Going Bovine

Reader: Elise S
Age: 13
Title: Going Bovine
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Delacourte Press
Pub Date: 9/09
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Annotation: When Cameron is diagnosed with mad cow disease, he has no idea what he's in for. Dulcie, a punk angel in combat boots, who's addicted to sugar, sends him on a road trip to find a Doctor, who can cure him of his supposed mad cow disease, and so doing get rid of the dark matter from a parallel universe, with the company of a death-obsessed dwarf named Gonzo. On the way they encounter a Viking god trapped as a garden gnome, very old musicians, demonic snow globes, and terrifying TV shows.
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This book was hilarious and quirky, but still had a great plot, and made some very good observations on life. At some points it could be taken as deep, and meaningful, and at others it was full of Viking garden gnomes, and a death-obsessed dwarf!
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I like things that are zany. The absolute creativity used in this book was amazing. I couldn't predict what was going to happen, and that's always refreshing. I liked how she brought back the little details, and tied it all together.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I was a little bit disappointed with the ending. It could have been much more clear. I want to know details about what happened to the other characters.
Comments: This is definitely a run out and buy it as soon as it comes out book!
Did the cover tempt you: The cover was completely AWESOME! A personified cow holding a garden gnome?! It drew me in, was related to the book, and amused me greatly!
Age Range: 12-17
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

The Dead-Tossed Waves

Reader: Megan W
Age: 17
Title: The Dead-Tossed Waves
Author: Carrie Ryan
Publisher: Delacorte
Pub Date: 05/09/2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince to read book: This book is a sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, but you don't need to read the first to understand this one, though it would definitely be helpful. This book is about zombies, and while I don't in any way enjoy zombies, this book, to me, was very good and well written. In a post-zombie-apocolyptic world, how do you survive?
Compelling Aspect of the Book: To me the most interesting part of the book was the fact that it is post-apocolyptic. For some reason those types of stories fascinate me. In a world overrun by zombies the surviving people do whatever it takes to stay alive.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: This book was, as I stated earlier, well written. I found it very captivating. Though it was a bit slow in the beginning, once things got going I couldn't stop reading. Even though the book has zombies in it, there were times when I would forget, and I liked that.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover, to me, was nothing special. Don't get me wrong, I still like it. And it did its job; I picked up the book. I just find the colors a bit boring and dull.
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
Comments: There better be a sequel

Hex Hall

Reader: Patong L
Age: 16
Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Pub Date: Mar. 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: That the book is totally awesome (even though it has its boring moments, but all books do) and it is a must read if you are into fantasy.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: There were lots of compelling moments that makes one goes, "OH MY GOSH!" and feels the embarrassment Sophie does. But overall the most compelling part of the book was when Sophie discovered what Archer really was.
Did you finish: Yes
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: [galley cover does not match cover shown above] The cover did tempt me to pick up the book. It was just black and white, simple, but it caught my attention. It didn't really reflect the contents because the protagonist wasn't as simple as the book cover.
Age Range: 14-15
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

For the Win

Reader: Luke M
Age: 16
Title: For the Win
Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
Pub Date: May 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: No
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I liked how the book described all the gaming people all over the world, working together. The organizing part was very interesting.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The end made no sense. They are about to destroy the games economies, call a minor character and then somehow negotiate the formation of an illegal unlicensed union with blackmail and then Connor shows up in India along with everyone else! It’s fragmented and makes no sense. Everyone is so paranoid and cautious then they ignore it all and allow Mala to get kidnapped. The government actions are also unrealistic. Why would china care at all about gold farmers and why would they go raiding and killing them? Where is the WTO in all this? If these game economies are so big, wouldn't there be some governmental or international regulating. The statistic that games make up 7 of the 20 biggest economies is also unrealistic. Even if only the bottom 7 were games, the top ones would be over a GDP of one trillion! Combined, these 7 games GDP would beat China by 2 trillion.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover was interesting but very confusing. At first the cover people look like football players but then I thought it was rioting gamers from the book. Upon close inspection, I realized they were supposed to be riot police. They look nothing like riot police and even less like Chinese riot police. I would highly recommend a better picture, maybe something related to the games, such as showing all the main characters at their computers with their games and all being connected. The riot police would also reflect the contents (if they looked like riot police) but not as much as the connected gamers idea.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
Comments: The book was too long. It seemed to take forever to read and well a couple parts were interesting, the dull ones dragged on forever. The interesting parts were very separated also and far back in the book. All of Connor's life, much of Wei Dong's journey, and large parts of Mala's life could all be cut out. The random educational parts on Coase cost and arbitrage and gold are not needed and really break up the flow.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Reader: Elise S
Age: 13
Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green, David Levithan
Publisher: Dutton
Pub Date: April/2010
Galley: No
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: I would say that, once you got past the initial five chapters, it was a highly enjoyable read, and at points was laugh-out-loud funny. Some of the characters were very real, but some of the characters felt flat for the first 5-6 chapters of the book.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: Once you get past the original block of icky language and humor and not-caring, I got attached to the characters. I thought it was really compelling to watch the characters grow into themselves. There were some very interesting concepts shown—self-image, online relationships vs. real people, and Shroedinger's theory about dead cats!
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I almost didn't read past the 5th chapter because A) nothing had happened B) both of the main characters were jerks at that point and C) It really bugs me when characters swear every other word. However, the ending of the book was very sweet and satisfying (if a little bit improbable!).
Comments: There was a LOT of crass humor that really put me off for a while. However, that went away as you read further. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but if it was it would be a nice touch.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: I thought the cover was majorly cool, and very awesome. The shininess drew me in, but that might just be my love of shiny objects. I couldn't really find much meaning in relationship to the book in the cover, it was just pretty. I liked the title's print, and the way the letters blended together.
Age Range: 14-18 up
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal

In a Heartbeat

Reader: Sabrina K
Age: 16
Title: In a Heartbeat
Author: Loretta Ellsworth
Publisher: Walker & Company
Pub Date: Feb 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teen’s Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This book makes you realize that you need to spend every moment like it's your last and to always try to go for your dreams. It was very touching and really opened my eyes on heart transplant surgery.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The most compelling aspect of the book was after Amelia had the heart transplant surgery and her transformation both physically and emotionally. At first, the whole concept of having similar characteristics as the heart donor sounded a bit cheesy but after a while it made more sense, and really made the book compelling and unique.
Comments: The beginning and end of the book were very strong, but when Eagan was waiting in the fog, it was very annoying. The memories were good, but the fact that 3/4 of the book she was in fog trying to find a way out was boring. I loved how you added Mikki, I thought it was a nice little final touch—and I also thought the ending was superb!
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover tempted me with the heartbeat scanner on the cover and the girl making a heart sign. It reflected the contents, because Amelia is receiving a heart transplant.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Reader: Annika M
Age: 14
Title: A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Author: Brenda Woods
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Pub Date: 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teen’s Top 10: No
Recommend: No
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The most compelling aspect of this book was how you saw the world from each person's point of view. Even though it branched off into different stories, it still centered around the same people.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I wasn't disappointed with the book.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: This book was a little dark, so I don't think the cover reflected its contents. The cover is too cheerful. When I saw this book it was backwards on the shelf, so I read the back before looking at the cover. I don't think I would have looked at the book if I'd seen its cover first. The cover looks like it could belong to any happy-go-lucky teen novel.
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal

Truancy Origins

Reader: Payton G
Age: 14
Title: Truancy Origins
Author: Isamu Fukui
Publisher: Tor
Pub Date: 03/2009
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teen’s Top 10: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Annotation: On an ordinary night in the City, fifteen years ago, a little girl sat in the Mayor's office, and charged him with possibly the worst thing to be in this City, where education is absolute. A parent. Now, the boys are about to find out exactly why they are treated like nothing. Can Umasi and Zen save the City from its schools?
How would you convince someone to read the book: I would first check and see if they had read Truancy, because none of this would make sense unless they had. Assuming they answer yes, I would simply have to tell them that it talks about Zyid and Umasi (both of whom are total ninjas!) and they would probably snatch it from my hands. If they answer no, I would tell them that they must read Truancy first.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: To me, the coolest thing was that I got to see the stories and development of both the main characters into who they are in Truancy (meaning total ninjas.)
Did you finish: Yes
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: I loved the cover. It is so awesome! It really does reflect the book, without trying to put the entire plot into one picture. I would be very mad if the cover was changed.
Age Range: 12-17
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it

Little Miss Red

Reader: Sabrina K
Age: 16
Title: Little Miss Red
Author: Robin Palmer
Publisher: Penguin
Pub Date: Feb 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: Sophie is spunky. You fall in love with how she'll reference one of Lulu's books every other minute to what’s going on in the book—it almost felt like you were reading two books at once!
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I loved how Sophie figured out that true love isn't quite what she expected, but she learned from that. And that life had its dramatic moments—like in a book—but mostly it was all boring stuff. That when the exciting parts do happen and to live in the moment and enjoy them.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover did tempt me to pick up the book, but the main reason I picked it up was because I had read some of the author's previous books. The cover did reflect the book—Jack would call her Red because of her red cowboy hat she had.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Reader: Payton G
Age: 14
Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green & David Levithan
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pub Date: 04/2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teen’s Top 10: Yes
Annotation: Meet Will Grayson, a quite average teen who lives in Chicago. Now, meet another Will Grayson, who lives in a suburb of Chicago and who is just as ordinary. Now, by some strange coincidence, both Will Graysons somehow end up in the least likely place either Will Grayson ever expected to end up. Will the universe explode if their worlds intersect, or will they just learn the hard way that love is trial- error- trial- it?
Recommend: Yes
How would you convince someone to read the book: I would tell them that is one of the few books that I have ever read that truly manages to capture a love story without making me want to vomit.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I found that the most compelling part was that it was very real, not in the this-could-possibly-happen-in-real-life-maybe way, but in the this-probably-happens-every-single-day way. That doesn't happen a lot with books, in my experience.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I finished this book in a day and a half. I only stopped reading the first day because it was really late. Then I obsessed over it the next day.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover is definitely awesome, and I loved it. It is really psychedelic. It did not really tell you anything about the contents of the book, apart from the fact that it is totally awesome.
Age Range: 14-18 and up
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

Waiting for You

Reader: Kasey M
Age: 15
Title: Waiting for You
Author: Susane Colasanti
Publisher: Viking
Pub Date: July 2009
Nominate for Teen’s Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This book is not just another love story that will make your heart skip and then you forget about it. No. this book holds love, pain, sorrow, and the truth of the world in the pages. The world is not a beautiful place and if one tries to hide it with a stupid romance, it is simply a waste of a book. This is not what this book does. This book shows the cruelty of the world in the form of divorce, affairs, suicide, and depression. Yet this book also provides the perspective of the world that should not be forgotten. It illuminates the light, the joy, the happiness, and of course the patience of the world. One must have patience to survive this world, and this book is a perfect illumination of that patience of love.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The most compelling aspect of this book is its characters. Each character is carefully crafted to strike a chord in at least one teen's heart. The characters become you as you read and at least one of the character's hold your heart as the book continues. One cannot stop reading simply because one grows tired of the book. It is just not possible to grow tired of the book due to the fact that each character holds your heart and what breaks them, breaks you, and when they triumph, you just simply want to shout with joy!
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The only disappointment I had in this book was that the beginning was not quite as powerfully written as I had hoped. I was truly afraid that this would end up as a teenage drama book while I read the beginning, yet those fears were washed away as soon as the middle of the book came into view.
Comments: I would just like to thank the author for not making Marisa THE girl that every girl wishes they were. Her physical features held as a great linking point to many girls. She was just an ordinary girl. While relating to a character does not always come out of physical aspect, this character helped me realize that this truly was an ordinary girl... just like me.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover most definitely tempted me to pick up the book! The simple picture showed me that this book was going to be real. This was not some hyped up teenage drama that would flutter my heart, yet it held promise of being a story that would compel me to look at the world in a real and different way. This was exactly what this book held in store for me. The cover was a perfect reflection because it held the reality of the world and a promise in it. The cover was perfect.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

The Naughty List

Reader: Sabrina K
Age: 16
Title: The Naughty List
Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher: Penguin
Pub Date: Feb 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This is a great book to read for fun. It's original having a cheerleading squad also be a secret club that catch cheating boyfriends in the act.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: How all these cheerleaders love doing this secret society and will do whatever it takes to maintain it and protect the girls that attend their high school.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The ending wasn't that strong, all that the last 30 pages or so where very repetitive (It was just Tessa mostly going on and on about her going to quit SOS and tell her boyfriend Aidan.) I found it a bit boring at the end.
Comments: Loved the name of the society or club-SOS, Society of Smitten Kittens. This book has just the right amount of quirky and humor in it to make a great book!
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover did tempt me to pick up the book a bit, and it did reflect the book having the dirty laundry in the background of the boyfriend and girlfriend.
Age Range: 16-17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

A Whole Nother Story

Reader: Annika M
Age: 14
Title: A Whole Nother Story
Author: Dr. Cuthbert Soup
Publisher: Deb Shapiro
Pub Date: 1/??/2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teen’s Top 10: No
Recommend: No
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The most compelling aspect of this book is definitely the comedy. It's so weird you can't really put it down. Most of the characters are so random, it gets pretty funny.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: When I first started reading this book, I fully anticipated it being the next Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (because of the writing style). Then as the story went on, it started getting a little cheesy. The plot didn't really go anywhere for a couple chapters and the characters were underdeveloped. It could have used a little more thought.
Comments: It has a very nice recipe for butternut squash.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover definitely did tempt me to pick up the book, just because there's no illustrations. It didn't exactly reflect the contents, but it definitely makes it look a little more interesting.
Age Range: 12-13
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal

This World We Live In

Reader: Sabrina K
Age: 16
Title: This World We Live In
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Harcourt
Pub Date: April 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Annotation: A year ago a meteor collided with the moon and caused ultimate destruction. Now planet Earth is without a sun causing tidal waves, earthquakes, twisters, volcanic eruptions, and causing famine throughout the world. Now, Miranda, a teenager in a small suburb in Pennsylvania, records these events in her diary, giving a glimpse of her journey of losing loved ones and the world around her.
Convince to read book: If you're into the whole "doom’s day" related subject, this book is for you. Unlike other doom’s day related topics this books gives a logical reason for what's going on with planet Earth and why people are dying. It's not your typical "doom’s day" related book with people going ballistic right and left being all depressed. In a sense, the book is very raw in an emotional way and captures each characters emotions perfectly.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: This book showed the true beauty of life and death and how important it is to cherish the people around you for the time you have. This book really captured it, and no matter what is happening to never give up—even when death is near, there is always something bright to look forward to, even if it is just a can of soup.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover did tempt me to pick up the book—it was very intriguing and related to the contents of the book spot on. They had the moon overshadowing half of the book or so and then the house—Miranda’s little house in the middle of nowhere.
Age Range: 12-18 up
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it

