I’ve said it before — I am a big fan of dystopian novels. In The Testament of Jessie Lamb, author Jane Rogers hits some of the same marks as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Hillary Jordan’s When She Woke, Her novel also has echoes of Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Somehow, within a mere 256 pages, the author creates a completely believable world, just different enough from our own to reflect back on it in particularly provocative ways. Jessie Lamb is a teenager like many we see in our libraries or classrooms. She’s 16 and at first she’s rather uninterested in the disaster going on around her. She is much more interested in environmental issues, in despising her parents for refusing to live up to her standards for adequate carbon rationing. But then events begin to affect her friends, and her aunt dies, and her parents’ marriage falters, and Jessie starts looking for a way to make the world a better place.

This is a great read for teens who like to be provoked, or enjoy books about cutting edge controversial issues.

ROGERS, Jane. The Testament of Jessie Lamb. 256p. HarperPerennial. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-213080-9. LC number unavailable.  

Adult/High School–This thought-provoking dystopian novel is narrated by 16 year-old Jessie Lamb, who lives in Manchester, England with her Mum and Dad in a near-future plagued by Maternal Death Syndrome (MDS). Less than a year earlier, someone (still unknown) released a deadly virus that infects only pregnant women. It attacks the brain; within weeks or even days of being infected, they die. The virus quickly spread around the world, and now there are no more live births. Teenagers and college kids are trying prevent humanity from descending into hopelessness. Jessie helps to form an environmentalist activist group, but leaves when she comes upon a better solution, inspired by her father’s work in a lab at the center of raging reproductive rights protests. Because MDS attacks the mother and not the baby, scientists propose vaccinating frozen embryos stored in medical labs against MDS and then implanting them into surrogate mothers–mothers who would be placed in an induced coma so their babies would survive even after they themselves suffered brain death. That is the background to the present. Now, Jessie is tied up and locked in an empty bedroom in her deceased grandmother’s house, imprisoned by someone trying to keep her from taking the radical action she knows will save the world. The novel is a letter from Jessie meant to give context to her choice, a choice her parents and boyfriend find horrific, a choice she believes to be her purpose in life. Her story is suspenseful, even if its telling is didactic at times. Jessie’s youthful passion and courage make it work.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

T. (Tammy in real life) pub;ishes a blog on her website. A recent, brave post addresses the bullying she experienced in her own life, and the denial that the bullied often experience.

GREENWOOD, T. Grace. 352p. Kensington. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-0-7582-5092-6. LC number unavailable.  

Adult/High School–Why is Kurt taking his 13-year-old son, Trevor, through the deep Vermont snow at midnight with a rifle at his back? These opening pages envelop readers in a deep sense of foreboding that never lets up. From there the story backtracks as Kurt’s family begins to unravel. Trevor is relentlessly bullied, and his isolation, rage, and self-hatred are palpable. The two things that make him happy are his younger sister Grace and his aging art teacher who introduces him to the world of photography. Kurt senses that his young wife, Elsbeth, is feeling trapped and that “she was teetering at some terrible precipice.” Kurt is under tremendous financial stress; he’s dealing with his unpleasant father, and he doesn’t understand Trevor. Along with this family struggling with lack of communication and tension, there is a parallel story involving Crystal, a high school senior whose life is spiraling out of control after giving her baby up for adoption. Elsbeth and Grace often shop where Crystal works and their lives become intertwined with devastating consequences. The story is perhaps wrapped up a bit too neatly, but teens will appreciate this tautly written novel with strong characters and emotional depth. Unremittingly painful, it’s hard to put down.–Jane Ritter, Mill Valley School District, CA

As mentioned at the end of our review, there is a bill working its way through Congress right now, the Canine Members of the Armed Forces Act (S. 2134), that would change these animals from being labeled as “Equipment” by the military. See the author’s blog for more information.

GOODAVAGE, Maria. Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America’s Canine Heroes. 293p. photos. Dutton. Mar. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-525-95278-7. LC 2011049674.  

