I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nujood’s story was appalling because it brings to light the cultural practice of marrying young girls to much older men in Yemen. Nujood was a young ten year old who loved her family, playing with friends and didn’t have many cares in her daily life. All that changes when her father who is not working, just sitting around chewing khat and getting high on sucking the leaves of this plant, pledges Nujood in marriage to a much older man. Nujood is not afraid leading up to the wedding since she knows nothing about what will transpire. It is that night, where she is pounced upon by her husband, she runs around the room, escapes the room and calls for help throughout the strange rooms (no one comes to her aid) until she is dragged back into the room and raped her(he promised her father he would leave Nujood alone until she reached puberty). Nujood is traumatized by this man every evening; beaten, hit with sticks and cursed at; until she is raped again and again. It is after months of pleading that Nujood persuades her husband to take her home for a visit with her family. When she is alone with her parents and brother and tells them what he is doing to her and to let her come home; her father, mother and brother all tell her she must stay with him because she is honor bound. It is when she pretends to go to a bakery and instead goes into the judicial district (recommended by her father’s second wife who lives as a beggar in squalor) and seeks a divorce. Nujood has 2 judges and a female lawyer who decide to protect her (they put both father and husband in jail) and grant her a divorce. Nujood becomes an example of the pain inflicted on young women in this culture, but she becomes a role model to many similar girls throughout the world. I loved Nujood’s voice, her fierce personality that would not settle for a life of trauma with a much older violent man just because it is the way Yemen women have been treated. The worldwide response to her plight and the many interviews she granted after the divorce also allowed her to return to school with her sister. But this book only shows how many other girls suffer and makes it a difficult read for the many girls throughout who are being sold as young as ten into a slave-marriage.

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The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Diviners by Libba Bray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Libba Bray’s The Diviners was thrilling to read; I did not want to rip myself away from the 1920s world Bray crafted of flappers, murder, mystery and an impending evil that is being felt by the diviners (those who have supernatural powers to see, feel and predict). Evie is seventeen, bored with her restricted family life but also aware she has powers, which she sometimes uses at parties to liven things up. This gets her into trouble and she is shipped off to live with her Uncle Will in NYC as a punishment. Uncle Will is a college professor who also owns the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. As soon as she reaches NY, Evie accompanies the police with her Uncle Will and his student, Jericho, to the scene of a murder and it is when she touches the dead girl’s shoe buckle that she sees the girl’s murderer. It is in this bustling NYC that we also meet many other characters with powers and pasts they want hidden; Theta, Memphis, Isaiah, Blind Bill and Miss Walker. What is particularly mesmerizing and unpleasant is evil of Naughty John Hobbes; as more are murdered Evie, her Uncle Will and Jericho try to unravel a mystery that involves ghosts, haunted houses, demons, and evil in 1920s New York. I can’t wait for the second book!

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Seconds Away by Harlan Coben

Seconds Away by Harlan Coben
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The 2nd Mickey Bolitar book is a fast-paced mystery involving the shooting of Mickey's new romantic interest, Rachel and her the killing of her mother. As Mickey tries to visit her in the hospital with his friends providing a diversion, he finds her in her room, but must quickly hide because the sheriff is coming to question her. Mickey goes to Bat Lady in her haunted house to try to get some answers and he is further confused to find out the man from the ambulance when his father died was not part of the ambulance crew, but someone known as the Butcher. This someone also resembles a man who killed many children during the holocaust, but how can that be the same man? As a sophomore, Mickey is excited about trying out for the basketball team and hoping to make JV. But as Mickey digs deeper, he and his friends are at risk of being injured. It is only with his solo trip to the Bat Lady's house, finding someone in the house, seeing the halls filled with pictures of children during the Holocaust and also children who are missing now, and a fiery blaze that pushes him out of the house, that Mickey realizes there is much more at work than he realizes. He doesn't feel he can confide in anyone really, even his uncle. The mystery continues to deepen, I was so involved in the story, I did not want it to end. I was not very happy with the ending, Harlan Coben just didn't leave you hanging the way her did in the first book, Shelter. But I will read the 3rd book and hope the ending is a cliff hanger, like the first.

