Faithful/Alice Hoffman/258 pages

Shelby is a ordinary teenage girl until one night a tragedy changes her fate. Hoffman has written a sometimes dark but moving account of a young girl fighting her way back, trying to find happiness in most unexpected places. The most intriguing story is about the relationships she forms with a small circle of friends that help her uncoil and slowly open up again, slowly coming around to her own worth and value.  Faithful does read like a young adult novel, but there is rape scene near the beginning, and the main character is pretty self destructive so probably recommended for older teens and adults. Worth a read just because Shelby rescues a one-eyed dog named Blinkie!  

You will know me / Megan Abbott / 345 pgs

In the competitive world of girls Gymnastics, once athletes reach the "elite" level stakes are raised
and tensions run high.  Young gymnast, Devon Knox, is gifted and has the discipline to make it to the upcoming Olympic team.  Her path is clear-cut, until one of her trainers is involved in a hit-and-run accident.  The death of the trainer causes grief and distractions, as the gymnast's families accuse and shame each other in order to get ahead or just make sense of the tragedy. 

This book reads like the TV "Dance Moms" on crack!  If you like snippy, helicoptering parents involved in their child's competitive sport, as well as a healthy dose of dysfunction, this is a good read. 

Recommended for Adults and older Teens. 

Pollyanna Grows Up/ Eleanor Porter/ 216 pages

Pollyanna Grows Up was written by Eleanor Porter as a sequel to Pollyanna.  Pollyanna has recovered from her accident and has returned home to Aunt Polly and her new husband Dr. Chilton.  At the request of a nurse Pollyanna goes to Boston to bring her special magic to her spinster sister, Ruth Carew.  Miss Carew has lived in a dark dreary world ever since the disappearance of her nephew, Jamie.  Pollyanna is amazed at Boston, the size and number of people excite her.  It's not long before she makes friends and introduces Miss Carew to the 'stray people' she befriends.  Over the course of the book Pollyanna becomes a young woman facing yet another obstacle to overcome with her glad game.  The reader will be satisfied with the ending as all becomes clear and friends become more.  The only draw back in reading this book is setting it in time.  Pollyanna, Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton spend six years in Europe.  It seems that they would have been there during World War I yet this never enters into the book.

We Are All Made of Molecules/Nielsen/243 pages

This Susin Nielsin title was recommended by one of my sixth grade teen advisory members. She loved this title and told me it was a great book.  The main characters, 14 year old Ashley and 13 year old Stewart are thrown together when their parents, hot news anchor and nerdy news producer, decide to get married. At times, it is funny and sad, Stewart's mother died of cancer and Ashley's real father has a new boyfriend and she is horrified. I thought the writing was geared toward younger, less mature middle school students but then the author throws in some pretty intense scenes. Stewart is bullied and Ashley gets drunk at a party and almost gets sexually assaulted. Not sure what the audience will be for this title, older teens won't be interested and too intense for younger readers. I do love the cover!

Winger / Andrew Smith / 438 pgs

Ryan Dean West is a smart 14 year old who attends a boarding school and plays on the Rugby team.  He has been placed in the dorm for "troublemakers" and get the school's biggest bully as his roommate.  He is also in love with his best friend Annie, who just thinks of him as a little kid.

The novel is a slice-of-life drama following Ryan Dean and his friends through their funny pranks, dating, rivalries & jealousies, and the rough world of boy culture.

The book reminded me of "The Chocolate War" with fewer references to masturbation (although still in there). I remember the interactions between the male students feeling similar to what I was reading in "Winger". The 40 years between book and it looks like some things in human nature do not change.

For Young Adults (ages 13 and up)

Brass Sun: The Wheel of Worlds / Ian Edginton & I.N.J. Culbard / 208 pages

 Honestly how does one review a graphic novel? You can exclaim over the story, character development but really isn't it all about the pictures, right??! I have read graphic novels over the years and have my favorite illustrators and storyboarders, but this one was recommended by a comic strip! Unshelved does a very cool installment on Fridays where they do a large panel illustration of a book and talk it up. Great for Readers' Advisory. I was intrigued and lo! the District owned the volume.
  We meet Wren who lives with her grandfather. She is given his journal and a key and told she must leave to save herself and their world. Wren is told the ice is encroaching and slowly killing her universe and she must somehow restart the sun. She leaves on her quest somehow knowing she will never see her grandfather again. We follow her on a wonderful and quixotic journey through the clockwork solar system. Do you remember the brass model of a solar system with all the planets connected by long thin arms? That is the world Wren has been brought up in. The arms are traveling tubes to each of the distant worlds. What a cool concept right??!!
  This is the first volume in the series and you want to read it quickly. Don't do that. Read it slowly and savor the adventure as it will come to an end all too soon. I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who likes steampunk, adventure/quest stories, or strong heroine characters. You will be rewarded.

Six Degrees of Reading: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by I.N.J. Culbard.

Dollbaby / Laura Lane McNeal / 352 pages

   A debut novel from a woman who grew up in New Orleans. Ibby Bell has just been dumped on her grandmother's front walk. She has never met this woman and in fact has been warned about this woman her entire life. Ibby's mom has just driven off without a goodbye kiss and forgotten to give Ibby her suitcase. Fortunately for her, Queenie is around. She is Fannie's (the grandmother) cook and all around housekeeper. Queenie's daughter Dollbaby also helps around the house, cleaning and sewing and doing whatever needs to be done. Fannie has been alone for most of her life: her husband having never come back from a tugboat journey. She welcomes Ibby (short for Liberty) into her home and begins to initiate her in the ways of the South.
   There are secrets in that house and Ibby learns how to live with them. Why does Fannie act funny when certain names are mentioned, why is there a locked room next to hers and why does Dollbaby have different colored eyes? When Ibby starts school she learns her grandmother is a respected, feared and mocked woman in the town. Certainly Fannie has money but why do people tolerate her behavior? Ibby learns a lot about life and family while growing up in this novel. We meet some interesting characters like Crow, Queenie's husband, Mr. Henry the illegal bet taker who is only to enter through the backdoor, and Annabelle the neighborhood girl who takes an instant dislike to Ibby. They all create a welcoming world for Ibby as well as for the reader. I think patrons who loved To Kill a Mockingbird would appreciate this story. A well told coming of age novel set in some turbulent times of the South. Some language but not too strong. I received this from the Penguin First Flights program.

Six Degrees of Reading: The Right Thing by Amy Conner, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman and Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile.

Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls / Anton DiSclafani/ 390 pages

This first novel from DiSclafani is fairly interesting.  It is about Thea and her banishment to the riding camp which is, for her, a year round school.  She is separated from her twin brother after a terrible incident for which she is the one sent away.  She and her brother have been raised in isolation in Florida and have no friends except for their cousin Georgie.
Fifteen at the time of the story during the Great Depression, Thea comes under Georgie's spell as they discover their emerging sexuality.  No one wants to talk about it and no one wants to admit it is happening.  This leads to all the problems which continue in a new form for Thea at the school.  I felt that Thea did not learn much from her experiences and the lack of communication left tragic consequences.

Cold Sassy Tree / Olive Ann Burns 391 p. December Challenge: 5 Gold Rings

E. Rucker Blakeslee, owner and proprietor of the general store, sets the town of Cold Sassy, Georgia on its ear in 1905 when he marries Miss Love Simpson, his employee and a Yankee three weeks after losing his beloved wife.  No one can doubt his love for his first wife....lining her grave with roses.  The town is a buzz.  But to marry a woman much younger... On that day, Will Tweedy's life takes a turn for more excitement.  He starts on the road to adulthood, kisses a girl for the first time, gets to drive his grandfather's new automobile.

THE YONAHLOSSEE RIDING CAMP FOR GIRLS / Anton Disclafani / 388 pages

In her début novel, Disclafani has the main character, Thea Atwell, relate the story of how at age 15 she is sent away from home to a girls boarding school in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. The reader doesn't know why Thea's been sent away, only that her twin brother, Sam, refuses to speak to her, she hasn't heard from her aunt, uncle or cousin Georgie for quite sometime, and her once loving parents have become distant.

The story takes place during the depression with the twins having been raised in practical isolation by their wealthy parents on a large farm in Florida. Thea has never been away from home and the mystery behind her exile is revealed slowly as she learns to deal with the other girls at camp and accept that she may not be retuning home as soon as she thinks.

THE YONAHLOSSEE RIDING CAMP FOR GIRLS should appeal to readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories and literary fiction.

Woman Who Rides Like a Man / Tamora Pierce 238 p.

