A charming collection of stories of chance meetings, star-crossed lovers and random coincidences: serendipitous encounters that are remembered forever. Can entwining hands with a handsome stranger give a glimpse to your romantic future?  Can a chance meeting at the airport alter your choice of college? Can hiding out in the bathroom to escape being busted by the cops reveal a secret crush? The brief vignettes in this short story anthology are delightful and thought provoking, representing some of the best twenty-first century YA writers.  Easy to read one or two stories quickly or the whole book, Meet Cute is worth browsing.

A taxidermist, a percussionist, and a fanfic writer walk into a… convention center, not a bar since this is a YA novel. And this begins this humorous, kitchy story from three different authors — Alison Cherry, Lindsay Ribar and Michelle Schusterman.  Callie Buchannon, a taxidermist assistant to the recently separated father, wanted her week to be the chance to reconnect with him. Pheobe Byrd, traveling with her school’s underfunded percussion team, hoped to just make it through the week without too much embarrassment, on the stage and off, now that her two former best friends on the team are dating each other, causing Phoebe emotional strife.  Laden romantic interest in another team member further spins Phoebe’s mind.  Vanessa Montoya-O’Callaghan’s week looks better in person now that she’s met her online college-aged non-monogamous girlfriend, with whom she’s sharing not only the weekend but a room.  Each character’s issues arise in good times and bad in their 1st person voice as the chapters proceed.  Vanessa is coming to realize that the girl who she thought the world of is not all that.  Well-placed inner monologue and discussions with minor characters about gender pronouns help to make this coming-of-age week realistic in today’s world.   And any reader who is into fandoms will love chapters involving Vanessa.  Phoebe’s sudden feelings for her once rival bandmate and Callie’s frustration with her father’s lack of being a father fall into more traditional teen angst topics.  Early in the story Callie states, “Openly talking about taxidermy with someone I liked and respected was such a weird experience.”  For this reader, it is also a weird experience to read it.  Opening the book with Callie’s voice was a risk as young adult readers might not be willing to break through the taxidermy talk before they meet the other characters, but if they can pull through, it is well worth it because once all three worlds start colliding around page 100, this story takes off.  The dust jacket’s premise doesn’t do this book justice.  The interlacing of the stories by these three authors is seamless and the ending transcript and final pages are a basketweave of wedding cake icing — FANtastic.  A clever, episodic (in the best way) read high school students will look forward to when they find it.

Part of Abdo’s Hip-Hop Artists series, Alicia Klepeis biography of Kanye West is both smooth and dynamic, much like the focal artist himself.  Many unique qualities and factoids are brought up by Klepeis.  Readers will get to learn that Kanye was mainly self-taught and pursued other artists, begging them to teach one or two skills at a time.  He first made a name for himself as a producer and as he tried to get a recording contract, industry leaders didn’t think his own rap would sell because he didn’t come from the wrong side of the tracks.  His upper-middle-class household was supported by a single mother though; she was a university professor mother who provided a comfortable, supportive environment.  But Kanye worked for his own money from an early age as well to support his high-class fashion-forward tastes.  Focusing on his multi-faceted talents, Klepeis goes on to chronical Kanye’s albums, awards, and milestone moments in 96 pages of text and photos.  This is a highly accessible biography for middle and high school students, one that probably should be in most high school libraries.

A Few Red Drops by Claire Hartfield tells the story of the Chicago Race Riots of 1919 in a thoughtful, compelling manner.  It presents this event, which was one of many during that sweltering summer of 1919, arising from a build up of social and economic tensions between immigrant European and blacks.  This telling examines not only the event but performs an in-depth analysis of the antecedent conditions that led to this element of a nationwide explosion.  The book begins with an excerpt from a poem by Carl Sandburg, who witnessed the riot, titled “I am the People, the Mob”.  The gist of the poem is that people collectively create history, then collectively forget its lessons so that nothing is learned.  This work is the author’s effort to correct this collective inability to remember so that people may learn about and correct this collective inability to remember so that people can correct past injustices.  The effort is facilitated by the use of photographs, political cartoons, period pamphlets and flyers that effectively support the text, making it come alive and providing the reader with a feeling for what life was like during this period.  A Few Red Drops is a poignant presentation of a, particularly bleak period in the sincere hope that we may, by reliving it, be able to remember and actually begin the work necessary to make a real change in the nature of society.  The work is appropriate for more advanced readers and is highly recommended.

100 Days of Cake, by Shari Goldhagen, is a book about an American high school girl named Molly Bryne whose mother makes a new cake every day in an effort to make life better.  Molly has mental health issues and faces challenges including with her employment where they are so bored they watch TV and a younger sister who seems so perfect. She goes above and beyond when her job seems to be ending and then the unthinkable happens.  Will Molly crumble? The easy readability of this book with highly relatable characters will appeal to young adults. Set in the summer when life slows down,  what happened to Molly is shocking and brings readers back to the harsh realities of life. While the background of Molly’s family life is sad, they now live a more “normal” life. Will that normalcy help Molly in her time of questioning, crisis and grief?   Will cake help?  Highly unlikely.  Recommended as an additional purchase for high school and public libraries.  

No Good Deed, Goldy Moldavsky’s latest Y.A. offering, certainly lives up to what the famous phrase declares: “No good deed goes unpunished”. It is true for the lively cast of characters who head to tech genius Robert Drill’s summer camp for youthful activists, Camp Save the World, run haphazardly by his new stepson, Jimmy.

