BLOCK, Francesca Lia. The Elementals. 320p. St. Martin’s. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-250-00549-6. LC 2012028277. Adult/High School–Block’s latest is a perfect example of the “new adult” trend. While she is best known for Weetzie Bat (Harper, 1989) and its sequels, which won her the Margaret A. Edwards award, she has also written adult novels throughout her career, and this book straddles both age groups. Ariel and her friend Jeni had planed on attending UC Berkeley together, but when Ariel can’t [...]]]> FICTION

BLOCK, Francesca Lia. The Elementals. 320p. St. Martin’s. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-250-00549-6. LC 2012028277.
Adult/High School–Block’s latest is a perfect example of the “new adult” trend. While she is best known for Weetzie Bat (Harper, 1989) and its sequels, which won her the Margaret A. Edwards award, she has also written adult novels throughout her career, and this book straddles both age groups. Ariel and her friend Jeni had planed on attending UC Berkeley together, but when Ariel can’t go on a college visit due to her mother’s illness, Jeni goes without her and promptly disappears. Ariel decides to head to Berkeley anyway, as much to locate Jeni as to further her education. Once there, her search for her friend at first overtakes her life but then leads her to a beautiful mansion and the three older students who live there. Despite warnings from classmates and her own conscience, she can’t seem to stay away. Many of Block’s common themes are present–California as a place of ethereal mystery, damaged girls, slightly magical creatures, and unusual familial arrangements, complete with a baby. Most of the book reads very much like a young adult novel, and there are just a few instances of erotic sex that probably pushed the publication from teen to adult.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

 DEBORDE, Rob. Portlandtown: A Tale of Oregon Wyldes. 384p. Griffin: St. Martin’s. 2012. pap. $15.99. ISBN 978-1-250-00664-6.
Adult/High School–This paranormal Western features an undead man searching for his gun, a book of spells whose author is trying to retrieve it, the possessor of the book who is gradually succumbing to its power, a marshal who is digging up graves but can’t remember why, and the psychically skilled Wylde family. These characters come together in a story that is as creepy as it is enjoyable. The Hanged Man is an outlaw who was hung for his crimes and buried, but he didn’t die thanks to a curse from the wayward spell book.  With the assistance of a man also bound by the curse, he makes his way out of the grave. They head to Portland, determined to retrieve the Hanged Man’s legendary gun that never misses and never needs reloading. This sets in motion a series of paranormal events coinciding with the Portland rain festival, which is relying on some otherworldly elements of its own. The rain festival turns into something bigger, wetter and more terrifying than anyone could have imagined; the dead are rising as quickly as the waters. This skillful blend of Old West, mystical activity, and other disparate elements works well. Though the ending leaves open the possibility of a sequel, this is still a satisfying novel. Fans of paranormal fiction will appreciate Portlandtown‘s innovative storytelling, a refreshing change  in a genre that often lacks originality.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

GREAVES, C. Joseph. Hard Twisted. 304p. Bloomsbury. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-608-19855-9.
Adult/High School–Lottie Garrett, 13, is not ignorant of the ways of the world as she has been hoboing around  dustbowl era Texas with her alcoholic father, but certainly by today’s standards she is naïve and an innocent when she meets Clint Palmer, who is in his late 30s. Lottie is forced via coercion or rape into Clint’s web, his bed, and ultimately his murderous crime spree. The remarkably accurate historical voice, including trial excerpts that start each chapter, will draw teens into this beautifully written fictionalized account of real western murders. Readers will hunger to know more of Lottie’s motives and thoughts as she seems relegated to the background of her own story, which seems appropriate to the ways in which girls and women were seen at the time. So, too, will the use of racial slurs jolt at first, but ultimately the language enriches the feeling of being there, in the West of the 1930s. The story crosses from Texas and Oklahoma to New Mexico and Utah. Lottie becomes pregnant and loses a baby, and Clint goes from somewhat charming to ever more scary and dangerous, and readers will hang on to the bitter end, trying to figure out exactly what happened and what will become of Lottie.–Jake Pettit, American School Foundation, Mexico City

MCEWAN, Ian. Sweet Tooth. 304p. Nan A. Talese. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-385-53682-0.
Adult/High School–In 1972, young English women had restricted opportunities in the professional world. Thus 22-year-old Serena Frome, a new MI5 recruit, is intrigued when she is plucked from lower-level clerical work for a role in a secret operation. Serena has three important qualifications for the job: She is beautiful, intelligent, and a voracious reader. Her role is to find a promising young writer and offer a fake grant from a fake foundation that will allow the writer to concentrate on producing a book. The underlying intention of the operation is to sway popular culture away from communist influences, still a vital threat in the continuing Cold War. Serena selects writer Tom Haley as her mark, after obsessing over his wonderful and strange short stories. Their first meeting ends in Serena’s bed, beginning a passionate love affair always overshadowed by the truth of Serena’s covert mission. McEwan immerses readers in this bleak era of English history, replete with its inherent anxiety over Cold War fears, the stubborn oil crisis, and escalating violence in Northern Ireland. His extraordinary storytelling, nuanced with secrets and twists aplenty, blends wit and literary allusions without pomposity, making it accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Although the espionage element makes this novel an excellent recommendation for Tom Clancy fans, there are also strong currents of mystery, historical fiction, and romance. Offer this one to sophisticated teens looking for an absorbing, literary novel.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

MATHIS, Ayana. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. 243p. Knopf.  2012. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-385-35028-0. LC 2012010779.
Adult/High School–In 1925, Hattie, 17-years-old and newly transplanted from rural Georgia to Philadelphia, loses her babies, twins, to pneumonia. This early tragedy combined with her disappointing marriage to August, the country boy she only dated to spite her mother, changes Hattie. The remaining chronological chapters read like connected short stories, each one introducing one or two of Hattie’s nine living children, all touched by her anger and distance. Floyd, a trumpeter, fears his homosexual tendencies when he sees the vicious treatment others receive. Six, physically scarred by a fire, becomes a tent preacher after he is sent south at age 15 to escape prosecution for almost killing another boy. The focus never shifts far from Hattie. In one chapter, she finds love with another man, and tries to run away with him. Bell, a teenager scarred by knowledge of her mother’s affair, later exacts a revenge that doubles back and almost kills her. In the next chapter, Hattie prepares for the ultimate sacrifice–giving her youngest daughter away to her sister Pearl and a more comfortable life down south. Although most of her children’s issues originate in their youth, in reaction to their mother’s harsh treatment, their concerns are largely adult. However, even as adults they struggle to find their way. Each chapter focuses on moments of transition, momentous decisions, or actions that determine their ultimate fate. This book is recommended to teens for its accessible writing, the author’s skill at juggling multiple dramatic stories and characters within a transparent structure, and for what these (never didactic or cliché) stories reveal of growing up poor and African American in 20th century America.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

ROORBACH, Bill. Life Among Giants. 333p. Algonquin. 2012. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-1-616-20076-3. LC 2012016965.
Adult/High School–When 17-year-old David “Lizard” Hochmeyer’s parents are gunned down in front of him, it is only one link in a chain that connects his family with that of the neighbors across the way in the palatial “High Side”: a famous (now-dead) rock star named Dabney and his ballerina wife, Sylphide. Moving back and forth between his teenage years in 1970s suburban Connecticut, his stint as a professional quarterback, and his post-football career as a restaurateur, Lizard narrates this tale of con artists, greed, love affairs, insanity, revenge, and exquisite cooking. Both Lizard’s and his sister Kate’s lives are dominated by the fact of their parents’ deaths, and by their respective obsessions with the residents of High Side. Lizard finds it difficult to have a permanent relationship because he is still fixated on Sylphide. Kate is certain that she knows the truth of a conspiracy behind their parents’ and Dabney’s deaths; Lizard is less certain, until the day his father’s former boss and the man Lizard recognizes as the shooter walk into Lizard’s restaurant together. When he discovers that the shooter is connected with Dabney and Sylphide, he ecomes involved in a scheme to get revenge and find out the full truth about his father’s life and death. Full of memorable characters, this is an intriguing mystery as well as a moving coming-of-age story, comically absurd at times and touchingly tragic at others. Recommend it to older teens who like John Irving or Richard Russo or are just looking for a well-written, character-driven novel.–Sarah Flowers, formerly at Santa Clara County Library, CA

VILLALOBOS, Juan Pablo. Down the Rabbit Hole. tr. from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey. 75p. Farrar. 2012. pap. $12. ISBN 978-0-374-14335-0. LC 2011048052.
Adult/High School–Tochtli is the motherless child of a Mexican drug lord.  Because his life is circumscribed by the walls and guarded gates of a villa compound in the mountains, he has met few people and has no friends. He spends his time almost entirely on his obsessions: a collection of hats, the honor of Samurai warriors, his dictionary, the Liberian pygmy hippopotamus he wants for his zoo, and the ways bodies become corpses.  He is also a keen observer of his father, Yolcaut, and the henchmen, prostitutes, and corrupt politicians who populate his home.  A precocious innocent coming of age is insulated within a world of violence, corruption, wealth and death, and Tochli remains unaware of the psychopathy that envelops him.  He only knows that certain words from his dictionary fit his experience: “pathetic,” “disastrous,” “sordid,” “devastating.” While this novella details the illegal procurement of hippos for Tochtli’s exotic zoo, it is also an allegory about the impact of the drug war and its public violence on Mexico–the names of the characters derive from Mexico’s indigenous language, Nahuatl (Tochtli means ‘rabbit’ and Yolcaut means ‘rattlesnake’).  Villalobos dispatches simple words with the precision of a marksman to create a powerfully disturbing novella that teens will find accessible, dark, humorous, and provocative.  Teachers will discover a literary tool that expands the discussions of perception versus reality in the context of the drug war that continues to plague Mexico and its people.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY

WRIGHT, Camron. The Rent Collector. 288p. Shadow Mountain. 2012. Tr $22.99. ISBN 978-1-60907-122-6.
Adult/High School–In a contemporary story of hardship and hope, guilt and forgiveness, 29-year-old Sang Ly lives with her devoted husband, Ki, and her sickly baby, Nisay, at Stung Meanchey, an enormous municipal waste dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Sang Ly and Ki are trash pickers, eeking out an existence by salvaging recyclables.  The couple dreads the monthly visit of Sopeap Sin, the drunken, ill-tempered rent collector.  But when Sang Ly discovers that Sopeap can read, she asks to learn and a tenuous friendship develops. Hoping to give her son a better life, she studies her lessons intently. As she works with her unpredictable but motivating teacher, Sang Ly uncovers Sopeap’s improbable past as a teacher and lover of literature and as a traumatized victim of the Khmer Rouge 1970′s reign of terror.  When Sopeap disappears, Sang Ly’s understanding of Sopeap enables her to find the dying rent collector and to help her find redemption. Metaphoric dreams, fables, proverbs, and literary references are effectively woven into Sang Ly and Sopeap’s dual stories of salvation.  Sopeap opens Sang Ly’s eyes to the heroes and positive aspects of her wasteland home. And, Sang Ly brings Sopeap face to face with a family that has haunted her life. Inspired by the lives of real people living in Stung Meanchey, Wright infuses this story with cultural nuance and authenticity.  Initially, Sang Ly’s eloquent narration seems inconsistent with the limited realities of her life, but her engaging voice gains credibility as her compassionate, literary relationship with Sopeap unfolds. Through Sang Ly and the rent collector, readers will discover a wealth of insights:  the lingering ravages of war, the common bonds of humanity, and the uplifting power of literature.–Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts,  NC

NONFICTION

LE GUIN, Ursula K. Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems. 196p. Houghton. 2012. Tr $22. ISBN 978-0-547-85820-3. LC 2012016363.
Adult/High School–The author of the “Earthsea Cycle” and of highly regarded works of science fiction began publishing poetry in 1959. This volume collects 70 selections from 6 earlier books and provides 77 new ones, including the title poem. Many teens should appreciate these sentiments: “My elegy, your clothes are out of fashion./I see you walking past me on a country road/ in a worn cloak. Your steps are slow, along/a way that grows obscure as it leads back and back./In dusk some stars shine small and clear as tears/on a dark face that is not human. I will follow you.” The poems about nature are sure to please observant readers. Anyone who has been lucky enough to watch pelicans diving will especially appreciate “Pelicans.” “They’re awkward, angular, abstruse,/the great beak on a head so narrow,/a kind of weird Jurassic goose/lurching into the modern era./But the blue arc of sky lets loose–/ look, now!–the brown, unerring arrow!/ and see how beautiful, how grave,/the steady wings along the wave.” Unfortunately, the poems written about war seem timeless. The Curse of the Prophetess begins, “Hear my curse on the nation of Israel and the nation of Palestine/ May the generals of your armies/ be little, heavy-burdened donkeys,/ and your leaders be patient, old sheep.”  And continues, “Let the day come, let it come now,/when the name warrior will be a name of folly/and the word victory mean a vain thing.” Young adults will discover beauty and creativity in the poetry of an author whom they may already admire.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library

PULLMAN, Philip. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. 405p. bibliog. Viking. 2012. Tr $27.95. ISBN 978-0-670-02497-1. LC 2012027181.
Adult/High School–In his introduction, Pullman describes some of the essential characteristics of fairy tales: they contain “conventional stock figures” with “little interior life”; they are fast-paced; there is practically “no imagery”; and the tone is “serene and anonymous.” So it is somewhat strange to find that almost all of the changes Pullman introduces to the tales (and he introduces many) move them away from these characteristics, creating motivations and inner lives, adding color to the imagery and tone, and generally slowing the pace. But of course Pullman is following in the footsteps of no less a forebear than Wilhelm Grimm himself, who immediately began making the stories more literary, starting with the second edition of 1819 and running through the final and most familiar seventh edition of 1857. In fact, Pullman’s changes–which include adding dialogue, re-arranging events, and even finishing incomplete tales–are so extensive that this volume should not truly be seen as a new translation at all; it is closer to an eighth edition, expanding on Wilhelm’s project. What readers make of these changes depends on their attitude toward the original 1812 tales and their need (or lack thereof) for a strict translation of the Grimms, for which readers should always turn to Jack Zipes’s The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Bantam, 2003). Setting that question aside, though, readers are left with what is certainly the most accessible, best-written version of Grimm available. Add to that Pullman’s indispensable notes on each tale and this is surely an edition that lovers of fairy tales everywhere should read.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

Adult/High School–In cleverly constructed verse that echoes (without mimicking) Coleridge, Hayes presents the tale of a 21st-century explorer who has ridden the high seas in search of (illegally hunted) whale bone for scrimshaw. He has been sucked into the swirling mass of garbage in the north Pacific (see Rachel Hope Allison’s I Am Not a Plastic Bag by [Archaia 2012]) and eventually comes to a London park bench to [...]]]>  HAYES , Nick. The Rime of the Modern Mariner. illus. by author. Viking. 2012. Tr $32.. ISBN 978-0-670-02580-0.

Adult/High School–In cleverly constructed verse that echoes (without mimicking) Coleridge, Hayes presents the tale of a 21st-century explorer who has ridden the high seas in search of (illegally hunted) whale bone for scrimshaw. He has been sucked into the swirling mass of garbage in the north Pacific (see Rachel Hope Allison’s I Am Not a Plastic Bag by [Archaia 2012]) and eventually comes to a London park bench to regale a businessman who has just signed his own divorce papers and will not be swayed to consider any concern beyond his own polished life’s. Faux block print style artwork abounds with textures–the tangles of old fishing nets, the plaids of shirts, the curly head of the mariner, the woodsy grotto where he is nursed to health–all washed in a gentle blue. With just a line or two on most full-page spreads, some passages are told only visually; Hayes has plotted the panels and isolated full-page moments in elegant harmony with the rhyme itself. This is stellar sequential art, offering the juxtaposition of human greed that has remained a species-signature across the centuries with the environmental mess this greed and selfishness has wrought. It also offers access to Coleridge’s original by showing the bones of symbolism he employed.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA .

For all the latest reviews in this subject area and more, check out our new Book Verdict site! Book Verdict is fully accessible to all users, though certain content and functionality are only available to subscribers.To log in to your account, click here. To view the new subscription options, Get Started With Book Verdict Pro Today.

Don’t know if you have an account with us? It’s easy to check and verify your email, or create a new account.

The following titles are reviewed in the January 1 print issue. Visit Book Verdict for the full reviews.

Fiction

ALEXIE , Sherman. Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories. 480p. Grove. 2012. Tr $27.00. ISBN 978-0-8021-2039-7.

ATWELL , Mary Stewart. Wild Girls. 288p. Scribner. 2012. Hardcover $25. ISBN 9781451683271.

DRAKE , Jocelynn. Angel’s Ink. 1. 352p. (The Asylum Tales Series). Harper Voyager. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 9780062117854.

ERDRICH , Louise. The Round House. 336p. HarperCollins/Harper. 2012. Tr $27.99. ISBN 978-0-06-206524-7. LC 2012005381.

MCKILLIP , Patricia A. Wonders of the Invisible World. 288p. Tachyon, dist. by IPG. 2012. pap. $14.95. ISBN 9781616960872.

MORTON , Kate. The Secret Keeper: A Novel. 463p. Atria:S.& S. 2012. pap. $26.99. ISBN 9781439152805.

OTTO , Whitney. Eight Girls Taking Pictures. 352p. photogs. Scribner. Nov. 2012. Hardcover $25. ISBN 9781451682694.

