2011 YA Reading Challenge...Sigh.

Once upon a time, I decided to jump into blogging. And it fizzled. Quickly.


I'd planned to review all the lovely YA books I was reading - along with others - helping to keep track and to give me a wonderful sense of accomplishment. HAH! I fool myself this way quite often, it seems! :) 


However, as with many in January, I'm hoping to ease my way back into things, and so I'm starting the new year by looking back at how I did with the 2011 YA Reading Challenge. 


Knowing me, I probably intended to go all out and read 50+ YA books this past year. Nope, didn't happen. I was, however, only one shy of the next level: I read 39 YA books in 2011, which is two more than in 2010!


Of those 39, I gave six titles five out of five stars. My fav teen books this year were:

• My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger.  Completely charming, funny and sweet, this was the second time I'd read this coming-of-age story. This year I read it for my library book club and was a teeny bit heartbroken that they didn't love it like I do. : (
• Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John.  A snarky, deaf senior offers to manage a her classmates' rock band, and they all learn a bit about music, jerks and falling in love. This. Was. AWESOME.
• Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 1 by Kiiro Yumi.  I completely adored this story of a young woman, inspired to protect the rights of readers to free information by a handsome young soldier. Librarians, armed and dangerous? Sold!!!
• Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry.  I love Maberry's adult Joe Ledger series, so when I heard he was writing a teen book about zombies, well I had no doubts I'd love it. And I did. Intense, scary and dark, just as an apocalyptic story involving zombies should be.
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. This is one of those books I'd heard people gushing about, but as I tend to read a lot of zombie/supernatural/bad-ass-chicks books, a sweet contemporary teen romance simply wasn't high on my list. I was stupid. Now I recommend this one to people all the time. READ IT.
• Ashes by Ilsa Bick. Yes, it has zombie-like people in it. Yes, there's a bit of an apocalypse. Yes, you should absolutely read it because Bick brings an intensity to this story that had me biting my nails, worrying that Alex, a seventeen-year-old dying from her brain tumor, might not survive, or that Tom might die, or that the little girl...I'm not sure I can wait for the sequel!!

What were your favorites?

Top 100 YA Books - what have you read?

Why post this? Because all the other kids are, of course! 

The titles I've read are in pink...

1.Alex Finn – Beastly

2.Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones

3.Ally Carter – Gallagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4)

4.Ally Condie – Matched

5.Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

6.Anastasia Hopcus – Shadow Hills

7.Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

8.Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4)

9.Anna Godbersen – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)

10.Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

11.Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)

12.Becca Fitzpatrick – Hush, Hush (1, 2)

13.Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

14.Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret

15.Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)

16.Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)

17.Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3, 4)

18.Christopher Paolini – Inheritance (1, 2, 3, 4)

19.Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)

20.Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2)

21.Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)

22.Ellen Hopkins – Impulse  (well, I'm working on it now...it's a rough read)

23.Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

24.Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply

25.Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1, 2, 3)

26.Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere

27.Gail Carson Levine – Fairest

28.Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)

29.J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

30.James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2)

31.James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

32.Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why

33.Jeanne DuPrau – Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)

34.Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

35.John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

36.John Green – An Abundance of Katherines

37.John Green – Looking for Alaska

38.John Green – Paper Towns

39.Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)

40.Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1, 2)

41.Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)

42.Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1, 2)

43.Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)

44.Lemony Snicket – Series of Unfortunate Events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)

45.Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3)

46.Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1, 2, 3)

47.Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

48.M.T. Anderson – Feed

49.Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)

50.Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

51.Maria V. Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)

52.Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

53.Markus Zusak – I am the Messenger

54.Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

55.Mary Ting – Crossroads

56.Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelope (1, 2)

57.Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)

58.Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

59.Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

60.Meg Rosoff – How I live now

61.Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

62.Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1, 2, 3, 4)

63.Melina Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road

64.Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

65.Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

66.Michael Grant – Gone (1, 2, 3, 4)

67.Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion

68.Neal Shusterman – Unwind

69.Neil Gaiman – Coraline

70.Neil Gaiman – Stardust

71.Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book

72.P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

73.Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)

74.Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

75.Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

76.Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

77.Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

78.Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere carnal over 40 winks

79.S.L. Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)

80.Sabrina Bryan & Julia DeVillers – Princess of Gossip

81.Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride

82.Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key

83.Sarah Dessen – The Truth about Forever

84.Sara Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

85.Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan (1, 2)

86.Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (1, 2, 3)

87.Shannon Hale – Books of a Thousand Days

88.Shannon Hale – Princess Academy

89.Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)

90.Sherman Alexie & Ellen Forney – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

91.Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1, 2, 3)

92.Stephanie Meyer – The Host

93.Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga (1, 2, 3, 4)

94.Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees

95.Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)

96.Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games (1, 2, 3)

97.Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

98.Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)

99.Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)

100.Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped

50/100, for 71 total - not terrible, but this teen librarian can do better (though I definitely do not agree that this is a 'Top YA' list, as there are more than a few 5th/6th grade level books here, as well as some...less than stellar titles). However, it's interesting to discover how many series I started but didn't finish. I've decided that it's a good thing, for recommendation purposes! Knowing a little about a lot is a librarian's bag, baby!

How did you do?

Oldie but Goodie...Book Recommendation!

My neighborhood is several miles away from an air force base, and in the past, residents of closer neighborhoods have complained about the amount of jet noise. Driving home this morning, I saw a bumper sticker clearly responding to those complaints that read, "Jet Noise: the Sound of Freedom." While I understand the sentiment, my immediate response was, "Depends on whose jet it is!"


This reminded me of one of my favorite YA books of all time: John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began. In it, a group of Australian teens are on a two-week camping trip when one of them hears jets flying overhead in the night. Dismissing it as a dream, she forgets about it until they return from to discover the town deserted, their families in internment camps and the country invaded. The teens must decide: do they turn themselves in and join their families, return to their campsite and hide out, or stay and fight back?  Tomorrow, When the War Began starts the awesomely intense seven-book Tomorrow series (plus a companion series, The Ellie Chronicles), and is a great read - especially if you've finished The Hunger Games and need something to tide you over while you wait for the movie!


(Tomorrow has been made into an Australian movie - trailer below - but I've not seen it...)

Book Review: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

What's it about? music; rock bands; coming of age; deafness; teen fiction

Summary? Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates' popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.

Why did I read it & where did I get it? A coworker recommended it to me because, as she said, "It's about a fledgling rock band, and the main character's deaf. Total Kearsten catnip." I've a fascination with sign language and I love fiction about rock music (Nick and Norah!), so I quickly checked it out from my library.

What I thought...
Wow. I loved this book so much it took me a month and a half to write about it, mostly because I wanted to do it justice. I've finally decided that's not possible,so I'd write anyway, and just hope my adoration speaks clearly enough!


Piper is decidedly not digging on high school, but since it's her last year, she's intent on toughing it out. When she unexpectedly witnesses an 'impromptu' performance by some of her classmates' band Dumb, she's impressed - not by their music, but by their 'showmanship.' And by the fact that their set ends with their amplifiers catching fire. She's unsure as to whether their music was any good because she's deaf.


Piper was born hearing, but it began to fail when she was six years old, and so by now, at eighteen, she's quite used to mixing sign language and reading lips to get along, though for the most part, she's an outsider at her high school, making it that much more of a surprise to the members of Dumb, her hearing little brother and her parents when she offers to manage the band.


This was brilliant. Five Flavors of Dumb is funny, interesting, musical and a just little bit sweet, without the sugar hangover after.  Piper is a great character - she's tough and snide, which I love, but also vulnerable, which comes out most often when she's interacting with her parents, both of whom are quite consumed with Piper's baby sister who, born deaf, got cochlear implants, enabling her to hear perfectly. Piper's parents' amazement and delight in the baby's ability to hear twists a knife in Piper's stomach every time, as she's told that her hearing loss wasn't 'significant' enough to merit the cochlear implant investment. And yet, Piper's own dad doesn't know enough sign language to communicate well with his oldest child.


