It is 1899 in New York City, a thriving metropolis teeming with the hopes and dreams of thousands of newly arrived immigrants. Among them is Chava, a chaste Jewish widow who keeps to herself and works tirelessly in a lower East Side bakery, and Ahmad, an aloof Syrian tinsmith who wears an iron band on his wrist and makes beautiful figurines out of precious metal. Each of them is hiding a terrible secret that if discovered, could lead to their destruction. Chava can plunge pins into her own skin and not feel pain while Ahmad can raise them temperature of an entire room by just entering it. Because beneath their ordinary exteriors, Chava is a golem formed from clay, while Ahmad is a jinni made of fire. Neither of them requires sleep, so they each roam the young city’s streets alone at night, Chava yearning to fit in with her human peers, Ahmad longing to escape from them. When they finally meet, they recognize the strangeness in each other and form a mystical bond that is tested when a mysterious figure from Ahmad’s ancient past appears with a plan to enslave them both forever. This impeccably researched, lushly written novel of identity, faith, free will and unlikely friendship will appeal to readers of all ages and any card-carrying member of the history or folklore fandom. It’s also a stunningly good New York story. I spent a very happy week immersed in the smoky, sooty atmosphere of the turn of the century Bowery and Lower East Side learning how to braid challah bread in a Jewish bakery and mend kettles in a Syrian tin shop. If you are seeking a book that will transport you far from the stinky bunks of your summer camp or overly-air conditioned office of your summer job, LOOK NO FURTHER. Summer reading satisfaction guaranteed!
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King
The troubling visions started when Ellie mixed the ashes of a long dead bat with some beer and convinced Glory to drink it. Suddenly both girls are seeing into the pasts and futures of every stranger they pass on the street, but it is only Glory who is getting terrifying glimpses of a second Civil War where women’s rights disappear completely and the entire United States is thrown into poverty and chaos. It doesn’t help that the visions start coming right on the heels of Glory’s high school graduation, serving as a further reminder that she has no freaking idea what to do with her life. Her best friend Ellie, a modern day hippie who lives on the commune next door, is too busy chasing boys and dealing with the unwelcome surprise of an STD to have an opinion, while Glory’s father, a virtual shut-in since Glory’s mother Darla committed suicide years ago, can’t move forward in his own life, let alone help Glory with hers. So Glory retreats to her dead mother’s photo developing darkroom, where she finds a hidden portfolio of pictures and starts to piece together the puzzle of her family’s past in order to make some sense of the dead bat visions and her own uncertain future. This is not a read-all-in-one-sitting story with a page-turning plot, but rather a novel of ideas that deserves patience and contemplation as readers ponder their own personal and intellectual journeys as they travel along with Glory on hers. In other words, it’s a novel that could only be conceived and written by the whip-smart A.S. King. Coming to a library, bookstore or e-reader near you October 2014. While you wait, check out the rest of King’s semi-surreal backlist, along with the one of the most bonkers, bizarre road trip books ever, Going Bovine by Libba Bray.
Up All Night edited by Laura Geringer
It’s summer and I’ve been cleaning out bookshelves and I came across this marvelous collection of short stories that had somehow drifted to the back. I’m shocked that I didn’t post about this title before, as it contains narratives by some of my absolute favorite authors, like Libba Bray and Patricia McCormick. I decided to rectify that immediately, since it’s also the perfect season for stories about being up all night. July and August are the months when schedules become fluid and the freedom of the warm weather lures us into all kinds of situations that we’d never even consider during the cold busy school months. In Libba Bray’s “Not Just for Breakfast Anymore,” Maggie and her friends try to forget all their troubles at a Cheap Trick concert, but discover that no amount of booze, drugs and rock and roll will erase the truth of their messy lives. In “Orange Alert” by Patty McCormick, a teen girl sneaks out of her house and practices driving at night in order to escape her lecherous stepdad, finding the strength to defy him on the road. David Levithan imagines a warm Manhattan night where a chorus of teens finally confess how they really feel underneath their carefully constructed public faces, while Sarah Weeks focuses in on an intimate interaction between two brothers over the death of the little brother’s pet mouse in “Superman is Dead.” Rounding out this stellar assortment is a paranormal family drama by Peter Abrahams and a short comic by rockstar graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang. Be sure to check out this awesome anthology as you begin to plan your own summer night excursions!
