Tween Lit » For Guys

Framed!

Jenne — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 06:08:33 +0000

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Nothing happens in the town of Manod.Â In fact, itâ€™s so boring, the town newspaper only comes out once a month.Â Dylan Hughes keeps the log book for his familyâ€™s petrol (gas) business, the Snowdonia Oasis Auto Marvel, but things are about to change for him and his family.Â Mysterious white vans have begun passing the Oasis on their way to the abandoned slate quarry on the mountain, and Dylan wants to know whatâ€™s going on.

This book could be a bit challenging to American readers because of British terminology and some Welsh words, but itâ€™s totally worth it.

A hint: if you liked Chasing Vermeer, you might like this one.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy

Jenne — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 01:25:52 +0000

This was to be my next book for review here, but my 10-year-old literary advisor has taken off with it, so I won’t get it back for a couple of days. From what I was able to get from the cover, it’s about a boy growing up in a town where everyone has super powers. Everyone, that is, except for the boy.

Review: The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm

Jenne — Sun, 22 May 2005 17:33:45 +0000

Nancy Farmer’s The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm is a thriller set in Zimbabwe in 2194. A high-powered government official’s over-protected children go on an adventure and end up deeper than they thought. When they disappear, their parents hire a misfit detective agency that always seems to be about half a step behind the kids. This is an interesting look at a potential future where plastic is a highly-prized commodity, but old spirits still do battle. It’s a very exciting book, but at some points, I started to get tired of all the scrapes the kids got into. However, the end was worth every minute.

The readers of this book might skew a bit young, but this book definitely tackles issues that are interesting to older readers. I especially love the juxtaposition of futuristic worries with spirit myths of the past.

A review by a New York 6th Grader
A review by another novelist
A review by a Washington girl
St. Charles (IL) public library says if you like this book, you’ll love the books on their list.

I am the Cheese

Jenne — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 18:57:20 +0000

Robert Cormier’s masterpiece about a boy on a desperate journey to find his father and unlock his past. Things are not what they seem in this novel.

Ender’s Game

Jenne — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 19:33:12 +0000

Ender was created to save the world. As a young child, he’s selected for a coveted position in Battle School, where he trains to defeat an enemy that is not what he thinks it is.

Neverwhere

Jenne — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 15:50:00 +0000

by Neil Gaiman
There is another city in the tunnels under London. Richard Mayhew stumbles into it by chance and finds himself in a world stranger and more dangerous than he imagined. This book wasn’t written specifically for teens, but as the author of the Sandman series, Gaiman is popular with teens.

Feed

Jenne — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:41:40 +0000

Feed by MT Anderson looks at life in a frightening near future, where people have the Internet imbedded in their head, and the hottest new thing are oozing lesions caused by environmental toxins. Titus is comfortable with his life until he meets a girl who decided to fight the feed.

The Body of Christopher Creed

Jenne — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 09:40:50 +0000

When school weirdo Christopher Creed disappears without a trace, he leaves behind a note mentioning several students by name. Privileged, happy Torey Adams is on the list. As Torey tries to figure out why Creed mentioned him and where Creed disappeared to, he starts to see a side of life he never imagined existed. He starts to notice the hypocrisy of his friends and wonder why he didn’t treat Creed better. Author Carol Plum-Ucci does a very good job capturing a teenage boy’s thoughts in her first novel. Although they’re probably going to make a movie out of this one, do yourself a favor and read the book first.

REVIEWS BY ADULTS:

A review by a librarian in Chandler, Arizona
Short Review by Teenreads.com
Reviews by teens and adults at sff world

Whale Talk

Jenne — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:09:33 +0000

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is about the Cutter High School Mermen, an unlikely swim team of misfits trying to earn their letters. The team is put together by The Tao Jones, better known as TJ, one of the three mixed-race people in his town, and coached by a teacher who started the team to avoid having to be the assistant wrestling coach. Along with being an unlikely group of athletes, the swimmers don’t even have a pool of their own. They swim in a too-small pool at a local rec center. They also face the harassment of a town where football rules everything and star players never move on from their high school glory.

Whale Talk is worth reading, and then it’s worth reading again. It tackles race relations (TJ’s parents are white, as is most of the population of his small Washington state town), the obsession over high school athletics, drugs, violence… but Crutcher does it with a light touch and an appealing, realistic, teenage narrator.

Reviews by Students:

Review by a student in Virginia

Reviews by Adults:

Teenreads.com review
Review at a Pennsylvania library