The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.
We don’t know who Charlie is writing the letters to, but we read them because they’re touching, and because they’re real, and because they’re rock and roll.
AWARDS
ALA 2002 Best Books for Young Adults
REVIEW
This is the first epistolary to be reviewed on youthreads, which means a novel told in letters. Charlie is a freshman in high school learning about friendship, mixtapes, and drugs. He excels at English but he’s a wallflower, as the title suggests, preferring to watch and listen. He struggles to understand the feelings of the girl he’s in love with, to get close to his family, and to know who he wants to be. We never find out who Charlie is writing his letters to, but by the end even Charlie is surprised to learn the biggest secret about himself. For the music alone, read this book.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960.
3 children enjoy the quiet fascinations of a Great Depression town in the South, until they’re attacked for being white allies of a black man wrongly accused of rape–in Harper Lee’s classic, momentous, and only novel.
AWARDS
1960 Pulitzer Prize
1960 Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews
1962 Bestsellers Magazine Paperback of the Year
REVIEW
A slowly unfolding tale with constant revelations about people and life. Scout (the 10-year-old narrator) and Jem are brother and sister, living in the Great Depression south with their widowed father, Atticus, and devoted black maid, Calpurnica. Atticus is an experienced lawyer who agrees to defend Tom Robbins, a black man falsely accused of rape. Many townspeople start to harass Atticus’s family for defending a black person, and soon the kids are embroiled by larger questions of race and justice. Meanwhile, the kids are trying to learn about Boo Radley, an utter recluse whom they have never even heard speak! And in more than one place they find out about the deep dark alleys of addiction.
Leanne, age 16, says:
“It’s beautiful, the way it’s written from the child’s point of view.”
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Knowles, John. A Separate Peace; A Novel. New York: Macmillan, 1960.
Two boys in a New England boarding school try to find out what bravery can mean for those on the sidelines during wartime, and in their imaginations they create a separate peace.
AWARDS
Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters
1960 William Faulkner Award for the Most Promising First Novel
1961 National Association of Independent Schools Award
REVIEW
Phineas is the bravest and the least conventional person in boarding school at Devon prep. Gene is his best friend and also an athlete, but he’s a brain, too. While the schoolboys are following Phineas’s ideas, Gene is wondering what it means that he’s the best friend of such a popular person. Then Phineas decides to form The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, a secret club that makes dangerous jumps into the river. Meanwhile the school is discussing World War II, which has just broken out. Some want to finish school and join the army, while others are scared to be drafted. Not Phineas, though, because he knows there’s no war at all, and he convinces Gene to believe the same thing. When Phineas and Gene climb the tree to make a jump together, someone gets seriously injured, and what unfolds is a subtle allegory about loyalty and bravery.
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
Banks, Lynne Reid, and Brock Cole. The Indian in the Cupboard. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980.
Omri has found a magical cupboard that will bring his plastic toy figures to life, but can Omri and his pal Patrick keep their miniature friends a secret? And keep them safe?
AWARDS
Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award
California Young Reader Medal
Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award
Virginia Young Readers Award
REVIEW
Omri sometimes finds his best friend Patrick a little tiresome, but he shows nothing but loyalty to his best friend. When Omri is given a cupboard for his birthday, he’s happy because he likes things that lock with special keys, but he’s overjoyed when the cupboard turns Little Bear, his plastic figurine, into a real live Indian brave. When Patrick finds out, he wants a little man too, and without thinking of the consequences he uses the cupboard on his plastic cowboy. Now the cowboy and the Indian are really trying to kill each other, and the boys have their hands full keeping them a secret.
Read the rest of the books in the series to find out what’s really behind the magic of the cupboard, and see the amazing turns taken in Omri’s and Patrick’s friendship.
The Giver by Louis Lowry
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
In a different kind of society, Jonas is about to turn 12 and receive his career assignment for the rest of his life, but what first may seem a paradise comes into question when Jonas meets his new mentor, The Giver.
AWARDS
1994 Newbery Medal
1996 William Allen White Award
American Library Association “Best Book for Young Adults”
A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book
Winner of the Regina Medal
Booklist Editors’ Choice
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
REVIEW
There are no animals anywhere and no one even knows what an animal is. Everyone in Jonas’s community was assigned their career at age 12; if you’re 11 and under, you’re waiting for it to happen. Every morning at breakfast, his family members talk about–or confess to–their dreams, and every night, they are required to talk about their feelings. Everyone follows the rules, because if they don’t, they face the worst fate imaginable: release from the community. On his 12th birthday, Jonas receives a very special assignment: he is to be his community’s Receiver of Memory. But when he meets the elderly old Receiver, now The Giver, he learns what happened to the last 12 assigned to receive, and he knows things he wish he never knew. Just 16-years-old and already a classic, no one can tell you more than The Giver.
