Buddha Boy / Kathe Koja

Budda Boy by Kathe Koja is story about a persecuted new boy is school who does not fit into any of the established clichés. Martin has saved his head and goes around begging for lunch money and is mercilessly picked on by everyone and especially the cool kids. Justin gets partnered with Martin on an economics project and becomes the only one in school to befriend him. Justin finds out the Martin’s spiritual name is Jinsen and that he is also an incredible artist. Justin has a soft spot for artists, because his father is also an artist and he is very close to his father.

Budda Boy is a powerful novel about bullying, tolerance, self-discipline, religion, and friendship. Narrated from Justin’s point of view the listener gets a vivid sense of strong emotions that teenagers have regarding their friends, fairness and how much pressure they undergo to fit in to the established norms. Jinsen shows great self control in his determination to follow his Buddhist teachings and undergoes humiliation and physical abuse for it, but he also ends up influencing almost everyone in school for the better because of his attitude and his great artistic talent.

Koja, Kathe (Author), & Murphy, Spencer (Narrator). (2003). Buddha Boy [Sound recording]. [Syracuse, NY]: Full Cast Audio.

Graceling / Kristin Cashore

Katsa is an 18 year old Graceling who has a killing Grace…or does she? Katsa’s uncle, “ King Randa” manipulates her to threaten or hurt people who do not deal honestly with him or to those who do not bend to his will. Katsa is not a willing participant in her uncle’s schemes as she continuously tries to find ways not to hurt people and she has formed a “counsel” that goes around righting wrongs in the 7 kingdoms. There are many other Gracelings in Katsa’s world with differing Graces that range from swimming to mind reading. Katsa meets Po another Graceling from a different kingdom who seems have a fighting Grace and a powerful allure for Katsa. Katsa and Po spend the bulk of this story searching for the reason why Po’s grandfather was kidnapped in possibly the only place where their graces wouldn’t matter.

In this fantasy / romance audio book titled Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Katsa spends much time questioning her own Grace and the apparent fact that she is a brute killer. Katsa has to learn to trust those around her and more importantly she has to learn to trust herself. Katsa spends this novel learning that she is a kind person and that her grace may not actually be a killing grace.

Cashore, Kristin (Author) & Baker, David (Narrator), (2009). Graceling [Sound Recording]. [Syracuse, N.Y.]: Full Cast Audio.

Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic / Terry Jones

Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic is a science fiction / comedy novel written by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame). Jones flawlessly imitates Adams’s style by weaving a silly, unpredictable and exciting story of three earthlings that accidently get stranded on a gigantic alien starship with few other passengers and malfunctioning robots aplenty. The Starship Titanic almost broke the economy of the planet that built it and would be blown up if certain crooked officials have there way…and if the bomb ever gets to finish its countdown.

Jones has created a story faithfully in Adams’s style and if readers enjoyed The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy or any of the Monty Python works, should take a fancy to Starship Titanic. The earthling characters adapt to their respective roles with confusion and competence while the aliens are predictably unpredictable. Who would have thought that Yassaccan guards always shot over the heads of there combatants in a gunfight? The content of this book is a little bit violent, a little bit sexy, a little bit suspenseful and a lot of fun. It certainly a book that teens who enjoy science fiction would get a laugh from.

Jones, Terry (1997) Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic, New York: Ballantine Books.

The Art of Keeping Cool / Janet Taylor Lisle

The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle is an intriguing piece of historical fiction from the point of view of a young teenaged boy. Robert moves with his mother to a small community on the eastern seaboard of the United States during the Second World War. Robert and his cousin Elliot spend their time listening to reports of the war, doing household chores and visiting a mysterious Germany artist who lives nearby. The family the boys live in also has to deal with the personal stresses of worrying about poverty, a father in the war and Germany subs bombing ships off the nearby coast.

Robert experiences concern over his fathers time flying bombing raids over Germany, his mother’s unwillingness to talk about his father, his Grandfathers dominate and often cruel nature and his suspicions about Abel the German artist who is widely thought to be a spy by almost everyone in the community except Elliot an artist himself. The story unveils the ugliness of human nature to be suspicious of what we don’t understand and to prey on the weaker members of our society. The story also deals with issues of family strife, abuse, and the lack of communication that often plagues dysfunctional families.

Lisle, Janet Taylor (2000) The Art Of Keeping Cool. New York: Athenum.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ / Sue Townsend

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is a funny diary of a young English boy who feels superior to most adults and schoolmates. Like many comedic YA books most of the adults are bizarre acting, irrational, simpletons, while the teens have to hold the family together and dealing with their own problems at the same time. In her simple short diary entries Sue Townsend has painted a picture of one clever, ambitious and nerdy boy who has to deal with a temporary family breakup, a newly unemployed father, poverty, school bullies, zany teachers and falling in love.

The story is woven so that we get daily snapshots of Adrian’s thoughts on all of the things that are happening to him along with some public events, his aspirations, fears, annoyances and desires. The story is funny although a bit dated and Anglo-centric which may make it less accessible to North American teens. On the other hand this story may be more interesting to those who have a fascination with all things English. The book is an easy read and appropriate for boys who may feel slightly out of touch with the average non-nerdy teens in their school.

Townsend, Sue (1982) The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾. Toronto: Penguin.

Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game is a fascinating tale of three siblings in a future that discourages families from having more than two children. This future also finds mankind preparing for a war with the enemy from a distant planet. Ender is the “Third” child who is chosen to go to battle-school and succeeds, because of his exceptional learning skills and creativity in battle. Ender’s brother and sister are equally talented and affect the course of earths’ history in a different manner.

Ender’s Game has proven to be one of the most popular science fiction titles for teens of all time. As the author comments his introduction to this book, it seems to resonate with many “gifted” children and I would also argue many not so gifted children who often feel isolated, or ostracized by their friends and manipulated by adults. I think this book is one that many children can relate to, not because they can put themselves in Ender’s shoes, but because they can relate Ender’s problems to their personal lives.

Card, Orson Scott (1977) Ender's Game. New York: Tor.

Spud / John van de Ruit

Spud by John van de Ruit is cleaver funny book based in an all boy’s school in South Africa. The premise of the book is that most of Spud’s schoolmates, teachers and his family are somewhat crazy and he is continuously surrounded by outrageous behavior on the part of everyone he knows. Spud has to then deal with all of the issues his life throws at him. Girls are part of the craziness that the 13 year old Spud is involved with along with brutal older schoolmates, friends that want to take unauthorized night swims, a school play and a drunken teacher / mentor who has regular lunches and discusses literature with Spud.

Spud is not one big joke - it is punctuated with serious issues of mental illness, bullying, family problems, post-apartheid South Africa, homosexuality, death, and many dysfunctional relationships. The author handles the many issues in the book in a very realistic manner. The brutality of practical jokes and teasing is often something that the boys simply have to deal with, and the fact that Spud finds himself with two “girlfriends” and a quandary of how to deal with that is a very realistic and sometimes instructive situation. I feel that Spud portrays the life of an adolescent boy in a humorous and accurate manner, filling his life with many of the issues that young boys have to deal with and providing entertainment and an example for readers to think about.

van de Ruit, J. (2007). Spud. New York: Razorbill.

Youth(wired) - Teens @ SAPL Webpage V4.0 / San Antonio Public Library

The teen page of the San Antonio Public Library is titled Youth(wired) - Teens @ SAPL Webpage V4.0. This page is very is user centred page with lots of interactive links and areas to give teens help with their home work, personal research, information about library programming and personal reading choices. Library links include: a homework link with information and online help from tutors; booklinks with lots of reading selections arranged by genre; a MySpace page with a bookshelf, images, blogs, videos, “friend” links and a meebo chat box; a practice test page; a link to library events and a place to submit book reviews.

