Lessons from a Junkyard

Sadie Kingston is a teenaged girl who visits a wrecked car in a junkyard several times a week. Why in the world would anyone do that?     

THE LIES ABOUT TRUTH by Courtney C. Stevens, Harper Teen, 2015.

The car is a total wreck. How could anyone come out of that wreck alive? Sadie did. Her best friend, Trent, the driver, did not. The driver’s brother, Max, a passenger in the back seat, also lived.

Two other teens, Sadie’s boyfriend, Gray, and her best girlfriend, Gina, were riding in the car in front of Sadie, Trent, and Max at the time of the accident.  They were not injured physically. Sadie, however, is badly scarred, both physically and emotionally.

The secrets of all five teens snarl and tangle as the author teases them out. Sadie could confront these secrets, but she walls herself off as she struggles to heal. Why did she live? What direction is her life taking? Is this what she is pondering when she visits the car in the junkyard?

Sadie’s family and the boys’ family have been next door neighbors in Florida since before the kids were born. Both families are solid and their friendships are healthy.  They are good people, kind, caring, trying hard to overcome the great loss to both families.

Max and his parents leave for another country for his dad’s job shortly after the accident, but he and Sadie become close through daily emails. When the family returns, Max and Sadie make it clear that they are “together” even though it’s hard for Gray and Gina to accept.

Author Courtney C. Stevens is an adjunct professor and former youth minister. Her debut novel is Faking Normal.

Although not your typical beach read, this would be an excellent book for youth groups to discuss at a summer retreat. Our church group goes to the beach. The members are independent thinkers with deep convictions. I can imagine them discussing this one around a campfire.

The Best Part of Summer

A good book and time to read it—that’s my description of a perfect plan for a summer day. Some books need to be rediscovered. Others are new and shouldn’t be missed the first time around. I never seem to have enough time to share about the books I’ve read, but somehow I always find time to read. Hmm. Note to self: blog more. Here’s a book I’ll be returning to the library today so another lucky reader can check it out.  

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Hyperion, 2012

This is a Scheherazade story.

For Julia, a British agent arrested by the Gestapo during World War II, as long as she can write her story, she can live. It’s supposed to be a confession. Is it? What is truth and what is an intricately woven web of deceit? Is her best friend, the pilot Maddie whose friendship is tested to the limit, dead or alive? What or who will Julia betray? Will it matter?

I don’t want to spoil this story by giving away a single thread of a dark and blood stained tapestry of events. The story is so filled with tension and edge of chair suspense, that it should be read on a summer night when no serious tasks or decision making await before noon the next day. Read it at a gallop and then go back and re-read to see if you got it right the first time.

Then thank your lucky stars that WWII is over.  

Code Name Verity will hold the attention of teens, young adults, and older readers. Be aware there are unspeakable cruelties lurking in the dark prison cells.      

The author is also a pilot.

Honoring the Human Spirit

Several writer friends talked for days about a forthcoming book with a strong message. However, although the publiction date had arrived, no one could find the book available for purchase yet. Before I post a review, I always make sure readers can order or pick up a copy at the nearest library or independent bookstore. I kept checking. The book was on order. It was in transit. It arrived! Everything else in my day went on hold so I could read. Here’s a first novel you will want to read, too.

BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys, Philomel books, 2011.

The first sentence caught me and held on tight. “They took me in my nightgown.”

It’s 1941. This is the brutal Stalin era. 15 year old Lina, her ten year old brother Jonas, and her mother–her father has already been taken away–are given only minutes to pack before the Soviet guards gather them, neighbors, townspeople, some they know and some they don’t, and throw them into a train car meant for cattle and marked for “thieves and prostitutes.” They endure a long, torturous trip from their homes in Lithuania to Siberia where they struggle with hunger, cold, and pure evil displayed daily by their captors.

I was appreciative that the author chose to deliver this story in short chapters. The drama, the human tragedy, the bitterness, the burden of emotion, are all so heavy that a reader needs time to breathe.

The author, whose mother was a Lithuanian refugee, sets out to give voice to a group nearly forgotten in the rush of historical events. Stalin’s reign of terror crushed the Baltic states before the United States joined the allies in WWII. What did we know about these horrible events that occurred before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor? We didn't have nightly newcasts with embedded journalists.

It was a long time before Hitler’s life and influences were chronicled in our books for young people. Now we are learning, in books like Hitler Youth and The Boy Who Dared, both by
Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Her books and others are eye-openers about how youth can be used and abused by tyrants who march in, kill leaders and educated people, eradicate language, overwhelm, intimidate, starve, maim, threaten, kill. Surely, we can learn from this. Can’t we?

Some reviewers are saying this book is for more than kids. It’s their way of saying adults will find this story just as gripping as young adults and older tweens who are avid readers. Each will bring a different level of understanding to the story.

The triumph here is of the human spirit. When the human spirit refuses to become what the brutes have become, there is hope for a future, even if those who so valiantly struggle against the despots die in the attempt. They leave their courage behind as a legacy. They leave others inspired to hold out for another day, and another.

And years later, an author determined to tell their story does so. Brilliantly.

That’s why so many are raving about this book. It has staying power. Its characters will live in your heart of hearts.

Another Break Book

I don’t want to leave the girls out in my quest for a fun book to take on spring break.

ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG by Ally Carter, Hyperion, 2010

This is the 4th in a series of New York Times best-sellers known as the Gallagher Girls series.

Ally Morgan is a junior at the Gallagher Academy. Her goal is to be a spy, but she didn’t expect her life of dangerous sleuthing to begin so soon. Who knew she’d be facing an ancient terrorist organization out to kidnap her.

Code name Cammie “the Chameleon” and her close allies must lie, steal, hack, and spy their way to finding answers to many puzzle parts. The search is further complicated when Ally discovers that one of her most trusted associates is a rogue double agent. Of course, there is a love interest. Can she trust him?

Underwater turns out to be a place of caves and covert places to meet or hide. Hidden chambers and secret passageways abound. Nothing that looks like what it seems to be is really what it becomes when a code is used or a lever or some other means of accessing the secret places. It’s like watching a James Bond movie with teen players.

Enough romance to keep the girls happy. Enough action that guys won’t get antsy. A lucky reader can pack all four books, read long hours into the night, and sleep late. After all, it’s break time.

Books for Breaks

Spring Break. Summer Break. Whatever qualifies as a break from the routine, whatever takes the family to a beach house or a mountain cabin, or the backyard hammock, parents are always on the look-out for a book or an author that will grab the interest of reluctant readers. The book reviewed here might do that. So might the author. He's considered by many to be a “rising star” among science fiction writers. This, his first novel for young adults, took top awards and honors this past year.

SHIP BREAKER by Paolo Bacigalupi, Little, Brown, and Co., 2010

This is not a book one puts down willingly. Every page has someone dangling into the uncertainty of another encounter with a villain or a dangerous turn of events.

No gender biases. In this dystopian world, boys and girls pull their own weight and are fairly equally matched.

Instead of werewolves and vampires, our characters interact with a mixed breed of humanity, tigers, and dogs, called half-men. This is a sinister warrior creature, bred to serve. Most are fierce, almost invincible, and nearly always loyal to the death. That’s right, “almost” and “nearly.” Some half-men have ideas of their own, skewing the action and increasing the terror.

The setting is the Gulf Coast region. Teenaged Nailer works on a crew of “ship breakers,” breaking down grounded oil tankers for parts. After a city killer storm (called hurricanes in earlier years when they weren’t as frequent), he finds a beached clipper ship. It’s elegant, expensive, and could make a huge difference in his day to day struggle to stay alive. He also discovers a survivor aboard, a wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life. Maybe. Does he opt for riches or rescue?

Class warfare, environmental hazards, religious conflicts, all rumble beneath the surface of a boy escaping an abusive father and a girl trying not to place her powerful, but vulnerable father (he loves his daughter), in an untenable position. Deep discussions may or may not develop, but the drive of a first reading is to find out how it ends and if the unlikely duo will make it to the last page alive. After closing the book and catching up on breathing, readers will hope for a sequel.

Ship Breaker was a National Book Award finalist and won the Prinz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature given by the American Library Association. It just might win the interest of your reluctant reader, too.

Stories of St. Patrick

Myths and mayhem, gypsies and goblins. Intrigued? Before this St. Patrick’s Day celebration fades from memory, place this well spun tale near a comfortable chair. Once you open this book, you'll be seated for hours.

TYGER TYGER by Kersten Hamilton, Clarion Books, 2010

Although the author has published many books for children, this is her first novel for young adults. Her new and older fan club of readers will be glad this is a “first”–and that it launches a series dubbed the Goblin Wars.

Author Hamilton says the Goblin Wars are based on a re-imagining of Celtic pre-history and mythology. She “borrowed stories of St. Patrick and St. Drogo, and the life of Myrddin Wyllt, the Welsh bard who became Merlin of legend, as well as the modes and manners of Ireland’s gypsies, the Irish Travelers, in order to fasten this story securely in our world.”

16 year old Teagan Wylltson communicates with chimps. A young Jane Goodall? Maybe. She works at the zoo, studying and training chimps, using sign language.

This dedication is interrupted by the arrival of Finn, a character the author based on the young Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the great Celtic hunter/warrior of myth, a paragon of Irish character. Finn is both complicated and magnetic, or maybe he’s magnetic because he’s complicated. My prediction: readers who loved Twilight will be as drawn to Finn as they were to Edward.

The chemistry simmers and other events befall Tea’s family, consisting of her mother, a free thinking painter, and her father who seems dazed and confused. Could he be under a spell? Tea’s younger brother surprises with his own set of unusual abilities.

When Dad disappears, Tea, her brother, and the mysterious Finn set out to find him. The characters they meet are stranger still, and before long, everyone is at risk. Tea’s best friend Abby could be in danger, too, but since Abby’s father is into the Mob, it’s hard to worry about her. The reader gets the feeling that if it comes to Goblins vs. Mob, the Mob would win. Maybe.

That’s for another book.

Serious About Series

Kids love series, or so they tell us. “They” are an impressive lot of book professionals, but none more impressive than the readers themselves, the kids who read series.

When is the best time to pick up on a series? Do you start from the one that suddenly captured everyone’s interest, not always the first in a series, or read the latest first, or wait until all are out, as in a predicted trilogy? Then what? Do you read from start to finish, bidding your family and friends good-bye for a week of binge reading?

I read the Twilight series from the middle out in each direction. Confusing at times. A friend waited until Mockingjay came out before she began Hunger Games. Such discipline! She planned to read Catching Fire next and figured by the time she got through these two, her name would rise to the top of the waiting list at the library and she could sacrifice another night’s sleep to the third and final book in this Suzanne Collins trilogy.

The following is a Newbery Honor book which won other awards, too. As you can see from the publication date, I waited long enough that when I read the last page, the next book was ready to pick up. And the next and...

THE THIEF by Megan Whalen Turner, Greenwillow 1996

Gen is a master of many talents. One of them is stealing. His boast, “I can steal anything,” lands him in the king’s prison and sets off a string of events. The king’s advisor wants Gen to steal a treasure from another land, a land not so likely to welcome them. Some of their party die, some live. Who and why?

Threaded throughout the adventure is the imagined history of countries and the gods they hold responsible for their fortunes and misfortunes. These stories are surprisingly interesting. Don't ask. I won't even hint how this turns out. The conclusion came as a complete surprise to me. It should be that way for you, too.

The lucky reader who begins to read this series now, as I did, will be eager to dive headlong into another cauldron of characters and quests seasoned and stirred by story chef Turner in The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. The latest novel, A Conspiracy of Kings, is generating Newbery buzz this year.

Boys and girls from ages ten and up will get lost in these novels. You might, too.

Surviving Escape

A kidnapped child is rescued or escapes and returns home. How does a person who changed in order to survive cope with the re-entry? How different is the child? How different is the world?

STOLEN by Lucy Christopher, Scholastic, 2010.

16 year old Gemma is abducted while she’s traveling on vacation with her parents. Gemma is British, a city girl. One with street smarts. Or so she thinks. After a brief flirtation with a stranger who buys her a soda, she wakes up in the Australian Outback

This is the debut novel of an author who grew up in Australia. Christopher’s familiarity with the Outback plunges the reader into a full understanding of the setting. We flick ants away, dodge spider webs, feel blisters rise in the unrelenting daytime heat, shiver when the sun drops out of sight. How could anyone held here against her will hope, dream, or dare, to escape?

Days roll by and Gemma becomes desperate for control. She writes to her captor, opening her inner self to the reader, making her struggles deeply personal, as though we are thinking Gemma’s thoughts before she writes them down. Her letter to her captor becomes her emotional bridge back to the world she left.

This is one of those books a reader might be tempted to put down after the first hundred pages. It moves slowly. Then the action picks up and it’s hard to put the book down for short breaks. The story will stay with you long after you’ve read the final pages.

If you are the parent of a teen, I can’t urge you strongly enough to read this. How easy it is to target and abduct a teenager! At an age when young people think they are most capable, parents think they are well informed and savvy–and they might be–they could also be most vulnerable to strangers who are skilled at breaking down barriers. One turn of the head, one quick action of the wrist, and a drink is drugged. A simple soda can be the first step to a dangerous destination.

Stockholm Syndrome? It’s creepy. It creeps in and takes over the victim. Mid-way through the story, I began to think the title was a reference to how Gemma’s original world was stealing away her ability to be her own person. Stuffy society? Overbearing parents? Sound like a common teen complaint? I began to think Gemma had been rescued by her abductor. The skill of the author was turning the reader into a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, too.

Whatever your family dynamic, however you manage to discuss tough topics with your teens, not sermonizing, not sounding like a worry wart, not turning young people off to reading in general and parents in particular, this book will give you much to ponder and much reason to start a discussion.

If you are lucky enough that your teen reads this book the same time you do, you won’t have to plan an introduction to the topic. A plain old, “What did you think of this book?” will be just fine.

And what did you think? I’d really like to know.

Cold Front

Along with the rest of our country, my city has experienced the tumble of heat records this year. 101 has come to visit and stayed longer than we’d like. When reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, my thirst became so great, I wanted to get a drink of water, but that would mean a break in reading. I couldn’t stop. Not for a minute. I wondered, was there ever a book that made me feel cold. Numb, even? I offer the following as my attempt to bring down the temperatures. Have a sweater handy.

THE WHITE DARKNESS by Geraldine McCaughrean, HarperTempest, 2005

14 year old Symone’s confidante is Captain Titus Oates who was aboard a doomed expedition to the South Pole–-90 years ago. As Sym puts it, “I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now–-which is ridiculous, since he’s been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way, in ninety years I’ll be dead, too, and the age difference won’t matter.”

That’s the thing about Sym. She has her own way of looking at things. Good thing. It saves her sanity when her Uncle Victor, obsessed with seeking Symme’s Hole, an opening that may lead to the center of the Earth, takes her on an adventure in the bleak, unyielding, unrelenting Antarctic wilderness. The entire undertaking becomes a nightmare. Is it cold? Try freezing.

The author thoughtfully provides a brief account of the doomed expedition of Captain Robert Falcon Scott who set out for the South Pole in 1911, a second and final attempt. For Titus Oates, given charge of Captain Scott’s horses, this contemporary novel could grant him a second chance to set a few things straight.

The White Darkness was singled out for the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature by the American Library Association. Author McCaughrean has won many other awards for her lengthy list of credits, including the Carnegie Medal, England’s most prestigious children’s book award, and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award. She was the first to win the latter award three times.

Reviews on the back cover are, of course, favorable. They wouldn’t be there otherwise. However, The Guardian (UK) spoke for me: “A rip-roaring adventure yarn...with any luck it’ll be read by everyone, whatever their age. No one’s going to forget it in a hurry.”

I haven’t.

Perfect Teen–Possible?

Oscar Banks isn’t perfect. His father has created a model town, a town for families who want their teens to be perfect. Oscar is both the model son who gives his father the perfect spokesperson for the model community and his own person who is definitely not the model his father thinks he is. Oscar has his own agenda and he’s smart enough to pull it off. And, of course, there is a girl.

CANDOR by Pam Bachorz. Egmont, 2009

Does the picture of a hamburger on TV send you to the nearest fast food drive through? Advertisers hope so.

Feed by MT Anderson featured a teen whose brain was like a streaming video. Candor is a debut novel from an author who lived in a model Florida town and started wondering “what if” there were other kinds of models to accomplish–such as determining how to turn teens into model kids who do their homework, take out the trash, and might even salute when addressed by Mom. Well, maybe not that.

