My Best of 2010: YA

I definitely read more YA this year than I have any other year. I've read some really good books which kept me interested and I've read quite a few doozies. Here are my favorite of 2010.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier.On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Wow. Honestly recommend this to teenagers, parents and adults. Very moving and very well written.

Glass by Ellen Hopkins - Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.
Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life. She needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina's life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves -- her baby.

The sequel to Crank, this is the continuing story of Kristina and her descent back to hell. Told in verse, it's a harrowing and disturbing look at addiction and the damage that it inflicts.

I really love Ellen Hopkins and the Crank trilogy. She really gets you into the mind of the drug abuser and you can see how it not only affects them but everyone else in their life.

Songs for a Teenage Nomad - Kim Culbertson -After living in twelve places in eight years with her drifting mother, fourteen-year-old Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Fearful of putting down roots anywhere, but armed with her song journal, she moves to her own sound track through a world that bounces her between the school drama crowd, a mysterious loner, and an unlikely boy who will become her first love. But it's the troubling truth she uncovers about her father that forces Calle to face the toughest choice of her young life.

My favorite part of this book was the different songs and the way they were incorporated into the main character's life.



Fallout - Ellen Hopkins
Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.

Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He's struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she’s ever known crumbles, Autumn’s compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there’s more of Kristina in her than she’d like to believe. Summer doesn’t know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father’s girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother’s notorious legacy. As each searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together—Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.

Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family’s story, FALLOUT is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by CRANK and GLASS, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

The final book in the Crank series is just as gut wrenching as the first two. Highly recommend it!

What were your favorite YA books that you read in 2010?

Don't forget to read about re-introducing the group read and suggest something for January!

Songs for a Teenage Nomad

Description: After living in twelve places in eight years with her drifting mother, fourteen-year-old Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Fearful of putting down roots anywhere, but armed with her song journal, she moves to her own sound track through a world that bounces her between the school drama crowd, a mysterious loner, and an unlikely boy who will become her first love. But it's the troubling truth she uncovers about her father that forces Calle to face the toughest choice of her young life.

This book does such an excellent job of following the new girl through the trials of a new school. Calle has moved so much she knows she will never be the cookie cutter cute popular girl and she doesn't have any friends anywhere, because when you move so frequently, why bother? Andreas Bay is the first place she can really call home and the first place she makes friends.

Calle is a great character who has flaws but isn't an over the top stereotype. She is just a teenager trying to find out why she can't talk about her dad without her mom flipping out, and trying to figure out why Ford driving men suck at life.



The chapters are all song titles and at the beginning of each chapter we get to read an excerpt from Calle's song journal about what memory that song brings out for her.. It typically has something to do with one of her mom's many boyfriends/husbands and where they currently lived.

Throughout the whole book, Calle is searching for her Tambourine Man and dreams of him often. Always wanting to know more. However, the more she learns the worse the adults in her life look. I mean they are real people and have lived real lives, so there should be a few skeletons in their closets but I think her images of her parents was drastically changed from beginning to end of the novel which was definitely good. She needed to learn the things she did. However, hurtful they were.

The friends that Calle meet are also a funny bunch. She gets pulled into the drama club group, which I think is fairly typical for new students in high school. They stereotypically tend to be the most open minded people and most open to new people. Generally little judging. I also liked that she had a few friends outside of this group and that they struggled with their school identity. Because really, what high school student doesn't?

I remember hanging out with so many different people and groups that I could sit at various lunch tables and never feel weird. However, I wasn't ever super close to anyone besides my BFF and so now I have a ton of former acquaintances and 1 friend from my childhood. Which wouldn't be so bad except that I live within 15 minutes of my childhood home and a lot of people I grew up with. And why did this get back to me when it is about a book? Anyway, reading about high school always reminds me of my time there. BLECH.

This book is being re-released next month and I definitely recommend it!! Here is the author, Kim Culbertson's, website . And if you are a middle school / high school teacher she has lesson plan ideas. And you know how that would excite me!!!!

