Girl in Translation

I have just returned from a trip to New York City where I attended the New York Musical Festival. In additon to seeing fourteen musicals, I also saw a Matisse exhibit at MOMA and spent every morning walking in Central Park. Whenever I go to NYC, I am reminded of all the wonderful movies and books which are set there. Recently, I read Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok which takes place in NYC and tells a contemporary immigration story filled with predictable struggles and amazing success.
After her father’s death, Ah Kim, 11, leaves Hong Kong in the 1980s and moves with her mother to the US. Her mother’s older sister, who owns a garment factory in Brooklyn, gives Ma a job bagging skirts and an apartment in the slums. Ma winds up working 12-hour-plus days in the factory. Ah Kim, now known as Kimberly, joins her after school hours in this hot and exhausting sweat shop. They return at night to the unheated apartment which is teeming with roaches. When Kimberley starts public school, she speaks little English, but she is a whiz in math and science. The following year she earns a scholarship to a prestigious private school. She does so well in her classes that she's given an oral exam to see if she is cheating. Eventually, she ends up at Yale and then Harvard Med school.
More intriguing are the relationships she develops at school and at the factory. Clearly an outsider without money for the luxuries her classmates take for granted, she finds an understanding best friend, Annette, who gives her advice on how to fit in. She also has an Anglo boyfriend at school who is not her intellectual equal, but is very sweet. Matt, a Chinese-American boy who works at the factory, is her true soul mate, but he is threatened by her academic success. However, her struggle to rectify her new American life with the old world expectations of her mother, are the heart of the story.
The book is based on the author's own experiences as an immigrant from Hong Kong; however, Jean went to Harvard and Columbia, while Kimberly attends Yale. Kwok effectively conveys the hardships of the immigrant experience, yet shows how a character with determination can overcome the odds and succeed. This book would be a great choice for a unit on cultural diversity or the immigrant experience.

Checkered Flag Cheater

Hailing from Indianapolis, I may have a greater interest in car racing than most, but I can't get enough of Will Weaver's Motor Series. I just finished Checkered Flag Cheater, the third in the series, which finds Trace Bonham racing on the super-stock circuit for Team Blu. His face graces billboards advertising his corporate sponsor’s sports energy drink, and he is the next boy wonder on the track. However, when Trace begins to suspect that his mechanic is illegally juicing his car, he struggles with what to do.

Saturday Night Dirt, the first book in the Motor Series, introduces ten characters of varying ages and ethnicities who all are involved in the world of car racing at Headwaters Speedway, a small dirt stock-car track in northern Minnesota. One Saturday night, when rainstorms at other tracks force cancellations at other tracks, big name racers join the local kids at Headwaters for a night they’ll all remember. Weaver fleshes out each character enough to leave a lasting impression on readers. The track owner is Johnny Walters, a former racer left paralyzed after a severe crash. His 17-year-old daughter Mel struggles to keep her father's track financially solvent. Promising stock-car racer, Trace Bonham, finds that his jealous mechanic has sabotaged his engine. Other racers who are introduced include Beau Kim and Sonny Down Wind. Additional track personnel round out the group. Racing terminology is accurate and the play by play of the races is exhilarating.

In Super Stock Rookie, the second book in the series, Trace Bonham is chosen as the face of Team Blu and now has a hot stock car and his own racing team. Overnight he makes the transition from amateur dirt-track racing to representing a large company as the face of their new sports energy drink. However, he has to go on the road, leaving behind Mel who haunts his dreams, as well as his parents whose marriage is on the rocks. As he questions the legality of his engine and the way his team operates and he is told to just worry about the driving and looking good, he begins to wonder if he made the right choice.

The third book, Checkered Flag Cheater, takes up where the second left off. Trace is now the leader in the competion for points on the Midwest super stock circuit. His romance with Mel is heating up, even as he is tempted by "fence bunnies" while on the road. As he racks up one win after another and the other racing teams begin to protest his car's engine, he begins to wonder what's behind its superior performance. His own racing team continues to tell him just to worry about the driving. When he finally discovers the truth, he must decide whether to look the other way or quit Team Blu and jeopardize his racing career.

