by Nancy Pearl
Jack Grammar can’t get a date for the senior prom until his best friends Natalie and Percy put a personal ad in their school’s online paper—and now there are too many girls to choose from, in Alex Bradley’s amusing 24 Girls in 7 Days.
When his evil uncles put Sandy’s parents and pet chicken into a coma by means of a poisoned birthday cake, it takes all of Sandy’s brains, along with help from a very cute nurse named Sunnie and the family’s butler, Bentley, to put a halt to his uncles’ nefarious doings in Love Among the Walnuts by Jean Ferris.
While he’s very reluctantly (we’re talking about your basic student slacker here) doing research for a science paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope of century-old scabs in an old medical book, and fears that he’s inadvertently infected himself and all other Manhattanites with the disease. Caroline B. Cooney ratchets up the suspense, while at the same time throwing in enough humor to keep things just scary, in Code Orange.
Set during the 1950s, Julian Houston’s New Boy explores the racial issues of the decade through the story of Rob Garrett, who’s the only African American student at his exclusive boarding school. Houston not only illuminates the black/white controversies, but also the division in the black community over how to approach the issue of integration.
Readers will get caught up in sixteen-year-old Steve Nugent’s journal as he describes the often difficult, even violent events that led to his present circumstances: an indefinite stay at Burnstone Grove, a treatment facility for teens who are either dangerous to themselves or to others, in Adam Rapp’s Under the Wolf, Under the Dog.
There’s lighter reading to be had in Ron Koertge’s Confess-O-Rama , in which fifteen-year-old Tony Candelaria, starting at a new high school, falls for Jordan, whose taste in clothes tends towards the exotic, and confesses his feelings to a supposedly anonymous self-help hotline . . . only guess who’s on the other end of the phone.
Underachieving kids will gravitate toward Steve, the intelligent stoner at the heart of Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas, as he tries to explain to everyone, including himself, what it’s like to be the son of a famous astronaut.
Only a writer as clever as Norma Howe could invent a character like sixteen-year-old David Schumacher, comic-book artist, crusader against handguns, investigator into the secrets of “weepless” meringue, lovesick swain of Omaha Nebraska Brown, and superhero challenger of the idea of fate—it all comes together in the smashing The Adventures of Blue Avenger.
In Bucking the Sarge, Christopher Paul Curtis spins the story of Luther, whose hard-hearted mother, “the Sarge,” forces him to participate in her moneymaking scams. Luther tows the line at home and at school, plotting revenge and forming his own philosophy of life that’s both hilarious and heartbreaking.
KUNG FU, THE SAMURAI CODE, AND NINJA STEALTH
Kung fu, samurai, ninjas, and plenty of action can be found in martial arts fiction, a genre that’s growing in popularity (along with its close companions, manga and martial arts films). These novels all make good use of action, adventure, and the philosophy and mystery of martial arts. As you’ll see, secrets are uncovered. Families break apart. There’s inevitable betrayal by friends, and an adherence to the wisdom of the ancients.
Adeline Yen Mah based Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society on both the kung fu stories she read as a child and the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, describing the life of twelve-year-old Ye Xian, or CC (Chinese Cinderella), during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. When she’s forced to leave her father’s house after an argument,Ye Xian joins the Dragon Society of Wandering Knights Martial Arts Academy, and becomes involved in the Chinese Resistance.
Tiger, Monkey, and Snake by Jeff Stone are the first three novels in the Five Ancestors series, tales loosely based on the history of the Shaolin monks who lived in seventeenth-century China. Five orphans are brought up together as brothers: each is given the name of an animal and trained in the strengths of that particular beast. Every book is told from the point of view of a different brother; in Tiger, they’re trying to foil the plans of Ying, their traitorous foster brother. Readers looking for nonstop action won’t want to miss these.
There’s also a lot of kung fu action in Da Chen’s Wandering Warrior , and Sign of the Qin by L. G. Bass, the first in the Outlaws of Moonshadow Marsh trilogy.
A look at life through the eyes of a ninja is found in Blue Fingers by Cheryl Aylward Whitesel, the story of a boy captured by ninjas who realizes what role he is to play in life. (There’s a useful glossary of Japanese terms in the back of the book.)
Anyone who enjoys fast-moving and well-plotted novels will enjoy the Samurai Girl series of books by Carrie Asai. In The Book of the Sword, nineteen-year-old Heaven (miraculously saved as a baby from the wreckage of a plane crash) realizes—at her wedding ceremony—that she doesn’t love her fiancé.That realization sets off a series of events, involving an attack by ninjas, a murder, a betrayal, and a search for truth. Fans won’t want to miss the other titles in the series, including The Book of the Shadow, The Book of the Pearl, The Book of the Wind, The Book of the Flame, and The Book of the Heart.
For those who enjoy samurai stories, the mysteries by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, set in eighteenth-century Japan, are just about perfect. The first in the series is The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn, in which fourteen-year-old Seikei, the son of a tea merchant, is asked by Judge Ooka, the samurai magistrate, to assist him in finding a stolen ruby.The same characters star in The Demon in the Teahouse; In Darkness, Death; and The Sword That Cut the Burning Grass.
MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE? OLD-FASHIONED LOVE HIP ENOUGH FOR THE JADED-AT-TWELVE CROWD
Little girls do not stay little for very long; before you know it they are reading teen novels overly full of overly sexy adolescents, and all the sweetness and innocence of first love is lost in a sea of wished-for popularity, trendy clothes, and cute little cell phones. But it’s not inevitable that young girls of today have to travel the agonizing road of adolescence in the sole company of the current crop of It girls. There are books that capture the thrill of that newly heightened energy in ways that are more affirming than ironic. Perhaps it’s not surprising that many were written decades ago, and while they may be dated in terms of dress and phone service, they have not aged a bit when it comes to learning about love, popular girls, and making your perilous way into the grown-up world.
Sadly out of print but worth tracking down, The Pink Dress by Anne Alexander is a classic fifties novel of first love, cliques, and social status. Sue Stevens goes to the Peppermint Prom in a new pink dress, and Dave Young, the coolest boy in school, asks her to dance. Not too much later he gives her his ID bracelet and first kiss. In a story a bit like a more serious Grease (or a less serious Romeo and Juliet), Sue and Dave have to negotiate the school’s social divide.
Cages of Glass, Flowers of Time by Charlotte Culin (also out of print but easier to find) is set in the seventies and is a much darker work than any other described here, although relatively tame compared to a lot of contemporary young adult fiction. Claire lives with her violent alcoholic mother and struggles to make it through each day. She’s an outcast at school, endangered at home, and has no outlet for her ambition to paint. Then she meets three special people: an art teacher, a musician, and a boy.
Kids discover Beverly Cleary in elementary school through the antics of the loveable Ramona Quimby, or the everyday adventures of Henry Huggins. As they grow up, girls should not leave Ms. Cleary behind until they’ve read her love stories, Jean and Johnny, The Luckiest Girl, Sister of the Bride, and my favorite, Fifteen. It’s about Jane Purdy, who’s never been asked for a date by anyone other than the unromantic and boring George.Then she unexpectedly meets Stan and her life is changed forever.
The Moonspinners is a perfect introduction to Mary Stewart. Stewart’s novels—whether for adults or teens—are intriguing, romantic, often set in exotic locales, and peopled by intrepid women worth getting to know.Vacationing in Crete, Nic
ola Ferris discovers the wounded Mark Langley and, against his every objection, insists on helping him investigate a mystery.
Flambards by K. M. Peyton is the first book in a trilogy (followed by The Edge of the Cloud and Flambards in Summer). Set in England before World War I, it’s chock-full of period detail (and includes enough stuff about horses to appeal to readers more into riding than boys). The orphaned Christina is sent to live at Flambards, the home of her uncle and his two sons, Mark and William—one of whom will introduce Christina to the heady experience of first love.
MOVING UP
There are some terrific adult novels that make perfect reading for older young adults, and often, when you ask tenth-and eleventh-graders what they’re reading, the answers are not what we would call “young adult” books, but novels that are found on the best-seller lists.Those best sellers are probably fine, but if you’re looking for other suggestions, try these:
Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is just one of this author’s books that older teens love. It’s less of a “horror” novel than The Shining, say, or Carrie or The Stand, but is just as enthralling. But don’t miss my favorite, Hearts in Atlantis (the title story was made into a badly miscast movie, but is a marvelous read).
Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the story of a fifteen-year-old high-functioning autistic who decides to try to discover who killed the dog next door.
Both Chris Bohjalian’s Midwives and Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout describe the sometimes unraveling relationship between a mother and daughter.
Older boys will be moved by Tim O’Brien’s story of Vietnam, The Things They Carried, while older girls will be transfixed by Alice Sebold’s disturbing and distressing The Lovely Bones.
Other novels usually found in the adult sections of libraries and bookstores that teens often love include Jack Schaefer’s Shane; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith; and Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle.
NOT YOUR PARENTS’ COMIC BOOKS
Graphic novels are probably among the most popular genres in the library—if you know where to look for them. One of the problems with finding graphic novels in the library is that many librarians still persist in shelving them in the 700s, with the nonfiction art books, rather than pulling them out in a separate section as bookstores do, to great success. And the vast majority of graphic novels and manga are fiction, in any case.
There’s no generally accepted definition of graphic novels, but most people describe them as stories written in a comic-book format, with more serious, frequently complex, sometimes violent storylines (at least for this age group, as well as for adults) than a regular comic book. In the literature about graphic novels, they’re often referred to as “comix” to distinguish them from comics like Superman, The Green Hornet, or even Archie and Veronica.
Manga is the Japanese word for comic books, and it’s used in English to denote a graphic novel originally published in Japan. Manga seems to have originated in 1814 with an artist named Hokusai, who first produced a book filled with sketches in black and white—he called it “manga,” meaning “involuntary drawing.”
Most of these popular comix and manga are simply the first volumes in a series, so check out the rest, as well.
In Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward and Alphose fail miserably in trying to use the powerful forces of alchemy to bring back their mother, and the price for that failure is high: Ed loses an arm and a leg, Al must take form in a suit of armor since he is now bodiless.Their only hope at restoring their original forms is to find the Philosopher’s Stone, but they’ll have to defeat their enemies to succeed.
Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma features an odd little girl who is always getting herself into trouble, refusing to learn manners from her neighbors, the pretty Fuka, and her sisters.
The Kindaichi Case Files: The Opera House Murders Volume 1 by Kanenari Yozaburo is about Kindaichi, to all outward appearances a slacker but with a genius IQ. Because he’s related to a famous Japanese detective, he’s the obvious person to deduce who’s responsible for killing his classmates à la The Phantom of the Opera. (Follow this whodunit up with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.)
An orphan who has endured cruel treatment by his village and classmates, Naruto doesn’t know that the hatred comes from their knowledge of his true identity as the cursed nine-tailed fox demon. Hoping to harness his unpredictable power, Naruto is determined to be the best ninja of his school. Can he give up his pranks long enough to endure and master his training? The answer’s in Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto.
Usagi Yojimbo is a ronin, a samurai without a master, in feudal Japan.As Stan Sakai describes in Usagi Yojimbo: Ronin, this fearless and troubled ronin, who happens to be a rabbit, is determined to redeem his shame at having been unable to protect his master. Although this series features talking animals, it’s anything but silly.
In Bone: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith, three cousins are ousted from Boneville because of the nasty doings of the aptly named Phoney Bone. Lost on his own in a strange valley with hungry rats, an oddly protective dragon, the beautiful Thorn, and a cow-racing grandma, Fone Bone tries to reunite with his cousins.
Tohru Honda learns a secret about the Sohma family—each of them turns into an animal of the Chinese zodiac when hugged by the opposite sex, in Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket.
There’s a new kid in school and Manta seems to be the only one who knows that Yoh Asakura is a shaman who is trying to gain the powers of the spirit world in his training to become more powerful in Hiroyuki Takei’s Shaman King: A Shaman in Tokyo.
Only constant drawing and a major crush on Raina, a girl from church camp, keep Craig sane during an often-lonely childhood filled with strict parents in Blankets, an intense autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson.
Runaways: Pride and Joy by Brian K.Vaughan is about a group of six teens with special powers, who discover that their seemingly boring parents are supervillains calling themselves The Pride (and basically controlling the world with their evil ways). Is this the secret knowledge (or fear) of every teenager, or what?
Vaughan’s also the author of Y the Last Man: Unmanned, in which an unknown disease has killed all the men in the world except for the geeky Yorick, who is puzzled as to why he survived and what he should do about his continued existence.
For those who have rewatched every Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode and are desperate for more, suggest Fray by Joss Whedon, which takes place in a grim future of poverty and flying cars. Melaka Fray learns of her true identity from a strange goat-like creature who trains her to battle vampires; at the same time the ghost of her dead brother haunts her and her disapproving cop sister is always shadowing her criminal movements.
Planetes by Makoto Yukimura is one of the few manga series that stops before it reaches double digits. Strictly science fiction, the plot follows the adventures of the garbage collectors of 2074. The cleanup crew of three—constantly orbiting Earth—include Yuri, who lost his wife to the damage caused by space trash; Fee, who’s just looking for a good life and a place to smoke; and Hachimaki, who’s saving his money to become a real astronaut.
And don’t miss Judd Winick’s Pedro and Me, the story of a friendship (played out on MTV’s The Real World) between cartoonist Judd and his HIV-positive roommate, AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.
ONE-WORD WONDERS
Who needs more than a one-word title to describe these winning teen reads?
Although Paul Fisher is no slouch at soccer, his brother Erik is a champion football player—a placekicker on the road to a college scholarship. But is he also a violent sociopath who was responsible for the “accident” that made Paul legally blind? Brotherly love has its limits in Edward Bloor’s Tangerine. Check out Bloor’s Crusader too.
In Melissa Lion’s Upstream, Marty’s last year at her Alaska high school is marked by the accidental shooting death of he
r boyfriend the summer before.
Did you ever wonder what happens after you die? In her first novel for young adults, Elsewhere, Gabrielle Zevin has come up with an intriguing possibility. Nearly sixteen-year-old Lizzie is killed in a bicycle accident, and discovers that after you die, you start living your life backwards, until you’re ready to return to earth and be born again. One of the side benefits of this engaging and well-written novel is meeting Lucy, an always hungry, frequently crotchety pug. (Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin is a nice companion read for Zevin’s novel—it’s a novel narrated by two sisters, one of them dead.)
How do you deal with the fact that you were driving the car that killed your brother’s girlfriend, Cameron? Anna has to live with those exact consequences in Wrecked by E. R. Frank. Frank’s other novels, including the painfully honest and true America (the story of a little boy lost for more than a decade within the foster care system, and the therapist who helps him learn to live with his past and move comfortably into the future) and Friction (about a possibly misunderstood teacher/student relationship), are both award-winning, realistic, often heart-wrenching novels about life during late adolescence.
