Families, friends and foes
This week, we have young fiction characters struggling to deal with parents who don’t know them, boys who don’t love them and friends who don’t stay loyal to them.
American Panda Author: Gloria Chao
Publisher: Simon Pulse, contemporary fiction
TAIWANESE-American Mei is the perfect daughter to her doting parents. She’s super smart (she skipped a year and is already studying at MIT) and is bound for doctor-hood. She’s also going to be a dutiful daughter and marry a Taiwanese man and have lots of babies. There, life plan done.
Except that Mei hates germs and has a crush on a Japanese classmate. How on earth is she going to tell her parents that she can’t live her life according to their plan?
Author Gloria Chao is herself an MIT dentistry grad turned writer.
And She Was Author: Jessica Verdi Publisher: Scholastic, contemporary fiction
IT’S just a little piece of paper but it destroys Dara’s sheltered world. She just needed her birth certificate to apply for a passport so she could travel overseas to play tennis but the two strange names she sees listed as her mother and father puts paid to that dream. Now all she can focus on is finding out why her single mum, Mellie, has been lying to her for 18 years. With best guy friend Sam along for moral support, Dara goes in search of her true history while Mellie’s life-changing e-mails follow along, revealing a painful past little by little.
We’ll Fly Away Author: Bryan Bliss Publisher: Greenwillow Books, contemporary fiction
THIS book weaves together Luke and Toby’s final year of high school with letters Luke writes to Toby – from death row. The boys have been best friends forever, always looking out for each other, with Luke patching Toby up whenever he’s beaten up by his abusive father and Toby helping Luke deal with his unreliable mother.
They have big plans to leave their dead-end town using Luke’s wrestling skills – until something horrific happens during their final year.
What I Leave Behind Author: Alison McGhee Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, contemporary fiction
WILL spends most of his days the same way: Working at the Dollar Only store, trying to replicate his late father’s famous cornbread recipe, and walking the streets of Los Angeles. Will started walking after his father committed suicide, and three years later, he hasn’t stopped.
But there are some places Will can’t walk by. He then begins to leave small gifts for everyone in his life. And it is through those acts of kindness that Will is finally able to push past his own trauma and truly begin to live his life again. Oh, and discover the truth about that cornbread.
Listen To Your Heart Author: Kasie West
Publisher: Point, contemporary fiction
WHO would’ve thought quiet Kate Bailey had a podcast star in her? But when she’s put in a spot, the girl who doesn’t like talking to people discovers that she’s actually pretty good at listening to problems and giving advice on air in the school’s podcast.
When an anonymous caller asks for advice on how to approach his crush, Kate is pretty sure it’s gorgeous Diego Martinez and that he’s asking about Kate’s best friend, Alana. At first, Kate is super excited for Alana but then things take a Cyrano de Bergerac turn as Kate develops feelings for Diego even as she advises him on how to woo her best friend.