family fiction

The Silent Swan by Lex Keating

In The Silent Swan, Lex Keating follows Gabriel, the protagonist of this story, through his school and home life where he reigns supreme in all things. He gets the girl, he’s captain of the baseball team, he coaches a junior baseball team, he’s king of his brothers… until a new rule imposed by his parents throws him into the path of one girl, Tam Swann, who changes him forever.

I don’t think I was quite prepared for what an emotional journey The Silent Swan turned out to be. And it was a good emotional journey. It wasn’t one of those depressing stories with no hope. It was one of those stories with some depressing parts that ends up full of hope.

The Silent Swan is very long (I read the electronic version from NetGalley, but the Amazon listing puts it over 500 physical pages). If I could change one thing about it, I’d make Gabe a first person narrator rather than telling the whole story in third person. I was able to connect with all of the characters in third person, but I really would have liked that first person connection with Gabe. Or even alternating first person points of view between Gabe and Tam.

Regardless of my POV preferences, The Silent Swan is a heart-warming story that will stick with its readers. One huge plus to this good YA novel is also that it’s pretty much completely clean, and the length and vocabulary should make the lexile level pretty high up there. I’d be totally comfortable having this in my middle school ELA classroom as a challenge novel to advanced readers.

The Silent Swan releases on September 10th. Click here to find it on Amazon!

Reasons I Fell For the Fat Funny Friend by Cassie Mae (writing under the pen name of Becca Ann)

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the New Adult genre – what it is, what I love about it, what I wish was different about it – and introduced you all to Cassie Mae, author of Friday Night Alibi.

Well, I enjoyed Friday Night Alibi so much that I looked up Cassie Mae’s other titles and was intrigued by this story. Now I’ll say that I usually shy away from stories featuring protagonists that stress about their weight and obsess over it and try to go on diets and are generally annoying and cause me stress as the reader. This isn’t like that. At all.

In this, Hayley (dubbed the funny fat friend because she sets her friends up on dates but doesn’t go on any for herself) holds tight to a crush on her sign language partner, Brody. She knows, though, that Brody has a huge crush on his brother’s ex… so she offers to help him get a date with her even though it will amount to torture for Hayley.

What I really like about this book is that we get to hear Brody’s point of view, which is a breath of fresh air. I don’t want to say too much more for fear of ruining any surprises, because really I liked this that much. It wasn’t your stereotypical kind of overweight girl story, and it had a true and really satisfying depth to it.

I really, really, really recommend this for high school girls and especially any young (or not so young) woman who struggles with confidence in their physical appearance, even if it’s not weight. There was just something really special about watching Hayley come through the story better in the end than she was when it began. It’s available on Amazon here, both in kindle and print editions.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

A few months ago, I read and reviewed This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith. I really loved it a lot.

So of course, if you’re a total book nerd like me, finding one book you love by an author that’s new to you prompts you to look into the rest of that author’s books. When I looked into Smith’s books, I discovered this one… which I’d heard about but not read, and had to pick it up.

This story is one of Hadley, who misses her flight from New York to London for her father’s wedding by mere minutes. Consumed with angst over the fact that her father is marrying a woman she’s never met, and the fact that she even has to go to the wedding, Hadley finds a welcome distraction in Oliver, a cute British boy who turns out to be on her flight, sitting in her row.

I loved the whole story. Finding out more about Hadley and Oliver both as they talk and fall in love on an airplane (which is about the most unromantic place ever, honestly… props to Smith and her imagination for being about to make an airplane come alive as a viable setting for love). And then, seeing what happens when they finally get to London and they’re removed from the “romance” of the airplane was sweet. I won’t say more because, really, you should just read it.

But I will say that I found myself rooting for Hadley and Oliver. I liked them. A lot. Smith has a great ability to create a romance you want to see last beyond the pages of the book.

This title is reportedly in the works for a movie, though I haven’t heard any recent details. There’s an article here if you’re interested; I think it would make a really fun, quirky romantic movie that even my husband could stand to see in the theater.

Click here to see it on Amazon. Enjoy it!

New Adult fiction and one excellent title to start with… Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae

A new genre has been created. Young Adult used to cover a broad range of ages, from lower middle school up into college. As we all know, a sixth grader is light years away from a college student in maturity, interests, culture… Having one genre to cover all of those ages was a bit too much.

