15 Days Without a Head by Dave Cousins

What a sad, sweet story.  Laurence is 15.  He has a little brother who likes to pretend he is a dog and an alcoholic mother.  One day, she just doesn't come home and it's Laurene's job to try to keep things together so the authorities don't find out and take him and his brother to foster care.  Laurence has a plan to win a holiday from the contest on the radio to get his mom back.  This is one of those books that I liked but broke my heart.  It's not fair that Laurence is put in the role of caregiver and adult.  I really liked Jay.  He just doesn't understand why he never gets to see his mom and I love when he pretends to be a dog.  If you like bittersweet realistic fiction you will like this book.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

I know, I know, the title has a swear word in it, now let's move on.  This is the most honest portrayal of bullying in a YA novel that I think I have read.  Piddy Sanchez has to move to a new neighborhood and a new school and now she is having to deal with the torments of Yaqui Delgado (both with words and with fists).  Yaqui is relentless in her bullying of Piddy.  It is painfully realistic in its view.  I was worried the end would be another "oh, it will all work out in the end and we will all be friends," but the solution, while not ideal or easy, was truthful.  This novel won the Pura Belpre award given to Latino/Latina authors/illustrators whose work best portrays the Latino cultural experience.  I think this book deserves any and all accolades, it is wonderful.  

Texting the Underworld by Ellen Booraem

This is the same author that brought us "Small Persons with Wings" (see review of this book in earlier blog).  This is another victory for her.  Conor is afraid of just about everything even before a banshee shows up in his room.  A banshee is a spirit whose wailing warns of an upcoming death found in Irish folklore.  Ashling is a brand new banshee and has been sent to collect her first death and it happens to be someone in Conor's family.  Conor has learned all about banshees from his grandfather, Grumps, and both of them are determined to find a way to figure out who the death is and stop it, even if it means traveling to the underworld.  This is a great read.  I loved Ashling's wide eyed enthusiasm for the modern world.  I found it quite humorous.

Contaminated by Em Garner

I recently saw a documentary called "Fed Up" that talks about the amount of sugar in the diet of Americans.  Much of this comes from sugary drinks.  My family and I decided to give up drinking soda and other things with artificial sweeteners, pretty much everything except water.  If I hadn't done that already, I would consider it after reading this book.  In Contaminated, ThinPro is a diet drink that has protein in it and those that drink it become aggressive and savage after the animal protein used becomes contaminated with something like "mad cow" disease.  Velvet and her sister Opal have lost both parents to this contamination, but continue to search for their mother when the government allows the contaminated to return to their families after they have been "neutralized" with either a lobotomy or a shock collar.  I love Velvet, she is strong and capable and not whiney.  She knows what needs to be done to take care of her sister and she does it.  Opal is supposed to be 10 in the story, but she seems to act a bit younger than that because she is still throwing temper tantrums.  This is a great book, and I can see that it may be leading to a sequel, at least I hope it will.  (I will watch for that in the future)

Wake (Watersong 1) and Lullaby (Watersong 2) by Amanda Hocking

I love books that incorporate greek mythology into them so I really enjoyed #1 and #2 or this series.  This was supposed to be a trilogy, but a 4th book since been added.  Penn, Lexi and Thea are gorgeous girls that are spending the summer in the coastal town where Harper and her sister Gemma live with their father.  No one knows much about these girls, and they share a secret.  As events unfold, Harper has to rescue her sister.  I have to be vague about what I loved about this book because I don't want to give away any of the twists.  I devoured book 1 and 2 and will be ordering 3 and 4 for the library.