My student bookgroup chose The Glass Castle for their May read this spring, and they were simply crazy over it. I had students coming up to me within 2 or 3 days of receiving the book telling me how they had read the whole thing, how they just hadn’t been about to put it down. It gave me great pleasure to be able to tell them that the author had a novel coming out in a few weeks — I know a bunch of teenage girls who will be reading The Silver Star this summer.

Kiese Laymon‘s debut novel is a sort of time travel, coming of age, novel within a novel. It’s hard to define, and that makes it exciting. I’m not going to try to say more than that — see Diane’s review below.

There is an excerpt from the novel on Gawker, and check out this interview with the author, including both text and spoken word. Laymon also has a book of essays scheduled for publication in August, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (also from Agate). The title essay was first posted on Gawker last year, where it went viral. It is a powerful, personal examination of racism in America.

A bit of a sneak preview — you’ll see both of these books on our Best Books of the Year so far, 2013. Coming soon!

* WALLS, Jeannette. The Silver Star. 288p. Scribner. Jun. 2013. Tr $26. ISBN 9781451661507; ebook ISBN 9781451661552.  

Adult/High School–Walls wrote about growing up in a dysfunctional family in her brilliant memoir, The Glass Castle (Scribner, 2005). In this novel, set in 1970, 12-year-old Bean, the narrator, and 15-year-old Liz are sadly familiar with their mother disappearing for days at a time. However, this time, she has been gone for two weeks and because of their dwindling money and fear of being discovered by the police, the sisters decide to travel across the country to stay with their uncle in Virginia. Uncle Tinsley, an eccentric widower, lives in the family’s once-grand mansion and is at first unhappy to have his nieces appear on his doorstep. Bean soon learns of her mother and Tinsley’s family’s past importance as mill owners in this small town, her father’s background (including his Silver Star from the Korean War) and his family, with whom she becomes deeply connected. Bean and Liz’s lives also intersect with the unscrupulous and vile Jerry Maddox, the mill foreman. When the girls decide they need jobs, Maddox is the only one who will hire them. The foreshadowing of trouble is palpable and when it comes, it is horrifying. Charlotte appears several times and her mental instability is developed masterfully, including her poignant comment, “no one understands how hard it is to be me.”  Period details are woven through the story including school integration and the Vietnam War. Teens will clamor for this novel with its many endearing characters, its emotional honesty, and the plot twists and turns.–Jane Ritter, Mill Valley School District, CA

LAYMON, Kiese. Long Division: A Novel. 274p. Agate. Jun. 2013. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1-932841-72-5. LC 2013009054.  

Adult/High School–“City” Coldson is a loquacious 14-year-old sentence wizard competing in the live TV competition “Can You Use That Word in a Sentence?” There is only one other black competitor. When City stands up for his word, the judge gives him “niggardly” and promptly rejects his  use of it  in a sentence. City lets loose with some more words, letting everyone in the country know how messed up it all is. By the next day, the video clip is viral, and City is sent to stay with his grandmother in Mississippi while things cool down. But before leaving, he acquires a book titled Long Division, which is about another boy named City Coldson, set in 1985. In Long Division, alternate-City has a crush on a girl named Shalaya Crump. Together, City and Shalaya travel through a time portal to 1964, the onset of the “Freedom Summer,” when Klan activity is still high. City is a funny, unreliable narrator who speaks important truths. Perhaps most striking, and frustrating to City, is the protective behavior that black people assume around white people in all three time periods; the vibrant black community is not particularly interested in desegregation, only justice and respect. Layman’s debut novel is bursting with colloquial language from three generations of Mississippi African Americans, mixed with gut-piercing truths about a long racial divide that persists to this day. City himself recommends Long Division, explaining that it’s short and more of a young adult book for adults.–Diane Colson, formerly at Palm Harbor Library, FL

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is set in 1930, right before the Depression. The New York Times review calls it “this summer’s first romantic page turner,” and it has already earned starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal and Kirkus. We’re adding a fourth right here! It was a featured title in the Penguin Debut Author program, titled First Flights, which includes a live online chat with the author. The transcript of the May 13th chat with Anton DiSclafani is available on the First Flights site.

Flat Water Tuesday is alternately narrated by Rob as an adult in his early 30s, and Rob as a teen. While you might think this a disadvantage for teen readers, I think this is what gives the novel its power. Understanding adult Rob’s life gives insight into teen Rob and, of course, visa-versa. The challenges that adult Rob faces are just as dramatic as those of his younger self. Rob may have learned a lot during his time on the rowing team at Fenton, but he still needs to learn how to participate fully in his own life as an adult. There is still a lot of growing up to do and responsibility to face, and I believe teen readers will find these insights engrossing.

The other really outstanding part of Flat Water Tuesday are the rowing scenes. Author Ron Irwin is a rower himself, and the level of detail he provides is fascinating, especially the sheer physical difficulty of training to compete.

* DISCLAFANI, Anton. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. 400p. Riverhead . June 2013. Tr $27.95. ISBN 9781594486401. LC 2013003603.  

Adult/High School–For 15-year-old Thea Atwell, finishing the summer of 1930 at an exclusive riding camp/boarding school in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is a punishment rather than a privilege. Exiled following the tragic event her doctor father refers to as “all this mess,” Thea desperately misses her family, especially her sensitive twin brother, Sam. Raised in a large house on the family’s orange grove in rural Florida and homeschooled by her mother, she knows little about the intricacies of female friendship. Introverted and observant, she is, however, a passionate and skilled horsewoman. She soon takes her place among her peers, turning an eye toward the handsome, married headmaster. Formerly sheltered Thea begins to think about the world outside herself as she forms relationships beyond the bounds of family. The book’s setting provokes thoughts about class and the ephemeral nature of wealth and social standing. DiSclafani succeeds in making the horses characters in their own right, and equine lovers will revel in detailed descriptions of daily care and the excitement of riding. Told by an older Thea looking back on her coming-of-age in the midst of personal scandal, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a book young adults will easily fall into and undoubtedly savor. DiSclafani has written a relatable protagonist with a rich inner life, a girl unapologetically exploring and coming to terms with her own sexuality with little regard for the possible consequences of her actions.–Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

IRWIN, Ron. Flat Water Tuesday. 320p. Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s. Jun. 2013. Tr $24.99. ISBN 9781250030030; ebook $11.99. ISBN 9781250030023.  

Adult/High School–Robert Carrey is a 19-year-old postgraduate student, recruited from a small high school in upstate New York to row at the elite Fenton School. Rob’s working-class father convinces him that an extra year of high school is worth the chance of being invited to row for Harvard. Even though he is a solo champion, Rob is brought to Fenton to fill out their five-person team, the God Four, and help win the all-important Warwick Race. Rob immediately conflicts with Connor, the only Fenton rower who can match him, even as they begin a sort of friendship. Ruth is the God Four’s coxswain–she runs practices and calls the strokes during competition. Rob can’t help falling for her mixture of tough and vulnerable. Day in, day out training pitting the rowers against each other takes its toll, and from the beginning readers know that there’s tragedy to come. The novel alternates Rob’s months at Fenton with his present as a 30-something documentary filmmaker dividing his time between Cape Town and his girlfriend’s Manhattan loft. Back with Carolyn after a long work absence, their relationship on the rocks, Rob learns of the suicide of a former teammate. As a student at Fenton, Rob struggles to succeed within a team. As an adult he needs to change his solitary ways if he hopes to keep Carolyn in his life. This is more than a sports novel or a boarding school story, although it certainly illuminates the devastating consequences of competition. Teens will be drawn by the story’s honesty, suspense, and heart-stopping racing descriptions.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City 

A couple of new comments have been added to that thread, so please head over to the above link to read the whole chain, but I wanted to post separately about a new development in the conversation, which is a fascinating comment on Goodreads by First Second, the publishers of many fabulous nonfiction graphic novels, including one of our Best Adult Books for Teens of 2011, Jim Ottaviani’s Feynman.

