Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott

Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
I truly enjoy Elizabeth Scott’s books. The protagonists are very real and the average reader can relate to their plights.  In Scott’s newest book, Perfect You, Kate has lost her best friend, is humiliated by her dad, and is perennially confused by boys. What 16 [...]

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian 
Beastly is not a book I would have normally selected to read. Fantasy is not my preferred genre, but since author Alex Flinn is speaking at a conference I am attending next month, I figured I would try her twist on an old fairy tale.
This modern-day Beauty and the Beasttakes place [...]

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
The sequel to last year’s smash hit Diary of a Wimpy Kid did not disappoint!  In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Greg Heffley returns with his embarrassing summer tucked safely behind him… or is it? Only Rodrick knows [...]

The Ashleys: There’s a New Name in School by Melissa de la Cruz

The Ashleys: There’s a New Name in School by Melissa de la Cruz
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
The movie “Heathers” meets “My Super Sweet 16″ in a junior high version of beautiful, rich, powerful, and deliciously mean girls. In Melissa de la Cruz’s new series, appropriately named The Ashleys, Ashley Spencer, Ashley Li, and [...]

Your Own, Sylvia by Stephanie Hemphill

Your Own, Sylvia by Stephanie Hemphill
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath tells the tragic story of Sylvia Plath’s rise and fall through poetry. Author Stephanie Hemphill took true accounts from the life of Plath and imagined the thoughts, feelings, and exchanges that took place around those [...]

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
Seventh grade can be tough—especially if your teacher hates you. In Gary D. Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars, Holling Hoodhood is left alone every Wednesday afternoon with the treacherous Mrs. Baker. While his Catholic and Jewish classmates leave early for religious education, Presbyterian Holling [...]

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
Gossip Girl meets New York City’s Gilded Age in The Luxe.  Author Anna Godbersen’s debut is a page-turner from beginning to end.  Full of romance and scandal, The Luxe is a murder-mystery rocking high society.
Elizabeth Holland, back from Paris, is betrothed to Henry Schoonmaker, the [...]

The Absolutey True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian 
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie’s fifth novel and his first for teen readers.  It chronicles Arnold “Junior” Sprit’s freshman year of high school.  Junior, after the first day of ninth grade, decides to [...]

Bloom by Elizabeth Scott

Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian
Lauren has always played it safe.  Abandoned by her mother when she was six, Lauren does not want to follow in her mother’s footsteps—act recklessly and hurt those who love her.  So she stays with her super-perfect (but super-boring) boyfriend, Dave.  Dave earns excellent grades, excels athletically, [...]

I don’t want to be crazy by Samantha Schutz

I don’t want to be crazy by Samantha Schutz 
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, YA Librarian 
I don’t want to be crazy is a memoir written in free verse.  It follows author Samantha Schutz for a period of five years as she struggles with anxiety disorder.  The book begins as she is about to graduate high school and [...]