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2 new YA titles that will release in June explore the challenges of building a new life in America after fleeing the turmoil in the country of one’s childhood.   Inspired by true refugee experiences, these two novels are interesting and thought-provoking explorations of challenge, change, and resilience. The Red Umbrella by debut novelist Christina Diaz Gonzalez is set in 1961, when Lucia’s carefree life in a small Cuban coast town is about to change. She’s 14 and dreams of her school-crush, her 15th birthday celebration, and of one day travelling to Paris.  But when Castro’s revolutionary soldiers come to her town, everything changes: people are arrested and executed; neighbors spy on neighbors; freedomsRead More →

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Continuing his tradition of writing well-crafted, thought-provoking, gripping novels for teens that blend fiction with tough reality, Paul Volponi’s latest, Rikers High, is another knock out.  With a deceptively simple plot, following Forty’s last 2 weeks in juvenile detention on NY’s Rikers Island, the book is full of wry observations, authentic characters, street slang, and sensitivity. 17 year old Martin Stokes (inmate in bed #40 in the mod, so he takes the name Forty) has been on Riker’s Island for 5 months awaiting trial on a trumped up steering charge.  Frustrated with his court appointed lawyer and the numerous delays in the judicial system, Forty is bound for court onRead More →

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In Yxta Maya Murray’s newest novel, The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped, we’re on a high speed, high stakes thrill ride from the first page.  15 year old Michelle Pena is a determined and fierce young woman.  She’s a track star and an excelling student who is living with her gay foster father and working towards a scholarship at a prestigious Los Angeles area high school.  The problem is her past:  Michelle is the daughter of the gang’s leader, and when her dad was killed, her mother took over and ruled the organization with an iron fist.  She’s in prison and Michelle’s brother, Sampson aka “king,”Read More →

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Pat Lowery Collins’ The Fattening Hut is a lyrical novel, told in vivid and eloquent free verse, that hauntingly explores the ramifications of a ceremonial rite of passage in a tropical island culture. Our narrator, a smart, imaginative and free-spirited girl named Helen, is in her father’s fattening hut.  The fattening hut is where all early-teen girls of the tribe go to put on a lot of weight in preparation for their arranged marriages.  Helen prefers her own way to live – exploring the island with her childhood friend, being free to run and play and explore – and she doesn’t believe she’s ready to be marriedRead More →

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Matt de la Pena’s third book, We Were Here, will be released from Random House in October 2009, and with it, his writing skill and storytelling art has reached a higher level of excellence.  Rich, exquisitely detailed, thoughtful and thought-provoking, this powerful book will reach readers in their heart of hearts and grab ahold. Miguel’s the smartest kid in Juvi.  His cellmate, Rondell, can’t even read.  When he gets to the group home where he’s been sentenced for a year, Miguel decides all the guys there are posers and weaklings, and he certainly isn’t going to rap with the goofy, surfer-dude in charge of theRead More →

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In Skunk Girl, 11th grader Nina Khan feels trapped between 2 cultures: middle America and her Pakistani-Muslim heritage. She’s got all the usual high school troubles: cliques, friends starting to drift apart because of interests in boys, academic pressures, body/self esteem issues, and a crush on a really hot guy; and if that weren’t hard enough, she’s got the expectations left at school from her “supernerd” older sister, restrictions on who she can hang out with, traditional/conservative parents, andof course being the only Asian student in the school.  Nina feels bound and constrained by her parents’ traditional values, unsure about her own feelings, and reluctantRead More →

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Woodson’s story is set in 1994, when the anonymous narrator is 11, and Tupac has been shot. Everyone in her Queens neighborhood is listening to his music and talking about him. Meanwhile D, a foster child, meets the narrator and her best friend, Neeka, while roaming around the city by herself. They become close and Tupac’s music becomes a soundtrack for the their friendship as they search together for their “Big Purpose.”  The story ends in 1996 with Tupac’s untimely death and the reappearance of D’s mother, who takes D with her, and out of the narrator’s and Neeka’s lives forever. After Tupac & D Foster delicately unfolds issues about race and socialRead More →

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Dark Dude, the first YA novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos. He comments this is the book he wished he’d have read as a teen, and the care and depth of his storytelling fills the novel with truths that we, as adults, can look back on adolescence and wish we’d realized. The “dark dude” is Rico, a light-skinned Cuban American kid living in New York City in the late ’60’s/early ’70’s.  His skin color effectively isolates him from the various ethnic groups in his Harlem neighborhood. The city is closing in on him, school’s a drag, his best friend, Jimmy, is becoming a junkie,Read More →

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Sarah Mussi’s first novel, The Door of No Return, is a suspense-filled thriller.  It is a robust and vivid adventure rooted in the terrible history and legacy of the African slave trade. Zac Baxter’s grandfather has always told him they are the last descendants of an African King, but Zac always thought it was just a crazy pipe dream his grandfather clung to.  When his grandfather, Pops, is killed by muggers, Zac is devastated. Dumped with foster parents, then forced into an orphanage, Zac stumbles from trouble to trouble, but over time incidents and clues arise to lead him to believe that maybe Pops’ obsession wasn’t a fantasy after all. Read More →