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.

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

"Stupid Fast : The summer I went from a joke to a jock" definitely illustrates Felton Reinstein's life one high school summer. But it doesn't even begin to encompass all that he goes through in those short - um, long - months.

Felton has grown. All of a sudden, he has hair everywhere, his body is catching up to his ginormous hands, and he is stupid fast. A few weeks in the locker room with weights and he is stupid strong, too. Everybody notices, but Felton still pictures himself as a small, weak kid, with nothing much to offer anybody. The football team latches onto him, Aleah - the daughter of a professor staying in town for the summer semester - definitely notices him, the crazy lady at the nursing home screams every time she seems him, and he seems to be driving his mother further and further into Crazy Town. Felton doesn't even begin to know how to start to figure life out. So he runs.

This is an original novel with an original voice. Felton experiences every single sort of growing pain possible, making him both a frustrating and sympathetic character. This one is perfect for young teenage boys, despite the f-bombs, and should let them know that life moves on, people aren't always what they seem, and maybe their lives aren't all that bad.

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 summer i learned to fly by Dana Reinhardt

Thirteen-year-old Drew Robin Solo spends most of her time helping her mom, Lizzie, in the Cheese Shop; she doesn't have many friends - not including her pet rat, Hum, of course - so there really isn't anything else to do. Her dad died when she was a baby and she only has a few things of his that helps her get to know him. She has an impossible crush on 18-year-old Nick who helps out in the shop when he isn't surfing. And she has three girlfriends who are all away for the summer (and who she doesn't much like anyway). But everything in her world changes when she finds homeless Emmett Crane eating the too-old-to-keep-on-the-shelf cheese late at night behind the shop. Emmett with the curly dark hair, who leaves notes folded up as paper cranes, who disappears for days without any word, and who hangs out on the beach with older kids with tattoos, cigarettes, and guitars. In one short summer, Drew learns a lot about her self and even more about the people in her life and the growing world around her.

I read this book in day, and thought I was going to be really sad and depressed by the ending, but was pleasantly surprised by a positive, inspiring, and completely more realistic conclusion. Recommended to most teen readers, especially girls with romantic hearts.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

(Two books with pet rats in a week's time? Weird.)

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty is The. Perfect. Beach Read.  This story has summertime romance written all over it, and it will not disappoint readers looking for the tortured I-love-him-but-does-he-love-me? storyline, capped off with a satisfying conclusion -- except there isn't really a conclusion!  There are sequels!  Which is wonderful, if and only if you have the second book in your hand to open as soon as you close the first!  Seriously.  I can't get my hands on It's Not Summer Without You fast enough.  And book #3, We'll Always Have Summer, is out too. :)  Excellent.

So, quit looking for the perfect beach read and start catching up with the summer adventures of Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah!

Reviewed by kate the librarian.