Month: October 2011
LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green
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In sixteen years of life, nothing interesting has ever happened to Miles Halter. When he leaves his home in Florida to attend boarding school in Alabama, he hopes that something remarkable will happen. But he never could have imagined anything as remarkable as Alaska Young. Alaska is beautiful, funny, reckless, and charismatic; Miles is drawn to her instantly, and finds himself in awe of the girl-goddess. But through their friendship, adventures, and late-night pranks, Miles begins to discover that there is more to Alaska than meets the eye. When tragedy strikes their lives, Miles will be forced to question everything he has assumed about Alaska, the world, and his own life as he tries to come to terms with his grief.
I have extolled the virtues of John Green’s YA novels in the past, and I will continue to do so here. He approaches realistic and difficult subject matter with a snarky sense of humor and a touch of philosophy that makes his characters believable and enjoyable to read about. Looking for Alaska won the Printz Award, and fully deserved it. I highly recommend this book, especially to high school and college-age readers. Audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton!
THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold
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Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon takes a shortcut home from school through a cornfield where her middle-aged neighbor, George Harvey, is waiting. When she accepts his offer to show her his cool underground den, he rapes and murders her, disposing of her dismembered remains in a sinkhole. The story unfolds as Susie’s ghost watches her father, mother, sister and friends deal with the tragedy of her death and search for answers and justice.
This book wasn’t quite what I expected when I first read it. I thought the main thrust of the plot would be devoted to tracking down her killer and bringing him to justice. But it was much more subtle and complicated than that. It’s an upsetting story, but having Susie’s ghost as narrator lends a sort of peace to the story that it wouldn’t have had being told by the father or the detective. The reader knows from the start what happened, so the pressure for justice and the need for the characters to learn the killer’s identity isn’t quite the same as it would be if we needed that information as well. Also, while Susie is dead to the characters, she is very much alive to the reader. It is upsetting, to be sure, but it is not just another serial killer book.
SAVVY by Ingrid Law
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Thirteenth birthdays are a big deal in the Beaumont house, because that is the age when every Beaumont child receives their “savvy”–the unique special power that everyone in the family inherits. Fish has the power to create storms. Rocket has power over electricity. But a few days before Mibs reaches her savvy birthday, her father is in a horrible car accident and slips into a coma. As Momma and Rocket rush off to see him in the hospital in Salina, Mibs, Fish, and their younger siblings get left under the care of the preacher and his wife, Miss Rosemary, who know nothing of savvy birthdays.
Miss Rosemary is intent on throwing Mibs a party to keep her mind off of the family tragedy, but Mibs just wants to be left alone to figure out what her savvy is. A newborn, uncontrolled savvy can be a dangerous thing. But in the middle of the night on her savvy birthday, strange things begin to happen. First Mibs seems to wake her sister, Gypsy, from a deep sleep, using her mind. Then she brings her brother Samson’s dead pet turtle back to life. Realizing that her savvy must be the ability to wake things, Mibs decides to run away to Salina to wake her father from his coma. Under cover of birthday party chaos, Mibs makes her escape. It is not as subtle as she planned, however, and she winds up with a motley crew of traveling companions: Fish, Samson, and Miss Rosemary’s children, sixteen year old Bobbi and fourteen year old Will Junior. The children stow away in the back of a Bible delivery bus, and their road-trip adventure begins.
Although Savvy definitely falls within the genre of fantasy, its focus is grounded in reality–dealing with themes of family and relationships, growing up, individuality, and dealing with tragedy. Yet the tone of the book is not too dark. It has its serious moments and its funny moments. I greatly enjoyed this Newbery Honor book, and would recommend it to middle grade readers!
If you liked Savvy, you might like Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech.
FOUND by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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The letter only had six words, and though they didn’t mean anything to Jonah, he found them somehow disturbing: “You are one of the missing.” When he learns that his friend Chip received the same letter, they realize that something strange is definitely going on. As more mysterious letters arrive, the two friends and Jonah’s sister, Katherine, begin to investigate the situation, which seems to have some connection to the FBI, and the fact that Jonah was adopted. But if things weren’t strange enough, level-headed Katherine claims she’s seen a ghost, and Jonah may have seen a mysterious intruder vanish from his bedroom. As matters get increasingly complicated, the teens begin to suspect that they are caught up in something much bigger than they realized, and perhaps beyond anything they ever imagined to see in this world.
Found is a suspenseful sci-fi mystery that starts off Haddix’s “The Missing” series. It is followed by Sent and Sabotaged, and four more books are likely to join the series in the coming years. It’s a fast, fun read for teens!
Susan the Librarian 