High school can be frightful for some folks, and when you add in some ghosts who never graduate… just plain spooky! Tread the haunted halls in these BooksYALove faves (and watch your back)… This way to scary school stories
Tag Archive | belonging
Puppy Love, by Destiny and Hapka (book review) – new dog, new friends, new love?
Her rambunctious puppy +
a handsome dog trainer (with an accent!)
= a perfect match for her! (right?)
Lauren is sure she can get Adam’s mind off dogs, but can’t see how much Jamal in their puppy kindergarten class would like to spend time with her…
Another winsome book in the Flirt series where A. Destiny shares co-writing credits with several different authors; check out Portrait of Us too (my no-spoiler review here).
**kmm
Book info: Puppy Love (Flirt series) / A. Destiny and Catherine Hapka. Simon Pulse, 2014. [Flirt series site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: As 15 year old Lauren swoons over a cute dog trainer and wonders how can she get the senior to look at her and not just her goofy pup, she may be missing a fellow dog owner’s longing glances.
Finally getting a dog after her so-allergic sister goes away to college is a dream come true for Lauren, but if she can’t break Muckle’s bad habits… well, her best friend Robert is unhappy about the chewing and so is Mom.
Puppy kindergarten is the answer, and Adam who teaches their class for teens is so handsome. Meeting hunky Jamal is nice, but their Irish-accented leader is the one for her, she just knows!
Adam’s enthusiasm with dog agility training, plus mishaps in class and at the dog park are making it difficult for Lauren to show him how perfect they are together. And now Robert is plotting something with Jamal… is she just chasing in circles like Muckle? (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Me On the Floor, Bleeding, by Jenny Jagerfeld (book review) – thumbtip gone, mom gone, Maja is… where?
Maja really wouldn’t harm herself.
Mum really wouldn’t forget their weekend plans.
Dad really wouldn’t assume the worst (yes, he would).
A classic outsider at her high school, Maja is willing to wander a bit further in search of the truth than the adults in her life are comfortable with.
Not the first book-in-translation that I’ve featured on BooksYALove, but its publisher is my first small press from Sweden. Hope to see more YA from Stockholm Text in the future!
**kmm
Book info: Me On the Floor, Bleeding / Jenny Jagerfeld; translated by Susan Beard. Stockholm Text, 2014. [author site in Swedish] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: When Maja is injured at school, everyone worries that she did it on purpose… except her mom, who’s gone missing. The Swedish teen’s search turns up more answers than she was looking for.
If she hadn’t been trying to make a bookshelf instead of sculpture for art class, the 17 year old wouldn’t have mangled the tip of her thumb in the electric saw after hours.
If Mum had answered her text, Maja wouldn’t have taken the train to an empty house for her visiting weekend and found Mum’s mobile phone left behind.
If Justin next door hadn’t helped Maja clean up after yet another accident, they wouldn’t have gone to the coffeehouse together, or the bar, or his room.
And Maja keeps flashing back to the whirling saw blade and the blood and Mum’s increasingly odd communications. Where are the answers?
Play Me Backwards, by Adam Selzer (book review) – his soul to Satan for chance at her heart
To turn his life around, Leon needs some help.
His best friend Stan has just the solution… for a price.
Socially inappropriate behavior is the norm, whether hanging out in Satan/Stan’s black basement (has anyone seen his parents recently?) or the breakroom of the low expectations ice cream place where the best friends “work” (well, they get paid for being there) – but this slacker decides that another chance at having ultra-cool Anna in his life is worth some real effort.
Even if you missed Leon’s earlier misadventures in How To Get Suspended and Influence People, it’s time to search for the perfect Slushee flavor, visit your local library or favorite independent bookstore to get Play Me Backwards, and decide for yourself if Stan deserves an extra A in his name!
And yes, there is an EP of songs from/inspired by the crazy-funny novel here, each track complete with backward message.
**kmm
Book info: Play Me Backwards / Adam Selzer. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Leon’s had no reason to stop his slide from junior high genius down to senior slacker until Anna’s imminent return to Des Moines shocks him into agreeing to Stan’s personality makeover plan – for the price of his soul.
For years Stan has said he’s really Satan, and maybe his unfailing hangover remedies prove it. But can his master plan make Leon cool again before Anna arrives from England – listening to Moby Dick on unabridged audiobook, finding the Great White Grape Slushee, joining the yearbook staff, and going out with a popular girl – whaaat? Hanging out with Stan and the other goths/slackers in the back room at work is more Leon’s style, but he doesn’t want Anna to think he’s a loser, so here goes.
Somehow cheerleader-cute Paige winds up on the Slushee hunt when Leon rescues her after she’s dumped on Valentine’s Day, and and their drives together turn into something more.
Now, to sneak a satanic poem into the yearbook and finish that zillion-CD whale tale…
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)
Dirt Bike, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly, by Conrad Wesselhoeft (book review) – grief, honor & gaming
Playing chicken with big trucks on the highway,
joysticking into the Drone Zone,
adrenaline removes Arlo’s grief…for a while.
Trying to cope with Mom’s murder, Siouxsie’s progressive neurological disease, Dad’s retreat into the bottle – Arlo keeps his dirt bike running, scrounges change to play Drone Fighter at his tiny town’s online cafe, but then what? One early morning phone call changes things (but not everything).
Traveling recently through bone-dry northern New Mexico where the author strands this small town, I can see why anyone there would want to find a way to get away, even if it means trading the make-believe of gaming for real drone piloting and its violent consequences.
Read this April 2014 book now – right now!
**kmm
Book info: Dirt Bikes, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly / Conrad Wesselhoeft. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2014. [author blog] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Arlo’s gaming skills could pay his sister’s huge medical bills, his dirt bike prowess could salvage his reputation in their small New Mexico town, but it’ll take something more to rescue his family from their endless grieving for Mom.
When the US Air Force wants Arlo to fly real reconnaissance drones over Pakistan from their base at White Sands, based solely on his Drone Fighter video game world ranking, the 17-year-old’s journalist dad is skeptical – until the Colonel erases their debts for Siouxsie’s treatments.
When gorgeous Lee slides into dusty Orphan County to stay with her aunt until her dad returns from his Afghanistan deployment, Arlo thinks she’ll scorn scruffy dirt bikes after leaving her smooth Harley in Seattle – until she helps his Evel Kneivel-style jump go higher and farther.
Zooming down I-25 from the New Mexico-Colorado borderlands whenever the Colonel phones, Arlo has too much time to think on his way to White Sands. Even if he can discover the most-wanted terrorist’s whereabouts with his drone, how can he recover what his family lost when Mom was murdered?
Mountain vistas, Mom’s ashes spread atop the mesa, small-town football as seen from the snack bar, and a moto-stunt for the ages fill this don’t-miss novel about love, grief, and honor.
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
When Mr. Dog Bites, by Brian Conaghan (book review) – Tourette’s & a bucket list of wow
Tics. Swearing.
Bucket list at 16?
Dylan would rather be a normal teenager than have Tourette’s, would rather have Dad home than away with the Army, and would rather live past March than get intimate with Michelle – scratch that last item: he wants to live and be Michelle’s boyfriend.
Filled with involuntary creative swearing from Dylan and racial slurs by his special school classmates, When Mr. Dog Bites has raised eyebrows for its strong language, but is also raising awareness of living with Tourette Syndrome like its author does.
This funny and profane book was published in the US in June – will Dylan fulfill his bucket list before it’s too late?
**kmm
Book info: When Mr. Dog Bites / Brian Conaghan. Bloomsbury, 2014. [author’s Twitter] [publisher site] [video interview] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: When he misunderstands a doctor’s comment, 16-year-old Dylan lists things to do quickly before he dies – and he’s not letting his Tourette’s or the crazies at his special school or that taxi driver stop him!
Inside Dylan is “Mr. Dog” the uncontrollable side of his Tourette Syndrome which causes the Scots teen to bark and swear. Special school, meds, and counseling help a bit, but Dad being away on special Army duty and Mum getting all weepy with the taxi driver don’t.
His best friend Amir doesn’t believe that the doctor said Dylan would die soon, but soon enough is on board with his plan to hook up with Michelle before it’s too late. Get Dad back home, find Amir a new BFF – lots to do before March, if Dylan can keep Mr. Dog quiet…
The tics, swearing, and blackouts permeating every moment of Dylan’s life despite his deep desire to behave normally reflect the author’s own struggle with Tourette’s in this forthright novel.
Forget Me, by K.A. Harrington (book review) – not his twin! who is he?
Facial recognition software,
social media, hidden identities,
why did it tag her late boyfriend as another guy?
Maybe Morgan didn’t know Flynn as well as she thought…
Just released on Thursday (that’s really odd; most books are Tuesday releases) August 7, 2014, Forget Me is a slight departure from Kim’s paranormal books like her Clarity series (my no-spoiler recommendation of book 1 here) with an eerieness all its own. See for yourself with this free excerpt of the first two chapters.
Could you forget someone that you truly loved?
**kmm
Book info: Forget Me / K.A. Harrington. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: When a social media site tags her late boyfriend’s photo as the face of a teen in a nearby town, Morgan is stunned. When Evan says he got an anonymous warning to stay away from her, they’re puzzled. When accidents start targeting them both, they race to solve the unfolding mystery before they’re the next victims!
Morgan’s Massachusetts home town is withering away after a deadly scandal shut down major employer Stell Pharmaceuticals. Her best friend is suffering from her parents’ unemployment, their favorite amusement park is abandoned, and time with her loner boyfriend Flynn is her only comfort – until he’s killed in a hit-and-run.
Weeks later, she uploads her only photo of Flynn onto FriendShare, which tries to tag it with another guy’s name! Finding out about Evan is simple, discovering that he’s received a photo of her with a warning to avoid her at all costs is weird, learning that his family is part of Stell is disconcerting.
Sneaking into the amusement park to retrace Flynn’s last steps, they uncover more secrets and more threats. A page-turning mystery in the fog. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)