Young Adult
THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan
Though brother and sister, Carter and Sadie Kane did not grow up in the same house. Once their mother died, Sadie went to live with her grandparents in England, while Carter lived out of a suitcase–traveling around the world with his archaeologist father. But everything changes when Carter, Sadie, and their father take a trip to the British museum during their semi-annual visitation. Their father performs some sort of secret and illegal ritual which causes the Rosetta Stone to explode and five Egyptian gods to be released from the spiritual realm of the Duat into the real world. Worse still, one of the gods, a fiery evil god who they later learn is named Set, traps their father in a sarcophagus and seems determined to destroy Carter and Sadie as well. They only barely escape with their Uncle Amos. Amos takes them to Brooklyn where Carter and Sadie learn of their Egyptian heritage, the secrets of their parents’ work and magical abilities, and the need for them to complete a quest together in order to prevent Set from rising to his full power–and hopefully to rescue their father in the process. Unfortunately, the House of Life–the hierarchy of Egyptian magicians–may not be on their side. To complete their quest, Carter and Sadie will have to harness the power of the gods.
This is a fast-paced action/adventure story. Riordan creates a vivid world out of mythology and a plot with plenty of twists, turns, and suspicious characters to keep you guessing. I am a huge fan of the Percy Jackson books, and I must admit that I think the Kane Chronicles falls a bit short of the mark. I think I missed Camp Half-Blood, the complex network of young characters, forming allegiances that relate back to the complicated mythology, studying and practicing together–all of the growing up from the underdog to the hero and building friendships stuff. Still, The Red Pyramid was a fun story with some interesting characters and a good dose of the action scenes and snarky humor that Riordan is so good at creating.
THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION by Nancy Farmer
Matt spent his early life in a secluded cottage, raised by Celia, a maid for El Patron, the 140 year old drug lord who rules over the land of Opium. But when Matt’s attempt to communicate with three new children leads to a serious injury, he is suddenly whisked into the strange world beyond the cottage. There, he learns that he is a clone of El Patron, a sub-human creation that many people consider to be equivalent to livestock. El Patron decides to protect Matt and raise him with the education and lifestyle befitting of a drug lord’s son, but Matt senses something sinister about the old man and his complicated family business, although Celia and his new bodyguard Tam Lin will not explain it to him. Matt will have to come to grips with his identity as a clone, the reason he was created, and the truth about El Patron’s Opium empire–because his life may depend on it.
Another great Sci-Fi novel from Nancy Farmer! She builds a vivid and terrifying dystopian landscape that explores potential moral consequences of cloning, as well as providing a commentary on how humans treat other humans, particularly immigrants and the working class. The novel has a nice blend of action and philosophical musing and will certainly be relatable to anyone who has ever struggled to find their identity or place in society. I highly recommend it to lovers of dark Sci-Fi novels!
Older teens who liked The House of the Scorpion might like Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood–and of course Nancy Farmer’s earlier Sci-Fi classic, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.
Thanks for the suggestion, Grace!
THE ROCK AND THE RIVER by Kekla Magoon
In some ways, Sam has led a sheltered life. He has experienced some of the racial prejudice that his father, a well-known Civil Rights activist, is fighting against, but living in his middle-class neighborhood, he has never quite understood the struggle in the same way that others seem to. His older brother, Stick, on the other hand, seems to be getting involved in things that are over his head. He has grown frustrated with his father’s methods of peaceful protest and joins the Black Panthers. Sam is stuck in the middle of the fight between his father and brother, trying to understand the implications for the struggle for Civil Rights and figure out on which side he should take his stand.
This wonderful historical novel weaves realistic family tensions into the political tensions of an important historical period. The story is gritty, realistic, action-packed, and thought-provoking. Not the feel-good book of the year, but a gripping read. The well-researched historical backdrop of the story along-side the intense, character-driven fictional story would also make this an enjoyable book to use in a high school classroom.
