Seven Tears into the Sea, by Terry Farley

Seven years ago, when Qwen was 10 years old, she went sleepwalking out on the beach and thought that she met a gypsy. But at the time, people figured that she was either making it up or had been molested. After the incident, she and her family moved away. Now at 17, she has returned to the beach to help her grandmother, and also to face her past and figure out what happened -- a mystery that is intensified when she encounters a young man who claims to have been that "gypsy" on the beach.

A bit clunky and hard to follow, this fantasy romance brings in lots of nice color and strong characters, but the plot veers all over the place and, by the end, becomes difficult to follow.

The Taker, by J. M. Steele

Carly is a good student with plans of going to Princeton, but when she gets the results of her SATs, she has a nasty surprise with a 1710. And then, just as she is receiving this news, she is contacted anonymously by the "Taker" who promises that he can fix her problem. And now she has to choose whether to accept the offer or not.

This is a passingly good story but excruciatingly predictable, packed full of every YA cliche you can imagine. The authors ("J. M. Steele"), the blurb tells us, are a "pseudonym for two New York entertainment industry professionals" and the novel reads likea formula (picture a bunch of TV producers pitching a concept!). It's harmless (aside from its questionable ethics), it won't bore you, but it is mindless entertainment with a "surprise" ending that you will see coming by the time you're even half-way through the book.

Ophelia, by Lisa Klein

As one of the greatest classics of English Literature, Hamlet has been not only remade in every possible way, but the subplots and characters of the tragedy have spawned many stories of their own. Ophelia's story, though, has really remained underappreciated. She loves Hamlet and seeks to console him as he grows mad, and then goes mad herself and finally kills herself. BUt her name has spawned an entire metaphor for adolesecent femininity. Thus, it is only in small irony that it should all come round and Ophelia's own story should become the subject of a YA book.

This novel picks up many years before the Bard's Hamlet, and continues for many years after -- a subject of some confusion as Ophelia dies in the more well-known version of events. And between this back story, the tale that follows, and a different viewpoint on the events in Elsinore, we get a story that expands upon Hamlet, adding details that change no fact of the narrative but which cause us to rethink the meaning of the tragedy itself.

It will probably shock the more cultured people to hear me say that I always picture Helena Bonham Carter in this role (as it is Mel Gibson's Hamlet that I most clearly remember). So, I'll take a special delight in seeing her story expanded and I enjoyed this novel a great deal.

All of which is not to say that I think this is a perfect book. I found the after story (the last 100 pages or so) to be completely unnecessary. It added so little to the understanding of Ophelia. If anything, it cheapened her a little by adding political correctness and anachronistic visions of gender roles to her character. But I understand Klein's purpose in doing so (having Ophelia's life end as a suicide was such a dramatic disappointment).

I think this novel can serve two purposes: it can serve as an entertaining novel in its own right, or it can help readers appreciate Hamlet more, opening up an interpretation of that story that might otherwise go uncovered. Fascinating!

Vive La Paris, by Esme Raji Codell

Continuing with the same semi-autobiographical setting as Sahara Special, we now shift focus to the story of Paris, who is dealing with a brother who keeps letting himself get bullied by a girl in Paris's class. And Paris also has an eye-opening introduction to history throug piano lessons with a Holocaust survivor.

While this book does not carry the novelty value of either Sahara Special or the autobiographical Educating Esme, it is still a special story. It is made a bit more poignant than its predecessors by the decision to bring up the Holocaust (a hot topic of discussion not so long ago on the CCBC list). Throughout, we get an admirable respect for life and education. A winner!

The Braid, by Helen Frost

An alternating prose poems, interspersed by short praise poems, Helen Frost tells the story of two sisters separated by the forced emigration of the Western Scots to Canada in the 19th century. One goes to Canada, while the other moves south to more remote sections of Scotland to avoid deportation. But they manage to stay connected despite the distance.

This is a fairly sophisticated piece of writing (both in terms of structure and content), but the story falters a bit in maintaining engagement with the reader. As a piece of art, I appreciated the style and the effort, but as literature I found it lacking. As a younger reader, I would have maybe even found it a bit dull. A mixed review.

The Foretelling, by Alice Hoffman

Rain is a warrior princess of the Steppes, ostracized by her mother for being the offspring of a gang rape, and feared/ignored by her tribe. But in the harsh world of the ancient world where her group of Amazon warriors defend themselves on horseback against greedy men, Rain is finding the strength to lead and the ability to interpret a prophecy to make her world a better place.

While a bit heavy on the macho images of brutal warrior women (is there a feminine version of macho?), this estrogen-packed action fest has a lot to offer. A bit more intellectual than Xena, but maintaining much of the appeal, this is a pretty brisk read. I did grow tired of the heaviness, but the cultural details were fascinating and it made for good storytelling. Hoffman has a stylistic rut in which she operates, but it's a good one to be in.

Side Effects, by Amy Goldman Koss

When 15 year-0ld Izzy finds a lump in her neck that turns out to be cancer, all of the everyday concerns of her life take second place as she enters a new regimen of blood work, labs, chemo, and endless sickness. But rather than be a story about a dying teen, this is one about survival and pulling through.

Unfortunately, this is about all the book is. I had been hoping for some sort of uplifting text about the power of human spirit and overcoming the odds. Or maybe about living a normal life in spite of the sickness. Instead, Koss is more interested in spelling out all the technical details of treatment and teen cancer (if I wanted that, I'd read non-fiction!). We know that Izzy doesn't like needles and can't swallow pills and that her Mom cries a lot, but none of these issues are really ever addressed. Nor is Izzy's romantic interests or her relationships with family and friends. In a word, almost all of the character development is wasted and become nothing more than windowdressing for a blow-by-blow description of cancer treatment and recovery. A major disappointment.

Letting Go of Bobby James, or How I Found Myself of Steam, by Valerie Hobbs

Atthe age of 16, Jody has made the decision to leave her husband after he hits her in a fit of anger. She has nothing to her name, but a good head on her shoulders and some luck. And those two ingredients help her set out on her own.

Told as a series of serious digressions in a letter to the owner of a grocery store chain (in order to complain about the store's coleslaw), Jody is an engaging character with an amusing ability to mix up her words (as someone - myself - who once wrote "intensive purposes" on the first draft of his dissertation, I can relate!). What Hobbs shows very nicely is that decent people come in many shapes and sizes, and that being a decent person amongst decent people can take you a long way. A good uplifting read.

Indigo, by Alice Hoffman

In this very short fable, a town that is afraid of water, a girl who wants to leave it, and two boys with a strong attraction to the sea all serve as metaphors for longing and insecurity.

In such a brief book (84 pages of very large type), it isn't really possible to develop much of a story and while Hoffman does relate a complete narrative, this is more of a novella, than a novel. My preference would have been for a longer book (and thus more to review).

Dairy Queen, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

In DJ Schenk's family, people don't talk much and, when they do talk, they get pretty angry with each other. That's easy for them to do because they have a lot to be angry about. DJ's father is angry to be injured, her Mom is angry that Dad drove away his sons. Little brother Curtis doesn't say much to anyone. And DJ spends a lot of time taking care of the farm and the family, doing her best to please everyone, just like one of the cows on the farm. However, things change when she spends the summer training Brian (the aspiring QB of arch rival Hawley's football team). And then she decides to go out for football herself.

In honor of today's "big game," let me come clean and say that I'm not a big fan of sports or sport fiction, but this novel really hines as something of a notable exception. From strong, realistic characters to an interesting narrative voice to good plotting, Murdock has a talent with writing that I really hope to see much more of (and will soon, as her next novel comes out this summer!).

On a negative note: I really DO wish that writers would do their homework or stick to subjects that they know. It's hard to read a book like this and not be bothered by the factual inaccurancies. For example, no dairy farm in the US (let alone in WI) could survive if the barn wasn't clean because the dairy inspectors would shut it down. Secondly, a high school with 120 students per class would hardly be considered "small" in rural Wisconsin. To the contrary, any high school up near Eau Claire with that many students would be one of the largest in the area. And any school that size would have no problem fielding a large football team. These are sloppy mistakes that a few hours on the Internet could have prevented.

The Girls, by Lori Lansens

Rose and Ruby are twins, but not the normal sort. They are conjoined at the head. And if you've ever wondered what that is like, this novel explores what it is like to have your sister always with you. The book traces three decades of sisterhood, covering the highlights of the girls' lives (family, loves, losses, etc.). It is not so much that anything specific happens in this novel, but more that it is a realistic story of a type of life that is hard for any of us to imagine. And more than being a story about them, it is also about the people they live with and growing up in a Slovak household in southern Ontario.

At 345 dense pages, this is a very long read. It is not a bad read (except maybe towards the end where it just starts to drag and drag), but given it's essentially lacking a plot, it can grow a bad hard to plow through. That said, I found the subject matter so totally interesting that I have to give it a recommendation. There are so many things about being a conjoined twin that never would have occurred to me and that this novel addresses. And a book that opens a new world is always a valuable literary contribution.

Firefly Cloak, by Sheri Reynolds

After her brother dies, 15 year-old Tessa Lee goes looking for her mother. Mom left her and her brother seven years ago and Tessa Lee is just trying to fulfill a promise to her brother to find her mother. However, her Mom has become a drug addict and an alcoholic and denies Tessa Lee when they first meet. Told in alternating voices (Tessa Lee's, Mom, and Grandma), this story traces an attempt to reconstruct Tessa Lee's family.

I'm not quite sure how I tripped over this book, but someone must have thought it was YA (it isn't, despite having a teenaged heroine). I found it a bit gross to be frank, and I'm not that much of a prude. And the alternating narrative could get very hard to follow as the author would often switch voices without identifying who had taken over telling the story. Those sorts of distractions, plus some overall clunky writing, made this a bit of a chore to get through.

The Wall and the Wing, by Laura Ruby

Gurl is the only child at the Hope House orphanage who cannot fly, but she has a cat (a truly rare thing!) and an ability to make herself invisible. This power attracts attention from various evildoers. Before her story is done, she and her friend Bug must deal with punks in the subway, the Sewer Rats of Satan, Sweetcheeks Grabowski, the Professor, and the Richest Man in the World.

This fantasy story gets high marks for originality and liveliness and I'm sure it has its fans. However, it never engaged me. The characters were not very interesting and their adventures seemed too random and unpredictable to capture my attention. Instead, I found myself simply drifting through the story.

Baby Blue, by Michelle D. Kwasney

13-year-old Blue is struggling to keep her family together (or rather, what remains of it). Since her father drowned and her mother remarried to the abusive Lyle and her older sister Star has run away, this is a pretty big undertaking! If only she could convince her mother to stand up for herself!

This is pretty much a by-the-numbers abuse story. We get a series of abusive episodes that escalate and esclate, but also the predictable resolution and starting over again. It's an OK story and well-written, but no earth-shattering revelations or novelty.

The Somebodies, by Julianna Baggott [N. E. Bode]

In this third installment to the series about Fern, her friend and "brother" Howard, and the magic hidden in books, Fern and Howard must flee from their parents when the Drudgers decide to send them to military academy and the Blue Queen makes her move on the kingdom, located underground, under the city of New York.

The series has lost a bit of its lustre as it continues. The latest installment is more clunky and heavy-handed but most of all the novelty of books springing to life has declined. The message this time is about the sacrifices that writers make to create stories that transport you, but it is a message delivered with a sledgehammer. This time, the author has forgotten to liberally spread the joy and fun around that was in the previous books (replacing it with weirdness and unpredictable and meaningless plot twists). Re-read The Anybodies and give the sequels a pass!

Toys Go Out, by Emily Jenkins

Lumphy, StingRay, and Plastic all belong to the Little Girl who sleeps in the top bed. In this series of six related stories, the three of them have a series of hilarious adventures involving peanut butter, dictionaries, a washing machine (and dryer!), the sea, and a birthday party. Of course, they're all three of them just toys, but what fun adventures they can have!

For younger folks, you'll probably think Toy Story or its descendants, but these stories reminded me much more of Winnie the Pooh with their whimsical and clever nature. I'm not entirely sure that little kids will really understand the stories, but they are so cute and adorable. Highly recommended!

Drawing the Ocean, by Carolyn MacCullough

Since Sadie's twin brother died when they were 12, she has felt his presence wherever she goes and her habit of talking with him has gotten her in trouble at school. But when her family moves across the country, Sadie has a chance to start her life over again and carves out a new identity for herself as a normal and popular girl. But the more she succeeds at being popular and building a relationship with a jock named Travis, the more she feels drawn to an outcast Ryan and a life that might be too much like what she left behind.

MacCullough has not had a good track record with me. Both Stealing Henry and Falling Through Darkness were good but nothing terrific. This third novel, while less original and far more formulaic than her predecessors, is actually the strong thing she's written so far. You can probably guess how the story will end up, but that does not diminish the beauty of the writing or the engrossing nature of the read. When I had to put this book down, I genuinely regretted having to do so. That is a mark of a good book!

Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

When an asteroid collides with the moon and shifts the moon's orbit erratically closer to the Earth, the effect is catastrophic to the ecosystem. For 16-year-old Miranda, it is hard to understand the significance of the event and how it will change her life. But as civilization begins to fall apart and Miranda and her family struggle to stay alive, she begins to realize how precarious life is and what really matters in this world.

An extremely depressing and downbeat story of survival. This may shock the more innocent and naive, but overall I found it to be tedious. Not that I suppose that survival in such circumstances for an average family would be all that exciting, but the day-after-day repetition of hunger, boredom, and endless new agony just really makes the book's 337 pages a bit of a chore. A powerful story, but not a very entertaining one.

Kiki Strike Inside the Shadow City, by Kirsten Miller

As the back of the book says, "Five delinquent Girl Scouts/a million hungry rats/one secret city beneath Manhattan/and a butt-kicking girl superspy-welcome to the world of Kiki Strike." That gives you a taste of the most original YA book of the year. Kiki and her band of Irregulars fight the nefarious evil powers let loose in Gotham and save the day, conquering evil Chinese gangs and snooty girl cliques for a direct head butt. These girls can blow out doors, become mistresses of disguise, jimmy any lock, and finish off anyone in their way.

My only complaint with the book is that it's terribly long (390 pages) and probably at least two books in one (the story is wide open for a sequel and perhaps a series), but the writing is fresh and fun (the technical advice given in each chapre is useful and adds flavor to the story). The heroines of the story are an irresistable bunch -- everything you typically expect from a group of 12-14 year old girls but with a good non-nonsense approach to battling evil thrown in. On one had, realistic and on the other completely over the top. This book is clever and fun. Did I mention that I like it?

Head Games, by Mariah Fredericks

Judith has been engrossed in the Game for months now. It's an online game and in it Judith can be a stronger person than she ever feels able to do in real life. But when she discovers that one of the people she plays with is actually a next door neighbor, the Game becomes real in ways that she never imagined possible. And she learns to find some strength in the real world that she had only tapped before in her fantasy world.

An engaging story with a realistic voice. Judith isn't an anybody, but her shy resolve will resonate with young book readers. Fredericks knows how to tap into that psyche, but moreover how to spin a good combination of teenage cynicism with some hope thrown in. The story does begin to drift off tangent at the end (almost as if Fredericks got worried when she passed the 250 page mark and wanted to wrap things up quickly), but her characters are such winners that you'll forgive the sloppy ending.