What is it with kids wanting to solve mysteries? Maybe a warning should be added to the list of tried and true parental instructions: 1. Don’t talk to strangers. 2. Don’t investigate disappearances, burglaries or murders without adult supervision…
Of course, this has been a popular device for ages. But this summer alone we have Pigeon English, 7th Sigma… and a new Flavia de Luce novel is on its way.
Lesley Kagen’s latest novel picks up one year after the events of Whistling in the Dark (NAL, 2007), in which young Sally barely escaped from a murderer. (For more, see the author’s website.) However, for all the praise garnered by Whistling in the Dark, Good Graces more than lives up to its predecessor. It also stands alone.
By the way, Kagen’s 2010 novel, Tomorrow River, is also about a pair of sisters, and likely to appeal to teen readers.
KAGEN, Lesley. Good Graces. 352p. Dutton. Sept. 2011. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-525-95238-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Eleven year-old Sally O’Malley made a deathbed promise to her Daddy three years ago that she would watch over her ten-year-old sister, Troo. That was no small promise. Irrepressible Troo chases trouble with a vigor matched only by Sally’s “overactive imagination,” which Sally’s mother treats with cod liver oil. Over the course of the summer of 1960, the girls encounter mysteries surrounding the disappearance of a neighbor boy, the persistent threat of a cat burglar, the possible attempted murder of an elderly lady, and sinister doings at the rectory of the Mother of Good Hope Church. As Sally tells the story, readers are treated to the ferocity of her concern for her feckless sister, as well as the intricate politics and romances of a tight Milwaukee neighborhood. Kagen gives Sally’s narration a rambling, on-and-off-topic charm, imbued with the half-understandings of a young girl who struggles to make sense of her world. Many young adult novels feature this stream of consciousness narration (think of a young Georgia Nicholson), so teens who like offbeat riffs in language will be enchanted by Sally O’Malley. Throughout the book, Sally refers to terrible events that happened the previous summer, which comprise Kagen’s 2007 novel, Whistling in the Dark.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Public Library, FL
Lucinda grows up at the very end of the Cold War, the daughter of a military family who has never lived in the United States. They have moved from one base to another her whole life. This book is about how she copes during her teen years, particularly with a volatile mother, an oblivious father, and unreliable friendships. It is also about her saving grace — rock and roll. The specific time period, circumstances and setting make it feel like historical fiction, as recent as it is, and I think that may be the way I booktalk it to teens.
I found myself quite absorbed by this coming-of-age story. There is no struggle to reading Along the Watchtower. The writing is smooth, the characters are interesting yet perfectly realistic, and the setting almost steals the show. A lot happens — a best friend’s father suicides, Lucinda’s parents divorce, she is nearly raped after allowing the wrong boy to take her to a club, she is kicked out of the house by her mother and left homeless, the boy she loves signs up to go to war. Yet somehow this is all part of real life, and life goes on. In Lucinda’s case, music helps a lot. After all the craziness of her family and school and friends and boys, at least she can shut her bedroom door and turn on a cassette tape.
In the review, I comment that the author gets every little detail right. One scene particularly sticks in my mind. Lucinda’s 9th grade class takes a school trip to Dachau. The entire situation is uneasy, but it’s not the tour itself so much as the stop at McDonalds for lunch afterwards that resonates. The palpable relief of returning to the present.
Lucinda’s parents are a big part of the story, her father especially. He is a terribly fallible man who loves his kids, even if he’s too selfish to take care of them very well. He is oblivious to his family’s needs, he cheats on his wife, he considers Lucinda’s epilepsy a weakness to be overcome. He later allows her to work three jobs supporting herself as a college student at the University of Oklahoma while contributing to a college fund for her younger siblings. You want to hate him, but he is saved by his vulnerability and the times he really does try to do the right thing. He’s human. And Lucinda sees all of this, although her teenaged perceptions do not always interpret what she sees correctly.
I enjoyed this article about Squires, especially the fact that it was while reading Sherman Alexie that she realized her own life could inspire her fiction.
SQUIRES, Constance. Along the Watchtower. 308p. Riverhead. 2011. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1-59448-523-7. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Lucinda, her mother, and her siblings arrive at their latest army posting in Germany to subpar lodgings and no supplies to speak of. This is typically neglectful of Lucinda’s father, so she runs out to find him, leaving her volatile mother raging in the apartment. She meets a group of fellow army kids in the stairwell and immediately hits it off with Syd. Unfortunately, his family is about to transfer. Making friends is difficult knowing you will lose them; it is also complicated by Lucinda’s mortifying bouts of epilepsy. Surely everything would be simpler if they lived in the States. Lucinda is saved by a growing obsession with music, especially after her father asks Nately (a soldier who can hardly refuse his commanding officer) to share his LPs. Their common love of rock and roll sparks a touching friendship. Sadly, when she finally moves to the States after her parents’ divorce, Lucinda feels more lost than ever. The novel is divided into three sections, during which Lucinda is 13, 16, and 19 years old, and spans the end of the Cold War through Desert Storm. Teens will enjoy the insider view of life as an “army brat” and find Lucinda’s coping strategies affecting. They will also enjoy her sparring with charming Syd, who reappears more than once. Squires gets even the smallest details of time period, setting, and emotion right. Although the book becomes a bit preachy (Lucinda’s father returns from Desert Storm disillusioned by the army’s willingness to wage war for oil profits) and the plot meanders, this is an absorbing read.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
The Kid is author Sapphire’s 2nd novel, following Push (Knopf, 1996). Today’s audiences know Push best as Precious, the 2009 film that was nominated for several Oscars. (The 2009 Vintage paperback reprint is actually titled Precious: based on the novel “Push”.)
The Kid is the story of what becomes of Precious’ son after she dies of AIDS. It is a powerful, painful story of sexual abuse, prostitution, rape and other violence leavened by a love of dance. Heavy material for teen readers, and I recommend that you read or skim this book yourself. As with most adult books with teen appeal, appropriateness depends upon its audience.
SAPPHIRE. The Kid. 373p. Penguin. 2011. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-1-59420-304-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This novel, the author’s follow-up to Push (Knopf, 1996), opens when “the kid” is nine years old and attending his mother’s funeral. After Precious dies, he’s put into foster care and immediately suffers physical abuse at the hands of another ward; sexual abuse soon follows as he goes to the Catholic orphanage where he receives an excellent education but is raped by the priests. He is in a dream state when he goes to the other boys at night, a state of power and joy as he repeats with them what has been done to him. JJ – as the kid is called at his point – has no sense of responsibility for or awareness of what he is doing. Completely and horrifically realistic, his voice is stream of consciousness–or unconsciousness as the case may be. It’s a jumble of fantasy, memory, justification, anger, and outrage. He tries to convince himself that his mother died in a car crash and his father in the war. He hates the “faggots” and he’s not one. He didn’t do anything. At 13, he is taken to his great-grandmother’s roach- and grease-filled house. Toosie has little interaction with him until, out of the blue, she tells her gruesome story, including her own rape that produced Mary (Precious’s mother), and Toosie’s subsequent life as a whore. JJ’s only positive outlet is dance, yet it is short lived as he struggles with identity, isolation, abuse and sexuality and finally has a breakdown. This intense and difficult book is for exceptional teens – teens who love reading books such as Dostovesky’s Crime and Punishment or Morrison’s Beloved, and who need to know and understand more of Precious and her family’s world.—Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA
How did I manage to get a whole month into this blog without posting the review of a memoir??
It seems to be common knowledge that memoir is a genre with tremendous teen appeal.
Yes and no.
Just because a memoir begins with the child and young adulthood of the writer does not mean that it will appeal to a young reader. On the other hand, many teenagers do crave stories about other people’s lives. Tone, voice and readability are crucial, and a sense of humor never hurts.
So yes, given the right elements, there is nothing more entertaining, more genuinely moving than a great memoir. (And nothing worse than a bad one.)
There are several different types of memoir:
the growing up in a crazy family type (Jeannette Walls, David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs deserve special mention. A personal favorite: Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres.)
the famous person type (Just Kids by Patti Smith ; Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family by Condoleezza Rice)
the type inspired by a particular, usually tragic, event (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers ; A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah)
or special achievement (Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer by Lynne Cox)
the “I learned about myself through a special relationship” type (Riding the Bus with my Sister by Rachel Simon)
the illness or condition type (Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet)
the immigration/coming-to-America type — this category includes many, many excellent titles. Think of writers like Edwidge Danticat, Esmeralda Santiago, and Carlos Eire (whose new memoir, Learning to Die in Miami, will be reviewed here soon)
Eric Poole’s story falls into the “growing up with a crazy family in a religious community” type. Enjoy.