The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff
Mortal Heart: His Fair Assassins, bk. 3 by Robin LaFevers
Annith is tired of waiting. It seems like her whole life has been an exercise in patience as she has watched the head Abbess of the Convent of St. Mortain, god of Death, send out her sisters on dangerous assignments while she tends the home fires and trains endlessly. Her fellow assassin nuns Ismae and Sybella have already been sent out on dangerous missions and Annith is dying to join them. But then the Abbess informs her that she is destined to take over the role of convent Seeress, a role that demands she remain confined forever in a tiny room where she will use tools of prophecy to foretell the exciting lives of others while never experiencing any of it for herself. Furious, Annith rejects the Abbess’s command and sets out to find her sisters and avenge the death of a young novice who the Abbess sent out too soon. Along the way she becomes entangled with the terrifying Hellequins, “tasked with collecting the souls of the wicked” and delivering them to the underworld; befriends the Arduinnites, a group of warrior women sworn to protect the young and the weak; and finally even meets and attends the young duchess of Brittany herself, who is readying for a war with the French that looks utterly un-winnable. But now that Annith has tasted freedom, she is determined to do whatever she can to serve her sisters, her country and her god–except a troubling love affair with an unexpected suitor has her questioning her every move. Can Annith set aside her confusing feelings in order to join her sister nuns and their allies in one last desperate plot to save Brittany? While this third volume of His Fair Assassins trilogy follows a pattern that has become familiar to fans of the series, it is still an immensely satisfying read that concludes in a deeply gratifying manner. Though the publication date isn’t until November 2014, this is one title that will make you thankful winter is coming!
TFiOS Super-Sized, Movie/Book Special DFTBA Post
It’s finally here! The long-awaited movie version of John Green’s bittersweet novel about life, love and cancer comes out this week–June 6 to be exact. Just like all the rest of you Nerdfighters and raving fans, my butt will be in the stadium seat of the closest theater that is playing TFiOS this weekend. I have been a John Green fan since WAAAAAYYY back and am thrilled to see some of his whip smart teen characters come to life on the big screen. To keep your excitement levels high (like you even need any help with that) check out the links below to all things John Green and TFiOS related.
“The Teen Whisperer” by Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker
“Intro to Nerdfighters 101: A John Green Primer” by Anna Fitzpatrick, Rolling Stone
Over Easy by Mimi Pond
As the 1970’s are coming to a close, Margaret is in a post-college slump, trying to figure out where she fits in as a female pop culture cartoonist between the aging hippies and the new punkers. Then she stumbles into the Imperial Café, a diner full of sardonic waitresses, surly cooks and outsider customers that suddenly feels like home. “…I can tell there is something about this place. It feels like I am in a movie, a very interesting and exciting movie, an independent feature in which I play a smack but key role. I have to stay to find out how it’s going to end.†After telling a dirty joke that impresses the manager, Margaret scores a dishwashing job, new name (“Madgeâ€) and a front row seat to the diner’s never ending drama. Customers and employees break up and make up, take drugs, get sober and then start all over again. Throughout the pale, aqua blue watercolor washed pages, Madge figures out the rules of adulthood, first by watching, and then by taking part in the noisy, vital, flamboyant life of the Imperial Café. I love slice of life stories that investigate a cross section of society in great detail, and this graphic memoir about the crazy, sexy petri dish of a busy diner is a great example. If you like OVER EASY, try these other great foodie fictions that are about way more than chopping and sauteeing: Last Night at the Lobster
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
When Piddy Sanchez hears that “Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass,†she’s stunned. What could she have possibly done at her new high school to anger a girl she’s never even met? Piddy doesn’t really need this aggravation on top of keeping up her high grade point, working weekends at Salon Corazon and navigating a sexy but strange new relationship with her old neighbor and ex-nemesis Joey Halper. What is Yaqui’s problem with her anyway? Piddy is never sure, but her mother’s best friend Lila has a theory: “You’re going to be better than that, and that’s what kills her, Piddy. That’s what makes her burn with hate. She can already see you’re winning. You’re going to get an education and use your brain…Ay, Piddy, one day you’ll be so far away from Parsons Boulevard, you’ll think you dreamed this hellhole.†But as the situation escalates from a thrown milk carton in the cafeteria to an actual showdown on the street, Piddy realizes she’s going to have to do something drastic. But what? Does she dare narc on the meanest girl in school? And what will happen if she does? Friends, I have a new book crush and it’s Piddy Sanchez. Piddy’s heartbreakingly real struggles to extricate herself from Yaqui’s senseless bullying will ring true to anyone who’s ever been a target, and inspire anyone who’s ever witnessed bullying to stand up and speak out. The infusion of Latino/a culture and the setting of Queens, New York were especially interesting to this New York reader as I never see enough books featuring characters of color in urban settings where their background isn’t the main focus of the story.  Get your a** in gear and check this one out of your local public or school library ASAP!
The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew
After Hank’s mother is attacked at gunpoint by a bank robber in 1940’s California, she becomes obsessed with one thing, and one thing only—that nineteen year old Hank become a superhero just like the Anchor of Justice who rescued her. Except Hank had been looking forward to taking over his father’s small Chinatown grocery store and living “a happy life, a fortunate life, filled with friends and Mahjong and maybe even a little whiskey.†But Hank’s bossy mother won’t relent, making him a green superhero suit, dubbing him The Golden Man of Bravery and setting him up with kung fu lessons with Uncle Wun Too. Soon Hank is getting into the swing of things, especially after his combat training starts to kick in. But when Mock Beak, the king of organized crime in Chinatown, threatens his father and Hank tries to intervene, the results are disastrous. Maybe he’s not cut out to be a superhero after all. It’s only after he’s visited by the kind and ancient spirit of Turtle that Hank discovers his true calling as Green Turtle, a Chinese superhero impervious to bullets and ready to take on the entire organized crime empire known as The Tong of Sticks. He just didn’t count on falling for his archenemy’s beautiful daughter… I absolutely adored this funny, big-hearted GN that melds fact, fiction and folklore into a delectable Turtle soup! The Shadow Hero is an inspired origin story based on the actual Green Turtle from the 1940’s who failed to take off because supposedly publishers at that time didn’t think that “a Chinese superhero would sell,” and wouldn’t let his creator Chu Hing give him Asian features. Click here to listen to author Gene Luen Yang explain the fascinating backstory behind Green Turtle and The Shadow Hero. Coming to a library, bookstore or e-reader near you July 2014.
April Publishingpalooza 2014
Holy moly, is there anything more difficult than waiting for a new book to come out?! I don’t think so. So for those of you who hate to wait as much as I do, (especially for THIS ONE TO THE RIGHT) here are some good sites for cyber-stalking your favorite up and coming titles.
YALit: Young Adult Book Release Dates
2014 YA Fiction Preview from BookRiot
Most Anticipated Books of 2014 from Forever Young Adult
10 YA Releases We Can’t Wait to Read in 2014 by Barnes & Noble
How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson
Friends, it’s National Poetry Month, so I snagged this tidy collection of fifty autobiographical unrhymed sonnets by acclaimed poet Marilyn Nelson and spent a sublime afternoon in the spring sun absorbing it. I’ve loved Nelson’s work ever since I read A Wreath for Emmett Till
Poetry Foundation
Poetry Out Loud
Power Poetry
Poetry 180
Poetry from Teen Ink
This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki
Rose Wallace has been going with her family to their rented cabin at Awago Beach “Ever since…like…forever.” She anticipates this summer will be much like all the others spent swimming, biking and hanging out with her younger friend Windy. But this is the summer that Rose discovers the cheap thrill of horror movies, the ache of an unrequited crush and the weight of adult secrets. She longs to flirt with the gangly teenage clerk at the corner store who rents her and Windy The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but she’s too shy. She wants to shake her withdrawn mother out of her unrelenting sadness over an unspoken tragedy that happened last summer, but she’s too scared. She yearns to understand why she and Windy are growing apart, why the shabby town of Awago is so different from the rental houses by the beach, and why all the girls in horror movies seem to be so, well, stupid. She wants to know why this one summer is the summer when everything that used to be simple suddenly became complicated. This wistful, character driven GN, inked in a cool blue palatte, perfectly captures that transitional moment between chewing gum and trying cigarettes. Rose and Windy are both polar opposites and kindred spirits, clashing as Rose leans into adolescence and Windy leans back into childhood, but coming back together when the confusing world of parents and slasher movies becomes too much. This One Summer should be number one on your summer reading list.
