Moving past grief means leaving Luke behind.
Tressa just can’t do that,
but she can’t find peace among the living either. read my recommendation
Tag Archive | competition
In the multiverse, A Thousand Pieces of You seeking me; by Claudia Gray (book review)
Each choice you make creates a fork in time,
a new path in the multiverse through history –
Which dimension holds Meg’s happiness? Read more about this new book
Curses and Smoke, by Vicky Alvear Shecter (book review) – love, class conflicts, Pompeii
Old gods and older gods,
gladiators and slaves,
Pompeii is prosperous and proud…
Enjoy Curses and Smoke for its glimpses into the port city’s everyday life, its recounting of the weird phenomena observed prior to Vesuvius’ most famous eruption, its love story between owner and owned.
Forget not the past…
**kmm
Book info: Curses and Smoke: a Novel of Pompeii. Vicky Alvear Shecter. Arthur A Levine Books, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: As handsome Tag returns to her father’s gladiator school at Pompeii, Lucia’s unease about her upcoming marriage to an old man and the recent loss of her mother are echoed by the earth’s tremors.
It was different when Lucia was a little girl roaming the hillsides and Tages was the medical slave’s small son at her side, before he was sent away to learn the healing arts in Rome, before her mother’s untimely death, before these sulfurous emanations near Vesuvius began.
As Lucia tries to break her betrothal to elderly Vitulius and Tag tries to cure his father’s failing memory, rich young Quintus arrives at the school to play at being a gladiator – with a hidden agenda.
Is there any way for Lucia to escape her dreaded marriage?
Can Tag ever end his captivity in the gladiator school?
Are the old Estruscan gods angry that Romans took their sacred grounds at Pompeii?
Why will no one listen to Lucia’s ideas about the strange things happening?
A richly detailed story of love, loss, and the human spirit fighting against the inevitable. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Buzz Kill, by Beth Fantaskey (book review) – dead coach, teen sleuth, too many suspects!
One geeky teen girl reporter with few friends.
One new quarterback with no personal history.
One rival cheerleader/reporter with a grudge.
One dead coach with a long list of enemies.
There are more motives for murder, offbeat theories, and potential killers in this story than you can shake a honey-stick at, as loner Millie tries to prove that her dad couldn’t have killed the coach and finds an unexpected ally in new-to-Honeyville Chase who fends off cheerleader Vivienne’s advances as smoothly as he quarterbacks the team to victory.
And how I wish that the video of Viv’s humiliating encounter with the Stingers’ mascot was really on YouTube! Grab this at your local library or favorite independent bookstore for a fun football Friday read anytime.
**kmm
Book info: Buzz Kill / Beth Fantaskey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: When the Stingers’ belligerent head coach is murdered at his own football field, Millie puts her reporting skills (and deep knowledge of Nancy Drew mysteries) to work to find the killer.
Millie’s rival on the school newspaper staff is trying to pin the crime on her dad (who’s been named as acting coach), the cute new quarterback (who has no background online at all) decides to help her investigate, and her librarian (who’s guided her through those difficult years after Mom’s death) reveals a decision which shocks her dreadfully.
With 100% overlap between the suspect list and the roster of Coach Killdare’s enemies, socially inept Millie and suavely charming Chase discover motives aplenty, find clues that don’t add up, and unearth some dangerous secrets in this funny maybe-romantic mystery, along with an inept detective, old movies, homemade pie, a smelly dog, and international paperweights. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
One Death, Nine Stories (book review) – his last act triggered many firsts
“Kevin’s dead?”
“I can’t believe it!”
As they did in Pick Up Game (my review here), the editors asked one YA author to write the first story on the collection’s theme of initiation. Then eight other writers took strands from “Down Below” as they introduced teens whose lives were impacted by Kevin’s life and death, each tale one of a pivotal line crossed, a change that can’t be undone.
Like a kaleidoscope’s image changes when it’s passed from one viewer to the next, these nine interlocked stories show many different images of the 19-year-old New Yorker, darkness with glints of hope, questions of racial identity, parental affection, and the bonds of friendship.
Just published today – come over to Kevin’s neighborhood, meet his sister, his running buddies, the funeral home cosmetologist, the dead ends and new beginnings.
**kmm
Book info: One Death, Nine Stories / edited by Marc Aronson & Charles R. Smith. Candlewick Press, 2014. [Marc Aronson’s website] [Charles R. Smith Jr.’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Initiations in teen life – joyous, bitter, tragic – weave together this short story collection of the many firsts experienced after Kevin’s death by teens who knew him and some who’d never even met the 19 year old.
