How much abuse could you be dealt before it crushes your spirit?  Lisa Heathfield’s story of June’s child and young adulthood is a psychological twister, alternating chapters between before and after an event that changes everything.  Before, June’s mother had died and her father had remarried Kathleen.  After, June is talking to Reverend Shaw about forgiveness.  And then the Before takes off, where Kathleen seems like the perfect wife and doting mom when the father is around, but when he’s not, it’s purely mental and physical torture for June.  Force-feeding her over years to make June obese, coming into her room at night and cutting off some of her hair, and making Megan, the step-sister participate in the multiple physical and spiritual crimes, June hates her life but can not find the words to tell an adult.  Her only escape is a literal one.  When she received a bicycle for her birthday, she is able to ride to an area on the outskirts of town.  Here she meets Blister, a sensitive, creative, smart boy with whom she develops a deep friendship and eventual love interest in over the years.  While other students make fun of her at school and push her to take actions that get her in trouble, Blister sees into June’s soul but must remain a secret, else Kathleen will kill this happy aspect of her life too.  In the after chapters, Heathfield gives hints as readers start to piece together what could have happened between Kathleen and June, but this reader did not foresee the path this story would take.  Young adult readers from 7th and up will cringe with June and love with June and they will follow June until the very last moment.

Filled with magical realism reminiscent of Isabel Allende, Maggie Steifvater takes readers to the fantasy of town of Bicho Raro, Colorado, where strangers find themselves coming to “find themselves”.   Three cousins, who act more like siblings, Beatriz, Daniel and Joaquin, all possess the family power to bring out the inner darkness in people but it is up to the visitors themselves to find their own miracle cure in defeating their inner demons.  Young adult readers who are used to plot-driven contemporary coming of age novels will need to be patient with Steifvater’s writing and try to look at it via the lense of good art rather than entertainment.  Motifs of owls and roses, conflicts of inner powers vs outer perceptions, and landscapes both real and fantastical will swoon some readers and surprise previous Stiefvater fans. Plus, the gorgeous cover will sell this as well.  Recommended for upper middle and high school libraries.

Hip-Hop Culture, part of the Hip-Hop Insider series, takes one on an informative, fast-paced and fascinating trip through hip-hop history up to today’s influences such as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s use of hip-hop in Hamilton. Written by history teacher/author Judy Dodge Cummings, readers quickly see the widespread influence hip-hop has had since 1973 with its birth by DJ Kool Herc trying to fulfill a need for new school clothes by throwing a “concert” at a local rec center where he and his sister charged admission.  Here he began combining songs during drum sections and this form of hip-hop became deejaying – one of four connected touchstones.  From ghetto to global stage, from need to commercialization, Cummings lays out the influence of deejaying as well as the other three –emceeing, dance, and graffiti — have had in cultivating hip-hop culture and likewise how hip-hop has influenced our word, dance, music, dress, and politics.  Complete with bright color photos and historic side-bars, a timeline, essential facts, glossary, resources, and notes for each chapter, the 112-page text maintains an upbeat feel.  While written for the young adult audience, Hip-Hop Culture provides provocative food for thought and discussions at a higher level that one would initially imagine.  Recommended for libraries who need a more recent copyright date.

The Negro Leagues: Celebrating Baseball’s Unsung Heroes by Matt Doeden is written in a simple, easy to understand format with lots of pictures, however, the issues are very complex.  At a time in history when baseball leagues were segregated by the color of one’s skin,  Doeden details some differences between the better-known baseball leagues where all players had light colored skin and the lesser known “negro leagues” where most players were of African American descent and the records were by word of mouth rather than written down.  It illustrates the difficulties of playing as people of African descent, yet the black community overcame many of these difficulties to produce interesting games and outstanding players.

This book also may help you to understand current controversies in the media.  We now view multiracial teams and players are recognized based on their ability to play, rather than the color of their skin.  However, it is the black team members who are silently protesting the national anthem at football games as black members of society are still not treated equally in our communities.  Unfortunately, white commentators and politicians fail to understand what they are protesting.

The book also illustrates the outcomes of integrating the baseball teams as the negro teams disintegrated as their best players joined the integrated teams. This can help us understand the current controversy of integrating Boy Scouts and allowing girls into their organization.  Will allowing girls into Boy Scouts lead to a weakening of Girl Scouts as it draws away the most involved supporters, families, and girls?

If a library doesn’t have a good text already covering this topic, The Negro Leagues: Celebrating Baseball’s Unsung Heroes fits the bill as an additional purchase.

All in Pieces by Suzanne Young stretches the drama of an unhappy, unloved teenage girl to the max. Savannah Sutton is in a reform high school for anger management for stabbing a pencil into the hand of her former boyfriend when he mocks her special needs brother. At Brooks Academy, Savannah meets Cameron, a modern day Prince Charming. In spite of Savannah’s resistance, Cameron breaks through her protective shield and “rescues” her from some uncomfortable situations. Learning to deal with anger when feeling powerless is addressed honestly. Being “saved” by a handsome, rich, altruistic guy is an unrealistic solution to the not uncommon problems of an alcoholic father, a runaway mother, a special needs sibling, and poverty. Rough language and a friend’s near-fatal overdose make the story teeter on the edge of “too much”!  The novel is timely in its choice of topics but totally off the mark in the resolution of being saved by a guy and the reliance of “others” to take care of  Savannah rather than showing how she could develop her own strength and self-reliance.  Not the best YA available.

Internet neutrality is a hot topic issue in the U.S. Congress at the moment.  The book Net Neutrality presents a concise forum for the discussion and explanation of different aspects regulating to the use and abuse of the world wide web.  Who should regulate the speed, source, and options of what is available on the internet?  Should the speed of the internet service be charged accordingly?  Is government involvement a good or bad idea?  The pros and cons of the debate are succinctly presented for consideration.  The legal battle is between the internet being a public, open use utility or a private, for-profit business.  How to regulate in order to protect consumers from high usage charges and yet stimulate internet businesses to grow, expand and innovate is the issue. This book gives a simple, beginning approach to the new problems of the information age and is recommended for high school libraries.

Black Holes by Sara Latta is non-fiction book that is a quick and captivating read for those who are interested in astronomy and physics but not becoming actual astronomers or physicists.

Latta presents the history and backstory of how the concept of black holes, which started out being called dark stars, has grown into our modern conceptual and theoretical knowledge we now use in studying these unique celestial bodies. From Newton’s Principia, to John Mitchell who first theorized about “dark stars,” to Einstein, Hawking and beyond, Latta presents a scientific history that doesn’t bog the reader down with the overwhelming amount of mathematics which underlies the hypotheses and theories of black holes, but gives a taste to accentuate and assist with the concepts being explained.

The book is laid out in timeline order that would flow smoothly and transition easily, except for an abundance of side notes that explain different concepts. The side notes are interesting and informative, but break the train of thought as you move through the book– some being up to two pages long.

As a nonfiction text, the use of pictures and drawings assist the reader with the concept of imagining the unimaginable. They introduce the reader to the scientists and devices used, the data as it is gathered and assembled, and examples that try to put the scope of vastness being described into context.

Black Holes is about a topic that not everyone would take an interest in without prompting or reason, but not giving this book a chance would leave one with a “hole” in their knowledge of the universe around them. Therefore this books is recommended for the casual to interested science reader.  

Labyrinth, by Israel Keats, is a juvenile fiction book in the science fiction genre that is fast paced and action packed.

The story begins with two teens, a boy from a dysfunctional family who feels that he has nothing to live for, and a girl from a caring home, but one in comparison where the parents schedule every minute of her day, picking classes and outside activities for her. Set in the near future of 2089, when a gaming company L33T C0RP has developed the next stage in virtual reality in which you are an actual player, their task is to work together to complete the game before either time or their lives run out. The stakes are high– win or remain in the game forever. 

Keats does a good job of working the different aspects of the teens’ lives such as the boy-girl dynamic, athlete/non-athlete, middle class/lower class, student/non-student in the short 117 pages of this reluctant reader style book.  The characters dive into the plot immediately, with action on almost every page. There are also riddles that the character(s) need to solve that may leave you stumped. The dynamic conflicts between the two characters are resolved as effectively as possible with little stereotyping or cliche.

This book is recommended to those who like video games as the setting is inside a video game, and fast-paced action stories.  

Like sappy love stories — this is not it.  The Last True Love Story does not take place in a high school.  The Last True Love Story does not have a female protagonist.  The Last True Love Story does not have an amazing happily-ever-after ending.  The Last True Love Story is about love that is deeper than the superficial stuff most teens crave.  And that is why this book can succeed.  Teddy has a lot on his shoulders.  His mother travels for work.  His father drove off a bridge when he was much too young to remember anything about him.  His Gpa, whom he visits on a regular basis, is battling Alzheimer’s.  But Gpa does remember how much he loved his wife and the last thing he wants is to lose her again.  When fate allows Teddy to meet Corrina, an acoustic guitar playing, non-theatrical music buff who desperately wants to go to New York City, causes Teddy’s mom to be out of town but the car left behind, and proposes the chance to drive across country to take Gpa back to his long-lost home in Ithica, New York, Teddy takes a leap of faith like he’s never done before.  The love themes explored in this book is veiny, deep, and rings more true than most hokey love stories for young adult fiction.  And while this is such a huge part of the book, this reader is afraid the title alone will keep males from reading it.  Well-versed musicians and music history fans will appreciate all the references to decades of songs.  This is a good read that might be overlooked.

When one of two star-crossed lovers full of teen agnst run falls off of a cliff in the 1st chapter, readers of Keep Me In Mind by Jaime Reed will be anxiously ready to turn the next pages.  Alternating chapters between each, Ellia Dawson and Liam McPherson tell their side of the story in dealing with love, parents who want to keep them apart, and one other huge issue — amnesia.  Ellia’s fall causes her to lose her memory of her last year with Liam.  He claims he is her boyfriend, that they were in love, but then why are her parents so concerned with them not seeing each other?  Is it only because she is black and he is white?  This clever idea taken from the best of soap operas get a little old about half way into the book.  No doubt Liam will begin to flounder in his feelings and a chaotic choice at the school dance will put his efforts to get Ellia back into a tail spin. Reed’s writing is just as good as any, but the idea looses steam despite efforts to be mysterious.  This reader isn’t even sure why the “race card” is part of the story.  Keep Me In Mind will keep readers who stay committed to the end reading but other students may just leave it in their locker for months until the overdue notices pile up.  But with no sex, drugs or rock and roll, this can span into the middle school library, a rarity for young adult lit these days.