The Fault in our Stars-- John Green

Full disclosure: I read this book twice back-to-back, then a third time just reading the parts I liked the best. All in one weekend. I know this is not normal behavior, it's just, I dunno, this book struck a deep chord in me and I wasn't ready to move on once I finished it.

Hazel is a 16 year old girl with cancer. She is so busy Having Cancer that she has dropped out of most normal activities. She has friends, but they still attend school and have mostly moved on with their lives. To appease her mother, she joins a kids with cancer support group... where she meets hottie Augustus. They instantly bond over their shared world view, wit, and love of a book written by a Dutch hermit.

But wait! This isn't a lame "cancer book." Cancer is an important vehicle for the story, but what really makes this book so good is the character development of Hazel and Gus, and the dialog between them. It's a love story, I won't deny it. But it seems these days that love stories have been diluted down to either "You're my personal brand of heroin"and "The lion lays down with the lamb" (anyone know which book those quotes are from?), erotica, or schmaltzy romance. This is a story that chronicles the falling-in-love part. There is one scene where Augustus says something so beautiful to Hazel, I literally cried.

Is the dialog a true representation of how teens speak? Not really. It is a realistic story? Nah. Is it beautifully written with compelling characters, and laugh-out-loud moments that balance out the sad stuff? Totally. Do yourself a favor and give it a chance.

Mock Printz Winners!

Fort Vancouver Regional Library has officially chosen their Mock Printz winners. Our workshop was well attended by teachers, library staff, and teens. After great debate, here is what we chose:

Winner
Everybody Sees the Ants-- A.S. King

Honor Books
A Monster Calls-- Patrick Ness
Jasper Jones-- Craig Silvey

Check out the complete list of Mock Printz nominees HERE.

Click HERE for the actual winners of the 2012 Michael L. Printz. My personal vote for the top book was Jasper Jones, so I was pleased to see that it was selected as an honor book.

Mock Printz 2012

For those of you who have been reading this blog for several years, you know that I collaborate with a local teacher-librarian to provide a Mock Printz workshop to local teens, library staff, and teachers. The Mock Printz Workshop is an event where we come together to discuss the ten preselected titles and decide which deserve to win the Michael L. Printz award. The 2012 Mock Printz reading list is ready, and I hope you'll read these books and share what you think about them.

Everybody Sees the Ants-- A.S. King
A Monster Calls-- Patrick Ness
Divergent-- Victoria Roth
Jasper Jones-- Craig Silvey
Anya’s Ghost-- Vera Brosgol
Okay For Now-- Gary D. Schmidt
Chime-- Franny Billingsly
Blink and Caution-- Tim Wynne- Jones
Karma-- Cathy Ostlere
Welcome to Bordertown-- Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, eds

Anya's Ghost-- Vera Brosgol

So, on the cover of this book there's a quote from Neil Gaiman calling the book "A masterpiece!" Um, who are we to argue with Neil Gaiman, amirirght?

Anya attends a stuffy high school full of annoyingly perfect classmates and a few who are just plain annoying. Her best friend Soibhan kind of sucks, her mom insists that she spends time with Dima, the extra nerdy FOTB (fresh off the boat) guy from Russia, and the love of her life spends his time making out with someone who is distinctly not Anya.

One day, when brooding and traipsing through the woods after school, Anya falls into a dried up well. While down there, she discovers a skeleton (freaky!) and the ghost of Emily, a teenage girl who claims to have been murdered around the time of the first World War. When Anya gets rescued from the bottom of the well, Emily comes with her. At first, Anya and Emily enjoy their ghost-y hi-jinks... but over time Anya learns a little more about her ghost Emily and all of the chaos that comes with her.

I'm happy to include this GN on our Mock Printz reading list this year. It's both well-written and illustrated, and some of the plot subtleties made it feel more fleshed out than some graphic novels have the space to be. I look forward to hearing teens' reactions to this book, and look forward to reading more by this author.

Flip-- Martyn Bedford

So my ARC of Flip has the cheesiest tagline on the cover: "Ever wake up in someone else's body?"