Forever by Judy Bloom
Bloom, Judy. Forever. New York: Pocket, 1976.
It’s first love, first sex, and the first time on the pill, but does that mean Kathy will love him . . . forever?
AWARDS
1996 Winner of the A.L.A. Margaret A. Edwards Award for Outstanding Literature for Young Adults
REVIEW
One of my favorite things about this book is a little something I read on Judy Bloom’s website: she wrote it for her daughter, who wanted to read a book in which two teenagers agree to have sex and don’t get punished for it. Judy wasn’t playing around here: the depictions are literal and detailed, and for this reason Forever . . . has consistently been one of the most challenged and banned books of the last half-century. Passing by questions like is teenage sex ok? what kind of girl am I?, the book instead asks, well, we’re teenagers and we’re in a real relationship, so that means forever . . . right? Right?
Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon, Dean, and Nathan Hale
Hale, Shannon, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale. Rapunzel’s Revenge. New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury, 2008.
In this beautifully drawn graphic novel adventure, a classic fairy tale character is out to get even, with only her courage and long, red hair.
AWARDS
2009 Cybil Award For Best Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novel
2009 ALA Notable Children’s Book
2009 YALSA “Great Graphic Novel for Teens”
REVIEW
Rapunzel is no longer a waif. She’s lost the tower and gone military with the locks. This is, on the one hand, a smart adventure novel with twists and quips. One the other, it’s got lush panels that are extremely well-done. A lot of the fun of this book is the way the Hales depict the magical settings Rapunzel and Jack (guess where he’s from?) travel through on their way to redemption and revenge. I didn’t love the somewhat typical humor and “go fetch” plot structure, and some might think turning hair braids into a weapons is too far-fetched, but this is truly a story of girl power and beautiful to boot. Remember when all Rapunzel could do was sit in a tower, cry, and maybe let down her hair for a passing cavalier? Forget it.
Houdini the Handcuff King by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi
Lutes, Jason, and Nick Bertozzi. Houdini: The Handcuff King. New York: Hyperion, 2007.
See the greatest magician of all time dive deep into a Boston river with his hands and feet shackled by the local police. Will he come out alive?
AWARDS
Booklist Starred REVIEW
Kirkus Starred REVIEW
REVIEW
Harry Houdini is a legendary man who had the determination to learn to escape from any bind you could put him in. This book is blue, by which I mean the panels are blue with black and white. Who knows what Houdini is thinking during the minute-and-a-half in which he must escape his chains or drown? What motivates a man to become the handcuff king?
The book is short, and shows just one of Houdini’s many feats. The introduction and the afterward provide historical context that is just plain fascinating. Here’s what I take away: for millions trapped by poverty, hunger, and politics, Houdini showed that a determined person could and would escape.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
Spiegelman, Art. Maus A Survivor’s Tale I My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon, 1973.
A graphic novel story about the holocaust, told by mice!
AWARDS
1992 Pulitzer Prize – Special Award and Citations – Letters
1992 National Book Critics Circle Award Nomination
1990 Max & Moritz Prizes – Special Prize (Maus)
REVIEW
Art’s father, Vladek, survived a concentration camp with compassion and bravery, but now he’s an older and more difficult man. Art is a cartoonist who wants to draw about his father’s life. And they are both mice. This is the heartbreaking first book in the story of how Art got closer to his father, how Art struggles in his own life, and how Art’s parents survived the holocaust. The allegory–mice are Jews, cats are Germans, and so on–is not so simple and is not to be underestimated. The departure from reality is what makes it so real.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.
A provocative graphic novel wherein a little girl dreams of being both a prophet and a revolutionary, as she comes to grips with what political upheaval is really like, in 1980s Iran.
AWARDS
2004 ALA Alex Award
2004 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
2004 Booklist Editor’s Choice for Young Adults
2004 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
2004 School Library Journal Adult Books for Young Adults
REVIEW
This autobiography graphic novel is carefully illustrated and cleverly told, often opposing images and words to create unusual kinds of irony and surprise. Somehow, the young female narrator manages to speak about international communism and Iranian history to a youth audience. At first, she wants to be powerful, but as those close to her family come up against political persecution, her ideas change. And all the while she talks to God (who looks like Karl Marx).
Monster Blood by R. L. Stein
Stine, R. L. Monster Blood. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1992.
Evan doesn’t want to stay with his deaf aunt while his parents look for a new home, but the real trouble comes when a mysterious can of green goop turns out to be . . . Monster Blood!
