‘Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters’ by Meredith Zeitlin was yet another awesome read by a supremely talented author. Contemporary realistic fiction is my favorite genre, and Zeitlin is incredibly adept at crafting a world that is chock full of all those annoying irritations that constantly creep up when you’re least expecting (or wanting) them to occur.

Main character Kelsey Finkelstein is understandably miffed at the realization that her freshman year is not going to go just as she planned. At every possible turn that could go one of two possible ways, the more awful way usually pans out. From not getting the position she wants on the soccer team, to crushing on a guy who may just turn out to be not all she’s made him out to be, to having a falling out with a good friend, to being the scapegoat for all of a junior girl’s issues, Kelsey has her work cut out for her as she tries to strike life anew and wipe the proverbial board clean so she can make her mark.

Little help comes in the form of a boy who likes her, yet doesn’t seem to get the hint. When she agrees to go out with him for a concert – as friends, of course – he takes it to mean something else altogether, wreaking more havoc on Kelsey’s already fragile teen life. After what happens on their date, his revelation to her after the fact is all the more startling and aggravating, which only heightens readers’ desire to see Kelsey turn things around and finally do well for herself. There is also some staff photographer from The Reflector, the school newspaper, seemingly following her around and snapping what have to be, in Kelsey’s mind, the worst possible shots of her that could ever be taken. Her run-in with one of the staff reporters, Ben, makes for a nice cycle of events that occur throughout the story as related to Kelsey’s desperation to be done with guys and anything else that is throwing her for a loop.

Bright spots do occur for Kelsey, no matter how dire life may seem for her throughout the novel. She makes friends with one of the new, popular girls. Even though she questions this friendship at times in terms of why Lexi would bother hanging out with her, their friendship is true and a welcome distraction from the angst that Kelsey finds herself in the middle of far too often.

Having already read ‘Sophomore Year Is Greek To Me,’ also by Zeitlin, I can say with utmost certainty that she is now ranked among my favorite authors. Her style is fun, focused, and extraordinarily relatable. I loved the way Kelsey asked questions about almost everything, making her identifiable as any young girl who over-analyzes everything that happens to her. I look forward (with tons of anticipation) to reading more of her young adult novels when she releases them – which will hopefully be very soon!

You can find ‘Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters’ by Meredith Zeitlin here.

‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ by J.K. Rowling is a fantastic first installment in a series that is truly a tour-de-force.

Upon first meeting Harry, readers are thrust into his world, one in which he is very ordinary, or even less-than, if the Dursleys have anything to say about it. Vernon and Petunia Dursley, along with their spoiled son Dudley, are Harry’s uncle, aunt, and cousin whom he has been basically forced to live with since his parents died. Not knowing any better, since he doesn’t yet know at the beginning of the novel how his parents actually died, he suffers through ten years with the Dursleys, basically serving as their outlet for bullying and work around the house whenever they see fit. They afford him no luxuries, and they belittle him and his parents’ memory any chance they get.

When Hagrid, the groundskeeper of a famous wizarding school, comes to visit Harry and whisk him off to his new life, Harry is understandably shocked by the revelation that he is a wizard, and, to top it all off, he is already famous in that world. Having basically defeated the greatest dark wizard of all, Voldemort (or You-Know-Who to those too scared to say his name), Harry is known as the Boy Who Lived, while his parents were murdered at Voldemort’s hands (or really, his wand) when Harry was just a mere one-year-old baby.

Harry’s entrance into the wizarding world is chock full of intriguing secrets, inspirational and aggravating teachers, realistically drawn and substantially fulfilling friendships, and dark wizardry that lurks around every corner (or at least every corner that Harry conspicuously follows). His friendships with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are especially fruitful, showing that Harry only needed to learn what he was missing in life due to his life with the Dursleys in order to grow and mature into the young man his parents would have been proud to have raised had they lived. The role that Draco Malfoy, Harry’s main nemesis, along with Severus Snape, Harry’s potions professor and seeming aggressor throughout the story, play in the novel sheds light on the fact that despite Harry escaping the bullying past of his home life, he can never truly be away from it. There will always be someone or something wanting to tear him down and make him feel less than worthy.

The cast of characters is well constructed and, despite having read all of these books before, I anxiously await getting to the rest of them all over again. Rowling is a master of her craft, and she deserves all the accolades possible for creating a story that introduces characters, plot, and everything in between with such careful and exact precision.

You can find ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ here.

‘Into Darkness’ by Hayley Barrett is an action-packed and sometimes chilling tale of a young girl’s journey into a truly great unknown.