Um, no. You?

I tossed the book aside in favor of other books that might be a little more Mock Printz-worthy, but after scouring reviews of YA books I realized I was going to have to read this book... I mean, even Kirkus gave it a starred review.


Flip is Alex's story... and one day he literally does wake up in someone else's body, the body of a jock named Flip. Alex embodies all the stereotypes of the "sensitive male." Flip, well, is just the opposite. Why did Alex's soul jump ship and why the heck did it choose Flip's body to land in? Will Alex ever unite his soul and true-born body again? And what happened to Flip's soul when Alex's landed in it's place?

Would *I* give this book a starred review? Probably not. However, I am learning that at this point I have read so much YA fiction that it takes a lot to impress me. So, let me know if I'm being to hard on this one... what did I miss that makes this a great book to so many people?

That being said, I would happily give this book to reluctant readers, teen guys and girls of any age. It's nice to have a book like that in your librarian toolkit that you can give to just about anyone.

*Sidenote: So, when searching for images to put with this book, I have found several different versions of the cover, most of which ditched the cheesy tagline in favor of one that's slightly less cheddar. Yay.

All These Things I've Done-- Gabrielle Zevin

It's 2083. There's a chocolate prohibition, and NYC is a very changed place. Art museums are now dance clubs, books are musty relics of the past, water is strictly rationed, and the mafiya ruled black market consists of chocolate and caffeine. After both her mother and father are murdered, and her older brother Leo suffers from brain damage, Anya becomes the default heir to the Balanchine chocolate empire... even though her shady uncles and cousins are currently running the family business into the ground. Anya is a strict Catholic girl, and though that seems to conflict with her mafiya roots, she has a strong moral code that dictates most of her actions.

Although she had a tumultuous past, Anya, Leo, and their little sister Nattie manage to continue life as normal (or as normal as life gets when your family is in the business of the black market). Then one day Anya meets Win, the son of the new hotshot District Attorney who is dead set on cleaning up the city. Although she knows it would be risky for the family, and especially since she was threatened by the DA himself, Anya can't help but to fall for Win. And when someone linked to Anya is poisoned by a contaminated batch of chocolate, the blame and spotlight falls directly on Anya... and the happy and stable life she worked so hard to put together after her parents were murdered crumbles away instantly. Now Anya must find a way to protect her family, even at the expense of her own happiness.

This book is one part romance, one part mystery, and one (small) part post-apocalyptic. I found the love story and mystery to be the highlights, and I appreciated the strength of character Anya had throughout the book. However, someone looking for a strong futuristic setting, or a post-apocalyptic novel would not be satisfied. I feel like the author didn't delve deeply enough into the setting, and a big part of me had a hard time believing there could really be a chocolate prohibition. Still, there will definitely be fans of this book (likely girls), and though it alludes to a variety of topics, it's a pretty "clean" read.

Divergent-- Veronica Roth

So in just two week, I had SIX PEOPLE ask me if I'd yet read Divergent. I had the ARC sitting on my shelf gathering dust for months, and I decided that last weekend was the time to read that book. Um, ya. I started it at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and didn't put it down until I finished it. The last book I read cover to cover like that was Graceling, and you all know how much I loved that book...

Anyway, back to Divergent.

In distopian, futuristic Chicago, there are five factions that govern the city... think Hogwarts houses but more, well, dystopian and YA. Each faction is completely dedicated to a particular virtue, and the people who live within that faction focus on nothing else. Tris, who was born in the selfless Abnegation faction has to work every day to be as completely selfless as the faction demands. When youth turn 16 they get a one-time opportunity to choose whether to stay in their faction or switch to a new one. They undergo a grueling test that lets them know which faction they are naturally inclined toward. Tris is special... she is divergent. This means that there are several factions she would fit within, but she must keep her divergence a secret... but no one will tell her why.

