Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have
A Novel by Allen Zadorff



rating: 8.5 out of 10 "books"

High School is hard enough without being a size 48 waist. For Andrew Zansky, High School is just one more place where he can be reminded that he doesn’t, and will never, fit in. As the second fattest kid in school, an average day for Andy means trying to squeeze into his pants, praying that he’ll fit into his desk at school, and hiding from a beating by the school bully. However, as much as being overweight sucks, Andy has grown to mostly accept it; it’s in his genes after all. His friendship with class clown Eytan and involvement in the model UN club at school almost makes up for the over-protectiveness of his caterer mother, absentee father, and over abundance of flab.

Of course all this changes once he meets geek chic April. Knowing he has zero chance with her, Andy can’t help but try to dream up a plan to make April his. So when a routine bully pummeling leads to a chance encounter with O. Douglass, captain of the football team and teen dream guy, Andy is presented with the opportunity to drastically change his fat nerd status: by joining the football team. All of a sudden Andy is embraced by the popular elite of his school. No longer a “nobody,” Andy finds himself hanging out and attending the popular crowd’s parties and other extracurricular activities. April, who’s joined the cheerleading squad, is now part of his everyday life. And best of all, as a football player, Andrew’s “fatness” has become an asset and not a detriment, helping him protect quarterback O. Douglass on the field.

The big question Allen Zadorff’s (notice any closeness between the names Allen Zadorff and Andrew Zansky? Could this novel be semi-autobiographical?) novel asks is “how far would you go to fit it?” Because while Andy is enjoying all the perks that come with his new life, it has meant giving up some of his old; like his previous friends and activities… even risking his life on the field because of his extreme asthma, all so he can maybe have a chance with April. But Andrew is finding out the hard way that fitting in and being popular may not really be all that it is cracked up to be.

I really enjoyed this novel. I feel like there’s not enough YA books out there that a lot of guys can relate to, and “Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can’t Have” is a book that anyone; guy, girl, fat, thin, young, and old can relate to. The story told from Andrew’s point of view is written so humorously, that while you feel bad for Andy’s situation, you can’t help but laugh at little at some of his comments. The best part of this novel though, I thought, came at the end when Andy (through the course of events) realized that being popular really was not all that great, and that some of the popular kids who he thought were his friends really were not so wonderful. I think this story is a great lesson in loving who you are and not trying to change yourself for the approval of others. So to all the jocks, the princesses, the loners, the basket cases, and the geeks (breakfast club reference anyone?!), go out and read this book!

Love Drugged
James Klise



rating: 6.5 out of 10 "books"

What could be better than reading a book written by one of your own: I’m referring to a fellow librarian of course. In his first YA novel, Klise presents the possibility of a cure for homosexuality in the form of a little blue pill. And why shouldn’t it be a pharmaceutical company that invents the cure for such a “perversion of the human way of life,” (this is me quoting the opinion of countless people across the globe). For me however, I saw this story as one that presented a possible threat to the happiness of so many people who just so happen to be gay.

Love Drugged, is the story of Jamie Bates, a fifteen year old who just wants to be like any normal girl-obsessed teenage boy. The only problem is that he’s not: Jamie is gay. So when the should-be girl of his dreams, Celia, introduces Jamie to her father, the creator of a in-the-works gay cure called Rehomoline, Jamie, desperately seeking to live the life he feels he was meant to, has no choice but to steal some of the pills. However, as the pills take away his attraction to men; horrible side effects fill its place. Even worse, Jamie sees no advancement in his attraction to women, Celia included. The story follows Jamie as he makes bad choices, one after the other, and the people he will eventually hurt in his quest to be straight.

