Rebel Belle

Hawkins, Rachel. Rebel Belle. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2014.

Harper Price is a model student, a cheerleader, vying for homecoming queen. In the wake of her sister's death due to drunk driving, Harper has become the perfect daughter. She is involved in every club, has just the right friends, and even snagged the perfect boyfriend. But when disaster hits on the night of the prom, Harper becomes a Paladin, complete with fighting skills that would make Chuck Norris run for cover. When she discovers that her skills are to be used in protection of her arch enemy, however, Harper has second thoughts. How can she fulfill her destiny as a Paladin and maintain her image as the model student and perfect daughter, especially if she doesn't want to ruin her makeup?

If Lemon Breeland from Hart of Dixie had a love child with Percy Jackson, the result would be this book. Loved it, regardless of its very pink status. I'm sure the kids in my library will love it, too. Now I just have to decide where to shelve it - in paranormal with the Hex Hall series by the same author, in mythology since it seems very Percy Jackson-like, or in chick lit with all of the "pink books."

Recommended for: teens, tweens, fans of mythology and action books
Red Flags: lots of action violence and near death experiences; Harper uses euphemisms for her cussing, but occasionally mentions that someone said "the f word" without spelling out the word itself
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Penguin's Young Readers Program.

The World Outside

Wiseman, Eva. The World Outside. Tundra Books, 2014.

Chanie is a Hasidic Jew and lives in a sheltered community with others of her sect. She is in her final year of high school when she meets a boy who suggests that she might want to consider something more. She loves to sing but is not allowed to do so in her community, and David convinces her to audition for Julliard. She is accepted into Julliard, but then she has to decide if her love of singing is more important to her than the community where she has grown up.

This was an interesting story. The same storyline has been repeated in multiple young adult novels, but this was the first time I had read a book about a Hasidic community, and it was interesting to learn about their customs and practices. I didn't agree with Chanie's decision at the end of the story, nor for her reasons for making it, but I think this book would definitely have appeal in my library and would broaden the horizons of my readers, most of whom have not met any Hasidic Jews.

Recommended for: tweens, young adults
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purposes of review.

Steering Toward Normal

Petruck, Rebecca. Steering Toward Normal. Amulet Books, 2014.

Diggy is an 8th grader who lives in a small farming community in Minnesota. He raises steer through 4H and shows them at the State Fair, and he's hoping to have a chance to win this year. Then his world explodes when he finds out he has a half brother who moves in with him and Pop and starts taking Pop's attention away. Not only that, but Wayne also wants to enter a steer in the State Fair. How will Diggy manage to win the state fair now?

This book sounded like it should be hilarious, and being from Minnesota myself, I hoped that there would be lots of references that would make me smile and imagine the characters speaking with heavy accents. As it turned out, this book moved very, very slowly. Grass-growing slowly. Since the main character is an 8th grader, this book should appeal to middle schoolers, but I doubt that many of my middle school students would have the patience for this story. It's a good story, and with families moving away from nuclear and into a new normal, it's probably a story that needs to be told, but it has to be done in a way that will hook the readers, and this story simply did not do that.

Recommended for: tweens
Red Flags: the man who raised Dwayne is an alcoholic and frequently gets drunk or shows up drunk; the boys (and Pop) play lots of pranks on each other that occasionally involve cow poop
Overall Rating:2/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

Moon at Nine

Ellis, Deborah. Moon at Nine. Pajama Press, 2014.

Imagine that Annie on My Mind took place in Iran during the 1980s, and that instead of living unhappily ever after, the main characters face much worse fates due to the laws of the land. This is what awaits the reader of Moon at Nine. Farrin goes to a school for gifted girls, and when Sadira begins attending her school, Farrin realizes that she loves her. Amid all of the political upheaval in her country, she is caught kissing Sadira and the two are punished: they are to be kept separate and advanced quickly through their programs while their parents try to find husbands for them. Farrin thinks she can't survive without seeing Sadira, but can she survive if they stay together?

Wow. This book is set in a different culture than my own and a different time period. The girls are living through historical events that I can barely begin to imagine. And to think that if my wife and I had lived in that place, we could have suffered the same fate as Sadira and Farrin - it's unimaginable. This is an excellent book to give a picture of live in a different country under a different government where people are not granted the same freedoms we are given in the United States. Although the subject matter is difficult, this book is amazingly free of graphic red flags that could naturally occur in such a story.

Recommended for: teens and adults
Red Flags: some alcohol use (by adults), Farrin witnesses executions when she is in jail, minor language
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-alikes for: Annie on My Mind, If You Could Be Mine

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

Big Fat Disaster

Fehlbaum, Beth. Big Fat Disaster. Merit Press, 2014.

Colby's the odd man out in her picture-perfect family. Her older sister has a full-ride scholarship to college, her little sister is the cookie-cutter image of her mother, and her father is running for a seat in the senate. But when it is discovered that her father stole money from his campaign to fund his relationship with another woman, Colby's life falls apart. Colby, her mother, and her younger sister have to move into a trailer behind her aunt's house, and Colby's habit of drowning her feelings with food spirals out of control. When some bullies use YouTube to humiliate Colby, she has to decide whether she will continue to be the "big fat disaster" her mom calls her.

Wow. This book has a lot of issues all in one place. First, Colby's dad's infidelity and misuse of money - an issue which sets the story in motion but soon fades into the background. Second, Colby's mother is a mess. She is very similar to the other abusive moms so popular in young adult literature these days: deluded and controlling and obliviously cruel. Then we have Colby's aunt and cousin. Some football players at Colby's new school raped a girl at a party the year before, and her cousin reported them. Everyone at his school hates him for telling on the boys, and he hates Colby and her family because of the way they treated him afterwards [those passages really made me want to scream since they so perfectly echo the rape culture we're living in]. Then there's Colby. She's overweight and becoming more so because of her binge eating, which she does to hide from all the trauma around her. And she's bullied. So everything that she's dealing with really is a "big, fat disaster."

The thing I most appreciated about this story is that at the end, when Colby decided to take charge of her life and face her problems, the book didn't resolve with Colby losing a ton of weight and being accepted by everyone. In the end, she's still overweight, her mother is still evil and self-centered, and her dad is still facing prison charges, but Colby is owning up to her mess and acknowledging that she needs help.

Recommended for: teens, tweens
Red Flags: Colby attempts suicide twice, there is talk of the girl being raped the year before (with lots of victim-blaming thrown in); one of Colby's friends is bulimic and vomits in the school bathroom after lunch; language (in both English and Spanish)
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.