The Reading Public Library has updated their entire web site. This includes the “Teen” page and all related info – including our book reviews!
We will no longer be adding new reviews to this site, however be sure to bookmark (subscribe, check out – WHATEVER!) our new page:
http://www.readingpl.org/teens/booklists/
OR (to keep up to date on events and announcements)
Graveyard Book
Nobody Owens lives in the graveyard. Raised by the spirits who dwell there, Bod tries to live as normal a life as possible. He climbs trees, chats with the ghosts and tries to make friends with newcomers (live and dead) to the graveyard (live and dead). Bod knows that he can’t go outside the boundaries of the graveyard where a man named Jack waits to kill him. But the Bod’s world is getting too small for him now and he wonders if the outside world holds answers to his past and hope for his future. Bod’s natural curiosity and innocence lead him on amazing adventures where he makes friends, both from this world and the next. This is an excellent read with a wonderful balance of creepiness and humor.
Recommended for gr. 6+
Graceling
Katsa is a killer. While only a select few are graced with extraordinary skills, most Gracelings are blessed more acceptable arts such as dancing or cooking. Katsa, on the other hand, can kill anyone, anywhere. Used as a threat and tool by her uncle, the king, Katsa tries to find other ways to use her talent. On a secret mission to reclaim a kidnapped nobleman, she finally meets her match in a moonlit garden. Prince Po, another Graceling, is the first person to challenge Katsa’s fighting skills. Navigating a complex dance of political intrigue, Katsa and Po decide to trust each other and become friends. As Katsa struggles to free herself from her uncle’s tyranny, Po reveals a secret that threatens their relationship. Will her grace doom Katsa to a lonely life of violence?
This is an exciting and beautiful read – not to be missed!
Recommended for gr. 8 +
Nation
Meet Mau, a boy on the verge of manhood. While on a voyage away from his island, the sea consumes his village, his whole Nation. Mau deals with the aftermath of the Great Wave, sending the bodies into the dark waters, nearly perishing himself until a ghost girl appears.
Daphne the ghost girl (a.k.a Ermintrude – wouldn’t anyone with that name prefer to be called “Daphne”?), is a young English lady now shipwrecked on Mau’s island. All she has left is the captain’s dirty-mouthed parrot and a few barrels useful supplies. When the two meet, they form a cautious but much needed friendship. As survivors from the Great Wave straggle onto the island, Mau and Daphne must learn to communicate and trust each other in order to make a new life for themselves.
Terry Pratchett, a master of humor and insight, has created wonderful and memorable characters. Their struggle to communicate, further hindered by the clash of cultures, results in all sorts of amusing situations. As they work to survive and create a new Nation, Mau and Daphne learn about faith, science and love.
Recommended gr. 6+
Haven’t we all said “I wish I could be a fly on the wall …” For Gretchen Yee; these were more than just words. They became reality. Gretchen attends the Manhattan High School for the Arts, otherwise known as Ma-Ha, in New York City, where all the students are “different” and “special.” Gretchen feels she just doesn’t fit into these categories. She sits alone at lunch drawing pictures of Spider-Man so she can avoid talking with anyone else. She has a crush on Titus and only has one real friend, Katya.
Boys just don’t make any sense. What do they really talk about? What are they like behind closed doors? Are they just as disgusting as in class or is there more to them? If she could be a fly on the wall of the boys’ locker room, she could probably learn a lot about these vermin.
Gretchen’s parents are going through tough times and are most likely going to end up divorced. This particular week, her mother is off on vacation with a girlfriend and her dad is in China on business. All alone in her apartment Friday night, Gretchen eats dinner alone and reads a little of her school book, THE METAMORPHOSIS by Frank Kafka and finally falls asleep. The next morning she awakens to the strange sensation of having multiple legs and even wings on her back! How can this be? And how did she end up in the boy’s locker room? Not to mention, that the boys locker room is twice the size of the girls’ and even has big lockers to store their belongings. So unfair!
It sure is an eye-opener, especially with all those multiple bug eyes. Gretchen sees a lot more that than boys horsing around and talking about girls. She gets the bare-naked truth! She also learns that her BFF Katya has a boyfriend, how her crush really feels about her and even who are the school bullies.
A week later when Gretchen finally returns to her old self, she realizes that seeing life through someone (or something’s) eyes can put a whole new perspective on life and what really matters.
Recommended for 14+
SLB
This collection of poems, essays written by teens, and black-and-white photographs, describes the good, the bad, an
d even the ugly among our canine friends. Whether it is our dog’s cold wet noses in our faces or the shedding fur all over the furniture or even the occasional accident, we still love our four-legged friends and their unconditional love for us. Teen writers respond to poems written by the author, Joyce Sidman. They tell of their personal “dog experiences” and how they have impacted their lives.
This is an example of one of the teen essays. Written by 13 year old, Paige Herfurth Marvin.
The One Who Listens
“The relationship between dogs and teenagers is like no other. After a hard miserable day at school, a dog is waiting for you to come home. No matter what kind of mood you are in, your dog is there for you. A dog is like a journal. You can confess your deepest, darkest secrets and be confident that your dog won’t tell a single soul. A dog will slither under your bed sheets when you’re scared of the dark. A dog will sleep at the edge of your bed to watch for monsters. A dog cares and loves you as much as you love her.”
Recommended for all ages
SLB
We’ve all had that anxious feeling along with a rapid heartbeat and sweaty palms. But what if it turned into a full blown panic attack and you were essentially rendered incapacitated. In this memoir about her life as a victim of an anxiety disorder, Samantha Schutz paints a vivid picture of her challenges transitioning from high school to college. We follow the author’s eventual understanding of why she feels so different. This process is communicated through poetry. This poem taken from the book’s Prologue gives you a view into the word Samantha must endure.
“I can’t believe
no one else can hear
I am screaming
inside my head.
Things are moving so fast.
I am going to die.
I am going to die.
I am going to die.
My hands are shaking.
I try to squeeze them, try to make it stop,
but now my fists are shaking,
and this shaking is working its way through me.
It must look like I am having a fit.
I want to let the scream out,
but I think if I start,
I’ll never stop.
It’s not supposed to be like this.
I am too young to die.
I don’t know how to make this end,
and if it doesn’t, I’ll have to go to a hospital,
be medicated, force-fed soft foods.
I don’t want to be that person
I am not that person.
I am not.
I am not.”
Ultimately, Samantha finds the courage to deal with her disorder and discovers that she can in fact cope and gain her independence.
Recommended 14+
SLB
Imagine that our world is just an illusion, created and maintained by people in a whole other dimension. Imagine a whole factory dedicated to creating and sending sleep and dreams, personalized for every human being on Earth. Now imagine a Glitch in that system. Enter Becker Dane, a human boy trained as a Fixer. Fixer’s like Becker deal can with a stopped up rain tank (which caused a drought in Portugal), but locating and catching the Glitch is another matter entirely!
“The Seems” is a creative and funny read, complete with a list of cool Fixer Tools invented by Becker and other famous fixers.
Recommended for ages 11+
This is the third installment in the Alfred Kropp series. Once again, Alfred finds himself in the middle of a big mess. At least one person is out to kill him, OIPEP wants his blood (quite literally), and the police think he’s a nut-case. Alfred is a reluctant hero, looking to live a normal teenage life, but forced to run, fight and shoot his way out to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
As with the other Alfred Kropp books, “The Thirteenth Skull” is full of action and plot twists. In the midst of all the mayhem and destruction, Alfred is also forced to ponder the meaning of forgiveness. Are all bad deeds created equal? Does the end ever justify the means?
If you are unfamiliar with the works of Sylvia Plath, this is a perfect book to introduce you to this awarding-winning, Massachusetts poet. Stephanie Hemphill has captured the essense of Plath in her collection of poems about the poet. The poems are either written in a Plath-like style or written in the words of the people who knew her best. Although a work of fiction, Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath chronicles the life of Sylvia Plath from her birth in Boston on October 27, 1932, through her college years spent at Smith College, and into her married life with children in England.
Despite Sylvia Plath’s tragic ending, Hemphill weaves a tale of an inspirational and brilliant star snuffed out far too soon. Plath’s exceptional poetry and novel, The Bell Jar, still live on today influencing young poets and allowing them to discover the “night’s sky brillance.”
“She could not know how long
Her luminary would map the sky,
Or where her dying would lead the lost.”
—- from Your Own, Sylvia
by Stephanie Hemphill
Recommended for ages 13+
SLB
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