Fallen Angels

By Walter Dean Myers

Seventeen year-old Richie Perry from Harlem joins the United States Army in 1967 because there is not money for him to go to college. He leaves behind his mom and younger brother, Kenny. Richie is sent to fight in Viet Nam and from the first page to the last page of the novel he is connected to PeeWee Gates, the man who becomes his Army brother.  Richie’s first person account of his experience fighting the Viet Cong is told with clear and sometimes brutal detail. In their harrowing experience, the goal is to survive.

I’m not sure I can say that I really liked Fallen Angels because it’s a novel about war. Wartime novels are difficult to read because they are often so graphic and detailed about the horrors of war and the images of the suffering that men inflict upon each other are senseless and depressing. They are often also about men who become like brothers because of their shared experiences.  Fallen Angels does both. At one point in the novel, Richie says, “I had never been in love before. Maybe this was what it was like, the way I felt for Monaco and Peewee and Johnson and the rest of my squad. I hoped this was what it was like.” Fallen Angels reminded me of All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel about World War I, in the way the story tells the drama, chaos, terror, and tragedy of war. 

Chains

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Set from May 1776 to October 1777 in New York City, Chains is the story of Isabel and Ruth, sisters who are still slaves because of a broken promise to free them. Isabel must protect her five-year-old sister, but she has little influence over anything that happens to either one of them. Isabel’s quest for freedom is paralleled by the Patriots’ quest for freedom.  Isabel is strong, smart, and brave as she takes great risks to spy for the Patriots in an attempt to gain freedom for Ruth and herself. Isabel endures brutality and survives so that she really may break the chains of slavery.

Isabel’s story is woven in the historical events of the Revolution. Even though she is a fictitous character, her story helps put a face on slavery and the very real heartbreak and loss the enslaved suffered.  She lost her parents but gains strength from her memories of their strength and the stories of where they came from. She risks losing her sister, having Ruth sold away from her.

In addition to Isabel’s story, I really liked the excerpts from historical documents at the beginning of every chapter.  

The Knife of Never Letting Go

by Patrick Ness


Todd Hewitt is the youngest boy in Prentisstown, in fact he’s the only boy in Prentisstown, where boys become men on their thirteenth birthday. The town is dying. There are no women in Prestisstown. And there are a few other strange things about the place. Men’s thoughts can be heard by others. So can dogs’ and squirrels’ and any other creature. Soon before his thirteenth birthday, Todd finds a hole in the noise and everything about his world will be changed because of it. Fearing for his safety, Todd’s guardians, Ben and Cillian, send Todd and his dog, Manchee, away from Prentisstown and set him on a journey to find safety.  Along the way, Todd discovers that the world is not at all as he had been told and the prospect for the future is grim. 

I liked nearly everything about this book. I loved the characters and their distinctly different voices and how their voices came through loud and clear throughout the book.  The plot moves quickly, mixing suspense with all kinds of conflict throughout the novel. I couldn’t put it down. I felt such a stake in the book that at the end of Part V when something happens in the story that made me really angry, I almost had to walk away from it.  I objected to that. I’m still a little mad about it.  Even so, I highly recommend the book.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

by Carrie Ryan

Mary lives in a village where survival is a daily struggle. The only thing separating the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth, where the Unconsecrated zombie-like undead people roam the forest craving human flesh. People from the village can be infected if they get too close to the fence and are attacked by one of the Unconsecrated.  Life is pretty miserable, but Mary remembers stories about the ocean that her mother told her. It’s a far off dream for her to find the ocean and it becomes her driving force in the novel.

There was very little in this book that I liked. I kind of wanted to know how it ended but the characters were just not all that interesting to me. Neither was the plot. I found myself terribly indifferent about the outcome of the book.  The characters’ interactions were confusing to me, especially Mary’s relationship with her brother. Mary’s character lacked depth, intelligence, and compassion.  I don’t think I would recommend this book.

I’m not sure what it was about this book that I had such a hard time with. I wasn’t particularly attached to any of the characters and the singular goal of Mary to find the ocean, even with death surrounding her every moment, made the plot a little tough for me to embrace.  I think the author did a good job of creating a world of darkness and despair, but the romance element of the book fell flat.  

Leviathan

by Scott Westerfield

Leviathan is a historical science fiction novel, an alternate world with fantastic war machines. There are two different groups in the novel; the Clankers, who use very large steam driven machines, and Darwinists, who use livings creatures to power machines. One of the main characters, Alek, is the son of the assassinated Archduke Ferdinand, and Alek has escaped for his own safety.  Deryn is a young girl pretending to be a boy so that she can be eligible to join the British Air Service. They each have their secrets to protect while fighting a war.

I found the story and the world of Leviathan interesting. The secrecy with which Alek and Deryn worked to prevent their secrets from being revealed helped create tension throughout the novel.  I liked that the novel stemmed from actual historical events, although the machines and detailed descriptions of them was not very appealing to me. My favorite thing about the book was the illustrations by Keith Thompson. They brought the machines to life and made the book so much more interesting.  

Bumped

by Megan McCafferty

Bumped is funny, fast-paced, and crazy.   Set in the future, sometime past March 2025, identical twins, Harmony and Melody, separated at birth and raised by different families, come together to discover themselves in a world that has expects certain things from them, things they are not sure they want.  A virus has infected the adult population and teenagers are responsible for procreating the species.  With the right breeding, education, good looks, fertility, and agent, a teenage girl can make enough money to pay for a college education. It sounds so simple and promising if you don’t think about it too much. 

Told in the first person point of view from both sisters’ perspective, I liked the two distinct voices of Melody and Harmony.  When their paths collide, they are side by side, looking identical but sounding so different and acting so different from each other and their interactions are very entertaining.

Even though I found the book very entertaining, I think I would only recommend it to upper level high school students because of its content.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

by Mary E. Pearson

Set in the future at a time when there are many technological advances available, Jenna has been in a coma for a year and, at the start of the novel, she has only been awake for two weeks.  Jenna has no memory of her past. None of it. She does not remember her parents, who adore her, or her grandmother, who is cold towards her. Her parents get her to watch home movies of her life to try to help her remember, but it really does no good. Jenna gradually begins to discover herself and the changes that she’s undergone since the accident that put her in a coma. She must accept the choices her parents made for her and the life that has resulted from those choices.

I thought the novel started off very slowly, but it picked up fairly quickly. I liked the idea that Jenna is a product of modern technology, bred from parents’ desperate love for their daughter. Jenna’s first person narrative voice sounded true and her developing relationship with her parents and her grandmother, Lily, helped establish the underlying conflict in the novel. I wondered about the title throughout the book and didn’t really understand it until near the very end.  I felt empathy for Jenna’s parents and the heartache that resulted from their complete commitment to their daughter.

Unwind

 by Neal Shusterman

As if the teenage years are not stressful enough, if your parents don’t want you they can have you “unwound”. Not killed, really. But taken apart, piece by piece and those parts will be recycled or harvested. Not all the kids in the book are unwanted teens, though; some of them will be unwound for other reasons.

I liked the fast paced plot and the twists it took. I also appreciated that there were a few adults in this crazy society who recognized the madness. I would have liked to see more of them.  I liked the variety of the characters’ backgrounds and empathized with their struggle for survival.  The world that Mr. Shusterman creates is shocking in its coldness, although it was not difficult to accept the premise of the story. The coldness of the world reminded me of Brave New World.  I think adolescents will really enjoy the novel.