Classic Connections

It's time once again for Classic Connections in Young Adult Literature.  Authors are getting more and more inventive as they reference or reinvent the classics.  This month I can recommend several new titles.  Being Henry David by Cal Armistead involves a teenager with amnesia whose only clue to his identity is the book he is carrying- Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Great by Sara Benincasa is a reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in the modern day Hamptons. Second Star by Alyssa Sheinmel sets the story of Peter Pan in a surfing community in California. Finally, Cinderella's Dress by Shona Slayton suggests that Cinderella's ball gown still exists and has been handed down through the centuries to girls charged to protect it.

Being Henry David begins when an injured boy wakes up in Penn Station remembering nothing and carrying only $10 and a copy of Walden. When two homeless kids befriend him, he tells them his name is Henry David and they dub him Hank.  After an altercation in which he severely injures a man who attacks him and his new friends, he finds himself on the run again, this time to Concord, Massachusetts where he hopes to find clues to his identity. As his memories slowly return, he is taken in by a librarian who poses as Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond and  gets involved with a girl with whom he discovers a mutual love of music. The unraveling of the mystery of his identity is paired with frequent passages from Walden which he seems to have memorized. Although finding out who he is and what happened to him is compelling, it is the new relationships he forges in Concord that give the story depth. Teens who haven't read Walden may want to pick it up after finishing this unique page turner.

Great introduces teenage Naomi Rye who arrives in the Hamptons to spend the summer with her celebrity chef mother.  She becomes transfixed by her mysterious neighbor Jacinta, who seems to be the Hampton's IT girl.  When she is not dishing in her blog about the Hampton glitterati, Jacinata is planning lavish parties that are the talk of the town.  Naomi, who expected the summer to be a bore, finds herself with a hot boyfriend and a new best friend who is the most glamorous teen in the Hamptons.  But Jacinta, like Jay Gatsby, is hiding secrets and scandal is on the horizon.  Changing the gender of the classic main character is not often done in YA classic connections, but it works well in Great.  The basic structure of the story remains the same with the outside narrator telling the tale.  Inviting a comparison with the original should make for lively discussion.

Second Star finds Wendy Darling searching for her missing surfer brothers  in a contemporary ocean-side setting. Although her brothers, Michael and John,  have been missing for months and are presumed dead, she is determined to find them. Her search leads her to a hidden community of renegade surfers with two factions: one led by the charismatic Pete and the other by his nemesis, the drug dealing Jas (Captain Hook).  Even as Wendy is falling for Pete, she finds herself attracted to Jas, who paints himself as a misunderstood bad boy. Although many of the names remain similar, the story veers wildly from the original Peter Pan. There is much more of a focus on the love triangle and less on Peter and the lost boys.  As everyone around her, including the reader, questions Wendy's sanity, she perseveres.

Cinderella's Dress is a twist on the Cinderella tale, in that it imagines what takes place after the story is over.  The setting is WWII and Kate, the main character, is being pushed by her mother to become a model, when all she wants to do is create department store window displays. When her Polish relatives arrive with a trunk they say is filled with Cinderella's dresses, Kate finds she is destined to become the keeper of the dresses, charged with protecting them from evil doers. Then Kate's new love interest, who is involved with creating the window displays, leaves for boot camp, and  she is allowed to take his place as the window dresser's apprentice.  Predictably, she gives in to temptation and uses the Cinderella dresses to create a series of window displays depicting the fairy tale.   With a father and brother overseas and her mother at odds with her dreams, Kate is on her own to determine the truth about her relatives' fantastic claim. Although this book reads more like historical fiction, than fantasy, there is still a magical feel to the tale.

New YA Mysteries: She is Not Invisible,The Body in the Woods and Blur

Summer vacation is just around the corner and it's time to recommend some fun summer reads.  This month I will focus on new young adult mysteries.  First, Marcus Segwick, who won the Michael Printz award for Midwinter Blood, has a new mystery out entitled She is Not Invisible.  April Henry's new Point Last Seen mystery series introduces teens who work for a search and rescue team in Oregon in The Body in the Woods. Steven James' new trilogy of young adult thrillers begins with Blur, about a teen sleuth who has crime related visions.

