In 1859 Nova Scotia, shy pioneer teen Josey is thrilled when a handsome stranger named Asa Curry claims he can find gold on her family’s farm, and partners with her father to form a business. Josey is of marrying age, and what better beau could she have than her father’s attractive new associate? But Josey’s mother sees nothing but a flimflam man, and tries to steer both her husband and daughter clear of the silver-tongued prospector. But her efforts are ignored, and Josey’s family ends up suffering a great loss as a result of their tragic brush with Mr. Curry. Fast forward 150 years to fifteen-year-old Tara, who is mourning the loss of her burned down house when her aunt gifts her with a necklace that’s been in the family for years. After wearing the piece of jewelry for a few days, Tara quickly discovers its ability to locate lost objects, especially those of the precious metal kind. Using the necklace, can Tara make things right by recovering a treasure that was buried by evil 150 years ago? Combining fantasy, history, first love and revenge, Mercury is a one-of-a-kind story that you can’t afford to miss. This unique graphic novel about two girls connected through time and space by their shared DNA and a necklace containing a drop of mercury is sure to be a standout of the new year!
Ash by Malinda Lo
In a medieval land where science and logic have begun to overtake faith and enchantment, Aisling still believes in fairies, having been fed a steady diet of supernatural tales by her beloved mother since she was a tot. But now her mother is dead and her father soon follows—but not before marrying a cold noblewoman who finds fairies to be superstitious nonsense. After her father’s death, Aisling or Ash as she is called, is demoted to a servant in her stepmother’s household, where she begins to dream of escape. She visits her mother’s grave, willing the fairies to take her, only to be turned down again and again by the fairy lord Sidhean. Then one day, Ash notices and is noticed by the King’s Huntress, a mysterious woman named Kaisa. Despite the difference in their stations, they soon become friends and suddenly Ash regains her will to live. But now she needs a favor in order to get closer to Kaisa, a favor only Sidhean can grant. The fairy agrees to give Ash what she wants, in exchange for her vow that she will become his “when the time is right.†Ash recklessly agrees, but soon regrets her choice when she realizes that she no longer wishes to leave her world for the cold, bright world of Fairie. Is it too late to change her mind? Is she brave enough to break her promise? Told in an understated, traditional tone, this upgraded and updated Cinderella story will take you by surprise when the love triangle of girl, fairy and huntress takes an unexpected turn. Newbie author Malinda Lo gives this oft-told tale a modern spit and polish, the results of which landed her as a finalist for the American Library Association’s William C. Morris YA Debut Award. And Lo’s in pretty hot company, check out the rest of the nominees (including Nina LaCour) here.
Ten Most Underappreciated Teen Books of 2000-2009
Oh, I love lists! I love making my end of year book lists, and I love reading everyone else’s! But when a decade comes to a close, you have the opportunity of a lifetime to make an extra-special, super-significant (if only to me:) BIG book list. So I decided to compile a list of the 10 most under-the-radar, deserving-of-more-love-than-they-got YA books of the decade, IMHO. (And if any of these look familiar, it’s because they were each plucked from the RR Top Ten list of their respective year.) I do hope this inspires you to go back and dig these lovelies up, and also to think about what books would end up not just on your end of year list, but on your fav books of the DECADE. Or even OF ALL TIME. (It’s just fun giving your list a name in ALL CAPS. That means it’s even MORE AWESOME:)
2000: Eight Seconds by Jean Ferris
2001: Every Time a Rainbow Dies
2002: Tribes by Arthur Slade
2003: Deep by Susanna Vance
2004: Rockstar, Superstar by Blake Nelson
2005: Lovesick
2006: The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
2007: Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess
2008: Life Sucks by Jessica Abel
2009: Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
2009 Top Ten
Please note that there has been absolutely no attempt to balance this list by age, gender or genre. These are just my “from-the-gut†favorites of the books I read this year. (While I love all my Top Ten books the same, I just might love HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT a tiny bit more:) Click on the title to go right to the review.
Bray, Libba. Going Bovine.
Cullen, Dave. Columbine.
Katcher, Brian. Almost Perfect
Kelly, Jacqueline. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.
Rapp, Adam. Punkzilla.
Small, David. Stitches.
Smith, Sherri L. Flygirl.
Standiford, Natalie. How to Say Goodbye in Robot.
Stork, Francisco X. Marcelo in the Real World.
Yancy, Rick. The Monstrumologist.
