Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

Aslaug, homeschooled and raised wild in the rural woods of Maine, never knew who her father was. She tried asking her mother, a strange woman obsessed with plant lore and pagan religions, but the muttering odd woman took that secret to her grave. After her mother’s death, Aslaug, desperate for answers, hunts down the rest of her family, an aunt and cousins who live in the neighboring town. She hopes they will be able to tell her where she came from, but to her dismay, Aslaug discovers that in many ways her aunt’s house is just as strange as the home she just left. The secrets multiply until Aslaug doesn’t know what’s real and what is only a dream. But even as she plans her escape from the safe haven that has become her prison, the two people closest to her leave first–by dropping dead. And Aslaug is accused of their murder. As she enters the confusing and terrifying world of the legal system, the only source of comfort she has left is the Divine. But not even God may be able to help Aslaug now. This brilliant, densely written amalgamation of botany, religion, murder mystery, courtroom drama and dark family secrets is the twisted brainchild of newbie author Christina Meldrum. Now, I read a LOT of YA fiction, and this one stopped me dead in my tracks with its utter bizarreness. So if you want a challenging read that’s so far off the beaten track it’s practically in the MILKY WAY, dig up Madapple at your local library or bookstore.

Jose is small, fast, and knows how to use his impressive six-pack to charm the neighborhood shorties into giving him more than the time of day. Ray is big, slow-moving (but not slow-thinking) and can usually ONLY get the shorties to give him the time, nothing more. These two best friends, complete opposites but brothers in every way but blood, found each other after they were lost in the NYC foster care system. Now, far from the dubious care of over-scheduled social workers and grim foster parents, Jose and Ray have formed their own family off of Ten Mile Park, past 145th Street in Harlem. There, they share a vacant station house with a pack of abandoned pit bulls and enjoy all the comforts of a real home, courtesy of a streetlight feed that powers their stolen appliances. But when Ray meets Trini, she of the dreamy black eyes and warm laugh, Ray and Jose’s relationship shifts from a comfortable twosome to an uneasy threesome. Trini makes Ray want to do something more with his life than commit petty crimes for pocket change. But how do you tell your best friend that you’ve outgrown him? And were do you find the tools to survive in the straight world when all you know is the street? This gritty debut novel by newbie author Paul Griffin reminded me of my favorite book by E.R. Frank. If you like her work, or that of Coe Booth, you’re definitely going to want to take a sail down Ten Mile.