With the recent national “Things Will Get Better” campaign, I thought this book was fitting, especially since, within my own library system, there have been suicides due to unacceptance and ridicule because of sexual preference. Initially upon reading, I saw Rehomoline as a good thing; why shouldn’t people have a choice as to whether they want to be gay or not. But eventually, and as suggested further on in the book, why should that even be an issue? Why should a gay individual have to make that choice? It’s like an African American having the choice to become white, as if there were something wrong with being black. In an even larger scope, and something that I only realized after reading it further in this book, what if this drug did become available, and instead of people having the choice of whether or not they wanted to be “straight,” the drug was, for lack of a better word, weaponized, and forced upon homosexual individuals in order to mold them into some crazy idea of what a man or woman should be, or, more specifically, who they should love. In my opinion, that’s one less thing that needs to be made available to the likes of the ultra-religious homophobes. The worst part of this story is that the drug does nothing to “cure” homosexuality because although it may take away a man or woman’s attraction to the same sex, it does nothing to make a man or woman attracted to the opposite sex: it simply “suppresses the homosexual response in the brain,” thus destroying the one thing that separates man from all other creatures and turning people into a sort of zombie, devoid of any kind of human emotions relating to love.

Although this book and I started off pretty slow, I really came to like it, especially what it stands for and some of the issues and thought-provoking questions it brought up for me.

Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl



rating: 8.5 out of 10 "books"

“This town owned us, that was the good and the bad of it. It knew every inch of us, every sin, every secret, every scab. Which was why most people never bothered to leave, and why the ones who did never came back. But while other folks were busy cutting back their rosebushes, Light and Dark Casters with unique and powerful gifts were locked in an eternal struggle—a supernatural civil war without any hope of a white flag waving. Lena’s Gatlin was home to Demons and danger and a curse that had marked her family for more than a hundred years. A few months ago, I believed nothing would ever change in this town. Now I knew better, and I only wished it was true” -- Beautiful Darkness pg.2 &3

For those of you sick of the Vampire craze but looking for something to fill the void as the Harry Potter franchise draws towards a dramatic close, I’d recommend the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Although the storyline is much different than that of “the boy who lived”, many of the aspects of Beautiful Creatures and its sequel, Beautiful Darkness, are similar.

Living in a small South Carolina town where everyone knows each other’s business and no one really ever leaves after High School, Ethan Wate was counting down the days until he could finally get out of the town of Gatlin. But then Ethan began having very real nightmares involving a girl, dreams he’d wake up from physically hurt and covered in mud. When Lena, the girl from these dreams, turns out to be real, Ethan finds his life changed in ways he could never imagine. Everything he thought he knew about Gatlin has changed; because as it turns out, Lena is a Caster, a sort of witch capable of some pretty heavy stuff and everyone he thought he knew; his own recently deceased mother, her best friend and town librarian, Marian, even his caretaker, Amma, are involved. Sort of like Harry Potter is to magic, except in different terminology, Lena can perform some serious magic; like controlling the weather and making things happen that no one else could even imagine.

Lena lives in her uncle’s mansion on the outskirts of town. The Ravenwood Mansion is the town ghost story, it being the only mansion to withstand the burning of the town during the Civil War. Like Muggles in J.K. Rowling’s world, the people of Gatlin, perhaps sensing the power surrounding it, stay away from the mansion and the supposed hermit who resides in its walls. Lena’s uncle, Macon (said hermit), is even comparable to Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black. However, in the Caster world, there are much different creatures abound with much different powers. But whether it’s sirens, incubuses, seers, thaumaturgies, or palimpsests, each Caster must choose whether to be Light or Dark, much like the wizards and witches of Hogwarts.

The trouble in the first book comes into play when on her sixteenth moon, Lena will be claimed as a Dark or Light Caster. Cursed by the “Book of Moons,” the Ravenwood family has no choice as to whether they become Dark or Light like other Casters. Lena’s own cousin Ridley, practically her sister, turned Dark and was banished from the family. Lena’s situation is a little different however, because Lena is a special type of Caster and her claiming could mean the end of either the Dark Casters, or the Light, the outcome of which means losing some of the ones she loves either way. All the action of the story plays up to the moment of the sixteenth moon, with the balance of The Order of Things at stake, but in the meantime, Lena and Ethan must figure out the connection behind the dreams that they both share before it’s too late.

