Bray,  Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty

 It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16 year old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England.  Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one.  To make things worse, she has been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her.  Why?  What is her destiny?  Gemma’s visions intensify while at school, where she is led to a nearby cave and discovers a diary of a woman who had similar experiences.  She soon learns of an ago old Order of Sorceresses who can open doors between worlds and of a tragedy two decades prior that is beginning to cast its shadow over her.  Meanwhile the girls of Spence are preparing for their season, when they will be trotted out before wealthy bachelors in hopes of securing a good marriage.  Bray depicts a caste system, in which girls are taught to abandon individuality in favor of their man’s wishes, as a deeper and darker horror than most things that go bump in the night.

Read-alikes: 

Noonan, Rosalind. Whispers from the Past

Singleton, Linda Joy. Don’t Die Dragonfly

Stolars, Laurie Faria.  Silver is for Secrets

Taylor, G. F. Tersias the Oracle

Tiernan, Cate.  Full Circle and Night’s Child

                                                                                                     Rhea Pollock, Brentwood Public Library

Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate.

January 25, 1990, “Baby, the first thing I need to know from you is do you believe I killed my father?”  This is the how Ms. Buckhanon’s story begins it is written as a series of letters between two teenagers in love.  Antonio is writing to his girlfriend Natasha from jail, he has been accused of killing his father and is waiting for his trial.  The question is, will Natsha’s love for Antonio last while he serves his prison sentence?

The setting is Harlem in the 1990’s and the writing is urban and gritty. The reader gets a good feel of what life is like for these characters in their two different worlds.  Time passes and book covers a span of ten years five of which Antonio spends Upstate.  You watch as these two characters grow up and mature. Upstate is a heart-wrenching tale of love and loyalty.

                                                                                                      Neely McCahey, Rogers Memorial Library

Colfer, Eoin. The Wish List 

Following a terribly bungled robbery, two young people and a pit ball find themselves in the hereafter.  Well, actually it’s really a girl and a boy/dog blend that was the result of the intense explosion that immediately preceded their deaths.  There’s no question where the boy/dog is going – straight to hell, but the girl poses a logistical problem.  Her “trail” is equal parts blue and red which means she doesn’t have enough good or bad deeds to her credit to decide her fate: heaven or hell.  Seeing that there is good in the girl, the Almighty sends her back down for one final chance to do a good deed.  The Devil sends Belch/Raptor back to earth to stop her plan as he sees her potential as a smart creature that has been capable of bad acts in the past and might fit in wonderfully in Hell.  And so the battle begins, but this one is full of dark humor, Irish wit, sorrow, regrets, and suspense. 

               Kathleen Carter, Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library

Dermansky,  Marcy. Twins 

Twins is a novel about Chloe and Sue, 13 year old identical twins who struggle to maintain separate identities. In the novel, they are at odds because while Chloe is trying to express her individuality, Sue does everything she can to encourage their “identicalness”.  Their problems are also exacerbated by their absentee parents who are high powered lawyers and offer little or no guidance to the twins at this crucial time in their development. Sue finally ends up running away and her parents decide not to bring her back home. Being apart allows the twins to develop into their own unique personalities and in the end brings them closer.

                                                              Vicki Lever, Babylon Public Library

Dessen, Sarah.  The Truth About Forever

Macy is at a crossroads, her life is on hold and she’s happy with that.  The less she has to feel or think, the better.  She does what’s expected of her – good grades, good job, good daughter and no drama.  However, this life also means no emotion, but for Macy that’s a good thing.  It all started when Macy’s dad died one morning while out jogging.  Macy was supposed to go running with him, but just didn’t want to get out of bed.  By the time she changed her mind and caught up with her dad, it was too late.  Now Macy has shut herself off because it’s easier than dealing with her feelings of guilt.

Everything changes, though, when she meets Delia and the staff that make up Wish Catering.  Delia is the opposite of Macy – full of life, completely unorganized and goes with the flow, imperfections and all.  The staff are all around Macy’s age and have issues of their own – Christy has burn scars on her face, Monica barely speaks, and Wes, cute and artistic Wes, has been in trouble with the law -  but somehow none of that matters.  Macy finds solace in the chaos and comfort in people who understand that life isn’t perfect.  With the help of Wish Catering, and Wes in particular, Macy starts to realize that life isn’t something that can be controlled.  As she begins to change, the walls she’s built around herself slowly topple and she sees that life is meant to be lived, not feared.  She works through her grief with the help of Wes and not only is she able to face life again but she also opens herself up to love again.

                                               Azurée Agnello, West Babylon Public Library

Green, John.  Looking for Alaska 

Chronically low on the popularity food chain Miles Halter leaves for Culver Creek Preparatory School pursuing “The Great Perhaps.” Miles’self-deprecating humor endears him to us and we are delighted when he arrives at his new boarding school meets and bonds with his heavy drinking, prank-filled, brilliant roommate Chip “The Colonel” Martin. Miles then meets Alaska Young, as troubled as she is gorgeous, and Miles is immediately infatuated.  The chapters chronicle “…Days Before” a pivotal event and how Miles and his friends deal with this event in chapters entitled  “…Days After.”

Looking for Alaska is an entertaining, yet touching coming of age novel and winner of the Printz Award for 2005.

Read-alikes:

Joan Bauer,  Hope Was Here

Sharon Creech, Absolutely Normal Chaos

E. L. Konigsburg, The View From Saturday

Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

                                                                Peg McCarthy, Smithtown Library

Larbalestier, Justine. Magic or Madness

Reason Cansino spent her whole life running away with her mother, Sarafina. They were trying to escape from their magic genes. When Sarafina goes insane, Reason is forced to live with her grandmother Esmeralda, the person from whom they were fleeing. Here she discovers what her mother was trying to hide. Fast paced, set in Australia and New York City, this first book of a trilogy makes you anxious to get the second one. Fans of the Harry Potter series and the Chronicles of Narnia would enjoy. Also readers of  John Bellaires.

                                                      Karen Jaffe, Comsewogue Public Library

Lee,  Marie Myung-Ok. Somebody’s daughter

It’s a long way from Eden’s Prairie, Minnesota to Enduring Pine Village, Korea.  Nineteen-year old Sarah Thorson drops out of college and goes in search of her Korean heritage.  She was told by her adoptive family that her Korean parents were killed in an accident.  While enrolled in the Motherland Program at Chosun University, she uncovers the real tragedy – her mother, penniless and abandoned, left her on the steps of the Seoul firehouse shortly after her birth. 

In alternating chapters, we learn about the life of her birth mother, Kyung-Sook, before and after the birth of her daughter Lee Soon-Min (Sarah).  Sarah’s search for her identity and the circumstances of Kyung-Sook’s life are told with exquisite and wrenching details of Korean mores and customs.

The multicultural theme of Somebody’s Daughter will appeal to adults and older teens with Korean history and cross-racial adoption background brought to life by its thoroughly engaging characters.

Read-alikes:

Marie G. Lee: 

Finding my voice

Saying goodbye

F is for fabuloso

If it hadn’t been for Yoon Jun

Chinhominey’s secret by Nancy Kim

A Step from heaven by An Na

                                                                      Grace O’Connor, West Islip Public Library

Lester, Julius.  Day of Tears: A novel in Dialogue

This novel is based upon an actual historical event, the largest slave aucftion in United States history.  Held in Savannah, Georgia over two days, this auction netted slave owner Pierce Butler a little over $300,000, and destroyed the lives of some 436 individuals who were wrenched from their families, and handled like animals.

Lester centers his story upon Emma, a young house slave who cares lovingly for Butler’s two daughters who have been left behind by their mother, abolitionist Fanny Kemble.  In a stunning betrayal of his promise to Emma’s parents, with whom he’d grown up on the plantation, Butler also sells Emma on that infamous day.  The story is told through monologues and dialogues, with shifting time frames.  It is lyrical, and powerful: Lester gives a vivid picture of this period in the history of black Americans.  His book received the prestigious “Coretta Scott King Award,” an award which also celebrates the author’s long career as an activist for civil rights.

Read-alikes

 Armstrong, Jennifer.  Steal Away (1992)

Barry, James. Ajeemah and his Son” (1991) 

Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave (1968)

Morrison, Toni.  Beloved (1987) 

                                                                        Suzanne McGuire, Commack Public Library

Marchetta, Melina. Saving Francesca

Francesca is Francesca Spinelli, who is at the beginning of her second term in Year 11 at St. Sebastian’s a school in Sydney, Australia. This is Francesca’s first year at St. Sebastian’s and it’s also St. Sebastian’s first year as a coed school. The boys and some of the staff at Sebastian’s are not happy about girls invading their turf. She hates the school and feels she was forced to come here by her strong willed mother, Mia, after her schooling at St. Stella’s ended. Her mother Mia didn’t allow her to follow her friends to Pius Senior College, because she didn’t want her to have limitations placed on her by these friends. Francesca finds this ironic, since she considers her mother the “Queen of the Limitation Placers” in her life.

