Beastly by Alex Flinn
Kyle is your average teenager. Okay, well, maybe he’s a little bit above average. Or, if you ask him, a lot above average – in the looks department, anyway. And in the getting-girls-to-like-you department, and pretty much in the getting-everyone-to-like-you department. Kyle figures he has it all: he’s dating the hottest girl at their super-elite NYC high school, he’s just been nominated for Spring Dance Court (at which he’ll obviously be crowned), and his dad, a big-time news reporter, has more money than he (Kyle) knows how to spend. It’s just that Kyle isn’t necessarily the nicest guy in the world, and when he sets up a fellow student, Kendra, to make a fool of her, she knows that she’ll have to teach him a lesson. Beastly is a very strict retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but it never seems to stray from the mind of a true-to-life teenage boy. When Kyle is transformed into a beast (no, really), and his dad can’t fix it for him, he is basically sent into hiding, with only the company of the family maid, Magda, and his blind tutor, Will. Through a series of well-known events, Lindy comes into his life. Now, all Kyle needs to do is make Lindy fall in love with him and get her to kiss him before the two-year deadline. It’s not as easy as it seems, but like all successful fairy tales, how well the lesson is learned by the end of the story is what determines the final happiness of the story characters.
Fans of retold fairy tales will eat this up; for a completely different perspective, try pairing it with Donna Jo Napoli’s Beast.
The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks
Juniper is the new girl, which sucks. She decided on her own to work hard to earn a scholarship to attend Ellsmere Academy , an upper class boarding school that lets in one scholarship student a year. Jun wants to go to a good secondary school and knows that doing well at Ellsmere Academy is her best shot at a great academic future. Unfortunately, boarding school isn’t quite ready to welcome Jun, except for her roommate Cassie. Cassie has been going to Ellsmere forever, and has been pretty miserable forever. Emily wants to be the best, most popular, smartest girl at school and is willing to put down anyone who gets in her way, and when she crosses paths with Jun who threatens her “smartest girl in school” status, trouble bubbles up, threatening to disrupt the natural order of things.
The black-and-white graphics carry this super fun story, complete with evil plans, bloody noses, and unicorns. Recommended to all readers, especially as an intro to graphic novels.
Stiff : The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste. Crimes of Anatomy. Life after Death. Dead Man Driving. How to Know if You’re Dead. These are just a few of the chapter headings of Stiff, a book about the various real-life uses for dead bodies in the worlds of medicine, religion, and car crash tests, among others. Mary Roach doesn’t have a science degree, but she sure does have a sense of humor, and a knack for writing humorously, about subjects that we don’t know are funny until we read what she has to say about it. Roach doesn’t hold back on graphic descriptions of dead bodies, their insides, or their remains, so don’t expect an effortless read; you’ll learn more about your body than you ever wanted to know. All the same, who knew that dead bodies could be so cool?!
Katherine Vasilik, Teen Librarian
Franklin Lakes (NJ) Public Library
tel: 201-891-2224 x105
fax: 201-891-5102
vasilik@bccls.org
kate_thelibrarian@yahoo.com