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

Pages: 230

Intended Audience: Mature Teens

Genre: Real Life

Notes for Parents: Contains coarse and offensive language, some violence, death, and other mature themes.

The Back Cover

Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation. Born with a variety of medical problems, he is picked on by everyone but his best friend. Determined to receive a good education, Junior leaves the rez to attend an all-white school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies, Junior attacks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that he never knew existed.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

It won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

What’s good?

This heartbreaking story never demands pity, using humor instead to trudge through the reality of life on an American Indian Reservation. The author is a master storyteller who has created an authentic character who attacks his lonely and difficult existence with wit-filled determination and brutal honesty. This story is both bleak and beautiful, touching on issues of poverty, friendship, bullying, racism, addiction, grief, and so much more.

Best Part: The wonderful drawings added valuable insight into Junior’s experience.

What isn’t good?

This book does nothing to allay the negative stereotypes of Native Americans. There’s a sense of complacency regarding many of the issues that may mislead readers into thinking the issues are being treated lightly. 

Worst part: None.

Recommendation þþþþo

Both funny and tragic, this was an entertaining, poignant, and inspired tale. Highly recommended.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2007.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Pages: 335

Intended Audience: Teens and Mature Tweens

Genre: Science Fiction / Dystopia

Notes for Parents: There are some disturbing scenes

The Back Cover

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child “unwound,” whereby all of the child’s organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn’t technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not talented enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape—and to survive.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This is the first book in a series.

What’s good?

This is a fast-paced, action-packed story of survival as three teens attempt to escape their fate. The main characters are well-drawn and very relatable, and there is a good supporting cast. This is a highly original, thought provoking story that, at times, is down-right disturbing. The plot twists and turns with several heart-stopping and heart-wrenching moments.  

Best Part: The unwinding scene.

What isn’t good?

The premise is ridiculous. The thought that our society would degenerate to a place where unwinding teenagers is an answer to the abortion question, is absurd. Unwinding a teen for typical teen behavior, or as a solution to a custody battle, or to make more room at the orphanage…ridiculous! Don’t even getting me started about storking.

Worst part: Storking.

Recommendation þþþoo

If you can accept the premise, which I did with great effort, it’s an excellent story. I only wish it had a little more – a little more history, a little more politics, a little more resistance by the people. Perhaps it will in subsequent books. I enjoyed it, and I do recommend it.

Shusterman, Neal. Unwind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007.

Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean

Pages: 244

Intended Audience: Teens

Genre: Fantasy / Biblical

Notes for Parents: Explores religious issues and contains some graphic scenes.

The Inside Cover

Everyone knows the story of the Flood: The man called on by God to build an ark. The animals that came on board two by two. The rain that fell for forty days and forty nights.

But what about the rest of the story? What about Noah’s wife and daughters-in-law? And what if there was a daughter as well? How would it feel to head into the unknown with only each other and all those animals? What would it be like to turn away friends and neighbors struggling in the water? Could all of it really be part of God’s Plan—the hunger and pain and fear?

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This is a retelling of the Great Flood story from the view of the women on the Ark.

What’s good?

This is NOT the Bible’s version of Noah’s Ark! This is a brutal portrayal of the pandemonium that would have been found on Noah’s Ark. The beautifully detailed, and sometimes harshly graphic, writing depicts the sights, sounds and smells of the ship, as well as the tense emotions of the people and animals aboard it. Noah’s unrelenting faith in God’s plan blindly leads them into chaos and misery. The characters are well drawn, the pace is steady, and the premise is captivating and thought-provoking.

Best Part: The quexolan.

What isn’t good?

Some will dislike the deviation from the original Bible story. Some will dislike the many points of view from which this story is told. Some will dislike the many religious references or the unusual way of talking or the animals’ points of view… Many will find something to dislike about this book, but I enjoyed it.

Worst part: None.

Recommendation þþþþþ

I loved the premise, the characters, and the author’s writing style. Most of all, I loved how the author addressed what life would really be like if you consider everything the Bible tells us about Noah’s Ark. There would be frightened animals, drowning people begging to be saved, the constant, incessant sound of rain for forty days…such a clever book!

McCaughrean, Geraldine. Not the end of the world. New York: HarperTempest, 2005.

Firegirl by Tony Abbott

Pages: 145

Intended Audience: Tweens and Teens

Genre: Real Life / Social Issues

Notes for Parents: None.

The Back Cover

From this moment on, life is never quite the same for Tom and his seventh-grade classmates. Despite Jessica’s shocking appearance and the fear she evokes in him and most of the class, Tom slowly develops a tentative friendship with Jessica that changes his life. Firegirl is a powerful book that shows readers that even the smallest of gestures can have a profound impact on someone’s life.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This book was the winner of the 2007 Golden Kite Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature.

What’s good?

