Teen Tuesday - Top 10 of '13

Here are my favorite books published in 2013, listed alphabetically by author, because there's no way I could rank them in order of preference.

Don't Look Now (Persefone Trilogy #2) by Michelle Gagnon (HarperCollins hardcover, 27 August 2013).

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry (Henry Holt and Co. hardcover, 11 June 2013).

Hero (The Woodcutter Sisters #2) by Alethea Kontis (HMH Books for Young Readers hardcover,  1 October 2013).

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers (HMH Books for Young Readers hardcover, 2 April 2013).

Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young (Simon Pulse hardcover, 27 August 2013).

Kenning Magic by Lizzie Ross (Saguaro Books, 6 March 2013).

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin's Griffin hardcover, 10 September 2013).

This Song will Save Your Life by Leila Sales (Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover, 17 September 2013).

Star Cursed (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #2) by Jessica Spotswood (Putnam Juvenile hardcover, 18 June 2013).

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Disney-Hyperion hardcover, 10 September 2013).

Secret Agents & Evil Geniuses

Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2) by Gail Carriger (Little, Brown  Books for Young Readers hardcover, 5 November 2013).

Life at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality is never dull, especially not for Miss Sophronia Temminnick.  She's excelling in her studies, but is also doing very well at getting in trouble.

Her nocturnal wanderings around the dirigible help her stay informed about things like who the vampire Professor Braithwope feeds from, and why the school is suddenly heading to London.  But although she doesn't know why some boys from Bunson & Lacroix's Polytechnique (a school for budding evil geniuses) are  joining them on this field trip, she does know that they are extremely annoying (except, perhaps for her best friend Dimity's brother Pillover).

Carriger has a wonderful way with language:  lessons include "tea and delusions"  and "portion allotment, puddings and preemptive poisonings".  Pillover shovels "mutton into his maw as if sheep were soon to be obsolete".

And the names!  "Lord Dingleproops", "Professor Shrimpdittle" and Sophronia's mechanimal pet sausage dog, "Bumbersnoot".

Readers of Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series and other aficionados of steampunk fiction who (for some strange reason) may not know of this series aimed at teens will love Sophronia's adventures.  It isn't necessary, though highly recommended that one begin withe the first book in this series, Etiquette & Espionage, where we meet Sophronia and learn how she ends up at Madmoiselle Geraldine's. 

If you haven't already pre-ordered this, what are you waiting for?



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to Little, Brown and Edelweiss for the e-galley of this book.

Beneath the Surface

Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy trilogy #1) by Kiersten White (HarperTeen hardcover, 31 August 2010).

Even though sixteen-year-old Evie has spent most of her life living in the headquarters of the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she considers herself a normal teenager.  Sure, she neutralizes paranormal creatures around the world because she can see through their glamours, but she still loves clothes, watches the most popular teen soap Easton Heights, and her handler Raquel makes her study and do homework.

Her best friend Lish is a mermaid who also works for the IPCA, running the control center from inside a large aquarium.  As expected, Evie is often lonely, at least until a paranormal named Lend gets caught trying to break into the building. 

No one can figure out what Lend is, and Evie has never seen anything like him before.  Bust she does learn that he's about her age, and lives as a human, going to high school and other "normal" stuff. 

At the same time, there's paranormals are suddenly being murdered everywhere, and no one can figure out who.  Some of  the IPCA administrators think Lend might be involved, but Evie is certain he's not.  And she's just as certain that the creepy faerie Reth is, even though Raquel says he can be controlled. 

This story is a great combination of mystery, humor, romance, and of course the paranormal.  It's been around a few years, but it's not at all dated. 

The remaining books in the trilogy, Supernaturally (2011) and Endlessly (2012) continue the story of Evie  and the IPCA after the identity of the killer has been determined and you'll want to read them right after you finish the first.



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

Seek the Unknown!

In honor of the theme of this year's Teen Read Week, I'm going to post reviews of books that "explore and learn about the unknown through mystery, adventure, sci-fi, and fantasy books", starting with:

Unremembered (The Unremembered Trilogy #1) by Jessica Brody  (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux hardcover, 5 March 2013).

 Who is she?  The teenaged girl was found at the site of a plane crash, surprising of itself because no one else survived.  She doesn't remember anything, not where she came from or why she was on that flight, not even her name. 

She wakes up in a hospital bed unable to answer any questions.  The doctors inform her that she is sixteen, and one of the nurses dubs her "Violet" because of the unusual color of her eyes.  The police and social services are searching for her family, and weeding out the cranks by not publicizing that she was wearing an unusual locket when she was found.

She ends up being assigned to a foster family who live about three hours away from Los Angeles, where the hospital is.  The reason for this is to get her somewhere quite, away from the media circus that her circumstances have caused.

But she keeps seeing the same boy everywhere; how does he know where to find her?

This is a thrilling, gripping story that you'll want to read in one sitting.  The second installment of the trilogy, Unforgotten, will be released in February 2014.



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

Fly Girl

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Disney-Hyperion hardcover, 10 September 2013).

About ten months ago, I reviewed a book called Code Name Verity on this blog.  I was completely and utterly mesmerized by it, and I feel the same way about its companion novel Rose Under Fire.  (Rose is not exactly a sequel, and is easily comprehensible without reading Verity, but many of the characters and incidents in this book are more easily understood if it has been read.)

The events of this book begin shortly after the those of Code Name Verity.   Rose Justice, the protagonist of this book is, like Verity's Maddie, a pilot.  Unlike Maddie and Julie, though, Rose is an American.  Her family owns an airfield in  Pennsylvania, and her Uncle Roger (who is with the British government) manages to get her a position ferrying airplanes for the ATA (Air Transport Authority).

As with Verity, this story is written in diary form, this time from Rose's point of view.  Thanks, once again, to her uncle's influence, she gets a coveted gig flying a plane to transporting a group of VIPs to France.  On her return flight, however, there's a problem and she eventually ends up in a German women's "work camp" (which seemed to me to be a euphemism for "concentration camp"). 

She befriends a group of women called the Rabbits, young women, mostly Polish, who have had experimental surgery performed on them, ostensibly for the purpose of finding more efficient ways to heal German soldiers' war wounds.  As a result, these women are crippled in many different ways, but are expected to do the same sort of work as the others.

As one might expect, conditions for the prisoners are horrific.  Ms. Wein's research on the subject was extensive (see her website), and her descriptions are detailed and disturbing.  The women cope by telling stories and, in Rose's case,sharing poetry she's created in her head (they have no means of writing thing down).

Like Verity, Rose's story is difficult to read, and though gripping, may require the reader to set it aside for a time in order to absorb the intensity.  For this reason, despite its being marketed as a teen novel, I'd recommend it for only the most mature of young people under  (or over!) the age of fifteen.  


Many thanks to Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley for the digital review copy.

Teen Tuesday

Don't Look Now (Persefone Trilogy #2) by Michelle Gagnon (HarperCollins hardcover, 27 August 2013).

Thirteen months ago, I reviewed Don't Turn Around, the first book in this dystopian trilogy.  I waited eagerly for almost a year before I was able to download the galley of the second book to read and review it, and agonizing though it was, it was worth the wait.

The action begins on the first page, with Noa (whom, we discover, is now a "team leader" with Persefone's Army, a group of young people who survived pharmaceutical giant Pike & Dolan's experiments) and her crew in San Francisco tailing a pair of suspicious-looking men who are almost certainly part of the evil Project Persephone's mercenary squads.

Meanwhile, Peter, Noa's fellow hacker from book one, is still in Boston, doing what he does best, working online with secret chat groups trying to find out what P & D is up to.  He also attempts a physical surveillance of Mason, the P & D employee he went up against in Don't Turn Around, while worrying the whole time about his ex-girlfriend Amanda, who is exhibiting classic symptoms of PEMA.

