Leviathan

Westerfeld, S. (2009). Leviathan. NY: Simon Pulse. Leviathan is a historical sci-fi story with an alternate history for WWI. The two main protagonists Aleck, the heir of the Austrian-Hungary Empire and Deryn, a girl disguising herself as boy in order to fly on a Darwinist air beast against the Clankers. Aleck and Deryn show courage during the dangerous conflicts with the Kaiser’s military forces. The world is split into two fractions which are the Clankers and the Darwinists. The Clankers love technology and will do anything to keep the advancement of machinery in the future. The Darwinists, use the technology but to create Beasties which are fighting machines. Alek and Deryn bravery will assist the mysterious woman scientist aboard the Leviathan on a secret mission to Constantinople. Alek and Deryn help one another overcome the odds in a new world of technology versus nature. Related books: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld, Goliath by Scott Westfeld, Airborn (Matt Cruse, #1)by Kenneth Oppel, Mothstorm (Larklight, #3) by Philip Reeve, and The Affinity Bridge (Newbury and Hobbes, #1) by George Mann.

Goliath-The conclusion to the Leviathan trilogy

Westerfield, S. (2011). Goliath- The conclusion to the Leviathan trilogy. Simon and Schuster. Alek and Deryn are on a round the world quest to end World War I to reclaim the Austrian throne. Along the way, they rescue Tesler, a madman wanting to share his inventions in New York. They travel through Japan, Mexico and finally into New York on the Leviathan. Alek and Deryn become allies in keeping each other’s secrets and helping one another from being exposed of their secrets. On a trip to Berlin, Tesler was willing to blow up the Leviathan to stop the war and hide the real truth about his findings. Deryn saves Berlin with Alek on his mind. Upon his return to New York he decides to give up his throne to live there rest of his life with Deryn a commoner. This is an alternate history novel, where Westerfield used historical locations to model the setting and connect the historical meteor crash in Siberia in 1908. Related books: World War I by Simon Adams, World War I by Ian Westwell, Flying Machine by Andrew Nah Nahum

Code name Verity

Wein, E. (2012). Code name Verity. NY: Egmont. Queenie gets captured by the Gestapo in France. Her capturers have tortured her and forced her to write down every detail of her mission or there will be consequences. They showed her pictures of her friend Maddie dead which gives her no reason to live. Queenie begins her confession by making them understand that she is not Maddie the air pilot, but rather her friend that tagged along on the flight. Her life expectancy of six weeks or even worse sent to a camp depends on her confession. For the next two weeks, she explains what she knows about the Bristish War Effort, military bases, and spies, lines of code, airplanes, her friendship with Maddie, and her memories. She confronts her conflict by writing and hoping that her confession will be enough to save her life from von Linden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEz6nPVubck

Shiver the wolves of Mercy Falls #1

Stiefvater, M. (2009). Shiver the wolves of Mercy Falls #1. New York City: Scholastic. When Grace was young, she was saved by a golden eyed wolf from his pack before they dismembered her. With his saving grace, she was able to survive a cold horrific death. She became obsessed with catching a glimpse of him that she observed the wolves every winter. Sam, the wolf that saved her, is a shape shifter. They become humans during the warm months and are wolves during the cold months. Sam and the other wolves have no recollection of their human forms. One winter, Grace found Sam lying naked and shot on her back porch. She gave him the aid he needed and realized he was the wolf she had been seeking for the last few years. The golden eyes gave Sam’s identity away and she realized he was a werewolf. They form a romance built on teenage activities such as listening to music, making dinner, and reading poetry. Sam’s apprehension to tell Grace about his time almost being up and he needing to shape shift back into a wolf forever was disheartening. When Grace discovers his secret, she does everything possible from keeping Sam from changing. They both ignore the world and spend all their time together searching for the cure. Sam explains to Grace that to stay in human form, they need to increase their internal temperature. After much research, they realized that meningitis was the cure to avoid shape shifting. Sam injects himself with this infection and survives. Stiefvater development of Grace and Sam’s characters, help the reader connect with their emotion and actions so well that it strings the reader along through their love story. Grace’s sadness not knowing whether he is alive or dead and if she is ever going to see him after the injection was very heart wrenching. She was able to capture Sam’s longing of being with Grace as he watched every one of her moves, but not being able to reveal himself to her just yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc3iXeHdv1Y

Winger

Smith, A. (2013) Winger. NY: Simon & Schuster. Ryan Dean West attends Pine Mountain Academy a rich boarding school. Ryan Dean is a smart, skinny kid going through the beginning stages of puberty and wanting to change his image this school year from not being a loser. He is a junior and two years younger than everyone else. He has been summoned to sleep in the Opportunity Hall because he stole a teacher’s phone and hacked into it. His rooming situation gets interesting when the stereotypical dumb jock, Chas Becker becomes his roommate. He worries that he may be plummeted by Chas since he is in the lower social status ladder. He documents his emotional feelings and sexual desires through picture and graphs giving the reader a clear image of his roller coaster ride at Pine Mountain Academy. He is in love with his best friend Annie who treats him like a baby. His best friend Joey is harassed or bullied by the football players and ends up being killed. At the end he is comforted and tries to cope with the death of his friend. Ryan’s character is completely described as a teenage horn dog. Ryan completely demonstrates the raging hormones in the way he thinks about girls and his hot teachers and coping with teenage issues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux35quSH4lk

Persepolis

Sartrapi, M. (2004). Persepolis. NY: Pantheon. Marjane Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In her memoir, she describes what her life was like during the changing political and social settings of Iran at that time. She describes how she grew up among the political turmoil and how her family grew up in a privileged Iranian family that was once royalty. She also describes her struggles during her adolescence and how she was sent to Austria for boarding school. She describes in detail of the issues she went through during her time in Austria. Satrapi explains the revolution with enough detail to help readers understand the hardship her family and friends went through during this difficult time. The lively illustrations in black and white help visualize her story come to life. Through the illustrations, the reader can feel her confusion, fear, sadness, and anger. She was raised in a well-to-do family that leaned on Western ideology therefore her hardships were not as extreme as those poorer than her family. Yes, they lived through this political turmoil, but yet some of their actions showed they were still living a comfortable life. Satrap’s battle with the political changes they had to endure was difficult for her to accept. This conflict caused her to be separated from her family for duration of time because even as a young child she was raised to have her own views. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Hd7FsUC9w

Last night I sang to the monster

Saenz, B. (2009). Last night I sang to the monster. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. Zach, is an eighteen year old alcoholic. He comes from a dysfunctional family with a series of issues. His mother is depressed, his father is an alcoholic and his brother is abusive. Zach has found himself in a rehab and doesn’t understand how he got there. Zach is in rehab recovering from his alcohol addiction and learning to relinquish painful memories in order to live and survive in this world. With the help of his therapist, roommates, Rafael, a 53 year old alcoholic and Sharkey, a 27 year old drug addict, he is able to make sense of his feelings and learns that he can trust and love again. Through the recovery effort, he learns to free himself from the hurt and agony because the people who had hurt him are dead. Zach’s big moment was when he realized that he can be happy; there is hope, and a new beginning from all these dreadful secrets. The conflict of fighting and defeating the monster within was Zach’s major struggle. Once he was able to face the secret, he was able to realize that there is happiness after all the hurt he went through. Related books: Crazy by Han Nolan, The Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine, 15 Days Without A Head By Dave Cousins, Teenage Alcoholism by L.K. Currie-McGhee.