The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed by Lee Smith

Susan Tobey is nine and both happy and confused about her life in rural Australia.  Daddy spends most days working in the basement, her mother is the beautiful Queen, her sister is the charming but arrogant Princess and it is unclear the roll of the Baron who seems to make the Queen smile. The sense of disquiet is heightened by the entrance of Eugene, a young boy visiting a neighbor.  The summer fun starts innocently enough until gradually Eugene demands absolute obedience to the games he events.  Can Susan create a fantasy strong enough to cover a disturbing reality or must she just accept a passing from the age of innocence?  A coming of age story with a little Lord of the Flies and a little To Kill a Mockingbird but a little less powerful than either one.

eleanor & park by rainbow rowell

This has everything a young adult novel needs; a dysfunctional family, two likeable outsiders, an ineffectual Mom (and a charming one) first love (although it's a bit of a stretch to think that lack of seating on a school bus would be as affective as match.com) - all the good stuff.  For a good part of the time I thought I was reading Spinelli's Stargirl with a lot more edge and I loved that Eleanor wished she were more like Dicey Tillerman.  The language of the characters is just perfect as is their awkward attempts at romance - although I'm sure every young reader will wish their first kiss was like the one on pages 166-167.  It even has one of those great discussable endings - What do you think the three words on the postcard were?

Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Peculiar indeed. Riggs has gathered together a collection of peculiar photographs and then cobbled together a peculiar tale of time loops, dangerous wights and ymbrynes who act like headmistresses but are often birds to connect them.
Jacob has always felt closer to his grandfather than to his own parents but he never understood his sense of being "other".  When he discovers his grandfather's battered body in the woods outside his home, he is traumatized.  Jacob and his father journey to an island off the coast of Wales to recover and reconnect and hopefully discover the meaning behind a strange letter and a collection of very peculiar pictures Jacob finds in his grandfather's home.  It is there he discovers the truth about his grandfather and himself which forces him to make a very non-peculiar choice.
I thought the pictures were the best part and I am not sure if the book was as good as the cover.

Out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper

Melody is eleven years old and has an amazing memory for anything she hears or sees.  She loves literature and is not so fond of math.  But no one knows any of this.  Born with cerebral palsy, she can neither walk nor speak.  Her family senses she has much to offer but it is a wise neighbor who pushes her to try things that should be impossible.  Her biggest problem is a special education program that is brain numbing - until an energetic aide gives Melody a voice.  Once her computer voice is connected she amazes everyone and earns a spot on her school's Whiz Kids quiz team.  But having a voice and speaking your piece turn out to be very different challenges.

Son by Lois Lowry

As a librarian back in the 90's, I loved book talking Lowry's Newbery winning dystopian novel The Giver.  It's ending left much for the reader to consider and Lowry insisted that the open-ended climax was intentional. I anticipated endless generations pondering what really happened to Jonas and Gabriel.  Then came Gathering Blue - a "companion novel" - not really a sequel but with the same flavor.  Messenger - the third in the series - seemed to wrap up most of the loose ends in all three novels - but apparently there was more to the story.  Rich in socio-political metaphor, and a page turning adventure, Son is a worthy ending.  Except - I wonder .... did the miraculous ending affect the new characters damaged by the evil Trademaster?  Does Claire return to the healed Einer to acknowledge the love that allowed her to escape?  One can only hope for a book 5.

The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew

Thirteen year old Jubie is the object of her Dad's fury and relies on the comfort of the families "girl", Mary.    Jubie's family thinks being nice to Mary, even providing an indoor bathroom "just for her", makes them superior to the racist world around them.  A disastrous trip through the south with Mary along highlights the horrors of the Jim Crow south in 1954.  With Jubie as the narrator we explore a society whose rules are just waiting for the clarity of youth to challenge them. This book doesn't have the heft of The Help but will appeal to the same readers.  Although this wasn't written for young adults, the youthfulness of the narrator and the content of the story makes it very appropriate for that age group.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Middle school and soccer start as usual for Julia but then many things begin to shift.  Friendships change, she begins to see boys differently, but more importantly, the earth itself begins to rotate more lowly.  Minutes are gained in each day, then hours.  Days get longer and hotter, evenings longer and colder.  People divide into those who stick with a 24 hour "day" dark or light and others known as "real-timers" follow the rhythms of sunrise and sunset.  As days and nights stretch longer and longer, the structures of society begin to fail.  Science finds ever more costly ways to cope but can do nothing to stop the slowing.  A strange sickness tied to the slowing begins to affect many people and rumors of government conspiracy abound.  It all begs the question, if the end seemed inevitable, how would you choose to live?