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Their first sign was the small-engine plane crash. By the time the huge Irish Airlines jet crashed a few days later, they were already beginning to understand that the situation was not good, and wasn’t likely to get better. They are the townspeople of Chester’s Mill, Maine. There are about two thousand of them, give or take. And their situation is this: On a perfectly normal fall day, a huge and impenetrable dome materializes over their little town that traps them all like ants under a magnifying glass. Electricity is cut off, air quality is compromised, and temperatures are rising. What is this dome? Where did it come from? (Yes, this does sound like the plot to The Simpson’s Movie, but King claims to have started writing this one years before Homer hit the big screen.) Immediately the outside world tries to come up with answers, while the suddenly made smaller world of Chester’s Mill begins to mobilize into two opposing teams: those who follow “Big Jim†Rennie, blowhard local bureaucrat and possible sociopath, and those who follow Dale Barbara, Iraq war vet and drifter. If you’ve read The Stand or It, then you know how this goes down: good vs. evil, a massive battle in the brewing, and loads of gory casualties, with only the pure of heart surviving. But it doesn’t matter if you think you know how this is going to end, because this is King, and he always makes getting there more than half the fun. Skillfully manipulating a cast of dozens that includes three plucky middle school skateboarders, a curious, hearty Corgi named Horace and a budding serial killer, King uses supernatural means to show how a small town responds to crisis when they have no one but themselves to depend on. And the results ain’t pretty! Gross, suspenseful, and chock full of meaty themes about love, family, politics and the environment, this book was a blast even though I nearly threw my back out toting it around. I know I have some serious teenage King fans out there (because I was one myself, grasshoppers) and trust me, this is THE book you want to ask the ‘rents to stash under the tree or menorah for you this holiday. Not just because it’s AWESOME and probably his best full-length novel since The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but also because it weighs as much as small loaded suitcase and you’d probably rather finish it over break so you don’t have to lug it back and forth to school. While you count down ’til school’s out, take a peek at this pretty cool Under the Dome book trailer.
You Don’t Even Know Me: Stories and poems about BOYS by Sharon G. Flake
Though I am grateful for many things this Thanksgiving weekend, one item that tops my list is Sharon G. Flake’s new collection of short stories and poems featuring teenage boys and their angst. She is one of the hippest authors for teens around, and a new title from her is ALWAYS cause for celebration. This book is a companion piece to one of her earlier works, Who Am I Without Him? Short stories about girls and the boys in their lives (a title I have successfully shopped to so many teens I’ve lost count), and provides the adolescent 411 from the dudes’ POV. Navigating issues from teen marriage and suicide, to neighborhood politics and hot moms who attract unwanted attention, these guys struggle to make sense of the world around them while trying to solve that most maddening of mysteries—what makes girls tick? Flake also dishes up some hot poetry in this collection, including this excerpt from the title poem, “You Don’t Even Know Meâ€: You tell me to quit fronting,/ You ask who I think I am,/Pretending/That I’m better than you know I really am./…You know/I’ve been wondering lately,/Trying to figure out just how it could be/That we call each other brother,/And you still don’t know a thing about me/ There’s some surprises here, too. I like all the stories, but my favorite just might be “Fakin’ It,†about a last-chance boy who’s been kicked out of every one of his relatives’ homes and is now about to be kicked out of his aunt’s house, a six million dollar lottery winner. Despite her new money and resources, she still has old-school rules and he still can’t seem to follow them no matter how many chances she gives him. Unusual and unsettling because we like to think money solves everything, I just can’t get that story out of my head. So if you want to be moved to tears, laugh out loud, or be lit up with surprise, then this is YOUR book.
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose
On a spring day in 1955, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was dragged from the bus by two adult police officers, called “Thing†and “Whore,†and put in a jail cell. She was scared out of her mind, but she was tired of being told she was less than just because of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair. From her activist-minded teachers, she knew it was her constitutional right to sit where she wanted on the bus, and the entire Montgomery police force couldn’t change that. So she dared to challenge the city’s segregated bus laws that demanded an entire row of African Americans must get up if even just one White person wanted to sit down. This happened nine months before Rosa Parks made her famous protest, and I KNOW you’ve heard of her. So why hasn’t history also made much of Claudette? The answer may surprise you…Author Philip Hoose takes you right to the tumultuous center of the Civil Rights Movement with this true story of a girl who fought back even when no one would fight for her. The most powerful words in the book come from Colvin herself, who shares the pain and fear of her frightening experience and its aftermath firsthand. “The lock fell into place with a heavy sound. It was the worst sound I ever heard. It sounded final. It said I was trapped…I didn’t know if anyone knew where I was or what had happened to me. I had no idea how long I would be there…†This is one of the best bios for YA’s around, and don’t just take my word for it—the National Book Award Foundation just named it the 2009 winner in the Young People’s Literature category.
Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor, with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo
Remember your first kiss? While I’m sure it was exhilarating, it was most likely a great deal tamer than the supernatural busses that take center stage in Laini Taylor’s delicious collection of fantasy romances. In “Goblin Fruit,†a lonely girl wishes for love, but finds something else entirely behind a new boy’s perfect lips: “The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood.†Beautiful boy or secret beast? Only a kiss will tell…In “Spicy Little Curses Such as These,†a young WWI solider travels to India to forget the horrors of war and finds his true love. Except, she is under a curse that claims if she speaks, all who hear her will die. Will their first kiss unleash passion or destruction? Finally, a young girl finds her fate tied to that of benevolent demon when she discovers she has unknowingly incubated the love of his immortal life deep within her soul in “Hatchling.†Each story hinges on one fated kiss that holds the power of life and death, love and loss, happiness and despair. All it takes is lips touching three times to produce one dreamy, steamy reading experience. Laini Taylor’s luxuriant writing will transport you to faraway lands where demons frolic, Hell is a place of cleansing and rebirth, and destinies are determined by the whim of cold sorceress queens. Her husband Jim Di Bartolo’s opulent illustrations rendered in black, red and cream are the perfect compliment to Taylor’s plush prose, and are so lovingly detailed you will want to go back and linger over them again and again. Still thinking about your first kiss? Relive the magic, danger and decadence of it all again through the richly realized characters in Taylor’s tantalizing tome.
Bad Apple by Laura Ruby
Tola (short for Chenerentola, Italian for “Cinderellaâ€) Riley’s life is like a fairy tale. But not one of those pretty pink-tinted ones—more like the one where small children get lost in a dark forest, or the one where the girl finds pieces of her husband’s past wives hacked up behind a secret door. Tola’s as small as Thumbelina, with a nasty stepmother who never lets her see her father, a deeply depressed older sister who would like to fall asleep forever, and a wicked witch (swap that “w†for a “bâ€) named Chelsea spreading malicious rumors that Tola is sleeping with her dorky art teacher Mr. Mymer who wears t-shirts with sayings like, “Full Frontal Nerdity.†Even though the gossip is completely untrue, Mr. Mymer has been suspended and Tola’s been locked up like a princess in a tower by her angry and terrified mom. Alone in her room and surfing the Internet, Tola can’t believe what people are saying about her on their blogs: “How can all those people at TheTruthAboutTolaRiley keep telling stories using my name, if they’re not really about me? Am I so small, so insignificant that my own story doesn’t need me anymore?†Fortunately for her, lucky number Seven Chillman, resident hottie and all around cu-tee, has offered to be her toffee-candy secret prince. He believes in her. How come no one else does? Laura Ruby’s latest is an awesome mash-up of mean girl-meets-folklore-and-so-much-more. Cleverly told in a full-on snarky tone that hides a smile behind its’ snarl, BAD APPLE is a thoroughly modern and highly entertaining anti-fairy tale that is as sweet and sour as the Granny Smith on the cover!
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancy
In 1888 New England, young orphan Will Henry serves as an apprentice to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a scientist who practices the secret practice of monstrumology, or “the study of life forms generally malevolent to humans and not recognized by science as actual organisms, specifically those considered products of myth and folklore.†In this series opener, Will and his master are on the trail of a hidden pod of Anthropophagi, a race of muscular albino headless monsters who wear their over-sized obsidian eyes on their shoulders, their shark-tooth filled mouths on their stomachs, and their tiny brains in their crotch. Though they originated in Africa, somehow these horrific beasts have managed to cross the pond into the New England states, and are now running amok in the countryside, tearing off heads and sucking down the entrails of their human victims while they still draw breath. Will and Dr. Warthrop don’t only have to find a way to stop them, they must also solve the mystery of how and why they got there in the first place to prevent others from coming—and breeding—and EVOLVING. Friends, I can barely contain my morbid delight at having discovered this delightfully gruesome book! Yancy’s bloody tale, written in a delicious Victorian gothic style, is just gory and disturbing as the early Stephen King I devoured as a teen while still being a cracking good yarn between explicit scenes of dismemberment and disembowelment that leave nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to the imagination. When not running for his life from headless freaks trying to open one of his major arteries, soulful Will Henry contemplates the meaning of life, death, and his complicated feelings about his single-minded caretaker, making this a much deeper read than your average run of the mill horror pulp. But violent and bloodthirsty it is, and if Goosebumps and Coraline are more your speed, then this graphic gore-fest is not for you. I can’t even give you an excerpt here, just in case you come back and blame me for your nightmares. (And even though I haven’t slept very well the past couple of nights, I just CAN’T WAIT to read the next one!) This is YA horror at it’s stomach-churning finest, heading further down the dark path that Lauren Myracle paved with the creepy Bliss. Go ahead and read it—if you dare!
Devil’s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda
You think your after school job sucks? Try being fifteen-year-old Billi SanGreal for a day. After facing down mean girls in the cafeteria and sleeping through most of her classes, Billi has to go home to her London flat, don some chain mail, and head out into the dark to stake some undead with her hard bitten dad. See, Billi is the daughter of one of the last remaining members of the fabled Knights Templar, a mysterious society of Christian crusaders dating back to the 1100’s. Originally a monastic order of impoverished knights who ferried pilgrims back and forth to the Holy Land, the rag-tag modern day Order defends humanity against the supernatural forces of darkness, including vampires, werewolves and the occasional fallen angel. In spite of being a pretty smooth hand with a sword, Billi is sick of cleaning blood off her jeans and landing in detention for late homework because her driven, distant father thinks decapitating demons is more important than long division. Plus, her half Pakistani & Muslim heritage make her feel like a square peg in a round hole in the traditionally Christian fighting force. Tired of the politics and pain that come from being a Templar, Billi tries to leave the Order, but finds herself sucked back in when she discovers that her lapse in judgment concerning a tall, dark and handsome maniacal stranger may have resulted in the Tenth Plague being released on the greater UK. Equally distracting is the fact that her childhood friend Kay has returned from Oracle training in Jerusalem and somehow managed to turn into a total hottie while he was gone. Now Billi has to find a way to mend her relationship with her forbidding father, figure out if Kay is the Templar for her and somehow stop the Angel of Death from frying all of the world’s firstborn. It’s a tall order, but if anyone can do it, Billi can. Move over, Buffy Summers. Billi SanGreal eats vampires for breakfast. What else ya got? This creepy, cheesetastic gore-fest mixes history, fantasy and horror in a compulsively page turning way that will have you screaming for a sequel long before you hit the final chapter. (And yes, there is one coming.) Did I roll my eyes (okay, more than a few times) over some of the over-the-top bits? Sure. But Billi’s showdowns with various versions of The Unholy are truly terrifying and the book’s fighting sequences frightfully well choreographed. This is a must-read for The Da Vinci Code
Hold Still by Nina LaCour
“My best friend is dead, and I could have saved her.†Caitlin was devastated when her BFF Ingrid committed suicide. Now she struggles with overwhelming feelings of guilt, wondering if there was anything she could have done to halt Ingrid’s gradual and largely secret descent into depression and pain. When she finds Ingrid’s last journal hidden in her bedroom, she only allows herself to read one entry at a time, hesitant to sever this last link. Slowly, she becomes aware of the other people who have lost Ingrid too: their favorite photography teacher who now can’t look Caitlin in the eye, the boy Ingrid had a huge crush on who never even had a chance to ask her out, Ingrid’s incredibly sad family. Slowly, she becomes aware of the other people who have lost HER while she’s been grieving for Ingrid: her terrified parents, new girl Dylan who just wants to be her friend, popular boy Taylor who has liked her since third grade. For a while, all Caitlin could do was hold still so she didn’t fall a part. As Ingrid’s journal comes to end, Caitlin is faced with an enormous decision: hold tight to her grief or dare to let go and move on. This powerful debut, rich with themes of renewal, hope and redemption, will resonate with anyone who ever survived losing someone. (1 weepie)
Refresh, Refresh by Danica Novgorodoff, Benjamin Percy and James Ponsoldt
“We didn’t fully understand the reason our fathers were fighting. We only understood that they had to fight…We could only cross our fingers and wish on stars and hit refresh, refresh, hoping they would return to us.†Cody, Gordon and Josh all live in the same small town, and all have fathers who are fighting in Iraq. Even as they constantly refresh their computer screens waiting for word of their dads’ safe return, they try to distract themselves from their worry by engaging in their own “fight club,†where they hit each other as hard as they can in an attempt to honor their fathers’ sacrifice by denying their own pain. “If you stepped out of the ring, you lost. If you cried, you lost. If you got knocked out or if you yelled stop, you lost.†Each boy is taking his own emotional knocks, as well. Cody struggles to raise his little brother on his own while his mother works endless factory shifts in order to make ends meet. Gordon suffers at the hands of bullies and longs to use his hunting rifle for something other than shooting deer. Josh’s secret college acceptance letter is his ticket to a better life, but will he use it if it means leaving his best friends behind? One brutal confrontation takes away all choices but one, and suddenly the boys find themselves facing a future that was once improbable but now seems inevitable. This bleak and emotionally raw GN, based on a short story by Benjamin Percy, realistically captures the pain of modern reservists’ families, who are often left in limbo when their breadwinners are sent off to war. Danica Novgorodoff’s gritty unpolished style and earth tone palette help convey the boys’ hopelessness and sorrow, the only bright colors being the red of their boxing gloves and spilled blood. A violent and heartbreaking tale that didn’t leave me feeling any better about the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, but maybe that was the point.
