Last Bus to Everland

Last Bus to Everland by Sophie Cameron

At home in Edinburgh, Brody is overlooked and bullied.

Everything about his life is difficult. Then, Nico shows Brody the door to Everland: a magical door that only opens at 11:21 on Thursday nights. Inside Everland, Brody is able to embrace all of his dreams, but most of all, Everland is full of people who understand Brody--unlike the real world, where nobody understands anything.

Brody and Nico and their friends explore the wonders of Everland, playing music, attending parties, and wearing outrageous costumes. It seems like a place where they could stay forever--and like Peter Pan's Neverland, it might be a place where they never need to grow up.

Then, the doors out of Everland start disappearing, and Brody needs to make a choice: stay in Everland with Nico, or return to his home and his family.

A diverse cast of main and supporting characters make this compelling story even more wonderful.

Highly recommended for ages 12 to adult, especially those who are still waiting for a Hogwarts letter, sometimes check the back of the wardrobe for doors, and always leave the window open, just in case.

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World  by Ashley Herring Blake

Ivy is 12 years old (almost 13!), and feeling adrift following the birth of baby twins in the family.  Her friends are just starting to think and talk about boys, but Ivy is starting to think about girls.  Then, Ivy's world literally flies apart:  a tornado flattens her house and leaves her family homeless.  

Ivy is a smart, talented, and creative protagonist who finds more than a little help from friends--new friends and familiar friends.  

This is a beautiful, sweet middle-grade book about Ivy and her family and friends, and their attempts to find their own places in the world.  Highly recommended for readers ages 10 and up.

My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen

My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen  by David Clawson

17-year-old Chris is the undervalued stepson in the socially-prominent (but financially bereft) Fontaine family.  He does all the cooking and cleaning, and keeps his step-siblings well-dressed and his step-mother comfortably numb.  When J.J. Kennerly, "The Most Eligible Bachelor in America," publicly announces that he will be attending the prestigious Autumnal Ball, the household goes nuts--and Chris gets left behind. 

Will Chris be cut off from happiness forever, or will his new friend Coco Chanel Jones work her fabulous fashion magic and bring about true love between Chris and J.J.? 

This Cinderella-reboot has a lot of cute elements and some laugh-out-loud moments, but tries a little too hard to rock the gender boat.   And then there's the ending, which involves a shoe and an unexpected coming-out that should have been satisfying but felt forced instead.

A quick and fun read for ages 12 to adult.

Dress Codes for Small Towns

Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney Stevens

*Dress Codes for Small Towns* starts with the night that Billie McCaffrey and her best friends accidentally burn down the church youth room. That sentence leads you to think some things about Billie and her friends, and those thoughts would probably be inaccurate. Preacher's kid Billie has a good relationship with God, a strained relationship with her dad, a rocky relationship with the church people, and a confusing relationship with her friends.

Billie's friend Janie Lee might be in love with their other friend Woods, which is confusing because Billie might also be in love with Woods...or with Janie Lee. Or maybe Davey? She really isn't sure. But she's pretty sure what the church people think of her.

She might be wrong.

All the stereotypes of small-town Kentucky that you've ever seen in books are not in this book--at least, not the way you've seen them before. The characters are dimensional and lovely, and almost nobody does what you think they might do. And yet, the story makes sense, beautifully, from beginning to end.  I was especially pleased that, in this book, "church" and "belief" and "religion" are not weapons used to clobber non-conforming kids.  May it be ever so in the real world.

This may be the best book I've read in 2018.  Highly recommended for readers ages 12 to adult. Some kissing and cussing on the page. Also some praying, some square dancing, a broken bone, and Batman.

Dumplin'

Dumplin'  by Julie Murphy

Willowdean Dickson isn't what most people would call "beauty pageant material."  Certainly Willowdean herself never considered entering her hometown's biggest social event of the year, even though her own mother is a former Clover City Miss Teen Blue Bonnet and is now the chair of the event.

Because Willowdean is fat.  

She knows it.  It's obvious.  She's tried dieting in the past, but is now mostly comfortable with her body...but not always.  And when the hot-hot-hottie guy at work kisses her, the discomfort level goes way up.

