Chloe Doe by Suzanne Phillips

Chloe Doe

At seventeen, Chloe Doe is a prostitute. She’s picked up one day and sent to the Madeline Parker Institute for Girls. Chloe meets Dr. Dearborn, a psychiatrist determined to get her off the streets. Deep down, she hates selling her body, but in order to change she must confront painful memories about her abusive stepfather and her sister’s murder.

Phillips lends a caustic and unforgiving voice to this first novel, which often reads like free verse poetry. The plot unravels through a series of therapy sessions and flashbacks. At the outset, the characters and plot feel cliché, but, in the end, Chloe’s story will touch readers.

The novel is not as good as Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, a story about finding one’s voice after being raped, but it is an honest portrait of a young woman’s attempt to triumph after suffering sexual abuse. The book contains some disturbing sexual situations, but these are important to accurately tell Chloe’s story.

DweebMeter: 3/5

Links

TeensReadToo Review of Chloe Doe

 

Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

Gym Candy

Pressured to excel in football since the age of four, freshman running back Mick Johnson will do anything to make the starting lineup for Shilshole High School. He works harder than anyone else in practice. He knows the game better than his competition. But, when all of this hardwork ends in a botched play that loses his team a spot in the playoffs, Mick starts the summer determined to do something different. He hits the gym hard every day. And when his trainer offers to sell him pills gauranteed to enhance his performance, Mick pushes aside his initial fears and buys them. At first, Mick isn’t sure how he feels about taking steroids, but by the time training camp rolls around, one thing seems certain: the pills work. Mick makes the starting line-up his sophomore year, and goes off the steroids before the season starts, against the advice of his trainer. In his first two games, Mick breaks a string of school records. Then, he follows this with three mediocre games, and all the while a freshman running back, Dave Kane, starts to show Mick up in practices. Afraid of losing everything he gained over the summer, Mick starts taking steroids again, only this time he takes a stronger dose that heightens the chance of dangerous roid rages and depression.

Deuker has crafted a realistic protagonist who struggles with insecurities about his body, his personal worth and his identity outside of football. The story combines heart-racing football scenes, conflicts with family and friends as well as Mick’s inner conflict. The fast pace will hold reluctant readers, and established readers will be shocked by the series of twists at the end.

DweebMeter: 3.5/5

Links

Carl Deuker’s Website

 

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Little Brother

An intense tale of terrorism, torture and techie rebellion.

17-year-old w1n5t0n (aka Marcus) lives in a post-911 world dominated by high tech security and almost no privacy. His high school runs gait-recognition software, which records students and identifies them based on the way they walk. His school laptop monitors every keystroke. To get around this, w1n5t0n uses TOR, an onion router that makes it impossible to tell what sites he’s visiting, and a disguised copy of Firefox. Even library books are monitored through radio frequency identification tags (RFID tags).

The story starts as w1n5t0n and his friends Vanessa, Darryl and Jolu cut class to play Harajuku Fun Madness, an ARG, i.e. a game that combines real world searching and online puzzles. Using wifinders, they reach their target destination, only to get caught in the middle of a bomb attack on the Bay Bridge. Moments later, caught up in a frenzied crowd fleeing for safety, Darryl gets stabbed. The friends push their way out of the crowd, but are soon attacked and forced into the back of a truck.

Eventually, w1n5t0n finds out they have been taken into questioning by the Department of Homeland Security. The rest of the tale unravels like a super scary, high tech version of George Orwell’s 1984. The same thing that got Marcus into trouble in the first place (i.e. his ability to hack and circumvent the system) gives him a way to fight back against the DHS in the end. He creates a secret network using an Xbox Universal and an operating system called ParanoidXbox. Through this network, called Xnet, he rallies his fellow citizens to fight for their privacy under the banner ‘Trust No One Over 25.”

I read this for book club this month. The bookclubbers gave it mixed reviews. Some people thought all the techie stuff bogged down the story, while others found the characters flat. I agree that the characters all sounded the same in the beginning, but I think Doctorow fleshes them out by the end. As for the techie chatter, I have to admit it made me a little hot and bothered. Can you say “invisible to the network’s snoopware” one more time?

Seriously, I completely loved this book. It’s got suspense, action, big brother and an amazing hero/hacker who uses his skills to fight the Man. What more do you need in a novel?

DweebMeter: 4/5

Links

Cory Doctorow’s Website

 

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Feathers

The story opens as sixth grader Frannie struggles to understand the meaning of Emily Dickinson’s words, “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Her thoughts take on new meaning when a white boy called Jesus walks into Frannie’s all African American class. Her religious best friend, Samantha, comes to believe that the boy might just be the real Jesus, but Frannie, who has never gotten into church, isn’t so sure. Samantha’s hopes burst when Jesus Boy gets into a fight with school bully, Trevor, finally proving that he is not the real Jesus. But even as Samantha loses hope, Frannie begins to see hope all around her as she learns more about Jesus Boy, Trevor and others at her school. Other explorations of hope involve Frannie’s deaf brother and her newly pregnant mother who has suffered from past miscarriages.

Woodson crafts a strong, reflective protagonist and does an excellent job of tracing her personal evolution. This positive, thoughtful novel brings a mix of the surreal and the realistic. Religion plays an important part in the story, though Woodson avoids becoming preachy. This novel will likely appeal to an older audience than sixth grader Frannie. A brief but strongly felt story from a Newbery Honor author.

