Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

“Once I was a boy who became a man. Then I was a man who became a head.” Frank Marder had one too many, and still tried to drive his date home. Riding high on five beers and his girlfriend’s laughter, he hit a tree. His girlfriend Meredith was killed. A pedestrian unlucky enough to be between Frank’s car and the tree was killed. But Frank was not. Instead, Frank, broke his neck in the crash and will live the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, or as Frank likes to say, “a head.” Without the use of his arms and legs, Frank faces endless days full of his mother’s worrying, his father’s blustering and his own gnawing guilt. He tortures himself by reading an internet site set up just to debate whether or not he should have gone to prison for his crime, and constantly wonders, is life worth living if you’re just a head? “If you can’t have, can you still want?” The answer is yes, and Frank learns that life as a head still has meaning–especially when the last person he ever expected offers him the forgiveness he needs to move on. First time novelist Sarah Aronson’s take on a situation that most people would consider nightmarish manages to not only be hopeful, but also full of humor and the strength of the human spirit. Pair this one with Cynthia Voigt’s Izzy, Willy-Nilly for an interesting “he said, she said” look at dealing with a catastrophic disability.

Oh, E. Lockhart, could I love you more? I thought my love was complete after reading The Boyfriend List and Fly on the Wall. But, incredibly, my love for both of those books has been surpassed by my passion for the delicious Dramarama, which does for theater camp what Craig Thompson’s Blankets did for Jesus camp! (no not that one) Sayde (which sounds so much more “gawky-sexy” than plain old “Sarah”) and her best boy friend Demi (who has been in “straight drag” for far too long) travel to the Wildewood Summer Theater Institute in order to escape Ohio and finally be their true, fabulous selves. But the chance to unlease their amazing inner Lizas doesn’t go quite as Sayde expected. Instead of growing even closer, the BFF’s begin to drift apart. Demi discovers the strong, gay black man he was meant to be, and learns to toe the line when it comes to the rules of rehearsals, while Sayde is constantly pushing boundaries, and coming to the realization that she may be a better director than actor. Can Sayde learn to tamp down her “lurking bigness,” or is it about to explode all over the place and get her thrown out of not only drama camp, but also Demi’s heart? My teenage friends, you don’t have to be a Sandy or a Shark to appreciate both the drama and the real soul-searching that’s going on between these two friends. But if you are not of the musical theater ilk and want to hear the tunes Sayde’s obsessed with, visit E. Lockhart’s website www.theboyfriendlist.com and click on “Sadye’s iMix” in the right hand column for the songs that inspired the characters.

In Deborah Noyes’ latest horror anthology, the dead not only won’t stay put, they’re hanging out at dance clubs and visiting the local 7-11! Noyes, whose first collection Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales knocked my socks off, has assembled another winner with The Restless Dead. Marcus Sedgewick tells a story of a transplanted heart that takes over its’ new owner’s body in “The Heart of Another,” while Annette Curtis Klause shares what it’s like to infiltrate a trendy vampire nest in “Kissing Dead Boys.” Chris Wooding’s traditional Victorian ghost story will keep you guessing until the last line, while Herbie Brennan’s unexpectedly funny story about a greedy old grandpa who refuses to go back to his grave will have you laughing even as you suppress a shiver. Libba Bray, Holly Black, and Nancy Etchemendy also all penned chilling shorts that gave me the heebie jeebies, but I have to say my favorite was M.T. Anderson’s “The Gray Boy’s Work,” a strange historical fiction about the horror that comes home with a Revolutionary War soldier who deserted his post. Give yourself some goose bumps in the middle of summer, or anytime of year with this gorgeously ghoulish collection!