For the Love of Teen Literature

The Fault in Our Stars is a book that drew me to read it because of my daughter and her love for the book.  January 10, 2012 Hazel Grace Lancaster is a teen that narrates the story of her life with thyroid cancer. Her lungs become affected and so therefore she struggles with her sickness. Hazel's parents struggle with how to help her and find a support group that she can attend. Hazel is not into joining this group but decides to do it anyway. Hazel meets others struggling like her but meets this boy named Augustus who has lost his leg to cancer and is there to support his friend Oscar who lost his eye. Augustus is in remission. This story takes a turn when both Hazel an Augustus become sick and Augustus becomes deathly ill. Augustus finds Hazel's author she loves because of the books she reads and they track him down. His love for Hazel grows strong and his love for her takes over everything he needs. They have a connection that is so true and it reveals itself more...

Dumplin by Julie Murphy Free Choice September 2015 Dumplin is the nickname of a girl named Willowdean given by her mom who happens to be the winner of the Clover City Beauty queen of her time. Willow's mom is the person known around town as having it all together and runs the beauty paegent every year. Willowdean is an overweight teenager that struggles with her weight and the way she looks. She has a best friend named Ellen who is by her side through out life and all the ups and downs. The beautiful part about this story is the love of the relationship between Willowdean and her aunt who died years ago from a heart attack. Her name was Lucy who also suffered from being very large. As the story unfolds, Willowdean tries to stay her confident self with losing her best friend Ellen from wanting to be in the pageant to her love of her co worker Bo who really likes Willow but she doesn't believe it. In the end, Dumplin learns to love herself and love her mom through being  a ...

Restart by Gordon Korman  State Book Award Winner May 30, 2017  The story of Chase who is a boy who is a star football player at his school and who is very popular for many reasons. Chase falls off the roof of a house and ends up in the hospital to only be fighting amnesia. In this mix, Chase has to go back to school to only learn that he use to be a bully and was not nice to others. He realizes that friendship is something he doesn't have much positive experience with. All he ever knew is his old life was football but now since he is healing, he has to figure out something else to do. He joins the video club to meet others. Chase becomes a better person and tries to live his the rest of his high school year by working on his relationships with others around him.  I would suggest this to my boys and all my teens about the strong convictions of voice and how it is important to leave a legacy of being who you are. 

Crossover by Kwame Alexander The use of prose and rap in this book was amazing and easy to follow. Crossover is a story about a boy named Josh and his twin brother Jordan who struggles with loss and love. The one thing they have in common is the love of basketball in which they both hope to play in college and against each other. The book narrates Josh's story and his struggle at first which his close relationship with his brother Jordan "JB" because of his relationship with a girl. Being the sons of a basketball superstar named Chuck Bell as your dad puts alot of pressure on both boys. The tensions run higher throughout the story for the brothers who play basketball together but have squabbles on the court too. The only thing that changes this is that their dad has a heart attack. They experience loss as their dad falls to a third heart attack and dies. This ending is one that creates a bigger connection with the two brothers that they become inseparable. I would us...

Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto Copyright date: Manga Series Kids are crazy over this Manga Series so I decided to read Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto volume one. This book was hard to follow but I wanted to gain some information as a libraraian on why and what students like about this book and character. The background I got was that he didn't know his parent died for him and he was a trouble maker until he found his true meaning of his life.  As the story begins, the character Naruto is looking for a chance to prove himself in his land of Konoha that he can be a great leader and ninja. Naruto's father was the hokage of the village at one time but had to sacrifice himself to protect the village. Hidden leaf is name of the village in which Naruto has to defend.  Sakura is another character who is a girl that Naruto is in love with. He tries to win over her interest in him but she is not in love with him but with his friend/foe named Sasuke. Naruto has the nine tails beast insid...

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas Edgar Award Winner for Young Adult 2018 copyright date: February 2017 Wow!  This book was so revealing of the issues that teens face. Racism in America in this book is so transparent when it comes to the main character Star and what she had to witness seeing her best friend Khalil. The twist of this story when I first read it was that Starr really lived in two worlds. One world is the neighborhood she lived in and its poverty and problems and the all white rich area school she attended each day. The author bases this story on a real life killing of an African American by a police officer. Thomas lends her voice through Starr her character that she creates in her novel. Starr becomes really upset within the story line because her best friend Khalil is portrayed as a gang member who is bad in society which is not true and the police officer that shot him is portrayed as a good person. Starr finds her voice within this story which leads to many st...