Nonfiction

AL-MARIA , Sophia. The Girl Who Fell to Earth: A Memoir. 288p. HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-199975-8.

CAHALAN , Susannah. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. 288p. Free Pr. 2012. Tr $25.. ISBN 9781451621372.

CROTHERS , Tim. The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster. 224p. photogs. Scribner. 2012. Tr $26.. ISBN 9781451657814.

Graphic Novels

PHAM , Thien. Sumo. 105p. First Second. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-1-59643-581-0.

Preschool to Grade 4

AHLBERG , Allan. The Goldilocks Variations . illus. by Jessica Ahlberg. Candlewick. p. 74.

BROWN , Don. Henry and the Cannons . illus. by author. Roaring Brook. Jan. 2013. p. 89.

BRYANT , Jen. A Splash of Red . illus. by Melissa Sweet. Knopf. Jan. 2013. p. 89.

HALPERIN , Wendy Anderson. Peace. illus. by author. S & S/Atheneum. Jan. 2013. p. 92.

HELQUIST , Brett. Grumpy Goat. illus. by author. HarperCollins/Harper. Jan. 2013. p. 78.

JEFFERS , Oliver. This Moose Belongs [...]]]>

Henry and the Cannons (Brown), ©2013 illustration by Don Brown

Preschool to Grade 4

AHLBERG , Allan. The Goldilocks Variations . illus. by Jessica Ahlberg. Candlewick. p. 74.

BROWN , Don. Henry and the Cannons . illus. by author. Roaring Brook. Jan. 2013. p. 89.

BRYANT , Jen. A Splash of Red . illus. by Melissa Sweet. Knopf. Jan. 2013. p. 89.

HALPERIN , Wendy Anderson. Peace. illus. by author. S & S/Atheneum. Jan. 2013. p. 92.

HELQUIST , Brett. Grumpy Goat. illus. by author. HarperCollins/Harper. Jan. 2013. p. 78.

JEFFERS , Oliver. This Moose Belongs to Me. illus. by author. Philomel. p. 80.

JENKINS , Steve & Robin Page. My First Day. illus. by Steve Jenkins. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2013. p. 92.

MARKEL , Michelle. Brave Girl. illus. by Melissa Sweet. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray. Feb. 2013. p. 93.

MERCHANT , Natalie, adapt. Leave Your Sleep. illus. by Barbara McClintock. Farrar/Frances Foster. p. 94.

MOORE , Eva. Lucky Ducklings. illus. by Nancy Carpenter. Scholastic/Orchard. Feb. 2013. p. 82.

VIVA , Frank. A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse. illus. by author. Toon Bks. p. 87.

WERNER , Sharon & Sarah Forss. Alphasaurs and Other Prehistoric Types. illus. by authors. Blue Apple. p. 96.

GRADES 5 & UP

BLACKWOOD , Sage. Jinx . HarperCollins/Harper. Jan. 2013. p. 101.

BOLDEN , Tonya. Emancipation Proclamation . Abrams. Jan. 2013. p. 130.

CHADDA , Sarwat. The Savage Fortress . Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. p. 102.

FRADIN , Judith Bloom & Dennis Brindell Fradin. The Price of Freedom . illus. by Eric Velasquez. Walker. Jan. 2013. p. 132.

HALLIDAY , Ayun. Peanut . illus. by Paul Hoppe. Random/Schwartz and Wade. Jan. 2013. p. 137.

NIELSEN , Susin. The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen. Tundra. p. 122.

ROSEN , Michael J. Sailing the Unknown. illus. by Maria Cristina Pritelli. Creative Editions. p. 124.

SPINELLI , Jerry. Hokey Pokey. Knopf. Jan. 2013. p. 126.

STONE , Tanya Lee. Courage Has No Color. Candlewick. Jan. 2013. p. 134.

TIMBERLAKE , Amy. One Came Home. Knopf. Jan. 2013. p. 128.

Adult Books 4 Teens Blog

HAYES , Nick. The Rime of the Modern Mariner . illus. by author. Viking. (Nov. 21, 2012, post)

Multimedia

DVD

The Dustbowl. PBS Dist. p. 58.
Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union. TMW Media. p. 58.
Planet Dinosaur. Warner Home Video. p. 57.

AUDIO

Anna Hibiscus. By Atinuke. Recorded Books. p. 60.
The Fire Chronicle: The Books of Beginning, Book 2. By John Stephens. Listening Library. p. 61.
The Mighty Sky. NewSound Kids. p. 68.
The Monster’s Valentine Ball. Family Arts Theater. p. 68.
Pete Remembers Woody. CDBaby.com. p. 69.
Son. By Lois Lowry. Listening Library. p. 65.
Splendors & Glooms. By Laura Amy Schlitz. Recorded Books. p. 66.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase: The Wolves Chronicles. By Joan Aiken. Listening Library. p. 67.
Zero the Hero. By Joan Holub. Spoken Arts. p. 67.

Bringing together the best reading of the year among 17 book reviewers resulted in a wonderfully varied group of titles that combines excellence and appeal to young adults. All of these books were originally reviewed on SLJ’s Adult Books 4 Teens blog, which can be found at blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/adult4teen. There were a few trends in addition to the plentiful coming-of-age fiction and nonfiction memoirs. We ended up with three powerful debut novels about modern war–The Yellow Birds, Billy [...]]]>

Bringing together the best reading of the year among 17 book reviewers resulted in a wonderfully varied group of titles that combines excellence and appeal to young adults. All of these books were originally reviewed on SLJ’s Adult Books 4 Teens blog, which can be found at blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/adult4teen.
There were a few trends in addition to the plentiful coming-of-age fiction and nonfiction memoirs. We ended up with three powerful debut novels about modern war–The Yellow Birds, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, andThe Book of Jonas–and three titles that use the western canon as a basis–The Song of Achilles (The Iliad),Goliath (The Bible) and Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes (the works of James Joyce). It was exciting to find a trio of important global nonfiction titles here: Behind the Beautiful Forevers (India), Escape from Camp 14 (North Korea) and The Distance Between Us (Mexico). Surprisingly, The Age of Miracles is the only dystopian novel (might the tide be turning?).
Many thanks to reviewers Amy Cheney, Diane Colson, Priscille Dando, Vicki Emery, Mark Flowers, Sarah Flowers, Paula Gallagher, Francisca Goldsmith, Charli Osborne, Laura Pearle, Carla Riemer, Jane Ritter, John Sexton, Karlan Sick, Jamie Watson, and Connie Williams.

Fiction

ABBOTT, Megan. Dare Me. Little, Brown. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-316-09777-2.
This brilliant thriller tackles the mythology of high school cheerleading. Squad captain, Beth, loses her power when a new coach arrives, until a suspicious death renews her opportunity for dominance. (ow.ly/fpKiL)

BRUNT, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I’m Home. Dial. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-679-64419-4.
June, 14, is devastated when her uncle Finn, a famous artist, dies of AIDS. Then Finn’s longtime secret partner, Toby, approaches her, with an offer of friendship. (ow.ly/fpPIf)

DAU, Stephen. The Book of Jonas. Blue Rider. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0399158452.
Jonas, a 15-year-old boy rescued by an American soldier in an unidentified Muslim country and taken to the Pittsburgh area as a war refugee, is overwhelmed by the guilt of what it took to survive the war that claimed his family and his home. (ow.ly/fpKKC)

DOIG, Ivan. The Bartender’s Tale. Riverhead. Tr $27.95. ISBN 978-1-59448-735-4.
Rusty and his single father, Tom, “the best bartender who ever lived,” reside in companionable contentment in their rural Montana town until “that year of everything, 1960,” when Zoe, the daughter of the new café owners, and Proxy, an unsavory “friend” of Tom’s from the old days, arrive in town. (ow.ly/fpKZK)

FOUNTAIN, Ben. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Ecco. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-06-088559-5.
It is surreal to go from a firefight in Iraq to the 50-yard line at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, making it difficult for Billy Lynn to feel like the hero that he is acclaimed to be in this satire of war. (ow.ly/fpLab)

GAULD, Tom. Goliath. Drawn & Quarterly. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-77046-065-2.
In this graphic novel, the Biblical David and Goliath story is told from the giant’s point of view with humor and good will. (ow.ly/fpLqk)

KEESEY, Anna. Little Century. Farrar. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-374-19204-4.
Orphaned at 18, Esther moves from Chicago to Oregon and takes up homesteading. She finds herself in the middle of a feud between an idealistic sheepherder and her cousin, an established cattleman. (ow.ly/fpLEh)

MCCLEEN, Grace. The Land of Decoration. Holt. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-8050-9494-7.
Judith McPherson, 10, and her widower father John are mercilessly bullied as they fervently try to adhere to their apocalyptic religious beliefs in this debut novel about faith and imagination. (ow.ly/fpLNU)

MCCULLOCH, Derek. Gone to Amerikay. illus. by Colleen Doran and José Villarrubia. Vertigo. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-4012-2351-9.
Three intertwined stories reveal both individual and generational experiences by disparate immigrants to New York City from Ireland, in 1870, 1960, and 2010. Doran and Villarrubia’s images provide views of tenement housing, thieves’ dens, an unsettled ghost, and modern jet-set trappings. (ow.ly/fpM1d)

MILLER, Madeline. The Song of Achilles. Ecco. Tr $25.99. ISBN 9787-0-06-206061-7.
Patroclus retells the events of The Iliad, focusing on the all-too-short life of his companion, Achilles. By concentrating on these two young men and their tragic lives and love, the author rejuvenates the epic legend for a contemporary audience. (ow.ly/fpMcc)

O’MALLEY, Daniel. The Rook. Little, Brown. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-316-09879-3.
In this funny, cool, inventive speculative fiction, Myfanwy Thomas wakes up in a body and a life she doesn’t recognize and assumes the job of protecting England from bizarre supernatural manifestations while trying to find the traitor who stole her (host body’s) identity. (ow.ly/fpMmw)

POWERS, Kevin. The Yellow Birds. Little, Brown. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-316-21936.
Private John Bartle’s attempt to honor his promise to bring his combat buddy Murph home safely leads him to commit and cover-up a crime in this powerful novel that alternates between the war in Iraq and Bartle’s homecoming. (ow.ly/fpMt4)

RASH, Ron. The Cove. Ecco. Tr. $26.99. ISBN 978-0-06-180419-9.
Living deep in the isolated mountains of Appalachia just after World War I, Laurel believes her loneliness may be finally over when a mute young man suddenly appears in their dark, secluded cove. (ow.ly/fpMDD)

SIEGEL, Mark. Sailor Twain: Or the Mermaid in the Hudson. illus by author. First Second. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-59643-636-7.
In 1887 Captain Twain is in charge of a steam vessel plying New York’s Hudson River when he rescues a wounded mermaid. Their story in this graphic novel collides with those of a reclusive British author and the shipbuilder’s lothario brother in a fantasy combining history, geography, mythology, and the timeless human concerns with love. (ow.ly/fpMOS)

WALKER, Karen Thompson. The Age of Miracles. Random. Tr $27. ISBN 978-0-8129-9297-7.
Just before Julia’s 12th birthday, scientists announce that the Earth’s rotation is slowing. The unraveling of life on the planet is told from the perspective of one girl living in an ordinary California neighborhood. (ow.ly/fpN2f)

WILSON, G. Willow. Alif the Unseen. Grove. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-8021-2020-5.
Alif is a hacker whose exploits are guided by an ethical dedication to a greater good. His ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, the all-powerful head of state security, is fiercely determined to destroy him. Alif’s narrow escapes are a romp through the contemporary, historic, and mythical Islamic world. (ow.ly/fpNfx)

Nonfiction

BOO, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Random. Tr $28. ISBN 978-1-4000-6755-8.
Abdul, 16, has been accused of driving his neighbor to suicide. Abdul and a one-legged woman are just two of the many people readers meet in the Annawadi slum behind the Mumbai airport and hotel district where 3000 squatters live with poverty and corruption. (ow.ly/fpNpc)

GRANDE. Reyna. The Distance Between Us: A Memoir. Atria. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-4516-6177-4.
After losing their parents to “El Otro Lado”–the United States–Grande and her siblings lived in grinding poverty with their hateful grandmother. Finally their father took them to Los Angeles with the help of a Coyote, where they began new lives, and Grande became the first college graduate in her family. (ow.ly/fpNBK)

HARDEN, Blaine. Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. Viking. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-670-02332-5.
In North Korea, more than 100,000 people are held in prison labor camps. Shin Dong-hyuk was born in one. This is the account of his life in the camp and his escape into China at age 23. (ow.ly/fpPTi)

IVERSEN, Kristen. Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats. Crown. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-95563-0.
Iversen’s memoir combines life within a dysfunctional family and the investigation of a nuclear weapons program cover-up that took place in her own backyard. (ow.ly/fpOdR)

KLEON, Austin. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told you about Being Creative. Workman. pap. $10.95. ISBN 978-0-7611-6925-3.
Kleon offers engaging, inspiring and practical advice on becoming a successful artist, beginning with the premise that “nothing is original.” He encourages readers to study what they love and embrace outside influences. (ow.ly/fpOtX)

MCGILL, Jerry. Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me. Spiegel & Grau. Tr $22. ISBN 978-0-8129-9307-3.
The author was 13, living in the inner-city, when he was shot in the back while walking home late on New Year’s Eve. What happened to him after that unfolds in letters to his assailant, who was never found. (ow.ly/fpOKQ)

PHELPS, Carissa. Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Street, One Helping Hand at a Time. Viking. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-670-02372-1.
Preferring the freedom of the streets to a life with her family, 12-year-old Carissa was taken in by a pimp, and eventually landed in a detention center. She turned it around with the help of mentors, education, and work as a youth advocate. This memoir shines a personal light on the issue of sex trafficking. (ow.ly/fpOXi)

ROSS, Richard. Juvenile in Justice. Richard Ross. Tr $29.95. ISBN 978-0-9855106-0-2.
Photographer Ross spent more than 5 years speaking with 1000 youth confined in juvenile detention facilities in 31 states. The result is a profound visual narrative, accompanied by provocative quotes and statistics. (ow.ly/fpP78)

STRAYED, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Knopf. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-307-59273-6.
With her life out of control and burdened with the unresolved grief of losing her mother to cancer, the author writes of her solo journey on the Pacific Crest Trail in this searingly honest and brilliantly humorous memoir. (ow.ly/fpPgH)

TALBOT, Mary M. Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes. illus. by Bryan Talbot. Dark Horse. Tr $14.99. ISBN 978-1-59582-850-7.
The Talbots collaborated on this graphic dual biography of James Joyce’s daughter, Lucia, and Mary Talbot herself, whose father was a Joyce scholar. Both daughters suffered their fathers’ disappointment, one destroyed by it, the other ultimately triumphant. (ow.ly/fpPp6)

ABBOTT, Megan. Dare Me: A Novel. 304p. Little, Brown. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-316-09777-2. LC 2011051323. Adult/High School–Abbott takes the mythology of cheerleading and stands it on its sharpest edge. There’s not much bubbly or perky about these girls–they are hard in mind and body. Accustomed to the inherent privileges of being worshipped and feared from afar, the actual cheerleading has become incidental. For them, there hasn’t been much in life beyond practice, binge-drinking, [...]]]> fiction

ABBOTT, Megan. Dare Me: A Novel. 304p. Little, Brown. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-316-09777-2. LC 2011051323.
Adult/High School–Abbott takes the mythology of cheerleading and stands it on its sharpest edge. There’s not much bubbly or perky about these girls–they are hard in mind and body. Accustomed to the inherent privileges of being worshipped and feared from afar, the actual cheerleading has become incidental. For them, there hasn’t been much in life beyond practice, binge-drinking, hook-ups, and managing their eating disorders. Beth made the rules as captain, and the squad ruled the school. Then Coach arrives and brings with her a whole new Darwinian order. The unthinkable happens. Beth is no longer captain and her hold on the girls is gone. Her “lieutenant,” Addy, narrates the events. Coach brings discipline, integrity, and technique to the squad and in so doing becomes Addy’s obsession. She and the rest of the squad, in cultlike fashion, live for the smallest bit of attention from their leader. Coach lets the girls into her personal life while simmering in the background is Beth, and Addy knows Beth always gets the upper hand no matter the cost. A sudden, suspicious death brings with it Beth’s opportunity for dominance. The psychology of the relationships creates a singularly dark atmosphere that goes way beyond Mean Girls. Brilliantly sharp writing raises this work to a level above typical expectations. Whether it’s the description of life-threatening stunts or the inner logic of a teen desperate for connection, Abbott’s prose creates a compelling and unsettling read for mature teens.–Priscille Dando, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

ANDERSON, Howard. Albert of Adelaide: A Novel. 225p. Twelve. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-4555-0962-1. LC 2011045203.
Adult/High School–One thing Albert knows for certain: Living encaged in a zoo is no life at all. He has heard rumors from other zoo animals of a place known as Old Australia, where things haven’t changed and animals still run free. So, like any platypus that yearns for the rush of river water and the company of mates, he quits the zoo, taking with him only a soda bottle filled with water. His journey soon becomes one of swashbuckling adventure, as Albert finds himself in the middle of turf wars and long-standing enmities amid the animals living in the Australian Outback. As distinctly drawn as Albert’s own earnest and brave character are those of his new friends, Jack the embittered wombat and American-born TJ, a thieving raccoon of honor and courage. While the arc of the story is simple–young platypus grows in self-understanding as he experiences the good and evil of the world–the setting is fabulously exotic. The landscape of the Northern Territory, and, more importantly, the extraordinary native animals, increase the book’s fantastical mystique. It’s tempting to compare this novel to others that feature talking animals, but it’s really more closely related to shoot-‘em-up-westerns or war stories. For most teens, this will be an out-of-the box recommendation. Adventurous readers will appreciate the quirky pretext for a hearty coming-of-age story Down Under.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