By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead

Reader: Briana G
Age: 16
Title: By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead
Author: Julie Anne Peters
Publisher: Hyperion
Pub Date: 1/00/10
Galley: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Compelling Aspect of the Book: Just the whole story of why she's planning on committing suicide, and what's going on in her life. It was both sad and sweet, but not overly, grossly romantic, like many
teenage books are these days.
Did you finish: Yes
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: I thought the cover was intriguing. I liked how the emphasis was on the flower petals, because they were the only colored thing in the picture. I liked how the font was cut out to match the color of the wall behind it. The one thing that bothered me though was the girl. Until I read the book I didn't even realize she was in a bathtub, and I kept wondering why she was curled up like that and why she was naked.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal

In A Heartbeat

Reader: Frances W
Age: 13
Title: In A Heartbeat
Author: Loretta Ellsworth
Publisher: Walker publishing company
Pub Date: ?/?/2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: I really liked this book. It was sad, but rewarding and never bored me. It's just a little unrealistic, but that didn't make it bad.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I was very interested by the fact that the heart changed her personality. It would be kind of cool if that happened in real life, but it doesn't, so that made it a little harder to enjoy the book at times, but still made it more interesting.
Did you finish: Yes
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover didn't excite me a lot or anything, but I think it's a pretty good cover, simple but pretty, and it goes with the book pretty well. I immediately thought it might be about heart transplants when I saw the book because I'd read another book about that just before that. That cover was red with a human heart (like, the organ) in the middle. Just a little gross. This cover is better.
Age Range: Under 12-15
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

The Roar

Reader: Mollie W
Age: 15
Title: The Roar
Author: Emma Clayton
Publisher: Chicken House (a division of Scholastic)
Pub Date: April 2009
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Annotation: Mika's world has been spun into a place based purely on mystery and lies, though he seems to be the only one who senses it. After his sister vanishes and a new government program that targets children rises, Mika decides that the only hope of finding his sister may be in beating the government at their own game.
Convince us to read the book: The Roar is a book that you won't come across at a book store, it's the farthest thing from mainstream and that is very advantageous to the plot, because you never can quite guess where the story will go next.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The Roar pulls off many different things at once, but the best aspect of the book for me, was how well crafted the villain of the story is. For me, the bad guy is of top priority and must be handled properly. In this book, Mal Gorman is far from the generic villain. He's old, frail, and...evil. A man of his age being the bad guy is something that isn't as easy to pull off as a middle aged man and I applaud Clayton for how easily she makes this believable. All the characters in the book are shaped in such a way, that their personality, intentions and motivations are vividly reflected.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The only thing that I could say I'm disappointed in is the cliffhanger ending. I hate those! This ending is most definitely open ended, which is probably because a sequel is in the works.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: Though I liked the pod fighter being on the cover, I felt it was too busy and would drive people away from reading it.
Age Range:12-17
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

Hush, Hush

Reader: Briana G
Age: 16
Title: Hush, Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: 10/13/09
Galley: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I thought the plot was well thought out and I enjoyed the subplots throughout the book, and how the whole book is like a giant puzzle where you get seemingly random details, but as soon as you get to the end they make perfect sense. I thought the characters were well developed and were made even more excellent in the fact that the characters were not perfect, and the book even emphasized their flaws. Too many books end up trying to make characters that are perfect, but that's not how life is, and I think that this makes it seem more like it doesn't take someone perfect to play hero.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: I thought the cover was beautiful. The tattered wings on the falling angel drew me in and made me wonder why he was falling. I liked how the colors that were in the 'light of heaven' tinted her with a dark red, but the rest were black. The cloudy background and the color/font of the title all added to the tone of the book, it set the mood perfectly. It didn't give away too much of the book, but showed just enough to make me curious.
Did you finish: Yes
Age Range: 14-18 up
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

