young adult

Who says a beach read has to be trashy? No such thing, say I! I spent Sunday afternoon at Lake Michigan and, since the water was closed due to bad rip currents, lay on the beach reading Love & Lies: Marisol's Story, Ellen Wittlinger's latest.

If you've read Wittlinger's Printz Honor-winning Hard Love, you've met zine writer Marisol Guzman. If not, you're about to. Marisol is eighteen years old, smart, gutsy, and gay, and she doesn't care who knows it. She's taking a gap year in Cambridge, Mass, to (mostly) make her own way in the world while writing her first novel.

When she shows up for Day One of her novel-writing course, two surprises await her. First, old friend Gio/John, who had a horrible crush on her last year, is in the class. (Awkward...) Second, the teacher, Olivia Frost, is drop-dead gorgeous, overflows with writerly wisdom, and thinks Marisol is a real talent! And that crush Marisol has on her just might be requited...

Thrilled to be in her first real relationship, Marisol can't see what her friends—and the book's readers—do almost immediately: that Olivia is not the gem Marisol thinks she is. It's wrenching to see the usually confident (possibly a little conceited) Marisol crumble under Olivia's manipulative thumb, and more than one relationship will be destroyed before things look up. But Wittlinger's well-developed characters and realism delve neither into melodrama nor easy solutions. It's good, solid writing in a good, solid story.

If you've read other books by Ellen Wittlinger, you won't have escaped the references to various folk musicians (e.g., Dar Williams) her characters love. In Love & Lies, it's Girlyman that gets the nod on page 80, which tickled me to no end for reasons explained here.

Love & Lies was reviewed (more spoilerifically) at Big A little a and Worth the Trip. Wittlinger was also recently interviewed by the Class of 2K8 about her experience as a Printz Honor winner.

Now, to go back and reread Hard Love...

I've read quite a few very good books the past couple months, but I'd feel silly reviewing them here. These days, I choose the vast majority of my books based on blog recommendations—i.e., books that have probably been reviewed multiple times on various widely read blogs. I feel like I'd just be saying, "Ditto, ditto, ditto."

Well, here is a post to do just that. Some of my favorite reads from the past couple months. Links to other people's reviews. And me saying, "Yeah, uh huh, yeah."

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
"While the price of security and freedom is high, it is never too high." But what about when the price of security is freedom? In this frighteningly plausible tale of homeland security v. personal freedom, teenager Marcus, after being detained in a secret prison for suspected terrorism, starts a freedom-fighting movement among his fellow teens in San Francisco, taking advantage of the Internet's culture and (if you do it right) anonymity. But can a bunch of kids really take on the U.S. government and win? Words of wisdom: "Don't trust anyone over 25."

Reviewed by every blogger and her cousin, including...

• Confessions of a Bibliovore
• Jen Robinson's Book Page
• The Reading Zone

The Shape of Water, by Anne Spollen
Andrew Karre mentioned this one in the comments to my post about teen books dealing with depression, and then it snagged a starred review from Kirkus (no mean feat), officially putting it on my radar. That was all I knew going into it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And even if I'd been told what to expect, I don't think it would have prepared me for what I found. To say that this book is about grief and moving beyond grief isn't sufficient. It took me by surprise with its strangeness and beauty and glimpses of humor amid the darkness.

Reviewed more coherently at:

• Confessions of a Bibliovore

Set in Stone, by Linda Newbery
Actually, having searched Google Reader, I'm not sure where I got the rec for this one, but this was another book that swept me away. Though a challenging read due to its formal early 1900s language, it manages to be quite the page-turner! Fresh university graduate Samuel Godwin arrives at the Four Winds to tutor the estate's two teenage girls in art, where he soon senses that all is not as it seems. Meanwhile, the girls' young governess, Charlotte Agnew, is reluctantly reaching similar conclusions. What lurid secret drove away the last art tutor and last governess in quick succession? Did it have anything to do with the girls' mother's tragic death? I know I said I'm something of a callous soul when it comes to crying over books, but the beauty and power of this book brought tears to my eyes in the closing pages.

Unfortunately, every review I've seen of Set in Stone contains spoilers I wish I'd missed, so as to better enjoy the mystery. But if you want to know what you're getting into, it was reviewed at:

• Big A little a

Twelve Long Months, by Brian Malloy
Unrequited love is a familiar theme in coming-of-age novels, but it never feels stale in this book. Molly has left small-town Minnesota for Columbia University; as it happens, Mark, the object of her affection, is headed the same way to work for his uncle's painting business. Mark, Molly learns before completely humiliating herself, is gay. If it only it were that easy to shut off her feelings for him! Malloy avoids stereotypes, cliches, and the Hollywood version of college, and the last lines are so perfect for the story I have to share them: "I guess you could call this a love story. Not the one I wanted or imagined, but a love story, all the same."

Falling into the recent discussion of class in YA lit, Molly comes from a family without much money, her parents did not go to college, she attends Columbia on a full scholarship, and she often has to let her more affluent friends pay for their nights out. In turn, Molly has more money than Mark, who supports himself working in a drugstore, and when she returns to Minnesota views the town's low to low-middle income circumstances with fresh eyes.

More extensively reviewed at:

• Worth the Trip
• YA New York

Black Rabbit Summer, by Kevin Brooks
I tore through this loosely (but never shlockily) written, somewhat psychedelic thriller at breakneck pace. Pete, his sensitive but socially-off friend Raymond, and several other old friends meet up for a drink and a night at the carnival. Cue the off-key carousel music and scary clowns! By the end of the night, Raymond has disappeared—and so has the town's pop starlet. When the police and media focus all the attention on saving her case, treating Raymond only as a suspect, Pete delves into an investigation of his own. The book reads like a cross between Donnie Darko and Brick would watch: dark, violent, weird, yet thoughtful.

Reviewed at:

Worth the Trip

Everything You Want, by Barbara Shoup
So often we see money as the great problem solver. But after Emma's family wins a lotto jackpot, Emma begins to wonder if it actually creates more problems than it solves. We all know the truisms "the best things in life aren't things" and "money can't buy me love", etc., but this book never becomes a morality play (or the Beverly Hillbillies). It's about each character searching out what they truly want in spite of—rather than because of—the new money in their lives. For Emma, a college freshman who's never dated (her closest experience hither-to resulted in her getting punched in the face), it's about groping her way into the future and, she hopes, finding love along the way—universal themes in spite of extraordinary circumstances. Also, did I mention that much of the dialogue is downright hilarious?

Reviewed at:

• Bookshelves of Doom

No Cream Puffs, by Karen Day
In the year 1980, Maddie will be the first girl to play baseball in her town's middle school league. Problem is, she doesn't want to be a celebrity or viewed as a trailblazer; she just wants to play ball (and hopefully attract the attention of cute teammate Tommy). This is a gently humorous upper-middle-grade novel dealing with typical family, friendship, and crush concerns in the context of sports. Its execution, with fine writing and well-rounded characters, is what makes it stand out.

My only quibble worth mentioning was the use of "feminist" as a dirty word. I understand that Maddie doesn't view herself as a feminist, but I wish a knowledgeable adult (Mom, maybe?) could have explained that yes, actually, she is—that feminism doesn't mean bra-burning or man-hating but, y'know, pursuing your dreams on the assumption that your gender shouldn't matter to the world at large. There's too many people in 2008 who still don't understand that. Can we please set the next generation straight?

Reviewed at:

• Jen Robinson's Book Page

It's been a very good couple of weeks, reading-wise. These are two of my favorites, both excellent graphic novels for adults and teens.

Life Sucks, by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece (First Second, 2008)

What if vampires weren’t the romantic figures of legend: rich, beautiful, and powerful? What if they were ordinary people with “regular crappy jobs”?

That’s the question Dave poses to his vampire-wannabe crush Rosa, and he ought to know. Transformed (and therefore enslaved) by a Romanian, poker-playing sleazebag vampire named Radu, Dave is doomed to spend the rest of eternity as night manager at the Last Stop convenience store, rotating hotdogs and selling blood orange juice to the nightly crowd of vegetarian goths.

Dave endures all the drawbacks of being a vampire (can’t endure sunlight or regular food) but enjoys none of the perks. He’s the same shy, gawky geek as ever, and his work uniform isn’t exactly a chick magnet. Because he refuses to kill, drinking only expired plasma, he can’t cash in on powers like super-strength, hypnotism, and turning to mist. How can he possibly compete for Rosa’s affection?

Life Sucks is Clerks meets Dracula meets Better Off Dead, in all the best possible ways. Winning characters, hilarious dialogue, strong writing, and top-notch art make this a graphic novel you won’t want to miss. Highly recommended for teens and adults.

More Links
Bookshelves of Doom reviews Life Sucks.

Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood, 2008)

In this quiet, poignant coming-of-age story, high schooler Kim (called Skim because she’s so often overlooked) comes to grip with Life in the wake of a fellow teen’s suicide.

Kim struggles with many familiar teen concerns. She seeks to define her identity through her diary and exploration of goth culture and Wicca. Her best friend, Lisa, seems to be drifting away. Kim’s hopelessly in love with her English teacher, Ms. Archer (significantly complicated by Ms. Archer seeming to reciprocate). She feels terribly out of place among the phonies at her all-girls school, all of whom seem to think she's suicidal just because she's different and on the morose side.

