Whale Talk September 8, 2008

Title: Whale Talk

Author: Chris Crutcher

Summary:  Chris Crutcher is one of those unique writers who manages to get his work challenged almost as often as he receives literary awards and lands on best book lists.   Whale Talk  is perhaps one of his most controversial and one of his best.  It’s told from the point of view of T.J. Jones, a black, Japanese, white high school senior born to a hippie, drug-using mom and adopted as a toddler by a loving white couple.  While T.J. may be the narrator, this is not just his story.  It’s also the story of a group of misfit teens who are inspired to achieve something of their own, a little mixed race girl struggling against a brutal home life, a good man who spends every day trying to make up for a 20+ year old horrible accident, and the racism and prejudice that tie their lives together. 

Who will like this book: While the basic plot of this story centers around T.J. assembling and leading a rag-tag swim team populated with the biggest school misfits, this isn’t just a book for sports fiction fans.  This book delves into topics of child abuse, racism, and bullying with a raw honesty that is heartbreaking at times. 

If you like this, try this:Any other books by Chris Crutcher, Speakby Laurie Halse Anderson, Tangerine by Edward Bloor

Recommended by: Jen, Branch Teen Librarian

Little Brother June 27, 2008

Title: Little Brother

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: After a terrorist attack in his hometown of San Francisco, Marcus and his friends are detained in a Department of Homeland Security prison. After days of mistreatment and brutal questioning, he is released and finds his city, and his family, changed. Everyone is being watched and tracked in the city, on foot, on the subway, in their cars and in the classroom. Marcus decides he wants revenge, and decides to use his skills as a hacker, and his playful personality, to get the job done. Along the way he loses friends, meets a girl, and becomes a revolutionary hero.

Set in a not-so-distant future, this is a book that uses gadgets, tech-speak and a hefty dose of humor to disguise what is really a serious story about the grey area between freedom and privacy. As in the book that inspired it’s title, the government is out of control and not to be trusted, and it is up to everyday people to fight it and regain the freedoms most of us take for granted.

Who will like this book?: Fans of dystopian books (where the future is worse than today) like Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Anyone who has ever freaked out thinking about how cool it would be to hack their  XBox.

If you like this, try this: Feed by M.T. Anderson. Icecore by Matt Whyman. 1984 by George Orwell.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Looking for Alaska June 25, 2008

Title: Looking for Alaska

Author: John Green

Summer Reading List: Fairfield Warde High

Summary: Miles Halter is making a major change in his life: He is leaving his home in Florida to attend a boarding school in Alabama. When he arrives, skinny Miles is nicknamed ‘Pudge’ by his new roommate Chip (aka ’the Colonel’), who also introduces him to the girl of his dreams. Her name is Alaska. She is smart, gorgeous, and just a little crazy. Miles falls right into their social circle, sneaking drinks, experimenting with girls and pulling pranks on the school’s strict headmaster and snobby students. He also falls hard for Alaska, even though she has a boyfriend away at college.

But finally falling in love doesn’t make life any less complicated, especially when the person you fall for is Alaska. As the book goes from counting the ‘days before’ to the ‘days after,’ you realize something big is going to happen. When it does, Miles has to deal with the devastating aftermath. This Printz Award-winning book will leave you wondering, as Miles does, about ‘The Great Perhaps’ of your own life.

Who will like this book?: Mature readers who like realistic fiction. It is a funny book, but it is also quite sophisticated in the way it describes growing up, being a guy, and falling in love.

If you like this, try this: Green’s second novel, An Abundance of Katherines. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. King Dork by Frank Portman.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Never Let Me Go June 24, 2008

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Summer Reading List: Fairfield Ludlowe High

Summary: Set in a not-too-distant future England, students at Halisham live a typical boarding-school life: classes and friendships, romances and secrets. They are aware of the wider world around them, yet they are kept separate from it. The kids at Halisham already know their role in the future.

The students are clones, their sole purpose on the planet is to one day donate their organs to people until they are no longer viable. But when you can feel love, fear and rejection, can you truly be called something less than human? This is a powerful yet subtle book about memory and what it means to be alive.

Who will like this book?: People who like their stories with just a touch of fantasy (or just a touch of horror, depending on how you feel about clones.) If you like books that don’t spell it all out for you, but force you to come to your own conclusions, this is a good choice.

If you like this, try this: House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Skin June 23, 2008

Title: Skin

Author: Adrienne Maria Vrettos

Summary:

These are the things you think when you come home to find that your sister has starved herself to death and you have dropped to your knees to revive her:
1. My sister is flat like a board.  There’s fat guys in the locker room with bigger boobs than she has.
2. When I scream my sister’s name into her face, I can hear my father’s voice in my own.
3. Where is it you’re supposed to press? In the middle, on the side? Left or right?

Fourteen-year-old Donnie has always relied on his older sister Karen to shield him from the harshness of life- be it lengthy and frequent parental fights or a miserable social life.  However, Karen is fading fast, wasting away from anorexia, leaving Donna to decide if he too will fade into the background via social isolation and bullying or challenge himself to carve out his own place of acceptance.

Who will like this book:  Fans of serious drama and family upheaval.  Told in the first person this book gives you the vantage point few anorexia stories do- that of a young male family member left behind. 

If you like this, try this:  Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Cut by Patricia McCormick, Skinny by Ibi Kaslik,  and Just Listen  by Sarah Dessen

Recommended by: Jen, Fairfield Woods Branch Teen Librarian

the dead and the gone June 4, 2008

Title: the dead and the gone

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Summary: Alex Morales lives in Manhattan with his parents and two sisters, the angelic Brianna and devilish Julie. His life is ordinary: He works hard in school and at his job at a pizza place. But everything changes in an instant when the unthinkable happens: An asteroid hits the moon, knocking it out of orbit. As a result, tidal waves erase entire coastlines, newly formed volcanos erupt, covering the sun and stars with a cloud of gray ash, and millions die. When Mami and Papi don’t come home, Alex must rely on his friends, teachers and church to protect his sisters and help the family survive the apocalypse.

As the weeks and months go on, Alex questions his faith and his love for his sisters as he has to resort to desperate measures to keep them healthy and safe. Help comes from unexpected places. Tragedy strikes when he least expects it. This is a gritty, frighteningly realistic portrait of a future out of our control.

Who will like this book?: People who like reading intense books. Realistic horror fans who love stories that keep them up all night, thinking.

If you like this, try this: This book has a companion novel, Life as We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, about the same event, but told from the point of view of a girl living in the country. For mature readers, The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian