Check Please!

Check Please!  by Ngozi Ukazu

Eric "Bitty" Bittle just wants to bake pies, listen to pop music, vlog, play hockey, and maybe make some friends on the college hockey team.  A former Southern Junior Champion figure skater, he's kinda small for hockey, but he's wicked fast on the ice and that counts for a lot on a competitive team.  

It will take a long time for Bitty to come out as gay to his teammates...especially to team captain (and secret crush) Jack Zimmermann.  In the meantime, there are college classes, epic keggers, and (of course) hockey.

Don't let the big-eyed manga style of the illustrations fool you:  this is not a kiddie comic.  The characters are college guys (and gals) and they are rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.  They cuss a lot.  In other words, they are hockey players.  They are also good friends, and much sweeter to each other than you might think.  

I wouldn't normally put "hockey player" and "adorable" in the same sentence, but this book practically requires that I do.  Love the supportive environment, love the ongoing references to fabulous food (mmmMMMmm, pie!), love the art, love the story.  

Highly recommended for ages 14 and up.  

Into the River

Into the River  by Ted Dawe

Te Arepa Santos lives with his grandfather Ra, surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles, descendants of a Maori woman who married a heroic Spanish pirate.  The day that Te Arepa encounters the giant eel in a haunted stream, his life changes.  Soon Te Arepa, like his piratical ancestor Diego Santos, will leave his family home and his traditions.  Soon, he is on his way to an exclusive boy's boarding school in Auckland.

Into the River was the first book ever to be banned in New Zealand, although that country has much stricter "decency standards" than we have here in America.  The book wasn't even banned when it was first published; actually, it spent two years picking up prestigious awards like the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year first.  Then it got rated "for mature readers ages 14+".  Then it was banned entirely: not available for sale to any reader in New Zealand at all (although sales of the international Kindle edition went up as readers circumvented the ban).

Why all the fuss?  That's what I wondered.  So I read it.

The story contains sexual situations--including naked body parts, masturbation and intercourse--on the page.  There is cussing, and drug use.  There is homosexuality, bullying, underage drinking, suicide, lawless behavior and rampant racism. 

My verdict:  the censors in New Zealand really need to get out more.

In other words, Into the River contains nothing we haven't seen in teen lit before.  Why this particular book bothered the outspoken members of Family First, I cannot say.  

Unfortunately for my feelings of unfettered righteousness, I did not love the book.  

Not because I object to sexual content in teen books (obviously) but rather because I thought that the main character had tremendous potential as a young Maori man entering Western society...and he quickly turned as mainstream as the bullies around him.  

Yawn.  

While the first half of the book raced along with the glory of Maori words footnoted on each page, the last half trudged inexorably towards the main character's expulsion from school.   

Buy this to diversify your collections, or to demonstrate the power of censorship (sales soared!), but if you want to read a great coming-of-age story of Maori New Zealand, you may have to write it yourself.

Exquisite Corpse (graphic novel)

Exquisite Corpse  by Penelope Bagieu

translation by Alexis Siegel

Twenty-something Zoe is stuck in a dead-end job, with a deadbeat boyfriend and no prospects for a better future.  She doesn't read much, either, which is the reason she doesn't recognize that the oddly reclusive writer she meets by chance.  

It's also the reason that she doesn't know that the author she meets is supposed to be dead.

Sexy, poignant, and silly in spots.  The ending made me laugh.  

Though written and marketed for adults, mature teens will enjoy it.  

Poisoned Apples

Poisoned Apples : poems for you, my pretty  by Christine Heppermann

After the kiss and the trip to the castle, Sleeping Beauty's day consists of showering, shaving, shampooing, conditioning....and so much more.  Little Miss Muffet signs up for a drastic diet to try to assuage decades of dairy-fed weight.  A "house of bricks" girl gradually starves herself down to mere straw.

In this poetry collection, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, the Miller's Daughter, and many other folkloric ladies are besieged by modern body image issues including eating disorders, social pressure, verbal and physical abuse, and sexual situations.  

This collection is uneven and repetitive.  Some poems are deftly created, merging a traditional tale with modern sensibilities, offering insight to both.

Other pieces clunk when they roll, with messages about fat girls, mean boys, and relentless striving to conquer societal expectations, delivered via a merciless hammer fist and no reference to any external story.

Teachers and lovers of poetry will find useful bits of brilliance here, but the verses may be best enjoyed in small tastes, rather than large gulps.

Another Little Piece

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn.  

After a particularly horrific scene at a party, Annaliese disappears for a year.  When she reappears at home, she is a very different girl.  She knows in fact, that she is really a different girl in Annaliese’s body.  And she knows she can’t stay in this body.

