Reader: Hannah W.
Age: 17
Title: A Matter of Souls
Author: Denise Lewis Patrick
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
Pub Date: 04/01/14
Galley: No
Top 25: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This collection of short stories explores a huge range of emotions which allows the reader to be able to connect with the characters. While each story focused on different characters there was still character development within each story which greatly enhanced the book.
Memorable or Forgettable: I really liked how the stories were all different and had different characters but still fit together in a collection. I also found the stories easy to connect with because they were all displaying emotions that everyone feels at some point in their life.
Cover: I really like the cover and I think it suits the book well. The cover is rather mysterious and intriguing which caused me to pick up the book in the first place.
Age Range: 14 through 18 and up
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
Additional Comments:
The book did have some heavy themes so I won't recommend it for younger teens.
Annotation:
This book is a collection of short stories which discusses the life, dreams and tragedies of African and African-American men and women throughout the years.
tags: short story / African American experience / ya lit
Reader: Lian S.
Age: 18
Title: Egg & Spoon
Author: Gregory Maguire
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pub Date: 09/09/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: My immediate thought about Egg & Spoon was that the narrator is brilliant. He's rather snarky, and even though he's technically a minor character in the story itself, you get to know him as a reader because his voice is so incredibly strong. It's almost like poetry, in a way, because he describes events and settings in ways that I had never pictured before.
The story itself is intriguing, too. It was simply different from all the books I've read before. This is partly because I'm not all that familiar with the culture the story is set in, but it's also because a lot of separate ideas are combined to create something unique.
Memorable or Forgettable: It's been weeks since I read it and I still have really vivid images of parts of the book. That's the case for a lot of books, but these images are particularly unique: the floating pavilions, dolls lined up like ducks, Cat looking out of the train at the beginning of the book. There was this feeling of love and of all sides of a story that I remember in a really positive way.
Cover: Finally, a legitimately good cover! I really like covers that have actual art, and this is one of them. Everything about it fits the book. The actual picture sort of tells the story itself, if you look first at the train on the bottom and then move your eyes up to the very top. The oval that could be egg, spoon, or both also fits the feeling of the book really well. This is one of those rare covers that actually works quite well. I do think a large part of that is because it's art, instead of, say, a picture of a pretty girl.
Age Range: Under 12 through 18 and up
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it
tags: fantasy / Russian folklore / ya lit
Reader: Ella O.
Age: 13
Title: Just Call My Name
Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Pub Date: 08/05/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: A story of two kids from a severely broken home, taken in by good hearted people. Some characters could use a little more work.
Memorable or Forgettable: A good storyline with feminine hero roles.
Cover: To be honest, I don't think the cover reflected the book very well. The back of the book is what intrigued me.
Age Range: 12 through 13
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
Additional Comments:
pretty good
tags: suspense / ya lit
Reader: Grace KL
Age: 15
Title: Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales
Author: Kelly Link and Gavin T. Grant
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pub Date: 09/09/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: As is often the case with short story anthologies, some stories in this book were quite good, and others not as much. Overall, it seems that the shorter stories in the book, in which we only given quick snapshots of the characters and their monstrous aspects or relationships with monsters were more enjoyable to read because they allowed the reader to fill in gaps with their own imaginations.
Memorable or Forgettable: One of the more engaging stories, entitled Son of Abyss, follows characters with varying and unique monstrous characteristics, which made the story feel fresh and exciting. But stories involving frequently seen monsters such as vampires and werewolves were somewhat forgettable.
Cover: The cover tempted me because it showed a monster that wasn't immediately seen as a vampire or werewolf. I was also drawn to the idea of a book about monsters rather than supernatural creatures. The cover did a good job of showing the overall nature of the book.
Age Range: 12 through 18 and up
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
tags: anthology / short story / monsters / ya lit
Reader: Guanani
Age: 18
Title: The Island of Excess Love
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Pub Date: 08/26/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I was not particularly pleased when I saw that there was a sequel to one of my favorite 2013 books, Love in the Time of Global Warming, since I enjoyed it so much as a stand-alone. Fortunately, I was not disappointed by the sequel. Excess Love doesn’t offer as much plot or world-building as the first book, but it does plunge into broader themes and explores the emotional narrative of the characters in an original and entertaining way. The story focuses on themes of illusion, blossoming sexuality, and betrayal, all playing out within a compact 200 pages.
Memorable or Forgettable: The dreamlike quality of the prose and the cast of sort-of-superpowered misfit survivors work well for diving into some real strangeness while telling an emotional storyline that feels true. However, the plot of this sequel was not as varied and imaginative as the first book, and at a couple points didn’t quite make sense. I don’t usually like romance novels, and since the emotions and romantic interest/love triangle was the focus of this story, I was a bit disappointed. At the same time, the Greek-ish post apocalypse landscape, original portrayals of sexuality, and fully developed characters make it an enjoyable book despite the romantic focus.
Cover: The cover annoyed me. It was enough like the first book to be interesting with its silhouettes and little clues, but did it have to be so very PINK? Also, this galley was chock full of typos, with misspellings, missing quotation marks and commas that sometimes made it hard to read.
Age Range: 14 through 17
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
tags: romance / post-apocalyptic / ya lit
Reader: Veronica K.
Age: 13
Title: The Island of Excess Love
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub Date: 08/26/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: The characters degraded from the last book, so this author obviously has a talent. There is even worse sentence structure, and the plot can not take you in. The dialogue was a little forced. Overall, not great.
Memorable or Forgettable: The plot, the characters, reactions between them, nothing was very well done. It is a very forgettable book.
Cover: It is there. That is really the type of cover it is. There.
Age Range: Under 12
Quality: 1Q How did it get published?
Popularity: 1P Yech! Forced to read it
tags: romance / post-apocalyptic / ya lit
Reader: Guanani
Age: 18
Title: Undecided: Navigating Life and Learning After High School
Author: Genevieve Morgan
Publisher: Zest Books
Pub Date: 04/08/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: By golly! It’s the rare YA non-fiction book! With its relevant title and symbolically attuned cover, Undecided got my attention as soon as I laid eyes on it. As I sink my teeth into the weirdness that is summer before going to college, plenty of questions and anxieties about The Future have slithered through my mind. Luckily, Undecided is here to help, with chapters about figuring out what makes you tick, general information about higher education, other options like volunteering, how to get an hourly job, and thoughts about how to get busy living.
Memorable or Forgettable: This guide was memorable because of its readability and organized, comprehensive content. Morgan’s tone was friendly and in no way condescending, and her advice was complete with common pitfalls to avoid and anecdotes about her own confusion growing up. All in all, this is a comforting and informational guide that I wish I had been able to read last summer before the mind/soul-gobbling application process. I recommend it to nervous or curious high schoolers who want to know more about what’s out there and how to deal with it.
Cover: I really connected with this cover. The vaguely frightening blankness with a pair of red Converse at the bottom is a great way to symbolize the teenage quest to draw something tangible on the canvas of the future, all while being visually appealing.
Age Range: 14 through 17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it
tags: non-fiction / life after high school / self-discovery / ya lit
Reader: AJ G.
Age: 18
Title: The Young World
Author: Chris Weitz
Publisher: Hacette Books
Pub Date: 07/29/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I have a few issues with this book. The first is the method of apocalypse that the author chose. Disease is a pretty common scenario, almost to the point of being overdone. And this particular disease is so unrealistic, in that it killed everyone who wasn't a teenager, and the author tried to be scientific and explain how it would work. That would be ok, except that there's no actual way for the disease to work. But I can ignore that. Sometimes you just have to suspend disbelief. What I can't ignore is the main characters that the author chose. First of all, they sound almost the same in the way they're written, which sort of defeats the purpose of switching narrators. Secondly, they are two of the most boring characters in the whole story! There's not a single thing interesting about them, other than the bizarre levels of indecisiveness and forced-leader-complex they both have. There were side characters who would have been so much more interesting. Brainbox was the coolest person in the book, and the actual protagonist, since he's the one with the knowledge to cure the disease. SeeThrough is also way more interesting. Her backstory, at least the little we know, was cooler than the female lead, and she was a teeny ninja. I honestly stopped caring about the two main characters a fourth of the way in, or earlier.
Memorable or Forgettable: This book was essentially a more fluffy version of Lord of the Flies. It's a bunch of teenagers stuck on an island, although much bigger and less jungly. The only major difference was that there were girls in this version, so there was romantic tension. I did not care at all about the love triangles that kept springing up, because they were distracting the characters from performing the plot. Which was also forgettable, come to think of it. I only remember a few of the no less than seven giant fight scenes. I just think the author needed to choose to include fewer fight scenes and less romantic tension scenes, and focus on developing the plot, because there were passages that were sometimes several pages long, that serve no purpose in moving the plot forward. At all. Just random fighting and/or kissing.
Cover: The cover is okay. It's not the most exciting thing in the world. I wasn't drawn to this book for the cover. It actually took me a few seconds to find it. But it's also not terrible. I think it encapsulates the story well, and it looks pretty once you get up close. But all in all, it really doesn't have much shelf appeal. The colors are very muted, but not dark enough for that to be a draw. It's just a little too neutral.
Age Range: 14 through 17
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal
tags: dystopian / postapocalyptic / ya lit
Reader: Claire W.
Age: 12
Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Pub Date: 03/04/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: This book's setting was fabulously created. It was believable and fantastically. Kestrel was a great character. She seems completely normal at first but as the book moves on she becomes much more than a normal girl. She becomes a young girl falling in love with the wrong person. The dialogue was well written and good.
Memorable or Forgettable: The general plot wasn't a super original idea, but the lead up to the plot was very unique and great. I felt all the characters were revealed as the book went on.
Cover: The cover was a great hook and beautiful. It didn't have a ton to do with the contents but still great.
Age Range: 12 through 15
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal
tags: fantasy / romance / ya lit
Reader: Brooke H.
Age: 15
Title: Open Road Summer
Author: Emery Lord
Publisher: Walker Books
Pub Date: 04/15/14
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: This book was interesting, despite a slightly cheesy plot. It was the kind of book you want to read in summer, on the beach or by the pool. The characters were very relatable, and I loved how the main character, Reagan, developed throughout the book. It was also nice that it wasn't all about the romance. Reagan's relationship with her best friend was really sweet as well.
Memorable or Forgettable: I thought the characters were memorable for their distinct personalities and wit, but also for their vulnerabilities and burdens that they were able to deal with by the end.
Cover: The cover had elements to it that I did like, but also parts that I didn't. I liked the color choices; it was pretty and summery. However, I didn't like that the cover didn't portray the contents of the book very well. It's not terrible, but slight changes could have been made that would make the cover reflect the story better. For example, the guy could have been holding a guitar instead of a bike, because his character is a guitar-playing singer, and I don't think there was anything in the book that involved the two love interests and a bike.
Age Range: 12 through 17
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal
tags: contemporary romance / ya lit
