Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

Sometimes you need to step away from yourself to figure out who you are and what matters. Dark Dude explores that journey for one teen.

Rico is a young Latino boy growing up in 1960s Harlem. The problem is that he looks like a white boy, which leaves him torn in his identity since he's not white, but the Latinos don't count him as one of them either. When his struggles in school lead his parents to threaten military school, Rico makes a drastic decision to run away with his best friend who nearly died in a horrible accident while on drug. Looking for a fresh start, they head to Wisconsin to stay with an old buddy of Rico's. While Rico and his friend start to find their places in the world, Rico discovers that you can't escape all of your problems.

Although this novel takes place in the '60s, it is a timeless story about identity and family. Aside from mentions of hippies and full-service gas stations, it's easy to imagine this story happening now. The target audience definitely feels male, but the message is for anyone. It speaks of the people of the world and how even the most picturesque place will have its problems. It talks of overcoming your demons and finding your place. And it talks about family and the undeniable draw they have on your life.

This book has the potential to speak to a number of impressionable teens as they fight to figure out where they fit in their cultures, family and the world in general. It looks like a long book and that might deter some readers, but it is easy to get through and worth the time.
MMK

Evil Librarian - Michele Knudsen

Cynthia stares at Ryan throughout Italian class.  Annie teases her for not having the courage to talk to him.  At the end of the day Annie doesn't meet her like normal.  Cyn finds her staring lovingly at the new librarian.  Annie has a crush on him, but Cyn doesn't think much of it.  There is no mention of him over the weekend and on Monday Annie is keen to get to school early.  Through out the day Annie doesn't respond to any of Cyn's texts and she finds her in the library.  When Cyn pulls her out into the hallway she acts like her normal self again.  Cyn heads to the auditorium as she is tech director for the school musical Sweeny Todd.  Ryan comes up to her and apologizes for running into her in the hallway earlier.  After rehearsal she goes looking for Annie in the library.  Annie isn’t there and she has a strange conversation with Mr. Gabriel.  Her mind is telling her to get out as fast as she can.  She talks to Annie after she gets home and tells her about the conversation she and Ryan finally had at rehearsal.  Cyn passes by the library in the next morning and sees several students in a trance like state.  Even in Italian Annie is in the same state for a few minutes.  After class they notice a lot of the students in the same state Annie was in at the start of class.  Sensing something might be wrong Cyn doubles back and finds Mr. De Luca in the same state as a lot of the students.  He comes out of it after a few minutes.  Cyn tries to talk to Annie about Mr. Gabriel, but Annie thinks she is jealous and doesn’t want to hear anything bad about Mr. Gabriel.  After school Ryan's friend Jorge is in the same state as a lot of the kids were earlier.  He sees Cyn and she tells him her theory about Mr. Gabriel being a monster, or demon, or psychic vampire.  Ryan doesn’t believe her, but she tries to convince him to come to the library.  Ryan says he should check on Jorge.  As Cyn heads back into the school, Ryan catches up to her.  As they approach the library they see Mr. Gabriel in not human form with blood all over himself and on the floor.  Ryan is hypnotized, but Cyn isn't.  Mr. Gabriel calls her a super-roach since she has extra resistance and can’t be controlled easily.  Cyn gets Ryan out of there and he becomes his normal self.  He wants to call 911, but saying there is a demon in the school will make him sound crazy.  They head to Ryan’s house, and go over what they know and decide to find an adult who will listen to them.  Later that night Cyn hears on the news that Principal Morse is dead.  While the whole school is mourning the loss of the principal Cyn and Ryan are trying to make sure they stay alive.  Both of them make it through the day and to rehearsal.  Mr. Gabriel pops up in the auditorium and tells Cyn to back off and she and Ryan will live.  Cyn tries to get Annie out of his control, but he needs her to be his bride.  She is also told that the cast and crew won’t be killed before opening night of Sweeny Todd.  Mr. Gabriel needs them for something bigger.  Cyn tells Ryan about her conversation with Mr. Gabriel.  As they leave they see Mr. De Luca having an argument with himself.  Cyn suspects he knows something about what is going on.  They follow him to his house and explain their theory to him.  He has to find out more information, but it seems like Mr. De Luca will help them.  At school the next day Cyn and Ryan are relieved when Mr. De Luca pulls into the parking lot.  As she heads to math class Mr. Gabriel is there waiting in the hallway.  He tells her to keep out of his way, and he had to take care of Mr. De Luca.  Ryan finds Cyn, cut class, and head to Mr. De Luca's home.  There’s no answer at all, confirming their suspicions that he is dead.  They go to classes the next day and later while Cyn is in the auditorium Annie finds her.  Cyn tries to convince her that Mr. Gabriel is bad news and that he has killed two people.  She doesn’t want to hear it and tells Cyn to stay away from her.  After school Cyn and Ryan head to his house to do research on demons.  They come across an occult store a half an hour away, and head over there to talk to Aaron, the proprietor.  He tells them they have to sever Annie’s connection to the demon and then banish him.  They get all the ingredients need for the banishment.  On Sunday night they have Annie tied up and lure Mr. Gabriel to the library at midnight.  They are ready to banish him when Aaron shows up and wrecks everything.  Mr. Gabriel says Annie will be his queen after he wins the war for the demon throne.  Just before he disappears with her he tells Cyn not to tell anyone else what is going on, otherwise he will kill her family, Ryan’s family, and everyone at school.  Can Cyn and Ryan find a way to defeat Mr. Gabriel and save Annie, or is the end of everyone they know and love?

 I absolutely loved and enjoyed this book, and it was a fun read.  From the first page all the way to the end it had the feel of Buffy The Vampire Slayer to it.  It didn't surprise me when I looked on the authors website and found out Buffy is one of her favorite TV shows.  Even if you don't know who or what Buffy is I think you will enjoy this book.  This book is on the YALSA Best Fiction for 2015 list.

T.B.

4/21/15

Silent Alarm by Jennifer Banash

When it comes to school shootings, sympathies generally turn to the victims' families. What about the shooter's family, though, that's just as blindsided by what happened as the victims? This book focuses on the aftermath of a shooting from the point-of-view of the shooter's sister and does a wonderful job showing the family's struggle.

Alys's brother Luke brought a gun to school and killed fifteen people. She survives, but carries the guilt of what her brother did and her inability to see it coming or stop him from hurting people. While she struggles with the loss of her brother and the fact that he's been labeled a monster, she finds that she has no one to turn to given that her boyfriend's sister is a victim and her best friend can't wrap her mind around the whole situation. Given that Luke killed himself at the end of the shooting, the town has no one to blame except for Alys and her family, a fact that takes its toll on everyone in her house. Alys is left wondering whether or not they have a right to carry on as usual given what happened - what right to they have to be happy.

This is a very powerful novel, especially given the fact that in the face of a crisis, people look for someone to blame. If a child comes out wrong or does something horrible, the first person to blame is the parent because they raised this person and had the ultimate influence over his life. While that seems like the easy answer, the truth can easily be that they were just as oblivious to the person's reality as the rest of the world. They're carrying their own guilt over what happened and accusations and attacks don't make things easier for them. Alys also struggled with reconciling her brother with this "monster" from the shooting. She has all of these wonderful memories of their time together that it's hard to think of him as a murderer, but is it wrong to still love a killer? Her guilt manifests in the form of hallucinations of her brother and a victim she might have had a chance to save. She struggles to confront this guilt and regain control of her life because the reality is that her brother was the killer, not her.

This book is beautifully written and does a wonderful job bringing the family's struggle into focus. We seem to forget that the family is suffering and this book is very eye-opening without making their pain any more important than those of the victims. It's very balanced with a good message.
MMK

Sonic the Hedgehog b Flynn, yardley, Austin

We're all familiar with sonic the hedgehog. Some of you might have even watched the Saturday morning cartoon, or have kids that had. Well out of television and into comic form, our favorite blue hedgehog continues to have adventures. But on this volume everything changes.

