"Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass" by Meg Medina

This year's Pura Belpre winner is a strong but disturbing tale of school bullying.  Piedad Sanchez, aka "Piddy," has problems.  Her best friend has moved out to the suburbs and she finds herself in a brand new school in Brooklyn at the beginning of her tenth grade year.  Without warning, she is told that "Yaqui Delgado," another student she doesn't even know, is out to get her.  Things go from bad to worse as Piddy tries to navigate this violent, inner-city school and accept the changes happening in her life as she grows up.  It's a dark tale, but not a hopeless one.  Piddy has a good group of people around her, people who help her to find herself ... but not until she has sunk very low.  Ms. Medina gets a thumbs up here for making all of the characters rich and complex.  Piddy is a fifteen year-old who is very real ... moody, mercurial, longing and lost.  It was a book I plowed through, because I simply had to see if things turn out okay.  Not surprisingly, the author's end notes indicate that this is based on her own experiences with a high school bully.  A powerful story, well-told, which is infused with the Latin culture of NYC, it makes for a great book which will capture readers after they pick it up for the provocative title (yes, this book has been "picked up" more than any display book I've ever put out ...). Worthy without being preachy, it is definitely deserving of the Award.  Brava, Meg Medina.

“Sex & Violence: A Novel” by Carrie Mesrobian

WARNING – graphic content and spoilers …

An Honor book in this year's Morris Awards (first-time author of a YA novel), I knew this one was likely to garner some controversy, not only for title but for subject matter.  Always working to be ahead of the curve, I decided to read it so that I could answer any questions, should they arise. 

 

Evan Carter is a teen with both mommy and daddy issues who gets out his many frustrations by having a lot of casual sex with girls as he moves from one boarding school to another.  Real or not, Evan embodies the quintessential stereotype of a teenage boy by spending the better part of his waking hours considering how to “get the girl.”  By the end of the first chapter, however, Evan encounters something new – a massive beat-down for sleeping with the wrong girl.  Evan may have been raped – it's certainly intimated, heavily, throughout the rest of the book, but never acknowledged.  Evan's perpetually absent father takes him to their family home, sitting abandoned on a lakeside in Minnesota, so that the young man can heal.  He spends the summer trying to connect to local teens and smoking copious amounts of marijuana.  Try as I might, I didn't love the book.  There are commendable parts, but a lot to criticize.  Evan's use of the “f-word” (on almost every page) and the constant drug use seemed over-the-top.  While it may be realistic in the teen world, I didn't see it as a necessary element of the story.  A lot is left out, or is vague.  The girl Evan hooked up with is also attacked – the most said is that she “got it from two guys at the same time and may not be able to have kids.”  I'm pretty sure that's physiological impossible.  And the story feels unfinished.  If the point of the book is Evan's healing, then it is successful, but that isn't the whole story.  There is repeated mention of the upcoming trial for Evan's attackers but the tale ends before we get there.  One wonders at Evan's significant memory loss – if he is forced to relive the event at court, would he have to address issues which have been buried?  In a book with strong language and frequent sexual misadventures, it seems like being coy about the heart of Evan's assault is unnatural propriety.  On the other hand, this isn't an ABC Afterschool Special.  Mesrobian gets a thumbs-up for making these characters and their relationships complex.  Evan and his father try, and stumble, and try and stumble again as they work to build lines of communication.  And Evan's potty-mouth and constant toking may seem too much to me, but might be right on the nose for the average teen reader.  There is even a question as to whether Evan has learned his lesson.  Near the end of the book he finds himself back in a situation almost identical to where he was in the beginning.  The difference here is not so much Evan's mindset but the fact that he has learned how to make friends.      The best part of the book, IMHO, are Evan's letters to “Collette” – a therapist encouraged practice to examine his feelings and behaviors in a safe way.  They end each chapter and provide most of the insight on Evan's real internal journey.  Props, also, to Carolrhoda books, who created subtle imprints at the beginning and end of each chapter of splashing water and bathroom tile.  The tile, in particular, is very creepy as it evokes a sense of prison bars, making real the sense Evan has of being “trapped” by the demons created in this attack.  It's a book I think teenagers will like as the voices feel authentic … but I'm not sure it has the “merit” necessary to defend it should there be critics who feel it is “too much.”

 

“Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminating Adventures” by Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by K.G. Campbell

Kate DiCamillo does it again with this year's Newbery Award Winner.  “Flora & Ulysses” is delightful, laugh-out-loud funny, smart, snarky and definitely different.  Flora Belle Buckman is a cynic.  She is also a fan of “Illustrated Adventures” (much to her mother's frustration) and one of those “too wise for her very young years” kids who uses over-the-top vocabulary and yet remains somewhat innocent about the world.  Like Shirley Temple's many roles, this little girl is seemingly wiser than many of the adults around her.  Flora is the child of divorce and discovers a very unusual friend in the opening pages of this adventure. With lots of details that enrich the personalities we encounter, the book is mostly prose but includes selected panel art at some of the more heightened moments. The thing about DiCamillo's work is that it has an edge.  Much like Roald Dahl, her writing can be enjoyed by the very young but has a darker tone that older readers will get.  It is this darker tone that can be disturbing but gives a certain weight to the characters, a weight not typical in a seemingly simple kid's book.  DiCamillo also gets snaps for making Flora a fairly complex character.  She's tomboyish in her looks and dress but doesn't fit into any particular box.  With threads of mystery and romance weaving throughout the tale, it should have broad appeal for many readers.  The story is successfully brought to a conclusion but not in a tight little bow.  Think “homemade sweater” to get a feel for how these plotlines come together.  It's an animal book that will please fans of all sorts of critters and it's a superhero book with a unique hero.  Brava, Ms. DiCamillo.

“Midwinterblood” by Marcus Sedgwick

This year’s Printz winner is a short little read with deep and complex themes.  Seven related stories, told over centuries, in short chapters, makes for a fast-paced, mind-blowing tale.  Beginning in the near-future, reporter Eric Seven arrives at “Blest Island,” presumably somewhere in the Scandinavian region, to report on the rumored longevity of the island’s residents.  As any reader of Sci Fi/Fantasy will tell you, this has the portents of “bad things.”  “Bad things” do indeed happen.  We then begin a journey backwards in time – meeting various incarnations of trapped spirits as they travel through an archeologist, a painter, a mother, a child, and more.  Symbolism abounds – in the various full moons, the hare that presents itself in each tale and in the blood which reigns throughout.  Viking lore heavily plays here but the threads are universal – love and loss, belonging and isolation, and, of course, sacrifice – in all of its meanings.  Sedgwick, an award-winning British author, doesn’t mind sacrificing the “rules,” either.  Sometimes the souls overlap each other, and one tale takes the fantastical far further than any of the others.  But you don’t mind.  As a writer, Sedgwick is demanding, almost as if the reader simply must bend to his will.  He also gets kudos for writing a Young Adult book that doesn’t feature angsty teens.  Characters here range from young to old, male to female, and nothing in the novel screams “adolescent.”  No matter how much you may know (or guess) what is coming, the book is still a surprise and open interpretations are welcome – even for the novel as a whole.  For instance, the story is circular … or is it???  Sedgwick doesn’t confine himself to traditional romance, either, as the love interests morph from the passionate to the parental.  He seems to say that love and his other themes are present in all of us, no matter how they evidence themselves.  Even the element of story is important – the idea that storytelling is an essential part of who we are – so essential that it is a key in what makes us human.  By all means, pick up this creepy, slightly disturbing book and enjoy.  Another big brava/bravo to the Printz committee.  Much like “Going Bovine” this one is a winner.