Captivate

Reader: Mollie W
Age: 15
Title: Captivate
Author: Carrie Jones
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Pub Date: Jan. 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Annotation: When Zara and her posse of misfits find themselves in even more pixie mayhem than usual, they must band together and protect their families, themselves and the world.
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: Despite how the cover majorly flops, the contents of the book live up to the first one, and in some instances exceed expectations. In this book Carrie Jones widens the gap between her book and Twilight's, for obvious reasons. Though she swerves the plot away from anymore 'wow this is so much like Twilight' comments, she does so naturally and the book remains incredibly likable.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: My favorite part about this series is how Carrie Jones is able to bring her characters alive. She charges them with relatable but distinct personalities that draw you to some people and pushes you away from others. But like reality, there's a picture of good and bad people and you never 100% know what's going on in their heads.
Did you finish: Yes
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: Need (the first book in this series) made quite an impression on me when I picked it up. Once finished with it, I thought the book was tied in well with the cover and that a very good job was done on it. Unfortunately, this was not the case for the second book, Captivate. When I saw it across the room, did I immediately know that it was the sequel? Yes I did. Was it intriguing in any way at all? No. It seems the people who chose the cover weren't as creative as they should have been. I'm sorry but the yellow liquid dripping down the girl's face looks disgusting.
Age Range: Under 12-17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it

Shiver

Reader: Meghan K
Age: 15
Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pub Date: August, 20
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: No
Convince us to read the book: I am a horrible person. I got this book because I met the author, and she was awesome. I was so excited to go home and read Shiver, because everyone I knew who read it loved it. So I got home... And read it... And hated it. I'm sorry.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I felt this book was a shameless Twilight rip-off and too much of it was relying on the assumption that the reader would care about the characters and be deeply emotionally affected by their suffering. The book seemed too eager to get to squishy, emotionally intense parts and as a result, skimped on character development.
Did you finish: No
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I felt that the characters were very static and dull. Even their physical descriptions were bland. It was the characterization equivalent of flour. It's not yummy, not good for you, and it's bland as heck. If you added other ingredients and baked it, you'd have a delicious cake, but as is, it's just not very good. This book had an interesting take on werewolves, and it's wonderful to see an author try things you haven't seen before. But when reading about the main character makes you itchy and bored, it's not worth it to see how it plays out.
Comments: If I may, can I ask a question? What is it in these mopey, quiet, introverted, dull, bland girls that draws hot guys with super powers? Invariably, these guys are lamenting their lost humanity. You'd think they'd go for a lively, spirited girl, because she's so energetic. Yet the extroverted characters are always written off as shallow or dim-witted, and are dismissed by the [generic monster-type guy] as being beneath them. Speaking as someone who is very boisterous and extroverted, I find the implications a tad offensive. I understand that many authors are probably shy, quiet people, but that doesn't mean that those of us unable to shut up are dumb or bad or unworthy of love.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: This is easily one of the prettiest covers I have seen in a long time. It's simple, fits the book, and eye catching. More books need covers like this.
Age Range: 12-17
Quality: 2Q Needs more work
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal

The Hunger Games

Reader: Madelyn S
Age: 16
Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pub Date: OCT 2008
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: The book helped visualize the true aspects of freedom that we do not grasp on to, or underestimate. This book is kick butt.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The most compelling aspect of this tale is that it is created and formed by such an imaginative author. Such a world created in the lines of a book is not often common to find. The book also shows amazing quality of friendship that comes along in once in a blue moon. The story demonstrates to us the ability how to create such a friendship, loyalty, and bravery as which Katniss portrays.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I was disappointed with how the atmosphere or environment, the surroundings were described. The actual design of the country could have been described in more detail to my approval.
Comments: This story shows how the importance of family comes into play. How loyalty and commitment can be found in the harshest of places. Why, in the harshest of places that is where loyalty, compassion is often blossomed and grown. I actually desired to be in the book's situation to help experience and understand life in a different view. In a way these characters saw more of life and became more fulfilled through their experiences in life than the normal teenager. I wish I was able to partake in such an experience.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover was not as appealing as the review it was given by the people that passed along the such high recommendation by word of mouth. The cove did represent some form of symbolism in the book that was not able to be understood when you first look at the book without ever reading it. The cover may have the ability in the future to express a more inviting cover.
Age Range: 14-15
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal