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Volunteer State Book Award2003-2004Grade 7-12 NomineesThese are chosen for their merit and are not always appropriate for your community or the age group you are targeting. It is your responsibility to read them first. |
 1. Brashares, Sisterhood
of the Traveling Pants. Delacorte Press; ISBN: 0385729332; (September
11, 2001)
They were just a soft, ordinary pair of thrift-shop jeans until the four girls took turns trying them on--four girls, that is, who are close friends, about to be parted for the summer, with very different sizes and builds, not to mention backgrounds and personalities. Yet the pants settle on each girl's hips perfectly, making her look sexy and long-legged and feel confident as a teenager can feel. "These are magical Pants!" they realize, and so they make a pact to share them equally, to mail them back and forth over the summer from wherever they are. Beautiful, distant Lena is going to Greece to be with her grandparents; strong, athletic Bridget is off to soccer camp in Baja, California; hot-tempered Carmen plans to have her divorced father all to herself in South Carolina; and Tibby the rebel will be left at home to slave for minimum wage at Wallman's. Over the summer the Pants come to represent the support of the sisterhood, but they also lead each girl into bruising and ultimately healing confrontations with love and courage, dying and forgiveness. Lena finds her identity in Greece and the courage not to reject love; Bridget gets in over her head with an older camp coach; Carmen finds her father ensconced with a new fiancée and family; and Tibby unwillingly takes on a filmmaking apprentice who is dying of leukemia. Each girl's story is distinct and engrossing, told in a brightly contemporary style. Like the Pants, the reader bounces back and forth among the four unfolding adventures, and the melange is spiced with letters and witty quotes. Ann Brashares has here created four captivating characters and seamlessly interwoven their stories for a young adult novel that is fresh and absorbing. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for all, kbp)  2. Cappo. CheatingLessons.Atheneum;
ISBN: 068984378X; (February 2002)Bernadette Terrell has always known the
right thing to do. Not the most popular girl in school, her focus has always
been on academic, not social, success. When her favorite teacher names
her to Wickham High School's state championship quiz bowl team, she believes
that she has reached the pinnacle of her high school academic career. However,
her elation quickly fades as she begins to suspect that perhaps someone
cheated to get Wickham into the contest and is cheating still.
In her search for answers, Bernadette must contend with a situation that isn't black and white, where a community's hope, hard work, and pride are on the line. Is a team -- and a school -- implicated by one person's behavior? Cappo's blend of suspense and humor makes Cheating Lessons a riveting
story about right and wrong -- and the downside of trust.
 3. Bauer. Hope was here.
Putnam Pub Group Juv; ISBN: 0399231420; (October 2000)
Here's a book that's as warm and melty as a grilled Swiss on seven-grain bread, and just as wholesome and substantial. Ever since the boss promoted her from bus girl two and a half years ago when she was 14, Hope has been a waitress--and a darn good one, too. She takes pride in making people happy with good food, as does her aunt Addie, a diner cook extraordinaire. The two of them have been a pair ever since Hope's waitress mother abandoned her as a baby, and now they have come to rural Wisconsin to run the Welcome Stairways café for G.T. Stoop, who is dying of leukemia. But he's not dead yet, as the kindly and greathearted restaurant owner demonstrates when he decides to run for mayor against the wicked and corrupt Eli Millstone. As old-fashioned goodness lines up against the bad guys, the campaign leads Hope in exciting new directions: a boyfriend who is a great grill man, a new sense of herself and her mission as a waitress, and--when Addie and G.T. finally realize that they are meant for each other--the father she has always wanted. And all of it backed up with stuffed pork tenderloin, butterscotch cream pie, and the rhythm of the short-order dance. Joan Bauer, who won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Rules of the Road, has served up a delicious novel in Hope Was Here, full of delectable characters, tasty wit, and deep-dish truth. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for all, kbp)  4. Chbosky. Perks
of being a Wallflower. Pocket Books/MTV Books; ISBN: 0671027344; (February
1999)
What is most notable about this funny, touching, memorable first novel from Stephen Chbosky is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings: I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why. With the help of a teacher who recognizes his wisdom and intuition, and his two friends, seniors Samantha and Patrick, Charlie mostly manages to avoid the depression he feels creeping up like kudzu. When it all becomes too much, after a shocking realization about his beloved late Aunt Helen, Charlie retreats from reality for awhile. But he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all that it may bring. Charlie, sincerely searching for that feeling of "being infinite," is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X. (Suitable for 10-12, kbp)  5. Coleman. Born in Sin.Atheneum;
ISBN: 0689838336; (March 2001)
Author Evelyn Coleman, best known for writing children's books and adult thrillers, takes on teen fiction with Born in Sin. Living in a housing project with drug dealers as neighbors, 14-year-old Keisha is determined not to let her future be dictated by her meager circumstances. A straight-A student, she confidently applies for an advanced placement summer program. But her dream is derailed when school administrators decide that instead of following the college track, Keisha should attend a summer program for at-risk teens. Infuriated, Keisha refuses to go along at first, (in a memorable opening scene, she snatches the wig off the head of the offending principal) but then, through that program, she discovers a natural aptitude for swimming. Encouraged by a kindly coach, she begins to train for the Olympics. But family problems and a nearly fatal quarrel with a local drug lord coincide to undermine her confidence again. Will Keisha ever be able to overcome the "sin of poverty" and become the winner she knows she is inside? This novel is a good suggestion for those older adolescent readers who have enjoyed E.R. Frank's Life is Funny and Virginia Euwer Wolff's True Believer. (Ages 13 and older) (Suitable for 10-12, kbp)
 6. Crutcher. Whale talk.
Greenwillow;
ISBN: 0688180191; (April 10, 2001)
T. J. Jones is black, Japanese, and white; his given name is The Tao (honest!), and he's the son of a woman who abandoned him when she got heavily into crack and crank. As a child he was full of rage, but now as a senior in high school he's pretty much overcome all that. With the help of a good therapist and his decent, loving, ex-hippie adoptive parents, he's not only fairly even-keeled, he has turned out to be smart and funny. Injustice, however, still fills him with fury. So when big-deal football star Mike Barbour bullies brain-damaged Chris Coughlin for wearing his dead brother's letter jacket, T.J. hatches a scheme for revenge. He assembles a swim team (in a school with no pool) made up of the most outrageous outsiders and misfits he can find and extracts a conditional promise of those sacred letter jackets from the coach. After weeks of dedicated practice at the All Night Fitness pool, the seven mermen get good enough not to embarrass themselves in competition. The really important thing, though, turns out to be the long bus rides to meets, a safe place to share the hurts that have made them who they are. Meanwhile, T.J.'s father, who has taken in a battered little girl to ease his lifelong guilt over his role in the accidental death of a baby, tangles with another bully--her stepfather--and his growing murderous rage. Chris Crutcher, therapist and author of seven prize-winning young adult
books, here gives his many fans another wise and compassionate story full
of the intensity of athletic competition and hair-raising incidents of
child abuse. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for all, kbp)
