Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

How is it that someone becomes a dork?  Do they choose to, just like Bizza and Char decided to turn punk?  Are they born that way?  What makes some people like punk music and Denny's and other people like costumes and Dungeons and Dragons?  And where do I fit into all of this?

These are the questions that sophomore Jessie is dealing with as her two "best" friends from life turn punk, steal her crushes, and use her for whatever they need.  She sees these two friends, Bizza and Char, change into "mall punk" versions of themselves weeks before school starts sophomore year.  At the same time, her once punk brother contemplates getting rid of his mohawk and going out with the homecoming queen.  Jessie is caught in the middle of all this and starts to look for more friends...but all she sees are dorks, nerds, and band geeks - but they're all really nice?  She's a smart, straight A students and a super math whiz.  Is she a dork already??  If she starts hanging out with the band nerds or even worse the Dungeons and Dragons kids, will she lose any hope of being normal or cool?  Does this even matter?  Read this amazingly funny book to follow Jessie on her friend search as she travels Into the Wild Nerd Yonder.

This is a book I've been waiting for forever!  I've read lots of books that have cool, smart, nerdy characters, but they've all sort of already made the journey that Jessie is working on.  This is a book that made me proud of my nerdiness...or dorkiness...I think I am actually probably more nerd than dork, but anyway - I love the way Halpern navigates the cliques in high school and where she takes Jessie on her journey.  A great read for nerds and an important one for people who think they're all cool but really are missing out on true coolness because they aren't nerds.  Fabulous read!!!

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers

"What I would have liked to have done way to hop to this sucker and beat his head it, but it would've been the same as beating my own head in, because I would be the one doing the most suffering."

This is the dilemma that fourteen year old Reese Anderson finds himself in almost every day at the Progress juvenile detention center. Reese has been in for about two years for stealing some prescription pads, and all he wants to do is get out, have his freedom back. But every day situations get in the way. He gets signed up to work for a program at he jail where he goes out and works at a retirement home. It's weird at first, but even if Reese is just picking up trash, at least he doesn't have someone staring down his back all the time. He works with this old man named Mr. Hooft who is really crazy and racist, but again, this is nothing compared to life in the jail. Torn between wanting to help his friends not get the crap beat out of them all the time and not wanting to be in trouble, Reese has to navigate the world of the jail very carefully. If he plays his cards right, he could get out. But if he makes one wrong move...he's toast.

This book was a good look inside the juvenile jail...it's not a fun place to be. But jail aside, what really got me in this book were the conflicts that Reese felt inside. He wanted to defend helpless kids in the jail, but he knew he wasn't supposed to fight anymore.  Reese also has his family on his mind.  He needs to help his little sister Icy achieve her dreams, keep his mom off drugs, and hopefully his brother Willis out of jail.  His family needs him.  But how can you just stand by and watch a weak kid get beat up and not do anything to help him? Fighting is the only freedom he's got, so should he chill out or help his friends?  Lockdown takes you inside with Reese and shows you how he makes his decision about where the rest of his life is headed...if anywhere.

This great new book by Walter Dean Myers will be in bookstores this Tuesday, February 2.  Check it out!

Grade: A-

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Shop Indie BookstoresThe Lowdown:
Scarlett Martin lives in a hotel in New York City.  How cool is that?  It's great, but not as perfect as it might seem.  On her fifteenth birthday, Scarlett expects to have the fabulous waffle breakfast that is the tradition in her family, only to find out that their amazing cook has been let go - the Hopewell Hotel is in a tight spot...money is tight, and Scarlett's parents need her to stay around and work there for the summer.  When the kids in her family turn fifteen, they are given a room to manage in the Hotel.  Scarlett has the Empire Suite and all of her summer plans right there in front of her - hotel work. While her friends are all in faraway places learning languages, partying, and helping others, Scarlett is where she always is - home.  It seems like her summer will be pretty dull until a guest arrives to stay in Scarlett's Empire Suite - all summer!  Mrs. Amberson is a "star" of sorts who is back in the city after being gone for thirt..."some years."  She has lots of energy, dreams, goals, and Scarlett is there beside her to help her with anything she desires.  Mrs. Amberson puts Scarlett to work immediately, and what began as a slow summer quickly pics up.  Scarlett has her siblings to save, revenge plots to assist with, and boys to fall for!  Pick this book up to head to NYC for some summer fun!

What I Liked:
I loved being able to spend a summer in New York City most of all.  It was so wonderful following Scarlett and friends around the city.  I felt like I was right there.  Scarlett is a great character and very real.  I loved reading and observing the different sibling relationships between Scarlett, Spencer, Lola, and Marlene.  The hotel that Johnson has created is fantastic as well...the descriptions of the rooms were vivid and beautiful...this was the perfect setting for the book.  This book has tons that I love:  love, kissing, acting, theater, Broadway...it's just a fabulously fun ride.  I just now read this (been meaning to for a year) and I found out that Scarlett Fever - the second book in the series - is coming out at the end of this month...I can't wait!

***Oh, and Hamlet is in this book!  I've been amazed at how many YA books mention Hamlet...I saw some references in The Monstrumologist, too!  Yay for Hamlet in YA!

Read This If...
You want to hang out in NYC for the summer.
You like acting.
You have ever dealt with brothers and sisters.
You know what it's like to fall for some one.
You are a theater kid.
You dream of making it big.
You want to experience a big city adventure.
You love to save the day!

The Monstrumologist - by Rick Yancey

Shop Indie BookstoresThe Lowdown:
Will Henry is an orphan in New England during the late nineteenth century.  He has nothing save his little hat and his "caretaker," if you can call him that, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop.  Will's life is like nothing you could ever imagine because Dr. Warthrop isn't your regular kind of doctor...he's a monstrumologist - one who studies and hunts monsters.  Don't go thinking about Monsters, Inc...or anything sweet right now, though...the kinds of things that the doctor studies are creatures you've never imagined.  Will's seen his fare share of oddities and gruesome creatures, but nothing could even begin to prepare Will for what he sees one night when a gravedigger arrives in the middle of the night.  What the gravedigger brings Dr. Warthrop is disgusting, sickening, sad, "a crime." 

I daresay your average adult would have fled the room in horror, run screaming up that stairs and out of the house, for what lay withing that burlap cocoon laid shame to all the platitudes and promises from a  thousand pulpits upon the nature of a just and loving God, of a balanced and kind universe, and the dignity of man.  A crime, the old grave-digger had called it.  Indeed there seemed no better word for it, though a crime requires a criminal...and who or what was the criminal in this case? (14)

Once Will and the doctor unwrap this "package," and view its contents, and answer this question, their worlds are not the same, for inside of the burlap covering is a creature that will reek havoc on everyone until it (or they...should I say) is stopped.  Will and Dr. Warthrop have to figure out not only how to stop these creatures but also why and how they came to be in New England to begin with.  This night takes Will and the reader on a journey they will never forget.

What I Liked:
This book made me almost run and hide, throw up, scream out loud...you get the picture.  This is one of the sickest (I mean that in all senses of that word) books I've read in a long time.  I loved the writing and the style.  It reminded me of Octavian Nothing in that I really felt that I was taken back right to a particular time and place in history.  The setting was perfect, and these characters are amazaing.  Will, Pellinore, and the wonderful fabulous and insane Jack Kearns were so fun to read about.  I wanted to run away from them and their monster-hunting tasks but also be a part of their strange monster-hunting team.  More than anything the extremely graphic and gory descriptions written by Yancey made me "ick" and "oh my lord" and "ugggghhh" aloud the entire time I read the book.  I was more into and freaked out by this book than I was by watching Paranormal Activity.  This creepy book was a wonderfully scary horror tale.  I loved every moment. 

Read this if...
You want to be grossed out.
You love horror stories and scary movies.
You want to be bad and hunt monsters.
You want to take a journey back in time.
You want a thrilling read.
You want to go on an adventure into graveyards and undergound scary places.
You want to see creatures that you've never even been able to imagine.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

The Lowdown:  This companion novel to Cashore's Graceling brings a wonderful new side of the world to life.  It's not a sequel, and only has one character in common with the other book, but it's just as entertaining.  In this story, Fire, a human "monster," is the last of her kind.  While normal people and animals are just as they are, monsters are vibrant, beautiful, strong versions of themselves.  Beautiful as they are, they are different...they eat other monster flesh.  Fire's life has never been normal.  Her brilliant, bright red hair tells everyone she is a human monster.  Not only does her beauty dazzle others, but she also has the ability to control the minds of those around her.  When the kingdom faces a threat from other rulers, Fire leaves her quiet life and heads to the King's City.  She sees wonders she's never seen, and has to use her power to help the kingdom.  This scares her, though, because it's a power inherited from her father, who caused problems during the reign of the last king.  On top of all of this, she struggles to make way with the prince Brigan who doesn't like her that much.  Fire must find a way to get along with all of the new people she meets and harness and use her power for good in order to save herself, the kingdom, and all those that she loves.

What I Liked:  I liked Graceling a lot when I read it.  Katsa was a strong character who had to make sense of her place in the world.  Fire is similar to Katsa, but a more tender, compassionate character.  I loved all of the new characters that I got to meet in this new book.  I also enjoyed the way that Fire and Brigan's relationship grew throughout the book.

Read this if...
You liked Graceling.
You want to travel to a new fantasy world.
You want a good action AND love story.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot - by Natalie Standiford

WOW!!!!! This book was amazing.  I saw that Reading Rants said this was probably her favorite of the year, and I can totally see why.  It's that good. 

The Lowdown:  

Beatrice has moved around a lot.  Her dad is a biology professor, and he's always looking for a new school, new grants, new programs.  Her senior year of high school, they pack up to move from Ithaca to Baltimore.  She's used to it and doesn't really have all that many emotions about moving.  She'll do school, graduate, and move on.  She's a robot girl...nothing there.  At her new school she meets the normal girls, chipper and perky, but robot girl feels a new connection with Jonah - ghost boy.  Neither Bea nor Jonah is the happiest person in the world, but together, they click.  They  tune in to a late night radio show called Night Lights, and their friendships begins.  No one really gets them,  but that's just the great part about it...they don't care.  What they've found is friendship at its best.  But all friendships and relationships go through rough times.  Jonah tunes out sometimes.  He finds out some crazy information about his dead brother, and Bea wants to help him through.  Read to find out how this unique relationship survives, grows, and changes through their senior year. 

What I Liked:

I LOVED every moment of this book and didn't want it to end!  The characters, Bea and Jonah, as well as all the supporting characters are amazing.  The story is unique and I was pulled in immediately.  I loved the radio show.  Uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time, these characters will stay with me for a long time.  I haven't felt this attached to anyone since Octavian Nothing.

Read This If...

You want a true, unique story about love and friendship.

You've ever given of yourself to a relationship.

You've ever been loved and hurt by someone.

You want to have your world rocked by this amazing book!!!!

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Shop Indie Bookstores

The Lowdown
Cameron Smith is a (sort of) normal teenager. He stays semi-aware of what’s going on around him and occasionally hangs out in the “smokers lounge” bathroom in his school. That is until he starts to have some crazy-mad hallucinations. When fire giants appear out of nowhere and chase you around, something is definitely wrong.

Cam’s parents think he’s on drugs, and Cameron hasn’t a clue what’s going on. All he knows is that he’s seeing some crazy stuff and he doesn’t feel too hot. The doctors finally tell him that he had Mad Cow Disease...not what your average teenager expects to hear.

From this moment on, Cameron’s life journey gets really exciting, scary, and crazy all at the same time. Unexpectedly, he teams up with Gonzo, a little person who games constantly and always thinks he’s dying. Determined not to let mad cow get the best of him, and also determined to save the world, Cameron and Gonzo start off on the mother of all road trips. They go to New Orleans to hang out with dead jazz artist, end up living for a while in a “happiness” cult, and spend spring break at the Party House!! They also learn about and contemplate human existence, string theory, and many other philosophies. Climb into Cameron’s mind and into his car to take the journey of a lifetime.

What I Liked
In the most hilarious way, Bray’s book makes us look deep at ourselves and what we do in the world. The teens at the party house are insane and just want to be on television. The kids at the happiness cult don’t want anything bad to every happen to anyone. So many of the adventures that Cameron and Gonzo go on show humans at their most interesting. For example, while the two are at the happiness cult, where everyone wants to keep his/her happiness at the max all the time, Cameron tries to check out a book...The library girl tells him, “You can turn it in at the end of the week. Or whenever, really. It’s just a formality. We find that requiring things of people and making them responsible is a big drag, and that is so not happy. Enjoy!” I found myself always laughing out loud at the sardonic wit of many of Bray’s characters and the complete and utter idiocy of others. All these people together made for a very interesting ride.

I also really loved that all of Bray’s plot lines and ideas really came together in interesting ways as I read. So much craziness is thrown about during this road trip, yet Bray kept control of it all and it, somehow, all made perfect sense when I was done...or as much sense as it could.

Read this if...
You want a fun ride.
You want to go on a road trip.
You want to meet Baldar, son of Odin, a great Norse god...and party with him!
You want to laugh at crazy people.
You want to save the world from a black hole.
You want to think about why we’re here and what this crazy life is all about.

Grade: A-

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo is 17 and getting ready to begin his senior year. Marcelo is different from others. He hears music during the everyday moments of his life, and he sees the world in a different way from some people. He is diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome. He has attended a special school throughout his life and has worked in the stables at his school taking care of the horses during the summer.

Marcelo is very intelligent and his father thinks that it is time for Marcelo to stop working at his school and move out into the real world. He wants Marcelo to work in his law firm mail room for the summer so that Marcelo can see what the world is really like outside of his school. Marcelo's experience in the mailroom brings him into contact with a lovely young woman named Jasmine. Jasmine is a spunky young lady, and she shows Marcelo the ropes. During this summer at the law firm, we follow Marcelo at his job and experience the world as he experiences it. He is disturbed when he one day finds a picture of a girl whose face is destroyed on one side. He becomes determined to find out what happened to this girl and to help her if he can. His search will show him more of the real world that he even knows.

This book was GREAT. First, it's wonderful to read. I loved Marcelo's voice as a narrator. He was honest, and I knew he was reporting things to me in a truthful way. He worked out issues in his head and as the reader, you just got to follow along and see how he came to the conclusions that he came to. I felt like when I was reading Marcelo and seeing the world through his eyes, that I was seeing the world in a more pure way. He hasn't been tainted by hurt, and cruelty, and many of the sad things in the world, and I saw with fresh eyes when reading this book.

The characters in this book are all wonderfully written, too. I felt that they were all good people, even if the book showed a bad side of them. People in real life are complicated. You may trust someone and then they hurt you. It's hard to reconcile these feelings, but that's life. Life is full of contradictions, and Marcelo finds this out as he interacts with all the other characters in the book, good and bad.

I think this book is a must read for everyone, young adults and adults. It's a great story with a memorable character. We all can learn a lot from Marcelo.

Grade: A

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Nothing makes me madder than when people are mean to a sweet orphaned child.  Cinderella was treated badly.  Harry Potter had to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs.  We read these stories all the time.  Jane Eyre begins just like many of them, with a young girl struggling to live in a house where no one loves her.  Her parents are dead, her aunt hates having to take care of her, and her cousins are mean bullies. 

But somehow, Jane makes it.  This story was amazing.  I will admit that I tried to read this book twice before I actually got through it, but I loved every step of the way.  It's not as easy to zip through a classics as it is to read, say, The Luxe, but it's very rewarding.  

Jane moves from her aunt's house to a school called Lowood.  Lowood is home to other orphan girls, and here Jane gets an education and actually makes a friend or two.  The reader then follows Jane on the journey of her life.  Jane moves on and finds herself eventually as a young woman traveling to Thornfield Hall to be a governess to a bubbly young girl named Adele.  

Thornfield Hall is creepy.  Old and sort of empty, Jane wonders about the people who live and work there.  She doesn't meet the master of the house, and the servants say he doesn't come around a lot.  There are strange screams and cries and laughter that Jane hears, too, which concern her a bit.  Once Jane becomes a resident at Thornfield, though, her life will never be the same.  

I definitely recommend this book.  I really loved it.  It's a gothic novel and has spooky settings and situations.  There's a little mystery, and even more, there's love.  Ghosts and love in one book is a lot of fun.  The language was great, and I really got to know and like Jane as a person. She is calm and humble, and I learned a lot by watching her deal with all kinds of people.  

Grade:  A

Absolutely Maybe - by Lisa Yee

Absolutely Maybe was GREAT!  It is a road trip to Los Angeles and fun when you're there. 

Maybe is a young girl who has one heck of a mother.  Chessy, Maybe's mom, could have been Miss America.  She had all kinds of beauty queen titles in her past and runs a charm school in Florida where they live.  Maybe isn't one of the pageant girls, though, and wears jeans and extra large Hanes beefy tees instead of girlie clothes.  One thing that Maybe's mom also has had a lot of--husbands.  She's been married tons but not to Maybe's father.  When Chessy hurts maybe one to many times, Maybe decides she must go out on her own and find her father and herself.  Her friend Hollywood is headed to go to college at USC film school, so Maybe, Hollywood, and their crazy friend Ted hit the road and drive to LA.

Life in LA isn't that easy though.  After they tour around and see all the main attractions, Maybe and Ted realize they will need jobs if they are going to survive.  Ted strikes a great job (and starts wearing platform shoes...) but Maybe isn't so lucky.  This book tells about what these kids do in LA and how Maybe goes about trying to find her father.

This book was so funny.  The characters are all original personalities.  Maybe, Hollywood, Ted, Jess, and the rest, are all so real.  Each character is fully developed and all of their stories work well together.  What's more...this book involves a taco truck and lots in great info about tacos and taco trucks.  I absolutely loved Absolutely Maybe.

Grade: A

If I Stay - by Gayle Forman

Wow.  First, I have to say I really, really loved this book.  It's short (196 pages) but packed full of so much.  Ups and downs; funny parts, sweet parts, sad parts; goods and bads; friends and family--it's amazing.  

Mia is a 17 year old girl who is a cello genius.  She loves music and music runs in her family, although none of them are into classical music.  She has friends at school and a really talented boyfriend, Adam, who went to school with her but is away at college now.  He also tours with is band which is making it big right now.  Mia loves her family and has decisions to make:  stay with Adam, go to Julliard, etc...but no decision is bigger than the one she has to make unexpectedly one day when her family is in a devastating car accident.  A

After the accident, Mia find herself looking down at her own body watching from the outside.  As she gets flown off in a helicopter, she keeps watching and has to decided if she stays or not.  The book tells  the story of Mia and her decision.  Flashbacks and present action are woven artfully together.  In a short amount of time the reader gets to know so much about Mia, her family and friends, that you feel like you are sitting right there in the waiting room with them.  

This is a horrible situation, but somehow, the book was happy at times and funny.  I enjoyed Forman's writing style and the realistic way she portrayed family relationships and friendships. I highly recommend this book to teens and adults alike, I think you'll love it.

Grade: A

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

LOVED THIS ONE!!  

Frankie Landau-Banks was a normal dorky freshman at Alabaster Prep, tagging along with her senior sister and trying hard just not to embarrass herself or her sister too much. 

Sophomore year, however, was very different.  Frankie got taller, filled out a bit, and was, well, a much hotter chick.  She gets noticed by the guy of her dreams, Matthew Livingston.  Matthew is great, but Frankie can't seem to really get him to understand her.  She's not like other girls.  She's way smarter and not concerned with the normal high school girl stuff.  Frankie wants power, and to be noticed, and to fit in...even with the guys.  

When Frankie finds out about a secret society at Alabaster, the Loyal Order of Bassett Hounds, she immediately wants to know more and desires to be a part.  

This book uncovers Frankie's plans to figure out the Loyal Order and to become a part of something historic at Alabaster. 

I loved Frankie.  She is a cool girl.  She's pretty and smart, but she is hard core crazy sometimes, too and knows what she wants.  She thinks about things more than most of her friends and sees opportunities for social commentary in even the smallest (and largest) of pranks.  She gets what she wants and goes after her goals with an almost psychotic passion. 

This book has some awesome pranks in it.  It also shows boarding school life, which is fun, especially if you went to normal high school.  Frankie's passion stuck with me and I felt that I wanted to do something crazy after reading this book, but it also made me remember that it's cool to be a strong woman that not every guy understands.  Girls are powerful and can be great leaders and I love that Frankie always stayed true to herself, even when she could have given in and taken the easy way out. 

I loved this book.  It is very deserving of its Printz medal and is one of my favorites now.

Grade: A

The Knife of Never Letting Go - by Patrick Ness

Todd Hewitt is a young boy about to turn thirteen, but his life is a little different from ours.  He lives on a different planet, settled years when men ventured out for new lands in search of peaceful harmony on a new Eden.  He lives in a town with no women.  He can hear the thoughts of all the men in his town.  He can hear the thoughts of animals, too...but they don't usually have too much to say.  This makes for a very Noisy life for Tood, the last boy in Prentisstown.  Strange as his life may be, Todd works on his farm with his guardians Ben and Cillian and lives his life the best he knows how.  Until one day, all that he has known is called into question.  Used to constant Noise, Todd hears something different one day when he is own in the swamp - silence.  Once he and his dog, Manchee, give this thought away, he learns that the town he has lived in his entire life isn't what he thought it was.  Ben and Cillian immediately get Todd out of town, sending him off into the swamp without an explanation, carrying only his rucksack and a book with a map, a journal written by Todd's mother years ago.  What was the silence Todd heard?  Where is he supposed to go now?  What is wrong with all the men in Prentisstown, and why doesn't he know the true history of his hometown?

The Knife of Never Letting Go follows Todd on his journey out of Prentisstown into a world that he didn't even know existed.  REad and follow him on this amazing adventure.  He has Manchee at his side, but will soon find a very unexpected friend in the swamp to be by his side as he battles the evil he finds in the New World.

I was disappointed when I finished this book.  Not because it was bad, but because I couldn't immediately begin reading book 2 of the Chaos Walking series...and believe me, you will want to begin book 2 right away.  I got wrapped up in this book from the very beginning, thanks to chapters that urge you on and exciting, quick-paced writing that takes you into the midst of the action.  Luckily, the book is divided into six sections, so when I had to make myself put it down, I read to the end of a section and waited until the next day to pick back up.  

Todd is a brave young man who is good at heart, unlike many of the "bad" guys you meet in this book.  He just wants to figure out what is going on in his world and make sense of all the Noise around him.  He hears so much and needs to find out what is true.  

This book is great for people who like action/adventure.  It also is good for people who like science fiction...it does have some aliens (spackles) but the sci-fi details don't drive the story, the characters and struggles do.  So even if you aren't to keen on science fiction, I still think you could get drawn into the plot of this book.  

I was also reminded of Pullman's Dark Materials series when I read this.  The main characters here in Chaos Walking are similar to Lyra and Will in Pullman's story.  

Grade:  A