Picture Books for Teens!

Bad Cat by Jim Edgar plays on our feline fancy. It includes 244 pictures of cats dressed up, posed, or otherwise out of their comfort zone and shows us the true inner lives of our finicky companions. While no cats were harmed in the creation of this book, there is some adult humor and possibly offensive language.

Everyone knows we share about 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. But did you know that we also seem to share a passion for posing and hamming it up for the camera? Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg will have you saying "I know that guy" or "I can make that same face". Too bad the monkeys probably look cuter!

Emily's Review: Harry Potter. All of Them. by J.K. Rowling

Reader, I can do magic.
How do I prove it? I read minds: why is Emily covering books everyone has read?
Well, the Harry Potter series comes to an end at the stroke of midnight on Friday, so it seemed fitting-- but the real reason-- the absolutely sincere, drug-me-with-Veritaserum reason is that I grew up with the kids at Hogwarts. You hear that from a lot of people, but I had something other fans (younger or older than me) never did. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were always around my age when the books came out.
I was there from the start. My childhood is ending with these books.
I finished Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets in my mother's bed. Prisoner of Azkaban, I almost dropped off the side of a boat in Alcova. Goblet of Fire was the summer my cousin came to visit; I read at a leisurely pace on the sides of swimming pools and in my bed. My cousin listened to the audio book. A week after I'd finished, I awoke-- at one o' clock in the morning-- in the room we shared, to find him listening to Cedric Diggory die. Order of the Phoenix came and went in one giant gulp. I finished it after two days in bed. I read Half-Blood Prince in the back of my father's pickup, on my way to Sheridan.
Plenty of other books made me cry. Plenty of other books made my heart race. No, I don't think Rowling is a brilliant writer, but she's always held charm for me. I don't know why I'm so attached. Reader, I implore you-- if you haven't, then pick up this series. You might like it; you might not. Just think, though, of what I've gone through with everyone at Hogwarts.
I grew up alongside Harry Potter.
I'm spending a week with my best friend Kathryn, before she goes to St. Olaf College, and I stay in Casper. This is it. This is the end of our childhood. It's the end of Harry's, too-- and we're living it together.

Dane's Review: Good Omens by the wonderous Neil Gaiman & the eccentric and extravagant Terry Pratchett

Its not really where to begin, persay, but more of how its going to end, at least from a Good Omens perspective. The biblical novel is so engrossing that I urge all those with weak wills to instead read the book ever so slowly so that your mind can act more as a textual vacuum to take every word in. But the style of said literature isn't for the weak of mind. Instead, if you believe you can handle and wrap your brain around the cynicism, sarcasm, and metaphorical humor that is Good Omens, I'm all for trying. However before you leap up, hear a few bits of advice.
1. Think of the book as a Shakespearean play, to which it lends itself quite adequately.
2. Don't let your mind wander; turn off distractions as TV and/or siblings, lest you reread pages of gold, which in all reality isn't what one would call, not, a boon.
3. Listen to music you don't know the words to --Coldplay, OK Computer, and most indie music-- sets a good starting point. Keep a fresh playlist steady with fresh cookies by your side.
The book itself is riddled with so much humor, puns, and nuances that they are hard to actually catch. The dialog is very Shinchan-esque, so its bizarre and for a "select crowd".
4. In your off time, watch "Shinchan".
The book follows a myriad of characters, each of whom is a cosmic chess piece in the apocalypse. Two co-horts, Crowley, a demon, and Aziraphale, an angel, are trying to shape the son of Satan into a more bizarre child in hopes to prolong the end of the world, because an eternity in Heaven is an eternity without motion pictures. Little do they realize they've been tending to the wrong child...
Take it all in slowly because the end of the world is pretty funny when everything goes awry. Don't forget to scrutinize.
Rating: 5Q, 4P

Mary's Review: The Wallflower by Tomoko Hayakawa (Graphic Novel)

Take one of the nauseatingly numerous makeover shows and make it over with the typical shojo conventions: beautiful guys, romantic entanglements, lots of flowers drawn in the background. That's really, in essence, what you have here. Four guys are offered the opportunity to live rent-free in an enormous mansion if, and only if, they can transform the landlady's niece into a proper lady. Easier said than done. Sayoko, the girl in question, is fond of graphic horror movies, the dark, and her best friend is an unnerving anatomical doll named Hiroshi-hun. And she's happy that way. The following volumes take that narrative and insert it in various situations, most of them amusing. The only setback to the series is its stagnant, start-and-stop pacing. The slapstick is funny, the dialogue witty, but it never goes anywhere. Sayoko takes a half step forward for the sake of the plot only to take three steps back when the problem is solved. This same problem holds for Sayoko's quasi-relationship (or it would be if they weren't similarly stubborn, which is what suits them for each other) with Kyohei. Wallflower can be forgiven for much of this: the series is still running, and slowed progression is a hallmark of the genre. At the bottom line the series is much in the same boat as Hana Kimi, sans sports. Not terrible (Tokyo Mew Mew) nor fantastic (Mars), but somewhere in between. Enough to appeal to the usual crowd anyway.
Final Verdict: 2.5 Q, 4P

