Teen Reads

Here are a couple of reviews from a Book Chat group I belong to. We meet once a month and chat about children's and teens books, both fiction and non-fiction. These are a couple of titles we discussed in July.

I am J – Cris Beam Lisa picked this teen fiction up becoz of a review she had read but without any expectations. The cover (deliberately) doesn’t reveal if the main character is a male or female. It is actually about a girl who feels she is in the wrong body, something that you don’t actually click to until well into the story. Lisa found it thought provoking and eyeopening. Although quite a New York voice, J has a very real one that the teens will be able to relate to. The author has also done substantial work and research with transgender teens which adds to the realism. J always felt different. He was certain that eventually everyone would understand who he really was: a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet as he grew up, his body began to betray him; eventually J stopped praying to wake up as a 'real boy' and started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible - from his family, from his friends, from the world. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he's done hiding - it's time to be who he really is. And this time he's determined not to give up, no matter the cost..

Life on the Refrigrator Door – Alice Kuipers. Jeanette (the Mahurangi College Librarian) is always looking for something good for reluctant readers. She recommended this as a quick easy read as it is told largely by way of the post it notes between mother and daughter which they leave on the fridge door for each other. This makes the chapters short and snappy. Themes that are investigated in the story are family dynamics, an ill parent and taking (or making) the time to talk to each other. Claire and her mother are running out of time, but they don't know it. They rarely find themselves in the same room at the same time, and it often seems that the only thing they can count on are notes to each other on the refrigerator door. When home is threatened by a crisis, their relationship experiences a momentous change. Forced to reevaluate the delicate balance between their personal lives and their bond as mother and daughter, Claire and her mother find new love and devotion for one another deeper than anything they had ever imagined.