 7. Ehrlich. Joy Ride.
Candlewick Press; ISBN: 0763613460; (August 2001)
 8. Gearino. Blue hole
Simon
& Schuster; ISBN: 0684837277; (August 1999)
Set in small-town Georgia circa 1969, this exercise in leisurely front-porch storytelling from Gearino (What the Deaf-Mute Heard, 1995, etc.) casts its lot with character over action. Seventeen-year-old Charley Selkirk is at loose ends. Defending a black football player whos being tormented, Charley coldcocks the star quarterback of his high-school team. The result? Hes kicked out of school just before graduation, abandoned by his sexy girlfriend, ostracized by his community. A chance meeting with Tallasee Tynan, the young, widowed owner of a photography studio, nets him a part-time job, and he inadvertently becomes involved in the search for a teenaged boy who has disappeared from a nearby hippie commune. Gearinos strong suit is development of character. We learn, in detail so rich as sometimes to be excruciating, the histories of Charlie, Tallasee, and Lucas, a disturbed Vietnam vet they meet at the commune who becomes the chief suspect in the disappearance. Each has a dark secret in his or her past: Charlies young brother drowned while nine-year-old Charlie was supposedly supervising him; Tallasee was married to a rock singer who couldnt accept failure and drove his car into a canyon while drunk; and Lucas feels responsible for the death of a Vietnamese urchin he befriended while in the army. Charlies mother also has a dark secret that, though easy to guess, isn't revealed until the end. How each of these people deals or doesnt with the past is the focus here, with the mystery relegated to a distant second.  9. Giff. Nory
Ryan’s song.Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Juv; ISBN: 0385321414; (September
2000)
Life is hard for poor Irish potato farmers, but 12-year-old Nory Ryan and her family have always scraped by... until one morning, Nory wakes to the foul, rotting smell of diseased potatoes dying in the fields. And just like that, all their hopes for the harvest--for this year and next--are dashed. Hunger sets in quickly. The beaches are stripped of edible seaweed, the shore is emptied of fish, desperate souls even chew on grass for the nourishment. As her community falls apart, Nory scrambles to find food for her family. Meanwhile, the specter of America lurks, where, the word is, no one is ever hungry, and horses carry milk in huge cans down cobblestone streets. As Patricia Reilly Giff writes in her note to the reader, the Great Hunger of 1845 to 1852 was a tragic time for the Irish. Enough food to feed double the population was sent out across the sea, while an indifferent government ignored the starving masses. More than one million of the eight million people in Ireland died. Nory Ryan's Song, a fictionalized account based on this terrible era in history, describes the heroic struggles of one girl who refuses to give in to hunger, exhaustion, and hopeless circumstances. Young readers may have heard of the Irish Potato Famine, but they won't truly understand it until they meet Nory. Giff is the author of many beloved books for children, including the Newbery Honor Book Lily's Crossing and the Polk Street School series. (Ages 9 to 12) (Suitable for 6-8, kbp)  10. Howe. The misfits.
Atheneum; ISBN: 0689839553; (October 2001)
What do a 12-year-old student who moonlights as a tie salesman, a tall, outspoken girl, a gay middle schooler and a kid branded as a hooligan have in common? Best friends for years, they've all been the target of cruel name-calling and now that they're in seventh grade, they're not about to take it any more. In this hilarious and poignant novel, Howe (Bunnicula; The Watcher) focuses on the quietest of the bunch, overweight Bobby Goodspeed (the tie salesman), showing how he evolves from nerd to hero when he starts speaking his mind. Addie (the outspoken girl) decides that the four of them should run against more popular peers in the upcoming student council election. But her lofty ideals and rabble-rousing speeches make the wrong kind of waves, offending fellow classmates, teachers and the principal. It is not until softer-spoken Bobby says what's in his heart about nicknames and taunts that people begin to listen and take notice, granting their respect for the boy they used to call "Lardo" and "Fluff." The four "misfits" are slightly larger than life wiser than their years, worldlier than the smalltown setting would suggest, and remarkably well-adjusted but there remains much authenticity in the story's message about preadolescent stereotyping and the devastating effects of degrading labels. An upbeat, reassuring novel that encourages preteens and teens to celebrate their individuality. Ages 10-14. (Suitable for 6-8, kbp)  11. Hyde. Pay it forward.
Pocket Books; ISBN: 0743412028; (October 3, 2000)
Catherine Ryan Hyde's Pay It Forward takes as its premise the bumper-sticker phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally" and builds a novel around it. The hero of her story is young Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old whose imagination is sparked by an extra-credit assignment in Social Studies: "Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action." Trevor's idea is deceptively simple: do a good deed for three people, and in exchange, ask each of them to "pay it forward" to three more. "So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.... Then it sort of spreads out." Trevor's early attempts to get his project off the ground seem to end in failure: a junkie he befriends ends up back in jail; an elderly woman whose garden he tends dies unexpectedly. But even after the boy has given up on his plan, his acts of kindness bear unexpected fruit, and soon an entire movement is underway and spreading across America.  12. Klass. You Don’t
Know Me. Farrar Straus & Giroux (Juv); ISBN: 0374387060; (March
2001)
John, the 14-year-old narrator of Klass's (Screen Test; Danger Zone) well-conceived novel, deals with not only universal teenage problems (escaping his algebra teacher's questions, working up the nerve to ask out his dream girl, whom he calls "Glory Hallelujah," fighting with a friend), he also must deal with his mother's boyfriend, whom John calls "the man who is not my father." The tyrant verbally and physically abuses him when his mother is not around, and John experiences a "meltdown" when he learns that the man plans to marry his mother. While people do care about John--a rather stereotypically sensitive music teacher and a likable girl from his band class, whom John calls "Violent" Hayes "because she appears to be trying to strangle her saxophone before it kills her"--even they cannot convince John to reveal what's happening at home. John's narrative often addresses various characters directly (his mother's boyfriend, the music teacher, etc.) with wry internal thoughts; this approach plays up the alienation John feels and also conveys the teen's sardonic humor and intelligence. A few scenes are so outrageous and comical that they clash with the book's overall tone (e.g., when Glory Hallelujah's father hunts John and the girl down in the basement of her home). But most, such as when John first asks out Glory Hallelujah via note, instructing her to check either the "yes" or "no" box, are very grounded in the high school experience. The hero's underlying sense of isolation and thread of hope will strike a chord with nearly every adolescent. Ages 12-up.  13. Mikaelson. Touching
Spirit Bear. Harpercollins Juvenile Books; ISBN: 0380977443; (January
9, 2001)
Cole Matthews is angry. Angry, defiant, smug--in short, a bully. His anger has taken him too far this time, though. After beating up a ninth-grade classmate to the point of brain damage, Cole is facing a prison sentence. But then a Tlingit Indian parole officer named Garvey enters his life, offering an alternative called Circle Justice, based on Native American traditions, in which victim, offender, and community all work together to find a healing solution. Privately, Cole sneers at the concept, but he's no fool--if it gets him out of prison, he'll do anything. Ultimately, Cole ends up banished for one year to a remote Alaskan island, where his arrogance sets him directly in the path of a mysterious, legendary white bear. Mauled almost to death, Cole awaits his fate and begins the transition from anger to humility. Ben Mikaelsen's depiction of a juvenile delinquent's metamorphosis into a caring, thinking individual is exciting and fascinating, if at times heavy-handed. Cole's nastiness and the vivid depictions of the lengths he must go to survive after the (equally vivid) attack by the bear are excruciating at times, but the concept of finding a way to heal a whole community when one individual wrongs another is compelling. The jacket cover photo of the author in a bear hug with the 700-pound black bear that he and his wife adopted and raised is definitely worth seeing! (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for all, kbp)  14. Mosher. Zazoo.
Houghton Mifflin Books (Clarion Books); ISBN: 0618135340; (October 15,
2001)
One wispy October dawn, a boy on a bike came and went. Little did almost-14-year-old Zazoo know that this inquisitive, bird-watching bicyclist would hold the key to her past and open a window to the future as well. The orphaned Zazoo lives alongside a canal with her loving adoptive grandfather, who brought her from Vietnam to his French village when she was just 2 years old. She and her tiny, 78-year-old Grand-Pierre share daily oatmeal, a passion for poetry, and a mysterious history. Why do the villagers seem leery of her gentle grandfather, even though he is often referred to as a war hero? Why does Grand-Pierre call World War II the "Awful Time"? And what happened to the brown-haired Jewish girl with whom he used to dance the tango so gracefully? Philosophical, compassionate, and exquisitely lyrical, Richard Mosher's
Zazoo is one of our favorite teen novels of 2001. Zazoo's voice is dreamily
poetic, but the dialogue is immediate and true, and the story carries enough
suspense (When will her beloved bicyclist return? What is Grand-Pierre's
story?) and romance, past and present, to keep the pages turning quickly.
Zazoo's struggle with her increasingly forgetful grandfather, her friendships
with Juliette and Monsieur Klein, and a powerful infatuation with her elusive
visitor combine to create a multifaceted love story of an extraordinary
sort. Along the way, we glimpse a time in history, an awful time, demanding
us to ask the big questions about life, love, loneliness, death, war, and
heroism--and how to let joy creep into sadness and carry on. Highly recommended.
(Ages 13 and older)
 15. Myers. Bad Boy.
Harpercollins Juvenile Books; ISBN: 0060295236; (May 8, 2001)
Myers paints a fascinating picture of his childhood growing up in Harlem in the 1940s, with an adult's benefit of hindsight. His previous 145th Street: Short Stories conveys a more vivid sense of day-to-day life on Harlem's streets, and readers learn little here of the effects of global events (such as WWII). What they will come away with is a sense of how a gifted young man, both intellectually and athletically, feels trapped in his own mind as he tries to find a place for himself in the world. Some insightful teachers make a huge difference in his life: a fifth-grade teacher who avails Walter of her classroom library; his sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Lasher, who recognizes the boy's leadership qualities; and a high school English teacher who spots him outside the guidance counselor's office and says, "Whatever happens, don't stop writing." Perhaps the most poignant and carefully crafted chapter involves the 16-year-old's thought process in response to his guidance counselor's question, "Do you like being black?" Throughout the volume, Myers candidly examines the complexities of being black in America, from his first exposure to slavery in a seventh grade American history class, to the painful realization in adolescence that his blond, blue-eyed best friend is invited to parties where Walter is not welcome. What emerges is a clear sense of how one young man's gifts separate him from his peers, causing him to stir up trouble in order to belong. Fortunately, this bad boy turned out to be a fine writer. Ages 12-up.  16. Namioka. Ties that
Bind, Ties that Break. Laurel-Leaf; ISBN: 0440415993; Reprint edition
(December 2000)
It's 1911, and China is slowly beginning to accept modern ideas--but the changes may not happen fast enough for young Ailin. Her grandmother has decided it's time she has her feet bound, to make her more attractive to a future husband. When Ailin sees the sad state of her sister's feet, she is stunned. "I stared at the pitiful stumps at the end of Second Sister's legs... her foot had been squeezed into a wedge: the big toe had been left undeformed, but the rest of the foot... had been forced down under the sole... like a piece of bread folded over." Luckily, Ailin's progressive father allows her to keep her feet unfettered, even though it means breaking off her prearranged marriage into a more traditional family. He also sends her to a public school to learn English. But by the time Ailin is in her teens, her father has died, leaving her less tolerant Big Uncle to be the head of the family. Big Uncle forbids Ailin's schooling and gives her the choice of either being a nun or a peasant's wife--the only alternatives left for an unmarried Chinese woman with "big feet." Ailin refuses both options, and instead becomes a nanny for an American missionary couple. Due to their generosity, Ailin starts a new life in the United States. Powerfully told in flashback, Ties that Bind, Ties that Break is a thoughtful exploration of the ways cultural pressures can bend not only our personal values but even our physical appearance. And this gripping, lyrical story's theme may be most meaningful to those teens who feel the need to pierce and tattoo their bodies in order to fit into contemporary adolescent society. (Ages 11 to 14) (suitable for all, kbp)  17. Paulsen. Guts:
the true stories behind Hatchet and the Brian books. Delacorte Press;
ISBN: 0385326505; (January 23, 2001)
What do you do when you're being charged by a red-eyed furious wall of brown fur that is an insane moose? How do you make a weapon with your bare hands? How do you sneak up on a grouse or a rabbit, kill it with a well-aimed arrow, and cook it over a fire--without a pot? All this and lots more is essential learning for Brian Robeson, the young wilderness survivor in Gary Paulsen's classic novel Hatchet. In writing that book, Paulsen was determined that everything that happened to Brian--the survival techniques and the physical and emotional traumas--would be drawn closely from reality and his own experiences. In Guts he reveals the stories behind Hatchet, as he lived them. Linked to specific incidents from Brian's ordeal are the skills and insights Paulsen learned as a teenager passionately in love with hunting in the north woods of Minnesota, the extremes of exhaustion and cold he knew in running the Iditarod dog races in Alaska, the chilling close-up knowledge of heart attacks from his experiences as a volunteer ambulance driver, the silence and majesty of the wilderness. Some great stories are told here: the child killed by two kicks from the razor-sharp hooves of a small deer, the difficulties of sharing a rescue helicopter ride with a terrified dog team, and some spectacular gross-outs about the nutritional need to eat every part of an animal. Hatchet fans will be agog, and parents and teachers will be thrilled to see the enthusiastic reaction of even the most reluctant readers. (Ages 10 to 14) (Suitable for 6-8, kbp)  18. Philbrick. Last book
in the universe. Scholastic Paperbacks; ISBN: 0439087597; Reprint edition
(March 2002)
"Philbrick's latest misfit protagonist embarks on an adventure in a fantastic and often frightening alternative world," said PW. "The creation of a futuristic dialect, combined with striking descriptions of a postmodern civilization, will convincingly transport readers." Ages 10-14. (Suitable for all, kbp)  19. Sones. Stop pretending:
what happened when my big sister went crazy. Harpercollins Juvenile
Books; ISBN: 0064462188; (January 23, 2001)
The subtitle of Stop Pretending says it all: "What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy." In a sequence of short, intense poems based on the author's own experiences, a 13-year-old girl suffers through her shifting feelings about her sibling's mental illness. She recalls the terror of the Christmas Eve when Sister was suddenly transformed into a stranger; the horror of visiting Sister in the hospital and finding her rocking on all fours; the fear that her friends will find out; her own worry that she, too, may lose her mind; and her wistful memories of Sister as she was before. More complex emotions are also explored, such as her irrational suspicion that Sister may be deliberately acting crazy, as poignantly expressed in the title poem: "Stop pretending./ Right this minute./ Don't you tell me/ you don't know me./ Stop this crazy act/ and show me/ that you haven't changed./ Stop pretending/ you're deranged." Gradually, as Sister begins to recover, the girl is able to find hope and again take pleasure in her own life. Blank verse is perfect for a story with such heightened emotion, and is a format that has been used with great success in other fine novels for teens, notably the Newbery-award winning Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, and Robert Cormier's boyhood memoir, Frenchtown Summer. Teen readers may even be so inspired as to try their own hand at this challenging but satisfying form. (Ages 10 and older)  20. Taylor. The land.
Phyllis Fogelman Books; ISBN: 0803719507; (September 2001)
The Land is Mildred D. Taylor's wonderful prequel to her Newbery Medal winner, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. In the stories Taylor has to tell, life is not fair, hard work doesn't always pay off, and the good guy doesn't always win. That's because this extraordinary author tells the stories of her African American family in the Deep South during and after the Civil War, a time of ugly, painful racism. Paul-Edward Logan, the son of a white, plantation-owner father and a slave mother, is our narrator, bound and determined to buy his own land and shape his own future at whatever cost. Caught between black and white worlds and not fitting into either one is devastating for him, but his powerful, engaging tales of the love of family, the strength of friendship, and growing up will inspire anyone to dare to persevere despite terrible odds. Taylor's books are not only essential in understanding what led up to the Civil Rights movement in America--they are also breathtaking page-turners, full of suspense, humor, love, and hope. The Land certainly stands alone, but the other award-winning tales of the Logan family--Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; Let the Circle Be Unbroken; and The Road to Memphis--are excellent as well. Heartily recommended. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for all, kbp)  21. Voigt. Elske.
Atheneum. 1999.
"The Volkking struggled, but his sickness attacked him both day and night, a war band giving the enemy no respite of sleep." With the first sentence of Elske readers are tumbled into a vivid medieval world whose rich, elegant detail only continues to entrance. Newbery Award winner Cynthia Voigt (Dicey's Song) brings her Kingdom series to a superb conclusion with this fourth and final story. At age 12, living as a captive in her Viking-styled Volkaric homeland, Elske has been appointed to die. Her grandmother plots to take her place secretly, so that Elske can escape to the merchant society of Traskad. Once there, she becomes a servant to the imperious young noblewoman Beriel--who insists on being the rightful heir to the throne of The Kingdom. Elske finds that while Beriel is stubborn and headstrong, the exiled young queen matches Elske's own honesty and gutsiness, and they soon become allies in the perilous battle to regain the crown. Like the other three books in the series--Jackaroo, On Fortune's Wheel, and The Wings of a Falcon--this story is linked to the others only loosely and can easily stand alone. But young readers who have once experienced Voigt's beautifully drawn characters, lush settings, and riveting plots will certainly want to seek out the rest of the epic tale. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for 9-12, kbp)  22. Werlin. Locked inside.
Laurel-Leaf; ISBN: 0440228298; (October 9, 2001)
Sixteen-year-old Marnie Skyedottir is totally addicted to the computer game Paliopolis, where in the guise of the Sorceress Llewellyne she competes avidly with the clever but pesky Elf to escape from labyrinths and dungeons and evade the blind Rubble-Eater. Paliopolis feels safe to Marnie--not like real life, where she is flunking out at her exclusive boarding school, her famous mother Skye is dead, and her guardian Max stubbornly refuses to let her have the millions she will inherit at 21. Skye, a mysterious former gospel singer who came from nowhere to become the beloved founder of a near-religion, has taught her daughter to fear intimacy. When the Elf, who turns out to be a senior at a nearby school, manages to figure out who Marnie really is and where she lives, she recoils. But later, when a crazed chemistry teacher acts on her delusion that she, too, is Skye's daughter and imprisons Marnie in a cellar room, the Elf's concern for her brings him crashing into the situation in a bungled rescue attempt. Now, locked securely away in a windowless basement, they face a very different problem from the virtual dungeons of Paliopolis. There the Sorceress and the Elf had a cloak of invisibility, truth glasses, and a spellbook to help them outwit their enemy, but here they have only a blanket, a half-empty bottle of seltzer, and a sand bucket... and the Elf has a gunshot wound in his leg. Nancy Werlin, winner of the Edgar Award for The Killer's Cousin, has here given her eager fans another fresh and engrossing thriller with psychological depth underlying its clever plot twists. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for 9-12, kbp)  23. Williams-Garcia.
Every
time a rainbow dies. Harpercollins Juvenile Books; ISBN: 0688162452;
(January 2001)
In a love story that glows like the many-colored silk skirt that is its symbolic centerpiece, Rita Williams-Garcia takes her place as a major young-adult novelist. This book, with a strong lyrical voice, fulfills the promise the author showed in her widely acclaimed earlier novel, Like Sisters on the Homefront. With simplicity and a masterful control of pacing, Williams-Garcia builds a story that aches with the longing of two young lovers in a dance of tentative approach and defensive retreat, and eventual trust and healing. Both Thulani and his girlfriend Ysa have an isolating spiritual wound. Ever since his mother suddenly returned to their Jamaican home to die four years ago, Thulani, 16, has withdrawn from the brother and sister-in-law who have raised him and who want to "man him up." Thulani spends long hours on the roof of their brownstone alone with his beloved doves, and school is to him "simply the sitting place." One day he hears a scream and looks over the parapet to see a young woman being raped in the alley below. He rescues her, covers her nakedness, and takes her home, although she fights him every step of the way. Later, fascinated by her proud rejection and grace, he begins to seek her out and follow her in her colorful clothes. "Every time you step out," he tells her, "a rainbow must die." At first she rejects him angrily because he has seen her shamed, but then she shares her name, Ysa, and her fierce ambition to become a textile designer. Little by little they begin to reach out (and then pull back again), to comfort and strengthen each other, and, finally, in a bittersweet ending, "to let go when it was time to let go." (Ages 14 and older) (Suitable for 11-12, kbp, read this first!)  24. Wittlinger. Hard love.
Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. 1999.
John Galardi is a loner, unable to express his feelings except in the pages of his zine, "Bananafish." He finds inspiration in another zine, "Escape Velocity," created by Marisol Guzman, a self-proclaimed "rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin." Her sharp observations make John laugh out loud and he decides he must meet this witty author. By planting himself in Tower Records the day she drops off the latest issue, John manages to arrange a coffee date that extends over several Saturday mornings. They discuss everything from John's inability to feel and his parent's divorce to Marisol's problems with her suffocating adoptive parents. When Marisol casually tells John that she likes him, he is flabbergasted: "Honest to God a shiver ran through my body... Nobody ever said that they liked me. Ever. Not even [my friend] Brian, who probably actually doesn't." After a disastrous "just friends" junior prom date and a weekend zine conference spent together, John realizes that his feelings for Marisol are more than platonic. And Marisol, who is exploring her identity as a young lesbian, has no idea how to let John down gently without losing her new best friend. Like Barbara Wersba's Whistle Me Home, Hard Love tackles the delicate issue of unrequited love between a straight and gay teen. But what sets this novel apart from similarly themed books is Wittlinger's choice to present the story from John's straight male point of view. Funny and poignant first-person narration will engender empathy for John as he attempts to connect with his emotionally distant parents and an understanding of how his need for their affection has manifested itself in romantic feelings for a girl he knows is unavailable to him. Hard Love is a thoughtful and on-target addition to the growing canon of gay and lesbian coming-of-age stories. (Ages 12 and older) (Suitable for 10-12, kbp, read this first!)  25. Wolff. True Believer.
Atheneum; ISBN: 0689828276; (February 2001)
At 15, LaVaughn already knows that life is hard and that getting ahead takes a strong mind and an even stronger will. Surrounded by poverty and violence, she strives every day not to be just another inner-city statistic: "My hope is strong like an athlete. Every morning when we walk through the metal detectors to get into school ... it is an important day of dues-paying so I can go to college and be out of here." Last year when she babysat for Jolly, a young unwed mother, she saw firsthand how an unplanned pregnancy can diminish options. So she ignores the boys, studies hard, and hopes it will all be enough to get her into college. Then Jody moves back into the neighborhood. Once LaVaughn's childhood friend, Jody is now "suddenly beautiful... He could be in movies the way the parts of his face go together." If LaVaughn's choices were difficult before Jody, now they're almost impossible. What LaVaughn doesn't know is that Jody has difficult decisions of his own to make--decisions that could turn her carefully ordered world upside down. The second novel in a proposed trilogy, True Believer picks up where the acclaimed Make Lemonade left off. Virginia Euwer Wolff's verse-prose is as sumptuous as ever, and her descriptions of LaVaughn's day-to-day life and feelings are sympathetic and achingly real. Readers will be eager to see where LaVaughn's choices take her in Wolff's next installment. (Ages 13 and older) ((Suitable for all, kbp)
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