young adult

young adult 

2010: #56 – Chenxi and the Foreigner (Sally Rippin)

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Love in the time of the Tiananmen Square.

Anna never imagined living in such a foreign place. Fresh out of high school, she has joined her father, who works in Shanghai. She’s eager to see China beyond the bicycle-crowded streets between their apartment, her father’s expatriate community and the art school she’s attending. That’s why she’s thrilled when her father hires a cute local — a fellow student named Chenxi — to be her translator and guide.

Too bad Anna seems nothing but trouble for Chenxi. His ideas about art already rankle the authorities, and he could do without the added attention of being with a wai guo ren — a foreigner. Even so, he is intrigued by Anna’s brashness and the freedoms she takes for granted. But when Anna turns their friendship toward passion, her actions have consequences that are intensified by a watchful regime looking to get rid of disruptive artists.

Set around the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and inspired by the author’s time spent in China as a teenager, Chenxi and the Foreigner crackles with emotion, ideas and authenticity.

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young adult 

2010: #37 – In Ecstasy (Kate McCaffrey)

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A best friend sinks into a quicksand of teenage addictions.

Sophie and Mia have been best friends for most of their 15 years. Sophie is popular, so when she suggests they try ecstasy Mia figures it can’t hurt her own chances with the in crowd. Mia is elated when the drug lives up to its name and amazed when Lewis, the hottest guy in school, kisses her goodnight.

Soon Lewis is Mia’s boyfriend, and she and Soph are running with his fast, rich friends, until Sophie is sexually assaulted by Lewis’s drug-dealing buddy. Reluctant to say what happened, Sophie grows distant, leaving Mia to conclude she’s jealous of her popular boyfriend. But to keep Lewis’s attention, Mia grows increasingly dependent on the confidence that only E seems to give her. When things worsen, it is the girls’ strained but solid friendship that finally helps bring Mia back from the brink.

Powerfully told from the alternating points of view of each girl, In Ecstasy is a brutally frank and utterly convincing portrait of the challenges facing contemporary teens.

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young adult 

2009: #128 – The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)

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It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

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