POOLE, Eric. Where’s My Wand?: One Boy’s Magical Triumph over Alienation and Shag Carpeting. 263p. Putnam/Amy Einhorn Bks. 2010. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-399-15655-7. LC 2009051233.
Adult/High School–Eight-year-old Eric carefully rakes any trace of his footprints out of the shag carpeting, listening to his perpetually angry mother scream furiously at his perpetually beaten father. When the man stomps out of the house into the night, Eric desperately comes up with a solution to his family’s misery: Magic. He’s seen Eudora on TV’s Bewitched pull it off in admirable style, so he drapes himself in a white chenille bedspread and envisions a happier life. It works! (Sort of.) Thus begins Eric’s reliance on magical intervention in moments of crisis. Each chapter is a hilarious, heart-wrenching vignette from the child’s life in suburban St. Louis during the 1970s. In addition to living in the household from hell, Eric is mercilessly bullied throughout his school years and attends a Southern Baptist Church that threatens eternal damnation for…well, almost everyone. It’s tempting to compare Eric Poole with other gay men who have survived hellish childhoods to write humorous memoirs, such as David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs. Yet Poole writes with bemused self-mockery rather than satire. His younger self grapples internally with the unreliability of his magic, which eventually evolves into a questioning of God’s power. Teen readers, while missing countless wonderful references to 1970s kitsch, will be able to identify with the timeless dilemmas of slightly insane family members, unrealistic religious dogmas, and the brutality of popularity politics. In particular, gay teens will be gladdened to read of Poole’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
A post-apocalyptic, post-technology fantasy set in an Africa plagued by ethnic conflict, genocide and sorcerers.
Despite its heavy topic, there is no question that Who Fears Death will appeal to teens. A young girl becomes a young woman while accepting the responsibility of saving her people, helped only by equally young friends and the occasional, untrustworthy adult. There is sex and violence, despair and confusion. There is plenty of action, and writing that conjures startling, unique images. Despite its female protagonist, this one will appeal as much to boys as girls. Hand it to the teens who read Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone (FSG, 2007) or fans of Octavia Butler.
Okorafor has written for young adults, but this is her first adult novel.
OKORAFOR, Nnedi. Who Fears Death. 386p. DAW. 2010. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-7564-0617-2. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Onyesonwu is shunned because she is Ewu, the mixed-blood daughter of rape. In post-apocalyptic Africa, the Nuru are trying to exterminate the Okeke people. Impregnating their women is one strategy. Onyesonwu and her mother travel through the desert until she is old enough to attend school, then settle in the village of Jwahir. By the time she is 11, it is obvious that Onyesonwu has special abilities, and the villagers fear her. Once she passes the initiation rite, which involves experiencing a violent death, she studies with the sorcerer Aro, who helps to refine her abilities to shapeshift, travel between spiritual and earthly realms, heal the wounded, and even bring the dead back to life. In her late teens, Onyesonwu becomes convinced that she must travel west, where genocide is rampant, to help the one who is prophesied to rewrite history. Her three best friends and her soulmate, Mwita, accompany her on the harrowing journey, which culminates in a showdown with a powerful, evil sorcerer. Redolent with desert heat, sand, and mysterious natural phenomena, this is a world in which computer technology has been left behind, but a handheld electronic locator device keeps the travelers headed due west and nomads use everyday magic to start campfires. Genocide, child soldiers, and female genital mutilation echo today’s Africa. The main characters are all teenagers, full of rage, love, frank sexuality, strength, and determination. Who Fears Death gives fans of coming-of-age sorcerer books an opportunity to expand their horizons within the fantasy genre.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam) was originally published in February 2009, and is still on the hardcover bestseller list (#12 this week according to Publishers Weekly). That makes 73 weeks in a row. The paperback is currently scheduled for December 2011 (?!). No doubt another wave of popularity will surface next summer–the movie version is set to release in August 2011.
The Help has incredible appeal to many different groups of readers, teens among them. This is one of the rare books that I stock in multiple copies (we are a small school), and it provided an excellent student bookgroup discussion last year. I’m sure many of you have experienced the same success with this title.
Today’s book is a paperback original not to be missed, and a great read-alike for two teen favorites, The Help and The Secret Life of Bees.
I would add one more recent title to that read-alike list: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman (Penguin, 2010), just released in paperback. A gentle, sweet historical southern novel featuring a young protagonist, this one is appropriate for even the youngest teen readers.
Others?
