Set in Seattle, Washington, Rachel Lynn Solomon’s young adult novel Our Year of Maybe tracks the lives of two teenagers whose lives have always been entwined as best friends, and maybe, Sophie thinks, eventually something more. She cannot imagine life without Peter, and so, when she turns out to be the one match for the kidney he needs, she does not hesitate…she donates one of hers.

This selfless act generates in Sophie a picture of the future in which Peter and she are in love and together forever. For Peter, however, while deeply grateful to Sophie for saving his life, it’s not a cut and dried determination that they will be lovers. With his new lease on life, Peter sees his future as one in which he is now free. Then he finds himself attracted to Chase as more than a friend, a development that surprises him, and certainly one that Sophie cannot even imagine.

As they work through these awakenings, their stories explore themes of first loves, expectations, indebtedness, outdated old beliefs and the changes that come with confronting things honestly. Like dandelion fluff, nobody knows where these understandings will be blown, but hopefully, well-rooted friendships will mature and survive.

Recommended.

A turbulent ride into the future with traces of the “Rusties” past littering the Victoria landscape is in store for readers of Scott Westerfeld’s Imposters. Put on something comfortable from your “hole in the wall”, grab your “crash bracelets” and step onto your hoverboard with your fully charged “pulse knife” and “cyrano”. Maybe secure a couple of plasma guns just in case for this plot line. Westerfeld quotes Chinese general Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, on the title page of Part 1: “Regard your soldiers as your children and they will follow you into the deepest of valleys.” This may not be pretty.

Sir Walter Scott said “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Frey, posing as her twin sister Rafi, encounters Col, the heir apparent to the city of Victoria. Here the twists and turns begin. Is the danger from without or within? Are the twin sisters like-minded though one raised a dignitary for the city of Shreve and the other was raised as her absolute secret body double — and as a trained killer? Throw in the love factor and Frey must decide if Col can be trusted with the truth, allowing her to become her own person. This is a page turner as Westerfeld weaves an intriguing tale pitting good against evil, love versus power, conservation over greed in the opposing neighboring cities of Shreve and Victoria. Recommended, as with all other Westerfeld titles.

Ascent is the 3rd in a series of books focusing on Peak Marcello, a teen whose life revolves around mountain climbing. His summit of Everest with his father in the 1st story was not on Peak’s terms. In book two, both extreme action and characters are brought into Peak’s life as he attempted to climb in Afghanistan. For his 3rd major climb, he just wants to return to the natural art of climbing, to have a “clean” climb. But in extreme sports, it is rare anything is easy. This reviewer read Ascent as a stand-alone 1st and it can hold its own as that, though knowing more of the background story with his father Josh, Zopa the wise spirit, and other characters really gives the story depth. Once the climb begins, Smith’s pace in events picks up, though the mystery and twists in the 1st half of the novel keep readers interested too. This is an additional purchase, especially if your library already holds Smiths earlier Peak stories.

How do you deal with death, especially the death of someone you look up to and admire? For Charlie, the death of his father will spin him into a world he never imagined for himself. Sent to his grandparents for the summer in 1988, Charlie learns he has friends, family, comic book heroes, basketball and jazz to help him get back to feeling normal. While Grandaddy impresses upon Charlie the job of being on a team and playing a full game, it’s his cousin Roxie who teaches him the game and moves to be great in the game. Grandmother’s cooking makes all things bearable as she listens and shares in his new adventure. A quick trip to jail might also be life-changing, and friend Skinny goes with him because that’s what friends do. Readers watch a 12 year old Charlie become something special, being the path of maturing into Chuck, father of Jordan and Josh Bell from Alexander’s earlier Newbury Award Winning The Crossover. A prequel to that novel in verse, Rebound will give depth to the story of the Bell family but can be read as a stand alone as well.