Piper's interactions with her parents, her younger brother Finn, the members of Dumb, her friend Ed and others are rich and layered. Finn, along with Piper's mom, is fluent in sign language, but is reluctant to act as Piper's translator all the time. While Piper can read lips and speak, throughout the book she finds it to her advantage (such as when negotiating a contract for Dumb) to pretend she can't, and Piper and Finn's actual conversations, contrasted with what Finn conveys are delightfully funny.


There is so much to this book - Piper's feelings about her deafness, her parents, her future; the band and its inability to get along and settle on a style of music; Piper's rush and struggle to learn about rock music, when unable to hear it (they live in Seattle, meaning they get to visit some very cool locations - Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix's houses); Piper's realization that she's good at managing a band, despite not being able to really hear them; Antony John's wonderful writing...


Like I said, I completely loved this book, and really feel I haven't done it justice. So I'll leave you with a few quotes that struck me as I read!


On watching Dumb's lead singer perform for the first time: "...swoony Josh Cooke on vocals, his mouth moving preternaturally fast and hips gyrating as if a gerbil had gained unauthorized access to his crotch..."


In talking with a hairdresser who helps Piper make a change: "...Don't worry about wanting to change; start worrying when you don't feel like changing anymore. And in the meantime, enjoy every version of yourself you ever meet, because not everybody who discovers their true identity likes what they find."

Highly recommended!

YA Reading Challenge Count: 7

Book Review: Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin

What's It About?  ghosts; teen girls; slavery; history; 'new kid in town'


Summary?  As fifteen-year-old Pemba adjusts to leaving her Brooklyn, New York, home for small-town Connecticut, a Black history researcher helps her understand the paranormal experiences drawing her into the life of a mulatto girl who was once a slave in her house.


Why Did I Read It & Where Did I Get It?  While at work, the "ghost story" subtitle caught my eye. I checked it out from the library.


What I Thought...
This was a short yet interesting book about an African-American teen girl who moves with her mother from Brooklyn, NY to a small town in Connecticut.  Angry at having to move and desperately missing her friends, Pemba initially brushes off her strange experiences in their new home, but when she seems to form a connection with the ghost of a slave --  experiencing unsettling blackouts at the same time -- she begins to delve deeper into the history of her house and the small town.

Pemba is an easy character to sympathize with - her father died several years before in the Iraq war, and she and her mother both clearly feel his loss.  Her mother moves them for a good job opportunity, but understandably, Pemba's resentful about leaving her friends and boyfriend, a feeling acerbated by the fact that her cell phone gets very little reception in the small town.  While the ghost story is slight, it's still creepy, and the glimpses into the ghost's life - in the late 1700s - are unsettling.  Pemba writes about her feelings and impressions in a journal of poems, and I found those reflections the most interesting parts of the book.

This would be a great ghostly read for reluctant readers, or for those looking for high interest/low reading level books.

Recommended.

YA Reading Challenge Count: 6

Book Review: Reading Club, Vol. 1 by Cho Ju-Hee & Suh Yun-Young

What's It About? Horror; books; reading; The Ring meets shojo?


Summary? After getting stuck with the job of cleaning her high school's long-forgotten library, a 9th grade girl stumbles across a suspicious looking book. Simply opening the book causes her to see unspeakable horrors - does she dare read it? If she does, she could find something more terrifying than she ever imagined...


Why Did I Read It?  It's a horror manga about an evil book. And it's called Reading Club. Kind of a no-brainer for me...  :)


What I Thought...
This...was...weird. Don't get me wrong: I dig horror. This has it, especially a panel spread that includes the image from the cover. *shudder* And, being a librarian, I can't help but hug books that are set in libraries, even when said libraries are filthy and largely ignored, as the high school library in Reading Club is.


HOWEVER. This book, in addition to the strange mystery of a book that may cause suicide and may be haunting a student at the school, is a medical examiner whose scenes are full of her going chibi and pretending to be a dead body so as to startle her assistants when she sits up with a scream. I'm not at all used to books who mix in slapstick humor in with the horror and gore...


I'll probably pass on future volumes, but I can think of a few teens who will eat this up!