DweebMeter: 3/5

Links

www.jacquelinewoodson.com

Woodson on Wikipedia

Woodson Bio on TeenReads.com

 

Games: A Tale of Two Bullies by Carol Gorman

Games

!!!SPOILERS!!!

Eighth graders Boot Quinn and Mick Sullivan live to torment each other. The bullying shows no signs of letting up, until a new principal forces the boys to play board games for a few hours each day. At first, the fighting escalates. Everybody hears about their punishment in the game room, and the boys become celebrities at school. Both boys relish the attention of popular girl Tabitha, until they find out that she has been taking bets on their fights. In all the craziness, Boot and Mick make poor choices that threaten the things they hold most dear. In the aftermath of these decisions and in the midst of turmoil at home, Mick and Boot forge an unsteady truce.

Chapters alternate between Mick’s and Boot’s perspectives. Both voices sound authentic and distinct. The story unravels to a conclusion that will satisfy readers, but that avoids an unrealistic buddy movie ending. This is a great read for young adults struggling to balance school, friends, and family and maintain some trace of sanity while doing it.

DweebMeter: 3.5/5

Links

Carol Gorman’s Website

 

Marvin Redpost 1: Kidnapped at Birth by Louis Sachar

Marvin Redpost

After nine-year-old Marvin Redpost learns that the King of Shampoon is conducting a nationwide search to find his lost son, he becomes convinced that he is none other than the missing Prince Robert. He tells the kids at school that he was kidnapped at birth, and he and his friends speculate about the rich and priveleged life he will lead as a prince. Marvin convinces his mom (aka Mrs. Redpost) to take him to get a blood test to prove his lineage. He passes the first test, but, when it comes time to take the second test, he decides that maybe it’s okay to be plain old Marvin Redpost after all. Offering more depth and detail than most chapter books, this is a promising start to the eight-part Marvin Redpost series. Though the end seems a tad rushed, Sachar makes up for this with a rounded protagonist and a unique plot.

DweebMeter: 3.5/5

Links

See all of the books in the series at Random House’s website

www.louissachar.com

 

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

My Most Excellent Year

I read this in my YA book club. Collectively, we described it as a fairy tale, a realistic portrayal of teens, an unrealistic portrayal of teens, a happy Christmas book, laugh-out-loud funny and (overwhelmingly) a darn good book. Now, understand, we’ve read a lot of downers lately, so a book about three intelligent, cool teens who star in musicals, fall in love, obsess about baseball, champion political causes and make the dreams of a deaf kid come true kind of hit the spot.

The novel is told through a series of letters, emails and instant messages from the three main characters (T.C., Augie and Alejandra), their parents and some other (surprisingly cool) adults in their lives. The format works well and lends a fast pace to what appears to be a beefy read. In the first half, the main story revolves around Augie’s coming out and T.C.’s attempts to woo Alejandra. The second half focuses on Hucky, a six-year-old deaf orphan who is obsessed with Mary Poppins and can’t understand why she won’t come and live with him.

Kluger manages to combine the realistic and fantastic, the too good to believe and the super believable into an enjoyable, feel good novel that will challenge readers to create some Mary Poppins magic in their own lives.

DweebMeter: 5/5

Links

www.stevekluger.com

www.augiehwong.com

www.freebuckweaver.com

 

Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David A. Adler

 

Cam Jansen

For the second book in my 30 Chapter Books in 30 Days experiment, I chose a popular mystery series about a girl with a photographic memory. In this first book in the series, Cam and her friend Eric witness the aftermath of a jewelry theft in the mall. Naturally curious, they watch as police chase and arrest a man who ran from the scene. The problem? Cam is convinced that he’s not the robber. With her amazing memory, and some gutsy snooping, Cam and Eric uncover the real robbers. Overall, a nicely crafted, suspenseful mystery for young readers. Cam is a relatable, intelligent heroine who manages to perform extraordinary feats without any superhuman powers (well, except for that photographic memory).

 

DweebMeter: 3.5/5

Links

camjansen.com

davidaadler.com

 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

This laugh-out-loud novel in cartoons tells the story of a regular guy’s struggle to survive middle school. Here’s what I thought of it:

DweebMeter: 4/5

Links

www.wimpykid.com

Jeff Kinney’s Blog

 

Jinx by Meg Cabot

Small town girl Jean (aka Jinx) has always been a magnet for bad luck. She hopes that by moving halfway across the country (from Iowa to Manhattan) she can finally turn her luck around, but she has another thing coming. Soon after arriving, she learns that her cousin Tory has become obsessed with witchcraft, something Jean wants desperately to avoid. When Jean refuses to join Tory’s coven and befriends the hot guy Tory’s crushing on, Tory vows revenge. Through a series of twists and turns (some magical, some mundane), Tory plots Jean’s downfall. Jinx can either give up her new life (and new love) and move back to Iowa, or she can finally embrace her witchy powers and fight back.

Lovers of Meg Cabot and paranormal romances will probably eat this one up. It’s a quick read with relatable characters and just a touch of the witchy stuff. Readers who don’t dig chick lit, however, will find the story filled with too many cliches for comfort. In summary, a fluffy story that will engage some readers, and leave others (like me) wishing it had a little more bite.

DweebMeter: 2.5/5

Links

www.megcabot.com

Meg Cabot on Wikipedia