Every Day
David Levithan
For as far back as memory goes, A has woken up as a different person every single morning. A does not become a different person on the inside, but inhabits a different body each day and must live according to that person’s life. By accessing memories, A can interact, react, and get through the day leaving the host body’s life relatively unaltered . . . most of the time. But when A is in Justin’s body and meets Rhiannon, all of the rules change. For the very first time, A discovers another person that makes moving on impossible. A wants to be with Rhiannon, not for just a day, but every day.
This is a story of friendship, of love, of self, and of faith. While new perspectives emerge with each and every body, and experiences of intense emotions from grief, to despair, happiness, fear, and peace are alternately overwhelming and thrilling, A does not get to hold onto any of this. None of it belongs to A. Until the experience of love.
Recommended to each and every reader. Well done in print and on audio.
Stupid Fast
Geoff Herbach
‘Stupid Fast : The summer I went from a joke to a jock” definitely illustrates Felton Reinstein’s life one high school summer. But it doesn’t even begin to encompass all that he goes through in those short — um, long — months.
Felton has grown. All of a sudden, he has hair everywhere, his body is catching up to his ginormous hands, and he is stupid fast. A few weeks in the locker room with weights and he is stupid strong, too. Everybody notices, but Felton still pictures himself as a small, weak kid, with nothing much to offer anybody. The football team latches onto him, Aleah – the daughter of a professor staying in town for the summer semester – definitely notices him, the crazy lady at the nursing home screams every time she seems him, and he seems to be driving his mother further and further into Crazy Town. Felton doesn’t even begin to know how to start to figure life out. So he runs.
This is an original novel with an original voice. Felton experiences every single sort of growing pain possible, making him both a frustrating and sympathetic character. This one is perfect for young teenage boys, despite the smattering of curse words, and should let them know that life moves on, people aren’t always what they seem, and maybe their lives aren’t all that bad.
Second Chance Summer
Morgan Matson
This novel opens up with a quote from Death Cab for Cutie: Love is watching someone die. But while you should probably prepare yourself for a tearjerker, there are also a number of layers to this story that might surprise you.
Taylor Edwards and her family used to always spend summers at the lake in Pennsylvania, at least until after the summer she was twelve. The summer of the botched romance, the fallout with her best friend, and the inability to confront any of her fears. But this year, they are going back to spend one last season all together at their summerhouse. With the news of late stage cancer, this will likely be her dad’s last summer ever.
There are certainly a lot of “issues” packed into this thick novel, but the story manages to be touching and frustrating at all the right times, and even if it doesn’t resonate with every reader, there is value in the message that lives are meant to be lived, not avoided. Morgan Matson also wrote the beloved Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour.
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Katherine Vasilik
Librarian, Head of User Services
J. F. Kennedy Library
Piscataway, NJ
telephone: 732-463-1633 x18
email: kvasilik@piscatawaylibrary.org or kate_thelibrarian@yahoo.com
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