It's a long road between "no-way, no-how" and "go big or go home" and yet Willowdean and her friends take the journey towards the coveted rhinestone crown.  And although they face some cringeworthy moments, the girls encounter some triumphant times along the way.  

This is a book about body image, Dolly Parton, and friendship.  There's a romance (and a bit of a romantic triangle), but the focus of the story is on Willowdean's relationship with her longtime best friend Ellen and her new friends Amanda, Millie and Hannah.  

And, just so you know:  the story doesn't end the way you think it will.

Recommended for readers 14 to adult.  All sexual situations are off-stage but the kissing is front and center.

The Nightingale

The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah

WWII is on, the Nazis have invaded, and France is occupied.  Elder sister Vianne is committed to surviving and to keeping her daughter safe.  Younger sister Isabelle is outraged, and determined to join the Résistance and beat the Germans.  The siblings rarely agree and are separated by time and politics for almost the entire duration of the conflict.

The point is made several times during the story that "war stories" are almost always about (and told by) men, and that the Nazis often overlooked the role of women in warfare, sometimes to the tremendous detriment of the Third Reich. 

Not everything goes well, of course.  Some of the wrong people are taken away, some of the characters that readers attach to come to grievous harm.  Very few of the characters would be objectively considered "good people"...and yet, the details of their lives are so compelling that the book is difficult to put down.

Written for adult audiences but with plenty of teen appeal, especially for readers of Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire.  Sexual situations are mostly off-page, but some of the violence (and torture) is not.

Highly recommended for readers ages 14 to adult, and especially for book discussion groups.

Mechanica

Mechanica  by Betsy Cornwell

Nicolette is an inventor of amazing tools and toys, just like her mother before her.  

Oppressed by her selfish "Steps," she spends days cooking, cleaning and sewing, and spends her evenings in the magical hidden workshop left behind by her mother, where she builds gadgets to help her with the daily tasks.  But when the king announces a spectacular Exposition and Gala (with accompanying ball to seek a prospective wife for the Prince), Nicolette emerges from her sooty basement to grasp at the opportunity.

This recasting of the traditional Cinderella story is delightfully constructed, with nods to a fairy godmother, a magical coach, and the essential glass slipper...but with an unexpected twist.  And perhaps a sequel?  We can hope!

Fans of Cinder will demand this similar but unique tale.  And they will join us in demanding a second book. 

Recommended for ages 12 to adult.

The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion

The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion  by Chris McCoy

Bennett has always loved Sophie from a distance, but he never really talked to her until the night her motorcycle broke down and they ended up walking together in the New Mexico desert.  Minutes after he gathers the courage to ask her to the prom -- and she accepts -- Sophie is abducted by aliens.

Following the close encounter, Bennett does the logical thing:  he goes for a burger at the local In-N-Out.  But the restaurant has just sold all the food in the building to a psychedelic band bus, and in short order, Bennett is on board the bus with the Perfectly Reasonable, the one-billion sixteenth most popular band in the universe.

Will Sophie ever escape from the Ecological Center for the Preservation of Lesser Species?  

Will the teens ever return to earth? 

Will bandleader Skark Zelirium ever write a new song?  

Will somebody please hand me a Babelfish?

This is the book that Douglas Adams would have written if he were writing for a teen audience.  (And if he was an American.  And if he had ever been sober sometimes.)  

It's cute, funny, quirky, and strange.  It's not nearly as funny as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  but since nothing in the Universe is as funny as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's not unkind to say so.  There's the sweet romance between two kids who are dying to get out of Gordo, New Mexico, and what happens after. 

Also, there's a ram in the closet.  Just in case you wondered.

Eden West

Eden West  by Pete Hautman

Jacob is a member of the Grace living in Nodd, a 12 square mile religious compound located in Montana between a Native reservation and the Rockin' K cattle ranch.  He does not remember life in the World, and thinks himself lucky to be among the few who have rejected all Worldly things so that he will be pure for the coming of the Ark and the archangel Zerachiel.

