My Life in…

I loved Heavy Metal and You, and even though I was less excited about this book based on the description, I am very glad I read it.  The characters really stood out and I loved the odd parties they had.  The only other book I can think of about a teen with anger management issues is Breathing Underwater.  That was also a strong book but had a different spin on the issue.  The narrator in that book was already going through recovery and was also a bit unreliable.  Locke is reliable in his storytelling and is very honest about the rage he is feeling.  Angry and unusual teen boys will like this one.

Grade: B+
Book #91 of 2008

Why did it take me so long to find Dana Reinhardt?  This is another great book by her.  Three teen girls go to a party and lie to their parents about where they were.  The next week they do the same thing, but this time they get caught.  Rather than face up to what they’ve done, they create a web of lies so deep it is impossible that it won’t unravel.  I think what is amazing about Reinhardt is that she is able to take a very simple, very common experience (adoption, lying to your parents) and really create a compelling story around it.  At first I was skeptical that that girls would have complex personalities, especially since it’s told from three points of view, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Grade: A
Book #90 of 2008

I liked this book a lot.  I think writing wise John Green has improved with this book.  I don’t know that it deserves the effusive praise it has gotten on many of my listservs or the reactionary slams it has also received (I think this is largely due to the sheer number of people who’ve read it though).  I think John Green creates extremely realistic, memorable teen boys.  I’m not sure he has been successful yet at creating a well-rounded, realistic girl character, although in this book that is clearly not the point.  The girls are meant to be portrayed as ideals and then clearly these images are slowly chipped away.

Grade: A
Book #89 of 2008

I don’t usually read books by celebrities, but I watched Maureen McCormick on Celebrity Fit Club (should I admit that?) and was intrigued by her story.  Overall, this book was somewhat weak.  The beginning parts were very flat and told in a detached style.  Most of the anecdotes about her acting career read as a list of people she had met without really illuminating anything interesting about them.  Even the confessions about her drug addiction weren’t terrible interesting.

Where the story begins is near the end, when she meets her husband and her family begins to fall apart.  This story is actually much more interesting than her acting career and the emotions shine through at this part.  The situation with her brother and father is both unique and haunting.  Her coping with her mother’s illness and death is gripping.  This would have made a much more compelling story on its own, but clearly she wouldn’t have sold many books without the Brady Bunch stuff in it.  It’s too bad.

Grade: C+
Book #88 of 2008

Dylan Fontaine is a likable if not terribly unique character.  I think the amount of people in the band could have been pared down a bit, since several of them ended up a little flat. I enjoyed the documentary angle especially when they interviewed Dylan’s friends about him.  That was a nice moment.  Overall this was an enjoyable read but nothing too special.

Grade: B
Book #87 of 2008

I read Never Mind the Goldbergs a few years ago but it still stands out in my mind as one of the most unique YA books I’ve ever read.  Losers isn’t terribly unique but it has a great likability to it.  I like it it starts out with a lot of high school clique stereotypes but breaks them down completely within a few chapters.  I feel like this is one of the few humorous books I’ve read this year.

Grade: B+
Book #86 of 2008

Kendra was by far one of the best books I read this year.  I didn’t think it was possible that Coe Booth could write a book even better than Tyrell which was excellent, but I think she has done this here.  Spoilers will follow.

Many YA books talk about teenage parents, but rarely do these discuss the children of these parents and what happens to them when they become teenagers.  Renee gave birth to Kendra when she was 14 years old but unlike most teenager mothers, she stayed in school, got an education and ended up getting bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from Princeton University by the age of 28.  A success story, right?  But Kendra, her now 14 year old daughter, has been home in the Bronx with her Nana, waiting for Renee to graduate and come home and be her mother.

The characters in this novel have a great amount of depth.  Nana is so hellbent on keeping Renee from ending up a teenage mother like Renee that she refuses to let her grow up, but at the same time, she has done a great job raising Kendra.  Renee is more concerned with going out to dinner with friends and her boyfriend and getting a job as a professor than seeing her daughter (she, in fact, moves back to the city but gets a studio apartment with no room for Kendra) but when Kendra gets into trouble Renee steps up and learns to be a mother.  Kenny, Renee’s father, isn’t a deadbeat dad; he brings Nana money each month, even if its not very much money, and even if he still lives at home with his mother and sister as he tries to start a small business selling food out of a truck.  Even though Kenny is in a lot of ways a child, he is great to Kendra throughout the book and is very understanding.

Kendra herself is a really interesting character because so much of her life is determined by the people around her but she manages to make her own choices anyway.  She is very smart and wants to design sets for plays and manages to work that into her hectic life but is influenced by her 14 year old aunt who gets a lot more attention than she does.  When she realizes Renee isn’t going to take over as her mother and Nana is never going to give her more leeway, Kendra makes some destructive decisions that affect her relationships with every character in the book.  This book is never didactic.

Coe Booth is a master at creating authentic dialogue.  Almost every line in this book I can hear coming out of the mouths of my teens at the library.

There is a scene with brief cameos by characters from Tyrell.  Very much appreciated!

Grade: A+
Book #85 of 2008

Well that was pretty much the most depressing book ever. Sort of like Boy Toy but for kidnapped children. It was extremely well written and extremely moving. This is far from Elizabeth Scott’s other works tonally, and while I think I enjoyed reading the other ones more this is certainly her most powerful book.

Grade: A-
Book #84 of 2008

This is a teenage pregnancy book but it isn’t a cookie cutter presentation of it. I thought that the characters were both well drawn and liked how there was still an emotional connection between them after their breakup. There is more honesty about what it’s like to be a teenager in this book than in most of the books I read. I will definitely look out for more books by this author.

Grade: A
Book #83 of 2008

I do love Gordon Korman, but this one doesn’t completely work for me. While I really liked two of the three characters, it felt like the hijinks they got into were contrivances rather than based on character motivations. Even in his silliest books, Korman usually makes the characters drive the action of the story and this was all reaction. I’m a little disappointed, especially after Swindle which was quite cute. I don’t think this was the best foray into serious books.

Grade: B
Book #82 of 2008