According to his book bio, "Will Weaver lives in Bemidji, Minnesota, and is the owner of two Modified cars which he reaces in the WISSOTA circuit in the upper Midwest." He definitely knows his way around under the hood of a car and his insider information about racing strategy and technique seem very realistic. This series would be a great recommendation for reluctant readers. A few non-graphic romantic scenes lead me to caution against giving it to younger students.

The Drake Chronicles

After seeing Eclipse, the third movie in the Twilight Saga, I have to agree with critics that it is the best one yet. The screenwriter has taken great liberties with the book in order to accomodate the Team Edward/Team Jacob hype, but it works fairly well. Having my appetite for vampire stories whetted, I picked up Hearts at Stake, the first book in the Drake Chronicles, and was pleasantly surprised by how engaging it is. I'm fascinated by authors taking the basic vampire idea and making it their own.

In Hearts at Stake the author, Alyxandra Harvey, has imagined a very complex vampire world complete with a variety of vampire clans whose lineage is explained in great detail on the Drake Chronicles website at www.thedrakechronicles.com. Hearts at Stake introduces two best friends: Solange, who is waiting for her sixteenth birthday when she will change into a vampire, and Lucy, the feisty human, who is in love with Nicholas, one of Solange’s seven vampire brothers. In the Drake clan the vampires are human until their sixteenth birthday when they undergo the dangerous "bloodchange." They are genetically predisposed to be vampires, and when they begin the change, they must drink blood to stay alive. Solange's brothers managed to survive the passage, but she is the first female-born vampire in 800 years and a prophecy foretells that she will become queen and unite all the vampire clans. Lady Natasha, who is currently the queen, is determined that Solange won’t live to celebrate her birthday.

Lucy, Solange’s snarky, weapon-obsessed best friend, is aware of the situation and is determined to help Solange's family protect her. Lucy and Nicholas have been feuding their whole lives, but lately they find their animosity evolving into attraction. When Solange is kidnapped by Lady Natasha's minions, Lucy and Nicholas, as well as the rest of the Drake family, are determined to rescue her. They are aided by Kieran, a Helios Ra vampire hunter who initially attacks the Drake clan, looking to avenge his father’s death. When he discovers that his hatred of vampires is based on lies, he gives in to his attraction to Solange to help save her so that she may fulfill her destiny.

In Blood Feud, the second in the series, the story focuses on Solange's brother Logan and his attraction to Isabeau St Croix, a vampire from the Hounds Clan, who arrived at the eleventh hour to help rescue Solange. Isabeau survived the French Revolution, only to be attacked by the vampire Greyhaven and then buried for two hundred years until the Hounds rescued her. Logan is immediately attracted to her, but although she reciprocates his feelings, she is focused on finding Greyhaven and getting revenge. As Logan follows Isabeau on her quest, the clans are coming together for the coronation of Logan's mother Helena, who will preceed Solange as queen. However, the tenuous peace between the clans is threatened by Leander Montmarte, the 400-year-old vampire, who is the maker of the Host clan. He wants to marry Solange and usurp the throne for himself. Although Solange, Kieran, Lucy and Nicholas make guest appearances in the second novel, it primarily focuses on Logan and Isabeau working together to find Greyhaven.

For readers looking for action packed escapism, these books are great fun and offer a unique twist to the usual vampire fare. The conflict between the clans makes for an ongoing saga with a wide variety of characters to highlight. So far the romances in the Drake Chronicles follow a Romeo and Juliet formula. I'm wondering if the next book in the series will focus on another brother and his unorthodox love interest in the midst of the feuding vampire clans.

The Sky is Everywhere

It has been a music filled week! We saw Widespread Panic at Red Rocks, Jesse Cook at the Boulder Theater, and last night we watched The Planets shoot a music video for You Tube at Immersive Studios in Boulder. As we were watching the technicians work out the video logistics, I began to think about people expressing their emotions through music and in particular a book I just read. In the Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, the main character works through the grief she is feeling over her sister's death through music, poetry and her own sexual awakening.


Lennie, who has always been the "companion pony" to her sister Bailey’s racehorse, is devastated when Bailey suddenly drops dead from a heart arrhythmia. A normally reserved band geek, who has read Wuthering Heights twenty-three times, Lennie is overwhelmed by her grief, which permeates every waking hour. In bits of poetry which Lennie hides under rocks and throws into the wind, she says, "My sister dies over and over again, all day long." Her profound loss awakens unexpected emotions and sexual desire in Lennie. She is utterly confused by a fierce mutual attraction to Bailey's boyfriend, Toby. Their attempts find comfort in each other's arms leave Lennie feeling guilty and ashamed.


Then Joe Fontaine, a brilliant musician who has recently returned from living in France, arrives at school and joins the band. She is amazed at how easily she falls into a relaxed banter with him, but is afraid to feel any happiness. When summer vacation begins, Joe shows up at her house daily with his guitar and breakfast for Lennie and her grandmother and uncle. He helps Lennie regain her love for playing the clarinet, and gently coaxes her to leave her cocoon of grief. When she finally lets go and they fall deeply in love, she again feels guilty because it "doesn't seem right that anything good should come out of Bailey's death." Looming in the background is Toby, whose attentions threaten her relationship with Joe.

The element of this novel that separates it from the chick lit genre is Lennie's poetry. Her missives help the reader connect with the intense pain that Lennie is feeling. She has lived in her sister's shadow her whole life and can't navigate coming out into the sun. She says, "In photographs of us together, she is always looking at the camera and I am always looking at her." Bailey's death forces Lennie to think about her own life and give herself permission to pursue her dreams. Due to the brief scenes of underage drinking and sexual exploration, I would recommend it for the more mature reader.

Ashes

Last Tuesday I enjoyed my first encounter with Broadway in Boulder's musical Grand Hotel at the Dairy Center for the Arts. Based on the 1929 Vicki Baum novel and play, Menschen im Hotel (People in a Hotel), the musical focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin and the intersecting stories of the eccentric guests of the hotel. The cast is made up of talented 15-24 year olds from Boulder County, Arvada and Denver, several of whom are headed to prestigious musical arts programs in the fall.

Imagine my surprise when I started Kathryn Lasky's latest historical novel, Ashes, on Wednesday and found references to People in a Hotel throughout the book! In Ashes, the rise of the Nazis in 1932 Germany is seen through the eyes of 13-year-old Gabriella Schram, who is a privileged German child. Gaby is a passionate reader, whose favorite book is Vicki Baum's People in the Hotel. Blond Gaby looks like the Aryan ideal, but her anti-Fascist family members are called white Jews, because of their political sympathies. Her father, an astrophysicist at the University of Berlin, is a good friend of their neighbor, Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity is termed Jewish physics by the Nazis. Her mother's best friend is the celebrated Jewish newspaper columnist Baba Blumenthal, whom Gaby adores.

While the intellectuals in her parents' social circle anxiously debate what to do about the looming Nazi rise to power, Gaby observes those around her with Aryan sympathies, such as their pro-Hitler maid who is looking to rise above her poverty; Gaby's elegant literature teacher, who wants her to become a leader in the Hitler Youth group; and her sister, whose boyfriend is an ardent Nazi. Gaby begins a Diary of Shame, listing private moments, where she gives in to peer pressure, such as when a gang of boys forces Gaby and her best friend to return its "Heil Hitler" salute, rather than stand up for what she believes is right.

Each chapter of Ashes begins with a quote from a book that she is reading, by authors such as Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and Jack London, that foreshadow elements of the chapter. The prophetic opening quote, by Heinrich Heine -"Where they burn books, they will end by burning human beings."- sets the stage for this compelling story. When book-burning threatens Gaby's beloved books, as well as free thought in Germany, she and her family must determine how to proceed in the future.

In answering the question, "How did you come to write Ashes?", Kathryn Lasky replied, "What fascinated me most was what led up to the all-time catastrophe, the tragedy of modern times. I did not want the perspective of a Jewish person, but a gentile—in other words not a girl whose life was threatened, but whose sense of humanity was threatened; where she begins on some level—most likely a subconscious level—to question what it means to be human." This well researched portrait of pre-WWII Germany eloquently chronicles this volatile time in human history. When I attend the final performance of Grand Hotel at the Dairy tonight, I will do so with a much deeper understanding of Germany during this era.

Brightly Woven

Wandering through some spectacular gardens Saturday on the Mapleton-Whittier garden tour, I realized how magical nature can be. One garden in particular came with its own fantasy story and transported me to another place and time. A man-made stream meandered through the two acre garden and the lush foliage harbored hidden ponds and statuary that were a complete delight. The garden would have been a perfect place to curl up with Alexandra Bracken's debut fantasy entitled Brightly Woven, which I happened to be reading last weekend. It tells the story of a weaver who accompanies a rogue wizard on a quest through a mystical world to save their homeland.



After Wayland North ends the drought in her village, Sydelle, a 16-year-old weaver, is given to the wizard as payment for his services. She s finds herself accompanying him to the capital in a race to prevent a war with neighboring countries. At first she is furious, but gradually she comes to care for him as she realizes they are together by design, not by accident. They are plagued by wild weather, North's strange illness and a vengeful wizard who is stalking them. Sydelle is mysteriously able to mend North's magical cloaks without disturbing the magic, and she begins to recognize that she has magical powers of her own. As their journey progesses Sydelle discovers that North is harboring a dark secret about their shared destiny.



Readers are going to find this charismatic pair and their breathtaking adventure irresistable. Wayland is an alluring tortured soul, who is curiously devoted to the strong feisty Sydelle, despite her sharp tongue and failure to comply with his wishes. Brightly Woven is a fresh take on an archetypical fantasy story, that will find readers clamoring for a sequel.

Gone

I was gone for five days last week visiting my sister and her husband in Port Aransas, Texas. They recently retired from their jobs in Austin and moved to the beach. He is now the chief of police in Port Aransas and they just moved into their fabulous new beach house. While there, I consumed mass quantities of seafood, helped them with their house warming party, and read Gone, the final book in Lisa McMann's Wake trilogy.
For those of you not familiar with the Wake trilogy, it is a really unique paranormal series about Janie Hannagan, a girl who is a dream catcher. The first book, Wake, introduces Janie who has been inexplicably pulled into other people's dreams since she was eight years old. Through a patient at the Heather Nursing Home where she works, Janie finds out she has the ability to help people resolve their nightmares. Exhausted by being constantly pulled into the dreams of fellow students who are napping at school, Janie seeks to find a way to control the dreaming. She gets involved with Cabel, a former bad-boy who has hellish nightmares, and Janie realizes her ability may be a blessing and not just a curse.
In the second book, Fade, Janie is now working undercover for the police, using her abilities to help them solve crimes. Janie and Cabel are investigating teachers suspected of drugging and abusing students at class parties. Janie sets herself up as bait, and her relationship with Cabel is strained as he feels unable to protect her. The physical toll her dream catching will ultimately exact is also revealed, and Janie is faced with deciding how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to continue her undercover work for the police.
In the final book, Gone, Janie discovers her long lost father is also a dream catcher. When she meets him for the first time, he is in a coma in the hospital. As Janie is pulled into his hellish nightmares, she realizes that he chose a life of isolation, rather than face the debilitating side effects of using his abilities. However, if she makes the same choice, it means abandoning her undercover work and, more importantly, Cabel, whom she loves more than life itself.
Lisa McMann, in a note to readers, admits that she procrastinated in writing the last book of the trilogy, because she didn't want it all to end. When she finally finished the first draft of the book, she sent it off to her editor, thinking all it need was some "polishing." Her editor sent it back with notes telling her it wasn't strong enough. Lisa realized she had been holding back and Gone needed to be completely rewritten. With only three weeks before she went on a book tour to support Fade, she found a theme song for Janie, Dido's "Here with Me," and listened to it over and over until she had the courage to begin again. I was fascinated by the Morton's Fork (a situation involving choice between two equally undesireable outcomes) concept, which Lisa used to characterize Janie's dilemma. The result is a very satisfying resolution to a terrific series.

Coffeehouse Angel

For Mother's Day my guys granted my heart's desire and took me to a chick flick, Letters to Juliet, and out to dinner. Letters to Juliet takes place in Verona, Italy, where Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) travels with her fiance (Gael Garcia Bernal), for a prewedding honeymoon. When he gets consumed with plans for his new restaurant and neglects her, Sophie gets involved with the secretaries of Juliet, who respond to letters to Juliet seeking romantic advice. It reminded me of a couple YA books I read in 2008, The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper, which is about an American girl who goes to a summer program in Verona and as a class assignment answers letters to Juliet, and Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors, where a girl travels back in time to Verona and tries to save Juliet from her fate.
Suzanne Selfors' latest book Coffeehouse Angel is one of my favorite chick lit books that I've read recently. This book taps into the latest trend of stories involving angels. 16-year-old Katrina Svenson leaves coffee and a Danish for a vagrant, who is sleeping in the alley behind her grandmother's coffee shop, and later finds out he's an angel who is a messenger from heaven. For her kindness he must grant her heart's desire. But what does she want-love, fortune or fame? While Katrina is busy trying to decide, her grandmother's coffee shop is failing, her best guy friend is dating her nemesis, and her cat becomes famous for killing a giant rat in the coffeehouse. To complicate matters, she is falling for the angel and would like for him to stick around. Details of Scandanavian culture lace this supernatural romance and make it an engaging read for anyone looking for a bit of escape.

Heist Society

Having been mesmerized by Aaron Johnson's performance as the young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy at Sundance, I couldn't resist going to see his latest film Kickass. It was great fun; more exciting than a bike ride in Bali. Although Aaron was great in the title role, Chloe Mertz totally stole the film with her performance as Hit Girl. Seeing her in her plaid skirt uniform reminded me of the covers of the Gallagher Girls series. (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy.) The fourth in the series, Only the Good Spy Young, will be released June 29th. If you haven't had a chance to read them, they are about a private high school for girls who are spies. A film of the first book is in development.
While you are waiting for the fourth installment, I would recommend Ally's new series, Heist Society. After a childhood spent in the family business stealing jewels, Katarina Bishop decides to retire and cons her way into an exclusive boarding school, leaving her life of crime behind. However, when Hale, her former colleague and crush, shows up with the news that her father's life is in danger, she is lured back into the fold. A powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and her father is the number one suspect. Together with her crew of teenage thieves, Kat must find the art collection and return it, before her father is killed. They travel across Europe and plot the biggest heist in the family's history. The details of thieving tools and techniques, famous artworks, and lavish settings make this a highly informative and entertaining read. I can't wait for the sequel!

Back from Bali - We Were Here

I am back from my Backroads biking trip in Bali, where it was hot, hot hot! I now refer to the experience as Bikram biking. The accomodations and cultural experiences were wonderful, the biking was not. There are three million people in Bali; two million of them are on motorbikes, the other million are driving big trucks and playing chicken with them on the roads where we were biking.
During the four plane flights to get there, I read Matt de la Pena's We Were Here. Having met Matt at the Colorado teen lit conference, I was looking forward to reading his latest book and it did not disappoint. Matt charmed me with his sincerity and earnest passion for YA lit. We talked about stories with a soundtrack and he told me one of his favorite musicians was Elliott Smith, who did the music for Good Will Hunting. He was particularly impacted by Smith's suicide- he is thought to have stabbed himself in the heart. After reading the book, I now better understand Matt's fascination with Smith and his comment that good writers lie, cheat and steal.
Matt was born in the barrio in San Diego to teenage parents (17 and 15) and basketball was his ticket out. Although We Were Here is not a sports story, basketball did play a role. The book is supposedly a court ordered journal that Miguel Castenada is required to write while in a group home in San Jose. Fed up with the group home environment, Miguel and two other inmates, Mong and Rondell, break out and attempt to flee to Mexico. Miguel continues to chronicle their adventures in the journal, slowly revealing the stories leading to each boy's incarceration and the tragic event that changed Miguel's life forever. The suspenseful pacing will keep readers anxiously turning pages to find out about the boys' survival, as well as the mystery of Miguel's crime.

Colorado Teen Literature Conference - Tricks

The highlight of the Colorado Teen Lit Conference for me was hearing from Matt de la Pena, author of Mexican Whiteboy, and Ellen Hopkins, author of numerous novels in verse. On Friday evening I was fortunate to be invited to a dinner where I met both authors. On Saturday each author gave a keynote speech. I have always wondered what led Ellen Hopkins to the dark topics she addresses. She shared the anguish she experienced when her beloved daughter got involved with meth and ultimately ended up in jail. She said her first novel in verse, Crank, was her way of working through the turmoil she felt. She received such a positive response to the novel that she knew she had found her niche. Her latest book, Tricks, chronicles the lives of kids driven to prostitution. The story is narrated by five teens whose lives finally converge in Las Vegas. Seth, an Indiana farm boy, is kicked off his family farm when his parents find out he's gay. He follows a controlling sugar daddy to Las Vegas. In Boise, Eden's first romantic relationship leads her Pentecostal parents to declare that she is possessed by demons. They send her to Tears of Zion reform camp, where ironically she turns to prostituting herself to engineer an escape. In California Whitney, who yearns for male attention any way she can get it, ends up involved with a pimp who takes her to Las Vegas. Ginger, realizes that the rapes she's endured as a child, were arranged by her mother in exchange for cash. They all end up in Las Vegas where Cody, who has a gambling addiction he pays for with money he's earned selling his body, is attempting to deal with his grief when his stepfather dies. Hopkins does a wonderful job helping the reader understand the desperation that leads the teens to prostitution, as well as how difficult it is to extricate themselves once they've traveled down that road.
I'm off to Bali tomorrow. I have Matt de la Pena's latest novel, We Were Here, on my Kindle and plan to read it on the trip. I will share my thoughts about it with you soon.

Colorado Teen Literature Conference - Tangled

Tomorrow I am presenting at the Colorado Teen Literature conference, which is my favorite conference of the year. I am going to talk about new book bundles, which are YA novels that are grouped thematically. In addition to talking about 25 new books, I will also suggest classroom activities for each bundle. One of the bundles involves books that have multiple narrators. Caroline Mackler's Tangled is one of the books in this group. Told from the points of view of four different teens, the story chronicles the time they spend together at a Caribbean resort, as well as the four months that follow. The story is narrated in a linear fashion, beginning with Jena's story. She is a hypercritical girl, who is her own worst critic. She accompanies her mom and her mom's best friend and daughter Skye to the resort. Skye is a gorgeous young actress who doesn't seem to want to give Jena the time of day. Little does Jena know, that Skye, who narrates the next section, is struggling with emotional problems. They both meet Dakota, a boy who seems confident and sexually aggressive. He initially spends time with Jena, but dumps her when he meets Skye. He narrates the third section which takes place when he returns home. Finally, we hear from Owen, Dakota's introverted brother, who spends most of his time working on his blog "Loser with a Laptop." Jena begins following his blog and they ultimately meet in NYC. As the story progresses through the vacation, and its aftermath, the reader begins to realize that the facade these kids present to the world hides a very different person on the inside. I loved these characters and think kids will really connect with their insecurities.
Although I'm really looking forward to my presentation, I am most excited about the two visiting authors, Matt de la Pena, the author of Mexican Whiteboy, and Ellen Hopkins, the popular author, who writes cutting edge novels-in-verse. I am also profiling her latest novel, Tricks, in my novels-in-verse bundle. In my next blog I will let you know about the conference and meeting these two authors.

Flash Burnout

I just got back from Berkeley, CA, where I visited Amoeba Music on Telegraph Avenue. I was delighted to be able to envision Allie (The Vinyl Princess) behind the counter talking up vinyl records with customers. The vinyl record library there is phenomenal.
My latest recommendation is Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan about Blake, a boy who struggles to balance his relationships with Shannon, his girlfirend, and Marissa, a fellow photographer who is a friend who is a girl. Although the story involves more about photography and struggling with a parent's addiction than music, I couldn't resist mentioning it in my soundtrack unit because the end of the book includes two broken heart playlists with Blake's commentary. One is a mad/sad playlist and the other is a sad/sad playlist including songs like "Here Without You" by 3 Doors Down that he characterizes as an "I haven't moved on" song and Hemorrhage by Fuel of which he says, "Anytime you mention blood and love in the same sentence, it's not going to have a happy ending." Another terrific element of the book is his "pleas to Houston" (as in Houston we have a problem) for relationship advice. I would highly recommend spending some time with Blake and his problems.

Struts and Frets

The playlist at the end of John Skovron's Struts and Frets, which identifies the songs in the book, includes an eclectic variety of music from the Pixies to John Coltrane. All are referenced by Sammy Bojar, the main character, who defines himself through his music. Sammy's grandfather, a jazz musician whose mind is clouded by dementia, encourages him to follow his dream of becoming a rock star. However, his mother, who watched her own mother die of a drug overdose, urges him to pursue a more stable lifestyle.
When Sammy's band decides to compete in a battle of the bands, Sammy waffles between excitement at winning a chance to record in a studio and dread of the band imploding in public. The lead singer can't remember the lyrics, the bassist is not ready for prime time and Sammy has a serious case of stage fright.
Added to his anxieties about the band, Sammy worries about his relationship with his art obsessed best friend Jen5 (there are 5 other Jennifers in their class), who wants to take their relationship to the next level. As they explore romance, she agrees to help him be more of a "kick-ass combat ninja" and he encourages her to show her vulnerable side. At her urging, he agrees to perform solo at her first art show, and totally loses himself in performing a song he wrote for her. The battle of the bands doesn't turn out quite the way he had hoped, but it definitely is a turning point in his music career. This fresh coming-of-age story not only includes recognizable music, but also Sammy's orginal songs and an inside look at what it's like to write and perform them. It's a great read that will appeal to a wide audience.

Speaking of Soundtracks

Speaking of soundtracks, I have been enjoying the playlist Maggie Stiefvater created for her book Shiver. It is very Twilightesque. If you have not read Shiver yet, I would highly recommend it. The first book of a trilogy introduces Grace who for years has been fascinated by the yellow-eyed wolf that saved her from its pack when she was attacked as a child. Sam, who was bitten by a werewolf as a boy, is that wolf. He spends the summer months as a human and the cold months of the year as a wolf. When they finally meet, they fall deeply in love, but their romance is threatened by many challenges, including the fact that Sam may soon lose the ability to become human. The author's take on werewolves is interesting and original, and Sam and Grace cleverly handle the ordeals they face. I can wait for Linger, the sequel which is due out July 10, 2010.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog spot! I am looking forward to blogging about new young adult novels. I have written a book, What's New in Young Adult Novels? and Ideas for Classroom Use and am continually reading new YA novels in hopes of finding gems to add to my next revision. The 2009 book is available on Lulu.com.

One of the units in my book is entitled Stories with a Soundtrack. I am always looking for new books that will lend themselves to exploration of the music referenced in them. Last year's Audrey Wait! was really popular with teens and I had a ball listening to all the songs that Robin Benway used in her chapter titles. The songs that book characters listen to really define them as individuals and help the readers get a clearer picture of the characters.

Yesterday I read The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Printz. I absolutely loved it! Allie, the main character, works at Bob and Bob's Records, a vinyl record store in Berkeley, CA. My oldest son just started business school at Berkeley, and having helped him move there this summer, I am somewhat familiar with the setting. I envisioned Bob and Bob's Records on Telegraph Avenue and all the hippies that populate the area. The music that permeates the story is classic and I began making a playlist in my head as I read about Allie's adventures.

If you have any thoughts on either of these books or have books to recommend, I'd love to hear from you.