Em & Nora began Love YA Lit back in June of 2010. In October of that year, our fabulous friend Jacinta met Alicia at the Reimagining Girlhood conference and Jacinta was kind enough to spread the Love YA Lit love. Alicia reached out to us when she returned home and she began guest reviewing with us the following month. After a wonderful year and a half of collaboration we decided it was time to step it up! So we are happy to welcome Alicia as a regular contributor to Love YA Lit!

When we started Love YA Lit, we asked some nice teenagers who Em worked with to come up with some questions that we could each answer to help blog readers have a better sense of who we are (if you missed all the fun, read an introduction to em and an introduction to nora). As part of the (friendly, of course) Love YA Lit initiation, we asked Alicia to answer the very same questions! So without further ado, here’s a little introduction to Alicia!

Alicia is a music, movie, and book lover with a critical eye and a feminist heart. A freelance artist of many talents, when opportunities arise Alicia finds herself a writer, editor, performer, radio DJ, and cultural commentator, particularly on pop culture and the media. She also blogs over at pop!goesalicia.

If you could live in the world of a book, which book world would you most want to live in and which would you least want to live in?
I would most want to live in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland just for the experience of all that magic. I would least want to live in the world of The Hunger Games.

If you could be any inanimate object, what would you be?
A piece of art or maybe a mirror. Something that reflects the world and makes people think.

If you could have any super power what would it be?
To fly.

What is a color you miss in nature after a snow storm?
I actually love the stark white of fresh fallen snow. Especially if it snows while you sleep and you wake up and everything is still and quiet and white. It’s beautiful.

What are the qualities that make a good friend?
Honesty, self-awareness, compassion, support. I personally am a fan of risk takers.

What is the best dream you have ever had?
I once had a dream that my Mom had this spray can of magic dust that made us fly. I woke up and really thought it had happened. It was awesome.

If you had to have one song stuck in your head for the rest of your life what would you choose?
I’m Comin Out by Diana Ross. It always puts me in a good mood and always makes me want to dance!

If you had to be trapped in a t.v. show for a month, which show would you choose?
That 70’s Show. I love those guys and would totally want to be friends with them. Also, I think that would’ve been an awesome era to experience especially the second wave of feminism and the peace movements.

What YA character would you most want to be friends with?
Cybil from Girl by Blake Nelson. I would’ve loved to have grown up in Portland or somewhere in the Pacific Northwest and been in a band and had friends that were making art instead of just hanging out at the mall.

What inspired you to start blogging about YA literature?
As an adult I still feel very influenced and affected by that time in my life. I even feel like I am still learning and healing from things that happened in my teens. So reading the stories and experience of the characters helps me to identify more with who I am and who I want to be.

What is your favorite non-YA book?
Ohhhh this is a good one. There are so many. I really love The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Anything by Joyce Carol Oates. David Sedaris for non-fiction. bell hooks.

What is your favorite thing about yourself?
My boldness. It scares me, and others, sometimes, but ultimately it’s what fuels my personality.

When did you start reading YA literature?
I remember my Aunt Susan gave me a copy of A Wrinkle in Time when I was maybe 8 years old and she said you may be too young for it now and I was, a little. I think I read it a year later. I was also very into the Judy Blume books in about 4th or 5th grade. Just As Long As We’re Together was one I loooved.

What is your favorite place you’ve ever traveled to?
So far, Switzerland. I long to go to Africa.

What is one book you wish you could change or re-write?
Just about every history book ever written.

Welcome Alicia! We’re so glad that you have joined the Love YA Lit team!

What is in the box? This question is the uniting force in this collection of stories from comic artists Kazu Kibuishi, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Jason Caffoe, Emily Carroll, Stuart Livingston, Johane Matte, and Rad Sechrist. With each story, the reader is introduced to a different artist’s style and to a different mystery box. The boxes hold all manner of things, from a traveling sorceress to a message from the dead. Some of the boxes cause trouble, some bear messages or gifts. Some of the tales are creepy, some goofy, and some thought-provoking.

