Hands down a book to pick up: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

Stephanie Oakes

Dial Books, 2015

Kindle Copy: B00O2BKKQ2

Minnow lost her faith, her family, and her hands to a cult.  Raised for most of her life in the Kevinian cult, Minnow escapes and runs away the night the cult is burned to the ground, suspiciously taking the prophet Kevin with it and immediately lands in prison after an assault. Minnow struggles to come to terms with her old life in the cult and adjust to her new world of juvie, the real world, and learning to get by without her hands. The FBI psychologist assigned to her following the high profile and mysterious nature of the cults demise (and existence) suspects Minnow knows more than she’s letting on, but Minnow isn’t ready to talk...yet.  This is a brutal and brilliant novel, but it does contain some fairly graphic violence, dark themes, and dark humor, so it is not recommended for the squeamish!  It is, however, strongly recommended for teens over 15 and adults (both dudes and dudettes), and all YA collections in public and high school libraries, especially as it was just named a 2016 Morris Honor Book. I rate this: G for get after it already. (Also: Gore)

As I noted, this is a brilliant and brutal book.  It’s probably the best YA I’ve read in months, and I’m stoked it won something at the Youth Media Awards (I finished it on the eve of the announcements and was pumped to hear about it the Morris honor over morning coffee in my office with my awesome coworkers), but less stoked it didn’t come into play for the Printz.  What up, committee??!!!  Doesn’t Marcus Sedgwick have a deservedly fat enough head for that crown by now?  

I digress from talking about this deserving, fabulous first time novel though.  

Outing the awesome: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli

Balzer and Bray, 2015

ISBN: 978-0062348678

Atlanta area high school junior Simon is a fairly typical kid; he’s got a solid group of friends, a loving family, does well in school, and is really into musical theatre.  He also has a secret: he’s got a secret pen pal he has a serious crush on that he suspects is requited...and neither one of them is quite ready to come out, despite Simon acknowledging he’d probably still be accepted and loved by his family - he’s just not there yet.  However, when Simon accidentally leaves his browser on in the school library, a fellow student running for douche of the year finds it and decides to exploit it, blackmailing Simon into trying to get his best friend Abby to fall for said douchemonster.  Failure to do so results in said Dmonster posting the emails on the school Tumblr, because this is a contemporary novel.  I think it goes without saying that Abby can probably do better, and that Simon struggles figure out a way to protect the identity of his crush (who he really wants to meet) and what to do.  Is he ready to out himself, and can he survive being outed and losing his pen pal?  

This book is nothing short of extraordinary - simple, yet complex.  The characters aren’t perfect (Simon can be kind of an unappreciative jerk, and knows it) but I think it’s what makes this book a really strong coming out story, perhaps the best I’ve read.  Real people have real nuances, and so do the humans in this book! It is, in short, excellent, because it is so, so, so completely normal and not at all contrived.  It's just normal kids, doing normal things, in a normal world: a normal kid coming out of the closet and all the normal crippling anxiety that comes with it, even in a relatively supportive, relatively decent community.  Nothing highly stylized or sensational, super relatable, super fabulous. It's a coming out book, but what is that if not a coming of age book? It's really the story of a young man figuring out who he is in the world and how he fits into it. 

Sure, it wraps up in a lovely way, and gosh darnit if I wasn’t gooey about it, but it also doesn’t totally simplify making the douchemonster a douchemonster.  Even he is still just a kid, a kid who gradually comes to realize the gravity and cruelty of his actions in a way that is satisfying and heartbreaking all the same, and that there are some wrongs you can’t right or undo.  It’s also welcome to discover a book that has as much diversity in the cast of characters as this does.  It should come as no surprise that the author is clinical psychologist who works with teens and children and has a non-conforming gender group for them, but it should come as a surprise that this is her very first book!  Well done, madam.  I look forward to more!  

This is an extremely strong recommendation for all high school collections or YA collections, with strong adult appeal as well.  In fact, it’s not a recommendation; I’d go so far as to call this required reading, of the spoonful of sugar variety!  (PS.  Calling this for awards - at least a Stonewall! It’s been a seriously great year for LGBTQ youth titles.  Keep up the good work, publishers!)  