The mystery quickly becomes multi-faceted, with “another little piece” given to us slowly (agonizingly so.)  Flashbacks become really annoying, even if you know the story is supposed to be revealed gradually.  Anna wants to learn about her family and the boy at the party, (and the boy next door who “sees” death) but alternately remembers a razor and a mentor who seems a cross between demon and overlord.

With a slow start, the story overtakes your imagination and your knowledge of mythology, becoming a thriller you can’t put down. Unpleasant, yes- vivid to the point of disturbing violence, this is not for the squeamish.  Finding a motive for Anna’s choices is difficult and a weak plotline. We understand that Anna is confused at the beginning, but she is not towards the end.  However, Quinn ties it all together, letting our hearts slow down a bit.

Some sexual situations and body parts; lots of violence and cussing.

For grades 10 up who are fans of mystery horror

Lexicon

Lexicon  by Max Barry

audiobook narrated by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman

Are you a cat person, or a dog person?

Choose a number between 1 and 100.

What is your favorite color?

Do you love your family?

Why did you do it?

For reasons he (and the reader) do not understand, Wil Parke has been attacked in an airport restroom, asked several nonsensical questions, and then kidnapped at gunpoint by an enigmatic man who calls himself Tom Eliot.

In a time shift, street hustler Emily Ruff is asked the same nonsensical questions and eventually recruited to a mysterious organization that promises to teach her to be more persuasive.

How do these things come together?  

Explosively.

Using a volatile combination of action sequences interspersed with scientific (but never boring!) explanations about brain research and neuro-linguistic programming, the author drags the reader deeply into this deeply violent, disturbing story of modern life and the power of words as weapons.  

This book was included on the 2013 School Library Journal "Best Adult Books 4 Teens" list. It will definitely thrill some teens, but readers are warned that violence and cussing completely saturate the story.

Recommended for readers who can survive the cussing and who enjoy action, suspense, and contemporary dystopic fiction.

Teen Spirit

Teen Spirit  by Francesca Lia Block

Julie feels bereft after the death of her beloved grandmother Miriam.  Soon after, she and her mom have to move from their beautiful home in the hills to a benighted apartment on the wrong side of Beverly Hills.  Then, her mom meets a loser guy and seems to forget about Julie.  Then Julie meets Clark...who is haunted by issues of his own.

Usually, Francesca Lia Block can easily pull off a complex plot like this, and fill the story with lush, nuanced details and sensuous descriptions of life and love and death.  

But not this time.  The writing is stilted, the characters lack depth and purpose. The plot is twisty for no apparent reason, the ethnic details seem tacked on, and poorly edited elements (an answering machine?  in 2013?) yank the reader out of the story too often.  A near-miss sexual situation is awkward.

Not particularly recommended.

Anatomy of a Single Girl

Anatomy of a Single Girl by Daria Snadowsky

I always knew I wanted my first time to be with someone I loved and who loved me, which it was…. But shouldn’t I want that for every time?

Dom (Dominique) returns the summer after her first year in college.  She has had a bad break up with the boyfriend she thought would be forever.  Her first love, first kiss, first sexual experience, and now first breakup. (Anatomy of a boyfriend, 2008)  Then she meets a handsome guy- named, appropriately enough, Guy. He wants no part of romance, but does want sex.  Duh.  Dom is sure that she wants the whole romantic love thing, but sex is fun too.  Duh again.  What this book really is, is a treatise on safe sex.  

Before Dom, a pre-med student, will agree to the “friends with (lots) of benefits thing, she wants to be sure they are both following the right rules.  It’s pretty one-sided:  Dom tells Guy all the requirements, and he agrees.  We don’t see enough discussions of safe sex in teen lit, but this is pretty clinical - like Snadowsky was trying too hard to get the information out.  Because it’s couched in Dom’s pre-med background, it is understandable within the plot.  Will it be ignored because it is so dry and one-sided?

There are other parts that help get the book through its tough times:  Dom’s feelings ring true as an eighteen-year-old, just out of first year college.  She alternately loves her parents (she declares that she won the parent lottery) and hates her parents being too restrictive.  Her best friend Amy is fun and believable.   There is a nice balance between wanting to be a little girl, and wanting to grow up, and lots of frank talk about sex.  

Dom’s parents are a hoot.  Even Guy is not entirely one-sided.  He does care for Dom, and he is honest about just wanting sex, not a relationship.  Perhaps he shares a few too many sexual positions with Dom, or maybe just the reader?  This is not meant to be a sex manual, but it comes close at times.

But really, as Dom says, shouldn’t ALL her sexual experience be with someone she loves and loves her? 

100 Questions You'd Never Ask Your Parents

100 Questions You'd Never Ask Your Parents : straight answers to teens' questions about sex, sexuality and health  by Elizabeth Henderson & Nancy Armstrong, MD

When I have sex for the first time, will people be able to tell?
How old do I have to be to buy condoms?
What is the best birth control?
Does alcohol really kill brain cells?

