15-year old Zeeta’s life with her free-spirited mother, Layla, is anything but normal. Every year Layla picks another country she wants to live in  - this summer they’re in Ecuador, while Zeeta longs for a “normal” life in the American suburbs. Zeeta makes friends with vendors at the town market and begs them to think of upstanding, “normal” men to set up with Layla. There, Zeeta meets Wendell who was born nearby, but adopted by an American family. His one wish is to find his birth parents, and Zeeta agrees to help him. Their quest takes them to an idealized indigenous village, through jungles, crystal caves, and exotic gardens.  As their adventures bring them closer to fulfilling their wishes - and to danger - it also brings them closer together and to finding out what they really want.

The Indigo Notebook (Random House, October 2009) is charming, picturesque and thought-provoking.  Zeeta’s life is every bored teen’s dream - a cool, free-spirited mom who’s more like a sister, exotic locals, no regular school, rules, or curfew - but since that’s what’s forced on Zeeta, she naturally wishes for the exact opposite of what she has.  Wendell’s story resonates with the longing and anger that comes from not knowing his birth parents and the reasons why they gave him up, and the void this causes in his understanding of who he is.  Laura Resau’s captivating prose, vivid descriptions and character development engage the reader from the first page and her story-telling skill remains adept throughout.  By the time the story ends, Zeeta, Wendell, and also the reader, have realized things they didn’t know at the beginning of the story, and that’s the real definition of a happy ending.

• Posted by Cori

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink will release from Little, Brown in August 2009.  In it, readers are taken to late 19th-century Upstate New York where we meet wealthy heiress Lia, whose father has just died under mysterious circumstances.  16 year old Lia, along with her twin sister Alice and younger brother Henry, are left under the guardianship of their spinster Aunt in their family mansion.  Soon after her father’s death, Lia’s life takes a sharp turn for the worse as she discovers that she is caught up in a prophecy that has spanned generations of her family, and it may now be the time for the legions of Hell that have been waiting to be freed upon Earth to at last be released.

Prophecy of the Sistersis the first in a proposed trilogy, and Zink spends a great deal of the book setting the stage and establishing the background for the mystery that engulfs Lia as soon as a mysterious mark appears on her wrist.  Her relationship withher stoic, controlling sister Alice becomes frightning and life-threatening as Alice seems to be possessed by evil spirits and forces Lia to hide her queries, discoveries, and suspicions from her.  After discovering a cryptic prophecy about a Gate, a Guardian and the end of days in her father’s study, Lia spends the novel seeking people in her small town who have knowledge of the ancient prophecy and who are intimately linked with it, even though they didn’t know up to now how or why.

Zink opens the novel with the dark and spooky tone of a Victorian Gothic novel and weaves in just enough mystery and horror.  She culls together myths and legends from multiple sources to create a prophecy with Biblical portents but in this first book doesn’t completely flesh it out.  The supernatural elements, coupled with the spunky teen female leads is reminiscent of Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy, however there’s less action and more scene-setting in Prophecy than in A Great and Terrible Beauty.  There’s a lot of room for character and plot development in books 2 & 3 and it will be interesting to see where Zink and Lia take us.

• Posted by Cori

Penguin Young Readers Group has a great lineup for Fall 2009!  We’re looking forward to seeing awesome series continue, new titles from favorite authors, and some fantastic debuts.  Check it out:

Arch Enemy: The Looking Glass Wars, Book Three, Frank Beddor - October 2009:   As SEEING REDD ended, King Arch had been successful in sapping Wonderland - including Alyss and Redd - of Imagination. Now the two enemy queens are forced to come together in an attempt to reclaim Wonderland and their imaginative powers. Hatter M is AWOL as he escorts his daughter, Molly, to our world, leaving her in the care of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). It appears that the caterpillar oracles are in cahoots with Arch, but we learn they are manipulating him to save the Heart Crystal, also know as ‘Everqueen”–the source of imaginative power. How far will Alyss regain her power?

Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Gennifer Choldenko - September 2009:  It’s 1935. Moose Flanagan lives on Alcatraz with his family, the other families of the guards, and a few hundred hit men, con men, murderers and bank robbers. And one of the cons has just done him a big favor.  As the book begins, Moose discovers a new note; it says: Your turn. Is it really from Capone? What does it mean? Moose can’t risk anything that might get his dad fired, but how can he ignore Al Capone?