GWIN, Minrose. The Queen of Palmyra. 416p. HarperPerennial. 2010. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-184032-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–For 11-year-old Florence, “normal” means that Daddy disappears into the night whenever he gets a phone call, carrying the fancy wood box that has been passed down from his father and grandfather. It also means cruising around at night while her mother visits the Negro bootleggers, passing them mysterious notes. In 1963, she has little access to news of the world at large, living in the insular universe of family and friends. So Florence has only a vague understanding of the racial tensions in her Mississippi town. She knows that her grandparents’ black housekeeper, Zenie, is one of the few people who make her feel like “precious cargo,” but she cannot comprehend the connections between her father’s nighttime activities, her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior, and the silences that surround Florence at Zenie’s home. Teen readers who enjoyed Kathryn Stockett’s The Help will find this book to have the same personalized examination of race relations in the South at a critical turning point in history. As Florence begins “forgetting things,” readers become aware that she is being sexually abused, although her memories are so pain-soaked that she is unable to make sense of them until she has grown up. The slow unwinding of the story recalls the feel of an oppressive Mississippi summer, bruising the characters with its inescapable force. In an appendix, Gwin shares further information about her experiences growing up in the South.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
People often ask me how I find adult books with teen appeal. There are several ways, from reading pre-pub lists and advance reviews, to attending publisher previews, to perusing bookstore shelves.
One source I always check is the IndieBound Indie Next List, released on the first of each month. The IndieBound website promotes independent bookstores. Booksellers from around the country pick their favorite books of the month to included on the Next List, and each pick is accompanied by a descriptive quote. The lists include a variety of genres, both fiction and nonfiction, usually the best of the books receiving buzz as well as a few sleeper titles. I take a closer look at every title with any possibility of teen appeal.
(There is also a great IndieBound app — very convenient for bookstore or library visits — as well as a monthly “Now in Paperback” list, which I use to find ideas for my adult bookgroup.)
Taking a look at the November 2010 list, we have blog reviews upcoming for a few titles, including The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent (Reagan Arthur) and Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff (Little, Brown).
Today’s book is a first novel, and a former Indie Next pick. Even better, I hear from trusted librarian colleagues (and via more than one listserv comment) that it is a favorite among readers. Having read it myself — I think it is a perfect example of a book published for the adult market that could have been been published as a young adult novel.
BOGNANNI, Peter. The House of Tomorrow. unpaged. Amy Einhorn. 2010. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-399-15609-0. LC 2009023543.
Adult/High School–This lively, funny, and sometimes touching fish-out-of-water tale will appeal to teens who love punk music, quirky characters, and slightly oddball situations. Sebastian is a 16-year-old who has been homeschooled in a geodesic dome in rural Iowa by his grandmother, a Buckminster Fuller devotee. When his grandmother has a stroke, he meets the Whitcomb family: mother Janice, who leads a somewhat out-of-control church youth group; Jared, a sarcastic chain-smoking heart-transplant recipient, and Meredith, a sexy, funny, and mean teenage femme fatale. Sebastian’s introduction, via Jared, to punk music; via Janice, to things like grilled-cheese sandwiches and grape soda; and via Meredith, to the stirrings of lust, cause him to start questioning his grandmother’s ideas for the first time. This is a beautifully written, wonderfully realized, and refreshingly unique coming-of-age story.–Sarah Flowers, formerly of Santa Clara County Public Library, CA
This paperback original is a real find. The Outside Boy is an historical coming-of-age story set within a mostly vanished community likely unfamiliar to teens. In the Author’s Note, Cummins states that one of her goals in writing the book was to depict travellers (or gypsies) beyond the usual stereotypes.
Apart from any agenda, this book is easy to sink into, thanks to wonderful characters, vivid writing, and a unique setting.
Do not be surprised to see this novel on a few “best of the year” lists.
CUMMINS, Jeanine. The Outside Boy. 384p. New American Library. 2010. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-451-22948-9. LC 2010003853.
