In this raucous medieval-ish fantasy turned upside down and sideways, Nimona is a sassy shape shifter who offers her slick sidekick services to professional villain Ballister Blackheart. In turn, she wants nothing more than to take out a few good guys. But that’s not the kind of villain Blackheart is. In fact, he’s kind of…kind, more like a Robin Hood than Sheriff of Nottingham. So when Nimona’s unstoppable powers attract the attention of the deadly Director of the mysterious Institute, Blackheart does his best to keep things from getting too heated between Nimona and the Institute’s champion, Ambrosius Goldenloin. But for sad and terrible reasons of her own, Nimona is out for blood, and soon Blackheart finds himself trapped between his arch enemy and his closest ally, no longer able to tell which is which. This inventive graphic novel was originally a web comic that earned oodles of raves, all heartily well deserved. Stevenson’s small scale art and text is packed with big universal truths about corruption, morality and heroism while also delivering some hardcore giggles along the way. You’ll find yourself wanting a Nimona of your own after finishing this delightfully subversive tome.
Month: September 2015
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
“My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency…basically I’m allergic to the world…I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years.” Biracial teen Maddie believed she had gotten used to her sanitary, white-walled world. She had learned to accept the limits of her sterile existence, her only friends being her mother, her nurse Carla, her books and the Internet. She could even forget sometimes that the tropical flowers and plants in the heated sunroom were all made of plastic. But then tall, acrobatic Olly moves across the street and opens up a whole new world to Maddie right outside her vacuum-sealed door. At first he just throws rocks at her window and holds up silly messages in his. But then they graduate to emails and share their deepest secrets: Maddie tells Olly about her disease and Olly confesses his own troubling situation–his father is abusive and his whole family suffers from his angry outbursts.  Soon email is not enough, and Madde convinces Carla to help her sneak a throughly decontaminated Olly into the house when her mother isn’t home. Before long they are holding hands and even kissing like two normal teenagers in love. Maddie knows this blissful experience can’t last forever. What if her mother finds out? What if she gets sick? But how can she possibly go back to her life the antiseptic way it was before? Now that she realizes everything she is missing, everything she has is no longer enough. “I was happy before I met him. But I’m alive now, and those are not the same thing.”  This modern day Romeo & Juliet story is already #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, which doesn’t surprise me one iota. Managing to strike both an unconventional and classic tone, this slow burning romance drops two shocking bombshells in a row, leaving readers lovesick one moment and stunned the next. ALL the things are in Everything, Everything and you won’t be able to stop turning the perfectly paced pages until you find out what fate has in store for these two star-crossed lovers. Enjoy–I envy anyone reading it for the first time!
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt
Jack Hurd is a thoughtful twelve year old who lives and works on a farm with his devoted parents. Joseph Brook is a troubled fourteen year old from an abusive home who’s already done time for trying to kill a teacher. The two meet when Jack’s folks agree to take Joseph in as a foster child. Even though Joseph has a bad rep, Jack likes him right away. Sensitive cow Rosie moos her happy moo whenever he’s near, and Jack knows, “You can tell all you need to know about someone from the way cows are around him.” Luckily, Jack’s parents feel the same way. After having to fight his way out of tight spots his whole life, Joseph has finally found a family that’s willing to fight for him. Which is good, because teenage Joseph is already the father of a baby girl named Jupiter. And if he ever wants to see her again, he’s going to need all the love the Hurd family has to spare, and then some. But when it comes to babies, laws and red tape, sometimes love isn’t enough. Friends, this weeptastic tear jerker by award winning author Gary Schmidt nearly undid me with it’s spare prose, empathetic characters and heartbreaking plot. If you’re the type of reader who chooses books based on their ability to cause you to break down in sobs, then you’ll want to run, not walk and nab this wonderful weeper from your nearest library, bookstore or e-reader November 2015.