Random YA book recs
Apr. 20th, 2004 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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simplelyric asked about YA recs.
What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci
Main character is a girl who's survived leukemia and has, as a result, missed a large chunk of junior/senior high and is now in grade ten (I think) and having real trouble adjusting to the transition. Enter new student Lani to their small-town school. No-one can tell if Lani's a boy or a girl, and in the first two pages, a hazing prank goes wrong, and Lani is presumed drowned. Then skip back six months or so in chapter one to find out how it all came about... Very neat characters, and emotionally affecting suspense. And, plus, GLBT YA novel that doesn't follow The Formula.
Boy Meets Boy by David Leviathan
All about a town where they decided a while ago that gay, straight, bi, it doesn't really matter. It's a love story. The narrator, Paul, has known he was gay since his kindergarten teacher sent home a note saying "Paul is most likely gay and has a very strong sense of self." He told his mom this, hoping it would make her put her book down, but she just marked her place with her finger and called to his dad in the kitchen, "Honey, Paul learned a new word today." I cannot rave enough about this book.
Make Lemonade and True Believer by Virgina Wolff Euwer
Two novels in prose poetry, the first two of a planned trilogy. Levaughn, a teenage black girl in the projects, is determined to be the first one in her family to go to college. In the first book, she's babysitting for single teen mom Jolly, who's got two kids and is only three years old than she is. It could have been another problem novel, it could have been a really bleak book, it could have been just an experiment with blank verse. Instead it's brilliant and emotional and enthralling, as is the sequel.
Seek by Paul Fleischman
And this one's written as a radio play. Rob's been fascinated by radios for as long as he can remember. When his high school English teacher asks the class to write their autobiography, it therefore follows that he chooses to write it as a radio play. Nothing I can say can really capture the anecdotal beauty of this book. It's funny, it's affecting and dramatic, it's about Rob's absent DJ father, it's about Rob.
Whale Song by Chris Crutcher
TJ Jones is half black, half Japanese, and quite obviously a racial minority in his town. He's adopted, could be on the football team, but team sports aren't really his thing. Until he gets roped into starting a swim team by his English teacher. Now he's dead set on putting together the strangest assortment of individuals the school's ever seen, and just to piss off the football players, making sure the whole team earns letter jackets. Don't get me wrong, while this is a sports story, it's a sports book for people who don't like sports. Really, it's about racism, prejudice, child abuse, tragedy, and the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.
How Angel Peterson Got His Name and Other Tales of Extreme Sports by Gary Paulsen
Speaking of sports stories. And yes, that is the same Gary Paulsen who wrote Hatchet. But this is an insanely funny true-life recounting of the sort of insane things fifteen-year-old boys do that could be called extreme sports. Even before they invented the term extreme sports. In fact, this is about what the author and his friends got up to, and how it did not actually kill them. Like the title story. Where the guys decide, after seeing a newsreel about world records to break the land-speed record on skis. By tying Angel Petersen (on skis) to the back of a car. Now, they live in the middle of the prairies and have never actually skiied. But they know that you have to wax skiis, so they get out the paraffin wax. You might not know this, but paraffin wax will actually STICK to the snow when it gets cold... Yeah. You get the idea.
Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve
Because the basic premise is about municipal Darwinism. Giant cities on wheels that hunt each other down and eat one another. The story starts in (or on, rather, since it's in motion and all) London, and has dastardly plots, hidden secrets, airships, and cities! Eating each other!
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
I was going to include some more fantasy but ran out of energy. Oh, just go here and read my impressionable rantings.
Been dealing with clogged kitchen sink and attempts being made to fix it since Friday. And yet I still ended up washing pots and pans in the tub tonight. Grrr. Varied and sundry RL hijinxs, nifty links, and fannish stuff to post about later, but right now I'm just too very tired.
simplelyric asked about YA recs.What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci
Main character is a girl who's survived leukemia and has, as a result, missed a large chunk of junior/senior high and is now in grade ten (I think) and having real trouble adjusting to the transition. Enter new student Lani to their small-town school. No-one can tell if Lani's a boy or a girl, and in the first two pages, a hazing prank goes wrong, and Lani is presumed drowned. Then skip back six months or so in chapter one to find out how it all came about... Very neat characters, and emotionally affecting suspense. And, plus, GLBT YA novel that doesn't follow The Formula.
Boy Meets Boy by David Leviathan
All about a town where they decided a while ago that gay, straight, bi, it doesn't really matter. It's a love story. The narrator, Paul, has known he was gay since his kindergarten teacher sent home a note saying "Paul is most likely gay and has a very strong sense of self." He told his mom this, hoping it would make her put her book down, but she just marked her place with her finger and called to his dad in the kitchen, "Honey, Paul learned a new word today." I cannot rave enough about this book.
Make Lemonade and True Believer by Virgina Wolff Euwer
Two novels in prose poetry, the first two of a planned trilogy. Levaughn, a teenage black girl in the projects, is determined to be the first one in her family to go to college. In the first book, she's babysitting for single teen mom Jolly, who's got two kids and is only three years old than she is. It could have been another problem novel, it could have been a really bleak book, it could have been just an experiment with blank verse. Instead it's brilliant and emotional and enthralling, as is the sequel.
Seek by Paul Fleischman
And this one's written as a radio play. Rob's been fascinated by radios for as long as he can remember. When his high school English teacher asks the class to write their autobiography, it therefore follows that he chooses to write it as a radio play. Nothing I can say can really capture the anecdotal beauty of this book. It's funny, it's affecting and dramatic, it's about Rob's absent DJ father, it's about Rob.
Whale Song by Chris Crutcher
TJ Jones is half black, half Japanese, and quite obviously a racial minority in his town. He's adopted, could be on the football team, but team sports aren't really his thing. Until he gets roped into starting a swim team by his English teacher. Now he's dead set on putting together the strangest assortment of individuals the school's ever seen, and just to piss off the football players, making sure the whole team earns letter jackets. Don't get me wrong, while this is a sports story, it's a sports book for people who don't like sports. Really, it's about racism, prejudice, child abuse, tragedy, and the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.
How Angel Peterson Got His Name and Other Tales of Extreme Sports by Gary Paulsen
Speaking of sports stories. And yes, that is the same Gary Paulsen who wrote Hatchet. But this is an insanely funny true-life recounting of the sort of insane things fifteen-year-old boys do that could be called extreme sports. Even before they invented the term extreme sports. In fact, this is about what the author and his friends got up to, and how it did not actually kill them. Like the title story. Where the guys decide, after seeing a newsreel about world records to break the land-speed record on skis. By tying Angel Petersen (on skis) to the back of a car. Now, they live in the middle of the prairies and have never actually skiied. But they know that you have to wax skiis, so they get out the paraffin wax. You might not know this, but paraffin wax will actually STICK to the snow when it gets cold... Yeah. You get the idea.
Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve
Because the basic premise is about municipal Darwinism. Giant cities on wheels that hunt each other down and eat one another. The story starts in (or on, rather, since it's in motion and all) London, and has dastardly plots, hidden secrets, airships, and cities! Eating each other!
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
I was going to include some more fantasy but ran out of energy. Oh, just go here and read my impressionable rantings.
Been dealing with clogged kitchen sink and attempts being made to fix it since Friday. And yet I still ended up washing pots and pans in the tub tonight. Grrr. Varied and sundry RL hijinxs, nifty links, and fannish stuff to post about later, but right now I'm just too very tired.
