Three for holiday break

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"There's something about swimsuits that make you think you've got to earn the right to wear them. Really, the criteria is simple. Do you have a body? Put a swimsuit on it."  This one's for anyone who has ever struggled with body image.  Willowdean has, for most of her life, been pretty comfortable in her own skin. Her mom is a former beauty queen who runs the local Miss Teen Blue Bonnet pageant every year. Her recently deceased aunt struggled with her weight all her life, and Willowdean seems to have inherited her genes. Her mom has nicknamed her Dumplin' , not unkindly, but thoughtlessly.  Willowdean's best friend and closest confidante, Ellen, is beauty queen material and Willowdean's mom has urged to enter the pageant this year. When Willowdean draws the amorous attention of a fellow worker at a fast food restaurant she begins  to be uncomfortably aware of her size. What better way to give herself back her previous sense of worth than to enter the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet pageant! Things get a bit out of hand, though, when Ellen decides she's also going to enter. This one's a real feel-good type story to warm you on a cold winter evening.  You'll find yourself rooting for Willowdean (Dumplin') all the way!

Calvin by Martine Leavitt

Mental illness has been the trendy topic of many teen books for the past few years. Think Schizo by Nic Scheff, It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, Cameron and the Girls by Edward Averett, among others.  Enter Calvin by Martine Leavitt.  Calvin was given a stuffed Hobbes the Tiger when he was a baby and he has a best friend named Susie. Hobbes was destroyed in the washing machine several years ago, but now Hobbes has begun revisiting him and seems to be actually real this time.  Calvin knows he is falling apart in his senior year of high school, and believes that the only way to get better is to convince the reclusive creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson, to write one final strip, with Calvin as a 17 year old, and no Hobbes. He begins a long journey on foot across frozen Lake Erie to visit the writer, and Hobbes is going along with him. When Susie finds out he's going she is determined to accompany him as well.  There is humor in this book, and the reader is not really sure if Susie is actually there, or another manifestation of Calvin's encroaching illness.  It's a short one, at 181 pages, meant to be devoured in one sitting. Give this one a try. It's a bit different from the run of the mill teen stories.

Orbiting Jupiter

Another shorter book that's pretty new to the shelf is Orbiting Jupiter, the new one by Gary Schmidt (The Wednesday Wars and Okay For Now). Jack's family takes in a foster child, 14 year old Joseph, who has spent the last year incarcerated for trying to kill a teacher. Damaged and wary, Joseph becomes obsessed with locating his daughter, named Jupiter. This one is a heartbreaker, sparely and beautifully written by an award winning young adult

author.   Devour it.   

a re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth

A Song for Ella Gray by David Almond
If you're not familiar with the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, it goes something like this: Musician Orpheus falls in love with the beautiful Eurydice and they marry. On the day of their wedding Eurydice dies in a tragic accident. Orpheus is heartbroken and resolves to reclaim her from the land of Death, using the haunting music of his lyre to gain access to the underworld and bargain for her return. David Almond has kept all of the concepts, darkness, and deep feeling of the original mythical tragedy and translated the story to modern day Britain in what can only be described as a modern literary myth. This story will suck you right in just as Orpheus' music has sucked in a group of high school friends one night on the beaches of Northumberland, England.  The entire group is enchanted by this mysterious and beautiful stranger, but when Ella Grey hears the music she falls in love immediately, with tragic consequences.  Almond's writing is strange and lyrical, and his storytelling is flawless.  It's a very quick read at only 268 pages, so curl up for a couple of hours to devour this one whole!  

Sleepers-Really good books that aren't "trendy"

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Conor wakes in the middle of the night to find an ancient monster outside his window. This creature demands something that Conor finds extremely difficult to give: the truth.  Based on an idea by award winning author Siobhan Dowd, Ness wrote this book after Dowd died at a young age of cancer.

 
North of Beautiful by Justine Chen Headley
The traditional idea of beauty is challenged in this moving novel about Terra, a high school senior who was born with a port wine stain that covers half of her face. 

 


The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix
Begin this wonderful fantasy series with Sabriel. Then go on to Lireal and finally Abhorsen. Originally a trilogy which ended over ten years ago, Nix recently wrote and published a fourth book to continue the story: Clariel. Devour these one right after the other.

  Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
Min and Ed are breaking up, so Min writes a letter to Ed and gives him a box containing, among other things, two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, and a pair of ugly earrings.  There is a story behind each item that tells why the breakup happens.  Handler (Lemony Snickett to younger readers) tell a wry tale of a doomed relationship.

Between Shades of Gray  by Ruth Sepetys
A very personal story for the writer as it is based on the history of her own family, this is a historical fiction book about a little known occurrence in the late 1930s when Lithuanian citizens were forcibly relocated to work camps in Siberia after being invaded by Russia. The author estimates that a full one third of the population of the Baltic states  was lost during this genocide.

New Books that Teen Reviewers Loved!!

The Bunker Diary-a very dark and disturbing story

This psychological stunner by Kevin Brooks (Being, Lucas) won the Carnegie Medal in 2014 for teen literature. Linus Weems is a teenage runaway who was living on the streets before he is kidnapped and wakes up in a strange underground bunker. At first he is alone, but not for long. Soon he is joined by 9 year old Jenny, 20 something Anja (beautiful, wealthy, very spoiled), middle aged Bird, the overweight businessman, Fred the heroin addict and finally Russell, a 70 year old physicist with a terminal illness.  Six people who have nothing in common, but who have to try to survive and hopefully escape. Linus tells the story through a diary he keeps while in the bunker. Their captor is unknown, there is no communication at all.  Every room has a camera and a microphone so they know they are being watched, but have no idea why.  An elevator comes down each morning sometimes delivering food and necessities, sometimes nothing and every once in a while something very bad.  This story is powerfully disturbing, and if you are looking for a light happy ending, look elsewhere.  I would recommend this book for older teens who love  Daniel Krauss and Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers series.

Coming soon in audiobook (Playaways)

Dumplin by Julie Murphy
Willowdean (Will for short) is a self-proclaimed fat girl. Nicknamed Dumplin by her former beauty queen mom, she is comfortable in her own skin and self-confident.  Until she meets former jock Bo at her new part time fast food joint job. Then she starts to doubt herself. Her plan to restore her previous confidence is to enter a local beauty pageant just the way she is, to prove to herself and others that she has as much right to be up there as any skinny girl! 





 
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
This one's on the "long list" for the National Book Award. Caden is a high school student who lives in two worlds, the real one and the one that's "real" to him. This is a highly praised chronicle of the development of schizophrenia in a young man, captivating and deep.






 

Endgame by James Frey
An exciting sci-fi thriller about gaming, meteors and the end of the world as we know it.







 
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
This is a beautiful and inspiring story (see my review of the book in a previous post). Now we have it in audio form!  It's an important story about family, betrayal, and secrets. Noah and Jude are twins, inseparable for most of their formative years. Noah tells the early stories, Jude the present.  Ideal for fans of John Green.  Winner of the 2015 Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature.




 

None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio
I also reviewed this book previously. Important topic, in the news a lot now, this story handles the issue of intersex in a sensitive and heartwarming manner. I loved this book.