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I have long admired Green's willingness to "write up" to young adult readers but who would have thought he could write about two teenagers dying of cancer and still be brilliant and edgy and funny - dark humor as it may be.  Hazel and Gus meet in a cancer support group (sarcastic observations to the max).  They both come to admire the very, very, very intelligent insights in Hazel's favorite book entitled An Imperial Affliction about .... a young girl dying of cancer.  As they seek a connection with the author, they express every angry, honest, wise moment in their journey.  There is nothing cloyingly sweet and heroic about them which keeps this from being the kind of tragedy you might expect. 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

August Hoffman was born with a severe facial deformity.  In spite of many surgeries, his eyes are too low on his face, he has almost no ears and eating is awkward with his newly constructed jaws.  Because he has spent so much time in the hospital, he has always been home schooled.  But after much family discussion, Auggie will be entering the fifth grade in Beecher Prep. To help smooth the way, the principal has invited three of his perspective classmates to show him around. His internal dialog as he describes their reactions to his face is priceless insight into the mind of every student who goes through life less than perfect.  In spite of his academic skills and the encouragement of his family, he is eventually shattered by the teasing and bullying.  In the end, it all turns out the way is ought to in the real world but unfortunately rarely does.  I especially liked the way the principal handled some parents with an elevated sense of entitlement.  There are multiple entry points to discuss the issue of bullying with young people and to think about your own reaction to people who are different.

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

By the age of 11, Ellen has overcome more challenges than most of us would see in a life time.  Her mother chose suicide over life with her abusive husband.  Frequently abandoned by her father, hungry, invisible at school, rejected by other family members - Ellen chooses to take control of her life.  Ignoring the racial lines drawn by her small town, she welcomes the kindness of the black family down the road.  Needing a home of her own, she packs all she owns in a box and finds a way to survive.  I'm not sure if the intended audience was young adults or not but it would definitely be an encouraging tale for any young person struggling with a hard life.

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Nineteen year old Ed Kennedy and his friends are adrift in life - no real goals, families that provide more in the way of challenges than support, dead-end jobs. Then Ed begins receiving cryptic messages on the aces in a deck of playing cards. The addresses or names provide no direction as to what he is to do with them but a "goon team" provides incentive that is both scary and humorous to do something. This sends Ed on a somewhat heroic journey of self discovery. Every person and event he encounters seems to lead to a new view of life. Maybe we will never be the person who changes the world. Maybe it is enough to change little pieces of it. Maybe it all starts when we change ourselves. This book may be intended for young adults but it provided much good discussion for grown-ups particularly in trying to decide who sent the messages.

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

Thirteen year old Mile O'Malley is fascinated by the life he finds on the shores of Puget Sound. His life away from the water is not so beautiful. In this coming of age novel full of the angst of first love and the disappointment with the adult world, an important discovery puts Mile in the crazy spin of a media circus.  Although naive in the ways of the competitive adult world, he remains the most grounded of all.  This is an allegorical story that speaks to readers of all ages.

The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

Myth? Fable? Fairy tale? This short novel for children begs to be read aloud. It has all the elements of a children's story - repetition, lost animals, heroic children but the language needs the adult read aloud nuance to hear the much deeper meaning. Peter Augustus Duchene has a mysterious encounter with a fortune teller which leads him to believe that his long lost sister is alive. Even stranger is the expectation that finding her will involve an elephant - an animal that does not exist in Baltese. Ahhh but there is a clumsy magician, a nun who is asleep at the door and a policeman who believes in the power of wanting. There are also dreamy illustrations in shades of grey just in case our imagination needs a boost. Lovely.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Schmidt's books are always likely to be Newbery contenders and this is no exception. Thirteen year old Doug has multiple reasons not to be okay. But on the steps of the town library he finds a friend and inside the library he finds Audubon's Birds of America. In the terrified but determined expression of Audubon's Arctic term, Doug finds a kindred spirit.   Life throws one challenge after another at Doug but he draws enough inspiration from Audubon's birds and enough strength from the goodness of the community around him to meet them head on.

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Their names are Salva or Nya or Mustapha - they are the lost children of the wars of Africa. To read about their lives is like reading about a distant sad and angry planet. How do they survive? How can they imagine the life we so take for granted. Salva's tale is true. He is a real person who, as a young boy, escaped the war in the Sudan and made his way to NYC. Nya is the young girl who travelled the long distances over dry and dangerous desert to bring her family water. They take turns telling their harsh stories until the two stories become one that is much more powerful and hopeful.

mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

The author wrote this book in reaction to two things - the shooting at Virginia Tech and her own experience as the mother of a child with Asperger's syndrome. Caitlin is the highly intelligent narrator into her black and white world. Her wonderful older eighth grade brother smoothed the way for her socially and helped her feel ok about her lonely fifth grade existence. But now he is dead. the victim of a school shooting and she must find her own way. This is a insightful look inside Caitlin's mind and there are more then a few good role models for how the rest of us can support people like her.