When Tris chooses to leave Abnegation and join Dauntless, the faction that honors bravery over all other virtues, she has to master a huge amount of physical skills (think Katniss/Hunger Games). Although she's invigorated by her choice, when it becomes clear that the factions aren't functioning in the sociologically perfect way they were designed, action must be taken. And it doesn't matter that she's the tiny "Stiff" from Abnegation... Tris is Dauntless now, and she feels the weight of her realm and people's survival-- both Dauntless and Abnegation-- heavily on her shoulders.

This is the first in a trilogy. I'd recommend it to youth who enjoyed Hunger Games, Matched, and The Maze Runner.

Imaginary Girls-- Nova Ren Suma

In rural New York there is a town that surrounds a massive reservoir. Ruby, Chloe's big sister, is the queen of this town. Not in the literal, monarch type of way, but somehow everyone bends to Ruby's every whim. Literally. Once, in the middle of the night, Ruby decided she wanted cheesecake from a bakery in Manhattan, and people were fighting over who got to be the one to fetch it for her. Ruby is idolized by all the girls in the town and lusted after by all the boys. The hold she has over all the people in the town is hypnotizing... but nobody loves her more than her little sister Chloe.

Ruby is fiercely protective of Chloe. She always warned her to never, never swim alone in the reservoir because the people of Olive would want to snatch her away. Olive was the town that once existed before it was flooded by what is now the reservoir. Ruby has a theory that the people of Olive didn't die when their town was flooded; they simply transformed and can now breath underwater.

But one day, when a seemingly innocent dare drives Chloe to take a dip in the reservoir, she comes upon the corpse of her classmate, London. And when London somehow is brought back to life months later, Chloe is the only one who remembers that she was once dead. Knowing that Ruby is somehow connected only confuses Chloe more. But as time goes on, and Ruby's mystical hold over the town falters, Chloe has to learn to be her own true self for the first time in her life... and figure out how to exist in a world where Ruby isn't the perfect and loving sister Chloe once thought she was.

This book has strong magical undertones that are wrapped up in the mysterious plot. I enjoyed the writing style of the author, and I think teen girls will like this book. It could easily be recommended to girls who request books with a slightly fantastical plot but aren't exclusively supernatural creature readers (you know, vampire-zombie-werewolf readers). Is it a book I'll remember a year from now? Naaaah. Still, I think this is better than a lot we are seeing in that genre lately.

Sorta Like a Rock Star-- Matthew Quick

Amber Appleton is a girl I really wish I would have known in high school. No matter how hard her life might be she is totally dedicated to having a positive outlook and spreading happiness. Seriously, this girl even calls herself the Princess of Hope. Amber is a fierce protector of Franks Freak Force Federation (a group of boys who are her best friends), teaches English to a group of Korean women through the eternal wisdom of 60s girl groups, befriends a war vet who only communicates through haiku, and makes weekly visits to a local nursing home to cheer up the residents with her witty happyslams.

But there are some really hard things about her life too. Amber and her mother live on a school bus (her mom drives it for a living). Amber's mom is an alcoholic and frequently disappears on booze-benders. When she want to eat or shower, she has to do it at her friend Ricky's house. Amber never lets these things get her down... until one day something very tragic happens to her and the Princess of Hope disappears. The truly compelling part of this book comes from her peers... the people she used to help. They band together to help her out of her dark time and the end of the book is pretty darn magical.

So I have to admit, I did struggle with this book for the first few chapters. Amber's voice is S-T-R-O-N-G and overwhelmed me a bit. But I couldn't help it; I was totally sucked in by her quirky story and I bawled my eyes out (on an airplane, embarrassingly) through the last quarter of the book. But don't worry, the Princess of Hope would never leave you on a depressing note. I would recommend this book to girls or boys (though I think girls might like it more) who are looking for a unique story with strong characters.

The Magnolia League-- Katie Crouch

When her mother dies suddenly, Alex Lee is forced to leave the California commune where she was raised and move to sultry Savannah, GA where her grandmother lives. Grandmother Lee, descended from the famous general, is the leader of the most exclusive social club in the south: The Magnolia League. Dread-headed, pudgy, fashion eschewing Alex not only experiences a strong sense of culture shock when she enters society for the first time, but she also knows that her morals and values differ from the debutantes who now surround her.

Still, the longer she spends with Hayes and Madison, the two young Magnolias Grandmother Lee arranges for Alex to learn from, the more Alex realizes what she was missing her whole life on the commune. The temptation to be thin, rich, pretty, and popular is hard to resist when you're a high school girl. Although some strange supernatural occurrences scare Alex, she is still seduced by the benefits power and privilege bring. But when Alex takes things too far, and has to choose between the two most significant people in her life, she knows it's time to stop letting the Magnolias dictate her journey and she must make her own path.

This was a nice fluffy read, something I needed after months of slogging through "good literature." I would promote this book as a read-alike for the other recently published southern-magic-romance series, Beautiful Creatures being the first. The Magnolia League isn't going to win awards, and it's not particularly compelling, but it was fun enough. I would recommend this books to teen girls who enjoyed Beautiful Creatures, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and similar series, or any of the magic book series that were popular before vampires took over the world.

The REAL Printz

On January 10th, the winners of the 2011 Michael L. Printz award were announced.

The winner is:

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi












The honor books are:

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Nothing by Janne Teller

My co-sponsor of our Mock Printz event and I had a hunch that Ship Breaker would take a spot... we had a hard time leaving that book off our list, and there is kindof an inside story as to why we did. Still, it's nice that most of the winners this year were on our radar. It helps us know we were using the correct resources when selecting our Mock Printz list. Overall I am pretty excited about this year's winners!

Butterfly-- Sonya Hartnett

It has been over three weeks since I've read this book... and I'm still thinking about it. It wasn't the most amazing story I've ever read, and I can't say that I particularly liked any of the characters... still, it was GOOD. And strikingly well-written.

Plum is a socially awkward 14 year old girl who idolizes her older brothers and secretly dreams that someday she will be as amazing as her ethereal next door neighbor. When the neighbor, Maureen, invites Plum over for her son's 5th birthday, a whole new world is opened to Plum. For the first time someone has taken an interest in her, purchased her a beautiful dress, and is teaching her how to be slender, beautiful, and cosmopolitan. Plum has a group of girlfriends at school who mostly just tolerate her presence. Through confidence built by Maureen, Plum decides to have the girls over for a birthday sleepover. When something disastrous occurs, Plum descends into a spiral of depression. And just when she couldn't get even lower, the people she idolizes most, her two older brothers and neighbor Maureen disappoint her in a way that opens her eyes more widely to the cruel world of being grown-up.

Who would I recommend this book to? Honestly, adults who like to read YA. That's partially why I think it could be an award winner... in the past, certain YA literature awards leaned heavily toward adult fiction disguised as teen fiction. Truly though, you could give it to teens who enjoy reading beautifully written stories. There were some lines that we just so beautiful, I had to read them twice.

Wicked Girls-- Stephanie Hemphill

Sometimes, in a society that stifles the voices of youth and of women, you need to be loud and unique to be noticed. And in my opinion, that's what this book, Wicked Girls, is really about. It's set in the Salem area during the Salem Witch Trials. The novel is narrated in turn by young women, and it's in verse.

Wicked Girls takes you beyond just the facts or the information you might have learned in school. Through the verse format, Hemphill manages to make you really feel like you understand the emotional process the girls must have gone through to get to a place where they could accuse other women (and men) of being witches. These girls would convulse, seize, shriek, foam at the mouth, become feverish, and gave all outward appearances of being thoroughly tortured by witches. But Hemphill subtly asserts that they were not really seers, but lonely girls overlooked by parents and lovers; girls who needed something to break the bleak oppression a highly conservative society might bring.

Hemphill weaves fact into this work of fiction, which seems to be her speciality. While the dialog is imagined, and some names have been slightly changed, she tries to stick to the facts enough to give the reader a true impression of what happened in the past. It could be a tough sell for some teens, but this is a popular topic and maybe the verse-novel format will make it an easier sell.

