I'm All About the YA LIt Lately

It's a hazard of the job...books come across your desk that catch your eye and you find yourself thinking..."ooo I've got to read this book!!"

Tamar by Bill Peet

Carnegie Medal winner

also on 5 "best books" lists

In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family. [My note: a real shocker of an ending!]

Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Among the Indians by Mark Twain and Lee Nelson

Mark Twain began this story in 1885 and then stopped in mid-sentence and never finished it! Lee Nelson has done such a fine job of finishing the story that if one doesn't know where Twain stopped, you'd never know where Nelson begins. It's a rip-snorting adventure! Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer mount a daring rescue after their friend Jim, a runaway slave, as well as the daughters of a family that had befriended the boys, are kidnapped by a group of Sioux Indians.

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

YA National Book Award Finalist

Anyone steeped in traditional fairy tales will feel nothing but admiration for the way Leavitt constructs this story with the voice of 16 yr. old Keturah. When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck

In only 112 pages, this is a masterfully told story. The emotions and reactions struck me as being so universal. A beautiful, provincial Norwegian town is invaded by German soldiers. An act of brutality begins an uncontrollable, unalterable chain of events.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

YA National Book Award Winner 2008

In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever. Great coming of age story for teen girls.