Young Adult Book Reviews

Arcana IV

By So-Young Lee

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–A complex quest story full of magic and mystery. Inez travels with her grandfather, a 200-year-old wizard, and her canine companion to offer their services to the Emperor. From the beautiful opening scene in which she first encounters snow to the surreal dream sequences scattered throughout the book, Lee's melodramatic fantasy tale is short on explanations but never on style.

Crank

By Ellen Hopkins

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Seventeen-year-old Kristina Snow is introduced to crank on a trip to visit her wayward father. Caught up in a fast-paced, frightening, and unfamiliar world, she morphs into "Bree" after she "shakes hands with the monster." Her fearless, risk-taking alter ego grows stronger, "convincing me to be someone I never dreamed I'd want to be." When Kristina goes home, things don't return to normal. Although she tries to reconnect with her mother and her former life as a good student, her drug use soon takes over, leaving her "starving for speed" and for boys who will soon leave her scarred and pregnant.

Fat Chance

By Lesléa Newman

School Library Journal

Grade 6-9? Judi Beth Liebowitz appears to be a typical 13-year-old girl. She wonders what she will be when she grows up, what having a boyfriend would be like, and wishes she could lose weight. This desire to be thin, however, begins to dominate her thoughts and actions.

Grim Tuesday

By Garth Nix

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–Just 15 minutes after Mister Monday (Scholastic, 2003) ended, with Arthur Penhaligon cleaning up the mess the slothful Mister Monday made of Earth, the asthmatic orphan is summoned again. His new adversary is Grim Tuesday, and once again he finds himself in a battle to the death to get the Second Key. If he gives in to the errant Days or loses the battle against them, he knows they will destroy his own home on Earth as well as the Denizens and inhabitants of the magical House.

Midnighters

By Scott Westerfeld

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10-Life is getting more complex and more dangerous for the five high school students who are "midnighters"-born at the stroke of midnight with the ability to inhabit a secret 25th hour. Unfortunately, some very scary creatures also inhabit it, and they're out to get the magical teens.

Peter and the Starcatchers

By Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

From School Library Journal

Rizelmine

By Yukiru Sugisaki

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Girl sees boy. Girl falls in love at first sight. Girl wants to marry boy, but he wants nothing to do with her. Factor in that the girl is a one-of-a-kind being made entirely of nano-machines (or so the story goes) and things start to get out of control. Now add in that other countries are making copies of this girl, and they're all in love with the same boy, and all bets are off. Iwaki Tomonori spends most of the book trying to escape Rizel's overly affectionate clutches, to no avail.

Secret Scribbled Notebooks

By Joanne Horniman

Grade 8 Up–In three notebooks, 17-year-old bibliophile Kate O'Farrell records the events in her life the year before leaving for university. She lives with her older sister, Sophie, at a quaint bed-and-breakfast in a coastal town in New South Wales. The owner, Lil, has raised them ever since their father left them there when they were toddlers. The story opens as unwed Sophie gives birth to a baby girl.

Survival Species Imperative #I

By Julie E. Czerneda

From Booklist

Dr. Mackenzie Connor heads the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility and is completely immersed in her work. She and Dr. Emily Mamani are just settling in to monitor the year's salmon run when Norcoast is visited by Brymn, the first member of the Dhryn species to come to Earth.

Teens, Queens and Has-Beens

By Cathy Hopkins

Publishers Weekly

In the third entry in her Truth or Dare series, Teens, Queens and Has-Beens, author Cathy Hopkins zooms in on Lia Axford, Ollie's younger sister (Ollie being the dreamboat from White Lies and Barefaced Truths), just after she has moved to the town of Cornwall. When Lia garners the attention of Jonno, "teen queen" Kaylie's crush, the queen and her cohorts lash out at Lia with rumors and other underhanded tactics.

Page design by Christine McCarthy