YA Fiction
SHIP BREAKER by Paolo Bacigalupi
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In Nailer’s world, you need luck to survive. You can be small and able to work on light crew, stripping copper from shipwrecks for low pay. Or you can be strong on heavy crew, breaking down the larger metal salvage. But if you get an infection, you won’t be able to get medication, and you’ll die of fever. If you get stuck inside a wreck you’ll drown, or choke in the dust and oil, and the rats will eat you. Of course, even if you have no bad luck and are smart enough to do everything right, you still die on the beach sooner or later. Unless you get a really lucky strike. . . .
After a huge “city killer” hurricane, Nailer and Pima find an isolated wreck and hurry to get the first scavenge. But when they find a rich girl still alive, they have to make a choice. Pima suggests two options: cut the ringed fingers off her swollen hands while she’s alive, or slit her throat first. The girl is, after all, a great scavenge–a true lucky strike. With just the gold rings on her fingers they could feed themselves and more—maybe never have to work again. But Nailer chooses to save her instead, knowing that this decision might be the last he ever makes. Now he and “Lucky Girl” must somehow escape the clutches of her rich father’s corporate enemies and Nailer’s abusive, drug-addict father who wants to turn Lucky Girl in for ransom.
This post-apocalyptic vision of Earth’s future is very violent and very dark. Bacigalupi explores the meaning of family and loyalty and challenges readers to reflect on human treatment of the environment and the extreme gap in wealth and lifestyle between the heads of corporations and the lowest level industry workers. Ship Breaker took the 2011 Printz Award (for Young Adult Literature) and was a finalist for the National Book award. It is a great read for teens and adults.
ARTEMIS FOWL by Eoin Colfer
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Artemis Fowl, Jr., is not your average twelve-year-old. For one thing, he is the son of an incredibly wealthy crime lord and has grown up surrounded by advanced technology and bodyguards. For another, since his father’s disappearance and the onset of his mother’s mental illness, Artemis has virtually no adult supervision, managing his own life and the family’s assets. And most importantly, Artemis is a genius. It is precisely his unique position on the boundary of childhood and very mature adulthood that allows him to perpetrate his latest scheme–because when he learned of the existence of fairies, he was just innocent enough to believe in them, and plenty brilliant enough to concoct a foolproof plan to extort their gold.
After stealing the Book of the People from an alcoholic sprite in Vietnam, Artemis returns to his home in Ireland to crack the fairy language and learn all of their secrets. He then proceeds to Phase Two of the plan: kidnap a fairy and hold him for ransom, threatening to reveal their secret, underground world to the humans if the Lower Elements Police (LEP) do not comply with his financial demands. Unfortunately for Artemis, he kidnapped Captain Holly Short, an officer in the LEP Recon division, and she just may be his match. While Artemis uses his brilliant mind to stay one step ahead of Commander Root and the LEP technology, and his formidable bodyguard Butler keeps the perimeter secure, Holly tries to find a way to escape and take down the super-genius “mud-man.”
This book is a great blend of science fiction and fantasy, popular among upper elementary and middle grade readers (and certain nerdy librarians . . . ). The characters are fantastic, there is a decent amount of action, and humor is blended in quite nicely. I highly recommend this series to both eager and reluctant readers. There are eight books in the series.
AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John Green
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Most people have a “type.” “Types” are often superficial, based on a few physical characteristics, or a particular type of personality. Former child prodigy Colin Singleton’s type is linguistic: girls with the name “Katherine.” He has dated and been dumped by nineteen of them. And Katherine XIX truly broke his heart.
Colin and his friend Hassan decide that a roadtrip is just what Colin needs to forget his troubles and his Katherines. They wind up in a rural town which is like a different world from their Chicago homes. They also meet Lindsay, a girl their age who challenges all of Colin’s preconceived notions about the type of person who reads “Celebrity Living” magazine. As Colin and Hassan join Lindsay in interviewing the locals about their personal histories and participating in local cultural activities (like hunting wild Satanic pigs), Colin tries to analyze his love life the only way he knows how: mathematically. Who knows; if he gets this particular Theorem right, he might be able to predict the future, or maybe find a way to get K-19 back.