Some reviewers have complained that too much of the narrative is concerned with romances between various characters, but I believe it works, because these are mostly hormone-fueled teens.

Like its predecessor, Don't Look  Now is a gripping thriller, both psychological and action-packed.

If you enjoyed the Don't Turn Around, pre-order the sequel now.  If you haven't, pre-order this anyway, and read the first book while you're waiting for its release.



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to Edelweiss and HarperCollins for the e-galley.

Teen Tuesday

I just got back from a 2 1/2 week road trip around the Southwestern States.  Unfortunately, I didn't get much reading done.

But here are some books that I'm looking forward to reading in the next few weeks:


Don't Look Now (Persefone Trilogy #2) by Michelle Gagnon (HarperCollins hardcover, 27 August 2013).

Noa Torsen is on the run. Having outsmarted the sinister Project Persephone, Noa and her friend Zeke now move stealthily across the country, protecting runaways before they become test subjects for the Project’s horrific experiments. Noa knows all too well what that feels like: Whatever was done to her has left her exhausted and scared.

Back in Boston, Peter anxiously follows Noa’s movements from his computer, using his hacker skills to feed her the information she needs to stay alive. But he’s desperate to do something more, especially when he learns what the Project has done to his ex-girlfriend, Amanda.

Then, in an explosive confrontation, Noa and her team are trapped in the one place they thought was safe. It will take everything Noa and Peter have to bring down the Project before it gets them first. And with no one to trust and enemies hiding at every turn, they may be the only people alive who can.


Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young (Simon Pulse hardcover, 27 August 2013).

Caroline is at a crossroads.

Her grandmother is sick, maybe dying. Like the rest of her family, Caroline’s been at Gram’s bedside since the stroke. With the pressure building, all Caroline wants to do is escape—both her family and the reality of Gram’s failing health. So when Caroline’s best friend offers to take her to a party one fateful Friday night, she must choose: Stay by Gram’s side for what might be her final hours, or go to the party and live her life.

The consequences of this one decision will split Caroline’s fate into two separate paths—and she is about to live them both. And though there are two distinct ways for her fate to unfold, there is only one happy ending…


 The Beginning of Everything by Robin Schneider (Katherine Tegen hardcover, 27 August 2013).

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: In one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra's knee, his athletic career, and his social life.

No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra's ever met—achingly effortless and fiercely intelligent.

Together, Ezra and Cassidy discover flash mobs, buried treasure, and a poodle that might just be the reincarnation of Jay Gatsby. But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: If one's singular tragedy has already hit, what happens when more misfortune strikes?

Teen Tuesday

Escape Theory (A Keaton School novel) by Margaux Froley (Soho Teen trade paperback, 12 March 2013).

After less than a week as a new scholarship student at the private Keaton School, Devon Mackintosh felt out-of-place and lonely.  Deciding to dig into a package of Nutter Butter cookies that her mother sneaked into her suitcase, she suddenly realized that she needed a glass of milk to go with them.  So she headed down past the library, the boys' dorms and and the teachers' lounge to the dining hall.  

But the milk machine had been shut down for the night.  About to head back to her room, Devon runs into Jason Hutchins, who, telling her to call him "Hutch" shows her where the fridge is.    Devon is surprised that the room isn't locked, and sure enough, while they're in there talking, someone comes along and locks the door. 

Now it's Devon's junior year at Keaton.   She feels more comfortable at the school,  but sometimes still feels like an outsider.  She'd spent a week during the summer training to be a "peer counselor" little knowing that she'd need to use those skills almost immediately. 

Hutch's body had been found not far from campus.  He'd texted a "suicide note" to some of his close friends before overdosing on Oxycontin.  And now Devon was being asked to counsel some of those friends.

Although they hadn't been close during the two years Devon had been at Keaton, she was certain that Hutch wouldn't have killed himself, a feeling that's shared by his best friend Matt, the first person that Devon is assigned to counsel.  After sessions with  more of Hutch's friends, Devon becomes even more sure of it, and decides to prove it.  But how?

This is a well-constructed psychological mystery about a young woman who decides that a suicide verdict is wrong, and sets out to prove it, against the advice -- and threats -- of teachers and fellow students.  One of those books that's impossible to put down once begun, it will appeal to readers who like "school stories" as well as mystery lovers.

This is Froley's first novel, but the subtitle implies that there will be more stories about Keaton, and I look forward to reading them. 


FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for the advance reading copy of the book.

Teen Tuesday

The Fault in Our Stars* by John Green (Dutton hardcover, 10 January 2012).

Hazel Lancaster is sixteen, and has lived with a diagnosis of fatal thyroid cancer for three years.  A very intelligent young woman, she hasn't attended school for some time, but has managed to earn her GED at home, and attends classes at the local community college when she feels up to it.

Due to the help of an experimental drug, her life has lasted longer than expected, but the disease is advanced enough that she has to take an oxygen tank with her everywhere.  Her relatively solitary life and her disease have (not unexpectedly) led to depression and her doctor has encouraged her to attend a support group for teens with cancer.  Since her parents agree, she does, even though she thinks its a bit lame.

But at one meeting, she meets Augustus Waters, a few months older than she.  He tells her he's attending the meeting to support his friend Isaac, who is one of the few people at the meetings that Hazel likes.

Hazel and Gus click immediately, and begin to spend time together.  She learns that he also had cancer, but has been in remission since one of his legs was amputated.  They exchange favorite novels.  His is called The Price of Dawn, and is about a soldier named Max Mayhem who kills hundreds throughout the course of the book (presumably in the name of peace, justice and The American Way).  Hers is entitled An Imperial Affliction and is written by a (fictional) author named Peter Van Houten, from the point of view of a girl named Anna, and ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence when Anna presumably dies. 

Hazel is frustrated at not knowing what happened to the girl's mother and stepfather after Anna's death. This information, for some reason, is very important to her, and she 's written to the author multiple times with no reply.

Although Green manages to describe the development of a relationship between two teens with cancer honestly and without overdoing the sentiment, it's still an emotion-laden book to read, whether one has a fatal disease or not.  Although it's marketed for teens, it's also suitable for mature adults.    

*"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Julius Caesar, I, ii, 140-141

 FTC full disclosure:  I picked up an advance reading copy of this book at ALA last June.  
 

Spies and PIs - Part II (for the guys)

Mickey Bolitar series by Harlan Coben. 

Mickey was introduced in Harlan Coben's novel Live Wire, the 10th in a series about his Uncle Myron, a sports agent and occasional amateur sleuth.  In Shelter, the first book starring Mickey, he is sent to live  with Myron after his father is killed and his mother enters rehab.
At his new school, Mickey begins seeing a troubled girl named Ashley, and discovers that she isn't really what she seems.

There are two books in this series:  Shelter, and Seconds Away.

Extras:  Check out Mickey's facebook page.


Danger Zone series by David Gilman.

After an attempt on his life on the grounds of his British boarding school, Max Gordon learns that his father Tom, an environmentalist, has gone missing in Africa.  Max rushes to Namibia to find him, and discovers that the ruthless and powerful Shaka Chang is engineering an ecological disaster that may endanger Tom Gordon's life and maybe also Max's.

The series includes three books: The Devil's Breath, Ice Claw, and Blood Sun.

Extras:  The publisher's website has an interactive Danger Zone page.



Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. 
Within days he's gone from schoolboy to superspy. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission.*

So far there are eight books in the series:  Stormbreaker, Point Blanc, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel, Snakehead, and Crocodile Tears.

Extras:  A movie version of Stormbreaker, called Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker was released
in 2006.



*Summary from the Alex Rider website. 

Spies and PIs - A Book List (Part I)

I"m not talking about Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys.  Teen detectives (and other investigative types) have made the jump into the 21st Century. 

Following are a few of my favorites.  Please feel free to add your own in the comments.
I realize this list is somewhat female-centric; tomorrow's list will have  detective stories about teenaged boys.

The Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter.

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is not your typical private school.  Students take classes in advanced martial arts, chemical warfare, and codebreaking.  Protagonist Cammie Morgan is a student there, and despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that her mother is the headmistress, she always manages to get in trouble.
The five-book series includes:  I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You; Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy; Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover; Only the Good Spy Young; Out of Sight, Out of Time.

Extras:  Check out the Gallagher Academy website, where you can apply for admission to become a Gallagher Girl.



Don't Turn Around (The Persefone series) by Michelle Gagnon. 

So far, only the first book has been published in this series about Noa, a sixteen-year-old orphan who is living "off the grid".  She's a computer expert, and is able to make enough to support herself and stay out of trouble. But one day, she wakes up in a warehouse with an IV sticking out of her arm and no memory of how she got there.
Luckily, she's able to escape, and eventually find an ally.  Peter Gregory, is a  rich kid who's the leader of an alliance of hackers.  Together they discover that the group who took Noa is more powerful and corrupt than they could have imagined.

Extras:  A free prequel novella called No Escape.


The Girl is Murder & The Girl is Trouble by Kathryn Miller Haines.

Since fifteen-year-old Iris Anderson's mother died and her father returned from Pearl Harbor missing a leg, her whole life has changed.  They have to move to the Lower East Side of New York City, and Iris has to leave her private girls' school for a public one.  Not only is she a fish out of water at PS 110, she doesn't know how to deal with her father, since he'd been overseas most of her life.
Knowing that it's difficult for him to do his job (he is a private detective) with his bad leg, she decides that she must convince him to let her help. 

Extras:  There's a fantastic glossary of period slang at the end of the first book, as well as an interview with the author.


The Hailey Tarbell series by Sophie Littlefield. 

Sixteen-year-old Hailey lives with her creepy grandmother in Gypsum, Missouri, also known as "Trashtown".  Her life is pretty bleak, except for her four-year-old foster brother, Chub.  She loves him more than anything, and plans to take him and leave as soon as she's eighteen.
Then a classmate is injured in gym class, and Hailey discovers that she's a healer.  This is not something she ever wanted, and though she tries to keep it quiet, word gets out, and suddenly armed strangers turn up at Gram's house in the middle of the night and try to kidnap her.
Who are they, and what do they want with her?

The two-book series includes Banished and  Unforsaken.

Extras:  Sophie Littlefield has a fantastic website, which includes interviews, tour info and more.

Book List - Time Travel

I've always loved time travel books, and it's a popular subject for young adult authors.  I've included some recent publications that I've enjoyed, but many of my favorites were published decades ago, and are no longer available.  I have included a couple that were re-issued in recent years.


A String in the Harp - Nancy Bond
(Newbery Honor Book 1977, re-published in 2006)

When fifteen-year-old Jen Morgan flies to Wales to spend Christmas with her family, she's not expecting much from the holiday. A year after her mother's sudden death, her father seems preoccupied by the teaching job that has brought him and Jen's younger siblings to Wales for the year. Her brother, Peter, is alternately hostile and sullen,and her sister, Becky, misses Jen terribly.

Then Peter tells Jen he's found a strange artifact, a harp key that shows him pictures from the life of Taliesin, the great bard whose life in sixth-century Wales has been immortalized in legend. At first Jen doesn't believe him, but when the key's existence -- and its strange properties -- become known to the wider world, the Morgans must act together against a threat to the key...and to their family.


Revolution - Jennifer Donnelly (2010)

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.
 

