Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Leonard Peacock is pretty unhappy. And his depression has led him to a couple of conclusions: Asher Beal, his former childhood best friend, needs to die. And he would be much happier if he, himself, wasn’t alive anymore either.

But first, it’s Leonard’s birthday and he wants to give each of his four best friends a gift to say goodbye. The first gift is for his very best friend, the old man with whom he watches old Humphrey Bogart movies on days he skips school. The second is for a friend who isn’t really a friend; the rare fellow student with whom he has a relatively positive relationship, but maybe that’s only because they don’t really know anything about each other. The third is for the girl that he really, really wants to kiss, but who is inherently wrong for him (and him for her). And the last is for Herr Silverman, his Holocaust teacher and the only person in his life that invites him to speak and seems to really want to hear what he has to say. He also leaves a wrapped present for his mother (though he wonders why he bothers).

And he saves one final thing for himself: the P-38 pistol that his grandfather saved from Nazi wartime.

Recommended to all high school readers, and all adults, too. This novel is designed to make you think, and Leonard’s story is presented in such a way that we are not only rooting for someone to save him, but we are hoping that he - and all those who are hurting - can figure out a way to save himself, because all futures are worth having.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Doug's life is not fun. Home life consists of his amazing mom, his distant and abusive father, his bully older brother, and another brother who is off fighting in Vietnam. School consists of bullies and a few close friends. When Doug's father decides to move the family to Marysville in hopes of a better job (one that won't fire him), Doug even loses those few friends. Now school consists of students and teachers who think that Doug's brother is a thief and that Doug's no good either. Good thing for Lil Spicer or life might be just about the most miserable that it could be.

You might not think that a pretty girl, Audubon's Birds of America, baseball, and Jane Eyre have a whole lot in common, but in this case you might be wrong. Those few things might be the best things in the whole wide world. At least for one teenage boy who is just trying to find some good in the world.

Recommended to all middle grade readers. This title is great for boys who might not love to read, and who also aren't necessarily into sports or cars or other "guy stuff." But all ages and all interests are sure to get something out of Doug's experience and his perseverance.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A. S. King

Disclaimer & Bottom Line: I am kind of partial to Please Ignore Vera Dietz, so I had really high hopes for this novel. While, not exactly what I expected, I was not disappointed either.

Lucky Linderman's name is pretty ironic, considering how likely he is to get beat up by the bully, ignored by his parents, and looked down upon by school administrators. He would really much rather just fly below the radar by everyone, but manages to get too much attention from all the wrong people who either (a) want to do him harm, or (b) "help" him. Actually, Lucky would rather be sleeping.

Lucky is a freshman in high school, so life sucks to begin with, but what makes it worse is that Nader constantly has it out for him -- like in the corner of the school's locker room and at the community pool -- and Lucky feels too weak to protect himself. He stopped telling teachers or his parents about the bullying back in elementary school once he realized that nothing would ever be done about it. His dad is too distracted by his grief for a Vietnam War POW/MIA father he never got to meet, and his mom is too busy swimming laps and running from her own problems. So Lucky finds solace in his dreams (where he finds himself to be bigger, stronger, and smarter than he ever feels in real life) and in his mission (to rescue his missing, presumed-dead grandfather). Ultimately, he's going to have to figure out a way to save himself.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot

We first meet Helen in an Underground Station near Trafalgar Square. We follow her through the streets of London, where she meets a collection of individuals, including Ben, who sets her up with a roof and a few meals. When her beloved pet rat is killed by one of the cats in the makeshift shelter, she decides it's time for her to keep on moving. She hitchhikes north to England's Lake District - famous for its calm and its beauty - and by accident winds up being quite literally rescued by a couple who own a pub. (It turns out that Beatrix Potter once stayed at the same pub.) It is in this place that Helen is finally able to begin to come to terms with her past, a story that the reader uncovers through flashbacks along her hard journey. 

This is a story of sexual abuse, the battle toward self-acceptance and relinquishment of undeserved guilt. This is the story of "one bad rat," who overcomes unrelenting struggle and uncovers her self-worth through the support of strong, loving adults. Recommended to all readers -- and lovers of Beatrix Potter will find something a little extra-special here as well.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Mandy has had a pretty rough life, but she's had enough of feeling powerless, unloved, and unlucky.  She's found a solution - at least a partial one - and is headed across the country by train to meet the woman who she hopes will become the adoptive mother of her unborn child.

Jill thinks that it's absolutely ridiculous that her fifty-year-old mother is planning to go through with an unofficial (no social worker, no lawyer, no signed forms) open adoption with someone she found on the internet!  After Jill's dad died last year, they've both been lost, but Jill doesn't think that adopting a baby is going to be the answer to their grief.

Jill and Mandy don't make a very good first impression on each other, but they become part of a very complicated relationship and somehow they must figure out their place in all of this . . . hopefully before a baby becomes part of the mix.  Jill has some friends to help her along the way, and through alternating perspectives, the reader begins to rally for both girls to find some happiness  It took me some time to really get into this story, but once I did, I found that I really cared about what happened to the characters.  In this novel, you'll find friendship, love, pain, loyalty, and sadness, but most of all, you'll find family.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

You Against Me by Jenny Downham

Karyn is pressing charges of rape after a bad night at a classmate's house.  Her brother Mikey is out for revenge.

