Finding Lost, by Holly Goldberg Sloan

When Cordy's father died, her family had to rely on the charity of their friends and neighbors.  A friend found her mother a job as a housekeeper that came with a dilapidated boathouse in which Cordy, her little brother, and Mom could live.  Two jobs gave them barely enough money to squeak by, but nothing for "UE" (unnecessary expenses).  So, when a stray dog follows Corey home from school, she knows already that it is unlikely she'll be able to keep it.  But surprisingly, Mom lets the dog stay and she names him "Lost."

A series of surprises await.  Lost leads Corey to the unusual sight of a pod of dolphins (including an apparent albino) swimming in the river. Her little brother learns of a free clinic for doing check-ups for animals.  And when they take Lost in for a check up, the veterinarian strikes up a friendship with Corey's mother that sparks into something more serious.  Corey's none too pleased that her mother appears smitten with the vet.  She worries that Mom will forget about Dad and want to leave their home.  But in the end, things work out -- just not how Corey imagined they might.

There's a bit too much happy ending in the final chapter, but up to that point the story is bittersweet with a combination of good news and bad that felt right.  Corey's intelligence and inquisitive nature shines throughout.  And even when she is making poor choices, she recognizes her flaws.  Corey's acknowledgement of her grief and the subsequent re-opening of her heart becomes compelling. A poignant and gentle story about a family in transition.

The Best Worst Summer of Esme Sun, by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Esme is tired of being ignored in her family.  Her three sisters are constantly getting praised by mother for the things they do.  Mom is always bragging about their accomplishments and Esme feels left out.  But it's actually Esme's fault since she's not good at anything!  It's not that she covets her sister's trophies.  Esme is ambivalent about awards and prizes, but maybe it would be good to excel at something so her Mom would notice.  Her sisters warn her that it isn't all that great of a thing, but Esme wants to try nonetheless.

This summer on the swim team seems like it just might be the thing! She's swimming much faster than she ever has before (coach says it's because of her growth spurt).  She wins her first heat, sets personal bests, and even starts to close in on a pool record.  And most of all, she's really beginning to enjoy it and the comradery with the other team members.

But being a good team member presents challenges as Esme has to negotiate through misunderstandings and friends who choose different paths.  And as Esme starts to win, she begins to question how far she is willing to go to be a champion.  She likes to win, but is it worth it if her friends have to lose?  And when her mother takes notice and starts paying attention to her, Esme discovers that there is a cost for that maternal notice and Esme isn't sure she's comfortable with paying it.

A delightful middle reader about friendship, sportsmanship, prejudice, and making life choices.  Packed full of adventure and excitement, the story plants its lessons within comfortably familiar tween settings.  The result is an enjoyable story that will resonate with its readers.

Hangry Hearts, by Jennifer Chen

Once close friends, Julie and Randall now would never think of even speaking to each other.  Their families have been at war with each other ever since the failure of a joint restaurant venture -- a battle fought from their competing food trucks at the weekly farmer's market.  But when they are assigned to work together on a community service project, they rediscover what made them besties in the past.  A secret romance blooms between them, but before they can come clean to their families, they need to find a way to resolve their families' war.  Food plays a large role in bringing them all back together.

A narrative mess with very little romantic heat, the novel suffers.  Too many plots (the community service thread lasts only for about a third of the book and is replaced by others) complicate things and make the  story meander and stray.  I grew impatient for the story to resolve.

The co-stars range from the mildly amusing would-be suitor of Julie to her entirely obnoxious and toxic brother Tyler, but none really perform valuable service.  Instead, the story rests on the suitably interesting protagonists.  Unfortunately, there isn't much to their romance as most of it is off-the-page and lacking in drama.

A Guide to Falling Off the Map, by Zanni L Arnot

Vinnie has plans to be in charge of her school's drama club next year and also turn her success into an audition in New York at the Juilliard.  In contrast, her best friend Roo is a disaster.  He's dropped out of school and trying to make money so he and his mother don't get evicted from the last place in town where they can afford to live.  

But their fates change quickly and when Vinnie fails to get her position and finds out her plans for New York have been undermined, it would seem that they are both in trouble with little left to lose.  So, they go on a week-long road trip to try to run away from their problems.  In their meandering trip, they run into the usual colorful cast of characters and end up finding each other.

A quirky Australian YA book with a familiar motif but a lot of original ideas behind it.  There are cultural differences that will be lost on North American readers, but the universal search for self-acceptance and enduring friendships will appeal to all.  Roo and Vinnie are both vivid and original characters, interesting enough to follow through their trip.  The story may be a bit flat and dull at points, but it picks up at the end for a satisfying conclusion that is neither clean nor pretty, but ultimately feels right.