Back in years 6 and 7, “Frankie” was an extrovert, until her Stella friends rescued her into non-threatening conformity. Now, not only is she is miserable, and grappling to make new friendships; she looses Mia, whom she could always count on. Mia has taken to her bed in a deep depression. Told in the first person in a stream of consciousness style, the reader journeys with Francesca as she tries to understand herself and her family, and as she struggles to survive.

Read-alikes:

Clarke, Judith. Starry Nights 

Earls, Nick. After Summer 

McGowan, Heather. Schooling

McIneney, Monica. The Alphabet Sisters 

Moriarty, Jaclyn. The Year of Secret Assignments  

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep  .

                                                                        Joanne Genovese, Smithtown Library

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep

Curtis Sittenfeld ensconces the reader deep in the world of the Ault School and the churning mind of Lee Fiora.  Lee, an A student through elementary school, becomes entranced by a booklet and applies to this boarding school.  She is accepted as a scholarship student and leaves her home in the Midwest to go to a very different world in Massachusetts, a world of “class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.”   Lee becomes a shrewd observer of—and, ultimately, a participant in—the rituals and mores of her fellow students, male and female.  

                                                                 Marie T.  Horney, Cold Spring Harbor Library

Spillebeen, Geert. Kipling’s Choice 

The year is 1915, and World War I is in full swing in France. John Kipling, the only son of the famous writer Rudyard Kipling, has just turned 18 and is in his first battle. Unfortunately, it turns out to be his last, as he is mortally wounded and left for dead as the battle rages on around him. The book takes place in flashbacks, seen from the point of view of the wounded young lieutenant, who recounts the events of his life as his blood seeps out onto the ground around him.  The stark contrast between the past and the present offers a heartfelt message about the pointlessness of war, the clear lack of glory in dying for a cause you know little about, and the irony of a loving father pushing his son into war and death. The book is written in spare, powerful language that has suffered little in its translation from the original Dutch. The book is written for an audience of readers in grades 7-10, but I would not hesitate to recommend this book to adults, both because of the writing style, and the message of the book. It is a quick but powerful read.

Read-alikes:

Agee, James.  A Death in the Family

Gunther,  John. Death be Not Proud

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms

Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun  

    Kathleen L. Schiebel, South Country Public Library

Weaver, Will.  Farm Tea

You’re fourteen years old and the Coach wants you for the summer baseball team. But your hot-headed father has just gone to jail for flattening an entire used car lot with his Caterpillar tractor. Now the burden of running the family farm has fallen entirely on you. There goes your summer. There goes your dream. But your mother senses your disappointment and convinces you to convert a portion of the farm into a baseball diamond. She suggests the creation of a “farm team”—comprised entirely of those who respond to a flyer that is posted throughout town. Neighbors, tourists, and even migrants turn up at the farm to try out. And there is room for everyone on this team, including the family dog.

The protagonist, Billy Baggs, faces difficulties that are universal and ageless. For this reason, Farm Team can be suggested as a good read for adults and young adults alike. Weaver writes in an appealing style that is credible and witty. The reader may be able to predict the story’s concluding contest between the farm team and the home team, but the reader will be delighted in the journey to that ultimate confrontation.

Read-alikes:

Foley, Mick. Scooter

Kinsella, W. P.Shoeless Joe

Mosher, Howard Frank. Waiting for Teddy Williams

Robinson, Patrick. Slider

Weaver, Will Striking Out

Weaver, Will. Hardball. 

                                               Deborah Formosa, Northport-East Northport Public Library

Wrede, Patricia C. and Caroline Stevermer. Sorcery and Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country.
Poor Oliver has been turned into a tree and isn't telling anyone where he is. Kate is puzzled at why some spilled hot chocolate burned a hole right through her dress. These are just some of the happenings detailed in the letters that two cousins, one in London and one in the country, send to each other. Between buying gloves for a new party dress, attending balls and waltzing at country house parties, the girls are having a lot of fun until events take a sinister turn when they find that they are dealing with evil wizards.

Read-alikes:

Heyer,  Georgette.  Regency novels

Wicked

A College of Magics

A Scholar of Magics
                                                                                                          Michelle Epstein, East Northport Library

updated June 18, 2007