AWARDS (for R.L. Stine)
Children’s Choice Award
American Library Association Award
REVIEW
This was a favorite book of mine when I was in middle school and liking it gave me one of my first inclinations that I was a person who likes books. It’s short and fun, and it’s not too scary as horror novels go. The real appeal for me at the time was reading a book about someone my own age. What would I do if I found a can of green goo called monster blood that caused my dog to grow to a monstrous size? What if my deaf aunt’s cat . . . well, but I shouldn’t spoil it.
The Goosebumps series made R. L. Stein an international success in the 1990s because he portrayed teens and horror in a simple way that reverberated with a wide youth audience. If you like this one, there are 2 Monster Blood sequels waiting for you!
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1962.
3 brave kids find themselves traveling through dimensions to save Mr. Murry, a kind scientist who’s been trapped by the most evil power in the universe.
AWARDS
Newbury Medal 1963
REVIEW
Sound like a familiar sci-fi setup? Here’s the twist: the hand of God is behind it all. In this zero to sixty interdimensional thriller, two pre-teens and a precocious 6-year-old are pitted against the very source of evil in the universe, but they’re helped by angels, who take the form shape-shifting elderly ladies. One of the most beautiful moments, typical of this mind-opening book, is learning that one of the angels was actually a star who lost it’s light fighting the evil IT.
Like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, science and math ideas are tackled with the young person in mind. But unlike most science fiction, this book has Science and God on the very same side.
Mollie, age 16, said:
“I love the way that it is written and the concepts presented in it. I like the fact that the concepts presented in it are more dimensions that humans could travel through – it is thought that there could be up to 11 dimensions, just they’ve never been proven. And I love that a woman wrote it.”
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
Esperanza, in beautiful vignettes, tells what it’s like to be in a big Latino family during tough times, and then find yourself, and then leave.
AWARDS
1985 Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award
REVIEW
Esperanza is 12 and her Latino family moved to Mango Street to have a house of their own. She looks up to her little sister, Nenny, and has some friends across the street, but she begins writing because her home life can be stifling. In these vignettes (perhaps a novel in verse), she writes all about the people in her neighborhood. Then Esperanza befriends Sally, a street-smart girl who uses boys as an escape from her abusive father. At first Esperanza is excited by the friendship, but when Sally ditches her at the carnival, Esperanza is sexually assaulted by a gang of boys. When she embarks on a quest to leave Mango Street, the question becomes, can she leave it behind?
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
15-year-old Christopher has Asperger’s Syndrome, and he’s a detective determined to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington–his neighbor’s dog.
AWARDS
2003 Whitbread Book of the Year
2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book
REVIEW
This is one of the most original and outstanding books of this decade. Haddon convincingly writes a first person account of a teenager with Asperberger’s syndrome, which among other things means the character has some difficulty with what are thought to be basic human emotions. Christopher best loves science, mathematics, and animals. His hero is Sherlock Holmes. On the first page, Christopher is crouching on the ground holding the body of his neighbor’s dog, into which someone has stuck a large garden fork. So Christopher decides to find out who killed Wellington, but also he is writing a murder-mystery novel.
Replete with wonderful, down-to-earth explanations of scientific and mathematical concepts, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is also one of the most consistently funny and touching books I’ve ever read. And the plot twist . . . well, I leave it to you to find out about that.
Rosie O’Donnell is Doing the LIFETIME Movie of E.R. Frank’s America
For serious.
When I fell in love with this book a few weeks ago and posted my little review I had no idea Rosie would be taking at crack at Frank’s novel.
Will it be good? I don’t know. Lifetime has, on the one hand, a reputation for making sentimental videos, and I mean the original sense of sentimental: striving to solicit unearned sentiment. On the other hand, Lifetime is a champion for depicting the hard stuff in life, and America is some of the hardest stuff out there.
In the book, America’s therapist is played by a man, but Rosie has taken the role in this production. I hope she does the character in the book, rather than Rosie playing herself in a Lifetime movie. I love Dr. B. I’m not sure Lifetime will.
Apparently, Rosie cast the lead role a week before production began, choosing a seventeen-year-old who she happened to see in a restaurant, primarily because he fits America’s mixed-race description.
Time is gonna tell on this one.
Airs Feb. 28 at 9 pm et/pt. Encores Mar. 1 at 8 pm & Mar. 3 at 9 pm et/pt.
America by E. R. Frank
Frank, E. R. America. New York: Simon Pulse, 2003.
A therapist in a mental institution helps a boy named America confront the story of how he got lost in the system at the age of 7. America struggles with sexual abuse, abandonment, and suicide.