Adult/High School–In short, chatty chapters, a dog lover and writer embeds readers in the world of the military dog. Goodavage shares the most common job of the dogs (sniffing out explosives) and the best type of dog for it. (Would your pet make a good soldier? Probably not.) The book is divided into four parts : an introductory overview, details about the training, details of scientific background, and, finally, some episodes with actual soldiers and dogs. Along the way, Goodavage does a good job building the case that the dogs are happy, useful parts of the military unit, which makes these stories of the bond between the trainer and dog, especially in combat, even more touching. Certainly some of the stories are sad, but the cumulative effect is a recognition of these dogs as willing heroes, just like their humans. Most readers will find their preconceptions about military working dogs challenged. Even the cover photo holds a surprise – what looks like a wacky photo of a dog in paratrooper glasses is an actual working dog wearing protective goggles due to a war injury. Several colorful photos show the actual dogs and soldiers depicted in the book. As the book draws to a close, Goodavage shares some of the political movements related to the dogs, such as having them classified as more than equipment, as they are now. Teens will enjoy learning about these brave soldiers.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

In contrast, just a few months ago we featured a review of Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman, a controversial memoir about leaving a Satmar community in Brooklyn. These two books would make an interesting fiction/nonfiction pairing.

There is a long excerpt of I Am Forbidden on Scribd, and an article in Publishers Weekly about Markovits’s desire to help the outside world understand the inner world of a member of a fundamentalist sect. One of the reasons Markovits was able to leave her community was thanks to her love of reading. “Books were not only a way to encounter a world she was told to shun, they let her see the inner lives of that world’s inhabitants. In I Am Forbidden, Markovits reverses the lens, giving her believers inner lives that outsiders can see and feel.”

MARKOVITS, Anouk. I Am Forbidden: A Novel. 320p. Hogarth. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-98473-9. LC 2011041305.  

Adult/High School–Five year-old Josef becomes Anghel, “son” of the Catholic maid who saves his life after his family is murdered before his eyes. Years later, young Mila watches as her parents are shot, running for the train that carries their rabbi through the Hungarian countryside, away from the atrocities of the Nazis. Why didn’t the holy man save them? But Anghel saves Mila, setting into motion a chain of events that binds them over time and distance. I Am Forbidden is a beautifully written, suspenseful novel whose young characters’ dilemmas will capture the imagination of teen readers as it offers a glimpse of life within the insular Satmar Hasidic sect. Orphaned Mila seeks out family friend Zalman Stern, who raises her alongside his own daughters. She tells him of Anghel, the Jewish farm boy, whom he then “rescues” and sends to Brooklyn to study Talmud. The Sterns transport their family to Paris when Zalman accepts a position as a cantor. Mila and her now-sister Atara attend school with completely different outcomes. Atara craves intellectual challenges, while Mila unquestioningly absorbs the teachings of her faith. Her beloved Atara chooses a path that severs all ties to their staunchly observant family. Josef has never forgotten Mila; he has dreamed of the day she would be his bride. Their destined union is marred by infertility. Knowing that after 10 years a Satmar man must divorce a barren wife, a desperate Mila commits a shocking, life-altering sin, turning her marriage to dust. Markovits’s masterful storytelling elevates this riveting saga of love, loss, and the limits of faith.–Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

One draw here for young adult readers is the peek into life at the exclusive Wellesley College, and its mysterious Shakespeare Society. Percer herself is a Wellesley graduate and was a member of the Society; it’s no wonder those details ring true. An Uncommon Education is widely compared to Special Topics in Calamity Physics and “The Dead Poet’s Society.”

PERCER, Elizabeth. An Uncommon Education. 352p. Harper. May 2012. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0062110961. LC number unavailable.  