The first book ends on a sort of cliffhanger, but at the same time I was surprised when I discovered the sequel, Beautiful Darkness. I don’t want to give too much away as far as either book goes, for those who have not read Beautiful Creatures, but for those who were fans of the first story, you will not be disappointed by Beautiful Darkness. The stories are a little long, so they’re not for those looking for a super quick read, however, I found the books took me no time at all to finish just because they were so hard to put down!

Ballads of Suburbia
Stephanie Kuehnert



rating: 7 out of 10 "books"

"It's like a big anomaly, but everybody in suburbia has a fucked up secret, an event or series of events that made you who you are. That's what you're confessing to here." Hence, ballad. "A true ballad tells a story about real life." "A lot of ballads are about the mistakes we inevitably make while trying to figure out how to live our lives." -- Ballads of Suburbia


Ballads of Suburbia is one of those stories that starts with the epilogue and then spends most of the book in a flashback. After being left for dead while OD'ing in the park near her house the summer after her junior year of High School, our narrator, Kara, is just now returning to Chicago after a four year abscence. Kara, however, was not always a royal screwup just a typical angst-ridden teen searching like any of us, for her place in the world. The back story of Ballads of Suburbia begins with not only the start of Kara's High School days and the loss of her best friend Stacey, (who has moved to another part of town), but the constant downpour of family issues that threaten to destroy the last familiar part of her life. It isn't until Kara meets the goths and punk rockers that hang around Scoville Park that she begins to feel as if she finally has a close group of friends. And while, for the first time in years, Kara and her younger brother, Liam, are hanging out and making the same friends, partying every weekend with the Scoville crowd, and experimenting with the abundance of drugs, everything around them quickly begins to spiral out of control.

The title of this story, Ballads of Suburbia, is part of the basis behind the layout of the story. As Kara descirbes, the dictionary definition of a ballad is "a song that tells a story in short stanzas and simple words, with repetition, refrain, etc," or as Kara puts it, "the punk rocker or the country crooner telling the story of his life in three minutes, reminding us of the numerous ways to screw up." Large chunks of the story are even divided into the parts of a ballad starting with the Verse, followed by chorus, and so on, including the must-have element of a ballad: the guitar solo. But even more central to the title of this story is the notebook that Kara finds out about one day that contains each of the authors included's messed up childhood stories ("firsthand accounts of the things that changed you and the mistakes you made.") and immediately labels "ballads." It's these ballads that really centralize the plot of the story and unites the various characters in the book. One cannot read the notebook until they have written their own ballad, a confession of one's own mess ups and secrets.

On the one hand, I feel as if I've lived a completely sheltered life, having lived in Suburbia myself throughout my childhood and never having anything like this happen to me. Sure, I'd hear of people at my High School having parties, doing drugs, and getting pregnant, but most of the time my friends and I saw this all as very scandalous and stayed away from it. But on the other hand, I can see how easy it is to fall into those sorts of traps, especially in High School where fitting in is probably one of the biggest deals ever. I can honestly see how Suburbia would be the perfect place for all these bad, lurking elements to collide and I have no doubts that some of the newspaper articles that the kids in this story collected about bad things happening in the Suburbs could be, or are, true. I suppose I could say that I have had some suburban drama happen in my life, and I do wonder if some of the problems I've faced in my post-High School life have been as a result of growing up in "sheltered" Suburbia.

I really liked the idea of the notebook and the fact that the characters felt safe airing their dirty laundry to their fellow peers. What was essentially personal journal entries for these kids became group knowledge. It reminds me of that new MTV show "If You Really Knew Me." I think it's really made these teens feel a whole lot closer during a time when parents, as hard as they might try, really don't understand what their teenagers are going through. I think a lot of parents argue that they know perfectly well what's going on in their child's life because "we were once teenagers too," but "the times, they are a changing." I don't know when the next generation of teens are going to have it easier than the previous, but for now it seems like it always gets tougher and tougher to be that magical age.

I liked this story. It might not be a literary masterpiece, but I think it speaks out to people, not just teenagers, of the trials and tribulations, up and downs that people go through, possibly have to go through, before they can become the people they are meant to be.