First Second is discussing Ottaviani’s new Young Adult graphic novel, illustrated by Maris Wicks, Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas (which is amazing, by the way).  You should read the whole comment from First Second, but here’s a piece:

Graphic novels are one of those things that it’s hard to fit in the nonfiction category – because everything is so described that it’s just about impossible to be 100% accurate. For example, with Jim Ottaviani’s previous book, . . . Feynman, we had to have a whole big discussion about the depiction of Richard Feynman as a person who rolled up his sleeves. Apparently, in real life, he didn’t roll up his sleeves ever. But in the book, he had his sleeves rolled up all the time – and the depiction of him as a person who was always getting down to work was emblematically portrayed in those rolled sleeves.

. . .

Does it make the book fiction instead of nonfiction?

You decide!

I love that publishers and authors are having the same debates about this as we readers, reviewers, and librarians–and seemingly can’t come to a decision either!  Which perhaps just solidifies Francisca’s point from the first post that this “naggy classification game may have as much to say about libraryland’s [and apparently the publishing industry's] desire to get the exact right pigeonhole than the reader’s quest for insight.”

In any case, I thought our readers might be interested to see another side to the conversation.

First up, Edward O. Wilson’s passionate and inspiring Letters to a Young Scientist. Maybe it’s the time of year, but I can’t help thinking that this would make a terrific graduation gift for any budding scientist. Wilson is the world’s leading expert on ants, and has won the Pulitzer Prize twice. First, for his book On Human Nature in 1979, in which he turned his interest in sociobiology to human applications, and again for The Ants in 1991. In 2010, he published a novel, Anthill, which follows a young man growing up in Alabama who falls in love with nature and science and fights for the survival of the marshlands near his home when developers threaten to destroy them.

Why Knot? is a terrific suggestion for teens who like to be hands-on. Philippe Petit, most famous for his 1974 illegal high wire performance between the towers of the New York World Trade Center (and the resulting film Man on Wire), is passionate about knots. And this quirky, generously and cleverly illustrated book reflects that passion.

Watch Petit create a knot installation at the Abrams offices on Youtube.

WILSON, Edward O. Letters to a Young Scientist. 192p. illus. index. Norton. Apr. 2013. Tr $21.95. ISBN 9780871403773.  

Adult/High School–Wilson entreats potential scientists everywhere to follow their passions. He bluntly and forcefully says, “You are needed” in the world of science. His storytelling skills superbly weave his own experiences together in a way that changes the book from a series of advice snippets to a letter of passionate encouragement. Learn from me, he is saying. Here is what you can do. Don’t worry if you are not a mathematician; find one with whom to collaborate. Use your creativity to look for ways to solve important problems in science: indulge in fantasy, daydream, talk to yourself, share with others. Understand how to do good research and work hard. You will be rewarded with new knowledge. All of this advice is brought to life in stories from his many and varied experiences as a scientist, collaborator, mentor, college professor, and writer. Earning a Boy Scout badge in zoology as a 14-year-old was only the beginning. Young adults who may or may not be contemplating a future in one of the sciences will enjoy this well-written book. It is a fast read that is potentially life-changing.–Vicki Emery, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Fairfax County, VA

PETIT, Philippe. Why Knot?: How to Tie more than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving and Secure Knots. 255p. bibliog. diags. glossary. index. photos. Abrams. May. 2013. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-4197-0676-9. LC 2012035658.

Adult/High School–An entire book about knots that will leave readers wanting to know even more  when they’re finished? Aerialist/artist/magician Petit, probably best known for being the subject of the movie Man on Wire, delivers exactly that in this compact book. While largely a how-to book, it’s equally fascinating in the sections on knot history and photographs of Petit using his knots to complete his high-wire walks. The chapters are loosely divided into types of knots, such as binding, hitches, and lashes, and then several knots of each type are demonstrated with Petit’s drawings and chatty instructions, including the best use for each one. Who would this book be for? Not just Eagle Scouts, but also campers, builders,  artists, craftsmen, hikers, fishermen, and undoubtedly more. Included is a red string for practicing and blank pages for note taking (called “knotes”) but neither of these is too intrusive to keep this beautifully designed book out of a library.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

In contrast to Red Handed, Audrey Niffenegger’s The Raven Girl is simplicity itself, having been designed (and succeeding wonderfully) as a “new fairy tale.”  Teens who know Niffenegger from the book or film of The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003) may be baffled by the change of style and topic, but Niffenegger has actually been creating illustrated books for years, with such intriguing books as The Adventuress (2005) and Three Incestuous Sisters (2006).  Personally, I find her visual works to be far more successful than her novels, and I hope teens pick up this new one.