(If you like John Green, check out the vlog he keeps with his brother, Hank: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers.)
THE LOOKING GLASS WARS by Frank Beddor
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When Princess Alyss Heart was seven years old, her life changed forever. Her evil Aunt Redd gathered an army of card soldiers and murdered Alyss’ mother and father, securing the Wonderland throne for herself. Alyss barely escaped through the Pool of Tears into a parallel world, where for years she was trapped in a strange land called England. Her magical powers of Imagination failed her in this new world, and eventually the memories of her childhood faded into seeming fairytales (tales which the Reverend Dodgeson would later record and publish in a work of “nonsense” entitled Alice in Wonderland).
But Alyss cannot stay lost in England forever. Wonderland has suffered under Redd’s totalitarian regime, and people live in darkness and fear–their only hope being the return of the child queen Alyss and her powerful Imagination. When Hatter Madigan, the deadly milliner bodyguard, whisks Alyss back to Wonderland, she, her childhood love Dodge Anders, and a rag-tag group of rebels must find a way to free their home from Redd’s tyranny. This book is the first in a trilogy, followed by Seeing Redd and ArchEnemy.
The trilogy is an incredibly clever, engaging, but dark re-imagining of Wonderland (think Alice in Wonderland meets 1984). Although it is sometimes shelved with juvenile fiction, I would recommend this book more to teens and adults.
If you liked The Looking Glass Wars, you might like Cinder by Marissa Meyer or Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta.
PAPER TOWNS by John Green
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Quentin grew up next door to Margo Roth Spiegleman–the girl of everyone’s dreams. One night, near the end of their senior year of high school, Margo shows up at his bedroom window dressed like a ninja and takes him on an adventure around the town to exact revenge on her cheating boyfriend and various other offenders. The next morning, Margo has disappeared, and Quentin and his best friends, Ben and Radar, begin a quest to find her. Along the way, he discovers the real “Margo” behind the super-human image that he and the rest of the school have attached to her. He discovers her human fears and insecurities and her human flaws. He also discovers a new confidence in himself along the way.
This book is hilarious and poignant, with a wonderful mix of witty, bathroom, and slapstick humor. The intended audience is high school age teens, but it resonates with many adults as well.
Additionally, if you are not familiar with John Green and you are a nerd, you should check out the Vlogbrothers on Youtube (John and his brother, Hank) who post several times weekly on a variety of nerdy topics. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers. To all of you nerdfighters out there, DFTBA.
THE TRUE MEANING OF SMEKDAY by Adam Rex
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What is the true meaning of Smekday–the day formerly known as Christmas, the day that the Boovish aliens arrived to colonize Earth, and the day the Boov left one year later? This is the essay question that Gratuity “Tip” Tucci must answer. The winning essay will be put in a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years. In her three attempts at writing the essay, Tip gradually reveals the story of the Boov’s arrival and the events that followed.
While trying to reach the human reservation in Florida by car, Tip and her cat, Pig, met up with a Boov criminal, who has taken as his Earth name J.Lo. (a name that he believes is a popular Earth name due to its frequent appearance in media publications). Together they travel across the country searching for Tip’s mom, who was abducted toward the beginning of the invasion. Then Tip, J.Lo, and Pig join forces with a gang of boys who have been hiding in a secret tunnel system under Disney World, and together, they drive the Gorg (another set of invading aliens–much more evil than the Boov) out of Earth. Throughout her story, Tip includes illustrations and pages of comics drawn by J.Lo who can’t write in English.
This book is both hilarious and poignant, a nice blend of hard- and soft-science fiction, approaching issues of race and prejudice through the blunt, sarcastic, witty voice of 11 yr. old Tip. The book is written for an upper elementary/middle school reading level. It is one of my all-time favorites.
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