Looking for Alaska

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York: Penguin Group.

Miles Halter is a high school junior who leaves his home in Florida to attend Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama.  It happens to be a private school where students like to pull pranks.  He is a shy boy who likes the “last words” of people.  Never having friends before, Miles becomes quick friends with “The Colonel”, Takumi, Lara, and Alaska Young who immediately accept him.  Alaska has Miles pushing the rules by sneaking off to drink, smoke and perform pranks with them.  Miles begins to fall for her even though Alaska has a college boyfriend.  Then after a drunken night celebrating a series of pranks, Alaska freaks out and suddenly says that she has to leave campus to do something.  Miles and Takumi help her get off campus.  Then the next morning, they receive news that Alaska had been killed in a car accident.  The boys feel responsible and confused about Alaska’s death.  They were wondering he purpose on where she was going and it helps with the healing.  They also decide to handle their grief by pulling the prank of all pranks.  They learn how to continue on with life. 

This is a modern realistic fiction that is dealing with death and being able to overcome it and accept it.  The audience for this John Green novel should be Juniors and Senior due to the content and the language used in the story.   It is a coming of age story that deals with heartbreak, laughter, pranks, friendship and love.  

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Black, H. (2013). The coldest girl in Coldtown.  New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Tana Bach is a teenager who lives in a world with humans and vampires.  She wakes up in a house after a party to find that they were attacked by vampires and all of her friends were dead except her ex-boyfriend, who is infected and a mysterious vampire called Gaviel.  She heads to the nearest Coldtown to stop her transformation.  She can be cured is she can refrain from drinking human blood for up to 88 days.  Tana discovers that Gaviel is an ancient vampire who is on a quest for revenge against his maker.  She he is determined to fight the virus that she locks herself up with Gaviel by her side. 

 This is a great novel for readers who like dark vampire stories.  It is a fast paced with plenty of gory and thrills.  It did have some very scary parts but it made it for very good reading. Black provided many flash back chapters which help the reader to develop background knowledge needed to make connections.  This novel falls under the science fiction but under the vampire category.  According to Young Adult Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide (2014), "While the majority of the time vampire novels are labeled as fantasy, there are instances when science is involved, such as in the origin of the vampires, the actual world, or the attempt to either cure or kill the vampires" (p. 101). 

Chance, R. (2014). Young adult literature in action: A librarian's guide. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Ness, P. (2008). The knife of never letting go. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press

Todd Hewitt and his dog Machee live in Prentisstown, a part of the New World that has “Noise”.  Noise are the thoughts that everyone can hear including hearing animals’ thoughts.  All women were killed by the Noise germ.  Todd discovers one day that he can see a spot moving on the silence.  Ben and Cillian tell Todd that he needs to leave and keep the silence out of the noise.  When he is escaping, Todd is attacked.  As he is running, he discovers Viola.  She was the silence that he saw and the first girl that Todd has even seen.  Viola joins Todd and Machee as they go off to warn the other settlements of the army of men that were coming.  They continue their run to Haven when Viola is shot.  As Todd is carrying Viola into Haven, he sees the mayor of Prentisstown waiting for him at Haven.      

This science fiction books is fast-paced and full of action.  I found it very suspenseful.  It is under the fantasy fiction because of the fantasy world that Todd lives in.  I would recommend this novel for readers in grades 9-12.  It does have some gruesome violence. 

Due to of all the action and life and death scenes, it could be popular among boy readers. Readers have to read the Chaos Walking sequels to see what happens to Todd and Viola.      

Annie On My Mind

Garden, N. (1982).  Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

It is a rainy day at the Metropolitan Art Museum when Liza and Annie first meet.  It was Liza’s singing that caught her attention.  They begin to talk and hang out.  Soon, they become best friends with such different worlds.  Liza lives in an up-scaled neighborhood with her parents and brother.  She attends a private school and wants to go to MIT.  Annie lives with her parents and grandmother in a rough neighborhood in Manhattan.  Annie wants to go to the University of California to become a singer. Their friendship begins to develop into something more.  The thought of being gay frightens them but they cannot deny their love for one another.  They try to keep their love hidden and their relationship is discovered and it almost gets Liza kicked out of her private school.  Liza ends up feeling guilty and confused and she ends the relationship and the girls go their separate ways and colleges.  Liza spends lots of time writing Annie letters that she does not send.  She ends up calling Annie and they decide to meet up over Christmas break. 

This realistic fiction introduces readers to a love that was not easily accepted when the book was first written in 1982.  Times are slowly changing about sexual orientation but it still a difficult time for many.  This novel is appropriate for readers that are 14 years old and up.  Young adults need to read about characters who are struggling with and dealing with sexual orientation and identity.  

Young Adult Literature in Action, A Librarian's Guide states "school and public libraries need to include gay-themed fiction and nonfiction books in their collections if they are intent on serving all young adults. Young adults find identity, safety, and comfort in reading about characters with similar sexual orientation." 

Chance, R. (2014). Young adult literature in action: A librarian's guide. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Etiquette & Espionage

Carriger, G. (2013). Etiquette & espionage. New York: Little, Brown, Books for Young Readers.

At the age of fourteen, Sophronia’a mother wants to send her to finishing school to learn how to become a proper lady and wife. The school is Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.  As soon as Sophronia gets there, she sees something totally different.  The academy floats by steam-powered machinery. The academy teaches how to use poisons, knives, defense skills, diversion, acts of espionage and etiquette.   Sophronia meets Dimity, Pillover, Soap, Vieve and a Bumbersnoot.  Monique, a classmate steals and hides an important prototype.  Sophronia and her friends need to retrieve the prototype before it falls into the wrong hands.  It is at her sister’s coming out ball that Sophronia uses her skills from finishing school to get it prototype delivered safely to Mademoiselle’s hands.  

I really enjoyed this steampunk novel.  It was the first one that I read.  It was a magical read imagining a floating Academy, vampires as teachers, robots, werewolves and a touch of vintage with mystery.  I am definitely putting this series on the must read list for the summer.  Check out this cool website about the finishing schools:  http://finishingschoolbooks.com/.

My Friend Dahmer

Backderf, D. (2012). My friend Dallmer: A graphic novel. New York: Abrams

My Friend Dahmer is a graphic novel that follows the life of Jeffrey Dahmer when he was an adolescent.  Backderf was a classmate and a friend of Dahmer’s in high school.  The events that occurred in Jeffrey’s life during high school are documented and illustrated in this graphic novel.  There were tragic events that happened to him and could have guided him into the person that he became in 1991.  Dahmer did not fit into any groups. His usual behavior and reclusiveness tended to have many people to shun him as well.  He also have difficulty with his home life too.  His parents constantly fought which led to a divorce.  This caused Dahmer to act out in high school.  No one knew that his mother suffered from a mental illness.  Jeffrey did not have any real friends.  He was obsessed with death and destroying dead animals.  He had homosexual urges, heard voices in his head and eventually it led to heavy drinking.  It was almost as if he was medicating himself with the alcohol.  After high school, Dahmer was completely alone and it lead to his first murder of many murders.   

This is a nonfiction graphic novel that documents the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. The illustrations and the quick read that it provides will have readers see what can happen to an individual when they do not have a loving relationship with their parents, the support of friends, and the effects of bullying can do to a person over time. After reading this, one much wonder, what if things were different for Jeffrey Dahmer? Would he have turned out a serial killer?

Shiver

Steifvater, M. (2009). Shiver. New York: Scholastic Press.

                         
 Grace is a seventeen year old who loves to watch the wolves out of her window.  She lives in a small town in Minnesota.  There is one wolf in particular that she loves to watch, it a bluish-gray wolf with beautiful, yellow eyes.  This wolf, even watches her.  When Grace was  a child, she was attacked by wolves and this beautiful, yellow eyed saved her and still protects her.  When it is cold, he lives as a wolf and when it is warm, he is a human. Sam and Grace fall in love.  Together, they are trying to find a cure since this is the last time that he will become human.  Then, one of Grace’s friends, Jack is attacked by the wolves and the hunters from town want to kill all wolves.  Sam and Grace wonder if there is a cure since Grace did not become a wolf when she was bitten as a little girl.  From what they can figure out was that Grace had a high fever following her wolf attack.  So, then Sam and Jack are infected with meningitis in hopes to produce a fever.  Jack dies from the meningitis.  Then during the middle of the winter, Sam walks out of the woods into Grace’s embrace. 

I really enjoyed this novel.  The characters were a perfect blend of reality and fantasy.  The two worlds worked well together and you could feel the love between Sam and Grace.  Students in grades 7^th and up would enjoy this story.  Shiver is the first book in Stiefvater’s Shiver triology. 

Shiver meets these characteristics of a high fantasy, supernatural novel:

·                  A complete world is created with specific and consistent rules.

·                  Readers are so thoroughly convinced of the logistics of the created world that they can suspend their disbelief enough to be drawn into the story.  However, there is still a basis in reality.

·                  There is a quest and a hero who must complete the quest no matter the dangers or impossibility of the tasks set before him or her.

·                  Good and evil engage in battle, back and forth throughout the story until the hero wins.

·                  There is plenty of suspense to propel the story forward and compel the reader to keep turning pages.

Chance, R. (2014). Young adult literature in action: A librarian's guide. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.