Somewhere between these two poles of complexity we have Zander Cannon’s Heck.  In one way, this novel is a straightforward, linear story, illustrated in pure black and white.  From another angle, though, it is a sly commentary on Dante’s Inferno and much else besides.  Between these three novels, we can see the large range of artistic style, plotting, and theme in the modern graphic novel.

* KINDT, Matt. Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes. 272p. First Second. May 2013. Tr $26.99. ISBN 978-1-59643-662-6. LC 2012025793.

Adult/High School–Kindt’s twisty, mind-bending graphic novel seems at first to tell the stories of several eccentric crimes in the town of Red Wheelbarrow: a woman who steal chairs; an art thief who uses the proceeds of his first theft to become a real art dealer; a woman who steals street signs to “write” a novel; a businessman who meticulously plans an office fight so he can sue his company. The only connecting thread at first is Detective Gould, who solves all the crimes, and an enigmatic real-estate agent named Tess. Meanwhile, Kindt intersperses the stories with a comic strip called “Tess’s True Heart”; the story of Detective Gould’s wife’s career running an art gallery; and, most provocatively, an ongoing dialogue between two unnamed characters about the nature of crime, and whether such a thing as a victimless crime truly exists. As the novel comes to its close, the crimes all fall into place as pieces of one master plan that calls into question everything Detective Gould thinks. From the town’s William Carlos Williams-inspired name to the several art-related crimes, this is a novel as much about art as it is about crime, and it should provoke much thoughtful analysis even before the connection between the crimes is made clear. Kindt’s gorgeous artwork evokes classic detective comics and masterfully distinguishes the novel’s several time-periods and settings. Though it can be enjoyed as a relatively straightforward crime caper, this novel practically begs to be reread and contemplated at length.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

NIFFENEGGER, Audrey. The Raven Girl. illus. by author. 71p. Abrams. May 2013. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-4197-0726-1. LC 2012039266.

Adult/High School–In this gorgeous illustrated story, a postman and a raven fall in love and give birth to the eponymous raven girl, who has the body of a human but speaks in raven caws and longs to be like her mother. In college, she meets a young scientist who is willing to try to turn her arms into wings. But a young man from her school has fallen in love with the raven girl and sees the scientist’s experiments as unnatural and harmful. In the acknowledgements, Niffenegger explains that she wrote the story as a “new fairy tale” to use as the basis for a dance by Wayne McGregor of the Royal Ballet in London. Ballet and fairy tales have a long intertwined history (think of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty), and this new tale should be a glorious addition to the tradition. The beautifully understated tone perfectly captures the strangely propulsive logic of the fairy tale, and the story revels in fairy-tale themes of transformation, maturation, love, and jealousy. But the most impressive element of the book is its glorious design–from the page layout, to the paper stock, to (most importantly) Niffenegger’s beautifully hesitant pen-and-ink drawings, The Raven Girl is a delight to hold and take in. Lovers of fairy tales and some graphic novel fans should find much to love here.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

CANNON, Zander. Heck. 284p. Top Shelf. Jul. 2013. Tr $19.95. ISBN 9781603093019.

Adult/High School-In this cheeky re-working of Dante’s Inferno, former high school football star Heck Hammarskjöld inherits his father’s estate, only to find that it contains a gateway to Hell. Soon, with the help of Elliot, his old water boy and constant admirer, Heck has set up shop taking messages back and forth between Earth and Hell, but in one of their first excursions down, Elliot is attacked by a demon and is just barely held together by mummylike wrappings. Now, in his latest adventure, Heck and Elliot must go further into Hell than they have ever gone to deliver a letter to the husband of the woman Heck loves, battling demons both literal and figurative. While Cannon has enormous fun tweaking Dante’s conception of Hell and joking about society’s (and even the Catholic Church’s) ever-changing conceptions of what merits damnation, at heart this graphic novel is a serious morality play, with the conflicted relationship between Elliot and Heck (who feels responsible for Elliot’s condition) at its center. Cannon’s artwork-pure black-and-white tones (with no shades of gray) juxtaposed against highly cartoonish drawings-mirrors the story’s tension between uncompromising morality and satiric humor. Teens drawn in by Cannon’s quirky humor may be surprised by the challenging questions posed by this wonderful novel.-Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

They’ve been addressing such pressing issues as whether Sherlock Holmes can legally commandeer a snow plow on the TV show Elementary, whether Gotham City may accept Batman’s gift of a crime lab, and more. Take a look–very fun stuff.

The Sea of Tranquility has been available as an ebook since November 2012. But only yesterday Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, released the book in paperback. Even before this print release it had over 13,000 ratings on Goodreads. This is a hugely popular book and it started with the click of a button. Check out Katja Millay’s Facebook page — it’s amazing to read the progression of events. At the very bottom there’s a link to Amazon and a simple post, “It’s live!”

I had the good fortune to interview the author about her novel. The full interview will be published on June 19th in the SLJ Teen Newsletter; however, I will share a bit here. A teaser, if you will.

Your novel appeals equally to teen and adult readers. Why do you think that is? To what do you credit its crossover appeal? 

I’ve been so thrilled with how the book seems to have taken hold with both teen and adult audiences.  I think the crossover appeal can somewhat be credited to the universal themes at work in the book.  While the characters may be teenagers, they’re dealing with situations and life events that often come later.  There’s also the exploration of the concept of identity and figuring out who we are.  I think that’s something that many of us, even as adults, still struggle with.

In addition, in its simplest form, it’s a love story; it’s a story of acceptance and growing up.  At its core, the story is one of friendship & family, faith & fate, choices & chance and I believe those things transcend age barriers.

Apparently we are not the first to see its crossover appeal. Books-a-Million has chosen The Sea of Tranquility as its Teen Book Club selection for September.

Wool has a similar publication history. Hugh Howey self-published his “post-apocalyptic-survival-thriller” as a series of Kindle books on Amazon. Simon & Schuster published an omnibus of these novels, simply titled Wool, in March. This is the book which we review below. By the way, you thought 13,000 ratings on Goodreads was a lot? Try over 20K. And Amazon reviews are off the charts.

All of this makes me wonder — at which point we will add self-published ebooks to the titles we accept for review on AB4T? SLJ has started accepting E-originals for review. Library Journal began reviewing romance E-originals back in 2011 and has been expanding ever since. Amy Cheney (an AB4T reviewer who writes the YA Underground column for SLJ),  has been finding these books for her audience for a couple years now.

And when will it be the case that a book doesn’t need to be published in print to reach a wider audience? We’re not quite there yet. Both of these books stand to gain many new readers as a result of being picked up by the smart folks at Simon & Schuster.

* MILLAY, Katja. The Sea of Tranquility. 448p. Atria. 2013. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1476730943. LC 2013012207.  

Adult/High School–“I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck.” Nastya was a piano prodigy until the day her hand was destroyed. She hasn’t spoken in more than a year, and she isn’t planning to anytime soon. Hoping to start over, Nastya moves in with her aunt in Florida. The first day of senior year she arrives at her new school in her shortest black skirt, her highest heels, and piles of makeup, hoping to scare everyone off and hide the worst of her scars. She spends her evenings running to exhaust herself enough for sleep. Josh has lost his mother, father, and sister. Now that his grandfather has been moved to hospice, he’s living alone in his family’s house. At school, it’s as if a force field surrounds him. No one approaches him, except for his friend Drew who, in a wonderful way, just never took the hint. Nastya is out for a run one night and is drawn to the garage where Josh is making a coffee table. She returns again and again. Alternating first-person narratives allow Millay to delve into the minds of both of her main characters, and she keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Will Nastya find her voice? Will she trust Josh enough to share what happened to her? What did happen, exactly? As they grow closer, they learn that accepting the intimacy of being loved requires healing and acceptance. Populated with perfectly realized teen characters–not a stereotype in sight–this is the ideal crossover novel.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City 

HOWEY, Hugh. Wool. 508p. S & S. Mar. 2013. Tr $26. ISBN 9781476735115; pap. $15. ISBN 978-1476733951. LC 2013000363.  

