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This cover is really awesome.Summary: Protagonists whose past is hidden--even, sometimes, from themselves. It's something author Stephanie Kuehn does well, if you've read her first book, Charm & Strange. Complicit is another suspenseful read, in... Read the rest of this post

"Literally translated, the word apocalypse means “a revelation,” or “uncovering,” as in uncovering of the truth. (From the Greek: apo, meaning un, and calypto, meaning covering.) In fact, the title of the New Testament Doomsday guide, John... Read the rest of this post

Got a long stretch of quiet time available? This isn't a read-at-the-crowded-airport-layover novel, necessarily, but I found it absolutely arresting over the one-sitting course of a quiet morning. I grabbed this book because this author's debut... Read the rest of this post

Novels dealing with death in young adult literature aren't exactly new - we're currently living in The Summer of the Cancer Novel, hello - but what's always new is every young person's - really, every person's - way of dealing with death - dealing... Read the rest of this post

"The truth is not always pretty. It can be disturbing, enraging, and enlightening. I found my way out of Hell by choosing Truth, and, regardless of anyone’s opinion, I am committed to telling Truth AND extending Hope, through my stories." - Beth... Read the rest of this post

This is an important book. I'm hesitant to use the word "worthy," because that sounds earnest and a little uncomfortable, but -- that is this book. Earnest. A little uncomfortable. Apt to start conversations which are less than comfortable. Apt to... Read the rest of this post

I'm not generally a fan of weeping, though I do it at Cheerios commercials, when reading Dear Sugar, when watching little kids do just about anything precious, and pretty much when anybody else cries. I cry like a bean sídhe people, on every day... Read the rest of this post

Everyone from Forbes Magazine to individual authors are selling the "thar's gold in them there backlists!" schtick. But, is there really? Are book which were first published in the seventies or eighties best kept there? A book which goes out of... Read the rest of this post

Okay, this post is based on how I remember things, not on how they actually were.

So, back a little past the very break of the dawn of time, I studied Children's Literature. I wasn't much older than a child myself, but I had missed reading It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville and other books of that ilk.  Judy Blume may or may not have been on the scene back then.  This was, after all, a LOOONNG time ago.

So, we approached books that dealt with parents fighting, divorce, any kind of abuse, any kind of economic struggle or family difficulty - dead or dying parents, alcoholism, (gasp!) drugs!!!, even sexual awakening as if the books dealt with "problems".  That's what we (or maybe just I) called them, "problem novels". 

As opposed to what?  Dull boring, diaries of someone's life in which they never have problems?  Who would even read a book like that? Look at Nancy Drew!!!  Her books are teeming with snaky problems. 

My granddaughter's favorite lift-the-flap book, Where's Spot?  BEGINS with a problem.  Spot didn't eat his food and Mom Dog can't find him.  Huge problem.

Anyway, even today when doing reader's advisory, I approach some titles with the caveat, "This is a problem novel.  The main character has some really gritty issues to deal with."

And most of the books in this category of mine, fall into the deeply dramatic, heart-wrenching, oh-my-gosh how-will-this-poor-kid-survive description.  Think of Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers , a cross-over title, whose main character barely survives foster care, homelessness, and a surprise pregnancy before a hopeful ending.

But SOME problem novels approach their subjects with sympathy and a sense of hope.  Almost Home by Joan Bauer saddles poor Sugar Mae Cole with an absent, gambler father, a fragile - though not at first - mother and homelessness.  And yet, because this is Joan Bauer who is writing, we know that Sugar will find friends wherever she goes and that the people who help her will be genuinely helpful, not ineffectual or snakes in disguise.

In Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan, the 16 year old heroine has a problem growing in her belly and the problem's father, her now husband, is an even bigger problem.  All the prospective grandparents, in their attempt to...actually I don't really know what they thought they were doing.  I learned that prospective grandparenthood can be a problem in and of itself. - Anyway, they didn't help much. 
That said, this book was fun to read and it had an upbeat ending.

I know that real life is gritty and painful.  I know that kids suffer; some die.  I also know that these books are written to open young readers' eyes to the problems that others suffer; and to show those young readers who are suffering that help is out there.  Both kinds of "problem" novels are needed - the ones that hit hard and make us gasp with the cruelty of life; AND the gentler books that show us the wounds and then offer a salve that will leave the smallest scar.

Right now, I want the latter.  Death has become all too real to me.  I want my tales of woe with a huge serving of hope on the side.

*******
Did any of you refer to certain teen books as "problem novels" or did I make that up?  Let me know.

In the sixty-five years since India was no longer a single entity but because itself and Pakistan, then later Pakistan and Bangladesh, there has been a lot of hostility, a lot of suspicion, and a lot of bloodshed. The causes and consequences are... Read the rest of this post

Reader Gut Reaction: There were a couple of things that initially drew me to this book. First, the author, Nina LaCour, is a fellow alumna of the Mills College MFA program. Second, certain aspects of the book bear a disconcerting similarity to my... Read the rest of this post

Reader Gut Reaction: I have to admit, all that book award controversy was what drew me to Lauren Myracle's Shine, which was on display at my library. The good part about the controversy from a publicity perspective is that I learned a lot more about... Read the rest of this post

Reader Gut Reaction: Scars, by longtime fellow blogger Cheryl Rainfield, is a book I've been meaning to read for a while. I don't normally gravitate toward problem novels or issue books, but as I found out by reading it, this is much more than just... Read the rest of this post

The immigrant experience is not for the faint of heart. Merely living abroad in one Western country instead of another has produced misunderstandings, depression, and wry amusements.I cannot begin to imagine the immigrant experience when coupled... Read the rest of this post

I've gotta be honest with you—lately I've been so busy that fitting in a blog post even twice a week has seemed like an impossibly Everestian endeavor, so today I'm just going to offer a few brief, informal reviews, catching up on a couple of... Read the rest of this post

We really enjoyed Ashley Hope Pérez's debut novel What Can't Wait (reviewed here), so we're proud and excited to be a part of the blog tour for her latest novel, The Knife and the Butterfly. Tune in this Friday, February 17th, for Ashley's guest... Read the rest of this post

Reader Gut Reaction: Every time I read another of Siobhan Dowd's books—there aren't many—I'm reminded anew of the tragedy that her loss constitutes. Her writing is amazing, and so is her own personal history. This novel is her first, and while I... Read the rest of this post

I'm sorry to report that today's reviews are going to be on the brief side. They're also on the "better late than never" side. But I still wanted to share them--two titles that I picked up at fall's Kidlitcon in Minneapolis, by two authors I greatly... Read the rest of this post

Before I get into the blurbs, I just want to say that Finding Wonderland is going to represent at ALA this year, by which I mean Tanita is going and I'm envious but glad. Have fun this weekend, everyone!Oh, one last thing....... Look at this! And... Read the rest of this post

Every once in a while, I feel like I need to mix it up as far as reviews are concerned, make it a little more fun than just a standard review. Most of the time I don't act on that impulse. But lately, there's been a lot of seriousness in the... Read the rest of this post

These last couple of weeks there has been some bad flooding in parts of the UK and I was very sad to hear from author and publisher Debjani Chatterjee that her independent Sahitya Press has been badly affected, with the loss of their books stored in a community centre in Sheffield. Our thoughts go out to her and her colleagues.

In an interview with PaperTigers a few months ago, Debjani talked about how certain stories crop up in many different traditions: one of these is the Great Flood. There are many versions of Noah’s Ark, which we enjoy reading - but this week was the first time my boys had come across the story outside its biblical context and they were intrigued. We are reading Atticus the Storyteller’s 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats and Anthony Lewis, which we all agree is a “superb retelling of the Greek myths for younger children” and “a really lovely book for all the family to share” (Books for Keeps). Like in The Barefoot Book of Knights I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the stories are brought together by a narrator: here it’s Atticus, who is on his way (more…)