Adios, Nirvana

Reader: Guananí
Age: 15
Title: Adios, Nirvana
Author: Conrad Wesselhoeft
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Pub Date: Oct 2010
Galley: No
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This book is a beautiful blend of light and dark, which it introduces right at the beginning with a Walt Whitman quote: "Every moment of light and dark is a miracle."This book is about guitars, dealing with loss, poetry, teen angst, and friendship, and it weaves them all together with spots of humor and spots of deep speculation.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The main character in this book was very compelling because of his unique perspective, conflicted past and interesting thoughts, which kept the book moving along.
Cover: The cover—a guitar made of flames with a black background—is pretty cool and reflects the contents, because a main point of this story is how the main character pours his feelings of loss and anger into his guitar. Nonetheless, I really don't like the quote they put at the bottom: first of all, the author they quoted wrote a really awful book that I wanted to spit on when I finished it, and it's insulting that he got to have his quote (which isn't even good) on such an incredible, awesome book as this. I hope they took it off before actually publishing it!
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The only disappointment was the quote on the cover.
Age Range: 14-18 up
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal