Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

Imagine if your mom were a female Richard Simmons. You would have no choice but to lose weight. Colie does lose the weight, but still hates her body and herself. When her mom, an exercise guru, tours Europe, Colie gets shipped off to her aunt in north Carolina where she becomes friends with two waitresses, Isabel and Morgan. While Colie’s story line of learning to like herself and falling in love with short order cook Norman is good, the really great part of this book is the kick-ass relationship between Isabel and Morgan. They are everything good about being girl friends, and the way Colie looks up to them will be recognizable to every girl who was in 7th grade and had that cool 9th grader show them the ropes with school and boys and make-up. Though it seems quiet on the outside, this story is about the out-loud-proud strength girls’ give to each other. Read it, and then get your best friend a copy for her birthday.

Everyday Maleeka Madison dreads going to school. She already knows that the other kids are going to tease her about her home-made clothes, her good grades and her black, black skin. Even though it makes her hate herself, she bows and scrapes to the reigning teen queen, Charlese, because she gives Maleeka her brand-name, cast-off clothes to wear. But Char makes Maleeka pay by turning her into the butt of every joke and forcing Maleeka to give her answers to each day’s homework. When a new teacher with a skin disorder challenges Maleeka to celebrate her blackness instead of hide from from it, Maleeka starts to wonder if she can break away from Charlese’s vicious circle. But Char doesn’t plan on giving up her homework slave without a fight, and Char plans with her last act of defiance against the new teacher who gave Maleeka confidence, to take Maleeka down with her. I guess I’m a little out of it, guys, because I don’t remember high school being this cruel. But this is still a good, good book about learning to like yourself no matter what anyone else says.

Molly’s mom has cut her loose again because her heroin habit is stronger than her maternal feelings. So Molly is cooling her heels with Great Aunt Fay, a practical nurse who lives in a very small town. Molly thinks the secret of her mom’s drug binges is the worst possible skeleton she could have in her closet. But she finds out that she’s not the only one with something to hide and that her secret is considered small fry when it comes to small town gossip. It turns out that the richest old lady in town is keeping the biggest secret of all–a secret that could change Molly’s life–for better or for worse–forever. If you like Strays, take a trip to your local pound (or public library) and bring home a couple of other really good Peck puppies–Princess Ashley and Unfinished Portrait of Jessica

African American children’s poet Nikki Grimes has tried her hand at prose with this short but sweet novel of 1960′s Harlem. Seen through the pages of 14 year old Jazmin’s journal, the neighborhood comes alive with Jazmin’s descriptions of her older sister CeCe, who’s too young to be so jaded, and Aunt Sarah, a neighbor who shows up with lots of steaming “leftovers” when money is tight for Jazmin and CeCe. Jazmin knows she’s going to be a real writer someday if she can just get past the school counselor who wants to keep her in vocational classes and the mother who abandoned her to foster homes and poverty. Told in a jazzy, lyrical voice, Jazmin’s Notebook just sings with Nikki Grimes’ poetical turn at prose. Make sure to jot down this title in YOUR notebook next time you’re looking for something good to read.

All Kata really wants to do is dance. Yeah, she enjoys the close comraderie of gang life, but the best part is always dancing in competitions with her best friend, Ana. They call themselves Outrageous Chaos and they never lose because they can practically read each others’ minds. But when Ana is brutally shot and killed in a drive-by, Kata finds herself rethinking the whole gang life style. In the aftermath of Ana’s death, she has to decide if making her own way in L.A.’s gang underworld is courageous, or just foolhardy. An unusual and revealing look at gangs from a girl’s point of view.

Halley’s always been the quiet one, following her best friend Scarlett’s lead in life and love. Wherever Halley’s going, Scarlett’s usually been there first. But now, Scarlett needs Halley in a way she’s never needed her before–because Scarlett is pregnant and now it’s Halley who has to be the stronger friend. But the emotional turmoil of Scarlett’s pregnancy couldn’t have come at a worse time. While trying to deal with her best friend’s problem, Halley is also navigating the rough waters of her first relationship, trying to establish some distance with her controlling psychologist mother, and coming to terms with her grandmother’s slow slide from sanity. It’s going to be a tough junior year for both girls, but as Halley’s learning, its’ the problems that make us stronger. A quiet novel about the strength of friendship.

Sixteen year old Jenna Boller is tall. Really tall. Paired with her frizzy red hair and alcoholic, here-and-there dad, Jenna feels like an A # 1 freak. But all that changes the summer she gets in a Cadillac with Mrs. Gladstone and tours the greater part of the U.S., from Chicago to Dallas, doing the one thing she does best–sell shoes. Jenna’s a shoe-salesperson, best darned one in the business, and when the Gladstone shoe empire is threatened from within, Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone go to every store in the country trying to fix what’s wrong and make it right. Through all the trials and tribulations of the road, Jenna learns for the first time in her life to walk tall and not be ashamed of her height or her family. Because she’s got sole. A quirky and original tale. If you like Rules of the Road, don’t miss the performing pumpkin in Bauer’s first novel, Squashed (r/i). You’ll never look at vegetables the same way again…