CHEN, Pauline A.. The Red Chamber. 400p. Knopf. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-307-70157-2. LC 2012005050.
Adult/High School– The Red Chamber follows the story of three members of the wealthy Jia family in 18th century Beijing. Daiyu, Xifeng, and Baochai live within a tightly knit closed society that allows them only limited access to life outside their splendid mansion. Their only power is contained within their closed chambers, and the story centers on their many complex relationships. Xifeng, the childless wife of the head of the family, rules with an iron fist over the other women. Daiyu, a young orphaned cousin newly arrived from the south, hopes to find comfort with her extended family but instead finds it difficult to enter their world. She befriends another young cousin, Baochai, but when they discover that they both love the same man, their friendship breaks down. Just as there are many servants, concubines, children, parents, and cousins living in household, there are many characters in this story and many side plot lines that create a unique view of life and politics in the Beijing of the 1700’s. The three women’s lives intersect not only within their chambers, but each must survive as the winds of politics change their sheltered lives. Inspired by a literary classic of the 18th century, this important piece of Chinese tradition gives Western readers insight into a fascinating culture. With so many characters and events, it’s difficult to follow at first but perseverance will open up this engaging story, and as each character unfolds, the story compels further reading. Recommend this to teens who love history, Asia, romance, and complex story lines.—Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

FISHMAN, Zoe. Saving Ruth. 304p. Morrow. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-205984-0. LC 2011275350.
Adult/High School–After her first year of college in Michigan, Ruth Wasserman returns home to Alabama 35 pounds lighter but still carrying around all her old insecurities about her looks. She is met at the airport by David, her athletic, smart older brother who evades her questions about his own life in college. As Ruth meets up with old friends, soothes her parents’ fears about her new ultra-skinny look, and starts dating David’s old best friend, Chris, she returns to work alongside David as a lifeguard at the local pool. When David gets high just before work one day and a young black girl slips underwater, it is up to Ruth to be clear-headed and save her. Ruth begins to realize that things are not as they seem. Not only do David’s lies about his soccer scholarship begin to unravel, but she suspects problems in her parents’ relationship. When she is hired to help a young girl lose weight, she finally confronts her own issues so that she can help her young charge avoid a similar path to an eating disorder. This is a well written, quick read with wide teen appeal. Ruth is believable, and her dialogue with David is in true sibling form. The characters are not stereotyped, and the complicated racial tensions, along with Ruth’s concern about beauty and conformity, convey the unique culture of one small southern town.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

GRANT, Mira. Blackout. Bk. 3. 574p. (Newsflesh Trilogy). Orbit. 2012. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-1-84149-900-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Readers who have followed this trilogy from the beginning will be relieved to find that Georgia Mason is 97% resurrected and back in action. In this final book, set in 2041, death by zombie is less a threat for the After the End Time bloggers than death by assassination by the Center for Disease Control. The pace picks up with Georgia and Shaun Mason alternating narration as each one uncovers parts of the horrific conspiracy that keeps the Kellis-Amberlee virus alive and deadly. In each of the three books, the tension has a different timbre: Feed (2010) is bloody and edgy, while Deadline (2011, both Orbit) is darkly taut. Blackout has the spiraling, out-of-control terror of an impending collision. The “Newsflesh Trilogy” has tremendous appeal for older teens who enjoy a combination of science and action, with an overlay of forbidden romance throughout. It’s possible to start with the final volume, despite the many resolutions to the storyline. Most likely it will whet readers’ appetites for more. Fortunately for fans, Grant published a prequel novella, Countdown (2011). It takes readers back in time to the earliest developments that led to the virus and introduces characters who figure largely in the trilogy. There is always the chance that more bits of the story will yet emerge from Grant, as readers will certainly wonder what happens to these familiar characters next.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

GREENSLADE, Frances. Shelter. 400p. Free Pr. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1-4516-6110-1. LC 2011028539.
Adult/High School–Maggie and Jenny are living in rural British Columbia in the 1970s. They are 10- and 12-years-old when their father dies, and not much older when their mother leaves them at the home of an older couple they barely know. For a few years, they hear from her occasionally, but eventually she disappears forever. Maggie narrates the story, struggling to understand something about who her parents were, why her mother left, and why she and Jenny didn’t try to find her. Maggie is bright, thoughtful, and independent, while Jenny is charming and outgoing like her mother. Maggie, more cautious like her father, approaches life warily, albeit with great resourcefulness. When Jenny becomes pregnant, Maggie decides that she must find out what happened to their mother. Not a lot goes on in this novel, but readers are nevertheless drawn inexorably forward by Maggie’s longing for a real family, by her loyalty to Jenny, and by her few close friendships. The setting is so clearly drawn as to be almost a character in its own right. This is a quiet but deeply felt book, for readers who liked Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country (Harper, 1985) or Kent Haruf’s Plainsong (Knopf, 1999).–Sarah Flowers, formerly at Santa Clara County Library, CA

KEESEY, Anna. Little Century. 336p. Farrar. 2012. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-374-19204-4. LC 2011046308.
Adult/High School–Newly orphaned following the death of her mother, 18-year-old Esther Chambers lands in Century, Oregon with few options. Her only remaining relative, distant cousin Pick, has offered to set her up as a homesteader on land adjoining his ranch. But what does a girl from Chicago know about frontier living? Esther must learn to farm, care for her horse, and, most importantly, become a part of the community. The cattlemen of Two Forks Ranch are at odds with the sheepherders over grazing rights on parched, arid land. Esther finds herself making alliances on both sides as she struggles to understand a feud rife with unconscionable behavior. To complicate matters, she finds herself with a pair of suitors–handsome and established cattleman Pick, and magnetic Ben Cruff, an idealistic young sheepherder. Esther’s choice and its consequences will keep readers transfixed. Teens will be drawn in by an intelligent and independent heroine who follows both her head and heart as she comes of age and takes charge of her life. Compelling and engaging, Little Century explores the everyday struggles of pioneers in an approachable context. Keesey does a superb job fleshing out the secondary characters who populate Century, including an eccentric shopkeeper with a lending library and a love of nature, and the fiery, welcoming schoolteacher who teaches Esther to split her skirts to make more practical riding attire. Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s prairie tales will happily fall into this page-turner.–Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

LOCKE, Kate. God Save the Queen. 368p. maps. glossary. Orbit. 2012. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-316-19612-3. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–In a reimagined Great Britain, a mutated form of the bubonic plague has taken root among the nation’s royalty, causing the infected to acquire certain abilities and sensitivities. The plague first appeared in the 1700’s; by the time of this story, Queen Victoria, an immortal vampire, is 175 years into her reign and the aristocracy consists solely of vampires and werewolves. The rest of the population consists of halvies, the offspring of vampire “aristo’s” and human courtesans; goblins, the greatly feared offspring of one were and one vampire parent; and humans, who don’t hide their hatred of the other groups, and are generally kept at a distance. In this first volume of the Immortal Empire series, readers meet Alexandra Vardan, daughter of an aristo vampire and a human mother. As a member of the Queen’s Royal Guard, Xandra is completely loyal to the crown and is indeed sworn to protect it. But a search for her missing sister changes everything. It starts with a trip underground to meet with the goblin prince and ends up with everything Xandra believes about her family, England’s social structure, and even herself being turned upside down. Locke’s rich detail draws readers into this fascinating world, making the journey with Xandra thrilling, frightening, and shocking. Her romance with a sexy aristo werewolf adds spice but never detracts from the action. This paranormal/political thriller mash-up (with a light sprinkling of steampunk) is sure to engage teens who enjoy exciting, genre-blurring stories.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

RATNER, Vaddey. In the Shadow of the Banyan. 336p. S & S. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-4516-5770-8. LC 2011033320.
Adult/High School–Seven year-old Raami’s world is forever changed when the Khmer Rouge drive her family from their home. Her father is a Cambodian prince, her grandmother a queen, but in the eyes of the black-clad young soldiers, they are merely citizens to be rounded up in the name of the revolution. Forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their backs, they have nothing but one another. But no one can foresee the events to come, as one by one those closest to Raami are taken from her. Ratner’s evocative, lyrical prose transports readers to the Cambodia of her childhood, a land of contemplative Buddhist temples abruptly outlawed and jewel-toned clothing forcibly dyed black. The novel is an utterly engaging portrait of familial love and sacrifice, a bleak story that manages to retain a sense of warmth and optimism through the eyes of precocious young Raami. Teens who enjoy dystopian fiction may be surprised to find a historical novel with familiar themes of violence, destruction, and cruelty in the name of a so-called better society. The Organization promises to provide and take care of its citizens, but it does not. Survival depends on the kindness of strangers. The author carefully balances harsh realities with the touchstones of hope that Raami holds near. Traditional stories of the Buddha comfort her, and her beloved father, she believes, watches over her in the form of the moon. Accessible and profoundly moving, In the Shadow of the Banyan is destined to become a classic.–Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

SCALZI, John. Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas. 320p. Tor. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0765316998; spiral $11.99. ISBN 978-1429963602. LC 201009383.
Adult/High School–As even casual fans of Star Trek know, any time redshirt-wearing extras go off the ship with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, or one of the other big stars, they don’t come back alive. Scalzi’s latest novel takes that idea and runs with it wildly and hilariously, adding the metafictional conceit that the characters of the book are the real-life counterparts of characters on a poorly written basic-cable TV show from some 400 years earlier, and that whatever happens on the show happens to them. A new group of ensigns on the Universal Union (“Dub U”) flagship Intrepid begins to notice odd things: new crew members have a very high mortality rate; whenever Captain Abernathy or Science Officer Q’eeng appears, the rest of the crew mysteriously disappear to fetch coffee, inventory the stock room, or go on an urgent errand; a mysterious “box” comes up with solutions to problems just in the nick of time; and a strange bearded guy who seems to know something about what he calls “the Narrative” lurks in the maintenance tunnels. Ensign Andy Dahl and his friends set out to figure out how they can use the Narrative to keep themselves from being killed off, and their discussions along the way are, as the characters themselves note, as existential and metaphysical (and funny) as late-night dorm-room conversations. Fans of Jasper Fforde’s “Thursday Next” novels and those who enjoyed Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (Crown, 2011) are natural audiences for this one.–Sarah Flowers, formerly of Santa Clara County Library, CA

SEMPLE, Maria. Where’d You Go, Bernadette. 336p. Little, Brown. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-316-20427-9. LC 2011040639.
Adult/High School–Bee Branch’s eighth-grade Galer Street School report card describes her as a pure delight, and the same can be said for Semple’s smart, funny novel. As a reward for years of perfect grades, Bee’s parents grant her request for a family trip to Antarctica over the Christmas vacation. Unfortunately, her mother, Bernadette, disappears two days before their scheduled departure. Bee’s narrative of events is interspersed with letters and e-mails between various players–of special note, Bernadette’s correspondence with Manjula Kapour, her too-good-to-be-true virtual assistant in India, who arranges the trip to Antarctica, reservations for Thanksgiving dinner, and anything else Bernadette requires, all for seventy-five cents an hour, and the exchanges between two Galer Street mothers (Bernadette calls them The Gnats) who share their horror and frustration at Bernadette’s lifestyle and choices. A portrait of Bernadette slowly emerges as a recluse who rarely leaves the house. She is devoted to her daughter, dismissive of life in Seattle (which she skewers mercilessly), and increasingly distant from her superstar workaholic Microsoft executive husband, Elgin. When Bernadette gets wind of Elgin’s plan to have her committed, she flees. In the aftermath of her disappearance, readers learn of Bernadette’s surprising, hidden past. It all comes together when Elgin and Bee travel to Antarctica alone, where Bee is stubbornly certain she will find her mother. The denouement is both wacky and moving. Part witty social satire, part family drama, part warning against the perils of stifled creativity, this novel is highly recommended. Even though she mostly addresses adult concerns, Semple’s humor and humanity-filled storytelling will appeal to young adult readers, too.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

NONFICTION

GRANDE, Reyna. The Distance Between Us: A Memoir. 336p. photos. Atria. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-4516-6177-4. LC 2012001634.
Adult/High School–When Grande was two years old, her father left her family in Mexico to go to “El Otro Lado,” the United States, where he could find work and send money back home. Two years later, El Otro Lado took her mother also; and the author, her sister Mago and her brother Carlos were sent to their grandmother, Abuela Evila. Her abuse and neglect, along with grinding poverty brought near starvation, deprivation, and little love to the children. With no electricity, no running water, no source of healthy food, they lived in Cinderella fashion while their grandmother took the money from their father and bestowed it on her cousin. When news reached them that their parents had a new baby, Grande was certain that they were forgotten. Soon their mother returned with news of her divorce and told them that their father had a new American wife. When their father briefly returned, they begged to go back with him. He grudgingly agreed and they traveled to Los Angeles with the help of a Coyote, enrolled in school and began new lives striving to become American citizens. It wasn’t easy but Grande stuck with it to become the first college graduate in her family. She never flinches in describing her surroundings and feelings, while her resilience and ability to empathize allow her to look back with a compassion that makes this story one that everyone should read.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

ROSS, Richard. Juvenile in Justice. photos by author. 98p. photos. notes. 2012. Tr $29.95. ISBN 978-0-9855106-0-2. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Award winning photographer Ross spent more than 5 years speaking with 1000 youth confined in more than 200 juvenile detention facilities in 31 states. The result is a profound and provocative visual narrative, accompanied by stark facts. Portraits are accompanied by a quote from the youth or staff or a short narrative explanation. Each young person (anonymous for legal reasons) is captured in haunting and thought provoking ways. Statistics such as “Nearly 3 of every 4 youth confined … are not in for a serious violent felony crime” or “Black youth are 9 times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth” are presented one to a page. The ironies and contradictions inherent in the system unfold perfectly with the visuals of facilities and accompanying text. For example, “The state of California spends $224,712 annually to house a juvenile in the new “green” Oakland facility. Oakland spent $4,945 on the education of a child in the Oakland public school system” is accompanied by a sign proclaiming the use of pepper spray (not exactly “green”). Montages of themed images such as food trays, “time out” rooms, and restraining devices tell the story in a way nothing else can. Considering that over 70,000 youth spend the night in lockdown facilities across the country every night, this book is of intense interest to teens. Reluctant readers will be jostling each other to get a glimpse, drawn into the visual story, and motivated to read for a deeper understanding. The preface, forward, afterword, and notes provide additional insight and empowerment for all teen readers.–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA

WEDDAY, Nasser, ed & Sohrab Ahmari. Arab Spring Dreams: The Next Generation Speaks Out for Freedom and Justice from North Arica to Iran. 235p. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. pap. $17. ISBN 978-0-230-11592-7. LC 2011040448.
Adult/High School– Since 2005, the American Islamic Congress has sponsored an essay contest for young writers living in Arab nations. The entrants can select from a variety of questions, and write in English, French or Arabic; more recent contests also include a video option. Compiled here are some of the best essays from the last several years of the contest. By nature of the contest and the AIC, the essays support a basic political ideology – that of more civil rights in their region. To assist readers unfamiliar with the political nuances and history of the Arab nations, each essay has an introduction that sets the stage. The essays often echo Civil Rights struggles familiar to Westerners. Gay rights: the first entry in the book is a fictionalized account, written by an Egyptian woman, of a gay man trying to meet other men online; Women’s rights: “A Persian Grandmother in Tokyo” is by a young Iranian woman who witnessed the world through the eyes of her grandmother when they visited Japan together; Religious rights: “The Shredded Exam Card,” also from Iran, is about the fierce persecution against those of the Bahai faith, who are not even allowed to attend college. There are also essays regarding race discrimination, whether between Arabs and black Africans, or Arabs of different descent. Many of the entries were submitted anonymously, out of fear of persecution. However, some are not, including the Egyptian Dalia Ziada, who now runs the AIC office in Cairo which sponsors the Cairo Human Rights Film Festival. These essays make an excellent real-life companion to current Arab studies.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

GRAPHIc NOVELS

DE HEER, Margreet. Philosophy: A Discovery in Comics. tr. by Emma Ringelberg and Dan Schiff from Dutch. illus. by author. 119p. NBM. 2012. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-56163-698-3. LC 2012938931.
Adult/High School–Colorful, clever, and bouncy cartoons provide an educated philosophy scholar-cartoonist with the method for engaging and informing casual readers about the why and how of Western philosophy’s foundations and development.  De Heer opens the discussion by providing an admirably direct and charming exploration of her own philosophical mind, from preschool aged wonders and questions, through her journey through academia and into the comics field. While brevity of panel count forces her to hit only the highest highlights of the likes of Aristotle and Spinozaa–along with the other dozen or so specific “big names” she treats–the narrative frame she uses allows readers to understand that there are reasons for these particular individual thinkers to be called out as important and where to look for more by any one of them.  Book colorist Yiri Kohl stands as his wife’s interlocutor during the narrative, suggesting where her first run at an explanation needs help and demonstrating how discussion aids clarity of thought. A final section offers the personal philosophies of four of de Heer’s friends, an added invitation to readers to think on their own. The panels throughout, besides being beautifully watercolored, are full of movement and energy as their enclosed concepts unfold and cycle from and around other aspects of philosophy’s history. All in all, this is an accessible and fun primer on a topic that too often is considered to be musty and shrouded in academic argot.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

