I am on the Milwaukee County Teen Book Award committee and I have been trying to read a lot of this year's highly recommended teen books (which isn't super easy with a 1-year-old). But I have read some really amazing titles in the last couple months and I highly recommend you read them too!
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan - I will fully disclose that I am a huge fan of David Levithan and would love for him to be my best friend (David if you are looking for a bff, call me). But that aside, this is a beautifully woven story about young boys in love or looking for love or just trying to figure out if love even exists at all and the men who, a couple of generations before them, passed away from AIDS and are now looking down upon these boys. This male chorus, as I like to think of them, narrates the stories of Craig and Harry, who are trying to break the Guinness World Record for the longest kiss. Neil and Peter, who have been together for a year and are not quite sure if they still have the spark between them. Avery and Ryan, who have just met at a LGBT prom. Tariq, who loves to dance and was attacked by bullies waiting for his dad outside the club. And Cooper, who hides his true self from everyone, until he is found out and now he is running away from everything, including himself.
I can't even count how many times I cried reading this novel. The male chorus is an excellent narrator that really makes you sit and think about how far we have come and how far we still need to go to making our world and equal place.
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - Aliens have arrived and they sure aren't the little green men or the cute fuzzy "phone home" kind. These aliens don't even seem to have landed, they just hover in their mothership over the earth, wasting away humanity in waves. Seven billion people wiped out in months. Those who are left? They have to fend for themselves and hide from the alien drones, hoping to stay alive, for what? To prolong the inevitable? If the aliens can kill 7 billion people in months, what makes anyone think think they will survive?
Cassie is on a quest to find her little brother after he was taken by the army and her refugee camp was annihilated by that same army, leaving only her behind to witness it all.
Ben Parrish has lost everything and is close to death when the army saved him and offered a solution to his guilt and grief.
Suspense so intense you will lose your breath,
The 5th Wave is one heck of a dystopian nightmare.
Winger by Andrew Smith - I have a lot of respect for rugby players; it is a very tough sport and you have to be quick on your feet and in your head to play. Ryan Dean West is a winger on his boarding school rugby team (which is sort of like being a receiver or tight end in football). He is small, but very fast and good at the game. His teammates always have his back and he always has theirs, no matter if he actually likes them or not; they are a team and they always take care of each other.
But Ryan Dean is a bit different from all of his other teammates. He is a junior in high school, but only 14. And he is in love with his best friend, Annie, who thinks his is just a little kid. On top of all that, he may have broken a few rules which landed him in Opportunity Hall, the strictest dorm set apart from all the others and far away from his friends.
Winger is hilarious with a heartbreaking twist in the end. Definitely one of my favorites this year.
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch - (Warning - this book does have triggers for sexual assault). This story broke my heart and made me very, very angry. I could not put it down. Carey and Jenessa live in a broken old camper in the middle of a national park in Tennessee. Their mentally ill and drug-addicted mother hasn't been around in months, having gone into town for "supplies". This is how Carey and Jenessa have been living for years, Jenessa never knowing anything else and Carey barely remembering what the outside world is like. They subsist on canned goods their mother brings back with her from town and what little game Carey can shoot. They are down to a few cans of beans when a man and woman find their camp. The woman is a social worker and the man is Carey's father. The story truly unfolds when Carey and Jenessa re-enter society, living in a loving home, going to school, eating hamburgers and french fries and wondering about this man who Carey's mother always said was bad and hurt them. But if he was bad, how come Carey's mother let him take them?
Carey's voice is so true and haunting; this is a book you will not be able to stop thinking about long after you have finished.
Miss Keri
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