Koertge, R. (2011). Stoner and spaz. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. Kindle.
Reader’s Annotation
Plot Summary
Critical Evaluation
Author Information
Genre
Young Adult Fiction, Disability, High School, Realistic Fiction
Curriculum Ties
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
Challenge Issues
Reason for inclusion
Posted in book
Bardugo, L. (2012). Shadow and Bone. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
When Alina’s magical powers are discovered she’s removed of everything she’s ever known. Life in the First Army, with her best friend Mal, becomes a painful and ever distant memory as she begins to focus her attention to developing her long dormant talent. Things aren’t as simple as they seem though and as the secrets of the Grisha begin to unravel so does Alina’s ability to tell who and what she can trust.
Plot Summary
Alina and Malyen, Mal, are best friends. They grew up together in the Duke’s orphanage and while they’re not in the same unit now that they are old enough to serve in the First Army, at least they’re together and can often chat after a long days march. When Alina and Mal have to cross the Fold, a wasteland completely devoid of light an inhabited by terrifying harpy-like monsters, the volcra, Alina is scared but remains hopeful that the First Army will make it across without incident. Unfortunately Alina is wrong, and her unit is attacked by volcra.
After Alina saves Mal’s life by releasing long dormant magical powers she had no idea she even possessed she’s immediately whisked away to train with the Grisha, the elite magical army lead by the alluring and handsome Darkling. Alina works hard learning to control her powers, but the lessons seem endless and she doubts her ability ever master what she’s spent her whole life denying. The Darkling never wavers in his belief of Alina, and is convinced her power is what will unite their war torn land. As the Darkling convinces Alina she can, and indeed must, master her powere, Alina begins to realize that things aren’t exactly as they seem. In a world where everyone is working toward their own agenda, Alina begins to realize that the only person she can trust is the one who has been with her forever. Will she ever find her way back to the safety of her best friend? Or is she a prisoner in gilded chains in the court of the Grisha?
Critical Evaluation
A lot of reviewers nit-pick Bardugo for her liberal use of a pseudo-Russian within the pages of Shadow and Bone. I can’t claim to know anything about how the Russian language works, so you’ll hear no complaints from me about how she’s doing it wrong. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that she’s not doing it wrong at all. Shadow and Bone is good. Alina’s character is appealing, and hardly simpering at all. She’s a good balance of hard and soft, a fierce young woman who knows she doesn’t know everything, but learns as the story progresses how to trust herself and what she truly loves. The novel isn’t so deep into fantasy cannon that’s alienating to readers who are outside of the normal fan base, there is enough realism there that I believe this work will be equally appealing to all readers.
Author Information
Leigh Bardugo is not your typical YA fiction author. Her day job is as makeup artist L.B. Benson, and her work has appeared on Re-Up/Toyota Scion,Project Ethos, Hunters & Gatherers, the Discovery Channel, and well as the film Worth. Previous to her life as a make-up artist she wrote for television, companies like Oxygen Network, David E. Kelley Productions, 20th Century Fox and the L.A. Weekly.
Born in Jerusalem, Bardugo was raised in LA, and attended college at Yale. She currently lives in Hollywood where the majority of her work as a makeup artist is conducted. Shadow and Bone is her first novel and a New York Times bestseller.
Genre
Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Magic, Dystopia
Curriculum Ties
n/a
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
14+
Challenge Issues
This novel is a little dark, deals with magic and has some gory scenes. Objections to this novel would be handled in a similar way to all other books in the collection. Our collection development policy clearly states that we defend censorship when faced with it and encourage parents and teens to decide which books are right for them to read together. Challenges to the collection can be made and will be reviewed by the board. The director will make the final judgement based upon the results of the board’s findings.
Reason for inclusion
A fun fantasy novel, a light easy read for readers of any level.
O’Brien, C.M. (2010). Birthmarked. New York: Roaring Book Press. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
Gaia is a fully trained midwife, taught by her mother, who has just completed her first solo delivery. She returns home eager to tell her parents of the successful delivery only to discover that they’ve been arrested and are being held in the Enclave for questioning. Now Gaia has got to figure out how to rescue her parents without arising the suspicions of the Protectorate, and everyone’s life is on the line.
Plot Summary
In a distant dystopian future the classes are separated into two categories, those who live in the Enclave and those who live without. The people have lived this way since the collapse of civilization and for a long time it worked, that is until inbreeding weakened the blood lines of those living within the Enclave. Now the first three babies born in every district on the outside is advanced into the Enclave where the will be raised with all the privileges befitting those within: most importantly enough food to eat, water to drink and a warm, dry place to sleep every night.