GERALD, Kelly, ed. Flannery O’Connor: The Cartoons. illus. by Flannery O’Connor. 141p. illus. notes. Fantagraphics. 2012. Tr $22.99. ISBN 978-1-60699-479-5. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Best known for her highly ironic and iconic short stories, O’Connor began her creative life when she was a preschooler; during her youth and college years she developed increasingly in the visual arts, rather than through writing. This beautifully produced retrospective of her linoleum block cartoons, along with some sketches and drawings, shows the incisive, witty and genuinely original “voice” of an excellent observer, just as her later fiction (A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Wise Blood) demonstrates. Moser’s brief introduction gives readers unfamiliar with block-print techniques enough information to understand the flexible attitudes of O’Connor’s chosen printing medium, while Kelly Gerald’s essay and captioning serves as eloquent and substantive discussion of the artist’s interests as expressed in these cartoons. O’Connor’s viewpoint as a college student during the early years of World War II at an all-female Southern institution adds another layer of texture, too, for contemporary teen artists and observers of places and situations that fall outside popular media’s scope.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

MCCOOL, Ben. Nevsky: A Hero of the People. illus. by Mario Guevara. 128p. illus. appendix. IDW Pub. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1613771815. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Alexander Nevsky is a legendary figure informing Russian identity, holding a role not dissimilar from that of Robert the Bruce for the Scots or Hercules for the ancient Greeks. When Soviet Russian film writer and director Sergei Eisenstein created his 1938 masterpiece Ilya Muromets,based on this 13th-century hero, he used the epic cinematography then in vogue to display artfully and artistically foreshadowing of the rise of the Third Reich without letting the modern encroachment of the Germans compromise the sanctity of a legend of Nevsky as Russia’s saving warrior. McCool and Guevara have united in this retelling to capture a coherent and exciting narrative of Nevsky’s triumph against the invaders with beautifully colored and richly detailed spreads that echo Eisenstein’s cinematography. Character development–including that of a Russian queen, a Teutonic spy, and a brave peasant girl warrior, as well as Nevsky, of course–is rendered quickly and solidly. All manner of political realities can be identified in the tale, from those of the 13th and 20th centuries to the role a true hero could take as a model today. Much added matter in the volume makes this a viable text for students interested in aspects of European history, military science, and legends as ripe for presentation through a variety of media, including film and comics.– Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

YORFUJI, Bunpei. tr. from Japanese by Fredrik Lindh. Wonderful Life with the Elements: The Periodic Table Personified. illus. by author. 208p. charts. diags. illus. index. No Starch. 2012. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-59327-423-8. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This clever and effective little book could have the power to make chemistry literates of students, and their parents. While curriculum design in history has moved away from brute memorization of the raw material of dates and place names, the entryway to learning the Periodic Table continues to be, for most, learning the printed pattern and what the various Latin abbreviations and corners of each element block signify, rather than what any of this means. The unique, humorous and diligently complete treatment found here, however, turns that flat code collection into meaningful properties, attributes, and connections. Each element is depicted with a particular hairstyle, body type and clothing type–not chosen at random, but as representative of stability, weight, and usage in our daily lives. Each element is then treated to a page of depiction, references through smaller drawings to everyday items in which it occurs, and a paragraph of discussion that provides up-to-date context such as Vanadium’s possible contribution to lowering blood pressure and Tantelum’s use in mobile phone technology. Additional chapters discuss the elements related to diet, human anatomy, and current depletion due to modern mining and production of modern material culture. The art is both sweet and clear, with brown and yellow cartoons on uncluttered pages that pack a wallop of information which, indeed, brings the Periodic Table to life and meaningfulness.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

Preschool to Grade 4

ASIM, Jabari. Fifty Cents and a Dream. illus. by Bryan Collier. Little, Brown. Dec. 2012. p. 110.

ASTON, Dianna Hutts. A Rock Is Lively. illus. by Sylvia Long. Chronicle. p. 111.

BANKS, Kate. The Bear in the Book. illus. by Greg Hallensleben. Farrar/Frances Foster. Oct. 2012. p. 88.

BARRETT, Judi. Santa from Cincinnati. illus. by Kevin Hawkes. S [...]]]>

The Monsters’ Monster (McDonnell)
Illustration by Patrick McDonnell.

Preschool to Grade 4

ASIM, Jabari. Fifty Cents and a Dream. illus. by Bryan Collier. Little, Brown. Dec. 2012. p. 110.

ASTON, Dianna Hutts. A Rock Is Lively. illus. by Sylvia Long. Chronicle. p. 111.

BANKS, Kate. The Bear in the Book. illus. by Greg Hallensleben. Farrar/Frances Foster. Oct. 2012. p. 88.

BARRETT, Judi. Santa from Cincinnati. illus. by Kevin Hawkes. S & S/Atheneum. Oct. 2012. p. 78.

BISHOP, Nic. Nic Bishop Snakes. photos by author. Scholastic. Oct. 2012. p. 112.

BOYNTON, Sandra. Christmas Parade. illus. by author. S & S/Little Simon. Oct. 2012. p. 79.

DORÉMUS, Gaëtan. Bear Despair. tr. from French. illus. by author. (Stories Without Words Series). Enchanted Lion. p. 94.

DUNREA, Olivier. Little Cub. illus. by author. Philomel. Nov. 2012. p. 100.

HENKES, Kevin. Penny and Her Doll. illus. by author. HarperCollins/Greenwillow. p. 96.

MCDONNELL, Patrick. The Monsters’ Monster. illus. by author. Little, Brown. p. 100.

WILLEMS, Mo. Let’s Go For a Drive! illus. by author. (Elephant and Piggie Series). Hyperion/Disney. p. 110.

GRADES 5 & UP

AVI. Sophia’s War. S & S/Beach Lane. p. 123.

DOCTOROW , Cory. Pirate Cinema. Tor. Oct. 2012. p. 130.

ELLIS, Deborah. My Name Is Parvana. (Breadwinner Series). Groundwood. Oct. 2012. p. 130.

GIDWITZ, Adam. In a Glass Grimmly. Dutton. p. 134.

GRIFFIN, Adele. All You Never Wanted. Knopf.Oct. 2012. p. 134.

HOOSE, Phillip. Moonbird. Farrar. p. 157.

JOHNSON , Rebecca L. Zombie Makers. Millbrook. Oct. 2012. p. 157.

KING, A. S. Ask the Passengers. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. p. 139.

LEAVITT , Martine. My Book of Life by Angel. Farrar/Margaret Ferguson. p. 140.

PREUS , Margi. Shadow on the Mountain. Abrams/Amulet. p. 148.

SHEINKIN , Steve. Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon . Roaring Brook/Flash Point. p. 159.

STEPHENS , John. The Fire Chronicle. Bk. 2. (The Books of Beginning Series). Knopf. Oct. 2012. p. 150.

STIEFVATER, Maggie. The Raven Boys. Bk. 1. (The Raven Cycle). Scholastic. p. 151.

WALKER, Sally M. & Douglas W. Owsley. Their Skeletons Speak. Carolrhoda. Oct. 2012. p. 160.

Adult Books 4 Teens Blog

ABBOTT, Megan. Dare Me. Little, Brown. (Aug. 20 post)

KEESEY, Anna. Little Century. Farrar. (Sept. 4 post)

RATNER, Vaddey. In the Shadow of the Banyan. S & S. (Aug. 27 post)

ROSS, Richard. Juvenile in Justice. Richard Ross. (Aug. 13 post)

DVD

Light Bulb Conspiracy. Video Project. p. 55.

Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct. Weston Woods. p. 56.

Kuffle Bunny Free. Weston Woods. p. 57.

Fever of ’57. Amazon.com. p. 58.

Private Tutor: Your Complete SAT Critical Reading Prep Course. Private Tutor SAT. p. 59.

AUDIO

About Average. By Andrew Clements. Recorded Books. p. 59.

Dreamland Lullabies. Lullaballads.com. p. 68.

Little Pig Joins the Band. Live Oak Media. p. 64.

Make Believers. AV Café. p. 69.

Rapture: A Fallen Novel. By Lauren Kate. Listening Library. p. 66.

Seraphina. By Rachel Hartman. Listening Library. p. 66.

Three Times Lucky. By Sheila Turnage. Penguin Audio. p. 67.

Wonderful Wizard of Oz. By L. Frank Baum. Listening Library. p. 68.

BRUNT, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I’m Home. 368p. Dial. 2012. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-679-64419-4. LC 2011027932. Adult/High School–June Elbus, 14, begins her story in late December 1986, as her mother drives her and her older sister, Greta, to their Uncle Finn’s Manhattan apartment so he can continue painting their portrait. Finn is a famous artist dying of AIDS, and June is in love with him. She treasures their every moment together, especially their trips to The Cloisters. He even [...]]]> Fiction

BRUNT, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I’m Home. 368p. Dial. 2012. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-679-64419-4. LC 2011027932.
Adult/High School–June Elbus, 14, begins her story in late December 1986, as her mother drives her and her older sister, Greta, to their Uncle Finn’s Manhattan apartment so he can continue painting their portrait. Finn is a famous artist dying of AIDS, and June is in love with him. She treasures their every moment together, especially their trips to The Cloisters. He even understands her favorite thing–walking deep into the woods, slipping on an old Gunne Sax dress and the boots he bought her at a medieval festival, and pretending she lives in the Middle Ages. After Finn dies, June is approached by Finn’s “special friend,” Toby. She never even knew he existed until the funeral, where her mother bitterly referred to him as the man who killed Finn. Now he wants to spend time with June. She is wary but cannot resist learning more about Finn’s life. Her parents are distracted by work and Greta is in rehearsals for the school musical, so June easily keeps their fragile friendship a secret. Much of this accessible, sensitively told, and heartbreaking story revolves around the jealousy inspired by the love between these characters, and the misunderstandings that result. Greta is jealous of June’s time with Finn. Their mother is jealous of Toby’s relationship with her brother. June is jealous of Toby’s relationship with Finn, and hurt that he hid so much from her. Teens will identify with June, her awkwardness and self-doubt, her need for escape, her conflicts with her sister and mother, and her sadness at losing the one adult who truly understood her.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

FORD, Richard. Canada. 432p. HarperCollins. 2012. Tr $26.99. ISBN 978-0-06-169204-8. LC 2012013939.
Adult/High School–Ford’s quietly beautiful novel is structured around two life-changing events for Dell Parsons, the narrator. Although he mentions both in the first sentence, it takes him almost half of the novel to get around to recounting his parents’ robbery of a bank in small-town North Dakota, and most of the rest to describe the double murder he witnessed mere weeks later. Indeed, writing from the perspective of 50 years later, Dell approaches these events not with the drama and shock they seem to deserve but with contemplative dispassion as he attempts to understand how they affected the rest of his life. The question he struggles with most is whether or not criminals like his parents inevitably commit their crimes and can somehow be identified as criminals even before acting. And while Ford is fascinated by this question as well, he simultaneously asks the much deeper question of how a person is affected by obsessing over such a question for 50 years. With its narrator’s dual perspective as teen and old man and its focus on a single dramatic summer, Canada has much in common with Mal Peet’s Life: An Exploded Diagram (Candlewick, 2011) and David E. Hilton’s Kings of Colorado (S & S, 2011). And though Ford’s novel is more contemplative and less immediate than either, teens who enjoyed those novels should find much to love here, especially since it compensates by being by far the most beautifully written of the three, particularly in Ford’s gorgeous descriptions of the barren landscape of the Northern U.S. and Saskatchewan.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

HOWREY, Meg. The Cranes Dance. 373. Vintage. 2012. pap. $14.95. ISBN 978-0-307-94982-0. LC 2012001331.
Adult/High School–Kate Crane moved to New York City as a teenager to join a prestigious ballet company. The following year, her even-more-talented younger sister, Gwen, followed, and they have both moved steadily up the ranks ever since. Kate begins her story on the night she throws out her neck during a performance of Swan Lake. In a tour-de-force introduction to her sense of humor, Kate breaks the fourth wall and addresses her reading audience, narrating the plot of the ballet in spectacular smartass fashion. Unfortunately, that night also begins her descent into Vicodin dependency. She starts using to control the pain, then to make it through performances, and eventually to avoid her feelings. Three weeks earlier, she had called her parents to take Gwen back to Michigan, fearing she would do herself harm. Only days later, Kate’s boyfriend asked her to move out. Now she’s living in Gwen’s apartment, living “with the knowledge of what she had done, what she allowed to happen. All alone.” And despite being cast in role after coveted role, Kate knows that her remaining seasons are numbered. Even her friends cannot convince her to look past her fear. What will she become when the strain on her body is finally too much? Days full of classes and rehearsals followed by evening performances, never eating enough, never getting enough sleep or enough emotional support–it all adds up until Kate seems to be following her sister’s self-destructive path. This novel will appeal particularly to readers interested in any type of high-performance art or athletics. Kate’s voice is one that teens will immediately identify with, as it wavers between hilarious and heart-breaking.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

KOSMATKA, Ted. The Games. 356p. Del Rey. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-345-52661-8. LC 2011042718.
Adult/High School–Kosmatka’s debut novel is a slow-building, technological thriller that revs up like a racecar with a dose of bad attitude and steadily creeping horror. In the future, the Olympic gladiator contest sets the bar for world technological domination. The competition has one rule: no human DNA is allowed in the creation of the gladiators. Evan Chandler, an emotionally barren spatial genius, has designed the Bannin, a computer so advanced that it only operates in VR. Tasked with creating the next U.S. gladiator, the computer’s single directive is that the gladiator “Survive the competition.” The creature is so alien that Silas Williams, the head of biodevelopment, is full of misgivings and completely in the dark about its capabilities. Told through multiple points of view and with a hefty dose of technical genetic jargon, this is speculative fiction at its best, reflecting moral, philosophical, and ethical questions, set in a highly politicized arena. It all comes down to money, sponsorships, and greed, encapsulated in a humanitarian “good for the future” mentality. At its heart, The Games is a cautionary tale of what happens when man oversteps his bounds and takes his chances at playing god. Kosmatka has left the ending wide open for a sequel. Teens who enjoy the karmic boomerang of authors like Michael Crichton or Preston and Child should eat this up.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI

MCKAY, Ami. The Virgin Cure. 336p. HarperCollins/Harper. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-06-1140327. LC 2012015994.
Adult/High School–“The Virgin Cure” refers to a popular myth of the late 1800s in which a man infected with disease could be cured by having intercourse with a virgin. This created a vast market in delivering young girls to wealthy “gentlemen” for deflowering. Escaping the cruelty of the gentlewoman to whom her mother sold her, 12-year-old Moth comes to the attention of Miss Everett, a Madame who specializes in creating young whores who could satisfy a gentleman’s lust for a young conquest. Unable to avoid what she assumes will be her fate, Moth joins Miss Everett’s band of girls. Miss Everett has strong rules and an eye to making money from these girls as she trains them. But Moth has an ally in Dr. Sadie, a doctor who dedicates her life to helping young women who fall prey to establishments of shaky repute. McKay brings 1871 New York’s Chrystie Street alive with all its chaos, smells, hunger, and neglect. Moth is filled with the desire to live a better life than she could reasonably expect. However, when an opportunity presents itself, she discovers that not only can she create her own future, but she also has friends who will help. Dr. Sadie is based on the author’s great-great grandmother, who worked to relieve the plight of women and children. Moth’s story exemplifies the few choices available to young women of poverty and the cruelty placed upon them by those with wealth. This is a terrific choice for teens interested in history; the rights of women; and a determined, feisty character.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

OLMSTEAD, Robert. The Coldest Night. Bk. 3. 287p. (Coal Black Horse Trilogy). Algonquin. 2012. Tr $23.95. ISBN 978-1-61620-043-5. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Seventeen year-old Henry Childs is preceded by generations of courageous men. His great-grandfather, Robey, introduced in Black Horse Coal (2007) fought in the Civil War,  and his grandfather, Napoleon Childs, led a search to capture Pancho Villa in Far Bright Star (2009, both Algonquin). Henry is a solitary boy when Mercy, daughter of a local judge, bursts into his life with a fierce desire to make him her own. To escape her disapproving family, the pair runs off in a doomed effort to create a life together. After Mercy is violently reclaimed by her family, Henry joins the Marines, arriving in Korea just in time to take part in the terrible battle at the Chosin Reservoir. Olmstead writes with a distinct masculine voice, using terse dialogue and little overt emotional affect. Emotional tension, however, burns just beneath the surface. It is his descriptive writing that takes center stage, particularly during Henry’s time in Korea. The bloody fighting, set in the stark winter landscape, creates a searing visceral experience for readers. Teens who appreciate the sparse dialogue and vivid, violent images of Cormac McCarthy’s writing will find this novel compelling. The focus on the Korean War is a big draw for military history buffs as well. This final volume of the trilogy stands entirely on its own, although captivated readers will surely want to go back and pick up the first two books.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

TOYNE, Simon. The Key. Bk. 2. 448p. (Ruin Trilogy). Morrow. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-06-203833-3. LC 2012007666.
Adult/High School–At the end of Sanctus, the Citadel of Ruin survived a bomb attack, the Sacrament was released from its prison, Kathryn Mann and Eve were in the hospital, and Gabriel Mann was in jail. This second book in the trilogy keeps the pace and action of the first and furthers readers’ knowledge of the Prophecy. With the Sacrament gone, the Sancti are dying and the internal rule of the Citadel of Ruin is in shambles and the remaining leadership is struggling to figure out how to assign control. Brother Athanasius hopes to modernize the Citadel, but his plans are derailed first by the emergence of a mysterious disease that destroys the Citadel’s garden and then by a flesh-eating bacteria that attacks those working there. The Vatican is concerned, particularly  Cardinal Clementi, the secretary to the Pope and manager of the Vatican’s bank, because disarray in Ruin could reveal hidden truths (like the Sacrament’s existence). The survivors of the bomb attack must be silenced. There’s a Mirror Prophecy that leads a reunited Gabriel and Liv from Ruin to New Jersey, back to Ruin, and then to Iraq in search of Eden (yes, the Eden of the Old Testament) even as they try to outrun the Vatican’s assassin. There’s also the mysterious Ghost who may or may not be working to help the Americans in their oil exploration and the Vatican in its search for ancient relics. The ending leaves readers wondering what can possibly happen next. The Key will appeal to teen fans of action-adventure and conspiracy books.–Laura Pearle, Venn Consultants, Mt. Carmel, NY

WALKER, Karen Thompson. The Age of Miracles: A Novel. 269p. Random. 2012. Tr $27. ISBN 978-0-8129-9297-7. LC 2011040664.
Adult/High School–Just before Julia’s 12th birthday, scientists announce that the Earth’s rotation is slowing. Bit by bit, the days and nights increase in length. Gravity takes a greater hold on the planet, making it hard to run, or kick a soccer ball. As this is happening, Julia struggles with the betrayal of her best friend, ominous cracks in her parents’ relationship, and Seth Moreno, a gorgeous yet distant boy in her math class. The enormous drama of Earth’s inexplicable behavior intrudes on every aspect of her young life, changing the way Julia and her peers think about their lives and their imaginable future. Like the adults, the sensation of impending doom casts a shadow of reckless abandon over ordinary events. When Julia falls in love, she falls completely. While the plot elements of the novel may seem familiar, particularly in light of the current flood of dystopian literature aimed at the young adult audience, readers will find themselves swept wholeheartedly into Julia’s story. The writing elegantly focuses on the unraveling of life on Earth from the perspective of one girl living in an ordinary, even tedious, cul-de-sac in a California neighborhood. But from this perspective, Walker portrays the horror and pain of an entire civilization facing extinction. Like Shirley Jackson, Walker blends the blandness of the everyday with the encroachment of something very terrible. Teen fans of dystopian literature should go for this one. However, the novel is multi-dimensional enough to appeal to readers of romance and mystery as well.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

WILSON, Daniel. Amped: A Novel. 288p. Doubleday. 2012. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-385-53515-1. LC 2011052318.
Adult/High School–Amped touches on similar themes found in Wilson’s successful novel Robopocalypse, and will appeal to the same audience of teen readers. Advancements in medical technology mean that common conditions and accidents can be compensated for as easily as vaccines prevent disease today. Born in poverty or exhibiting a learning disability? A brain implant–identified by a temporal nub–boosts mental acuity. Damaged limbs are replaced by robotic prostheses. Soon implanted individuals, or “amps,” are outperforming unenhanced humans both intellectually and physically. Senator Joseph Vaughn begins a campaign of prejudice declaring that amps don’t deserve equal rights because they take away jobs from “real” humans. Meanwhile, 29-year-old Owen thought he had a medical implant to control seizures and is shocked to discover that his military-grade version makes him a Zenith, the most powerful soldier ever developed in a secret government program. He travels to small-town Oklahoma in search of answers, just as tensions between amps and humans boil over and rumblings of an insurgent amp uprising begin. Precisely choreographed action scenes bring the danger Owen faces to a pulse-tripping reality. Teens will respond to the socially conscious narrative of an everyman who finds himself at the center of chaos. Wilson’s vision of the consequences of unharnessed technology combined with politics and the desire for power will also resonate with readers. Those intrigued by Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Holt, 2008) will appreciate exploring what it means to be human in the brutal future depicted here.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA

Nonfiction

GRYLLS, Bear. Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography. 416p. index. Morrow. 2012. Tr $26.99. ISBN 9780062124197. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Grylls’s love of nature and adventure to the max comes out full-force in this autobiography. The author is known to many through his television series Man vs. Wild. He grew up in a loving and supportive family with hardy and adventuresome role models, including his great-grandfather who was a British officer in World War I. He details the beginnings of his life in the wild when he and his father, a Royal Marine, went on high adventures together. He spends several chapters talking about surviving the grueling selection process for the British Army’s Special Air Services, which gave him the skills, confidence, and stamina to join an expedition to scale Mount Everest. As one of the youngest ever to accomplish that feat, he enjoyed a certain celebrity that led to commercial deals and, ultimately, his TV show. Grylls writes in a straightforward manner using short sentences and chapters to show his strong, engaging personality. He comes across as a regular person who figured out a long time ago that he was a risk-taker, but not a stupid one. He is all about careful preparation for his adventures. With each episode leading to one more exciting than the last, Grylls’s account will hook adventuresome readers as well as those whose idea of adventure is reading an exciting book.–Vicki Emery, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Fairfax County, VA

LEWIS, Ricki. The Forever Fix. 323p. photos. notes. St. Martin’s. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-312-68190-6. LC 2011038193.
Adult/High School–The history of gene therapy was littered with false steps and shattered hopes that threatened to keep this promising medical technology from becoming “the forever fix” for some of our most vexing genetic medical conditions–until the success in treating the hereditary eye disorder in Corey Haas. In 2008 the eight-year-old was the recipient of gene therapy in one eye that cured him of the disorder, enabled him to see, and obviated the need for additional treatment. It was a much needed success after a series of setbacks. The author explains in detail the science behind gene therapy, some of the problems that needed to be overcome, the heartbreaking failures, and where this medical cutting edge technology is headed. She also talks about the hard work of parents in raising funds and advocating for their children as well as some of the talented doctors and researchers who have worked on gene therapy for many years. Students today already learn about work leading up to it, such as DNA sequencing and genetic testing, which is necessary in identifying specific genes implicated in genetic diseases. This technology was the stuff of science fiction not too many years ago. This carefully researched and readable book will be interesting to teens who hear about these issues in the news or in their biology classes, and especially for those who may want to pursue a career in this field.–Vicki Emery, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Fairfax County, VA

PHELPS, Carissa & Larkin Warren. Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Street, One Helping Hand at a Time…. 296p. Viking. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-670-02372-1. LC 2011038441.
Adult/High School–Phelps was 12 when her mother dropped her off in the lobby of the Fresno, CA, Juvenile Hall and told the man behind the counter that she couldn’t control her daughter. Her memoir touches on complex issues, including covert threats of sexual abuse, what it means to for a child to feel safe and cared for, and a bi-racial Latina identity that was not acknowledged. Like Rachel Lloyd’s Girls Like Us (HarperCollins, 2011) and Jaycee Dugard’s A Stolen Life (S & S, 2011), Runaway Girl demonstrates a great amount of insight and maturity. Crisp writing and perfectly chosen events highlight the story of what happens to the majority of 12 year olds on the street–Phelps was picked up within 48 hours and sexually trafficked. Her book is unique in its details and her focus on both post traumatic stress and self-esteem issues. Her ability to connect with and reach out to strangers along the way–counselors, teachers, and a woman who was, for once, a selfless and caring person helping a child in need–saved her life. Each small yet steadfast act of kindness and encouragement made a difference. By the time the author turned 30, she had both a law degree and an MBA from UCLA. With not a trace of victimhood or unplaced drama, this is a terrific addition to all collections.–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA

TERRY, Kayte. Paper Made!: 101 Exceptional Projects to Make Out of Everyday Paper. 288p. Workman. 2012. pap. $16.95. ISBN 978-0-7611-5997-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This visually appealing book offers 101 projects, with an emphasis on the use of recycled or repurposed scrap paper. Papers include newspaper, books past their prime, paint chips, cardboard, maps, and mail order catalogs. The first two chapters provide clear information on techniques, tools, and materials, including suppliers and blogs for inspiration. The following chapters present projects for home, fashion, wrapping and writing, and parties. Each project has a level of difficulty, from 1 to 5, as well as a list of materials needed. The clear directions are enhanced by photos and drawings. Clever titles and witty text make this a fun book to read and pore over. There is much to appeal to teens, including “Ring Around the Rosy Vase,” which uses rolled strips of magazine pages to cover a vase, “(Not Exactly a) Full Deck Lamp Shade” made of playing cards sewn together, “That’s a Wrap Bangle,” which is one of the easiest projects, a “Signed, Sealed, Delivered Accordion Book,” made of envelopes to create a scrapbook, and “Do Me a Favor Box.” The author is great at creating hip and attractive products. A welcome addition to any collection.–Jane Ritter, Mill Valley School District, CA

Graphic Novels

FETTER-VORM, Jonathan. Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb. illus. by author. 154p. charts. diags. illus. map. bibliog. Hill & Wang. 2012. LC number unavailable.

Adult/High School–Fetter-Vorm, in his debut sequential artwork, combines accessible atomic science with political, military, and science history. Using primary-source material from many of the players in the story of the development and deployment of the atomic bomb that putatively ended World War II, he has fashioned a clear narrative, using images to portray both scientific processes and the array of interpersonal relations among scientists and government officials as the bomb was conceived and then developed. The various personae, including the general in charge of the multi-location effort and the various scientists whose impetus for building the bomb centered more around discovery than weaponry, are distinguishable by face and posture; the words spoken by any of these historic individuals Fetter-Vorm has tried to document as accurate. The increasing tensions of both war and the scientists’ painful ambivalence about the destructive power of the bomb receive evenhanded treatment, making this small volume an excellent introduction to the many nuances of human ingenuity meeting up against military strategic planning. Teens interested in political history, as well as science, will find this insightful. The format evokes quick engagement with a complex piece of history.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

ANGELELLA, J. R. Zombie. 352p. Soho. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1-61695-088-0. LC 2012003803.

Adult/High School–High school freshman Jeremy Barker lives his life according to the rules of survival he’s learned thanks to his obsession with zombie movies: avoid eye contact; keep quiet; forget the past; lock and load; and, most important, fight to survive. Whether dealing with the casual violence inflicted by bullies at his Catholic school, his father’s nightly disappearances, or his estranged mother’s addiction to painkillers, he always [...]]]> Fiction

ANGELELLA, J. R. Zombie. 352p. Soho. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1-61695-088-0. LC 2012003803.

Adult/High School–High school freshman Jeremy Barker lives his life according to the rules of survival he’s learned thanks to his obsession with zombie movies: avoid eye contact; keep quiet; forget the past; lock and load; and, most important, fight to survive. Whether dealing with the casual violence inflicted by bullies at his Catholic school, his father’s nightly disappearances, or his estranged mother’s addiction to painkillers, he always calls on his rules. During one of his father’s absences, Jeremy discovers a bizarre, disturbing video of a man being prepped for a strange ritual that looks a lot like surgery. Knowing about his father’s “work” in Vietnam as a torturer specializing in cutting out prisoners’ tongues, and knowing this video was given to his father by a priest from his school, Jeremy is compelled to investigate. He is drawn into situations in which his zombie survival code helps, but eventually it is not enough. Zombie is a brass-knuckle book, reminiscent in tone to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (Norton, 1996). Jeremy’s relationships with his friends and family are twisted and difficult, making this book disturbingly intriguing. The setting and social situations will resonate with many teens. Zombie is a great choice for readers who are excited by stories with offbeat characters and somewhat nonlinear plots. Jeremy’s list of top the zombie movies of all time, complete with production credits, is an added bonus.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

BARNES, Steven & Tananarive Due. Devil’s Wake. 288p. Atria. 2012. Tr $15. ISBN 978-1-4516-1700-9. LC 2011033779.

Adult/High School–The zombie apocalypse is upon us, once again overwhelming society before anyone can figure out how to fight it. A teenager left alone after the rest of her family is picked off one by one, a group of teens from a juvenile detention camp, and a young national guardswoman are thrown together as they try to outrun the epidemic. Eventually all media goes down except for radio broadcasts by a self-proclaimed preacher who claims to have created a safe haven. As the teens try to reach it, their journey is peppered with zombie attacks and ambushes by pirates–feral people who are just as dangerous as the zombies. Barnes and Due bring a fresh approach to their take on the zombie apocalypse with a few interesting twists. First, the cause is known; people who’ve taken a new diet mushroom and gotten a specific type of flu shot are suddenly turning. Also, the zombies are not all the same. They vary in speed, level of hunger, and, most terrifying, in their ability to seem uninfected. Although this book is clearly laying the groundwork for a series, there is enough content, and the characters are well enough formed, to make this a satisfying story. There are also intriguing hints of what may happen in the upcoming volume. This book will speak to teens: the protagonists are young adults and the catastrophe is seen from their point of view. Diverse characters, often missing in this genre, add to the book’s appeal.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

BOCCACINO, Michael. Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling. 320p. Morrow. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-212261-2. LC number unavailable.

Adult/High School–Charlotte Markham has seen the Black Man all her life: at the death of her mother, the death of her father, and at the fiery death of her husband. So it’s no surprise to her when, in her new role as governess to the Darrow boys, the Black Man is seen at the gory death of the boys’ nanny. Charlotte takes over as nanny and continues the boys’ daily visits to their mother’s grave. One day on their way back home, they wander into a fog and emerge at a strange house, where their mother appears. At first horrified and then curious about this house, called Darkling; its owner, Mr. Whatley; and the world of The Ending, Charlotte agrees to continue to take the boys back to visit. Slowly, events turn more sinister and, in true gothic horror fashion, the boys are used as pawns in an internal The Ending war. There are keys and pictures that lead into other places and worlds, people who look human but clearly aren’t (and some who look nothing like humans), and a room with vials containing human deaths, all of which add to the atmosphere of Something Very Wrong in the House of Darkling. The bedtime stories Mrs. Darrow tells her sons will stick with readers long after the book ends. This is a perfect read for teens who enjoy gothic atmospheres, and a great companion to Bronte’s Wuthering Heights or the works of Victoria Holt and Daphne du Maurier.–Laura Pearle, Venn Consultants, Carmel, NY

FERRARIS, Zoe. Kingdom of Strangers. 368p. Little, Brown. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-316-074247. LC 2011046158.

Adult/High School–In this novel of secrets, Ferraris’s skillful pacing maintains an intense narrative as each character is forced to make life-changing decisions. The rules of decency in Saudi Arabia require extreme caution, and men and women risk public humiliation, torture, and even beheadings should they be found in violation of them. In the throes of a serial-killer investigation, Inspector Ibrahim Zahrani discovers that his lover, an underground activist for immigrant housemaids, has gone missing yet he cannot openly investigate as charges of adultery are a death sentence. He requires a surrogate and enlists Katya, a forensic lab technician, to gather evidence in exchange for including her in the case. Readers will remember Katya and her fiancé, Nayir, from previous books, and it’s when they become involved in the two investigations that the story becomes electric. Kingdom of Strangers is appealing to teens on several levels. There is the horrific discovery of the burial site of 19 murdered women, all with their hands missing, and the seemingly impossible task of bringing anyone to justice. There is the inside look at the investigative process and what it reveals about both the investigators and the suspects as pieces come together for a satisfying conclusion. Most of all teens, will be drawn to the unique constraints that are present in this setting, the depiction of life for women in this culture, and the agonizing choices facing each well-developed character.–Priscille Dando, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

GREY, Juliet. Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow: A Novel of Marie Antoinette. 448p. bibliog. glossary. Ballantine. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-345-52388-4. LC 2012009048.

Adult/High School–The bitterly cold weather in France has caused the river to freeze, stopping the shipment of grain. Without it, there is no bread and thousands of people are starving. The downfall of the French market causes unemployment to rise. Naïve and unable to grasp the reality of their populace, Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI consistently make poor decisions in response to the grave problems facing their nation, giving the people cause to chant for liberty and equality. Marie’s story, begun in Becoming Marie Antoinette (Ballantine, 2011), continues here as she and her new husband ascend to the thrown in 1774, after the death of King Louis XV. As Queen, Marie’s job is to provide an heir, but Louis suffers from a medical condition that makes intercourse painful. Gossip and the extreme dictates of the French Court surround Marie until she feels compelled to always stay one step ahead regardless of the cost. She is kind and good hearted, with an overwhelming need and desire to please others, but her inability to see beyond her own pampered, regulated world sets the stage for her demise. Each action she takes in good faith is observed to be thoughtless, self-serving, and reckless. This book stands on its own, but teens may want to read Marie’s story from the beginning. Readers will shake their heads in disbelief at the excesses of the French Court even as they sympathize with the young royal. They will also fear for her, knowing that the fall of the Bastille spells the imminent collapse of all she has known.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

WILSON, G. Willow. Alif the Unseen. 320p. Grove. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-8021-2020-5.