The collection starts off strong with Emily Carroll’s Under the Floorboards, in which a young girl follows a tapping sound to a box beneath the floorboards in her bedroom. Within the box is a wax doll, who at first seems a blessing but eventually becomes a curse. The collection hits another high note with Rad Sechrist’s The Butter Thief, in which grandma has caught and buried a butter-thieving spirit. When her granddaughter digs up the box and opens it she is turned into a spirit herself. In exchange for turning her back to normal, the spirit wants more butter, but will she be able to get past grandma? And then wrapping up the collection impressively is Kazu Kibuishi (also the editor of this whole shindig) whose story, The Escape Option, is unsurprisingly beautiful and poignant, despite being a mere moment of a clearly larger story.

I’m a sucker for themed collections, so I had high hopes for this book and am happy to say that my hopes were realized. The seven stories are diverse both visually and emotionally, and the gimmick never wears thin. Of the seven stories, there is only one that I felt wasn’t up to par, with a preachy*, melodramatic feel that felt forced especially given the short space the artist was allotted. All in all, though, this is a solid collection and a fun, quick read.

Em’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Editor: Kazu Kibuishi (full list of authors above)
Publisher: Amulet Books (March 2012)

*in defense of the preaching, the message is legit.

Daisy Whitney’s The Mockingbirds was the best book I read last year. Not the best YA book; the best book, period. The plot centers on the musically gifted Alex, for all intents and purposes a “good girl,” who is date-raped by a fellow student while passed out and the underground student-led justice system that leads her to redemption. A story about courage, justice that transcends age, race and even, gender, I bought a copy for my parents, both sisters and my best friend. “You have to read this book,” I advocated to anyone who would listen. When I received a copy of the follow up book The Rivals (Thanks, Em!) I was hesitant to read it thinking, “No way this will be as interesting as the first one?”

Oh, Alicia. How dare you?

The Rivals picks up right where The Mockingbirds left off: the elite Themis Academy on the brink of another school year. Alex is a senior and has been appointed leader of The Mockingbirds – a position she is not sure she’s ready for. Days before the semester begins, Alex is tipped off to a case unlike any other – one that threatens to affect her future, her relationships and the entire student body.

What I love about both these books is Whitney’s accurate yet empathic reflection of the teenage experience and more specifically, the hurts and haunts that are often known only to girls. Rape is especially controversial subject matter and often I find myself frustrated that so many young adult novels with female protagonists center on some type of sexual assault. But the truth is this is fiction inspired by reality – an all too common reality – and Whitney’s prose and characters never come off as preachy or “representative” of culture. They feel real. In fact, they are real. More importantly, the creation of a vigilante justice system organized by a high school girl to protect another girl who was being bullied by other girls is a bold idea to imprint on readers.

In The Mockingbirds Alex admits that she was a bystander in her life – not a girl who takes action, who gets involved. In The Rivals she is still healing from the previous year and still dealing with the backlash of her actions (read: telling the truth and standing up for herself). Surprisingly though, Alex never feels like a victim. Whitney has usurped the victimhood and instead, reminiscent of Alice Sebold’s memoir Lucky, given Alex agency and power. While you relate to her fears, her pain, her doubts, you always have a stronger sense of her resilience, her perseverance and her innate sense of justice.

Furthermore, Alex is supported by a litany of diverse and active female characters: her older sister, her two roommates, her piano teacher and The Mockingbirds previous leader, Amy. When Alex is struggling with her memories of her rape and undermining her ability to lead, it is Amy who reminds her, “Twenty years from now, you’ll still remember what it felt like to be exposed. And you’ll remember too what it felt like to take a stand. You’ll probably remember that more.”

And that, my friends, is what we call revolution.

