The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Bender, Aimee. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel. New York: Anchor Books, 2011. Print.  ISBN 978-0-385-72096-0; Paperback; $15.00.

Annotation:

Rose Edelstein has a secret: she can taste people's emotions in the food they make.  But she's not the only Edelstein with a secret.

Book Talk:

When Rose Edelstein turns nine her cheery, fast-talking mother makes her favorite lemon cake, but everything is ruined when Rose tastes her mother's buried feelings - of sadness, loneliness, and emotional hunger.  It begins happening at every meal until Rose can no longer bear it and demands to have her mouth removed.

"I didn't talk at the table because I was busy surviving the meal.  After the incident in the ER, I no longer wanted to advertise my experience to anyone.  You try, you seem totally nuts, you go underground.  There's a kind of show a kid can do, for a parent - a show of pain, to try to announce something, and in my crying, in the desperate, blabbering, awful mouth-clawing, I had hoped to get something across.  Had it come across, any of it?  Nope."

As Rose matures into a teen, and then a young woman, she discovers she's not the only member of her family with a secret, or a special gift.

Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, audio CD, and MP3.

Award:

Alex Award Winner, 2011.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel by Ransom Riggs and Cassandra Jean

Riggs, Ransom, and Jean Cassandra. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel. New York, NY: Yen Press, 2013. Print.  ISBN 978-0-316-24528-9; Hardcover; $20.00.

Annotation: 
Jacob's grandfather Abe dies and leaves him with an eerie message: go back to the foster home Abe grew up in and learn about the monster that killed him and the friends he left behind.

Book Talk: Jacob Portman is very close with his eccentric and adventurous grandfather, Abe.  Abe regales Jacob with stories about being sent away from his homeland in Poland to a tiny island on the edge of Wales to escape terrifying monsters.  The foster home he is sent to is for children with unusual gifts, such as lifting heavy objects or levitating.  Abe even has pictures to prove it.  As Jacob gets older he begins to doubt his grandfather's stories and presumes the photos are fake.  Until one day, Abe is killed and Jacob sees the monster who did it.  Convinced Jacob is losing his mind with grief, his parents send him to a psychiatrist who convinces Jacob's father that it's ok for Jacob to visit the island his grandfather always talked about, that it may provide some closure to Abe's horrific passing.  Once Jacob arrives at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and meets Abe's childhood friends, he doesn't get closure, only finds himself asking more and more questions.  Read Ransom Riggs exciting story made into a chilling graphic novel and find out for yourself if Jacob and Abe are telling the truth about the monsters or if mental illness and peculiarities just run in the family.

Available in hardcover and eBook.

Teen quote:
"I found this to be a quick, fun read."
~Christy, 19.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Wolitzer, Meg. Belzhar. New York, New York: Dutton Juvenile, 2014. Print.  ISBN 978-0-525-42305-8; Hardcover; $17.99.

Annotation:
Jam's boyfriend is dead and she can't bear living until a special English class at a boarding school for "emotionally fragile" intellectuals opens her eyes to a possible future.

Book Talk:
Jam Gallahue falls madly in love with the tall, romantic and gorgeous English exchange student Reeve and they spend 41 perfect days together until the unthinkable happens.  He dies.  Jam, unable to bear the loss, buries herself in the blankets on her bed and can barely function.  After a year of serious depression her parents ship her off to a boarding school in Vermont called The Wooden Barn.  There she meets others like her: drifters, misfits, sensitive souls with traumatic pasts they can't bear in the present.  Jam is sure nothing will ever feel good again until she is enrolled in a mysterious class called Special Topics in English where the entire curriculum is based on the work of Sylvia Plath.  This is where they learn about Belzhar.  When Jam and her classmates discover how to go back to the way things were before their lives fell apart they each have to decide whether they want to live in an unchanging and comfortable past or an uncertain future.  Find out what Jam discovers in Belzhar and see if she chooses love over life.

Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audio CD.

Teen quote:

"It's not as dark as it sounds, ending on a hopeful note about transformation." 
~Amy, 18.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King

King, A.S. Glory O'Brien's History of the Future.  New York: Little, Brown, 2014.  Print.  ISBN 978-0-316-22272-3; Hardcover; $18.00.