Ablaze with zeal and commitment to Feed the Children of the world, Gregor Maravilla signs up for what he expects to be a summer of learning how to achieve his lofty goal while meeting others with their own burning issues, such as Men’s Rights, Diabetes Awareness, Down with Styrofoam, Boycott Camp and Stop Clubbing Baby Seals. Unfortunately, once a prize is introduced to the mix, underhanded competition and dirty tricks prevail as things get dangerous.

When teen movie star Ashley Woodstone (Eat Dirt) shows great interest in Gregor, he feels annoyed. Ultimately, however, their unlikely friendship helps Gregor realize that saving the world happens first in the heart, and then in the many little worlds where change can be truly made.

Engrossing, funny, tender and totally on-point, this book explores what happens ‘when doing right goes wrong’ while being a delicious satire on activism and activists going quite a bit too far. Highly recommended.  

Reviewed by Holly Graham for Kristi Bonds

With surname like hers, the young heroine in Lianne Oelke’s debut novel, Nice Try, Jane Sinner, certainly has good reason to have, when it hits, a crisis of identity regarding her faith in light of her family’s strong religious beliefs. Feeling like a fraud, Jane makes a failed but public attempt at ending it all, only to find herself still alive and politely asked to leave her high school so she won’t provide a bad example to her fellow students.

Determined to somehow make a new start and find her true self, Jane reluctantly enrolls in the ersatz Elbow River Community College and auditions for a reality show in which, to her surprise, she is cast. Called “House of Orange” in homage to the vintage orange shag carpeting in the house, the online competition features other quirky characters vying to win money and a car by outlasting each other: the last resident wins. Under the constant scrutiny of the HOO camera crew and the student producer, Jane keeps a journal of her progress and her tactics to survive, sparing herself nothing in the way of truth. Her journey is engrossing and humorous, taking the reader along for the bumpy ride of finding love, her voice, her backbone, her hope and herself.

Set in Canada, this book is satisfying, worthwhile and highly recommended for Young Adult readers ages 14 and up.

Eye of the Storm is a well researched and skillfully written description of a NASA’s critically important project to study the dynamics of Hurricane Intensification. The text is oriented toward intermediate readers. Scientific jargon is either replaced with concise plain language or clearly defined so as not to be off-putting. The book begins with a human interest story relating to the experience of a Staten Island family that chose to ride out Hurricane Sandy at home. Due to reports designation Sandy as a Category 1 storm, the lowest level of sustained wind, this choice seemed sound. Unexpectedly, Sandy suddenly intensified and completely devastated the area where the Dresch family lived. The mother lived, but the father and daughter perished. The NASA project, the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) drone was implemented to study the way hurricanes form and build strength. In this way, forecasts can be much more useful in determining emergency response needs and accurate evacuation requirements. The book is a well-balanced combination of the science of cyclonic storms, the technology NASA is using to study them, and the people performing the work. This is supported by excellent photography and detailed graphics. The politics surrounding these devastating storms is also examined. Eye of the Storm is a compelling treatment of this valuable NASA project and is recommended.

Seventeen years later,  questions still abound about how 9/11 could have happened.   Were those horrible events a well organized plan of radical Muslims or a coordinated, clandestine conspiracy of a few powerful people or even possibly, a plot orchestrated by the US government to undermine the status quo?

A Truther is a person who intensely believes that the tragedies of 9/11 were an organized cover-up by the United States Government.  In fact, there are numerous conspiracy theories about different events of the 20th century, like the Kennedy assassination.  The book, Truthers, reveals the different theories in interesting ways and makes compelling arguments for the possibility of conspiracy by either rich corporations or the actual US Government.  In searching for a release for her father from a mental institution, Katie discovers that some of his drug/alcohol ramblings may be true. Her father may know what really happened on 9/11, who was responsible for it and that she may be the only survivor of the horrible event.  The story is intriguing as a moment in time that deeply changed America well as a human interest story of a young girl trying to defend her father.  This is a good read about 9/11 and all the conspiracy theories that still surround it.

The ritualistic “sharing” begins with the affirmation: “He is the floor beneath our feet and the roof above our heads.  He is the walls around us.  He is the window through which we see into ourselves and the door that leads to a better understanding.  He is always watching…”  Thus beginneth the opportunity for four captured children to confess to an error and one of the four to take a torturous consequence on behalf of the group as part of His plan.  The four children are part of His networked cult and are brainwashed into acting and looking like 4 siblings from a distant time known as The Special Ones.  The Special Ones talk to followers online each night to give advice on how to live a pious life.  The Special Ones live in a compound without electricity or running water, with basic supplies arriving miraculously at night from Him, but with the expectation that they can farm and forage from themselves to survive.  When a Special One receives their “renewal” notice from Him, they don’t know if they will be let go from the kidnapping, kept captive elsewhere or killed.  And when one person leaves on renewal, a new person is “collected” and brought in to take their place.  Told from two points of view, that of a kidnapped sibling “Esther” and the “Him”, Bailey has a knack for eerie, suspense-laden story-telling.  The story moves quickly once the premise is realized and though it is not very realistic, it will keep readers wanting to see it through to the end.  Highly recommended for middle and high school libraries for fans of mystery and suspense.