Me Too by Erika Geraerts & Charl Laubscher, illus. by Gatsby.

Me Too by Erika Geraerts & Charl Laubscher, illus. by Gatsby. Pub. Walker Books, 2018.

The authors and illustrator are clearly in a good place with this excellent picture book.

The simplicity of the written text is matched by the illustrations and it is the sort of book that makes you say aww! when you finish it.

Boy and girl talk about qualities they would like in a person to share their lives with. After each states a quality in turn the other says “me too“‘

It begins with the line “I hope I find someone who wants to go on adventures every day” and ends with “I hope I find someone I like…as much as I like you”

The children are young and simply drawn with childhood activities around them. They have their dreams too. If only life were as simple as this. Aww!

Love Hate & other filters by Samira Ahmed

Love Hate & other filters by Samira Ahmed. Pub. Hot Key books, 2018.

Some powerful novels for young adults come out of Trump’s America these days, most related to the social upheaval that his been inflicted on America because of racial, religious, political and terror related events. This is one of them and it is very good.

Maya is 18 years old, she is a Muslim Indian whose parents are successful dentists in small town America. They are unashamedly staunch traditionalists who came to America with some taboos packed tightly into the corners of their immigrant baggage. They want the best for their daughter and to control her life in the traditional Indian way.

Maya is an American girl and with American aspirations who wants to make movies. She has a video camera with her all the time and films family events. She is very quick witted and literate in a Jane Austen sort of way and she is attracted to the star football player of her high school, Phil, and he is attracted to her. Their rom com relationship is one of the highlights of the novel as is Maya’s relationship with her traditionalist mother.

When Maya tells her mother she does not want an arranged relationship with Kareem, who is delightful by the way and understanding, and wants to go to film school in New York, the family is in turmoil. The mother fears she will wear mini skirts and eat pork.

It gets worse. Between chapters there is another plot going on. A suicide bomber is plotting , preparing and ultimately commits the  terrorist act killing hundreds including children. People take it out on Maya and her family, they are assumed guilty by association as everybody considers the bomber was Muslim.

Read this novel it is fascinating. I was hooked from the first chapter which describes a traditional Indian wedding with it’s Bollywood overtones. The wit and depth of feeling is compelling. One of the best.

 

Valensteins by Ethan Long.

Valensteins by Ethan Long. Pub. Bloomsbury, 2018.

Fran the ogre is making pink hearts on Valentines Day, but who are they for and why is he doing it? Could it be love? What is love anyway?

When Fran is caught making the pink hearts Vladimir the vampire speculates that they are pink butts much to the hilarity of the other ghouls. Then a witch surmises that Fran is in love. Eewww! cry all his friends.

An embarrassed Fran  puts up with their taunts of feeling Mushy Mushy and kissing on the lips but who is the recipient of Fran’s feelings?

Read the rest and find out who and learn that love is a feeling in the heart. Awww!

Great illustrations especially the eyes of the characters that show where their feelings and motives are.

My Lovely Frankie by Judith Clarke.

My Lovely Frankie by Judith Clarke. Pub. Allen&Unwin, 2017.

When 15 year old Tom told his parents he wanted to go to St Finbar’s seminary to train as a priest his father smashed his fist into the wall and his mother sobbed in the kitchen “You will never have a normal life and a family” his father pleaded but Tom said “I have you”.

This stunning opening begins one of the most riveting novels I have read for seniors and young adults, but it will not be everyone’s taste.

Tom tells this 1950’s story looking back as an old man and reflecting with his cousin Miri.  Tom wants to know what happened to Frankie and you will want to know too.

Frankie is of course the star and when Tom meets him after 4 days in St Finbar’s an electric shock surges through his body which he doesn’t understand. Tom is naive about attraction and love and only later discovers how he feels.

This novel is about love in whatever shape or form it takes from parental love to the love of God and the sexual love of another person. Frankie knows where he stands, he loves kindness, caring and of course girls. Frankie is open with Tom about his feelings for girls and treasures their friendship but Tom has deeper feelings and wonders why he resents how Frankie feels towards girls. Will Frankie ever find out?

The novel is littered with some stunning characters like the teachers and the Rector of St Finbar’s  and the head prefect Etta who turn the school into a ministry of fear. When told he must change for God, Frankie ponders why he should change when God created man in his own image already?

One of my best books for this year it is beautifully written and perfectly paced. I dare you to read it. The conclusion is stunning.

Waterfall by Lauren Kate.

Waterfall by Lauren Kate. Pub. Random House, 2014.

Enjoyed reading this fantasy for High school students and Young Adults from the author of the Fallen Series, but it has a mighty complicated plot. At the heart of the plot is the question of what if love does not conquer all but is bad for you and destructive to the whole world?

Eureka is a beauty she is in love with Brooks but her mother never told her what her tears would do to the World. When Atlas, the evil ruler of the Sleeping World which hides the lost continent of Atlantis, possesses Brooks and causes Eureka to shed tears, her tears cause devastating floods that all but destroy the world and it’s inhabitants.

Only two tears have fallen with the third being trapped and frozen and held by a former Seedbearer, Ander, and later Solon. If the tear falls Atlantis will rise again but if it doesn’t before the full moon the chance will have passed. The Seedbearers are powerful people but if they fall in love the love weakens and ages them. Ander is in love with Eureka.

The trouble is Eureka is all over the shop still carrying strong feelings for Brooks who is still possessed by Atlas and also carrying feelings for Ander who tells her she must confront Atlas before the new moon and end his evil ways forever. Will she do it?

See what I mean about complicated? I enjoyed it and so will fans of Lauren Kate. It is well written, it is sad, it is exciting and it tugs at your heart.