Tag Archive | California

Second Star, by Alyssa B. Sheinmel (book review) – Wendy, Peter & surfboards

Jun2

book cover of Second Star by Alyssa B Sheinmel published by Farrar Straus GirouxLost boys, runaways, surfers,
Grieving parents sleepwalking through life,
Sister looking everywhere.

Wendy’s desperate journey up the PCH twines around the framework of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan as the big sister pushes past her own fears to find John and Michael who’ve been gone so long.

Dive into an excerpt here free, then ask for Second Star at your favorite local library or independent bookstore today to see how Wendy deals with Pete and Jas, who are trying so hard not to grow up.

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Book info: Second Star / Alyssa B. Sheinmel. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2014.   [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Searching for her missing twin brothers, Wendy’s encounter with a group of runaways who live only to surf changes the teen forever.

Wendy believes that John and Michael are still chasing the best waves, several months after police closed their missing persons case, so she heads up the coast to find the beach in their favorite photo.

At Kensington, where cliffside houses are sliding into the Pacific, she discovers a colony of runaways who’ve seen her brothers. Pete teaches her to surf, tries to steer her away from nearby drug-dealer Jas who might have more information. Belle is Pete’s girlfriend, except that she isn’t?

If her wish on the Second Star  comes true, Wendy will make her family whole again in this California retelling of Peter Pan.   (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Last Best Kiss, by Claire LaZebnik (book review) – can love overcome memories?

May2

bool cover of The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik published by Harper TeenBeing true to yourself or
Staying stylish and popular.
How far should you go to keep up an image?

Anna figures out that kissing short and nerdy Finn privately, yet telling people publicly that they’re “just friends” was the wrong thing to do – too late.

When Finn’s parents’ travels bring him back to California in a taller, cooler version, she realizes what she lost in 9th grade. But is it too late to try again?

Find this new paperback retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion today at your favorite local library or independent bookstore for a great sunny days read.

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Book info: Last Best Kiss / Claire LaZebnik. Harper Teen, 2014. [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Anna’s secret relationship with a nerdy freshman ended badly. When he moves back as a hunky senior, can she stand being ‘just friends’ with Finn, realizing what she’s lost?

As a popular 9th grader, it was just easier for Anna to keep quiet about her dates with Finn, then he moved before she could apologize.  Senior year sees him back at their California high school, a tech-apps genius whose slimmed-down, hipster good looks attract lots of girls, including Anna’s best friend Lily.

Considering her ever-absent mom, self-absorbed dad in a weird new relationship, two sisters in college (one happy, one crushed after her girlfriend’s family reviles her), it’s no wonder that Anna really wants someone to care about her and wants that someone to be Finn.

The art teacher pressures her to include something outside her signature style in her college application portfolio, Wade from another school is on the scene now, and a road trip to the new music festival promoted by Lily and Hilary’s dad goes completely crazy.

(One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

T is Tokyo in When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney (book review) – love, loss, secrets

Apr23

book cover of When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney published by Little Brown Books For Young ReadersEmpty home,
full medicine bottles,
not enough information!

Did Mom’s doctor in Japan convince her to stop taking traditional cancer treatments? Why else would she have died just weeks before Danny’s graduation, her big goal during her five year fight?

Kana is like a big sister to Danny in Tokyo as they visit the clinics and temples that Mom frequented. If only he could figure out what went wrong between him and love of his life Holland, who now wears a necklace honoring Sarah, her friend who died at college…

“All the things my mom will never see and never know flash before me. She will never know what I will study in college, who I’ll marry… She will never learn golf or qualify for a senior discount at the movies. She will never grow old,” Danny muses. (p. 206)

Find When You Were Here  at your local library or independent bookstore, and walk Tokyo’s busy streets with Danny as he tries reclaim the joy that his mom found in her too-short life. (paperback comes out June 24, 2014)

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Book info: When You Were Here / Daisy Whitney. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013 (paperback June 2014).  [author’s Twitter]  [publisher site]  [author in Tokyo videos] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Bereft and angry, Danny travels to Tokyo after graduation, trying to discover why his mom gave up fighting her cancer just two months short of their shared goal.