After failing to stop one of Eggman's machines, everything seems lost until Sonic wakes up home, everything normal. Searching for answers he will find everything in his world it's quite different from before! Confuse and hoping it's not a dream, he gathers his friends to get to the bottom of things.

Somethings seem to be changed for good and some for the worst! Read and find out!

With three different artists, each giving their unique, colorful touch to each and every panel! It's a good read.

Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen

Two teens who seem to be trying to escape the lives they have thus far lived meet after Elias accidentally takes Clara's back pack when he deplanes.  The two sat side by side and had identical
pack packs.  Clare goes to retrieve hers and return his.  Instead the pair head off on an adventure to find the lightkeeper.  Elias has multiple personality disorder and it is his alternative personality that is in charge of the journey.  Clara has been traveling around the world to countries and cities described in her father's journal of his own adventures.  Clare at least sort of hopes to help Elias put both parts of him together.  Following stars and myths and her father's journal the pair set off for one place after another seeking the evil lightkeeper and ultimately to destroy it.  The journey takes them through a series of towns called Salem in several states, into the underground railroad.  They meet a variety of interesting people and eventually find what each was truly seeking, though not perhaps what they thought they were seeking.  Like Jerk California the story focuses more on the characters than on the disease that affects  them.  Teens who enjoyed Jerk should enjoy this story as well.
jdw3/19/15

Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black

What I found interesting about, Dance of Shadows, and what is about, it shined a light about what being in ballet is about. Even though there are supernatural parts in the book that do not have to do with anything with ballet. However, the main story of the book is about a younger sister that is on a journey to find her lost sister after she disappeared from the NYBA, New York Ballet Academy. Contrary to belief, it was not as simple as running away. what she finds will unveil a dark and twisted past of the school.Though this book is a supernatural/ballet book, there is too much of a gap in the middle that is just ballet, yet it kinda compromises by a mystery that has been going on for forever.one of the main things that is interesting is all the twist this book takes, and especially at the end when something you did not. If you like reading about semi real life events, or you are a fan of dancing in general i suggest you pick up this book. Or you may be a sucker for a good mystery book by my standards. Though, if you want a book to just read for downtime, this book should do just fine.
       ~AW