For those other nerds out there like me. I went through the book and typed up a list of all the chapters (songs). I think it would make a pretty decent mix cd!

Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan
Get Out The Map – Indigo Girls
Small Town – John Cougar Mellancamp
When I Come Around – Green Day
Perfect Blue Buildings – Counting Crows
Circle – Big Head Todd & the Monsters
Underneath it all – No Doubt
Island in the Sun – Weezer
Another First Kiss – They May be Giants
Yellow – Coldplay
Human Nature – Madonna
Hard to Explain – Cowboy Junkies
Father of Mine – Everclear
Small World – Ani DiFranco
Complicated – Avril Lavigne
Heavy Things – Phish
Shoot the Moon – Norah Jones
People Talking – Lucinda Williams
Busted Stuff – Dace Mattthews
New Beginning – Tracy Chapman
Blind – Train
What a Good Boy – Bare Naked Ladies
Strange Currencies – R.E.M.
Karma Police – Radiohead
Part of My Life – India Arie
Last Dance – Sarah Mclachlan
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – Rolling Stones
Were you ever the new girl? What crowd did you hang out with?

I got this book through an ARC tour on Around the World Tours. All opinions are mine.

Don't forget to vote for the September Group Read. Poll is on the sidebar. Voting ends Friday morning!

Dark Song - Gail Giles

Description: Mark said he heard the dark song when he creeped houses. The song the predator's heart sings when it hears the heart of the prey. I heard it now. Mark said it had always been in me. Lurking. Waiting for me to hear.

Ames is not the person she was a few months ago. Her father lost his job, and her family is crumbling apart. Now, all she has is Marc. Marc, who loves her more than anything. Marc, who owns a gun collection. And he'll stop at nothing--even using his guns--to get what he wants. Ames feels her parents have betrayed her with their lies and self-absorption, but is she prepared to make the ultimate betrayal against them?





Just like yesterday when I talked about Glass, this is a YA book that deals with real issues and isn't completely OMG HE IS SOOOO CUTE type of YA. GAG me with a spoon. '





The book starts out introducing us to Ames and her 'perfect' family Typical things in her family are spontaneous expensive trips, family game nights and everyone getting along. Her friends think they are freaky cuz what teen gets along with their family THAT well. While, I would agree with her friends somewhat, they are too dumb for me to want to agree with them. Typical private school floozies. Or just typical in how they are portrayed in books. Cuz I really don't have experience with private school floozies. If I did, I would suspect Ames friends would be them..





Anyway, her 'perfect' life is disrupted when her dad loses his job and her parents start fighting constantly and Ames finds out they are lying to her. In typical teenage fashion, she rebels. They fight. She does something stupid. They fight. They yell. Her dad turns to alcohol, her mom freaks out because she thought she left poverty behind. Her 6 year old sister is the only one with common sense. And then they find out Ames dad lied about the extent of his gambling/losing others money and there is no money. No money for the house, no money for college no money. They have to go to Texas and spoiled little Ames has to work. Her parents treat her like crap and she hates life.





However, she meets Mark. Mark is obviously trouble and Ames sort of realizes that but she is sooo sheltered and soo insecure and Mark is a leech and possessive and abusive and he knows how to get Ames where he wants her. The way there relationship was portrayed was scary and authentic. Older guys that creep on younger girls. Ewww.. Cuz really what does a 22 year old have in common with a 16 year old? Yuck.





I think the scariest part of Mark happened to be his guns. And the part where Ames thought they were cool. She was smart enough to have some thoughts about them but not smart enough to run run run run like a normal girl. But that is part of an abusive relationship. He gave her security and kept her safe when her parents had pretty much turned on her and her whole life flipped upside down.





I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it. It's GOOD YA and speaks to real issues. It also comes out in September so you can check it out then!

Oh and isn't the cover awesome???

I received an ARC from Traveling Arc Tours. All opinions as always, are authentically mine.





Have you ever been in an abusive relationship? Any of your friends?