Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

King, A S. Everybody Sees the Ants. New York: Little, Brown, 2012. Print.  ISBN 978-0-316-12927-5; Paperback; $9.99.

Annotation: 
Lucky Linderman escapes from Nader, the Squid and the Turtle by visiting his grandfather in his dreams and imagining ants seek revenge on his behalf.

Book Talk: 
Lucky Linderman doesn't feel so lucky.  He has no real friends and no girlfriend.  He has been bullied by Nader McMillan for as long as he can remember, and it is getting worse.  But no one seems to care.  His granddad never came home from the Vietnam War and no one in his family has recovered.  His mother hides from her problems at the local public pool and his dad works too much.  After Nader's last attack leaves him disfigured, depressed and vengeful, Lucky begins hallucinating tiny ants to enact his revenge.  In order to escape oppressive reality Lucky travels into his dreams where he tries to rescue his grandfather from the jungle and rescue himself from Nader McMillan.  Read A.S. King's engaging and haunting novel to discover how Lucky, and everyone else who is suffering, sees the ants.

Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook and audio CD.

Awards: 2011 Cybils Award finalist
2011 Andre Norton Award finalist

Teen quote:
"I really like this book because it talked about how your (sic) the one who builds your own prisons so your (sic) the only one who can tear them down. I also liked that whenever he woke up from a dream he had an object from the dream. That was COOL."
~Jill, 15.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2009. Print.  ISBN 978-0-316-01368-0; Hardcover; $20.00.

Annotation: 
Junior leaves the reservation to attend the all-white high school 20 miles down the road.  Will he survive tragedy and illness to get the girl and graduate?

Book Talk:
Junior is a nerdy, sickly, reading and drawing obsessed Spokane Native who leaves his friends and family behind on the reservation to attend a racist all-white high school in the next town.  Despite meeting the girl of his dreams, Penelope, and making new friends, like Gordy, tragedy strikes and one horrible thing after another happens, until Junior isn't sure if he can go on.  Does being Native destine him to a life of drunken poverty, unhappiness and early death?  He says, 

"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes...By black and white.  By Indian and white.  But I know that isn't true.  The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."

Read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to discover if Junior is willing to change everything in order to change his life.  When given the choice, which tribe will he choose?

Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook and audio CD. 

Awards:

2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature
2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry
2009 Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults"
2010 California Young Reader Medal, Young Adult Book

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Murakami, Haruki. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.  Trans. Philip Gabriel.  Toronto: Bond Street Books, 2014. Print.  ISBN 978-0-385-68183-4; Hardcover; $29.95.

Annotation:
Tsukuru's friends are all named after colors, but he is bland and colorless.  When his friends dump him unexpectedly with no explanation, Tsukuru sets out on a journey to discover why.

Book Talk:
Where does the line blur between dreams and reality?  Can we revisit the past and change our interpretation of events in order to create a new future?  Or does fate have us locked into a destiny that will find us no matter which choices we make?  

Haruki Murakami forces us to ask all these questions and more in his new novel that follows the travels of Tsukuru Tazaki as he tries to solve a mystery from his past.  In high school Tsukuru was part of a close-knit group of friends who all had colorful nicknames based on their surnames: Mr. Blue, Mr. Red, Ms. White, and Ms. Black.  The only one who didn't get a special name was Tsukuru, whose last name simply means "one who builds".  He felt this was fitting since he had always seen himself as rather colorless, quiet and bland, and was just happy to be an empty vessel the group could rest their vibrancy within.  So one day, in his sophomore year of college he is thrown into the depths of despondency and depression after having the following phone conversation with one of his best friends, Ao:

 "I'm sorry, but I have to ask you not to call any of us anymore," Ao said abruptly and without preface.  No "Hey!" or "How've you been?" or "It's been a while."  I'm sorry was his only concession to social niceties.
          Tsukuru took a breath, and silently repeated Ao's words, quickly assessing them.  He tried to read the emotions behind them, but the words were like the formal recitation of an announcement.  There had been no room for feelings...
          ..."But if possible, I do want to know the reason for this," Tsukuru said.
          "That's not something I can tell you," Ao replied.
          "Then who can?"
          A thick stone wall rose.  There was silence on the other end.  Tsukuru could faintly hear Ao breathing through his nostrils.  He pictured Ao's flat, fleshy nose.
         "Think about it, and you'll figure it out," Ao said, finally.

