AUTHOR: Laurie Halse Anderson

LENGTH: 272 pages

SUMMARY: High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn?t believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father?s boss?s daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy? and Tyler?s secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in school, in his family, and in the world. (amazon.com)

BRIDGE: I think this book could be used effectively with classic titles like A Separate Peace or Catcher in the Rye. Both of these classic titles deal with teens who are processing traumatic events and having difficulty coping. Anderson does an excellent job of capturing the mentality of a boy who has been emotionally and verbally beaten down by the very people who are supposed to support him. It is an interesting journey into the mind of a child whose vision narrows to the unthinkable option of suicide and how he copes with that temptation. Using this book in tandem with the classics mentioned above will give readers multiple insights into the mind of troubled teens and how even the tiniest statements and actions can have devastating consequences.

Modernizing the setting of Tyler’s mental and social struggles will help readers connect with him and give them a platform from which to appreciate the occurrences in Knowles’s and Salinger’s novels.  In addition, the novel provides a discussion point for one’s mindset as a teen dealing with traumatic and emotional fallout and comparing that to Knowles’s look back on the events as an adult.

READERS: This book would appeal to any students dealing with the social inequality of high school. And, as a bit of a change from her previous novels, it has a male protagonist and appeals to male readers in a way her other titles might not.  Students who have experienced suicide issues, either personally or through a friend/acquaintance could gain perspective from this novel but be warned to consider this recommendation on an individual basis. Know your readers and be cautious when recommending this book.  Readers who enjoy stories of justice meted out on the deserving offenders will enjoy the plot and Anderson’s deft handling of Tyler’s many endured and perpetrated injustices.

OTHER TITLES: Readers who enjoyed this book might also enjoy Big Mouth, Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates, What Happened to Lani Garver? by Carol Plum-Ucci, or Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Amazon Blurb: A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

REVIEW: THUMBS UP to Revis’s Across the Universe. The dual narrative of this book is amazing. Revis creates such distinct voices for Elder and Amy. And while the blurb would indicate that the story is mostly about Amy, I feel that it is an equal balance between Amy and Elder’ stories and that’s what makes this book so enthralling. Readers will identify with Amy because she is from Soul Earth and has had many of the same experiences that readers have had. But Elder’s narrative is just as important and the layering of their character arcs creates a thorough narrative. In addition, I listened to this audiobook and the separate narrators really lend personality to the already distinct voices of the characters.

I was a little disappointed in the resolution of this book’s conflict. I suspected the culprit behind the “unfreezings” very early on in the story. There was nothing to divert my attention from my suspect either so it just sat there in the back of my mind for most of the book. There were a couple of surprising moments and more sadness than I would have expected from a novel of this type. Revis has managed to effortlessly create a world that demands your curiosity. As an added layer to the story, there is a map of Godspeed on Revis’s website.

Overall, a moving read that causes questions to arise about of the future of humanity, how society chooses its leaders,  and the impact of mistakes in judgement over the course of years rather than just the immediate fallout.  And while the main conflict is resolved in this book, readers are left with many more questions about Elder, Amy and Godspeed’s future. I’m looking forward to the second book in the series, A Million Suns, which just released Jan. 10, 2012.

Click cover to order!

It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate
has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him
hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before,
and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves
from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the
only thing he has left…his soul.

Paperback Available for Pre-Order from Amazon:
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AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow

LENGTH: 416 pages

SUMMARY: (via amazon.com) Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

BRIDGE: This book would be excellent paired with Orwell’s 1984, as the title suggests. The amount of government “spying” alone would make it a good companion/comparison. It would also be useful in comparing Orwell’s vision of a government state at the time he was writing versus Doctorow’s vision in a more modern setting. In addition, one could use passages to mentor technical writing. Doctorow does quite a bit of description of the technology Marcus is using in trying to bring down the DHS. It would be a good exercise in making technical description more approachable. In addition, one could use Doctorow’s writing to mentor complex sentence structure. It would also be a good glimpse into the mind of a semi-paranoid narrator. Ultimately, this book could generate excellent discussion of privacy matters versus “national security”.