Alicia’s rating (The Mockingbirds): 5 out of 5 stars
Alicia’s rating (The Rivals): 4 out of 5 stars
Author: Daisy Whitney
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Nov 2010 & Feb 2012)

Gene is different from his classmates. He doesn’t sleep hanging from the ceiling. The sun doesn’t hurt him. He sweats and grows body hair. His fangs are fake and he doesn’t lust for blood. Living in a world taken over by vampire-like creatures, Gene was raised to hide the fact that he is human (or heper as humans are referred to in this world) and to pass as “normal”. He follows rules taught to him as a child and tries not to draw attention to himself. This becomes more difficult when he is chosen by lottery to be a participant in the Heper Hunt, a competition in which humans are hunted (and, of course, eaten). This will be the last Heper Hunt, seeing as the supply of humans has run so low, and the organizers are making sure that this particular hunt will last in memory and bedtime stories (sweet dreams) long past the final kill. As Gene and his fellow competitors prepare for the hunt, he struggles to keep his secret safe and to figure out a plan for survival.

I almost didn’t pick this book up, because it seemed like the author had thought to himself “The Hunger Games are big. Vampires are big. What happens if we combine these two?” But I’m glad I did. The Hunt is an intense ride and an exciting start to a new series. The majority of the book takes place during the lead-up to the Heper Hunt rather than during the hunt itself, but the lead-up is not without its own share of excitement and action. There is plenty of suspense and boot-shaking-nerve-wracking moments. Several of the action scenes are very cinematic and the world of The Institute where the training occurs is a fascinating place.

The vampiric characters are bizarre. They’re like vampires in many ways, but also have unique characteristics that set them apart, for instance they scratch their wrists when something is funny and don’t show emotion on their faces. There are some awkward scenes where Gene has to pretend to makeout with a classmate. He is pretending not because he doesn’t like her (he does, even though he knows he shouldn’t), but because the way that these creatures makeout is by touching elbows and armpits. Weird. This strange behavior adds to the creepiness of these creatures and the unease felt by the reader. With all the smoochy-pants vampire books out there, I kind of love how un-sexy these vampiric characters are. They don’t want to make babies with us, they just want to eat us alive.

There are some elements of the story that felt a bit unbelievable (could Gene really pass for “normal” that long?) or too coincidental (that Gene and his somewhat childhood crush are both selected in the lottery and that Gene is set up in a special room at The Institute). There were also some references that seemed potentially out of place given this different world. For example, Gene refers to a character disintegrating in the sun as looking like melted pizza, whereas it seems like all they eat in this world is meat, meat, and more meat (I’m not sure pizza is on the menu, sadly – I hope for their sake that I am wrong). Despite these less believable aspects, I was easily sucked in. Fukuda offers readers a fast-paced story without unnaturally rushing the world building and character development. In the end, he leaves us with a bit of a cliffhanger and some interesting new developments. So yes, I’ll be picking up book #2. I’m curious to see where this is going….

Em’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (May 8, 2012)
Note: ARC sent from publicist for honest review

“She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.” – Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

There have been countless retellings of the Snow White story over the years. Americans are most familiar with Disney’s 1937 animated version based on the Grimm’s story Little Snow-White. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Walt Disney’s first motion picture hence the marks the birth of the original Disney Princess. The Snow White story is my favorite of the all the princess tales because it explores a fascinating aspect of female gender privilege and power: beauty. It is also a classic mean girl tale ever so relevant considering the high incidence of bullying in our nation’s schools. Mirror, Mirror is Disney’s updated version of the classic tale and might be the studio’s first successful attempt at creating a feminist fairy tale.

The basic premise of the story is the same but with a few modernized plot lines: the Queen (Julia Roberts) has manipulated her way into power and is taxing her citizens into poverty in order to maintain her lifestyle. Her obsession with her own vanity and jealousy over the beauty of her step-daughter, Snow White (Lily Collins), drive her to order that the girl be taken to the forest and killed. Snow White is set free by the huntsman ordered to kill her and left in the woods where she befriends a crew of dwarf bandits. 7 to be exact. On is the smart one. One is the mean one. One thinks he’s a wolf. And then there’s the creepy one. Seriously, one of the dwarfs hits on her the whole time and it gets a little weird. Snow White realizes the conditions of her kingdom and enlists the bandits to help return the money to the people. It’s all very Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Oh yeah, and there is a Prince (Armie Hammer – who is just about as cute as his name), and a beast that lives in the woods.

Director Tarsem Singh creates a handful of visually enticing moments but everything evokes the feeling of something we’ve already seen. Guests of the Queen resemble residents of The Hunger Games’ Capitol. In Singh’s version, the Queen walks through her mirror into this odd other world where she enters an igloo made out of straw and converses with her own reflection – which looks like an Austen character painted white. It’s very Alice in Wonderland meets Lord of the Rings. The effect of it distracts from the poignancy of the message – that vanity is our greatest weakness. The evil of Roberts’ Queen is less sinister, more jovial heartlessness rooted in sincere delusion – a cross between Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada and any one of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

The best part of Singh’s re-visioning is Snow White herself. Reintroducing the original Disney Princess in the image of what an actual princess might look like – a political figure, heir to a throne, fighting for her country – is a welcome change to the traditional character who had very little personality beyond beauty. In fact, Snow White 2012 is immediately introduced as curious and thoughtful, if not a little naïve. On her 18th birthday she sneaks off castle grounds into the town and returns with opinions and accusations about how the Queen is ruling the kingdom. It marks a significant identity shift, a coming of age moment when she steps into the skin of the woman she is to become: a leader.

Similar to Katniss Everdeen, another brave teen girl on the silver screen right now, this Snow White is not a helpless child or a detached beauty queen. She doesn’t frolic around the woods singing and chatting up woodland animals until her Prince comes to rescue her. For both of these girls, beauty, as well as romance, is a luxury. It’s just a distraction from the reality of their lives – survival, protection and helping their country. It is a powerful message for both girls and women; a reminder that we can easily become our own Evil Queen – so committed to our vanity – that we have less time, confidence and energy to do what’s really important in our lives.

- originally written for the fabulous (go check it out now!) Sadie Magazine and cross posted at pop!goesalicia

The whole month of May is looking pretty good, but today is an especially impressive day for new releases. With three highly anticipated follow ups to some of our favorite reads (Graceling, Ship Breaker, and Divergent) and three other titles that we’ve been hearing great things about releasing today, it is bound to be a busy week!

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Dial

What has our Bitterblue been up to since we last saw her at the end of Graceling? Eight years later, she’s queen of Monsea and dealing with the lasting effects of her evil father. Sneaking outside the castle walls, she meets two thieves who help her unearth secrets surrounding her father’s reign.

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Not a sequel, but a companion novel, Drowned Cities continues to develop the impressively built world of Ship Breaker, while introducing us to two new youth and reuniting us with an old friend (Tool).

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books

With Divergent, Veronica Roth, amongst other things, set the reader up for quite the adventure in Insurgent. Those looking for an action-packed read need look no further!

Revived by Cat Patrick
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Daisy died for the first time when she was four. An experimental drug gave her a second chance at life. Knowing she can always be revived, she takes risks that many wouldn’t (and has been revived five times!). But of course there is a sinister agency involved with this “life-saving” drug. How will learning more about the agency’s plans affect the way she lives her life?

Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams
Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman

I’m so excited for another Carol Lynch Williams book, even though it’s bound to be devastating (right?). This one involves the aftermath of a family member’s death. Sadface.

When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle
Simon Pulse

I went through a real Shakespeare phase in high school. What better way to rekindle that love than by reading a little YA-style Shakespeare re-working?! This one is Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline, Romeo’s first love. Romeo becomes Rob and Juliet isn’t the nice girl Shakespeare wrote about, but how much else will change? Are the star-crossed lovers doomed or does this story have a different ending? This should be interesting.

What May 1 release are you most excited to get in your hands (or in the hands of others)?

When her mother passed away, Shelby made three promises: to love and listen to her father, to love as much as possible, and to live without restraint. She didn’t mean it at the time, but how can you not keep promises made to your dying mother? Five years later, Shelby’s living her life with these promises as her guide and with the support of her two besties, Ruby and Jonas. But keeping the promises becomes more complicated when her dad joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, a dance and ceremony during which she will have to vow to her father that she will live a pure life. For Shelby, the purity vow doesn’t jive with promise #3, but not making the vow goes against promise #1. So Shelby finds a loophole: if she loses her virginity before making the vow, it doesn’t count.

I’ve been a bit fascinated by purity balls since I came across a photo of a father and his two daughters at a purity ball (photo by Rebecca Greenfield) in New York Times Magazine. Some of the feelings and questions that the image brought up for me, were also stirred up during the reading of Purity. From the value of father-daughter relationships (and in particular the importance of open communication and support) to the patriarchal implications of vowing one’s purity to their father, Purity gave me quite a lot to think about.

In a way, the promises Shelby made to her mother function like religion for her. They are the guiding force in her life. The third promise, to live without restraint, helps her take chances and be brave. The first promise, to love and listen to her father, is complicated by the fact that the two simply aren’t close with one another. While the plot is centered on Shelby trying to lose her virginity before the Princess Ball, her relationship with her father was of more interest to me. How their relationship grows during the month leading up to the Princess Ball is very touching. There were scenes between the two of them that were so sweet they brought tears to my eyes.

Like Shelby, the idea of making a vow regarding my “lady parts” to my father, feels pretty icky. Of course losing ones virginity to keep true to a mother’s dying wishes also feels all sorts of wrong. It’s hard to follow a character down a path inspired by some clearly flawed-logic (would her mother really want her to take the promises this far?), but Pearce does a good job portraying the complexity of Shelby’s situation while mixing in some humorous and light-hearted moments. While the story was predictable, it wasn’t bland and Pearce thankfully avoided one particular cliche (which I will not specify so as to avoid spoilers) that would have been pretty easy for her to rely on.

Em’s rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Author: Jackson Pearce
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (April 2012)
Note: Reviewed from ARC passed on to me by local bookseller

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature created at the fabulous The Broke and the Bookish, featuring weekly top ten lists on a variety of bookish topics. This Tuesday’s topic is Top Ten Characters and since we’re a YA blog, we’re going the YA route on this one (with a few MG or kid lit characters for fun).


1. Jessica Darling (Sloppy Firsts, etc.) – JD is cynical, snarky and annoyed by everyone. If she were real we’d totally hang out. (Alicia)

2. Legs Sandusky (Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang) – Easily one of my favorite heroines, Legs bravely and brazenly challenges authority while also inspiring sisterhood among an unlikely group of girls. (Alicia)

3. D Foster (After Tupac and D Foster) – As someone who has been the “new girl” many times over, I love D because she embodies both the resilience needed to survive as the new girl and the vulnerability required to find true friendship. (Alicia)

4. Stargirl (Stargirl) – The owner of a pet rat whose hobbies include serenading her classmates with a song on her ukelele, Stargirl never hesitates to be herself even when no one else understands. And I love her for it. (Alicia)

5. Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games, etc.) – It is Katniss’ humanity that helps her to survive an inhumane experience and in doing so she is redefines our cultural understanding and expectations of girls. (Alicia)

6. Arnold Spirit Jr. aka Junior (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) – Junior is brave and smart and funny and draws cool pictures and lets me read his diary. He is also an unapologetic book kisser. (Em)

7. Manchee (The Knife of Never Letting Go) – I thought that Manchee was going to ruin The Knife of Never Letting Go for me. After all, how long can you listen to a dog talk about poo? But boy did I fall for this dog. Thank goodness this wasn’t one of those books where the dog dies! (Em)

8. D.J. Schwenk (Dairy Queen) – I have so much respect for D.J. Schwenk. She’s extraordinary without being flawless and has a terrific narrative voice. She’s a high school student, a farm-worker, and a skilled athlete/trainer. D.J. doesn’t have much free time, but she does her best (in the end) to find the time and courage to seek out something that she feels passionate about. (Em)

9. Charlie (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) – Oh Charlie. What a sweet, sensitive, sincere soul! He is like no other narrator I’ve ever spent time with. He sees things in a special way. His writing is beautiful and moving – at times heartwarming, at times heartbreaking. (Em)

10. Pippi (Pippi Longstocking) – With Pippi, life is always full of surprises! Everything is absolutely absurd in the best of ways. She’s the spunky orphan child (complete with monkey and horse companions) you always wished lived next door to you. (Em)

Some honorable mentions: Elizabeth from The Paperbag Princess, Leslie Burke from Bridge to Terabithia, Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief, and just about every character from the Harry Potter series (Snape, Luna, Neville, etc.). Who are your favorite characters from books (YA or otherwise)?

When 18 year old Frankie Pratt graduates from high school, her mother gives her a blank scrapbook as a graduation gift. She wants to be a writer and the scrapbook will be her first story. Armed with her father’s old Corona portable typewriter, she tells her own story as she searches for love and success in the 1920s. Her story takes her from Cornish, New Hampshire to Vassar College to Greenwich Village to Paris via third class cabin on the Mauretania and back to New Hampshire again.

Frankie almost doesn’t make it out of New Hampshire. Offered a half-scholarship to Vassar upon graduation but unable to afford the remaining $500 in tuition, Frankie opts to stay at home and pursue nursing certification instead. She takes on work as a nursing aide for Mrs. Pingree, a rich elderly woman in town, whose 30 year old son Jamie takes a liking to Frankie (and she to him). When her mother brings their affair to the attention of Mrs. Pingree, Frankie’s tuition is paid for and off to Vassar she goes. At Vassar, she dates boys from Yale, struggles to pass her exams, and finds outlets for her writing. A meeting with Vassar grad (Class of 1917) and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay leads her to Greenwich Village upon graduation, where she struggles to find work in publishing and falls for a man she met during her Vassar days. Her search for success and love eventually takes her across the Atlantic to Paris, but when circumstances require that she return home to New Hampshire, she finds what she has been looking for all along.

Caroline Preston’s love for vintage scrapbooks and ephemera, and her previous work as an archivist, shines through in The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt. Each page contains a treasure trove of photographs, magazine clippings, ticket stubs, maps, letters, candy wrappers, and other items that help Frankie tell her story and introduce readers to what life in the 20s was like for a young, single, female, aspiring writer. While Frankie’s journey is an exciting story in itself, what I found most interesting was exploring the items and the composition of each page, and being introduced to a period of time in somewhat familiar places (I grew up in NH, went to Vassar, and have spent time in NYC and Paris). Frankie is an exciting protagonist. Her success is not served to her on a silver platter. She works hard, she stumbles, she succeeds, she loves, she plays, and she creates. She’s brave, albeit sensible, in both matters of career and the heart. And she is an amazingly talented and committed scrapbooker! This Alex Award winner is an impressive work on many levels and is sure to delight readers of historical fiction as well as those who enjoy a bit of visual storytelling and exploration.

Em’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Author: Caroline Preston
Publisher: Ecco (October 2011)

Hazel has terminal cancer and has to wheel around an oxygen tank. Gus lost a leg to cancer, and appears to be in remission. They meet at a cancer support group which, prior to Gus showing up, consisted of Hazel sharing eye rolls with a boy named Isaac and ticking off the frequent deaths of the group members. Gus is clever and beautiful, and Hazel is determined not to let him love her, as she doesn’t want to cause any more pain in the world than necessary.

A love story between two teenagers with cancer is not exactly a promising topic. Unless one enjoys melodrama, and the Jodi Picoult quote on the cover does little to dispel this notion, reading about cancer and dying can be, well, unappealing. However, the humor and realism John Green injects into his characters makes the book funnier and much more interesting and complicated than one would think.

Gus, Hazel, and Hazel’s parents are well-imagined, complicated, and filled with humor and truth. Hazel’s friendship with Isaac rings true, and is exactly the type of friendship that forms out of a common sense of humor about something ridiculous and tragic (in this case cancer). The only issue I had with the book was the framing device of a book written by a grumpy man from Amsterdam. Hazel loves the book, and Gus is determined to use his “wish” (referring to a make-a-wish type organization – Hazel wasted hers on Disneyland) to get her to meet the author. I found this part a bit boring, and wanted to get back to the relationship between the characters.

Overall this is a great read, and is as good as all of Green’s other books. Sometimes I wonder if I would have been ready as a teenager to see how real and accurate he is with regards to the young adult experience, or if having some distance from my youth has helped me see things more clearly. Green is one of the best YA voices out there, and adults really need to read his work.

Nora’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (January 2012)