Alexandra, daughter of a judge and girlfriend of Marcus, a highly-ranked guard in the city in which they live, starts off the story sentenced to just short of a year’s stay in Elder Grey Detention Centre, a place that only tales of horror stem from. The reason for her sentencing is minor compared to those who are already “prisoners” in Elder Grey – she participated in a party that Marcus basically forced her into having, but he is not willing to give up his position and power in society, so he has her take the fall, and she, being in what she considers love with him, blindly goes along with his wishes.

After she is sentenced, revelations start to occur, including the fact that her father, the judge, is not really her father at all. He is even one of the ones who sentenced her to her stay in Elder Grey. This revelation, among others that occur throughout the story, paint Alexandra as a victim of circumstances beyond her control.

Will is one of the guards sent to help her get to Elder Grey safely. This seemed ironic since no one at Elder Grey in any position of power that truly mattered seem worried about her safety in the least. Even though their time together starts off on quite the wrong foot, Will and Alexandra find common ground and have their share of battles, both with each other, and which they fight together. The ups and downs of their relationship, from one in which she hates him, to one in which she isn’t quite sure what to make of him, to one where she can’t imagine life without him once they have to separate upon her entrance into Elder Grey is written very well, and made the plot flow very nicely. It was also nice to see her relationship develop with Will as she fought against emotions for him since she had been promised to be married to Marcus, a man who, it is learned as the novel progresses, sees her as more of a way to have the personal gains he seeks than a woman whom he can love and treat properly.

Alexandra makes friends along the way, even in Elder Grey where she thinks everyone will be against her. Some whom she thinks would never help her turn into allies, while others stay foes, but all the while, there are twists and turns along the way to make readers guess at what might come next.

It did take me a while to get into the novel. I became much more invested in reading when Alexandra made it to Elder Grey. Some of what happened there reminded me of how a stint in prison might have gone in The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, since Alexandra had not really committed much, if any, kind of crime, but she was mixed in with people who had committed murder and other unspeakable acts. Besides taking a while to get into it, however, I enjoyed the story and the ending posed a nice transition into what will hopefully be another adventure for Alexandra and her friends.

You can find ‘Into Darkness’ by Hayley Barrett here.

‘No Rain Today’ by Kristen Iten is another one of her picture books that captured my attention. The pictures help move the story along, even though I felt there could have been more of the cloud itself, since it was the main character. The children and animals are enjoying the day until rain seems imminent, so they hurry inside, and the cloud seems upset by its sudden lack of company when no one is around for it to watch over.

There is metaphorical value at work in the book as well, since, as the cloud tried to hold in its rain to prevent its friends from going inside and “leaving it” reminded me of a young child trying to hold in his or her need to go to the bathroom. Young children often do this because they are afraid of what they will miss if they leave, and the cloud is afraid of what it will miss if its “friends” are no longer outside to hang around. When the cloud realized that even the threat of rain caused its friends to hurry away, it discovered that sometimes doing what you need to do can be the best thing, because there will always be someone or something that will appreciate the effort made. There is one young girl in the story who comes out with her umbrella, waiting for the pitter-patter and drip-drop of rain, and the happiness she feels when she gets what she wants is enough to make the cloud understand that even though you can’t please everyone all of the time, there is always going to be at least someone or something that is happy with whatever you can give.

A solid and motivational story, ‘No Rain Today’ by Kristen Iten delivers a cute, relatable storyline that children and adults alike will find comfort in.

You can find ‘No Rain Today’ by Kristen Iten here.

‘Flexible Wings’ by Veda Stamps is an intimate telling of a young girl’s love for her family and passion for swimming. Summer is the daughter of two military parents, and even though everyone around her sees them as heroes, Summer cannot seem to come to terms with this fact. To her, they are just her parents – people who are tearing her away from the first home she has lived in over several years that she has not wanted to leave. Leaving her best friend Esmerelda and the people and places she knows does not seem like it will be easy, but there is no getting out of it.

When the family makes the move to Valencia, California, Summer must learn to transform herself into a strong-willed young woman, as her entrance into sixth grade looms ever closer. When her mom is deployed yet again, Summer grapples with feelings of anger at her mother for leaving the family, and insecurity at not being able to make friends during this transitional time in her life. Eager to join the swim team, her parents sign her up before her mom’s deployment, and she begins her competitive career. The coach, in tune with Summer’s needs, and trying to help her succeed to the best of her ability, gives his team pep talks. His focus stems around encouraging his team to be flexible, fearless, and focused – three traits that Summer finds herself being more accomplished in as the novel goes on.

Her flexibility comes about in terms of a metaphor that the author has injected into the novel – a hummingbird. Early on in the novel, as Summer and her family first move into their new home, she comes across a hummingbird, which she describes to be “fearlessly hovering” in front of her. She “can’t believe how fast its wings are – flexible – and colorful!” She wonders “if their flexibility is what makes them able to be so quick and so fearless.” Watching Summer evolve as the novel progressed, into a smart, focused, and driven young woman constantly reminded me of the description of the hummingbird from earlier on in the storytelling. Summer finds flexibility in her new life while her mother is away, she finds the courage to be fearless, and she remains focused on her goals, all the while remaining hopeful that her life will not veer too far off the path that she has liked it being on so far.