READERS: This book is perfect for gamers and those readers who are self-proclaimed tech-geeks. The discussion of online, computer, and video games alone would enthrall techies. Also, readers who tend to be conspiracy theorists would enjoy Marcus’s evaluation of San Francisco’s devolution into a military state. This book would probably appeal to males more than females but girl-gamers would be interested. And the story is engaging enough to keep non-gamers reading.

OTHER TITLES: Readers who enjoyed this book would also enjoy Feed by M.T. Anderson, The Uglies books by Scott Westerfeld, or The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

I’ve been a John Green fan since I readLooking for Alaska for the first time before it won the Printz. He was one of the first authors that I can remember writing honestly intelligent teenagers. Not pocket-protector wearing smarties, but sincerely intelligent people like my friends from high school who were not just the embodiment of their intelligence but were also complex and funny and insecure and talented and flawed. And the endings to his stories weren’t orchestrated like many authors seem to believe YA readers need.

So I think when faced with the reality of TFIOS, I was nervous. What if it didn’t live up to the hype? What if I didn’t like it? What if I didn’t cry? What if it was too depressing and missing the humor I loved? What if? What if? What if?

And then I read it. And I couldn’t put it down. And I wanted to clone Augustus Waters. And I wanted to be Hazel Grace’s friend. And I cried – the Ugly Cry. But something still niggled at the back of my mind and heart. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first and, clearly, I’ve waited a considerable amount of time to write about TFIOS because I wanted to be sure of what, exactly, I wanted to say about this book. There are so many voices shouting about JG and The Greatness that is TFIOS, I didn’t want to just jump on the bandwagon of adulation.

Here’s the thing: it leaves me disappointed. Not just when reading TFIOS , but for every book or short story that I read or reread. Disappointed because it’s over. Disappointed because I’m not sure that teens like this really exist. Yes, I had friends like some of the characters but no one person I could think of embodied all of Q’s characteristics or was as self-assured and driven as Margot Roth Spiegelman. Perhaps only one or two students out of 130+ I teach every year comes close to being as witty or open-minded as  the Will(s) Grayson.

“ARE YOU SAYING YOU DON’T LIKE JOHN GREEN’S BOOKS?!? I hear you cry. No. I still love JG. I still love his books. I still love Hank and the videos. And not only do I think he’s written amazing books, I think he’s a really nice guy. He cares about his readers and young people in general. He cares about the environment. He is someone I’d like to call a friend.

But more importantly, I want my students to read his books. I want them to know that there are people like Tobin out there. I want them to know that it’s ok to be smart and assertive. That you don’t have to go along with the crowd when your heart is telling you to do something different. That loving someone wholly and completely is possible in high school. That some teachers suck and some rock as do parents and friends and siblings and heroes. That, ultimately, life is about the experience and appreciating the moment and, in the words of Augustus Waters, “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you.” We should all strive to be as happy about our choices for the people in our lives as Augustus and Hazel are in theirs.

BLURB:
In the future, only one rule will matter: Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last
person she expected hovering above her bed – arrogant Jackson Locke, the
most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind
of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help
him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her
question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts,
she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more
than her attention.  Sheąs a military legacy whoąs been trained by her
father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can
know – especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the
information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping
silent will start a war.

Pre-order from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Melissa-West/dp/1620610914/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Add to Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12844575-gravity

AUTHOR: Libba Bray

PUBLISHER: Scholastic Press

LENGTH: 400 pages

Amazon Review: From bestselling, Printz Award-winning author Libba Bray comes the story of a plane of beauty pageant contestants that crashes on a desert island.

Teen beauty queens. A Lost-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to emall. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.

BRIDGE: This hilarious novel could be used most effectively in tandem with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The book is clearly based on the classic and, in my teaching career, this is a question we always explore when reading Golding’s novel: How would this situation unfold if girls had been stranded on the island? The modernized setting puts other issues in play with the survivors being beauty pageant contestants as a humorous twist.

But this novel could be used in other ways as well. There are clearly some underlying hints at commercialism and its effects on society as well as the influence media has on self-perception. There’s a lot going on here besides girls bemoaning the lack of running water. The text could be used in Media Communications courses or Economics classes to examine the plotting of The Corporation. Tough issues like gender roles and identity play a large part in the character development and could be a great launching point for discussion in any humanities course. The book also tackles political diplomacy lending portions to use in History courses or courses that deal in current events.

READERS: Male and female readers alike will enjoy this book. The inclusion of pirates and conspiracy elevates this book beyond a mere ChickLit read. Fans of adventure books will like the survival aspect. And, as is the case with many of Bray’s books, humor abounds. And for fans of audiobooks, this one takes the cake. Narrated by the author, Bray provides different voices and extras in the audio version that one doesn’t get in the print copy.

OTHER TITLES: Readers who like this book might also like Going Bovine by Libba Bray, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green, or Shine by Lauren Myracle.

One blogger I was lucky enough to meet and share some ideas with was Ari from Reading in Color. She is the winner of the 2011 Black Weblog Award’s Best Teen Blog and reviews YA/MG books about people of color. After talking about a couple of different ideas, Ari agreed to write my first Guest Post. I asked her to think about all of the books about people of color she’s enjoyed and make a list of the books about people of color that every high school student should read. I think she’s made excellent choices so without further ado, here is her list.

Top 5 Books Every High School Student Should Read that aren’t ‘Classics’

In the spirit of many high school students in America, and even around the world, I described each book in 140 characters a la Twitter

1. Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher – The main character, T.J., is witty & this is the first book I cried over. I dare you to read this & not shed tears of laughter or sadness.
2. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork – Has Asperger’s, may offend, may be awkward, may overwhelm with brilliance but will most likely dazzle. Stupendous book about life in general.
3. A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott – Covers a plethora of complex topics deftly that relate to the 1860s and early2000s. Re-read in order to find all hidden gems in the text.
4. Devil’s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda (Billi SanGreal series) – Billi, struggles with her duty of protecting the world by killing those who are evil. Not all heroes are golden & villains make valid points.
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – Constantly banned from schools because while it talks about books, racism, reservation life, poverty and art, it also talks about boners.

Other Notables: Jazz in Love by Neesha Meminger, Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel Fattah, We Were Here by Matt de la Pena, What Can’t Wait by Ashley Hope Perez

The wonderful people at figment.com are hosting an author-led live web-discussion about…you guessed it, JANE AUSTEN. Read the following press information about the event!

On Monday, February 13 at 8 p.m. ET, three beloved YA  authors—SHANNON HALE (Midnight in Austenland, Princess Academy), ELIZABETH EULBERG (Prom and Prejudice, Take a Bow), and E. LOCKHART (The Boyfriend List, National Book Award finalist The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks)—will join the thousands of young readers and writers on Figment.com for an exciting live group chat.

Inspired by Hale’s new novel, Midnight in Austenland, and the bestselling Austenland (soon to be a movie starring Keri Russell), these three authors will discuss the everlasting appeal of English literature’s most beloved lady: the incredible, inimitable Jane Austen.

Why do we keep coming back to Austen again and again? How is it that her heroines, created 200 years ago, still feel fresh enough to inspire thoroughly modern characters like Bridget Jones and Clueless’ Cher? And why does the idea of a trip to Pembrook Park—the setting of Midnight in Austenland, where
21st-century guests don bonnets and receive a taste of Regency romance from handsome gentleman actors—sound like the best vacation we’ve ever heard of?

Join us on Figment on Monday, February 13 at 8 p.m. ET to learn the answers to all these questions, and more. The authors will also take questions from readers in the second half of the event.

Permalink for the event: http://blog.figment.com/after-austen/

And as a lead-up to the live group chat, we invite you to try your hand at our quiz: Could You Survive Regency England?
http://blog.figment.com/2012/01/31/could-you-survive-regency-england/

You can also read Shannon’s essay on her lifelong love affair with Pride and Prejudice:
http://blog.figment.com/2012/02/06/shannon-hale-on-jane-austen/

Thanks to my friends at the YALSA listserve for keeping me in the know!