The Youth (Wired) page in my view functions fairly well as place where teens will gather, with the interactive components, like the MySpace page and the tutor help. There are a lot of “teens” visible on this page which seems to give ownership to those particular library users, which I think should make it more attractive to them as well. I did, however, find a few dead links on the site, including one big link on the main page to the Spanish component of the website. I also found the website may have been a bit lacking in information about how to use the library or links to library resources for teens (aside from the reading lists; audio or video or electronic resources or magazines).

San Antonio Public Library. (2009). Youth(wired) - Teens @ SAPL Webpage V4.0. Retrieved from http://www.youthwired.sat.lib.tx.us/

Rihanna good girl gone bad: Reloaded / Rihanna

Rihanna good girl gone bad: Reloaded is the self titled CD of contemporary music by a very popular musician. Rihanna has been in the news recently (early 2009) because of some troubles she has had with her boyfriend. Pictures of Rihanna have circulated with a black eye and bruised face and there is lots of talk of abuse and the possibility of a court appearance for Rihanna and her boyfriend. The personal lives of pops stars are great food for the hunger of the popular media and Rihanna's fame and her problems have her clearly on the popularity plate.

Rihannna's CD is very popular in its own right featuring hits like; Shut up and drive. Push up on me, Don't stop the music, Umbrella and more. The music on Good girl gone bad, is a mixture of Rhythm and Blues, Motown, and Disco with a strong beat, and the clear, strong leading voice of Rihanna. The lyrics of this album are predictably those that appeal to a young adult audience. Rihanna sings of love and relationships in a direct way and sex in a metaphorical manner. All in all this is a well done entertaining CD that most aficionados of popular music will enjoy.

Evan Rogers et al (Producers). (2006). Rihanna good girl gone bad: Reloaded [Sound Recording CD]. New York: Def Jam.

RAMP / Toronto Public Library

I like the website of the Toronto Public Library which is called ramp: for youth. The website is clean and information heavy. The extensive list of websites are each annotated and classified nicely in understandable categories. The websites listed here are appropriate and relevant for teens and all of the links I checked were active. The links are mainly for local resources which I find appropriate considering the teens live in Toronto and would want to be able to find local resources. There are also links to lots library information as well, from program information and book recommendations to links for article searching and opportunities to contribute to some library publications.

ramp has a lot going for it. There are lots of opportunities one to site that allow teens to become involved with library activities and the site is also a portal to the rest of the Toronto Public Library resources. The site has a clean look and I found it easy to navigate through the extensive resources there with ease. The only problems I could find with ramp were that the search option at the top of the page did not work and the discussion forums were not well used.

Toronto Public Library. (2009). RAMP: for youth. Retrieved from http://ramp.torontopubliclibrary.ca/index.html

Witch Child / Celia Rees

Witch Child is apparently the diary of a young girl from 1659-60 as she lives through the terrible time of witch phobia and witch trials in England and the New World near Salem. Mary is put on a boat with a group of highly patriarchal Puritan settlers bound for America after her grandmother is hung for being a witch. Mary falls under suspicion of being a witch herself, but she befriends some of the settlers and survives in the new settlement for a time. When she can no longer avoid the suspicions, rumours and fear that lead to untimely end for the unfortunate few who were too different in that time and place Mary tries to escape.

Witch Child appears to be based on a real diary that was found sewn into the lining of a quilt from that time period which makes the story all the more realistic and extraordinary. The story weaves an intriguing and suspenseful story of the history of that time and gives the reader a look at the prejudice and fearfulness that prevailed in those days leading to the persecution and death of some innocent people. I think this story would be an excellent catalyst to encourage teens to become interested in this time period or to encourage their interest in general historical topics.

Rees, C. (2000). Witch Child. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.

BOP Magazine

BOP Magazine is fan magazine that one YA librarian told me is popular with teen girls. BOP is heavily laden with pictures of young rock stars, and TV and movie stars. The text that accompanies these images is minimal. The text mostly refers to the likes and dislikes of the star(let) or their job. BOP is also filled with or some contest that will allow the reader to meet their favourite famous person or win some merchandise related to their heroes or heroines. BOP does tell some gossip, but it is usually fairly positive and does not focus on the weaknesses or misfortunes of these young and famous people. BOP is also apparently also very popular for the posters of the stars that are inserted amongst the pages of the magazine.

I can find little or no literary value in BOP. There are no interesting stories, lyrics to songs, writing contests or anything that seems to encourage creativity on the part of the reader. BOP Magazine does not appear to be anything more than a vehicle to promote famous young stars. For a teen, being intrigued by a hero or heroine may be encouraging if the stars role as a positive role model is emphasized, but BOP focus’ on things like “crushes,” who is wearing the latest fashion and who made an appearance on Hannah Montana.

BOP Magazine. (2008). Glendale, CA: Laufer Media Inc.

Mad Magazine / E. C. Publications

Mad Magazine is a satirical look at politics, popular culture and human vanity. In an illustrated format Mad creates parodies of TV shows, commercials, books, situations from the news, websites, artwork and even themselves. Some of the humour is funny, some of it is clever, and some of it is just plain insulting to those being mocked. Mad started publishing in 1952 (Mad Timeline, nd, para.2.and is self proclaimed as “America's longest-running humor magazine, besides Time”(Mad, nd, para.2).

I think the humour in Mad would be most appealing to boys, because it can be rude and crude and sometimes it may be classified as potty humour. Some of the humour and illustrations can be sexually suggestive in nature and they might appear to condone drug use, smoking, violence, racism, and telling falsehoods. These topics are fodder for any humorist and Mad tells its fair share off-colour jokes. To read Mad and understand all of the nuances of the humour takes a relatively high reading level, so I think some of Mad’s readers don’t understand all the humour in the magazine. On the other hand Mad may serve to elevate the critical thoughts about our culture and the highly massages message we receive from other forms of media.



About Mad Magazine (nd) Retrieved from http://www.dccomics.com/mad/?action=about

Mad Magazine. (2008). New York: E. C. Publications

The Mad Timeline (nd) Retrieved from http://www.dccomics.com/mad/?action=timeline

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy / L.A. Meyer

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer is the story of young orphan girl from London in the 18th-century who disguises herself as a young boy and enlists in the Royal Navy as a ship’s boy. Mary “Jacky” Faber distinguishes herself with her, intelligence, her bold nature and her brave deeds and she acquires the name Bloody Jack. After a long time Mary reveals her identity to the boy she has fallen in love with and then the story really gets interesting.

The version of Bloody Jack I partook of was the audio version on CD-ROM. I have not listened to any audio books before and only a few stories on tape. I must say I enjoyed the story in this format and I found that the narrator’s voice was engaging and she kept me interested in the story through all 6 discs. The story is not for very young children, because there is violence, murder and some sexually suggestive situations in the story. I thought the story was quite realistic in it’s portrayal of life on a Navy ship in that period and the suggestion of the unlikely event that a girl could be mistaken for a girl seemed very plausible in the way it was presented. I story is about courage, loyalty, love and integrity.

Meyer, L. A. (Author), & Kellgren, K. (Narrator). (2007). Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy [Sound recording]. Roseland, NJ: Listen & Live Audio.

Forever / Judy Blume

Forever by Judy Blume is a simple story about a young high school girl who falls in love, has her first sexual experience, and then breaks up with her lover. Katherine is a level-headed average high school girl who experiences the feelings and events that most high school girls feel with their first sexual encounter, she is afraid of getting pregnant, venereal diseases, learning about intercourse and feelings of intimacy.

Forever is an important story, because it is not sensational story about sex, it is a realist story about a normal sexual experience and how a young woman can learn about love and sex. It is controversial, because it is explicit in its description of sex and the experience is pleasurable and does not end in a catastrophic pregnancy or disease. The story does show all of the pressures that Katherine has to deal with from her family, friends and her lover and her decision to wait for weeks after he initially wants to, to have sex.

Blume, J. (2007). Forever. New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

Powers / Ursula K. Le Guin

Powers is the third book of Ursula K. Le Guin's Annals of the Western Shore series. Powers is the story of a boy who is taken to be a slave with his sister at a young age. Gaivr is treated roughly at times as a slave and he eventually escapes his masters after his sister is killed. Gavir starts a voyage to find a new place to
call home and to find the answers to the visions that he sees from time to time. Gavir is a Marshland boy who not only has the power to see visions of the future, but he also has an extraordinary memory and can recite many poems and songs after briefly studying them.

For a long time I did not sense there was much connection between "Gifts" the first book of the Western Shore series and "Powers" the third book in the series. Apart from the setting of the book and the power that Gavir has I found no connection between the two books until the Uplands are mentioned in the middle of the book and at the very end of the book a character from the first book shows up in the third book.

Powers is well written, but I found it to move slowly in the beginning and it did not immediately catch my attention. I became more interested when Gavir escaped from his masters and started his journey. Gavir's journey seems to be a test of his character, because everywhere he spends time he finds problems with his adopted communities. Issues of trust abound in this story as Gavir seeks to find the meaning behind the visions he has seen and his desire not to be recaptured. This is a good book for those interested in fantasy and the works of Ursla LeGuin.

Le Guin, U. K. (2007). Powers. New York: Harcourt Ltd.

Gilmore Girls / Amy Sherman

Gilmore Girls - a television program created by Amy Sherman is now available in DVD. Gilmore Girls tells the story of a single mother with a teen daughter who lives in a small town in New England. Mother and daughter are very close to each other and quick witted. The small town is typically a friendly place and the two "girls" have various interactions with friends, neighbours, workmates and schoolmates. Various mishaps and humerous situations occur as the series proceeds all within the realm of the normal human experience.


Gilmore Girls depicts two clever ladies living a typical North American existence with ease and grace. The humour of the characters and the charm of the small town are the main appeal of this series. I think Gilmore Girls would mainly appeal to teen girls, because the main characters are both female. I also think the show is for a white middle class audience, because there is only one regular character in that does not fit this physical description and the everyday problems and issues that the characters have to deal with are relevant to this demographic. Gilmore Girls is funny, quaint and not overly controversial and should be suitable for most young adults.

Efros, M. (Producer). (2004). Gilmore girls. The complete second season. [videorecording (DVD)]. Burban, CA: Warner Home Video.

Gifts / Ursula La Guin

Gifts by Ursula Le Guin is the story of a young boy living in a world of Uplanders. Some Uplanders are born with Gifts that allow them to call animals, to make people go blind to, “undo” things and various other mysterious powers. The Gift runs in a family and the power to “undo” runs in Orrec’s family, but the Gift has not reveal itself to him as a young man at the beginning of this story. The story follows Orrec’s life as his family deals with friendly and unfriendly neighbouring homesteads. Orrec and his friend Gry struggle with the difficulties of living with families dominated by these Gifts and the daunting decision of how to use their Gifts or not use the Gifts they inherit.

Ursula Le Guin weaves a compelling story in Gifts – which is set in a world of homesteads that could have existed hundreds of years ago with families like clans and no modern conveniences. La Guin mainly explores the ethical decisions that these two teens make in this Upland world and the difficulties they have to deal with as a result of their choices. For readers that enjoy a well crafted story with characters that have troubles they can relate to in a figurative way, then Gifts is an excellent read.

Gifts is the first of the Ursula La Guin books I will review from The Annals of the Western Shore series.

Le Guin, U. K. (2006). Gifts. New York: Harcourt Ltd.