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Ask the Passengers by AS King

Ask The Passengers by A.S. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

King has scored such a success with Astrid Jones, she has the indomitable spirit, but she doesn't know it yet. When she has questions about life, she wants to trust her best friend Kristina. But how can you trust your best friend when she talks to your mom about you on the phone. How can you trust your sister when your mom has girls night with her and never asks Astrid to join? And how can you ask your father anything when he is so busy getting high. Astrid and Ellis lived a wonderful life in a big city before their mom, Claire moved them to perfect little Unityville. Astrid has a few friends and works many weekends at a catering company where she is expert at deveining shrimp. It is here that she meets Dee and they find time to hug and kiss one another in the big freezer. Dee knows what she wants, but Astrid is just not sure. It is when Kristina comes up with a plan for Astrid to act like she is dating a guy and then after the date, Kristina and Astrid will go to the gay bar in town. Even though they are underage, they get in and it is not until much later, that their worlds come tumbling down when the bar is raided. Everyone is in trouble, but somehow Kristina convinces Astrid's mom that it was all Astrid's idea. Astrid still does not come out and tell everyone about herself and Dee. This hurts Dee but Astrid is continually working her way back to real truth and it is through her many talks to the passengers who fly overhead as Astrid lays on the picnic table in her back yard and questions imaginary Phil Socrates that she is able to accept and love herself. Astrid mends fences with her parents and sister, but they are flawed and it is when Astrid realizes this that she can accept their shortcomings. Astrid doesn't buckle under peer pressure but it takes most of the book for Astrid to berate Kristina and rebuke Dee. Until she does this, Astrid uses boys to hide who she really is and she feels very badly. Astrid never likes keeping secrets but she has not become strong enough to combat the lies until the night at the bar when they are all arrested. It is through all the LOVE that Astrid sends out to the passengers on the planes that she is able to march forward, happy with who she is, loving her imperfect life, verbally sparring with herself and Phil Socrates that we get an empowered, happy Astrid who will continue to question herself and others and above all, like herself for who she truly is.

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Wonder by RJ Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wonder is a must read for all! Auggie is a 5th grader who has been home schooled and is now going to enter middle school for the first time. Auggie is no ordinary child, he has been hit with 2 bad genes that have deformed his face and the resulting operations have not corrected his deformed face. But Auggie has a wonderful family, a mother, father, and sister and dog, Daisy, who proclaim their love daily. The author hits home through different characters that Auggie's face will always elicit responses from screams,shudders, horror and panic. But this book is uplifting and with each chapter and character, Auggie finds an inner strength, friends and champions to combat those who disparage him, bully him or just plain ignore him. You will root for his sister, Olivia and her fierce love. You will cheer for his parents, funny dad and sympathetic mom and especially their dog, Daisy who provides licks and warmth as she sleeps with Auggie, as they honestly deal with Auggie's lot in life. You will love Auggie's English teacher,Mr. Browne's and his precepts that help shape his students. Jack Will and Summer, prove to be Auggie's best friends, but their road to friendship is not easy, but it is steadfast. Students, teachers and parents, you will be inspired by Auggie and all that this book can teach us about the simple things and ourselves. Highly recommended!

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October Mourning by Leslea Newman

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I want to thank Lauren Strohecker for this wonderful gift to our library and with it her advice that it is a must read for young adults. I wholeheartedly concur; in 68 poems in this spare, yet piercing novel in verse, the author was scheduled to speak at Matthew Shepard's college and found out just before about the savage beating this young man received. Leslea Newman kept her keynote engagement and spoke and wept at the sheer horror of this hate crime toward an innocent victim who succumbs to death 5 days later. Newman has taken many elements of Matthew Shepard's last hours and imagined what may have been; the road, the fence he was lashed to, the biker, the murderers, the pistol, the deer and so much more. This book is a tribute to Matthew Shepard who died as a result of a hate crime at the hands of gay haters. This book is also a history lesson that every child, young adult and reader needs to explore because in the reading of this book, you will be changed. This book needs to be read by everyone.
I especially gained even more knowledge through the author's introduction, her epilogue, her afterword, notes, explanation of poetic forms and resources. Newman brings sympathy, anger, sorrow, and compassion to each and every word in this book. Highly recommended.

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Delirium, by Lauren Oliver

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, I really liked this novel, my only complaint is that I have been so busy I had to read it in increments and all I wanted to do was dive in and zoom through it, it was so compelling. Imagine a future where you are CURED of love at age eighteen! Lena's mom was not able to be cured of amore deleria nervosa and had to go through the cure 3 times before she killed herself rather than go through it a fourth time. Lena wants the cure, she is looking forward to the cure, all because of her mother, and her society. The cure takes away the disease of love and replaces it with another kind of happiness. She will be paired with a boy evaluators choose for her, they will get married and have children, but there is something missing in the union, the family, the society. Throughout the book Lena calls love "the deadliest of all things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't." If you are suspected of being a sympathizer you are imprisoned in the Crypts or killed. Lena and her best friend Hana plan to spend their last summer together, running and doing all kinds of things they were afraid to do, before it is too late--you see they won't remember their past memories after the CURE. Hana is beautiful and Lena cherishes their friendship; but when Hana start listening to music that is not approved and going to parties that could be raided by regulators, Lena is torn. Lena wants the cure but she also wants to push the envelope. It is this inner turmoil of Lena's that Oliver is so good at; when Lena unexpectedly begins to falter with her questions at the evaluation; she doesn't understand why she is giving the wrong answers (she is horrified she can't stop herself). When the evaluation is interrupted and she looks up to see a worker observing her; Lena is thunder struck. On a run with Hana, they go beyond a gate and onto a service road; a guard catches them breaking in and he happens to be the worker Lena saw in the observation area. When Lena shakes his hand; an electrical shock passes through her and she pulls away quickly. Lena and Alex begin stealing time together; Hana comes with them many times as they sneak into the places that are off limits. Will Lena be yearning for the cure as she falls more and more for Alex? "This is what I want. This is the only thing I've ever wanted. Everything else---every single second of every single day that has come before this very moment, this kiss--has meant nothing." An intoxicating read, I am looking forward to her next book, Pandemonium.

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The Letter Q

The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to their Younger Selves by Sarah Moon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The compilation of writers and their notes to themselves in their younger years (from the perspective of older, wiser, is very enjoyable to read. I didn't read every letter or comic from each writer, instead I chose to read YA authors I have read. From 64 authors and illustrators,like Julie Ann Peters, Jacquelyn Woodson, David Levithan, Brian Selznick, Malinda Lo, Bruce Coville, Brent Hartinger, Nick Burd, and I especially liked Linda Villarosa's 1968 note to self, and her 1979 revelation to her parents. This book will make you laugh, cry, and truly appreciate the hopeful rousing understanding the older selves of queer writers wish they had known when they were younger.

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Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Vera Brosgol has penned a great graphic novel dealing with self-esteem, friendship, family, and loyalty. Anya came to the United States from Russia when she was a youngster and has gone through the ESL classes, worked very hard to blend in and lose the Russian accent. Anya has a best (only) friend Siobhan who isn't really nice and a crush on a besketball player. When Anya won't give Siobhan a cigarette, an argument erupts and Anya flees through the park and falls down a hole. In this dark cavern, she finds a skeleton and a ghost arises from the skeleton and tells Anya her name is Emily and she was murdered in 1918 and loved a soldier. Anya is rescued and goes home to find Emily, the ghost, has followed her home because their was a little bit of Emily's bone in Anya's bookbag. After some trepidation about Emily, Anya starts enjoying having a ghost for a friend; she gives her answers on tests, tutors her and helps her dress better and get to a party with the guy she loves on the basketball team. But all is not rosy for Anya; the basketball player is a PLAYER and jumps on girls at parties and through a little research Anya finds out Emily is not really who she says she is...and now Emily gets scary and begins to threaten Anya with harm to her family! What is a girl to do? This colors in this graphic novel consist of greys, whites and black, a perfect background for the darkness behind Emily the ghost. A very enjoyable read and even though Anya has issues; she is/becomes someone who cares about others and will stand up for what is right. Highly recommended,

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WonderStruck by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is another visual delight, part pictures beautifully drawn by Brian Selznick and part story about Ben who is hearing impaired, loses his mother and tries to track down his father. Juxtaposed are the pictures which tells the story of Rose who lives many years earlier, is also deaf and leads a miserable existence with her father. Rose is also fixated on a famous actress and longs to run away to a better, more happy life. Through the pictures and story interspersed throughout, you will love finding out what Ben discovers when he travels to New York to try to find any kind of clues as to who his father is. It is when we follow the art work and story that we are treated to the beauty of Selznick's drawings of the New York skyline and the wolves of Gunflint, Minnesota and following 2 characters as they open doors into dioramas, museums, nature,words, city life and country life. Selnick gives us beauty and wonder and so much more in this 637 page book!

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