Jessica's Review: There Goes the Bride by Lori Wilde

There Goes the Bride is a compelling book about a woman who wants to know if this is all there is in life, a perfect marriage to a perfect man as well as a perfect job. With symptoms of cold feet nipping at her heels on the eve of her wedding, she decides the only way to get out of a mess like this is to hire someone to kidnap her at the altar and then go "missing" for a weekend. Not to mention that she has no idea who the love of her life is since she seems to be torn between more than one. I would recommend this book to teen girls. It has a general teen appeal. It keeps the reader entertained and guessing at the same time. Although some aspects of the book were a little far fetched, overall it was very enjoyable.
Rating: 4Q, 4P

Mary's Review: Thinner Than Thou by Kit Reed

Thin is in. Everyone, but everyone, has been taken in by Hollywood's standard of beauty, tummy tucks and fad diets. Its hardly a stretch to imagine a world where thinness is revered as godliness, where a health guru's name is substituted for a higher power. When fat is so revolting that it becomes a guilty pleasure for the masses. Where the anorexic and the obese are hauled away by frightening nun-like figures to rehab centers in the middle of nowhere, and all those over retirement go off to "travel the world".
Rather like David Levithan's Wide Awake, this book is mostly concerned with its hypothetical future, using characters to service it rather than vice versa. The novel boasts multiple narratives: the twins searching for their anorexic older sister whom their parents turned in to the Dedicated Sisters, along with their sister's boyfriend; the twin's mother, also looking for her oldest and struggling to deal with the expectations of middle aged women (the face lift); Annie, herself, trapped in a Dedicated center of unknown location, and the businessman within the most holy and grueling of weight loss centers, Sylphania (results guaranteed MEANS results guaranteed). They all manage to tie in rather nicely by the end, though the ending has a frustrating, should've-seen-THAT-coming quality. Reed's prose also speaks to anyone who hasn't fit the standard of beauty, particulary the Fat. That hidden, humiliated rage always seethes just beneath the text, and that lends the book much of its impact. Maybe it will lack the hit to the fashionable waifs of Seventeen, but for everybody else this is a must-read.
Final Verdict: 4Q, 5P

Mary's Review: Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

It's hardly a surprise that V.C. Andrews was a painter before her foray into the world of fiction. Her prose is ornate and flowery, though thankfully not so dense as to be impossible to slog through. The story of Flowers is what made her famous, and a disturbing adventure it is. After the death of their father, Chris (14), Cathy (12), twins Carry and Cory (5), and their mother are forced by debts to seek aid from their mother's estranged but loaded parents. Seems Mom wrote herself out of the will by marrying her half uncle, thus making her children "Devil Spawn". In order to win back her father's love, she hides away her children, with the grandmother's assistance, in the attic, promising they will be there no more than a day. Of course days turn to weeks, months, and years, and the four are forced to rely on each other to hold out. One can imagine how this all takes on a rather creepy angle. Squirmish factor aside, the tale is both heartrending and horrific, enrapturing despite its often slow pacing. Although there are four other novels concerning Cathy, Chris, and the Foxworth family, this one is by far the best and (luckily) stands on its own two feet. The reputation, for once, doesn't disappoint.
Final Verdict: 5Q, 3P

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

DJ has never minded being a farm girl. In fact, when her dad’s hip made it impossible for him to work the farm, DJ took over. Her grades may have slipped, but the cows don’t care about an F in English as long as you milk and feed them on time. Besides, cutting, baling, and hauling hay makes a girl pretty strong and who cares about traditional male/female roles anyway. Her dad’s found solace in the kitchen and Food Network and his brownies are pretty good. And the fact that she grew up with three brothers, the oldest two being star football players, means she knows a little bit about training and playing rough. But when Brian Nelson shows up with family friend’s request that she train him for football season, DJ suddenly does mind. What difference does it make that she isn’t the typical girly-girl and why does it suddenly bother her that no one, including herself, is talking and everyone is keeping secrets? And who says this Dairy Queen can’t be a star on the boy’s football team?

Can't get enough? Want to know more about DJ's adventures? Check out the sequel The Off Season.

Forever in Blue: the fourth summer of the sisterhood by Ann Brashares

Once upon a time there was a pair of jeans that magically fit four best friends perfectly. The pants have seen Lena, Tibby, Bridgit, and Carmen through three summers and now through an entire year of college, a year that never found the four girls together all at once but have kept them close none the less. In typical sisterhood fashion, the jeans will again accompany the girls on their summers apart. Lena is using her art to discover a new love and perhaps forget an old one; Tibby’s love of film and relationship with Brian seem to be drifting off course; Bridgit digs up more than ancient artifacts on an archeological dig in Turkey; and Carmen delves into the world of theater and learns a thing or two about the darker side of friendship. Will the pants survive another summer Forever in Blue?

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Imagine yourself sitting in a movie theater. The lights go dark and the curtains go up. You see a black screen and then the white light appears and with it, images that will unfold a fantastic story. The story of a young boy, Hugo Cabret, who lives alone in a train station, winding clocks so no one notices that his uncle, his last living relative is missing, and stealing food to stay alive. Hugo carries with him a small notebook of sketches and dreams of one day being able to repair the peculiar machine, a mechanical man, his father was enamored with. While Hugo has a lot of responsibilities, he is still just a young boy who dreams of having a normal life and he can’t seem to stop himself from stealing toys from the old man in the toy booth. One day Hugo gets caught and the one thing he loves, that notebook, is taken from him. Why won’t the old man give it back and what mysteries could the special machine hold?
Don’t be alarmed by the size of this book. Selznick’s unique novel combines the elements of a picture book, graphic novel, and film and guides the reader on a magnificent journey through the train station and The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It contains more than 284 pages of original black and white drawings and leaves you wanting more.