Title: Marcelo in the Real World
Author: Francisco Stork
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: 17-year-old Marcelo has a condition similar to autism—he hears music in his mind that no one else can hear. Marcelo loves his school, but in order to keep going there, first he has to prove to his father that he can make it in “the real world.”

Review: I found this book a little difficult to get into at first because the main character is so guarded with his emotions, but I appreciated and completely understood the realism. And I ended up thoroughly enjoying this story. I got especially wrapped up in the plot around a decision Marcelo has to make in “the real world.”

One trivial thing bugged me an eensy weensy bit. A lot of times, the characters didn’t use common contractions when speaking, like always saying “it is” and “you are.” While I bought that Marcelo would talk that way, it made the other characters’ speech sound stilted.

This is a sweet story, and I actually found myself missing Marcelo as I typed up this review.

Side note: A lot of people have compared this book to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, although some disagree.

Would you consider these books similar? Leave a comment to share your thoughts!

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Title: Suite Scarlett
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: Before I started this blog, I read Let It Snow and loved the story by Maureen Johnson. I decided it was time to check out one of her novels.

Summary: Scarlett and her family own and live in a New York hotel. For her 15th birthday, she’s given a suite to take care of. Which would be so much easier if it wasn’t inhabited by a Broadway has-been who gets her kicks from bossing Scarlett around.

Review: I will definitely be reading more by Maureen Johnson. I absolutely LOVE her sassy, sarcastic humor. I’ve also been reading her blog to get more of her brand of funny on a regular basis. (Very entertaining stuff, except that it always makes me a bit depressed after the chuckling tapers off. I’m just a wee bit jealous of Ms. Johnson and her funny-making skills.)

Here’s a little taste for you:

Perhaps it sounds like a wonderful thing to be born and raised in a small hotel in New York City. Lots of things sound fun until they are subjected to closer inspection. If you lived on a cruise ship, for example, you would have to do the Macarena every night of your life. Think about that.

Still, this book made me daydream about living in a hotel. But only if I can live with a family like Scarlett’s.

I adored the characters in this book, especially Scarlett’s older brother. The scenes with Scarlett and her brother were among my favorites mostly because of their witty banter but also because they had such a great sibling relationship.

Have you read any books by Johnson that you would recommend? Leave a comment or add your recommendation to the Pick My Next Book section in the sidebar!

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Title: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Author: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: I read the review from Fyrefly’s Book Blog.

Summary: Nick’s girlfriend just dumped him. So when he sees her walk into the club with another guy, he grabs the closest girl—a complete stranger—and asks her to be his girlfriend for the next 5 minutes.

Review: This is a smart, funny, intense love story. The intensity makes for some steamy encounters, which I didn’t mind, no I did not.

The chapters alternate between Nick and Norah narrating. Levithan and Cohn wrote Nick and Norah’s parts, respectively. I was a little nervous that each chapter would be too different because of that, but they pulled this off perfectly. Nick and Norah are separate people, but they also exist in the same world and speak the same language.

Here’s a little sample for you from the start of one of Norah’s chapters, where she’s nervous and trying to make conversation:

“So say we’re at the Motel 6 on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel and we’re having that threeway with E.T. Who gets to be the top and who gets to be the bottom?”

This question has actually escaped my mouth. Perhaps it’s not that I’m frigid—it’s that once I decide I like a guy, I turn into a raging idiot, unfit for public appearances…

Nick answers, “No-brainer. E.T. can’t take the heat and goes off to the motel vending machine for some Reese’s Pieces, and hopefully doesn’t get caught in the crossfire of some crack deal gone bad while he’s out there. Couldn’t we class it up a little? Wouldn’t the devirginization of E.T. merit at least a Radisson, at least Paramus?”

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Title: Emmaline and the Bunny
Author: Katherine Hannigan
Category: Fiction, Middle Grade
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: I loved Ida B by this author.

Summary: Emmaline lives in a tidy town, but she can’t manage to stay tidy herself. That can make a girl feel very alone. And the thing Emmaline wants most is a bunny to be her friend, but bunnies—a very untidy bunch—have been banished from her town.

Review: Such a sweet little story. I loved the language and repetition—it would make for a great read-aloud. This is from the first chapter:

Emmaline wanted a bunny.

She’d seen them on TV and in books.

She liked how they hop, hop, hopped. She liked how they dug holes and scoot-skedaddled under bushes. She liked how they huddled, cuddled, snuggled together.

And then from the third chapter:

Emmaline was not tidy.

Dirt she dug.

Shrubs she scoot-skedaddled under.

Puddles she hop, hop, splash, splash, hopped through.

Emmaline yelled, “Hoopalala!” and “Dinglederrydee!” when she was happy.

She huddled, cuddled, snuggled people wrinkly.

This is the sort of book that makes me anxious for my daughter to get a little older so I can read it to her.

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Title: Cycler
Author: Lauren McLaughlin
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: It was nominated for a 2008 Cybil.

Summary: Jill McTeague is a typical senior girl. Except for the tiny issue of how four days out of every month, she turns into a boy named Jack—in both mind and body.

Review: The premise of a cycling hermaphrodite made me think the book would be cheesy and induce frequent eye-rolling. But it was a great read.

This book made it fun to explore the themes of sexuality and homophobia without being hit over the head with a “message.” At first, the non-politically-correct language about non-straight characters bothered me. But then I realized that duh, this is how a lot of teens talk about and deal with issues of sexuality. It wasn’t that long ago that I was a teen myself, after all.

My only criticism of the book is that one of Jill’s linguistic quirks—mal—got to be a little much sometimes. I wonder what the “magic” frequency is for using a linguistic quirk but not overusing it. (If you have a Kindle, does it let you search the text? I can see myself buying it primarily for reasons like this!)

One final note to those of you considering reading this: A sequel is planned, so the conclusion is of the open-ended variety. I didn’t mind it in this case, but I just wanted to let you know in case you prefer to wait until an entire series it out.

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