These, and 96 other common questions are answered in simple, straightforward language. The questions are arranged in a random fashion (perhaps from most-frequently to less-frequently asked?), and the answers are succinct and factual--most Q/A entries are dealt with on a single page, with no fancy color formatting, no sidebars and no illustrations of any kind.

Most questions are related to sex and sexuality, but topics also include drug and alcohol use, suicidal thoughts, and friendships.  The "hot" topics of homosexuality, birth control (including abstinence, condom use and pills), and pregnancy are each addressed several times, but the topic of abortion remains untouched by this book.  Not all the responses are complete--it's notable that Planned Parenthood is not mentioned anywhere in the text or index, despite that agency's importance in the field of teen sexual health issues nationwide.

Index and glossary of terms are included. A list of additional resources, books, websites and governmental agencies would have been helpful, but was not included.

Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity  by Elizabeth Wein

audiobook read by Lucy Gaskell and Morven Christie

The spy known officially as "Verity" begins her story by confessing that she has always pretended to be heroic.  Yet, when captured by the Gestapo behind enemy lines, the narrator freely admits that she, under pressure of captivity and torture, promptly betrayed wireless codes, details about Great Britain's homeland security and airfield defenses, and more.

In bits and pieces, scribbled away on scraps of paper, a story emerges.  But the story is not the one that the Nazis thought they were getting.

Code Name Verity isn't just blazingly fabulous historical fiction for teens, featuring two strong and capable girls.  There is also action, suspense, and plenty of twists in the unreliable narrative.  This is a story of friendship, choices, and--no matter what Verity says--this is a story of courage.  

Descriptions of violence, treachery, and torture are intense but not graphic--much is left to the imagination of the reader.  

Very highly recommended for readers ages 12 to adult.  

And yes:  there's no sex in this book.  No romance at all, in fact (although the companion book forthcoming in September 2013 promises a bit of romance).  However, Code Name Verity is bound to be controversial, so we're including it on the list as a book our readers will want to know and share.

Sweet Peril

Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

Maybe we should just start skipping the middle novel in a series?

Sweet Peril picks up where Sweet Evil ended.  Anna is still pining for Kaiden, who keeps her at arm’s length. 

 The only new piece of information is that Anna is “the one.”  The one nephilim that will end the reign of the dukes and send them to hell, releasing the nephilim to live their own lives.  For this they must have allies, and Anna spends the rest of the book finding and aligning them.  The end. 

Gone is the sexy, steamy interplay between Kaiden and Anna, replaced by the fact that Anna now has to remain a virgin if she is to wield the sword of truth. (which won’t be wielded until the third book!)  With that knowledge, the tension is simply gone.  There are some interesting scenes between the two but Anna’s choice is not real as it was in the first book, and this unspoken necessity makes the scenes more boring. 

That said, there is plenty of action, including further understanding of Kopano, traveling with her to find nephilim who will aid them.  And if you loved the first book, you will still want to read this one.  But do it quickly to get to the real ending!

Starting From Here

Starting From Here  by Lisa Jenn Bigelow
You wouldn't want Colby's life.  Her mom died of cancer.  Her truck driver dad is gone most of the time.  And her girlfriend just dumped her...for a guy.

Then by chance Colby rescues Mo, a stray dog hit by a car.  Mo survives the amputation of his leg, and caring for him propels Colby into friendships she would never have imagined. 

This potentially too-sweet story is enlivened by an imperfect central character with the knack for screwing up relationships.  Fortunately, Colby is determined to live with her own choices, and the strength of her character makes up for a lot of bad judgement.  Supporting characters are worthwhile as well:  her buddy Van, her absent-but-loving dad, and the cute girl at school who just might forgive Colby's screw-ups, if only she gets the chance.

Recommended for readers ages 14 to adult.  No violence; some cussing, some kissing, and one very tactful incident of Star Trek Sex.

ULTIMATE Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook

The Ultimate Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by David Borgenicht, Joshua Piven and Ben H. Winters

At last, all of the accumlated survival wisdom from the 13 Worst Case Survival books is compiled into one gigantic volume of preparedness.  Everything from "How to Wrestle Free from an Alligator" to "How to Survive an Alien Abduction," from "How to Remove Stains from Carpet" to "How to Jump from a Building into a Dumpster,"  and from "How to Treat a Severed Limb" to "How to Survive Nuclear Fall Out" -- it's all here, plus much more. 

 

With important points emphasized in red print, and line drawings to illustrate important concepts, the information is presented clearly, concisely, and with characteristic humor.  You may never need to know "How to Stop a Car With No Brakes," but there's no telling when you might need to know "How to Detect a Letter Bomb" or "How to Survive a Zombie Attack." 