Aristole and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Saenz: and make this Pocho starry-eyed along the way

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Saenz

New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

ISBN:  978144240892

Aristotle, or Ari, as he prefers to be called, is fifteen, introverted, bored, and a bit of a loner.  While teaching himself to swim at the local pool, he meets Dante.  Dante is fifteen, extroverted, artistic, has a way with words, and can swim.  Dante offers to teach Ari to swim, and the boys develop a quietly powerful friendship.  Ari’s boundaries begin to be chipped away by Dante’s curiosity, and he begins to ask himself questions about his family, himself, and his world.  When Dante’s family needs to move away for the year for his father’s job, their friendship is tested by distance and, over the course of the year, by the admission of one of the two that he is not attracted to girls.   This story is beautiful, simple, and yet complex on many levels.  It is a strong recommendation for teens 14 and up, and adults.  Every library with an ounce of self-respect should have this in their catalog!

This book is nearly impossible to summarize.  That’s not because it’s super complex, or because I don’t want to spoil it, but the exact opposite (well, except the spoiling part – I hate Uncle Spoiler!).  The story itself is relatively simple as a realistic look into the worlds of two boys and their families, the nuances and secrets that all families have, their related personal growth and search for identity, and the increasing acceptance of self that is true of many coming of age stories.  But this is not a simple coming of age story.

Reality Boy, by A.S. King: Reality Bites

Reality Boy

A.S. King

New York: Little Brown, 2013.

ISBN: 978-0-316-22270-9

ARC copy reviewed

Do you ever what happens to the kids whose lives are televised for the world to see in the booming age of exploitative reality television?  A.S. King certainly does.  In her latest novel, protagonist Gerald Faust can tell you from personal experience that it is not a burden you wish on anyone, especially a child.  Now a teenager, he is still known and mocked for his fecal exploits on the reality TV show SuperNanny, and the subsequent and unwanted Internet replay stardom.  Not surprisingly, he has some serious anger management issues.  He boxes, has regular sessions with a therapist, attends special ed classes, and holds a job as he strives to get through his day, despite the bullying that makes him want to explode, and his rather dysfunctional family.  He is on the brink, either of collapse or major change.  This title is an engagingly and thoughtfully crafted alternative coming of age title.  It is strongly recommended to high school aged teens and adults.  

Swamplandia, by Karen Russell: Even alligator wrestlers grow up

Swamplandia!
Karen Russell
Vintage Books: New York, 2011
ISBN: 9780307276681

The indomitable Bigtree family has owned and operated Swamplandia!, an alligator wrestling amusement park in the Everglades for decades.  But changes come, as they must, when Hillola Bigtree, matriarch of the current tribe, dies suddenly of cancer, leaving her husband the Chief and their three teenage children, Kiwi, Osceola and Ava to continue running the fading park.  Kiwi, self-proclaimed genius, runs away to the mainland to work for the rival amusement park, ostensibly in the hopes of paying down the mounting debts of Swamplandia!, while Ossie becomes obsessed with the spirit world, convinced she can commune with her ghostly boyfriends.  Chief Bigtree heads to the mainland for an extended business trip leaving Ava and Ossie to run things in his absence.  Meanwhile, Ava, the baby of the family, struggles to accept her mothers death and to understand Ossie.  When Ossie runs away to elope with the ghostly Dredgeman, Ava sets out on a journey to save her that will challenge them all.  Part coming of age tale and part quest, to say this work sparkles with gorgeous descriptive language and crushes you with the sadness of a childhood ending is a vast understatement of Russell's considerable talent as an author.  A Pulitzer Prize finalist, the work is strongly recommended for older high school aged teens and adults for content, complexity in language, and some adult themes.

Rotters, by Daniel Kraus: Dig it or die (and some other Hallowinners)

Rotters by Daniel Kraus Delacorte Books: New York, 2011. ISBN: 978-0385738576

Chicago native Joey Crouch experiences a spell of rotten luck when he is sent to live with the father he has never met following the accidental death of his mother.  When Joey meets Kenneth Harnett, who lives in squalor in a cabin in small town Iowa, he realizes his life has taken a serious turn for the worse, but things are just beginning a downward spiral.  Not only is his dad a stinky social misfit who disappears for days at a stretch, but the kids in town call him the Garbageman, and immediately begin to excessively bully Joey.  Joey is understandably miserable, but curious as to where his sullen father disappears to.  He follows him one night, and to both his horror and intrigue, discovers that his father is a professional grave robber.  Strangely fascinated, Joey convinces him to take him on as an apprentice.  In doing so, he enters the weirdly scientific, gory, and engrossing world that is the secret society of the Diggers, an organization of rapidly aging grave robbers.  To his great surprise, he discovers a great deal about his own family history, and begins to grow in confidence, even as the stakes are raised and a family feud resurfaces to wreck havoc on his newfound semblance of stability.  At times both brutal and gruesome, this story is not an easy one, but like Joey, readers will be unable to tear their eyes away from the page.  It is recommended for strong stomached adult and teen readers grades 10 and up.  

Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley: Except my Sunday School Bible Reference memories

Where Things Come Back
by John Corey Whaley
Atheneum: New York, 2011
ISBN 978-1-4424-133-7

In Lily, Arkansas, population 3,947, nothing much ever happens on a regular basis; people never seem to leave town permanently.  That is, until the population drops to 3946 when 17-year-old Cullen Witter’s 15-year-old brother Gabriel disappears, without a trace, leaving Cullen, his family, his best friend Lucas, and the town reeling.  The news of Gabriel’s disappearance, however, is soon overshadowed by the rumor that the Lazarus mockingbird woodpecker, believed extinct, has been spotted.  But Cullen, his family, and friends haven’t forgotten Gabriel; they are left with more questions than answers, and each struggling to cope in their own way.   For Cullen, this means girls, including his long-time crush, and a recently divorced young woman who has returned to town, and actively hating the Lazarus.  Two stories are seamlessly and satisfyingly woven together in this short, yet rich debut novel, filled with Biblical references, the frustration of growing up in a small town, and the well-crafted, realistic, anguish of inexplicable loss.  This multiple award-winning book is recommended for older teens, grades 10 and up.  

(Biblical confusion after the jump)

Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey: Australian YA for the win, rave #4320

Jasper Jones

by Craig Silvey

New York: Alfred A. Knopf

ISBN: 978-0-375-866661

Thirteen-year-old Charlie Bucktin is sick of his small Australian town and looking forward to spend his summer writing and hanging out with his best friend. However, the moment he awakens from a midnight knock on his window and opens it to find the local teenage pariah Jasper Jones seeking his help, his plans and life derail. Charlie, not wanting to seem immature, agrees and climbs of out the window into the night.  In doing so, he becomes privy to Jasper's horrible discovery: a body hanging from a giant hollow eucalyptis in the isolated grove that Jasper hides in when his alcoholic father gets to be too much.  To protect Jasper from taking the blame for a crime he did not commit, the boys hide the body, vowing to find the killer on their own.  Holding onto this unspeakable knowledge, Charlie is catapulted too soon into adulthood in a town filled with fear, racism, and finger pointing, experiencing first love and the agony of both keeping secret this terrible and unraveling a few more in the process.  This timeless coming of age tale is haunting, and charged with emotion, humor, and the unbearable sadness of growing up and away your own childhood.  Skillfully written, this novel often operates from very nostalgic, almost adult voice, and is strongly recommended to teens grades 9-12 who will best understand this way of thinking. 

Book Talk Hook:  Summarize the sitch.  Then ask what they would do.  If you have AV capabilities (are we still calling it that?), show the below book trailer to do the dirty for you. 

Okay, peoples.  Maybe it is the fear of imminent death due to everything being poisonous that prompts Aussie authors of YA to write like every book is their last, best, book.  Maybe there is something in the Australian water.  I like the first explanation best.  Irregardless.  I know I rave about it a bit, but the YA coming out of Australia is just so. so. good. you. guys.   Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey is no exception to this rule.   But enough with my Aussieloveparade.  I also think that the book trailer for this movie is one of the best, if not the best I've ever seen:

This book.  Is seriously fantastic.  After moping my way through Monsters of Men being horribly overlooked for American awards this past year, I don't know if I'll be able to contain my rage if this one doesn't get any nods stateside.  Seriously.  Let me tell you all the reasons I scribbled down illedgibly on a post-it while reading it to remember exactly what captivated me about it: