Once and for All by Sarah Dessen (2017)

I always love Sarah Dessen, despite her pastel covers and completely forgettable titles. 

Louna works for her mother's wedding planning business one last summer before heading off to college. She meets reckless, open-hearted Ambrose at a wedding and has to decide whether she is ready to open her heart again after her first love affair's tragic end. 

As always with Dessen, the characters are SO rich. Louna's mother, her godfather, Ambrose and her best friend--all practically leap off the page. And the fun inside look into wedding planning is also delightful. Beautifully done as always.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus (2017)

A colleague's description of this book had me at "Breakfast Club but with murder."

A bunch of high school kids end up in detention together and suddenly, one (who just happens to write a poisonous gossip blog) suddenly dies of a deliberately triggered allergy. Each of the implicated kids, from the drug dealing burnout to the class princess to the jock with a secret are beautifully drawn and realistic.

And, apparently, there's a sequel: One of Us Is Next (2020).

Dime by E.R. Frank (2015)

Holy cats, this book took my heart and ripped it out and stomped on it on the ground. 

Dime is a 14-year-old girl who has been bounced around the foster system for years. She finds a home with Daddy and his 'girls', who are underage prostitutes. This book is hard to read and anguishing, but man, Frank (a child psychologist and social worker) does a beautiful job of telling Dime's story without exploitation or gratuitousness. 

The story is told through Dime's POV and the note that she is trying to write to persuade someone to help. She's a reader and there's a strong literary bent through the book. The story itself, which takes a clear-eyed look at human trafficking, is incredibly eye-opening and horrifying and shows many facets of "the life." When Daddy picks up Lollipop (an 11-year-old) and adds her to his stable, it gets even more awful. But super important to read and to know and this book absolutely felt like a call to action for me. Beautifully done.

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan (2013)

In this achingly poignant young adult novel, two boys (Harry and Craig) try to break the record for the longest kiss ever. As well as following this story, the novel follows other young contemporary gay men and their relationships (online and off, family and romantic). 

And here's what adds a heartbreaking level to this story: all of their adventures are watched over and commented on by a Greek chorus of gay men who have passed away of AIDS. 

Beautiful, moving, and yes, heartbreaking. Must-read.

I love so much about this novel, I have to share some of my absolute favorite bits:

"We were once like you, only our world wasn't like yours. You have no idea how close to death you came. A generation or two earlier, you might be here with us. We resent you. You astonish us." (p. 2) 

"If you are a teenager now, it is unlikely that you knew us well. We are your shadow uncles, your angel godfathers, your mother's or your grandmother's best friend from college, the author of that book you found in the gay section of the library. We are characters in a Tony Kushner play, or names on a quilt that rarely gets taken out anymore. We are the ghosts of the remaining older generation. You know some of our songs. We do not want to haunt you too somberly. We don't want our legacy to be gravitas. You wouldn't want to live your life like that, and you won't want to be remembered like that, either. Your mistake would be to find our commonality in our dying. The living part mattered more. We taught you how to dance." (p. 3) 

"One of the many horrible things about dying the way we died was the way it robbed us of the outdoor world and trapped us in the indoor world. For every one of us who was able to die peacefully on a deck chair, blanket pulled high, as the wind stirred his hair and the sun warmed his face, there were hundreds of us whose last glimpse of the world was white walls and metal machinery, the tease of a window, the inadequate flowers in a vase, elected representatives from the wilds we had lost. our last breaths were of climate-controlled air. We died under ceilings. Either that wallpaper goes, or I do. It makes us more grateful now for rivers, more grateful for sky." (p. 49)

And more: 

"There is power in saying, 'I am not wrong. Society is wrong.' Because there is no reason that men and women should have separate bathrooms. There is no reason that we should ever have to be ashamed of our bodies or ashamed of our love. We are told to cover ourselves up, hide ourselves away, so that other people can have control over us, can make us follow their rules. It is a bastardization of the concept of morality, this rule of shame. Avery should be able to walk into any restroom, any restaurant, without any fear, without any hesitation." (p. 140) 

"This only makes Ryan smile more. 'I'm sorry,' he says. 'I usually don't like people. So when I do, part of me is really amused and the other part refuses to believe it's happening.'" (p. 150) 

"and he hopes that maybe it'll make people a little less scared of two boys kissing than they were before, and a little more welcoming to the idea that all people are, in fact, born equal, no matter who they kiss or screw, no matter what dreams they have or love they give." (p. 193)

Beautiful. Read it NOW.

Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan (2014)

I LOVED this book. It's a young adult novel that doesn't feel like a young adult novel and it is perfectly lovely.

Love by the Morning Star would make a gorgeous screwball comedy of the 1930s or a perfect musical. Two young women come to a country house in England (think Downton Abbey) for two very different reasons and accidentally end up in each other's spots. 

Anna Morgan is sent by her Nazi sympathizer father to work as a kitchen maid and spy on the liberal Lord Liripip. Hannah Morgenstern, a half-Jewish daughter of a distant relation to the Liripips, is sent away from Berlin and her family's cabaret after Kristallnacht. Hannah, intended for above stairs ends up as the kitchen maid, and vice versa. And of course, there is a handsome heir who both girls fall for. 

Beautifully written, this is one of those books that where the plot propels me but I want to slow down and really appreciate the writing. And did I mention Hannah's compatriot and new coworker Waltrud/Traudl? Every character is beautifully written and the humor is sophisticated and a bit naughty. Perfectly gorgeous.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (2014)

Terrible name for a pretty good teen novel.

After losing her boyfriend and being unable to get over the grief, Jam is sent to The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding schoool in Vermont. She gets placed in a Special Topics in English class where she and a few other students study Sylvia Plath intensely. Their unusual teacher gives them each journals to write in, and that writing takes them to very unusual places.

Surprising, suspenseful, and very thoughtful about issues of grief, guilt and blame. But a wildly undescriptive and misleading title.

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider (2015)

With a tagline that reads, "Life goes on until it doesn't," it sounds like this book is going to be another Fault in Our Stars. But it's really quite good. (Full disclosure: I haven't read Fault, but as I haven't liked any of John Green's books, I'm not planning on doing so. I think he's a completely charming person, nonetheless.)

Lane is seventeen, and is just moving into Latham House, a sanitorium for total drug-resistant tuberculosis afflicted teens. It's an interesting and unusual scenario, and really treats the disease seriously--this is no incurable movie disease. 

He meets Sadie and falls for her and her quirky group of friends. Sisman gets teen humor perfectly right--the near constant sarcasm, teasing and jokes (and it's actually funny) and yet the book is poignant without the slightest trace of treacle. Fabulous.

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (2015)

Willowdean (aka "Dumplin'") Dickson has always had an excellent body image, despite her beauty queen mother's endeavors to help her lose weight.

She's happy and well-adjusted, at least until she gets a job at the local fast-food restaurant and meets Bo, the hot and mysterious cook. She starts to lose her self-confidence and sets out to take it back by entering the legendary local beauty pageant, along with a motley crew of characters.

This young adult novel has endearing, realistic characters and is terribly sweet and funny. Charming, romantic and again, funny as heck.

George by Alex Gino (2015)

Juvenile novel about George, a young boy who considers himself a girl and his struggle with figuring herself out, telling his family, and desiring to star as Charlotte in the school play of Charlotte's Web. 

I kept bracing for something horrible to happen, and was cheered when it didn't. But Gino depicts the everyday stresses of childhood very well, and very evocatively. The look inside George's head, or as he prefers to think of himself, "Melissa," is unique and well done. 

A definite addition to the new transgender literature.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King (2011)

I am really starting to love A.S. King's work for young adults. I love how she adds the slightest bit of magical realism to her otherwise realistic novels that make them utterly original.

In this novel, Lucky is being bullied by a guy at his high school, and obsessed with finding out what happened to his grandfather who is a POW/MIA in Vietnam.  He dreams vividly about his grandfather which struggling with everyday life and his relationship with his parents. 

In an era when every other young adult novel is the first in a yet-to-be-written trilogy, I love a book that ends REALLY well, and this one does.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon (2014)

The story of a young black man, shot dead on a busy street by a white man. Told through the viewpoints of his friends, his family, his friends' families, bystanders and shopkeepers in the area.  

Beautifully evokes so many people's stories through this one event. Fabulous book. Read voraciously in one night. Excellent book for thoughtful discussions.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (2013)

Aw, I adore Sarah Dessen. Although the plots are fairly conventional, her relationships and characters are so wonderfully complex.

This one is about a girl recently graduated from high school, working her butt off at her family's realty company in her coastal tourist town, and her relationships with her longtime boyfriend, an attractive new guy in town who is the assistant on a documentary about a reclusive artist AND her relationship with her semi-estranged father and her new half-brother. Whew! 

 But all you need to know is this: Great characters, even the most minor characters and realistic, well drawn relationships. Just lovely. Oh, and funny. Not laugh out loud funny, but gently, dryly funny.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (2008)

"Alice" was kidnapped by Ray when she was about 10 and has been living with (and abused by him) ever since. She barely remembers her former life, and her only hope for escaping him is to find her replacement and she thinks she's found her at a local park.

 Chilling, genuinely upsetting, but well and simply told.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

I absolutely adored Eleanor & Park.  Adored.  So I was terribly excited to read her newest young adult novel, Fangirl.

This is a charming young adult novel--a bit slighter than Eleanor & Park--but a charming novel nonetheless about twin sisters Cath and Wren starting college and going their own separate ways.

The story is told mostly from the perspective of Cath, the shyer, more awkward sister, and portrays her struggle with social anxiety with vivid realism.  Cath is a huge Simon Snow fan and has been writing Simon Snow fanfiction for years.  She's built up a huge fan base, but is feeling unexpectedly challenged by her fiction-writing class.  She has to figure out how to balance her love of writing fanfiction with writing fiction, and how to be her own person at college.  As always, Rowell writes wonderfully vivid characters and touchingly realistic situations.

After a controversy erupted here in a local school district about her book Eleanor & Park (check out Linda Holmes's wonderful Monkey See blog for a great rundown on the whole situation), Rowell came to Minnesota for an author visit and I am very happy to report that she is every bit as delightful as her books.  If you ever get the chance to see her speak, I highly recommend it!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

Just LOVED this young adult novel about two misfits falling in love in high school in 1986. 

Beautifully told in alternating chapters both by Eleanor: red-haired, not petite, living in poverty with her brothers and sisters, creepy stepfather and ineffective mom; and Park: half Korean and a fairly normal kid, at least from the outside.

Loved them falling in love and the complexity of their characters and their lives. I adored the portrayal of the parents, who are complicated and realistic. I also loved how very much of the 1980s it was, and yet without being gimmicky in any way. 

Just a very beautifully told young adult novel and a lovely romance. What else can be said? At least without using the word "love" again?

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (2012)

Fascinating young adult novel about a young woman working as a secret agent who is captured by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France, and her friend, a pilot working with the civilian air force.

Divided into two parts, the first unfolds as a written confession, but all is not as it seems. The second follows the pilot after crash landing in France. Gripping, suspenseful, and chilling, this is a great story of friendship, but also of parts of World War II that we don't necessarily always hear about.

Cupid by Julius Lester (2007)

This tale of Cupid and Psyche is told with the voice of a Southern black storyteller, and brings in elements of Roman and Greek mythology. Has lots of interesting insights about love, and is a fascinating, fun discourse on the telling of a story.  Julius Lester is amazing. S See also his great retellings of the Uncle Remus stories.  You'll want to read them aloud to anyone nearby.

Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb (2007)

A very sweet and bittersweetly funny story about a girl whose mother dies and the effect on her, her sister and their father. Based on the author's own experiences, it has a deeper thread which explores her mother's experiences with her Holocaust-surviving parents.  See also the Missing Persons series, written as M.E. Rabb.

Missing Persons series by M.E. Rabb (2004)

Comprised of The Rose Queen, The Chocolate Lover, The Venetian Policeman and The Unsuspecting Gourmet, the Missing Persons series is about two sisters who go on the lam after their father dies to avoid being sent away to boarding school by their evil stepmother. They end up with new identities in a quirky small town, and mystery and adventures ensue. Filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring a realistic relationship between the sisters, plus decent little mysteries, these books are great fun.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2006)

Gripping post-apocalyptic tale of what happens when an asteroid hits the moon (long story short: nothing good). Narrated in a diary format by the teenage girl who survives with her family after the world falls after.  Followed by an interesting sequel called The Dead and the Gone, which follows a teenage boy living through the same disaster in New York City.  However, skip the final book of the trilogy (The World We Live In) which awkwardly ties both stories together with a convoluted romance.  Really badly done.