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Valerie thought she knew her boyfriend Nick. He liked Shakespeare and hated algebra. He was smart and funny and angry and sarcastic, just like Valerie. Even though they were both outcasts at their high school, Nick always made Valerie feel like she belonged. Valerie thought she knew her boyfriend Nick. Until the day he walked into the school Commons and killed six students and one teacher, then turned the gun on himself. Until Valerie threw herself in front of Nick’s gun to stop the carnage and sustained a terrible wound to her leg. That was the moment Valerie realized she didn’t know Nick at all–at least, not this empty-eyed person who calmly gunned down their classmates one by one. Valerie is left with the terrible guilt that she possibly helped cause this catastrophic event with her Hate List, a notebook full of names of all the people who ever tormented her and Nick. “Maybe I thought I didn’t mean for those people to die, but somewhere, I don’t know, subconsciously, I really meant it. And maybe Nick saw it. Maybe he even knew something about me I didn’t even know. Maybe everybody saw it and that’s why they hate me so much—because I’m a poser. I set it all in motion with that stupid list and then let Nick do my dirty work.†Now Valerie has to put the pieces of her shattered life back together, and she’s never felt more alone. With the help of a caring psychiatrist, a crazy craft lady and an unexpected new friend, Valerie will slowly make her way out of the darkness and into a future where nothing is certain except the fact that she’s a survivor. Debut author Jennifer Brown has written a book about a complex and uncomfortable topic that is clear, compassionate and compulsively readable, a book that delves deeply into issues of consequence, survival and forgiveness. And if you want to read more about school shootings and understand how and why they occur, check out Dave Cullen’s detailed and meticulously researched nonfiction, Columbine. 2 weepies
I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
If Stewie on Family Guy ever grew out of his diapers, he might turn out to be like Oliver Watson, the pudgy, angry, brilliant seventh grade narrator of IGUEIWYCP, who is addicted to his mom’s grilled cheese and bent on world domination. Some kids dream of being king of the world—but Oliver actually is. He hides his intellectual genius behind the dumb façade of a dopey middle schooler when he is really secretly running the world from his incredible underground command center, which would put the Bat Cave to shame. “I freely admit I’m evil…that doesn’t mean I torture kittens or plot the genocide of entire continents of people; that’s insanity, not evil. And insanity is just what we call stupidity when it doesn’t make sense.” There’s only one thing Oliver can’t buy with his millions or manipulate with his cutting edge intellect—his emotionally immature father’s respect. So he decides to run for office—7th grade president to be exact—to show “Daddy” once and for all that he’s not a total loser and maybe even win his love. There’s only one problem—Oliver has been pretending to be an idiot for so long, it’s going to be hard to get people to believe he can really do the job. Is a self-described evil genius smart enough to figure out which battles are worth fighting and which are merely petty annoyances on his way to total global supremacy? I would expect nothing less than sarcastic snickers that quickly morph into ginormous guffaws from debut author Josh Lieb (whose day job is executive producer of The Daily Show) and that is exactly what he delivers in this rollicking tale of a tiny Napoleon. Bullies, beware–Oliver Watson is waddling your way!