Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Silag, Lucy. Wanderlust: A Beautiful Americans Novel. 2009. 277p. RazorBill, $16.99. (978-1-59514-223-8). Gr. 10-12. Alex, Jay, Zack, and Olivia—American exchange high school students at a Paris school—search throughout the French countryside for their friend, Penelope Jane (aka PJ) who finds herself in danger when she finds her sister. But PJ is not the only one […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Stevenson, Robin. Inferno. 2009. 229p. Orca, $12.95. (978-1-55469-077-0). Gr. 9-12. At 14, Emily lived in a city, enjoying the freedom. A little more than a year later, she is alone in a conservative high school after Beth, her best friend and secret lover, moved away. Her solution to this misery is to change her name […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Pyron, Bobbie. The Ring. 2009. 253p. Westside Books, $15.95. (978-1-934813-09-6). Angry to the point of self-destruction, 15-year-old Mardie loses her resentment of her “perfect” older brother, Michael, when she takes up boxing and then discovers that Michael is gay. Through her training to gain strategy and mental discipline in the ring, Mardie works through her […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Borris, Albert. Crash into Me. 2009. 257p. Simon Pulse, $16.99. (978-1-4169-7435-2). Gr. 10-12. Four teenagers—who connect on the internet—take an odyssey across the United States to visit the sites of celebrity suicides before they kill themselves in Death Valley. The four in the suicide pact couldn’t be more different: isolated Owen, the narrator; lying Audrey, […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Tomas, J. Without Sin. 2009. 240p. Prizm, $13.95. (1-60370-684-4). Gr. 10-12. Sixteen-year-old Jacob Smithson, a boy with a temper, falls passionately in lust—and love—with 18-year-old Avery Dendritch on the first day of classes at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys where he was sent after being kicked out of public school for fighting. […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Drummond, Mara Christine. Transitions: A Guide to Transitioning for Transsexuals and Their Families. 2009. 127p. Lulu.com, $16.50. (978-0-557-05261-5). Gr. 10+. People who have a gender identity that differs from their physical gender suffer a great deal of stress in determining what steps to take for a happier life. Drummond provides a dispassionate directive that begins […]
Posted by: John on: October 29, 2009
Ruff, Shawn Stewart. Finlater. July 2008. 292 p. Quote Editions, $15.50 (978-1604023954). Gr. 9-12. Cliffy Douglas is a 13-year-old African-American living in Cincinnati in the 1970’s who becomes friends with a Jewish schoolmate, Noah Baumgarten. As their relationship develops, Cliffy and Noah begin a love affair that must navigate their newfound sense of sexual identity, […]
Posted by: John on: October 29, 2009
Satyal, Rakesh. Blue Boy. 2009. 276 p. Kensington, $15.00 (978-0-7582-3136-9). Gr. 9-12. In this coming-of-age and coming out story, Kiran Sharma is a 12-year-old Indian-American kid who likes to play with his mother’s makeup, attend ballet classes, and play with dolls. Awkward and beginning to sense his orientation, he feels like an outcast with his […]
Posted by: John on: October 25, 2009
Levithan, David. Love Is the Higher Law. 2009. 176 p. Knopf. $15.99. (978-0-375-83468-4). Gr. 8-12. What meaning did the tragic events of the 9/11 bombing of New York’s Twin Towers have for teenagers who lived through them? And what significance and emotional resonance might they have for teens today? These are the questions that Levithan […]