Under the Fading Sky, by Cynthia Kadohata

Elijah and his friends have a pretty good life.  Growing up in nice houses and going to good schools, they have excelled and worked hard.  They have nice clothes and live in fancy houses.  They are getting into good colleges.  But for all those good things, their lives are just so damned boring.  That is, until they discover vaping.  And the vaping opens up an entirely new world that makes everything just a little better.

They are not stupid.  They know drugs are bad, but everyone's parents smoked dope and they ended up alright.  So, doing a little vaping isn't going to harm anything.  And maybe taking some pills too, because why not?  And life without the vaping and the pills is just so unbearable.  Soon enough they find they are hooked and can't figure out how it all got so bad.  And then it's too late.

Told through stream-of-conscious narration from Elijah's deceptively intuitive and insightful voice, this is a very slow and subtle descent into drug addiction.  It takes nearly a third of the book before the drugs even start to show up and everything just coasts in a muddled haze until that seems deceptively easy to take control over.  But by the end we're witnessing truly horrendous events.

The novel is something of a literary triumph for how it recreates the way that addictions ensnare their victims with a false sense of security and self-control.  It is very hard to nail down exactly when Elijah and his friends lose their ability to control events but it is clear by the end that they have no agency left.  To really nail home the message, the ambivalent conclusion pulls no punches and refuses to deliver anything remotely feel-good.  

It's really one of the most realistic stories about addiction I've read in YA.  That surprised me as Kadohata has not previously impressed me all that much as an author.  But she's found a subject that works well for her and produced a stunning character portrait.  Because of its languid pacing, this is a difficult book to get into, but it grows on you the deeper the characters fall into the abyss.

A Thousand Boy Kisses, by Tillie Cole

As Mamaw lay dying, she gave her granddaughter Poppy a mason jar filled with a thousand pink paper hearts.  Some kisses in life, she explained, were particularly special and she wanted Poppy to memorialize the ones that were by recording them down on a heart.  By the end of her life, with the jar full of completed hearts, Poppy could look back and remember her life of a thousand memorable boy kisses.

For Poppy, there really is only one boy:  Rune, the Norwegian kid who lives next door.  She is his "Poppymin" and he is hers to infinity.  They remained inseparable for years until, at age fifteen Rune and his family returned to Oslo.  Heartbroken, they kept in close touch until suddenly Poppy stopped writing altogether.  Bereft and desperate, Rune's grief tears him apart and makes him angry and violent.  When he and his family returned, he searches her out and demands to know why she broke contact.  The reason breaks his heart.

I gather that some people like psychopathic obsessive relationships and consider them romantic.  But for me, a relationship that is based on possession and self-destruction is not only unhealthy but scary.  The appeal is completely lost.  Add that the story is very slow moving and repetitive (how many times can the heart break and tears rend you in pieces?) and the thing becomes boring.  These kids needed serious psychological help from a trained counselor to sort out their insecurity and clinginess.  Rune's penchant for violence (towards himself and others) was a big turn off and a serious red flag.  Touting this as romance is actually pretty sick.

I'd give this a no-star rating because I hate the message it sends to young readers by glorifying a totally unhealthy relationship, but the author writes beautifully and I really enjoyed the story before it got all creepy.

Gwen and Art Are Not In Love, by Lex Croucher

In medieval England, there still reigns a division between the Catholics and the "cultists" (followers of the Arthurian legends).  Gwen's father, the king, tries to keep the peace and hold the kingdom together.  Part of pulling that off is betrothing Gwen to the odious son of a former rival. Art.  Gwen and Art have met over the years at various events, but never gotten along.

Now nearing her eighteenth birthday, the day of the nuptial is about to arrive.  But as much as Gwen is dreading the moment and prepared for the worst, she isn't quite prepared for the discovery that Arthur actually prefers boys or for the revelation that her brother, the crown prince, likes Art!  This may all work out though because Gwen is hot for a lady knight.

The result is a complicated entanglement where the four of them work out ways to make their desires match the requirements of kingdom building in the middle ages.  Meanwhile, the drums of war beat softly in the background for most of the story until they suddenly burst forth in a glorious blood bath.

Narratively, this is a big mess of random ideas that shows little interest in history or plausible motivations and opts instead for an attention-deficit adolescent view of romantic drama topped off with some sword swinging and bloodletting at the end.  There are some cute ideas about Arthur Pendragon and Sir Lancelot being suppressed gay lovers thrown in as well.  It's a lively text, but lacking in interesting characters.  I liked the female knight Bridget and Art's sideman Sid is good comic material, but the story didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be history, fantasy, comedy, or contemporary romance.