Broken Soup
Jenny Valentine
Part mystery, part love story, Broken Soup is not the average “my brother died and now my family is falling apart” novel. Sure, Jack died unexpectedly, and now Rowan is left as the primary caregiver to younger sister Stroma because their mom just lies in bed all day and their dad has moved [...]
War Games
Audrey and Akila Couloumbis
Set in a Greek town during World War II, Petros, his brother Zola, and their cousins feel pretty safe. The war feels far away from their normal life. But first they have to navigate around Italian soldiers, and then the German military takes over. Petros’s older cousin is [...]
Going Bovine
Libba Bray
Cameron Smith is sixteen years old and his most outstanding quality is that he just doesn’t really care much about anything. He’s not incredibly social, but he’s not incredibly awkward either. Until weird things start to happen to his mind, anyway, and the doctors diagnose him with Mad Cow Disease. [...]
The Cardturner
Louis Sachar
The summer of his seventeenth year, Alton’s mother forces him to spend time with his “favorite uncle” in order to try to work the family’s way into the blind man’s last will and testament. Alton has to accompany his great-uncle, Trip, to his bridge games and act as his “cardturner.” Basically, [...]
Briar Rose
Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen’s rendition of Sleeping Beauty is a harrowing tale to tell. Unlike most of Disney’s famous and popular fairy tale interpretations, most of the original tales are far more gruesome and frightening, not meant for very small children to experience, and often have far-from-happy endings. Becca has been listening to her [...]
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum, adapted by Eric Shanower
Writer Eric Shanower and artist Skottie Young present a gorgeous retelling of the original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, originally written by L. Frank Baum in 1900. The Wizard of Oz has become a classic of American and international culture as a result [...]
A Million Shades of Gray
Cynthia Kadohata
All Y’Tin ever wanted was to be an elephant handler, and at thirteen, he is the youngest handler in his Dega village. He has big dreams of one day opening a training school for elephant handlers, the would-be first in Vietnam. But war interrupts everything, and the Vietnam [...]
The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
This Newbery Award winner tells the fascinating tale of Nobody Owens. Bod has spent his entire childhood living in a graveyard, raised and loved by ghosts, and watched over by guardian Silas, a man neither alive nor dead. While desperate to see more of the world, venturing beyond the graveyard [...]
Graceling
Kristin Cashore
Katsa is graced, and her grace is that she can kill. Anyone, anytime. Her royal uncle provides her with a place to live, controlling her through guilt and powerful threats, and it serves him to keep Katsa’s fighting skills practiced. But Katsa longs to break free and when she meets Po, [...]
Lips Touch : Three Times
Laini Taylor, illustrated by Jim DiBartolo
Lips Touch is the compilation of three separate stories, all with a similar nature. Whether it’s goblins, demons, humans, or spirits, love can lead to unexpected things. In “Goblin Fruit,” Kizzy’s heart begs to be loved and for just one kiss she might be [...]
Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena
Danny doesn’t know where he fits in. He relates most to his Mexican heritage, feeling more comfortable with his extended Mexican family than with his white mother. When his mom moves to San Francisco with her new boyfriend, Danny decides to stay the summer with dad’s side [...]
Breathless by Jessica Warman
Katie Kitrell’s life is a mess. It was when her mom finally became a successful artist and her dad started a psychiatry practice and the family actually had some money that Katie first started to feel the true burden of hatred and jealousy. The only friend she had was her [...]
Refresh, Refresh by Danica Novgorodoff
As in times past, many teenage boys are growing up without dads. Refresh, Refresh illustrates the lives of three boys who are waiting for their dads to come home, hoping that the military and the war doesn’t swallow their families whole. Gordon, Cody, and Josh are three friends whose [...]
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
This novel is based on the true story of a Hitler Youth named Helmuth Hubener who was imprisoned and put to death by the Nazis. Helmuth recounts the course of events leading up to his imprisonment from his jail cell on death row in Berlin , Germany [...]
Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
Cadel Piggott is a genius. Really. At age seven he was brought to see a psychologist because he kept getting in trouble as a result of his manipulation of computer and security equipment. By his thirteenth birthday, he was in his 11th year of school and was causing traffic jams, demolishing [...]
Permanence: Tattoo Portraits, North of Beautiful and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac are reviewed by…
The Spectacular Now, Sweethearts and The Compound are reviewed by Kate the Librarian…
Book recommendations by Franklin Lakes Teen Librarian, Kate Vasilik
August Teen Book reviews by Kate Vasilik, Franklin Lakes Teen Librarian…
July teen book reviews by Franklin Lakes, NJ Public Library’s, Kate the Librarian…