Adult/High School–Alif is a grey hat, the kind of hacker whose computer-coding exploits and manipulations, while often self-serving, are guided by an ethical dedication to a greater good. Anonymous online except for his screen name, Alif possesses a reputation as a genius at foiling state security and nimbly avoiding the surveillance of its all-powerful chief, known as The Hand. When his girlfriend leaves him for a wealthy new boyfriend, a jealous Alif hacks her computer and installs code that will track her online presence but mask his own from her.  He is unaware that her new boyfriend is none other than The Hand, who learns of Alif’s program and uses it to ferret out and imprison the hackers who threaten the stability of the emirate. The Hand is fiercely determined to find and destroy Alif. With the help of a chador-clad and devout Muslim friend, a formidably frightful djinn, and a wise but weary imam, Alif avoids his enemy. His narrow escapes are a sometimes manic romp through the contemporary, historical, and mythical Islamic world as he tries to solve the puzzle of an ancient mystical text he is sure will either save or destroy humanity. What he learns is that the answer to the puzzle lies in his clueless heart. In her first narrative novel, graphic novelist Wilson displays the world-building imagination of William Gibson and the creative whimsy of Neil Gaiman in a setting that evokes the Arab Spring. Teen readers will be captivated by this unique and rich novel.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY

Nonfiction

*  IVERSEN, Kristen. Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats. 432p. Crown. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-95563-0. LC 2011045902.

Adult/High School–National security has always trumped transparency, but Iversen’s well-researched, firsthand account of the effects of growing up a few miles from Rocky Flats near Denver is a bombshell. The author’s parents chose the subdivision of Bridledale as the perfect place to raise their family as did many others in the rapidly growing Denver suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s. Most had no idea that plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs were being made just a few miles away. They preferred to believe that the plant was making household cleaners. Besides, the plant was a source of many high-paying jobs for the area. How could it be bad? As Iversen grew up, her family became more and more dysfunctional, which she weaves in, out, and around her discoveries of what was really going on at Rocky Flats. Think Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle (Scribner, 2005) with massive nuclear contamination and government secrecy. Ultimately, Rocky Flats was closed but the land is so contaminated that parts of it will remain unusable forever. Following in the tradition of Rachel Carson in her Silent Spring (Houghton, 1962), Iversen has bravely shown us things that we cannot ignore. Teens interested in environmental causes will be amazed at the enormity of this issue and its implications for the future.–Vicki Emery, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Fairfax County, VA

KEAN, Sam. The Violinist’s Thumb: An Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code. 416p. Little, Brown. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-316-18231-7. LC 2012007029.

Adult/High School–Kean begins this fascinating, witty, informative book with a disclaimer: “This is a book a about DNA… and yes, I’m writing this book despite the fact that my father’s name is Gene. As is my mother’s name. Gene and Jean.” But genes have never been more fascinating than here, where the author gives the basics of genetic theory but spends most of the time telling stories. Readers learn about geneticists, from Gregor Mendel and Barbara McClintock to the “fly boys” who named fruit-fly genes for their characteristics, including names like groucho, smurf, tribble, armadillo, and ken and barbie (mutants with no genitalia). Readers also learn why not to eat polar-bear liver, how DNA permanently changed our view of Neanderthals, all about the Russian scientist who was convinced that he could breed chimps with humans and create humanzees, and why crazy cat ladies may in fact be hooked on a parasite that creates dopamine. Kean looks at “retrodiagnoses” from what caused the violinist Paganini’s super-flexible fingers, the artist Toulouse-Lautrec’s short stature, and John F. Kennedy’s tanned skin to the connection between porphyria and the Dracula legend. Any teen who has had basic biology will know enough science to follow Kean, and even those who still struggle with understanding DNA will find the stories worthwhile.–Sarah Flowers, formerly at Santa Clara County Library, CA

Graphic Novels

LEMIRE, Jeff. The Underwater Welder. 224p. Top  Shelf Productions. 2012. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-60309-074-2. LC number unavailable.

Adult/High School–Lemire offers a tightly knit story with few, but deeply realized, characters. Jack, a father-to-be who lives in a Nova Scotian coastal village, becomes haunted by visions and memories of his own father, a drunken treasure hunter who drowned trying to recover a watch when Jack was 10.  His dedicated but anxious wife and his mother stand at the forefront. Shading and perspective are telling throughout, and many panels–even pages–neither have nor need additional words to express the adult Jack’s growing obsession and the boy Jack’s hopes turned to disappointment in the face of his father’s broken promises. Scenes are sketched loosely but evocatively so that readers grow familiar with Jack’s underwater experiences, his wife’s efforts to get their small cottage prepared for the baby’s arrival, his mother’s simple but tidy home, his father’s junk shop, the local bar, and the shoreline. Although Jack is in his early 30’s, his need to cope with both his past and his present will resonate with teens who are beginning to understand how imperfect families can both haunt them and be hurdles that can be bested.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

SKELLY, Katie. Nurse  Nurse. unpaged. Sparkplug. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-9854150-0-6.

Adult/High School–In a future in which humans have inhabited other planets in the solar system, a nurse named Gemma finds herself bouncing around the galaxy where she is charged with caring for human colonizers suffering from contagious diseases, environmental ills, and injuries from battle. However, her story isn’t hardcore adventure or suspense, but rather a funny, sweet, and sly ramble expressively regaled in heavily inked black cartoon sketches and dialogue suited to a television sitcom. For example, contagious disease is the result of a freak butterfly experiment, while the battle injury suffered by a pirate leads him to kidnap Gemma because he needs extra help replacing his bionic leg. There are nasty girlfriends, households run by robots, and Gemma’s omnipresent, fresh-faced ingénue attitude. The story is paced just right for its wackiness and the story-within-a-story; the TV show “Nurse Nurse” adds one more layer of good-natured humor. A fun read that may inspire teens to try their own storytelling efforts on a book-length sequential art narrative.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

*  ZETTWOCH, D. Birdseye Bristoe. illus. by author. 64p. charts. diags. illus. maps. Drawn & Quarterly. 2012. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-77046-066-9. LC 2012452076.

Adult/High School–With surprising lyricism for a visual story about commercial corruption in a rural American community, Zettwoch immediately pulls readers into a richly plotted and subplotted story that features intriguing and mostly sympathetic characters and a fully detailed catalog of how a variety of mechanical structures actually work. The elderly fellow who gives his name to the book’s title is ostensibly just a live-bait farmer, circa 1998, hosting a summer vacation visit from his great grandniece and -nephew. Through the two teens’ eyes, readers move from observing the sublimely inventive homemade fixtures and appliances of the family homestead to the decidedly ominous meetings held to announce that a cell-phone tower project is in the works. Zettwoch, who has a proven talent for drawing detailed and accessible cartoons showing how various mechanical and natural structures work integrally, combines a rousing good tale of political shenanigans with provocative insights on what makes–and breaks–a community when the local porn shop (for truckers passing through on the highway, of course) is literally overshadowed by greedy outsiders. Far from being heavy-handed, this fully packed visual and narrative experience offers fresh air and a sardonic eye twinkle on its way to implosion. Zettwoch’s pages are packed with loopy black-ink cartoons on a yellowed newsprintlike ground, pencil-colored to highlight ice-cream soda mustaches, a light-bulb joke, and the settings of scenes depicted against floorboards or grass-mowing patterns.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

D’AGOSTINO, Kris. The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac. 336p. Algonquin. 2012. pap. $13.95. ISBN 978-1-56512-951-1. LC 2011038421. Adult/High School–It’s 2006, and 24-year-old underachiever Calvin Moretti is up to his eyeballs in student-loan debt. His film degree hasn’t helped him to land a lucrative dream job, so he’s back under his parents’ roof. And despite the fact that he counts the minutes to the end of his workday as an assistant teacher at a special-needs preschool, his misguided (but hot) supervisor thinks [...]]]> Fiction

D’AGOSTINO, Kris. The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac. 336p. Algonquin. 2012. pap. $13.95. ISBN 978-1-56512-951-1. LC 2011038421.
Adult/High School–It’s 2006, and 24-year-old underachiever Calvin Moretti is up to his eyeballs in student-loan debt. His film degree hasn’t helped him to land a lucrative dream job, so he’s back under his parents’ roof. And despite the fact that he counts the minutes to the end of his workday as an assistant teacher at a special-needs preschool, his misguided (but hot) supervisor thinks he should consider teaching as a career. Life is uncomfortable in the Moretti household, with a family dynamic reminiscent of the dysfunctional, unintentionally comic Hoovers of Little Miss Sunshine. Cal is putting money aside so he can move out, but only after he budgets for collectible record albums and pot. Dad, a grounded pilot, suffers from myeloma. Despite the fact that doctors say it’s curable, he spends his days wallowing in his bathrobe, toting a concealed pistol. Mom worries about losing the house. Older brother Chip, an insufferable Ivy League graduate, has been keeping the family afloat, a fact he won’t let anyone forget. And Cal’s rebellious sister Elissa, still in high school, confides she’s pregnant and intends to keep the baby. Told in the first person, The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac is sharply funny and full of spot-on observations about what it means to be a responsible adult. Older teens will sympathize with Cal’s struggles as much as they’ll want to throttle him for his self-centered, slacker tendencies. First-time author D’Agostino has an ear for dialogue and the not-too-distant memory of what it’s like to be a conflicted, unmotivated young man.–Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

DE ROBERTIS, Carolina. Perla. 236p. Knopf. 2012. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-307-59959-9. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–As the daughter of a Navy officer in late 1970’s Argentina, Perla lives in a rarified and protected world unaware that hundreds of men and women are being taken from their homes, tortured and brutally killed by the government. Then, when she is six-years-old, a new friend introduces her to these “desaparecidos”–the “disappeared”–and their mothers and grandmothers who march every day in the square demanding their return. This is a forbidden topic in Perla’s home, and while she cannot understand the easy answers her mother gives her for the disappearances, she somehow knows not to tell anyone that her father is in the military. In alternating chapters, Perla tells her story as a fourth-year college student in Buenos Aires, and the day she opens the door to her house to find a man in her living room. He is wet, naked, and crouching on her floor. He sparks the journey of discovery that drives Perla, caught between the family she has known all her life and the secret that lies behind her secure and privileged life, to search for the truth that she suspects. Unable to speak, the visitor remembers that he was taken, tortured, and dropped into the ocean. What saves him are the memories of his wife, his baby, and his desire to understand what it is that brings him to this living room to talk with this young woman. De Robertis holds back none of the torture, passion, pain, and desperate love that families face during violent times. While some scenes of brutality may be hard to read, many mature teens will find this book uniquely satisfying. Its textured prose is pure poetry.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

FOUNTAIN, Ben. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. 320p. Ecco. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-06-088559-5. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Nineteen-year-old Billy Lynn is the hero of Bravo Company, whose actions during an ambush in the Iraq war were captured on video and broadcast endlessly on Fox News. Recognizing an opportunity to galvanize support for the war, the Army evacuates the eight surviving soldiers to America for a hero’s tour of the heartland. Billy earned a Silver Star, but in spite of his valor, he lost his best buddy, Shroom. He is struggling with grief and survivor’s guilt as the tour culminates at the Dallas Cowboy’s Thanksgiving Day football game. The novel unfolds across that one eventful game day, as Bravo Company mingles with Texas millionaires, pursues a movie deal, tours the team facilities, tries to convince Cowboy players that football is not battle, shares the halftime show with Beyoncé, and brawls with stagehands. As if that is not surreal enough, Billy sparks a heartfelt romance with a Cowboy’s cheerleader. The soldiers are fully aware that they are props for the projected patriotism of everyone they meet. No one acknowledges their trauma, nor is anyone aware they will return to Iraq at the end of the game. The cynicism of the soldiers, their wicked humor and hefty appetites for anything that will numb their experience make for a searing satire of the puffery that surrounded American patriotism after 9/11. Teens, especially boys with an appreciation for football or soldiering, will be amused by the spot-on buddy banter among the Bravos and will find the novel engaging and entertaining.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY

GREENWOOD, T. Grace. 352p. Kensington. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-7582-5092-6.
Adult/High School–Why is Kurt taking his 13-year-old son, Trevor, through the deep Vermont snow at midnight with a rifle at his back? These opening pages envelop readers in a deep sense of foreboding that never lets up. From there the story backtracks as Kurt’s family begins to unravel. Trevor is relentlessly bullied and his isolation, rage, and self-hatred are palpable. The two things that make him happy are his younger sister Grace and his aging art teacher who introduces him to the world of photography. Kurt senses that his young wife, Elsbeth, is feeling trapped and that “she was teetering at some terrible precipice.” Kurt is under tremendous financial stress; he’s dealing with his unpleasant father, and he doesn’t understand Trevor. Along with this family struggling with lack of communication and tension, there is a parallel story involving Crystal, a high school senior whose life is spiraling out of control after giving her baby up for adoption. Elsbeth and Grace often shop where Crystal works and their lives become intertwined with devastating consequences. The story is perhaps wrapped up a bit too neatly, but teens will appreciate this tautly written novel with strong characters and emotional depth. Unremittingly painful, it’s hard to put down.–Jane Ritter, Mill Valley School District, CA

MARKOVITS, Anouk. I Am Forbidden: A Novel. 320p. Hogarth. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-98473-9. LC 2011041305.
Adult/High School–Five year-old Josef becomes Anghel, “son” of the Catholic maid who saves his life after his family is murdered before his eyes. Years later, young Mila watches as her parents are shot, running for the train that carries their rabbi through the Hungarian countryside, away from the atrocities of the Nazis. Why didn’t the holy man save them? But Anghel saves Mila, setting into motion a chain of events that binds them over time and distance. I Am Forbidden is a beautifully written, suspenseful novel whose young characters’ dilemmas will capture the imagination of teen readers as it offers a glimpse of life within the insular Satmar Hasidic sect. Orphaned Mila seeks out family friend Zalman Stern, who raises her alongside his own daughters. She tells him of Anghel, the Jewish farm boy, whom he then “rescues” and sends to Brooklyn to study Talmud. The Sterns transport their family to Paris when Zalman accepts a position as a cantor. Mila and her now-sister Atara attend school with completely different outcomes. Atara craves intellectual challenges, while Mila unquestioningly absorbs the teachings of her faith. Her beloved Atara chooses a path that severs all ties to their staunchly observant family. Josef has never forgotten Mila; he has dreamed of the day she would be his bride. Their destined union is marred by infertility. Knowing that after 10 years a Satmar man must divorce a barren wife, a desperate Mila commits a shocking, life-altering sin, turning her marriage to dust. Markovits’s masterful storytelling elevates this riveting saga of love, loss, and the limits of faith.–Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

MIGNOLA, Mike & Christopher Golden. Joe Golem and the Drowning City: An Illustrated Novel. 288p. St. Martin’s. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-312-64473-4. LC 2012013269.
Adult/High School–Molly McHugh is a jaded, yet still good-hearted girl, living on the fringes of society with a strange old man called Orlov the Conjurer in a steampunkish alternate reality. A cataclysm in 1925 caused lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to flood and, ever since, resilient New Yorkers have adjusted, living on the top floors of mostly underwater buildings and getting around by boat and rope bridges. Felix Orvlov is not what he seems, but he is the closest thing Molly has to family and his kidnapping by the sinister Dr. Cocteau spurs her into a desperate search to rescue him. She  joins forces with a mysterious man named Mr. Church and his overlarge friend Joe, searching not only for Felix but also for a mysterious artifact called the Pentajulum, which holds the possibility of opening paths to other worlds. She faces many trials in her quest, but the more Molly learns, the more she realizes she doesn’t really know anything, and that most people are not what they seem–Mr. Church is more machine than man and Joe is literally made from stone and earth–and nothing is sure, not even the sanctity of death. Highly descriptive writing and grotesque imagery help to place readers in this truly fantastic setting with hints of elder gods and worlds beyond worlds. Enhanced by multiple points of view and deeply philosophical in its underpinnings, the lavish illustrations add immediacy to Molly’s world. Both teens who like their fantastic sprinkled with a little Lovecraft and steampunk and those who are interested in a wider view of the world should enjoy this.–Charlie Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI

PERCER, Elizabeth. An Uncommon Education. 352p. Harper. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0062110961.
Adult/High School–From the time she was a child, Naomi Feinstein wanted to save those she loved: her father with his failing heart, her mother with her debilitating depression, and her only friend with his smothering mother. She is brilliant and determined to be a cardiologist. As she grows through adolescence, however, she becomes aware that loss is an integral part of life and love, something that she can neither prevent nor control. When she fulfills her dream to attend Wellesley College, she begins to discover the depths of her helplessness in saving others from their destiny. When a twist of fate provides entry into Wellesley’s oddly engaging Shakespeare Society, the hidden truths that have shaped her life begin to reveal themselves as secrets, lies, and well-intentioned deceptions meant to protect her from pain and sadness. As a member of a group misfit and eccentric thespians, she begins to shed her nearly debilitating sense of isolation and self-consciousness.  Events of her youth that seemed critically important to her identity become simply a part of her journey to self-discovery. This sad, accessible tale will appeal to patient and introspective teens comfortable with a sometimes meandering narrative, and those looking for insight into the unique and often highly competitive life on an upper-tier college campus.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY

PERINOT, Sophie. The Sister Queens. 498p. notes. New American. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-451-23570-1. LC 2011044576.
Adult/High School–Kings, knights, the Crusades, and all the pageantry of 13^th-century Europe come to life in this story of two beautiful young women born into one wealthy and powerful family, destined to be royal brides. Marguerite, 13, is sent to wed Louis IX, King of France. She is the older sister but less bold and confident than 12-year-old Eleanor. When Marguerite meets her husband on their wedding day she is charmed by his incredible good looks and kind, gentle manner. She anticipates a love match, but looks are deceiving. His attention is directed solely to God. He is greatly influenced by his mother, “the dragon”; rarely gives Marguerite his attention; and scarcely graces her bed. Not long after, Eleanor is wed to King Henry III of England. She anticipates a loveless marriage for he is old and not at all handsome. But she, too, is deceived and discovers that he is attentive and loving. The women tell their story through alternating narratives and letters to each other. As their story progresses, the kings prove to be none other than what history records: Henry is a poor king and Louis is pious in the extreme. While Marguerite finds passionate love in the arms of another, Eleanor endeavors to help her husband rule his country. Both struggle to survive at a time when women faced multiple births, arduous journeys following their men across continents, war, and little control over their own lives. But these two women discover that influence lies in their sisterhood and in their proximity to royal power; they can affect history. Romance and history loving teens will find this a satisfying read.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

