The Year the Gypsies Came

Title: The Year the Gypsies Came
Author: Linzi Glass
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 254
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction
Geographical setting: Johannesburg, South Africa
Time period: 1960s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Twelve year old Emily craves affection from her constantly quarreling parents. She is tomboy with few friends, only her kind older sister and their Zulu servant, Buza who tells her stories of wisdom and magic. When a mysterious family of wanderers comes to stay, Emily finds a kindred soul in one of the houseguests as she learns of the pain and struggles of those all around her in apartheid South Africa.

Subject Headings: apartheid, South Africa, 1960s, abuse, Zulu, rape

Appeal: Buza the servant as the true caregiver of Emily; the realization by Emily of her privilege and the South Africa of apartheid, racism and police brutality; class and race relationships of the time period; author was born and Johannesburg and many of the Zulu stories and folklore told by Buza are from her childhood memories; Afrikaans and Zulu glossary; Nelson Mandela’s speech in court recounted.; abuse led to the brain damage of a child.

If you like The Year the Gypsies Came, you might enjoy these nonfiction books: Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, Peter Godwin’s Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.

The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Publication date: 2005

Number of pages: 550

Genre: Young Adult historical fiction

Geographical setting: Nazi Germany, town of Molching

Time period: WWII

Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Liesel is a young orphan sent to live with her foster parents in a small town in Nazi Germany. Death (or if you would like to call him, the Grim Reaper) recounts her story and the lives of those around her, including the young Jewish man hiding in her basement. Her stolen books and the words she learns to fill her stories become some of the few salvations in her life on Himmel Street.

Subject Headings: Germany, Jews, World War II, Holocaust, survival, war, Death, orphans, foster families

Appeal: allows readers to see a different side of this time in history as the story of the Holocaust period is told from the lives of Germans, everyday people trying to hide Jewish friends, resisting the Nazis as much as they could and still be safe and live their lives; the rifts between father and son when ideologies clash; Liesel’s parents are not examined too much but enough to know that they were at least branded communists and one may assume her parents did not fare well under Hitler; creative use of illustrations; Death, as the narrator, is at times poetic and lyrical in his descriptions and saddening in his exhaustion of his taking of souls during the war; love of adoptive and foster parents for children they take care of; book thievery of Liesel and her love of words as a stark contrast to the censorship, banning and control by the Nazis over books and words.

If you like The Book Thief, you might enjoy these fiction books: Jerry Spinelli’s Milkweed, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Radioactive Boy Scout

Title: The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor
Author: Ken Silverstein
Publication date: 2005
Number of pages: 209
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction/Biography
Geographical setting: suburban Detroit
Time period: early to mid 1990s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: As David Hahn was earning his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, he was also fueling his obsession of nuclear energy. Posing as a Physics professor, 16 year-old Hahn persuaded the U.S. government and industry experts to provide him with information on reactors. He also consulted an out-dated textbook to aid him in his pursuit of constructing a nuclear reactor in his backyard tool shed.

Subject Headings: biography, breeder reactors, gifted boys, Boy Scouts of America, nuclear energy

Appeal: Hahn is child of divorced parents—very distant father, mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, author presents history of nuclear power including some of the reported danger and benefits, past accidents and the culture surrounding the use and fears of nuclear energy, some history of the Boy Scouts, reveals some of the danger of gifted children who are neglected or not encouraged (or guided by professionals or experts) to explore their strengths and interests in a safe environment.

If you like The Radioactive Boy Scout, you might enjoy these fiction books: Michael Simmons’ Finding Lubchenko, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Mark Walden’s H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education, Catherine Jinks’ Evil Genius.

Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

Title: Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

Author: Kenn Harper
Publication date: 1986
Number of pages: 320
Genre: Biography

Geographical Setting: Greenland and New York
Time Period: late 19^th Century and early 20^th Century
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Six-year-old Minik is one of six Eskimos brought from Greenland as “specimens” to New York City by Arctic explorer Robert Peary in 1897. Soon Minik is an orphan in a strange land. As he matures to adulthood, he is stranger in his homeland of Greenland and his adoptive home of the United States. Minik’s plight to claim his father’s body from the American Museum of Natural History for a proper burial and his wanderings and eventual death are traced in this biography of marginalized “curiosity.”