The information is great, and the book is easy--and fun--to read.  I wish the authors had cited their source material.  They say that their material has been derived from "experts in the subjects at hand, as recorded by accomplished journalists and writers."  The Table of Contents is useful, but there is no index, making the book more of a browsing favorite than an actual survival resource.

The book contains descriptions of bloody situations (plane crashes, bear attacks, and accidental dismemberments), and sexual situations (including fake sexual situations, as in "How to Fake an Orgasm"), as well as descriptions of unwise activities (sword fights, crossing buildings on a wire, and breaking into cars).  The humor diffuses most of the situations that some readers may find offensive.

Recommended for recreational readers and survival wonks, ages 12 to adult. 

The Brides of Rollrock Island

The Brides of Rollrock Island  by Margo Lanagan

Misskaella Prout is ugly and outcast, unloved by her family, mocked by the women and rejected by the men of Rollrock Island. 

Though she has a magical talent to pull selkies from out of their seal-skins and into human shape, she does not stop with merely conjuring a lover for herself.  Instead, Misskaella also creates a deep and complex revenge against the island people by providing--for a price--a beautiful seal-wife for each man on the island.  Enchanted by the fey sea-wives, the men abandon their human families, mortgage their wealth, and deny that their lives are anything but wonderful.  The selkie women are helpless without their seal-skins...but when their sons steal back the coats, life on the island changes dramatically once again.

A complex and beautifully written story of hatred, love, magic, revenge, and eventually, redemption.  No cussing, minimal violence, and some on-page sexual situations between humans and selkies in (mostly) human form.  Highly recommended, ages 14 to adult.

Hooked

Hooked  by Catherine Greenman

Thea considers herself savvy and spunky, but she throws all that away when she starts dating Will, who "hooks" her with his good looks and charm.  Their love is strong, the sex is fantastic...and then, Thea gets pregnant.  The early-abortion plan (endorsed by parents, friends, and Will) is abandoned when Thea discovers that she loves her unborn child too much for abortion or adoption.  Plan #2 centers on everyone supporting Thea and baby Ian (and Will too), physically, emotionally and financially.  There is a bit of squeaking about this, but eventually, everyone falls in line because they love Thea and the baby is adorable.   Thea's plans for the future include spending more time with her formerly-estranged dad, making bundles of money by designing the latest crochet fashion merchendise, and eventually getting back together with Will.

Realistic?  Uh, no. 

Maybe that's how folks do things in The Big City, but in my small town, parents of unwed parents don't hand over $10,000 (each!) as starter money on top of the rent-controlled apartment they finance for the teens and little Ian.  Thea's narrative voice rescues this story from the round file:  she is spunky, and she stands up for the ideas and the people she values, including herself. 

Not a first purchase, but don't overlook this title if budgets can support it.  There is on-page (but not graphic) sex, minor cussing, and some underage drinking, but nowhere near as gratuitous as Gossip Girl and that ilk.  Ages 14 and up.

Tale of Two Summers

Tale of Two Summers  by Brian Sloan

Hal and Chuck have been best friends for 10 years.  The summer before their junior year in high school, they spend the summer apart.  Hal wants to continue their friendship over the phone and through emails,  but Chuck sets up a blog to which they both contribute.  Thus begins the two summers of two very different guys:  Hal, bored in their small town of Wheaton, MD: about to enter driver’s ed, and gay.  Chuck, entering drama summer camp: excited, and straight.  Both looking for a summer romance, and sex in particular.

The blog is not just clever and funny; it gives each of them the opportunity to say things they might not say otherwise.  The anonymity of the computer allows them to talk about issues that bother them that a sixteen-year-old might not feel free to discuss face-to-face.  In the process, they teach us, the reader, about gay issues in a very readable, witty, format.  That said, the two seem more adult than most sixteen-year-olds.  Then they become the "as a mother, I'd like to knock you over your hormonal head" kind of guys. 

When Hal finds “the love of his life,” he is willing to forgive the marijuana, the illegal activities and the sexually reluctant behavior of Henri, newly arrived from France.  The scenes where they enter into a sexual relationship are very explicit, but tastefully done. In the meantime, Chuck has fallen in love at acting camp, although the girl seems to like their young director much more.  Chuck’s roommate at summer drama camp is gay, and readers experience a different gay perspective from him.  

This book addresses both the myths and realities of gay reactions and sex in a way that straight and gay teens will understand. At times, the novel feels like a vehicle to educate the public on gay issues.   Perhaps it is, but we forgive the author because these two are just great characters.  While all the characters are more than one-dimensional, the relationship between Hal and Chuck is the best part of the book, and you just have to cheer for them to make their own relationship work.

Lots of cussing, drug and alcohol abuse, body parts, sexually explicit scenes.