Adult/High School–For all of his 11 years, Christy has travelled the Irish countryside, living out of a wagon he shares with his Dad. They are Pavees, nomadic Irish Travellers, who were once respected for the skills they brought to remote villages. But by the spring of 1959, they are increasingly reviled as nuisances and thieves. When Christy’s grandfather dies, the family honors the Pavee tradition by burning his wagon. Christy catches a newspaper photograph as it flies out of the flames. He learns that the woman holding a baby in the photograph is his mother, whom he has been told died seven minutes after his birth. Believing that it is a message from his dead grandfather, Christy sets out to learn the truth of his past, and to understand his place in the world as a Pavee. Cummins wonderfully conjures the beauty and hardship of the Pavee way of life in this impressive coming-of-age story. The young characters, which include Christy’s unapologetically brash cousin Martin, a social misfit named Beano, and adored Finnuala Whippet, are fresh and believable, adding a delightful air of youthful fun to the story. Many teens will recognize the agony of Christy’s dilemma as he is driven to defy his beloved father in order to learn the secrets of his own birth. Cummins chose not to fully re-create the Pavee dialect in her narrative, which makes the novel quite accessible to teens, offering a glimpse into this unique nomadic lifestyle from an adolescent’s point of view.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay is always a good possibility for teen fantasy readers, but he has outdone himself with Under Heaven. Known for setting fantasy in a slightly altered historical context, this time he bases his world on China. Young protagonists coming of age, love, war and adventure combine in an epic story recommended to fantasy lovers and historical fiction fans alike.
KAY, Guy Gavriel. Under Heaven. 567p. ROC. 2010. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-451-46330-2. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Kay’s latest offering moves into the rich territory of Imperial China in a fantasy era analogous to the T’ang Dynasty period. Shen Tai has spent two years in a remote corner of the empire, honoring his father’s memory by burying the dead–friend and enemy alike–and laying ghosts to rest. Introspective Tai recites poetry and remembers Spring Rain, a courtesan he loved and knows he likely lost when his enforced mourning took him from the city. And then he receives a gift of 250 Sardinian horses, and everything changes. Suddenly, Tai finds himself in the midst of courtly intrigues and political machinations; pitted against his own brother (the map and character list will help readers navigate the machinations). Kay’s almost stilted prose perfectly evokes a society in which every behavior is dictated by rules, and his own talents as a poet comes through in the poetry that characters frequently recite. Tai’s journey takes center stage, but others–notably Spring Rain, now concubine to the first advisor, and Tai’s sister Li-Mei, raised to princess and sent across the wall as a political bride, then caught in barbarian magic–both play crucial roles; all three are young and on voyages of self-discovery, and their journeys intersect in sometimes surprising ways. Gripping but stately in its momentum, with only small magic, this is a thoughtful, intellectual fantasy. Readers waiting for the next George R.R. Martin will find this immensely satisfying, even more so as the entire sweeping tale fills just one volume.–Karyn N. Silverman, Elizabeth Irwin High School, New York City
I have been telling everyone I know about Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok ever since reading it last spring. It makes a great booktalk (I used it several times at the end of the school year), and would be a satisfying bookgroup choice for either adults or teens.
Publishers Weekly printed a short interview with Kwok in their March 15, 2010 issue where she makes it clear that her character’s experience of coming to America with her mother under less-than-idea circumstances closely mirrors her own experiences as a child.
Maybe it is this personal knowledge that makes it special; plot description hardly does the story justice. My own experience of reading this book, months ago, is still etched in my memory. I sat with my hand over my mouth for the last 60 pages, hoping and wishing that things would turn out well for Kimberly.
KWOK, Jean. Girl in Translation. 293p. Riverhead. 2010. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-1-59448-756-9. LC 2009041041.
Adult/High School–Kimberly Chang moves to Brooklyn from Hong Kong with her mother when she is 11. Her mother was a music teacher in Hong Kong until she lost her husband and fell sick with tuberculosis. Now she is reduced to working for her bitter older sister in a Chinatown sweat shop and living in an unheated, rat and roach-infested apartment. Neither speaks English upon arrival, but Kim learns fast. She goes from failing miserably to winning a full scholarship to a top college prep school. Every day after classes she rushes to the factory to help her mother finish her required quota, working late into the evening. There she befriends Matt, another kid helping his mother. As they get older, they fall in love.
This may sound like a familiar immigrant story, but this one is exceptional. Kim’s narration has a clarity that reflects her own practical and determined character, lightened by her charming way of introducing the occasional Chinese phrase, which she translates for readers. This has the effect of keeping the foreignness of her new life in the forefront, without losing narrative momentum. Indeed, Kwok keeps the story moving forward until it reaches an intensely emotional ending. The feelings between Kim and Matt build to a climax that leaves readers breathless. Teens will want to talk about Kim’s surprising decisions and their consequences.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