I’ve been having those what ifs, too, when I see kids wandering around with earphones, cell phones, ipods, and whatever was just invented held tightly against their heads. What is feeding information or music or maybe commands and directions into their brains? It’s downright scary.


Candor, a young adult (YA) novel, could give parents and teens lots to discuss. Parents might want to ponder the cost of having a perfect teen.

This has been given much attention through a variety of social networks, and many are hoping for a sequel. Me, too.

You Know It's Summer When...

...there's a traffic jam in the library parking lot. At our library, parents can’t check out loads of books fast enough for their children to read on vacation. Teens are usually the most difficult for parents to please with books, so maybe this will help--an absorbing story that was recommended to me by a group of writers who specialize in imperative books--books to be read NOW.

THE SPLENDOR FALLS by Rosemary Clement-Moore, Delacorte Press, 2009.

If you’re into standing on the roof and announcing, “Calling all girls who love a mix of mystery and romance,” go ahead and shout about this one. Members of a writers’ listserv said they couldn’t put it down. I would certainly call it a good way to spend a couple of summer afternoons, with a sunburned nose in a book and the rest of the reader curled up on a porch swing or maybe lounging beside the pool when it’s time to enjoy the shade.

I can't count the number of stories I've read about an injured football hero who must face being out for the season or maybe be forced to accept that he has no bright future in the pro’s. Well, something like that can happen to girls, too.

Sylvie is the youngest ever principal dancer for the American Ballet. Her time in the spotlight comes to a terrible end when she falls during her debut at Lincoln Center. The shocked cries from the audience carry over into her tortured dreams and Sylvie begins to wonder about her own sanity when she goes to her father’s ancestral home in Alabama for a summer of healing that stirs up ghosts.

Is there a love interest? Of course! There are two boys and only one Sylvie. Just one more reason to keep turning those pages, all 513 of them. Other reasons: ghosts, spectres, a hidden journal, and an eerie but unexplainable cry piercing the night-shrouded woods.

The author has written 3 other novels for young readers. Her website is www.readrosemary.com

Guys might call this “chicklit,” so you might want to look for something with more action for the boys at your house. I’ll be hunting on their behalf, too.

In the meantime, you won't be hearing much from the girls for a couple of days--except the turning of pages.

What Would You Do?

What would you do to keep a loved one alive? How far would you go? Would you risk your own life? Would you give up everything?

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX by Mary E. Pearson, Holt, 2008.

Seventeen-year-old Jenna is recovering from a serious accident. Her memory lapses are frustrating. She asks, “Why can I remember the details of the French Revolution but I can’t remember if I ever had a best friend?” What she learns about her existence is agonizing as well, bit by bit, bringing character to life and reader to the edge of her chair.

This futuristic novel will stay in your mind long after you read the last page. It stays in mine. It’s very different from two other futuristic YA novels I’ve read, FEED by M.T. Anderson and CANDOR by Pam Bachorz. All have different lessons to teach, or to ponder. Do we want a world like the one created for these characters? Do we want to take parts of these worlds and put them together for our own descendants? Or do we want to live in the world we create and stick around for centuries?

Toss this one into a group of teens for a lively discussion.

Underneath the Christmas Tree

I still don't have my very own copy of my favorite book for the last two years -- because I keep giving it away. When I finished reading it the first time, I knew it would be considered for major awards. And it was. It was a Newbery Honor Book and a National Book Award finalist. That's pretty good consideration, don't you think? Maybe Santa will put this under my tree--again.

THE UNDERNEATH by Kathi Appelt with drawings by Ben Small.
When the author was interviewed during the National Book Award festivities, she said she hoped the reader would realize there is always a choice between good and evil. Both protagonist and antagonist must choose. When their lives, like threads, cross each other, tangle each other, and unravel at the last possible minute, what is left? Is it good or evil?

The writer’s magic pulls the reader deeper and deeper into a swamp of intrigue. How does a boy grow up to be an evil man? Is there any possibility of backtracking, becoming that boy again? Can natural enemies build a warm and loving family? Can loyalty triumph over terrible and tremendous odds? And what about revenge? Who should seek it? Who should take it? Can it be used for good?

This is a story that will stay with the reader--even if the book keeps changing hands.