ALAN Online

ALAN’s Picks is a monthly book review column edited and compiled by Dr. Pam Cole of Kennesaw State University.  Be sure to check the site regularly for the a preview of the latest titles in YA Lit.

Reviewed this month:

An Off Year by Claire Zulkey
Ash by Malinda Lo     
By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters
The Crimson Cap by Ellen Howard
Freaks and Revelations by Davida Willis Hurwin
Gentlemen by Michael Northrup
Hunter’s Heart by Julia Green 
Jars of Glass by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler 
The Long Wait for Tomorrow by Joanquin Dorfman
Oathbreaker: A Prince Among Killers by J. B. Redmond and S. R. Vaught
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough    
Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes

An Off Year by Claire Zulkey
Dutton/Penguin, 2009, 213 pp., $17.99
College Decisions/Realistic Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-525-42159-7

Cecily Powell surprises everyone, especially herself, when she arrives at Kenyon College to begin  freshman year and decides to leave before opening her dorm room door. Her decision puzzles her dad, the only parent in her life. Her mother travels and has been a “non-presence” since the divorce when Cecily was eleven. Cecily’s dad is understanding and patient, though he arranges for her to see a psychologist and eventually, a professional college counselor.

Claire Zulkey creates in Cecily an authentic voice of a normal teen heading to college. Youngest in a family of three, Cecily feels estranged from her older sister Germaine—a college graduate, and uncertain about her brother, Josh, a junior at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Cecily’s angst
though, addresses the more universal issues of beginning college: Will I make friends? Is college all about partying? Who will I become? The title of Zulkey’s novel is apt; Cecily feels “off” in her journey to find out why she had the visceral sense on day one that she was not going to stay at Kenyon. Cecily’s journey is a poignant one, appealing in its honesty and ordinariness. Males and females alike can connect with Cecily’s questions; many might long for her very tolerant dad. There are some echoes of Zibby O’Neal’s A Formal Feeling and of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Catalyst in Zulkey’s latest work.

Reviewed by Mary Warner, San Jose, CA

Ash by Malinda Lo
Little, Brown and Company, 2009, 264 pp., $16.99
Coming of Age/Fantasy/Same Sex Relationships
ISBN: 978-0-316-04009-9

A stunning, modern remake of the Cinderella fairy tale, Ash is  a coming-of-age story that includes magic, fairies, a wicked stepmother, and a huntress. Ash tells the story of an orphaned girl who is made miserable by her stepmother. When her father dies, she loses her place as a daughter and becomes a servant to pay off her father’s debt. She escapes her misery through reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. There she meets the fairy, Sidhean, and the King’s huntress, Kaisa. Torn between Sidhean and Kaisa, Ash learns about love through her relationship with the huntress.

Lo does an extremely good job of adding rich, dense description to the story. Her descriptions of the forest and the fairy land are vivid, and readers will feel as if they are in the story. Not only does the reader feel connected to the characters in this fairy tale retelling, but the way in which Lo describes the love relationship between Ash and Kaisa is quite innocent. The focus on the same sex relationship is shown as a simple love story. This book might be an appropriate choice for teens to read who are interested in such issues as same sex relationships or to introduce such relationships for discussion. Although ultimately the book is so much more than a story about a same sex relationship, this book might be appropriate for high school readers and beyond.

Reviewed by Joellen Maples, Rochester, NY

By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters
Hyperion, 2010, 198 pp., $16.99
Bullying/Suicide
ISBN: 978-1-4231-1618-9

Daelyn Rice wants to die. Bullied mercilessly since elementary school, Daelyn has already tried to take her life several times and her last effort, while unsuccessful, had painful, lasting consequences. Now with the help of Through-the-Light, a website designed to assist her in self-terminating, she has
identified her final “Date of Determination.”  Although she is only fifteen years old, Daelyn has twenty-three days left to live.

A complex, haunting portrait of a young woman who longs to escape the horror of her own life, By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead is both riveting and deeply troubling. Daelyn is all too real; she is sympathetic and stubborn, self-destructive and sensitive, impatient and intelligent, and her anger and pain are palpable as she reveals the experiences that have destroyed her self-confidence, her hope, and her faith in the goodness of other people. Teen readers will become deeply invested in Daelyn’s story, and they will wrestle intellectually, emotionally, and ethically with her decision.

Known for her powerful writing and YA novels about adolescents who often find themselves on the margins, Peters has done her research. It is also clear from the reader’s guide and bullying resources developed by C.J. Bott that are included at the end that this book contributes to the growing body of literature on bullying. However, even as the book raises readers’ awareness of “bullycide” by personalizing its effects, teachers, readers, and parents should be aware that suicide methods are also openly discussed. Finally, the ending is intentionally ambiguous. Even though Daelyn tentatively establishes connections with two other characters, it is difficult to read the ending with hope. Daelyn’s death looms.
Reviewed by Emily Meixner, Ewing, NJ

The Crimson Cap by Ellen Howard
Holiday House, 2009, 177 pp., $16.95
Historical Fiction/Coming of Age/Social Issues
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2152-7

In the winter of 1687, French Explorer La Salle landed in present-day Texas by ship from France. He and his fellow travelers had been looking for the mouth of the great Mississippi River and had miscalculated their journey. Now, with sickness and mental instability running rampant through the camp, La Salle must organize the men and boys of the settlement to embark on an expedition to find the Great Mississippi. Included in this group of settlers is ten-year-old Pierre Talon. Pierre is the oldest son of his family and has been chosen for his ability to communicate with the Indians of the New World. Pierre’s father has recently gone missing, his older sister has died due to sickness, and his mother is in a deep depression and has been left to raise five children alone. Pierre must brave the unfamiliar landscape in an attempt to save his family and his neighbors. Little does Pierre know that his voyage will change his view of the world, his spiritually, and his physical makeup as he meets new friends, new family, enemies within the French ranks, and outside forces he could never have expected.

Howard’s novel is based on actual events surrounding La Salle’s last expedition in the New World. Her story following Pierre is based on written manuscripts and interviews from the time. This is an intriguing tale of a boy who is forced to become a man over the course of his pre-teen years. His innocence and boyhood perspective are changed, and Pierre becomes a mighty force in the shaping of the European settlement in present-day southern American and Mexico. This is a historically rich novel that has been carefully researched with strong characters and unflinching accounts of the French and Spanish embattlements of the New World.
Reviewed by Ray Engle, Indianapolis, IN

Freaks and Revelations by Davida Willis Hurwin

Little, Brown and Company, 2009, 229 pp., $16.99

Realistic Fiction/San Francisco/Los Angeles/Relationships

ISBN: 978-0-316-04996-2

This realistic novel follows two very polarized teens from their first violent meeting to their peaceful reunion years later. The story is told in alternating perspectives, and readers get to know the two protagonists:  a seventeen-year-old neo-Nazi punk rocker and a thirteen-year-old gay boy who has been tossed out and ostracized by his family. This book was inspired by the real lives of Timothy Zeal and Matthew Boger who worked closely with the author to help authenticate the story.

The novel offers an amazing insight into the nature of hate and redemption. This is one of those essential books like Sold, Skin, Black and White, and Speak that all teens and parents should be strongly encouraged to read and discuss. Like those books, it has the power to change the world for the better. This is a book about hate, but it is much more about forgiveness, hope and second chances. Freaks and Revelations offers proof that people can change. The book is edgy and might not be for every reader, but those who do venture into its pages will find the story haunting and compelling.

Reviewed by John E. Jarvey, Cleveland Heights, OH

Gentlemen by Michael Northrup
Scholastic, 2009, 234 pp., $16.99
Mystery/Adolescence
ISBN: 978-0-545-09749-9

Ironically referred to as “gentlemen” by Mr. Haberman, their English teacher, Micheal, Tommy, Mixer, and Bones are precisely the sort of miscreants one would expect to find in a remedial high school classroom. Tough. Sarcastic. Disinterested. Rough around the edges. Following an outburst in math, Tommy is sent to the office. When he doesn’t return, his friends believe he has been suspended. However, when several days pass and there is still no sign of Tommy, the “gentlemen” begin to believe that something sinister has occurred. Meanwhile, Mr. Haberman is teaching Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and his methods are suspicious, to say the least. He invites the class to guess the contents of a large barrel by striking it with a club and then refuses to tell them what’s inside, even after he asks them to transport the barrel to his car. In class, Haberman draws a parallel to a missing student and wonders about the guilt of those who might unknowingly have helped dispose of a body. For Micheal, an avid viewer of Without a Trace, all these events taken together seem far too coincidental. When the boys decide to solve the mystery once and for all, will they start down a path from which there is no return? Will their actions help them discover what happened to Tommy? Or will they place themselves in harm’s way?

Gentlemen is a gritty, realistic examination of a population that is oftentimes, especially in YA fiction, reduced to a stereotype. Northrop uses Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment to parallel the machinations of Micheal’s mind. Like Raskolnikov, Micheal is ultimately the victim of his
own paranoia, though he does not realize this until far too late.

Northrop examines the role and limits of friendship. He asks his readers to ponder “At what point does loyalty to a friend come into conflict with doing what’s right?” Gentlemen also investigates the idea of consequences. Recent advances in neuroscience have shown that the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for reasoning and impulse control, is not fully developed until the early twenties. For
Northrop’s characters, this discovery is of vital importance, because unlike Raskolnikov, who plans out his crime, the “gentlemen” do not fully consider the consequences of their actions. Ultimately, a series of impulsive actions decide their fate. A great read for reluctant male readers from middle school through high school.

Reviewed by Anthony Pennay, Canyon Country, CA

Hunter’s Heart by Julia Green
Carolrhoda, 2007, 254 pp., $16.95
Relationships/Family Problems
ISBN: 13: 978-0-7613-9493-8

As a reader, I look forward to a novel that catches me off guard and continues to haunt me long after I have finished reading it. Hunter’s Heart is such a novel. Dark and brooding, it raises a host of complex questions for which it refuses to provide any easy answers. Having lost his father, fourteen-year-old Simon moves to a new town on the coast with his mother and younger sister. Embittered and withdrawn, he spends his days hunting small animals in the countryside and his nights reading survival manuals to prepare for a solitary life in the wild. When his mother begins dating his high school art teacher, Simon, a talented artist in his own right, grows increasingly angry. Turning his back on art, and thus on beauty, he embraces a path of destruction and longs to possess an air rifle his mother refuses to let him purchase. When an equally troubled teenage girl chooses to make Simon her summer project, he is drawn into a relationship that compels him to open his heart and doing so subsequently threatens to destroy him. Further complicating matters is the fact that a former solider known to locals as Mad Ed mistakes Simon for a brother he lost during the first Persian Gulf War. Having failed to protect his brother, Mad Ed takes it upon himself to watch over Simon. The characters are gradually drawn together until a series of unforeseen events causes their lives to become inextricably entwined. With its dark themes and shifting viewpoint, Hunter’s Heart is reminiscent of Robert Cormier’s writing. Though the world Green constructs is at times brutal, it is not without hope. For Green, salvation is available and exists in the relationships we construct with one another.

Reviewed by Sean P. Connors, Columbus, OH

Jars of Glass by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler
Speak/Penguin, 2008, 246 pp., $7.99
Family Problems/Mental Illness/Brothers and Sisters/Adoption
ISBN: 978-0-14-241489-7

Sisters Shana and Chloe are suddenly living a nightmarish existence, caused by their mother’s confusing absence. Now their father is barely functioning; Shana has embraced Goth; Chloe is living in past memories; and social workers are hovering ominously over Micah, their newly adopted toddler brother from Russia. The sisters’ lowest point occurs with a destructive Goth evening, followed by a disastrous social worker’s visit. Acknowledging Goth as an avenue for outwardly displaying her dark fears, Shana moves forward, helping to save her father’s neglected business and streamlining Micah’s care with Chloe.

Friends and boyfriends appear as the girls’ social circle widens, creating a happier, securer lifestyle. Shana’s major hurdle preventing family unity is Chloe and her father’s illusion of their mother’s return, so she insists upon Micah visiting their mother, anticipating his terror when he meets her. (Their mother burned Micah’s hand on the stove.)

Chapters are alternately narrated by the sisters. Shana is sarcastic, decisive, and realistic; Chloe relays lengthy, fanciful descriptions and memories. A few chapters are long and repetitive. At fifteen Shana is far more insightful, understanding, and capable than her year-younger sister and father; her quick Goth dismissal and family leadership is somewhat unrealistic.
The schizophrenia diagnosis appears late for suspense but many may recognize it earlier; however, Micah’s injury shocks and more back story regarding his adoption would be helpful. Notably absent is the father’s viewpoint, as only his actions are described. Still, the story is fast-paced and younger females will easily identify with the personable sisters and their on-going struggles.

Reviewed by Lisa Hazlett, Vermillion, SD

The Long Wait for Tomorrow by Joanquin Dorfman
Random House, 2009, 342 pp., $16.99
Bullying/Relationships/Mental Health
ISBN: 978-0-375-84694-6

Patrick and Jenna are baffled by Kelly McDermott’s overnight life change. Since when has the high school quarterback forgotten how to play football? When did he pick up drinking and become a pro at billiards? Kelly is convinced he is dreaming his way through the current day; Patrick and Jenna can’t help asking themselves if they are the ones who should wake up. Kelly is not the same over-confident kid they knew just yesterday—the one audacious enough to videotape the explicit hazing of Edmund as blackmail for his “witnessing” an event he shouldn’t have. Even though Patrick and Jenna have many unanswered questions about Kelly’s paradigm shift, Kelly is the one who has even more questions about how he got lucky enough to relive a moment in high school when he is convinced he is actually asleep and dreaming within a mental institution. Kelly’s convinced there is something he must do now that he has been given a second chance.
Dorfman is a master storyteller who weaves horror, wit, and philosophy into a tale that raises difficult questions for teens: Who am I? How much do I let other people dictate my identity? Dorfman removes Kelly from his current life and forces him to examine himself from an outside perspective—a brilliant move no reader expects. The characterization is strong; readers hailing from any social class will find themselves identifying with Kelly, Patrick, or Jenna. Addressing the purpose of life in a story spanning two days, readers are forced into a whirlpool of questions, doubts, and answers. A difficult read due to explicit bullying content, but the story and the thoughts raised are important.

Reviewed by Kristie Jolley, Highland, UT

Oathbreaker: A Prince Among Killers by J. B. Redmond and S. R. Vaught
Bloomsbury, 2009, 420 pp., $9.99
Fantasy/Relationships/Revenge
ISBN: 978-1-59990-376-7

In the second installment of the Oathbreaker series, Aron and the Stone Guild begin their fight against the Dynast Brailing who are attempting to take over the world. Aron is still coping with the loss of his family and is coming to grips with the budding relationship between his master, Stormbreaker, and Dari, his teacher and friend, while fighting his need for revenge on Lord Brailing after his betrayal of the people of Aron’s civilization. Aron, along with fellow assassins Dari, Stormbreaker, and Zed, continue their search for Dari’s twin sister and Stormbreaker’s elusive and secretive sister, Snakekiller, who is concealing the mysterious Nic Mab. Many questions will be answered in the end. Who is Nic and what is his connection with Aron? Will Stormbreaker and Dari’s relationship progress? Will the Stone Assassins save the world from the Brailings and their plan of domination?

Vaught and Redmond weave a highly-detailed and emotional journey. Aron, Dari, and Stormbreaker are complex characters whom readers will root for throughout the journey to save the world as Aron learns more about the world through young eyes. Lovers of fantasy will love the world that Redmond and Vaught have created. The story is full of heart wrenching twists and fantastic characters, even though the authors have crafted a world of marauding cats, alternate realities, and superpowers. This is a real treat!

Reviewed by Raymond Engle, Indianapolis, IN

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
Clarion, 2009, 292 pp., $16.00
Fantasy/Coming of Age/Mystery
ISBN: 978-0-547-22399-5

Spells. Witches. Mystery. Romance. Talents. Time travel. All of these elements come alive in Carolyn MacCullough’s most recent novel, a tale that Harry Potter and Twilight fans will easily enjoy. MacCullough creates a standout story of intrigue and coming of age in a modern setting. The main
character, Tamsin Greene, is born into a family of witches, and each has a special talent which appears on their eighth birthdays. However, Tamsin’s eighth birthday comes and goes without any recognizable talent, even though at birth it was thought she would be the most powerful of all. Yet, changes occur for Tamsin the summer of her seventeenth year, while she is working at her Grandmother’s shop. A mysterious professor comes into the shop looking for Tamsin’s talented sister, Rowena, to attain a lost family heirloom. Tamsin pretends to be Rowena and accepts the mission. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the professor’s motive is much more sinister, and Tamsin finds herself in a situation where she must undo the chaos she inadvertently creates by pretending to be Rowena.

The tale is part fantasy and part mystery, and teens can relate to the coming-of-age experiences that Tamsin goes through such as sibling rivalry, first love, and establishing one’s identity. In a time when vampires, werewolves, and zombies are popular, MacCullough creates an exciting mystery centered around witches. Full of adventure, mystery, and fantasy, Once a Witch will hold the attention of most any young adult reader.

Reviewed by Joellen Maples, Rochester, NY

Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes
Levine/Scholastic, 2009, 234 pp., $16.99
Military Life/Relationships/Activism
ISBN: 0-545-10795-4

Bo Whaley, the son of an Air Force colonel, has a reputation as a troublemaker. His cousin, Gari, does not want to stay with Bo’s family, but her mother has been deployed as a nurse to Afghanistan. Neither of them wants to be in school at Young Oaks—at least not until they learn about the taped space and Miss Loupe’s improvisational classroom sessions. When Miss Loupe’s brother goes missing in Afghanistan and then is found with permanent injuries, Bo, Gari, and their classmates set out to do a fundraiser to help wounded soldiers, like Miss Loupe’s brother, but their mission turns into a huge movement across the land that allows everyone to find their place again.

This book will appeal to middle school boys and girls alike. There are characters for everyone to relate to, and readers will keep turning the pages, waiting to see what will happen next.

Reviewed by Frankie Huff, Orlando, FL