high school

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. :)

#ThrowbackThursday – Sweet Valley Twins

First of all, I’m LOL’ing at these covers. Teenagers, welcome to the late 80’s and early 90’s…

I can’t believe I read books with covers this cheesy.

Anyway, I think Francine Pascal actually started with the Sweet Valley High books, which feature beautiful, blond, popular, identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica. Their adventures are cheesy, dramatic, wonderfully campy, romantic, and super edgy… I mean, check out the covers from Don’t Go Home With John and Teacher Crush. Hahahahahahahaha

Seriously though, these books were GREAT fun, and Francine Pascal is my hero – she created these worlds and then other people wrote lots of the books (there are some ridiculous number like 400+ of them). And now she lives in New York AND the South of France. REALLY? Tough life.

She is still writing some current books, including a ten years later book featuring Jessica and Elizabeth. I haven’t read any of her recent stuff yet. I have a few requested from the library. There are also several reprints of the Sweet Valley High books… if you ever find one, you should check it out just for fun. Or, next time you’re at the Goodwill, you’re bound to find some super cheap used copies.

Enjoy some cheesy throwback fun! :)

The Truth About Forever

I have to admit, I’ve only recently become a fan of Sarah Dessen. My students have read her books non-stop for years, but I never really gave them a fair chance. I just assumed they’d be simple and stereotypical plots. But, that assuming? It totally made an ass of me. I’ve read several of Dessen’s books now, but the one that absolutely solidified my status as a legit fan (to the point where I follow her on both twitter and instagram) was The Truth About Forever.

The protagonist of this novel, Macy, maintains insane control of her life as she strives (and achieves, sickeningly) perfection in everything she does. This stems from the traumatic death of her father and the way that her family has dealt with that loss. And though, on the outside, it looks like Macy is a pristine model of the perfect life, in reality she’s just sad. Her relationship with her boyfriend is sad. Her relationship with her mom is sad. Her life in general is just sad.

Luckily, Macy meets an entirely new group of people who are everything she needs. She learns to act like she’s alive again. She laughs and argues and smiles and talks. It’s a good thing… especially as a relationship begins with Wes, leaving her to decide what to do about her “perfect” boyfriend.

Dessen’s style is unique. Her writing is charming and enjoyable, but also very real and authentic. Life’s not always sunshine and roses, but you have to find some sunshine to warm your face and some roses to delight your senses in every rough spot you go through. You just have to. Dessen has an understated, graceful way of putting that life lesson into her books, and the result is addicting and inspirational. I’m sure we’ll see her on the blog again later as a Friday Favorite. :)

For now, though, go read The Truth About Forever. It’s wonderful in ways you’d never expect. I’ll leave you with this quote:

“Life can be long or short, it all depends on how you choose to live it. It’s like forever, always changing. For any of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you’d better make every second count. What you have to decide is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, is this how you’d want to have spent it?” 

― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

Enjoy this story!

Stealing Parker

WOW this book caught my attention immediately. I seriously went to bed at 8:30 last night just so I could lay there and start reading… but then I couldn’t put it down and actually go to sleep until I’d finished it!

In Stealing Parker, Miranda Kenneally deals with a whole crapload of issues that are VERY relevant to teenagers right now, but she did it in this neat, compact, fast-moving way that was so well written I didn’t even realize how much stuff I was having to think about. It was a really fun read, and I instantly connected with the protagonist, Parker, through her struggles and snippets of journal entries (which she mostly burned, so the pyro in me enjoyed that immensely).

One of the main issues Parker has to deal with is her Christian faith and how it has been affected by the recent divorce of her parents. The way Kenneally writes about this is uncomfortable, but so very authentic and real. It’s true that sometimes Christians get it all wrong – none of us are perfect – and the way that’s portrayed in this book is eye opening and heart breaking, but it’s not blasphemous or disrespectful. It’s just honest. Now, I will say that I didn’t agree theologically with some of what Parker’s mom ends up telling her, and I have some other theological disagreements with lifestyle choices in this book, but the bottom line is that it made me think without challenging my own faith.I think that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t, though, recommend this for anyone under high school age (like, UPPER high school) or anyone who’s not solid in their own beliefs. It’s a challenging read in that area.

I absolutely loved the infusion of softball and baseball into this fun romance, too. I never realized how much I seriously enjoyed playing softball until I stopped after 10 years, so it was really fun for me personally to read a book with that as an element in it. It doesn’t seem like there are many YA novels out there with sports-playing female protagonists, but maybe I just haven’t found them.

And of course there’s plenty of romance, which I just can’t get enough of. Parker finds herself attracted to and flirting with the new assistant baseball coach (he’s 23, and she’s turning 18 in less than 2 months). While the age difference really wouldn’t be that big of a deal once she’s out of high school, the flirtation is scandalous just because he’s a teacher and she’s still a student. In the beginning you’re almost rooting for them, kind of like Aria and Ezra from Pretty Little Liars. But then there’s also this guy that she’s been competing with academically for years, but now that her position as valedictorian is secure, she can look at him as more than just the competition. I won’t give away too much. Just know that in the end, it’s all good and delightfully romantic.