The anthology begins as Rita Garcia-Williams takes us to a teen’s first day of work at his uncle’s funeral home as drifting-along Morris suddenly realizes that he went to high school with the guy in that body bag.
Mick first meets Kevin as an altar boy in “Initiation” by Ellen Hopkins, but won’t play along to “The Next Next Level” of dangerous deeds in Torrey Maldanado’s story.
Kevin’s track teammate “Running Man” must outrace a bullet, tells Charles R. Smith, while Jackson starts football “Two-a-Days” down in Chris Barton’s Texas wondering about this Kevin guy whose death caused so many messages online.
“Just Once” Candy would have liked Kevin to give his affection without the bleak insults, chronicles A.S. King, while Kevin’s little sister reclaims his personal effects and finds herself saying “I Have a Gun” in Will Weaver’s tale.
Nadira’s “Making Up the Dead” (by Nora Raleigh Baskin) and making something of herself, while the college “Connections” described by Marina Budhos aren’t enough to keep Kevin in this world.
A strong collection of short stories about a life cut short and the choices made by those left behind. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Looking back at crazy school days
Did you read every BooksYALove recommendation this summer? No?
Well, be sure to check out these two very different books about school that you might have missed (click on the title link to open its page in a new tab/window):
Target Practice, by Mike Maihack – Great combo in this graphic novel with talking cats, aliens, and the Queen of the Nile as a curious teen.
Kate Hattemer’s Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy pits those who think “For Art’s Sake” reality show is their path to success against the kids who think it’s ruining their school.
Remember that you still have time to enter the free giveaway for an autographed copy of The Green Teen Cookbook from Zest Books. Go to my original recommendation here and comment by 11:59 pm Central Daylight Time on Sunday, 31 August 2014 to be entered. I’ll toss all the comments into Randomizer when I get back from #IASL2014 in Moscow, and we’ll see who the lucky winner is!
p.s. Do either of these schools resemble yours?
**kmm
Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality, by Elizabeth Eulberg (book review) – pageant big sis breaks loose
Pageant fees week after week, check.
Hair falls for a seven year old, check.
Reality check for Mom… nope.
Oh, yes, Lexi realistically could be tagging along after her little sister to beauty pageants every weekend of the year – thank goodness for her supportive friends, especially when her mom’s obsession with Mackenzie’s pageant appearances gets out of hand.
Check out this video interview to find out where the title came from (she told this story at TLA2014, too), then find this 2013 release in hardback or paperback now at your own local library or favorite independent bookstore.
Where’s the line between looking good and living for your looks?
**kmm
Book info: Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality / Elizabeth Eulberg. Point, 2013. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Her little sister is a Texas beauty pageant princess, so if 16-year-old Lexi wants more from life, she’ll have to overcome the “great personality” label and make her own way (despite their mom).
Downsized into a doublewide trailer because child support won’t cover house rent and Mackenzie’s pageant costs, Lexi feels unappreciated as she saves up for the fashion internship in New York City.
Cam thinks Lexi’s crush on Logan (boyfriend of beauty queen Alyssa) is ridiculous, Benny challenges her to a makeover in teeny steps, and she dares him to let cute guy Chris know his feelings.
Will she really stop hiding behind baggy clothes and messy hair?
Will Lexi and Benny ever escape their judgmental small town?
Will these pageants never ever end?
An average gal in the land of the gorgeous, Lexi decides that she must craft the ultimate Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality if she ever wants to be herself. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Red Rising, by Pierce Brown (book review) – class warfare on Mars, to the death!
Demokracy is a lie.
Mourning is forbidden.
Love adds fuel to vengeance!
Game of Thrones meets Star Wars and Hunger Games on the Red Planet in this rock ’em, sock ’em story, as lowest-caste Darrow is completely remade so that he can win the ultimate competition among ruling class youth and free his family and friends from slavery in the mines of Mars.
Be sure to visit the publisher’s site and click More Inside to read the first chapters so you know how the injustices heaped upon the Reds for generations have forged Darrow into a weapon.
**kmm
Book info: Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1) / Pierce Brown. Del Ray Spectra, 2014. [author site] [series site] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: A quest for vengeance drives Darrow to escape slavery in Mars’ mines and beat the Gold overlords at their own game as they fight to the death for power.
