Alice in the Know, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

In this latest installment of the Alice series, she is in her summer before her Junior year of high school. She has her first job (outside of her Dad's store), a vacation with friends, deals with some racism and peer pressure, and has a few more embarassing incidents. In sum, we're just passing a couple of months with our old friend.

I'm a loyal follower of Alice (having read all 21 of her books) but I do it now more out of that sense of loyalty than out of literary interest. The books have never been High Literature, but they have an innocent charm to them. I was a bit surprised to see Naylor actually include some mention of smoking (tobacco and marijuana) in this installment. I can only suppose that someone (other than me!) has pointed out that she is awfully sheltered from the world that most teens live in. She still is, but so are many popular YA heroines.

What is a bit more disappointing with this series is how much it just treads water. The earlier books (I think Alice In Between is probably my favorite) made an attempt at a story arch. But now, it mostly seems as if we're just being fed a series of anecdotes, as if Alice was writing us a long email of what she's been up to. That is charming, but just not very substantive.

Two Steps Forward, by Rachel Cohn

In this sequel to The Steps, Annabel and Lucy meet up in LA, where they are joined by heartthrob Ben and their ever-confusing family relationships. All of which get confused a bit further by their complex romantic relationships.

The first book never captured my heart the way that Gingerbread did so reading a sequel was bound to be disappointing, but this book could really have used a list of the characters (the way that the original cover of The Steps had a diagram on it) to help keep the characters straight. More so, because so little actually happens in this book. Jumping from one character's POV to another helps sort things out a little bit, but this is mostly a book about kids getting angsty about doing stuff rather than actually doing it. If you like the characters, then this can be amusing, but there is little humor and less story here to capture your attention otherwise.

The Legend of the Wandering King, by Laura Gallego Garcia

In pre-Islamic Arabia, a proud prince hosts a poetry competition to prove that he is the best poet in his father's kingdom, but when he is bested by a lowly carpet weaver, the prince vows for vengeance with disastrous results. In the aftermath, the prince seeks to make amends and learn what it is to have a heart and be a truly great poet.

A fairy tale which steadfastly refuses to fall into typical stereotypes and defies expectations, it nonetheless encompasses the beauty of The Arabian Nights and a Grimms Brothers tale. Bits of realism expose a view of a life that few Western readers will know and carefully sewn with fantastic elements, it will stir the imagination as well. A truly enchanting book that will delight younger children with its adventures and older readers with the wisdom that it contains. Highly recommended.

Klepto, by Jenny Pollack

In this heavily autobiographical story set in NYC in 1981, Julie and her best friend Julie navigate the challenges of friendship, love, and an obsession with shoplifting from the tony stores of the Big Apple. Set at the NY HS for the Performing Arts (Fame, anyone?), all of the classic YA cliches are here, but older readers like myself will enjoy the period details.

For younger readers, I'm not sure that this story has that much going for it. We never learn much about shoplifting except that it's scary and makes you feel a bit icky, and that you might get caught. And I doubt that all the references to Toto and Culture Club will be that interesting.

Kalpana's Dream, by Judith Clarke

A rather odd story about a great grandmother from India, a girl whose teachers include a woman who may be dating Count Dracula, a boy who loves Australian Football, and a boy who can fly (on his skateboard). There's an essay to write ("Who am I?"), a family relationship to reconcile, and skateboarding to learn.

This one will probably be one of your favorites if you liked Criss Cross or other stories with odd (post-modern) narratives. For people who like traditional stories based on characters developed in more standard ways, I'd suggest taking a pass on this. It's a tedious book to work through.

Bass Ackwards and Belly Up, by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain

When Harper gets rejected by NYu she can't bear to tell the truth to her family or friends. Instead, she tells them that she's taking the year off to follow her dreams and write the Great American Novel. And they surprise her by ditching their plans and taking off for their dreams as well. Kate goes off to Europe to explore. Sophie goes to LA to become a movie star. Only Becca decides to go ahead with her plans to go to Middlebury and be an important member of the ski team. But what starts as a change of plans alters each of their lives.

The formula (four girls, four storylines that occasionally interact) should seem pretty familiar -- all the way down to the young sidekick of the girl who stays at home, and the trip to Greece (with admittedly different results). It's hard not to draw comparisons to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and the authors realize but claim theirs is about more mature girls (hello? anyone reading the Sisterhood sequels??). In terms of comparisons, this is a little less cuter than Brashares's novels, but I don't think it is all that much improved. If you're starved for a similar story, this is not a bad choice, but it doesn't have the depth or the humor.

Becoming Chloe, by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Jordy and Chloe meet in a basement in NYC, where Jordan is recovering from being beat up by his father and Chloe has just been gang raped. That rather dark and depressing beginning morphs into a cross-country road trip where the two of them catalog the beautiful and ugly parts of the world, discovering that there is a great deal of both out there.

I have very mixed feeling about this book. From the beginning, I really wanted to hate it as it has one of those horrible dark natures to it that seem to infect YA some books, but unlike so many other books I've read, it grew on me to an ending that really was a touching "unforgettable, redemptive story of beauty, pain, and unquenchable hope" (as the jacket blurb makes it out to be). So, if you start this book and want to put it down, give it a chance and see if it grows on you. It did for me.

What Have You Lost? by Naomi Shihab Nye

In this anthology of poetry about loss, over a hundred authors reflect on the many things we can lose and how we adapt to that loss. As could be expected, the subject elicits a good deal of angst and sadness, but a few of the writers transcend any wistfulness to achieve a more transcendent view of loss as a form of transition.

As with most anthologies, the quality is uneven and the styles sometimes jarringly different. The book include photographs from Naomi's husband which are strinking and sometimes related to the poems they neighbor. This isn't really a YA collection. Older teens may relate to some of the loss of childhood or loss of parents/grandparents themes, but overall this is a work that adults are more likely to connect with.

Singer in the Snow, by Louise Marley

Mreen and Emlee are gifted with psi powers that give them the ability to sing magical songs that simultaneously provide heat and warmth that keep the inhabitants of their planet (Nevya) alive through its five year winters. Emlee, however, struggles with a memory of a past the prevents her from using her powers. But through a trip with Mreen to a distant city, she will learn how to use those powers as well as how to change the lives of a stableboy and his sister.

I'm not really much of a fantasy novel fan anymore, but this is a beautiful tale with superb detail, as well as a serious subplot about spousal abuse. The characters have great depth and capture you and the reading goes very quickly. I found the naming convention (Emlee = Emily and Mreen = Maureen, in case you couldn't figure it out) a bit distracting, but that's a gimmick of the genre so I would imagine that if you like fantasy books, this one (which is the fourth in a series) will please and delight.

You, Maybe, by Rachel Vail

Josie is an unusual girl. She's sure of herself and able to stand up on her own. And she sees no reason to have a boyfriend. Instead, she enjoys hooking up with boys as friends, and who cares that they make out a little. But then the cutest guy at school shows an interest in her and makes her question her priorities and decisions, and she discovers that she really can't play the game as cooly as she would like. Rather, that the deck is very much stacked against her.

This is one of those truly brutal books that reminds you of what really sucks about adolescence (if you're old like me) or just seems like another day in the life (if you're in the right demographic). And while Vail has created a character who can be wise beyond her years at points, there are moments of sheer self-recognition here (like she totally gets it). The ending starts to go a bit off kilter and probably has a bit too much melodrama in it, but the rest of the story is fantastic.

Solstice Wood, by Patricia A. McKillip

A fantasy story about a bookstore owner who returns home to Upstate NY for her grandfather's funeral and is invited to join her grandmother's sewing circle, where we discover that the women are busy maintaining the stiches that seal off the fairy world from the human one in the woods that surround the house. Jumping from one character to another, events spin quickly out of control until family members reveal secrets and come face to face with the fairy queen.

A bit of a departure for me, but originally inspired by the human story about family that underlaid the rest of the novel. Unfortunately, the plot (both real world and fairy world) is a jumble and largely incomprehensible. As a result, I got very lost very quickly trying to figure out what was going on. The characters never really stand out and the result is a tangled mess. Disappointing.

A Funny Cartoon

Very appropos of the theme of this Blog. This came from this week's Isthmus.

Endgame, by Nancy Garden

Gray Wilton is a bully magnet -- attracting unwanted attention from the meanest guys at school. After an incident at his former school where he pulled a knife, his family relocates and Gray hopes things will work out better. But they don't. After the bullies go after him, his girlfriend, and his dog, he's basically pushed to the limits and responds in the only way he feels is left to him.

From the preface, it is apparent that this book was written as an attempt to explain the emotional motivation behind the Littleton CO shootings, but the events are only vaguely similiar. What is chillingly familiar is the account of bullying and ostracism, the general inability of the adults to rise to their responsibilities, and the sense of helplessness that infects the victim until they become the aggressor. What is more than a bit disturbing is that very little remains tied up at the end, except for Garden to suddenly jump the fence in the last four pages and demonize her hero herself. I don't mind that she didn't want a happy ending, but I resent being made to like Gray and then have this last minute dessertion.

I'll respond at a sheer emotional level to the story since I was a victim of bullying and felt many of the same frustrations that the character Gray felt. I even once pulled a knife on the bullies once (with somewhat less traumatic results since the 70s were more forgiving than the 00's), but reading this rekindled many of those older angers and a realization that very little has ever changed. Levels of harassment that would never be tolerated in adult workplaces are regularly smiled at by the alleged authorities (while token cases of overreaction -- usually directed at the victims since the real agressors are too closely tied to the power structure -- create an illusion of control). *whew* That sure was a visceral reaction wasn't it? Anyway, it's a good book in the sense that it will outrage you, but I never want to read it again...

Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan

In a diverse set of ten short stories and ten different worlds, we are introduced to a family executing their own daughter, a girl who can't make it to the church on time, and a series of different people suffering through plagues, storms, and other calamities. In short, each story provides a snapshot of a young person coming to terms with their environment.

Some of the stories are outstanding but it is the laziest form of storywriting to create a short story in an exotic locale. Langan creates characters with backstory and settings with deep culture, but as each one is a fantasy setting, it is fairly easy work. The difficulty would have been in expanding any of these stories into a novel, and from this collection, we have no indication that she could pull that off. Beyond that, it become tiresome to have to plod through so many different settings and characters in one book. If the stories had stood out as different from each other, it wouldn't be a problem (after all, any anthology presents the challenge), but these stories just sound the same after a while.

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale

In this retelling of the classic Grimms tale, the betrayed princess with the skill of communicating with nature struggles to win back her rightful legacy through perseverance and character, making her allies one at a time and suffering significant set backs along the way. It's a modernized tale, where the princess fights for herself and makes her own tentative decisions, struggling to become assertive against an upbringing in passivity.

The modern touches can be a bit jarring but if the purpose of a fairy tale is to instill values as well as entertain, this rather long-ish book does both. As with Princess Academy, Hale creates an engaging heroine whose struggles capture the reader and have you rooting for her against absent-minded old men, greedy and violent warriors, and brave peers.

Orphea Proud, by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

When Orphea's older brother and guardian catches her and her girlfriend making out, he flips out and attacks her (sending the girlfriend fleeing into the night, where she crashes her car and dies). In the aftermath, the brother decides that Orphea should be sent off to their aunts in the country to straighten her (!) out. But while the brother can't handle the idea of her sexual orientation, Orphea learns that her family has a long tradition of doing things their own proud way.

A bit thin on the characterization, the story meanders a bit and we never get a lot of real depth. But it's not a dull book. So, I'll give this one a mixed review: it is a pleasant enough read but maddening in being such a near miss at greatness.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Narrated by Death, we learn of the story of Liesel Meminger, growing up with her foster parents outside of Munich in Nazi Germany as WW II unfolds around her. The book's title comes from Liesel's method of procuring reading material, but the story is about the people she befriends more than the books she reads, although stories make up a great deal of the plot.

An extremely long and complicated book that has more to do with adult relationships than coming of age or adolesence, it is hard to see why this is being marketed as a YA book. It's definitely good literature, but even if the vocabulary and the post-modern narrative doesn't turn off younger readers, it's hard to see what would attract them to this book. I can see librarians and teachers liking it, but it doesn't belong in the teen section.

The Queen of Cool, by Cecil Castellucci

Libby is one of the cool kids who sets all of the trends and rules her school's social scene, but secretly she is bored with her success and fame. Her friends are shallow, she is undermotivated at school, and her life seems to be on constant repeat mode. But then, on a whim, she volunteers to intern at the zoo and gets paired up with Tina - a midget geek from her high school. And in that chain of events, a world of new possibilities are opened to her.

A lazingly fast read with a predictable plot that wraps up just a bit too easily. But, like she did in Boy Proof, Castellucci shows great wit and a good sense for dialog. The story may be devoid of substance but it is pleasurable and in the Summer that may well be enough!

Played, by Dana Davidson

Ian wants to pledge into a secret fraternity at his inner city high school, and all he has to do is trick a Plain Jane girl named Kylie into giving it up within the next three weeks. But what starts as a simple exercise in teenage deceit grows complicated when Ian realizes that his feelings for Kylie are genuine.

Moderately predictable traditional plot, but with decent characters and some nice twists (Ian's sister Kim shines out as a particularly good role model and a device for the author to articulate her feelings about the characters). Some readers may find the whole thing a bit preachy, but younger readers might enjoy the message and the story.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

In alternating chapters (written by alternating authors), Nick and Norah tell the story of meeting at a club and fumbling with whether they like each other (and whether the other person likes them). Interspersed with a good sense of alternative music and a bit of the NYC flavor, the story unfolds over a single evening.

The most fascinating part of the novel is not the alternating viewpoints in the chapters but the alternating authors. This reads very much like the old party game where someone tells a story and stops and the other person picks up. Sometimes the author leaves his/her partner in a corner and sometimes they try to spell out what is going to come next, but the next chapter always subverts the storyline to what the new author wants. So, it's very much fun to watch Rachel and David wrestle for control of their characters and quite revealing of the gendered differences in writing.

But is it good fiction? No, not really. It's not bad, but Cohn and Levithan are giants in YA and this experiment is more of a one-off for them. It probably won't win any awards, but its a pleasant diversion.