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Category Archives: Young Adult Lit

Book Review: No Crystal Stair

18 Feb

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is a fictional account of the life of Lewis Michaux, the author’s great-uncle. Nelson compiled stories of her uncle from family oral history, interviews, newspaper articles, and photographs and shaped them into this narrative.

Like I said in my Goodreads review, I love reading about little known figures who won’t be covered in history books. Michaux is definitely one of those figures. He takes five books and $100 and starts what will become one of the biggest bookstores in Harlem: the African National Memorial Bookstore.

I also loved the way Nelson juxtaposed the story of Lewis Michaux with his brother, a very big deal preacher named Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux. All in all, the story was really nicely done.

I am also really, really bummed I will never get a chance to visit the bookstore. I mean, really. How amazing would it be to not only go to a place where some of the biggest Civil Rights leaders used to hang out, but to go to a place with such a large collection of books by and about black people? With books that you couldn’t find anywhere else? I would totally have gone to Harlem just to visit this bookstore.

POC Reading Challenge: 2

Source: NetGalley

 
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Posted by on February 18, 2012 in Middle Grade Lit, Nonfiction, POC Reading Challenge (2012), Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: My Unfair Godmother

26 Jan

Wishes are powerful things. You can’t expect them to change the world without changing you too.

Chrysanthemum (Chrissy) Everstar is back in My Unfair Godmother, the sequel to My Fair Godmother (one of my favorite reads of 2009), by Janette Rallison. Just like in the first book, Chrissy is trying to prove herself as a fairy godmother. This time, her charge is Tansy Miller, a girl who is very, very angry about her parents’ divorce and continues to piss her father off. When her current boyfriend, Bo, vandalizes a building and lets her take the rap, things spiral downhill pretty quickly for Tansy. Enter Chrissy and the kinds of chaos only her granted wishes can create.

What I Liked

- I love Chrissy. I LOVE HER. I wouldn’t mind seeing a whole book about her and the wacky fairy adventures she gets into when she’s not popping into her mortals’ lives.

- I like that Tansy is so different from the main character of the first book. And! The story is very different, too. I mean, yes, fairy tale, etc, but I was really expecting it to follow the exact same formula–and while there are some similarities–they are really almost nothing alike.

- Tansy has to figure out the moral of her story to right Chrissy’s magic, and, while I like the one Tansy settled on, there were actually several used throughout the story that were nice.

- Nick, Tansy’s stepbrother, is so great.

What I Didn’t Like

- Tansy needs to forgive her father and learn to love/accept her new family, right? Except she spends little to no time with them and all of her time with the love interest. I love a good romance as much as the next person, but I would really like to read stories about girls who don’t figure things out through boys. It would really be nice is all. Not to mention, the glimpses of Tansy’s family we do get after the magic mayhem starts are really freaking fascinating. So, while the story is about Tansy, it really is about the boy moreso than her journey to her family. I don’t like that very much.

- I really didn’t like Tansy all that much. I was caught up in the story but not because of her. It was more the premise than anything. She’s realistic and all; I just didn’t connect with her.

- Not enough Nick or Chrissy, alas.

In conclusion: A fun read in line with the other Chrissy book. I just would’ve liked to see a little more focus on the family aspect.

Source: ILL

 
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Posted by on January 26, 2012 in Uncategorized, Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: Getting Over Garrett Delaney

24 Jan

I can’t keep doing this to myself: getting my hopes up so high, only to have them come crashing down. I can’t keep waiting for him to come to his senses, having my whole emotional state rest on what he decides. What if never wakes up to how perfect we’d be together? What if I spend another year pining for him–or longer even?

In Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald, Sadie is in love with her best friend Garrett. When he goes away to camp for the summer and falls in love with yet another girl who isn’t Sadie, Sadie realizes it’s time for her to move on.

What I Liked

- I love, love, love, LOVE that the women Sadie works with band together to help her get over Garrett. In that way, the story becomes all about female friendship. To which I say YES PLEASE.

- Sadie reconnects with her old female bestie, Kayla.

- Awesome female characters. Between Sadie (who is, of course, kind of annoying in the beginning because she is so wrapped up in Garrett), Kayla, LouAnn, Dominique, and Sadie’s mom, fantastic women abound.

- Sadie does not get over Garrett by getting a new boyfriend!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Nor does she need a boy to show her the way to enlightenment. It’s all about her, her female posse, and her mom.

- The format is ace. Once Sadie gets for real about getting over Garrett, there are little self-help type chapters between the main action to preview what Sadie is working on, and the progress she’s making.

- The emphasis on discovering your own interests and figuring out what you like and who you are outside of your friends–male or otherwise.

- Dominique, the black character has an Afro. Yay for natural hair.

- Literary references abound in this book. So much so that I started keeping a list of authors/books mentioned throughout. The books/authors (that I caught):

  • Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
  • Atlas Shrugged
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Where the Wild Things Are
  • Lolita
  • Collected poems of Rainer Maria Rilke
  • Elaine Dundy
  • Lorrie Moore
  • Emma Forrest
  • Matilda
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • John Donne
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • D. H. Lawrence
  • Anaïs Nin

- Because navigating relationships always involves compromises, there are no easy answers or black and white situations. McDonald addresses that through the characters without being preachy or condescending and by letting them work through the answers themselves. The key is, according to the book, to know yourself and then you can know your boundaries.

What I Didn’t Like

- I thought the ending was a little abrupt. It’s not a bad ending or anything; I just wanted a little bit more. Which is also a good thing because it meant I wanted to spend more time with the characters.

- Dominique, the only black female character, is bitchy. She’s also French, so her bitchiness may have more to do with that than anything. At least she wasn’t sassy, I guess.

In conclusion: Very solid contemporary YA. Realistic and believable characters with a good, non-preachy message.

Source: NetGalley

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2012 in Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: Ditched: A Love Story

19 Jan

“What are these stains? You an intern for Bill Clinton or something?”

Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom is a prom story. I love prom stories! This one follows Justina who wakes up in a ditch by 7-11 (home of the Slurpee! There are no 7-11s around here and it makes me sad) and recounts her prom experience for a patron and employee of said 7-11.

What I Liked

- I love the pacing of the story and the way the plotting is handled. We start at the end with Justina using the stains, bruises, and tattoos (!!!) she received as a road map for detailing her disastrous prom night.

- Another reason I like the framing device of Justina talking to the two women at 7-11 is it allows the insertion of two grown-up voices into a pretty neurotic teenaged angst-fest. I’m not saying the two women are founts of wisdom or anything, but outside perspective is always nice.

- I like that there’s a reason for Justina’s bad decision making–namely, that she has low blood sugar. As someone who tends to get super cranky when I haven’t had enough food AND has a daughter who tends to get hyper emotional when her blood sugar dips into the dangerously low range, I found it plausible. I also like that we’re reminded constantly that Justina hasn’t eaten, so (some of) her idiotic behavior makes sense.

- I think this would make a fun movie. It reminds me of Can’t Hardly Wait.

- Outstanding supporting characters. And when I say that I mostly mean the Mikes and Serenity. LOVE Serenity.

- Someone on Goodreads or Amazon complained about the contradictions in Justina’s character, but I think Mellom handles her characterization well. Justina claims not to care what other people think, but everything she does is to not draw attention to herself because she does care what people think. Also, the other characters–particularly Ian and Hailey–call her out on her false bravado throughout the entire novel.

- The situations Justina gets in are so ridiculous, but so fun. Also, drunk people are idiots. FYI.

- I didn’t think I would, but I bought the love story. I even found myself smiling and giddy about it. This is pretty spectacular considering…

What I Didn’t Like

- …Justina got on my nerves throughout pretty much the whole book. Yes, low blood sugar. Yes, kind of insecure. But she was seriously neurotic like Mia from The Princess Diaries AT HER WORST. Yeah, Justina was that kind of neurotic, and I didn’t have several books of goodwill preceding this one. I mean, this book is it!

- Also, I didn’t feel like I knew Ian that well outside of some kind of romantic ideal. AND considering the fact that he left her alone most of their prom night made me spend most of the book wondering whether or not her describing him as a Professional Boyfriend was completely unwarranted. I didn’t trust Ian is what I’m saying.

But, in spite of both of those points, I really did fall for them as a couple in the end, and I guess that’s all that matters.

- Not enough Hailey! She’s Justina’s best friend, and we don’t meet her until a quarter of the way through the novel and then she disappears when prom starts. I mean, I guess if she were around, Justina wouldn’t do a lot of the dumb stuff she does, but still. What a waste of awesome best friendness. Sigh.

In conclusion: Fun and engaging read with a plot that overcomes its main character, perfect for a study break.

Source: NetGalley

 
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Posted by on January 19, 2012 in Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: The Romantic Obsessions & Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier by Louise Plummer

16 Jan

I don’t like being an immigrant. I think of coarse-faced peasants in burlap pants carrying a couple of chickens in  a basket and leading a goat down a gangplank when I hear “immigrant.”

I picked up The Romantic Obsessions & Romantic Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier by Louise Plummer at the library book sale because I really enjoyed The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman, which I picked up on a whim. So! Why not spend ten cents on an author I enjoyed before?

This book is about a girl whose family immigrates to the US (specifically, Utah) from Holland and what happens to her during their first year in the US.

There’s nothing about the book I didn’t like, so some highlights:

- I realized that I really want to read more realistic fiction that deals with slice of life stories. By which I mean, no heightened craziness, no wacky stuff, just…life. So I really appreciated this story for that.

- I loved the look at what it’s like to live with a senile grandparent and how difficult it is–especially dealing with the feelings of loss, anger, resentment, and sadness.

- Bras are for old women!

- The romances and obsessions of Annie and her sister, Henny, are fantastic. I loved that Annie could really like one boy and enjoy his company, but also be completely infatuated by the complete pretty and charm of another boy.

- Great exploration of sisterly relationships and, again, more resentment, but also forgiveness and love. Annie is the favorite, which causes, understandably, lots of issues.

- Awesome female friendship stuff here.

- Plummer also covers concerns of immigrants. Annie and Henny speak English, but their parents and grandmother don’t. They also had more money in Holland than they do in the US. The way the homes are laid out is different, the streets, the schools. Also, the pain of translation when doing homework is addressed. Annie has to translate all of the directions before she can do her work, so her math homework especially winds up taking her hours and hours even though she can do the work and understands the concepts. Oh, and the bra thing of course. Annie is pissed she has to wear a bra.

- I really love every single thing involving Oma, heartbreaking as they may be.

- Annie and Martha read The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough and suh-woon over the steaminess of it all.

- The cover fits the story perfectly. Perfectly.

Off the Shelf: 2/30

 
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Posted by on January 16, 2012 in Off the Shelf, Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: The Future of Us

13 Jan

What’s a blog?

In The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler set way back in 1996, some glitch with Emma’s AOL CD allows her to see her Facebook page. Freaked out, she shares her page with her estranged male best friend and neighbor, Josh.

What I Liked

- Obvs, I liked all of the ’90s references. I also quite dig that Emma and I are the same age. AND that this book is set the year I graduated from high school. Class of ’96, represent!

- I also liked them trying to understand Facebook and future technology in general. My favorite quote is “What’s a blog?” because blogs are everything! I am using one right now! But if you had told me that back in 1996, I would’ve reacted just like Josh.

- Even though this book involves time travel, the novel stays firmly grounded in contemporary realism. I guess because the future is all glimpses through the real life internet…that won’t exist for fifteen years. Hmm. What I’m saying is, I’d be very, very reluctant to call this novel sci-fi in any way, shape, or form. I mean, it’s speculative but not on any grand scale.

- Emma and Josh have different reactions and responses to their future selves and even knowing about their future lives.

- I was going to say that Emma clearly has never seen That’s So Raven because if she had she would know that trying to change the future can sometimes lead to the thing you’re trying to change, but, OH YEAH, THAT’S SO RAVEN DOESN’T EXIST YET.

- Discman! Dial up! Going to do something else while the internet boots up! Using a CD-ROM to load AOL! AOL! AOL DISCS THAT COME IN THE MAIL. All of those things were great for me because, duh, teen of the ’90s.

- Okay, okay, setting aside, I really enjoy the character work here. It took me a while to really get into the story, but after a certain point I was hooked and really wanted to find out what would happen with Emma and Josh, even if the ending was predictable.

- Loved the two best friends, Tyson and Kellan (I think; I returned the book already). I also liked seeing glimpses into their futures.

- I like that the future remains unresolved. (I don’t think that’s a spoiler; that’s basically the conceit of the entire book.)

What I Didn’t Like

- The book is all concerned with boyfriends and girlfriends and “I’m married in the future and unhappy, so clearly it’s because of my mate choices!” And there’s so much more to delve into here. Josh finds out something pretty big about his brother that isn’t really dealt with. Emma has more issues than Time magazine, yet instead of addressing any of that in a significant way…boys, boys, boys. I don’t mind teen romance at all, but this seemed to want to do more than that.

In conclusion: Great premise with interesting characters, I just wish it would’ve gone a little deeper.

 
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Posted by on January 13, 2012 in Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: The Son of Neptune

31 Dec

Multigrain fighting is not allowed!

Oh, gosh I just loved The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. LOVED. The second book in the Heroes of Olympus series, it picks up with Percy (YAY PERCY!!!!) and the kids at Camp Jupiter.

There is nothing about this book that I didn’t like, so a few highlights of why I loved it.

- Rick Riordan wears the hat of cleverness! The Amazons run an online business that specializes in low prices and fast shipping. (Can you guess which one?)

- Love all of the characters. All! Even Ella the harpy who mostly talks in book quotes and Terminus the armless boundary god.

Also, even though these characters are just as tragic as the ones in The Lost Hero, they are more fun and less, well, annoying. I mean, I loved all three narrators whereas last time I just loved Leo.

- Loved the inclusion of Chinese mythology here with Frank’s character. Also, he’s Canadian! In fact, I’m a big fan of the diversity in this series overall. Two thumbs up.

- Oh, and Frank has a badass grandma and those are the best. THE BEST.

- The title, again, works on levels.

- Obviously, I loved seeing Camp Jupiter and all the ways it’s different from and similar to Camp Half-Blood.

- Riordan introduces his readers to The Art of War by Sun Tzu. There’s just a mention of the Tzu’s book at the end of the novel, but you know some kids are going to seek it out.

- The humor is spot on. Just so great.

Oh wait, there is one thing I hated about the book. The cliffhanger! But that’s only because I want to read the next book now, now, now.

Apparently, I’m not the only person who had that response. From Riordan’s blog:

In the meantime, sorry about the cliffhanger in The Son of Neptune . . . wait, no I’m not! I always do cliffhangers. I’m just evil that way.

Yes. Yes, you are.

I can’t believe I have to wait basically a whole year for the next book. I wonder who the narrators will be.

YA Challenge: 40; POC Reading Challenge: 25

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2011 in POC Reading Challenge (2011), YA Reading Challenge (2011), Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: A Tale of Two Proms

31 Dec

It occurred to me that this was my first big adult decision. And I have to say if this was what it meant to be an adult–to worry that any big decision you made was the wrong one–maybe growing up was seriously overrated.

Before I even get into my review of Cara Lockwood’s fourth Bard Academy novel A Tale of Two Proms, I have to point out that this novel represents two firsts for me: (1) the first book I read on the Nook I got for Christmas and (2) the first book I am reviewing via NetGalley. Exciting stuff!

Okay, and now since I have never reviewed any of these books here before, allow me to nerd out like the big literary nerd I am. So, basically, I love this series because the books provide a big old lit nerd fest. Aside from the fact that school is called Bard Academy (after Shakespeare, of course) and that the teachers are ghosts of authors stuck in purgatory (Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Ernest Hemingway, etc.), Lockwood manages to seamlessly blend plots and characters from many classic novels. In this book alone, she uses characters/plots/settings from:

  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • Wuthering Heights
  • Jane Eyre
  • The Great Gatsby
  • The Odyssey
  • Pride and Prejudice
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Like I said, that’s just in this book. The previous three include references to other classics.

Anyway, the basic premise for the series is that Miranda gets sent to Bard Academy, which is for problem teens. Once there, she falls for Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights who has somehow escaped from his book. Each book deals with the fallout from characters leaving their narratives and also some wackiness that Miranda manages to enmesh herself in.

In A Tale of Two Proms, the focus is on literary doubles–particularly Catherine from WH (who Miranda favors)–and, of course, the prom. Oh, and Heathcliff asks Miranda to marry him and she finds out that she got into one of her dream schools. Which will she choose????

The only thing I don’t care about in the books is the romance between Heathcliff and Miranda. However, that’s pretty easy for me to get past. Which..considering that’s pretty much the foundation/driving conflict for all four books is saying a lot about how fun they are.

I love the setting and the characters. (I really get a kick out of Parker taunting Miranda for being “Fictional-American or whatever.” Because why not? Hahaha. I am easily amused sometimes.) There’s lots of humor and the characters are definitely teenagers with teenage concerns even as they are trying to save their school. So I enjoy that.

Lockwood said on her blog that this is probably the last book in the series, and I think everything is wrapped up pretty nicely. I did have one plausibility issue with the end, but then I reminded myself that this is a book with a Fictional-American character, book characters that come to life, moving settings, and ghost teachers, so I let the whole plausibility thing go.

In conclusion: If you’re a fan of gothic, gothic romance, mystery, paranormal, teen lit, classic lit, or adventure stories, this book/series might be something you’d want to check out.

YA Reading Challenge: 39

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2011 in YA Reading Challenge (2011), Young Adult Lit

 

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Book Review: How to Save a Life

29 Dec

If you don’t grow up to be a wife or a mother, what are you? A person alone, always wanting to be on thing or the other or both? My mother was never a wife, and that’s what she wanted more than anything. She didn’t want to be a mother, and she wasn’t one. Where does that leave her? A husband makes you a wife, and a child makes you a mother…What if there isn’t anyone to make you something?

In How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr, Mandy is searching for a new life for herself and her baby, and Jill is still recovering from the loss of her father. Their two paths cross when Jill’s mom offers to adopt Mandy’s baby, and Mandy comes to live with Jill and her mom.

There isn’t anything I didn’t like about this book, so some highlights of things I enjoyed:

- Sara Zarr is so great. SO GREAT. Here, she takes these two (three, really, if you count the mom) characters suffering from loss and grieving in their own ways and creates this quiet, yet powerful story about love, forgiveness, and family.

- I love the discussion about motherhood and worth highlighted in the quote above. The whole story isn’t devoted to that, but, wow, that moment hit me. What do we teach girls and women about their choices?

- The love interests are used well here. The relationships are important, but not so much that they take over the book. Basically, this book doesn’t become about the boys but stays about the girls and their own development and growth.

- I can understand the way both girls see the world. I can understand why Mandy makes people uncomfortable, but also why she latches onto them the way she does. I can see why Jill is so angry and brokenhearted and treats people cruelly but also with kindness. The characters are nuanced and flawed and real. Love.

- I like that the story ended exactly the way I thought it should, but I wasn’t sure how Zarr would get me to that ending. I also like that I didn’t expect the story to end the way I thought it should, but it did anyway. If that makes any sense.

This was just a great story. I really enjoyed it.

Support Your Local Library: 41; YA Reading Challenge: 36

 
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Posted by on December 29, 2011 in Support Your Local Library, YA Reading Challenge (2011), Young Adult Lit

 

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Audiobook Review: Howl’s Moving Castle

22 Dec

In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.

Every once in a while, I’ll read a book that I can honestly say I have no clue what’s going on in it, but still I enjoy it very much.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones is one of those books.

Oh, sure, I can give you a rundown of the basic plot: Sophie pisses off the Witch of the Waste who then hits Sophie with a curse so that she turns into an old woman. Sophie, who previous to the curse had settled for being the oldest and therefore the one with no choices, leaves home so as not to freak anybody out and takes up residence in Howl’s castle, which moves across the countryside. Howl has a reputation for destroying young girls, but since Sophie’s no longer young, she’s not afraid. While staying with Howl, she meets Calcifer the fire demon who asks her to break a spell on him. And the other resident of the moving castle is Michael, Howl’s apprentice.

Then some stuff happens with seven league boots, moving between worlds, the witch, Howl being vain and trying to get all the ladies to love him, and Sophie being really nosy or ornery because she’s old. I mean, a lot happens that I can’t really explain so well.

All I do know is that I was completely wrapped up in the story.

This was my second time reading the book. The first time I read it in paperback form; this time, I listened to the audiobook. The narrator, Jenny Sterlin, is fantastic. All of the characters have different and distinct voices, even young Sophie compared to old Sophie.

I listened to most of the book on a very long road trip, and I will admit that I had to shut it off a few times because I got sleepy. I don’t know if it’s because the pace of the story is a little slow or what. But I did need a break from time to time.

That said, even though this was my second time reading the book, I can give you a better run down of some of the plot stuff, though I couldn’t remember the terms of Calcifer’s contract so kept missing all of the hints. And because I was listening instead of holding a physical book, I couldn’t mark the passages to go back and say, “ohhhhhh.” Which means I want to go back and re-read it again in paper form.

I do know that I had the exact same response to the end of the book that I had the first time I read it. It just makes me smile and smile and clap my hands together.

Also, Sophie is the best. Such a great character. I really kind of love her.

YA of the ’80s and ’90s: 7; Support Your Local Library: 40; YA Reading Challenge: 35; Howl’s Moving Castle: 7;  Page to Screen: 6

 
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Posted by on December 22, 2011 in Audiobook Challenge, Audiobooks, Page to Screen, Support Your Local Library, YA of the '80s and '90s, YA Reading Challenge (2011), Young Adult Lit

 

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