The Year of Living Awkwardly runs the reader rapidly through the life of high school sophomore Chloe Snow. The author, Emma Chastain, compels the reader through this emotional year with Chloe and her classmates as she works at the pool concession stand, plans to go to dances, hilariously prepares for and takes the PSAT, terrifyingly attends traffic safety classes, and flubs trying out for the school musical. If that isn’t enough drama, her parents have separated and are proceeding with a divorce. Chloe lives with her attorney dad while her writer mom has moved to Mexico with the boyfriend. Can Chloe forgive her mom for leaving? or her dad for dating Chloe’s English teacher? Can Chloe even figure out who her real friends are amongst the teen drama at school? Chastain presents a sophomore girl who is unfiltered, sexually aware and floundering to find love in most of the wrong ways. Some readers will be put off by this girl’s choices, though no doubt there are girls who have lived parallel lives to Chloe’s by the age of 16. The teenage angst is dripping from this novel as Chloe is battling how to be true to herself as she trusts and loves others. This is an additional purchase for upper high school students.

Maya is in an experimental phase in her life, quite literally. Going into the summer after graduating high school and losing her mother to cancer, Maya’s world is in a state of emulsion — droplets that aren’t mixing together in the right way. Whit, her boyfriend of over a year, dumps her for another girl. Her dad is more concerned with carabiners than college preparations. Her best friend, another boy, is leaving for college at the end of the summer. Maya’s summer plan consisted of transcribing notes from a college professor at MIT, where her mother had previously worked as a chemist and where Maya would be attending in the fall. But shortly after the implosion of her love life, Maya discovered a notebook of her mother’s with field notes on an secret experiment with a serum containing pheromones to spice up the mother’s relationship with her dad. With the help of a PhD candidate in the lab at MIT who had also worked on this secret project, Maya devises a way to continue the experiment, the goal of which is to get her boyfriend back. A true love story without many surprises, Meredith Goldstein gives readers a character that has a little fun while figuring out with which guy she really has the right chemistry. Recommended for hopeless romantics who like clean finishes.

The Unwanted is a vivid description of life experiences that result in the people of Syria leaving their homes to find a new place in the world.  In this graphic novel it is easy to relate to the plight of the refugees and understand why they undergo risky and harsh conditions to flee the life threatening war in their homeland.  It is highly understandable as the refugees speak simple sentences about their viewpoints. This book describes the obstacles to finding a new home plus why other countries may not welcome them.  It talks about historical events and the underlying political forces. The stories do tend to be sad. Anyone who wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants should read this book. It is interesting and informative for all levels of readers and I highly recommend it.

With apologies to 12th century romantics Abelard and Helouise, Laura Creedle’s The Love Letters of Abelard and Lilly is a romantic story that skims the surface of complicated issues such as ADHD, Autism, divorce and possibly depression.  Unrealistically, Abelard and Lilly end up in the principal’s office after breaking into a classroom at their school.  After a passionate kiss while awaiting their detention sentence, the two students who have known each other since elementary school obviously are following their loins.  Eye-rolling high school aged drama slowly carries the story until Lily has to decide to have a surgery or run away from home with Abelard.  The mother’s decisions at the end are even more far-fetched and leave this reader wondering how an editor led the author down this path.  This story will be pulled because of its title but I’m don’t think teens will really enjoy it’s trite writing.

In her memoir, March Forward, Girl, Arkansas public school’s integration pioneer Melba Pattillo Beals offers an important perspective on racial oppression in the 1940’s and 50’s American south.  Seen through a child’s eyes, the picture she presents is at both shocking and inspiring as she describes her life leading up to the moment she enrolled in the 1957 all white Little Rock Central High School as one of the “Little Rock Nine”.

Simple prose, detailed events, child’s point-of-view as honest and frank are highlights of this appalling oppression and mistreatment.  Written for readers from 7th grade and up, this is an adult looking back at her childhood that shaped her immensely.  Witnessing a lynching at the age of five, an abduction by the KKK at the age of eleven and escaping an attempted rape are terrible highlights of her narrative.  The subject matter is jarring, which should sadden readers with the reality of our nation’s past.  Lower level ore reluctant readers will be drawn in by the subject matter and accessibility of the writing while more advanced readers will find plenty to ponder.