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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Title: Beautiful Americans
Author: Lucy Silag
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: Four American teens travel to Paris for a year-long study program.

Stopped on Page: 42
Why I Stopped: I lost patience with all the points of view in this book. The chapters alternate among each of the 4 main characters telling their story. I actually gave up before I got to the first chapter for the fourth character, but I wasn’t connecting with any of the other main characters.

Probably contributing to that lack of connection was that the dialogue sounded a little stilted to me. A small example:

“So, what’s your name, anyway?”

“Penelope Jane Fletcher,” she says, putting her passport on the counter so that the clerk can type in her name and information. “But you can call me PJ. Why are you doing this for me?”

I know it’s been a few years since my teenage days, but how PJ introduces herself struck me as not so realistic.

Should I have kept going? Or was I right to stop?

Note: As an aspiring author, I respect the extraordinary amount of effort that goes into writing a book. I did not write this review in order to be unfair or negative about the book. My goal is simply to articulate why the book wasn’t for me.

Audience Pick!

Title: Something, Maybe
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: 17-year-old Hannah tries not to get noticed. But with a mom who makes a living wearing skimpy clothes in front of a webcam, and an estranged 70-year-old dad with a reality TV show featuring him and scantily clad “special girls,” it can be hard not to come across as a freak. When Hannah finally wants someone to notice her—namely her crush Josh—will the right things get noticed?

Review: This was a sweet story. I really wanted to fall in love with it like other YA book bloggers are doing, but I didn’t. I didn’t dislike it, but it was just okay for me.

Putting on my YA-nnabe hat, here are the reasons I think this one fell short:

• Predictable—You can see the plot turns coming a mile away. I don’t mind that with middle-grade novels, but in YA I want to be surprised, at least once.
• Kind of slow—The first half dragged for me. It seemed like Hannah was just shuffling between work, school, and driving around with her best friend while they deconstructed her love life.

On the other hand, it’s hard to beat a first line like this!

Everyone’s seen my mother naked.

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