Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho

Al and Ollie have been friends since childhood.  Ollie's father is gone, Al's mother is gone.  They have both been quirky kids.  Now in high school things are changing.  Oliver has come down with a brain/sleeping disorder that sends him into sleep for several weeks at a time.  He partially awakens to do things like, eat, pee, embarrassing things, sexual things that he does not remember.  Althea has come to feel a deep romantic love for Oliver that he does not feel.  He goes into a medical study at a New York City hospital for his disorder.  She goes into a tail spin with him unavailable.  She dates around, she smokes, she does a little drinking, she punches out a classmate and gets expelled from school.  Desperately hoping for Ollie she lies to her father about where she is going and vanishes into New York City from North Carolina, hoping to see Ollie, hoping to get him to profess his love.  Instead, he is sleeping when she arrives, she ends up in a houseful of underemployed college drop outs, vegans, who feed the hungry in central park each day, who live very non traditionally, who help Althea see a different future, one with Ollie only as a friend, possibly having grown out of his disorder, possibly on medication to help him.  So, in the end the two once inseparable friends are growing up and growing apart.  Neither knows where the future will take them.  They are saddened and looking to the future.  The course of true love did not run smoothly in this quite interesting book.  I just have two comments,  there is a lot of "language" in this story.  I tend to weary of those words.  The writing style is quite different, switching from first, second, third person narrative frequently, took me a little getting used to.  Hope it doesn't turn off the teens its a good story.   JDW 2/18

Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti

Waiting for You is all about the complicated life of a teenager. Marisa is dealing with everything most teenagers face - finding a boyfriend and fitting in. She has the slight complication that she has an anxiety disorder which nearly destroyed her freshman year, but now that she’s a sophomore, she’s got it all figured out, or so she thinks. Things start to get complicated when she becomes lab partners with her neighbor Nash. At first it’s an amazing friendship, but then he has to go and like her more than she likes him. Now that friendship is on the rocks. Then she gets her dream boyfriend Derek, but that puts a strain on her friendship with her best friend Sterling who doesn’t have a boyfriend. On top of that, Derek is still awfully friendly with his ex, which has Marisa questioning his commitment to her. To make matters even worse, Marisa’s parents - whom she always thought were the perfect example of parents - are getting a divorce. While Marisa fights to keep her cool through all of this drama and not give into her anxiety and depression, there’s a podcast by DJ Dirty Dirk, the only guy who genuinely seems to understand everything she’s going through.

This novel spans Marisa’s entire sophomore year. You could relate to the characters and cheer for them to figure it all out. While it is jam-packed with drama, it all felt very basic. This is a decent coming-of-age novel for girls struggling to find a balance in high school, friendships and being true to yourself. It is a quick read that hits the bare-necessities of a novel wanting to make a statement about relationships and identity and the things that matter in life. Marisa finds a way to get through all of the drama and her disorder to come to appreciate everything and everyone she has in her life.

MMK

North of Beautiful by Headley

I read this book because it is popular with teens. This is a multi layered story with several well developed characters. It includes a flawed but loving mother who is utterly wonderful to find in a book and is ever so realistic. Terra has a port wine birthmark across a large portion of her face. She has been stared at a lot over the years and her family has taught her to hide behind her hair and behind thick layers of makeup, they also uncomfortable with this fault. Father is verbally abusive, mother eats too much and cannot at first stand up to his abuse which wasn't always true. Terra's brother is working in China and invites the family to visit even providing them with tickets. Terra's mother and Terra are both artistic. Their activities have lead them to meet a young man Terra's age and his mother. They too had been planning a trip to China. Even though Terra's father refuses to go, Jacob and his mom encourage the pair and all four head to China. This is a learning trip for Terra in many ways. She comes to understand what she values in a relationship, she begins to appreciate herself and define herself by her strengths rather than by the port wine birthmark and to understand why her family acts as they do, all hiding behind something by their dysfunctional actions, working too much, eating too much, criticising too much, wearing too much makeup. The adventures in China were wondrously descriptive as well. This book is worth the trip.