Heap House - Edward Carey

Clod Iremonger lives at Heap House with the rest of his family.  Each person has an object they carry with them at all times called a birthing object.  Clod has the ability to hear each of birthing objects names, which makes him the odd one of the family.  When Aunt Rosamund looses her birthing object, Clod is called upon to find it.  When he can't hear it his Uncle Timfy decrees that every room is to be searched for it.  While the searching is going on Clod wanders the house and runs into his Cousin Moorcus.  He starts picking on Clod and drags him to another one of his cousins.  Moorcus tells him that his sitting is set for the next day.  Clod can't believe it and imagines what marriage will be like to his Cousin Pinalippy. While Clod looks to the future, Lucy looks to the now as she adjusts to being a servant at Heap house.  From a dinner song, to not leaving the house, to everyone one of the servants telling her their birth objects, it all seems strange for Lucy.  She is told about Aunt Rosamund's missing door handle and is assigned to clean the fireplaces in the upper part of the house. The next day Clod goes and meets with Cousin Pinalippy.  She is unimpressed with him and his birthing object.  He too is unimpressed with her birthing object, a doily.  Later that night in the Sitting Room he sees Lucy cleaning the fireplace.  They make small talk and if Clod shows her the house, she will tell him about London.  The next day Uncle Aliver tells him to listen around the house for Aunt Rosamund's door handle as she's not doing well.  Later that night he meets Lucy in the Sun Room.  Together they wipe the windows and he tells her about hearing the names of the birthing objects.  Lucy is taken aback at his ability, and thinks something is wrong with him.  The next day when Clod is talking with his Uncle Idwid, who can also hear the names of objects, he figures out where the missing door handle is.  The following day the servants are in a tizzy because a moustache cup has apparently moved on its own and gone missing.  All the servants are questioned and there are more objects missing.  Later that night while Clod shows Lucy more of the house and she tells him about London.  He confronts her about the missing door handle.  She'll give it back as long as Clod helps her look for one of the other servants that has gone missing.  Clod agrees to help her and they agree to meet the next night.  Clod goes through the attic taking the long way around to the Infirmary, and encounters a collection of objects that looks like a man.  He manages to escape and gets to the Infirmary, only to find his aunt has now turned into a bucket.  Lucy is confronted by Mrs. Piggott, the head housekeeper, about her whereabouts.  She lies and says she was cleaning, but Mrs. Piggott knows she wasn't cleaning.  Lucy quits, but Mrs. Piggott has other plans for her.  Lucy is sent out to the heaps to work.  She is told she has to bring back some type of salvage or be forced to go back out into the heaps.  Clod's Grandfather comes to visit and tells him about his Great-great-great Grandfather Septimus and how he squeezed money and property from people.  Piles of objects rose and fell whether people succeeded or failed.  Septimus's dying wish was to have all the dirt-mounds of the city brought to Heap house.  Eventually all the unwanted objects ended up in heaps outside of the house.  Then people started to disappear and the Heap family would be blamed.  When the people disappeared objects would take their place.  A disease was spreading and the only way to not be affected by it was to have a part of a close object injected into the person and have that person keep the object close.  Thus the birthing objects are born.  If an object is returned to its family that person would become an object themselves.  If the object overtakes the human, the object turns human and vice versa.  Armed with this new information can Clod protect himself, Lucy, and the rest of his family?  

This quirky and strange story was an enjoyable read.  It did take a little bit to get into the story, but once I got past the first 60 pages the story took off for me.  By the end of the book I wanted the next book in the series to see how the story continues.  The art of the book jacket along with the pictures at the beginning of the chapters reminded me of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  Even the drawing of Clod on the cover reminded me of something out of and Edgar Allan Poe story.  This is the first book of a trilogy.  The second book is coming out this summer.  I can't wait for it come out.

T.B.
3/2/15

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me by Jason Schmidt

From inside jacket:

"Jason Schmidt wasn't surprised when he came home one day during his senior year of high school and found his father, Mark, crawling around on the kitchen floor in a giant pool of blood. Things like that had been happening a lot since Mark had been diagnosed with HIV three years earlier. From watching Mark get arrested in their living room when Jason was three years old to enduring a series of house fires, homelessness, and a bout of flesh-eating staph infection, Jason had figured out a long time ago that his home life wasn't like most other people's."

 

This book may not be for everybody, that being said I think this memoir is great. Jason seriously lives through some ordeals that you can't even fathom happening. This isn't a very PG rated book. There is swearing. There are situations that some parents may not want younger teens to read, but ironically many of those situations happened to Jason when he was even younger. 

This is a great read for teens that thinks their family is dysfunctional, have issues in their home life, or even feel lost.  Many of us have lived a sheltered life compared to Jason, but there are plenty of times while Jason is growing up that we can all relate to him. I think the major benefit of reading memoirs like Jason's is being able to step back from your own life. We are all egocentric but it's memoirs like these that we can appreciate people like Jason for their perseverance and honesty about their struggles in life, and ultimately reevaluate our own major problems in life and downgrade them to annoyances or, better yet, take them on with a new sense of tenacity.   

My only issue is that while Jason takes the majority of the 419 page book to tell us about his childhood and teen years, once he is on his own really struggling with his future, we only get the last page in the book tackling that. I would have liked to read about his struggle with adulthood and how he eventually came to peace with his dad (if he really did forgive him) and how much he has "settled down." 

my rating: A-

 

A.B.