The Program by Suzanne Young

Teenage suicide has become an international epidemic, ending in the death of one out of every three teens in the United States, and as a result a few larger cities have been trying out a new solution to end the killing. Even London is moving towards instating the Program.

The Program is a place that teens can go to be cured of all of the things that cause them to be upset, distraught, depressed, and desperate to end their lives. When teens go into the Program, they are in a very bad place, and when they come out they are calm and peaceful - and they remember almost nothing of their life "before." 

Sloane, her boyfriend, and their friends are terrified of the Program, knowing that it leaves the cured as blank versions of themselves. So they hide their grief (because all life is a natural balance of joys and pains) as best they can, but when the Program starts to come after those they love, they might not have the power to stop it. 

Sloane narrates this story, and being able to see all sides of the program is a special treat. Readers will root for the characters every step of the way, through their love, their hurt, and their love again. The worst thing about this story is that the sequel, The Treatment, isn't scheduled to be due out until 2014! :)

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Rafe is a pretty average gay high school kid. He doesn't get bullied, he doesn't get beaten up, and his friends and family accept him just the way he is. The problem is that what he IS seems to equal the fact that he's GAY, and that's all anyone sees. He's Rafe, the gay kid. So he decides to go off to the faraway east coast to an all-boys prep school, un-gay. He's not straight all of a sudden, but he decides that he's not going to "be" gay either.

Unfortunately, Rafe falls in love with one of his new friends, a guy that quickly becomes one of the best friends he's ever had in his whole life. And when their relationship starts to get, um, intense, Rafe know he needs to come clean. But he also knows that telling the truth could cost him his happiness. Or is it the lies that have cost him everything?

Recommended to anyone - there is enough humor here to balance out the harshness of the situation, and everyone is forced to answer the question of self-acceptance. 

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Allyson Healey isn’t very spontaneous. She generally follows the rules and done what is expected of her. On the European tour that was a graduation gift from her parents, she’s one of her tour guide’s favorite students. But a few days before she’s due to fly back home, she is convinced to skip out on seeing a professional Shakespeare production and instead attends an underground version of Twelfth Night. She is immediately intrigued by actor Willem (and, frankly, so are we). She’s even more intrigued when he invites her to go to Paris, just for a day. And that day winds up changing absolutely everything for Allyson. She has the most exceptional 24 hours that she has ever dreamed of having. But just as suddenly, Willem leaves her without word, and everything comes crashing down. Her adventure is over and she flies home to her family, her friends, and her own life . . . and she is completely alone. The kind of alone that prevents you from being with other people without hurting.

So, ultimately, she makes a choice. She returns to Europe and she is determined to find Willem and uncover some answers. Or maybe, she’s off to find herself.

This is a romance that goes far beyond tradition. It is hopeful and terrifying, and completely fulfilling. Keep your eye out for the sequel, Just One Year, available in October 2013.

Second Chance Summer by 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.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

As his best friend Ariel once told him, Evan understands that you can't ever know everything. He knew Ariel, but Ariel was someone else when she wasn't with him. Sometimes she was someone else even when she was with him. And he was someone else when he wasn't with her. But now that she's gone, he struggles to understand if he ever knew her at all.

Ariel has gone away and Even is struck with tremendous guilt over whether or not it was his fault that she's no longer here. And his anxiety becomes even more overwhelming and troublesome when he begins to receive photographs of Ariel. He knows that she can't be delivering them herself . . . but what if she is?

This novel is extraordinarily unique in its storytelling, and it is worth fumbling through every page and every struggle to uncover the answers as only David Levithan would reveal them. Recommended to high school readers. Reviewed by kate the librarian.

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff

Daphne is the daughter of Lucifer. Yup, that Lucifer. 

Life in Hell isn't truly as bad as it might seem, but Daphne's brother Obie has fallen in love with a human girl on earth and decides that he cannot stay in Hell, even if living on earth full-time is absolutely forbidden. When he leaves Hell - for good - Daphne knows that his life is in danger and vows to go to (and stay in) earth until she can make sure he's safe. But she doesn't know exactly where he is, and her only clue is a young man named Truman Flynn. 

Since his mother's death, Truman has been desolate, depressed, and self-destructive. It was Daphne's brother who saved his life, despite his own efforts to end it. But it is for Daphne, not her brother, that Truman ultimately agrees to help find Obie. Perhaps because of, rather than in spite of, the twists and turns of the demon world, both Daphne and Truman begin to wonder if love can overpower cruelty, and if hope can exist in a world full of pain and sadness.

Recommended to all readers, though the topics of suicide, sacrifices, and torture might limit to readers who can reflect maturely about both life and death.
Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Between by Jessica Warman

It's Liz's eighteenth birthday, and it seems that life couldn't get much better.  She had a party with her closest friends, her stepsister, and her super cute boyfriend out on her family's boat, complete with cocktails and birthday cake.  But then, before anyone else is awake, she finds her body in the water just off the boat, and she meets up with Alex Berg, a classmate who died in a hit-and-run accident a year earlier.  Liz is hovering somewhere between life and death, and she has no idea why, or how to change the situation.  And to make it all the more frustrating, she has almost no solid memories of her life.  With Alex's help, she finds that she is able to slip into flashbacks of her life -- more than just memories.  As more of the gaps of her life fill in, we begin to uncover some of Liz's dirty little secrets of Liz's . . . We learn that life is often more than what it seems to be on the surface, and that some of us will do anything to protect ourselves and the ones we love - we might be willing to die, and we might even be willing to kill.


A mix of mystery and paranormal, this is a striking story placed among a bunch of rich, over-entitled kids.  Perhaps, a bit over-the-top and over-emotional, some humor finds its way through the cracks at times, especially through the subtle character of Alex.  This title will stand out for those who liked books like Before I Fall, Elsewhere, and If I Stay.  Recommended to high school readers; there's some tough stuff here.


Reviewed by kate the librarian.

Habibi by Craig Thompson

Take one look at Habibi and you know you are in for a masterpiece from the author/illustrator of Blankets.  This thick tomb of story and artwork is completely captivating, thought-provoking, and inspirational.

The story is told in pieces, skipping delicately through time.  Dodola first met Zam when she was a teenager and he was only three years old, both of them orphans with no money, no food, and no home.  Dodola saves Zam and they find an abandoned ship in the dried-up dessert to make their home, and she cares for Zam as though he is her own child.  She finds them food each day, and Zam finds their water supplies.  Of course as Zam grows older, he becomes more and more curious -- both of their living situation and survival, as well as of Dodola as a woman.  When he follows her one day and finds that she trades her body to men for their food, he ventures to the village hoping to be able to provide for her, and for them.  This growth and this journey separate them.

This is the story of how they come back together again.

Told beautifully in words and images, the Arabic language revealed as art in and of itself, the reader is immersed in the hardships of poverty, the abuse of power and strength, and the joy found in shared experience, passion, and hope.  Recommended to all adults.

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.

Sometimes it's letting go...

Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong -- sometimes it's letting go.
--Sylvia Robinson

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares...
--Henri Nouwen

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter...
--Nietzsche

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.
--Mignon McLaughlin

Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything.  Love still stands when all else has fallen.
--Author unknown