Continues the series Song of the Lioness, the story of Alanna of Trebond, knight of Tortall. Alanna seeks adventure in the southern desert where she is accompanied by Faithful, her psychic cat and her man-of-arms, Coram. The Bazhir desert tribesmen capture her. By her wits and her sword, she turns the captors into friends. They call her "Woman Who Rides Like a Man". She trains two outcast girls to be shamans. Jonathon comes back into her life assuming she will become his queen. He works to become the Voice of the Bazhir. Who will she marry: Jonathan, the Prince, or George, the King of the Thieves. When she returns to Tortall, she observes strong magic happening, her twin, Tom uses her power. All report he is working to raise the dead. Alanna grows in her knighthood and in her womanhood. She continues to seek to do good with her powers.

Flyaway / Lucy Christopher 328 p.

Thirteen year old Isla and her father have a deep bond with wild swans that migrate from Iceland each year. On the trip to see them returning, her father collapses with a heart attack. Isla is plunged into dealing with her father's health crisis, his estranged crusty grandfather, and social isolation when her best friend moves away. At the hospital she finds solace in a friendship with an optimistic leukemia victim of her own age. Helping her develop swan wings for a school art project so engages her grandfather that she sees an entirely different side of him. She vows to help her father, Harry, and a lone swan. Christopher wonderfully weaves this story about nature, coming of age, family in crisis, and friendship.

2012 Notable Children's Books

Okay for Now / Gary Schmidt 360 p.

Doug Swieteck moves to "The Dump" in Marysville, New York where his father has found employment. He is saved by weekly visits to the public library where the librarian is teaching him to draw using the Audubon’s Birds of America as models. Doug keeps many secrets as he lives down the thug reputation of his middle brother. His father’s abuse is so realistic that you feel for Doug and his family. Doug uses what he learns from the bird prints as he moves from edgy to more open to life in Marysville. Schmidt amazingly integrates baseball, gym teachers, principals, theatrical escapades, and timely preoccupations like the Moon landing and the Vietnam War. This realistic story will resonate with you. And you will want to cry at times.

Return of Doug Swieteck who first appeared in Gary D. Schmidt's Newbery Honor book: The Wednesday Wars.

2012 Notable Children's Recordings

Queen of Hearts / Martha Brooks 214 p.

Set during World War II, teenager Marie-Claire and her younger brother and baby sister are all stricken with tuberculosis. Sent to the sanitarium near their Manitoba farm, they join the other "exiles" as they chase the cure.

Her anger and stubbornness shows as she Marie-Claire struggles with personal tragedy, loss of privacy, and separation from everyone she knows. Nicknamed the Queen of Hearts by her late uncle (a TB victim), she works to keep from turning her back on others.

No cure exists... the best is to arrest the disease. There Marie-Claire makes friends with roommate Signy. Though she lost her brother, it is through him that she meets Jack.

Martha Brooks recreates the TB ward with such accuracy and care. Turns out she was raised by a medical family on the grounds of a tuberculosis sanatorium.


2012 Notable Children's Books

Under the Mesquite / Guadalupe Garcia McCall 224 p.

Lupita, a Mexican-American teenage girl, takes on familial responsibilities when her mother gets cancer.  With seven siblings, Lupita balances high school classes, discovering her acting skills, and dealing with friends who don’t understand.  Mami is the anchor for this close-knit family and Papi works construction.  She finds refuge writing under the mesquite tree in the front yard.  Told in free verse, McCall takes inspiration from the difficult experiences of her own family.

2012 Notable Children's Book

ROCKET BOYS/OCTOBER SKY by Homer Hickam - 368 Pages

Book Discussion title at Corporate Parkway Branch

... I'm sure everyone has seen the wonderful movie "October Sky". If not, check it out, pop some popcorn and be prepared to be transported back to a time and place when learning in America cost the same amount as an iron train rail.

America in the '50s. A time of "Father Knows Best" on the tube (not that I remember this), Elvis Presley was on the radio, and the price of bread was $0.14 cents. The world was rosy. But on October 4, 1957, the sunny landscape darkened with the passage of Sputnik overhead.

Sputnik electrified everyone, but it especially charged a young man from Coalwood, West Virginia. Homer Hickam was expected to follow his father's plan; graduate from high school, enter the mine, and eventually fill his father's shoes as foreman. Homer had different plans; he wanted to build rockets.

Homer teams with 3 other boys to create what was to become known as the "Rocket Boys". Together the boys rebel against an established town mindset, and expand the future of everyone in Coalwood.

This title has a lot of themes to discuss:

Boy coming of age

Space program

Small town in the 1950's

Father and sons

I'd like to recommend the title for future discussions ... because it's one of the few books I've read for Book Discussion that leaves you with a big ol' smile at the end.

Stacey - CP Book Club