But Jacob is 17 years old, and inevitably, his body responds to hormonal demands--he is attracted to a young woman in the compound and also to the pretty blond daughter on the neighboring ranch.  The Grace maintain their faith while beset by hardship: a bitterly cold winter, a disease among the chickens, a wolf among the sheep.  But then other tragedies strike, and Jacob finds that he must choose between the life he knows, and the World he does not know.

There are few surprises in the story, but the narrating voice of Jacob is strong, and worthy of consideration.  Often in literature, religious extremists are portrayed as simple (or crazy), and some of that is present here.  But there is a bit more.

For readers 14 to adult.  Some cussing, some kissing, and quite a few lustful thoughts.

All Our Yesterdays

All Our Yesterdays  by Cristin Terrill

Em awakens (again) in a prison cell, and can't stop thinking about the tiny drain in the floor.  She makes a tool from a stolen spoon, and pries up the drain cover...and finds, hidden inside, a list of fourteen items.  Thirteen have already been crossed off.  At the bottom, in her own handwriting, Em reads the final line:  You have to kill him.

In another place, in another time, Marina is quietly in love with her next-door-neighbor, James.  James is gorgeous, brilliant...and about to make a discovery that will change everything.  And everything is just about to become much, much worse.

All the loops and potential paradoxes of time travel, plus suspenseful chasing around in the dark, romance, betrayal, torture, and a very thin hope for redemption.  This fast-moving narrative kept me up way past my bedtime.

Recommended for ages 12 to adult.  

Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and Park  by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is "that kid" -- the girl with the weird clothes, the weird hair, the weird family.  She will never, ever fit it to the crowd at her 1986 Nebraska high school.

The first day on the bus, the only seat available is next to Park--the only "Asian kid" she's ever known.  And he won't talk to her.

Inevitably, perhaps, the two fall in love.  Deeply, beautifully, and star-crossedly in love.

John Green, author of Fault in Our Stars​ gave the book a dazzling review.  A few parents in the Anoka-Hennepin district (Minnesota) called it dangerously obscene.  

Read it for yourself.  It's not a fast-moving, explosive, car chasing love story.  

It's the other kind.

I hope you like it as much as I did.

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club  by Genevieve Valentine

Jo and her sisters are known to the dancers and musicians and club owners and bartenders only as "Princess."  

They don't disclose their names to anyone, they reveal no details about themselves or their lives outside of the speakeasies.  And at the end of a night of dancing, with their shoes wearing thin, the twelve dancing princesses slip away together, disappearing into the anonymous darkness.  

With a nod to the Grimm's version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," twelve sisters escape imprisonment by a domineering father to the freedom of the dance halls.  Even with a fairy tale as a root story, these characters are firmly rooted in Prohibition-era New York City, and are heavily influenced by the fast-changing social landscape for women in America of the 1920's.  

Readers will keep pages turning to discover what happens to the "princesses" when their secret is discovered!

Recommended for readers ages 14 to adult.  The audiobook, deftly read by Susie Berneis, is also recommended.

Say What You Will

Say What You Will  by Cammie McGovern

Amy is a high school senior with spastic cerebral palsy.  She doesn't walk well without assistance, she talks by using a voice simulating computer, and she has no real friends.

Matthew is a high school senior who has known Amy (kind of) since elementary school.  Matthew is obsessive-compulsive, and his need to tap lockers, count ceiling tiles, wash his hands and avoid the blue squares on the hallway floors is getting worse.  He doesn't have any real friends either.

When Matthew is hired as a peer helper for Amy, the two teens begin talking to each other as they have never communicated with anyone else before.  Maybe they've even fallen in love, despite their catastrophic prom date.

And then...things go wrong.

Beautifully written, here is a compassionate story of two teens who don't fit in. And yes, there is sex in this book -- tactful, and off-page, but there is definitely sex.

Highly recommended for readers who liked the passion and  intelligent banter between characters in The Fault In Our Stars, with the good news:  nobody dies in this book.

Steelheart

Steelheart  by Brandon Sanderson

Ten years ago, Calamity burst in the sky and ordinary human beings were transformed into Epics.  Some control the weather.  Some can stop bullets.  Some can electrically charge entire cities with a touch.  