Annotation: Glory O'Brien can see the future and the past but she isn't sure if she wants to stick around long enough to see if it comes true.

Book Talk:
After one night of doing something really stupid and gross, Glory and her best friend Ellie acquire the uncanny ability to see both the past and the future of everyone around them, except for themselves.  As Glory tries to unravel what her visions of war, female oppression, and unexpected love reveal, her best friend must confront her own demons of sexual promiscuity and betrayal.  Read A.S. King's brave and powerful new novel to find out what Glory O'Brien knows about the History of the Future and whether or not she can save it.

Available in hardcover, eBook, and audio CD.

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 Program by Suzanne Young

Young, Suzanne.  The Program.  New York: Simon Pulse, 2013.  Print.  ISBN 978-1-4424-4580-2; Hardcover; $16.99.

Annotation: Sloane can't reveal any emotions or she risks being taken away to have her memory erased and never being able to kiss her boyfriend James again, or remember him.

Book Talk:
What would you do if you weren't allowed to show any emotions?  Not even to your own family?  

Sloane and James are a normal high school couple, except it's the near future and an epidemic of teen suicide becomes a nation-wide crisis and the government implements a terrifying program where at-risk teens are whisked away by handlers to have their memories erased and their senses dulled.

Who would you trust?  Would you choose death too?

Available in eBook, paperback, hardcover, and digital audio book.

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.

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!

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Hartman, Rachel. Seraphina.  New York: Random House, 2012. Print.  ISBN 978-0-385-66839-2; Hardcover; $21.00.

Annotation:
Seraphina is half-dragon, half-human in a world where that is forbidden and a handsome young prince is about to find out.

Book Talk:

Would you tell the truth for love?  Seraphina is a young woman with a terrible secret: she’s a half-breed, with a dragon mother and human father, a musical gift and the ability to locate and communicate with other half-breeds in her mind.  Phina lives in a kingdom with an unstable peace treaty between the emotional, impulsive humans and the calculating, rational dragons who assume human form to become scholars and noblemen.  Even though everyone is supposed to get along, dragons and humans rarely trust each other and interspecies marriage is strictly forbidden.  After a member of the royal family is murdered shy, introverted Seraphina gets swept up into an investigation that leads her to falling in love with the princess’s finance, the handsome and perceptive Lucian Kiggs.  In order to save the Royal family and her beloved uncle, Seraphina has to reveal her special talents and the scales she hides under layers of clothing, but will Lucian ever see her the same way?  Would you tell the truth for love?

Here's a great video of Rachel Hartman talking about how her dragons have sensory processing issues, like her son:

There's a sequel, The Shadow Scale, coming out in March 2015!

Seraphina is available in ebook, hardcover, paperback, and audio CD.

Awards:

Winner of the 2013 YALSA Morris Award for Best YA Debut Novel
Finalist for the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada)
Short-listed for the Kitschies’ Golden Tentacle Award (UK)
Long-listed for the Carnegie Medal (UK)

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Marion, Isaac. Warm Bodies: A Novel. New York: Atria Books, 2011. Print.  978-1-4391-9232-0; Paperback; $15.00.

Annotation: 
R is a lonely zombie with a crush on a real live girl he kidnaps and befriends.

Book Talk:
Just who are these warm bodies Isaac Marion is talking about in his book, they surely couldn't be the zombies roaming around after the apocalypse chewing on the leftover humans that have managed to survive?  R is a lonely zombie wandering around an dilapidated airport grunting with his fellow “fleshies” and nibbling on the occasional brain which gives him flashbacks of the deceased’s memories.  The difference between R and his brethren is that he doesn’t really like eating people, he spends most of his time listening to old records in an abandoned airplane and feeling sorry for himself.  Until one day, on a hunt for food, he meets Julie, a real live human girl, who he rescues but only after devouring her boyfriend.  He begins to fall in love with Julie and sets out to show her, and her friends and father, that zombies aren’t such dead beats after all.  Who said the dead lack warmth?

This book would be a great read for any teen interested in post-apocalyptic horror or paranormal romance.  Recommended for ages 13 and up due to the gruesome content.  If you like the book be sure to check out the movie:

Available in paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

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.

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