Hirsch, J. (2011). The Eleventh Plague. NY: Scholastic. As you can tell, I’m a big reader of dystopian fiction (but really, who isn’t these days?), and so when I saw an advertisement for The Eleventh Plague, I knew what book I was going to check out next. Set in an unspecified future United States that…
Ford, M. (2011). The Poisoned House. Park Ridge, IL: Whitman. This short novel (the trim size makes it look a bit longer than it is) begins with fourteen-year-old Abi’s attempted escape from the British mansion where she works “in service.” Caught and returned to Greave Hall, Abi must face the harsh discipline meted out by…
Sheehan, A. (2011). A Long, Long Sleep. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick. Much like Beth Revis’s 2011 Across the Universe, this dystopian novel by first-time YA author Anna Sheehan features a protagonist who has been kept for years in suspended animation or, in the terms of A Long, Long Sleep, stasis or “stass.” When sixteen-year-old Rosalinda “Rose”…
Wells, Robison (2011). Variant. NY: HarperTeen. 376 pages. There should totally be a rule that all slightly science fiction themed mystery trilogies should announce themselves to the reader on the first page. Variant, which I totally expected to conclude in a single volume, is one such example, and, of course, I’m foaming to read the…
Healey, Karen (2011). The Shattering. NY: Little, Brown. 314 pages. I had read and enjoyed Healey’s first novel for young adults, Guardian of the Dead, a fantasy-themed mystery set in New Zealand that incorporated elements of Maori myth and legend to inform its fantastic premise, and I have to say I liked this one even…
Wright, Bil (2011). Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy. NY: Simon and Schuster. Sixteen-year-old Carlos (sometimes “Carrlos”) discovered his talent for applying makeup at an early age. Now nearing graduation, he is looking for a way to pursue his calling and achieve his dream of becoming a famous makeup artist. After a little creative editing…
Sedgwick, Marcus (2011). White Crow. NY: Roaring Brook Press. 234 pages. A noted writer in Britain, Marcus Sedgwick is one of those YA authors that deserves more attention across the pond. Although the first American edition of his novel, Revolver (2010, Roaring Brook), was a Printz award nominee, this–and his latest, White Crow–are not Sedgwick’s…
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds (2011). Incredibly Alice. NY: Atheneum. 278 pages. I had always enjoyed Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s series of books about Alice McKinley, the seemingly average Maryland girl living with her widower father and her older brother. The first novels cast Alice and her family in Quimby-esque terms: the McKinleys were neither rich nor poor…
Higson, Charles (2010). The Enemy. NY: Hyperion. 440 pages. Take one part Michael Grant’s Gone (Harper, 2008) and mix with one part Jonathan Mayberry’s Rot and Ruin (Simon and Schuster, 2010), set it in contemporary London, and you’ve almost got the setup for Higson’s The Enemy. This book begins a little more than one year…
Smith, Andrew (2009). In the Path of Falling Objects. NY: Feiwel and Friends. 326 pages. I decided to read this slightly older Andrew Smith novel because I had been so taken by his 2010 novel, The Marbury Lens. Although In the Path . . . was decidedly different in genre, the tone was similar and…