Deep in its hellish mines, Reds have slaved for decades so the Martian surface can become habitable, little knowing that the Red Planet is already a world of luxury.
When his young wife is executed for singing the forbidden death dirge, 16 year old Darrow’s rage makes him a perfect target for the Sons of Ares, fellow Reds who’re willing to rebel against the ruling Golds – from the inside.
Darrow is remade – bones re-engineered to sustain maximum impact, brain retooled for intellectual superiority, reflexes honed to matchless fighting ferocity – and enters the Institute where young Golds compete to become supreme rulers in the Solar Systems where the “noble lie of demokracy” has been stamped out.
All the Reds will stay enslaved if he doesn’t survive this vicious months’ long war against teens of the various Institute houses battling for the choicest apprenticeships of power, truly battling to the death.
A master strategist, a true leader, a Red in Gold’s skin, Darrow intends to win at all costs and to change society from the top down to the helldivers’ mines in this first book of the Red Rising trilogy.
Anyone But You, by Kim Askew & Amy Helmes (book review) – hate, love, & Chicago pizza
Feuding Italian families,
star-crossed secret lovers,
a deep-dish pizza war?
Welcome Shakespeare’s most-famous couple into the 21st century as Roman Monte and Julietta Caputo fall in love during the third generation of their Chicago families’ bitter restaurant rivalry. This third book in the Twisted Lit series takes us back into the early 20th century, too, as we discover what turned best friends into bitterest enemies.
Be sure to check out the Dear Teen Me site where Amy and Kim wrote letters to their teen selves.
Can true love have a happier ending this time?
**kmm
Book info: Anyone But You (Twisted Lit #3) / Kim Askew & Amy Helmes. Merit Press, 2014. [Kim’s website] [Amy’s website] [series site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: A missed rendezvous at the World’s Fair leads to an Italian restaurant feud decades later, and the boy who makes Gigi swoon is on the wrong side of these marinara wars in this Chicago-based version of Romeo and Juliet.
Gigi’s 16th birthday party at her family’s restaurant is marked by her first kiss, a handsome rival for an investor’s icky son, and potential mayhem from a rival restaurant family – all in the person of Roman Monte, whom her Caputo cousins would gladly pummel into pesto.
Why the big fight between the Caputos and Montes? Warned by longtime waitress Carmen about digging up old secrets, Gigi and Roman stealthily go on dates and try to uncover what started the feud… something about two pals sneaking into the Chicago World’s Fair ages ago, mistaken identities, social class differences, and pizza?
In this third Twisted Lit book based on Shakespeare’s plays, chapters alternate between Gigi and Roman’s growing relationship in the present and the past when Nick and Benny began a pizzeria only to lose their friendship. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew (book review) – Asian superhero against crime!
In Chinatown’s dark alleys,
the ruthless tongs demand payment,
but the Green Turtle arises to protect the innocent!
Happy book birthday to The Shadow Hero, as the origins of the first Asian-American superhero are revealed!
I love this new joint effort of graphic novelists Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew – light-hearted, but underpinned with the historical accuracy which won Gene so many awards for his paired graphic novels of a pivotal time in Chinese history, Boxers and Saints (my review here) .
Get a quick look at its vintage look and action here:
The Green Turtle’s adventures continue in this short sequence published on the Tor website, too.
**kmm
Book info: The Shadow Hero / Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew. First Second Books, 2014. [Gene’s site] [Sonny’s site] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: As a child of Chinese immigrants, Hank expected to follow family tradition, but his mother demands that he become a superhero!
When The Anchor of Justice rescues his mother from a bank robber, she won’t be satisfied until Hank reinvents himself as a superhero, instead of being a grocer like his father.
Hank discovers that intense training and a new costume certainly don’t guarantee superhero success when his attempt to save a young lady from thugs merely earns him a beating and the crime boss’s daughter rescues herself.
Fighting against the tong’s extortion has a high price for Hank’s family, yet he vows to continue, aided by the ancient Tortoise spirit from his parents’ homeland.
As the Green Turtle, Hank battles his way into the tong’s headquarters with the Tortoise spirit’s guidance. Yet the challenges he finds there would tax any superhero’s skill and resolve.
“Sometimes a fight you cannot win is still worth fighting,” counsels the spirit of the Tortoise, and Hank is in this fight until the end.
Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew transform an old comic book into this great graphic novel about the first Asian-American superhero. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)