RASH, Ron. The Cove: A Novel. 272p. Ecco. 2012. pap. $26.99. ISBN 978-0-06-180419-9. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–The cove is tucked deep in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, a place where even the sun is reluctant to venture. But it’s all that’s left to Hank and his sister, Laurel. He has returned from fighting in World War I missing one hand, but determined to make a decent farm from their scrappy land. Laurel, however, is restless to experience more of the world. Superstition in the nearest town, Mars Hill, has it that her deep-blue birthmark labels her a witch, which brings even deeper loneliness to the young woman. Magically, a young man is found in the woods, a musician named Walter who cannot speak but plays enchanting music on his flute. The suspense ratchets up as Laurel falls in love with the stranger. Readers know that he has a secret past, and yet it’s impossible not to root for her and her innocent hopes for love. Rash uses language as untamed and beautiful as the land itself. Laurel imagines that her feelings for Walter were, “…nothing more than a figment her loneliness had fleshed out from a cross of wood and tattered cloth.” Like a thunderstorm ever darkening the horizon, heartache and violence seem sure to come. As in Serena (Ecco, 2008), Rash casts an ominous yet mesmerizing spell over his audience. Teens who cannot get enough of Cormac McCarthy’s atmospheric novels, or love Charles Frazier’s adventures set in the mountains of North Carolina, will be sure to add Ron Rash to their list of favorite authors.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

ROGERS, Jane. The Testament of Jessie Lamb. 256p. HarperPerennial. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-213080-9. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This thought-provoking dystopian novel is narrated by 16 year-old Jessie Lamb, who lives in Manchester, England with her Mum and Dad in a near-future plagued by Maternal Death Syndrome (MDS). Less than a year earlier, someone (still unknown) released a deadly virus that infects only pregnant women. It attacks the brain; within weeks or even days of being infected, they die. The virus quickly spread around the world, and now there are no more live births. Teenagers and college kids are trying prevent humanity from descending into hopelessness. Jessie helps to form an environmentalist activist group, but leaves when she comes upon a better solution, inspired by her father’s work in a lab at the center of raging reproductive rights protests. Because MDS attacks the mother and not the baby, scientists propose vaccinating frozen embryos stored in medical labs against MDS and then implanting them into surrogate mothers–mothers who would be placed in an induced coma so their babies would survive even after they themselves suffered brain death. That is the background to the present. Now, Jessie is tied up and locked in an empty bedroom in her deceased grandmother’s house, imprisoned by someone trying to keep her from taking the radical action she knows will save the world. The novel is a letter from Jessie meant to give context to her choice, a choice her parents and boyfriend find horrific, a choice she believes to be her purpose in life. Her story is suspenseful, even if its telling is didactic at times. Jessie’s youthful passion and courage make it work.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

THORNE, Melanie. Hand Me Down. 320p. Dutton. 2012. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-525-95268-8. LC 2011022362.
Adult/High School–Liz, 14, and her younger sister Jaime live with their mom and her boyfriend, who just got out of prison for a sex offense. Living with him is creepy; he is far from rehabilitated. When finally it becomes clear that he cannot live with young girls due to his parole conditions, their mother chooses him. Liz moves from couch to couch until she finally lands in Utah at her aunt’s house, which is a welcome respite. Although her aunt loves her, Liz doesn’t quite trust her, especially when her aunt’s boyfriend is in town. And Liz feels tremendously guilty that she is living apart from Jaime and can no longer protect her as she is used to doing. Jaime is living with their father, an alcoholic who has a history of domestic violence and putting their lives in danger. Liz has a great deal of insight into her life and her issues, and much of the book is her internal exploration, most profoundly about choices. While it appears that she is at the mercy of her situation, she actually has a lot of options. How she comes to terms with her choices and their impact on her relationships makes for a satisfying read in spite of little action or major drama to compel the plot forward. A slow pace and a teen beyond her years in terms of insight and awareness make the story comparable to soft reads about difficult subjects, such as Janet Fitch’s White Oleander (Little, Brown, 2001).–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, CA

WRIGHT, Tom. What Dies in Summer. 288p. Norton. 2012. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-393-06402-5. LC 2012008463.
Adult/High School–Early one morning, Jim “Biscuit” Bonham’s sixth sense alerts him to a presence on his grandmother’s porch. There he finds his cousin L.A., shivering and nearly catatonic. Clearly she has run away from home, but she refuses to share her reasons. She moves in that very day, eventually finding her voice again, though she’s never quite the same. Jim has been staying with his grandmother ever since living in the same house with his stepfather became intolerable. Jack is an amateur fighter and enjoys practicing on Jim. The novel encompasses one summer when Jim and L.A. are in their early teens, a summer during which teenage girls are found raped and murdered in their suburban Dallas neighborhood, and Jim starts dreaming of a dead girl standing by his bed at night, trying to tell him something. Meanwhile, Jim is in love with beautiful Diana, daughter of the local police chief and L.A.’s best friend. Jim’s best friend, Dee Campion, is “a gentle boy,” an artist misunderstood by his father, headed for tragedy of a different kind. From the outside, their lives appear simple and sweet. But Jim is haunted by his inability to protect those he loves from the evil that walks among the ordinary, which he likens to “having a tiger in your bathtub without knowing it.” Foreboding is intense throughout the novel while, at the same time, Jim’s youthful, innocent voice guides readers through its events. Wright combines horror, crime, mystery, and coming of age with elements of the supernatural and child abuse issues.  Teens with a love for dark stories will be intrigued.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

Nonfiction

COLEMAN, Jeffrey Lamar, ed. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights. 358p. Duke Univ.. 2012. Tr $89.95. ISBN 978-0-8223-5092-7; pap. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-8223-5103-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. Chapters present poems that speak of the lynching of Emmett Till, the murders of famous leaders, and the children killed in 1963 in Birmingham at church. Audre Lord’s 1964 poem, “Suffer the Children,” brings back that terrible day. “We who love them remember their child’s laughter/ But he whose hate robs him of their gold/ has yet to weep at night about their graves.” Outstanding poems are included about the integration of the Little Rock schools, the Black Panther Party, and the race riots in the late 1960s. Julius Lester expresses one sad theme in “Revolutionary Mandate 1.” “These are not the times to take your friends for granted–to assume/that they will always be there. They may not be./And if you wait until the next time to tell them that they are very/ special to you/ You may wait until/someone calls you and says that/so and so’s body was found/ beneath the bricks/of a dynamited building.”–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library

GOODAVAGE, Maria. Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America’s Canine Heroes. 293p. photos. Dutton. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-525-95278-7. LC 2011049674.
Adult/High School–In short, chatty chapters, a dog lover and writer embeds readers in the world of the military dog. Goodavage shares the most common job of the dogs (sniffing out explosives) and the best type of dog for it. (Would your pet make a good soldier? Probably not.) The book is divided into four parts : an introductory overview, details about the training, details of scientific background, and, finally, some episodes with actual soldiers and dogs. Along the way, Goodavage does a good job building the case that the dogs are happy, useful parts of the military unit, which makes these stories of the bond between the trainer and dog, especially in combat, even more touching. Certainly some of the stories are sad, but the cumulative effect is a recognition of these dogs as willing heroes, just like their humans. Most readers will find their preconceptions about military working dogs challenged. Even the cover photo holds a surprise – what looks like a wacky photo of a dog in paratrooper glasses is an actual working dog wearing protective goggles due to a war injury. Several colorful photos show the actual dogs and soldiers depicted in the book. As the book draws to a close, Goodavage shares some of the political movements related to the dogs, such as having them classified as more than equipment, as they are now. Teens will enjoy learning about these brave soldiers.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

MCGILL, Jerry. Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me. 192p. photos. Spiegel & Grau. 2012. Tr $22. ISBN 978-0-8129-9307-3. LC 2011031251.
Adult/High School–Jerome, 13, was walking home late on New Year’s Eve, when he was shot in the back. What happened to him after that unfolds in letters to his assailant, who was never found–or even looked for. Jerome was an inner city black boy being raised by his mother, but his life was far from stereotypical. These letters take readers on an unforgettable and intriguing journey as Jerome came to terms with his paralysis and his life. Themes of violence, hope, despair, forgiveness, anger, and living with a disability are explored both lightly and deeply, humorously and profoundly, and always honestly through stories about his relationships with family, friends, nurses, and others that crossed his path, all in a conversation and relationship with the person who shot him. The complexity of issues is presented with stunning and distilled simplicity. This is a literary page-turner that explores the reverberations of an action and a moment, the ways in which perpetrators and victims are connected. Letters alternate with short movie-script chapters and themed photographs of the profile or shadow of a young black boy, pavement, or chain link fences. From the packaging, to the insights, to the defiance and challenge of all assumptions, to the writing, this is a book that sophisticated teens will love.–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA

Graphic Novels

EL SHAFEE, Magdy. Metro: A Story of Cairo. tr. from Arabic by Chip Rossetti. illus. by author. 112p. Metropolitan. 2012. pap. $20. ISBN 978-0-8050-9488-6. LC 2012007732.
Adult/High School–El Shafee, who has other sequential art publishing to his credit, shows his experience with the idioms of the format and offers his front-row observations of the decay of Egyptian society under the weight of political and capitalist corruption. Using Cairo’s subway system as the visual and setting frame for the activities of the plot, he tells a hardboiled story that illustrates the facts: angry young Shehab devises a plan for ripping off millions and evading detection, taking his pal Mustapha into confidence and talking the more-careful man into going along with the scheme. While the details involved in this plot are complex without being complicated or difficult to follow, it is the rich visual and dialogue-carried exposé of the politics and dangers of daily life in contemporary Cairo that mold this book into a unique, insightful, and truly dangerous story; it was banned when first published in Egypt in 2008. The careful translation includes information about such cultural references as ring tones from characters’ cell phones, while the text flows in uninhibited and literary English. El Shafee’s images vary from widely variegated shadings to faint pencil sketches (showing a blind man’s view) and black-and-white silhouettes. An excellent piece of literature, art, and culturally cogent reporting from within a society usually seen here only through foreign journalists’ perceptions.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

KICK, Russ, ed. The Graphic Canon. vol. 1. 501p. bibliog. index. notes. Seven Stories. 2012. Tr $34.95. ISBN 978-1-60980-376-6. LC 2012000276.
Adult/High School–This admirable and inclusive project’s first volume offers a plethora of literary milestones as envisioned by such luminary cartoonists as Will Eisner, Seymour Chwast, R. Crumb, Roberta Gregory, Rick Geary, Peter Kuper, and even the younger Schrag sister, Valerie. In an attempt to be culturally inclusive, this “canon” goes beyond the Western (Iliad and Odyssey, Le morte d’Arthur, Shakespearean Sonnets, etc., which are all well represented) to Native America (both North and South), Japan, China, and Tibet, to such religious writers as Hildegard of Bingen and the Book of Esther, and those in classical philosophy such as Plato and Lucretius. Each piece, however translated and/or abridged in text, includes specific source notes. Art styles vary from black-and-white cartoons by masters of the style to beautifully full-colored engravinglike pages. This is a masterpiece of literary choices as well as art and interpretation. It is a perfect graduation or summer-reading present, and the solid editing, including introductory notes for each piece, makes it a required purchase for any library.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

CHUNG, Catherine. Forgotten Country. 304p. Riverhead. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-1-59448-808-5. LC 2011047577. Adult/High School– Like Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (Putnam, 1989) and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (Houghton, 2003), Chung’s graceful debut novel portrays immigrant family life in modern times. Tied to the traditions of Korea, Jamie’s parents expect the world of her, and more. Her younger sister, Hannah, feels many of the same pressures, but doesn’t have the coping mechanism to deal with them. When [...]]]> Fiction

CHUNG, Catherine. Forgotten Country. 304p. Riverhead. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-1-59448-808-5. LC 2011047577.
Adult/High School– Like Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (Putnam, 1989) and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (Houghton, 2003), Chung’s graceful debut novel portrays immigrant family life in modern times. Tied to the traditions of Korea, Jamie’s parents expect the world of her, and more. Her younger sister, Hannah, feels many of the same pressures, but doesn’t have the coping mechanism to deal with them. When Hannah packs up and leaves one day, leaving no note, Jamie is expected to find her and bring her back. Chung weaves haunting stories from the family’s past, of sisters from each generation who go missing, and of survival during war, with promises for the future in Jamie’s schooling and the heartbreak of illness. Jamie’s desire to be everything her parents wish her to be while longing for a path of her own will resonate with teens as will Hannah’s departure. The Forgotten Country showcases a family whose members struggle to stay together while finding their individual identity. This lyrical tale filled with heartbreak and forgiveness illustrates the bonds that hold a family together.–Sara Campbell,Rowan Public Library, Salisbury, NC

DAU, Stephen. The Book of Jonas. 272p. Blue Rider. 2012. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0399158452. LC 2011047494.
Adult/High School–The most banal of circumstances spared 15-year-old Younis from being annihilated with the rest of his family during an attack on his village by American troops tracking terrorists. Severely wounded, he escapes to a cave in the mountains where he is cared for by an American soldier who deserted during the fight. He survives and is relocated to the U.S. by a relief organization. He changes his name to Jonas and pursues a college education. During counseling sessions to help with Post-Traumatic Stress issues, he struggles with survivor’s guilt, excessive alcohol use, and the repressed memories of his time in the cave with the American soldier. Slowly, he pieces together recollections that add to the horror of his survival. First-time author Dau creates a disturbing portrayal of war as it destroys ideals and innocence and makes victims of civilians and soldiers alike. The novel is composed in a way that’s similar to how a painter creates with watercolors: with delicate, barely substantive layers that blend together to reveal depth, nuance, and meaning. Jonas is an orphan and an outcast longing for home and love, but he is also Muslim, yearning to avenge the loss of his family. That teen readers will be drawn to him even as they are repulsed by his choices is one of the ways Dau demonstrates the tragic paradoxes of war in this brilliant and deceptively simple novel that will provide ample discussion for high school classes studying Middle East conflicts.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY

DERMONT, Amber. The Starboard Sea. 320p. St. Martin‘s. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-312-64280-8. LC 2011041100.
Adult/High School–On the day he turns 18, Jason Prosper leaves Upper East Side Manhattan and heads north to Bellingham Academy, a last-chance boarding school for kids expelled from better institutions, caught by the “safety net of parents’ wealth.” That first afternoon he spies what looks like a cormorant wading several yards out to sea, only to realize that it’s a girl about to do herself harm. Aidan only laughs when he plunges in to save her, easily walking to shore. Jason is entranced by this strange creature with a troubled past of her own. Their budding relationship helps him begin to heal from the loss of Cal, his best friend, roommate, and sailing partner. One year earlier, when their relationship moved beyond friendship, Jason’s betrayal precipitated Cal’s suicide, and Jason likens his loss to losing a limb. Now he kicks around with a group of disaffected, immature fellow seniors, Race, Kriffo, and Tazewell. The 1987 stock market crash places the novel in historical context, as does the faculty’s cavalier attitude toward student discipline, particularly the ubiquitous hazing. Otherwise, today’s young adults will recognize the ever-shifting tensions and alliances among teen boys, the agony of losing a friendship, the shame of disappointing a parent, and the exhilaration of being young and talented. Jason is a champion sailor and his descriptions of sailing are exquisite. After the arrival of a hurricane coincides with a student death, he focuses on solving what he comes to believe was a murder by fellow students. Aidan and Jason’s relationship brings to mind Alaska and Miles’s relationship in John Green’s Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), and this more contemplative novel shares a similar central suspense and tension.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

EMMONS, Sherri Wood. The Sometimes Daughter. 320p. Kensington. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-7582-5325-5. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Her mother named her “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes,” because Crosby, Stills & Nash were playing it when Judy was born in a tent at Woodstock. This unorthodox beginning heralded a childhood several steps removed from ordinary. Cassie filled her daughter’s life with the exuberance of a free spirit. Young Judy cherishes the memories of her mother’s bright skirts swirling as she dances; the fragrance of fresh herbs mingling with marijuana and incense filling their apartment; and the big-hearted adults happy to sit and play with her. When Cassie whisks Judy to a communal farm, however, her father comes to take her back home, much to her relief. Now she thrives in a stable life of school, birthday parties, and family dinners. Cassie remains distant, on her own adventures, making occasional, chaotic contact with Judy. Finally, after she has moved to California and borne another child, Judy realizes that her intense feelings towards her mother are composed of both love and fury. What kind of mother leaves her child as Cassie did? Teen readers may find themselves identifying alternately with Cassie, the eternal adolescent, and Judy, a young girl who struggles to maintain the normalcy of a home life. As Cassie tries on some of her generation’s most foolish, idealistic guises (doped-up free love hippie, farm-commune free-love practitioner, member of Jim Jones’s The Peoples Temple,) Judy longs for Cassie to return and simply be her mother. Teens who appreciated Lauren Myracle’s Bliss (Amulet, 2008) or autobiographies by Augusten Burroughs and Jeannette Walls of dysfunctional family survivors should also enjoy this novel.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