Tom says he didn't do it; says that she wanted it but then changed her mind in the morning.  Ellie is his little sister, set on supporting him and believing in him, no matter what.

It's a matter of "he said, she said" unless Ellie wasn't really sleeping the whole night like she said she was.  If Ellie heard something, or spoke to Tom that night, or remembers more than what she originally told the police, it might change everything.

If Mikey sets out to teach Tom a lesson, but meets Ellie instead, that might change everything too.

This is a story of mixed-up love, lust, forgiveness, power, and terror.  Twists and turns lead all around in a situation where there doesn't seem to always be a right or wrong; and even if there was, where would each characters' loyalties lie?

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

The title of this novel holds no secrets about its content.  Four individuals whose lives intersect tell their own stories of the difficulties immersed in striving for perfect, and the pain that underlies the desperate, unrelenting need for it.  Cara's parents expect the absolute best from their children, and one of those children has already attempted suicide as a result of the pressure mounting at home.  Cara's almost-loving relationship with Sean doesn't help to support her in her journey towards figuring out who she really is and what really makes her happy.  Sean doesn't think he can live without Cara, but he's convinced that it's really baseball and his ultimate athletic success that makes him who he is.  Kendra is in constant pursuit of the perfect body and the perfect face to allow her modeling career to soar, no matter the price.  And Andre has his heart set on a certain career and a certain girl, neither of which really fall into the plan that his parents' have created for him.

Ellen Hopkins never fails to deliver the real deal.  With powerful word selection and nothing short of stark honesty, Hopkins' characters are true depictions of the hopes, dreams, torment, and struggles that fill up lots of the nooks and crannies that make us all human.  Recommended to all high school readers.  (Release date for this title is September 13, 2011.)

Also discussed on this blog are Burned and Identical.  Her most known novel is Crank, the story of Kristina Gregory's journey with the "monster" of drugs and addiction that claimed control over most of her life (continued in two sequels), but all of Hopkins' novels in verse are powerful explorations of the mixture of light and dark found within individuals across the globe.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

If this story starts to hit too close to home, then you should definitely make sure you read it through.  You can't understand the power of another's control over you unless you've been there, but Alex, Cole, and Zack pave a pathway to understanding.

Alex has always felt a little bit lost.  Her mother died in a car crash when she was very young and all she really knows is that her parents didn't have the happiest marriage and her mom was supposedly trying to escape for a more inspirational life in Colorado.  All Alex has left of her mom is a dream-catcher charm that she wears around her neck, a broken father, and a handful of pictures.  But Alex also has her friends, and she lives a pretty happy "typical" high school life.  Until Cole shows up as the new boy at school.  The new hot boy.  The new hot boy that actually seems to be interested in her!  But as Alex begins to spend more time with Cole and less time with her friends, more time lying and less time smiling, more time covering up and less time being herself, there is clearly something wrong.

This is a story of physical and emotional abuse, a story that affects many relationships - even at the very barest of levels.  Adults and teens should find this story uncomfortable and challenging, but will find even greater strength in the end.  (For more from author Jennifer Brown, check out Hate List.)

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Room by Emma Donoghue

I know, I know, I'm probably one of the last people to read this book.  But a regular library user and friend enthusiastically and strongly recommended that I get a hold of the audiobook (knowing that I do most of my adult fiction reading during work and babysitting commutes), and I finally got around to acknowledging her suggestion.  Told from the point-of-view of a five-year-old boy, this audiobook is stunning.

Hachette Audio presents Room with a full cast and the five-year-old voice portraying the character of Jack is both heartwarming and gut-wrenching, as the story is splayed out in all its glory and horror.  Jack has never known anything outside of Room.  He knows Rug and TV and Wardrobe and Bed, but he knows nothing about Outside.  He's not even sure that Outside is really real.  Until his mother comes up with a plan to escape from Room and from the man who kidnapped her seven years ago.

Outside is a whole new world to become accustomed to, both for Jack and for Ma, and it may end up being the hardest experience that either of them have to survive.  Recommended to adult readers and older teens with a taste for the depressing and the hopeful.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

Danny is a gymnast, and (unfortunately) that includes having the body of a gymnast: strong but small.  Kyle is a football player, with the body of one, but not all that much else on the surface.  The football team and the gymnasts don't exactly get along, and when the gymnastics coach challenges the team for the shared use of the school gym, emotions run high and tensions run strong.  Danny and Kyle both wish that they could just be invisible because attention seems to always lead to pain, but neither of them can ignore the violence they witness that leads to another boy's suicide.  Yet neither one is sure that he has the strength to stand up and speak either.

This is a painful story to experience, at any age, and, yes, that's a warning.  There are many issues that are jumbled into this expansive novel -- among those issues are steroid abuse, unfortunate foster care situations, learning disabilities, child physical and sexual abuse, drinking, drugs, and random sex.  But the scene in the book that will stand out the most vividly involves three football players and one helpless freshman boy trapped in a locker room.  The author does not hold back and the reader is not shielded from the trauma and the horror any more than Danny is.  And yet as painful as the book might be to read, it is just as powerful to absorb.  It's a story that should be told again and again until it no longer exists.  The reader mourns the tragedy of the one and admires and celebrates the resulting strength that emerges from within the other.

Recommended primarily to adults and very mature teen readers.  This isn't a fun read, nor an easy one.  But it remains incredible.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.