Veda Stamps crafted a realistic, courageous, and metaphorical tale of hope, strength, and love, and I am eager to read more of her work. The read was quick and full of encouraging ideas, as well as the normal middle school drama, that make reading young adult and middle grade novels so worthwhile.

You can find ‘Flexible Wings’ by Veda Stamps here.

‘All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School’ by Janette Rallison was another great read by this author. She shapes a world in which high school hierarchy is pretty clear, from popular cheerleader Samantha to studious Amy, and slacker Rick, all candidates for future senior class President.

Samantha has decided to run for office due mainly to the fact that former boyfriend and current co-worker, Logan, told her that leadership qualities are looked upon highly on college applications. Little does he know that she will take this to heart, having gotten only an 810 composite score on her SATs. Coupled with this fact is her concern that any college she’ll want to go to has no chance of taking her without a more solid high school resume.

When she tries to get Logan’s support in her campaign, she knows she’ll likely have to reduce herself to giving him something he wants in return. That something happens to be her having to go out on a date with a guy named Doug, whom she’d rather do anything else than date. Samantha’s date with Doug will only serve to further Logan’s agenda, as he can only go out with a girl named Veronica if Samantha and Doug go out. So, Logan and Samantha make a bet. It seems easy enough, but the fact that Samantha seems incapable of not insulting anyone for two weeks makes Logan’s end of the bet seem a pretty sure thing. If she can do it, he’ll campaign for her. If she can’t, she has to go out with Doug.

Even though the ending seemed somewhat predictable, I was still enthralled by the premise of the novel, and truly interested to see how it would all turn out, and how everything would happen on the path to getting to that end point. The characters were realistically drawn, and Samantha and Logan, the two main characters, played off of each other well, with just enough witticisms and sarcasm to make their playing off of each other interesting and a relationship worth rooting for.

You can find ‘All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School’ by Janette Rallison here.

‘A Little Something Different’ by Sandy Hall was an interesting read. Having always loved reading different perspectives of characters in novels and trying to grasp their motivations and idiosyncrasies, it truly kept me wondering just how everyone else sees main characters Lea and Gabe.

Their relationship, despite not budding as quickly as most of the characters’ perspectives hope it will, is realistic in terms of being uncertain about what someone thinks of you and how you will react if and when they find the words to speak to you and actually ask you to hang out. Lea and her friends, Maribel and Danny, among others, are always talking about Gabe, while Gabe and his brother, Sam, along with Gabe’s friend Casey, are always eager to hear what happened when Gabe and Lea run into each other – because it happens a lot. Blame it on circumstance or just plain old dumb luck, but Lea and Gabe are always crossing paths, which makes many people, including a waitress, a barista, a Chinese food delivery guy, and even a squirrel and a bench, take notice. That’s right; I said a squirrel and a bench. Even though Hall got a bit creative with these two perspectives, they seemed to work in the grand scheme of the storytelling/ that followed Lea and Gabe’s interest in each other. The squirrel is kind of like a sounding board for Lea, and eventually Gabe, and the bench is on the green where they walk and play football from time to time. They both talk to the squirrel, because, if one truly thinks about it, sometimes having someone or something to talk to that isn’t going to talk back can be the best form of therapy.

Gabe has secrets about his past that he’s afraid will destroy his chances with Lea, while Lea questions Gabe’s interest in her due to some of the issues that are keeping him from asking her out. This forms a sort of “comedy of errors” in that they both want to be with each other but don’t know how to go about making it happen. Thrown together by two semesters worth of creative writing, including an overeager professor who wants them to find love, and classmates who are either crushing on or totally aggravated by the two of them, the course of the school year finds them inching closer and closer to a relationship – that is if no other conflicts arise.

You can find ‘A Little Something Different’ by Sandy Hall by clicking here.

‘Promposal’ by Rhonda Helms was right up my alley. It resonated with me since I was always someone who had what I considered unrequited crushes, and I always over-analyzed every little detail, much like Camilla and Joshua did throughout their respective chapters in the novel.

As best friends, Camilla and Joshua have their share of relationship turmoil. Camilla is crushing on Benjamin who is in her psychology class. He doesn’t seem to have any interest in her, but when they are paired up for a psychology project experiment, she hopes against hope that something may occur between them. Making her life more troublesome, however, is the fact that Zach, a mere acquaintance from her statistics class, has asked her out in an over-the-top fashion for prom. His “promposal,” which everyone seems to know about and use that name for, includes a massive display in front of Camilla’s schoolmates in the hallway, with a TV camera crew present to boot! It was kind of interesting that everyone knew the term “promposal,” as I hadn’t heard of it before this novel, but the seniors seemed well aware of this prom tradition.