The Other Girl: A Midvale Academy Novel
Sarah Miller



rating: 3.5 out of 10 "books"

Summary From School Library Journal:

Predicting your boyfriend's every wish is easy, especially when you are in his head. Molly knows everything that Gideon thinks, and she uses that to be there when he wants her, to leave when he doesn't, and to fulfill his fantasies when the opportunity arises. However, when she catches him thinking of another girl during an intimate moment, Molly dumps him on the spot. And when a game of spin the bottle goes wrong, Molly ends up inside the head of Pilar, the hottest girl in school, dealing with her insecurities as well as her fantasies about Gideon.—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ok, so I got lazy with my review this time and used a review from School Library Journal on Amazon.com's webpage (this is me giving you credit!) Unlike the reviewer in the above summary, I actually liked this sequel to Inside The Mind of Gideon Rayburn much better. But after trashing the first novel, some of you may be wondering why I even bothered at all to read this next installment of the Midvale Academy (series?)? Well, originally I got The Other Girl from the library only later realizing it was a sequel. So I had the book, why not read it? I was holding out with the hopes that the next book would be better. And I wasn't totally disappointed. However, the book is by no means phenomenal. The characters are still pretty annoying, but there were some pretty humorous moments involving Pilar and a bit more development as far as the plot goes. Unfotunately, I don't think this book would work all that well as a stand-alone story so you could just skip the first story. With that said, I'd recommend that this two part story be skipped altogether (unless Sarah Miller does make this a series and produces more stories).

Inside The Mind of Gideon Rayburn
A Novel by Sarah Miller



rating: 2 out of 10 "books"


When this book first came in for me at my local library, I was a little embarassed to be seen carrying it around to be honest. I have no idea why the publishers would choose to make the cover a close up shot of a girl's chest regardless of the fact that the book basically details the life of a horny teenage boy. There could have been other ways to achieve this effect, especially since the target audience for this story is probably teenage girls (afterall, what teenage girl wouldn't want to know what their male classmate/whatever, is actually thinking?). The only reason I could see this being done is to draw in a more male audience.

With that opening rant, I have to say, Inside The Mind of Gideon Rayburn does not get much better. The premise is interesting: girl mysteriously ends up in boy's mind and uses this advantage to secretly win him over without his even knowing, because she knows what he wants and how he wants it. The narrator states at the very beginning of the story that, "My feelings, though perhaps passionate for someone my age and experience, are pretty normal. But my situation -- that is unique, and that's what puts me in a position to tell you everything. I mean it. Everything you've ever wondered about what guys think (and feared about what they want), I'm going to tell you. You are going to learn what boys say when girls are not in the room and how they feel when they're on top of one. I will, for now, leave out one very crucial thing: who I am. I'm in this story too, and not just inside Gid's head. But there are a lot of girls -- and women -- in this story. Which one am I?" Sounds interesting enough, but the majority of the story is about an oversexed boy trying to get a girl he doesn't even know, to sleep with him in order to win a bet his egotistical, misogynistic roommates set so he can prove himself to them. The romantic part, if you can call it that, is that in the end he happens to have feelings for his "lay."

I hated this story. The happy ending could not make up for the trashiness and sour taste left after reading the beginning to middle of the story. This is not a story for teenagers, at least not high school aged. The kids in the story are supposed to be High School Prep kids, but the story reads more like a dumb Van Wilder or American Pie movie, minus the funny. There's tons of bad language and sex talk, which although I can understand for a book that's supposed to be about what guys think and talk about, I guess I just wasn't expecting as much. If anything, the book is at least honest in that regard. Still, this is not a book you would want to add to your classroom collection or school library. For as much as I didn't enjoy the book Youth In Revolt, at least that one was bizzare and entertaining. You know the phrase, "Don't judge a book by it's cover?" With Inside The Mind of Gideon Rayburn, you should and it will save you a lot of time. I gave this book a rating of 2 out of 10 "books" which I consider generous and only did because while the entire story was lacking, at least the concept was somewhat original.

