why all this change?

David finds Skellig in the garage and sets about trying to help him. Together with Mina, his new friend and neighbor, they embark upon a course of action that they hope will bring about recovery. It is in that healing they will find out who they are and who exactly is Skellig.

Carnegie Medal. Garden State Teen Book Award. New York Times Notable Book. ALA Notable Children's Book. Booklist Editors' Choice. School Library Journal Best Book. Costa Book Award. Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Parents' Choice Award.

Horror: "Vampire Kisses"

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Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses. NY: Harper Collins, 2003.

Raven Madison dreams of vampire love. Could Alexander Sterling be the one she's been dreaming of?

Raven resides in Dullsville, a modern day town without pity. Rumors fly, like bats in a belfry, circling the new family living in the mysterious mansion on the hill. Although Raven is excited about the prospect of having her first vampire kiss, she also worries about what a town without pity can do...

Raven is the number-one outcast in her highly conformist high school, she finds solace engaging in her number one, two, and three passions- watching vampire movies, dreaming about vampires, and plotting the fall of her nemeses Trevor. Her fantasies of vampire love seem about to come true when she finally meets Alexander Sterling. The boy on the hill.

"I had waited for a moment like this all my life. To see, to meet, to befriend someone who was very different from everyone else, and just like me. Suddenly the reality of the situation hit me. I had been caught."

It's the height of the high school social season and the Snow Ball is approaching. Will Raven be caught in the tangled web of her own deceit or will she be the willing victim of Vampire Kisses?

YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Realistic: "Monster"

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Myers, Walter D. Monster. NY: Harper Collins, 1999.

A young man sits in jail awaiting trial for a robbery in which a shopkeeper was killed. This is a film script of the events leading up to the trial, the trial itself, and the verdict.

The events of Steve Harmon's life have created an eddy of nightmarish possibilities for punishment of a crime. A crime he may or may not have committed. As the facts and fictions of the crime swirl through his head, he tries to calm his growing panic by recording the terrifying events of his recent life as a film script.

Steve is a good kid from a good family from a good home in a bad part of town. He has no record of prior arrests, but an array of bad characters has fingered him as the lookout for a recent robbery. A robbery-gone-bad where a shopkeeper was killed. Are the bad guys pointing at him so they can cut a deal for themselves? Or was Steve sucked into the crime with the promise of some fast cash. Is this all really nothing more than a film script? A mere figment of Steve Harmon's imagination?

Monster? You be the judge.

Booklist Editors' Choice. Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Michael L. Prinz Award. New York Times Notable Book. YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound. YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. Kentucky Bluegrass Award.

GLBTQ: "Keesha's House"

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Frost, Helen. Keesha's House. Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press, 2005.

Seven teens on the run find shelter at Keesha's house.

The stories are nothin' new: Stephie and Jason get pregnant, Dontay runs from foster care, Carmen is in for DUI, Harris's father can't accept he's gay, and Katie's mother can't see her abusive stepfather for the piece of crap he is.

The stories are nothin' new, but this time they have a place to go...Keesha's house. The house actually belongs to Joe, and while he is the heart it, Keesha is the heart and soul of this house.

It used to be when kids showed up they'd say,
I'm lookin' for Joe's house. Somebody sent me
here
and said to ask you for a place to stay
tonight. They'd stay a week, a month,
a year...
It's still like that, 'cept now they look at
me
like, where'd you come from? Ain't this
Keesha's house?

This story is told in the first person using a hybrid of traditional and non-traditional sestinas and sonnets. Some of the seven teenagers will find their way back home and some of the seven will make their home in a house that's both beautiful and durable- Keesha's house.

Michael L. Printz Honor Book. YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, What Makes a Family?

Historical: "Wolf by the Ears"

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Rinaldi, Ann. Wolf by the Ears. NY: Scholastic, 1991.

Time is running out for Harriet Hemmings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, who must choose between a life at Monticello and a life of freedom. This historical novel is told in the form of a diary.

Harriet will be turning twenty-one soon and will be forced to choose between the only home she's ever known and true freedom. The kind of freedom which can only be bought through secrets and disguise.

Well dressed, well schooled, well fed, and well loved. Harriet Hemmings has it all. Or does she? Raised at Monticello, the daughter of Sally Hemmings, she is also rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Thus she is held in high esteem by the man himself and feels in her heart that he will protect her. But he is getting old and losing his money. If something happens to him, what will happen to her? Would she be sold with the place? Or will the slaves in Virginia be set free? When the Governor of Virginia pleads with her to take her freedom she is hesitant and says, "But you're going to free Virginia's slaves."