Gaia’s family lives outside the enclave where her mother works as a midwife and her father works as a tailor. A facial disfigurement has kept Gaia safe with her parents her whole life and now she is fully trained as a midwife, able to perform deliveries without the guidance of her mother. After Gaia advances her first baby to the Enclave, she returns back to her home ready to report the events of the evening, only to be warned by her mother’s assistant that her parents have been arrested, the assistant gives Gaia a coded message from her mother and urges her to find her long lost grandmother, rumored to have made way for a mysterious wood no one is entirely sure actually exists.
Instead Gaia enlists the help of family friends and sneaks into the Enclave, hoping to break her parents out of jail. Now Gaia has got to figure out how to rescue her parents before it’s too late, and when it becomes clear that will be impossible she has to decide who is trust worthy and who is working against her before it’s too late.
Critical Evaluation
This book was solidly mediocre. Indeed it was so mediocre that I haven’t got a whole lot of opinion on it at all. It takes place 300 years in the future, and the world O’Brien has created is bleak and without a great deal of hope. The most interesting portions of the book, in my opinion, were the birth scenes, which were described vividly and with surprising accuracy for a book for intended for teen readers.
Author Information
Genre
YA Fiction, Dystopia, Post-Apocalyptic
Curriculum Ties
n/a
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
14+
Challenge Issues
Reason for inclusion
Black, H. (2002). Tithe. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books. Kindle.
This book is part of a series, all three titles are included in the collection.
Reader’s Annotation
Kaye and her mom have been on the road a long time. When fate takes a turn for the worst and sends them back to their New Jersey roots, Kaye doesn’t spend anytime looking for her childhood friends, the faeries she whiled away the hours with before she and her mom left. That is until she runs into another faery and begins to realize everything she thought she made up as as child is true, and that knowledge just may cost her her life.
Plot Summary
Critical Evaluation
Tithe is gritty fantasy novel that takes place within the back drop of the working-class, ironed-imbued, run-down New Jersey streets. Holly Black writes poor real good, anyone who grew up with parents who never coud quite make ends meet will recognize the world that she has created. The beautiful thing about the world that Holly has created is that despite the alcohol abuse and absentee parents there is still magic around every corner.
Author Information
Genre
Curriculum Ties
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
15+
Challenge Issues
Reason for inclusion
McBride, K. (2010). The tension of opposites. New York: EgmontUSA. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
Nothing has been good for Tessa since her best friend Noelle was kidnapped two years ago. Now Noelle is home Tessa is desperate to tell her how long she waited and much she missed her. She’s shocked to find that even though Tessa is back, she’s not the same girl she was before her abduction.
Plot Summary
Critical Evaluation
Author Information
Genre
Curriculum Ties
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
Challenge Issues
Reason for inclusion
Pearson, M.E. (2009). The miles between. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
What if you could have one perfectly fair day? Destiny Faraday doesn’t believe in perfect days, indeed Destiny doesn’t really believe in anything at except keeping her head down and trying to keep herself from being noticed. When an empty convertible shows up on campus it seems like fate, and Destiny and her three schoolmates pile in for a life changing adventure.
Plot Summary
Critical Evaluation
Author Information
Genre
Curriculum Ties
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
Challenge Issues
Reason for inclusion
Westerfeld, S. (2005). Peeps. New York: RazorBill. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
Vampirism is a disease and some of those infected are parasite positive, while others are simply carriers. Cal is a carrier and his job is to hunt down the parasite positive, or peeps, for rehabilitation. In this fast paced biological thriller Cal is hunting down a major infestation of contaminates that threaten the whole human population of New York and the world.
Plot Summary
Imagine a world where vampirism is sort of like an STD. This is world Cal lives in, and he’s been infected. Instead of being a blood hungry fiend though, he just needs a lot of rare meat and can’t swap any bodily fluids with anyone else, ever. Cal tries not to dwell on his sorry state by spending his time hunting the peeps he’s infected with the virus and bringing them into custody so that they won’t spread the virus to other innocent victims.
Things begin to get more intense when Cal discovers a huge nest of infected rats underneath the apartment building that is the last known address of his maker. To complicate matters there’s this girl who he has feelings for and he afraid he may have infected her. Meanwhile he’s getting closer and closer to unravelling the mystery of how the desire travels and also his maker.
