Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-10: 0374349460
ISBN-13: 978-0374349462

When 17-year old Naomi takes a tumble down the steps one evening, she wakes without the past four years of her memory and holding on to a cute boy she knows nothing about. They get to know each other in the ambulance ride to the hospital.

Naomi slowly starts to put her life together but there are so many things wrong with it. Like why can’t she remember Will, her best friend and co-chief editor of the school yearbook? She can’t remember that her parents are divorced or that she has a sister. Why can’t she remember ever kissing her boyfriend Ace? Matter of fact, she doesn’t even remember him. She reads her journal and doesn’t recognize her writing or her thoughts. Is she really this obsessed with how many calories she takes in each day? There has to be more to her than this.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is a fantastic story. It’s Naomi’s journey of self-discovery, of finding out just who she really is and what defines her as a person. It’s a second chance. As we get to know Naomi and her life, we’re completely involved, cheering her on, booing the bad decisions, stopping to take in her confusion and the realization that even with her memory back she’d be a changed person. She has a chance to choose the life she wants over the life she had before her accident. How great is that?

The author of that marvelously quirky and different novel Elsewhere really shines with this one. The book is well written, the characters so real we feel we know them and the story is completely original and fresh. Highly recommended!


Book Description from the publisher:
If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.


About the Author
GABRIELLE ZEVIN’s first young adult novel, Elsewhere, was an ALA Notable Book and a Quill Book Award nominee. Of her writing, The New York Times Book Review said, “Zevin’s touch is marvelously light even as she considers profundities.” She lives in New York City.

A Swift Pure Cry

A Swift Pure Cry
Author: Siobhan Dowd
Publisher: David Fickling Books
ISBN-10: 0385751087
ISBN-13: 978-0385751087

A Swift Pure Cry is the poignant and heart wrenching tale of Shell, a 15 year old girl growing up in Ireland. Her mother has died and Shell bears the responsibility of raising her siblings and trying to handle her drunken and obsessively religious father. They live on money he skims off of donations for the Church. Shell attempts to go to the church for support and is seen with a new, young priest. Shell is so out of touch with no mother, that it takes a girlfriend to tell her she needs a bra and then they set off to steal one. That scene broke my heart.

Her best friend is angry with her for no apparent reason and her only joy seems to come from her moments with her boyfriend, Declan in a barley field. Shell becomes pregnant and armed only with a stolen library book, she struggles to understand what to expect from her pregnancy while hiding it from her father and the village. Meanwhile, Declan (not the nicest guy in the world) has taken off for America and Shell’s friend has left town.

Shell’s courage and strength shine throughout the book as she struggles to live with her mother’s death, take care of her siblings and get through her pregnancy. She loves her baby and it seems to be a bright spot in the usual drudgery and hopelessness of her days. Eventually, her siblings catch on and become equally involved in her pregnancy all the while hiding it from the alcoholic father.

In an emotional and graphic scene, Shell gives birth to a stillborn baby girl. Another dead baby is found in a cave and the authorities take Shell in thinking it was her baby. Gossip starts in the small village and the new priest is thought to be the father.

Dowd’s lyrical prose and sensitivity to her subject makes this gut wrenching book a fine read. She gives the reader a sense of Ireland, the life in Shell’s village and most of all, the inner turmoil and hopes and dreams of this young girl. A Swift Pure Cry is one of my best books so far in 2007 and is highly recommended.

The King of Attolia

The King of Attolia
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Publisher: Greenwillow
ISBN-10: 006083577X
ISBN-13: 978-0060835774


The King of Attolia is the third in the series of books about Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis and long-awaited sequel to The Queen of Attolia. Eugenides or Gen, now the King of Attolia after literally stealing away Queen Irene and marrying her, is now dealing with her court and with being a king. The court thinks he’s an idiot and a pawn of the Queen. She can’t possibly love this guy! I mean after all, she did order his hand to be cut off in a previous book.

The attendants and guards mock him and play tricks on him. Think high school and a medieval "Kick Me" sign stuck on the poor guy’s back. They think he’s a wimp and can’t do anything about it. They think that Queen Irene is all for it because she does nothing. Fact is, she has to let him make his own way, find a way to rein these guys in on his own. There’s even a running palace joke that the Queen and King don’t sleep together. Eugenides is less than a man and certainly not a king to them.

Then one day Costis, a guard in the palace punches Gen right in the face. Beheading is the usual penalty for punching your king’s lights out, but Eugenides devises a better punishment. It is through Costis’ eyes that readers see how he and the court consistently underestimate the clever and calculating mastermind that is the King of Attolia.

There is subterfuge everywhere, plots abound, assassination attempts are prolific and though they litter the story, the real story and focus here is the complicated romance between two people in love who are dealing with the realities of marriage and monarchy.

Whalen Turner’s skilled third person prose is tantalizing, secretive and wonderful. She keeps you guessing, wondering what Eugenides is up to, and dying for the conclusion. Her portrayal of a court full of intrigue and Machiavellian plots is just amazing.

Costis’ gradual grudging respect for Gen really gives readers insight into both Gen and Costis as well as of the seemingly frosty Irene.

The King of Attolia is a worthy addition to the sequel and I feel, the best of the three.

Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress

Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
Author: Tina Ferraro
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0385733682
ISBN-13: 978-0385733687

Nicolette “Nic” Antonovic is going through a lot in her sophomore year. Her mom and dad have split up, Dad’s got more time to devote to Nic’s “replacement” her new stepsister, her mom is in danger of losing her home, the guy she was going to go to prom with dumped her for his ex-girlfriend and she’s stuck with one perfectly lovely vintage prom dress. Her mom is trying to keep her head above water and be cheery at the same time so she comes up with a list, Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress that make up the chapters of this book.

Nic’s life is spinning out of control but she thinks she has a handle on it. She tries to fix things for her mom by asking her Dad for the money for the mortgage and that causes some unexpected problems. Then there’s her friend’s brother she’s starting to have feelings for and that’s causing problems with her best friend who is weirded out by the situation.

Rod, the guy that ditched her last minute for the prom is hitting on her and she’s a little confused about that too. Nic’s a smart girl though and a strong one. I liked her. Even though she has some confusing feelings for Rod, her brain does tell her to back off, to not let him take advantage of her attraction. Nic’s nobody’s fool and she’s real enough to be liked and we all can related to being attracted to the bad boy.

There’s a lot of heart in this book. When I first picked it up, I thought it would be a piece of fluff. Surprisingly, I was caught up right on the first page and it kept my attention till the end. I loved Nic and her way of dealing with things. She’s smart, funny and real. The issues she has with boys, friends, high school, rumors and family problems all ring very true. She’s just a very likeable, normal teenaged girl with her share of problems.

Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress is a smart, funny and down to earth book that teenaged girls are going to love.

The Foretelling

The Foretelling
Author: Alice Hoffman
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0316154091
ISBN-13: 978-0316154093

From the first chapter:
“Ours was a time of blood, when the sky reached on forever, when one horse became a hundred and then a thousand, when we wore our hair in long black braids and rode as warriors. Everything we had was given to us by the goddess, and everything we lost was taken away by her.”

The Foretelling is Alice Hoffman’s fourth book for young readers and what a great tale it is. Rain, the heroine is a young Amazon princess who was born to Alina, Queen of the legendary Amazon warriors. She is destined to become the Queen of the Amazons herself as told in the prophecies of her people. Told in spare, gorgeous prose we learn that Rain is raised by the other women of the tribe, her mother is unable to be close to her as she is the product of a violent rape. Rain, like all girls of her tribe is raised on mare’s milk and nutured with the strength of the warriors. She is a girl given to dark dreams and strange longings.

Rain is determined to win her mother’s love and become the best Amazon warrior there is. She practices constantly on her horse, learning tricks and becoming so one with it that she exceeds even Amazonian expectations. None of what she does wins her the love she craves though and Rain grows up always feeling a bit different and alone. She must find her place within the tribe and become a Queen in her own right and bringing about a very different future for her people.

This story is remarkable in its ability to bring a legendary culture about which very little is known about to life. Alice Hoffman’s Amazons are larger than life, but very real and multi-dimensional. Rain’s quest to find herself and her place in the midst of war, turmoil and treachery is astounding and quite wonderful. It’s such an eloquent, believable and poetic story. Highly recommended!

Call Me María

Call Me María
Author: Judith Ortiz Cofer
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN-10: 0439385784
ISBN-13: 978-0439385787


Call Me María is the story of a girl caught between two worlds, the bright beaches of Puerto Rico where she was born and raised and the gritty streets of el barrio in New York where she lives with her father. The story is told in letters, poems and short spare chapters that convey much. The poetry is evocative and compelling. The language is lush. María’s the story of her life is fascinating. You can see the beaches in Puerto Rico, smell the ocean, feel the sun on your face, feel the cold of the New York and the shock to the system. It’s pretty great when writing can make you feel that you’re there, when it’s so real you can almost feel the wind on your skin.

“…I will watch the world go by until
I am ready to surface,
una flor in la primavera.
I know that spring will come someday even to this barrio.
When it does
I will break through the concerete and reach for the sun
Like the first flower of spring.”

Beautiful, que no?

María’s new life in the barrio is filled with meeting new friends, discovering the poetry in herself, overcoming her heavy accent, learning to live with her parents separation. There’s a lot here in this little book. Every page is a pleasure if you love poetry like I do. If you’re not a big fan, well read it anyway and the book will win you over. The different chapters, poems and letters give a lyrical view of everything and everyone involved in the story in a way that is brief but intense. I loved the poem of the Papi Chulo – that was just amazing – I smiled all the way through it.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation
Volume One: The Pox Party
Author: M.T. Anderson
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763624020
ISBN-13: 978-0763624026

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is the story of Octavian, who lives in a house in Boston with the men that make up the College of Lucidity , the Princess of Oyo who is his mother and various servants. Octavian is given a classical education, he and his mother are dressed in elegant and expensive silks and addressed as royalty. It is only after his mother refuses the unwanted advances of one of the College’s investors that Octavian realizes that he is nothing more than a slave in the household. His mother was an African princess that was sold while still pregnant with Octavian to the men of the college who have been conducting research and experiments using them to ascertain if the African race is "a separate and distinct species.”. I know! It’s unbelievable.

The book is written in 18th century literary style with Octavian telling his story. It is an ambitious story to tell. There’s a lot going on here that would normally be off putting, but M.T. Anderson is a grand storyteller and I found myself transfixed by it all.

As Octavian learns the horrors of slavery, that he is not a pampered prince and free as he had always thought, he becomes a man. He makes friends with another slave who takes him under his wing and learns other, more useful things. All the while, the story of Octavian and his astonishing life (and it is quite astonishing) there are under threads of unrest, the beginnings of war and interesting bits and pieces.

Octavian escapes from his prison and after his owners host a pox party, inoculating their guests against smallpox and his mother dies horribly disfigured. He ends up playing the fiddle and joining the patriots army before he is captured and returned to his owners. Octavian is then forced to wear an iron mask before he is set free by one of the men in the household who had been in love with his mother.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is an astounding book of immense ambition and scope. It addresses so many important issues like slavery, war, free will, bigotry and racism. It’s a powerful and important novel and one to be read and re-read. The author has promised a second volume and I can’t wait to read it.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama

Title: A Drowned Maidens Hair : A Melodrama
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763629308

"On the morning of the best day of her life, Maud Flynn was locked in the outhouse, singing, The Battle Hymn of the Republic." What a great way to begin a story! I was hooked from that first sentence.

Maud Flynn is a difficult girl. She excels at getting into trouble at the orphanage and is considered plain. She doesn’t have the curly blond ringlets or an agreeable nature, so she is overwhelmed to learn she has been adopted by the mysterious Hawthorne sisters. She is swept away by the mercurial Hyacinth Hawthorne and her sister Judith to their house far away. She is bought new clothes, given treats and books all before she gets to her destination.

What follows is an enormously entertaining and unusual tale. Maud is drawn into the “family business”. The Hawthorne sisters are spiritualists, mediums that make their money by holding fraudulent séances. There is a rich and grieving mother who is willing to give the first medium who can produce the ghost of her lost child a great deal of money and the sisters need Maud to play the dead child. Since no one can know that she exists, she becomes a “secret child”, not allowed to go out or make noise, or even to be in the populated parts of the house. She is lonely, love-starved and bored in this new and mysterious life. Maud makes friends with Muffet, the deaf housekeeper and they grow close. The mysteries grow as does Maud’s conscience though she gets drawn deeper and deeper into the scheme.

I loved this book and was completely caught up in the tale. It brings to life the time period as well as the fascination of the time with the spiritualists and mediums. It got me thinking about Harry Houdini, snake oil salesmen and the like.

Maud Flynn is a great character who just exudes life and almost leaps off the pages and into your home. She’s complex and multi-layered as are all the characters in the book. There is so much going on that you can hardly wait to turn the page. Highly recommended!