Adult/High School–The catastrophe that devastated Earth long ago forced survivors to dwell beneath its toxic surface in a single silo that descends 144 stories. A class system has evolved to maintain order within the silo: at the top level Information Technology maintains control of operations. Below them are segregated levels of Supply, Farming, and Mechanical. The only ones who have ever been out of the silo are the Cleaners charged with polishing the lens through which residents can view their ruined surroundings.  Though fitted with protective suits, none of the Cleaners ever returns from their chore. Each of them dies in a mysterious display of ecstasy when they finish their task. That is, until Juliette, a mechanic, not only refuses to clean the lens, but grimly walks away over the hillside horizon. There, instead of a livable environment, she finds another silo, littered with bodies. Within she discovers a single survivor and evidence that, amazingly, even more silos exist. Inspired by Juliette’s escape, the lower levels of the silo rebel and try to overthrow IT. With her hazmat suit ruined, Juliette is stranded and desperate and struggles to return home to ensure her people’s success. Readers looking for sci-fi details about the silo’s origin and operation might be disappointed by Howey’s focus on action and relationships, but as a post-apocalyptic-survival-thriller, Wool is a page-turning rip-roar sure to please any teen looking for five hundred pages of escape this summer.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY 

Not nearly as sensational, but just as heartbreaking is Elizabeth Scarboro’s memoir of her relationship with her childhood sweetheart, who suffered from cystic fibrosis. She recounts her growing love for Stephen, early marriage, and plunge into the world of terminal illness with open-eyed unsentimentality.  Once again, this is the kind of story which many would decry as phony Lifetime-movie fare if it weren’t real.

CHAPMAN, Marina & Lynn Barrett-Lee. The Girl with No Name: The Incredible True Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys. 336p. Pegasus. Apr. 2013. Tr $26.95. ISBN 9781605984742.

Adult/High School–Marina was kidnapped somewhere near Colombia when she was only five-years-old. This fantastic and heart-wrenching story would be too much to buy if it weren’t nonfiction. Evens so, it is hard to believe. Abandoned in the forest, she learned to survive by mimicking the troop of monkeys she discovered in a clearing. The monkeys at first tolerated, and then adopted her. She lived with them for something like five years before she was rescued, but her hardships had only begun. She was sold into a brothel as a slave servant where she was beaten and abused until she managed to escape before they could initiate her into the life of a prostitute. She spent time as a street kid where she learned to be tough and wily, and then thought she had improved her life by becoming a servant for a wealthy family, only to learn that she was in the house of Colombian mafia. The action, drama, and suspense are ongoing as this remarkable heroine moved through one treacherous scenario to the next until she finally found her way out into the light and a future that held promise. Students who flock to true stories of abuse like Dave Pelzer’s A Child Called It (Health Communications, 1995) will gravitate to this story and insist that all their friends read it, too.–Jake Pettit, American School Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico

SCARBORO, Elizabeth. My Foreign Cities. 288p. Norton. Apr. 2013. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-87140-338-4. LC 2012042010.

Adult/High School–Stephen, Scarboro’s childhood sweetheart, was born with cystic fibrosis. People with the disease are missing a crucial enzyme without which mucus develops in the lungs and digestive system, ultimately making it impossible to breathe. Their life expectancy is 30 years. As teens they were friends, but slowly it became clear that not only were they best friends–they loved each other deeply. Scarboro married him at age 20. Her thoughtful memoir takes readers on the beautiful and painful journey of loving someone with a life-threatening illness: thorough the hospital visits, addiction to painkillers, a lung transplant, and the accompanying hope that he will live past the five-year mark, which is considered a success for transplant recipients. Scarboro was 27 when Stephen received the transplant and they began to live life as if they had a future. She was 29 when he died. “You imagine if your spouse dies you’d change everything,” She writes. “New city, new job…but the death makes these changes for you–you find yourself a foreigner in your own kitchen. You hate mayonnaise, and now the jar in your fridge appears as an artifact, knife marks still intact.” Teen readers will enjoy the romance–unsentimentally portrayed–of marrying a childhood sweetheart and the grit of sticking with him through breathing tubes and ventilators.–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA

First up is a starred review for John Corvino’s What’s Wrong with Homosexuality? It doesn’t get much less narrative than a philosophical treatise, and yet for anyone interested in the topic this is an absolute page-turner. Corvino’s style is eminently engaging and peppered with jokes and anecdotes. But mostly, this is simply a hugely important book.  For some teens, who have grown up in more tolerant times, the question of the title may be genuinely confusing–why would anyone find anything wrong with homosexuality?  For these, Corvino offers a fair-handed explication of the anti-homosexual position from which he starts each chapter.  For others, who have yet to form their opinions, Corvino’s arguments are thorough yet easy to understand.

Next up is another philosophically questioning book: Emily Anthes’s Frankenstein’s Cat asks her readers to decide just how far we are willing to live with animal experimentation and genetic modification.  Like Corvino’s, Anthes’s book is one that engages the reader not with stories (though there are some of those too) but with questions and research.  Also like Corvino’s book, Frankenstein’s Cat can equally be used as curriculum support for teens writing a paper on the issue, or as recreational reading for those genuinely concerned.

And finally, we have an example of the most prototypical of non-narrative nonfiction–the trivia book.  Peter Meltzer’s So You Think You Know Baseball? is only for serious baseball fans, but for them it is an absolute bonanza of interesting facts about the rules of the sport.  I have been a devoted fan since I was 8 years old and I didn’t know the answer to half the quirky rules-based questions Meltzer poses.  With the baseball season in full swing, this is a perfect book to browse through on a lazy summer day.

* CORVINO, John. What’s Wrong with Homosexuality?. 224p. notes. Oxford Univ. Mar. 2013. Tr $22.95. ISBN 9780199856312.

Adult/High School–Corvino has been debating the title question with hundreds of people since his teens, and here he collects what he sees as the most common and most powerful arguments he’s seen against homosexuality and sets about to absolutely demolish each in turn. Starting with what would seem to be the most intractable argument, the argument from Biblical authority, and moving through arguments about the supposed risk of homosexual activity, natural law, genetics, and the slippery-slope argument, Corvino offers succinct examples of his opposition’s position and then lays out counter arguments grounded in basic logic and rational reasoning. He admits that his arguments are highly unlikely to change the minds of the most committed opponents of homosexuality, but for those who are questioning, or simply have an open mind, this book should be an eye-opener. Meanwhile, for those already committed to gay rights. who may think, as Corvino puts it, that  “we shouldn’t even be having this discussion,” the author explains why the conversation is still necessary, offers a view into just what opponents see as so bad about homosexuality, and gives allies some excellent rhetorical tricks to use. Finally, for teens who have not be introduced to formal logic, this book is an easy first introduction to the basic concepts of how to construct a logical argument. A must read.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

ANTHES, Emily. Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts. 256p. notes. bibliog. index. Scientific American. Mar. 2013. Tr $26. ISBN 9780374158590.

Adult/High School–Humans have been genetically modifying animals for millennia, quite possibly starting with the “evolution” of the grey wolf to our modern-day dog breeds. And despite the health problems that purebreds often have thanks to the limited gene pool available, few people have a problem with that kind of modification. In fact, pet lovers often think that they’d love a clone of Fluffy/Fido when their beloved companion passes on–technology now possible for those with enough money, even though clones may not look or act like the original. While we’re not at Jurassic Park quite yet, scientists are even capable of successfully resurrecting extinct animals. And certainly there’s nothing ethically wrong with GloFish, zebra fish modified to glow vibrant greens, blues, reds, and pinks under a black light. But where do we draw the line? Frankenstein’s Cat explores these and many other issues–mice in China, modified to be born with various ailments and prone to problems so that scientists can study and cure them; pigs bred for the valves that can save heart patients; and the use of a prosthetic fin on a dolphin,; not to mention “Neuticles” for castrated animals; and more. Written in a chatty style, this book will fascinate not only students looking for ethical issues to debate or where science is going in terms of animals (or what PETA might get involved with next), but anyone interested in the topic of the intersection of humans and animals. The notes at the end are extensive, leading to many great resources for further research.–Laura Pearle, The Center for Fiction, New York City

MELTZER, Peter. So You Think You Know Baseball?: A Fan’s Guide to the Official Rules. 384p. Norton. June 2013. pap. $16.95. ISBN 978-0393344387.

Adult/High School–What happens when a baseball gets lodged in the catcher’s mask? Is it possible to record a triple play without a defensive player touching the ball? What is the penalty for sending the wrong player up to bat? In this meticulously researched, but always fun, book, Meltzer sets out to answer hundreds of questions like these about baseball, in the form of trivia questions for readers to answer based on real situations taken from the game’s history. The entries run from truly absurd minor league shenanigans to some of the most famous and infamous plays in history, and Meltzer somehow manages to cover just about every rule, arcane or otherwise. Despite the book’s impeccable organization–it is divided neatly into sections on the rules on the field, specialized field situations, and the rules of scoring, with each section then further divided into chapters on every conceivable aspect of the topic–the sheer number of rules, hypotheticals, and names introduced ensure that this is not a book to be read in a single sitting. Instead, it is to be pored over and used to quiz other fans. But if there is any group as obsessed with minute trivia as baseball fans, it is teens. Give this book to a  fan and you might make yourself a friend for life.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library,  Vallejo, CA

Previous winners of this prize include Hillary Jordan for Mudbound (which also won a 2009 Alex Award), Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow. All three have teen appeal, and this one is no different.

Nussbaum’s award was announced at a BookExpo program last year this time, which was attended by all three of the former winners as well as Barbara Kingsolver. It was quite a stellar group. BookPage wrote up a brief description.

Why not a starred review? I struggled with that decision. This is an important book, and one teens will be drawn to. But it can be a hard read. The utter vulnerability of these characters, the injustice of the way they are treated, and the harm that comes to more than one of them because of that mistreatment is infuriating, and made me put down the book more than once. I picked it back up because the character voices are so good. And the combination of adult and teen voices gives the novel real depth. Nussbaum is a playwright and it shows. The lack of a star is really because, as the book progresses, its focus can shift to the issues facing the disabled in our country, sometimes at the expense of the story.

But don’t get me wrong — you will be seeing this novel on our “Best of the Year so far” list in a few weeks, and it deserves to find a place on many library shelves.

NUSSBAUM, Susan. Good Kings Bad Kings. 304p. Algonquin. 2013. Tr $23.95. ISBN 9781616202637.  

Adult/High School–In her PEN/Bellwether Prize-winning debut novel, Nussbaum introduces the “inmates” and caregivers of the Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center. ILLC is a nursing facility for adolescents in South Side Chicago that has been taken over by a private firm interested only in the bottom line. All of the patients are disabled, most physically, but many suffer from learning or psychiatric issues as well. Each character tells his or her own story in alternating chapters with lively, diverse, authentic voices. Mia has been living at ILLC since the age of 11, when she was rescued from her father’s abuse. Her boyfriend, Teddy, is 22 and itching to live in an apartment of his own. Their sweet relationship falls apart when Mia is raped by a houseparent. Ricky is a kind driver who becomes invested in the patients. He starts seeing Joanne, who is disabled herself, and works at ILLC as a data-entry clerk. She lives on her own, in contrast to the teens who aren’t even granted power chairs. Yessenia was doing fine until her beloved tía Nene died and she landed in juvie after attacking a girl at school. Yessie rallies the others to fight for change after understaffing causes life-threatening errors and neglect. When the characters are at the forefront, this is an inspiring read. At times, the issues overtake the story and it becomes a bit didactic. But overall, Nussbaum will have readers rooting for these brave, vulnerable teens to fight for better lives.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City