Eternal (Candlewick, 2009) by Cynthia Leitich Smith is not your average vampire story. In fact, much of the story is told from the viewpoint of a guardian angel. It’s a story of mistakes, enthrallment, betrayal, and redemption.
Watch the book trailer at Cynthia’s site.
Eternal is a companion book to Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Tantalize. She’s working on Blessed, due out in 2011, where characters from both books will appear.
Category: YA Novels
young adult novels (for 13+ yo)
Character Growth – Red Glass & Mexican WhiteBoy
I recently read two award-winning books which give some insight into the Hispanic culture. Both were very good and in both the main character grew and changed.
Red Glass (Delacorte, 2007) by Laura Resau features Sophie, who is afraid of everything. She and her family have taken in her great aunt, Dika, a refugee from Bosnia, and Pablo, a 6-year-old Mexican boy, whose parents die trying to cross into America. Dika meets Mr. Lorenzo and becomes friends. Mr. Lorenzo, his son, Angel, Dika, and Sophie travel to Mexico to take Pablo to his village to see if he wants to be with his family there and for Angel to find his lost mother. The story is powerful and memorable and Sophie learns what is important to fear and what is not.
Laura has another book coming out this month. Read more at her website: http://www.lauraresau.com/.
Mexican WhiteBoy (Delacorte, 2008) by Matt de la Pena has a character with several dilemmas. First, Danny is white to the Mexicans and Mexican to the whites. He lives with his mom and step-dad in San Diego, but goes to spend the summer with his Mexican uncle’s family. People in National City don’t understand why he can’t speak Spanish. Secondly, Danny’s great at baseball, especially pitching, but at his private school in San Diego, he can’t keep control over the ball. In National City he becomes friends with Uno who has a Mexican mother and a black father. The two help each other figure out what is going on in their lives. Warning: This book does have language that may be offensive, however, it does fit the culture.
Matt also has a new book coming out this month. Check it out at his website: http://www.mattdelapena.com/index.html.
Beastly
Modern-day Retelling
“Unexpected Changes” chat group chats mix in with Kyle’s side of the story in Beastly (HarperTeen, 2007) by Alex Flinn. This book is not just a modern day Beauty and the Beast. Though it is that, too, with a character having to examine the darkness within. It’s also a story about being abandoned by parents and new friendships. There’s even some humor. And don’t you just love the cover?
The story will be made into a movie for release in 2010! But read the book first.
Read more about this young adult author at her website: www.alexflinn.com.
New-to-me Author – The Humming of Numbers and The Farwalker’s Quest
I love it when I discover a new author with multiple books. I started with reading The Humming of Numbers (Holt, 2008) by Joni Sensel. To Aidan, living creatures hum different numbers. He doesn’t think his gift is from the devil, but since he’s a novice in Celtic Abbey, he doesn’t dare mention it. A girl is brought to the monastery for punishment. She hums eleven. Aidan is fascinated as he’s never met someone who hums of more than ten. His fascination gets him in trouble and he’s put in charge of Lana, who some accuse of being a witch. The Viking raiders come. To rescue the captives, he and Lana get caught up in a scheme which uses both of their talents. I enjoyed Joni’s story very much, and found myself wondering what number I hum. (This is a YA title.)
Then I moved on to The Farwalker’s Quest also by Joni (Bloomsbury, 2009). In this believable fantasy world, 13-year-olds face a test to see which trade they belong to. Ariel believes she’ll become a healer liker her mother and Zeke, a Tree Singer like his father. But after she finds the telling dart and the Finders show up, Ariel fails the test and is labeled Fool. Both she and Zeke end up on an unwelcome adventure where Ariel discovers her true trade. I’m pleased to say Joni has written more in this world – The Timekeeper’s Moon comes out next March, and she’s at work on a third!
Joni (pronounced Johnny) Sensel lives near Mount Rainier in Washington state. She volunteers as Co-Regional Advisor for SCBWI Western Washington, does corporate writing, and was one of the members of the debut writers, Class of 2K7. Go to www.jonisensel.com for more info.
Right Behind You
What do you do when you’ve done something terrible and believe there is no chance to live a normal life? Sabotage yourself. At least that’s what Kip McFarland aka Wade does when the ghosts from his past start screaming. Right Behind You (Little, Brown, 2007) by Gail Giles grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go until I finished the book. It’s a very worthwhile read. Despite a horrible action, Kip is a very sympathetic main character.
Surprisingly enough after such a serious book, if you visit Gail’s website, be prepared for humor.