A Visit from the Goon Squad

by Jennifer Egan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, c. 2010, 274 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-59283-5

The chapters of the Goon Squad are made up of intertwining stories and characters that snake through the lives of Bennie Salazar, former punk rocker and aging music producer, and his assistant Sasha, a mucked up young woman with kleptomania impulses. Stories are told at different times in the characters lives and the book spans decades even to a dystopian future as Egan delves into a touch of science fiction.

This is a captivating book and Egan's voice is both prophetic and subversive. If you ever wonder what happened to the life you imagined for yourself in your youth, only to realize that you grew up, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book to read.

WIll Grayson, Will Grayson

by John Green & David Levithan. New York: Dutton, c2010, 310 pages. ISBN 9780525421580


Two teens with the same name meet on a fateful night out in Chicago. One Will is straight and one Will is gay but both are major characters in the life and the autobiographical musical by (the quite large) Tiny Cooper.

The story is told by both Will Graysons in alternating chapters. This is a very touching and accurate portrait of the complexities and anxieties of being a teen. It is also a great, hilarious depiction of male teen friendships and falling in love.

the burn journals

Runyon, Brent. The Burn Journals. Reprint. Originally published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. With new afterword. New York: Vintage Books, 2005. 327 p. ISBN 1400096421 (pbk.) $12.95

(The following review was submitted as an assignment for the MLIS course Health Consumer Resources and Services for the Spring 2010 semester.)

At fourteen, Runyon put on his bathrobe, doused it with gasoline, stepped into the tub and lit himself on fire. He suffered third-degree burns over 85 percent of his body. He endured months of excruciating skin grafts and physical therapy. The Burn Journals spans Runyon's first year of recovery from this horrifying suicide attempt as he struggles with the pain, the guilt and the questions from himself and others as to why he did it.

This book does not contain any solutions or answers to suicide, depression or self-hatred. Runyon can never answer why he tried to kill himself. He doesn't really know. Runyon wrote his book ten years after he set himself on fire, but he writes it in the first person as his fourteen-year-old self. This makes the book so valuable for teens, especially males, who may run the spectrum of sadness to thoughts or plans of suicide. Here, in Runyon's words, they may find hope that they are not completely alone under the desolate weight of depression.

This book should be included in the teen departments of school and public libraries and will be useful for anyone working with teens; however, this may not be a book for readers who have suffered accidental traumatic experiences and burn victims may struggle to identify with someone who purposely caused such pain.

Speak

Title: Speak

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Publication date: 1999

Number of Pages: 198

Genre: Young Adult fiction

Geographical Setting: Syracuse, NY

Time Period: late 1990s

Series: N/A

Plot: Melinda starts her first year of high school as an outcast. Her friends have deserted her because she called the cops on an end of the summer party. Something happened to her at that party but she has not told anyone. To the frustration of her parents and teachers, she has become almost mute. As she explores her art assignment for the year, Melinda struggles with being able to find the girl she used to be before the night of the party.

Subject Headings: rape, post traumatic stress disorder, trauma, alienation, depression, cliques

Appeal: 2000 Printz Honor Book, ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adult, SLJ Book of the Year, film adaptation, first person narrative, sarcastic and funny narrator, author’s first novel, young woman dealing with rape and seeing her rapist almost daily in school, parents are wrapped up in their own lives and unhappy marriage, story is told over the course of the first year of high school, art as therapy

If you liked Speak, you might enjoy: Patricia McCormick’s Cut, Patricia Kindl’s Woman in the Wall, Go Ask Alice

The Secret Life of Bees

Title: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Publication Date: 2002

Number of Pages: 302

Genre: Fiction with Young Adult appeal

Geographical Setting: South Carolina

Time Period: 1964

Series: N/A

Plot: Fourteen year old Lily flees her isolated home on a peach farm with her nanny Rosaleen. They are fleeing the police because Rosaleen defended her right to register to vote. But Lily is also fleeing from her abusive father and trying to escape the memory of the accidental shooting of her mother by her hands. Amongst her mother’s few remaining possessions is a picture of a Black Madonna with “Tiburon, SC” written on it. Lily follows her hope that she will find out more about her mother in this town. There Lily and Rosaleen find the Black Madonna—a honey farm run by three middle-aged black sisters and they stay to help harvest the honey crop.

Subject Headings: African American, Civil Rights, racism, abuse, 1960s South, beekeeping, depression

Appeal: in the tradition of Southern Gothic, strong African American female characters, glimpses in to the era of Civil Rights in the South, successful film adaptation in 2008, female friendship, escape from abusive parent, an era that did not recognize depression as a treatable illness

If you liked The Secret Life of Bees, you might enjoy: Nancy Kincaid’s As Hot as It Was You Ought to Thank Me, Monica Wood’s Any Bitter Thing, Dori Sander’s Clover, Jennifer Chiaverini’s Quilter’s Apprentice