Join Tsukuru on his adventure to chase down the answer to why his best friends abandoned him all those years ago, and whether or not the fault lines of memory can be mended.

Available in paperback, hardcover, ebook, digital audio book, and audio CD.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter D, and Christopher A. Myers. Monster. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.  ISBN 9780060280789; Hardcover; $15.89.

Annotation:
Steve is in prison awaiting trail for murder and his own lawyer isn't sure if he's innocent.

Book Talk:
16 year old Steve Harmon has landed in prison and is awaiting trial for felony murder in a robbery gone wrong.  In order to deal with life behind bars and what awaits him before a State Prosecutor who refers to him as a "monster" Steven writes in a journal and creates a screenplay of his experience.

Check out this notebook entry:

"They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can't kill yourself no matter how bad it is.  I guess making you live is part of the punishment."

Read Walter Dean Myers award-winning book to find out whether Steve is destined to spend the rest of his life behind bars, whether his lawyer truly believes he is innocent, and whether he can figure out for himself whether or not he's a monster.

Available in paperback, hardcover and on audio CD.

Awards: 
Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award 2000
Nominated for the National Book Award 1999
Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book 2000
Nominated for the Edgar Award 2000

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Moyes, Jojo. Me Before You. New York, N.Y: Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 2012. Print. 978-0-14-312454-2; Paperback; $16.00.

Annotation: 
Louisa Clark loses her job and is forced to confront her small town life and small time ambitions when she begins looking after a gorgeous young man with a paralyzed body and a terrible secret.


Book Talk:

Louisa Clark was a spunky, adventuresome adolescent until the unspeakable happened seven years ago and now she lives a quiet life in a tiny town shuffling to and from work, seeing her boyfriend Patrick and squabbling with her sister under her parents’ roof.  When she is laid off from her coffee girl job and faced with the big unknown she discovers a surprising ally in her cantankerous, bullying, and devastatingly gorgeous new boss, Will.  Will Traynor has also come up against his own unspeakable tragedy, an accident which has left him wheelchair-bound and mostly paralyzed. 

Here’s an example of their dialogue when Will and Louisa attend a fancy marriage of Will’s former girlfriend.  She’s been feeding him and helping him at the reception:

“You know, you would never have let those breasts so close to me if I weren’t in a wheelchair,’ he murmured.
I looked back at him steadily. ‘You would never have looked at my breasts if you hadn’t been in a wheelchair.’
‘What? Of course I would.’
‘Nope. You would have been far too busy looking at the tall blonde girls with the endless legs and the big hair, the ones who can smell an expense account at forty paces. And anyway, I wouldn’t have been here. I would have been serving the drinks over there. One of the invisibles.’
He blinked.
‘Well? I’m right, aren’t I?’
Will glanced over at the bar, then back at me. ‘Yes. But in my defense, Clark, I was an arse.” 

As Louisa begins to uncover the sensitive, endearing personality Will is trying so hard to mask, she also learns of a Will’s plan to take control back over his own life – at any cost.  Read this intriguing tale to find out if Louisa and Will can learn to live with their own personal tragedies and help each other along the way.

Available in ebook, hardcover, paperback, audio CD, and audio download.  It is also being made into a movie!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. Brilliance Audio, 2011. CD.  978-1-4558-6974-9; 6 CDs; $24.99.

Annotation: 

Hazel and Augustus are the perfect couple, except they have terminal cancer.

Book Talk:

The title of this book is based on a Shakespeare quote from the play Julius Caesar: Cassius says, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."  In other words, we are not Gods, we are human, it is not fate that destroys us, but the human condition.  On the surface this seems to be another sappy, syrupy love story about two white, upper-middle-class, heterosexual teens who fall madly in love only to have their requisite tragic ending.  But Hazel and Augustus don't have your typical North American teen lifestyle, they have terminal cancer.  Anyone who's ever watched someone they love die from cancer knows the complicated feelings that come from wanting to see an end to their suffering and desperately needing to keep them around just a little bit longer.  Just so you can smell them and hear them laugh, and see their soul behind their eyes.  This book will also appeal to anyone who has ever loved someone and needed to let them go, for whatever reason.

Available in paperback, hardcover, e-book, audio CD, audio MP3 and it has also been made into a movie:

Check out the movie trailer below:

Award:

2013 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

Katcher, Brian. Almost Perfect. New York: Delacorte Press, 2009. Print.  978-0-385-73664-0; Hardcover; $17.99.

Annotation:
Logan falls in love with a girl that is almost perfect.  The issue?  She used to be a he.

Book Talk:

Logan has just been dumped by his long term high school girlfriend who has left him still a virgin at age 18 and he’s not happy about it.  When a new girl named Sage moves into town with her curly red hair, silky smooth skin and flirtatious ways, Logan decides maybe it’s time to move on.  But he quickly learns there is more to Sage than meets the eye, that she was actually born a HE, and now Logan needs to quickly figure out what it means when a straight guy has just made out with a girl who’s ALMOST PERFECT, and how no one can ever find out.

NOTE: This book is a great introduction to the difficulties facing transgender teens in North America as well as the challenges presented to their friends, family and lovers.  Brian Katcher leaves a detailed Author's Note at the end of the novel urging real-life Sages to reach out for help and know that there are special associations and support groups for them, like TNET and their friends and families, like PFLAG.

Available in paperback, hardcover, e-book, and audio CD.

Award:
Winner of the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award, 2011.

Rage: True Stories by Teens About Anger edited by Laura Longhine

Longhine, Laura. Rage: True Stories by Teens About Anger. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub, 2012. Print.  978-1-57542-414-9; Paperback; $11.99.

Annotation: 
Teens tell the truth about what it is like to feel intense, violent anger.

Book Review:

Rage: it’s more than anger.  You know that feeling, the one where your mind has lost all capacity for rational thought and you are left sobbing, shocked, and shaking, and so is everyone around you.  Despite your best efforts to stay calm, you hurl insults, scream, kick, bite, punch, smash things, and hurt people, including yourself.  What doesn’t bother one person can trigger Hulk-like mayhem in someone else.  Rage can be one of the most terrifying of human emotions, and yet it is something we all experience and have difficulty dealing with.  This amazing little collection of true stories told by teens that have experienced rage firsthand chronicles the raw emotions behind abuse, abandonment, poverty, racism, bullying, and feeling trapped and judged.  Watch Fred beat another guy to a bloody pulp and land in jail; Robin channel his fury into Karate kicks; and Natasha use the mask of perkiness and perfection to cover up her panic and isolation.  Brimming with courage, honesty, and real-life tips on how to handle the unimaginable, this is an essential read for any teen (or adult) who has ever felt overwhelmed by their own temper.

The Real Teen Voices series (which includes Rage, Pressure, and Vicious) come from a diverse selection of teen voices, showing that hatred and fury are not bound to certain social classes, but touch all people regardless of race, geographic location, economic situation, sexual orientation or gender.  The hard, uncomfortable edges in their writing are softened by moments of tenderness, clarity, and real love and affection, as well as hope for the future.  The book also includes an interview with therapist Toni Heineman offering practical advice on recognizing anger issues, staying calm, and removing yourself from volatile situations before you explode.  Recommended for ages 13+ due to mature content.  

Available in paperback and e-book.

You can watch a video about the struggle one of the teen authors, Natasha Santos, has with herself while writing "Bum-rushed by my past" by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b74ly0qorQ8.  You can also read her story.  

Want more?  Check out this Youth Communication teen author talking about how writing saved him from his anger and bullying.  Three cheers for literacy!!!

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.  978-0-375-84220-7; paperback; $12.99.

Annotation:
Liesel has just lost everything: her father, her mother, her little brother, and she's about to lose a whole lot more.

Book Review:

It’s the early days of World War II and just outside of Munich, Germany Liesel Meminger wakes up on a train to find her brother dead.  Her sickly, communist mother leaves her in the care of Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in a foster home on Himmel Street, and never sees her again.  Death, The Book Thief’s omniscient narrator, is watching.  This wise-cracking, smooth-talking Death appears outwardly unflappable but is beginning to inwardly fall apart.  His work is overwhelming; there are so many souls that need transporting and so many desperate survivors he has to stare in the face.  He can’t take a vacation: Death’s one of a kind.  But there is something special about Liesel, our illiterate, earnest protagonist that catches Death’s attention, when she steals a book from her brother’s grave site and sets about to learning how to read it.  Along the way she makes friends with a fist-fighting Jew, a scrappy athlete named Rudy, a haunted mayor’s wife, and her beloved foster father, Hans.  Amid abject poverty, starvation, bombings, Hitler Youth meetings, school and bullying Liesel continues to comfort herself with stolen words, and begins to write a few of her own.  Her obsession with literature becomes her saving grace from the sorrow and confusion of war.  And in the end, it touches upon the lives of her neighbors, loved ones, and enemies.  Even her biggest enemy of all, Death himself.

Weighing in at over 550 pages with a drab brown cover, The Book Thief is not going to appeal to the reluctant reader, though you may enjoy the movie directed by Brian Percival or The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman instead.  Unlike John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Zusak’s Book Thief never feels patronizing or didactic.  The book’s true magnificence is in its ability to capture so many points of view without making obvious judgments about any of them.  The storyline runs wide enough to encompass repentant Germans, guilt-ridden Jews, diabolical Nazis, abusive but loving parents and impulsive children.  And, of course, Death, who is far more human than we may find comfortable.  Recommended for ages 13 and up due to mature subject matter.

Available in paperback, hardcover, large print, e-book, braille book, audio CD.  They also made it into a movie:

Awards won in 2006: 

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (South East Asia & South Pacific), School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Daniel Elliott Peace Award, Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year; Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book.

Awards won in 2007: 

Michael L. Printz Award, Book Sense Book of the Year, Notable Book for a Global Society, Sydney Taylor Award, Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People.

Forever...by Judy Blume

Blume, Judy.  Forever.  Scarsdale, N.Y: Bradbury Press, 1975. Print.  978-1-4169-3400-4; paperback; $8.99.

Annotation: 
Katherine falls in love with Michael and he wants them to be together forever, but she isn't so sure.

Book Review:

Written and set in the mid-1970s, Forever follows the life of suburban high school senior Katherine as she navigates the choppy waters of first love, losing her virginity, family illness, drinking and drug use and friends in emotional crisis. Katherine meets Michael at a New Year’s Eve party and isn’t quite sure how she feels about him, especially when she sees him kissing someone else, but Michael is definitely sure how he feels about Katherine.  He wants her.  He wants to be her boyfriend.  He wants to tell her everything.  He wants to teach her about sex and intimacy.  He wants them to be together forever.   When they are separated by their parents and their jobs over the summer holidays, Katherine meets a sexy, older tennis instructor named Theo and she begins wondering if maybe forever isn’t what she wants after all.

While it was refreshing to see a female protagonist grappling with questions concerning fidelity, birth control, attachment, and desire in the mid-70s, today’s teens may be looking for something a little edgier or more culturally diverse.  Katherine is an alarmingly thin, white, heterosexual teen whose father is a pharmacist and business owner and her grandparents and uncle are accomplished lawyers in New York City.  She plays tennis and skis in Vermont.  Going to university is a given.  The narrow confines of Katherine’s world may alienate many young adult readers and I would be quick to recommend something like Maryjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Heather O’Neill’s Lullabies for Little Criminals or Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell in its place.

Available in paperback, hardcover, braille book, and e-book.

Did you know this book has been banned so many times and has sparked such controversy that Judy Blume has to travel with a security guard?  All the more reason to read it and keep it in your library!

Award:
Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner, 1996