Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

Most of us have been plum embarrassed by our parents at least once in our lives–usually between the ages of 12 and 17. But Tiger Ann Parker suffers from flaming cheeks more often than most teenagers because her parents are both a little on the “slow” side. The entire town of Saitter, Louisiana has seen Tiger’s mom start bawling right in the middle of the school gym when she thought she was lost, and everybody knows that her daddy can’t read. Sometimes Tiger Ann can’t wait to get away from both of them. But when the chance to escape presents itself, Tiger Ann discovers that turning her back on her parent’s simple love is a lot harder than she thought. This novel has more melodrama than a Willie Nelson song and is just as satisfying.

Nissa Bergen knows that her free-spirited mother has left forever when she finds all the purple rose blossoms cut from the bushes. Nissa has always known that the small town of Harper, Louisiana was too small for her butterfly-chasin’, hibiscus-tea-drinkin’ mama but she hoped against hope that her mother would be able to rise above the town’s small minded-ness and stay for Nissa’s sake. But the day comes that Heirah Bergen skips town for good, taking the roses and leaving Nissa to deal with the vicious gossip and her father’s new girlfriend, Miss Lara Ross, the town spinster. Nissa comes to terms with a lot that year after her mother leaves, finally finding comfort with the fact that she will always be her mother’s daughter no matter where her mother is. As old fashioned and sweet as a stick of hoarhound candy.

Shelby has been dragged around the country so many times by her single mom that she’s lost count of all the places they’ve lived. Now her art-lovin’ mama has gotten it in her had that she wants to visit her roots and get closer to Georgia O’Keefe country, so she’s announced to Shelby that they’re moving to Texas. But Shelby is sick of moving and and is just about to absolutely refuse to move more than her little finger when she starts to find some clues about her absentee father’s identity. Her mom won’t hardly talk about him, but once Shelby finds some evidence of his existence, mostly creepy old photos with his face cut out, she smells a story and figures it might be worth it to keep tagging along with her mom until she discovers the truth. Only, once Shelby knows the whole story, it may sever the fragile bond between her and her mother forever. a tangy, Texas-twangy read.

Joey and his sister Mary Alice are forced to spend each summer of the years 1929-1935 in an Illinois hick town with their grandma. As you can imagine, they don’t find the prospect too appealing. In fact, since they are worldly Chicagoans, they are sure they will be bored out of their skulls. But nothing could be farther from the truth. At Grandma’s they end up being in the same room as a rising corpse, witness the town sheriff inebriated and dancing around in his underwear, and take a coveted airplane ride. And those are only a few of the crazy situations that Grandma gets them into. This book would be a great read-aloud to share with your younger brother or sister.

Meg’s thirteenth summer is a doozy. Not only does she share her first kiss with until-that-summer-just-a-friend Fred Massey, but she also tackles more serious issues like dealing with her single mom’s loser boyfriend and the unexpected death of her neighbor’s child. This is a super-short, summery Southern read, best enjoyed with a tall glass of mint ice tea.

Everyone in Ivy Breedlove’s family is a lawyer. Ivy doesn’t want to be a lawyer, she wants to be a genealogist (family historian to those of you who haven’t boned up on those SAT vocab words yet) This does not sit well with the other Breedloves. But Ivy doesn’t care since she has recently discovered another Breedlove who bucked the family profession and instead became a bird-loving mountain hermit. Ivy decides to find her Aunt Jo and ask her how she managed to escape the Breedlove career path. However, her simple journey to her aunt’s secluded home turns into a snowbound wilderness adventure in which Ivy has to turn to a crazy character named Mountain Mama for help. There’s also a little romance sprinkled in when Ivy hooks up with hunky wilderness ranger-in-training. You may not learn how to survive in the woods but you will laugh your snowshoes off at this funny, funny book about family expectations.