Joshua, on the other hand, is already good friends with the guy he’s in love with – Ethan. Ethan, however, wants to ask Noah to prom, and, much to Joshua’s dismay, asks Joshua for help in making the promposal as sensational as possible. It’s the perfect example of being torn between what to do – helping your best friend and secret love woo someone else and spending time with that secret love while helping just to be as close as possible to that person while you can.

Conflict is ever present in the novel, as Camilla and Joshua basically reveal themselves (subtly and not so subtly) to those they like, all the while witnessing other promposals throughout the school among friends and classmates. Despite not getting what they want right off the bat, they are well aware of how to help each other deal with the complexities of their relationships – after all, it always seems to be easier to make sense of what’s wrong with other people’s lives and help them deal with it rather than dealing with your own issues.

My only qualm with the novel was that it seemed that at almost every turn, someone was feeling tension, and the word was constantly being used and then dismissed through a different means of it being remedied. By no means do I doubt that teens feel tense quite a bit over crushes, friendships, and other matters, but it just seemed to be ever-present in the writing, and I felt it could have been shown more through physical descriptions rather than told about so much.

Overall, however, ‘Promposal’ is an enduring read, as it deals with themes – love, over-analyzing, trusting your instincts, and friendships – that are constant reminders of not only youth, but adult life and how to cope with issues as they arise. The writing style flowed smoothly and succinctly, leading readers through the minds of both main characters, and keeping the story and plot swiftly moving along.

You can find ‘Promposal’ by Rhonda Helms by clicking here.

‘Love Lottery’ by Cathy Hopkins followed Becca, a girl with good friends but not too much in terms of love prospects. When one of her friends dares her to kiss the next boy she sees on the beach, Lal Lovering comes bounding into her life, much to her great interest – but also, as time passes, to her chagrin.

Lal, despite being a nice guy, only seems to have the desire to kiss Becca every chance he gets. While this may seem the dream to some, Becca begins to grow tired of him, no doubt exacerbated by family issues that are plaguing her life during the time she’s seeing him.

Becca’s parents try to do what they can to stay together, but when they find it is becoming too difficult and emotionally taxing on both themselves and Becca, they choose to take some time apart. While Becca can’t understand why this is happening, she cuts herself off from reality a bit, unsure where or whom to turn to in order to find some solace in what should be some of the best years of her life – especially summer break between school years.

Taking place in England, with Cornwall as its backdrop, ‘Love Lottery’ explores themes that will resonate with teen readers – lust-filled encounters, family uncertainty, tested friendships, and unwitting – sometimes seemingly unrequited – crushes.

You can find ‘Love Lottery’ by Cathy Hopkins by clicking here.

‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue takes readers into the psychological mindset of a five-year-old boy and his twenty-something mother. Their relationship is explored through various means, including how they talk to and interact with one another, allowing readers to contemplate the uncertainty and horrific nature of their circumstances.

Held in captivity for seven years, the mother’s only solace comes in the form of her son, Jack, whom she loves unflinchingly. Their struggles are real, beyond the incapability of ever being part of the outside world. The way in which Jack is portrayed as someone who only takes for granted the room he lives in with his mother draws quite a distinction between the way the the world in general seems to take things for granted and the way in which people should be grateful for every little nook and cranny because there is no telling when or for what reason it can be taken away. Jack’s anxiety about the outside world is realistically captured through his narration, and his distorted vision of reality shaken at every turn as he breaks free both physically and mentally from the bonds that he didn’t even knew held him.

Old Nick is the man who tore Jack’s mother away from her life, causing Jack the pain and anguish (even if he doesn’t realize it) of living in “room,” as Jack calls it without even using “the” in front of it. It is home, and it is all Jack knows. Despite being characterized as someone who seemingly might have cared for them at least a bit, bringing them Sundaytreat, a once a week item of their choosing that Jack is especially attached to, it is revealed that beyond that one “nicety,” if one can even call it that, Old Nick is a psychologically manipulative and angry man who has stolen years of life from them.

The book took me a while to get into, but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down. There were certain parts that I wish would have been further explored as well, including seeing what happened with Old Nick once certain events transpired that caused Jack’s and his mother’s circumstances to change.

Narrated by Jack in a five-year-old’s voice, with details clearly shown through his eyes, ‘Room’ sets the stage for a worrisome, thought-provoking read that makes readers feel threatened, brave, and hopeful. The rollercoaster of emotions has its ups and downs as Jack and his mother seek escape, come to mutual understandings, and gather strength that they (especially Jack) never knew they had.

You can find ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue by clicking here.