Subject Headings: Eskimo, Inuit, racism, prejudice, Arctic, North Pole, exploration, biography,

Appeal: biography of an orphan and exile, photographs included, written by Canadian Historian who has lived over thirty years in Inuit communities and speaks the language, the book helped to publicize the wrongs done to the Inuits by the American Museum of Natural History and led to the eventual return of their bodies to their homeland and people.

If you like Minik, you might enjoy: S. Allen Counter’s North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo, Jennifer Owings Dewey’s Minik’s Story, Robert M. Bryce’s Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved.

Sold

Title: Sold
Author: Patricia McCormick
Publication date: 2008
Number of pages: 272
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Geographical Setting: Himalayan Mountain village of Nepal, Red Light District of Calcutta, India
Time Period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Thirteen year old Lakshmi leaves her small village and her mother, baby brother and pet goat to work as a maid in the city to help pay the debts caused by the damaging monsoon and her gambling stepfather. Her stepfather introduces her to a glamorous stranger to take her to the city. Her new “auntie” takes her to “Happiness House” in the slums of Calcutta and soon Lakshmi realizes her stepfather has sold her to a brothel that she may be indebted to for many years.
Subject Headings: sex trade, prostitution, child prostitution, sexual slavery, rape, poverty, human trafficking, HIV and AIDS

Appeal: novel told in verse-like prose, story of the very real and current issues of sex trade in Nepal and India , cultural myths about purity and curing of HIV through having sex with a virgin, contrast of poverty and struggles of those in the mountain village with those living in the slums of Calcutta, rights and status of women in Nepal and India.

If you like Sold, you might enjoy: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel, Somaly Mam’s The Road of Lost Innocence: As a girl she was sold into sexual slavery, but now she rescues others. The true story of a Cambodian heroine, Ellen Hopkin’s Burned.

Copper Sun

Title: Copper Sun

Author: Sharon Draper
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 302
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Geographical Setting: Ashanti village in Africa, Cape Coast, Carolinas (America)
Time Period: 1738 (Colonial America)
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Fifteen year old Amari watches as her parents and younger brother are murdered by the men who take her away to her fate to travel the Middle Passage to be auctioned on the American shores. Amari is purchased as a gift for a rice plantation owner’s son on his 16^th birthday. Newly-purchased indentured servant, Polly, becomes an unlikely friend as they both learn to survive their new fates.

Subject Headings: slavery, rape, racism, African American, historical fiction, Middle Passage, murder, Colonial America, plantations

Appeal: narrative switches focus back and forth from Amari to Polly, author did extensive research for this book, Little-known Florida’s Fort Mose sanctuary for runaway slaves is introduced, the incidents of rape, violence and murder may be too graphic and emotional for readers under 12.

If you like Copper Sun, you might enjoy: Octavia Butler's Kindred, Yuval Taylor's Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves Told By Themselves, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh's White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America

Before We Were Free

Title: Before We Were Free
Author: Julia Alvarez
Publication date: 2002
Number of pages: 163
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Geographical Setting: Dominican Republic & New York City
Time Period: 1960-61
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Twelve year old Anita lives in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Trujillo, El Jefe. The secret police begin terrorizing and interrogating her family as her uncle and father are suspected of planning the assassination of Trujillo. Instead of school work, friends and first love, Anita must learn to survive and escape the only life and country she has ever known.

Subject Headings: dictatorship, military dictatorship, oppression, revolution, assassination, ajustaciemento (“bringing to justice”), secret police, survival

Appeal: author’s first young adult novel, inspired by historical events and author’s own family, story told by twelve year old narrator and includes diary entries, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, portrait of Latin American country under dictatorship and the lives of “ordinary” people and children, taking up of arms in order to be free and the dilemma between murder and ajustaciemento.

