Twisted

Title: Twisted
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publication date: 2008
Number of pages: 250
Genre: young adult fiction
Geographical setting: suburban Ohio
Time period: 2000s, 21st Century
Series: N/A

Plot: Tyler Miller commits "The Foul Deed” and soon he is transformed from a nobody to a tough guy. Advances from his crush, one of the most popular girls in the school, do not come without their consequences. Tyler’s home life doesn’t get any easier either as fights with his distant father increases. As the pressure builds around him, Tyler begins to wonder if ending his own life is his only choice.

Subject headings: identity, fathers and sons, suicide, bullying, sexual assault, popularity, cyberbullying, peer pressure, coming of age

Appeal: told in first person; literature for boys, identifiable protagonist especially for boys questioning the idea of what it takes to “be a man”; family troubles are realistic without seeming too stereotypical as the “dysfunctional family” type.

If you liked Twisted, you might enjoy: Chris Crutcher’s Whale Talk, Blake Nelson’s Rock Star Superstar, Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, Michael Laser’s Cheater: A Novel

The Road to Damascus - A Brief Review

from Early Reviewers for LibraryThing

Road to Damascus by Elaine Rippey Imady

This is a pleasant memoir about a Western woman’s life married to a Syrian man and living in the Middle East. I appreciated the mainly positive accounts and stories about life in Syria and the personal histories the author presents for the reader. Favorable depictions of Middle Easterners and Muslims are few in popular literature; however, I found little in Imady’s writing to hold or grip me to her story. There is a genuine love and caring in her story but I simply could not care very much. I feel that if she had written some of this book earlier in her life and closer to when some of the events had happened there would have more life and passion to her writing.

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publication date: 2008

Number of pages: 384

Genre: Young Adult dystopian fiction

Geographical Setting: North America, now made up of 12 districts and ruled by the Capitol

Time Period: post-apocalyptic future

Series: book one, book two expected to be released September 2009

Plot: Katniss of District 12 is sixteen and a very adept hunter. Now her hunting skills will be tested as she volunteers in her young sister’s place for the country’s annual Hunger Games. A fight to the death is demanded by the Capitol and its citizens. Two tributes from each of the 12 districts are entered in the Games. Peeta, the baker’s son, is chosen as the male tribute from District 12. He has been in love with Katniss since the age of five and now must enter the arena prepared to kill—and it is all televised.

Subject Headings: dystopia, war, hunger, poverty, survival, death of a parent, first love, coming of age, reality television

Appeal: New York Times Notable Children’s Book 2008, Cybils Award for YA Fantasy and Science Fiction 2008, 2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults Top 10, New York Times Bestseller, and numerous other award and best lists; film adaptation set to begin production in 2011; strong female character who is smart and ruthless, romantic subplot, thrilling pace, cliffhanger ending.

If you liked The Hunger Games, you might enjoy: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Kristin Cahsore’s Graceling, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Ann Halam’s Dr. Franklin’s Island, Sonia Levitin’s The Goodness Gene, Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now.