The Leaving

Altebrando, Tara. The Leaving. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.

What a suspenseful read that I can’t wait to share with my kids.  I love how the book starts right in the middle of the story.  5 kids, returning home after years of being gone.  They are confused and remember very little. One has a tattoo. One has a foreign object in her stomach. One tries hypnosis. The mystery remains.  As does the mystery of the boy who doesn’t return. His sister Avery, whose own life is largely broken, seeks answers.  

Altebrando masterfully weaves together the stories of Avery, Lucas, Scarlett, and the others.  She writes initially from their complete confusion, filling in the history, and carefully revealing the mystery one small detail at a time.  She expertly develops individual personalities and relationships.  My readers will be fully engaged with each kid and with the mystery as a whole.  Altebrando plays with words...through Scarlett’s story most particularly.  My poetry book readers will especially enjoy this element within the overall scope of the book. In a world of dystopia, this book is different enough to excite and intrigue. Oh...and romance, just enough to keep my romantic souls happy.

I will be sharing The Leaving very soon with my 11th grade readers.  I really like that these kids don’t allow themselves to become victims of their circumstances. These circumstances are certainly extenuating - but our students can relate to the idea of being victims at a variety of levels.  The main characters here work hard, independently and as a team, to solve the mystery of their leaving and find a way to move forward with full and productive lives. I also like that the answers weren’t easy and that at the end questions remained about how well the future might go. Such is life and such are the books I love to have my kids read!

 

 

The Summer of Letting Go - Gae Polisner

Polisner, Gae. The Summer of Letting Go. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin, 2014.

Frankie Schnell’s burdens can seem overwhelming for a 15 almost 16 year old.  She blames herself for the death of her brother Simon 4 years ago.  She is certain that her mother blames her as well.  At 11, she wasn’t watching him closely enough at the beach where he drowned.  Her dad, who seems to hold the family together, might be having an affair with the neighbor.  And she is oddly and awkwardly attracted to her best friend Lisette’s boyfriend Bradley. Enter Frankie Skye. He is 4 and seems inexplicably attached to Frankie though he barely knows her.  His hurting mother hires Frankie to be a mother’s helper and a unique relationship is formed.

In spite of the burdens she bears, Frankie will be infinitely relatable to my readers as she experiences so much of what the typical teenager experiences.  She longs for a boyfriend and a first kiss.  She feels some distance from her best friends who is often occupied with her new boyfriend. Her parents don’t seem to get her.  She is at many levels just like my readers.

Frankie sure takes some wrong turns.  Easy answers don’t populate this book’s honest look at the struggles she faces. I appreciated very much the honest look at broken people. Some of my readers will also be fascinated with the look at reincarnation...is Frankie Skye drawn to her because he has Simon’s soul?  I can’t decide if I am frustrated with the lack of a definitive answer here or impressed with the author’s willingness to even entertain such an issue.  If you are looking for some solid consideration of reincarnation, though, you won’t find it here.

As much of the book centers around the pool and the beach, I could book talk it with other summer beachy reads - Sarah Dessen and the like.  I have lately been thinking about young protagonists who are dealing with broken parents in their lives, and at a more serious level, this book fits here as well.  It could work well with Linda Vigen Phillips’ Crazy and Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Impossible Knife of Memory. One certainty is that I will be talking about this title with my students very soon.

Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon

Yoon, Nicola. Everything, Everything. New York, Delacorte, 2015.

Good heavens! I don’t know which hat to put on to review this book.  I know that I certainly should be wearing my librarian glasses and talking that way. So for young adult librarians; your readers are going to love this book. Madeline Whittier has an unbelievable life. An immune disease has her living her young life in a bubble.  She lives in an air controlled home.  Her company is limited to her mom and her nurse Carla. Most of her living consists of reading and what she can see through her window. And then...she sees Ollie in her window. Forever her life is different.  Through electronic media, and the view through the window, Ollie and Maddy fall in love, causing them to dare fate and be together whatever the cost.  My romantic girls will LOVE this story.  Yoon creates the kind of relationship that dreams are made of.  She explores the lives of one ill and one abused teen and creates a beautiful new reality for them.   And certainly, I can encourage the read.  Maddy and Ollie come of age. They become brave, take chances, and defy the world around them.

Which (here comes a different hat…) was what also drove this grown woman and mother crazy! At some level, I’ll want to say, “Here, read this beautiful love story, but don’t ever, ever defy your parents in such a dangerous way!”  I’m not sure the ending made the middle OK for me. I understand the idea of young adult literature, and that for the most part I need to remove my parent lense, and I don’t know why this one was so rough for me, but it was, indeed.

So...great fiction.  Really neat characters - fully developed.  They are intellectual and tough.  The approach the world (kind of) with thoughtfulness, and don’t take beautiful days or moments lightly.  The ending is the kind of happy that my endless stream of Hallmark movies provides for me. The illustrations by David Yoon are such a cool touch.  I love how they accentuate the development of Madeline’s personality.  This mixed media of text and art is so appealing to my readers today.  Like with Challenger Deep, I love how the two work together to tell the story. Ultimately, is will suspend my disbelief, take a deep breath, and offer this book to my girls.  Certainly I will promise them a great story; likely I will encourage them to listen carefully to their parents. I don’t think I will be able to help myself.   The good news is that they will laugh at me and read a great new book!



 

                      


Things We Know By Heart - Jessi Kirby

Kirby, Jessi. Things We Know By Heart. New York: Harper Teen, 2015.

Oh my girls will love this love story.  They are drawn to heartbreak, and Quinn’s heart is definitely broken when the novel begins. She has lost her boyfriend Trent in a stunning car accident, and after years with him, she is having trouble beginning again. She finds some comfort in knowing that because Trent was an organ donor, he has changed a series of lives for the better. And if she can meet these folks, she does.

Trent’s heart though. She hasn’t made the kind of contact that she needs with the heart recipient. So she reads and researches and tracks down Colton via his sister’s blog, Violating all the rules of organ donorship, she finds him, meets him, and...falls in love. And surely my girls will be drawn to this love story.  Gentle and precious, set against the backdrop of sun and surf.

And for the girls who are in love with love, they will also see a broken heart come to term with its grief.  a family who loves and supports, and the risks and chances associated with coming of age.

I love for my girls to see strength and growth, and couched in the kind of romance they are drawn to, this will be an easy sell.  Quinn is rendered as real as my students.  Her strengths and weaknesses are explored honestly but with compassion. Colton sets a fine example of overcoming adversity and embracing life as well. That he keeps his own secrets and is, perhaps, a bit careless of his newfound life make him a believable teenage boy.

This will work well in several areas in terms of book talks.  Summer reads we have done, and this fits there. I have already Heart to Heart by Lurlene McDaniel which explores organ donation.  I feel like my girls who already love McDaniel will love this title.  I also like to group some books about graduates in the spring to inspire my older girls. I look forward to getting this circulating in the new year!


This Is Where It Ends - Marieke Nijkamp

Nijkamp, Marieke. This Is Where It Ends. Sourcebooks, 2016.

 

School shootings...the very topic that drew me to this title is the one that made it so difficult to read. The school day, the semester seemingly begins like every other, an inspirational address from the principal, early morning athletic practice, and kids sneaking into the administrative offices. Until all of a sudden a shot rings out. And the nightmare begins

Told from multiple perspectives, this narrative plumbs the depths of the emotions experienced by students trapped in the auditorium with the shooter, including his sister, students other places in the building, and students outside. The changing of location and characters is one of the strengths of the book. Nijkamp successfully considers the differing perspectives of students outside the building, students inside the building, but not locked in with the shooter, and student locked in the auditorium.  We meet the shooter’s sister, her girlfriend, her brother, the shooter’s ex girlfriend, and her close friend.  In bits and spurts through their recollections we learn about the shooter and his potential motivations for taking an entire school hostage - for cold blooded murder.

Some potential distractions did exist for me.  Some of the logistics didn’t work so well for me.  Without spoiling anything, some of the action in the auditorium, especially when kids were trying to escape seemed largely unbelievable. I hated having no insight into the shooter.  I couldn’t completely patch together from the other folks’ remembrances the kind of motivation that would lead to such tragedy.  However, my frustration in this perfectly mirrors real life, when we are left often to piece motivations together with a mishmash of information from outsiders and observers. I bumped a little bit over the developing romance.  I love a good romance, but this development seemed completely unrealistic given the circumstances.  I doubt that my students, by and large, will be bothered by this.

Students are often drawn to these stories of tragedy.  As we all are, they will look for answers and implications in the real world.  Like the ancient Greeks, a certain level of catharsis is applied. Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and Brown’s The Hate List are fairly popular in my library.  This book while not as strong as either of these, will likely find its place as a type. Just know, that it will be difficult to read.  Violence and evil are powerfully present, as well they would be.