Submarine

by Joe Dunthorne, c. 2008, Hamish Hamilton, 290 pages.

Fifteen year old Oliver Tate is a boy obsessed. He is equally obsessed with his parent’s failing marriage (and lack of sexual activity) and learning new words from the dictionary. Another obsession is losing his virginity—and soon. Though he finds himself entwined in a relationship with the eczematous and occasionally pyromaniacal Jordana, his precocious awkwardness eventually isolates him from her.

Oliver is at times callous and detached as he takes a clinical view of those around him. This makes him a tough character to like in those moments. Luckily there are more moments throughout the novel Submarine in which Oliver reveals the awkwardness and anxiety of adolescence allowing him to become relatable to readers. This is a very darkly funny novel.

Let the Right One In

by John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated by Ebba Segerberg. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, c. 2007. 472 pages. ISBN 9780312355296

{First published in Sweden under the title Låt den rätte komma in by Ordfront and first published in the United States under the title Let Me In.}

Oskar at twelve years old is overweight and the main target for cruel bullies at school. Lonely, he finds comfort in the sweets he shoplifts and his scrapbook of articles on murderers and serial killers. Soon Oskar has articles to add about a local boy murdered, a murder described as "ritualistic." Around the same time, new neighbors move in, a young girl and her father. Oskar finds himself intrigued by the girl, Eli, and they begin to meet, but only at night.

The story takes place in a Swedish suburb and over several weeks in 1981. This book is violent and disturbing and I highly recommend it. If you want to read about vampires that actually do the things that make vampires scary, read this. It is also a sad and moving mystery. The film adaptation is also worth viewing even if you do not want to read the book.

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

Nineteen Minutes

Title: Nineteen Minutes
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publication date: 2007
Number of Pages: 455
Genre: Adult fiction (with Young Adult appeal)
Geographical Setting: small town New Hampshire
Time Period: late 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: In nineteen minutes, the quiet town of Sterling, New Hampshire is changed forever. The often bullied Peter Houghton opens fire on his high school. Alex Cormier is the judge assigned to the trial while her own daughter, Josie, is a surviving witness.

Subject Headings: school shooting, school violence, abuse, mother-daughter relationship, justice system, crime victim, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bullies

Appeal: examination into minds and experiences of many sides to school violence and school shootings: victims, the shooter, lawyers, law enforcement, parents of victims, parents of shooter; recurring characters from author’s previous novels; discussions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); character suffers abusive relationship with boyfriend; cliques of high school students and acts of hazing/bullying; main female character is a successful judge, the struggles with her career and relationship with her teenage daughter; parent’s loss of a child; series of flashbacks reveal the events leading to the shooting; book has been challenged in school libraries because of sexual references, violence including bullying, suicide and profanity.

If you liked Nineteen Minutes, you might enjoy: Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller, Alice Hoffman’s Local Girls, Sue Miller’s Family Pictures

Whale Talk

Title: Whale Talk
Author: Chris Crutcher
Publication Date: 2001
Number of Pages: 220
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: Pacific Northwest (small town outside of Spokane, Washington)
Time Period: early 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Multi-racial teen, T.J. Jones, has quite a bit of athletic ability but he chooses not to participate in high school team sports. You see, he has little problem with being told what to do and has had some problems since his biological mom had to give him up. He has two supportive parents now but the Cutter Athletic Department and the Wolverines Too (a booster club of high school grads who can’t let go of their glory days) don’t make life too easy for him or some of the other “misfits” of the school. So T.J. has a plan to take them all on and it starts with the assembling of the first Cutter swim team—the All-Night Mermen—and the goal of attaining the symbol of what is so screwed up with Cutter High—the varsity letterman’s jacket.

Subject Headings: high school, sports, bullying, abuse, swim team, adoption, multi-racial

Appeal: Protagonist is multi-racial: African American, Japanese and White. Protagonist sticks to his ideals and beliefs in the face of harassment and bullying and is even cocky. Incidents of bullying. Child of adoption, mother abused drugs. Protagonist participates in therapy and also helps with younger children who are in therapy. Literature for boys. Athleticism is important to many of the boys and the sense of being a part of a team is emphasized.

If you liked Whale Talk, you might enjoy: Chris Lynch’s Slot Machine. Rich Wallace’s Wrestling Sturbridge. Terry Davis’s Vision Quest

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

Title: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

Author: Barry Lyga

Publication date: 2007

Number of pages: 311

Genre: Young Adult fiction

Geographical Setting: small town/suburban America

Time Period: mid 2000s

Series: planned sequel for fall 2009 titled Goth Girl Rising

Plot Summary: Fanboy is a really smart high school sophomore who is considered a geek by many or a punching bag or just invisible. His parents are divorced and he lives with his pregnant mom and her new husband, the “step-fascist.” Keeping him going is the most important thing in his life—his own (secret) graphic novel that he has been creating with his ancient and constantly crashing computer. He soon meets Kyra, a.k.a. Goth Girl, whose shares his love of comics and disdain for pretty much everybody at school. Finally he has met someone who just might understand him but women can be complicated.

Subject Headings: friendship, comic books, graphic novels, high school, geeks, bullying, suicide, jocks

Appeal: Mentions of comic books/graphic novels and their authors will appeal to fans of this genre however, there is not so much insider information that would exclude other readers, death of a parent by cancer, teens coping with bullies, teens coping with their own rage/anger, teens coping with stepfamilies, there is some toying with ideas of school shootings and the outcast student creating a “hit list”, but there is never a real threat for this level of violence, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

If you liked The Astonishing Adventures…., you might enjoy: John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines. Gail Giles’ Playing in Traffic. K.L. Going’s Fat Kid Rules the World.

The Misfits

Title: The Misfits
Author: James Howe
Publication date: 2001
Number of pages: 274
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: Upstate New York

Time Period: 2000s
Series: sequel is Totally Joe

Plot Summary: Four best friends are misfits in their Upstate New York town for various reasons: being overweight, being a too-tall know-it-all, being a hooligan and being gay. They decide to create a third party for their middle school election to represent everyone who has ever been called a name.

Subject Headings: best friends, bullying, name-calling, middle school, student council elections

Appeal: Howe wrote novel in response to his own daughter’s difficult time in seventh grade, shows that mean names are not just words to many kids, heroes of the book are unconventional but still relatable by many readers, middle school expereince including first crushes, death of parent by cancer

If you liked The Misfits, you might enjoy: 13: Thirteen Stories that Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen, edited by Howe. Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

The Chocolate War

Title: The Chocolate War
Author: Robert Cormier
Publication date: 1974
Number of pages: 272
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: New England (fictional Monument, Massachusetts)
Time Period: early 197os
Series: sequel Beyond the Chocolate War

Plot Summary: Jerry Renault is a high school freshman at the all-boys Trinity Catholic and has recently lost his mother to cancer. The secret society of The Vigils, made up of students, rule the school. The Vigils assign tasks of cruel pranks to students with no option to disobey. The acting headmaster, Brother Leon, has decided to secretly recruit them to help with the annual school chocolate sale. Brother Leon expects the students to sell much more than they had in the past in order to protect his overspending of the school budget for the sale. The Vigils assign Jerry to boycott the chocolate sale for ten days. After the ten days, Jerry decides to defy The Vigils, Brother Leon and the school by continuing his refusal to sell the chocolates. His defiance is not accepted lightly.

Subject Headings: bullying, hazing, Catholic school, defiance of authority, pessimism, individuality, peer pressure

Appeal: all-boys Catholic school setting, struggle to be an individual in the face of power structure of an institution, lack of parental involvement, often on banned books list, winner of several awards including ALA Best Books for Young Adults and a New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year, 1988 movie adaptation, book for boys, standing up to bullies, death of a parent to cancer

If you liked The Chocolate War, you might enjoy: William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. Walter Dean Myer’s Shooter.