Author Archives: SSBRC Former Member

Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt

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Set in 1968, following the death of her best friend, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene’s Preparatory Academy for Girls. Here she struggles to fit in with her wealthy, tight-knit classmates, with grief heavy on her heart. With pressure from her instructors to work toward’s their “Accomplishment” for the year. Feeling inferior in all things, Meryl Lee can’t imagine what her Accomplishment will be.

In a sub-plot, Matt Coffin, seemingly family-less, is on the run from thugs and needs a friend, too. Their lives intertwine as they both search for meaning in their lives in this coming-of-age story, rich with lyrical writing, references to literary works and humor, this book would make a great read-aloud.

The Project

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Awful, infuriating, disgusting. Maybe, because I grew up in UT with the constant reminder of Warren Jeffs and his brainwashing of “his people” that I just did not enjoy this book. It is just a reminder of the evil and corruptness that comes from people who pray on the sick, weak, lost. 

The Leading Edge of Now

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“Trigger Warnings”: sexual assault, alcoholism, drug abuse, foster care, and grief.

The Leading Edge of Now tells the sad story of a teenaged girl, Grace, who is grieving the death of her father, and going to live with her uncle, her only living relative, who finally has claimed her from foster care where she has spent the past two years. Thankful to be out of foster care, she is nonetheless nervous about returning to New Harbor. So many memories that remind her of all she has lost: her best friend, her boyfriend, and memories of what happened that night two years ago at her uncle’s house when she was passed out on Ambien. “Memories are like land mines that I step on everywhere I turn.“

The characters are well developed with detailed backstories. I enjoyed this novel in spite of the very heavy subject matter.

Your Destination is on the Left

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In this coming of age novel, we meet Dessa Rhodes, a teen whose family live a nomadic life-style traveling in a caravan of RVs with a communal group of friends. One of the friends is a teenaged boy, Cyprus, who Dessa has had a crush on for a long time. She’s worried about what a romance could do to their families’ relationship if the romance did not work out.

Dessa is an inspiring and talented artist who wants to leave the road behind and instead attend art school. But she can’t get accepted anywhere. And if she ever did, how would she pay for it?

An unexpected opportunity presents itself and she has to decide if she is going to leave the road, her family, and Cyrus, to pursue her dreams of becoming an artist, or stay with the ones she loves.

 

Learning to Breathe

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*Trigger Warning for Sexual Assault*

A victim of rape, sixteen-year-old Indira struggles to conceal her pregnancy from her family, even though it was her cousin who assaulted her.

Indy has tried to do what her grandmother encouraged: to do well in school, to not let boys take advantage of her. So that she doesn’t end up like her mother, who was also sexually assaulted resulting in Indy’s birth.

Having been sent to live with relatives in Nassau, Indy feels that she cannot escape from  her mother’s past. And how long can she hide her pregnancy from her aunt?

Indy tries to find a place where she will be safe. And she struggles with pressure to have an abortion. She is conflicted.

This is difficult story to read because of the graphic description of rape and assault. But I recommend it to readers interested in the #MeToo movement. Also, those who enjoy realistic fiction such as American Street.

Girl Made of Stars

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Girl Made of Stars is a hard-hitting critique of rape culture and focuses on the ways victims are silenced by the disbelief of others. Sister and brother twins, Mara and Owen, are very close and Mara thinks she knows Owen as well as she knows herself.  When Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara cannot believe it. How could her brother be guilty of such a violent crime? And why would he do such a thing to Mara’s good friend? But why would Hannah tell a lie like this? Mara is conflicted: how can she support her brother? And Hannah?

Further complicating her life is that things are strained with Mara’s ex-girlfriend and best friend since childhood, Charlie. Charlie is bi, and has not come out to her family.  And then there a boy that Mara likes, Alex. As the story progresses Mara, Hannah, and Charlie navigate new terrain.  Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide if Charlie fits in her future.

Girl Made of Stars presents a different take on a story about rape in that the point of view is not from that of the victim or that of the perpetrator; it’s from the point of view of those around them, the ones are caught in the middle.

The author provides a list of resources for victims of sexual assault, including a phone number for the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy realistic fiction,  stories of girl/women empowerment, friendships, brother-sister relationships, and courage.

Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos

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Caroline Lawson is three months away from freedom, otherwise known as graduation day. That’s when she’ll finally escape her rigid prep school and the parents who thought they could convert her to being straight.

Until then, Caroline is keeping her head down, pretending to be the perfect student even though she is crushed by her family and heartbroken over the girlfriend who left for California.

I wanted to like this book, the description sounded great and while I don’t hate it, I had to force myself to finish.

The writing style is choppy and hard to follow, numerous times I had to go back and re-read pages just to try to figure out who or what was being talked about. There was never enough to distinguish that the chapters had switched from one character to another.

While the book touches on lots of important topics it was just to scattered to really make you think too much about them.

The mystery part didn’t get interesting until the last 1/4 of the book but by then I had figured it out. Wouldn’t recommend.

Tamba: Child Soldier

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TAMBA, Child Soldier chronicles the harsh realities of guerilla warfare and child soldiers as Tamba recounts his experiences as a child soldier to a UN tribunal. His description of his horrible experience of being kidnapped from his village at the age of eight, and forced into servitude as a child soldier is just shocking to the senses. The atrocities that Tamba and other children were forced to commit are not sugar-coated. This gripping story, accompanied by detailed and descriptive illustrations, is not an easy read. But the story needs telling, as many middle grade and teen readers, as well as many adults, have no idea that there are thousands of children who have been kidnapped and forced to be child soldiers.

Kiss Me in New York

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It’s Christmas Eve at JFK in New York City. Two travelers meet at random: Charlotte, a British student, waiting for a flight home after a terrible semester. Anthony, from NYC, is there to surprise his girlfriend at the airport who has been away for three months. Charlotte’s boyfriend has just broken up with her, and Anthony will soon face the same fate,  right in the middle of the crush of people traveling for Christmas.

A blizzard cancels Charlotte’s flight, and Anthony can’t bear to go home alone. Finding a book in the gift shop titled Ten Easy Steps for Getting Over Your Ex, the two head into the city together to follow the steps outlined in the book.

With snow falling, Christmas lights and carols playing in the background, the two start falling for each other.  And that’s where this reader decided that this story is just too sweet and too cliche to be even remotely realistic. It’s just too much.

Some teenagers will enjoy this short (189 pages), lighthearted, formulaic romance but honestly, there are hundreds of more sophisticated, less formulaic titles available.

It’s All Your Fault

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How did Caitlin, church going knee sock wearing Christian choir singing teen, end up in jail with a nose piercing and a tattoo that she has no memory of getting? How did she end up being charged with holding up a convenience store and stealing a convertible after a night of drinking and singing  songs with lewd lyrics in public at the top of her lungs? Well, it’s all because of her bad-girl, famous cousin and former best friend, Heller.

Caitlin was asked by her aunt to help chaperone Heller for one weekend after Heller was released from re-hab. Keep her out of trouble and away from the media and public, until the appointed time for the press event and release of a sure to be hit movie based on a wildly popular book series featuring Heller as the lead character. But Caitlin’s attempts fail miserably.

This chick-lit comedy is a very fast and entertaining read (but note that there is swearing and sexual references throughout).