Dead High Yearbook by Ivan Velez Jr.

The premise of this graphic novel is that a bunch of dead teens are putting a yearbook together that tells the story of how each of them died. The deaths are all pretty gruesome with half of the kids becoming vampires, zombies or monsters.

Sounds like just the kind of story for a Buffy/zombie fan such as myself, right?

Ehh, not so much. I didn't find many of the short vignettes to be very original in story or artwork. I did think it was funny that all of the teens were forced to work on putting together a yearbook before they could move on to the next stage of their existence though!

I think teens will find Dead High Yearbook visually appealing, but no one's going to be checking this out multiple times!

Skulduggery Pleasant

Okay, I admit it. I picked this book up because of the really cool cover. Plus, Professor NaNa had a lovely review of it on November 22. http://professornana.livejournal.com/?skip=60

The audio also won the an Odyssey honor this year.

When Stephanie's favorite uncle dies suddenly, she finds herself inheriting a large house on the coast of Ireland and a small fortune from his novel-writing royalties. But things are a bit more complicated than she realized. Uncle Gordan had some pretty strange friends and enemies. And now Stephanie must meet them all and decide which is which.

Not only that, she must save the world, of course. Her uncle's old partner, Skulduggery Pleasant, is at her side through the whole adventure. He's the cool, sinister-looking guy on the cover. It's a mix of Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and a crime noir movie. Tweens will love it!

Japan Ai by Aimee Major Steinberger

I’m not sure what I have to say about Japan Ai besides that I looooved it. Between it and French Milk, I want to spend the rest of my days reading travelogues by smart girls. So, if you can recommend any others (especially in graphic novel form), please comment.

Japan Ai is a record of the author’s trip to Kyoto and Tokyo with two friends. They visit hot springs, attend a Tazarazuka musical (all female cast), dress up as geisha, shop for anime toys, eat, and explore the cities. The book is packed with interesting tidbits about Japanese culture and pop culture, and made me want to start looking for a Sanrio store. Aimee Major Steinberger is a professional animator and layout artist and kept an art journal on the trip, from which the book material was pulled. Pages from the actual journal and photos from the trip are posted on the publisher’s website.

How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle

Last Thursday was my birthday. I went to work for a couple hours and while I was there this book came in the mail. It's one of the books on my 2008 Must Read List so it was a very nice surprise. Happy birthday to me!

My fan status for e. lockhart and Lauren Myracle is pretty well established, but I have not read anything by Sarah Mlynowski. Off the bat there are a few additional things that endeared this novel to me. 1 - I used to live in north Florida. I worked in Wakulla County and I've likely seen Old Joe for myself. 2 - I love the Waffle House! 3 - 3 really terrific teen girl protagonists. (Unsurprising considering the authors.)

How to Be Bad is a road trip novel. Jesse gets it in her brain that she has to drive Vicks to Miami to see Vicks' boyfriend who just started college there. The trip is really an escape for Jesse who is reeling from her mother's cancer diagnosis. The kink in the plan is that the girls are poor. Enter Mel, who also works at the Waffle House, but who is wealthy and so desperate for friends that she invites herself on the trip with the promise to pay for gas, food, and lodging.

Okay, so this is where you have to turn off your reality button. The girls kind of just leave. The fact that the families don't hunt down their children is just something you have to let go. Same with Mel's mother's AmEx Card. Another point of "huh?" was when all 3 girls started singing a song that was completely unknown to me. Turns out it's an old folk song called Red River Valley. It just seemed weird to me. I guess it's a big teen hit!

I had to remind myself to just enjoy the ride and not get picky on the details, but some readers may have difficulty. My enthusiasm for the story did not develop until after the party scene. I don't know if that's a problem from 3 writers trying to make 3 lead characters or if the plotting was a little slow for my taste. On top of that, I had a hard time connecting with Jesse. She had to grow on me.

I thought I would easily figure out which author wrote which character, but it did take me a few chapters of each for certainty. (I'm not going to spoil that here.) Chapter 19, which Lauen Myracle wrote, is near genius for its description of the Veggie Tales Jonah movie. Having a 4 year old and relatives who purchase those movies, I knew to what she was referring. It is head to toe Lauren Myracle at her hilarious (and sincere) best. I was laughing out loud.

Well. If an asparagus can let go of his self-righteousness, then surely I can too.

Same with e. in chapter 28 regarding the naming of the duckling and the coral castle. She nails the funny and the heartbreak. (*sigh* Ruby3...)

Sarah-who-is-new-to-me wrote some of the best boy/girl flirting dialog I have read in a long while. Mr. Exceptional = awesome.

The book comes out in May and will make a fine summer read. Furthermore, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 comes out this summer, so put this one out as a readalike.

P.S. Patti, this is mentioned in the book. As my one and only Canadian friend, have you had it?

Happy Birthday, Jenn!

Dear Jenn,

You diva of the Gossip Girl Corresponding. You queen the heavenly baking. You babe of the youth materials relocating shiznit. Happy Birthday to you!

Yay birthday!

(hope you don't mind the m&m chick. all my pics of you are at work!)

Something to Blog About by Shana Norris*

Libby Fawcett knows better than to keep a regular journal that could fall into the wrong hands, but when she finds a website that offers password-protected online journals, it seems fail-safe. She uses the journal to swoon over her longtime crush, talk about her two best friends, and vent about her arch-nemesis (the meanest girl in school), whose father, naturally, her mother has been dating.

The jacket flap says that the story is about Libby’s journal getting discovered and published all over school, but there’s a lot more going on than just that storyline. She agrees to tutor the crush in chemistry (even though she’s almost failing it herself) and they develop a real relationship. One of the best friends is pursuing the other, flowers-from-secret-admirer-style. The story with her mother is a big one – Libby flips out when she learns that her mother is dating (the mean girl) Angel Rivera's father, and things get even more complicated when Angel wants to join forces to break them up.

In some ways, it has the feel of a teen movie, but a quality one. Libby has a great voice and personality, all the supporting characters are pretty well developed, and there’s enough going on to keep it interesting. Everything is resolved in the end, and there’s nothing too deep, but it really captures the late middle school/early high school experience where the small stuff means big drama.

I keep seeing it recommended for fans of the TTYL books, but it really made me think of the Princess Diaries books and would probably be great for girls not ready for the sex stuff later on in that series. Something to Blog About is super clean and well-suited to younger teens.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I kind of-sort of know Shana. We’ve been online journal friends for years and have swapped Baby-Sitters Club books. I’ve been silent on my journal for so long, though, that I’m not sure she’d know who I am anymore, but I still feel like I should say so.

Jenn's 2007 Faves

Ok… So, I’m really far behind on this but I wanted to throw my two cents out there since GG is on a bit of a break right now. My list is pretty small. I guess I spent most of 2007 reading books that weren’t new… or I didn’t note but a few of the new books I did read!

In no particular order…

HP7

The Off Season by Catherine Murdock

It Had to Be You (GG Prequel) by Cecily von Ziegesar

Don’t You Forget About Me (GG #11) by Cecily von Ziegesar

What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Unforgettable: It Girl #4 by Cecily von Ziegesar

Derby Girl by Shauna Cross

Bliss is not your average country gal. Although she may have to live in a small Texas town (due to the fact, you know, her parents want to...) she knows she has no desire to fit in. She's got blue hair, a punk rock attitude, and the desire to seek out the different. This is all sort of a problem since her mother is completely obsessed with beauty pageants. And not only with her own beauty pageant past, but she also insists on entering Bliss into them. Pageants that Bliss never, ever, ever wins. So when the opportunity presents itself to skip off to Austin and try out for the all female roller derby league. Bliss jumps at the chance.

This book is set in the fictional town of Bodeen, Texas, which claims fame as the maker of Bluebonnet Ice Cream. Maybe the reason it took awhile for Bliss to win me over is that she was so hard on the tourists that came to visit the Bluebonnet Ice Cream Factory. I recognized that Bodeen was based on Brenham, where the very real (and extremely yummy) Bluebell Ice Cream Factory is located. You know, where they eat all the ice cream they can and sell the rest. A place where I would LOVE to visit. I mean - wouldn't you want to see an ice cream factory in action and then sample all the yummy flavors? Although now that I've looked at the Bluebell website it shows you only get one scoop of ice cream. That's totally lame. Only one lousy scoop? But if it was their Chocolate Covered Strawberries ice cream, it might be ok...

