Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge

Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge.

Audience: 7th grade and up

My Rating: 4.5* of 5

Summary: Paige Turner has just moved to New York with her family, and she's having some trouble adjusting to the big city. In the pages of her sketchbook, she tries to make sense of her new life, including trying out her secret identity: artist. As she makes friends and starts to explore the city, she slowly brings her secret identity out into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding. Laura Lee Gulledge crafts stories and panels with images that are thought-provoking, funny, and emotionally resonant. Teens struggling to find their place can see themselves in Paige's honest, heartfelt story.
Comments: Picked this up on a whim and was wowed by the Agents of Whimsy! A quintessential representation of the teen, self-absorbed, but working through the process (in this case artistic) of self-awareness and expression. Artwork is outstanding--conveying as much if not more than text--ranging from funny to profound. My only complaint was that the slight conflict between Paige and her friend Jules never really seemed resolved.

Swim the Fly / Beat the Band by Calame (Audio)

Swim the Fly / Beat the Band by Don Calame, both read by Nick Podehl.

Audience: Grades 8 and up

My Rating: 4* of 5

Summary: True ode(s) to the adolescent male, in this story about three teenage boys with a single goal: to see a real-live naked girl by the end of summer (Swim). Matt, Coop, and Sean from "Swim the Fly" return to rock their sophomore year. With ribald humor and a few sweet notes, screenwriter-turned-novelist Calame once again hits all the right chords (Beat the Band).

Comments: Hilarious, "American Pie" worthy humor was just the ticket for Friday afternoon traffic! Swim the Fly, with Matt as the narrating voice, has more laughs while Coop's Band is rife with sarcasm and idiotic-teenage-boy-logic. One wonders...will a final book feature Sean?

Read-alikes: Zen and the Art of Faking It by Sonnenblick

Delcroix Academy: The Candidates (book 1)

Delcroix Academy: The Candidates by Inara Scott (ARC). Hyperion 08/2010.

Audience: Ages 13+, Grades 7-10

My Rating: 3*s of 5

Summary: Dancia Lewis' otherwise mediocrity is a welcome cover for her secret: whenever she sees a person threatening someone she cares about, things just...happen. Cars skid. Structures collapse. Usually someone gets hurt. When recruiters from the prestigious and mysterious Delcroix Academy show up in her living room to offer her a full scholarship, Dancia's days of living under the radar may be over.

Comments: A debut novel with a strong premise and love triangle (do I smell a "Team Cam" and "Team Jack" campaign!?) that keeps the sometimes sluggish pace afloat. My biggest stumbling block...the names. "Delcroix" and "Dancia" sound so awkward to me that they tripped up my eyeballs every time. There are some interesting developments at the end of book 1, but not a major cliffhanger as I anticipated.

Awards:

Read-alikes: Twilight, etc., Vampire Academy

If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney

(This book has been nominated for Tayshas. I wrote something about it for a book discussion we had this morning, and thought I'd repost it on the web, per the suggestion from my coworker Larissa.)

Jack, Smithy, and Madison once had two parents. Then their mom became pregnant and was diagnosed with cancer. She chose to have the baby and forego chemo, which ultimately brought about her death (after she gave birth to the healthy baby, Tris). The father struggles to take care of the four kids alone, and is initially grateful when his sister-in-law offers to move in with them and help take care of the family. Then a freak accident happens – toddler Tris manages to shift the family’s car out of park and run over the dad, killing him. With the dad gone, the aunt takes over running the family, and creates changes in the house, slowly getting rid of any evidence of life before her arrival. After the dad's death, Madison moves in with her godparents and Smithy goes away to boarding school. Jack is left at home, needing to protect his brother Tris. When the aunt decides to bring the media into their home to broadcast the life of Tris, Jack knows that he must keep his brother out of the spotlight and away from the scheming aunt. Smithy becomes suspicious of the details of her dad’s death, because the only witness to the accident was her aunt, who seems to be intent on breaking the family apart.


Thoughts (may contain spoilers!):
Another good book by Caroline Cooney, a mystery/suspense master. What's up with the cover that has nothing to do with the storyline? Once I got started reading, I didn't want to put it down. The teens are smart and resourceful. The ending might work out a bit too easily, but I enjoyed the ride getting there. It's interesting that the two girls return home on literally the same day, both compelled to fix their family. Does that imply that they were being led by supernatural forces (the spirits of their parents wanting justice), or was their motivation the effect of experiencing the anniversary of their dad's death and the need to be near family? Perhaps the timely return of the sisters was a bit unrealistic, but overall I think this is an interesting read. For teens, grades 8 and up.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. 2009.
Audience: Grades 8+; ages 13+
My Rating: 5*s of 5
Summary: “Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls. “Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another. I am that girl. I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.
Comments: Wintergirls is as close to perfect as a book can come. The hook is immediately gripping, pacing is just right, Lia is frustrating and fascinating, and Cassie is mesmerizing. Some passages made me shiver, some made me physically revolted, they all made me want to read more. The new devices Anderson includes (strikeout type, font changes, numbering the 33 times Cassie called, punctuation play) all combine deftly and perfectly to tell this story. Perhaps most importantly, the message of the book is that eating disorders require a hard look at the brain, not just the body. If Wintergirls is not a Printz or other big award winner, I will be sorely disappointed at the oversight.
Awards: better be!
Read-alikes: Speak by Anderson

Wicked Lovely

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. 2007.
Audience: 14+

Summary:
Aislinn sees faeries. She has always seen faeries. She knows not to trust them. She has spent a lifetime developing strategies to avoid them. So when a faerie starts stalking her, she knows this cannot be a good thing.

She slowly learns that the stalker is Keenan, the Summer King, who believes Aislinn to be the queen he has sought for nine centuries. She is destined (he believes) to help him finally bring an end to the constant winter imposed by the evil Beira. The problem is that Aislinn doesn’t want to become a faerie queen; she wants to have a normal life: finish high school and hang out with her almost-boyfriend, the wonderfully sweet Seth.

Oh, and the other thing. If she does accept him, but she turns out not to be The One, she will become the new Winter Girl, immortal, but with a literal icy touch, and bound to the Summer King until he can find someone else willing to join him. Not much of a choice, right? But have you ever tried to turn down a faerie?

Comments: I liked this one more than I thought I would – I nearly turned off the audiobook when I realized it was about faeries-with-an-e, but it’s a long drive to work with no audiobook, so I gave it the whole drive and by the time I there, I was interested enough in the story to keep going. It wasn’t perfect, some things happened a little too easily, the ending was a little weird, but mostly it was fun to listen to – and gave me something to recommend to Twilight fans.

Read-alikes: Twilight, Blue Bloods