Book Report #202 Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Maddy is a seventeen year-old girl who has never stepped foot out of her house. She lives with her mother, who is also her doctor. She has suffered from SCID, a complicated immune disorder, her whole life. Basically anything could make her sick at any time, so she stays inside the controlled space of her house where the air is filtered and people are sanitized before entering.

Olly, a boy her age, moves in next door. They can see each other through their bedroom windows, and Maddy is transfixed. There's something about him.

Olly tries to introduce himself to Maddy by visiting but is rebuffed by Maddy's mother. He tries to communicate with her through the window. Eventually they share email addresses and instant message each other regularly. That's when they enter the point of no return. These two are deeply connected, and it's impossible for them to deny it. But the risks for Maddy to follow her heart are huge.

General consensus: So sweet, creative, and heartfelt. This is a beautiful story. I love that Maddy is a bi-racial character!

Book Report #190 - Inside Out and Back Again

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

This is a beautiful and touching book told in verse.

Ha is a young girl living with her brothers and mother in Saigon during the Vietnam War. It's scary with all the explosions and violence looming nearby, especially with her dad being MIA, but it's also her home, the only place she's ever known, and she has the things she loves at her fingertips, like her mango tree. So when it comes time to flee on a ship, she's torn. Of course, when push comes to shove, she does what her mom tells her to do and gets on the boat.

The trip is miserable and scary. They're not sure what's happening or if they'll make it, and conditions are terrible as far as personal hygiene, food, and water. But they persist, and end up in Alabama.

Ha struggles with everything that's happened--the war, leaving her home far behind, hoping her father will come back to them, and the culture shock of Alabama. She has to learn English and it's super confusing. The kids in her class espouse the views of their parents, and they see the Vietnamese as the enemy. It's heart-wrenching to watch Ha fight her peers as she tries to adjust to life in America and cope with everything that's happened.

Even though it's painful to read, it's beautifully written. It's an important read for Americans because we tend to have one view of the Vietnam War: that of our side. But what about the Vietnamese civilians? Their stories are important if we want to view the war even remotely accurately. And when we let our hearts break with them, we become more fully human.

General consensus: Beautiful and important.

Book Report #179 - Theodore Boone: The Scandal

Theodore Boone - The Scandal by John Grisham

Apparently John Grisham is writing young adult fiction. Ha! More like his ghostwriters are writing young adult fiction.

When I realized that's what I was reading, I was dismayed. But it turns out the story wasn't bad. Theo is a kid lawyer, and both his parents are lawyers. Theo tries small-time cases in animal court, and gets some respect from the community that way.

There's a whole Theodore Boone series, and in this one, some teachers at a poor high school change answers on students' tests. It's a town scandal and it actually affects Theo, because he just missed getting into Honors by a hair. Odds are, if the cheating hadn't gone down, he'd be in Honors.

Theo's friend April is in the middle of things, and Theo's mom becomes the lawyer for the teachers. It's interesting stuff and moves along.

General consensus: Surprisingly decent.

Book Report #176 Throat

Throat by R.A. Nelson

If I hadn't read Nelson's stuff before, I probably would have dismissed this as just another teen vampire novel. Luckily, I knew he is a master storyteller, and Throat would be worth reading.

Throat is Emma's story. She's a 17-year old with epilepsy. Her frustration surrounding her illness really revs up her teenage angst. Her single mom does her best to keep her in check but it's a Herculean task. Emma also has a younger sister who makes her world go round.

In one of her reactive moments after a life-changing seizure, Emma takes off in the car and ends up crashing in the woods. It's there she has a run-in with a vampire, and she's turned. It's amazing she survived the incident at all. She comes to see that she has powers that help her heal, as well as run and jump like a superhero.

The vampire who bit her is a really bad guy, and he threatens to take Emma's sister. Emma spends the rest of the novel dedicated to fighting him. She ends up taking refuge at a NASA base, and meeting someone there who becomes very important to her and her plight. I don't want to give any spoilers! But it's super gripping. I read the whole thing in less than 24 hours.

I really liked the talk about The Feld (field in German) and zero-point energy, and how Nelson applied it to vampires. It's an interesting concept in quantum physics, and I'd previously enjoyed Lynne McTaggart's book The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe on the subject.

General consensus: It's like the best parts of Harry Potter, Stranger Things, and Home Alone got together and wrote a story about science and vampires.

Book Report #168 - weetzie bat

weetzie bat by Francesca Lia Block

This is young adult fiction set in LA that I believe qualifies as magical realism because it's wild and doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense if you cling to the confines of typical reality.

Weetzie meets Dirk in high school. They're both super cool and edgy, and they become good friends. After lots of chaste fun, Dirk tells Weetzie that he's gay which means they can look for boyfriends together. They use different terminology for that: their Ducks.

Weetzie gets a magic lamp from Dirk's grandma and makes three wishes, which are granted. It's all a bizarre runaway train after that.

The back of the book has glowing reviews from major media outlets, so it's apparently a great book.

General consensus: A quick read. I think it was trying to tell me something but I didn't get it.

Book Report #158 The Rules of Forever

The Rules of Forever by R.A. Nelson

I should probably admit straight off that I'm biased because I have the good fortune of actually knowing the author of this book, have read a few of his books, and have come to believe that he's a damn good writer, among the best of young adult fiction I've come across.

The Rules of Forever is entirely set in a chat room. Joan and Allen are teenagers stuck in the hospital and can only connect through the hospital's chat program. They set up a private room called Forever, and make rules so they can communicate beyond the confines of their usual sick lives. So they never discuss what's wrong with them or set up specific times to meet.

They fall in love, and become huge presences in each other's lives even though they never see each other but they're just a few floors apart.

I didn't expect the ending to be as big as it was. But I should have! Mr. Nelson doesn't disappoint.

General consensus: Great stuff to expand teenagers' hearts.

Book Report #141 - Road Rash

Road Rash by Mark Parsons

A young adult novel about a teenage drummer who gets kicked out of his novice garage band, and then miraculously picked up by the local cool band to go on tour for the summer.

This book moves, and is so much fun. The love story is sweet, and the story arcs so the reader gets to experience the highs and lows right along with the protagonist. A lot of peaks and plummets.

My favorite part was learning about being in a band and what goes into making the music as well as putting on shows. I play piano solo and only read music, so this really added a dimension to how I view playing and making music. I am way more amazed by collaborative efforts than ever before.

General consensus: It's a wild ride, and I loved it!

Book Report #123 - Flipped

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

I used to badger this writer I knew that we should write a book about falling in love together but he should write the guy part and I should write the girl part (or maybe vice versa). The goal was to show how differently each gender interpreted the same experience.

Now I don't have to do it because Wendelin already did! She did it in that impossible to put down, Wendelin Van Draanen kind of way too and it's so great that Rob Reiner's been busy making it into a movie. Read the amazing story here.

Bryce Loski and Juli Baker are seven years old when he moves in across the street from her. She's instantly sucked in by his beautiful blue eyes but Bryce wants nothing to do with clingy, dirty, nerdy Juli. Even into high school she pines away for him but it's not until a tree she loves is knocked down that Bryce can see her as anything other than a nuisance. Unfortunately for him it's the same time she loses all interest in him because of a jerky mistake he made. That's when things flip.

General consensus: I loved the ending! Refreshing and shows the skill of a master craftswoman.

Book Report #117 - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Book 1) by Ann Brashares

This book was a weird experience. I got about twenty pages in, noted to myself that I didn't like it because it was annoying and then finished it in three hours.

You probably know a little about the story. The four very different girls who have been friends since birth all somehow not only fit into this pair of jeans but also all look fantastic in them. This is their first summer apart because they are going all over the place for different adventures so they make a pact to share the pants over the summer. The magic pants.

One discovers that her dad is getting remarried and has to cope with his new family all summer. One goes to Greece to visit her grandparents and falls in love for the first time. Another goes to Baja for soccer camp and falls for a camp counselor. The last has to stay home and work over the summer but makes a life-changing friend in the process.

It was written in a teenager's style and stayed true to the age. It was fine. I don't understand why people say it's so amazing.

General consensus: Preferred the movie.

Book Report #93 - The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is a tour de force about the Holocaust told by Death. It focuses on one family and particularly a little girl named Liesel.

The writing is not of this earth. It is beyond us.

General consensus: Profound. Courageous. Unique. An instant classic.

Book Report #84 - Twilight

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer

I finally gave in to the hype and bought this at Target. I figured it had to be good considering how it was doing on the open market. Nope!

