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Booklist Editors' Choice '04
Adult Books for Young Adults
Selected by the Books for Youth editors, the following titles constitute the year’s best personal reading for teenagers among adult books published in 2004. More on suggested audience, content, etc., can be found in the full-length Booklist review.
Nonfiction
Almond, Steve. Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. Algonquin, $21.95 (1-56512-421-9).
Almond elevates what could have been dry reportage into a riotously funny memoir about his obsession with candy, which reached “freak” status during adolescence. Tender, bawdy, and wickedly comical.
Conlon-McIvor, Maura. FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father’s Code. Warner, $23 (0-446-53310-6).
In this touching, frank memoir, always true to a child’s viewpoint, the author remembers growing up with her taciturn father, an FBI agent. The 1960s details are nostalgic, but the bittersweet portrayal of family and personal discovery is timeless.
Cox, Lynne. Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer. Knopf, $24.95 (0-375-41507-6).
Cox, who swam the English Channel at 15, writes about her subsequent swims across some of the world’s most perilous waters. An inspirational account of how solitary acts can unite people.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. Tr. by Anjali Singh. Pantheon, $17.95 (0-375-42288-9).
Satrapi continues her memoir-in-comics about growing up in revolutionary Iran. Once again, the bold-lined artwork illustrates one of the most noteworthy youth memoirs of recent years.
Shen, Fan. Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard. Univ. of Nebraska, $24.95 (0-8032-4308-1).
In this irony-laden memoir, a former Red Guard grows up swimming against the tides of the Cultural Revolution. Teens will strongly identify with Shen’s maneuverings around repressive regulations.
Silverstein, Ken. The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor. Random, $22.95 (0-375-50351-X).
In the early 1990s, Detroit-area teenager David Hahn tried to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard. Silverstein tells his shocking story in lively detail that personalizes Hahn’s world without sensationalizing.
Smith, Alison. Name All the Animals. Scribner, $24 (0-7432-5522-4).
When Smith was 15, her beloved older brother died suddenly. In a poignant, ultimately hopeful memoir that reads like fiction, Smith describes her own and her parents’ journeys through grief and the thrill of a first love that was taboo in her religious community.
Traig, Jennifer. Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood. Little, Brown, $22.95 (0-316-15877-1).
When Traig hit puberty, she developed a form of hyper-religious, obsessive-compulsive disorder. She describes her affliction and her alienation from her family in a raw, funny, self-deprecating voice.
Williams, Buzz. Spare Parts: A Marine Reservist’s Journey from Campus to Combat in 38 Days. Gotham, $26 (1-592-40054-X).
Williams describes the day-to-day rigors of boot camp, the trials of his Gulf War tour of duty, and the particulars of his troubled reentry into society. A rare, honest account.
Fiction
Cook, Lorna J. Departures. St. Martin’s, $22.95 (0-312-32128-7).
Like all the members in their unsettled family, teen siblings Suzen and Evan dream of escaping their small midwestern town. Cook’s understated, pitch-perfect prose captures fundamental high-school restlessness and a family’s subtle, shifting fragility.
Fischer, Jackie Moyer. An Egg on Three Sticks. St. Martin’s/Griffin, paper, $12.95 (0-312-31775-1).
In this unforgettable debut, 13-year-old Abby recounts her mother’s heartbreaking descent into mental illness. With acutely observed detail, Fischer describes a young adult’s pull between the universal struggles of adolescence and the surreal anguish of losing a parent to disease.
Hallowell, Janis. The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn. Morrow, $23.95 (0-06-055919-5).
Colorado teen Francesca draws a cult following after a homeless man envisions her as the Virgin Mary. Alternating viewpoints tell the swiftly moving story that explores intriguing questions about faith and identity.
Halpin, Brendan. Donorboy. Villard, $22.95 (1-4000-6277-2).
After 14-year-old Rosalind loses both of her lesbian parents in a car accident, she is placed in the custody of her sperm-donor father. Halpin writes in voices that are funny, tender, and defiant, and the characters’ struggles to connect are unforgettable.
Marillier, Juliet. Foxmask. Tor, $27.95 (0-765-30674-3).
This sweeping Dark Ages fantasy, a sequel to the rousing Wolfskin (2003), follows 18-year-old Thorvald to remote northern British isles in a suspenseful, romantic page-turner steeped in Norse lore.
Nicholls, David. A Question of Attraction. Villard, $23.95 (1-4000-6181-4).
A sublime coming-of-age comedy, Nicholls’ first novel centers around British scholarship student Brian through his struggles to mix with his posh peers, and triumph with his school team on a TV quiz show.
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. Atria, $25 (0-7434-5452-9).
Teen Anna sues her parents for the rights to her own body when she is asked to donate a kidney to her sister. This spellbinding story will draw a wide range of readers with its strong characters and provocative questions.
Shepard, Jim. Project X. Knopf, $20 (1-4000-4071-X).
Shepard boldly addresses the volatile subject of teen violence in this unflinching response to school shootings. With candor, sympathy, and occasional humor, Shepard tells the story of two boys who plot revenge after hellish school experiences.
Seigel, Andrea. Like the Red Panda. Harcourt, $23 (0-15-101039-0).
Bleak, chillingly plausible, and sure to be controversial, this debut novel explores suburban ennui and teen suicide in the voice of Princeton-bound high-school senior Stella, whose narration combines Valley-girl inflections and an SAT vocabulary.
(Booklist/January 1 & 15, 2005)
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