Critical Evaluation
Peeps is a fast paced biological thrilled that’s kind of icky, if you want the long and short of it. At the beginning of each chapter Cal explains, in detail, the life cycle of a new parasite. Skip those portions of you’re easily grossed out. That said, the scientific descriptions of the parasites is part of what makes this really good biological thriller. I’m not a science-buff by any stretch of the imagination, and Westerfeld does an excellent job of writing the science-y parts of the novel with enough humor that even folks like mean won’t balk. Westerfeld also does language really well, that is to say that the dialogue in Peeps is really fast paced and witty, so that even if you’re bored to tears by the science talk you won’t mind hanging around for the rest of the story.
Author Information
Scott Westerfeld is the author of eighteen novels. He’s written 13 YA novels and 5 adult novels. He is probably best known for his YA series The Leviathan a steampunk re-boot of WWII and The Uglies which takes place in a world where plastic surgery is required when you hit age 16.
Scott was born in Texas and currently lives in New York City and Sydney. He received a BA from Vassar in philosophy and likes Mexican and Thai food.
Genre
Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Vampirism, Biological Thriller Horror, Male Lead
Curriculum Ties
science, biology
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
17+
Challenge Issues
This book has got sex and violence in it and is recommended for older young adults. As always we support each users right to read and their privacy. Selection of appropriate material is between the reader, her parent or gardian, and the book. We support the ALA Library Bill of Rights and discourage censorship.
Reason for inclusion
Male lead.
References
Westerfeld, S. (2012). About the author. Scott Westerfeld. Retrieved from: http://scottwesterfeld.com/
King, S. (1979). The long walk. New York: Signet. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
Every year on May first 100 boys meet for a walk. The only hitch is that they don’t stop until there’s only one man standing.
Plot Summary
Critical Evaluation
Author Information
Genre
Young Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Thriller
Curriculum Ties
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
Challenge Issues
Reason for inclusion
Ivanovich, I.R. (2011). Haven. No Location: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Kindle.
Reader’s Annotation
Katelyn Kestrel has always had a special talent for finding things. When she decides to find an exit from her ideal homeland in the valley to seek out the mysterious land her ancestors came from, only read about in history books, it is no different. She soon finds out that somethings are hidden for a reason, and it’s a fight for her life to get back to her home.
Plot Summary
Katelyn Kestrel lives with her dad, step-mom and half-brother in a fairly happy home. She’s got a couple of close friends and they get up to the kinds of adventures that any teen would envy– care for some urban exploring anyone? After school the teens head over to the abandoned theme park and try not to die messing around on the ferris wheel. On top of all that Katelyn has a special ability, it’s not like magic or anything, just something she’s always been able to do, her talent. So when Katelyn starts asking questions in history class that no one can answer about the origins of their country, Katelyn decides to take matters into her own hands and find a way Outside the beautiful valley she calls home.
Finding a way out is the easy part for someone with her talent. Once she’s Outside things begin to get interesting. She meets the injured Rune, who she helps rescue from certain death. Shortly thereafter she’s captured by the brutal military forces and held prisoner by the handsome and arrogant Lord Dylan Axton, who offers as many freedoms as possible, but what does he expect in return?
Soon enough Katelyn is transfered over to the real prison, and into the care of the terrifying part man, part machine Comanders and their robot-like Dragoons. Now she must decide who to trust, Lord Axton or Rune? Which will lead her to safety and protect her as she finds her way back home?
Critical Evaluation
I really wanted to like Haven, and when I think back on it I almost like it, but then there is something that keeps me from giving it my full approval. I think it’s because Katelyn is simultaneously a brat and playing the part of the damsel in distress. The first warning sign happens pretty early on, Katelyn goes gaga for Rune after having spent like, I dunno, 20 minutes with him? She has to go back to the Outside because she can’t stop thinking about him. She’s got this sweet dorky guys at home falling all over himself to impress her and all she can think about is some dude who she barely exchanged 100 words with. It’s ridiculous. Then, when she does go back Outside and get captured she just hangs out and waits for someone to rescue her rather than using her talent to get herself out of the mess she’s in. Ivanovich tries to cover this plot-hole later when Katelyn is in the scary prison, saying something like “it would be no problem to use my talent to get out of here, but then I’d just get caught again and brought back”. Well then use your talent to evade your would capturers, dummy! Bah. So okay, I really want to like Haven, but Katelyn just doesn’t have enough backbone for me, she needs to spend less time worrying about the intentions of Dylan or Rune or whoever and more time figuring out how to save her own booty.
