Hate List
by Jennifer Brown

Ever since that terrible day last May when her boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on students in their school commons, Valerie has tried understand how she couldn't have seen what was coming. How could something like their hate list just be a way of blowing off steam for her, but deadly serious to Nick, and she never realized it?  Shot while she tried to stop Nick from targeting the people on the list, Valerie is caught between those who believe she is just as guilty as Nick, and those who think she is a hero for saving another student.  All she knows is that the hate list was her idea, and she lost the best friend she ever had when Nick turned the gun on himself.  In the months following the shootings, Valerie alternates between total self-absorption, and surprising sympathy for others. This amazing first novel by Jennifer Brown, tells the story of a girl who slowly crawls back to health from a black hole, and the unexpected compassion she receives along the way.  Highly recommended!    ~reviewed by Dail Sams

SKINNED
by Robin Wasserman

For readers of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, the cover of this book may look familiar, and it would be tempting to assume that the storyline is similar.   Lia Kahn's physical body is really the main character in this book, and there the similarities end.  Skinned takes place in a future, post-nuclear accident America, where the rich have every possible advantage and the poor live in unhealthy squalor.  Medical science has advanced to the point that a person's mind can be downloaded into a beautiful mechanical body, but those who have had the procedure done, either by choice or because their bodies have become so damaged that they had no choice, if they wanted to continue to exist, are looked at as inhuman, souless machines.  They are the outcasts of society.  After a horrifying accident, Lia's father decides to save her by giving her a mechanical body. She is then faced with not only adjusting to the physical changes, the change in her social status, but much more importantly, dealing with who and what she has become emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.  This book poses all the difficult questions about what it means to be human, whether there is a god and spiritual life, and what the responsibility is of those who are virtually indestructible to those who aren't.  None of these problems are solved, but at the end, Lia is at last ready to consider the questions.  Skinned is Book One in a trilogy which promises to be full of action and thought-provoking angst.  ~reviewed by Dail Sams

Impossible

by Nancy Werlin

Lucy Scarborough is the latest in a long line of cursed women who have become pregnant at age 18 and had baby daughters. Based on the lyrics to the old folk ballad "Scarborogh Fair", made famous by Simon and Garfunkel in the 1960's, Lucy, her family, and her best friend Zach realize Lucy must perform the three tasks mentioned in the song or she will go insane after delivering her baby. Each of the three tasks seems more impossible to perform than the last. The underlying tension of evil, personified by an incredibly attractive stranger named Padraig Seeley, makes this book one that is difficult to put down. The binding and breaking power of love is the most important theme threaded throughout this spellbinding tale. Werlin has created an unusual story intertwining the very modern and rational with the ancient and magical. A great read on this year's Tayshas list. --reviewed by Mrs. Sams

waiting for normal

by leslie connor

Waiting for Normal is another of several YA novels I've read in the past year or two about the struggles and fears of kids who have to take care of themselves because the adults in their lives are either irresponsible, cruel, or both. Addie's mother is not cruel, which makes this novel a little less painful to read than some, but she is selfish and thoughtless, leaving 12-year-old Addison to fend for herself on a regular basis. More than anything, Addie wants to have a normal life, with her two younger sisters who live with their dad, a good man who happens to love Addie too. But he's not Addie's blood father, so he hasn't been able to gain custody of her. He has done the best he can for Addie and her mother by providing them with a small trailer to live in and monthly support. Addie is happy with it, but Addie's mother is rarely satisfied, and she feels entitled to her own life, often leaving Addie alone, sometimes for days at a time. School activities and Soula and Elliot, the owners of a minimart across the street, make life bearable for Addie. When Addie accidentally sets the trailer on fire one morning while her mother is gone on one of her getaways, Soula finally calls child protective services, and sets in motion the circumstances for Addie to achieve her "normal." A surprisingly upbeat novel, considering the subject matter, Waiting for Normal is a great story about a girl who is a survivor. Read Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key and Deborah Davis's Not Like You, for other takes on the same subject. Waiting for Normal is on this year's Texas Lone Star list.

