The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson.

In pre-Revolutionary America, Octavian and his mother Cassiopeia live in luxury on a grand estate. Octavian, a brilliant child, is receiving a classical education where he is taught to observe, reflect, and draw rational conclusions about the world around him. But then in one horrible moment, he discovers that his upbringing has been an experiment to prove the inferiority of blacks to whites - and thus to encourage the continuation of slavery.

This is not an easy read. Octavian narrates the book in an 18th century style that may be off-putting to some. However, it is a powerful story where you feel Octavian's rage and pain as he observes the hypocrisy of those who purport rational thought and free will but only do so as it fits their own motives.

Just finishing up The City of Ember by Jeanne Du Prau, as a read-aloud. The premise drew us into the story immediately - a city that has existed under the earth for so many years that its inhabitants no realize the existence of a world above them. This city has been stocked with all the necessities of life and draws its light from a huge generator. But now the supplies are running low and the generator is wearing out. Blackouts are more and more frequent and although unspoken, there is a fear that some day the lights will go out permanently. When young Lina finds a manuscript, she is convinced that it provides information that will lead Ember's inhabitants away from the city and to safety. Unfortunately, her little sister Poppy has eaten chunks of the manuscript but with the help of a friend, Doon they begin to decipher the message and make plans to escape from Ember.

Because Du Prau doesn't give much away in "Ember" we often paused in our reading to speculate. Who built the city? Why? Are there people above ground? Given that all copies of the next book in the series are currently out of the library, I figure that lots of kids had similar questions and were eager to find the answers.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I know that Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" is the hot teen book right now, but I honestly couldn't get into it. The setting was great - all that rain and fog was just right for a vampire theme. But I got tired of Bella mooning over Edward the vampire and kept wanting to shriek at her "Focus on your studies!" "He's totally unsuitable!" "What are your parents going to say?" sigh..it must be my age showing.

However, I loved City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Yes, there are vampires and romance. There is also tons of action and a wonderfully twisting plot. Fifteen-year-old Clary becomes involved with teens who belong to a mysterious group called the Shadowhunters. They are embroiled in an attempt to find an ancient cup possessed of great powers, before former Shadowhunter Valentine gets his hands on it. It does sound like a pretty standard plot, but it grabbed my attention with complex characters and relationships, clever plot surprises, and entertaining dialogue.

A fun read and the first in a series.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
How to describe Junior -aka Arnold Spirit? Skinny, huge feet, big head, ugly glasses, myriad medical problems, and the lousiest fighter on the Indian reservation where he lives. Or as he describes it "...a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation." He is also funny, intelligent, and a gifted comic artist. When he accidentally (kind of) breaks his teacher's nose, a discussion with said teacher makes him realize that the only way that he is going to survive and thrive is if he leaves the reservation. And so, as a first step, he enrolls in the all-white high school in a nearby town where other than the school mascot, he is the only Indian. But his decision is seen on the reservation as an act of betrayal and in the school he is shunned as an outsider and oddball.
"True Diary" should be a terribly sad read and sometimes is. Junior suffers more tragedy and disappointment in one year than many people do in a lifetime. But he springs off the pages with his acerbic comments, his insightful, funny cartoons and his determination, so that ultimately the tone of the book is one of joy rather than tragedy.

The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
I only got about half-way through this one before handing it over to a ten- year-old who was looking for something to read. We compared notes when he got to about the same point in the book that I had reached, and it seems that our opinions were somewhat different.
First, a quick summary. 11 year old James is mathematically brilliant, but a little too quick with his fists and prone to get into trouble. When his mother, a successful fence for stolen goods, dies, James ends up in group home where he starts to run with a gang. He gets picked up by the police, but before he is charged, he is recruited by a mysterious group called Cherubs. Cherubs is a secret branch of M15 and consists of kids 11 to 17 who perform missions for this British spy agency. James undergoes a rigorous 100 day training before receiving his first assignment.
I certainly thought that The Recruit is a page turner as did my 10-year-old reviewer. However, while I thought that the training was down-right abusive, my co-reviewer thought it was all pretty cool. This is the first in a series about Cherubs. While definitely grittier than the Alex Rider spy novels, it will definitely appeal to kids who are fans of spy novels, which are currently an incredibly popular genre.
On a quick note, James Patterson has done a cross-over from adult into teen novels with his Maximum Ride series. It features a group of genetically enhanced kids who are being pursued by unknown killers. If this isn't trouble enough, they need to save the world from unspecified threat. These are real page-turners with short chapters and lots of action. While past titles in the series have been marketed to teens and tweens, apparently the next book out is going to be marketed across the board to adults, teens, and tweens. I guess the publishers want to squeeze as much out of this series as possible.

The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer


Enola Holmes definitely belongs to my "cool girl" list. This much, much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes is growing up as something of a wild child. When her mother mysteriously disappears (to escape the restrictions of Victorian society), Sherlock and Mycroft arrive at the family estate and are properly shocked by their hoydenish sister's upbringing. They decide that she should be packed off to a boarding school where she can learn how to behave as a proper young lady. Enola, however, has very different plans. She gives her brothers the slip, runs off to London, and sets herself up as a detective where she soon is involved in solving a kidnapping case. But despite her incredible competence, she feels very much alone - spell Enola backwards - and longs to connect with Sherlock who is always a step or two behind in catching her sister. Great 19th century London atmosphere, wonderful characters, and a page-turning story in this first book in a series

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

When Daisy's father and stepmother send her to live in rural England with her aunt and cousin, the country is on the brink of war. At first, life seems idyllic to the teens, free from adult supervision when Daisy's aunt must leave the country to participate in peace talks. But when war breaks out, the farm is taken over by the army and the boys are forced to take refuge with one family while the girls are sent to another. Here Daisy sees the fallout of war - food and medicine shortages, a disintegrating infrastructure, and violent deaths. But she also sees people who are trying to milk cows, harvest crops, and perform other vital but unfamiliar tasks. Witnessing this, she is eventually pulled out of her self-absorbtion to perform her own acts of heroism - caring for her young cousin as they cross enemy territory to get back to the farm and reunite with her cousins. Although a short novel, Where I Live Now covers a lot of ground. The kids initially enjoy the war vicariously, then are thrust into the middle where they struggle to survive and finally must deal with going on with life after the war ends. Recommended for teens.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Liz Hall awakens to find herself on a cruise ship with no knowledge of how she got there or where she is going. As she wanders the ship, she notices that most of the other passengers are elderly and it is some time before she realizes that she is dead and she is travelling towards the afterlife. I was curious to see how Zevin was going to handle her version of an afterlife and I wasn't disappointed. It turns out that Elsewhere is very much like Earth, with people having homes, driving cars, holding jobs. However, instead of getting older, people grow younger, until finally as babies they are ready to return to Earth to live out a new life. Liz finds it really hard to accept her own death figuring that at the age of fifteen her life was just starting, but gradually makes friends, gets to know her grandmother who died before she was born, and even finds love. This is a really thought-provoking book, about grief, about letting go, and about being alive. Although in the children's department, it is a book that deals with some pretty adult ideas and would fit well in a teen collection.