This is a beautiful, sensitive narrative about a boy’s first experience with a person who is different – unbearably different. While his time with Jessica, a burn victim, is brief, the experience changes the way he sees things, including the relationship with his unsympathetic best friend, Jeff. It’s a thoughtful story with a good message.

Best Part: Tom’s ideas about what would make good superpowers: e.g. an unbreakable finger.

What isn’t good?

The story lacks any real action, physical or otherwise. There are moments, like the mystery of how Jessica was burned, and waiting for Jeff to show up in the Cobra, that create some suspense, but it’s never really sustained.

Worst part: It’s written a bit young.

Recommendation þþþoo

One reviewer described it perfectly as “a quiet book.” It’s a short, easy, introspective look at a heartfelt moment in a boy’s life. Recommended.

Abbott, Tony. Firegirl. New York: Scholastic, 2006.

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Pages: 165

Intended Audience: Tweens and up

Genre: Historical

Notes for Parents: Some mature scenes

The Back Cover

Day 264

It’s morning. Soft gray light slips over the tall redbrick wall. It stretches across the exercise yard and reaches though the high, barred windows. In a cell on the ground floor, the light shifts dark shapes into a small stool, a scrawny table, and a bed made of wooden boards with no mattress or blanket. On that bed, a thin, huddled figure, Helmuth, a boy of seventeen, lies awake. Shivering, Trembling.

It’s a Tuesday.

The executioner works on Tuesday.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This is a novel based on the true story of Helmuth Hubener, a German teenager during World War II who listened to enemy news broadcasts on the radio, something strictly forbidden. Helmuth spread the news he heard (which contradicted German broadcasts) using pamphlets that he distributed through town. He was arrested and became one of the youngest opponents of the Third Reich to be found guilty of treason.

What’s good?

This is a well-written, compelling novelization of a true story. With heartbreaking drama we follow a teenager’s courageous attempt to spread the truth about the Nazis to his fellow Germans. The easy language, simple descriptions and gripping narrative make this a fast and effortless read.

Best Part: The pictures and supplementary material at the end of the book made a great story even better.

What isn’t good?

The story might be too juvenile for some, but I only say that for lack of anything else negative to say about this book.

Worst part: None.

Recommendation þþþþþ

I was riveted when I read this little known true story and highly recommend it.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. New York: Scholastic, 2008.

Matched by Ally Condie

Pages: 366

Intended Audience: Teens and Mature Tweens

Genre: Dystopian

Notes for Parents: Some mature scenes.

The Back Cover

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This is the first in the Matched trilogy.

What’s good?

The writing is fluid and the pace is even in this colorful dystopian love story. The premise is solid, the characters are likeable, and the society is interesting—even a little disturbing.

Best Part: Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas

What isn’t good?

The romance was tepid. I’m not a fan of teen romance, especially love triangles, to begin with, but this was…lackluster. While the dystopian society was intriguing, it sounded a lot like the world created in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. A deeper understanding of how the society was created and the philosophy behind some of the rules could have set it apart, but alas, there was no explanation and most of what we learned was circumstantial.

Worst part: The perspective is in the present tense. This tends to stunt character growth and plot development.

Recommendation þþþoo

This book came to me with a lot of hype. If I had found it on my own, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more, but my high expectations made this lukewarm. It was good, but not as good as I expected.

Condie, Ally. Matched. New York: Scholastic, 2010.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Pages: 275

Intended Audience: Teens

Genre: Afterlife Science Fiction

Notes for Parents: Some mature content

The Back Cover

Dear Dr. Fujiyama,

   By now, you have probably heard that I’m dead. This means I won’t be attending this year’s regional science fair, which is a great disappointment to me as I’m sure it also is for you. At the time I died, I felt I was starting to make real progress with those earthworms.

   I really enjoyed your class and continue to follow along from the place where I’m now living I now find myself. Dissecting the pig looked pretty interesting, and I thought I might try it. Unfortunately, there aren’t any dead pigs here for me to dissect.

   I was disappointed not to see you at the funeral as you were my favorite teacher, even including middle and elementary school. Not to give you a hard time or anything, Dr. F J

   Yours,

Elizabeth Marie Hall, 5^th Period Biology

How can fifteen-year-old Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

Liz dies and goes to an afterlife place called Elsewhere where she has to come to terms with her death and her new life.

What’s good?

This is a light-hearted, fantastical look at a girl’s trip to the afterlife. The writing is beautiful and the characters are well-drawn and likeable, though Liz can sometimes be a little whiny. The whimsical setting is imaginative and unique and the plot develops at a good pace, revealing the heartbreak and the hope of Liz’s situation.

Best Part: The dogs, of course.

What isn’t good?

Some might find this story a little too sappy, and occasionally the author’s writing is a bit awkward. Those looking for a heavy-handed story about death and rebirth will be disappointed.

Worst part: The perspective is in the present tense. I hate that.

Recommendation þþþþo

I loved it! It was beautiful, funny, thought-provoking and very entertaining so long as it’s not taken too seriously.

Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. New York: Square Fish, 2005.