Dying Breath: A Forensic Mystery, Alane Ferguson - October 2009: Cameryn had thought she was in love with him. He was smart, strong, and would do anything for her - even kill.  Kyle O’Neil disappeared after his first attempt on Cameryn’s life at the end of The Angel of Death. Now he’s back for his second try.  And while everyone is trying to keep Cameryn safe, only she knows that it’s up to her to keep Kyle from killing again - and again.  It’s Ferguson’s most gripping Forensic Mystery yet!

 After, Amy Efaw - August 2009: Before That Morning, these were the words most people used to describe straight A student and star soccer player Devon Davenport: responsible, hard-working, mature. But all that changes when police find Devon home sick from school while they investigate the case of an abandoned baby. Soon the connection is made - Devon has just given birth; the baby in the trash is hers. After That Morning, there’s only one way to describe Devon: attempted murderer.  Through airtight writing and fast-paced, gripping storytelling, Efaw takes the reader on Devon’s unforgettable journey toward clarity, acceptance, and redemption.

Blood Promise: A Vampire Academy Novel, Richelle Mead - August 2009:  How far will Rose go to keep her promise?  The recent attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, Dimitri was taken. Now Rose must abandon her best friend Lissa and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago.  

Skippyjon Jones Lost in Space, Judy Schachner - September 2009: Buckle up amigos - everyone’s favorite kitty boy is about to lift off.  Skippy knows that the planet Mars is red because it’s covered in spicy red pepper. To prove it, he’s off on a space jaunt replete wit craters, crazies, and creatures from Mars.

Fire: Graceling Prequel, Kristin Cashore - October 2009: Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don’t need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven’t, you’ll be dying to read the next.

More great books we can’t wait to receive:

• Million-Dollar Throw, Mike Lupica - Nov. 2009:Easily Lupica’s most heartwarming sports novel, where football fan Nate Brodie has a chance to throw a pass through a target at a Patriots game for one million dollars.
• Z. Rex, Steve Cole - Sept. 2009: Cole has created an absurdly gripping and kid-friendly thriller that will capture imaginations.  If Jurassic Park were to meet Alex Rider, the result would be this irresistible new novel.
• The Case of the Missing Sheep, Mircea Catusanu - Sept. 2009: A kooky, creatively illustrated picture book with a surprise ending to get kids giggling and counting.
• Dreamdark: Silksinger, Laini Taylor - Sept. 2009: One faerie, the last of her clan, must fight to complete her sacred duty.
• Acorns Everywhere!, Kevin Sherry - Sept. 2009: When an acorn hits this orange squirrel on the head, he gets to work! With hilarious manic energy, it’s Gather! Dig! Bury! and lots of colorful fun!
• An Off Year,Claire Zulkey - Sept. 2009:“For students and families tangled in the complex and often stressful process of transitioning from high school to college, Zulkey’s novel provides comfort and advice, with a healthy does of humor.” Elizabeth McArdle, College Advising Dean
• The Cupcake Queen, Heather Hepler - Sept. 2009: A sweet novel about love, creativity, and accepting life’s unexpected turns.
• Hold Still, Nina LaCour - October 2009: An arresting debut novel about starting over after a friend’s suicide.

Best-selling author Louanne Johnson (Dangerous Minds) has a new YA book due out from Random House in September 2009, Muchacho.

Eddie Corazon is an angry, but smart, guy.  Since grade school he’s been working hard to maintain his image as a juvenile delinquent, but he’s a secret reader.  He hangs out with his cousins in the rough barrios of Rosablanca, New Mexico, who always back him up (when they’re not in jail), but he won’t get himself involved in the robberies, drug deals and gang violence that surround him.  But then he meet Lupe at school and over the course of his junior year, Eddie starts to notice, question, and think about the choices he’s made so far and where they might lead him. 