In a departure from his usual historical fiction and fantasy writing, Marcus Sedgwick proves himself very versatile with his latest thriller She is Not Invisible, that explores the secrets of the universe. Laureth's father, novelist Jack Peak, is investigating Jung's theory of synchronity (coincidence) when he disappears. His notebook shows up in New York City, so Laureth, who is blind, enlists the help of  her 7-year-old brother to travel without their mother's knowledge from London to NYC to find Dad.  As they search the notebook for clues to his whereabouts, they become familiar with Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, Edgar Allen Poe and other scientists' theories about coincidence. But will these findings lead them to their father?

The Point Last Seen mystery series begins with The Body in the Woods, which will be available for purchase in June.  The series was hatched when the author met a teen, who volunteers for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue, and attended several trainings with her. The first book introduces Alex, Nick and Ruby, who have just joined the Portland County sheriff's Search and Rescue team.  When they are sent out to the woods to look for a lost autistic man, they find a dead body instead.  Although the three teens have very different backgrounds, they find themselves becoming friends, as they team up to find the girl's murderer.  The three quirky characters are almost as interesting as the mystery itself.  The next book in the series will find Nick a suspect in his neighbor's murder.

Steven James, who is best know for a series of adult psychological thrillers called the Bowers Files, has just penned Blur, the first book in a new YA thriller trilogy. When a classmate's corpse is found in Lake Algonquin, Daniel Byers, whose father is the town sheriff, believes her death was accidental.  The she begins appearing to him, imploring him to find her killer.  Calling these visions "blurs," Daniel wonders why she picked him to contact in her afterlife.  As he begins to look into her death, he continues to have hallucinations that blur his connection with reality.  With the help of his best friend Kyle and a new love interest, Daniel attempts to solve the mystery in the hopes of regaining his waning sanity.  The "blurred reality" sequences, as well as twists and turns in the plot, make this a creepy, but fun, read.

Colorado Teen Lit Conference and New Works by Popular Authors

The Colorado Teen Literature Conference at the beginning of the month was a resounding success.  A.S.King and David Levithan, the keynote speakers, did not disappoint.  Both authors discussed their latest works in their keynote speeches.  King's Reality Boy chronicles the life of Gerald Faust who is still dealing with the fallout from his family's appearance on a reality series, when he was a 5-year-old boy with anger management problems. (See my March blog) David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing is the sequel to his first published novel Boy Meets Boy.  Based on a true event, two gay boys attempt to set the Guinness World Record for continuous kissing, the tale of which is narrated by a chorus of gay men who have died of AIDS. As always, the conference introduced me to new must reads. Three popular YA authors have new offerings.  Lauren Oliver (Delirium series) has a new stand alone Panic, which departs from the dystopian world to chronicle a realistic story of a deadly game played by high school seniors. Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak) once again offers the tale of a damaged teen in The Impossible Knife of Memory; this time Anderson focuses on a girl whose war veteran father's PTSD threatens their safety. Finally, Ann Brashares (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) tries her hand at science fiction with The Here and Now, the first in a series about immigrants from the future.

Panic is a deadly high stakes game played by graduating seniors who live in the backwoods town of Carp, New York.  The story is told from the points of view of Heather, a girl who never thought she would get involved, and Dodge, a boy who has been waiting anxiously to compete and get revenge for something that happened to his sister when she competed. The game challenges competitors to face their fears, both emotionally and physically, and of course, the teens are always one step ahead of the law.  Not only does the competition bring new friendships and revelations about the past, it also presents the possibility of love when it is least expected. The characters are sympathetic and the plot is filled with suspense.  It has already been optioned by Universal Pictures for a film.

The Impossible Knife of Memory focuses on Haley Kincaid, who has been on the road with her truck driver father, a war veteran with PTSD, for five years. When he moves them back to his childhood home, she finds adjusting to the life of a normal high school student a challenge.  Her father's method of dealing with his demons is through drugs and alcohol, and Haley must assume a parental role to keep him from going over the edge.  She struggles to remain focused, as she reconnects with her former friend Gracie, who introduces her to Finn, a guy whose dreams for the future just might include her.  The story is told from Haley's point of view which is understandably sarcastic and suspicious. When Finn finally breaks through the self-protective barriers she sets up, the reader begins to hope he will be able to help her rescue herself from the downward spiral her life has become.

The Here and Now, the first book in a new series, introduces Prenna James, who immigrates from the future where a pandemic has killed millions and left the world in ruins. She and the others who escaped keep to themselves to avoid discovery, as they look for a way to prevent the plague that will one day destroy the Earth.  She doesn't count on falling love with Ethan Jarves, who vaguely remembers seeing her magically appear one day in the past when she time travels to his world. Hoping to have a life together, they investigate clues that might lead them to change events that trigger the plague in the future.  Although I found the book suspenseful, the ending leaves a lot of loose ends that will presumably be tied up in the next books in the series.

Debut Series: Alienated, Half Bad and Defy

New series by debut authors or authors new to young adult literature are always exciting discoveries.  One wonders if the series will be huge successes like Veronica Roth's Divergent series or Lauren Oliver's Delirium series, or if they will languish on remainders tables. This month I am recommending three new series that I hope will find an audience. Alienated by Melissa Landers, explores what might happen when alien exchange students come to Earth.   Sarah B Larson's Defy introduces a familiar story about a girl who must pose as a boy to survive, but the plucky heroine and the unexpected twists make it a fun read. Finally, Half Bad by Sally Green imagines a world where two factions of witches  Black and White, battle for dominance.

In Alienated high school student Cara Sweeney is chosen to host the first alien exchange student, Aelyx, on Earth. Not only will she get a college scholarship, she will also get to visit his planet L’eihr. What she doesn't anticipate is the prejudice against the L’eihrs and the danger it creates for her and Aelyx. As one by one her friends abandon her, she turns to Aelyx for love and support, but he is harboring secrets plans with deadly consequences. Will his love for her persuade him to abandon the plot, or will his loyalty to his planet prevail? Aelyx's fish out of water behavior and Cara's initial annoyance with him, followed by their slowly developing affection for each other, are just a few highly entertaining  plot elements in this refreshingly new exploration of prejudice. 

Taking place in the war torn kingdom of Antion, Defy, chronicles the story of Alexa, who, after her parents are murdered, must disguise herself as Alex to avoid being sent to the breeding house.  She and her brother Marcel join Prince Damian's elite guard, where her sword-fighting skills, coupled with her emerging magical powers, make her a force to be reckoned with.  When Marcel, the only one who knows her secret, is killed, she doesn't know who to trust.  Then a visiting sorcerer kidnaps her, the Prince and her fellow guard Rylan, in the hope of finding a way to negotiate an end to the war.  As the three are held prisoner, Alex is faced with her emerging romantic feelings for both men, as well as her conflicted emotions about her duty to serve the king, whose plans are not in the country's best interest.  All is not as it seems in this story of political intrigue and romance.

Although Half Bad was not my favorite of the three series, it probably has the best chance of success, as it has already been optioned for a movie by Fox Searchlight and rights have been sold in 27 countries.  The series, which is set in a modern day London filled with witches, introduces Nathan, a Half Code, a half white, half black witch.  His father, Marcus, who is the world's most powerful black witch, has been absent Nathan's whole life and his mother is dead.  After being forced to go through yearly evaluations to determine whether he is a black or white witch, Nathan is finally locked up in a cage and tortured by the witch council, which is hoping to persuade him to kill his father.  Nathan escapes and begins the hunt for Marcus, so that he can convince him to bestow upon him the three gifts promised to witches when they turn 17. The first book in the new trilogy sets up a world where the forces of good and evil are ambiguous at best, yet Nathan is an anti-hero that readers can root for.

Reality Boy, Fangirl and The Scar Boys

Many young adult novel protagonists travel to the beat of a different drummer. This month I have three new novels to recommend that focus on teens who are out of sync with the mainstream. In A. S. King's Reality Boy Gerald Faust is still dealing with the fallout from his family's appearance on a reality series when he was a 5-year-old boy with anger management problems. Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl explores the problems twins, who are obsessed with and write fan fiction for a fictional character, face when one of them is ready to move on. In Len Vlahos's The Scar Boys, Harry Jones, who was severely burned when he was 8 years old, lives as a recluse until a friend convinces him to join a band.

Reality Boy, Gerald Faust became a celebrity when he was five years old and his mother involved his family in a reality TV show that showcased his problems with anger management. What isn't exposed in the show is that his anger is triggered by the torment he suffers at the hands of his psychopathic older sister. Now twelve years later, he is haunted by his TV persona. No one cares that he has his anger under control. When he is befriended by Hannah, a girl with family problems of her own, they decide to run away together in an attempt to find a safe haven they can call their own. A.S. King, who will be speaking at the Colorado Teen Lit Conference in April, creates a sympathetic main character, who bears the brunt of a dysfunctional family's problems. With Hannah's support Gerald is finally able to tackle the problems head on and derail his sister's ability to sabotage anything good that happens to him.

Fangirl Cath and her twin sister Wren became obsessed with the Simon Snow series when they were just kids and their mother left. Hanging out in Simon Snow chat rooms, dressing up as characters for movie premieres and writing fan fiction consumes their lives until they go to college and Wren wants to leave all that behind, including her sister. Coupled with her sister's defection, Cath also worries about her father's fragile mental stability, now that he is alone. Cath’s new roommate and her boyfriend, as well as her creative writing teacher who abhors fan fiction, try to take Cath out of her comfort zone. Can she leave Simon Snow behind and write her own stories, or is she doomed to hide forever in her fandom?

Eight-year-old Harry Jones’ life changed dramatically when neighborhood thugs tied him to a tree during a lightning storm and he was burned severely when the tree was struck by lightning. Living with physical and emotional scars, Harry is a recluse until eighth grade when charismatic Johnny rescues him from bullies and convinces him to join a band. After modest success in their hometown, The Scar Boys, who play punk rock, hit the road in a funky van to play gigs in college towns along the coast. Harry takes great solace in the music, but is also harboring a crush on Cheyene, the band's bass player. As with many bands, the personal dynamics are complicated by the members' close proximity. When his relationship with Johnny becomes toxic, Harry doesn't know where to turn.

The characters in these three books are really something special. I hated to leave them behind when the stories came to a close. As with many realistic YA novels, these seem to be stand alones. It will be interesting to see if teens embrace the characters, they way they did Hazel and Gus in The Fault of our Stars. I definitely think Gerald, Cath and Harry are worthy of such affection.

Romantic YA Novels: Heartbeat, These Broken Stars, and The Beginning of Everything

Many young adult novels, regardless of the genre, include a romance. Whether the book is realistic fiction, sci-fi/fantasy or mystery, it frequently includes male and female protagonists, who are interested in each other romantically.  This month I'd like to recommend three novels that include a teen romance that compliments an intriguing plotline.   In Elizabeth Scott's new novel, Heartbeat, Emma meets Caleb, while she is visiting her mother in the hospital.  Mom is brain dead, but is being kept alive until the fetus she is carrying is viable.  The first novel in Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner's new science fiction series, These Broken Stars, introduces Lilac LaRoux, a spoiled heiress, and Tarver Merendson, a poor war hero, who are the only survivors when their intergalactic space-liner, malfunctions and plummets out of hyperspace, crashing on a nearby planet. Finally, The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider explores the struggles tennis star Ezra Faulkner has when he is injured by a distracted driver. Returning to school, he joins the debate team where Cassidy, a transfer student, helps him redefine himself. Three vastly different stories are sweetened by the romantic relationship that develops between the two protagonists.

In Heartbeat Emma’s pregnant mother is brain dead and being kept alive until the baby boy she is carrying becomes viable. Caleb’s little sister died in an accident while he was in charge of her.  Emma is furious with her stepfather for keeping her mother on life support. Caleb is struggling with overwhelming feelings of guilt and is acting out. When they meet at the hospital where Emma is visiting her mother and Caleb is doing community service, they find the strength in each other to work through their issues with grief.

These Broken Stars chronicles the developing relationship between Lilac LaRoux, daughter of a wealthy tycoon, and Tarver Merendson, a soldier, who are the only survivors when the Icarus, an intergalactic space-liner, crashes on a seemingly deserted planet. Using her knowledge of her father's ship’s design, Lilac is able to free the escape pod they make it to when Tarver rescues her from the sea of crazed passengers. They safely land on the planet which has been “terraformed,” the theoretical process of modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to the biosphere of Earth to make it habitable for humans. Although Lilac is attracted to Tarver, she maintains her distance and Tarver finds her arrogance insulting. However, they must work together to make it across the planet's unforgiving terrain to the ship’s carcass where they hope to send a message for help. The dual points of view give the reader an insider's look at the process by which their disdain for each other turns to love.

The Beginning of Everything puts a new twist on the injured athlete story.  Ezra Faulkner has a theory that everyone has a watershed moment that changes his life.  His best friend Toby's changed when a severed head lands in his lap after a decapitation on a roller coaster. Kids shun Toby and Ezra drifts away into the world of jocks.  When Ezra's leg is shattered in a car accident, he avoids his former friends and reconnects with Toby in the debate club where he also meets Cassidy, a transfer student. Although Ezra's athletic friends try to maintain a relationship with him, he shuns them in favor of falling head over heels for Cassidy, a rebellious genius with a mysterious past.  Readers will not want to put the book down until they find out what is haunting her.  Throughout the book Ezra finds parallels in his life to those of the Great Gatsby, which literary teens will love. Fans of John Green's books and Perks of Being a Wallflower will also enjoy the debate club's quirky members whose witty repartee and sarcastic views on high school life are a breath of fresh air in YA literature.

Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award 2014

The winner of the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award for 2014 is Divergent by Veronica Roth.  This book is the first in the Divergent series and is followed by Insurgent and Allegiant. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it takes place in a futuristic dystopian Chicago, where all people are born into one of five factions which have a different strength and focus:  Abnegation (service), Amity (friendship) Candor (truth) Dauntless (bravery) and Erudite (intellect). On their 16th birthday teens take an aptitude test, and can choose to remain with the faction they were born into or change allegiances.  The main character, Tris, chooses to leave her abnegation family and join dauntless, where she meets and ultimately falls in love with her demanding instructor, Tobias (aka Four). Much of Tris's success in training is because she is actually a divergent with strengths in multiple factions. This makes her a target of the merciless autocratic leaders who kill divergents because they are hard to control.  As in all dystopian literature, Tris and her friends fight the status quo in hopes of creating a "brave new world" where all inhabitants live in harmony. The struggle continues in Insurgent, leading up to the final book in the series, Allegiant, which is told from both Tris and Tobias's points of view. The shocking, yet satisfying, ending leaves no doubt that this is truly the end of the series. Divergent comes out as a movie starring Shailene Woodley on March 21st.
Most of the nominees for 2015 are books from series as well. They include Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Blood Red Road by Moira Young, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, The Eye of Minds by James Dashner, The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Legend by Marie Lu, Matched by Ally Condie, The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost, Proxy by Alex London, The Selection by Kiera Cass, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Smoke by Ellen Hopkins, Truancy City by Isamu Fukai, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, and Unwholly by Neil Shusterman. I guess a surefire way to win over teen readers is to give them a dystopian or fantasy series to which they can become loyal.
The other two nominees are The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  For more information about the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult  book award, including book talks for each of the nominees, as well as contest rules and promotional materials, go to http://www.coloradobluespruceaward.org.