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

I'm sure this book was written for teens but I was totally hooked. It was like Edith Wharton without the big words or critical commentary. Elizabeth Holland is all polished and beautiful and ready to enter the most elegant of NYC society in 1899. She is not ready for the intrigue, the politics, the jealousy, the envy, the sex - all good stuff that readers of romance love. I really loved the history but then I love NYC. You may or may not guess the ending but it is no surprise that there is not only a sequel but an entire series. You might want to skip straight to Wharton or hide these books inside your copy of the New Yorker while you read them.

Nothing by Janne Teller

Think a dark and brooding Henrik Ibsen. Think the chilling psychological possibilities of Lord of the Flies. Think searching for meaning in life and finding Nothing.

Agnes, the story’s narrator, is a seventh grade student in a small town in Denmark. Her class is thrown into an existential dilemma when Pierre, a fellow classmate, takes to the plum tree in his yard declaring that life has no meaning. Anxious to prove him wrong, the class decides to create a “heap of meaning” in an abandon sawmill and start collecting things that mean something to someone. It all begins innocently as they gather broken teacups and odd stuffed animals from neighbors and friends. Then, realizing that Pierre will never acknowledge these as meaningful, the first of the students is forced to give up a treasured collection of "Dungeons and Dragons" books. He is then given the responsibility of naming what is to be surrendered by another classmate. As the process continues through the class, the demands escalate in cruelty. A Muslim boy must give up his prayer rug knowing he will receive a beating at home. A deeply religious student is required to steal a crucifix from the front of the church. A tiny casket is unearthed. Ultimately the demands lead to unexpected acts of personal violence. First published in Denmark in 2001, Nothing won the Danish Cultural Ministry Prize for best children’s book and was described by one reviewer in Sweden as “a youth novel in Nobel Prize class”. The 2008 French translation earned Le Prix Libbylit. The American Library Association named the English translation a Printz Honor book. For all its recognition, this is a disturbing story in much the same way that Lord of the Flies is disturbing and readers of that earlier book will relish this one for all the same reasons.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Isabel is barely 13 and she has already seen her father beaten and torn from her Rhode Island family and her mother dead from disease. When her kind mistress dies, Isabel trusts in the promise that she and her five-year-old sister Ruth will be granted their freedom. But no written proof of this promise can be found. Instead the sisters are sold to Mr. and Mrs. Lockton and taken to New York City, a battleground in the British and Patriot struggle for America’s freedom. As Isabel clings to the hope of her own freedom, she is drawn into the larger conflict. Believing her best hope lies with the British, she refuses to help Curzon, another young slave, and become part of the Patriot fight. Her biggest concern is caring for Ruth. Mrs. Lockton calls Ruth “simple” and dresses her like a pet. But when Isabel can no longer hide the fact that Ruth is subject to fits, the unthinkable happens and she wakes up one morning to find Ruth gone. Burning with hatred for the Locktons, Isabel turns her strength, quick thinking and secret ability to read against their Tory cause. When Curzon is taken prisoner, she knows that the time has come to make the fight for freedom personal. In a daring move, the two young slaves flee, setting the stage for the book’s sequel, Forge.

The Breadwinner Trilogy by Deborah Ellis

Deborah Ellis interviewed refugees from Afghanistan in her work in Canada. These books are based on the stories she heard from the women and children she met.

Book one - The Breadwinner. Eleven year old Parvana pretends to be a young boy so she can move freely in war torn Kabul. Dad is imprisoned for being educated abroad. The rest of her family disappears while visiting another city. She remains at home caring for friends and waiting for Dad. Survival is an incomprehensible tale of determination overcoming desperation.

Book two - Parvana's Journey - Parvana continues her search for her family alone. Along the way she picks up an abandoned baby, a boy who lost a leg and is living in a cave and a young girl trying to care for a grandmother. The last sentence of the book allows you to hope.

Book three - Mud City - Parvana's friend Shauzia, introduced in the first two books, has made her way to a refugee center in Pakistan but she hasn't given up dream of living in Paris. Her encounter with well meaning ex-pats is enlightening.

After I read this trilogy, I wanted to chain myself to the White House fence until the war was ended. These brave, determined characters and the real people they represent deserve peace.