AWARDS
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2003)
REVIEW
This book is a heartbreaker. Separated by a social worker from Mrs. Harper, who loves and wants to adopt him, seven-year-old America is reunited with and then immediately abandoned by his birth mother, who only wants him so that she can collect government assistance and use it to buy drugs. Unable to find a phone, America obsessively writes Mrs. Harper’s phone numbers on the walls of the dilapidated apartment building. When a repairman discovers America and returns him to the authorities, he is reunited with Mrs. Harper, only to be betrayed by her half-brother Browning.
The book opens with America, having tried to kill himself, living in a mental institution, where Dr. B patiently tries to get America to talk. A mix of present and past, America is beautiful and brutal all the way through. Outstanding realistic fiction, but not for the faint of heart.
Keesha’s House by Helen Frost
Frost, Helen. Keesha’s House. New York: Francis Foster Books, 2003.
7 teenagers struggle with homelessness, sexuality, pregnancy, and abuse. Some find temporary safety at Keesha’s house.
AWARDS
2004 Printz Honor Book
REVIEW
Keesha finds a safe place to stay at the house of Joe, an older man who understands what’s it like to be a teenager who needs a place to stay. One by one, Keesha leads other kids in trouble to what becomes known as Keesha’s House. Stephie and her boyfriend deal with an unexpected pregnancy. Dontay, whose parents are in jail, feels unwanted by his foster parents. Carmen finds herself in juvenile detention for a D.U.I. Harris is kicked out of his home because his father doesn’t want him to be gay. And Katy is on the run from a stepfather with terrible intentions.
Like her book The Braid, Frost presents alternating voices in tight poetic forms, this time sonnets and sestinas. The book is a quick and beautiful read that takes on big issues without resorting to easy answers.
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt
Schmidt, Gary D. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. New York: Clarion Books, 2004.
Two children of different races team up to fight injustice in this fictional account of the 1912 diaspora of a village of ex-slaves near Phippsburg, Maine.
AWARDS
Newberry Honor, 2005
Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature Honor Book, 2005
REVIEW
The son of an affluent minister befriends a young girl from the town of ex-slaves on a nearby island. Their instant, exciting, and warm friendship gives Turner Buckminster the happiness he doesn’t find in the starched Christian community of Phippsburg, Maine, and Lizzie Bright Griffin teaches him wonderful things, including how to row a boat up to a whale. When Turner’s father and the other powerful members of the town try to run Lizzie’s community off the island, Turner comes of age.
Historical fiction is not my favorite genre, but I warmed up to this book because of it’s delightful child characters. If you like baseball or whales, this book may be for you.
American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006.
Third-grader Jin Wang struggles with his Chinese heritage and his desire to be a typical white American in this humorous and colorful graphic novel.
AWARDS
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, 2006
Finalist: National Book Award for Young People, 2006
REVIEW
This insightful and hilarious full-color graphic novel interweaves stories about the legendary monkey king, Chinese American third-grader Jin Wang, and Chin-Kee, an impertinent visiting Chinese stereotype. While the monkey king masters the disciplines of kung-fu, Jin Wang tries to sort out his identity: he’s born Chinese, but he wishes he was born American. More than an homage to “be careful what you wish for,” American Born Chinese shows the link between the struggles of identity and friendship.
At times a comedy of manners, at times a mythical epic, this graphic novel is a short, sweet romp through beautiful panels and provoking ideas.
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. New York: Viking, 1967.
Ponyboy Curtis writes how he and his older brothers struggle to survive as greasers: disenfranchised gang members with something to prove.
AWARDS:
New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Books List, 1967
Chicago Tribune Book World Spring Book Festival Honor Book, 1967
Media and Methods Maxi Award, 1975
ALA Best Young Adult Books, 1975
Massachusetts Children’s Book Award, 1979
REVIEW
This is a coming-of-age family tale with a gang twist. Ponyboy, the youngest Curtis, writes about his experiences with high school, girls, and gang life. Both Ponyboy’s parents are dead and he is cared for by his older brothers, Darry and Sodapop. The Curtis family home is now a clubhouse for greasers–slick-haired social outcasts who struggle with poor circumstances and harassment from Socs, the well-to-do youths in town.
A wiz at school, Ponyboy tries to be as tough and free as anyone in the gang, but his brother Darry wants him to study hard and play it safe. Johnny is the gang’s baby brother and is terrified of trouble. When he and Ponyboy get jumped by the Socs, Johnny sticks a knife in one of them, and soon they’re on the run from the law. How will Ponyboy face the Socs? What will he do about the tension in his family? Find out in The Outsiders, the first young adult novel and a scintillating boy book–penned by a sixteen-year-old girl.
