All Ross wants is to be a normal seventh grade kid, but when he's diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer, he becomes thrust in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. With the help of his new friends at the hospital and his lifelong friend at school, he tries his best to distract himself against one wave of bad news after another. Ross develops a love of music and continues his love of drawing and comic books but will it be enough to stop him from snapping under the stress? Wink is a really lovely story with real humour and a strong heart. It's sad, realistic and at the same time doesn't sugar coat how terrible life can be sometimes. I loved how Harrell developed Ross' relationships with the people who work at the hospital and especially the school bully. All of the characters have real depth to them, it's a book that will be a sure hit with our students, recommended highly for ages 10+.
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When Christine first meets Moon, she's intimidated. Christine has heard stories that Moon will beat you up for no reason. Then Moon moves in next door to Christine and she quickly becomes best friends with her. Moon is daring, mischievous and art simply pours out from her. These are all the things Christine isn't. Christine's parents are relatively conservative and aren't too sure they like the influence Moon is having on her. Moon often tells Christine about the star creatures that talk to her and that she is from another planet and will be joining them soon. Christine brushes this off as Moon is always creating, always thinking of things that "regular" people don't think about. Then, something disastrous happens and Christine has to summon all of the courage that Moon has instilled in her to carry on and be a great friend. This is a lovely graphic novel about friendship, heartache, anxiety and pain. This is exactly the kind of graphic novel I'm looking for to fill the shelves at Glenthorne High School as I know it will be extremely popular.
Kasia is a house-bound teen. Suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), she can't go down the stairs without feeling completely wiped out let alone go to school, meet friends and lead an average teenage life. She spends her days in her room, listening to podcasts and audio books, doing homework and watching the world from her window. Across the street and number 48, she swears she sees a figure in the window of a young girl. This seems strange to Kasia because she never sees her leave the house. Then one evening a car pulls up on her street, a man exits the vehicle and drags a screaming girl into it before stepping on the pedal and driving off. Kasia is shocked and phones the police. Across the street, she sees the shadow of the girl in the window, watching everything unfold. The police have nothing to go on. No one else has reported a missing person and there's no other witnesses. Kasia knows there is another witness but the police tell her that a young girl doesn't live across the street. Is Kasia losing her mind? Has she been cooped up in her room for too long? Kasia makes a new friend when a boy named Nav and his mum move in on the street to make amends with Nav's grandmother. Nav is sympathetic to Kasia and her medical condition, when many teens her age are not. Together, Nav and Kasia try to piece together the mystery of the shadowy girl in the window next door and the abduction that Kasia swore she saw. I won't spoil the novel any further, you'll have to read it! Peny Joelson's writing is fast paced and concise which is what I love in a YA novel. It's also informative without delving into the info-dump that many authors fall victim to. I learned a lot about ME reading this book and I never once felt like i was being dictated to. I've only met one person in my life with ME and only briefly so I was interested in learning more. The frustration that Kasia feels when people in her school don't really believe her that she suffers from a real medical condition and is just trying to get out of school is tough and I can't imagine how that feels. Girl in the Window covers some tough issues but I wouldn't hesitate to give this to a twelve year old student at Glenthorne. I really loved it, fans of mystery thrillers and even books like Everything, Everything will be wanting to read more from Penny! Wing has always lived under the radar. Her brother Marcus is always the one in the limelight. He's charming, funny and a high school football star with a promising professional sports career looming on the horizon. Wing seems resigned to the fact that she's always going to be on the side lines, never quite fitting in and secretly harbouring a crush on Marcus' best friend Aaron. Then a tragedy strikes the family (I won't spoil it here) and Wing is forced to find something inside of herself that can take her mind off the psychological torment her family is going through. She finds her strength in running. To everyone's surprise, even her own, she's really, really fast. Wing focuses on running to ease her pain, but it's not enough. On top of the tragedy, her mother can no longer pay the bills, meaning the bank is threatening to take the home away. Desperate, Wing decides to use her new found running skills to good use: a nationwide competition looking for a spokesperson for a brand of awesome running shoes. As the clock ticks towards the competition, Wing is unsure if she can handle the pressure surrounding her and her family. Wing Jones is an emotional glimpse into family tragedy and the guilt that can accompany it. I really enjoyed watching Wing's confidence grow through her running and how it helped her cope with the tragedy and her overall social skills. I think people need to find something, at least one thing in life that they can latch onto to help them through tough times or just times of insecurity. Wing Jones is about finding that thing and going all in, never giving in and not letting the bastards get you down as they say. I highly recommend this book for ages 13 and up! Crow has a lot of questions. At twelve years old, the only home she has know is Cuttyhunk, a tiny island in Massachusetts. The only family she knows is Osh, the man who rescued her when he found her washed up on shore in a skiff when she was only a baby and Miss Maggie, their neighbour who is both stern and compassionate at the same time. Crow has a good life, but she wants to know where she's from and who her real parents are. One night, she spies a fire on Penikese a neighbouring island where no one ventures. Penikese has a dark past, one that Crow only half knows. Osh and Miss Maggie give her bits of information about the people that used to live there, how they suffered. Crow convinces Miss Maggie and Osh to take her to Penikese to investigate. What they find sets forth a series of events that will not only change Crow's life forever, it will also put them in grave danger. This is a beautifully written novel. My family is from an island off of Nova Scotia called Cape Sable Island and I connected immediately with the descriptions of island life. Being covered in salty, sharp air, hunting for sea life in rock pools, gathering mussels when it's low tide and being a part of the lobster fishing community is in my blood. So I'm probably biased but I could read this book over and over again and not get tired of hearing about that life. Wolk has written a novel that speaks to anyone who has ever felt curiosity take over, who knows that friendship and family, when done right, can blend into one. It's a powerful book that deserves all of the praise it's currently receiving. I recommend it for ages 11 and up! Every teen should read this book. A superb anthology of stories and poems by diverse authors that touches upon issues like terrorism, OCD, depression, loss, cultural appropriation and simply trying to survive being a teen in the modern world. "Marionette Girl" dives deep into the suffocating bubble that teens with severe OCD experience on a daily basis. It looks at how people without OCD can often brush it aside as "acting up" or "taking things too far" when in reality it's an all encompassing nightmare. "We, Who?" is a brilliant peek at having someone you consider a good friend suddenly post racist garbage on their Facebook page. It's startling, blunt and very real. How do you cope when you realise you don't really know someone at all? "Hackney Moon" examines teens finding out who they really are, the pressures to conform and how it feels to experience real love for the first time. There are many more stories, each like a jolt of electricity to the spine. We need more books like this, more of these stories for teens to connect with. I'm going to champion this book for a long time in the library. Ever wonder what your toys get up to when you go to sleep? Take that premise and blur the lines between reality and hazy dream world and you'll get the Land of Neverendings. When Emily's sister Holly dies, Emily is struck by the little things that she misses, particularly Holly's toy bear, Bluey. Emily would spend countless hours making up stories about Bluey and his adventures in the magical world of Smockeroom to make Holly happy. Now, it's all gone, as is the magic that Holly seemed to bring with her. Emily's only companion is her neighbour Ruth, who lost her son when he was a teenager. Together they share the grief that only those who have lost a close family member can understand. Then, one night, Emily experiences a vivid dream in which toys visit her in the night and tell her that not only is Smockeroom real, that Bluey is there and happy. Initially, Emily shakes it off as a simple but weird dream. But when Ruth confesses to her that she's been having the same kind of dreams, things start to get really weird. Emily & Ruth are soon thrust into a world of magic and make-believe, adventure and danger. The Land of Neverendings reads like something you catch out of the corner of your eye when you're young and sick in bed with a high fever. I mean that as a compliment, it's dreamy, odd and sad yet Emily is a feisty character that any young teen will look up to. Highly recommend this great novel! Libby Strout needs to start over. Being labelled "America's Fattest Teen" and having the world watch on television as a back-hoe rips a hole in the side of your house so you can simply leave the house would make anyone feel like a fresh beginning. Thrown in the heart-crushing reality that her mum is dead and you've got an epic level potential for depression. Still, Libby feels she's ready to go back to high school, make new friends and try new things. Jack Masselin appears to have it all, good looks, the most popular friends and a great girlfriend. All of that's just surface trash, though. Underneath, Jack's dealing with the fact that his dad is cheating on his mum while trying to survive cancer, his brother's being picked on at school and oh yeah, he has Prosopagnosia - the inabilty to read faces. It's not like he looks at someone and it's just a blank face, it's that he can't remember facial details. He could turn his head for a second and forget who everyone is in the room if he doesn't have the right identifiers. Yes, this is a real thing and it sounds awful. Even worse, Jack hasn't told anyone about it, he's just tried to survive without telling anyone. Both Jack and Libby feel really alone and out of place in the world, then they meet and realise that they don't have to be. I enjoy Jennifer Niven's writing, it's fluid and pained but still makes you want to connect with the characters. I think part of this book is about figuring out that everyone is dealing with something, nobody's life is perfect and that to really get to know someone is something special to cherish. It's also about the dangers of fat-shaming and putting labels on people, bullying and all of the nasty stuff that comes with that. If you enjoyed her pervious work, All the Bright Places, you'll certainly enjoy Holding Up the Universe! I recommend this book to ages 15 +. After the death of his mother, Albie feels even more alone. His father is an international scientists / tv personality, kind of like Bill Nye or that British guy I can't remember the name of. Anyway, his dad has little time for Albie. Using his father's own logic, Albie decides that there must be a parallel universe out there where his mother is still alive. Using a banana, a cardboard box, his mother's laptop and the crazy neighbour's psychotic cat, Albie builds a machine to travel between universes. Each world is slightly different than the one he knows. Well, there is that one world where dinosaurs don't exist. No, he doesn't land in a creationist museum, it's a completely different universe. When I was a kid I loved Calvin and Hobbes, and this book has a very Calvin & Hobbes feel - when Calvin would build cloning devices and time machines, all out of cardboard boxes. I really liked Albie's determination and DYI attitude, there is a punk rock element to his actions. There was also a movie with a young Ethan Hawke called The Explorers where a group of friends build a space rocket in their backyard. That movie was dripping with a sort of melancholy, just as Albie Bright does as well, for obvious reasons. The Many Worlds of Albie Bright is also full of scientific facts, it's teaching you guerrilla style while you fly through the pages hoping this kid will find his mother. I really recommend it, you'll be better off after reading it. I recommend this book for Years 7 and up! Catrina and her family are moving from the hot, desert-like conditions of Southern California to a location further north. Catrina's sister, Maya, is ill and the northern climate is thought to be better for her. Catrina doesn't want to go, she misses her friends, she misses her old place. She tries her best not to complain, but she's a teen and that's what teens do. One their first night, Catrina and Maya decide to explore the town a little. They find a seemingly abandoned arcade. It's dark, creepy, and a awesome at the same time. It's here that they discover one of their neighbours, and he drops a bombshell on them. The town they just moved to is haunted. Younger Maya is thrilled to learn this. Catrina? Not so much. Is this a hoax, or is there something true in the chilling words of their neighbour? Filled with humour and heart, Ghosts is a story about facing your fears and coming to terms with change. I think anyone aged 9-90 would love this story. I read it quickly, and then went back to admire the beautiful illustrations. Raina's stories are always a huge hit in the high school library that I work at. I try hard to put her books in the hands of students that I feel are reluctant readers or give me the dreaded "I hate reading" song and dance. It's also a great book to promote for Halloween, so if you're in the position of recommending books to students, don't forget this! |
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