Author Information
A.R. Ivanovich is an enigma wrapped inside a mystery. Her website bio is incredibly vague, she says that she enjoys, ” being swallowed by forests, sleeping on lakes, and watching the sky”. She spent 3 years in the video game field before taking up full time writing, but otherwise there is no available biographical information. She has no entries in the Literature Resource Center and not even Wikipedia article.
Genre
Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Steam Punk
Curriculum Ties
n/a
Booktalk Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
14+
Challenge Issues
This book can be pretty gruesome, and some parents may object to their teens reading this kind of literature. We assume that parents and teens have an understanding about what is appropriate material for them to consume. The library supports each reader’s right to read as well as their right to privacy. We are proponents of the ALA Library Bill of Rights and thus defend censorship. That said any user is welcome to challenge any material in the library, finals decisions will be made regarding challenges by the director after review.
Reason for inclusion
This is the only steam punk title in the collection.
References
Ivanovitch, A.R. (n.d.) Author. A.R. Ivanovitch. Retrieved from: http://www.arivanovich.com/
Grant, C. (2010). Teenie. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Print.
Reader’s Annotation
High school freshman Teenie is a smart girl who works hard to stay on the good side of her parents. She wants to travel to Spain in her school’s study abroad program next year, so she’s got an awful lot on the line when she and her best friend hatch a plan to get Gregory, capitan of the basketball team, to notice her.
Plot Summary
High school freshman Teenie is doing everything she can get accepted into the prestigious study abroad program at her Brooklyn high school. There’s only one hitch: her over protective, old school father. After Teenie gets her braces off she feels like she can conquer the world, throws caution to the win and under the tutelage of her worldly best friend, Cherise, Teenie hatches a plan to get exactly what she wants, including the attention from the absolutely dreamy basketball player she’s been drooling over all year.
Things aren’t as easy as they seem though, Cherise and Teenie have a falling out and acceptance into the study abroad program seems tenuous at best. Teenie’s crush turns into a nightmare and without anyone to talk to Teenie doesn’t know how to cope with a situation that is spiraling quickly out of her control. Will Teenie and Cherise patch things up? Can she convince her dad to let her study in Spain next year, will she even get into the program?
Critical Evaluation
Teenie falls into the category of “urban” YA fiction. I don’t know if that is because it takes place in New York or if it is because the story is about black kids, though I fear it may be the latter, because I’ve read several novels that take place in San Francisco and none of them are in the “urban” category. Political correctness aside Teenie is a good title for teens because it deals with a lot of the problems that girls are dealing with in high schools across the county, without being overly patronizing or stereotypical. There are no pregnancy scares, baby mamas, or gun violence in Teenie, but there is naiveté, sexual violence, and the furious anger and righteous indignation that teen girls are so prone to. Christopher Grant does a good job of representing the voice of so called “urban” youth without coming off as pandering or racist and for that reason, if nothing else this is a book worth reading.
Author Information
Christopher Grant was raised in Brooklyn and went to Stony Brook University, obtaining degrees in Economics and Human Resource Management. He works as an equities trader and lives in Harlem. Teenie is his first novel, he was inspired to write it when he read that publishers were looking for works authored by men written from a female perspective. Grant figured that growing up in a household dominated by strong female influences made him as much of an authority as anyone else.
Genre
Young Adult Fiction, Urban, African American
Curriculum Ties
n/a
Booktalk Ideas
What kind of person does Teenie what to be? How does this differ from the person that she presents to her friends and family?
Reading Level/Interest Age
14+
Challenge Issues
The sexual abuse that takes place in this book may be offensive to some parents. It is not our intention to condone or to teach young people about sexual violence. The issues discussed in Teenie are very real ones that teens face every day. It is important that teens have a safe space to discuss the problems that they face and understand that their concerns and fears are legitimate. This library does not support censorship and defends every reader’s right to read. Our collection policy clearly reflects our dedication to the ALA Library Bill of Rights; however, patrons are welcome to request that any title be reconsidered by submitting a formal request. All final decisions are made by the director after board review.
Reason for inclusion
The perspective of the urban black teen is sadly lacking in the collection thus far, this title is included in an attempt to equalize the content.
Shortish and Bookish 