He replies, "The pro-slavery people in this state are too strong. Look at my father-in-law. He can't make his mind up about slavery. Hates it, yes. Says it's a wolf America has by the ears. And that we can no longer hold onto it. But neither can we let it go."

If Harriet doesn't take her chance when her time comes, can she count on continuing to be treated well? Or will she too be caught like a wolf by the ears?

Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award.

Biography: "The Rose that Grew from Concrete"

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Shakur, Tupac. The Rose That Grew From Concrete. NY: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999.

Recording artist, Tupac Shakur, died young and tragically. These poems written at 19 foreshadow his great talent.

Before he recorded his albums and became a shining star, Tupac was once 19 and feeling like the rose that grew from the concrete.

Who was Tupac Shakur? The legends will tell you one thing and anecdotes will tell you another. This journal kept when he was 19 may be closer to the truth. It's all here: love and miscarriages, Marilyn Monroe, heroes, times of love, times of anger, and times of quiet faith.

Open the book and decide for yourself. Who was Tupac Shakur?

YALSA Outstanding Book for the College Bound. YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Classic: "Weetzie Bat"

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Block, Francesca Lia. Weetzie Bat. NY: Harper Collins, 1989.

A punk laced fairy tale set in the City of Angels. Weetzie may have the help of the genie of the lamp, but she'll need more than that to live happily ever after.

Tooling around Hollywood with her best friend Dirk in his slinkster-cool car, Weetzie Bat searches for love and dreams about living happily ever after. But ambitions change and ever afters are never guaranteed and just living happily for one moment takes a lot of assembling.

Will it all come together for Weetzie Bat and Dirk and the colorful cast of characters that populate this hipster genie in a bottle type tale? Follow them as they go "duck hunting"; each looking for their one true love. Witness Weetzie Bat as she tries to pull her father back from grey New York to the sunlit boulevards of Hollywood. Try to follow the logic when Dirk and Duck, her two gay friends, convince themselves and Weetzie that if they all sleep together and make a baby, Weetzie's Secret Agent Lover Man (who doesn't want to bring a child into this world) will come around.

This mythological melodrama is like jazz on a page. All syncopated rhythms, ensemble casting, and the spontaneity of Weetzie's improvisations. But for all its' complexity, there is the simple message of love hidden amongst the crazy swings of pitch and timbre.

YALSA 100 Best Books 1950-2000. Parents' Choice Award.

Classic: "Forever"

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Blume, Judy. Forever. NY: Pocket Books, 1975.

This is a story about love and promises and how time passing can change everything.

What events happen in this story? Katherine wonders what it would be like to do it. Katherine thinks about doing it with Michael. Katherine does it. Katherine thinks she will love Michael forever. Things change.

What I liked about this story when I read it in 1975 (at fourteen)? Details! Details! Details!

What I thought the second time around? Although the book is still a page turner, this time I got more of the book's theme. While Katherine's parents try to protect her, and her grandmother tries to inform her, I wanted to shake her and tell her 18 is not forever- it's an instant! A second. A mere moment of life. But try telling that to Romeo & Juliet or Bella & Edward or Katherine & Michael.

YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults, Sex is... 2008.

Classic: "M.C. Higgins, The Great"

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Hamilton, Virginia. M.C. Higgins, The Great. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1974.

A young boy comes of age in the mountains of Ohio as strip mining threatens their way of life. When his father refuses to acknowledge the danger, M.C. must decide whether to take a stand or to shepherd them along.

M.C. Higgins watches over his little sister Macie Pearl and his brothers as they swim in the lake and scamper up the hill to their rustic house with its' parlor of hand-me-downs. "They stay safe. They listen to me."

Life on Sarah's mountain is full of majesty and secret dangers and buried pasts. It all comes together as two strangers pay a visit, a friend is acknowledged, and environmental degradation raises its' head in the form an oppressive leftover strip-mining heap.

Like the generations before and after them, the Higgins clan is full of different personalities with hopes and dreams and fun and frustrations all their own. The fabric of family holds them together through good times and bad. As M.C. comes of age and challenges his father's assumptions and prejudices he learns the true price of greatness.

Newberry Medal. National Book Award. Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.