Derby Girl
Shauna Cross


rating: 7 out of 10 "books"

I don't really know why, but I seem to enjoy reading a lot of books that are later turned into movies or read books after I've discovered that a movie has been made about them. I think it's just my love of film that makes me do this. Having said that, I find it no surprise that I was drawn to the book "Derby Girl" by Shauna Cross when I discovered it was the book that later became the Ellen Page movie, "Whip It."

"Derby Girl" is the story of Bliss Cavendar, a 16 year old punk rocker who is, unfortunately, stuck in the small Texas town of Bodeen where football rules and people like her are limited. From her small Texas town to her "two culturally clueless imposters for legal guardians," Bliss imagines her "real parents" are out there somewhere doing cool art stuff or something. Bliss is into all things "punk rock." She loves indie music, thrift store shopping, etc, and has even dyed her hair blue to show her disgust for all things ordinary. Her mother is addicted to beauty pagents and is always trying to get Bliss to compete. Luckily Bliss's 4 year old sister fulfills much of that void, but "Brooke" (her mother) still has the delusion that Bliss will participate in the Miss Bluebonnet beauty pagent, a Cavendar tradition that has seen both Bliss's grandmother and mother win.

Her only friend is the beautiful Pash Amini who moved into town and shares the same indie rock spirit as Bliss. They spend most of their free time slaving away at the "Oink Joint," a gross barbecue restaurant that all the local hicks frequent. The only thing that gets them through the hell of small town Texas life is each other. That, and imagining finding the perfect rocker boyfriends whilest getting the hell out of Bodeen.

But everything seems to change when Bliss picks up a flier for Roller Derby while shopping in downtown Austin with her mother and sister one day. She doens't even know what it is, but Bliss knows she has to go check it out. She instantly falls in love with Roller Derby the first time she sneaks out to go watch a match. When one of the Roller Derby girls encourages Bliss to try out for an opening, the idea scares her, but yet as Bliss states "something about watching those Derby Girls and hearing their skates pound on the track -- it's like I got to peek through the window at what life could be like outside of Bodeen. I want more. I need more." Remarkably, Bliss makes the team and lies to her parents that she's joined an SAT study group in order to get away with coming home late. Bliss is suddenly immersed in a totally different culture. She falls in love with a rocker boy and gains a whole group of friends like she's never had before. Bliss even finds herself being nicer to her mother, and agreeing to enter the silly beauty pagent to appease her. But while her life gets better because of derby, her friendship with Pash begins to suffer.

"Derby Girl," is the story of a teen finally finding out who she is and gaining a sense of belonging. There's some heartbreak and true learning experiences thrown in there, but it's something Bliss, I'm sure, would not trade for the world. I enjoyed this story a lot. It was a super easy read (the book was small in size and length), and had a lot of enjoyable moments. However, this was also part of what I did not like about the book. I felt like the author could have developed the story a lot more; really gotten into Bliss's emotions. It felt like as soon as I began the book it was over. That's why I've given this book a rating of 7 "books" out of 10. If you want a humorous book that will take you no time to read, I think "Derby Girl" is perfect. From the first page of the story I could also see why they cast Ellen Page as Bliss: it sounded exactly like her character in "Juno." I have yet to see the movie, and have heard some negative reviews of it, but I wonder if it has anything to do with the shortness of the book. Oh well, I still want to see it!

Goth Girl Rising
Barry Lyga


rating: 7.5 out of 10 "books"


The end of “The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl,” saw Goth Girl aka Kyra sent away after Fanboy alerted her father to some worrisome activity. Well, Kyra is back after missing the end of the school year, the summer, and the beginning of the new school year at her Maryland high school. After six months with no email from Fanboy, Kyra is a little upset but ready to make up with Fanboy. When she returns to school, she is surprised to find that much has changed since she’s been gone. Fanboy is popular! By publishing his graphic novel as a serial through the school newspaper, Fanboy has suddenly become the newest member of the high school upper class. Feeling abandoned, Goth Girl cooks up a plan to ruin his life.