What makes this book so special is the fine storytelling and gorgeous, brushy illustrations. The characters are sympathetic and fully realized, and the writing is beautifully spare with plenty of wry humor. Again, highly recommended for teens and adults.

More Links
Belletristic Impressions interviews Mariko Tamaki.

I love gritty speculative fiction, even though it has a tendency to give me bad dreams. The scenarios lie on the borders of the realm of possibility, just a little too close for comfort and utterly gripping. So, of course I picked up The Compound, by S. A. Bodeen.

Eli Yanakakis’s billionaire father has always warned the family about the possibility of nuclear war, the need to disappear underground when the bombs hit. On Eli’s ninth birthday, that time comes. The whole family flees to the state-of-the-art bunker Mr. Yanakakis has prepared for them in eastern Washington—the whole family except Gram and Eli’s twin brother Eddy.

Six years later, Eli is wracked with guilt and starting to worry for himself and the rest of his family. There’s no way their food supply is going to last the whole fifteen years needed to survive a nuclear winter, and Mr. Yanakakis is behaving strangely. He’s the only one with the code to the exit. What else is he hiding from Eli and his family?

This page-turner is packed not only with mystery and action, but also plenty of fodder for discussion. I could easily see it being a teen or parent/son book group selection for junior high age and up.

One quibble.

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So, the big reveal is that Eli’s family is actually trapped in the bunker on Mr. Yanakakis’s whim. One, of course, wants to know why. The father in The Mosquito Coast drags his family to Central America because he despises American culture. The father in The Poisonwood Bible refuses to evacuate his family from the Congo because he’s on a mission from God. Their obsessions distort their reasoning, pushing it over the edge into the realm of insanity, but everything they do still makes sense in its own scary way.

Bodeen gives Mr. Yanakakis his reasons, too, but I couldn’t quite buy them. Making a bunker prototype to sell for gazillions of dollars? A little nuts, but okay: greediness is a fine motivator. Trapping your family inside it to spend quality time with them? Again, crazy, but family values are a good motivator, too. But it doesn’t make sense to challenge your spoiled kids to be “brave and determined” by locking them in a bunker with a home theater, a gym, and other such niceties, then telling them they’ll have to eat their younger siblings or starve. What’s the motivation there? That’s just insanity talking, no logic behind it. That made the pay-off disappointing to me.

Still, as I said, there’s plenty to enjoy here and plenty to talk about. What I quibbled about above? Maybe it’s just me. I’d be interested to know what other people who have read it think.

Another blog-recommended winner from my past couple weeks’ reading is Quaking, a contemporary YA novel by Kathryn Erskine.

Fourteen-year-old Matt—prickly and isolated, sensitive and smart—is facing the latest in a long line of foster homes. She’s not expecting life with Quakers Sam and Jessica, and their autistic foster son Rory, to be any more stable than what’s come before. She just wants to get through the next two years of high school and move to Canada.

Of course, life isn’t that simple. At school, Matt finds herself singled out by her jingoist World Civ teacher, Mr. Morehead (Warhead) when, in her homework, she quietly voices her criticism of the United States’ Middle East policy. A bully she dubs the Rat has also singled her out for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, Quakers and other peace activists in the community are being threatened by “patriotic” hoodlums.

The real story, though, is Matt’s journey toward inner peace. You might expect someone with such an acerbic wit and strong opinions to be outspoken and fearless. Wrong—dead wrong. Instead, Matt’s response to the vandalism and bullying is to hide. The reason why is revealed slowly over the course of the story, as Matt begins to learn that flight is not the only alternative to fighting.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is Matt’s distinctive and compelling voice. Another is the realistic relationships between Matt and her foster family. No overnight miracles here—Matt is reluctant to let anyone get close, and though Sam seems to have infinite patience for her frequently rude behavior, Jessica does not. Most touching, however, is the slow evolution of Matt’s relationship with the developmentally delayed foster brother.

A couple of quibbles. In spite of a couple suggestions of hidden pain, the book’s villains, Mr. Warhead and the Rat, are just that: villains, unsympathetic, whose targeting of Matt seems sudden and arbitrary. Also, the ending seems rushed. After such a high-energy climax, I would have preferred more of a denouement than the two-page resolution readers get.

Even so, the positives far outweigh the negatives, making for a highly enjoyable read. And certainly the book provides plenty of timely fodder for discussion as the U.S. continues its controversial role in Iraq and the Middle East. It would be interesting to compare and contrast reluctant activist Matt with the socially conscious and outspoken Cassie of Brian Mandabach's Or Not. Strongly recommended for readers junior high and up.

Bloggers who led me to the book: Boys Blogging Books (Review and interview)