Flash-- Michael Cadnum

Everything about Flash is set up to be a page-turner.

Bruce and Milton have a hard life. The brothers hail from a working-class family, and their dad died in a factory explosion. To find some relief, both from poverty and the tedium of it, they decide to rob a bank.

Nina has a lot on her plate too. Her father's import business is going under. Her brother Carraway is AWOL from Iraq, and her boyfriend Terrence is almost completely blind. On top of it all, she needs money to finance her art gallery showing... an event that could be her ticket to a new life all together.

Now add to the equation: desperation, guns, and everyone's favorite: a twist.

So like I said, a page-turner right? Well for me it wasn't. Honestly I felt the writing was lacking and the characters were dull. For some teens, I bet the plot will be enough to keep them going. I would feel comfortable giving this to a reluctant reader or someone who likes crime fiction, but do not offer it to teens who want a better quality of writing.

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty-- G. Neri and Randy DuBurke, Illustrator

Robert Sandifer is 11 years old. Everyone calls him Yummy because he has a sweet tooth that just won't quit. He lives with his grandma in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. He's just a little guy, a shortie, only 4 feet tall and maybe 60 pounds. Yummy still sleeps with a teddy bear. And Yummy shot a 14 year old girl. He shot her with a gun that was given to him by his mentors, members of the gang Black Disciples.

Yummy has an extraordinarily hard life. His father is in prison. His abusive mother has been in and out of jail for drugs and prostitution over 40 times. Yummy learned that the only way to be safe was to have a gang watching out for you. But being a part of the Black Disciples has it's price and Yummy paid it in the fullest.

This powerful graphic novel is short, but compelling; you really feel for Yummy. He was a criminal by the age of 11, but still completely a child. He was used and abused by almost everyone who entered his life, and his loyalty to his chosen family, his gang, only led to betrayal. In a situation as horrific as Yummy's, it's hard to blame him for his actions... yet an innocent girl was dead and he shot her. So how is that not his fault?

Oh, and did I mention that this is a true story? Robert "Yummy" Sandifer really did live in Chicago and this incident happened in 1994. While the topic of this story is mature and could be hard to handle for some youth, the pictures and description of events are appropriate even for younger teens. I would recommend this to teens who want true stories, reluctant readers who aren't afraid of the topics covered within, and teens who like gritty street stories.

Revolver-- Marcus Sedgwick

A really good writer leaves something for the imagination. S/he describes a scene in detail but leaves the truly horrific part for you to create in your mind. I can read gory horror books and feel fine, but the creepy-left-to-our-imagination scenes... that's what keeps me up at night!

Marcus Sedgwick accomplishes the balance between detail and not over-writing perfectly. Revolver takes place in the arctic circle during the gold rush. When Sig discovers his father frozen to death on the ice, he knows his whole life will change. But when Wolff shows up and torments Sig, his emotions go from sadness to utter terror. Wolff believes that Sig's father is hiding gold and will do anything to retrieve it. Sig and his sister Anna do everything they can to appease Wolff, but he still brutalizes them believing they are lying. Sedgwick weaves threads of this tale together, allowing the reader to figure out some things on their own and leaving enough mystery to keep the pages turning.

For whatever reason, Wolff's character scared the crap outta me. It was like he had no moral compass and couldn't see beyond his own personal desires. Wolff was adept at both physical and emotional torment. He was animalistic but just human enough to make me get up and make sure my doors were locked at night.

I would recommend this book to youth who like thrillers, pager turners, short chapters, and stories about harsh landscapes. This book would be especially good for boys. While there isn't anything graphically described in detail, it's still not for the faint of heart.

Mock Printz Nominations!

After many agonizing meetings, my librarian cohort Paige and I have settled on an official Mock Printz list for this year. It's always so hard to choose, because inevitably something amazing will be published after we've already made our list...

And the nominees are (in no particular order):

Nothing-- Janne Teller
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend-- Emily Horner
The Water Seeker-- Kimberly Willis Holt
Black Hole Sun-- David Macinnis Gill
Revolver-- Marcus Sedgwick
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty-- G. Neri and Randy Duburke, Ill
They Called Themselves the KKK-- Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Wicked Girls-- Stephanie Hemphill
Finnikin of the Rock-- Melina Marchetta
Last Summer of the Death Warriors-- Francisco X. Stork

OK, you have your list! Now start reading and let me know what you think about our Mock Printz selections. And, if you want more information about the Mock Printz event, email teens@fvrl.org.

The Water Seeker-- Kimberly Willis Holt

Taking place from 1833 through 1859, The Water Seeker is a fictional tale of what life was like on the prairie and along the Oregon Trail. Mostly historical fiction, but with a light touch of magical realism, this novel is a meandering but compelling story of a boy and the adults who find their way into his life.

Amos is the son of Jake, who is a trapper by chosen trade but a dowser by god given gift. While Jake is away trapping, he leaves Amos to be raised by his brother and his wife, then later the neighbor and her five sons. It isn't until Amos is almost 14 that his father comes back to claim him... and take him on the journey of a lifetime, out west on the Oregon trail. Amos learns about himself through those who care for him. After watching Jake work as a dowser, Amos realizes that skill is living within him, too. And after years of sketching eerily accurate portraits, he learns his mother (who died giving birth to him) was a talented artist. But it isn't until he meets Gwendolyn that Amos learns what it means to be a man and see beyond the surface and first impressions.

This novel is appropriate for all ages of teens, and would be especially appealing to those who loved the Little House on the Prairie books but have outgrown them.

This Gorgeous Game--Donna Freitas

When 17 year old Olivia wins a prestigious writing contest sponsored by award winning author Father Mark Brennan, she can't believe her good luck. Being a writer is her life's dream, and winning this contest will set her on her career path. When Father Mark offers to mentor her in the ways of writing, Olivia couldn't be happier. As a devoted Catholic and completely dedicated to her writing career, Olivia believed being mentored by Father Mark would take her places she would never reach on her own.

But when Father Mark begins to call and text her multiple times an hour, follow her, and completely dominate her time, Oliviae starts to realize their relationship isn't typical. Although Father Mark hasn't touched her in any way, Olivia can still tell that something is inappropriate about their interactions. But soon the situation spirals out of her control and she has to dig deep inside herself to try and find her way out... and to still find the love for writing that started it all.

Donna Freitas has written a tale of an inappropriate relationship between a priest and a young girl, but she has done it in a respectful, not sensationalized way. She does not dismiss all priests or Catholicism as wrong; in fact I would think readers who are Catholic might be pleased with the way she portrays the religion. I would easily recommend this book to youth who like clean, religious fiction even though the subject matter seems so appalling. Personally, I didn't enjoy it much but only because it's not quite my literary cup of tea... but in general, I found it to be well written and there is a subset of teens out there who will be looking for a book like this.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend-- Emily Horner

Things that are happening during the summer before Cass's senior year in high school:

Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.
A badass solo bike ride from Illinois to California (kinda).
A musical which should have stared Julia, but instead stars Heather, the girl who mercilessly called Cass a dyke in front of the whole school.
Self discovery.
Two first kisses.

Something that happened in the spring:

Julia, Cass's best friend and secret (even to herself) girlcrush is killed in a car accident... and Cass's world implodes. Her hippy-liberal-Quaker parents encourage Cass to find her way out of the blackness, and Cass decides to do so by making a cross country bike trip, alone, to scatter Julia's ashes in the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, Cass and Julia's friends decide to produce Julia's legacy, the musical she'd been slaving over "Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad."

This book is told in Then and Now passages, isn't linear, and is totally compelling. I literally couldn't put it down. Sometimes YA coming of age stories are unrealistically good (ahem, John Green), but this one really communicates how boundaries in the mind can be blurry, and how easy it can be to trick yourself into believing a lie... basically just like real life. I also found this book to be quite well written and will be keeping it in mind when it's time to select titles for Mock Printz!