Staff Picks

This story had a little bit of everything.  The whole enchilada, if you will.  (Sorry, but I couldn’t resist using that pun!)  This story had drama, action, fantasy, humor, sports, and a love story all wrapped up in one.  Fans of books like Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and Croak will definitely want to check this book out!

Eunice “Bug” Smoot was an 18-year-old girl with lots of problems and little hope of fixing them.  The only thing Bug really had going for her was that her grandfather left her his Cadillac when he died.  At the very least, she could make a decent amount of money working as a pizza delivery girl.  Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, though, she met Mr. Beals.  What was so bad about him?  Well…  Mr. Beals was a repo agent who specialized in supernatural debts — and he informed Bug that her grandfather had literally used his soul for collateral on the car loan for the Cadillac and then somehow managed to skip town after he died.  If she couldn’t help Mr. Beals find her grandfather and collect his soul, she would lose her car.  Talk about a lose-lose situation.

I think the thing I liked most about this series was just how different it was.  I have been reading a lot of dystopian fiction over the course of the last few years, and much of it seems to be interchangeable.  Sure, the plots involve slightly different situations and the characters and places have different names.  But, though I enjoyed reading/listening to them all, it was pretty telling when my tween son literally asked me, “Didn’t we already listen to this book?”  Although this series could be compared to other apocalyptic stories — like the dead & the gone and No Safety in Numbers — it didn’t feel like a re-run.  The only problem I had with this book was that it seemed all too plausible.  It really creeped me out to read about a series of natural disasters followed by a leak of chemical warfare compounds, with society as we know it falling apart.  Very interesting story… but kinda scary if you’re known as “worst case scenario girl” and actually start worrying about things like this happening in real life.

This is another one of those books that I just cannot imagine reading from an actual book because it worked so well as an audiobook.  Although the plot is not remotely the same, this audiobook reminded me of Thirteen Reasons Why because it had one narrator for the main character and another narrator for a person who left behind a recording.  I’m not sure what this says about me, but I really enjoy “listening in” on these recordings and the reactions they invoke from the main character! 😉

At the prestigious Irving [boarding] School, there was a tradition wherein each of the graduating seniors left a gift for the incoming senior who would take over his/her dorm room.  When Duncan moved in to his room, he found a set of CDs that chronicled the previous semester as experienced by former senior Tim Macbeth.  From the onset of the story, it was pretty evident that something bad had happened to Tim during the previous school year and that Duncan was, somehow, involved.  These CDs were Tim’s way of sharing his story so that Duncan would finally know everything that led up to that event and why it was that he didn’t think Duncan should feel responsible.  I thought it was pretty genius the way the story unfolded around Mr. Simon’s “tragedy paper” assignment… And talk about suspense!  Although Tim made allusions to complications he was having due to his albinism, I was shocked when I finally discovered the whole truth of what had happened.

 

Let me just start off by admitting that I am a total Holly Black fangirl.  Aside from enjoying her style of writing, I appreciate the fact that she has written fantasies on so many levels.  She is a great go-to author for kids, tweens, and teens who enjoy fantasy.  The Spiderwick Chronicles are the perfect “gateway” series for early elementary kids.  From there, they can move on to (middle grade) The Iron Trial, and then graduate up to her YA works like White Cat, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, and Zombies vs. Unicorns (for which she was an editor/”Team Unicorn” commentator).

The Darkest Part of the Forest is a modern, feminist fairy tale.  Rather than a tale of a girl waiting to be rescued by a prince or a knight in shining armor, this story was about a girl named Hazel who actually WAS a knight.  Rock on!  Having grown up in Fairfold, hearing stories of the Folk and the devastation they could bring upon careless humans, Hazel should have known better than to make a deal with the Faery King.  After waking up one morning to learn that the faery boy from the enchanted glass coffin in the woods was awake and missing, nevertheless, it became abundantly clear that Hazel was in way over her head.  With the help of her brother Ben and his best friend Jack, Hazel had to try to figure out the role she played in the faery boy’s waking and whether there was any way to save them all from the magical mayhem she unwittingly set into motion.