~reviewed by Dail Sams

Me, the Missing, and the Dead

by Jenny Valentine

An amazine first novel by Valentine, Me, the Missing and the Dead, has a clever plot, well-developed, dynamic characters, and a surprise ending. What more could you want? Here's the story: Peter Swain, the father of our narrator, Lucas, disappeared without a trace five years ago. His wife and three children don't know if he's alive or dead. They just know he never came home one day. Lucas feels like he's the only one who cares, who is trying to keep his father's memory alive. In a seemingly unrelated event, Lucas wanders into a cab company early one morning to catch a cab home, and notices an urn sitting up on a shelf. It contains the ashes of Violet Park, and she and her urn were left in a cab five years ago and never claimed. For some reason, that makes Lucas really sad, and he is determined to take possession of Violet's ashes and sprinkle them in a nice place. He just can't rest until he's done it; it seems that Violet is calling to him. With the help of his grandmother, Lucas claims the ashes and begins doing research on Violet Park. She was a noted pianist, in several movies, and craziest of all, she had known his dad. Lucas begins to wonder if there is a connection between Violet's death and his father's disappearance. On this year's Tayshas list, Me, the Missing, and the Dead is a great novel about seeking the truth and learning when to let go. Highly recommended.

--reviewed by Dail Sams

TEEN, INC. by Stefan Petrucha

For most teens, having two parents to answer to, is more than enough. Just imagine if you had a whole corporation in charge of your life? What if you had to attend board meetings to discuss your dating life? Meet 14 year-old Jaiden Beale, NECorp's adopted "son." When a NECorp product accident killed his parents when he was three weeks old, the company decided to settle 40 million dollars on him and to take care of him until he reaches adulthood. Since Jaiden has no other relatives, he doesn't remember his parents, and the company buys him lots of cool electronic gadgets, Jaiden really has no reason to resist the arrangement. He did have to push his management team to allow him to attend public school after years of private tutors. And the whole power meeting on potential dates was too much to bear, but it was not until he learns from Jenny, a classmate, that NECorp is dangerously polluting the local water supply with mercury, that he starts questioning his loyalty to the company. A series of bizarre incidents and teen pranks follow which lead to NECorp having to clean up its act and Jaiden being faced with some decisions about his future.

Teen, Inc. is an entertaining and highly readable story, but I found it a little confusing. The author couldn't seem to make up his mind if he was writing a comedy or a serious novel about pollution and corrupt business practices. And the basis for the story and several goings-on within the plot just weren't believable. However, Jaiden is a totally normal and likable character, in spite of his strange "home" life, so many students will enjoy reading Teen, Inc. --reviewed by Dail Sams

Am I a censor???
For the past few days I've been reading a four-book series about the daughter of the first woman President of the United States. To tell the truth, I haven't been able to put these books down. Meg is an extremely appealing character, smart, funny, and honest. The first book takes the Powers family through Meg's mother's presidential campaign. The second one focuses on the family's move to the White House and all the adjustments that come with living in a fish bowl with 24/7 Secret Service protection. When the President is shot in an assassination attempt, the family's world is turned upside down. In book three, my favorite so far, Meg is kidnapped by terrorists, beaten, and left to die, chained in an abandoned mine shaft. The fourth book which I'm still reading, chronicles Meg's recovery, her painful physical rehab, her struggle with post-traumatic stress syndrome and feelings about her mother's refusal to negotiate with terrorists, and her need to go to college and move on with her life. Even when the plots are not totally spell-binding, still the characters kept me coming back for more. I have to know what happens to Meg.
So, what's the problem? It's the language. Meg and her younger brother and her best friend Beth, use non-stop profanity, most of it taking the Lord's name in vain. I went back and reread the reviews upon which I based the acquisition of these books. Only one of them mentions Meg's language as being "appropriately raw," while all give very positive revi ews. I guess I have to be fair and say that most of the profanity is in Meg's head. Meg is mostly very respectful and discreet when actually speaking to other people. But that doesn't change the perspective that there's a lot of what I would consider inappropriate language in these books. So, I now have the difficult decision whether or not to keep these books in the library collection. As much as I have enjoyed the story, the language offends me, and I think it could offend others. On the other hand, in our rather crude society, I know that there is nothing in these books that LHS students haven't heard on a regular basis in TV shows and movies. I often remind myself that a significant percentage of our student population is of adult age, or about to be, and I don't think it's my job to protect them or censor their reading material. On the other hand, I have to live with my conscience and be faithful to the task of providing excellent resources to complement and support the curriculum. In this case, I think I'll have to pull these books from the shelf. In other cases, I heave a sigh, wishing young adult authors didn't feel the need to be quite so "realistic," and put the books on the shelf. Finding the balance is the hardest part of my job.