If you like Before We Were Free, you might enjoy: John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, An Na’s A Step from Heaven.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon
Publication Date: 2002
Number of Pages: 226
Genre: Fiction (Young Adult appeal)
Geographical Setting: England
Time Period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Somebody killed Mrs. Shears’ dog Wellington—but it wasn’t Christopher. But he is going to find out who did it. Christopher’s dad isn’t too happy though about him sticking his nose in other people’s business and forbids him from doing any “detecting.” Christopher finds some ways around his promise to his dad to not look for the dog murderer and through the encouragement of his teacher at a special needs school, Christopher writes a book about his experiences as he tries to solve this murder mystery.

Subject Headings: autism, savant, Asperger syndrome, mathematics, murder mystery, special needs

Appeal: protagonist and narrator is a 15 year old boy with “special needs”—it is not stated explicitly that he has a form of autism (Asperger syndrome). Protagonist is a mathematical savant, has a photographic memory and struggles with understanding other peoples’ behaviors, gestures and expressions; illustrations; use of well-know math and logic puzzles with answers in the appendix; chapters are numbered by prime numbers; struggles of parents to raise and live with a child with extreme reactions to everyday experiences like hugging and being in a busy store; lies parents tell children to ‘protect” them.

If you liked The Curious Incident…, you might enjoy: Judy Barron’s There’s A Boy In Here, Marti Leimbach’s Daniel Isn’t Talking, Martha Witt’s Broken As Things Are

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

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

Uglies

Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication date: 2005
Number of Pages: 425
Genre: Young Adult fiction (grade 6 and up)
Geographical Setting: United States, location is unclear, near a large city Time Period: future
Series: yes, first in trilogy

Plot: In the future, people have learned ways to avoid war and destruction of the earth by the wastefulness of human beings. Their cities care take care of them, every need can be fulfilled. At the age of sixteen, each citizen gets an operation to turn them from an Ugly to a Pretty. But Tally, soon to be turned pretty, begins to question if the equality of the pretty world comes at too high of a price.

Subject Headings: science fiction, authoritarianism, individuality, conformity, free will

Appeal: futuristic society including “hoverboards” and “hovercars,” operation that re-sculpts the body and face/features to create “ideal” of beauty including light skin and symmetry of the face, dystopian image of the future, disquieting vision of our current society (known as the “Rusties” in the future): the wastefulness of the Rusties with their natural resources compounded by a virus that destroys all petroleum leads to their demise, fast-moving first book of a trilogy and cliffhanger ending.

If you liked Uglies, you might enjoy: Lois Lowry’s The Giver, M.T. Anderson’s Feed, Rodman Philbrick’s The Last Book of the Universe, Ned Vizzini’s Be More Chill, Ellen Dee Davidson’s Stolen Voices, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Word

How I Live Now

Title: How I Live Now
Author: Meg Rosoff
Publication date: 2004
Number of Pages: 194
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: English countryside
Time Period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Fifteen year old New Yorker Daisy is shipped off to England by her father and stepmother to live with the aunt and cousins she has never met. Soon after she arrives, war has broken out and England is occupied by an unnamed enemy. Daisy and her cousins find themselves alone on the isolated farm but soon the war reaches them. Now they must figure out how to live through it.

Subject Headings: war, terrorism, anorexia, England, survival, family

Appeal: dystopian view of now/near future, protagonist battles anorexia, mother of protagonist died in childbirth, the pain in the loss of a parent and the strain of the relationship with a step parent, incestuous relationship, sensitive and emotional narrative of life for a young person forced into survival mode

If you like How I Live Now, you might enjoy: Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It, John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began (series), Gloria Milkowitz's After the Bomb (out of print, find at your library)

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

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Title: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Author: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Publication Date: 2006
Number of Pages: 183
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Geographical Setting: New York City
Time Period: late 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Nick meets Norah at the club where his band is playing. He asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes to avoid the girl who broke his heart. These five minutes turn into a night-long first date full of moments of passion, awkward silences and some great music.

