Tag Archives: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Review: Those Girls by Lauren Saft

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,

Those Girls by Lauren SaftThose Girls by Lauren Saft
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Alex and Mollie have been best friends since kindergarten. Veronica, whose promiscuous reputation is her claim to fame, has recently joined their ranks. At the start of their junior year, each girl has an agenda.

V longs to turn over a new leaf and be the kind of girl a boy wants to keep around for more than an hour. Her good intentions are pretty constantly foiled by her revealing outfits and her drunken escapades.

Mollie wants to bring romance back into her relationship with her hot-and-popular boyfriend, Sam. She’s willing to do just about anything to keep him.

Alex needs a change. Mollie’s Sam obsession left a hole in her life that she’s ready to fill. A garage band might be exactly the change she needs. The change she doesn’t need? Her best friend (and secret love) Drew going after Veronica.

The drama does not stop, from page one all the way to the end. Rotating narrators (all three girls take turns spilling their guts) keep the story flying forward and reveal what each girl really thinks as events unfold. It’s nonstop gossip, parties, social disaster, love, and heartbreak.

Despite the quick pace and the celebration of friendship between girls, I had a hard time connecting with Mollie. She’s selfish, vindictive and extremely negative. I couldn’t really get why the other two valued her as a friend. I found Alex to be much more palatable, but ultimately disappointing. I had the most sympathy for Veronica. In a home with absent parents, it made perfect sense that she had little sense of social cues and relied on her body to form connections with people, then felt depressed when a one night stand didn’t result in a relationship.

The story definitely captures the catty spirit that sometimes plagues high school girls. While Alex and Veronica seem to have learned some hard lessons and grown personally by the end of the story, there were some elements of the resolution that were not believable. (See spoiler section below.)

Language Content
Extreme profanity and crude language used really frequently.

Sexual Content
Several explicit scenes depicting sexual encounters (one in which two girls make out, another involving two girls and a boy) as well as crude references to sexual situations and encounters.

Mollie’s boyfriend is all about the sexual pressure. Gross.

Spiritual Content
The girls go to a Catholic school. Mollie’s mother is very religious and forces Mollie to attend extra church services and say extra prayers when she misbehaves. (These efforts don’t appear to affect Mollie’s personal beliefs or her behavior.) At one point, Mollie commits to sabotage a fellow student and claims she has Jesus on her side. (I think she was aiming for funny, but because of the nature of her intentions, it fell pretty flat for me.)

Alex’s family is Jewish. She laments not being invited to celebrate Christmas with her friends and being bored around that holiday.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Lots of scenes in which teens drink alcohol or smoke pot. Someone slips a roofie into a girl’s drink.

Spoiler
Mollie’s boyfriend (total schmuck) cheats on her with Veronica. Alex has sex with Veronica’s boyfriend. These are pretty serious betrayals. Yet, just a few weeks later, they’re all happy and friends again. Totally did not buy that. Did not seem possible, especially for someone as image-conscious as Mollie. Drew’s reaction to the whole thing was a lot more my speed. He pretty much up and headed for the hills. Too much drama. Bravo, dude.

Review: When Did You See Her Last by Lemony Snicket

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , ,

When Did You See Her Last?
Lemony Snicket
Little Brown

In an account of his second “wrong question,” detective’s apprentice Lemony Snicket investigates the disappearance of a young brilliant chemist. With the help of his wacky chaperone, an aspiring journalist and two boys who work together operating a taxi, Snicket uncovers a tangled plot stretching far beyond the simple disappearance of a girl. Far away, his sister faces her own trials, and Snicket laments not being able to help her. Could it all be connected to the vicious Hangfire and his evil plot?

Once again, author Lemony Snicket charms readers with tongue-in-cheek narrative and a hilarious cast of characters. Snicket challenges readers’ vocabulary by including complex words and often defining them within the narrative. It’s a nice way to introduce new words. My daughter and I read both the first and second books in this series together, and she can’t wait to read the next one. We started the Series of Unfortunate Events, and she really likes those books, too, but The Wrong Questions books are a little bit lighter and still have the same kind of humor and silliness. The series has a really unique feel that’s part detective noir and part quirky fantasy. This would make a great summer read, though I recommend starting with the first book.

Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Brief references to violence. A woman is said several times to be “very good with a knife.” In one slightly creepy scene, Snicket discovers a room with small beds that have manacles attached to them – as if someone is planning to imprison children and experiment on them. Later, Snicket sees a person-shaped hole in a window, which someone has been shoved through.

Drug Content
An apothecary uses laudanum to keep an adult couple in a stupefied state.

Review: Forgive Me Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Matthew Quick
Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Published August 13, 2013

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol.

But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart-obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate, Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school’s class on the Holocaust. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.

In this riveting look at a day in the life of a disturbed teenage boy, acclaimed author Matthew Quick unflinchingly examines the impossible choices that must be made—and the light in us all that never goes out.

My Review

As Leonard delivers the presents, it’s clear there are people who care for him and who suspect that Leonard has chartered a short, one-way ticket to self-destruction. They plead with and encourage him to have hope, to think of his future.

While the story by its nature is pretty grim, Leonard manages to relate events with some wry humor and an appreciation for the ridiculous. Though it’s clear his family life is awful and his school life a torment, an impossible thread of hope remains deep inside him. He wants to believe that a better future exists, and we see that hope at war with the depression and fury within. That’s the real beauty of this story.

One thing that sets this novel apart from others featuring a teen shooter is the letters from the future featured at intervals during the story. I loved that the letter-writers related this dystopian, post-apocalyptic world and that despite the whole world falling to pieces, Leonard had found the people who loved and understood him.

It’s always tragic to see a teen give up on life – and everyone always wants to tell the kid, hey, think of your future! Here, in this novel, instead of some well-meaning adage, Quick paints this fascinating picture of the future Leonard could have. I loved that unique touch.

This is a heavy story and very grim in moments. I think despite those things, this novel carries an important message and was bravely written.

Content Notes

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme word choice, moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
A young man alludes to an abusive relationship in which he was raped. His descriptions are vague but powerful. It’s his mentor later who, upon hearing about it, labels the incident as rape. A teenaged boy is caught masturbating. It’s brief, but explicit.

In letters from the future, Leonard’s wife briefly relates that they have an amazing intimate life. She hopes that having this to look forward to will help him fight through his depression and turn away from his intentions of murder and suicide.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Brief references to rape (see above.) A teenaged boy plans to shoot another boy and then kill himself.

Drug Content
Leonard references his father’s drug problem and events from his childhood. He remembers his dad being high and how that disappointed him.

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