HAIMOFF, Michelle. These Days Are Ours. 304p. Grand Central. 2012. pap. $13.99. ISBN 978-1-4555-0029-1. LC 2011012929.
Adult/High School–Haimoff’s assured debut is a melancholy paean to New York City before 9/11 and as it was in the immediate aftermath, when even New Yorkers looked up and around and at one another. Hailey, a 23-year-old unhappy child of divorce and immense privilege, narrates this slightly episodic tale of fear and loss as she job hunts, bar hops, and spends time with friends (the dialogue is pitch perfect). The focus here is not the loss of lives on 9/11 but on the loss of purpose and safety that day precipitated, enhanced by the simple truth that even without it, being 20-something, unemployed, and caught between childhood and adulthood is a pretty miserable set of circumstances. Hailey has focused her energy on Brenner, perfect Princeton grad (actually a douchebag), with whom she fantasizes a future of married security. But even as she longs for Brenner, she falls for Adrian, a genuine and genuinely likable middle-class boy from Pennsylvania. Hailey’s sadness despite all the advantages of her life should make her unlikable, but she recognizes this, which makes her sympathetic. There are wink and nod moments foreshadowing the present that distract from an otherwise thoughtful and compelling read, but for sophisticated teen readers whose childhoods were shadowed by 9/11 just as Hailey’s emerging adulthood is, the book will strike a chord. Give it to those who enjoyed Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero (S & S, 1985), which is referenced within the text, or even former “Gossip Girl” fans ready for the real thing.–Karyn N. Silverman, Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, New York City

HARRISON, Kathryn. Enchantments: A Novel. 336p. Random. 2012. Tr $27. ISBN 978-1-4000-6347-5. LC 2010053369.
Adult/High School–In 1917, after the death of their father, the “mad monk” Rasputin, 18-year-old Masha and her younger sister, Varya, are sent to be wards of the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. Hoping that Masha may have her father’s healing powers, the Tsarina asks her to befriend the young Tsarevitch, Alyosha, who is ailing with hemophilia. Within months, the Russian revolution forces the abdication of the Romanovs and the entire family is sequestered within the palace. The story of who Rasputin was, his influence on the Tsarina and, ultimately, on the Russian people unfolds in a series of stories that Masha tells to Aloysha while they are confined. The narrative shifts throughout the novel. Masha narrates directly to readers in first person, but her stories to Alyosha take on a different voice. Toward the end, he describes his final days through the journal he successfully smuggled out of captivity before his death, which made its way to Masha in America. This is a love story, and a story of history and a tragedy. Teens who know their world history will be able delve into the book easily. Those who don’t may be challenged to follow the shifting narrative. Aloysha’s determination not to die without experiencing normal teen activities, including sex, is an important theme reflecting his hopefulness even as he knows his own murder looms. Masha’s optimism and practicality allows her to survive the tragedy that surrounded her life in Russia. This book begs readers to head to their nearest library to find out the “real” story.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, NY

HEPINSTALL, Kathy. Blue Asylum: A Novel. 288p. Houghton Harcourt. 2012. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-547-71207-9. LC 2011029653.
Adult/High School–Dr. Cowell, a recognized expert in all forms of lunacy, treats patients at the Sanibel Asylum. The island sanctuary is home to a quirky set of inmates who come to be made whole again. As the Civil War rages on, the asylum becomes a retreat for those with wounded spirits. Iris is an independent woman who, responding to the cruelty and injustice her plantation-owning husband invokes on his slaves, creates a tragedy she cannot forget and for which she is sentenced to the asylum. While she is clearly not a lunatic, she does not fit into the expected norm for women of her time. The egotistical Dr. Cowell is determined to “fix” her and yet becomes fascinated by her quick mind and spirit. She quickly decides to plan an escape, even as she begins to interact with the others who inhabit the asylum. She falls in love with Ambrose, a soldier suffering from the horrors of the war, and is certain that her love will cure him. Iris takes advantage of the doctor’s lonely 12-year-old son to help her plan and execute her escape, which now includes Ambrose. Told in short chapters from varying points of view, Blue Asylum has a depth of story and theme. It is rich, vibrant, and poignant as it leads readers through the thoughts, fears, and dreams of its characters. Teens will not believe that women could be condemned as lunatics for behavior that would be considered normal today, and Ambrose most certainly is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. A fascinating look at psychology, loneliness, trauma, and love.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

IVEY, Eowyn. The Snow Child. 400p. Little, Brown. 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-316-17567-8. LC 2011024937.
Adult/High School–The Alaskan territory seems an unlikely haven for Mabel and Jack. Mabel hopes that the peaceful quiet and beauty of nature will offer solitude and solace. She and Jack have never talked about the stillborn baby, their only child. But the middle-aged couple is utterly unprepared for the challenges of homesteading in the harsh wilderness. In a rare moment of playfulness, Mabel and Jack build a snow girl from winter’s first snowfall. Late that night, Jack ventures outside their cabin and catches a glimpse of what appears to be a lost child, darting through the trees. Ivey weaves a rich story built on a yearning so strong that it suddenly becomes palpable. The child, Faina, is a lithe young huntress, a mercurial girl who comes and goes as she pleases. Mabel looks forward to the rare moments spent in her company, offering food, clothing, and a place to rest. But Faina prefers to be out in the cold on the trail of rabbits, marten, and ermine. Meanwhile, Jack befriends George Benson, a miles-away neighbor. Mabel has never met a woman like his wife, Esther, so practical, outspoken, and unladylike. The Bensons offer camaraderie, advice, and connection to the real world. Mabel accepts their friendship cautiously, but when Jack is horribly injured out in the fields, the Bensons send long term help in the form of their son, Garrett. As time goes on, Faina continues to visit, maturing into a beautiful, enigmatic teen. Garrett becomes enchanted by her, introducing a different kind of love and longing. Ivey’s poetically descriptive blend of period realism and classic folk tale will find an audience with sophisticated teen readers.–Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

LANSDALE, Joe R. Edge of Dark Water. 304p. Mulholland. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-316-18843-2. LC 2011030557.
Adult/High School–In depression-era rural east Texas, teenagers Sue Ellen Wilson and Terry Thomas join Sue Ellen’s father and uncle as they fish on a river. Instead of fish, they pull out the body of Sue Ellen and Terry’s friend May Lynn Baxter. May Lynn dreamed of going to Hollywood to become a movie star so Terry and Sue Ellen, along with friend Jinx Smith, decide to make sure that she gets there. It’s well known that the victim’s late brother was a thief and was rumored to have hidden a stash of money. When the friends go to May Lynn’s house to collect her treasured movie magazines (her alcoholic father is nowhere to be found), they find a map, which leads them to the money–and into their adventure. Any hesitation about going on the mission evaporates once they learn how many unscrupulous, violent people are after the money. Joined by Sue Ellen’s alcoholic mother, who wants to escape her abusive husband, they pack up May Lynn (whom they’ve cremated in a conveniently located brick kiln) and set off. Despite the grim circumstances, this book is a fun and enjoyable read. The characters and language are colorful, and the story manages to be funny and suspenseful at the same time. Reminiscent of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Getting Mother’s Body (Random, 2003), it will appeal to fans of character driven, darkly humorous stories.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

LUTZ, Lisa. Trail of the Spellmans. Bk. 5. 384p. (The Spellman Series). appendix. S & S. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-4516-0812-0. LC 2011032509.
Adult/High School–This addition to the series continues to follow the comic adventures of a family detective agency. While there are references to the previous books, it can stand alone. The cases private detective Izzy Spellman takes on are hardly dark or dangerous. Walter’s anxieties require that he have someone check his home when he’s out, just in case he left the bathtub running or forgot to unplug the toaster. At first when Izzy is called to verify that everything is OK in the apartment, she considers it a simple service for Walter’s peace of mind. Then small signs of an intruder start escalating, and she has to identify who is playing games with Walter’s psyche. Another case involves over-protective parents who want their college-age daughter followed every moment to ensure she isn’t tempted to get into trouble. Finally a wife’s surveillance of her husband makes little sense until Izzy discovers her true motive. As in the other installments, the cases are secondary to the melodrama of Izzy, her parents, her younger sister, and her older brother and his family. Izzy narrates the one-upmanship that characterizes family relations through a wickedly sarcastic and immature point of view, with a sprinkling of wise-cracking footnotes bringing additional humor. Colorful secondary characters contribute to the overall madcap feel. Recommend the entire series to teens who enjoy the light tone and flavor of Janet Evanovich’s “Stephanie Plum” series.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA

MCCLEEN, Grace. The Land of Decoration: A Novel. 320p. Holt. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-8050-9494-7. LC 2011038132.
Adult/High School–While 10-year-old Judith McPherson and her widower father John try fervently to hold to their apocalyptic religious beliefs, they are both mercilessly bullied: John by local tough Doug Lewis for being a scab at the town factory, and Judith by Doug’s son Neil. When a pair of freak snow storms and a strict substitute teacher begin to foil Neil’s pranks at school, Judith begins to believe that she has caused these miracles and is herself an Instrument of God. But these miracles only push Neil to escalate his violent bullying after school, and soon John and Judith each must face severe crises of faith. McCleen’s exquisite debut recalls at various times such disparate works as Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (Farrar, 2004), Jo Walton’s Among Others (Tor, 2011), and (strangely) Roald Dahl’s Matilda (Viking, 1998), mining those novels’ themes of the paradoxical relationship between power and powerlessness; the richly interconnected worlds of faith and imagination; and the tragic delicacy of the relationships between single parents and their children. These are enormous themes for a first-time novelist, but in McCleen’s deft hands they dovetail naturally into one another, at the same time that they flow effortlessly from the intricately wrought characters of Judith and John. They are also themes that are at the very heart of what it means to grow up, and though some teens uncomfortable with the overt religiosity of this novel may require a push, they will be greatly rewarded by a work that speaks deeply to the rich ambiguity of young adulthood.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

MCMORRIS, Kristina. Bridge of Scarlet Leaves. 352p. notes. Kensington. 2012. Tr $15. ISBN 978-0-7582-4685-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–On the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Maddie Kern, a young white woman, elopes with Takeshi “Lane” Moritomo, her Japanese-American boyfriend. Overnight, their friends become their enemies, and the plans they’ve made evaporate. Despite Lane and his family being evacuated to the Manzanar internment camp, he and Maddie fight to hold on to their marriage. As the separation wears on her, Maddie makes a controversial decision–she joins other non-Japanese people who refuse to be away from their spouses and children and moves into the camp voluntarily. Once the evacuation order is lifted and they can leave Manzanar, life does not get any easier. The choices the couple has are few and difficult but they remain committed to each other. This well-researched book explores life during World War II through a number of lenses. Readers follow Maddie’s brother as he leaves college, enlists in the military, and fights overseas. They see life at Manzanar through the eyes of the internees as well as through Maddie’s experiences. McMorris also explores the fate of both the Japanese-Americans who were stuck in Japan after the bombing, and the Japanese linguists who served in a secret branch of the US army. The informative author’s notes and inclusion of several “Asian Fusion” recipes make the book even richer. Fans of romance, historical fiction, or World War II stories will all find enjoyment here.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

RICE, Anne. The Wolf Gift. 416p. Knopf. 2012. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-307-59511-9. LC 2011043740.
Adult/High School–Reuben, dubbed “Sunshine Boy” by his celebrated and wealthy parents, is just out of college and working as a reporter with the San Francisco Observer. On assignment, he travels north to research a famous Mendocino Coast property coming on the market. He is captivated by the house and grounds, and by Marchent Nideck, the striking heiress who shows him her uncle’s estate. That night he is the only survivor of a horrendous attack on the house, during which he is bitten in the face by a savage beast. Nothing can explain his incredible recovery; within two weeks he leaves the hospital unscarred and stronger than ever. Even before his release, Reuben is tortured by the cries of those in harm’s way. Eventually, his need to save them brings about the change and he leaps across city rooftops to rescue a woman from her rapist, an old woman from a younger woman’s torture, and a gay teenage boy from bullies, brutally killing their attackers in the process. When he learns that Marchent has left him the Nideck estate, he escapes there, where the surrounding redwood forest shields him from what has become a national obsession with the “Man Wolf.” What begins as a thriller morphs into an origin story that reveals the mythology of the creature Reuben has become. Wrapped up in the action are musings on human nature, justice, good and evil, the existence of God, and the importance of family. In pondering his own monstrous actions and reconciling his human and wolf natures, Reuben moves beyond his family’s expectations and comes into his own.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, NY

Nonfiction

HARDEN, Blaine. Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. 224p. maps. notes. Viking. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-670-02332-5. LC 2011019555.
Adult/High School–Curriculums are filled with atrocities from the past, such as the Holocaust and slavery, but this book brings to light one that is happening in our lifetime and has been happening for 50 years. In North Korea, more than 100,000 people are held in prison labor camps for often the smallest of crimes, or in the case of Shin Dong-hyuk, the crime of being born there to parents who were “given” to each other for good behavior. Raised in starvation conditions (the day he licked spilled soup off the floor is not even the worst attempt to feed himself), Shin had no idea there was another world out there. That is, until he was thrown into prison at age 13 and brutally tortured when his mother and brother tried to escape. There, for the first time, he met someone who had lived on the outside, and a small seed of potential was planted. At age 23, Shin finally made his escape into China, the first known person who was born in the camps to escape them. However, it’s no surprise that in his late ‘20s, he doesn’t always make wise decisions and is unprepared for life on the outside. Harden originally wrote Shin’s story for the Washington Post, and he brings a journalist’s eye to filling in backstory on North Korean policies and conditions. For example, why does South Korea turn a relatively blind eye to these atrocities? The answer may surprise. This is the kind of eye-opening book that motivates change and involvement.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

Graphic Novels

ALLISON, Rachel Hope. I’m Not a Plastic Bag. 88p. Archaia. 2012. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-936393-54-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Allison’s beautifully rendered art shows what life–yes, life–is like on the world’s largest “garbage patch,” a floating mass of plastic and other detritus that has been caught by the Pacific’s swirling currents to form a kind of gelatinous island. Using words only as they might appear on pieces of debris, including the I “love” New York logo on a shopping bag, the manuscript-style “please” that would have decorated an old tin sign, and the like, the story moves accessibly through time, giving readers entry at the point where a child’s umbrella, an empty shopping bag, a tire, a bagged goldfish in transit from shop to home, and a businessman’s binder are all caught in the weather to be cast adrift. Readers see them arrive on the “great garbage patch” and then the well-plotted story opens out as readers see how tides and wind reconfigure the mass and each of the pieces in it, how gulls and squid use and even view it, and other aspects of its makeup, from a condom to a bit of rope. But best of all, in Allison’s imaginative tale, is that the garbage patch itself is expressive, its flotsam forming gesturing arms, tires positioning themselves as eyes, and those worded signs so often appearing in its innocently smiling “mouth”: “Welcome,” “Playground,” and the binder’s front tag, “Hello, my name is…” Science and fantasy are perfectly entwined in this narrative, offering readers a way to imagine feelings and values beyond their own.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

GAULD, Tom. Goliath. 96p. Drawn & Quarterly. 2012. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-77046-065-2. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Gauld, who frequently draws for The New Yorker and The Guardian, brings his simple but evocative style to a retelling of the Biblical story from the giant’s point of view. In this version, the Philistine army is a bureaucratic organization and Goliath is a content administrator, a gentle soul with no love of bear fighting or boasting. In simple line cartoons, burnished with an era-appropriate bronze, readers accompany him to a mystifying meeting with the king and watch his befuddlement as he is provided with a nine-year-old shield bearer and a large but rather haphazardly built coat of armor. Then there is the 40 days’ wait for an answer from the enemy to the challenge Goliath reads aloud daily. And, in the end, poor Goliath–as readers’ sympathies have come to lie with him not as opposed to the Israelites but as opposed to his fellow Philistines–is killed. Gauld’s panels offer wonderful portraits of Goliath’s final six weeks or so of life, including the unchanging rock piles in the desert and the brightness of the moon against a black sky. Quick to read but easy to consider and reconsider, the humor and pathos in Goliath’s worldview requires longer thought than reading time. An eminently discussable graphic novel.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

HERMANN. Afrika. tr. from French by Jemiah Jefferson. 56p. Dark Horse. 2012. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-1-59582-844-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Hermann’s short story provides a front row seat on the nexus between contemporary international politics in Africa, the volatile conditions of a wildlife preserve, and interpersonal relationships. In large, lushly painted panels, the jungle, the natural interactions of large mammals, and the fear-mongering behaviors of political leaders and of seemingly apolitical men all become real. Readers’ viewpoint is largely focused on a white preserve keeper, Ferrer, a man willing to bend to few social graces both in his professional and private life. When a female reporter descends on his home and requests a “tour” of his purview, his eventual permission is grudging. Meanwhile, political leadership backing the “trade” profits that can be realized by poachers set out to rid themselves of Ferrer’s interference. While the ranger and the journalist escape into the jungle and toward another country, his wife is sweet talked into giving up hope of his return and leaves the country to pursue the material world available to her new lover in Europe. Violence, sexual expression, and a simplification of political ends are all appropriate here, and Hermann depicts them with art but not by neglecting the ugly plot and visual details that make his slice-of-life story so compelling.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA