Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Moore, C.

2002

New York: HarperCollins

Age Range: 14+

Genre: Cross-Over Books, Historical Fiction

Rating: 4.5/5

A delightfully funny fictionalized history of one of the most famous people EVER. Told through the eyes of Joshua's (Jesus') best friend, Biff, this story is full of humor, sex, violence, miracles, food, soul-searching, blissful redemption, friendship, loyalty and human heartache. All-in-all, a great book!

Biff is hilarious, Josh is pure and decidedly human, and the folks they meet along their journey to truth and salvation are cruel, amazing, fabulous and just plain funny. This is the book disgruntled Catholic kids everywhere have been searching for! It's funny without being blasphemous, edgy without being sacrilegious, and offers older young adults the opportunity to read a mature book with mature themes, but in a fully accessible format.

The opportunities for YA library discussion and programming associated with this book are vast: all it takes is a little imagination, some great non-fiction books on world religions, and maybe even some "come dressed as Jesus" party tips from Jenifesto! A great book, a great message and a damn funny portrayal of the big J!

The House of the Scorpion
Farmer, N.
2002
New York: Simon Pulse
Age Range: 12+
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 5/5


Matteo Alacrán (Matt) is the clone of El Patrón, drug lord supreme of Opium - a new country on the borders of the United States and what was once Mexico. Matt grows up not really understanding who or what he is, but at the age of 6 he realizes that things aren't exactly right in his world. Although his caregiver Celia tries to protect him, he eventually comes to know how people in Opium treat clones by personal experience. Matt must fight against all he knows to save himself and to prove to those he loves that he is more than just a photograph of a person.

Matt is as human a character as any I've read; he is smart, witty, cruel, powerful, caring and complex. Farmer creates a wonderful juxtaposition between Matt as a clone who is not supposed to be human, and El Patrón's family, who are "human," but vastly inhumane. Throughout the hardships that Matt must face, we ultimately see him become a strong and moral person based on the decisions he makes.

The House of the Scorpion is a wonderful commentary on our society's adoration of scientific development, on the importance we place on social politics, and especially on the ethical limitations that we may one day cross. But it is much more than that - it's a really, really, really great book! The character development is precise, the plot is totally engaging, the themes are deep and disturbing, and Farmer doesn't let the reader down at any point, even the ending (which, let's be honest, is often the weakest spot).

A fabulous read for adults and young adults alike, House of the Scorpion gets FULL marks from this librarian-in-training!

Sticks and Stones
Goobie, B.
2002
Victoria, BC: Orca Books
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Hi/Lo, Realistic Fiction, Canadian Author
Rating: 4/5


Rumors become the centre of Jujube's life at school when she gets inaccurately marked as a "slut." To combat the damaging words, her and her friend Carlos create a project about the communication tool of graffiti and it's impact on people's lives.

A quick and compelling read, Sticks and Stones doesn't waste time getting into the meat of the story, and offers characters that are vivid even in their brevity. A great book to start discussions about the importance of words and the impact of rumor and gossip, Sticks and Stones does exactly what it sets out to do: offer an interesting, relevant story in a highly accessible format.

Rooster
Trembath, D.
2005
Victoria, BC: Orca Books
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Hi/Lo, Realistic Fiction, Canadian Author
Rating: 3/5


As a last ditch effort to help Rooster Cobb get out of high school (even though he doesn't particularly seem to deserve it), the administration at Winston High creates a community cooperation project with the local home for adults with disabilities. Although Rooster is vehemently opposed, his task is to help the bowling team, the Strikers, become part of the Special Olympics Bowling League. Along the way he realizes that that his relationship with the Strikers is important, as is his future.

A book trying too hard to be something it is not, Rooster takes too much time getting into the story, not enough effort developing the central characters and offers much too much back-story on minor characters. By the time I actually cared enough about Rooster to bother musing about his future, I was on the second last chapter of the novel. Attempting a kind of emotional depth that just didn't work, Trembath took too long to get to the point, and spent way too little time while he was there.

As my first foray into the hi/lo genre, I am semi-disappointed. It wasn't a terrible book, but it wasn't good either. I can definitely see how, designed for the older male reader without much affection for reading, it could work. I have to read more of the hi/lo book in order to truly determine the level to which Rooster is successful; more to come!

The Truth About Forever
Dessen, S.
2004
New York: Penguin
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

Macy Queen is stuck without her boyfriend and with a dry job at (gasp) the public library for the summer, but she finds much better ways to fulfill her emotional and social needs when she meets raw, exciting folks associated with a peanut-gallery-esque catering company. With the help of her new friends, Macy learns how to deal not only with her own social anxieties and perfection complex, but also with the pain of her father's recent death.

The Truth About Forever was a difficult book for me to read; I lost my father at 18 and even though time has passed, Dessen's tone and direct, descriptive writing hit a very deep nerve for me. This is a stunning book about loss, about buried pain and self-flagellation, about sometimes sticking with people only because they're familiar, about being scared to meet new people, about that terror you feel when you're outside yourself, and ultimately about becoming who you really are. I can even forgive the negative stereotyping of the library as dust-dull, and for me, that takes effort!

A good, quick, emotional read that kept me interested until the very end!

Keeping You a Secret
Peters, J.A.
2003
New York: Little, Brown and Company
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ Fiction
Rating: 3.75/5

Chronicling the first real love affair of Holland Jaeger's life, Keeping You a Secret describes the intense highs and crushing blows that love can offer. Holland's life up until this point has been pretty white-bread: good grades, handsome boyfriend, stable family, great social life. But as soon as she recognizes her feelings for Cece, the new girl at school, Holland must deal with issues that reach far beyond the reality of regular teenage love pangs.

A decently written account of the threatening nature of LGBTQ life in high school, Keeping You a Secret kept me interested, but didn't quite make it's way into the "really good book" category. I found the drippy, cutsey love talk a little too, well, teenage! And although I understand that the characters are adolescents (YA literature, right!), I still thought it was a little overdone. The description of Holland's journey towards self-disclosure and self-acceptance was well crafted and felt genuine as I was reading, but it could not make up for what I felt was forced love-dovey melodrama at certain points.


Luna
Peters, J.A.
2006
New York: Little Brown and Company
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5


After reading Peters' Luna, a novel from the perspective of Regan, the sister of a transexual adolescent dealing with the pressure of being the only person who knows about her brother's real personality, I just can't help comparing! Luna is much better written, with fuller characters and complicated, beautiful familial relationships. I felt much, much more for Regan and Luna (Liam) than I could for Holland and Cece, and that connection made this a great book!

Looking for Alaska
Green, J.
2005
New York: Penguin
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction; Printz Award Winner
Rating: 4.5/5


Embarking on a boarding school journey to experience the "Great Perhaps" or something at least a little like it, Miles is completely and utterly changed by this new, frantic existence. The epitome of adolescent self-consciousness, Miles becomes a character that is not only familiar to us, but actually may be us. As circumstances reveal themselves, Miles must deal with the really big things in life, and does so with a beautiful, awkward grace.

I'll admit that Printz Award winners or honour books are pretty much sure-fire goodness for me. And this was no let-down. Intense, funny, well-written, filled with true situations and real adolescent fears, Looking for Alaska is a genuinely good book. Miles and his friends are rich characters with much unrevealed depth, and the relationships that Green creates are complicated and real and cruel and sad and ultimately beautiful.

I'll also admit that I cried. Don't tell anyone!

Catalyst
Anderson, L. H.
2002.
New York: Viking
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5


Intensity tangibly flows from this novel. The stress of being "Good Kate," the girl who gets straight As, acts as mother-nursemaid-housekeeper-glue for her preacher father and asthmatic brother, is the perfect girlfriend to her Harvard-bound boy, and otherwise exhibits superhuman powers is becoming much too much for Kate Malone to bear. She doesn't sleep, runs until her chest aches and her achilles tendon is about to snap, and irons her father's shirts until they could preach themselves. Her dream, to attend MIT just like her mother is quickly crashing down around her ears; her father is a much better religious zealot than parent; and to top it all off, her arch-nemesis Teri moves in after her home is damaged by fire. It's enough to make anyone snap! Although the Teri situation is bleak, Kate quickly becomes attached to Teri's little brother Mickey and his bright personality, finding reprieve in the simplicity of the little boy's life. When an accident occurs at the re-build site for Teri and Mickey's home, the implications are great. Kate must learn to deal with her own feelings as well as forge a connection with Teri, and understand that there can be many catalysts for one reaction.

An amazing, insightful and intense novel. I was placed directly in the mind of this brilliant but exceptionally fragile protaganist - feeling Kate's fears, frustrations, joys and pains. Anderson is a masterful writer who easily captures the stress, heartache, expectations and terror that adolescence can bring. A great novel that shows the interconnectedness of life and the beauty that can come from loss.

Welcome

Welcome to the Young Adult Library!

Used as a review/reading log of young adult literature, this blog will cover a range of resources and offer one librarian-in-training's view of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers,
A.