First Part Last (A Coretta Scott King Award)

by Angela Johnson

Poetic prose told from the first person perspective of Bobby, a teen father who is the primary parent of his daughter. The chapters alternate between his narration of the present and all his struggles encountered while caring for baby Feather, and chapters about the past, including those moments prior to and during his girlfriend Nia's pregnancy.

Poignant and superbly written. Also, it flies by at only 131 pages and crisp, clean narration.

Grade: A+

Someone Like You

A rather dull cover of the book.

by Sarah Dessen

Haley helps her bff, Scarlett, deal with her pregnancy while working through her own strained relationship with her mother. This book is a quick, easy read dealing with a rather typical girl's transition from mom's best friend to an individual fighting to define herself. The unusual backdrop is that of her friend's pregnancy.

All in all, this book was good and quick - a few hours will finish it up - but not the quality I expected from Dessen. My sister also agrees, and I believe she's read probably 100% of Dessen's books up to a publication date of 2009.

Grade: C+

Lock and Key

by Sarah Dessen

Not as good as Keeping the Moon, and definitely longer, but still a great read in my opinion. Definitely a girl's book and has all the markers of a great vacation read. What I love about Dessen's books is they are so easily upper teen fiction.

Here's a review from Reading Rants! since it's been awhile for me:
http://www.readingrants.org/2008/05/05/lock-and-key-by-sarah-dessen/

Luna

by Julie Ann Peters

Liam is a good-looking, freakishly smart high school upperclassman, and yet the only person who really knows him is his younger sister, Regan. Regan is the sole holder of his very heavy secret. Liam is transgendered, and planning to crossover into his new identity as Luna.

I didn't finish this book. Don't get me wrong. It was well-written and the plot was definitely one I had not encountered before. But I began to be saddled by the stress of Regan having to keep such a powerful secret for her brother. This is a stressful and tense book, and I wish I could say I know how it ends, but I had to put it down. This book is (as far as I could see, and I read 147 of the 248 pages) much more about the stress Regan encounters keeping Luna's secret as it is about Luna becoming Luna.

Grade: B (but my school librarian highly, highly recommends it.)

I Am Legend

by Richard Matheson

A long time ago, when I saw the movie I AM LEGEND with the lovely Will Smith, I thought "Wow! Can I read this book?" Years later, while at the Goodwill, I found a copy. I read this book in April, so my review is going to be a bit dusty and perhaps a bit more of a book-movie comparison than a book review.

Robert Neville is the only man alive. Everyone else has succumbed to a deadly vampiric infection. Or have they? Neville spends his days refortifying his house and killing the infected. At night, he holes up in his fortress-like home and tries to drink away the howls of the now dead and the memories of the ones he used to love. (So far, pretty similar to the movie.)

However, the book Neville isn't one of the best scientists in the world, so gone are all the absolutely wonderful science-lab backstory and vaccine montages that I loved in the movie.

Another however, this book has absolutely none of the hope that the movie does. The book is an end-of-the-world and there's not much you can do about it type of story. I'm torn between which I like better: the bittersweet, yet hopeful ending of the movie or the damned, that's it? ending of the book.

That being said, this is a great read at only 169 pages and while it's not hopeful, I would still easily classify it as light beach reading. B+

The Maze Runner

by James Dashner

This book has a Hunger Games, Jr feel to it. Thomas finds himself in the "Glade" with no memory of where or who he was in the past. But he's not alone, a number of other boys are also in the Glade with the same problem. They've developed their own working hieracrchy and manage to get by since whoever created the Glade had the foresight to build in all the essentials: farm, slaughterhouse, etc. The kicker is that the Glade is surrounded by a giant wall and each day the wall's gate open and each night, they close. Outside the walls is an giant, ever-changing maze which the runners (maze explorers) dutifully go out into every day trying to find an escape. But the maze changes every day as well, and there are hidden dangers - robotic, yet mythological creatures whose bite or scratch can prove fatal.

All is running normally - as normally as it can in the Glade - when another new child arrives. This child is different. He's a girl. And she's the last new child to ever be brought to the glade.

The writing in this book is fast-paced and exciting, but definitely for the 10 to 14 range, and not really older. While this is a great read, it lacks the weighty ethical issues that I found myself thinking about in The Hunger Games. One thing I loved was the fact that the storyline is so obviously based on King Minos, the Minotaur, and the labyrinth.

Grade: B

Story of a Girl

By Sara Zarr

This is a great coming-of-age novel that deals with a teen girl who is dealing with a reputation she just can't seem to lose and a family that feels like it's definitely falling apart. This book is short, realistic, and definitely a downer. However, it's still a worthwhile read - but one I read in April. So I'm going provide a link to a great book reviewer, Karin the Librarian.

http://www.karinsbooknook.com/2010/02/21/story-of-a-girl-by-sara-zarr-review/

My Grade: A- because it was very well-written, but probably just a B because I still felt like I was just reading the book - not a part of it.