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.

Thr3e by Ted Dekker

“You have 3 minutes to confess your sin. If you don’t, I’ll blow your car to smithereens.” This was not the phone call Kevin, a first year seminary student, was expecting to hear as he drove home from class. Kevin has no idea who this person that calls himself Slater is but decides to take him seriously. Kevin barely has time to get the car off the freeway and into a parking lot before it goes up in flames. The phone calls continue and Slater’s demands escalate. Kevin must either admit his sin or solve a riddle in order to save innocent lives. Who is Slater and what is his obsession with the number Thr3e? And what sin has Kevin committed that could trigger a game such as this?

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt

“Step right up and get a peek at the fattest boy in the world. That’s right, folks, 643 pounds. Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity right here in Antler, Texas.”
It was the hot summer of 1971 in the small town of Antler, Texas. The summer that 13 year old Toby will never forget. The summer he learns about truth about love, life, war, and death. The summer that begins with a stop at the Dairy Maid parking lot to witness the sideshow attraction in a white pull-type camper trailer, billed as “The Fattest Boy in the World”. The summer When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.

Jessica's Review: Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

The book Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie is a book about secrets, cheating husbands, and finding what fits in life. The main character is a fiery redhead who has recently been divorced but has found new life in a rundown old PI building. She completely revamps the place stepping on toes the entire way. Little does she know that sooner or later someone has to crash and burn and they aren't going down alone. Murder, intrigue, mystery, false love, and true love, are scattered throughout the book. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone who's into a nice little mystery and can sit out in the sun and read on any summer day. It kept me guessing but was believable at the same time.
Rating: 4Q, 4P

Dane's Review: Junky by William S Burroughs

So yeah, it's been tough cause a whole bunch of drug based novels were pushed on me right B4 the end o' school. I mean each one was interesting, but time is always an issue. TBH (to be honest), this book caught me at first but couldn't keep me, about 1/2 - 3/5 through I had to set it down because even the great metaphors couldn't make rereading most paragraphs, because they are so hard to follow, worth it.
The basic plot is about a drug abuser, named Josh or James?, (can't really remember). He was doing some pretty hardcore drugs to begin with, but honestly he doesn't seem like he's going anywhere in the end. He ends up traveling and mostly the book is about his endeavors but it just got tiring, TBH.
I really would only recommend it if you have the time to kill and can stomach hard to read literature, as all William Burrough's writing is pretty tough to read.
Rating: 2Q, 3P

Emily's Review: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Okay. I admit to being a pretentious jerk and only picking up this book first because A.) it reminded me of Donna Tartt's Secret History and B.) someone said Pessl wrote line Nabokou. I am still a pretentious jerk because I thought it wouldn't deliver on either point, and it did, but I still set out to hate it on principle.

I am now redeemed, because I freaking LOVE this book. It's just -Oh, man! So trippy! So well-written! SO AWESOME! And Marisha Pessl is too pretty for her own good. Seriously, Google her. GORGEOUS.

Okay: so Blue van Meer, a super-intellectual high school senior, travels the nation with her witty (sometimes nasty) college professor father. At her new high school, she falls in with a vicious clique and the mysterious teacher who leads them. Did I mention the teacher is dead by the first chapter? The rest of the book explores Blue's relations with her new "friends", and what happened-well, what seemed to have happened-that lead to Hannah Schneider's death, and its consequences. Political science, terrorists, AP classes and art: it's an unexpected mix. I definitely recommend Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Rating: 5Q, 4P

Mary's Review: X/1999 by Clamp (Manga)

Put aside for a minute the fact that 1999 has come and gone and the apocalyspe has yet to come down upon mankind. That tidbit will serve no good here. Since Clamp began their odyssey in 1992 the possibility was quite plausible. Knowledge in hand, the plot goes as follows: Kamui Shiro, age 15, has returned to Tokyo following the death of his mother. There he is united (despite his best efforts) with childhood friends Fuma and Kotori, the brother and sister living in a local shine. Kamni's reluctance is quickly explained: bad things seem to happen to those involved with him: Kamni's mother died in a fire, and both of Fuma and Kotori's parents met their respective gruesome deaths; their mother when Kamni lived there as a child, and their father upon his return. Kamui, it seems, has two potential destinies: either he can save the world and preserve humanity's existence; or he can bring about change, resulting in humanity's dowfall but the salvation of nature. A nice, eco-friendly message there. That's what it all comes down to here, as well as some musings on destiny. Good things first: X/1999 has beautiful art, detailed and grim (though some volumes also have beautifully detailed death scenes not suited to the less iron willed gut), and compelling characters, a few of which have come in from other manga (readers of Clamp School Detectives and Tokyo Babylon will be pleased). There's even a little romance through it all, from plain romance, to is-it-hate? type relationships. But...there are also the expected smattering of problems. Although most of the time the year ceases to matter, the first volume of "X" seems particularly dated. A bad idea to afix dates to anything unless the date is long past. Also, after the initial look "X" takes 5 long volumes to set itself up. Lots of exposition for the patient reader before there's much action to speak of, and then begins the deaths. Lastly, "X" just seems to...stop after 18 volumes, with no conclusion to speak of, though one gets the feeling that with two more volumes things might have wrapped up. Alas, it was not to be, and two years have passed with nary a word. But in some ways the journey is worth it for its own sake. And there's always that small, small hope...
Final Verdict: 3Q, 3P

**This title is available through InterLibrary Loan**

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Ever heard of Dolly, the 1st cloned sheep. Well, in the future, she’s not the only one. Imagine a future where you could be live forever, or at least into your mid 100’s, all courtesy of your clone. Don’t worry about heart, lung or liver failure because you’ll be able to get a new one, a perfect match. That’s right. Your clone is created for the sole purpose of keeping you alive. When it is born, or rather harvested from the womb of a special cow, its intelligence is destroyed leaving the clone to be viewed as an animal rather than human. It sounds harsh but that’s the price for eternal life. There is one clone who has been saved. Matteo Alacran (Matt) is the clone of the El Patron, the leader of a country called Opium, a strip of poppy growing fields wedged between the US and the former country of Mexico. El Patron wasn’t always a rich, powerful drug lord. He lived a miserable life of poverty and that is why he has always given his clones a happy, healthy childhood. So happy in fact, that Matt has no clue that he is a clone, until the 148 year old El Patron needs him for more than just company. Now Matt will find out what it really means to be part of the House of the Scorpion.

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Do you believe in the existence of the afterlife? Where will you go when you die? Heaven or hell? What if you don’t end up in either place? What if you are stuck on Earth, a purgatory of such, where you must haunt people or places but can never touch or talk to anyone? An existence where you can love but no one can love you or even see you. This is Helen’s life. She died 130 years ago but is stuck between Heaven and Hell, right here on Earth, as a Light. She has had many hosts, the current Mr. Brown, whom she cares for deeply but can never touch or communicate with. She has come to accept her reality until one day a boy in Mr. Brown’s English class looks at her and actually sees her. That is because this boy is not your typical teenager. He is really a shell who has been inhabited by one of Helen’s kind, a ghost named James. James unlocked for Helen a world she never thought possible, a world where she might finally be able to touch and communicate with others, a world where she can love, a world that will unveil the answers to how and why she became Light and how she can finally be free.

Emily's Review: The Aeneid by Vergil (and translated by many!)

Okay, I confess. This is a weird choice. I have but one way to defend myself, and that is to mention that I've been translating The Aeneid since last fall. Why, Emily, you ask, would you translate an epic poem from the original Latin? And why, Emily, would you recommend it to us?
Well, as I am a dedicated Latin student, Plus, The Aeneid is a lot more awesome that it sounds.
After the Trojan war, the last few Trojans flee the Greeks, carrying with them the household gods and the memory of their homeland. The prince Aeneas leads the way. They have to find a new homeland and found a race destined to rule the world--the Romans. Because this is like The Odyssey with twice as much action, sex, and gore, the Trojan fleet obviously faces extreme peril on their journey (and even more when they reach their destination). The goddess Juno hates them, they don't know what to do, and their leader is a whiny brat. Characters like Dido, the overly passionate Carthaginian queen who falls for Aeneas, and the vicious warrior Turnus (called a second Achilles) liven the narrative, which is already...well, awesome. Seriously. It may be old, but that doesn't mean it's not exciting. Plus, YOU don't have to read it in the original language (like I did). Pick up one of the more recent translations and you won't regret it.
Rating: 5Q, 5P ---I am SO not exaggerating.

Mary's Review: Lord Loss by Darren Shan

Shan's pulled out all the stops on this one, at least as far as names are concerned. This reviewer happens to believe that any inane soul guilty of naming their child "Grubsitch" should be shot on-sight for the good of mankind, but that is not the point. Grubsitch "Grubbs" Grady is narrator and hero, and so the name serves to be...distinctive, if nothing else. Lord Loss begins with a bang, a very gory bang, as Grubbs witnesses the murder of his older sister and parents by the titular demon's familiars. Shan always has had a talent for colorful descriptions of gore. From there the story becomes rather start-stop interest wise, not choosing to remain on a steady increase of intensity until around midway through the book. Shan's forways into exposition would be more inksome if they failed to pay off later, but after some 16 Shan books this reviewer has yet to see it happen. The lovely thing about Lord Loss, for the casual reader, is that the book does not necessarily require the reading of the rest of the current ongoing story. The plot within wraps up nicely enough, and though another of Shan's Demonata books (Slawter and the upcoming volume as well) feature Grubbs as well (with Demon Thief involving a younger version of Grubb's uncle Dervish) those books could be considered "stand alones" as well. Shan has promised to tie the novels together at a later point, but for now we give Lord Loss: 3Q, 4P.