So, with the ever growing interest in young adult fiction (because it’s awesome), you’ll see some subdivisions branching out. Middle grades and Teen Fiction are fairly self explanatory, but what about New Adult? 
New Adult is the term that is used for books with protagonists and characters in that post-high school but pre-career and marriage time of life. They’re older, more mature, and wresting with very adult issues, but they’re still young. They don’t have everything figured out and they don’t always know where they’re going, but they’re making progress. 
I think this new genre is great. I’ve enjoyed reading a dozen or so new adult titles already, and the issues dealt with in these books are close enough to issues I still deal with in my thirties that I can relate easily to the characters. I think it’s unfortunate, though, that many new adult authors are putting heavy doses of graphic sexuality and foul language in their titles. It reminds me of a child actress going out and thinking she has to do nude scenes in adult movies before she’s seen as fully grown up. It’s annoying, especially when it just seems extraneous in the middle of a really good story. 
One new adult title I can whole heartedly recommend, though, is Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae. In this book, we get all of the romance and drama and happy we want, without sex scenes that border on pornographic. I’m looking forward to reading more from Cassie Mae!

Ender’s Game

I know, it’s sad that I hadn’t read Ender’s Game before now. And honestly, I don’t even know why it took so long… I thought it would be more of a younger middle school and upper elementary story, but I was very wrong. 

Ender’s Game has everything in it that made me love The Giver. First of all, there’s a futuristic, thoroughly screwed up society. It needs fixing and saving. And Ender, like The Giver’s Jonas, is the one who is called upon to save it. 
The action and language are more intense than The Giver, but never in an inappropriate way. It’s tense, and the resolution is unexpected – though I figured out most of what was happening before it was officially revealed to Ender and the reader. It was a fun bit of speculation and dramatic irony for a little while. 
Having really enjoyed this book, I have to say that I’m very much looking forward to the movie coming out soon. From the descriptions of everything in the book, I’m thinking it’ll definitely be one to go see in the theater. I’m not sure that I’ll read any of the sequels to Ender’s Game, though. I’m kind of happy with where it ended. 
I definitely recommend this book to middle school and up – and there’s a lot here for adults, too. As always, read the book before you see the movie!

Jennifer Echols

Here’s a great summer reads author for you guys: Jennifer Echols! 
Echols’ books are romantic dramas with a sense of humor – she’s so good at writing a developing romantic relationship between two characters that you’ll feel like you’re there with them. The three pictured here, Forget You, Going Too Far, and Love Story, were the first books I read this summer… and I went through them all in about three days.
For content reasons, I’d recommend these to teens in their upper high school through college years. I’m pretty conservative with my recommendations, I know, but that’s just me. Overall, the stories here are engaging and I loved watching each romance spark and ignite. 
Echols has a new title, Dirty Little Secret, coming out in July. I’m looking forward to it!
Enjoy. :)

Dessen’s Latest… Not Her Best.

I’ll start by saying that I’m generally a fan of Dessen’s, and several over her titles have made their way to my Goodreads “favorites” shelf. See my previous write up for The Truth About Forever.

One thing I love about many of her books is the summery beachiness and good, clean, fun teenage romance. Many of her books take place in a fictional (though clearly Carolina) beach town called Colby. Seeing so many of the characters and stores and landmarks show up again and again is cool, but there were so many references to Colby residents from previous books that I feel like I need a Colby directory because I couldn’t remember everything.

I didn’t feel like The Moon and More was full of her best characters, either. I found Theo completely unlikable and thus super annoying, which hindered my ability to connect with Emaline when she didn’t agree. I did really enjoy the family relationships between Emaline and her mom, sisters, and Benji, but then I wanted to throw something at her over Luke (who I really did like, because who doesn’t like a shirtless beach house pool boy?). 

I mean, it was good as Dessen always is, but not my favorite of hers by a long shot.

