Our Chemical Hearts is not a pukey romance. Everything isn’t wrapped up in a bow and it’s not all warm and fuzzy. I think what really grabbed me about this book was the ending and its portrayal of love, contrasting the thought of being “in love” versus loving someone long term, and then loving someone for who they are versus who you want to love them into being.
We have Henry, a pretty deep, smart, quirky guy, and then there’s Grace, who arrives at the beginning of the school year. Grace is deep, smart and quirky, but she has also gone through major trauma. She was one thing in former life and now after the tragic death of her boyfriend she’s transformed into someone different. Grace and Henry fall in love, but is Henry in love with the girl he thinks Grace used to be, or the current version of Grace? And is Grace in love with Henry or with her ex boyfriend? Along with Grace and Henry we have Henry’s two besties Lola and Murray, and Henry’s older (wiser?) sister Sadie, who help Henry on his journey and try to bestow wisdom whether wanted or not on him.
The backdrop for this is senior year of high school. Grace and Henry have been assigned to co-edit the school newspaper, which is way to leave a lasting mark on their school. I liked that there a lot of strong female characters in this book and they do have their own stories they work to stay true to themselves in spite of their relationships.
Our Chemical Hearts has notes of Paper Towns, Eleanor & Park and All the Bright Places, but is still it’s own story. It’s not the best book ever written and I think some of the movies and books regularly alluded to are bits that bring in adult readers versus teens. It was a YA book I actually wanted to finish to see where the author was going with her story, but not something I needed to read closely. I did like the realistic flawedness (making up words I know) of Grace. Also – a refreshing diverse set of characters and they didn’t feel tokenish or that they were used to check off boxes.
Minako is an everyday 13 year old middle school student when one day a talking cat named Artemis tells her about her about her magical power to transform into Sailor V and about her mission to protect Earth from the Dark Agency.
A precursor to Sailor Moon, Codename Sailor V introduced the world to Naoko Takeuchi and her cast of magical girls. Now, dear reader, I’m not going to lie to you. I’m certainly obsessed with the Sailor Scouts and, by far, Sailor V is my favorite. If you like Sailor Moon you must read Codename: Sailor V, it’s a wonderful prequel to the entire series and helps the reader invest more deeply into the beautiful and powerful Sailor Venus.
Follow her continued adventures in…
Codename: Sailor V volume 2!
Sailor Moon!
“Aidan Lockwood feels like he’s been asleep, with each day as hazy and unremarkable as the one before it. When is former best friend, Jarrod, moves back to town suddenly the veil begins to lift. What Aiden discovers is that his life is haunted by the stories and magic of his family.” So, this book is pretty hard to explain. It is mostly a story about family, forgiveness, and accepting that your parents are in fact humans. Well, also maybe witches. This book brilliantly blends magic and realism in a way that left my mind boggled and my heart full. It is well crafted, beautifully written, and entirely immersive; coupled with the fact that it is a Stonewall Award Winner means that this book will rank among my favorites for years to come.
Hope is a young girl from a middle class family whose mother loves to take in children who are without families. Hope’s mother has already fostered a young boy named Austin so of course when she discovers his sister is being bounced around from foster home to foster home she takes her in as well. Dess is a young girl whose life has been far from easy so she is skeptical of her new foster family only really concerned about the well-being of her little brother, Austin. Dess and Hope are constantly butting heads; Hope is upset that Dess is seemingly perfect and appears to fit in much easier than she ever could while Dess thinks Hope is a spoiled brat whose family is pretending to be perfect. However, Dess and Hope soon find they are better as friends than as enemies as they learn that family does not always require blood ties. Peas and Carrots is a wonderful realistic fiction that teaches its audience that accepting peoples differences makes all the difference.
The first book in McKinley’s Damar series. Despite the dragon on the cover, this story subverts as many fantasy tropes as it upholds…the heroine’s chief weapon is hard work, not magic. Her horse is white because it is old and lame, and no one in her kingdom particularly appreciates her heroics. It’s a beautiful story of perseverance and love in the face of overwhelming odds, and the writing is wonderful.
Cruel and neglectful are the kindest things to say about these two English children’s mother. When they are evacuated to the countryside to avoid the Blitz, they are immigrants in a new, strange land. Understated, sad and triumphant, this is an important book for adults and children.
Yarvi is a man with one arm in a culture that values strength. He is also a prince, and his father’s one surviving heir, sworn to win back the throne that should rightfully be his. Because this is Joe Abercrombie, you can expect plenty of dark humor, moral ambiguity, unexpected twists galore, and for at least half of the characters you grow to love to end up dead.
A book featuring a diverse cast, LGBTQIA characters, and Rufus Wainwright music; sign me up! One Man Guy by Michael Barakavia had all the makings of an amazing read. However, once I actually started to read the book I found it didn’t quite measure up to my expectations. There were things I liked about the book, so let’s highlight those. As I already mentioned the diversity worked really well for me, Alek’s Armenian family felt very authentic and very lovingly written. What I liked about the book, however, ends there. Ethan, Alek’s love interest, is presented to the reader first in one way, and then suddenly changes into a stereotype. While I realize multidimensional characters are great this didn’t feel authentic, it simply felt sloppy. Similarly the love story didn’t make a ton of sense, as the characters didn’t have much in common, nor did they ever find a ton of common ground. All in all I’m glad this book is around, but maybe don’t push it to the top of your to be read list.
Lewis has spent most of his life trying to being invisible at school. He already gets picked on enough for being Native American so why make it worse? Lewis decides to take a risk and befriend a new student, George, who he shares a love of the Beatles with and a sense of humor. What makes things tricky is Lewis has to constantly lie about his life on the Res, because there’s no way George is going to come over and see his disaster of a house with the roof falling down and outhouse out back. But, when a bully starts to make Lewis’s life more miserable than usual is really puts their friendship to the test. Even though it takes place in the 70’s many of the prejudices highlighted in If I Ever Get Out of Here are still very relevant today and this book is definitely worth the read or listen.
Just in time for Rio 2016, The Flip Side -written by Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson- follows the life of elite gymnast Charlotte “Charlie” Ryland a few weeks before Olympic trials. In order to get a life outside the gym, Charlie goes to a public school. To make sure everyone treats her like a normal girl, Charlie decides to keep her gymnastics secret from everyone at school, even her best friend Zoe. Balancing school and her gymnastics career is a lot of work, and Charlie is determined to to let anything get in her way of her goal to win Olympic gold.
The Flip Side reminded me of Hannah Montana, because they both live double lives, and they don’t want anyone to find out about their secret. I love how there is a blend between gymnastics and school drama to create a book that can be read by those who don’t know much about gymnastics as well as avid gymnastics fans.
(Lynn, Evanston Teen)