In Muchacho, Johnson continues her compelling, authentic and no-nonsense style that started with Dangerous Minds.  Eddie discovers that if someone can look you in the eye, see who you really are, and still believe in you, then you can harness the power of choice to change your outlook and circumstances.  Eddie is fortunate enough to have 3 such people in his life: a teacher, Beecher (whose teaching style and outlook resonate with Johnson’s own from Dangerous Minds) although he isn’t ready to accept her when she’s in his classroom; his girlfriend Lupe, whose mature, honest and supportive outlook encourages Eddie to want to be more than he is; and finally, his Uncle Tio when he’s sent to live with him to get away from the trouble in the barrio. 

Muchacho succeeds because Eddie’s voice, experience and outlook resonate with readers. His gradual realization that he has the power to choose to get out of the downward spiral of drugs, poverty and crime doesn’t feel contrived or forced and is made all the more real by Eddie’s peers whose choices contrast so sharply with his own.  Johnson has a clear view of disenfranchised youth, and while this world is portrayed in a gritty, realistic light, ultimately Muchacho is thought-provoking, insightful and cautiously optimistic.

• Posted by Cori

What happens when your truth is so unbelievable, so horrifying, so awful that you can’t bear it? And you can’t ever trust anyone with this truth? You become a liar. 

Micah tells us that right up front that she’s a liar, and then in the next breath, promises to tell the reader the whole truth, because she’s tired of living under the burden of all of her lies.  But when you’ve become addicted to something, you can’t just quit cold turkey (and when someone promises finally to tell the full truth, chances are more lies are what you’ll be hearing). Throughout Liar, the forthcoming book from Justine Larbalestier (Bloomsbury Oct. 2009), Micah slides back and forth between her lies, her story, and her truth. But even to the last page, we never really know if any of it is true or not.  It’s confusing, frustrating, perplexing and addictive; and depending on your personal taste for unreliable narrators, total hell or a delicious mystery to unravel.

Micah does not fit in at school, where her lies make her suspect and her social awkwardness puts people off.  She doesn’t really fit into her family, to NYC where they live, or upstate where the extended family has retreated to a survivalist-style farm.  She finds solace in running through Central Park and in spending time with her secret boyfriend Zach.   When Zach is found dead, Micah’s few places of solace are shattered.  School becomes unbearable as every lie she’s ever told makes her the immediate object of scorn as her secret relationship is revealed; her home life also comes apart as she graples with years of pent-up disappointments and misunderstandings; and her own guilt and fears about the burden of her lies and the secret she’s covering up weighs too heavily upon her shoulders. 

Suspenseful, fast-moving, unnerving, aggravating, thoroughly captivating - you cannot turn away because you have to find out the truth.  Larbalestier’s psychological picture of Micah is complex and superbly crafted; the reader can’t decide if we should feel sympathy for Micah or anger towards her for deliberately misleading us again and again.  Larbalestier creates a character who is both real and completely artificial.  The art of lying and the art of storytelling seem to be cut from the same cloth, as Micah (and Larbalestier) demonstrate so convincingly here, weaving together an artful cloak that shimmers and changes from every angle.

• Posted by Cori

What’s the toughest part about Hunger Games? After finishing it, the next book that I read just doesn’t have as much grab for me.

I wonder if that’s a problem for Suzanne Collins. As I talked with students and staff about what to expect with Catching Fire, we had no clue how the author would follow up such a great story.

Now I can’t figure which one’s my favorite.

We knew that there would be rebellion. There’s no way that Capitol officials would let Katniss’ act of defiance go unnoticed. In the first book it is made very clear that Panem resembles Ancient Rome, hosting the games to crush the spirits of the rebels by crushing their kids.

Book two starts out with Katniss on a victory tour. The haunting President Snow warns her that her actions affect more than herself, a poorly veiled threat that her family is in danger unless districts are calmed down into obedience.

While people hold on to a strand of hope, they can still fight.

Katniss has been swept up in events larger than herself and has become the face of the resistance. In this way it keeps with characteristics of a successful YA book: a protagonist that ends up on her own and must figure out who she is, what she truly stands for, as forces push her from all sides.

I’ll be honest: in the first book, I cheered when the games started. I couldn’t put the book down once we had seen the tributes standing on the platforms in the minefield. I stayed up until the early morning, finishing the book and many caffeinated beverages.

In Catching Fire, seeing people thrown into the Games sickened me. I was literally distressed for the characters and angry at Panem’s injustice. I couldn’t stand the Capitol citizens’ compliance with how things were being run.

I have a renewed sense of social activism after reading the book. Seeing food so readily available, with Capitol socialites purposely vomiting so that they could gorge on more, reminded me that there are so many hungry people out there, in our country and others. We need to take action to help our fellow humans - and we’re running out of time.

If there’s one theme repeated throughout the book, it’s that your own mortality is a countdown. We have limited time. Katniss realizes what her goal is and is in a race to meet that goal before her life is snuffed out. She sees the other victors for who they are, as people scarred from the previous Games, people who need compassion but have been dehumanized for society’s entertainment. (One of the victors paints his nightmares from the Games. He has not slept a solid night since being thrown into the arena.)

Pretty challenging stuff for a teen book. But what Suzanne Collins does extremely well is take issues like social concern and mortality and blend it with an engaging, action-packed story. It’s a story that junior high and high school students can connect with, as evidenced by my students constantly having this book on a wait list.

When September 1 comes around, make sure you grab a copy (or four) to continue one of my favorite series. With book two, we knew that there would be rebellion. Book three is scheduled to wrap up the trilogy - I think I have a clue as to what will happen next, but I know that Suzanne Collins will blow away my expectations.

- Brian Griggs
Junior High Librarian

Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing hopes to attract more teens to its books through the creation of a new Pulse It social networking site.

The site is aimed at 14- to 18-year-olds and will let teens do things they can do on such places as Facebook—like create personal profiles and befriend other members—as well as read and react to S&S titles. S&S will make two books per month available to be read online for free and members can choose one of those titles and have 60 days to finish the book. Message boards will let readers discuss the book and rank it. The site will also have an author section where teens can interact with their favorite writers.

It looks pretty cool - check it out and then direct your students to it!

Brilliant! 

Little, Brown’s Fall 2009 line-up includes a collection of short stories edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci, Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, and it’s freakin’ awesome.

Bringing together some great voices in YA lit: John Green, Cassandra Clare, M.T. Anderson, Scott Westerfeld, David Levithan, Barry Lyga, Garth Nix, Libba Bray and more, Black & Castellucci have created a smart, wry, funny and sometimes painful look at all things geek.  Opening with a laugh-out-loud story by the editors about a hook up at a comicon gone wrong (Klingon and Jedi - no way!), through stories of geek education classes for cheerleaders, cosplayers and MMORPG enthusiasts meeting up in “real life”, and social outcasts, misfits, theatre geeks trying to figure out the rules of high school, these brilliantly crafted stories are tinged with the thoughtful, sometimes bittersweet, understanding of the harrowing passage through the teen & young adult years. 

While some of the stories are better suited for older readers because of language and sexual content, all of them capture the authentic voices of their teen protagonists thanks to the skill of the talented writers Black & Catellucci have assembled.  I wondered what, if any, direction the authors were given when asked to contribute - the range, breadth, and depth of their work speaks to so many aspects of the teen years that I can’t help but feel connected to every character in some way or another.

Geektastic proposes that maybe the geeky things we’re into have no redeeming social value, but they’re an interesting way to pass the time; and ultimately, we can only be so lucky as to find “home” and safety & acceptance, wherever that may be.

TNG forever!

• Posted by Cori

From the latest issue of School Library Journal,Shonda Brisco highlights some cool online and digital resources.  Here are a couple:

Animoto- create videos with sound on this site to quickly and easily mix book-cover images, photos, text and music to create 30-second online video book talks, book trailers, sneak peeks, etc.  There’s lots of potential here for both novice and tech-savvy students & educators.

One More Story - an interactive instructional program that allows children to select, listen to, read along with, or read independently, over 50 award-winning childrens’ picture books.

Katie Roiphe of the Wall Street Journal has written an interesting article on the darker bent of YA lit.  I think she hits the nail on the head with her statement that:  “unsettling as it is, there is a certain amount of comfort to be gleaned from the new disaster fiction; it makes its readers feel less alone. … there is in all of this bleakness a wholesome and old-fashioned redemption that involves principles like triumph over adversity and affirmations of integrity.”

What do you think?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574173403357573642.html