Whereas “The Astonishing Adventures...” was from Fanboy’s point of view, “Goth Girl Rising” provides us with an opportunity to finally see into Kyra’s head. We never really got the back story of Goth Girl in Lyga’s first novel and I personally wanted to know the deal as to why Kyra was always so pissed off. This story was much heavier than the first as we come to find out that much of Kyra’s attitudes towards things stem from the death of her mother and the unhealthy way she dealt with it, as well as the grudge she continues to feel towards her father, whom she feels was the main cause of her mother’s death. It may be hard to imagine when reading the story, but Goth Girl was not always the bitter, angry, dark clothes wearing sixteen year old. Much of this story is about Kyra trying to find herself and feel comfortable in her own body. We see one display of this as Kyra takes much care to cover up and disguise her figure.

I got angry at both Goth Girl and Fanboy alike at times. I got angry at how Kyra reacted in many of the situations, especially at the fact that she was always so defensive and unable to see things right in front of her. She may have seemed confident in “The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl,” but in reality Goth Girl seems to suffer from self-esteem issues like any teen. She gets hurt by a lot of the things Fanboy does, and instead of facing them head and confronting him about them, she plots to continually destroy his life. Then again, it’s easy to sit back and yell at the way Kyra acts, but in reality, this is how many teenage girls act. Minus the destruction part of course. Fanboy on the other hand, seems to act more like your typical sex obsessed teenage boy in this novel. But it must be mentioned that we are viewing the story from Kyra’s point of view so it is to be expected at least a little. I still got pretty fired up with some of the stuff he did. This coming especially after reading Goth Girl’s thoughts and explanations of how boys just want girls for their looks and bodies, and how Goth Girl purposely covers herself up to ensure this objectification will not happen to her.

I really enjoyed this book and am glad Barry Lyga decided to write a sequel to Fanboy and Goth Girl. It was a nice way to finish off the story of Donnie and Kyra, even if you had to wait until the very end of the story to see anything happen between the two.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
A Novel by Barry Lyga


rating: 7 out of 10 "books"



The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl could be classified as yet another “teen angst” drama revolving around those tough teen years. However, AAFGG takes this young adult formula and turns it into something refreshingly different. Sure, there’s plenty of boy-girl drama in there, but what makes this novel special is the characters and the situations in which they are involved.

Donnie aka Fanboy, is your typical High School geek. Obsessed with comics and getting the heck out of town after High School, he spends his weekends and social time working on his secret comic book project. His best friend, uber jock Lacrosse player and secret comic book enthusiast, Cal, only speaks to him when the coast is clear of other popular jocks. Donnie pines for Dina, the popular “senior goddess,” who doesn’t give him the time of day let alone acknowledge him. His mother doesn’t understand him, and his “step-fascist-father,” can hardly relate to Fanboy’s ultra dorkiness. But as Fanboy constantly tells himself, “in two more years I can go to college. Go to college far away, where no one knows me, where I can start over. And in college, everyone is smart, so it’ll be ok to be myself and I won’t be a freak anymore.”

But a series of events crushes Fanboy’s hope for the future and his belief that once he leaves town to attend college things will be different. The only thing keeping him sane in his life filled with bully beatings and constant misery is his unlikely friendship with Goth Girl Kyra. Chain-smoking, pint-sized, sharp mouthed Kyra doesn’t take anyone’s crap. When she sees Fanboy being beaten up in gym class, she befriends him and an unusual acquaintanceship turns into friendship if not more. Fanboy reveals his secret comic book plans with Kyra, who immediately takes interest in helping Fanboy perfect his graphic novel. But as it is with any young adult novel, things between the two friends are bound for a nasty turn. The story cliffhangs after events involving a party, Dina the “senior-goddess,” an appearance of Brian Michael Bendis, and a missing bullet.

I really enjoyed this novel and was excited when I discovered Lyga had decided to and wrote a sequel to The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. There were many mentions of comic and graphic novel writers including: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and as mentioned previously Brian Michael Bendis. Lyga definitely did his homework researching and brining his own comic book experiences into this novel. Not only that, but his realistic characterization of his characters was suburb. It is really a treat to read young adult literature that successfully captivates the essence and turmoil of being a teen.