Teen Tuesday - Christmas Reads

Here are some of my favorites, most of which you may not be familiar with:


Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Penguin Classics paperback).

This is the most traditional on my list, but I sitll love the opening Christmas scene, when the four sisters are trying to have a "normal" holiday while their father is off at war, is still one of my favorites.




The Haunted Tea-Cosy by Edward Gorey (HMH hardcover).

 

Edward Gorey's take (subtitled A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas) on Dickens' A Christmas Carol, will be enjoyed by fans of Lemony Snicket, as well as those who already love Gorey. 

 
Dave Cooks the Christmas Turkey by Stuart McLean (Viking Canada hardcover).

Even if you aren't familiar with The Vinyl Cafe, a weekly programme on CBC Radio, you'll laugh yourself silly at this story of  Dave, the blunderful record store owner who offers to cook the Christmas bird while his wife Morley and their two children volunteer at the local food bank.


Flat-out Love  by Jessica Park (Skyscape e-book).

I loved this charming story about Julie Seagle, a young woman who moves to Boston to go to university, but finds that the apartment she (thought she) rented through Craigslist does not exist.  Her mother contacts her own roommate from college, who invites Julie to stay with them until she finds a place.

The family is welcoming, but Julie finds something not-quite-right about them, and is determined to figure out what it is. Matt is an expectedly geeky MIT student with few social skills,  13-year-old Celeste carries around a life-sized cardboard cut-out photo of her eldest brother Finn, who is apparently travelling around the world, and parents Erin and Roger spend most of their time at their university offices.

The story of Julie's first Christmas on her own is why it's on this list.

Covers v. Content

Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm.

It's not that the cover of this book belies the content, although, technically Eighteenth-Century women wore stays rather than corsets.   The protagonist, Minnesotan Libby Kelting is blonde, and she does sneak her cellphone into the bra she defiantly wears.  

But besides being a humorous romance, this is also a mystery (is there really a ghost?) that teaches the reader a great deal about Colonial history.  Libby, a sixteen-year-old Austen-loving history buff,  whose best friend is a fashion-obsessed boy, has landed a summer job at a living history museum in the town of Camden Harbor, Maine.  Dev takes pride in having taught the geeky Libby how to dress and wear makeup, and Libby has definitely taken it to heart.

She has trouble cramming all the clothes she wants (including a pair of shoes to match every outfit) into her pink suitcase.  And when she arrives at the interns' dorm in Camden Harbor, she discovers to her horror that when she's on the grounds, she must either wear khakis and a polo bearing the park's logo, or  period garb.

Yes, this is reminiscent of Legally Blonde; Libby even compares herself to Elle Woods.  Like Elle, she has hidden depths.  She knows enough about the period that she's able to teach the 8-year-old girls in the group she leads as "Education and Interpretation Intern" how to bake gingerbread over a fire, make lemonade from scratch, and embroider. 

But Libby is still a sixteen-year-old girl, and thus prone to making mistakes like trusting the wrong people, a lesson she learns the hard way.

But, as the cover implies (this isn't really a spoiler!), the story does have a happy ending.  And the book will have a sequel:  Confederates Don't Wear Couture (June 2013), in which Libby joins a group of Civil War re-enactors. 



FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed this book from my local library.

Austen in Austin

Austentatious by Alyssa Goodnight (Kensington trade paperback, 31 January 2012).

Small spoiler ahead!

Nicola James is an engineer living in Austin, Texas, and has had her life mapped out since she was barely a teen.  Uncharacteristically, she sometimes wishes she had a Keep Austin Weird  t-shirt, and is a diehard Janeite.  One day she picks up an vintage blank book in an antique shop, intending to give it to her niece as a gift, but accidentally spilled a chai latte on it.

Since it's no longer useful as a  gift, she writes in it herself.  Imagine her surprise when she opens it and finds the words in place of her original entry.  Astounded and disbelieving, Nicola first tries to ignore it, but eventually finds herself in a sort of conversation with someone/thing who sounds very much like Jane.  Yes, that Jane. 

Miss Nicola James will be sensible and indulge in a little romance

And before she knows it, she's ignoring The Plan and going out with a guy she met at a wedding.  A musician, no, a rock star who's with a band showcasing at South by Southwest, and turns out to be a charmer from Scotland.

This was such an enjoyable book to read!   Planners like Nicola will cheer on The Journal just as much those who are Spontaneous.  You'll laugh, you'll sigh, and you'll probably stay up all night reading.

FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a galley of the book for review purposes.