Book Review: I am (Not) the Walrus by Ed Briant

In I am (Not) the Walrus, Ed Briant's second novel for young adults, protagonist Toby is coming to terms with his missing older brother, recent breakup with his girlfriend and possibly cursed bass guitar as he and his bandmates prepare for their first gig in their Beatles cover band. After finding a mysterious note in the case of the aformentioned bass, Toby embarks on a search for the instrument's rightful owner in an attempt to uncover the truth about both the guitar and his brother. This fast-paced story has enough smart dialogue, mystery and romance to keep readers of all ages engaged and is recommended for anyone looking for a light-hearted read. Beatles fans will enjoy all of the references to their favorite band. - Nick (Downtown Library)

Book Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley

Beauty (Robin McKinley) is a retelling of the classic story Beauty and the Beast. And, while there are necessary and frivolous similarities, there are also notable differences that make this story a treasure of the genre. This tale features Honor (Beauty) and her loving family who, as a result of tragic circumstances are forced to move to a place more terrible to city dwellers than any other, the country! However, they keep their heads high and their hearts pure. The story progress as most do until she reaches the castle. There magic is afoot and Beauty becomes fully immersed in it. She grows to discover her potential and her true beauty and manages to save her love from a slow and painful death. - Teen Volunteer

Book Review: Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz (Blue Bloods, Bk.2)

Schuyler Van Alen and her best friend, Oliver, began the story by traveling to Italy to find Schuyler’s grandfather in order to get his help on the crisis of the Silver Bloods. With his help, Schuyler might have a chance to uncover the truth that Silver Bloods still exist and are planning to attack the Blue Bloods. The Blue Bloods oblivious to the harm lurking in the shadows had preparations for the Four Hundred Ball held only for vampires. Mimi Force with her forever non-ending desire for trouble and fun decided to throw an after-party with the theme as a masquerade. Throughout the novel, Bliss experienced delusions and black-outs and ached for the return of Dylan. Schuyler still had a crush on Jack Force, and he in return longed for her in some degree. Schuyler felt helpless when it came to choosing between Jack and Oliver, and Mimi, full of jealousy, wished Jack only held his love for her.

Melissa’s sequel to Blue Bloods had new events coming up making the plot more intense and engaging to the reader. The book is fast-paced, and it never failed to make the reader’s eyes glued to the book the entire time. - Hamilton Teen Volunteer

Book Review: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

This story is an alternate version of World War 1.

When Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated, it throws the entire continent of Europe into war. It sets Clankers, war machines, verses Darwinists, fabricated beasts. Deryn Sharp is an amazing airman and wants to join the British Air Service. However, only boys are allowed to join, so she disguises herself as a girl. While undertaking a test to join the Air Service, she ends up on the Leviathan, the most amazing beast in the entire British fleet. The Archduke’s son, Alek, is running away with his mentors and a Stormwalker. While hiding out in a castle in the mountains, the Leviathan crashes near his temporary home. He meets Deryn, and their fates intertwine.

The suspense and secrets in this book are abundant while the action keeps it fast paced. Hold on, as Scott Westerfeld takes you on an adventure aboard the Leviathan. - Shabab (Sunset Teen)

The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids is a book that follows high school students from Whitman High School and portrays the everyday stresses of a high school student. This book not only shows the lives of academic achievers and perfectionists but also the athletic overachievers.   It portrays the lives of nine high school students who have massive amounts of stress and full schedules.  It also gives helpful tips to for parents, students, and the school administration to help relieve some of the stress the students encounter.   In the book, Alexandra Robbins follows the lives of Taylor, who is perceived as “The Popular Girl,” AP Frank, who is perceived as “The Workhorse,” a mysterious junior who flies under the radar, perceived as “The Stealth Overachiever,”  Sam, who is perceived as “The Teacher’s Pet,”  C.J., who is perceived as “The Flirt,” Julie, who is perceived as “The Superstar,” Audrey, who is perceived as “The Perfectionist,” Pete, who is perceived as “The Meathead,” and  Ryland, who is perceived as “The Slacker”. Throughout the book these nine people show that although you might be seen or see someone as a certain “Type” of person you will never know until you step in their shoes.  I found this book to be a slow read; however, I did find the information to be fascinating and would recommend it to any high school student. - Braedon (Sunset Teen)

Book Review: The Reserve by Russell Banks

This book, unlike others, ties in more than just one knot. A story that begins as a playful romance is suddenly thrown into a murder mystery. I think it is really enjoyable how Vanessa Cole, who is very troubled and emotionally unstable, took the reader through the book. I thought is was amazing how they incorporated love and murder into one story and how smoothly it was carried out. Over all the book was very interesting because in a way it was realistic and many people are able to relate to this. - Nivenka (Sunset Teen)

Book Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano (The Chemical Garden, Bk. 2)

After successfully escaping her luxury prison of being one of the sister wives of Linden, Rhine thought her life will perfectly fall back into place like a puzzle piece. She finally ran away from her husband whom she did not love, and she now had Gabriel to live with in her new world of freedom. Unfortunately, experiencing only a few days of freedom, Rhine and Gabriel were taken against their will to a broken down carnival where Rhine became the key to getting money of the unpredictable ringmistress there. Rhine and Gabriel were desperate to leave this carnival filled with all kinds of horrors and go to Manhattan to find Rhine’s twin brother. It also seemed to Rhine that Vaughn, Linden’s father, constantly had the ability to be right behind her footsteps all the time. They continuously had to fight obstacles that popped out of nowhere and handle disasters hurled to them repeatedly. Rhine’s vision of a world better than being trapped in her husband’s luxurious home was beginning to crumble, and Rhine knew time was ticking down.

Lauren’s sequel to Wither, Fever, had unpredictable events right around every corner forcing the reader to read page after page. This book is fast-paced and ends with a cliffhanger for the readers. - Hamilton Teen Volunteer

Book Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

In The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight , two teens meet and spend a period of 24 hours together; which leads to an incredible series of events. They share secrets, histories, and family stories. They lose each other and (spoiler alert) find each other again—twice. Statistical Probability shows how being 4 minutes can lead to events that can change two peoples’ life forever, and how through meeting that one special person, you can mend relationships with your estranged father; start a relationship with your soon-to-be stepmother; let go of bad memories of your late father and move forward; and even how, through a wedding and a funeral, two people can find each other and start a relationship that looks like it will last for a while. I saw Statistical Probability in the bookstore a few months ago, and I was initially worried about whether it would live up to my expectations after building it up for weeks, but luckily, this amazing book lived up to and exceeded all hopes I had for it. I absolutely fell in love with Hadley and Oliver and rooted for them and their budding relationship. I hope to read more books by Jennifer E. Smith, and would recommend this to anyone who loves reading a quirky young-adult love story. - Erin (Sunset Teen)

Book Review: The Absolute Value of 1 by Steve Brenzoff

In The Absolute Value of 1, Lily, Noah, and Simon are typical teenage delinquents  at a Long Island high school. Family issues and the pressures of growing up complicate their friendships, and each deals with the changes differently. Lily worries that her love of math will challenge her slacker reputation, Noah retreats to his basement to avoid an abusive father, and Simon joins the track team to get healthy and pursue a girlfriend. The characters each narrate the same events but from their own perspectives. A series of misunderstandings, unspoken truths, and angry outbursts claw away at the group. As they drift apart, they struggle to balance emotional wounds with the need to create their own identities. - Amelia (Downtown Teen)

Book Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Sixteen agonizing years of waiting, wanting, hoping, wishing, and dreaming are spent by all of the uglies in Uglyville. It seems like there is not a single person who cannot wait to get their operation to turn them pretty on their sixteenth birthday. When Tally Youngblood meets Shay, they quickly become friends, and Tally realizes that not everyone wants to become a pretty. Shay disappears, and Tally is given an ultimatum—to turn Shay in, or to never turn pretty at all. What Tally thinks will be a simple task turns out to be an enterprise that unveils the truth… and the truth isn’t all that pretty.

Scott Westerfeld manages to get any reader’s gears turning, bringing up topics worth consideration. Uglies is a fast-paced novel that explores aspects of life that the average middle or high schooler may not yet be pondering. - Hannah (Sunset Teen)

Book Review: Party by Tom Leveen

On the day after school ends for a group of Southern California high school students, everybody is preparing to attend the same end-of-the-year blowout. The events of the day, beginning in the afternoon, are revealed through the eyes of a dozen or so narrators, each with a different reason for attending the evening's party: Some see the event as a chance to hook up, others to let go and one or two see it is a final chance to fit in before the school year ends. Most of the book feels, largely, like an homage to any number of films aimed at teenagers (Dazed and Confused comes to mind), but Leveen manages to bring the tension up a few notches as it becomes clear that these characters' paths are going to cross in a startling way.

The author skillfully writes from multiple perspectives, giving each character a distinct voice. While not terribly original, the novel is a safe bet to have widespread appeal: I would recommend it to both guys and girls looking for stylish, realistic teen fiction. - Nick (Downtown)

Book Review: The Girl Who Became a Beatle

Meet Regina, the protagonist of The Girl Who Became a Beatle and teenage frontwoman of a Beatles cover band, the Caverns. The band is the center of Regina’s life and when they break up, Regina does what any teenager would do: she wishes she were someone else. Regina soon finds herself fronting the most famous band in the world: a world in which the Beatles never existed; a world in which she owns the entire Beatles songbook. While Regina initially embraces her new role in the universe, she quickly comes to realize the drawbacks of fame and being considered a genius, especially when that genius actually belongs to someone else.

Author Greg Taylor keeps the pace fast and the prose simple, making The Girl Who Became a Beatle a good read for late middle-schoolers and high-schoolers alike, not to mention any Beatle fanatic who would enjoy every clever nod to the Fab Four’s career. - Nick (Downtown)

Book Review: Dust of 100 Dogs

Somewhere in the 17-century Caribbean, just as she is about to escape with her true love, feared pirate Emer Morrisey is murdered and mysteriously cursed with the “dust of one hundred dogs.” Three hundred years later, teenager Saffron Adams agonizes over disappointing her overbearing parents with the news that she does not intend to go to college; after all, it would be unreasonable to expect them to understand her desire to seek out buried treasure (much less her desire to torture every typical teenager she encounters). The reader soon learns that Emer is destined to live the lives of one hundred dogs before returning to this world in human form, as Saffron. The Dust of 100 Dogs, by A.S. King, follows the lives of cynical Saffron and (initially) naive Emer in alternating chapters interspersed with anecdotes about what can be learned from living as a dog. The result is a highly original and entertaining YA novel that should appeal to fans of fantasy, historical fiction and more typical young adult “problem” fiction.

In January, 2011, A.S. King was awarded a Printz honor for her most recent novel, Please Ignore Vera Dietz. - Nick (Downtown)

Book Review: Please Ignore Vera Dietz

We're always hearing that young adult books are often writen for adults as well as youth. Probably many of you, like me, think, "Sure, but I already have an adult reading list built for eternity." It was not until the young adult fiction writer A.S. King came to speak at a staff training inservice that my eternal reading list was put aside. When I witnessed the honesty and depth of this author as she told her story of life, A.S. King became number one on my reading list!

In selecting Please Ignore Vera Dietz, I was influenced by a long list of book awards: the Edgar Award, the Michael C. Printz Award, and the Best Young Adult Book Award from the American Library Association. I figured this novel just had to be good. Well, it wasn't good - it was fantastic! Based on the interaction of a father trying to raise his teenage daughter, this young adult novel eteched a notch in my reading life that will not be forgotten. Vera, the teenage daughter, tells the story. A story about her mother walking away from marraige and motherhood. A story about losing one's best friend and regaining love for a father you were very close to hating for life! A story about understanding yourself to the point of becoming one with your inner spirit. For me, Please Ignore Vera Dietz was not only soul searching but charmingly funny, full of life, and a book you won't be able to ignore. - Henry (Downtown)