YA Reading Challenge Count: 5

Book Review: So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

What's It About? 'coolness'; trends; fashion; adventure


Summary?  Hunter Braque, a New York City teenager who is paid by corporations to spot what is "cool," combines his analytical skills with girlfriend Jen's creative talents to find a missing person and thwart a conspiracy directed at the heart of consumer culture.


Why Did I Read It? It was February's book for my teen book club.


What I Thought...
What is cool? According to Hunter Braque, most people need to be told the answer to this question, and he's one of those who know: he's a 'cool hunter,' meaning he gets paid to inform his boss of the cool things he sees on the streets. When his boss goes missing, however, he must team up with an Innovator (one of those people who effortlessly is cool) to find her.

This was a pretty entertaining read - Hunter is an appealing character, up-front, easy-going and pretty knowledgeable about 'cool,' how 'cool' happens, and how 'cool' spreads. He's also very funny, and his observations (he's a paid observer, and it's what he does best) are pretty often spot-on. As his boss works for 'the client' (a shoe company that's VERY well known) and Hunter's shy of endorsements, he almost never names brands, instead talking around them, and it's a lot of fun to try and identify those brands.

Hunter spends a lot of time talking about trends and trendsetters, and how companies have taken a major interest in trendsetters, in the hopes of starting and profiting off of trends themselves, and so the reader gets a lot of mini, yet completely fascinating history lessons on how things - fashion, trends, even viruses - spread. 

A lot of this book reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, and I'm now rereading the Tipping Point so I can talk to my book group about it as well as this one. 

Again, Westerfeld writes a clever, fast-paced, fascinating book (I'm remembering his fully awesome Peeps as I write this).

Recommended.


YA Reading Challenge Count: 4

Book Review: Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde

What's It About? identity; transgender; love; terrible parents


Summary?
Sixteen-year-old Elle falls in love with Frank, the neighbor who helps her adjust to being on her own in a big city, but learning that he is transgendered turns her world upside down.


Why Did I Read It? I've been slowly putting together a LGBTQ (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/questioning) list for my library's teen bibliography page, and the summary sounded intriguing.


What I Thought...
The Elle that begins this story of self-discovery is messed up, but not through much fault of her own. Her wealthy mother is in love with a man who doesn't want a teenager in the house, so Elle's mother moves her across town into an apartment of her own, just days before her 16th birthday. Elle, while feeling betrayed, is also unsurprised, as she's always felt that her thin, appearance-obsessed mother dislikes Elle for being ugly rather than beautiful, as preferred.

The day she moves in, Elle meets Frank, a young, thirty-ish neighbor next door and is immediately disarmed by his kindness. As she begins a tentative friendship with Frank and his girlfriend Molly, Elle finds herself developing a HUGE crush, despite the inappropriateness and complete lack of romantic encouragement from Frank. As Elle is making few friends at her new school, Frank's friendship becomes vital, so when she discovers that Frank is trangendered - female to male - Elle's realization of what that might say about her own sexuality shatters her.

Elle coming to terms with all her feelings - and the support of Frank, Molly and the small group of outcasts from school that befriend her is what makes this novel so compelling. It's a very quick read, but Elle's introspection - as well as her honesty about her fear and discomfort in realizing she's fallen in love with someone who was once a woman, is very realistic. Her friends are, for the most part, well-rounded characters, with definite issues of their own and all of whom envy Elle's independence. Of course, they (realistically) never think about what Elle's mother's readily moving her out could feel like for Elle - a response I think many teenagers would have.

The only issue I had with this book was with Elle's repeated protestations that "I'm not gay!" That she would feel this way, and feel the need to assure others is understandable (as she clearly doesn't want to identify herself as such at first, and frankly, never quite gets to that point, though this is a distinction I am not really clear on, to be fair). However, after awhile, it felt more like the author was hitting me over the head with "methinks the lady doth protest too much." Soon I began replying to Elle's protests with a mental, "yeah, yeah, I GET it. Can we move on with her personal growth, now?"

Overall, I really enjoyed this quiet, introspective book, and recommend it highly, and not just to those interested in LGBTQ fiction.

Recommended to anyone looking for a well-written coming-of-age story.


YA Reading Challenge Count: 3