POWERLESS by Matthew Cody
When Daniel and his family move to a new town to take care of his aging grandmother, Daniel immediately notices something odd about the kids of Noble’s Green. At first he excuses the strange things he sees as tricks of his mind. Mollie couldn’t possibly move as fast as he thought she did. Certainly the bully Clay couldn’t be strong enough to hurl him that far through the air. But when Eric rescues him from a would-be-fatal fall and flies him up to their secret hide-out, Daniel has to face the truth. The kids of Noble’s Green have superpowers. Most of them choose to use their powers only for good and to hide their abilities from the adults. But one thing is universally true: the powers disappear on your thirteenth birthday. Your old talents vanish, and with them your memories of your childhood adventures and even of your friendships. Some of the kids have accepted this change as destiny, and watched their older friends drift away from them, knowing it would one day be their turn. But Mollie suspects that something else might be going on. Unfortunately, any kid who tried to figure out the truth in the past lost their powers prematurely. But Daniel has no superpowers, and his talent at detective work makes him the perfect man for the job. It is all up to Daniel to discover who or what is stealing the superpowers of Noble’s Green, before the supers lose another friend.
I just picked this book up when I was browsing, and boy am I glad I did! This is a great adventure mystery, built on themes of growing up and changing relationships that we can all relate to. It will probably appeal most to upper elementary and middle schoolers. A truly fun, imaginative read–I highly recommend it!
If you liked Powerless, you might like Sidekicks by Jack D. Ferraiolo.
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang
The monkey king masters the disciplines of kung-fu but cannot earn the respect of the gods because he wears no shoes. Jin Wang moves from China to America and tries to adjust to the new culture while dealing with the prejudices–not all of them ill-intentioned–of his classmates. Danny lives in a world similar to a sitcom where his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee constantly embarrasses him with his unusual behavior.
Yang weaves these three stories together to highlight the challenges of moving to a new culture and struggling to develop one’s identity as an individual. The graphic novel earned him the Printz Award in 2007. It may seem disjointed at first, but it comes together in the end. It will probably appeal most to teenagers, especially high schoolers.
LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green
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.
NATION by Terry Pratchett
In a parallel reality to Victorian England, a plague wipes out most of the country’s population–including the first one-hundred-thirty-nine people in line for the throne. The remnants of the British government must locate the next closest heir and his daughter, Ermintrude, both of whom are abroad.
At the same time, a giant tidal wave destroys a particular island nation. Only young Mau, who was away on a journey to become a man, has survived. He has left his boy soul on the island, so he arrives back at the Nation—not a boy, not a man, soulless—to bury the bodies of everyone he has ever known. The wave also wrecks the ship carrying Ermintrude back to England. The princess alone survives the wreck and leaves her old identity behind, changing her name to Daphne. Together, Mau and Daphne try to fathom the tragedy and rebuild their lives as other survivors begin to arrive on the island.
Pratchett does not conceal the grotesque reality of death. Nor does he avoid the intense spiritual and emotional questions that accompany the clash of cultures in a post-apocalyptic world. The characters wrestle with identity, cultural heritage, language, racial prejudice, religion, friendship, love, and grief. The philosophical questions are subtle and inconclusive, deftly woven into the narrative. And underlying all of it is Terry Pratchett’s quirky sense of humor–especially poignant in this dark context. Although written for young adults, Nation resonates with a broad audience. It will keep you thinking even after you put the book down!
REVENGE OF THE WHALE by Nathaniel Philbrick
In 1819, the whaleship Essex departed from Nantucket with a crew of twenty islanders. A year later, the ship experienced a deliberate and fatal attack from a giant sperm whale, which sank the ship itself and left the entire crew stranded, thousands of miles from land, in small whaleboats. Although they could have reached the Society Islands in about a month–during which their salvaged provisions would have sustained them–the first and second mates feared that the islands might be inhabited by cannibals, and persuaded the captain to sail for the coast of South America instead, a much longer journey that would require a considerable amount of luck. In the end, this decision would cost the lives of over half the crew. When the eight men who survived were rescued by another whaleship over 90 days later, they were starving, dehydrated, and muttering in madness–clutching the bones of their shipmates whose flesh they had been forced to eat.
