by Paolo Bacigalupi
Set in the Gulf Coast in a gritty, harsh future, Ship Breaker depicts a not-rosy-at-all future. Nailer is part of a scavange team whose job it is to take apart and salvage valuable resources in the hulking wrecks of ships that have sunk and now washed up on shore. His team belongs to Bapi, who has tattooed his sign on the cheeks of all of his workers. Nailer thinks he might stay small enough to scrounge through the duct-work tunnels of the old wrecks for one more year. What he does after that is uncertain, dark, and scary. But he doesn't give a second thought to the future, because just getting through each day is exhausting enough. When a storm washes a different kind of a wreck ashore, and he and his friend Pima find it. Will it be the thing that changes both of their lives?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Grace Happens
by Jan M. Czech
Grace's mother is Constance Meredith, famous for her acting career and infamous, with Grace, for keeping her entire past a secret. Grace has no idea who her father is, and Constance isn't talking. For years Grace has moved from movie set to movie set with her mother, her tutor, and her nanny. But this summer will be different; Constance has told her that they will spend the summer on Martha's Vinyard for an extended vacation. When the arrive, it's clear that they are not renting a house; they are living in a place wehre Constance grew up. Will this finally be the time for Grace to learn about her father?
Grace's mother is Constance Meredith, famous for her acting career and infamous, with Grace, for keeping her entire past a secret. Grace has no idea who her father is, and Constance isn't talking. For years Grace has moved from movie set to movie set with her mother, her tutor, and her nanny. But this summer will be different; Constance has told her that they will spend the summer on Martha's Vinyard for an extended vacation. When the arrive, it's clear that they are not renting a house; they are living in a place wehre Constance grew up. Will this finally be the time for Grace to learn about her father?
Hate List
by Jennifer Brown
Flashbacks and memory-jags litter this novel, and staying with the story's present can be a challenge for less savy readers. However, the writing is excellent, the characters strong, and the plot important for teen readers.
When Valerie was in that awful-middle school age, she realized, clearly, that she didn't fit in with the kids in her town. Didn't. Won't. Ever. And instead of just leaving her to be herself, kids and teachers and the world looked down their noses at her spiked hair, torn jeans, and taste in clothes. To deal with the acid that ate her up, she wrote a list of things she hated: mom and dad fighting, homework that means nothing, names of teachers, names of kids. And that list helped her deal with the hatred that was directed at her day in, day out. And when Nick moved to town, looking and acting much as Valerie did, the found each other and kept the list alive, because it was their proof that they could hate too.
Fast forward to the end of their junior year. Valerie had no idea that Nick had a gun, and that he had a plan. And so, when he opened-fire in the common area, methodically taking out the people who appeared on the hate list the most often, she was as shocked as the rest of the school. Trying to protect Nick's next victim, Valerie was shot. Then Nick shot himself.
Five months, countless hours of therapy, and even more hours holed up in her room have passed. And now it's September. And Valerie must face her peers and finish her senior year. And to do that, she must face the part her hatred had what happened on that awful day in May.
Flashbacks and memory-jags litter this novel, and staying with the story's present can be a challenge for less savy readers. However, the writing is excellent, the characters strong, and the plot important for teen readers.
When Valerie was in that awful-middle school age, she realized, clearly, that she didn't fit in with the kids in her town. Didn't. Won't. Ever. And instead of just leaving her to be herself, kids and teachers and the world looked down their noses at her spiked hair, torn jeans, and taste in clothes. To deal with the acid that ate her up, she wrote a list of things she hated: mom and dad fighting, homework that means nothing, names of teachers, names of kids. And that list helped her deal with the hatred that was directed at her day in, day out. And when Nick moved to town, looking and acting much as Valerie did, the found each other and kept the list alive, because it was their proof that they could hate too.
Fast forward to the end of their junior year. Valerie had no idea that Nick had a gun, and that he had a plan. And so, when he opened-fire in the common area, methodically taking out the people who appeared on the hate list the most often, she was as shocked as the rest of the school. Trying to protect Nick's next victim, Valerie was shot. Then Nick shot himself.
Five months, countless hours of therapy, and even more hours holed up in her room have passed. And now it's September. And Valerie must face her peers and finish her senior year. And to do that, she must face the part her hatred had what happened on that awful day in May.
Reality Check
by Peter Abrahams
Cody's Mom died from cancer years ago, and since then his dad has been an absent alcoholic. Cody has only two things going for him: quarterbacking the football team for a possible college scholarship, and Clea, his feisty girlfriend who also happens to be rich. When Clea's father takes a dislike to Cody, Clea is shipped off to visit her uncle in Hong Kong for the summer. That isn't enough to keep them apart, so her dad sends her off to a boarding school across the country, in Vermont. When Cody tears his ACL in a spectacularly bad hit, his football season is over. Unmotivated, he drops out of school and works making deliveries for a local lumber company. When he learns that Clea is missing, he drives from Colorado to VT hoping to help find her, ending up neck-deep in a lot of small-town/rich-boarding-school-kid secret. A page turner with likable characters.
Cody's Mom died from cancer years ago, and since then his dad has been an absent alcoholic. Cody has only two things going for him: quarterbacking the football team for a possible college scholarship, and Clea, his feisty girlfriend who also happens to be rich. When Clea's father takes a dislike to Cody, Clea is shipped off to visit her uncle in Hong Kong for the summer. That isn't enough to keep them apart, so her dad sends her off to a boarding school across the country, in Vermont. When Cody tears his ACL in a spectacularly bad hit, his football season is over. Unmotivated, he drops out of school and works making deliveries for a local lumber company. When he learns that Clea is missing, he drives from Colorado to VT hoping to help find her, ending up neck-deep in a lot of small-town/rich-boarding-school-kid secret. A page turner with likable characters.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Last Exit to Normal
by Michael Harmon
If it's possible to be laughing and crying in the same moment, this book will do it to you.
Ben's dad decided after close to 20 years of marriage and raising 17 year old Ben, that he is gay.
Ben's mom skips town.
Ben's dad's boyfriend, Edward, moves in with them.
What's a guy to do? He skips school, skateboards constantly, smokes pot, and is generally a pain in his Dad's butt. I mean, what can Dad do?
What Dad and Edward do is up-root Ben from his urban lifestyle and move him to Edward's Mom's house in a tiny hick town in Montana. It's pretty tough being a spiked-hair skateboarder in rural Montana, but it's even harder when you get involved in the kid next-door's business...business that the kid's dad doesn't want Ben in.
Laugh out loud funny. Powerful characters. GREAT book!
If it's possible to be laughing and crying in the same moment, this book will do it to you.
Ben's dad decided after close to 20 years of marriage and raising 17 year old Ben, that he is gay.
Ben's mom skips town.
Ben's dad's boyfriend, Edward, moves in with them.
What's a guy to do? He skips school, skateboards constantly, smokes pot, and is generally a pain in his Dad's butt. I mean, what can Dad do?
What Dad and Edward do is up-root Ben from his urban lifestyle and move him to Edward's Mom's house in a tiny hick town in Montana. It's pretty tough being a spiked-hair skateboarder in rural Montana, but it's even harder when you get involved in the kid next-door's business...business that the kid's dad doesn't want Ben in.
Laugh out loud funny. Powerful characters. GREAT book!
Shift
by Jennifer Bradbury
Best friends Win and Chris decide to ride their bikes from West Virginia to Washington State during the summer after they graduate from high school. The big problem is this: Win doesn't return at the end of the trip, and even Chris does not know where he is.
The book's format contributes to the enormous suspense in this book. Chapters alternate from telling the story of the trip, to the post-trip investigation bank-rolled by Win's powerful father.
Great read. Great book.
Best friends Win and Chris decide to ride their bikes from West Virginia to Washington State during the summer after they graduate from high school. The big problem is this: Win doesn't return at the end of the trip, and even Chris does not know where he is.
The book's format contributes to the enormous suspense in this book. Chapters alternate from telling the story of the trip, to the post-trip investigation bank-rolled by Win's powerful father.
Great read. Great book.
Say You're One of Them
by Uwem Akpan
The author of this collection of short stories (some are actually quite long stories) grew up in Nigeria. He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2005 and received an MFA from U of Michigan in 2006. This is his first published book, and it is amazing.
The most powerful (for me) story was about a family living in a shanty town in urban Kenya. With work unavailable and the adults of the family sick or high from sniffing glue to escape the horror of their lives, the twelve year old girl prostitutes herself to keep her family eating. The narrator, her 10 year old brother, is expected to beg for coins to pay for the books at his school. It's a dismal setting told with gut-wrenching honesty.
The other stories deal with the alarming realities for children in other African countries: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. This book is a call to open our eyes, and a call to act. I will use the first story, at least, with my Women's Lit class. A tough, but important read.
The author of this collection of short stories (some are actually quite long stories) grew up in Nigeria. He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2005 and received an MFA from U of Michigan in 2006. This is his first published book, and it is amazing.
The most powerful (for me) story was about a family living in a shanty town in urban Kenya. With work unavailable and the adults of the family sick or high from sniffing glue to escape the horror of their lives, the twelve year old girl prostitutes herself to keep her family eating. The narrator, her 10 year old brother, is expected to beg for coins to pay for the books at his school. It's a dismal setting told with gut-wrenching honesty.
The other stories deal with the alarming realities for children in other African countries: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. This book is a call to open our eyes, and a call to act. I will use the first story, at least, with my Women's Lit class. A tough, but important read.
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