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
High school freshman Travis Ray Coates is dying from incurable cancer when doctors tell his family there’s one last chance for survival—as long as Travis doesn’t mind having his neck separated from his torso. It seems there’s a new cryogenic technology that will allow Travis’s head to be detached and frozen until doctors can find him a donor body to link it to. There’s only one little glitch—the technology isn’t quite there yet. So Travis goes to sleep before the operation to remove his noggin, not knowing when or even if he will ever wake up. When he does comes to, five years have passed and he has a new body that is in way better shape than his old one. Being alive is obviously better than being dead, but Travis quickly discovers that starting life over is much more complicated than he ever imagined. First of all, he is still technically sixteen and has to finish high school while everyone else he knows has moved on to work or college. Next, his girlfriend and love of his life Cate Conroy now has a fiancée. A fiancée! And if all that wasn’t enough, there’s also the little matter of skinny jeans.
“’These are pretty tight,’ I said, walking out to model a pair of jeans for my mom.
‘It’s the style.’
‘I don’t understand. I can hardly move…are these girl jeans?’
‘No, Travis. I told you. It’s what everyone wears now. Boys and girls.’â€
Suddenly, being back isn’t all that great. “I thought if I woke up at all, it would be in a hundred years to a brand-new world full of new people. But instead there I was stuck in this mutated version of my old life where everyone had grown-up just enough to forget about me…I came back from the dead for this? Joke’s on me.†This fresh, funny novel about losing your life in order to find your place is hands down the most original story I’ve read in ages. Travis’ voice is sweet and folky, full of a bewilderment that anyone who’s ever found themselves in a fish-out-of-water situation can relate to. I was an unabashed fan of Corey Whaley’s debut novel, and I’m happy to say that his sophomore effort more than meets my sky-high expectations. There’s something just a little bit genius about using a decapitated head as a symbol for teenage identity formation, and I urge you to sample the genius for yourselves. Heads will roll in a library, bookstore or e-reader near you April 2014.
Rapture Practice: a true story by Aaron Hartzler
“Something you should know up front about my family: we believe that Jesus is coming back…I don’t mean metaphorically, like someday in the distant future…I mean literally, like glance out the car window and, ‘Oh hey, there’s Jesus in the sky.’â€
Young Aaron Hartzler accepted his parents’ literal belief in the Bible and their strict rules about what pop culture he could consume without question. But when his parents talked about the Rapture, that moment when Jesus would return to Earth and take all the Christians up to Heaven, Aaron couldn’t help but hope that Jesus would hold off until he had a chance to live a little. “There are so many things I want to do before I go to heaven, like drive a car, and act in another play, and go to the movies.†And as Aaron grew older, tasted freedom at summer camp and started to see how other people interpreted the Bible, he began to wonder if he could continue along the path his parents set him on, especially when it came to his future. “The problem is, I don’t want to surrender my talents to God. What if he makes me use them as a missionary or Christian schoolteacher? That isn’t the life I want for myself.†Soon, Aaron is questioning everything, and though he deeply loves his parents, he is beginning to find their narrow view on religion stifling. “There are all sorts of Christians with all sorts of different rules, not to mention other people who believe in other religions. What about all of the people on the other side of the world who believe as strongly in their God as we believe in our God? Are they going to hell because they were unlucky enough to be born in the wrong place?†How Aaron resolves his dual life, comes to terms with his sexual identity and manages his parents’ expectations forms the basis of this simply told true story that rings true whether you believe in the Rapture or not. Aaron Hartzler’s moving memoir about growing up in a conservative Baptist home where Jesus was considered a member of the family hit me hard in the heart muscle. Although the evangelical Christian lifestyle may seem peculiar to some, Hartzler’s physical and psychological struggles to make his family happy while still trying to follow his own dreams are universal and will be completely understood by anyone who’s ever tried to figure out where their family role ends and their individuality begins.
What We Hide by Marthe Jocelyn
Secrets. We all have ‘em. But at Illington Hall boarding school in Yorkshire England during the Vietnam War, the very air is rife with them. Every student there is concealing something that is at the very least embarrassing, and at the very worst, life threatening. Jenny’s American boyfriend is a solider in Vietnam. Or is he? Oona’s hiding a pretty big secret something from her best friend Sarah, while hunky Nico believes that no one knows about his secret sexy crush on the new teacher. Luke’s private obsession with a local “townie†could potentially put him in the hospital, while Percy’s public obsession with movies and films springs from a private sorrow that is surprisingly close to home. Penelope is always looking for the wrong kind of love and she would rather die than say why, while Brenda’s sneaking out for secret kisses that could lead to the same kind of trouble her sister’s in.  It’s not just the bad food at Illington Hall that’s making everyone queasy, but the effort of holding in all those secrets! It’s up to Jenny to take a chance and tell the first truth…if she dares. This spicy, shifting narrative strongly reminded me of the bold, honest Doing It