It was infuriating. On the back it tells you that the narrator is in love with a vampire yet the book drags on for 200 pages before she realizes he's a vampire. Ugh! The writing was simple and that's fine because it's a young adult novel but there was too much of it. I got bogged down in the mundane. I felt like this was completely amateur. In my humble opinion it would behoove Ms. Meyer to touch quickly on the details of a character's day and then go in depth into a particular moment to reveal personalities and plot. And the dialogue? Sheesh! Edward and Bella just talked about the same stuff over and over. Spare me.

General consensus: They're making this into a movie! I hope that the bulk of it is the showdown at the end. Otherwise snooze-fest.

Book Report #76 - The Legend of Oescienne

The Legend of Oescienne: Book 1 – The Finding by Jenna Johnson
(available on Lulu.com soon)

I don’t read fantasy. Ever. I only got through the first page of The Lord Of the Rings. It was just so confusing! But now I have one under my belt. Jenna made it easy.

Here’s the back cover copy:

When the dragon Jaax receives word that a human infant has been found in the province of Oescienne, he refuses to believe it. Humans have been extinct for centuries, purged from the world by the immortal Crimson King. Despite his doubts, however, Jaax journeys to the elfin village of Crie only to discover that what he has been seeking for so many hears has finally been found…

Jahrra is the answer to a prophecy, one that tells of a human child who will one day rise against the evil king and return peace to Ethoes. But before she can fulfill her destiny, Jahrrra must first survive the challenge of growing up. Little does she know that this is only the very beginning of a journey wrapped in danger, adventure, mystery and the greatest test of friendship, loyalty and love.

Don’t you love that last sentence?

Book 1 of The Legend of Oescienne is absolutely perfect to read to children ages about seven to eleven. It would be great on car trips or to be read as a reward in the classroom. The action at the end had me hanging on every word. What’s really interesting about this story is that the complexity of the writing increases with the age of the heroine.

General consensus: Jenna, finish the second one already!

Book Report #73 - Teach Me

Teach Me by R.A. Nelson

I read this even faster than I read Breathe My Name. Then I reported to the author that he has mastered the art of suspense.

I don't know how he's dead on writing from the perspective of teenage girls. It's eerie. I'm sure he has a better grasp on it than I do.

This time high school Senior Nine delineates from her path of the smart, responsible and quirky student. She becomes involved with her hot poetry teacher. I think we can all agree that that's never a good idea. But we'd love to read about it happening, wouldn't we? I couldn't get enough.

It became a story of betrayal (I wanted to kill him!) and obsession that I simply could not walk away from. I went to bed reading it Friday night and before I got out of bed Saturday morning I'd finished it.

General consensus: I only have one complaint - that Mr. Nelson hasn't finished his next book yet!

Book Report #71 - Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson

Wow. This was amazing. I absolutely could not put it down. And then I lent it to my co-worker and she read it even faster than I did.

The writing is spectacular. Please read it. Just because it's shelved under Young Adult doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.

Oh right. What's it about? This sweet junior in high school Frances has something ugly in her past. And she's just met this new guy at school who she's amazed to find out actually likes her back. Only her family and her best friend know about this horrible thing that happened to her and eventually Frances feels comfortable enough to tell her boyfriend the secret. I was blown away by it. And it just gets more and more engrossing from there because the day of reckoning is coming.

General consensus: Now I want to read more Young Adult stuff. And re-visit The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle! That and By the Great Horn Spoon! are some of my favorites. And The Phantom Tollbooth! I could go on for days.

Book Report #58

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I became a fan of Jay's when he led my writers' conference workshop called Create a Buzz. Naturally I had to read his debut novel. Thirteen Reasons Why is young adult fiction dealing with suicide and is written in a unique format.

High school student Hannah Baker mails a box of tapes to a student at her school right before she kills herself. This student is involved in a story that Hannah tells on the first side of the first tape. On the opposite side is another story about another person that Hannah knew. The same is true for all the tapes, resulting in thirteen stories. Once the student has listened to all the tapes it is his job to pass the box on to the student in the next story and on it goes until thirteen lives are changed forever.

I suppose the point of the tapes is that Hannah will have explained how each person played into her decision to kill herself in the hopes that it will show people how the little things they do can really affect others. But I can't help thinking that Hannah was too weak and the things that led to her decision were actually pretty ridiculous. Furthermore, I was left believing that I was a freak for never having even gotten to third base in high school. Was everyone getting drunk and having sex? God, I was a geek!

General consensus: I am so confused.