Category: Boy Meets Book

When it came to his life, Sam was pretty easy going–like his idol, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Basically, he intended to skate (as in board, not roller) his way through high school, get into a good college and make his single mum (who had him when she was a teen and therefore never got to go to college herself) proud. That was the plan anyway. Until he got slammed. But this wasn’t like all the other times he took a tumble off his board. This time it felt like, “The wheels had come off the trucks, the trucks had come off the deck, and I’d shot twenty feet into the air and gone straight into a brick wall…and there wasn’t even a mark on me.” That’s because Sam’s been slammed with the hard fact that his ex-girlfriend Alicia is pregnant. And no matter how much he’s like to run away (and does briefly, in a comic sequence that literally defines the phrase “in denial”) Sam knows he has to do the right thing. But when one of your main coping stategies is to ask your poster of Tony Hawk for advice, you know you aren’t ready for fatherhood. Sam couldn’t be more unprepared. But life isn’t about to wait around for him to catch up. Since one of my Top Ten Books of All Time is his slacker masterpiece High Fidelity, I couldn’t be more pleased to see that Nick Hornby has finally turned his attention to the teen peeps. Though his subject is serious, Hornby writes with a light and humorous touch that will have you laughing even as you feel for the poor guy. Like when Sam is actually confronted with the reality of birth: “Would Alicia make those noises? Could I ask her not to?” and “I’m still not sure what the cervix is. It doesn’t seem to come up in normal life.” If you enjoyed Judd Apatow’s riotously funny summer flick Knocked Up, you’re gonna love Hornby’s Slam. Though each writer approaches the topic of unplanned pregnancy in his own unique way, both stories share the same great sense of humor.

P.S. If you’d rather cry than laugh when it comes to baby drama, check out Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bechard instead.

There’s nothing I like better than a good survival story, and debut author Watt Key has penned a fantastic one! It’s 1980, and Moon Blake has never been to school, had a sleepover, or eaten at McDonald’s. That’s because his Pap, a disgruntled Vietnam vet who distrusts the government, has raised him entirely in the deep woods, far from any cities or people. Moon knows how to shoot and skin a deer, and how to make an impromptu shelter out of bay boughs and pine needles, but has no clue how to make small talk or interact with anyone other than his Pap. So when Pap has an accident and subsequently dies, unsuspecting Moon is left to his own devices, and is quickly taken into custody by the state. However, he surprises everyone when he not only busts out of the toughest boys’ home in Alabama, but takes a busload of boys with him, determined to live free or die trying! Alabama Moon is both a deep-hearted adventure story and an amazing character study of a unusual boy you will soon come to root for. This book was brought to my attention by the teens at the 2007 BBYA Teen session at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., who all had good things to say about it. So thanks, guys! I loved it!

Sixteen-year-old New Yorker Max Whooten is angry and bored. (He’s mostly angry because he’s so bored, and people are so stupid. I can sympathize.) His whole summer is one big nothing, until his ancient cat, Mozart (aka “Crappy” due to his inability to utilize the litter box) finally kicks the bucket. Max’s mother, in a fit of conservationism, decides to forgo the usual options and instead sends Max, along with Mozart’s body, to upstate New York, where Mozart can be naturally laid to rest in his hippie Aunt Ginny’s backyard, and Max can learn how to get a life and get his anger under control. In Woodstock, Max discovers Kurt Vonnegut, first love, and the power of poetry. He even has an epiphany, which, despite popular belief, “doesn’t hurt at all.” This slim summer comedy reminded me of Blake Nelson’s equally spare The New Rules of High School. Contrary to the ummm, unrestrained title, (which refers to Max’s anger management problem, get your mind out of the gutter!) this is just a low key, humorous look at what it’s like to be a horny, smarter-than-average teenage boy who just wants the world to cut him a little slack. Clocking in at under 200 pages, this is also one read you could probably finish in an afternoon on the couch instead of watching yet another Pimp My Ride marathon (and it would probably be more interesting, too!).

“Once I was a boy who became a man. Then I was a man who became a head.” Frank Marder had one too many, and still tried to drive his date home. Riding high on five beers and his girlfriend’s laughter, he hit a tree. His girlfriend Meredith was killed. A pedestrian unlucky enough to be between Frank’s car and the tree was killed. But Frank was not. Instead, Frank, broke his neck in the crash and will live the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, or as Frank likes to say, “a head.” Without the use of his arms and legs, Frank faces endless days full of his mother’s worrying, his father’s blustering and his own gnawing guilt. He tortures himself by reading an internet site set up just to debate whether or not he should have gone to prison for his crime, and constantly wonders, is life worth living if you’re just a head? “If you can’t have, can you still want?” The answer is yes, and Frank learns that life as a head still has meaning–especially when the last person he ever expected offers him the forgiveness he needs to move on. First time novelist Sarah Aronson’s take on a situation that most people would consider nightmarish manages to not only be hopeful, but also full of humor and the strength of the human spirit. Pair this one with Cynthia Voigt’s Izzy, Willy-Nilly for an interesting “he said, she said” look at dealing with a catastrophic disability.

Capricorn “Cap” Anderson isn’t just working the retro-hippie vibe, he IS the genuine, tie-dyed article. Homeschooled by his grandmother Rain, he’s grown up on a commune where the most exciting event in his week is going into town to pick up more tofu and duct tape. But when Rain breaks her hip and must go into the hospital, Cap is forced to live in the suburbs with a social worker and attend the local middle school. Though he is disturbed by all the noise and confusion, Cap is able to meet the new challenge with his usual Buddhist calm, practicing tai chi during lunch, and leading Beatles singalongs in the music room. But what happens when the most popular guy at school decides to set Cap up as the mock eighth grade president? Suddenly Cap is being peppered with questions about the annual Halloween dance and whether or not he intends to press the issue of getting all the water fountains converted to Gatorade. Utterly confused by the bizarre behavior of his peers (and not even quite sure how he came to be president) can this homeschooled zero turn the tables and become a middle school hero? Gordon Korman, author of Born to Rock and Son of the Mob has written another of his signature rib-tickling stories, which tend to be bright beacons of funny in a YA-angst ridden world. By telling his tale through the eyes of a complete innocent, Korman makes a place that is familiar to all of us unexpectedly and delightfully absurd. Get Schooled!

Forget bad day, Logan’s having a bad year. It all started when he saw something at his best friend Zyler’s house. What he saw was so terrifying that he couldn’t do anything but run. Now Zyler’s gone, and Logan has moved, but the memory of that night still makes his head ache and his stomach churn. What’s worse is that rumors of what happened that night have spread everywhere–even the kids at Logan’s new school have heard about it. Hardly anyone will even speak to him, and the guys in his Scout troop call him a pervert or worse. Only Logan knows the truth about what really happened that night. But it will take a therapist’s patient questions, the kindness of a girl named Laurel who loves palindromes and the safety of becoming someone else in the school play that will finally allow Logan to stand up and say to himself and everyone else, “This is what I did.” Powerful beyond words, this debut novel from Ann Dee Ellis reminded me of the equally amazing Perks of Being a Wallflower. Part screenplay and part verse novel, this compelling read will keep you turning pages to find out the secret of Logan’s private pain and the steps he takes to heal.

The only thing fifteen year old Will has in common with his brother Denny is a small scar that they each have on their hand from an ill-fated attempt when they were little to liberate their father’s penknife from his dresser. Other than that, they are completely different. Will is a practiced roper and rider on his father’s ranch in Colorado and his most fervent wish is to become a professional rodeo cowboy. Denny likes to ride, but if left alone, would prefer to daydream over an anthill all day. Will’s thoughts are as quick and sharp as the falcons that circle the endless skies over the ranch, while Denny’s are hampered by his Down’s Syndrome. All his life, Will has had to watch over Denny and keep him safe. Now, he has a chance to compete in his first rodeo and start a new life as a professional cowboy, free of Denny forever…But after all this time, can he really stand to leave his only brother behind? And will Denny, strong-willed in his own right, allow Will to leave? This unusual historical fiction, set in 1925, is a great guy story about the meaning of brotherhood and family. But don’t let the warm and fuzzy sentiment fool you—Nuzem packs plenty of action in this slim novel, including an electrifying rattlesnake showdown, a flash flood, and of course, plenty of rodeo bucking and slamming.

Sixteen-year-old Iggy wants to do something great with his life, he just doesn’t have the tools. His parents are drug addicts, his apartment building is a den of down-and-outers and his only friend is a pseudo-hippie, law school dropout named Mo. But when Mo mentions getting some money off his wealthy, too-nice mom, Iggy sees his chance to turn his life around. He just knows that if Mo’s mom comes through he will be able to make his own mom come home, get his act together at school, and rescue that sad, gray girl he saw sitting all alone at a party. What Iggy doesn’t know yet is that by just being himself, he is going to do something great for Mo and his mom, something that will allow him to make the kind of sacrifice usually reserved for saints…sad, poignant, and powerful, Saint Iggy will leave you thinking about the ways you can help make the lives of the people around you a little better.

In clearly the best debut of 2005 so far, a pissed off teenage midget named Arty screws with his bullying fraternal twin’s mind by hiring a skinhead named Kerouac to come up with a prank so diabolical, it will set their entire school on a mad goose chase for a giant, concrete….turtle. Weird? Yes. Bizarre? Heck ya! One of the most original coming of age stories I’ve ever read? Abso-frickin’-lutely. If you’re into David Sedaris or like-minded writers who pull no punches when dealing with the absurdity of life, you simply cannot afford to miss Funny Little Monkey.

Miles is looking for the “Great Perhaps,” and he knows he’s not going to find it in any of the ordinary places. So he’s off to boarding school, where he will be free to reinvent himself and shed his safe (read, “boring”) image. Once ensconced at Culver Creek, he is befriended by the Colonel, a Culver Creek veteran who shows him the ropes, and the unbelievably sexy Alaska, who’s husky voice and gorgeous face keep him up at night. Miles finally learns what it is like to belong, as he is adopted into Alaska’s inner circle and nicknamed “Pudge,” (because he is so skinny) The novel starts each chapter with a countdown that is marching towards what? Miles’ discovery of his “great perhaps”? He and Alaska’s first kiss? Or something deeper, more sinister? As Alaska’s self destructive behavior is demonstrated over and over, readers will begin to fear not only for her, but also for the fragile Miles. Head over heels for the first time in his life, what will Miles do if something happens to Alaska? Is this your typical coming of age novel? Yes, but in many ways it is so much more. If you’re tired of the same old “life lesson learned” YA novel, try Looking for Alaska. I promise you’ll find something different and better within these pages.