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Here’s my confession: I have a HUGE crush on this book. In fact, I’ll tell you what happy looks like – my face when I’m reading Jennifer E. Smith’s sweet, funny, and cleverly written exchanges between Graham Larkin and Ellie O’Neill.
In this story, a simple mistake in typing an e-mail address leads to a correspondence between two teenagers from opposite sides of the country. The teenagers don’t know much of anything about each other, and yet it’s that anonymity through e-mail with a stranger that allows them to open up to each other about things they’d never tell anyone they actually knew. What results is a conversation of thoughts and feelings in the moment – things they can’t say out loud but can say to each other. This ranges from seemingly insignificant observations about the annoyingness of smiley faces used in e-mails (J) to the soul-searching question of what happiness looks like.
Each still holds an important secret, though.
Graham Larkin is a teen heartthrob movie star, trapped in a world of paparazzi and feeling like nobody really wants to be around him for him, but only for his looks and his fame. In his correspondence with Ellie, he gets to be himself and get to know her without the trappings of fame. He’s just a witty, smart, normal guy who’s falling for a girl he’s never met.
Ellie O’Neill is a seemingly typical small town girl, but she and her mom have changed their names to keep a scandalous past hidden. Ellie is the only child of a single mom, and life gets lonely even with her friends to keep her company. This anonymous pen pal deal is exactly what she needs – a guy she can be honest with and dream about.
Only, what if it doesn’t have to be a dream anymore? When Ellie lets her town’s name slip, Graham starts pulling strings and gets the location for his next movie shoot changed… to Ellie’s small coastal town. Sounds like every girl’s dream – what teenage girl doesn’t want the teen magazine centerfold showing up on her doorstep, ready to sweep her off her feet? For Ellie, though, Graham’s fame and constant media attention complicate and change everything.
Watching these two characters navigate the challenges they each face as they explore the possibilities the future holds is great summer fun. The characters are great to spend some time with, the writing is full of smart romance and beautiful description, and the story holds enough excitement to keep us all daydreaming about our teenaged selves opening the door to find our adolescent celebrity man-crush there, declaring his love for us. All in all, I highly recommend you check out This Is What Happy Looks Like… and soon!

Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik

Epic Fail was really cute! Elise is a great protagonist – I love her fire and wit, even though I was slightly frustrated by her initial inability to trust Derek, the hot son of a famous actress. She soon learns, though, that she can’t judge people at her new school based on appearances or who their parents are, and we’re rewarded with a great teenage love story.

As a frequent reader of teenage love stories, I’m also particularly appreciative of the fact that Claire LaZebnik gives us that satisfying ending where the girl gets together with the right guy, there’s kissing involved, and then the story continues for a while longer. None of this ending on the verge of a kiss and abruptly the story is over business… you get a fully satisfying ending that feels good and solid.

I was also impressed with LaZebnik’s ability to tell a great story, drawing from an Austen classic, with out making the teenaged characters drunken sex-crazed idiots. Because, you know, not ALL teenagers are drunken sex-crazed idiots. The content of this was relevant to teenagers without being at all inappropriate. I’d be comfortable putting this on my middle school classroom shelves, but it easily has an appeal to readers through high school and into college.

Check this book out! I’m looking forward to reading more from this author. Enjoy. :)

How To Save A Life

Sara Zarr is one of those authors that seems to touch my heart with her words in a way that is unforgettable. This is especially evident in her most recent book, How To Save A Life, which just recently came out in paperback.

In HTSAL, we get to see two very different points of view of the same adoption story line – a pregnant teenage girl contemplating giving her baby up for adoption, and a teenage girl in the family she chooses to adopt her baby.So many good things are happening in this book – alternating viewpoints (which I love, if you haven’t noticed by now), hugely relevant subject matter for so many teenagers and their families, and this compelling story of love and compassion that simply must be read.
While the subject of teen pregnancy might seem like a high school only topic for some parents and teachers, Zarr is able to handle this topic without sensationalizing it – I’d be perfectly comfortable with having this in my middle school classroom, which is at a pretty conservative school. On the flip side, this book is written so well that high school and college readers wouldn’t feel at all like they were reading a young readers type of book.
I’m really a huge fan of Sara Zarr, so I’ll be highlighting her more completely in a Friday Favorite coming up soon. For now, though, I wanted to give How To Save A Life its very own blog shoutout because it’s just that amazing.

According to Zarr’s website, the paperback version also has an exerpt from the next book she has coming out, which I’m anxiously waiting to get my hands on. Go buy it now! AND… I just found a contest for the new paperback edition. Enjoy!

~Melissa