Jamaica “Jam” Gallahue was devastated by the death of her British exchange-student boyfriend, Reeve.  Unable to function after her loss, Jam was sent away to a therapeutic boarding school in Vermont.  The Wooden Barn wasn’t a psychiatric facility, though, but more of a buffer zone for teens who were too “fragile” for normal high schools.  Upon arrival, Jam learned that she had been selected to be a student in the coveted Special Topics English class with Mrs. Quenell.  Her roommate, DJ, found it grossly unfair since she even wrote a letter begging for admission to that class, though she admitted that she didn’t even know what made the class so special.  No one ever did except for the select few who took the class each time.  The students who took the class always formed such an incredible bond and gushed about how much the class changed their lives, and DJ wanted to be a part of that.  When Jam and her classmates started their journal-writing assignment at the beginning of the semester, as a supplement to their in-depth study of the works of Sylvia Plath, none of them had the slightest clue what they were in for.  But, soon, they would find themselves wrapped up in the mystery of a place they called Belzhar, which helped them explore their lives before whatever made them “fragile.”

I picked this book up for a “short” reading break, and I read more than half the book.  I had to stop reading to eat dinner and to read bedtime stories with my kids, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Belzhar and had to finish reading it before I could go to sleep that night. If you’re looking for an “unputdownable” book, look no further!

When Astrid Jones and her family moved from New York City to Unity Valley, PA, none of them quite realized how drastically their lives would change.  Astrid’s mom became so concerned with how other people saw her and so controlling that it seemed nothing Astrid did was ever even close to good enough.  Her little sister, Ellis, was so concerned with popularity and upholding her reputation that she’d probably have disowned Astrid if it would have guaranteed her immunity from the rumor mill.  This apparently pleased her mom, though, since she frequently invited Ellis to “mommy and me” nights out.  And their dad?  When he wasn’t moping about his lack of job prospects and smoking pot in the garage or attic, he seemed content enough to sit silently while his wife belittled him in front of the kids.

With a family like that, it’s no wonder Astrid decided she was better off “sending her love” to the passengers in the airplanes overhead.  Sending her love to the passengers meant that she didn’t have to worry about that love being thrown back in her face.  Because she was sending love to anonymous strangers, she had no expectation of getting love back, and that made it OK when the love wasn’t reciprocated.  Confronted by the possibility of love on the ground, nevertheless, Astrid had absolutely no idea how to handle herself.  So, she started asking the passengers questions.  I liked how Astrid’s questions somehow floated into the minds of the passengers and led to vignettes of the passengers’ own lives and the problems they were facing. I especially liked how such a sad story could end with such hope.  After all, sometimes a little hope is all you need to keep on going.

Although my hubby and I are still sickeningly sweet on each other, I sometimes find my brain wandering and thinking about how it would change my life and/or the lives of our children if we were to get a divorce.  It’s not because I think it’s even a remote possibility, but rather because divorce is just so darn common.  I frequently hear about couples divorcing and about how hard it is for the kids who are caught in the middle and have to adjust to their “new normal.”  Since my parents are still married, as well, I can’t say for sure whether Haven’s experience rings true enough… but, based on the popularity of Sarah Dessen’s many books, I can’t imagine she got it wrong!

Haven managed to make it through her parents’ divorce, but she wasn’t so sure she could handle her father’s wedding/re-marriage. The event, in and of itself, promised to be agonizing enough — and things would only get worse as she adjusted to the reality of having the “Weather Pet” for a step-mom.  Maybe it would not have seemed so bad if Haven’s life were only changing on that one front.  Since her older sister, Ashley, was also planning a wedding for that summer, it felt as if  Haven’s whole reality was being torn apart. When she ran into Ashley’s old boyfriend, Sumner, Haven started thinking back to and idealizing the last summer her family had been whole.

Back in elementary school, I was a HUGE fan of The Baby-Sitter’s Club.  For some reason, though, it took a long time before it occurred to me that Ann M. Martin would have written other books for tweens and teens.  I kept telling myself that I would read another of her books someday, but we all know what they say about the best laid plans.  Luckily, when I stumbled upon this audiobook over the summer, I didn’t put it off any longer.  I started listening when I went out to mow the lawn one morning, and then I found myself looking for every opportunity to plug in my ear buds and keep listening!

Hattie Owen’s parents owned and operated a boarding house, so she spent a lot of time around adults and was fairly comfortable in adult company.  During the summer of 1960, when Hattie turned 12, she met an adult unlike any other she’d ever known.  He was her Uncle Adam and, prior to that summer, she didn’t even know Adam existed.  Why? Because he had been sent away to a school for “special” kids when she was only a toddler.  (As I recall, Adam had both schizophrenia and autism.)  When Adam’s school closed, her grandparents had to bring him home until they could find a new place for him.  Adam was easily excited and sometimes got out of control, but Hattie didn’t seem to understand why the rest of her family found Adam so embarrassing.  She simply loved him for who he was and did her best to help in any way she could.  I think this story would be an excellent title for a book discussion or book display during Autism Awareness Month (April).