Revenge of the Whale tells the harrowing story of the attack and the 93 day ordeal that followed–the horrifying tragedy that inspired Melville’s Moby Dick. Revenge of the Whale is the teen-version of Philbrick’s National Book Award winning In the Heart of the Sea, which I am sure is equally if not more engaging. Philbrick bases his narrative primarily on the written account of one survivor, the fourteen year old cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, with some additional detail from the account of the first mate, Owen Chase. The only slightly frustrating thing about Revenge of the Whale is that Philbrick does not provide citations for his quotes, so it is impossible to trace his sources. I would also not recommend reading this book during lunch, like I did. It is a bit gruesome.
If you liked Revenge of the Whale, you might like Black Hands, White Sails, The Longitude Prize, or Titanic: Voices from the Disaster.
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman
The man Jack had always completed his assignments thoroughly and efficiently. His knife dispatched the man, the woman, and the little girl before even a scream could pass their lips. So it comes as a great surprise to him when he discovers that the toddler has somehow escaped into the night. The man Jack follows the little boy’s scent up the hill and into the graveyard, but there he loses the trail as a mysterious, black-velvet-clad man named Silas escorts him from the graveyard, persuading him that he never saw the child there in the first place. The inhabitants of the graveyard, the ghosts of all of those laid to rest within its gates over the centuries, offer the child their protection. The ghosts Master and Mistress Owens adopt the child, whom they name Nobody (Bod), and Silas, who is neither living nor dead and can therefore leave the graveyard to procure food for the child, agrees to be his guardian. Bod is given the freedom of the graveyard, seeing as the dead see, moving through walls, fading into shadow, and exploring worlds on the border between life and death. He grows up safe inside the graveyard, but outside its gates, the man Jack has not abandoned his search for child.
The Graveyard Book won the 2009 Newbery Medal, which is somewhat surprising given the book’s subject matter–the dark, fantastical world stands out from typical Newbery winners–but fully deserved. Gaiman builds a vivid world in the graveyard and explores themes of life, death, family and friendship, love and loyalty, identity, and morality. He weaves these themes into his brilliantly imagined storyline, which keeps readers engaged in characters and plot from beginning to end. Fair warning: you will reach a point in the story where you will become unable to put this book down. Plan your time accordingly.
I highly recommed this book for upper elementary, teen, and adult readers who can handle dark fantasy and murder mysteries. I also cannot recommend highly enough Neil Gaiman’s audio book performance of this book! It is one of my top two favorite audiobooks of all time–an absolutely stunning performance. It is great to listen to, whether you are experiencing the book for the first time or reading it again. You should definitely check the audio book out!
THE BAR CODE TATTOO by Suzanne Weyn
Kayla has always been suspicious of the bar code tattoo. Most people have switched over to the tattoo, throwing away their credit cards and driver’s licenses and allowing all of their bank accounts and important identifying information to be encoded on their arms for easy scanning and retrieval. As Kayla’s seventeenth birthday approaches, her friend Amber tries to convince her to get the tattoo, but Kayla’s father has been acting strange ever since he got the tattoo himself. When he commits suicide, her whole world turns upside down. As her mother slips away into depression, and Amber’s parents are inexplicably fired and forced to move their family across the country, Kayla begins to get involved with Project Decode, a grassroots resistance movement run by an attractive, enigmatic boy named Zekeal who Kayla can’t help but fall in love with.
This book is a fast-paced dystopian suspense story, along the lines of The Hunger Games and Uglies. It was recommended to me by a fifth-grader, but I think it would appeal most to middle and high school age teens. Thanks for the recommendation, Laura! It was a very fun read!
Susan the Librarian 