Reading Level: Young Adult

Fangirl

Cath is the world’s biggest Simon Snow fan. Simon Snow is her everything—his magical world consumes Cath until her entire world revolves around it. Ever since she was little, she and her twin sister Wren poured over the series, continually reading and re-reading, and eventually writing. In Cath’s case, writing an extremely popular fanfiction that has hundreds of thousands of followers. Cath loves being immersed in this fictional world with her sister, but she must soon face reality.

Cath’s freshman year of college is quickly approaching, and in addition to having to pull herself out of her Simon Snow hole, she has to deal with an entirely new obstacle— her sister. As they have been best friends for the entirety of their lives, Cath is shocked when Wren suddenly decides that she does not want to be roommates for their freshman year. This causes Cath’s social anxiety to spiral as she attempts to survive in a new collegiate world without her sister.

Cath is grappling with her pressure-filled, Simon Snow fanfiction and the rough transition to college. Additionally, her emotionally fragile, single father is alone for the first time in eighteen years, and she can’t help but worry about what might happen to him in her absence. She also must confront new feelings towards a male classmate who only seems to want to talk about writing, and a wild roommate with a fascinating best friend.  Can Cath hold it all together while the world around her feels like it is all falling apart?

Fangirl is a delightful coming-of-age novel that accurately encapsulates the strong emotional response to the transition to university. Cath’s struggles with her mental health and social anxiety are relatable to modern-day teens, particularly those leaving home for the first time. Her relationship with her sister represents the drifting apart from friends and siblings that can occur as a person grows up.

Despite this novel’s enthralling story and heartfelt characters, Fangirl may not be appropriate for younger audiences. As it is set in college, there are mature events and themes. Sexuality, alcohol, and drugs are discussed often, making the story more appropriate for older readers.  Fangirl is also a long and semi-difficult book due to more advanced vocabulary and complex plot lines, making it tough for less advanced readers. For mature readers, Fangirl will be a highly enjoyable read that delves into the depths of a teen’s emotions and life.

Sexual Content

  • When Cath’s roommate has a guy waiting outside their room on move-in day, she is very uncomfortable. She tells him, “I can’t just let strange guys into my room. I don’t even know your name. This whole situation is too rapey.”
  • Cath writes fanfiction about the homosexual romance between Simon Snow and his nemesis Baz.
  • Cath had a boyfriend in high school named Abel, but they weren’t particularly serious or romantic. Wren always calls him an “end table” and accuses Cath of not liking to kiss him.
  • Wren’s high school boyfriend Jesse never seemed all that interested in her, which made her crazy for him. Cath laments, “He never had eyes only for Wren, not even after they had sex last fall. It threw off Wren’s game.”
  • Cath’s roommate Reagan asks if she has, “gay homemade Simon Snow posters.”
  • Levi wants to walk Cath to the library at night because she has a “little red riding hood vibe.” Cath responds by saying, “I don’t think rapists care about self-confidence.”
  • When writing with Nick, Cath tells him that she doesn’t want, “to write about, like, dead bodies or . . . naked bodies.”
  • Cath talks to Wren about the first time that she kissed Abel. “He kissed me that day, on our seventeenth birthday, for the first time. Or maybe I kissed him… I remember thinking… that he made me feel safe.”
  • Cath tells Wren about her writing sessions with Nick. Wren responds by asking, “Does it involve kissing?” Cath thinks to herself, “Wren wouldn’t leave the kissing thing alone. Ever since Abel had dumped Cath, Wren was on her about chasing her passions and letting loose the beast within.” After this point, Cath sees boys everywhere and as a constant distraction to her, particularly their physical qualities.
  • Cath gets a ride home with a girl named Erin who talked too much. “All she talked about was her boyfriend who still lived in Omaha and who was probably cheating on her.”
  • Cath writes Simon Snow fanfiction for her creative writing professor. A friend responds to this information by laughing and asking, “Do you really expect an elderly English professor to be down with gay Simon Snow fanfiction?”
  • Levi wants her to read fanfiction aloud to him. She searches her computer for something, “not too romantic. Or dirty.”
  • Cath describes the time after her mom left their family and says that Wren, “scratched a boy who said they were gay in the eye.”
  • There is an excerpt from Cath’s fanfiction that carries sexual innuendo. Baz asks, “Have you ever done this before?” Simon responds, “Yes. Not like this.” Baz then asks, “Not with a boy?” and Simon responds, “Not when I really wanted it.”
  • Levi leans against Cath when she is reading to him, making her nervous about what their relationship status is. This is followed by Levi sleepily kissing her. A half-page make-out scene follows.
  • When Cath tries to convince herself that she does not want romantic involvement with Levi, she says, “He’s different… He’s older. He smokes. And he drinks. And he’s probably had sex. I mean, he looks like he has.” She then proceeds to think that the last person that he slept with was Reagan.
  • When Reagan helps Cath get ready for a party, she discusses her hair, saying, “If you’re not going to blow it out… you may as well look like you’ve just been fucked.”
  • When Cath gets to a party, she sees Levi kissing a girl, “with his mouth smiling and open. He made it look so easy.”
  • Every time Cath sees Levi, she is reminded of the relationship that they almost had. “She tried not looking at him— because every time she did, she imagined him kissing someone, either her or that other girl, and both memories were equally painful.”
  • When Cath tries to tell her father that she doesn’t want to go back to school, he first asks, “Are you pregnant? Are you gay? I’d rather you were gay than pregnant. Unless you’re pregnant. Then we’ll deal.”
  • After Cath makes up with Levi, Reagan asks, “Did you sleep with him?” She proceeds to ask about their relationship, to which Cath responds, “Things you pressure me to do: one, underage drinking; two, prescription drug abuse; three, premarital sex.” Reagan then tells Cath that she lost her virginity to Levi.
  • Cath talks about her feelings towards Levi and says, “God, she wanted to tackle him and roll around in him like a cat in a field of daisies.” She also says that his eyebrows are, “pornographic.”
  • There are several make-out scenes, each lasting about a half-in page in length. They are fairly detailed.
  • Cath’s mother told her daughters about her unwanted pregnancy. Cath wonders if her mom told them as a warning to, “Stay away from men? Maybe just ‘use a condom.’ Or ‘stay away from men who don’t know how to work a condom.”
  • Levi and Cath talk about having sex, but she is not comfortable with it, so she consents to “touching.” Even in this situation, she must read fanfiction with him to feel comfortable.

Violence

  • Wren’s boyfriend Alejandro punched a “drunk pervert right in the chin” when they were at a bar.
  • Cath gets hit in the ribs by the doorknob of her dorm room door when Reagan barges in. She is not injured.
  • In Cath’s fanfiction, Simon fights a rabbit with his sword. Baz later kills it. “He ran toward the rabbit, holding his sword with both hands over his head, then plunged it with all his strength into one red eye. The rabbit collapsed, utterly limp, a paw falling into the fire.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Cath discusses the observation that all of the upperclassmen and professors wear black Ray-Ban frames. “If Cath got a pair of black Ray-Bans, she could probably order a gin and tonic around here without getting carded.”
  • Cath says that Reagan smokes.
  • Cath asks if engineering fraternities, “get drunk and build bridges.”
  • Wren declares that “drinking tequila is more about the journey than the destination.”
  • Reagan asks Cath if she is on drugs. When Cath responds with no, Reagan says, “maybe you should be…” Reagan later proclaims that she is on drugs and that they are, “a beautiful thing.”
  • Cath discusses illegal drinking on campus. She said that it didn’t matter on campus as “there was booze everywhere. Wren already had a fake ID.”
  • When Cath calls her dad, he says, “Don’t hang out with frat guys, Cath, they’re terrible. All they do is get drunk and watch ”
  • On weekend mornings, Reagan always looked like a mess because she, “drank too much and slept too little… She still smelled sweat and cigarette smoke.”
  • Cath is harassed by drunk perverts in a bar. The scene lasts several pages and many characters are inebriated.
  • Cath says that she does not want to go to Levi’s party because she doesn’t want to “drink, smoke, or get high.”
  • When Cath objects to dating Levi, Reagan says, “You’re making him sound like he’s some rowdy mountain man who like, smokes cigars and has sex with prostitutes.”
  • Cath’s date struggles with mental health issues and is supposed to take medication for his problem, but it never lasts as he believes it blocks his creative process.
  • Reagan tries to quit smoking by never lighting the cigarettes that are in her mouth.
  • Wren gets alcohol poisoning and is taken to the hospital. When Cath arrives, she has to answer a list of medical questions. “Was Wren a regular drinker? Did she often drink to drunkenness? Yes. Did she black out? Yes. Did she use any other drugs? I don’t know. Was she on any medication? Birth control.”
  • Nick always writes about girls with nicotine-stained fingers.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently throughout the novel. This includes shit, fuck, fuck off, thank god, bitch, damn, hell, crap, ass, asshole, goddamn, and horseshit.
  • During move-in day, Reagan says, “If you’ve got feng shui issues, feel free to move my shit.”
  • Simon Snow calls Baz a, “complete git.” He also later calls him a “prat.”
  • Wren’s roommate says that she is on the “skinny bitch ”
  • Levi has an, “especially shitty truck.”
  • Wren flips off a drunken pervert at a bar.
  • When Cath looks in the mirror before going to a party she thinks she, “looked like exactly who she was— an eighteen-year-old nerd who knew eff-all about boys or parties.”
  • One character is always referred to as, “fucking Kelly.”
  • God, Jesus, oh my god, godforsaken, and Jesus Christ are all used frequently.

Supernatural

  • Cath is a huge fangirl for a book series about teenage magicians. Their exploits are often described, as are their uses of magic. This series is very similar in content and tone to Harry Potter.
  • Baz, a character from Simon Snow, is revealed to be a vampire.

Spiritual

  • Reagan tells Cath, “If God put me in your life to keep you from wearing a fucking tail… I accept the assignment.”
  • Levi calls the town that he is from, “god’s country…All the gods. Brahma and Odin would love it there.”
  • When Cath wears a ponytail, Reagan asks her, “Do you have to wear your hair like that? Is it some kind of Mormon thing?” Cath is not Mormon.
  • Cath’s English professor talks about the power of writing. She says, “Think about it, Cath. That’s what makes a god—or a mother. There’s nothing more intoxicating than creating something from nothing.”
  • The English professor says, “I can do whatever I want with my student’s grades. I’m the god of this small thing.”
  • Levi’s mom is active in her Baptist church.

by Morgan Filgas

 

Night

Although news of World War II reaches Elie and his family, they feel safe. They believe the Germans will never make it to their hometown of Sighet, Transylvania. But soon, the SS are in their town, but no one believes the horror stories of torture and death. And then, Elie and his family are taken from their home.

Night is Elie’s personal story, beginning at age 12. Elie, who was a deeply observant Jew, must confront the evil he witnesses while in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. He recalls the terrifying memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and the death of his beliefs. Elie wants others to understand that the cruelty of the camps and the death of innocents must never happen again.

Night uses powerful imagery that will stay with the reader for years. Unlike the Diary of Anne Frank, Night shows the horrors that took place during World War II. Elie often recalls people’s deaths, and he does not shy away from gruesome descriptions. Even though Elie describes the murder of many people including children, the descriptions are not bloody and do not glorify the events. As Elie describes the events that he experienced, he shows how the SS soldiers as well as ordinary people were cruel.

The real-life testimony in Night gives readers insight into the minds of the Jewish people and to the suffering of those who went to the concentration camp. Although the events are not easy to read about, Night is a must-read because everyone should understand how anti-Semitism played a part in the murder of over six million people. Through Elie’s journey, he chronicles his changing relationship with his God and with his father. He describes how the concentration made people act like animals, who were willing to kill for a crust of bread. The desperation and hopelessness of those in the concentration camp is difficult to read about, however, it sheds light on the conditions of the camps. Elie’s story will help readers understand the importance of standing up for those in need and hopefully prevent another Holocaust from taking place.

Sexual Content

  • While being deported in the cattle cars, “some of the young let go of their inhibitions and, under cover of darkness, caressed one another, without any thought of others, alone in the world.”
  • While moving prisoners from one camp to another, the guards flirted with some girls. “The girls giggled. They allowed themselves to be kissed, and tickled, bursting with laughter.”
  • At the concentration camp, some of the German’s “liked children” and brought them food, but “this affection was not entirely altruistic; there existed here a variable traffic of children among homosexuals.”
  • Elie accidentally saw one of the supervisors with a girl who was “half naked, on a straw mat.”

Violence

  • Moishe the Beadle is deported. Once in Polish territory, the train is taken over by the Gestapo. The Jews “were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns.”
  • When the Jews were being deported, “The Hungarian police used their rifle butts, their clubs to indiscriminately strike old men and women, children and cripples.”
  • When Elie’s family was being deported, “the police were lashing out with their clubs.” The police also yelled at the Jews, “Move, you lazy good-for-nothings!”
  • While being deported in the cattle cars, a woman kept screaming. When she would not be quiet, “the young men bound and gagged her. When they actually struck her, people shouted their approval. . . She received several blows to the head, blows that could have been lethal.”
  • When Elie and his family got to Auschwitz, “strange-looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets and black pants, jumped into the wagon. Holding flashlights and sticks, they began to strike at us left and right. . .” As others were getting out of the train car, “an old man fell to the ground. Nearby, an SS man replaced his revolver in its holster.”
  • At Auschwitz, Elie saw, “flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes. . . children thrown into the flames.”
  • While at the concentration camp, men were beaten often. Eliezer sees, “So many crazed men, so much shouting, so much brutality. Dozens of inmates were there to receive us, sticks in hand, striking anywhere, anyone, without reasons.”
  • When Eliezer’s father asks for the restroom, a Gypsy, “slapped my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours.”
  • When Elie and another man crossed paths, “he threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with even more silent blows, until I was covered in blood. . . Abruptly, he calmed down and sent me to work like nothing had happened. . .I was aching all over.”
  • A supervisor beat Elie’s father “with an iron bar. At first, my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning.”
  • A supervisor had Elie lie down on a crate. Elie was then lashed with a whip. Elie “no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip. . . It was over. I had not realized it, but I had fainted.”
  • During an air raid, a prisoner sneaks out to try to eat soup from a cauldron. The man, “thrust his head toward the still steaming liquid. We jumped at the sound of the shot. Falling to the ground, his face stained by the soup, the man writhed a few seconds at the base of the cauldron, and then he was still.”
  • After a prisoner stole food, he was hung. “The entire camp, block after block, filed past the hanged boy and stared at his extinguished eyes, the tongue hanging from his gaping mouth.”
  • Another time, three prisoners including a “little pipel, a sad-eyed angel” were hung. The other prisoners were forced to walk by them. When Elie walked by the dead, “The two men were no longer alive, but the third rope was still moving; the child, too light, was still breathing. And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. . . His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.”
  • As the SS was evacuating the camp, “From time to time, a shot exploded in the darkness. . . Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of the pleasure. If one of us stopped for a second, a quick shot eliminated the filthy dog.”
  • Someone tried to strangle Elie.
  • A man’s son kills him for a piece of bread. The son tries to eat the bread, but “two men had been watching him. They jumped him. Others joined in. When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me, the father and son.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • At Auschwitz, someone yells at the inmates, “Sons of bitches, why have you come here?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Eliezer describes his spiritual relationship with God throughout the book. Not all quotes are included in the review because a main theme through the book is Elie’s changing relationship with God.
  • Moishe the Beadle is guiding Elie’s studies of Kabbalah. Moishe the Beadle says, “Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks Him, he liked to say. Therein lies true dialogue. Man asks and God replies. But we don’t understand His replies. We cannot understand them. Because they dwell in the depths of our souls and remain there until we die. The real answers, Eliezer, you will find only within yourself.”
  • While being deported, someone said, “Oh God, Master of the Universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us. . .”
  • Some evenings, the men would try to sing, and “some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. . . I was not denying his existence, but I doubted His absolute justice. . .” One of the men said, “God is testing us. He wants to see if we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. . . And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us all that much more.”
  • On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jews gathered for prayer, and Elie wonders, “What are You, my God. . . How do you compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery? Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded mind, their ailing bodies?”
  • During prayer, Elie wonders why he should bless God’s name. “Why, but why would I bless him. . . Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because he kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? . . . How could I say to Him: Blessed be Though, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces?”
  • During a prayer service, Elie thinks, “Man is stronger, greater than God. . .” Since God has not stopped the killing, Elie thinks God has betrayed them by “allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned.”

 

 

 

 

How to Be Popular

Steph has been a social outcast for the past five years because she accidentally spilled a cherry Big Gulp on a popular girl. This year, Steph’s determined to step out of her comfort zone and join the popular crowd. In order to change her social standing, Steph plans to follow the book How to Be Popular.

In the process of gaining the friendship of the popular crowd, Steph must decide if she’s ready to get rid of her nerdy best friends Becca and Jason. Will Steph throw away her old friends in order to party with the popular kids and hang out with the school quarterback?

Steph is a relatable character who, like many, struggles with the desire to be part of the popular group. Steph’s character is well developed, and her point of view is endearing. Steph’s family relationships add an interesting and often comic element to the story. The book revolves around the usual cast of stereotypical high school characters—the mean girl, the cute high school quarterback, and the nerdy friends.

How to Be Popular is an easy-to-read story that follows a familiar, predictable plot. Although the story contains few surprises, Steph’s journey will entertain those looking for a romance appropriate for middle school readers. If you’re looking for a fun story to take to the beach, How to Be Popular would make a good choice.

Sexual Content

  • Steph finds a “steamy romance novel from the eighties. . . the heroine in one of them turned out to like having sex ‘Turkish-style,’ which in the book did NOT mean ‘while wearing a fez.’”
  • Steph thinks about Mark and Lauren who, “were totally canoodling” and how her friends, “don’t like seeing people putting their tongues in other people’s mouths, on account of the grossness factor.”
  • If Steph looks through her bathroom window, she can see into her neighbor’s window. She likes to watch him undress. She thinks, “my interest in seeing Jason undressed is purely scientific. Which is why I use the binoculars. . .”
  • Darlene has a large bust and Steph thinks boys “flock to her in hopes of someday being able to sink into her soft good-smellingness.” When Steph sits next to Darlene, “all eight of the guys at Darlene’s table yanked their gazes off the front of her chest and looked at me. Or the area just above the sticky part of my thigh-highs, to be more exact.”
  • Someone says that Steph’s grandpa is “warm for your form.”
  • Steph’s grandpa tries to explain how he got his fiancée. He says, “Well, the fact is, Steph, we Kazoulises, well, we’re a passionate bunch, and we know how to please a woman. . . Kitty’s a woman with needs, you know. . .”
  • Steph’s mom thinks Mark is going out with Lauren because Lauren “puts out.” Steph thinks her mom is “out of touch with reality” because “if I were going out with Mark Finley, I would totally put out, too. Even Father Chuck would understand that.”
  • When Steph is looking through her neighbor’s window, she sees him kissing a girl. “BAM!!! They were smashing their lips up together.”
  • In order to manipulate Steph, Mark kisses her. “. . . Mark had leaned down and put his mouth over mine. . . I have no idea whether or not I kissed him back. I was so surprised, I didn’t know what to do. . . I think I just stood there, letting him kiss me. . .” While kissing she “tried really hard to see the fireworks and hear the choir and the birds. . . And I saw them. And heard them. Did I ever.”
  • Steph kisses a boy “so much, in fact, my lips feel a little chapped. But in a good way.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While watching teens cruise up and down the street, Steph sees a girl “barf up all the Mike’s Hard Lemonade she ingested while sunning herself over at the lake that afternoon.”
  • During an assembly, Steph describes the convocation, “when we all gather in the auditorium to listen to ex-drug addicts and people who killed their friends in drunk driving accidents talk about their experiences.”
  • Several times Steph’s mom says, “God, I need a drink.”
  • A boy from school is planning a party where everyone will get drunk. Someone brings a keg to the party.