Subject Headings: music scene, boy meets girl, bands, New York City, broken hearts, true love, straight edge

Appeal: story is told by both title characters in alternating chapters, nice guy doesn’t “finish last” message, music and pop culture references, popular movie adaptation, Nick is a bassist for a queercore band but he is not gay, both characters are straight edge, Norah is Jewish and some talk of concepts of Judaism, coarse language and descriptions of sexual experiences

If you liked Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, you might enjoy: Robin Benway’s Audrey, Wait! Susane Colasanti’s When it Happens.

Gender Blender

Title: Gender Blender
Author: Blake Nelson
Publication Date: 2006
Number of Pages: 182
Genre: Young Adult Fiction (age 10 &up)
Geographical Setting: Seattle, Washington
Time period: mid-late 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: At George Wilson Middle School something very unlikely and very inconvenient has happened. Tom Witherspoon and Emma Baker have switched bodies! And now they are about to learn how hard it is to be a girl and to be a boy.

Subject Headings: gender roles, middle school

Appeal: Balanced perspective of the trials and tribulations of both boys and girls experiences in the middle school years. Events of puberty and physical development are presented.

If you liked Gender Blender, you might enjoy: Terence Blacker’s Boy2Girl. James Howe’s The Misfits.

Looking for Alaska

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Publication Date: 2005
Number of Pages: 221
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Geographical Setting: boarding school in Alabama
Time period: mid 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Sixteen year old Miles “Pudge” Halter has left his uneventful life in Florida to attend Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. Immediately there is a promise of adventure as he makes friends with his prank-planning roommate, the Colonel, and the fascinating Alaska Young. Pudge falls for Alaska and is drawn into her world of danger, literature, sadness and self-destruction.

Subject Headings: boarding school, drunk driving, pranks, friendship

Appeal: Awarded the Michael L. Printz Award from the ALA. Death of a parent. Teens without parental supervision. Teen involvement with drinking, smoking, some drug use, sex. Famous last words play a prominent role. Battles between the have and have nots. Loyalty and friendship.

If you liked Looking for Alaska, you might enjoy: Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep. Gregory Galloway’s As Simple as Snow.

The Lovely Bones

Title: The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Publication Date: 2002
Number of Pages: 328
Genre: Fiction
Geographical Setting: suburban Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia)
Time period: 1970s
Series: N/A

Plot: Fourteen year old Susie is raped and murdered by a neighborhood man. From her heaven, she watches her family, friends, the community and her murderer throughout the years.

Subject Headings: murder, rape, crimes against teens, murder victim’s family, heaven

Appeal: Sebold’s heaven is one where wishes are granted, a personalized heaven that may be shared with others there when wants overlap—this is not a religious heaven. The description of the rape and murder is chilling but not salacious or exploitive. Family dynamics—mother/daughter, father/daughter, husband/wife, older sister/younger sister. Life of a mother who still desires her life as a woman first (her freedoms, her intellectual life). Families of murder victims and their lives after the event, the search for the killer, the search for closure.

If you liked The Lovely Bones, you might enjoy: Russell Banks’ The Sweet Hereafter. Anne Ursu’s Spilling Clarence. Laura Moriarty’s The Center of Everything.

the first part last

Title: the first part last
Author: Angela Johnson
Publication Date: 2003
Number of Pages: 131
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: New York City, Brooklyn
Time Period: early 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Bobby is enjoying his teenage life of friends, parties and his girlfriend, Nia. On his sixteenth birthday, Nia tells him that she is pregnant. Now everything is changing and Bobby has to grow up fast. Both their parents and the social worker try to convince the two teens that the only way they will have a normal life again is to give the baby up for adoption.

Subject Headings: teen parents, teen father, teen pregnancy, African-American

Appeal: ALA Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, Coretta Scott King Award Winner, the story unfolds by going back and forth between “then” and “now,” empowering story of young African-American male taking responsibility for his baby daughter, grandparents experience of helping to raise grandchild, teens making decisions about their reproductive options including adoption

If you liked the first part last, you might enjoy: Sharon G. Flake’s Who Am I Without Him? Sharon M. Draper’s November Blues.