Adult/High School–From the time she was a child, Naomi Feinstein wanted to save those she loved: her father with his failing heart, her mother with her debilitating depression, and her only friend with his smothering mother. She is brilliant and determined to be a cardiologist. As she grows through adolescence, however, she becomes aware that loss is an integral part of life and love, something that she can neither prevent nor control. When she fulfills her dream to attend Wellesley College, she begins to discover the depths of her helplessness in saving others from their destiny. When a twist of fate provides entry into Wellesley’s oddly engaging Shakespeare Society, the hidden truths that have shaped her life begin to reveal themselves as secrets, lies, and well-intentioned deceptions meant to protect her from pain and sadness. As a member of a group of misfit and eccentric thespians, she begins to shed her nearly debilitating sense of isolation and self-consciousness.  Events of her youth that seemed critically important to her identity become simply a part of her journey to self-discovery. This sad, accessible tale will appeal to patient and introspective teens comfortable with a sometimes meandering narrative, and those looking for insight into the unique and often highly competitive life on an upper-tier college campus.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY

There is a terrific interview between Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box, Horns) and the two authors on Tor.com. It is especially interesting on the subject of illustrated novels. Can they do things that pure prose cannot?  What should (and shouldn’t) the illustrations try to accomplish? In the same piece, Golden names the novel’s (many) influences as “Sherlock Holmes and Houdini and H. P. Lovecraft and Dickens — to the less immediately obvious, which would be H. G. Wells and The Island of Doctor Moreau and Victorian ghost stories — to the obscure and personal, including a love of history and folklore and Pinocchio. But even with all of those things thrown into the stew of this novel, at the end of the day it’s much more about loneliness and a search for self and for purpose than it is about detectives and pulp heroes and mad scientists.”

The Slant Magazine reviewer calls it a mixture of monster fiction and myth and adds, “YA enthusiasts will find that it doesn’t pander to the young, providing a dark, sturdy story that will appeal to teenagers and adults alike. It’s also a gorgeous tome to behold, not least because of Mignola’s always-stunning artwork. His black-and-white illustrations provide stark windows into the world of the novel, never giving away too much so the reader’s imagination has room to experiment.”

MIGNOLA, Mike & Christopher Golden. Joe Golem and the Drowning City: An Illustrated Novel. 288p. St. Martin’s. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-0-312-64473-4. LC 2012013269.

Adult/High School–Molly McHugh is a jaded, yet still good-hearted girl, living on the fringes of society with a strange old man called Orlov the Conjurer in a steampunkish alternate reality. A cataclysm in 1925 caused lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to flood and, ever since, resilient New Yorkers have adjusted, living on the top floors of mostly underwater buildings and getting around by boat and rope bridges. Felix Orvlov is not what he seems, but he is the closest thing Molly has to family and his kidnapping by the sinister Dr. Cocteau spurs her into a desperate search to rescue him. She  joins forces with a mysterious man named Mr. Church and his overlarge friend Joe, searching not only for Felix but also for a mysterious artifact called the Pentajulum, which holds the possibility of opening paths to other worlds. She faces many trials in her quest, but the more Molly learns, the more she realizes she doesn’t really know anything, and that most people are not what they seem–Mr. Church is more machine than man and Joe is literally made from stone and earth–and nothing is sure, not even the sanctity of death. Highly descriptive writing and grotesque imagery help to place readers in this truly fantastic setting with hints of elder gods and worlds beyond worlds. Enhanced by multiple points of view and deeply philosophical in its underpinnings, the lavish illustrations add immediacy to Molly’s world. Both teens who like their fantastic sprinkled with a little Lovecraft and steampunk and those who are interested in a wider view of the world should enjoy this.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI

Russ Kick is not your typical comics geek, college prof, or earnest publisher who wants to show the uninitiated that sequential art is “real reading.” Instead, he does have some tendencies toward all three character types, but is an iconoclast out to put forward a project that is something close to the polar opposite of iconoclastic values: a pertinent, engrossing, and wholly genuine version of the literary canon on which we humans depend for a reality check with collective memory.

Planned to be complete in three volumes, The Graphic Canon is startlingly brilliant: the limits of titles collected are not Western; the art styles collected are neither monotone nor interpretatively repetitive; the packaging of long works into a few pages has not been undertaken either by those deaf to linguistic music nor those eager to turn the simple into the simplistic. With dozens of artists represented here, it is no surprise to see such comics luminaries as R. Crumb, Will Eisner and Peter Kuper. But the range of contributors is also international, the works presented include a number that have appeared in other places (a tale from Fulcrum Press’ Trickster, an excerpt from Seymour Chwast’s graphic adaptation of the Divine Comedy) and others by scholars and cartoonists many will not have been lucky enough to find before now: Valerie Schrag (sister of Ariel), Edie Fake (truly iconoclast with a respectful take on St. Teresa of Avila’s visions), and Cortney Skinner’s illustration on advice from Benjamin Franklin are among these.

This truly is what a canon boasts as being: a sum of essentials, here visual and interpretive as well as historically blessed. And unlike most schoolroom anthologies, this one will deprive readers of sleep, rather than encourage it.

* KICK, Russ, ed. The Graphic Canon. Vol. 1. 501p. bibliog. index. notes. Seven Stories. 2012. Tr $34.95. ISBN 978-1-60980-376-6. LC 2012000276.  

Adult/High School–This admirable and inclusive project’s first volume offers a plethora of literary milestones as envisioned by such luminary cartoonists as Will Eisner, Seymour Chwast, R. Crumb, Roberta Gregory, Rick Geary, Peter Kuper, and even the younger Schrag sister, Valerie. In an attempt to be culturally inclusive, this “canon” goes beyond the Western (Iliad and Odyssey, Le morte d’Arthur, Shakespearean Sonnets, etc., which are all well represented) to Native America (both North and South), Japan, China, and Tibet, to such religious writers as Hildegard of Bingen and the Book of Esther, and those in classical philosophy such as Plato and Lucretius. Each piece, however translated and/or abridged in text, includes specific source notes. Art styles vary from black-and-white cartoons by masters of the style to beautifully full-colored engravinglike pages. This is a masterpiece of literary choices as well as art and interpretation. It is a perfect graduation or summer-reading present, and the solid editing, including introductory notes for each piece, makes it a required purchase for any library.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA

There is a short piece on the ReadingGroupGuides website in which the author discusses how much of his book is autobiographical. Here is a relevant excerpt, “The wackiest and thereby most vexing period of my life (so far) was my mid twenties. I found that handful of years, roughly from 23 to 26, and the extended period of post-college floundering around that went with them, to be stranger and far more coming-of-age than my teenage years. Much more so than high school (encapsulated for me by a white suburban upper-middle class bubble) ever was. I knew I wanted to try and express the emotion, the anxiety, the excitement, the antsy-ness, the wonder — and the lurking, unspecified dread — that informed that period.”

D’AGOSTINO, Kris. The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac. 336p. Algonquin. 2012. pap. $13.95. ISBN 978-1-56512-951-1. LC 2011038421.  

Adult/High School–It’s 2006, and 24-year-old underachiever Calvin Moretti is up to his eyeballs in student-loan debt. His film degree hasn’t helped him to land a lucrative dream job, so he’s back under his parents’ roof. And despite the fact that he counts the minutes to the end of his workday as an assistant teacher at a special-needs preschool, his misguided (but hot) supervisor thinks he should consider teaching as a career. Life is uncomfortable in the Moretti household, with a family dynamic reminiscent of the dysfunctional, unintentionally comic Hoovers of Little Miss Sunshine. Cal is putting money aside so he can move out, but only after he budgets for collectible record albums and pot. Dad, a grounded pilot, suffers from myeloma. Despite the fact that doctors say it’s curable, he spends his days wallowing in his bathrobe, toting a concealed pistol. Mom worries about losing the house. Older brother Chip, an insufferable Ivy League graduate, has been keeping the family afloat, a fact he won’t let anyone forget. And Cal’s rebellious sister Elissa, still in high school, confides she’s pregnant and intends to keep the baby. Told in the first person, The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac is sharply funny and full of spot-on observations about what it means to be a responsible adult. Older teens will sympathize with Cal’s struggles as much as they’ll want to throttle him for his self-centered, slacker tendencies. First-time author D’Agostino has an ear for dialogue and the not-too-distant memory of what it’s like to be a conflicted, unmotivated young man.–Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

Rash is best known for Serena (Ecco, 2008), which was a PEN/Faulkner finalist. But a couple years before Serena came The World Made Straight (Henry Holt), a 2007 Alex Award winner. The YALSA annotation reads, “When 17-year-old Travis Shelton discovers a marijuana farm in the Appalachian woods, he begins a confrontation with the subtle evils within his rural world.” The World Made Straight is a really interesting combination of coming-of-age, crime thriller and historical fiction. What this annotation doesn’t mention are the novel’s flashbacks to the journals of a Dr. Candler, who witnessed another horrific confrontation in the same county during the Civil War.

If you ever have a chance to hear Ron Rash read his work, grab it. He has a knack for choosing wonderful passages to read, he has a beautiful speaking voice, and overall it is a mesmerizing experience. No exaggeration!

* RASH, Ron. The Cove: A Novel. 272p. Ecco. 2012. pap. $26.99. ISBN 978-0-06-180419-9. LC number unavailable.  

Adult/High School–The cove is tucked deep in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, a place where even the sun is reluctant to venture. But it’s all that’s left to Hank and his sister, Laurel. He has returned from fighting in World War I missing one hand, but determined to make a decent farm from their scrappy land. Laurel, however, is restless to experience more of the world. Superstition in the nearest town, Mars Hill, has it that her deep-blue birthmark labels her a witch, which brings even deeper loneliness to the young woman. Magically, a young man is found in the woods, a musician named Walter who cannot speak but plays enchanting music on his flute. The suspense ratchets up as Laurel falls in love with the stranger. Readers know that he has a secret past, and yet it’s impossible not to root for her and her innocent hopes for love. Rash uses language as untamed and beautiful as the land itself. Laurel imagines that her feelings for Walter were, “…nothing more than a figment her loneliness had fleshed out from a cross of wood and tattered cloth.” Like a thunderstorm ever darkening the horizon, heartache and violence seem sure to come. As in Serena (Ecco, 2008), Rash casts an ominous yet mesmerizing spell over his audience. Teens who cannot get enough of Cormac McCarthy’s atmospheric novels, or love Charles Frazier’s adventures set in the mountains of North Carolina, will be sure to add Ron Rash to their list of favorite authors.–Diane Colson, Palm Harbor Library, FL

This is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.

COLEMAN, Jeffrey Lamar, ed. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights. 358p. Duke Univ. 2012. Tr $89.95. ISBN 978-0-8223-5092-7; pap. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-8223-5103-0. LC number unavailable.  

Adult/High School–This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. Chapters present poems that speak of the lynching of Emmett Till, the murders of famous leaders, and the children killed in 1963 in Birmingham at church. Audre Lord’s 1964 poem, “Suffer the Children,” brings back that terrible day. “We who love them remember their child’s laughter/ But he whose hate robs him of their gold/ has yet to weep at night about their graves.” Outstanding poems are included about the integration of the Little Rock schools, the Black Panther Party, and the race riots in the late 1960s. Julius Lester expresses one sad theme in “Revolutionary Mandate 1.” “These are not the times to take your friends for granted–to assume/that they will always be there. They may not be./And if you wait until the next time to tell them that they are very/ special to you/ You may wait until/someone calls you and says that/so and so’s body was found/ beneath the bricks/of a dynamited building.”–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library