Prada and Prejudice - Mandy Hubbard (2009)

To impress the popular girls on a high school trip to London, klutzy Callie buys real Prada heels. But trying them on, she trips...conks her head...and wakes up in the year 1815!

There Callie meets Emily, who takes her in, mistaking her for a long-lost friend. As she spends time with Emily's family, Callie warms to them - particularly to Emily's cousin Alex, a hottie and a duke, if a tad arrogant.

But can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, and win Alex's heart, before her time in the past is up?


Kissing Shakespeare - Pamela Mingle (2012)

Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide.

Fellow cast member Stephen Langford has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda to use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lost its greatest playwright.

Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love . . . with no acting required.


Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park (orig. pub. date 1984; audiobook released 2012)

The game is called Beatie Bow, and the kids play it for the thrill of giving themselves a scare. It's Beatie Bow, risen from the dead!

When Abigail is drawn in, the game quickly changes from a harmless little scare to an extraordinary adventure, as she is transported to a place that is strangely familiar....

And in a Sydney she barely recognises, she'll meet the real Beatie Bow and the family that will change her life.

Teen Tuesday on Thursday...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. 

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I wanted to review the book without being influenced by the film.

I don't know why I didn't read this when it was first released in 1999, though it may have had something to do with the title, which to me implies a fluffy romance novel.  And of course, that's the opposite of what this story is.

Well, it's not fluffy, anyway.  It is a love story, though not a traditional one.

The "wallflower" of the title is not a teenaged girl as one might expect, but a fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie.  The story is written in epistolary form and takes place in the s; Charlie is writing to a nameless "friend". 

Charlie describes starting high school with no friends.  Although his sister attends the school, she's a senior, and thus is in a completely different orbit.  Something of a loner and with a tendency towards depression, he is blessed with an  English teacher who recognizes that the boy is unusual, and begins to assign him novels that aren't in the curriculum  (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye) and asks him to write about them. 

He also meets siblings Patrick and Sam, both seniors, with whom he becomes close.  He has a crush on Sam, which she doesn't encourage, but doesn't actively discourage either.  Through them, he experiences teen stuff like football games and dances.  And parties, as well as the alcohol and drugs that inevitably accompany them.

Extremely introspective, Charlie can be seen as a latter-day Holden Caulfield, although he's a much more sympathetic character and less of a rebel.

This is such an engrossing and affecting  story!  I'm looking forward to the film, and hoping it doesn't disappoint.




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

Teen Tuesday

Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion hardcover, 17 April 2012).


The summer of 1955.  The summer before Nora's final year of high school. 

Elmgrove, Maryland is a small enough town that almost everyone knows almost everyone.  Nora and her friends party in the woods before the last day of school, the day when all they do is pick up their report cards. 

Nora and Ellie, with whom she spends the night, drink more than they're accustomed to and have difficulty getting up in the morning.  So when Bobbie Jo and Cheryl drop by to walk to school with them, they aren't ready, and not wanting to wait, they go ahead without them.

When Nora and Ellie finally get to school, they are overwhelmed with good-byes and signing yearbooks, and they don't notice the absence of their friends until they're ready to go home.   As they're about to walk through the wooded park, the sound of sirens alerts them that something's going on, and when one of the boys from school starts shouting "They're dead!"  

"They" are Bobbi Jo and Cheryl, whose bodies have been found by a boy walking his dog in the woods.  Their friend Buddy, who was upset that Cheryl had broken up with him a few weeks earlier is suspected of the crime.  Nora may be the only one who believes he's innocent.

The crime changes the atmosphere of the town forever.  The parties in the woods stop.  Girls are discouraged from walking in the park, even in the daylight. 

The story is based loosely on an actual crime that occurred in 1955.  Hahn remembers it, and the way the townspeoples' behavior changed overnight.

Mary Downing Hahn, master of the young adult mystery novel has created another masterpiece.  The story is written from various points of view, but predominantly Nora's, with whom you'll identify intimately.



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