Enjoy!

She’s So Dead To Us

After that very serious and difficult to write review of Lois Lowry’s Son, I need a fun brain break. And the perfect book for a fun brain break? Kieran Scott‘s She’s So Dead To Us. Now, that’s not to say that this is a dumb book. It’s not. It’s full of great stuff to think about… but it’s also just really enjoyable.

http://www.amazon.com/Shes-So-Dead-Hes-Trilogy/dp/1416999523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352508305&sr=1-1&keywords=she%27s+so+dead+to+us

In this book, the first in a trilogy, protagonist Ally is forced to move back to the town where she grew up – and is now an outcast. Why? Because her dad pretty much screwed the families of her very wealthy friends out of a lot of money, so all of her old friends totally hate her for what her dad did. Plus Ally has moved back with just her mom, her dad having left the family out of his own shame, and they’re living on the poor side of town.

As if this isn’t all hard enough to deal with, there’s a new family living in her old house, and their son, Jake, is downright dreamy. And he’s now friends with all of Ally’s old friends. While there are undeniable sparks between the two of them, all of these social issues are bound to come between them. Luckily they each give their own POV in the narrative, so we get insight into what they’re both thinking throughout the trilogy. It’s pretty awesome.

These books are great for the high school crowd and enjoyable for the rest of us, too. As I was doing some research for this post, I discovered that Kieran Scott also writes under some pen names, and I’ve actually read TONS of her books when you take the pen names into account. But it brings me to ask this question: WHY would an author write under a pen name if it wasn’t a secret??? Any thoughts?

Anyway, ENJOY this trilogy! It’s so fun.

~Melissa

Shades of London: The Name of the Star

Ok, I really, really, really like Maureen Johnson. She’s a wonderful, quirky writer and she makes me laugh on twitter. For real, you should follow her on twitter. Trust me.

I haven’t quite read all of her books – our county library doesn’t own some of her earlier books, and my book money only goes so far. But, most of what I have read is pretty girl centered (in a good way) and perfect for the teen girl market.

When her latest book, The Name of the Star, originally came out (the original cover is the older looking one with the creepy black and white ghosty guy) I was excited to read something from Johnson that didn’t necessarily fit into her typical book category. It didn’t disappoint. At all.

The Name of The Star has the perfect amount of mystery and creepiness balanced with lots of fun. I love Maureen Johnson’s voice in her books – that playful quirkiness always comes through. It’s like you can just tell she’d be really fun to go get some coffee with. Anyway, in this book, London is being terrorized by someone who is copying the Jack the Ripper murders. The protagonist, a teenage girl from Louisiana studying at an English boarding school, is named Rory. She’s instantly likable and easy to identify with as she navigates this mystery.

What I like about this, too, is that it IS the first in a series of books called Shades of London. The next book, The Madness Underneath, comes out in February. BUT this is not like those series where you can’t stand to wait for the next one, even though you’ll definitely look forward to it. The Name of the Star has a resolved, finished feel to it. It’s perfectly satisfying, and it’s good to know there will be more of them.

You can click here to be taken to the Barnes and Noble site for this book if you want to order. (I’m not endorsed by BN or anything. It’s just one of my happy places.) On that page, you can preview the first part of the book by clicking on the book cover. They also have a cool preview of Book 2 in the series so you can check it out. Enjoy… I know I did!

~Melissa

From What I Remember…

I’ll just be super honest – my expectations were not real high for this book as I thought this was basically going to be a teenage version of The Hangover. I’m happy to say that I was proven wrong from the very first page, as I was instantly pulled into Kylie’s story.

This book chronicles the events of a few days in the life of a “good girl”at the end of her senior year. Desperate to save her graduation speech when her laptop falls into peril, Kylie puts herself into that same perilous situation and pulls several of her classmates along with her. The story is so exciting and well paced that you don’t even realize it’s close to 500 pages long until you look up and realize it’s 2:00 am and you’re still reading.

If you’ve read my other blog posts, you know I love a good multiple POV story, and this one has FIVE. The numerous points of view were a little distracting in the beginning, but by the time I was really into the story they were a total asset. I love getting to see how other characters are thinking and reacting to various events in a novel. In this case, we get so many opinions of the same events that the story feels more rounded and complex even though it takes place over a short time period of three days.

The authors, Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas, both have backgrounds in film – this would explain why the book has a movieesque feel to it as it moves beautifully from scene to scene. The book would make a great movie, actually. I’d go see it.

This book is definitely for the 10th grade and up crowd, I think. The characters engage in some behaviors that I wouldn’t really condone, but every action has a very real consequence in this story. My only slight criticism of this is that the authors kind of beat you over the head with the homosexuality of one of the characters. I mean, it’s good to have diverse, well rounded characters, but this one seemed pretty stereotypical and over the top.

All in all, From What I Remember is GREAT FUN and well worth reading. Enjoy!

~Melissa