lower east side librarian

Per my post on LCSH Watch 2009, Week 51, I discovered this book via its subject heading, FEMALE JUVENILE DELINQUENTS—FICTION. If I were assigning subject headings, I wouldn't necessarily have picked that one, though. I might have gone with one of the cataloger's other choices PROBLEM FAMILIES -- ENGLAND -- NOTTINGHAM -- FICTION, but more to the point, CHILDREN OF DRUG ADDICTS. Essentially, I would have been more loving to the book's protagonist, Kerrie-Ann (Kez) Hill, whom we follow from the age of five to eighteen. She does a lot of illegal things and more than her share of drugs, but I don't see her as a delinquent, and neither does author Nicola Monaghan.

A lonely girl who moves a lot and has a wacky mom meets a lonely boy with a distant dad and a missing twin. But refreshingly, this isn't a teen romance novel. There is some romantic tension and jealousy, but really this book is about the friendship between the two of them.

What if Red Riding Hood's wolf was actually a werewolf who vowed revenge against the bad doggie who ate her grandma? That's more or less the story Ms. Pearce tells, except that Red Riding Hood is actually sisters, one a fighter and one a lover.

I don't like to write bad book reviews. Normally, I don't finish books I don't like, but with young adult books, it's easier to keep going even when they suck. So this is my warning to you, should you not heed the fact that Deepak Chopra supplied one of The Seven Rays' blurbs: just because Ms. Bendinger wrote Bring It On and Stick It, the latter of which I love with all my heart, does not mean she can or should write novels.

And the weirdest thing, she thanks the cover designer in her acknowledgments.

Milo told me to read this, so I did. It's about a prom crazed high school senior who changes from Jill to Jack four days of the month, as she has since the onset of menstruation.

I probably can't talk about this book without spoilering it, so proceed with caution, especially Danna, to whom I am going to mail it as soon as it's safe to go back to the post office. (i.e. after Santamas)

The first back of the book blurb likens the title character to a 21st century Lolita, but I think she's more similar to a blogging Go Ask Alice.

Searching for a long-lost (actually never known to her) family member, 15-year-old Maya eludes an icky foster care placement (Christians, with a would-be-Dad whose eyes rest at chest level) and takes to the mean streets of northwest Nevada and southeast Idaho. Ayarbe (Freeze Frame) draws a convincing sketch of teenage life on the run and also the familial bonds that develop between traveling companions. Bad things happen in this book and there is no romantic subplot.

My summary of this not-too- far-in-the-future dystopia in four haiku stanzas:

The Department of
Homeland Security runs
amok post attack.

Hacker teens fight the
power and teach the reader
about crypto tech.

Teen reader primer
on history, politics
and the internet.

Plus boy meets girl.
Parents are dumb then helpful.
Ends with vote or die.

The fourth in the Gossip Girl meets the Vampire Diaries series Blue Bloods is more romance than vampire. It's as absorbing as its predecessors but is somewhat thin--like its three vampire/model narrators.

First off, I need to come out as a payolateer. The author sent me her book--the second YA writer to do so, the first being Jessica Dreistadt--for free to review right here on my blog. I didn't promise a good review or accept money or anything, but if I understood Lisa Von Drasek correctly at the blogging meetup, I should pay taxes on the cover price of review copies I receive.