Even though she was a year older, Holland was perfect for Danny, but when she left for college last fall, she broke up with him, never giving a reason.

His parents did business in Japan, Danny was born there, his dad died suddenly there six years ago. His mom spent her final cancer treatment time there, before returning home to enjoy the last days of her life.

When the young woman who helped his mom in Tokyo asks Danny what’s to be done about Mom’s apartment there, he decides to leave the empty, memory-filled California house (and not-girlfriend-now Holland, home from college) to spend time in Japan and find out what changed his mother’s mind about holding on until he graduated.

Secrets are powerful. Death is inevitable, but perhaps love and hope are possible in this strongly emotional novel where an unconventional Japanese girl and the scent of lilacs help an angry young man search for answers. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

E for Margarita Engle’s novel-in-verse Mountain Dog (book review)

Apr5

book cover of Mountain Dog by Margarita Engle published by Henry Holt Books for Young ReadersDogs who fight.
Dogs who save.
People worth saving?

As frightened Tony, calm great-uncle Tio, and eager search-dog-in-training Gabe learn how to live together in the mountains, the lyrical musings of boy and dog bring us the highs and lows of life without Mom.

Read Tony’s impressions of meeting Gabe for the first time here, then visit your local library or independent bookstore to get Mountain Dog  so you can read Gabe’s all-dog responses to having a new guy to love (and to teach to scratch him in just the right place) and to roam with in the Sierra Nevada forest.

Can you hear poetry from the animals in your life?
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Book info: Mountain Dog / Margarita Engle; illustrations by Olga & Aleksey Ivanov. Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2013. [author site]  [artists’ site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Tony isn’t sure about living with his great-uncle in a mountain cabin while his mom is in jail – until the eleven year old meets new search-and-rescue dog Gabe.

As he gets used to whispering pines instead of gunshots and arguments, Tony helps Tio train Gabe to search on command and makes friends at the old country school.

Tony’s mom made dogs fight for money; her uncle Tio helps dogs rescue the lost as a volunteer. Tio escaped from Cuba and poverty; can Tony escape the barrio forever?

Maybe tail-wagging Gabe can rescue Tony from his sadness…

Alternating chapters bring reflections from Tony and from Gabe as this novel-in-verse explores choice, forgiveness, and hope. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Golden, by Jessi Kirby (book review) – secrets to unravel, mystery or misfortune?

Mar24

book cover of Golden by Jessi Kirby published by Simon & Schuster BFYR“Tell me, what do you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

When live-by-the-rules Parker is reminded that last decade’s golden couple died under mysterious circumstances after their high school graduation, she decides to finally take chances and trust her instincts to find out more.

A California mystery, like Jessi Kirby’s earlier Moonglass  (my no-spoiler review here), and a road trip, like the author’s In Honor  (my review here) – what will Parker discover about Julianna and Shane…and herself?

Read an excerpt of Golden here free, then check it out at your local library or independent bookstore.

“Nothing gold can stay,” said Robert Frost, but is that always true?
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Book info: Golden / Jessi Kirby. Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2013. [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A missing girl’s senior journal inspires by-the-rules Parker to investigate a tragic mystery instead of ensuring her own scholarship dreams.

Ten years ago, Julianna and Shane’s car slid into the icy lake, and the school’s “golden couple” was declared missing.

While helping her English teacher mail that class their journals, Parker discovers that Julianna’s family left no forwarding address when they moved away after her death.

Embracing her best friend Kat’s admonition to “do something unpredictable for once” instead of working on scholarships, Parker opens the sealed envelope, reads Julianna’s hopes, and sets out to find answers to the questions there.

Wait! So good-girl Parker skips school for a road trip?
Shane’s family whitewashes the truth?
The golden couple’s love wasn’t so gleaming?

Whatever truths she finds about Shane and Julianna, Parker must also decide whether she truly shares her mother’s dreams for her future.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

To Be Perfectly Honest, by Sonya Sones (book review) – truth=lies, if Colette is talking

Sep30

book cover of To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Sones published by Simon SchusterExaggerations,
Embellishments,
Calling them “lies” is so…caustic.

Colette stretches the truth about her movie-star mom, long-absent dad, and winsome little brother – to protect them, of course. Or to keep the world from discovering how unspecial she is. Or none of the above. Definitely an “unreliable narrator” here.

Luckily, Sonya Sones is honest when she writes a “Dear Teen Me” letter to tell her younger self that her experiences would become part of much-loved novels-in-verse someday.

Find Collette’s story today at your local library or independent bookstore, and decide for yourself if Collette can ever be honest, even with herself.

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Book info: To Be Perfectly Honest: a Novel Based on an Untrue Story / Sonya Sones.  Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Colette’s movie-star mom is entirely gorgeous, the 15-year-old isn’t, but invents some crazy tales to make herself more interesting. When it counts, though, Colette may have told too many lies to get ever back to the truth.

Teen guys in L.A. seem interested in only one thing, but Colette refuses to be just another conquest. She might even miss their groping if Mom insists on dragging her and little brother Will along to the small town where her next film is being shot. She will die of boredom, truly.

Thankfully, a gorgeous guy on a motorcycle starts talking to her in the town park. She certainly can’t let him know who her mom really is, so the stories start flowing again.

Connor is so sweet and thoughtful, a great pal to Will, and so handsome. Colette senses that he has a secret sorrow, and it nearly breaks her heart when he finally tells her. Loving the most special girl in the world is on his ‘bucket list’ he says, and Colette is the one.

Should she let Connor be the one for her?
What if the doctors are wrong and his time is ticking away too fast?
Would he still adore her if he knew how many lies she’s told him?

“But there’s no law against
a girl making up stories.
And I sure am lucky
there isn’t.
Or I’d be serving
a life sentence by now.”

Sones gives readers a charmingly unreliable narrator in this compulsively readable novel-in-verse – sometimes it’s smoke and mirrors, sometimes it’s truer than true. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong, by L. Tam Holland (book review) – family secrets, lies & love?

Sep11

book cover of Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by L Tam Holland published by Simon SchusterHalf-Chinese, half-Texan,
Parents won’t discuss family,
Who is Vee? He’s not sure.

Yep, one of those “write about your family history” assignments which make adoptees, foster kids, and those with fractured families cringe, and Vee decides that writing fiction is better than flunking for writing nothing.

I traveled in China a few years ago, so I can mentally see and smell and hear the inauspicious family trip that Vee, his Texan mom, his Chinese dad, and his best friend-girl take to Dad’s hometown searching for Grandfather Wong.

Grab this basketball-loving, dysfunctional family times two, coming-of-age tale today at your favorite local library or independent bookstore.

When it comes to skeletons rattling the family tree, should you ignore, hide, or celebrate them?
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Book info: The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong / L. Tam Holland. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Basketball, girls, and sad irony – life for Vee was okay. Inventing his family history for a school paper turns things upside down, and his Chinese dad and Texan mom may not see the humor in it, especially when they all go to China on a wild grandfather chase.

Yes, they gave him a name that couldn’t be mistaken for Chinese. No, Dad and Mom will never talk about their parents, ever. Yes, Vee loves basketball more than anything, but passion doesn’t equal talent. No, he is not going to fail honors history merely because he has no known family history to write about!

Getting cut from JV team is awful, but being named manager of the girls’ varsity team could be alright. It’s odd being around Adele outside history class where she hangs out (Mr. Riley helped her out of a tough spot once, she says) – maybe Vee is misreading the extra attention she pays him, or maybe not.

Vee’s best friend Madison’s Chinese is much better than his, so she helps him “reinvent” family information for the history paper and writes a letter to his dad as if from his long-estranged grandfather in China. This extra-credit detail sends the Crawford-Wongs (plus Madison) to Dad’s home village in search of family healing, and what a strange trip their journey becomes!

What if they really find Grandfather? What if they don’t?
What caused Mom’s parents to cut off communication?
What does senior Adele see in Vee (or is he imagining things)?

Complicated family history plus misunderstandings at school (on and off the court) might make Vee wish he’d never written that paper or might let him finally discover who he is, at last.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis (book review) – psychic to young chef: change is coming

Jul12

book cover of The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis published by DelacorteTwo food-obsessed dads,
One music-mad brother,
The world’s best best friend,
and a long-ignored question bubbling up, demanding an answer.

Maybe the psychic’s unsought observation is true, and every decision that Olivia makes this summer will be connected. Maybe she’ll find cute Theo again, too.

A movie version is already in the works for this June 2013 book, but it’s set in Birmingham instead of LA.  The Secret Ingredient‘s  SoCal setting is plot-essential, as Ollie gets a summer job with a Hollywood casting agency, counts the palm trees as she passes each one on her bus ride, and harbors a lingering fear of the ocean’s depths. I’ve always said that the book is better than the movie –  just try to imagine two gay men adopting children 17 years ago in Alabama…

In the book, Ollie shares several recipes with her own secret ingredient added – any recipes with your special touch?
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Book info: The Secret Ingredient / Stewart Lewis. Delacorte Press, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: This summer should be relaxed for Olivia, but the unexpected jumps in. With a psychic’s warning and a vintage cookbook in hand, Ollie decides to help her dads save their restaurant and finally search for her birth mother.

Bell and Enrique have put everything they have into FOOD, and mortgage payments are coming due too soon. Ollie cooks the special on Saturday nights, always adding a secret ingredient for her own signature touch. Her big brother is totally obsessed with his guitar playing, but his huge talent isn’t exactly paying his bills yet.

They’ve had never been particularly bothered about being adopted by their gay dads (LA is pretty laid-back that way), but Ollie begins to wonder about her own mother when she hears that her best friend Lola’s mother has cancer.

Riding up the elevator to her summer job at a casting agency, a psychic suddenly tells the sixteen year old that her choices will be pivotal and connected, including a young man, guidance from the past, and food, too.

Maybe Theo from last summer will come back?
Perhaps her birth mother is the past part?
And food is always with Ollie – but will FOOD survive, too?

As she supports Jeremy breaking into the music business, creates a backstory for the handwritten notes found in an old cookbook, and stands by Lola during her mother’s treatments, Ollie has to figure out whether the secret ingredient for her own life might be finding her birth mother…or not.

Enjoy the recipes this brilliant young chef shares as she finds her own way in the world during an intense high school summer. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman (book review) – from China to America, from despised daughter to freedom?

May8

book cover of Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman. Published by Scholastic | recommended on BooksYALove.comNot really believing in curses,
Curious as a good daughter never would be,
Escape to Gold Mountain would be paradise!

Jade Moon knows that her inauspicious birth sign won’t matter when she gets to America, right? But the tongs‘ control of San Francisco’s Chinatown could make it impossible for her to escape their evil clutches.

Look for this spring 2013 release at your local library  or independent bookstore to discover whether Jade Moon can truly find happiness in a new land.

What other immigrant stories would you suggest for young adults on BooksYALove World Wednesday?
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Book info:  The Fire Horse Girl / Kay Honeyman. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013; Scholastic, paperback. [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My recommendation: Small village, small minds, convinced that Jade Moon’s Fire Horse birth sign will curse anyone foolish enough to marry her. She will have to travel far from this small Chinese village to escape this bad luck, perhaps all the way to America, like her uncle.

But Uncle died coming back from the “Gold Mountain” says Sterling Promise, his adoptive son, Now Jade Moon’s father must pretend to be his brother, using Uncle’s identity papers so they can both enter the USA to pursue the family’s business interests, and they decide to take Jade Moon along to remove her curse from the family lands.

Up the river to the noisy bustle of Hong Kong, across the wide ocean by crowded steamship, Jade Moon and Father are coached by Sterling Promise in their ‘improved’ family history so that their answers will match when interrogated by the immigration officials. Only relatives with real business are allowed into the USA from China, though many others try to enter.

The shores of America look beautiful, but the Angel Island center is ugly. After weeks of waiting, Father fails the questioning intentionally, so Jade Moon is sure they all will be returned to China. However, clever Sterling Promise has bribed someone and will leave Angel Island on the next boat. Jade Moon’s desperation to escape the weight of village condemnation outweighs her fears as she cuts off her hair, locates Sterling Promise’s identity papers, dons his American suit and boards the boat to San Francisco.

Lost in the city, she’s almost caught up in a street fight, but is rescued by Harry Hon, whose father controls one of Chinatown’s ‘protection associations’ and is recruiting muscle and fists for the tong. She winds up staying at Mr. Hon’s home, being called Fire Horse, learning how to fight, helping Harry as numbers runner. Trying to ignore the dark sides of the Hon business becomes impossible when she discovers that a friend from Angel Island will be sold into prostitution and finds a way to help her keep her out of their reach.

Will the tong uncover her involvement in the escape?
How can she keep her identity secret when Sterling Promise appears?
Can this Fire Horse overcome old beliefs to find freedom in a new land?

Set in the waning days of the tongs’ power in Chinatown, this story of Jade Moon’s quest for a new life follows the twists and turns caused by her outspoken comments and daring choices. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

I for In the Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters (book review) – dead man’s worries, live girl’s fears

Apr10

book cover of In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters published by AmuletSpirit photography,
Searching for answers,
Trying to find meaning for all those deaths…

Between the ongoing “Great War” (World War I) and the sudden Spanish Influenza epidemic, fall 1918 was a dangerous and desperate time in the USA. Researchers were trying to ascertain the weight of the human soul, wondering yet again what animates life.

Read the wartime poetry of Isaac Rosenberg to imagine what life in the trenches was like for Stephen, consider that scientists are still puzzled about how the Spanish Flu killed so many healthy 20- to 40-year-olds, and you too might wish to see the image of a dead loved one when the photographer’s glass plate negative was developed.

Just published on April 2, 2013 – don’t miss it!
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Book info: In the Shadow of Blackbirds / Cat Winters. Amulet Books, 2013.  [author site]  [book site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: When Mary was sent to her aunt’s house in San Diego, her father thought she would be safe from the influenza epidemic, from the authorities who imprisoned him when he spoke out against the war, from fear. He couldn’t know that her sweetheart’s ghost would visit her and cry out for justice.

Schools, theaters, dance halls – all closed to keep the contagion from spreading, but in autumn 1918 the death toll is mounting here and over in Europe where countless soldiers are dying. Aunt Eva lost her husband in the earliest days of the epidemic and is trying to contact him through spirit photography and séances.

Stephen told Mary that his brother Julius used trickery to create the spirit photographs, but after her sweetheart left for the war, she visited the studio with her aunt anyway. An expert who debunks spirit photographers has found nothing fraudulent in Julius’ work where ghostly images appear next to the living.

The letters from Stephen stop arriving, a telegram comes for his family, a funeral for yet another fallen young soldier – then he starts visiting Mary in her dreams and her waking moments, begging her to make the blackbirds quit attacking him. She volunteers her time at the veterans’ center, reading to injured soldiers back from the war. One man tells her that Stephen wasn’t killed over there, and 16-year-old Mary begins to wonder what really happened.

Is she truly talking to Stephen’s spirit?
How could blackbirds have caused his death?
Why does he tell Mary to stay away from his family’s house and studio?

The author ably captures the terror of the Spanish flu epidemic which often killed within hours and the longing of people wanting to believe that death is not the end of everything in this historical novel with a psychic twist. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.