Sounds like an ordinary teen flying-capes-and-tights superhero novel, right?  Except there's a catch:  not one of the Epics is a "good guy."  There's just something about using their powers that makes Epics selfish, cruel, and power-hungry.

Almost all humans cower before the Epics, except for a group of rag-tag renegades known as the Reckoners.  Using technology, ingenuity, and a bit of luck, they fight against the Epics.  Eighteen year old David is obsessed with joining the Reckoners.  But when he does, he discovers that fighting the Epics is a lot more complicated than he had thought.

Superhero battles with excellent action sequences interspersed with fabulous character development, plenty of humorous banter, plus a touch of doomed romance equals fabulous.

The only thing better than the book is the audiobook read by MacLeod Andrews.  This story had me making excuses to drive places so I could listen.  First in a series; volume #2 Firefight will be released in January 2015, and I will be waiting in line.

Recommended for ages 10 to adult.

Cress

Cress   (Lunar Chronicles, bk #3)

 by Marissa Meyer

Cress has been alone on a satellite circling earth since she was a very young child, with only her netscreens and an occasional visit from her Lunar guardian for company.  She has grown her hair very long and developed an excellent singing voice, a talent for computer hacking, and a taste for sentimental romances...and Cress longs for a handsome prince to rescue her from distress.

What comes along is not a prince exactly, but rather, a group of fugitives intent on de-throning the evil Lunar Queen Levana.  And they want Cress to help them.

This story is much more than a science fiction re-casting of "Rapunzel."  It is also a terrific, fast-paced, suspenseful and sweet coming-of-age tale.  With plenty of cliffhanger chapters and chases through deserts, underground passageways and outer space, there is much to love...including the clever but naive character of Cress.

Cress is part 3 in a series that will include at least 4 books.  Cinder starts the series, starring an unloved cyborg stepchild.  Scarlet is second, featuring a girl in red and her rather dubious lupine companion.  Winter (coming in September 2015) will focus on Queen Levana's beautiful stepdaughter.  A "prequel" to the series, Fairest, is scheduled for release in January 2015.

The book and the audiobook narrated by Rebecca Soler are highly recommended to readers and listeners ages 12 to adult.  No cussing, some violence, some blood, and a few very important kisses.

The Here and Now

The Here and Now  by Ann Brashares

Prenna and her mother immigrated to New York five years ago...from the future.

When Prenna was only five years old,  a mosquito-borne plague began killing millions of people.  The world of the future is warmer and wetter, and the mosquito season is always. A few plague-immune people travel backwards in time to try to prevent the pandemic...but the rules that govern the community of time travelers seem designed to prevent changing the future.  They must stick together, avoiding attention from contemporary medical practitioners, and absolutely avoiding inclusion in the historical archive--print, photography, and video--and above all, they must never develop a physically or emotionally intimate relationship with a time-native.

This is fine with Prenna at first.  Then she falls in love with Ethan Jarves, who is not from the future, but somehow seems to know a lot about it.

Together Prenna and Ethan follow a series of clues leading them ever-closer to the original source of the blood plague, and the circumstances that allowed it to spiral out of control.  The clues are small at first, the pace is fast, and the suspense will keep readers turning pages in an attempt to keep up with the main characters' race to save the world.

This is not Connie Willis' time-travel-and-plague book.  That one was absolutely outstanding, and won the Nebula award in 1992 and the Hugo award in 1993.  This one isn't as nearly as good...but it isn't 592 pages long, either.  Instead, it's a quick, fun, mind-bender with a strong female main character, a bit of social thinking, and a touch of romance.

Recommended for ages 12 to adult.

Erebos : it's a game. It watches you.

Erebos  by Ursula Poznanski
translation from the German by Judith Pattinson

Like most of his friends, Nick Dunsmore enjoys playing video games.  But he's never played anything like Erebos.  The rules are strange:
*  Always play alone.
*  Do not talk to anyone about the game.
*  Don't copy the disk unless instructed by the game.
and strangest of all:
*  You have only one chance to play.  If you break the rules, or if your character in the game dies, the game is over and you can never play again.

Strangest of all, the game itself seems to know when players break the rules.  But how?

As more of Nick's classmates join the game, things get even more bizarre, especially when the game insists that players conduct "missions" in the real world.  Some missions seem quite innocent, like picking up a box hidden in a park and hiding it in a different park.  But soon enough, the missions become sinister.

The story is nearly as compelling as the game itself.  Players quickly become addicted to the adventure, and many are willing to do anything to gain status within the world of Erebos.

Yes, anything....

More dire than Ready Player One (Cline, 2011), with less gore and fewer technology details than REAMDE (Stephenson, 2011), this game-gone-bad novel will appeal mostly to teen gamers.  Sophisticated readers may trip on some of the setting details, some politically incorrect racist and sexist statements which may or may not be a result of translation into English from German, and the distinctly Scooby Doo ending: "foiled by those meddling kids!"

Recommended for ages 13 to adult.

Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain  (ARC)  by Andrea Young

14-year-old Finny loves horses, and works at an elite show-jumping stable in exchange for riding lessons.  When she sees an emaciated horse by the side of the road, she arranges to adopt him (without telling her parents or the stable manager), and dreams of their success together.  However, the horse is huge, untrained, and potentially dangerous.  Can they ever find happiness together?

Yes, of course they can.  

All it will take is a handsome boy who happens to be a horse trainer, a kindly horse rescue lady who happens to be a retired world-class show jumping trainer, and a competent veterinarian who happens to enjoy under-billing kids for treatment and services

Of course there are other impediments to happiness, like the Snobby Rich Girl, the Loving but Neglectful Mom, and the Greedy Uncle straight out of Central Casting.

The first third of the book was fraught with plot and terminology errors.  However, the final two-thirds of the story rose up a bit from the mundane, ending with sweet romance and a thrilling horse race.  Horse-loving readers may roll their eyes at some of the goofs, but they will read to the end and cheer at the finish line.

No cussing, no sex.  Some bullying, some violence, some kissing.  Grades 6 and up.

Altered

Altered by Jennifer Rush

Anna’s father works for a secret lab.  The specimens in the lab are four boys:  Nick, Cas, Trev and Sam.  All have special skills that are being cultivated through drugs and procedures.  All are “enhanced genetic specimens,” (read "great-looking hunks") however, their minds have been wiped clean.   

Because she is bored, Anna helps her father with the tests, but becomes involved with the boys, even sneaking down after hours to talk with them, or play a game of chess.  Eventually, she falls in love with Sam. 

When the Branch arrives with guns ready to take them away, Anna’s father helps the boys escape, but demands they take Anna as well.  Why?  Everyone is baffled about this, but there is no time to talk about it. 

The remainder of the book is the story of runaways, finding clues about their backgrounds and staying away from the Branch, those out to get them.  Then Anna finds secrets from her past: clues about Sam’s past are tattooed on his skin, and they run from safe house to safe house, as Sam remembers bits and pieces.  

The story is a bit scattered, raising more questions than answers, and although the genetic mutation is never fully explained, the plot twists and turns, giving a wild (and crush-worthy) ride.   We gain some understanding by the end of the book, and while there is a LOT to explain, we are not left on a ledge until the sequel.  Although Sam is as hot as any boy-hero, we will need to wait until book two to see if anything is realized between Sam and Anna.

We know that of course, there will be a sequel or more.  Great, because we still do not know the origins of most of the boys!  Maybe January will tell.

Recommended 14 up

Scarlet

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer  (Lunar Chronicles, part 2)

In the second volume of this futuristic fairy tale retelling, Scarlet, a spunky French farm girl in a red hoodie, is frantically searching for her grandmother.  Was Grand-mere kidnapped?  Or worse?  

Scarlet reluctantly accepts the help of Wolf, a tattooed street fighter.  But Wolf has some secrets he prefers not to share with Scarlet.  

And speaking of secrets, apparently Grand-mere had a few of her own...secrets about a missing princess now known as Cinder.

Fairy tale, science fiction, political intrigue, and romance intertwine to create a fast-moving narrative and leave readers eager for the next volume:Cress, the story of a long-haired girl who has been kept isolated on a satellite since childhood, is scheduled for publication in February 2014.

Recommended for readers ages 12 to adult.  Minimal cussing, some violence, some blood, some tactful off-page canoodling.