Language

  • Damn, dang, and beeyotch are used once.
  • God and oh my God are occasionally used as exclamations.
  • Steph thinks she is a moron.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Steph is Catholic and thinks about going to confession. “I am fully going to ask God for forgiveness about this during Communion in church tomorrow. Since I can’t ask Father Chuck. Might as well go straight to the top.”
  • Steph’s “Grandpa stopped going to church after Grandma died. . . But Grandpa says he can worship God just as well on the ninth hole as he can in the church—if not better; since he’s closer to nature, and therefore, God, on the golf course than he is in our pew at St. Charles. I fear for his immortal soul. . . but I figure if God really is all-forgiving . . . Gramps will be all right.”
  • Steph thinks that Darlene is nice because when the mean girls “were in line to get meanness from God, Darlene must have seen a butterfly and gone running after it, or something, since she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.”

The Storm Runner

Zane keeps to himself because other kids tend to tease him about his limp and because he walks with a cane. But he doesn’t mind, because he spends his days exploring a nearby sleeping volcano with his dog. One evening, as Zane is exploring the volcano, a plane with twin engines crashes. Even stranger, as the plane was going down, Zane thought he saw a monster in the cockpit.

Things get more complicated when a girl named Brooks shows up demanding that Zane meet her at the volcano. Zane follows the beautiful girl who leads Zane down a twisted path. Soon Zane is running from monsters controlled by the Maya god of death. According to an ancient prophecy, Zane’s decisions may allow the god of death to escape a prison that is centuries old.

Zane soon realizes that magic, monsters, and Maya gods are more than just fables. In a web of secrets, the Gods are trying to manipulate Zane to their own advantage. Zane tries to do what is right, but what does a flawed eleven-year-old boy know about stopping the destruction of the world? In a battle against good and evil, is there any way Zane can win against a Maya god?

The Storm Runner brings the magic of Maya mythology to life in a fast-paced, action-packed story that will leave readers wondering who can be trusted. Despite being self-conscious about it, Zane doesn’t let his disability deter him from trying to save the world. Although some of Zane’s decisions are questionable, his imperfections make him a truly relatable character.

Zane is not the only well-developed character; the story contains a cast of interesting characters including giants, demi-gods, and even an overprotective mother. The Storm Runner is perfect for fans of the Percy Jackson series or Aru Shah and the End of Time. However, Zane’s story takes a more serious tone and lacks the humor of the other series.

 The Storm Runner contains elements common to other mythological fantasy books—for instance, a boy discovers that his father is a god and must travel to strange places in order to save the world. Despite these similarities, this story effectively brings Maya mythology to life through an exciting series of events.

The length of the story, the complicated plot, and the extensive cast of characters may be overwhelming for some readers. The first third of the story introduces a lot of people, gods, and situations that cause the pace to drag. Despite a slow start, the monsters, the magical creatures, and the relationship between the characters make The Storm Runner an exciting adventure well worth reading. Readers will root for Zane as he fights evil, and they will pull their hair in frustration as Zane makes well-intentioned, but stupid decisions. In the end, readers come away with the powerful message that a person’s flaws don’t define them.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A demon attacks and kills Zane’s dog and then attacks Zane. The demon, “grabbed me by the arms, sinking its long claws into my flesh. I screamed in pain and fell to the ground . . . Slime sizzled through my shirt sleeve, burning my skin like acid.”
  • Zane finally stabs the demon with his cane. “It sank right into the creature’s gel-like body, and there was a disgusting sucking sound as the cane disappeared inside. . . I blinked as the monster dissolved into a dark pool of thick mucus. . .” The scene is described over four pages.
  • A creature tries to kidnap Zane. “While my uncle tussled with the alux, she hauled me back through the bank and out the front doors, then stuffed me in the car.” The creature “jerked Mom’s head back by her hair and mimicked her desperate voice.” Brooks turns into a hawk and picked, “up the monster by the back of its neck. . . Brooks shook it hard like it was her mouse prey and she was trying to break its neck.” The scene is described over three pages.
  • Ah-Puch eats a creature. He “scrambled to clutch the thing. Bones snapped. Then he brought it to his mouth, bit its neck, and sucked all the blood from it before tossing the drained corpse to the cave floor below. . . “
  • Demon runners attack Zane and Brooks. When Zane tries to escape, “The hair reached me, climbed my body, and wrapped itself around my neck, covering my mouth and pinning me to the asphalt.” Zane is able to jerk “my guy’s neck back” and “his thick-skinned neck ripped open easily.” Hondo threw a screwdriver that wedged into the demon’s skull. The demon’s “face began to crack like dried mud, crumbling to the ground to reveal. . . a blue-skinned monster head. Green veins throbbed and budged.” The fight takes place over six pages.
  • Twins who were fathered by a god are grabbed by creatures. “The creatures holding Bird and Jordan folded their wings tighter and tighter. Each of the twins’ faces puckered like their heads were being sucked dry. Their skin turned gray, and purplish veins spread beneath. Their eyeballs bugged out and turned dark red.” The creatures take the twins away.
  • Zane throws a spear at Ah-Puch’s bird. “Muwan released a terrible scream and started tumbling through the air. I watched in horror as she crashed into the bare trees below. They shook on impact, their sharp branches splitting her open.”
  • The final battle takes place over several chapters. Ah-Puch and his demons attack Zane and his group. Demon runners attack Ah-Puch’s army. “They shrieked, leaping onto the back of Ah-Puch’s little army with amazing force. Teeth gnashed. Claws ripped. Hair chocked.” Finally, Zane turns into a jaguar and Ah-Puch turns into a snake. Zane attacks, “launching myself onto his neck as we hurtled over the step’s edge, down, down, down. . . As I sank my teeth into his slimy scales, I prayed that he didn’t bleed maggots. He did. They poured into my mouth as he screamed.”

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • One night, Zane’s uncle Hondo drinks beer and smokes cigars.

Language

  • Crap and heck are used often. One example is when Brooks shows up at Zane’s house, he wonders, “How the heck had she found me?”
  • “Oh God” is used as an exclamation a few times.
  • A monster attacks Zane and his uncle. His uncle asks, “What the hell was that little thing?”
  • Someone tells Zane, “Believe me, when I catch the idiot bonehead who let Ah-Puch out, I’m going to send him spinning into the center of the Milky Way.”

Supernatural

  • Gods and monsters from Maya mythology are real. Brooks explains, “Myths are real, Zane. Well, most are. And gods are very real—an important part of the universe and its balance.”
  • The first creature, a demon, has “pasty bluish gray” skin. “Its bloated body was covered in patches of dark hair. Cauliflower-like ears drooped down to its bulging neck.”
  • Brooks is a nawal (a shapeshifter) who can turn into a hawk.
  • Ah-Puch, the Maya god of death, disaster, and darkness, is trapped in a magical artifact until Zane lets him out. Ah-Puch “looked like a bloated zombie with decomposing gray skin with nasty black spots, and he had a dark, twisted smile. He wore this weird helmet that had eyes hanging off it, the eyes of the people he’d recently killed.”
  • Ms. Cab works as a psychic and is a Maya seer. A god later turns all seers into chickens.
  • Zane discovers that he is the son of a Maya God. He can spirit jump, which allows him to leave his body and appear in another realm.
  • Pacific, the keeper of time, helps Zane.
  • When going to a party, Zane and his friends wear enchanted clothes that “fix all imperfections.” When they get to the party, a “gray-bearded skeleton materialized. . . Eyeballs floated in his eye sockets, and he wore a long white tuxedo jacket with a dead red rose pinned to one of his silk lapels.”

Spiritual Content

  • Zane gets a scholarship to attend a Catholic school. When Zane gets into trouble at school, his punishment is “ten rosaries, detention for a week, a call to Mom, and an apology to the jerk I’d torpedoed with my cane.”
  • After an explosion, Zane’s mom says, “Thank the saints, he’s safe now.”
  • Zane sent “a prayer up to the saints and anyone else listening.” Later in the story, he says a couple of Hail Mary’s.
  • Zane splashes holy water on a picture of a demon.

The Nature of Jade

After moving and starting at a new high school, Jade begins having panic attacks. Jade is trying her best to stay calm and focus on her senior year of high school. One thing that calms her down is watching the elephants at a nearby zoo on her webcam. That’s how she sees Sebastian for the first time.

Even before they meet, Jade feels drawn towards Sebastian, a twenty-year-old who has a baby. When she finally meets him, she quickly falls in love with him. She begins spending her free time with Sebastian, his son, and his grandmother. Even though Sebastian’s life is complicated, getting to know him has helped alleviate Jade’s panic attacks. Then Jade discovers that Sebastian has been hiding a terrible secret. Will their new love be able to survive?

Jade’s work at the zoo gives an interesting aspect to their romance. Jade compares the animal world to the human world and her insights can be interesting. Working with the elephants helps Jade deal with her anxiety disorder. Her inner reflection illuminates her thought process and shows how a random thought can lead her down a spiral of fear. However, too much of the story is told through Jude’s inner dialogue, which makes the story drag. Although many teens may be able to relate to Jude’s anxiety, others will find her constant inner dialogue difficult to wade through.

Jade’s story bounces from her family life, her school life, her zoo life, and finally her relationship with Sebastian. Each aspect of her life seems completely separated. This separation doesn’t allow the author to fully develop the other characters in the story. Even though Jude has come to realize that many of her high school relationships are based on familiarity and habit instead of true connections, the reader is left wondering why they should care.

Jade, her parents, and her boyfriend all have destructive secrets. Jade comes to realize that lives are complicated and messy. She discovers that not all actions can be labeled as good or bad. Sebastian and his grandmother both wonder if they are doing the right thing when they hide their whereabouts, which allows the reader to reflect on what they would do in a similar situation. As Jade grows, she learns that people cannot be seen as just a stereotype, because all people are more complicated than that.

Readers who want to look at the complicated workings of the inner mind will enjoy The Nature of Jade. However, the majority of readers may struggle due to the lack of character development, absence of action, and slow pacing of the story.

Sexual Content

  • Jade’s friend has become boy crazy. Jade thinks, “God, sorry if this is crude, but she had begun to remind me of those baboons that flaunt their red butts around when they’re in heat.”
  • Jade’s friend thinks a boy has “the sweetest ass.”
  • Michael tells his friends, “Some of us want to go to med school and become doctors and not just meet some guy and have sex.” His friend replies, “Some of us want to have a social life. You’ve been more intimate with your laptop than an actual female.”
  • Jade thinks that fathers don’t show compassion when their kids are hurt because of a fear that “compassion equals homosexuality.”
  • Someone teases a boy saying he might be gay.
  • When Sebastian found out his girlfriend was pregnant, he would have considered other options, but she hid the pregnancy from him.
  • A girl doesn’t think her friend can have fun at a Christian school. She wants to go to a college that has “Guy fun. Party fun. Drinking fun.
  • Jade and Sebastian kiss several times. The first time they kiss “for a while, not long enough. His mouth is chili-warm. . . He puts his hand behind my neck, pulls me to him and kisses my forehead.”
  • Jade and Sebastian have sex. “Sabastian strokes my hair. We start to kiss. We kiss for a long while. His hands are gentle. I guess that’s the only thing that is necessary to know about Sebastian and me on that hard dock, the blanket around us. He is careful, so very careful with me.”
  • While in the high school library, someone sees Jade’s mother kiss the librarian. The girl tells Jade, “Someone had their tongue down someone’s throat, is what I heard.” When Jade confronts her mother, she doesn’t deny it.

Violence

  • During a football game, Jade’s brother is hurt. He tells Jade, “Number forty-six. Jeez, he just bashed his shoulder into my chest, and when I was on the ground, he steps on my leg with his cleat.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Michael went to a party that had “more booze than a liquor store convention.” While there he “had half a beer and I could barely talk.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often when the teens talk. Profanity includes ass, bastard, bitch, crappy, damn, goddamn, fuck, and shit.
  • Jesus, God, oh my God, and for God’s sake are frequently used as exclamations.
  • When Jade hears baboons scream, it frightens her. When her dad shows up, he says, “God, Jade. Zoo animals! Baboons, for Christ sake.”
  • Jade tells her counselor that she feels “like shit.”
  • Jade tells her brother that the guy that tackled him in football is a “bastard. The minute he gets off the field I’m going to kick him in the balls.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jade’s friend Jenna has begun going to church. Jenna gets upset when some of her friends “take the Lord’s name in vain.”
  • A couple of Jade’s friends think it would be fun to be the Pope for a day.
  • While watching the webcam, Jade sees Sebastian praying.
  • Jade lights candles to different patron saints and prays to them. “There’s a saint for everything . . . They got these cool candles for each different one, a column of tall glass with a picture of the saint on the front, and a matching prayer on the back, one in English and one in Spanish.” Jade says several of the prayers.

 

 

 

Defending Taylor

Taylor Lukens, the daughter of Senator Lukens of Tennessee, has grown up with the philosophy of working hard. She needs to work hard at school and extracurricular activities to get accepted into Yale or another Ivy League school, an expectation of her family—and especially her father. However, when school officials find her with a bag of her boyfriend’s pills, she takes the fall and is kicked out of her boarding school. All of a sudden, her chances of Yale and her father’s reelection get smaller. Will she be able to manage the weight of her lies and her family’s expectations?

Defending Taylor is a story that perfectly captures the pressure that is placed on soon-to-be high school graduates. Taylor struggles between her family’s expectations and her own passions. When she starts to fall for a family friend Ezra, she starts to understand that some risks are positive. With the support of Ezra and her new friends on the soccer team, she tries to follow her dreams and still make her father proud. She realizes that taking the blame for another’s mistakes has cost her a lot and that coming clean is important.

Although this story may seem at first glance to be all about sports, it is not. Soccer is simply a unifying part of the story because it is told from Taylor’s point of view, and soccer is an important part of her life. It helps her build friendships and allows her to do something that she genuinely enjoys. While readers will enjoy the scenes where she is at practice and games, readers should not expect a story revolving around soccer. The story is mainly about Taylor’s budding romance with Ezra and her struggle to live up to her family’s expectations.

Readers will connect with Taylor’s struggles to make friends at her new school and the pressure she feels to please her parents. This story portrays family conflict as a natural part of growing up. While this may seem negative, Taylor’s parents are misguided yet loving family members. There are several good scenes between Taylor and her father. Even though Taylor wants to be perfect, she and other characters are shown to have flaws, making them more relatable.

Defending Taylor is an easy-to-read story that deals with teen issues. The ending is predictable yet satisfying, because everyone finds their way to happiness, even if it’s not where they thought it would be. The story doesn’t shy away from the tough topic of Adderall, Ritalin, and other drugs. Defending Taylor has a good storyline, but the unnecessary profanity and steam sex scenes may turn off some readers.

Sexual Content

  • As Taylor walks the halls of her new public school, she sees “a couple is making out against the wall next to the fire alarm.”
  • Jenna, Taylor’s sister, is being described. She asks for music to be turned down so she can read “a hot sex scene” in one of the historical romance books that she loves. She is also characterized as being “horny” and someone who enjoys sleeping around.
  • Taylor thinks back about her and Ben’s, her ex-boyfriend’s, relationship. “We lost our virginity to each other.”
  • While texting with her friends Steph and Madison, Taylor gets a text saying that she should “lick” Ezra because he is so attractive.
  • Someone makes a joke about Taylor dating Ben, who was a scholarship student. “You’re really dating down, huh, Lukens? You must like ‘em on their knees.”
  • Taylor has had a crush on Ezra since they were younger. When describing their past, she thinks of the first time she wore a bikini around him. “He checked out my boobs.” Later, she thinks, “My first kiss, my first hookup, my virginity. I wanted him to have them all.”
  • Taylor remembers her time with Ben at St. Andrews boarding school. “Sometimes, his hands would inch under my plaid skirt and cup my bottom through my underwear.” She misses him but thinks, “I can take care of my needs myself.” She then remembers how they lost their virginity to each other. “I’d never touched a guy there before, and when I saw him naked, I was afraid that when we did have sex, it would hurt.”
  • When Ben and Taylor are in the woods together, they have sex. “He pushed up my plaid skirt, pulled down my panties, rolled on a condom, then crawled on top of me.”
  • Taylor jokes in her head that she expects a man flirting with her in a coffee shop to “send a horny pelvic thrust in my direction.”
  • Nicole, a girl on Taylor’s soccer team, is rude to Taylor and says, “He said pairs. Not threesomes. Is that the kind of shit you’re into? Two guys at once?”
  • Jack Goodwin, a supporting character, is said to be “shacking up with the help.”
  • At a wedding, someone tells a crude joke. “‘What do you call a bad circumcision.?’ Jack asks. ‘A rip-off!’”
  • Taylor and Ezra are together alone at his apartment. They start kissing and “his hands trail up and down my arms. . . I pull him hard against me. . . His gaze grows heated as his fingers gently caress my breast through my shirt. . . I push my hips into his. . . He discovers the bluebird tattoo on my ankle, kissing it once before his lips begin working their way back up my legs and between them. His hands join his mouth.” Later, he says that their relationship probably isn’t a good idea. Taylor is shocked; she thinks “I just went down on him—I would’ve slept with him if he’d asked.”
  • Taylor and Ezra go on a date after deciding to be together and come back to his house. “He crawls on top of me, moving his hips against mine. I grip his bottom, pulling him closer. He groans at the sensation.” Taylor asks him a question about a previous girl and then they continue to kiss. “I press my hips to his and rock, loving the intimate feel of him.” The scene ends after Taylor accidentally falls off the bed.
  • Taylor and Ezra finally decide to sleep together. “His fingertips slide up and down my spine. . . he presses his hot mouth against my core. I tangle my fingers in his hair until I can’t wait any longer.” They have sex, but it is not described in any more detail.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Taylor gets in trouble at her boarding school for being in possession of enough Adderall to be put into juvenile detention. While at school there, she takes Adderall occasionally to study, but the drugs were her boyfriend’s. She does not take any drugs during the course of the novel.
  • Before Taylor was caught in the woods with all the pills, her and Ben drank “a bottle of Jack Daniel’s” together.
  • When talking about how she always follows the rules, Taylor thinks about how her behavior is not that bad. “Sure, I drink alcohol when I have the opportunity. I drop the F-bomb pretty fucking frequently.”
  • Taylor is worried she will be known as “the druggie girl.”
  • After the reason why Taylor was kicked out of St. Andrews is made public, a student at her new school keeps approaching her for Ritalin. She looks it up and learns it’s as addictive as cocaine.
  • Taylor’s brother Oliver comes home from college. Oliver and Ezra start taking shots in the kitchen after having a talk about Ezra dating Taylor. Taylor ends up stealing two shots. All of them are underage.

Language

  • Profanity is used every few pages. Profanity includes ass, assholes, hell, damn, shit, bullshit, bitchy, bitch, and fuck.
  • God and goddamned are used a couple times.
  • “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” is used as an exclamation several times.
  • Motherfucking, badass, dick, bastard, and dipshit are all used once or twice.
  • The narrator uses the phrase “having the balls” to do something several times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jenna is described as being a perfect daughter. Taylor says, “She goes to Bible study, for crying out loud.”
  • Taylor describes her new calculus teacher as having “the most Biblical beard I’ve ever seen.” She thinks, “Seriously, this guy could’ve given Moses a run for his money.”
  • Taylor’s siblings Jenna and Oliver went on a mission trip to Mexico to build houses.

by Hannah Neeley

Paper Valentine

In the last six months, Hannah’s life has been turned upside down because Hannah’s best friend Lillian died and is now haunting her. Not only is Hannah struggling to understand the self-destructive behavior that led to Lillian’s death, but she is also grappling with changes in her elite friend group. When Hannah runs into bad boy Finny, she can’t decide if she should stay away from the boy with a bad reputation or if she should explore her growing attraction to him.

Then, when someone begins murdering young girls and leaving behind paper valentines, Lilian’s ghost encourages Hannah to look into the crimes. As Hannah discovers gruesome details about the murders, the ghosts of the dead girls begin appearing. But why do they appear when Finny is near? And by investigating, is Hannah making herself a target for the murderer?

Over the course of the book, Hannah struggles with depression and dealing with the death of Lillian. To make matters worse, Lillian has changed in death. Lillian criticizes Hannah for spending time with her friends, even though they were Lillian’s friends when she was alive. Lillian is mean to Hannah and says things like, “Hannah doesn’t like to live in real life. Hannah just wants to pretend that we all live in happy fairy-land, where everyone is super-best friends and no one is a heinous bitch and nothing bad is ever going to happen.” Although much of Hannah’s behavior seems week, she is like many teenagers who struggle with wanting to fit in.

Paper Valentine does an excellent job showing the complexities of people. Although most people think Finny is just a delinquent, he also has a streak of kindness. Hannah is able to look past Finny’s ‘bad boy’ image and see his good side. In addition, Hannah realizes that she and Lillian, “were always trying so hard to be perfect . . . when the funny thing was, we didn’t have to.”

Paper Valentine bounces from topic to topic, including the desire to be perfect, depression, eating disorders, child abuse, and ghosts. None of the topics are dealt with in detail and will leave the readers with unanswered questions. The conclusion was predictable, typical, and lacks insight into the mind of the killer. Those looking for an excellent murder mystery may want to bypass Paper Valentine. Despite its flaws, Paper Valentine is an enjoyable, unique story that junior high readers will enjoy. Paper Valentine is a fast-paced story that has a bit of a scare factor due to the ghosts. Readers will enjoy looking for clues to discover the murderer, and Hannah and Finny have some sweet moments.

Sexual Content

  • While watching the news, someone makes a comment about the news correspondents. “I bet they make out like hyenas as soon as Jim Dean starts giving the weather report.”
  • A boy that Hannah knows “used to go out with Lillian in junior high and now sometimes made out with Angelie.”
  • A boy at school would “grab girls around the waist when they walked by his table in the cafeteria last year and say things like, ’Want to sit on my lap and talk about the next thing that pops up.’”
  • When Hannah picks out some lipstick, she’s afraid her friend will think the “colors are perfect for a disco-clown hooker.”
  • When Hannah thinks of pressing her hips against Finny, “the thought of this is electric, beating in my chest like a birthday wish, dark and warm and secret.”
  • Finny and Hannah kiss several times. The first time, Finny “bends his head and kisses me, just once, then lets me go. When Connor would kiss Angelie in the halls last spring, he did it like he was trying to suck the chocolate off the outside of a Klondike bar. It could last hours. This is more like seeing a star fall—thrilling and soundless and then over.”
  • When Finny kisses Hannah a second time, “his tongue brushes the curve of my bottom lip, grazing the hollow underneath, and something leaps and fidgets in my chest. . . I want him to never stop.”
  • When Hannah goes to Dairy Queen, a girl she knows was “leaning against the side of the little brick building, frantically kissing Austin Dean.”
  • A boy asks, “Hey, do you think if I bleached my hair and started vandalizing street signs or something, Carmen would let me near those exquisite titties?”
  • While in a public place, Hannah kisses Finny so that her friends will see. “He doesn’t react right away, but then his hands move to my hips.”

Violence

  • When someone was bothering Hannah, Finny came to her aid. “Finny had Connor by the collar of his shirt and was holding him so their foreheads were almost touching, but he didn’t say anything. He just leaned over me while Connor yanked on Finny’s wrist, trying to get loose. . . With his hand on the back of Connor’s neck, Finny held Connor away from me. . .”
  • Hannah talks about the murder of Monica Harris. “One of the city garbage collectors found her out in the parking lot behind the Bowl-A-Rama in her pink polyester jacket, beaten dead with a piece of two-by-four and her own ice skates.”
  • Hannah looks at the crime scene photos and sees, “Her face is shockingly white—dead white—and there are dark finger-shaped bruises all over one shoulder. In the blue evening light, the bruises look black. Almost as black as the blood that’s splashed in the weedy grass around her.” The photo is described over five paragraphs.
  • When Finny was younger, a dog bit off his finger. He also has cigarette burns on his back. The abuse is not described.
  • While in elementary school, Hannah was mean to Finny, and he washed her face with snow. “The snow was weeks old, crusty with ice, and when he scrubbed my face with it, the crystals were so sharp they made me bleed.”
  • A boy is in foster care because “his dad was using him for a punching bag.”
  • Hannah and a group of people find a dead body. “I’m looking into the face of a girl, and there’s blood in her hair and splashed down the side of her neck. There’s a smell. . . Her face is pale blue in the light. . .” The scene is described over three paragraphs.
  • The murderer tries to kill Hannah. “He turns and grabs me by the shoulders, slamming me hard against the wall of the bridge. . . When I try to squirm away, prying at his fingers with my free hand, he gives me a shake that nearly pops my shoulder out of its socket. . . That’s when he slaps me. . .” The murderer hits Hannah’s head with something heavy. She is injured but survives. The scene takes place over a chapter.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A shop owner “runs off prints of scowling tattooed drug dealers and drunk, disorderly frat boys standing against a dirty wall outside one of the college bars.”
  • The Qwick-mart has “smashed beer bottles” on the ground outside.
  • Hannah remembers when Lillian was younger and “took that bottle of Sour Apple Pucker from her mom’s liquor cabinet, and we drank it in the back of her garage.”
  • Lillian thinks her mother, “spent the last three years drinking a perfectly decent chardonnay on the couch and waiting for me to stop being so dramatic.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, asshole, bastard, bitch, crappiest, damn, fuck, goddamn, pussies, hell, shit, shitty.
  • Thank god, Jesus, and God are used as exclamations. For example, Hannah’s friends tell her, “God, you’re such a weenie sometimes.”
  • Finny tells someone, “Don’t be a douche.”
  • Ghost Lillian calls a boy a pervert.
  • When a girl’s thong is showing, someone says, “Damn! That is just too much ass for those jeans!”
  • Finny took a stolen bracelet away from a boy and gave it back to Hannah. When she asks if the boy was mad, Finny replies, “Do I give a shit? He can fucking deal with it! I told him that maybe he’s free to act like a total dick any other time, but not to girls and little kids. Not when he’s with me.”

Supernatural

  • Hannah’s friend is a ghost. Hannah narrates, “Ghosts are the kind of thing you go your whole life with everyone telling you they aren’t real. I believe in them anyways, because the world is full of things that no one actually understands. Mostly though, I believe in them because my best friend died six months ago and now she’s with me all the time, materializing silently out of the shadows, creeping closer, reaching out.”
  • Several times, Hannah uses an Ouija board to talk to the spirits of the murdered girls.

Spiritual Content

  • The murderer tells Hannah, “As far as those little bitches knew, I was God.”

 

 

 

Five Feet Apart

Stella Grant has cystic fibrosis, making her no stranger to hospitals and surgeries. Despite her precarious lung function, she’s pretty used to being in control. That is until a handsome hospital newcomer, Will Newman, arrives, sending Stella into a whirlwind of feelings she’s never experienced before. Feelings she didn’t think she’d ever get to experience.

Will is bad news for Stella. His floppy black hair and sea-blue eyes are no danger compared to his incredibly aggressive and contagious form of CF, B. Capaecia. Not to mention that he refuses to follow the doctor’s orders or participate fully in his treatments, which drives Stella absolutely mad.

A not-so-classic forbidden love story ensues. Stella and Will must figure out how to navigate their relationship while maintaining their required distance apart. With their feelings growing and changing, those five feet apart began to feel larger and larger.

Five Feet Apart is a sweet romance with elements of fierce friendship and family turmoil. Stella and Will start out seeing each other as complete opposites but come to realize they have a lot in common. The most important thing they discover is how much they care for one another. Five Feet Apart is not only informative about Cystic Fibrosis, but also witty and entertaining.

Teens will be drawn into the character’s drama right from the start. Both Will and Stella are likable characters, who have their quirks and unique attributes. The story alternates between Will and Stella’s point of view, which makes it hard not to feel for and relate to both characters.

Following the same type of formulas as The Fault in Our Stars and Everything, Everything, Lippincott delivers an emotional, easy-to-read novel chronicling young love. Even though the story’s plot is familiar, Five Feet Apart is worth reading because it describes not only the common turmoil of teenage romance but also puts these commonplace emotions in an uncommon setting, which makes the story thought-provoking and fresh. Romantic and heartwarming to the extreme, this book will command the reader’s attention from start to finish.

Sexual Content

  • Stella is resting during the evening, when she gazes “out the window as the afternoon fades and sees a couple about my age, laughing and kissing as they walk into the hospital.”
  • Stella realizes that Will is letting his friends use his bed for sex. “Oh my god. Gross. He’s letting his friends do it in his room, like it’s a motel.” Stella confronts Will, saying “You letting your friends borrow your room for sex isn’t cute.” Will takes this to mean Stella has something against sex, to which Stella proclaims, “‘Of course not! I’ve had sex.’”
  • Will is reflecting on his encounter with Stella and says she actually looked kind of hot.
  • Stella is describing Poe’s romantic life. Stella describes his past relationships, “Before Michael it was Tim, the week after this it could be David.”
  • Stella has convinced Will to follow his medicine regimen in exchange for her letting him draw her. She tells him there will be no nude drawings allowed.
  • Will asks Poe if he and Stella have ever “hooked up.”
  • Will jokes to Stella that since he can’t meet Bob Ross, he’ll “just have to settle for sex in the Vatican.”
  • Stella is preparing for her first date with Will. Stella “put on some mascara and lip gloss, smiling at the idea of Will seeing me not just alive, but with makeup on, his blue eyes gazing at my gloss-covered lips. Would he want to kiss me?” She also enlists Poe’s help to pick out an outfit. “I pull out a pair of skimpy, silky boxers, eyeing them. I couldn’t. Could I?”
  • Will and Stella are on their first date. While on the date, “She reaches for her silk tank top, her eyes fixed on mine as she pulls it slowly off to reveal a black lace bra. She drops the tank top onto the deck of the pool, my jaw going with it. Then she slips down her shorts, stepping carefully out of them and straightening up. Inviting me to look.” Will looks at her, but knows he can’t do anything more than that.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Will is reminiscing on his time in public high school, “where my old classmates are slowly chugging their way to finals.”

Language

  • Oh my god and my god are often used as exclamations.
  • Stella says goodbye to her friends leaving for Cabo. “Your plane is at, like, the ass crack of dawn tomorrow.”
  • Stella says the food at prom didn’t suck. She later says she’s been at this hospital for a “freaking decade.”
  • All of the CF patients mention not wanting to “piss off” Barb, because she’s such a “hard ass.”
  • Will and Stella often refer to their circumstances as shitty or bullshit.
  • Will is dreaming about his future once he turns 18. “I could sketch the landscape, draw a final cartoon of me giving the middle finger to the universe, then bite the big one.”
  • Damn is used often. Barb and the adults in the story often use “damn” when a surgery doesn’t go well.
  • Fucking is used occasionally. Some examples are “Are you fucking kidding me,” “That is a complete mind-fuck,” and “All you see of me is my fucking disease.” For example, when Will is in a fight with his mother on his birthday, he screams “all you see of me is my fucking disease.”
  • Poe and Stella call each other a bitch and an asshole during a fight. These words are only used in this encounter.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Will finds Poe sitting in the hospital’s church. When Will asks why he’s there, Poe replies “My mom likes to see me in here. I’m Catholic, but she’s Catholic.”
  • “So what do you think happens when we die?” Will asks Stella.

by Tori Gellman

The War Outside

Margot’s German-American family lived in a small Iowa community. After attending a rally, her father is detained in the family internment camp in Crystal City. In order to keep the family together, Margot and her mother follow him. Since being in the internment camp, her mother’s health is deteriorating and her father is changing. Instead of being a loving father, he is spending time with Nazis and learning how to hate.

Haruko wants to pretend that Crystal City is just another town. She’s made friends and goes to school. On the outside, she looks calm, but on the inside, she is stricken by fear. She questions her father’s innocence and wants to know what he is hiding. Her soldier brother, who is fighting in the Japanese-American unit of the US Army, is also keeping secrets. Haruko wants to know the truth, but will the truth help her family or destroy it?

A dust storm throws Haruko and Margot together. Despite being of different ethnicities, the two start a secret friendship. The two begin to trust and rely on each other. Can this fragile friendship last in the desert prison camp or will the two discover that hate is stronger?

The War Outside gives readers a glimpse of the fear caused by World War II and explains why the internment camps came to exist. Margot’s family highlights how being imprisoned in an internment camp begins to change everyone. Margot’s father’s anger begins to control his actions, and he begins spending time with Nazi sympathizers. Margot struggles with the fact that she loves her father, but doesn’t approve of his actions. Margot knows that “marching with a Nazi swastika is not like algebra, where you can get the wrong answer but be right some of the time. This is all wrong.”

The story is told from the perspectives of both Haruko and Margot, which allows the reader to understand the motivation of both characters. The struggles of the internment camp bring Haruko and Margot together, and they both have romantic feelings for each other. While the girls’ attraction is hinted at, the topic is not explored in depth which makes it hard to relate to the girls’ strong feelings for each other. In the end, Haruko wonders how she can make a decision based on a moment, “for a person I have known barely a month? For a feeling that was so fast and so strong, and that I can barely even describe?” The reader is left wondering the same thing—why are the two girls so devastated by the other’s actions?

There are several family conflicts that should have been explored in more detail. Even though it is clear that the girls love their families, the story lacks family interaction that would have brought their relationships into focus. In the end, the characters lack development, the ending seems rushed, and the conclusion falls flat. Although the story is an interesting read, it will be easily forgotten.

Sexual Content

  • Margot and Haruko hide so they can talk. As they are talking, “I (Haruko) press my index and middle finger to my own mouth, which suddenly feels hot and swollen, and hold them there for a minute, and then I take those same fingers and press them against Margot’s. Her lips are chapped. She closes her eyes. . . I feel my pulse, very faintly, in the tips of my fingers, pressing against the cool of Margot’s lips, and slowing so that every beat crashes in my ears.” The two are interrupted.
  • While talking to Haruko, Margot “has a sudden urge to touch her nose, her hair, to go with her to the icehouse where it’s dark and private. There is throbbing, deep in the pit of my stomach.”

Violence

  • Haruko accidentally hit her sister. Her sister’s “mouth falls open and she reaches to where there are four white finger-shaped lines appearing on the side of her face.”
  • Haruko thinks back to when “a car drove past and the window rolled down and the driver threw a bottle of soda at us that splashed all over our clothes.”
  • While in the internment camp, Margot finds out that someone “painted swastikas on the barn and burned the house to the ground.” Her family has no home to return to.
  • Margot’s father tries to hit his pregnant wife. When Margo stops him, she “reached for his hand and he pulls away from me, and then I’m off balance and spilling to the ground. My mother rushed towards me, but she’s forgotten about the fallen chair. Her foot twists around the rung, and instead of shooting her hands out in front of herself for support the way I did, she’s kept them wrapped around her midsection, protecting her baby.” Her mom ends up with a bruised face.
  • There is news that at another internment camp, a riot began and, “guards fired into the crowd with a machine gun. . . Two people died.”
  • Two girls drown in the swimming pool. They are “pulled out of the pool, limp as rag dolls.” When people get upset, a guard points a rifle at the people.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The general store sells cigarettes and German beer.
  • Some of the men at the internment camp are “building secret distilleries to get drunk on grain alcohol.” This is discussed several times.

Language

  • Thank God, for God’s sake, and Oh God are used as exclamations several times.
  • Someone calls Haruko a “yellow bitch.”
  • A man tells Margot that she would like his son because he’s “not an ass like me.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During a funeral, the mourners “sing hymns that most of us know by rote. We recite the Apostles’ Creed, we recite the lord’s prayer.”

 

Travel Team

Danny Walker has a head for basketball. With his dad being the famous Richie Walker, a professional basketball player, basketball is in Danny’s DNA. Just as his dad led his seventh-grade travel team to the finals, Danny hopes to have the same chance this year. But when he doesn’t make the team due to his size, those hopes fade. With his dad back in town and a band of unlikely teammates, Danny tries to have an amazing season with a new team.

Travel Team is an exciting story about family and second chances. Danny’s dad comes back to Middletown to get closer to his son and help him develop his basketball skills. His dad is a heavy drinker, but quits to become a better coach and father. Richie teaches the team what it means to play for the love of the game.

The story examines the complicated relationships between parents and children. Danny’s dad has been absent for a lot of his life, but he still hopes for an authentic relationship with him. Although Richie is not a perfect parent, he supports Danny and wants the team to succeed. One of Richie’s flaws is his use of inappropriate language around his wife and his son. Richie is the reason for most of the inappropriate language in this story. While the story includes some explicit language, the story clearly expresses that it is not appropriate language for children. In contrast, Danny’s mom is a character many readers can look up to as an example of a great parent. She understands Danny’s love for the sport and his friends, but she knows when he needs a break. She supports him in his passion for basketball.

Sports lovers will enjoy the detailed play-by-play action. With a balanced mix of characters who play and those who don’t, even readers unfamiliar with the sport will be engaged by the story as they learn about basketball. With an action-packed narrative and funny dialogue between friends, Travel Team is an entertaining read. It does have a relatively familiar sports plot, where the underdogs ultimately come out on top.

Travel Team will engage readers who are looking for a good sports book that also teaches about overcoming obstacles. As the story explores real-life problems, Danny learns the importance of taking responsibility and shows that anyone can become a leader.

Sexual Content

  • Tess, a girl Danny likes, “leaned over and kissed him on the cheek” while they were sitting on the swings in his backyard.

 Violence

  • After Teddy Moran insulted his family, Danny tackled him. After they separated, Danny thought of “Teddy hitting the floor hard as Danny heard people start to yell all around them.” Danny threatens him, “You’re the one who’s going to get hurt.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When his wife asks a difficult question, Richie answers as “he drank down about half his beer in one gulp, like he was incredibly thirsty all of a sudden.”
  • Being dramatic, Richie says the team is “where all the bad boys go when they come out of drug rehab.”
  • Danny’s mom is upset with her husband’s drinking habits. She tells him, it’s “. . . not the children’s fault that you’re still hungover the next night. . . . Quit drinking. Now. . . It’ll be better that way than letting your son be the last one to find out what a drunk you are.”
  • Danny is thinking about parents and how they can be “pissed off” or “hungover.”
  • Richie gets in a car accident in Middletown and tells Danny and his wife that he “wasn’t drunk.” Later, Richie tells his son about the car crash that destroyed his basketball career. “I lost control of the car because I was drunk. . . That was one of the nights I drank a whole six-pack before I got in my jeep.”

 Language

  • Danny’s father, Richie, is one of the few characters who use foul language. Profanity includes: Goddamn, rat’s ass, hell, damn, screw’em, ass, bitching and moaning, for Chrissakes, swear to God, and frigging. Most of these are only used once.
  • Danny describes the park in Middletown, “to feed the butt-ugly ducks.”
  • Danny watches Mr. Ross get upset about try-outs. Danny was “curious to see when Mr. Ross, the most important guy in Middletown, was going to figure out what a jackass he was making of himself.”
  • After the fight, Danny says, “I should have kicked his ass.”
  • Danny says he “could tell how pissed off his mom was” when she is arguing with his father about drinking.
  • Danny uses the word “crap” several times.
  • Coach Kel, an old travel coach of Danny’s, uses “damn” several times. It serves to develop his character.
  • Ross speaks to Ali and Danny about his mistake in not giving Danny a position on his team. He says, “I was so hell bent on maintaining the process.”
  • Danny and Richie talk to each other about Danny coaching the Warriors himself. Danny expresses worry and at one point says “heck no,” to which his dad replies “shut your piehole.”
  • Danny calls the opponents “scumweasels” and “scumwads” while hyping up his team in an important game.

 Supernatural

  • None

 Spiritual Content

  • Richie speaks about planning to start a new basketball team. “It’s like your mom says. You want to make God laugh? Tell Him about your plans.”
  • Richie is talking to his players at the end of a very important game and says, “Thirty seconds in basketball is longer than church.”
  • Danny thinks about his mom and her strange expressions. “God Bless America. It was one of his mom’s expressions when she wanted to swear.”
  • Danny describes his mom’s plans. “His mom was meeting Will’s mom for a girls’ brunch after church on Sunday.”
  • Danny thinks about the possibility of Ty playing for his team. “Having just come from church, he wasn’t sure whether he should be praying for stuff like this, but he was praying hard now that Ty Ross didn’t really hate his guts.”
  • Danny’s teammate Will is sitting on the bench during a game “with a towel on his head that he’d fashioned into some kind of turban.” Danny says to him, “Uh, Mohammed?” Will replies by saying, “I was actually going for that do-rag look.”

By Hannah Neeley

Dragon Pearl

Thirteen-year-old Min lives an ordinary life. No one knows that her family comes from a long line of fox spirits. Her family hides their powers, and Min’s mother doesn’t allow any of them to use fox-magic. Instead of shape-shifting and using Charm, Min always appears as a human.

Min dreams of leaving her dust-ridden planet and joining her brother Jun in the Space Forces. When Min gets older, they hope to see more of the Thousand Worlds together. Then an investigator appears and informs the family that Jun has deserted. The investigator thinks Jun is searching for the mythical Dragon Pearl that is rumored to have tremendous power.

After reading a strange message from Jun, Min knows that something is wrong. Min runs away to search for her brother. During her journey, she will meet gamblers, pirates, and ghosts. She will have to use deception, sabotage, and magic. Min will need all of her courage to complete her journey. Will she be able to find the answers she needs to find her brother?

Sci-fi enthusiasts will enter an imaginative world that includes Korean mythology. The Korean mythology is seamlessly integrated into Min’s story and helps create an interesting world. The story is a perfect blend of mystery, action, and space travel. Although most of the story is fast-paced, parts of the story are difficult to read because of long descriptions.

Dragon Pearl is told from Min’s point of view, which allows the reader to understand her thought process as she searches for her brother. Middle school readers will enjoy reading about Min because of her daring actions and can-do attitude.

Although Min has spent her life hiding her magical abilities, once she leaves her house, she consistently relies on Charm. Readers may question how she can be so skilled using her Charm when she has had no practice. Another bothersome inconsistency is that Min notices when other supernaturals use their powers, but no one notices when Min uses her Charm. Even though Min uses her Charm to deceive others, she is still a likable character. At the end of the book, Min realizes that she should rely less on magic, but it would have been nice to see Min use her brain to solve some problems throughout the story, instead of always using Charm.

The ending is a little predictable, but there are enough surprises to satisfy readers. Middle school readers who are interested in mythology may want to begin with the Percy Jackson Series or Aru Shah and the End of Time, which have better character development as well as humor. Overall, Dragon Pearl creates an interesting world filled with magic. The danger, magic, and mystery will draw readers into the story and keep them engaged. However, some readers may struggle with the long descriptions and difficult vocabulary.

Sexual Content

  • Some people wear “a small symbol next to the name that let me know they should be addressed neutrally, as neither female or male.” One of the characters, a goblin, is gender neutral and referred to as they.

Violence

  • When an investigator finds out that Min is a fox, he “snatched me up by the throat. I scrabbled for air, my fingernails lengthening into claws, and tore desperately at his fingers.” Min turns into a block of metal and fell on the man’s foot. When he lets her go, “I snatched a saucepan and brought it crashing down against his head. He fell without a sound.”
  • Mercenaries attack the ship that Min is on. Min “cried as a burst of violet fire hit us in the side.” The scene takes place over nine pages. Someone pulls Min “behind the copilot’s seat. Great timing: A bolt sizzled over me, where my head had been just a second earlier. . . Two more bolts flew over my head. I peeked around the side of the seat and fired once at the first shadowy figure I saw. I heard a yelp.” Min is hit and “slid out of consciousness.” Later, Min discovers that one cadet died.
  • A person accidently crashed into Min, who is appearing as a boy. Min “emitted a strange yell when the person’s knee accidently connected with my crotch. I was going to have to be more careful about guarding that part of my body!”
  • A space ship is attacked, and the Goblin is injured. “Sunjin jumped back from their workstation, clutching their side. An enormous burning line of light had seared the goblin from the neck all the way to their waist, as though someone had slashed them with a whip of fire. . .”
  • Min discovers that the colonist, “stopped making offerings to the pox spirits, and the spirits took their vengeance by wiping out the colony.”
  • Min helps two mercenaries escape. They get on a ship and the pilot, “blew open the hatch with a missile at short range. . . Acceleration slammed us sideways as our ship veered hard to starboard, then rolled.”
  • Min turns into a bird, and someone shoots at her. “Fire pierced my right wing. . . I plummeted, struggling. . . The pain made me light headed.”
  • A man grabs Min. “I stifled a gasp as his fingers dug into my flesh and he yanked me toward him, wrenching my injured shoulder.” The ghost helps Min escape.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Min knocks the investigator unconscious, her family discusses using a “subtle poison” to kill him.
  • Min questions a guard, who tells her that he got his information from a “drunk spacer who was spilling secrets last night.”
  • Min meets a guard who had, “the flushed skin of someone who had been drinking too much cheap wine, and he reeked of the stuff.”
  • For a few hours, Min works in a gambling hall where she serves wine and uses “Charm to encourage customers to relax.” While working, she gives wine to customers.
  • When Min is injured, she is given a dose of painkiller.

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The main character is a fox spirit, who lives as a human. A fox spirit can, “shape-shift into whatever she wants: human, animal, even a dining room table.” Fox spirits can choose to be female or male. Fox spirits can also use Charm “to manipulate human emotions and make people see things that aren’t there.”
  • Besides fox spirits, there are other supernatural creatures, “such as dragons, who can control weather, and goblins, who can conjure things out of thin air.”
  • Shamans can communicate with ancestors and spirits.
  • Throughout the story, Min uses Charm to disguise herself. The first time, she made, “myself plainer, drabber, harder to see.” She also uses Charm to turn into an inanimate object several times. The majority of the story, she disguises herself as a cadet who had been killed. The cadet is a ghost and gave Min permission to pretend to be him.
  • The story revolves around the Fourth Colony, “whose entire population had perished when they’d angered disease spirits a few centuries ago.” The ghosts of the colonists haunt the planet.
  • A ghost is one of the supporting characters. “Ghosts weren’t necessarily unfriendly, but many of them became vengeful over time, especially if the unfinished business that bound them to the world of the living went unresolved.” Later in the story, the reader learns that “most ghosts were bound near the site of whatever had felled them.”
  • Ghosts can be dangerous because, “wrongful death warped people’s souls and made them vengeful toward the living.”
  • Several times, the goblin uses his magical sport to create food. The first time the goblin uses the magic, “Sunjin waved the sport, and a box of chocolate-dipped cookies magically appeared.”
  • People are looking for the Dragon Pearl, which could, “transform an entire barren world, give it forests and seas and make it suitable for habitation, it could just as easily destroy a world, turn it into a lifeless desert.”
  • Both people and space ships have an energy flow, which affects luck. “Just like you could have flows of good or back luck in a room, depending on how furniture and ornaments were arranged, there could be flows of good or bad luck across star systems and beyond.”
  • Min meets her brother’s ghost. “Through the disheveled locks I recognized the face—what remained of it, anyway. Half of it flickered with ghostly flames, as though he were on fire. Between that, and the hair, I could barely see his surviving eye.”
  • A shaman was “going to rid the Fourth Colony of its ghosts by singing us into the underworld.” The ghosts stop her.
  • Min uses the Dragon Pearl to give the ghosts a proper burial. “The ghosts shimmered, and I could sense their joy.”

Spiritual Content

  • A pilot whispers a “spacer’s prayer that heaven would see us safely through the gate.”
  • When Min’s escape pod crashes, she “prayed to every ancestor I knew to watch over us.”
  • Min sees that the dead colonist “didn’t have gruesome lesions of smallpox, the disease that gods had once wielded to teach humankind respect. . .”

Turtles All the Way Down

Aza and Davis haven’t spoken in years. Their childhood bond fizzled as the distance of adolescence separated their lives. Then Davis’s father, multi-billionaire Russell Pickett, goes missing the night before the police raid his house. Aza doesn’t plan to pursue the mystery of Russell Pickett’s whereabouts.  But there is a one-hundred-thousand-dollar reward, and, as Aza’s best friend Daisy likes to point out, shouldn’t they take advantage of a childhood friendship?

Meanwhile, Aza is grappling with an ever-tightening mental spiral of her own thoughts. Every day she must fight to regain control and stop her fears from consuming her. This story of first love, mystery, and mental health blends effortlessly to create one of John Green’s finest works to date.

Many sensitive topics are discussed and analyzed in this novel, making it a teen must-read. Aza’s difficulties coping with depression and OCD are beautifully articulated, giving the reader a greater understanding of these issues. Aza battles mental health challenges while navigating the complications of everyday life, making this a relatable story for readers who may feel overwhelmed by the weight that life can carry.

However, this story is not for the faint of heart. Younger readers may be disturbed by the sensitive issues the story explores, including the loss of a parent, intense mental health issues, burgeoning teen sexuality, and abandonment. There is also a fair amount of unnecessary profanity that may not be appropriate for younger readers.

The importance of parental figures in the novel highlights an aspect of teen life that is often overlooked in young adult fiction. The parents are presented in the wake of traumatic events as multi-dimensional characters, a contrast to how they are often depicted in other young adult novels.

Fans of John Green’s previous works will not be disappointed as Turtles All the Way Down carries his familiar style and packs the emotional punch that readers have grown to expect from his work. Although the story drags in places, Turtles All the Way Down will delight, inspire, and captivate readers through the masterful use of words, emotions, and thorough development of characters.

Sexual Content

  • Daisy writes fanfiction about Chewbacca’s love life. “In my fic, Chewbacca and Rey were in love. He’s saying it is—and I am quoting—‘criminal’ because it’s interspecies romance. Not sex, even—I keep it rated Teen for the kids out there—just love.” She later defends her argument against human males in the Star Wars universe. “Nobody complains about male humans hooking up with female Twi’leks! Because of course men can choose whatever they want to bone.”
  • Daisy tells David that Aza had a crush on him when they were children. Daisy says, “Holmsey here told me she had a crush on you when you were kids . . . And I was, like, let’s go see him, I bet it’s true love.”
  • The idea of being in a romantic relationship makes Aza feel anxious. “I definitely felt attracted to some people, and I liked the idea of being with someone, but the actual mechanics of it didn’t much suit my talents. Like, parts of typical romantic relationships that made me anxious included 1. Kissing. . .”
  • During a dinner conversation, Daisy asks Aza if “you ever gotten a dick pic? . . . I mean have you ever received an unsolicited, no-context dick pic. Like, a dick pic as a form of introduction.” Daisy then hands Aza a picture that she received on her phone, to which Aza replies, “Yeah, that’s a penis.”
  • Russell Pickett had been sued several times for sexual harassment allegations in the past. These incidents are not described.
  • When Daisy is nervous about going on a date with Mychal, she confides in Aza. “I have not actually made out with a human being in ”
  • Aza has a forearm fetish. “I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been pretty keen on the male forearm.”
  • Aza wants to kiss Davis, despite her anxiety towards germs. “I wondered why I wanted him to kiss me, and how to know why you want to be with someone, how to disentangle the messy knots of wanting.”
  • Aza accidentally walks into a room where “Daisy and Mychal were kissing in a large four-poster bed.”
  • After her first date with Mychal, Daisy weighs the possibility of their future relationship when she has a conversation with Aza. “I actually think upon close examination he is hot. And in general, quite charming and very sexually open and comfortable, although we didn’t do it or anything.”
  • When Aza asks Davis to read his poetry to her, he says, “Reading someone’s poetry is like seeing them naked.” Aza responds to this by saying, “So I’m basically saying I want to see you naked.”
  • After a few times hanging out, Aza and Davis make out. Aza “liked feeling his body against mine, one of his hands tracing my spine . . . I felt my chest tighten, his cold lips and warm mouth, his hands pulling me closer to him through the layers of our coats.” The scene lasts about two pages.
  • When Davis drops Aza off at her house, he “kissed me chastely on my sweaty lips.”
  • Due to her anxiety and the constant spiral in her mind, Aza finds kissing terrifying. She always starts making out with Davis, but once the overwhelming fear of shared microbes takes over, she must pull away. Her therapist says that her anxiety is causing intimacy issues.
  • When Daisy greets Mychal at school, she “threw her arms around him, and kissed him dramatically on the lips, one leg raised at the knee like she was in a movie or something.”
  • There is a brief make-out scene near the climax of the novel. Aza “liked the warmth of his mouth. I wanted more of it. . . I wanted to feel the brain-fuzzing intimacy I’d felt when I kissed him, and I liked kissing him. He was a good kisser.” This scene lasts about half a page.
  • In his blog, Davis writes about E. E. Cummings, saying, “He wrote of love and longing. That often got him laid I’m sure.”
  • Daisy wants to have a tombstone next to Aza that will say, “Holmsey and Daisy: They did everything together, except the nasty.”
  • Daisy feels that her virginity is inescapable, which is a problem she had with her relationship with Mychal. Daisy is upset that “he doesn’t want to have sex unless he’s in love, and yes, I know that virginity is a misogynistic and oppressive social construct, but I still want to lose it.”

Violence

  • Aza and Daisy get into a car crash in which Aza is hospitalized because she sustains serious injuries. Following the crash, Aza “lifted myself up, and the pain blinded me for a minute, but the black dots scattered so I could see the damage.”
  • Aza and Daisy smell Pickett’s body rotting. They aren’t sure and do not look, but they tell Davis who later notifies the authorities. The news reports that “Pickett likely died of exposure.” The dead body is not described.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Aza takes medication for her anxiety. “I’d had a bit of a crack-up my freshman year, after which I was prescribed a circular white pill to be taken once daily. I took it, on average, maybe thrice weekly.” She also takes supplemental medication when she is feeling panicky.
  • When Aza and her mom discuss how to pay for college, she says, “I’ve got plenty of time to win the lottery. And if that doesn’t work out, I’ll just pay for school by selling meth.”
  • When having dinner at Applebee’s, Aza jokingly asks the server for a glass of red wine.
  • When her mom asks her about her thoughts on taking medication for her mental health, Aza thinks, “I wasn’t convinced the circular white pill was doing anything when I did take it, and for another, I was not taking it quite as often as I was technically supposed to.” Later, when talking to her therapist, she says, “Who’s deciding what me means—me or the employees of the factory that makes Lexapro? It’s like I have this demon inside of me, and I want it gone, but the idea of removing it via pills is. . . weird.”
  • Davis describes his father as hiding “cash like alcoholics hide vodka bottles.”
  • Davis’s little brother gets caught with pot at school. This scene is not described.
  • Aza begins ingesting hand sanitizer after kissing Davis in an attempt to kill the bacteria. “I pulled the hand sanitizer out of my jacket and squeezed a glob of it into my mouth. I gagged a little as I swished the burning slime of it around my mouth, then swallowed.”
  • When Aza has a rough night devoid of sleep, Daisy says, “You look like you just got off work from your job playing a ghoul at a haunted house, and now you’re in a parking lot trying to score some meth.”
  • After the car accident, Aza has to take large doses of pain medication.
  • While in the hospital, Aza says, “Even though I was pretty high on morphine or whatever, I couldn’t sleep.”
  • After Aza attempts to drink hand sanitizer in the hospital, the staff, “figured me for an alcoholic—that I’d gone to the sanitizer because I was desperate for a drink.”
  • Davis’s younger brother Noah sinks into depression after their father’s disappearance. Davis remarks, “It’s like Noah’s two people almost: There’s the miniature dude bro who drinks bad vodka and is the king of his little gang of eighth-grade pseudo-badasses. And then the kid who crawls into bed with me some nights and cries.”
  • Daisy, Aza, and Mychal go to an art show where they see an image of “a portly rat drinking a bottle of wine.” During the art show, wine is passed around.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently throughout the book. This includes holy shit, hell, shit, dumbass, fuck, bullshit, and asshole.
  • Oh my God, Christ, God, thank God, and oh God are used frequently as exclamations.
  • Daisy bemoans the ugliness of her Chuck E. Cheese uniform and calls it, “Fucking systematic oppression.”
  • Davis calls his dad, “a huge shitbag.”
  • After saying something a little rude to Aza, Davis says, “That probably sounded dickish.”
  • Russell Pickett is described as being, “skeezy as hell.”
  • Daisy pretends to be someone’s boss and says, “He went to the fucking office and emailed me scans of the fucking police report.”
  • Davis says that he is “just so goddamned lonely” and that he had a “shitty day.”
  • Aza talks about the parasites that she fears and says, “The parasite breeds there, and then baby parasites get crapped into the water by birds.”
  • When asking Noah what he is doing in his video game, he says, “kickin’ ass and takin’ names.”
  • After going on a date with Mychal, Daisy says, “Do not think I am becoming the best friend who falls in love and ditches her bitches.”
  • In text messages, Davis repeatedly says that he likes Aza’s ass.
  • When trapped in her mental spiral, Aza repeatedly thinks, “oh for fuck’s sake.”
  • Daisy created a character in her Star Wars fan fiction that was based on Aza, and doing so was regarded as a “dick move.”

 Supernatural

  • Aza personifies her mental illness as a demon that is trapped within her body.

Spiritual Content

  • Davis says, “Star Wars is the American religion.” Mychal responds by saying, “I think religion is the American religion.”
  • Daisy laments about how adults, particularly her parents, don’t seem to care. She says, “You watch them try to fill themselves up with booze or money or God or fame or whatever they worship, and it all rots them from the inside until nothing is left but the money or booze or God they thought would save them.”
  • Aza thinks about what it is to be like within her spiral or within love and she says, “I knew what it was like to be in a feeling, to be not just surrounded by it but also permeated by it, the way my grandmother talked about God being everywhere.”

by Morgan Filgas

The Penderwicks at Last

The Penderwicks are back for the final installment of Jeanne Birdsall’s beloved series about family, friendship, and adventure. The entire family is coming together once again for a wedding, and it just so happens to be at their favorite place in the world, the Arundel estate. Lydia, the youngest Penderwick sister, is now eleven years old and is a boundless ball of dancing energy, excited to experience the wonderful place that she has heard so many stories about. New surprises await as the charming family returns to the estate where it all began.

Following the same simple, yet charming style of the first four books, The Penderwicks at Last is a delightful read. However, it is the least interesting of the series. Although it has the trademark humor and wonder that captivated readers from the beginning, this book tends to drag and lose momentum. Curious readers excited to discover the fate of the family that they have grown to love may find that part of the magic has faded.

The best elements of the book include when Lydia interacts with her family, rather than what the majority of the book focuses on–her relationship with her new friend Alice. As Lydia becomes a better person over the course of her stay at the enormous estate, she learns important lessons about kindness, friendship, and familial bonds.

The story revolves around Lydia as she navigates and discovers Arundel for the first time. She begins to understand the secrets of what makes the Berkshire estate so magical to her family, from the gardens to the rolling fields, allowing the reader to feel the wonder and excitement along with her. Since Lydia was only in the last two books of the series, she is less fascinating than her siblings are. Readers willing to overlook this will find it an enjoyable tale of weddings, space alien movies, and new friendships.

Although The Penderwicks at Last can be read as a stand-alone novel, readers will find the story more amusing if they have read the previous books. Younger readers may find the diction difficult and may not be interested in the older characters and their adult problems.

Despite disappointments for long-time fans of the series, Birdsall uses her trademark style to create a story that is still pleasant to read. Mimicking the mood and story arc of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, The Penderwicks at Last is a feel-good story for readers of all ages.

Sexual Content

  • Batty has a boyfriend from college named Wesley who is a dedicated art student. “Lydia liked him more than any of Batty’s boyfriends from high school. Indeed, he was among her top four or five picks of all her sisters’ boyfriends put together.”
  • Jane has distinctive views about love in her life. “She cared only about becoming a great novelist. Everything else was secondary, including love and romance. Those she’d sworn off after a few heartbreaks had used too much of her writing time.”
  • When they were young, Enam promised to marry Lydia when they grew up. When Enam gets a girlfriend when he is older, Lydia “wasn’t awfully upset, but was also comforted when Aunt Claire told her that boys–even her own two sons–can be dopes when it comes to love, and then took Lydia out for ice cream and a movie.”
  • Tifton perpetually is getting married, divorced, and remarried.
  • Alice tells Lydia the story of how her parents fell in love. “Dad met her when they both started teaching . . . and fell in love with her because of how talented she was, but then he had to beat out the math teacher, the gym teacher, and also Mom’s boyfriend from college before he could win her heart.”
  • When Lydia is trying to stage a procession rehearsal for the wedding, Rosalind, “sneaked off with Tommy to hide behind the pavilion, where they thought they couldn’t be seen.” Alice laments that they are kissing again.

Violence

  • Lydia dislikes a girl in her dance class. Lydia wishes that she could, “do something dramatic about her dislike–shout it to the world or kick Deborah in the shins.”
  • Alice has a conspiracy theory about Mrs. Tifton murdering her husbands in her giant mansion. “She could have poisoned them and used the ax to chop them into pieces. Look right there….I bet that’s blood.”
  • In a tragic scene of Ben’s sci-fi movie, Alice acts out the part of a dying alien who gets murdered. They shoot this scene several times and Alice is regarded as being very good at it.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jeffrey comes back home to Arundel. “He spotted me at the tunnel and thought, What the heck is that, and do I need to protect my friends from it–”

Supernatural

  • Arundel is described as a magical place. “Jane had said that the stone pillars were a magical boundary that kept out the real world.”
  • Alice believes that all of Mrs. Tifton’s husbands became ghosts after she allegedly killed them. “The husbands could now be ghosts, waiting for their revenge.” These ghosts make Lydia reluctant to sleep alone in the mansion.

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Morgan Filgas

 

 

Amber House

Sarah had never seen Amber House, the family estate until her family traveled to Maryland in order to sell it. The house has been in the family for three hundred years, but Sarah doesn’t care – that is, until she starts seeing visions of its past. It turns out the women of Amber House have the gift of seeing the home’s echoes, and not all of them are moments for which the family would like to be remembered.

Despite her fear, the lure of hidden diamonds keeps Sarah at Amber House, digging to uncover its secrets. As her family gets closer to selling the estate, Sarah becomes more attached, desperate to save her family’s heritage. But when her little brother gets trapped in the in-between world of spirits and memories, Sarah realizes her family heritage is darker than she had ever imagined.

Filled with beautiful imagery, Amber House is a delight from beginning to end. The constant unraveling of numerous mysteries is complemented by the troubles of a normal teenage girl—parental discord, family drama, and a sprinkle of romance that complements the story while not becoming overbearing. In a surprising feat, the main and supporting cast of characters are all well-developed, creating a story full of people to root and long for.

While this story has a fair amount of violence, it is not graphically described. For a young adult novel, the sexual content and language are also refreshingly mild. The book is a must-read because of the well-developed cast, beautiful imagery, and a delectably unique storyline. Also, the main character, Sarah, is extremely likable. Overall, Amber House is a joy to read and it leaves readers desperately hoping the sequel can live up to its predecessor’s impressive feat.

Sexual Content

  • Sarah’s dad cheated on her mother before the start of the book. “He’d gotten a little too close to Sammy’s overly friendly pediatrician back in Seattle.”
  • It’s mentioned in passing that the founder of John Hopkins Hospital “fell in love with his first cousin, Elizabeth” and that neither one “of this tragic pair ever got married.”
  • Sarah idly flips through a magazine and sees a Cosmo article titled, “Ten Spicy Ways to Do It in the Summer!”
  • At a party, Sarah follows Kathryn “up the carpeted steps, her nearly naked bottom exactly two steps up and directly in front of my face. No cellulite, I noted.”
  • Sarah and Richard kiss several times. “He leaned over, put his finger under my chin. He hesitated a moment, then gave me the softest kiss. I liked it. I liked it a lot.”
  • Richard’s friends go swimming in their underwear. Sarah sits on the side and watches. “Chad stopped undressing when he got down to his boxers. He took a running jump and cannonballed into the pool. Kathryn—now in nothing but a matching bra and panty set—followed.”
  • Sarah’s mom thinks the senator wants something from her. “He may be looking for a – companion. . . Or maybe he’s more ambitious. He’s single, I’m newly wealthy, and he doesn’t seem to like it much when your father is around.”
  • Sarah sees a man and woman kissing in a vision, but the woman seems to see Sarah too. “‘You’re watching, aren’t you?’ she said. ‘What, honey?’ the man said, not stopping, slipping the shoulder of Fiona’s dress down to reveal bare skin. ‘It’s all right,’ she said to the door—to me. ‘Sometimes I watch too.’”
  • Sarah sends her best friend an email. “You will not believe where I am. . .in the bedroom of the Abercrombie model…and no, we’re not doing anything except picking up some party clothes, you filthy-minded hussy.”
  • Sarah and Richard kiss in the garden. “He kissed me again, harder, more urgently, his hands folding my face, and I found myself kissing him hungrily, my fingers in his hair.”

Violence

  • Jackson tells the story of a “car accident when I was three. Burned me pretty bad all over my left side. . . got a head injury and a few broken ribs, but I survived. My parents didn’t.”
  • Sarah sees a young girl trying to drown a baby in a vision. “Oh, God. Two little fists flailing; the dark curls on the top of a small head submerged under roiling water. A black woman ran up, shoved the girl back, and snatched the baby from the tub.” The girl tells the woman, “You can’t save it, you know. The gypsy told Papa it has to die.”
  • Later Sarah sees the same black woman being whipped. “He stopped in front of a black woman, stripped naked to the waist, bound by her wrists to a low branch of the tree. ‘Where’s the child, you damned witch?’ She did not answer. . . and bleeding welts crisscrossed the white stripes of old scars on both sides of her spine. Dark drops sprayed from the blow, and I could see that the crop’s leather was stained wet brown.”
  • A woman and her husband get in a fight. The woman “screamed, turning and swinging the thing in her hand down in an arc. He saw her at the last second and parried the thing with his forearm. Then he swore, reaching for the gem-set handle suddenly protruding from his shoulder…’Lock her in the nursery,’ he said. ‘I never want to see her again.’”
  • Richard punches Jackson when he catches him dancing with Sarah. “I could smell the sour notes of champagne, and I could hear it in his voice…Richard turned and struck him in the face. ‘Shut up!’ Blood beaded on Jackson’s lip, purple-red in the half light.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Sarah overhears someone talking about her deceased grandmother. “I heard her liver failed, but with all poor Ida suffered, it was no wonder she drank.”
  • Sarah’s mother finds “a stash of medical supplies in a narrow cupboard that contained mostly liquor.” She then “came out with a bottle of vodka and poured herself an inch over ice.”
  • Sarah almost falls down after riding a horse for an hour. Richard says, “Woah, Parsons, you look like you’ve been hitting the sauce.”
  • Richard drinks at Sarah’s party. “I noticed a nearly empty champagne flute at his elbow and wondered if it was his. The dealer didn’t seem to question it.”

Language

  • God, hell, and Jesus are used as exclamations.
  • When Sarah bruises her forehead, her mother says, “Oh my God, what the Hell did you do to your face?”
  • Sarah’s mother says, “Jesus, I can’t take this today.”
  • Sarah says that “spending an evening with a hundred strangers is her idea of hell.”
  • A kid says Amber House has “got a damn cemetery right on the property.”
  • When Richard loses a race, Sarah hears him “choking out a few choice four-letter words.”
  • A friend says Sarah made “an ass out of Richard in front of all his friends. . . It was about time someone took him down a peg.”
  • Sarah’s mom says, “You think I’m some kind of conniving bitch because I want to use the senator’s connections?”

Supernatural

  • Sarah sees visions of Amber House’s pasts when she touches certain objects. Some are harmless and fun, but some are frightening. “A woman stood in the shaft of moonlight. . . She might have been carved of stone. A spider ran down a lock of her hair, and air escaped me in the smallest gasp. . . The voice rose almost to a scream. ‘You think you are safe? You think I can’t hurt you? I can. I can get you. I can find you in your dreams.’”
  • Sarah’s visions of Amber House are passed down among the woman of the family. Jackson says, “Ida saw things too. She called them echoes. When she touched certain things, little bits of the past came to life for her. She said they were the house’s memory.”
  • An old woman named Nanga can see visions of the future, allowing her and Sarah to interact on several occasions. “She can see the future. And because I can see the past, we could talk to each other.”
  • A woman in Sarah’s vision tries to stop her husband from burying their dead son. “’He’s not dead,’ she said, horror in her voice. ‘He’s sleeping. I’ve seen him in my dreams. His spirit comes to me. I won’t let you put him in the ground.”
  • Sarah gets her fortune told at her birthday party. She is told, “I have never seen a board that spoke so powerfully of change as this one.”
  • When Sammy goes into a coma, Sarah sees her brother’s face in a mirror. Jackson says, “There’s an old superstition that spirits can be trapped in mirrors.”

Spiritual Content

  • At her grandmother’s funeral, the housekeeper covers all mirrors with black cloths. The housekeeper says it is “just a southern superstition. . . to help the departed’s soul cross over and not get trapped in the looking-glass world. . . People used to believe you could see through to the other side in a mirror. To the place where souls go after death before they move on to their final destination.”
  • Sarah and her mother go to church to socialize. “It had been years since I’d been inside a church. My mother liked religion about as much as she liked anything else supernatural. But she led the way up the steps the next morning.”
  • “I fell asleep still thinking about people watching me, thinking that the eyes in Amber House were kind of like the eyes of God, knowing every failing. Except God could forgive.”

by Morgan Lynn

The Sword of Summer

Magnus Chase isn’t your average 16-year-old kid. After a terrible incident that killed his mother, Magnus was forced to survive on the harsh streets of Boston for two years. Then everything changes, and not necessarily for the better when Magnus discovers the truth about his parentage. This knowledge is dangerous, and after attempting to outmaneuver his suspicious Uncle Randolph, Magnus lands in more trouble than he ever has before.

Escaping who he believes to be evil, Magnus falls into the hands of his worst enemy, a fire giant named Surt. Magnus dies and his soul is sent to Valhalla, the hall of warriors who will fight with Odin during Ragnarok (the end of the world). This is the beginning of an unlikely story of emotional growth, the development of strength, and the family found in friendship.

Fans of Rick Riordan’s previous works will be pleased as they travel into a fascinating world of Norse mythology. A character from the beloved Percy Jackson and the Olympians series even makes a cameo, making a fun crossover between magical worlds.

This family-friendly adventure is an exciting ride throughout. The characters are well developed and believable, but the sheer amount of characters may become confusing for less attentive readers. Nevertheless, even the timidest readers will enjoy this story as it is filled with well-placed humor. The plot is action-packed, leaving readers excited to turn the next page.

Although this book is entertaining and amusing, there are battles with monsters throughout the book that may upset some readers. The battles are not told in gory detail, but characters are injured and must deal with the consequences of their battles. Ultimately, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer is a delightful read full of humor, action, and magic.

Sexual Content

  • Samirah has an arranged marriage to Amir Fadlan. When Magnus questions her feelings on the matter, Sam responds, “Ugh! You don’t get it. I’ve been in love with Amir since I was twelve.”
  • Every time a giant comes to barter or make a deal with Freya, the goddess of love, sex, beauty, fertility, and gold, they always ask for her hand in marriage.
  • Magnus’s father Frey lost the Sword of Summer because he fell madly in love with a frost giantess. The only way that he could heal his heart was by offering the Sword of Summer to Skirnir.
  • Freya has lots of dwarven children. Every time she wants jewelry made by dwarves, she goes to Nidavellir and marries a dwarf in exchange for their craftsmanship. These one-day marriages each end with a child. This interaction is not described beyond this, but it is acknowledged that Blitzen is a child of Freya and a dwarf.
  • Magnus describes his first kiss when he is involuntarily given mouth-to-mouth by a goat. “My only previous experience with kissing had been with Jackie Molotov in seventh grade, behind the bleachers at a school dance…. Anyway, with apologies to Jackie, getting mouth-to-mouth from a goat reminded me of her.”
  • In the past, a son of Loki was sent to Valhalla and fell in love with the lead Valkyrie, Gunilla, but he “betrayed her. Turned out she was a spy for [Loki]. Broke her heart.”
  • After Halfborn nearly sacrifices his life for Mallory in battle, they are on good terms, and it appears that there may be romance in the future for them. “As my hallmates headed back home, I was happy to see Halfborn Gunderson slip his arm around Mallory Keen’s waist. She didn’t even cut his hand off for doing so.”

Violence

  • Magnus engages in a battle with the fire giant, Surt. “I smacked Surt in the head with my rusty sword. . . The blade didn’t seem to hurt him, but the swirling flames died. . . Then he punched me in the gut.” Later in the battle, “Surt kicked me in the ribs and sent me sprawling. . . Surt must have kicked me hard enough to trigger a near-death hallucination.” After a brief time period, Magnus’s sword begins to act on its own and guides Magnus’s actions. “It spun in an arc, dragging my arm along with it, and hacked into Surt’s right leg. The Black One screamed. The wound in his thigh smoldered, setting his pants on fire . . . Before he could recover, my sword leaped upward and slashed his face. With a howl, Surt stumbled back, cupping his hands over his nose. . . Just as he reached me, my sword leaped up and ran him through.”
  • Magnus describes his death. “I actually died. One hundred percent: guts impaled, vital organs burned, head smacked into a frozen river from forty feet up, every bone in my body broken, lungs filled with ice water…. It hurt. A lot.”
  • When getting a tour of Hotel Valhalla, Magnus is “pushed down as a spear flew past. It impaled a guy sitting on the nearest sofa, killing him instantly.” The guy is already dead, so this is just a temporary “death” as he will regenerate in a few hours.
  • Magnus and all those who inhabit Hotel Valhalla observe how newly inducted einherjar (inhabitants of Hotel Valhalla) died. In one video, a warrior “saved a bunch of kids at her village school when a warlord’s soldiers had tried to kidnap them. She’d flirted with one of the soldiers, tricked him into letting her hold his assault rifle, then turned it on the warlord’s men . . . The video was pretty violent.”
  • Mallory is excited to “see the new boy get dismembered.”
  • The einherjar participate in practice battle exercises to prepare for Ragnarok, when the nine worlds will fall. One of these “battles” is comically described, but each “death” is also shown. Many characters get shot, punched, or stabbed to “death” in the heat of battle.
  • In a dream, Surt threatens Magnus by saying, “When we meet again, you will burn, son of Frey. You and your friends will be my tinder. You will start the fire that burns the nine worlds.”
  • Samirah attacks Magnus after he leaves Valhalla. “She charged from behind the concession building and kicked me in the chest, propelling me backwards into a tree. My lungs imploded like paper sacks.”
  • An eagle drags Magnus away from his friends to convince him to do something for him. “The eagle veered, slamming me into the fire escape. I felt my ribs crack, like vials of acid breaking inside my chest. My empty stomach tried unsuccessfully to hurl.”
  • When Blitzen competes in a dwarf craftsmanship competition, Magnus acts as his bodyguard. “A random dwarf charged me from the side-lines, swinging an axe and screaming, ‘BLOOD!’ I hit him in the head with the hilt of my sword. He collapsed.”
  • Otis, a goat who belongs to Thor, marvels at Magnus’s talking sword. Otis exclaims, “I’ve never been killed by a talking sword before. That’s fine. If you could just make a clean cut right across the throat-”
  • For Odin to learn the secrets of the runes, he sacrificed an eye and “fashioned a noose and hanged himself from a branch of the World Tree for nine days.”
  • Magnus attacks and kills two giantess sisters. Magnus threw a knife and, “The spinning steak knife hit her in the chest. It didn’t impale her . . .She lowered hands, grabbing instinctively for her chest, which allowed Jack full access to her nose. A second later, Gjalp was lying dead on the floor next to her sister.”
  • The book concludes with a giant final battle in which warriors of Valhalla fight fire giants and attempt to rebind Fenris’ wolf. Within this battle, several warriors get hurt and three Valkyries die, including Gunilla. “Blitzen was so angry—between the Wolf gloating about his dad’s death and Surt stealing his fashion ideas—that he howled like Crazy Alice in Chinatown and rammed his harpoon right through the giant’s gut. The fire giant stumbled off, belching flames and taking the harpoon with him.” “Halfborn Gunderson buried his axe in the breastplate of a giant. X picked up another fire-breather and tossed him off the side of the ridge. Mallory and T.J. fought back-to-back, jabbing and slashing and dodging blasts of flame.”
  • Magnus’s Uncle Randolph is poisoned by Loki. “Randolph smelled the poison before he felt it. Acrid steam curled into his nostrils. The side of his face erupted in white-hot pain. He fell to his knees, his throat seizing up in shock.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Magnus thinks, “Random police and park rangers I could deal with. Truant officers, community service volunteers, drunken college kids, addicts looking to roll somebody small and weak—all those would’ve been as easy to wake up to as pancakes and orange juice.”
  • The mead of Valhalla doesn’t contain alcohol as it is magical goat milk that tastes like a mixture of delicious flavors. However, this topic makes Magnus share his own experience with alcohol. Magnus says, “Yes, I’ve tried alcohol, thrown up, tried alcohol again, thrown up.”
  • The god Aegir is a brewer who “spends all his time at the hops shop, or going on brewery tours with his buddies…. He’s always talking about microbrews. He has a cauldron a mile wide!”
  • Magnus and his friends go to Nabbi’s tavern and the dwarves that he travels with order mead (not the Valhalla kind).
  • Thor, the thunder god, “loved drinking mead.”
  • When the group comes across giantess sisters, the enormous monsters are drunk. Magnus thinks, “They’d obviously been hitting the mead pretty hard.”

 Language

  • Profanity is used a few times throughout the book. Profanity includes ass, dammit, crap, and idiot.
  • Many characters exclaim, “Gods of Asgard” and “gods” as a form of profanity.
  • When Gunilla introduces a new video system that shows how einherjar die, “the warriors cheered and banged their mugs, drowning out the sound of Sam cursing next to me.”
  • Magnus is angry towards a Valkyrie that he dislikes and thinks, “No, but your dad was apparently a jackass!”
  • While trying to escape Valhalla, “Mallory cursed in what was maybe Gaelic. Our little hallway group was a veritable United Nations of Cussing.”
  • When attempting to arrange his dead body, Magnus’s “hands had come unclasped so I appeared to be giving everybody the finger.”
  • When Blitzen talks about his mother’s requests, he says, “She wants her damnable earrings.”
  • Thor could “cuss like a drunken, creative sailor. ‘Mother-grubbing scum bucket!’ he yelled (or something along those lines. My brain may have filtered the actual language, as it would’ve made my ears bleed.)”
  • Magnus wants to comfort Hearthstone. “I wanted to hug the poor guy, bake him a batch of cookies, and tell him how sorry I was about his crappy childhood, but I knew he wouldn’t want pity.”

Supernatural

  • The story exists in a world where Norse mythology is real, including all of the gods, heroes, and monsters. For example, Magnus is the son of Frey, the god of peace, fertility, rain, sunshine, and summer.
  • In the beginning of the book, Magnus doesn’t understand why Blitzen hates daylight. He says, “Maybe he was the world’s shortest, stoutest homeless vampire.”
  • Two magical, evil wolves broke into Magnus’s apartment and killed his mom when he was fourteen. “From the hallway, two beasts emerged, their pelts the color of dirty snow, their eyes glowing blue.”
  • Surt is a fire god and has powers. “Around Surt, flames began to swirl. The firestorm spiraled outward, melting cars to slag heaps, liquefying the pavement, popping rivets from the bridge like champagne corks.”
  • Due to Magnus being a demigod, he has magical abilities. He doesn’t have a problem in extreme temperatures, can walk through fire, can heal others, and mentally communicates with horses.
  • There is a vala who is a “seer. She can cast spells, read the future, and… other stuff.” She can also read/use the runes, which is a form of non-inherited Norse magic.
  • Hearthstone is an elf, and Blitzen is a dwarf. Their identity gives them special abilities like fashion sense, craftsmanship, and rune magic.
  • As an einherjar, Magus acquires super strength, has more muscles, and has accelerated healing.
  • Heartstone uses rune stones and eventually becomes a runemaster. These stones allow him to perform magic, usually to help his friends on their quest.
  • The group encounters Mimir, a disembodied head who floats in water and knows the secrets of the nine worlds.
  • The Sword of Summer is a magical weapon that Magnus wields. It can speak and fight on its own. Magnus transforms it into a stone on a chain that he wears around his neck. Magnus “could easily pull it off the chain. As soon as I did, the stone grew into a sword. If I wanted it back in pendant form, all I had to do was picture that. The sword shrank into a stone, and I could re-attach it to the necklace.”
  • Valkyries can fly, camouflage magically, and teleport back to Valhalla in a poof of light.

Spiritual Content

  • Norse gods are real, but they are not worshipped. They are treated more like characters than all-knowing deities.
  • Magnus describes the place where his funeral occurs. “It was set up like a chapel: three stained glass windows on the back wall, rows of folding chairs facing an open coffin on a dais. I hated this already. I’d been raised non-religious. I’d always considered myself an atheist.”
  • Magnus says, “If there is an Almighty God up there, a head honcho of the universe, He was totally laughing at me right now.”
  • Samirah is Muslim and wears a hijab. When arguing with Magnus she says, “A good Muslim girl is not supposed to hang out on her own with strange guys.”
  • Thor is described as watching television religiously. Then Magnus says, “Can I say a god did something religiously?”

by Morgan Filgas

Refugee

Three kids. Three different time periods. Three refugee families flee their countries. Each family faces unimaginable dangers. But they have no choice but to press on and hope for a better tomorrow. Although decades separate them, they discover that they are all connected in the end.

Joseph is a Jewish boy living in 1930’s Nazi Germany. His family boards a ship set for Cuba. They hope to avoid the concentration camps and certain death. But will a country on the other side of the world take them in, or will they be sent away?

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. Her family faces hunger, violence, and an uncertain future. But when her father is threatened with jail, the family sets out on a homemade raft. They hope to make it to Miami. Can they make it to America and keep their family together?

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. His country is being torn apart by war. Violence, death, and destruction are everyday occurrences. When his family’s neighborhood is destroyed by bombs, they head towards Europe. Can they safely make it to a country that welcomes refugees?

Refugee sheds light on the historical and political aspects of each time period. Readers will learn about Kristallnacht, The Night of the Broken Glass, as well as the history of how the war in Syria began with Assad bombing his own people. Isabel’s story also explains the U.S. policy of “Wet Foot, Dry Foot.” The end of the book has historical information as well as a section on what readers can do to help.

Each section of the story is told from a young person’s point of view. This gives the book a tragic feeling because none of the young people have any control over the events that lead to their need to flee. The harrowing story of each family does not shy away from the harsh realities of the time period. Each family has stories of cruelty, violence, and death, which are often described in graphic and frightening detail.

The goodness of random strangers is seldom. However, in Josef’s story, a Hitler Youth protects Joseph, and the captain and most of the crew of the ship treat the Jews with respect. The story shows how small deeds can make a huge impact. Even though the story shows the kindness of a few, cruelty and violence overshadow the kindness in the book.

As Mahmoud and his family try to escape the violence, he realizes that it was easy for people to forget about the refugees until “refugees did something they didn’t want them to do—when they tried to cross the border into their country, or slept on the front stoops of their shops, or jumped in front of their cars, or prayed on the decks of their ferries—that’s when people couldn’t ignore them any longer.” Mahmoud struggles with wanting to stay invisible but wondering if he needs to be visible. “If you were invisible, the bad people couldn’t hurt you, either. If you stayed invisible here, did everything you were supposed to, and never made waves, you would disappear from the eyes and minds of all the good people out there who could help you get your life back.”

The publisher recommends Refugee for readers as young as nine, but younger readers may be upset by the horrors of war and the tragic decisions the families must make in order to survive. Younger readers who are interested in World War II may want to begin with the books Lifeboat 12 or Resistance, which also tell compelling stories without the graphic violence.

Refugee is an engaging story that brings the suffering of refugees to light. The situations that the characters face are emotional, but the characters could be better developed. Since each chapter focuses on a different family, the story was often disjointed. Some readers may have a difficult time following a story that changes characters every chapter. The book shows the reasons the family left but doesn’t mention the difficulties that countries face when dealing with thousands of refugees coming into their country.

Although the story is easy to read, the book’s emotional impact is hard-hitting. Refugee takes the reader on a harrowing journey where each family must deal with a tragic loss of life and cruelty from others. Refugee shows how families have been impacted in past and current times. The story gives voice to the current refugee crises and shows the desperation of people who want to live without fear of death.

Sexual Content

  • While in Havana, Isabel sees “couples kissing under palm trees.”
  • Isabel’s grandfather flirts with a young girl. He tells her, “Your face must be Summer, because you’re making me sweat!” Isabel knew that “Lito was giving her piropos, the flirtatious compliments Cuban men said to women on the street.”

Violence

  • During WWII, Nazis break into Josef’s home and “threw him to the floor. Another shadow picked up Ruth by the hair and slapped her. ‘Be quiet!” the shadow yelled, and it tossed Ruth down on the floor beside Joseph.” The strangers trash the house, gather his family into the living room, and arrest his father.
  • A group of Hitler Youth attack Josef after school. The group “fell on him, hitting and kicking him for being a Jew, and calling him all kinds of names.”
  • During a medical check, Josef’s father becomes agitated and starts mumbling. Josef “slapped his father across the face. Hard.” Josef tells his father that the medical examiner is “a Nazi in disguise. He decides who goes back to Dachau. He decides who lives or dies. . . .” Josef’s father is scared into silence.
  • Crew members ransack the room of Josef’s family. “They swept Mama’s makeup and perfume off the vanity and smashed the mirror . . . they tore the head off Ruthie’s stuffed bunny.”
  • While in a concentration camp, Josef’s father says how the Nazis choose one man to drown every night. “They would tie his ankles together and his hands behind his back and tie a gag around his mouth, and then they would hang him upside down, with his head in a barrel. Like a fight. . . They would fill the barrel with water. Slowly. So they could enjoy the panic. So they could laugh. . . He would thrash around and breathe water until he drowned. Drowned upside down.
  • Josef’s father jumps into the ocean and when a policeman tries to help him, Josef’s father yells, “Let me die! Let me die!” Josef’s father survives.
  • A group of men tries to take over the ship. One of the passengers slam “the helmsman and sends him tumbling to the floor. The mutineers quickly surrounded the other sailors, threatening them with their makeshift clubs.”
  • When Cuba sends the ship away, a policeman “swept the gun back and forth, and the other policemen drew their pistols and did the same.” The captain is able to convince the passengers not to attack the police.
  • While he is running from Nazis, soldiers shoot at Josef. “A pistol cracked, and a bullet blew the bark off a tree less than a meter away. Josef stumbled again in panic, righted himself, and kept running.” Josef and his mother are caught and taken to a concentration camp.
  • Boys attack Mahmoud’s friend because he is a Shia Muslim. “. . . Khalid had been curled into a ball on the ground, his hands around his head while the other boys kicked him. . . With a battle cry that would have made Wolverine proud, Mahmoud had launched himself at Khalid’s attacker. And he had been beaten up as badly as Khalid.”
  • Mahmoud’s mother was a nurse who came home “every day with horror stories about people she’d helped put back together. Not soldiers—regular people. . . Children with missing limbs.”
  • Mahmoud’s entire neighborhood is bombed. “The walls of his apartment exploded, blasting broken bits of concrete and glass through the room. . . His breath left him all at once and he fell to the floor with a heavy thud in a heap of metal and mortar.” No one in his family is seriously injured.
  • While trying to escape, Syrian armed soldiers stop the car at gunpoint and then pile in the backseat. As they are traveling, “gunfire erupted. .. and bullets pinged into the car.” One of the soldiers is killed. “Mahmoud screamed again and pushed the man away . . .” The scene is described over four pages. The family hides in a ditch until they can escape.
  • The rubber dinghy that Mahmoud and other refugees are in pops. “The cold water was like a slap in Mahmoud’s face. . . He tumbled backward, head down in the murky water, his arms and feet thrashing, trying to right himself. Something else—someone else—fell on top of him, pushing him deeper down into the water.” Later Mahmoud takes a life jacket off of a dead man so that he and his mother do not die.
  • As Mahmoud and his mother tread water, they grab onto a dinghy. A man “reached down and tried to pry Mahmoud’s hand from the dinghy. . . He sobbed with the effort of fighting off the man’s fingers and hanging onto the dinghy.” A woman takes Mahmoud’s baby sister but leaves Mahmoud and his mother behind. They survive.
  • A taxi driver pulls a gun on Mahmoud’s family and demands money.
  • When a group of refugees swarm the Hungarian border, soldiers “hurried to stop them, firing tear gas canisters into the crowd. . . Mahmoud’s eyes burned like someone had sprayed hot pepper juice in them, and mucus poured from his nose. He choked on the gas, his lungs seized up. He couldn’t breathe. . .”  Many of the refugees are arrested and taken to a detention center.
  • While being taken to a detention center, Mahmoud’s dad yells at a soldier, who then “whacked him in the back with his nightstick, and Mahmoud’s father collapsed to the ground. . . He kicked Mahmoud’s father in the back, and another soldier hit Mahmoud’s father again and again with his stick.”
  • While in town in Cuba, people riot in the streets. People “yelled and chanted. They threw rocks and bottles.” Isabel sees her father “just as he reared back and threw a bottle that smashed into the line of police along the seawall.” When the police catch her father, a policeman beats him. The scene plays out over four pages.
  • As a group tries to flee Cuba, “a pistol rang out again over the waves. . . The police were shooting at them.” The boat is hit, but no one is injured.
  • While Iván is cooling off in the ocean, a shark bites him. “The water around Ivan became a dark red cloud, and Isabel screamed. . . Iván’s right leg was a bloody mess. There were small bites all over it, as though a gang of sharks had attacked all at once. Raw, red, gaping wounds exposed the muscle underneath his skin.” Iván dies.
  • Before Iván’s body is pushed into the ocean, someone shoots a shark. “The shark died in a bloody, thrashing spasm, and the other sharks that had been following the boat fell on it in a frenzy.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Joseph sees a man, who “staggered a little, bumping into things as he tried to move through the tight little room. Joseph had seen drunk people leaving pubs in Berlin the same way.”
  • When Josef’s mother goes to the doctor to get a sleeping draught for her husband, she “told the doctor the sleeping draught was for me. . . and he made me—made me take it right there.”

Language

  • When the Nazis break into Josef’s house, one of the men laughs because “the boy’s pissed himself.”
  • A group of kids are called “Jewish rats.”
  • At a funeral, Josef’s father says, “At least he didn’t have to be burning in the hell of the Third Reich.”
  • “Oh, God” is used an exclamation once. “Oh, my God” is also used as an exclamation once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Mahmoud and his family practice the Muslim faith. The prayer ritual is described through Mahmoud’s actions.
  • Mahmoud’s father says, “God will guide us.”
  • After taking a lifejacket off a dead man, Mahmoud says a prayer. “Oh God, forgive this man, and have mercy on him and give him strength and pardon him. Be generous to him and cause his entrance to be wide and wash him with water and snow and hail. Cleanse him of his transgressions. . .Take him into Paradise, and protect him from the punishment of the grave and from the punishment of hellfire.”
  • Mahmoud’s family and other refugees pray. Mahmoud “recited the first chapter of the Qur’an, Mahmoud thought about the words. Thee alone we worship, and thee alone we ask for help. Show us the straight path.”
  • After Joseph’s apartment is bombed, his mother cries, “Thank God you’re alive!”
  • During a funeral, a rabbi says a prayer, and “the mourners said together, ‘Remember, God, that we are of dust.’”
  • When Iván dies, his mother wants “to say something. A prayer. Something. I want God to know Iván is coming.”

Outward Blonde

Sixteen-year-old Lizzie wants to forget the father who abandoned her and the mother who lives in a drug-induced fog. She spends her time shopping and partying with her best friend. One of Lizzie’s drunken escapades is caught on camera, and her bad behavior is shared with gossip sites.

Lizzie’s mother wants to make sure Lizzie doesn’t cause the family any more scandal, while her father wants her to get help. So in the middle of the night, two strangers whisk her away to Camp Smiley, a gritty wilderness survival program for troubled teens. Lizzie’s only goal is to escape. She doesn’t think she has anything in common with the other teen campers, and she has no desire to deal with her own demons. Will Lizzie escape back into her party life or will Camp Smiley be able to turn around this troubled teen?

Portrayed as a typical rich girl, Lizzie believes money can get her out of any situation. Lizzie’s only life goal is to shop and party. This spoiled, snotty rich girl spends much of her time whining—about her parents, the campers, the conditions of the camp, and everything in between. Even though Lizzie is portrayed as a wild, boy-crazy girl at the beginning of the book, Lizzie later gets upset that others think she is sexually active when she is still a virgin. The inconsistencies in Lizzie’s character are one reason Lizzie is a difficult character to care about.

Other characters are difficult to connect with as well. The camp staff is stereotypical; such as the ex-military camp director, who doesn’t think Lizzie can complete the program. Lizzie’s parents are also portrayed in an unrealistic, stereotypical manner. At one point, Lizzie’s dad says “and rather than allowing you to fall into the depths of despair, we’re sending you to a place where you can reconnect with the light inside you and find greater meaning in life.”

Although there are some funny scenes, much of the plot seems unrealistic. For example, when Lizzie and the other campers run away, a random stranger picks them up, takes them to his store to exchange their camp uniforms for clothes, and drives them to Vegas. Ultimately, too much time in this book is focused on Lizzie’s escape plan and partying, and not enough time is spent on her dealing with her issues.

The diverse cast of characters deals with some serious issues, including understanding one’s sexuality, gambling, bullying, and addiction. Outward Blonde has a lighthearted tone and shows readers the importance of forgiveness, accepting yourself, and helping others.

Sexual Content

  • When Lizzie goes on a Tinder date, her friend tells Lizzie the man might kill her, and if she was murdered, her friend would tell others “What I miss most about my BFF Lizzie Finklestein is sneaking out with her on school nights, using our never-fail fakes to get into all the best bars, doing body shots until we puke, and making out with random college guys who have no idea we’re still in high school.”
  • Lizzie sends a man a picture of herself highlighting her cleavage. When her friend won’t go to the bar with her to meet him, Lizzie says “I think you’re missing out. Because I’m pretty sure James Franco would be up for a threesome. Just think of the picture we’d get pretending we were going to go through with it—“
  • Lizzie meets a 25 year-old-man at the bar. While on the dance floor, “I turn around, grab his cheeks, and kiss him. He’s not half bad.” She later leaves the bar with him.
  • A boy nods toward a girl and says “I’d like to work her hole.”
  • When the group gets to camp, they are told “there is no inappropriate physical contact amongst anyone, whether of the opposite sex or same sex.” One of the teenagers asks “Can you define inappropriate? . . . And also if there are certain acts that are still considered appropriate? Like, maybe, blow jobs are out but hand jobs are okay?”
  • Lizzie thinks the camp counselors “want to roll their eyes and complain about what a big pain in the ass she is. And then jump each other’s bones.”
  • When a camper gets upset, a boy says “I’d tell you to calm your tits, but I just realized maybe glass blowing reminds you of why you ended up here. . . You know, using your God-given talents for evil instead of good. Blowing people.”
  • Lizzie wants to run away, but she doesn’t want to go alone. So she sneaks into a boy’s tent. When a counselor is outside the tent, Lizzie hides in the boy’s sleeping bag. The boy “grabs my hand, and puts it on his bulge. I snatch it back and punch him in the balls. He grunts.”
  • Later the boy apologizes and then his “lips graze mine. I’m still mad but I can’t resist; it’s an expert-level kiss. Just enough tongue. A nibble here and there. He licks my earlobe. I nuzzle his neck. He presses himself closer.” When he asks if Lizzie “wants to do it,” she gets angry and leaves.
  • One of the campers guesses that a girl is at camp because she is obsessed with “masturbating.” When the girl denies it, the camper says “Why not? I mean, who knows better than you what you like and how you like it?”
  • A camper is nervous about showering in front of others, but another girl thinks she is afraid to shower with a lesbian. She yells “Just because I’ve dated a lot of girls doesn’t mean I see every single person on Earth with a vagina as a potential partner, so it’s not your concern. . . You are not even close to being my type. For one, I dig blondes. Two your butt. Three, your tits. Not big enough.”
  • Lizzie threatens to “call your parents pretending to be the gyno and tell them your yeast infection is actually gonorrhea you got from banging all the guys at camp.”
  • While in Vegas, Lizzie, and Ari schedule “private time.” Lizzie goes into the bathroom to freshen up. When she comes out “Jem is on the bed. With Ari. They are intertwined. A tangle of tongues and hands and body parts.” Jem apologizes. Ari says “Hey, no need to fight over me, girls. There’s more than enough to go around.”
  • Jack and Lizzie kiss three times. One time, Lizzie leans down and “kisses the top of his head. . . and I kiss both his eyelids. And then I lay the softest one ever on his lips. . .”
  • When Lizzie was in elementary school she took a book to class for a book report, but she didn’t know what it was until she opened it in class. “. . . It turned out to be the Kama Sutra, which is like an illustrated Indian sex guide. So I basically taught my third grade class how to get laid. All because I didn’t actually read a book. . . “
  • One of the campers took “a picture of the nerdiest kid ever jerking off in the bathroom stall at school and sent it to his lax bros.” That kid tries to commit suicide because of the picture.

Violence

  • One of the girls is at camp because “the GUY I banged couldn’t stop bragging about it to the entire school. So I scratched fuckboy into his car and took a bat to his taillights.”
  • Lizzie and Sam plan to run away. Another camper hears them and threatens to tell. Sam “clamps a hand over her lips. . . Chandra peels Sam’s hand away. And then bites her.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Lizzie’s mom is addicted to drugs. Lizzie doesn’t mind because the “anxiety disorder that required daily doses of Klonopin x Ambien = me being able to do whatever with whoever I want to, whenever I want to.”
  • When Lizzie’s mom comes to check on her, “her eyes are glassy and she’s a bit wobbly—both sure signs the medicine is already taking effect.”
  • Lizzie goes to a bar and drinks enough vodka clubs that “everything’s funny. Not to mention fuzzy. And fun.”
  • A group runs away from camp and goes to Vegas. While there, they drink Miami vices.

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, asshole, bitch, bullshit, crap, damn, dick, fatass, fuck, motherfucking, shit, smartass, and WTF.
  • “Oh my God” and “OMG” are used as exclamations.
  • Lizzie’s dog likes to eat bull sticks. Lizzie thinks, “Whoever decided dried bull dick might be a good dog snack is a certified psycho. . . “ Later, Lizzie refers to the dog treat as “bull penis.”
  • When a police officer pulls over a car that Lizzie is a passenger in, she is “appalled at my extreme-level dumb-assery.”
  • After a police dashcam video is released of Lizzie’s bad behavior, she is dubbed “the Rich Bitch Billionairess.”
  • The director of the camp tells Lizzie, “I can’t wait to see your spoiled candy ass trying to make it through the solo overnight trip you’ll have to complete to graduate.”
  • Lizzie calls a boy a “jerk.”
  • A boy calls someone a “fag” and says, “I had you pegged for a dyke.”
  • A boy says his “balls are so chafed, I’m going to be walking like I fucked a horse today.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • After a police dashcam video is released, Lizzie is “shaking and praying—to who or what I don’t know—that it won’t hurt too much when they [her parents] kill me.”
  • When someone suggests that Lizzie pray, she responds, “I’m not really the praying type.”
  • The counselor says “Mother Earth, today another group of beautiful young people with unlimited potential joined us on our journey . . . Allow us to light their way back to happiness, to anoint them with love and laughter, to help them manifest their true and perfect selves.”

Saint Anything

Sydney’s older brother, Peyton, holds the spotlight in their family—first for his charm, and then for his stints in rehab and his poor decision-making skills. When he lands in prison after hitting a young boy while drinking and driving, the spotlight turns on Sydney. With this new scandal, she decides to switch schools, hoping for anonymity and a chance to start over.

She starts over by becoming friends with the Chatham family, a family that shows Sydney what it looks like to have parents who are present and supportive and friends who accept you for you. Dessen does all this without feeling cheesy or unrealistic. Readers will see the lesson shown when Sydney is finally able to stand up for herself and the people she loves. Readers will appreciate the character development of Sydney as well as her parents.

Saint Anything is a heartfelt story that doesn’t only focus on romance but also captures the ups and downs of real life. With just the right amount of romance, suspense, and family drama, Saint Anything explores Sydney’s personal growth as she deals with tragedy.

Sydney’s character is genuine and relatable. Her story explores the complicated nature of family relationships. Readers will walk away feeling satisfied at having read a story that not only had a well-developed plot, but also realistic characters and an engaging conflict. The realistic dialogue and uncomplicated vocabulary make for an easy-to-read, engaging story.

Dessen writes a beautiful story that focuses on dealing with grief, guilt, and loneliness. The heart-warming story, with well-developed characters, shows readers the importance of becoming comfortable in your own skin. Saint Anything is the perfect book for those looking for a sweet romance that focuses on family and friendship.

Sexual Content

  • Margaret says to her friend, “Thank me forever for hooking you up with the guy you’re crazy about?”
  • Margaret walks up the stairs with a boy, implying that they are going to have sex. She asks Sydney what she is doing, and Sydney thinks, “Considering she was alone with the guy Jenn had clearly stated she was crushing on, in Jenn’s house, on her way to where there were only bedrooms, I wanted to ask her the same thing.”
  • While on a walk in the woods, Mac and Layla kiss. “I took my hand from Mac’s, then reached up to touch his cheek. When I did, his fingers moved to my waist, pulling me in closer. It was fluid and easy, like everything had been since we’d met, as I stood on my tiptoes and finally, finally kissed him.”
  • Layla thinks about Mac while reflecting on their new relationship, “Not just that he was a good kisser (very good, actually) and had the tightest set of abs I’d ever seen or touched.”
  • When Layla and Mac say goodbye, “he leaned in, kissing me once on the lips, then on the forehead. I felt safe enough to close my eyes.”
  • Spence and Layla kiss before going downstairs to the recording studio. As Spence is headed towards the studio, Layla “allowed herself to be pulled in for a kiss. To her surprise, not to mention mine, it quickly became open-mouthed and full-on tongue.”
  • Sydney’s mom speaks of Mac, “enunciating his name like you might the word herpes or molestation.”

Violence

  • Sydney’s brother is in jail. He was driving under the influence and hit a young boy riding his bike, “head-on.” The accident is not described.
  • Margaret is speaking to Sydney about her public school and says, “I hear there are fights there every day. And that’s with the girls.”
  • A boy attempts to sexually assault Sydney. “He grabbed my wrists. . . then tightened his grip on my wrists, pushing them back, back, against my ears. That was when I got scared. . . I tried to turn my head as he put his lips on mine, squeezing my eyes shut, but he grabbed my face, jerking me back to face him. I could feel his fingers digging into my chin. . . but then my palm was connecting with his face, the sound of skin to skin loud, a smack, and he stumbled backward. . .” Sydney’s dad stops the attack. “. . . I saw my dad. He had one arm hooked around Ame’s neck, tight, the fist clenched, and was pulling him backward down the hallway, away from me.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • In the beginning, Sydney explains the backstory of how her brother ended up in jail. She describes a background of breaking and entering, smoking pot, and possession of pills in his locker.
  • Peyton’s friend has a habit of smoking cigarettes. He would “duck out occasionally to the garage to smoke cigarettes, using a sand-bucket ashtray my mom (who abhorred the habit) put out.”
  • Peyton “drank several beers, took a few shots,” and then “got into his car, and headed home.”
  • In the past, Rosie became addicted to Vicodin that the doctor prescribed to her for a knee injury. She got into trouble when she attempted to get more by faking her prescriptions. “She got a bit too fond of the Vicodin they gave her. Tried to pass off some fake prescriptions.”
  • When Jenn’s parents are out of town, Margaret, Jenn, Meredith, and Sydney drink piña coladas. Meredith and Sydney are not fans of alcohol, but they stay to make sure Jenn is okay. Jenn drinks too much and Sydney helps her to bed.
  • A newspaper story speaking about Peyton’s past states, “After a string of arrests for breaking and entering and drug possession, among other things, he’d completed a stay in rehab and had been sober for over a year. But on that February night, after an evening spent drinking and getting high. . .”
  • Layla and her friends go into the woods behind their house and drink one or two beers before coming back home. Irv says, “Beer me, someone.”
  • Layla’s boyfriend has started taking drugs. Layla tells Sydney the extent of it. “Just pot. Some pills. They make him different. But when I nag him, he gets mad, then doesn’t answer my texts.”
  • When Layla’s boyfriend shows up at her house, she “got a strong whiff of alcohol.”
  • While in the recording studio, Spence, “proceeded to drink most of his bottle of vodka.”

Language

  • “Oh, my God” and “My God” are used several times as exclamations.
  • Layla’s dad says, “Blah my ass,” and then apologizes for his language.
  • Rosie flips another character off.
  • Layla speaks about her brother’s ex-girlfriend. “She was a mean hippie. Who even knew such a thing existed? Bitch.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Layla and her brother went to church when they were young. She speaks about meeting a friend “whom I’d known since our days at Trinity Church Preschool.”
  • Mac explains that the pendant he wears around his neck is “actually a pendant of a saint.” He explains further saying it is of “Bathilde. Patron saint of children. I guess she [his mom] figured we’d need all the help we could get.”
  • Sydney thinks about Mac’s mother, “Like my mom, she was that center of the wheel, with everyone connected drawing strength from her. She needed a saint of her own.”
  • Mac and Layla deliver pizza. “At the next stop, we interrupted a teenage Bible study and were greeted at the door by a beaming girl with braces, who invited us in for a slice and some testimony. Even though we declined, she tipped generously. Jesus would have approved.”
  • Mac speaks about saints and the pendant again, saying Mrs. Chatham “always liked the idea of protection, but especially since she got sick. I’m not wholly convinced. But I figure it can’t hurt, you know?”
  • Mac speaks about saints and his mom. “But there are a few that can be applied pretty broadly. Like the saint of wanderers, travelers, the lost. Or whatever. . . My mom’s favorite is Saint Anthony, the finder of lost things.”
  • Sydney speaks about her saint pendant. “My Saint Anything. I liked the thought of someone looking out for me, whoever it might be. We all need protecting, even if we don’t always know what from.”

by Hannah Neely

Refugee 87

Shif has a happy life, unfamiliar with the horrors of his country’s regime. He is one of the smartest boys in school, and feels safe and loved in the home he shares with his mother and little sister, right next door to his best friend, Bini. Both boys dream of going to university. Bini hopes to be a doctor and Shif wants to be an architect.

Both boys’ dreams are shattered the day that soldiers arrive at their door. Soldiers accuse the fourteen-year-olds of trying to flee before they can be drafted into the military. The boys are sent to prison, where they discover the lengths the government will go to silence anyone who is seen as a possible threat. Shif and Bini’s only hope is to escape the prison, sneak across the desert, and enter another country.

Told from Shif’s point of view, Refugee 87 jumps into a hostile country where people face unthinkable cruelty at the hands of their government. Shif and the other prisoners are treated like worthless animals and are given little food. However, once Shif escapes from prison, he discovers many unexpected dangers. A woman tells Shif not to go to the refugee camps because “a tribe in this area kidnaps people who have escaped from our country. . . They have gangs who patrol the camps, waiting for anyone new. Children get good prices. . . Before selling you, they try to get hold of your family’s money.”

Readers will sympathize with Shif as they learn about the modern refugee crisis. Instead of delving into the political situation, Fountain keeps the setting vague and brings Shif’s hardships to life. Even though the story is told from Shif’s point of view, readers may find it difficult to believe that Shif did not understand the reason his mother was so cautious and the dangers people in his country faced. The easy-to-read story doesn’t waste words on detailed descriptions, which sets the fast pace of the story. However, the lack of detail leaves the reader with unanswered questions.

Even though the publisher recommends the story for children eight and older, younger readers may become upset by the story’s mature themes which include war, violence, death, and human slavery. Although the events in the story are not described in graphic detail, Shif faces the death of his best friend and other horrific treatment. The abrupt ending may frustrate readers because the conclusion does not tell readers if Shif eventually made it to the safety of Europe.

As realistic fiction, Refugee 87 will help readers understand why people flee war-torn countries and the dangers that refugees face. The story also touches on themes of friendship, endurance, and the predatory nature of humans. Refugee 87 explores the refugee crisis in a manner that is appropriate for younger audiences and will engage readers of all ages. Readers who enjoyed Refugee 87 or want to learn more about refugees should also read Refugee by Alan Gratz.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Shif and other prisoners are walking. One of the guards pushes Shif “in the back with the butt of his rifle and points ahead. He pushes me again. . . ‘eyes down!’ the guard shouts, and pushes me so hard that I fall to my knees on the stone ground.”
  • Shif and Bini try to escape the prison. As they run, the guards shoot at them. “Seconds later, I hear a bullet ricochet from the tree trunk. Another whizzes past my head like a bee. Puffs of dirt jump in the air as more bullets hit the earth around us.” The boys run and hide in a crack in the desert floor.
  • When Shif and Bini walk through the desert trying to escape from the prison’s soldiers, they hear a vehicle coming. As they begin to run, “There is a puff of dust from the ground beside me. Bullets. Which means they are close enough to fire at us. . . Bini shudders and yells out, then falls to his knees in front of me, clutching his arm.” Because of his injury, Bini tells Shif to leave him. As Shif runs, he “hears Bini shouting at the guards. I hear two shots behind me, then silence.” The scene is described over three pages.
  • Shif meets a woman who was injured. She tells him, “A land mine exploded when we were crossing the border. Two people we were crossing with were killed. I was hit with some pieces of shrapnel. We managed to get the pieces out, but the cuts were deep and I wasn’t able to clean them properly so they became infected.”
  • Shif stays with a family, who has a young daughter named Almaz. While shopping in the market, someone steals Almaz’s money. “Almaz darts down a dusty street after the man. I skid to a stop at the top of the street. Halfway down I see the man has stopped too. He is holding Almaz by the waist. She has her back to him and is struggling to kick him or twist around to scratch at his face.” Shif helps Almaz. “I push at his shoulder and try to grab his arm. He pins Almaz against the wall with one hand, then hits me in the face with the other. I fall backward; my cheek and nose explode with a coldness that almost immediately turns to throbbing pain.” Shif and Almaz escape. The scene is described over two pages.
  • While trying to escape the country, the smuggler yells at a woman who needs to pay more money. Shif hears “screaming and shouting in the corridor, and a loud cracking sound, then she is quiet.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When Shif and Bini are shoved into a prison room, one of the men tells them, “Whatever you do, don’t piss on anyone in the night.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Shif and Bini hide from the soldiers, Shif prays “that we look like nothing more than two rocky bumps in the uneven desert landscape.”

 

 

ME and ME

The bright sun greeted Lark as she planned for her day. She smiled as she thought of having a perfect date with Alec. A perfect birthday. Enjoying the blue skies and calm lake water would be the perfect way for Lark and Alec to get to know each other. Then screams pierce the silence.

Annabelle, a girl Lark used to babysit, is in danger. Alec jumps in to help, but when he enters the lake, his head hits a rock. Now both Annabelle and Alec are in trouble, and Lark doesn’t know what to do. It only takes Lark seconds to react, but in those seconds everything changes. Her world is torn into two parallel lives, reflecting her two choices of who to save, and afterward, we see Lark live out the result of each choice.

The concept of living a parallel life is interesting; however, the storyline of Me and Me is confusing. Lark changes from one parallel life to the other without warning, making the transition jarring. Instead of focusing solely on Lark’s parallel lives, the author also delves into other heavy topics, including the loss of a parent, domestic abuse, shoplifting, and sexual peer pressure. The addition of so many topics adds to the confusion of the story and because so many subject matters are thrown in, none of the topics are well developed.

Lark’s world is filled with many friends but instead of adding interest, the number of minor characters piles onto the confusion. None of the friends are well developed, making it hard for readers to feel invested in the story. Even though Alec is a major character, there is little to like about him. Even though Alec talks about his abusive father, he doesn’t act to protect himself or his mother because he doesn’t want to see his father in jail. The only reason Lark seems invested in Alec is because the two have a physical attraction for each other. Right from the start, the two have hot, steamy make-out sessions that get in the way of the story’s action.

The end of the story highlights the dangers of shoplifting and how it can destroy a person’s future. Lark realizes her “tendency to take risks was out of control” so she goes to therapy. Afterward, she “felt brave for dealing with my issues.”

Unless someone is extremely interested in parallel lives, Me and Me would best be left on the shelf. The confusing story will leave readers wondering why Lark’s story was worth their time.

Sexual Content

  • Once Lark and Alec begin dating, they kiss often. Additional, less graphic kissing scenes have been left out of this review.
  • Alec kisses Lark, and “his kiss is quick and gentle, and his lips taste of sunshine and honey. My whole body turns molten. . . He slides his hand into my hair, and hot sparks shoot down my neck and spine.”
  • Lark thinks about her time with Alec during the past week. “Kisses against the gym wall. Hand holding at lunch. Long conversations. . .”
  • While on a date, Lark and Alec kiss. “His tongue is rough, and his hand slides over my shirt, then underneath it to graze my belly button, then slowly upward. My body responds, and I hear a groan escape my lips as he kisses my collarbone.”
  • Alec “kisses me hard, his tongue warm and wet, and our knees press together. Something shoots through me—I haven’t felt like this before. God, I want him to kiss me more, kiss me harder. I become liquid.”
  • Alec and Lark go to his house when his parents are out. They partially undress. “His toned abs flex as he leans forward to kiss the point of my chin, then the place where my collarbones meet, then the top of my breast.” Alec tells Lark that he has been with “a few others. Only one who—I guess that meant anything.” Alec’s parents come home and interrupt the two.
  • Lark and her friend talk about how they are “not getting it.”
  • Lark questions her friend. She asks if he’s been to his boyfriend’s house to meet the parents, and  “not just for a hookup with their son.” They have a conversation about how hard it might be for his boyfriend and his parents to come to terms with a gay relationship.
  • Lark and Alec kiss and “his tongue slipped into my mouth, opening me up. Things get heavy fast, and we’re both breathing quickly. . . He lifts my shirt out of the way to kiss the skin of my stomach.” They stop because they are in too public of a place to do more.
  • While at a public park, Lark and Alec make out. “. . . He pulls me onto his lap, my legs astride him. . . he lies on top of me. He’s breathing warmly into my neck, kissing me just at the base of my ear, and every pore is opening, ice trickling down my spine, as I help him tug at my jeans.”  A text interrupts them.
  • While at Lark’s house, Alec “pushes me down onto the bed. Before I can take a breath, he climbs on top of me, tongue and hands exploring my face, my body. I want this—I want him. . .” Lark stops him from doing more.
  • While outside, Alec pushes Lark to the ground and he “slides a hand up my skirt and beneath my underwear. I moan as he touches me.” They stop and don’t go to either one of their houses because their parents are home.
  • Lark skipped school so Alec could come to her house. “Alec and I are in my bed, and he has pinned my arms above my head, our hands entwined in my long hair, the covers over our almost-naked bodies. . . Alec slides my underwear down. . . He runs his hand up my inner thigh. . . I arch my body toward him, my breast and stomach against his hard chest and abs. He opens my legs with his and pushes me into the bed. . .” They have sex, but it is not described.

Violence

  • Alec has bruises and tells Lark that his dad hits him. Alec says, “Mom gets the worst of it, but when I’m around, I try to keep him off her. Sometimes I win. Sometimes he does.”
  • When Lark gets a text from a friend, Alec gets angry, and “he grabs my arm, and his grip is hard. Hard enough to bruise me.” He threatens Lark and she leaves.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Lark said she was rebellious, her friend replies, “You seem like a good student. Into nature and stuff, not drugs and parties.” Lark agrees.
  • Lark’s friend smokes clove cigarettes. Another one of her friends smokes an e-cigarette.
  • Lark and her friend use a fake ID so they can drink vodka cranberry.

Language

  • Profanity is scattered throughout the story and includes bullshit, bitch, crap, damn, holy crap, fricking, hell, and shit.
  • “Thank god” is used often. For instance, when Lark takes off her shirt and shorts so she can swim, she thinks, “Thank God I’m wearing a decent bra.”
  • Jesus is used as an exclamation once.
  • Lark flips her friend off.
  • A character thinks his boyfriend’s parents are “bigots.”
  • When a friend catches Lark stealing, the friend calls Lark a “bonehead.”

Supernatural

  • Someone tells Lark that she is a channel for her dead mother’s spirit.
  • Lark has a parallel life, which she can see sometimes. She receives texts and videos from her parallel life. She also has visions of her other life. “There is a static flicker in the air—I sense something before I see the shimmery shapes of a room. It’s as if I’m looking through a window. . .” Lark discovers there is a portal between the two worlds and travels to the other world to talk to her other self.
  • Lark and a friend discuss parallel lives. Her friend says that the number two “represents your soul number. Your divinity. If you’re open to receiving the message, angels will guide you.”
  • Lark wonders if having a parallel life is genetic.

Spiritual Content

  • When Lark gets to work, her friend says, “Thank the Great Spirit you’re on with me tonight.”

 

 

 

 

 

Speak

Instead of looking forward to starting high school, Melinda is dreading it. She attended an end-of-the-summer party, which got busted after she called the cops. Now she is an outcast. Her friends, and even random strangers, hate her. Something terrible happened at the party. And one day, Melinda will speak about the terrible events. And that will change everything.

Because Speak is written in the first person, Melinda’s personality comes to life. Although Melinda often is sarcastic, the pain and uncertainty she feels come through. The reader knows that something terrible has happened to Melinda, and they know it has to do with “IT” and the end-of-the-summer party. However, the reader is left in suspense until the end of the story, when the horrible events of the party are revealed—Melinda was raped.

Melinda is dealing with some heavy issues—parents who only talk to her through sticky notes, feelings of depression, and the overwhelming desire to have someone like her. Speak focuses on Melinda’s struggle to understand what happened to her. At one point she questioned, “Was I raped?” When Melinda finally tells a friend about her experience, Melinda is accused of being a liar. And because no one knows what happened, Melinda’s rapist is able to continue to terrorize her. Although the story is told in a realistic manner and is teen-friendly, the events in the book may still be upsetting to some readers.

Much of the story focuses on Melinda’s inner dialogue, which allows the reader to understand her thoughts and feelings. Many of the adults in the story just don’t know how to deal with Melinda’s problems, which makes it harder for Melinda to talk. Even as Melinda struggles to speak, the message of the story is clear— “don’t expect to make a difference unless you speak up for yourself.” Melinda’s story will have a major impact on readers. Speak will be remembered long after you finish reading it.

Sexual Content

  • The school board decides to change the school mascot because “Home of the Trojans didn’t send a strong abstinence message, so they have transformed us into the Blue Devils. Better the Devil you know than the Trojan you don’t, I guess.”
  • While watching the cheerleaders, Melinda thinks, “the cheerleaders are much better at scoring than the football team is.”
  • Melinda thinks the cheerleaders “have parties wild enough to attract college students. . . They rent beach houses in Cancun during Spring Break and get group-rate abortions before prom.”
  • During biology class, the class laughs when the teacher says the word “reproduce” because “they have figured out it is related to sex.”
  • Melinda’s friend has a model shoot and Melinda thinks that her friend’s, “goosebumps are bigger than her boobs.” During the shoot, “the photographer keeps saying ‘Sexy, sexy, very cute. . . think boys.”
  • At lunch, a group of girls talks about a boy who is gorgeous and dangerous. One of the girls said, “Rumor—he sleeps with anything.”
  • When the school changes the mascot, the cheerleaders come up with a new cheer, “We are the hornets, horny, horny hornets.” During the cheer, they wiggle and shake. When the cheer makes it on the television, “the TV sports guy thought the song was cute, so he did a segment showing the ‘Hornet Hustle,’ with the cheerleaders shaking their stingers, and the crowd bumping and grinding their horny Hornet heinies.”
  • Melinda sees a girl kiss a boy in the hall, the girl “smiles and then she kisses him wet. Not a Girl Scout kiss.”
  • Melinda tells her friend about her experience, “I was stupid and drunk and I didn’t know what was happening and then he hurt . . . he raped me.” Melinda’s friend thinks she is a liar.
  • On the bathroom wall, someone writes that a boy “should get it (diprosomething) every morning in his orange juice I went out with him to the movies—he tried to get his hands down my pants during the PREVIEWS!”
  • When Melinda’s friend goes to the prom with a boy, he “was all over her with his hands and his mouth.” Melinda’s friend ditched the guy.

Violence

  • While on the school bus, someone throws a Ho-Ho and it hits Melinda in the back of the head.
  • During a pep assembly, a girl yells at Melinda, and then “the girl behind me jams her knees into my back. They are as sharp as her fingernails. . . The girl yanks my hair.”
  • While at a party, Melinda meets a boy. When he “pulled me close,” she felt dizzy. “He wrapped one arm around my back. His other hand slid down to my butt. I thought that was a little rude, but my tongue was thick with beer and I couldn’t figure out how to tell him to slow down. . .  He kissed me, man kiss, hard sweet and deep. . . He kissed me again. His teeth ground hard against my lips.” Melinda doesn’t like what is happening but isn’t sure how to stop the boy from continuing. “I can hear myself—I’m mumbling like a deranged drunk. His lips lock on mine and I can’t say anything. I twist my head away. He is so heavy. . . I open my mouth to breathe, to scream, and his hand covers it. . . shirt up, shorts down, and the ground smells wet and dark and NO!. . and he smells like beer and mean and he hurts me hurts me hurts me and gets up and zips his jeans and smiles.”
  • The boy who raped Melinda attacks her at school because “you started spreading lies, and now every girl in school is talking about me like I’m some kind of pervert . . . You are one strange bitch, you know that. A freak.” The boy tries to kiss Melinda, and when she pulls away he, “slams his body against mine. . . He curses and turns, his fist coming, coming. An explosion in my head and blood in my mouth. He hit me.” The attack takes place over three pages. In the end, Melinda breaks a mirror and “wrap my fingers around a triangle of glass. I hold it to Andy Evans’s neck.” Finally, the lacrosse team shows up and helps Melinda.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While watching television, Melinda’s dad “drops ice cubes in a heavy-bottomed glass and pours in some booze.”
  • Melinda’s ex-friend, “puts a candy cigarette between her lips. Rachelle wants desperately to smoke, but she has asthma.”
  • Melinda friend tells her, “But you just can’t cut classes or not show up to school. What’s next—hanging out with the dopers?”
  • Melinda goes to a party where she and other teens are drinking.
  • During prom season, some kids talk about “which limo company won’t tell if you drink.”

Language

  • Profanity is scattered throughout the book. Profanity includes: bitchy, bullshit, crap, darn, and pissed.
  • “Oh my god” is used as an exclamation several times.
  • A girl calls Malinda an “asshole.”
  • Someone calls a girl a “bitch.”
  • Melinda is upset with a teacher and thinks, “I’m not going to let an idiot teacher jerk me around like this.”
  • According to the writing on the bathroom stall, a girl has pissed off a whole bunch of people. One person wrote in huge letters that she is a whore.
  • Melinda thinks it’s best to stay quiet because “All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie.”
  • When Melinda’s friend tells her they are no longer friends, Melinda tries “to think of something bitchy, something wicked and cruel. I can’t.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Melinda’s “parents didn’t raise me to be religious. The closest we come to worship is the Trinity of Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. I think the Merryweather cheerleaders confuse me because I missed out on Sunday School. It has to be a miracle. There is no other explanation. Howe else could they sleep with the football team on Saturday night and be reincarnated as virginal goddess on Monday?”
  • When Melinda goes to the mall and finds that it is closed, she thinks, “It’s always supposed to be there, like milk in the refrigerator or God.”
  • A girl Melinda knows is “experimenting with Islam. She wears a scarf on her head and some brown-and-red gauzy harem pants.”

The Assassination of Bragwain Spurge

Elf historian Bragwain Spurge accepts a dangerous mission to catapult across the mountains, spy on the goblins, and deliver a peace offering to the goblins’ dark lord. No other elf has returned for the goblins’ land, but Spurge is determined to be the first.

Spurge’s host, goblin archivist Werfel, is excited to show the goblin culture to his guest. Instead of being great friends like Werfel had hoped, Spurge’s snobbish attitude and sneaky ways lead to an international crisis. Soon, the two are fugitives fighting for their lives. But in order to survive, and keep their nations from war, the two will need to put their cultural differences aside and work together.

A unique political story, The Assassination of Bragwain Spurge, is told from three points of view.  Werfel tells his version of events in first-person text; the pride and love he feels for his culture and his people shines throughout the entire story. Lord spymaster Ysoret Clivers writes reports to the elves’ leader, which allows the reader to understand lies that were told to Spurge. Spurge transmits pictures of his side of the story back to the elf kingdom. The beautiful, sometimes hilarious, black-and-white illustrations portray the goblin culture from Spurge’s perspective, often making the goblin world appear frightening.

Spurge’s story begins with illustrations of his travel to the goblin’s city. Because the story is told from three points of view, the same events can be seen through different perspectives, which allows the reader to understand how so many misunderstandings can take place between two people. Spurge portrays the goblins as frightening monsters, who leer at him and have disgusting habits. Despite Spurge’s conceited attitude, Werfel makes an excellent host, who is willing to die for the unlikable, unfriendly guest.

Many readers will relate to Spurge, who was bullied throughout school. Spurge has always been “the weed: unwanted by anyone.” Spurge accepted the dangerous mission because “I thought I would be useful. . . I thought I could be different than I was. I thought I could be one of them.” He is heartbroken when he realizes that he was used. Werfel points out that “just because you’re useful to the wealthy doesn’t mean they’ll reward you. It just means they’ll use you.” Spurge’s heartbreak and hurt make his previous behavior understandable.

Spurge and Werfel are not necessarily heroes, but in the end they band together to help bring peace between their people. The conclusion allows the reader to know that there is always the possibility of peace when two people begin to understand each other’s culture. The action-packed, visually inspiring, and funny tale teaches the value of friendship and understanding others’ perspectives. The Assassination of Bragwain Spurge will draw in readers because of the many illustrations; however, only dedicated readers will make it to the end of the book because of the changing points of views, the complexity of the plot, and the length of the story.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While giving the history of the goblin city of Tenebrion, Ysoret Clivers writes about twelve elves who went into the city. Only two came back alive, “but raving mad—unable to explain the horrors they’d seen, and not just because their tongues had been cut out. Their minds had been blasted.”
  • When being introduced to a goblin family, the host tells Spurge, “I, for one, am going to try right now to forget all the elves I killed in all sorts of ways during the war, and I am not going to think of all of my friends you people shot and stabbed and cut apart. Oh, and burned from the air. And imprisoned without food.” Another guest tells Spurge, “When most goblins took elfin prisoners, they cut off their arms at the elbow. Not me, sir. . . I always cut off your people’s hands right at the wrists.”
  • When Spurge was a child, the other boys would tease him. Ysoret Clivers and the other boys, “burned his desk with him tied to it . . . (and) dragged him down to the crypt and forced him to eat grave-worms or have his pale little head kicked in.”
  • When Ysoret Clivers displeases the king, a bodyguard cuts off his finger. “He spread my hand out on my desk and, taking out his ax—” By the end of the book, Ysoret Clivers has lost three fingers.  When the third finger is removed, blood splatters the page, but it is not described.
  • Spurge and Werfel are surrounded by bandits, who make the goblin give up his clothes. The bandit grabs Spurge, and “she spit in the elf’s face, then threw him backward to the floor. . . She kicked Spurge as hard as she could. Spurge writhed in pain.” Werfel stops the bandit from killing Spurge. But then “the goblins surrounded them, jabbing at them with short swords and knives, forcing them back toward the balcony railing and the darkness beyond it. . .” The bandits push the two off the balcony, but they are uninjured. The attack is described over a chapter.
  • A goblin challenges Spurge to a duel. The battle is described in 19 pages’ pictures. The goblin attacks Spurge with a mace, but Spurge is able to defeat him.
  • An elf knight hits Werfel’s pet. “One of the guards swung a sword and hit her with the flat. Werfel heard the crunch. Skardebek went whirling over their heads and hit the ground. She lay there twitching as the knights pulled their two prisoners away.
  • Werfel’s pet helps him and Spurge escape from the elves. “She darted forward and clamped herself angrily over the executioner’s hooded face. He gagged and clutched at her. . . Skardebek flapped away—and Spurge slammed the guard over the head with the pike. The man collapsed.”
  • As Werfel and Spurge are trying to escape, a knight sees them. There is a brief altercation. “Werfel grabbed his weapon. He shoved his hand over the man’s mouth. . . Skardebek flapped in his face and he choked. . .” Spurge hit “the guard in the stomach. The picket guard fell backward, the breath knocked out of him.”
  • When the elves and goblins’ leaders meet, a weapon detonates and explodes. The leaders and their armies disappear into a black hole. The meeting is described in pictures.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • To welcome Spurge, the elfin scholar, to the goblin city, a champagne fountain is prepared.

Language

  • When the goblins consider someone a friend, they insult them by calling them names. Spurge calls a neighbor’s children “little jerks” and “awful spawn.”
  • If the goblin’s find out Werfel is a spy, Ysoret Clivers writes that “we can claim that he was just a nincompoop or a madman.”
  • A goblin challenges Spurge to a duel, calling him a “cowardly, lily-livered, stitch-faced desperado.”

Supernatural

  • Spurge uses a communication spell to send pictures back to the elves. “Werfel could tell it was a spell because the elf was floating several inches above the bed, surrounded by crackling sparks.”

Spiritual Content

  • When a group of angry goblins surrounds Spurge and Werfel, Werfel “clenched his hands and started to say a prayer to Great Rugwith.”

Midnight Sun

Katie can’t be in the sun. Even the smallest amount of sunlight will cause her great pain because of a rare disease, forcing Katie to sleep during the day and lead an isolated life at night. Her best friend Morgan and her widowed father are her only companions until one night, Katie goes to the train station to play her guitar. As she plays her music, a chance encounter opens her world and her heart.

All-star athlete Charlee Reed thought his life was planned out for him until he met Katie. When he sees Katie playing her guitar, everything changes. He doesn’t know about Katie’s rare disease, but he’s determined to steal her heart.

Midnight Sun’s plot is typical, predictable, and cliché. Despite that, many teens will relate to Katie’s desire to be normal and her struggle to lead a life that matters. Katie’s love interest Charlie—handsome, kind, and generous—is every girl’s dream. The two quickly fall in love and force each other to step out of their comfort zones and follow their dreams.

Midnight Sun follows the same format as The Fault in Our Stars and Me Before You. Romance fans will enjoy this book because of its strong character development. This story encourages readers to follow their dreams and tells them anything is possible. However, the use of cursing and texting abbreviations such as FOMO seems unnecessary. Because of Charlie, Katie seems to accept the progression of her disease and her impending death with little emotion. Although she wonders what death will be like, her acceptance of dying young does not ring true.

Cook missed an opportunity in this novel to focus on the dangers of drinking. Even though Charlie, drunk and foolish, injured himself and lost his scholarship, Charlie still goes to a party and plays beer pong. During the party, drinking to excess is depicted as fun, without much risk. Although this book has some flaws, it is an easy-to-read story that will please readers looking for a character-driven romance.

Sexual Content

  • Katie fantasizes about Charlie. She wishes she could invite him into her room, “Run my fingers through that gorgeous hair. Kiss him.”
  • Morgan is excited that Katie is “meeting up with the guy you’ve lusted after for a decade.” They have a conversation about hooking up. Morgan says, “I am not losing my virginity to a guy I’ve talked to exactly twice in my life.”
  • Charlie and another girl used “to hook up once in a while . . . But it’s not something I’m proud of or want to repeat or anything.”
  • Charlie tells Katie that kids often grind when they dance. Then he shows how it’s done. “He puts a hand on my lower back and starts swaying his hips side to side like a pendulum. I follow his moves.”
  • Charlie kisses Katie. She thinks, “It is pure magic, so everything I ever hoped it would be, I can’t even move or think or breathe for a second. But then instinct kicks in and I feel everything, everything. My nerve endings tingle, my brain is on fire, my heart is a goner.”
  • Charlie and Katie kiss several times. It is described, but not in graphic detail. The first time, “he softly kisses me. He adds just the right amount of lips, tongue, and time.” Later, they kiss again and Katie thinks his lips “taste like sugar and cream and pure goodness . . . I’ve never felt so buzzed on life.”
  • Morgan kisses a boy, but it is not described. Later, Morgan said that she did “make out” with the boy.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Katie, Morgan, and Charlie go to a party where teens are drinking and playing beer pong. Charlie explains the rules of beer pong and then he and Katie play. Katie doesn’t drink, but her friends do.
  • Katie, Morgan, and Charlie go to a party where the host bought a keg, but doesn’t know how to open it. Morgan complains, “This really is a tame, safe, parent-friendly party!”
  • While playing guitar at the train station, Katie sees a man who “seems drunk.”
  • At a party, someone says, “And that girl over there, she has a prescription drug problem.”
  • When Charlie is drunk, his friend “bet me I couldn’t jump off the roof into the pool and I clipped the edge and I’m an idiot.” He injured himself jumping, which led to him losing his scholarship.

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, bitches, crap, damn, jerk, freaking, hell, shit, and WTF.
  • “Goddamn” is used once.
  • Morgan said, “Tonight is going to be fan-fucking-tastic, and so are you!”
  • A girl calls Morgan a “douchebag.”
  • “Oh my God,” is used as an exclamation several times.
  • Morgan tells Katie, “it took gigantic cojones to come to this party.”
  • When Morgan gets her diploma, she “strikes a pose and mouths, Yeah, bitches!”
  • A friend of Katie’s dad “has great stories about what a little pain in the ass my dad was as a kid.”
  • Morgan calls a popular girl a “whore” and “flaming crotch rot.”
  • An advice columnist writes, “everyone has their shit sandwich. The only difference is some people aren’t willing to talk about it.”
  • Morgan tells Katie, “You’re a hot, young, badass woman in charge of her own life, and you text him whenever you damn well please.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Katie wonders what happens after a person dies. She wonders if death is “just you, in the dark, awake and aware. I sincerely hope not, because that would be unnecessarily cruel.”
  • Katie’s mother died in a car crash when she was younger. Katie wonders what happened when her mom died. “Was there a white light, did her grandparents escort her to heaven? Will she get me when it’s my turn? Or will it just be blackness, a big void, a curtain coming down and that’s it, like I never existed at all?”

 

 

 

 

 

In Plain Sight

Megan, who has moved all over the country, knows how to make friends. Now living in Las Vegas, Megan “Cause Queen” Caliente organizes a protest, where she is detained by police. When her mother comes to pick her up from jail, the police arrest her mother. Megan discovers that her mother has been living under an assumed name, and her father is a convicted terrorist.

Megan’s life is suddenly turned upside down. Her friends turn against her, and gossip spreads like fire. Megan struggles to understand her mother’s decisions. She also wonders if she will follow in her father’s footsteps.

Written from Megan’s point of view, In Plain Sight focuses on Megan’s journey to understand her mother’s choices as well as how her father’s terrorist act will affect the person she becomes. After people discover who her father is, Megan must deal with gossip, and one student shouts, “Muslim go home!” Suddenly, Megan is stereotyped as an extremist and some of her friends abandon her.

Throughout the story, Megan learns about the impact of choices. Her friend Matt shares his own troubled background and teaches Megan that genetics don’t determine who you become. Matt tells Megan, “Everything in life is a choice . . . You can choose to be you. Or you can let someone else choose for you.” This theme is reinforced when Morgan struggles to deal with her father’s deadly actions and decides to go to a memorial for those who her father killed. While there, a girl whose father died in the bombing, tells Megan, “. . .but if you came here looking for forgiveness, you’re not going to get it. . . It’s not yours to get. . . You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Written as a part of the Orca Soundings books, which are specifically written for teens, In Plain Sight is a fast-paced book that looks at the timely issue of terrorism in a teen-friendly manner. Teens will enjoy this high-interest, easy-to-read story.

Sexual Content

  • Megan is upset when she finds out who her father is. In anger, she yells at her mom, “Well, sharing that [a computer] got you into a shit-load of trouble. And sharing your body got you pregnant.”
  • Megan and Matt go on a road trip. They sleep in the vehicle for the night. When they get out their sleeping bags, Matt suggests, “Why don’t we zip them together?” When Megan declines, Matt said, “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • During a protest, Megan saw a tourist with a can of Coors Light.
  • Megan’s “big love is current events, not parties and weed.”
  • Megan’s aunt drinks a glass of wine.
  • Matt tells Megan, “I’m the son of a guy who dealt drugs for a living, and you don’t see me selling the white stuff.”

Language

  • Profanity is scattered throughout the book and includes ass, bitch, crap, damn, hell, pissed, and shit.
  • “Oh my god” and “my god” are each used as an exclamation once.
  • Someone calls Megan a “lying hag.”
  • A police officer tells a protester, “Stay where you are and stop being a smart ass. . .”
  • When Megan’s friend is goofing off, she thinks, “He’s such a smart ass.”
  • Megan makes a huge mistake and tells her mom she won’t do it again. Her mom replies, “Damn right you won’t do it again.”
  • When Megan yells at her mother, she thinks, “I know I’m being a bitch. . .”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None
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