Book Review - After by Amy Efaw

No one expected this from Devon, a straight-A soccer player destined for Division-I sports glory. And you could say that Devon didn't expect it either.

But now she's in juvenile hall, awaiting a judge's decision on whether or not she will be tried as a juvenile or as an adult for attempted murder and other charges, for putting her newborn baby in the dumpster behind her apartment.

Amy Efaw's compelling second novel, After, is the kind of book you can't put down, no matter how much some aspects of it disturb you. Was Devon aware that she was pregnant before giving birth? How could she not have been? Was she a manipulative liar, covering up her pregnancy, which went undetected by her mother, friends, classmates, everyone? The complexities of the story shed light on something most only know as a statistic and helped me, at least, see the issue from other angles. Devon is an utterly authentic character and reading the book, I completely felt sucked into her story, in such a way that I found the book really challenging to read at some points. By the end, I was relieved I had finished, if only to get on with my way less complicated life.

RIYL: harrowing tales, problem novels like Go Ask Alice, gritty stories about problems that real people face every day

Teens' Top Ten...REVEALED

More than 11,000 teen voters (a lot of them, evidently, were Nerdfighters) chose John Green's Paper Towns as their favorite book in the 2009 Teens' Top Ten! Here's the full list of the top ten.

• Paper Towns by John Green
  
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
  
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  
• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
  
• Identical by Ellen Hopkins
  
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  
• Wake by Lisa McMann
  
• Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast
  
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
  
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
  

The Homewood Library owns all of these titles, so come check 'em out!

Book Review - Going Bovine by Libba Bray

It's one of those mad cow disease road trip books, you know?

Ummm.
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To say that Libba Bray's newest book, Going Bovine, is hard to categorize is an understatement. A meaty book, clocking in at just under 500 pages, it's the story of sixteen year old Cameron, an ordinary, kind of losery guy whose life has been pretty unremarkable ever since his near-drowning at the It's A Small World After All ride at Disney World when he was five. Unremarkable, that is, until he finds out he has mad cow disease. Mad cow disease, a.k.a. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, gives Cameron these crazy hallucinations that really weird him out. Once doctors diagnose him, he's hospitalized and given a short time to live.

But that's when things just start to get interesting. Before he knows it, he's breaking out of the hospital to find a Doctor X who can save the world, hanging out with a hot punky angel, and setting off on a roadtrip with a dwarf named Gonzo and a yard gnome come to life who might just be a Viking, named Balder. Cameron and his assortment of pals trek from Texas to New Orleans to Florida in one of the most entertaining and bizarre road trip novels I've ever read.

I finished it last night and I'm still not sure what else to say about it, except that it's hilarious, poignant at times, and reminiscent of the episodic odyssies you take in feverish dreams. Yeah, it's something like that.

RIYL: Libba Bray's other books, John Green, Don Quixote

Book Review - Stitches by David Small

People in the library and publishing worlds were pretty stunned last week when David Small's graphic novel Stitches was nominated for the National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category, stunned because the book was published by an adult imprint/press. You may remember David Small as the Caldecott-winning illustrator of such classics as Imogene's Antlers. Well, forget all about that because Stitches is not to be confused with children's picture books.

This graphic novel memoir tells the grim and harrowing story of David Small's childhood and young adulthood. He grew up in a dysfunctional family, with parents that didn't engage with their children, and a brother who could've cared less about him. His father was a doctor and since David was a sickly child, his father performed radiation on him for his sicknesses-- an accepted practice at the time, but something doctors wouldn't think of in a million years, today. As a result, David developed a growth on his vocal chord, a growth that his father knew much about, all of which he kept hidden from David. As a teenager, David went into the hospital for surgery thinking he was getting a malignant growth removed, only to come out to learn that he had cancer AND that he could no longer speak. One of his vocal chords was removed.

I had a chance to hear David Small discuss his memoir at the annual ALA conference in July, and I'll never forget it. His story, a perfect fit for the graphic novel form, is unforgettable. A grim tale that ends with a lot of hope. As Mr. Small shared with us at ALA, writing and publishing the book brought him back in touch with his estranged brother.

* * * * *
five out of five stars
RIYL: Art Spiegelman's Maus and Gipi

Book Review - Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Everyone knows about Rosa Parks, but have you heard of Claudette Colvin? At age 15, Claudette refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. This happened nine months BEFORE Rosa Parks did the same. Philip Hoose's brilliant National Book Award-nominated nonfiction book Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice, shares the story of a lesser-known hero of the civil rights movement. For refusing to give up her seat, Claudette was handcuffed, forcibly removed from the bus, and arrested. Around the same time that Claudette was arrested and stood trial, the NAACP had been trying to plan the right time, place, and person, to test the bus segregation. However, Claudette wasn't quite the person they had in mind. She was from a lower-class family and soon after her arrest, became pregnant by an older man. While we all know from history classes that Rosa Parks became the symbol of ending bus segregation, Hoose sheds light on a teenager whose story and brave challenge preceded the more famous one, and who made further contributions to the civil rights movement in a lesser-known but important case.

* * * *
four out of five stars
RIYL: true stories about teens who stood up for their beliefs and made a difference

Book Review - Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Three girls, one day, one fight, one book. Rita Williams-Garcia's National Book Award nominee, Jumped, is a short book with a lot of impact. Peek into one day in the life of three high school girls: one athlete, one struggling student, one artistic diva. Leticia busts her acrylic nail in gym class; Dominique would love to bust a nail on court, but she's gotta earn the grades before coach'll put her back in; Trina envisions eyes following her [butt's] every move, and all eyes will be on her by the end. Between the short chapters and changing views, and the fact that it's a slight 160 pages, you can read through this one in an afternoon.

* * *
three out of five stars

RIYL: Kimani Tru books, other titles from Rita Williams-Garcia, books by Coe Booth