Finding Baba Yaga

Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen, 141 pages

“You think you know this story. You do not. A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairytale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, and herself.... A contemporary retelling of an iconic myth about a young woman discovering her voice by a beloved and prolific American storyteller.” I’m not sure that I really liked this very much.  I honestly don’t know who I would give this to either.  I love fairy tales and horror and books in verse have grown on me some and this book has all of that but I didn’t care for it.  I also generally like books by Yolen.  This book was dark and kind of predictable.  It ended up being more hopeful, but it didn’t feel that way.  I think that the contradiction in that bothered me. 

A Room Away From The Wolves

A Room Away From TheWolves by Nova Ren Suma, 316 pages

“Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina's cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother--a bond Bina thought was unbreakable. Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women's residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina's lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she's come to Catherine House and what it will cost for her to leave . . .” I can’t quite decide if I liked the story or not.  It was well written and I liked the characters but the plot was odd and a little hard to follow.  It was difficult to figure out and I’m also not sure that I liked the ending.  But I think that there are teens out there who like stories that are a little creepy with a little mystery about hem who would enjoy it.

Gem & Dixie

Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr, 282 pages

Gem always took care of Dixie when they were little girls.  Their mom was often too busy, sometimes with drugs and alcohol, and their dad left.  Now that they are in high school, they have grown apart.  Dixie has become outgoing and social, and Gem has turned inward.  Gem wants to have her relationship with her sister back, but doesn’t know how to get it.  When their dad comes back to town and wants to reconnect, Gem is suspicious and worried about Dixie getting hurt.  This was a good story about growing up.  I liked how Zarr showed the relationship between the two sisters as it developed.  This would be a good book for teens who like realistic stories.

The Prince Of Venice Beach

The Prince Of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson, 233 pages

Cali, a teen runaway, knows a lot about what’s happening in Venice Beach.  When a private investigator approaches him, asking for help finding another runaway, Cali accepts.  He finds the kid, who has had some rough experiences and is ready to go home. Cali thinks that he might like to get into that line of work eventually. More private investigators start asking for help finding people and Cali is eager but starts to find that finding people might be more complicated than he thinks.  People’s stories may not always be true and there may be good reasons for people not wanting to be found.  Looking for Reese, another teen runaway, may be one of those complicated stories.  Who is telling the truth; Reese, her father, the PI looking for her?  Cali just isn’t sure, and he isn’t sure how to proceed.  This story seemed a little simplistic in some ways, but I still found it a satisfying read.  I think that teens who like realistic fiction would enjoy it.

The Catcher In The Rye

The CatcherIn The Rye by J.D. Salinger, 277 pages

“Anyone who has read J. D. Salinger's New Yorker stories - particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme - With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children. The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.” I can’t say that I actually enjoyed the book and I don’t know that I would recommend it but if I had ever been required to read it for class I probably wouldn’t have minded reading it.

The Long Run

TheLong Run by Joseph Bruchac, 114 pages

Travis is a great runner.  At 17, he and his father have been on the road for 4 years, ever since Travis's mother died.  But Travis's dad is a drunk and hasn't been able to hold down a job.  For the past few months they've been living in a homeless shelter.  Travis misses his grandparents and when some other boys in the shelter try to plant drugs on Travis to get him in trouble, he decides it's time to leave.  Unfortunately he and his father are in Seattle and his grandparents, the only place Travis can go, live in Maine.  Undeterred, Travis sets out on a journey that may change his life.  This is a great read for a reluctant or low level teen reader, especially boys who like realistic fiction.

The Story of Lucy Gault

 

The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor  240 pages

Taking place in the early 1920s, this 2002 novel from Trevor, one of the finest writers of contemporary times.

The Gault family is driven from their beloved home, Lahardane, in 1921. When a trio of rowdy local teenagers tries to set the rural Irish mansion afire, Lucy’s father, a wealthy Irish army captain, wounds one of them. The Gault, fearing for their safety, decide to fell to England. They will leave their home in the care of two faithful servants.

Lucy, who has known no other home, disagrees with her parents’ decision. She flees into the woods on the eve of their departure. She cannot be found.  Days later, a scrap of her clothing is found on one of the beaches Lucy loves so much. Convinced she has drowned, her parents leave Ireland for a lifetime of grieving and wandering across Europe.

Lucy is found several days after her parents’ departure, starved and barely alive. The servants, Bridget and Henry, move into the house and take care of Lucy, treating her as their own as she grows into womanhood. Lucy refuses to leave Lahardane, even when the possibilities of love and a life of her own, until her parents return. She is convinced they will come back.

I found it implausible that the lawyer, who oversaw Lahardane’s finances is unable to get in touch with Lucy’s parents and let them know that she is alive. Nor do the parents contact the servants or even check on Lahardane.

I give this novel of a quiet, sad life 4 out of 5 stars.

The Marvels

The Marvels by Brian Selznick, 665 pages

This is the story of the Marvel family, a genealogy from Billy Marvel through his descendants, down to his great-great grandson, Leo.  The book tells the story of the family in pictures, especially Billy's story, which is a very exciting story of surviving a shipwreck with only his dog, Tar.  All of the family led exciting lives afterwards, being famous actors at the Royal Theatre.  The second half of the book is about a boy named Joseph, who runs away from his boarding school to his Uncle Albert's house in London.  He has never met his uncle, and it is there that he discovers the story of the Marvel family.  Joseph is determined to uncover the secret his uncle is hiding and to figure out what the connection is between his family and the Marvels.  This was an excellent story.  Despite it's length, it will be an easy sell to reluctant readers since half of the book is illustrations.  I think this might be favorite of Selznick's books so far.

Killing Time In Crystal City

Killing Time In Crystal City by Chris Lynch, 230 pages

Kevin, who has been telling people that his name is Kiki, has run away from his dad and has been living with his uncle in Crystal City.  On the bus on the way there, he met a girl who called herself Stacey.  Stacey also ends up in Crystal City.  However, Kevin meets some guys on the beach in Crystal City who seem like they’re decent guys but they may not be exactly what he thinks.  I really liked this story and I really like the way it was written but the ending was a little crazy and I wasn’t left completely satisfied because it felt like there was too much unresolved story.  Despite that, I still think this books would appeal to a lot of teens, especially boys.

Paper Towns

Paper Towns, by John Green, 305 pages

Quentin has always had a crush on his neighbor, Margo- even though they drifted apart into different social circles in high school, the crush on the girl he knew as a child remained.  Margo is a bit of a legend to everyone in school- a daring risk-taker who sneaks into theme parks and turns down famous bassists, and a popular girl with the looks and the cool friends.  So when she shows up at Quentin's window one night to pull him into a night of mischief and adventure, he can't turn her down.  And at the end of the night he feels like she just taught him how to live.  So when Margo stays missing, Quentin is convinced that she has led him into a sort of scavenger hunt to find her.  The rest of the book is Quentin reading Whitman's Leaves of Grass, realizing how good his friends are, and trying to live life like Margo taught him.  Oh, and then realizing that he never really knew Margo, and we can never truly know another person.  This was interesting, and contained quite a bit for discussion regarding YA literature, John Green, and identity. 

Smoke

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins 
543 pages

This is a sequel to Burned.  I read the first book, but it was a while ago and I had no trouble reading this one even though I didn’t remember a lot of the first book, so I would say that these books would not have to be read in order.  Hopkins’s books always deal with difficult situations that can come up in teens’ lives and are written in verse form.  This means that there is a lot of white space in her books and the topics are of interest to many teens which makes them good for reluctant readers.  In this story, Pattyn is on the run after having shot and killed her father who had been abusing, her, her sister and her mother.  Her father was beating on her sister, Jackie, when she discovered them.  The story is told alternately between Jackie and Pattyn, so we get to see what is happening to Pattyn as she runs from the law and Jackie, who is left at home to deal with the aftermath of their father’s death, and the rape that she suffered that brought on the beating from her father.  Hopkins’s stories are always very real, and this is no exception.  This story should appeal to a lot of teens.