Please bask in the epicness of my library's teen volunteers!  Each gingerbread man was made by them.  

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

What You Need to Know:  This book is a little heavier than Perkins' debut, but is still a fun, unabashedly romantic read.

Summary:  Lola, just barely 17, has 3 goals in life.  1) To convince her two dads that her (much older) boyfriend is THE ONE; 2) To create and wear a full Marie Antoinette costume for the Winter Formal and 3) to never see the Bell twins again.

However, Dad and Dad are not warming up to Lola's perfect punk boyfriend Max, the costume is way more work than she thought and Cricket and Calliope Bell just moved in next door.  Cricket Bell, inventive, sweet and super tall, was Lola's best friend and first love, until he rejected her and left.  But now he's back, and Lola is going to have to learn to deal.

What Worked:  Lola acts, sounds and behaves like a precocious 17 year old.  Like most of us at 17, she thinks she has everything figured out and knows everything.  When she finds out she doesn't, it shatters her.  Perkins totally nailed Lola's voice.   So much so that  I wanted to give her a big hug, or ground her, or both.

The background characters are equally well drawn.  Lola's two dads are fantastic, sweet and supportive but not perfect.  I really hope that Lola's BFF Lindsey gets her own book one day, because a Chuck Taylor wearing Nancy Drew fanatic is the kind of girl I want to know better.    And, then, there's Cricket.

Cricket Bell, will you be my (completely platonic) YA Lit boyfriend?   I love you and your hipster clothes and weird contraptions.  You could come over and we could watch How It's Made and bake.

Seriously though, Cricket is a great character.  Sweet, thoughtful, inventive but not so perfect that he defies realism.  He's exactly the kind of guy a girl has a hard time getting over.

Overall, I would describe this book as sweet and girly.  However, Lola has to deal with some heavy issues, such as her homeless biological mom, and a not entirely healthy relationship.  This gives the story more gravitas than your typical YA romance, but not so much that it falls into misery porn territory.

What Didn't:  It's hard, as an adult, to read a Teen Romance as a teen would.  Because any adult woman would take one look at Max and say "Oh, honey, no!".  He's a douchebag.  A faux-rebellious punk-wannabe with stupid flash tattoos and a bad bleach job.   However, at 17, he probably looks pretty tasty.

Because Mac is a jerk and Cricket is adorable, it's hard to see why Lola hangs on to her relationship with Mac for so long.   Again, maybe this is one of those things that makes sense as a teen, but mystifies an adult.  

Who Would I Give This Book To:  This one's all about the girls.  Fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, would eat this up.   Teens looking for a light and fun read would also enjoy.

Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

What You Need to Know:  This YA Dystopian is the best contender for the "next Hunger Games" and an amazing book on its own, and one of my Best Books of 2011.

Summary: Saba lives in Silverlake, a small piece of (kind of) sustainable land carved out of the ever shifting dust that has taken over the world.  She lives with her father, broken since the death of her mother, and her baby sister.  Most importantly, she has Lugh, her twin brother and other half, who provides the hope and happiness in her life.  When strange men ride up out of a storm and steal Lugh, killing her Pa, she swears she will find him.  Saba sets off into the wastelands, and runs afoul of those who prey on travelers in the dust.  Literally forced to fight for her survival, Saba discovers her own strengths and feelings she didn't know she had.

What Worked:  Girl/Girl cage fights!  Amazon-like warrior women! Bitchy heroine!  Smug-Jackass love interest!  Quasi-western setting!  This book is practically Merideth-crack.

Young is an outstanding writer, who does an excellent job of creating a sympathetic but imperfect heroine.  Saba is a fighter, but her single-mindedness in getting Lugh back makes her not terribly likable sometimes.    Her devotion is admirable, but maddening.

Young weaves some slight touches of magic-realism into her story, with destinies being written in the stars*, and stones that will lead you to your heart's desire.  These are very subtle, and add another layer of mystery to the book.

I've said it before, the best Dystopian fiction doesn't waste a lot of time telling us how things got this bad.  Young doesn't tell us at all, choosing instead to focus on her story and characters.

And what a story it is.  In addition to the already mentioned cage fights, there's a prison break, giant killer worms, a suicidal raid... lots and lots of action.

What Didn't: This book starts very slowly, and readers may be put off by the unusual patois that Young develops.   Also, the magical elements of the book are an unusual touch for a dystopian adventure, and could be jarring.

Who would I give this book to?  Teen fans of the Hunger Games.  Adults looking for a good example of the dystopian trend.  My brother (seriously, he's very picky).

There be spoilers ahead, so quit now if that sort of thing bothers you.

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Review: Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

What You Need To Know:  This is a solid entry in the post-apocalyptic/zombie genre that suffers from a last minute plot twist.

Summary:  Alex is dying.  The monster in her brain, an inoperable tumor, has stubbornly refused treatment.  Rather than continue, Alex has taken the ashes of her parents to the mountains where they used to camp.  She intends to say goodbye and face her own mortality.

However, something happens, and most die instantly.  Alex survives, as does Ellie, a bratty young girl camping with her grandpa.  Alone in the woods, Alex and Ellie soon discover that they aren't the only survivors.  Other teens live also, but they have transformed into animalistic cannibals.

It's up to Alex to protect Ellie, and she is aided in this by Tom, a young veteran who also survived.  Now, the three must decide what to do next...

What worked:  Bick does a tidy job of introducing her characters.   She establishes Alex's survivalist credentials early and without a lot of fanfare.  Tom appears in the nick of time but still believably.  Ellie feels a bit shoehorned into the story, but not overwhelmingly so.   She also gets things moving quickly, the carnage starts early, without a lot of preliminary set up.  The action sequences in this book are genuinely scary, gory without being gratuitous 

Bick also gets that the best post-apocalyptic fiction isn't really about the apocalypse, but the people who are caught in it.  Alex and Tom spend a good deal of time trying to figure out what happened, but they also are moving on, doing their best to survive.

I'm not a big wilderness survival fan, but Alex and her crew's plans and missteps were engaging and well described.

What didn't:   My biggest problem with this book is that it leaves too many questions unanswered.  Ashes takes a major left turn in its final fourth, completely abandons major characters and plot lines, leaving many questions unanswered.   A great book will leave you asking "what happens next?"  This book simply left me asking "what happened?"   This ploy might get readers to pick up the next volume, but it's incredibly frustrating.

Also, I know all sci-fi requires a suspension of disbelief, but I don't think that the science behind Bick's apocalypse stands up.   Although not an expert, I don't think that an EMP could cause the kind of carnage she describes.  I appreciated her building the latest research on the teen brain into her plot, but, again, it rang false to me.

And, as always, I resented the intrusion of a romance into the plot.  Alex has been preparing herself to die, the world as she knows it has ended, teenagers have turned into cannibals, but she's torn between two boys?  Please.

Who would I give this book to:  The post-apocalyptic trend shows no signs of slowing, and this would be a good choice for teens who enjoy those books.  The survivalist angle would appeal to many boys, and it's gory enough for the zombie fans.  

Books I Didn't Finish: Record Collecting for Girls by Courtney E. Smith.

Total Finished: 97 out of 240 pages

So, Why Didn't You Finish It?  

But how much thought have you given to what your music choices say about you to other people?  Boys who love records (and let's face it, at some point we will al date a boy who is a little too into his records) are totally obsessing on what music you like when they meet you.  They're using it to figure out how crazy you are before they get involved (so hide your Tori Amos records).

 Record Collecting for Girls, page 97

It's not often I can pinpoint the line that makes me quit a book in disgust.

I know that it can be tough to be a girl who is into music, either as a musician or a fan. So, I was hoping that this book would be a great resource for the "music nerds" among my teen patrons.

Well, this book isn't about girls, it's about boys.  More specifically, it's about finding boys to date by pretending you 1) like the same music they like and 2) hiding that you may know more about music than they do.    This is insulting and sexist.  Other commenters have pointed out that Smith is incredibly hetero-normative and focused on white rock bands.  I also see this.

(And, just in case any girls are reading this -- any boy who won't date you because you listen to Tori Amos is not worth dating. This goes for guys too -- I married my husband dispite his love of Steely Dan.  )

To be fair, Smith knows a lot about music, and has some interesting things to say about the lack of "serious" female artists in the mainstream.  But she is incredibly dismissive of anybody who doesn't share her indie-rock tastes.  It's more than a little ironic that a woman who can claim to love the Twilight books spends half a chapter dissing "Teenage" music.

Smith's obsession with cool and making sure that you like the music that will get you laid is off-putting and boring.  I have better things to read about.

Dissenting Opinions? 
Miss A
Nylon
Chicks Dig Books

Review: Blink and Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

What You Need to Know: This intriguingly written tale of street kids and second chances takes a major left turn in its final third.

Summary:  Blink has been living on the streets for a few months now, but has figured out that well dressed kids don't get hassled.  Thus, he uses a stolen set of clothes to wander through hotels, looking for uneaten food on room service trays.  When he hears the sounds of violence from a room, but sees three unharmed men walk out, he can't resist a peak.  In the room he sees what looks like trouble, but the unattended wallet and smart phone presents too much temptation.  When the owner of the phone shows up on the news as a kidnapping victim, Blink knows it's not true, but doesn't know what to do.

 Caution, a young runaway, gets on the wrong side of her dealer/boyfriend.  She has to run, from the magic man, from her past, from knowledge she doesn't want.  But it all  keeps finding her.  She decides to run as far as she can, and sees Blink as an easy mark.   The two connect in an unexpected way, and decide to use the "kidnapping" to their advantage.

What Worked:
Wynne-Jones has a talent for language, his prose is rich, yet light.  The writing perfectly evokes a time and place, without drowning the reader in tons of exposition and description.

Wynne-Jones also successfully climbs inside the heads of his teen protagonists.  They are bundles of emotion, yes, but believably so.  Their choices feel organic and believable.   Blink and Caution both ran away from home for legitimate reasons.  They live on the streets (or with questionable adults) in a way that feels real.

What Didn't: This languished in my "to read" pile for months.  Part of it was the summer slam, and part of it was it just didn't look like my kind of book.   I only picked it up because it was a Boston-Horn Book Award Winner and a nominee for the Maricopa County Mock Printz Discussions.  

I still don't think it's my kind of book.  I will be honest -- I'm a plot reader.  Beautiful settings and well-drawn characters are great, but in the end, I want you to tell me a story.  And without getting too spoilerific, I felt like the plot of this book went off the rails in a major way in the book's final third.   The entire focus and tone of the book shifted from a character study with mystery elements to a B-grade horror flick.

Is it Printz Worthy?  Maybe.  It has the edginess that Printz voters seem to like, with a strong literary flavor.   What I see as a major misstep in plot, others may see as a bold blending of genres.

Who Would I Recommend this Book to?  I'm not sure.  The literary-ness of it would turn off teens who read genre fiction, and the genre elements would annoy my few lit fic readers.