So yes, Bliss took awhile to win me over. But won over I was. I could have done without a few of the "what's cool" lectures, I'm not sure they were entirely necessary - they certainly annoyed me more than anything, but on the whole this is a cute book. And if you can make it through the first half you'll be rewarded with with angsty goodness like dealing with parents who don't understand, growing apart from your best friend, and hot boys who just might break your heart. The author's enthusiasm for the roller derby really shows in the derby action sequences. They were really well written, super fun, and I felt like I was there in the stands. Bliss' love interest, a hot musician she nicknames Senor Smolder, also makes for some great reading. And, last but certainly not least is Bliss' mother - a total hoot of a character.

It's also being made into a movie directed by Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page. Who, by the way, is a fantastic choice to play Bliss. I wonder who they'll get to play Bliss' mother. That would be a fantastic role. She's just so over the top that her character will translate particularly well onto the big screen.

Head Case by Sarah Aronson

Frank is a senior in high school when he makes the decision that will change his life forever. He drives drunk and kills two people - one of which was his girlfriend. He barely survives the accident himself. He lives, but is paralyzed from the neck down.

This book is told from Frank's perspective. His anger, frustration, regret, and depression is evident. Frank is not feeling lucky to have survived. He wishes he was dead. He wishes he didn't have to be looked after. But mostly he wishes that night never happened.

It is a remarkably fast read for a book that is such a downer. But it reads pretty true. I'm fairly certain most of us would find the situation difficult to deal with at any age, not just as a teenager. His rage at the way his life ended up was very realistic. My biggest complaint is that Frank's emotional turnaround begins much sooner than seems realistic. Only two months after he returns home Frank is already making progress. To my mind that seemed too soon for emotional breakthroughs. Regardless, I think teens will stick with the book. It is like the ultimate rubbernecking experience. Literally.

This book is a pretty strong public service announcement. Don't drink and drive. You're not going to like the consequences. One would hope it would make teen readers think twice before

Unwind by Neil Shusterman

“The Second Civil War, also known as ‘The Heartland War,” was a long and bloody conflict fought over a single issue. To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as ‘The Bill of Life’ was passed. It satisfied both the Pro-life and the Pro-choice armies. The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively ‘abort’ a child on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t ‘technically’ end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called ‘unwinding.’"

The novel begins with Connor. A teen deemed troublesome by his parents and slated to be unwound. Of course, even though Connor has proven that he’s a pain to raise, it certainly doesn’t mean he’s stupid. He catches wind of his parents’ plan and runs away. He knows that if he can make it to his eighteenth birthday (still two years away) he’ll be safe. No one, not even someone who was supposed to be, can be unwound once they are eighteen.

Risa is a StaHo – or an orphan who lives at a State Home. She had several years to prove that she was worthy of her life, but only proved that she was ordinary. Not extraordinary in any way – which she needed to be in order to keep her life. She is also slated to become an unwind.

Lev is different, he’s a Tithe - raised from birth to be unwound once he reaches his thirteenth birthday. He believes that he is gifting his life to a higher purpose and his life-long religious instruction has made this a Godly endeavor for him. Lev knows he’s not an ordinary unwind, he’s special.

These three teens are inadvertently thrown together and their lives are never the same again.

This book is absolutely chilling. I think it is Shusterman’s best book to date. It was so suspenseful that I had to put it down after chapters – I was desperate to find out more, but I needed time to process everything that was going on. The book deals with the value human beings place on human life. When does life start? When is it appropriate to end a life? Just like today when the issue is filled with shades of gray, Shusterman’s envisioned future is no less foggy. He presents the choices, shows us their benefits as well as their ugly underbellies, and then steps back. An admirable, and I imagine extremely difficult, accomplishment.

What I was particularly impressed with was the author’s ability to introduce ideas and characters into the narrative and bring them up later without it feeling labored or overly obvious. The urban legend of Humphrey Dunfree is a good example. Humphrey is introduced several times and so as the book progresses the reader isn’t really expecting any revelations. But they come, boy do they come. There are also great plot twists, the characters were extremely well written and compelling, and the ending was hopeful, but not sappy or overly tidy. This book is ripe for discussion. Good stuff.