Tyrell

Title: Tyrell
Author: Coe Booth
Publication Date: 2006
Number of Pages: 310
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: Bronx, New York
Time Period: mid 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Tyrell has a lot to worry about even though he is only fifteen. He stopped going to school and has to live in a homeless shelter with his irresponsible mother and younger brother. All he wants is to be able to take care of his girl but how can he with no job or money? He has a plan but he doesn’t want to end up in jail, like his dad.

Subject Headings: inner city teens, poverty, homelessness, homeless shelter, jail, DJ, African-American

Appeal: parent in jail, temptations of quick money by selling drugs, the realities of living in roach-infested homeless shelters/hotels, use of street lingo but not so much as to alienate readers, some descriptions of sexual acts, writer once worked with teenagers and families in crisis in the Bronx

If you liked Tyrell, you might enjoy: E.R Frank’s Life is Funny. Walter Dean Myer’s Street Verse. Allison Van Diepen’s Street Pharm. Kate Morgenroth's Jude.

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.

forever...

Title: forever...
Author: Judy Blume
Publication date: 1975
Number of pages: 192
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: suburban New Jersey
Time Period: mid 1970s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Katherine meets Michael at a New Year’s party. There is an instant attraction between them and they soon begin dating each other exclusively. Katherine comes from a very open family without many rules including no curfew and a grandmother who sends her information from Planned Parenthood. She isn’t very wild though, gets decent grades, plays tennis very well and is still a virgin. Michael wants to have sex with Katherine but is understanding of her hesitance and takes things slow (as much as he can and as much as Katherine insists). As they negotiate and explore their romantic and sexual relationship, Katherine learns more about her own responsibilities that come with having sex. As their senior year is coming to an end, they have professed their love to one another and make plans for their summer together and their future afterwards.

Subject Headings: first love, high school graduation, first sexual experiences, teen sex, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, 1970s, birth control, Planned Parenthood

Appeal: written by one of America’s #1 children’s and young adult authors, frequently challenged book, candid discussion of sex and sexuality, colloquial language, sex in the 1970s before HIV/AIDS, experience of first love as a teen and belief it will last “forever,” giving a baby up for adoption as a teen, self responsibility to obtain birth control and use birth control, dilemma of the realization of sexual desires for someone other than one’s boyfriend

If you like forever..., you might enjoy: Judy Blume’s Deenie. Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. Sarah Dessen’s Someone Like You. Stephie Davis’ Smart Boys and Fast Girls.

Eagle Blue

Title: Eagle Blue. A Team, A Tribe, And a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska
Author: Michael D’Orso
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 323
Genre: Nonfiction, biography
Geographical Setting: village of Fort Yukon, Arctic Alaska
Time Period: 2004-05
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Writer D’Orso spent a winter with the high school boys’ basketball team, the Fort Yukon Eagles. The remote village of Fort Yukon is eight miles above the Arctic Circle and is home to around 600 people—mainly Athabascan Gwich’in Natives. D’Orso invites the reader into the lives of the boys and their coach as he follows along with him as they play their home games and fly to many of the away games. D’Orso also reveals the history and lives of many of the people of Fort Yukon including the high incidents of alcoholism, domestic violence and school dropouts but also their native pride and pride for their basketball team.

Subject Headings: basketball, high school sports, Native Alaskans, family, community, isolation, alcoholism, survival, tradition, ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), ANCSA (Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act), Athabascan Gwich’in

Appeal: Native Alaskan history and modern struggles including clashes with tradition, dealing with suicide, teen pregnancy, domestic violence and alcoholism in families, boys’ experiences in team sports, life above the Arctic Circle including -50 degree winters and near-continual darkness, small close-knit community, the school attempting to survive on very little money and resources, non-Native peoples’ experiences living in the Athabascan Gwich’in community, Arctic Alaskan experience of natives as opposed to the life of an inexperienced backpacker like Christopher McCandless (see Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild)

If you liked Eagle Blue, you might enjoy: Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights. Peter Jenkin’s Looking for Alaska. Velma Wallis’ Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in: Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River.