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Everything, EverythingYOON, Nicola
ILLNESS | FAMILY | FRIENDSHIP Death and dying, weird illnesses, previously unheard-of diseases are currently pretty important topics in young adult literature, and young people seem to enjoy the frisson of reading about them, partly because they believe they are not really affected by them (yet). |
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Grasshopper JungleSMITH, Andrew
ADVENTURE | GROWING UP | SCIENCE FICTION What a great book! Thrilling, funny and as bizarre as bizarre can be. Mix Vonnegut and King, science-fiction romps and B-movies and you get Grasshopper Jungle, a double-feature adventure written in incredible tongue-in-cheek language that surprises in a smooth and laconic way. If you have had enough of girl-against-the world/girl-power novels like Hunger Games or Divergent, try this trio (Austin, Robby and Shann) that is determined to save the world - at least the world of small-town Ealing in Iowa. |
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Opal PlumsteadWILSON, Jacqueline
GROWING UP | HISTORY | FAMILY Many Wilson fans think she is an expert on combining laughter and tears in usually in a tragic family situation. Take The Illustrated Mom, for example, it is seasoned with so much fun that the novel makes you think, laugh and cry all at the same time; certainly not your typical ‘doom and gloom’ literature for children. |
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The Bunker DiaryBROOKS, Kevin
Quite a few critics were worried, when Brooks won the prestigious Carnegie Medal for this novel. Should young people be exposed to a story of kidnapping, torture and despair, which makes Emma Donoghue's Room 5 look like mild entertainment. The kids answered in their own way: 11-year-olds wrote rave reviews and the many among them who had actually watched movies like Saw and Hostel were not overly distraught by Brooks' thriller. After all, that's what we expect from him, isn't it? |
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The Door That Led to WhereGARDNER, Sally
ADVENTURE | TIME TRAVEL | FRIENDSHIP Sally Gardner, award-winning author (for “Maggot Moon”) and no newbie as far as historical novels are concerned, has turned her talented hand to a strongly Dickensian novel with a thoroughly modern 21st- century setting. |
