With this month’s reviews, I’m highlighting the GARDEN STATE TEEN BOOK AWARDS. Maze Runner was the 2012 GSTBA Winning title in the Fiction Grade 6-8 Category, and Heist Society and Scrawl are both on the ballot for the 2013 GSTBA in the Fiction Grade 6-8 Category. The Garden State Teen Book Award is a project of the Young Adult Section of the New Jersey Library Association. Its awards committee, representing libraries from throughout the state, select up to 60 total nominees (20 in each category: Fiction Grade 6-8, Fiction Grade 9-12, Nonfiction) based on teen appeal and quality of writing from the previous year’s “Best Books” list. Online voting is available here: http://www.bccls.org/gstba/2013/ or on the Garden State Teen Book Awards Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/GSTBA
The Maze Runner
James Dashner
He knows that his name is “Thomas,” but he can’t remember much else to tell you. He arrived through the Box same as all the other teenage boys, one a month for two years, all with no memories of life before and all feeling pretty rough around the edges.
Thomas quickly learns the ropes of life in the Glade, knowing immediately — though he doesn’t really know why — that he wants to be a Runner. The Runners spend all day, every day out in the Maze that surrounds the Glade, methodically mapping out the maze and searching for exits or clues to figure out a way of escape. Each day they have to return before the doors of the Glade close and the deathly Grievers come out to play, otherwise they’ll be trapped out in the Maze all night, a sure death sentence. Those who even just get a taste of the Grievers’ claws or spikes must be given a serum, and even then suffer through the Changing, a horribly painful process that none will talk about, but those who have been through it are never the same.
The day after Thomas arrives, a girl is dropped off in the Box. From that moment on, nothing is the same. Will the Gladers be able to figure out the Maze, or will they give up all hope of survival and getting back to whatever unknown life they were forced to leave behind? Recommended to all, but especially older middle school and high school boys. Fans of The Hunger Games will surely eat up The Maze Runner series! (Sequels: The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure; Prequel: The Kill Order [due out August 2012])
Heist Society
Ally Carter
Katrina Bishop has grown up involved in the family business, especially around art museums – stealing from them, to be exact. She maneuvers her way into a fancy prep school only to find herself getting kicked out a few months later because she’s caught in an exceptional prank. Only she knows that she didn’t commit the offense, as creative and elaborate as it was. When W.W. Hale, an old friend, an ongoing flame, and a co-conspirator in the business, shows up, she’s pretty sure she’s being sucked back into a life that she still isn’t sure she wants to be a part of. But when it’s her dad who is in trouble, the job becomes personal and Kat is more determined than ever to set things right.
First I was reminded of Frankie Landau-Banks, and then I thought I might be running through a series of adventures in 39 Clues, but soon enough Kat, Hale, Simon, Gabrielle, and the Bagshaw brothers claim their rightful place as six of the most successful teenage adventurers, pranksters, and art thieves – ever. Well-done! This swift-moving read is recommended to all middle and high school readers.
Scrawl
Mark Shulman
Tod Munn is a bully. And this time he got caught doing something really bad, landing him in after-school detention. He’s stuck with Mrs. Woodrow writing in a notebook every single day for a whole month. His friends – Rob and Rex – are mad because they are outside the school picking up garbage every afternoon, while Tod gets to stay inside, writing stories.
Through Tod’s “stories,” the reader (and Mrs. Woodrow, who reads his entries every day, sometimes making comments) gets to know the bully. We learn more about his home life with his struggling seamstress mom and his angry stepfather. We learn more about his life in school: how the rich kids look down on him, how he uses his size and his power to beat up on smaller kids for their money, and how he manages to maintain Honor Roll every quarter. We learn about his unsolicited involvement in the school play, and we get to be his eyes and ears when the world seems to turn against him. There may not be a lot of sympathy for this story’s bully-hero, but his story will elicit unquestionable empathy.
Recommended to middle school and high school readers.
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Katherine Vasilik, A/YA Librarian
J. F. Kennedy Library
Piscataway, NJ
telephone: 732-463-1633 x6
email: kvasilik@piscatawaylibrary.org or kate_thelibrarian@yahoo.com
blog: http://katethelibrarian.blogspot.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/piscatawaylibrary