Berkeley Public Library 2012 Teen Summer Reading

The Vampire Knight manga series tells the story of Yuki Cross, a student at Cross Academy, a school created to bring peace to the social and political tensions between humans and vampires. The series explores young Yuki’s foggy past and her friend Zero’s dark secret and the dealings of a powerful pure blood vampire, Kaname Kuran.
Hino is an amazing manga artist, she is a master of her craft. The artwork is simply fantastic and so detailed, the reader can almost see motion in the stationary images. The plot is easy to follow, with delightful little “intermission” comics and chibis (cutesy versions of characters). It’s a typical shojo (manga romance), but very cute and appropriate for junior high-age youth or older.

Review by Breanna

All Quiet On the Western Front follows several German schoolboys who are rapidly introduced to the horrors of World War I. Narrated by soldier Paul Baumer, Baumer describes every day in the life of a muddy, rat-infested trench. Baumer often reflects on the savagery and beastliness that arise as a direct result of constantly being in the war zone. He also contemplates the prominent contrast between his war life and past civil life back at home.

As time passes, Baumer struggles to hold onto his humanity, even as he must kill the opposing French soldiers, and as he gradually loses his fellow soldier friends to the horrors of war.
All Quiet On the Western Front is a unique war novel, which defies the glory sometimes connected to war, and instead frankly illustrates the actual terrors that come of war.

The book is fast-paced and gripping, and although fiction, it provides a very accurate experience of a soldier during World War I. I liked the eloquence and honest style of writing which Remarque utilizes throughout the entirety of the novel. Although the subject of the book is intense, the story is surprisingly easy to read, and as I mentioned before, it is very fast-paced.

Review by Nora

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a novel that discusses the issues of bio-ethics and humanity while successfully telling the story of Jenna Fox, who has survived burns and the following infections from a forgotten car accident because of her father’s affiliation with the medical company Fox BioSystems (CEO), and has been in a coma for the past year. After finding strange boxes in her mother’s closet, Jenna learns only ten percent of her brain survived the accident, called “the butterfly”. The memories outside that ten percent are slowly being downloaded from a computer. As the story unfolds, Jenna tries to repair her relationship with her grandmother, who can’t tell if she is real, or just memories with a body, and recall what it is to be a teenager with her new friend Allys, who would hate the illegal creature Jenna is…if she knew such a person existed. But when Jenna finds her life is a controlled environment for the little lab pet, and her friends are trapped in a digital hell, chaos ensues. The downsides of this novel are the romance never got off the ground. Ethan should have remained only a friend. Also, the epilogue disappoints after a beautiful ending. It works, but belongs to another book.

Reviewed by Molly

Amazing, amazing, amazing. But what else could you expect from these two great authors? Will Grayson, Will Grayson is very different, if I had to explain it without great length. It’s many things; a love story (multiple, actually), a story of depression, stereotypical teenage troubles, friendship, music, and the internet. Actually, I changed my mind. This book isn’t different, it’s original. It’s unlike any book I’ve ever read in the sense of originality. Just read it, okay? Remember that one time where someone told you to read The Hunger Games and it took you awhile, but you did anyway? And you regret nothing? This is like that. You will regret nothing.

Reviewed by Elizabeth

Saga is the thrilling sequel to “Epic”. In it, we are introduced to Ghost and her friends who make up an anarcho-punk airboard gang. They’re quite the troublemakers but they have a good reason why- their world, Saga, has a very strict class system that’s enforced by a fairly messed up monarchy. Ghost and her friends notice that random weird strangers started appearing and disappearing and are curious. They soon learn the complicated truth that Saga isn’t really a place, but a “game” that people are “playing” from their homes on New Earth and that Saga was made to be like a drug to them. They also learn that the Dark Queen who rules and governs Saga is behind all of this. Will they be able to stop her before she succeeds in enslaving the people of New Earth?

I Loved this book! The airboard stunts, mall raids, tank races, cannons, missiles and pretty much everything was completely EPIC! I also liked the way Conor Kostick described things. He would relate to a couple things that are easier for you to imagine, ask you to put them together then, BAM, you have a perfect image of what he’s describing in your head. This book is packed with action and adventure, but it’s a bit violent and is fast paced. If you like book like that though, I would definitely recommend reading this book. I sure did.

Reviewed by Ain

Mush! is a hysterical graphic novel that is sure to make you laugh. Mush! is about a group of sled dogs that face many problems such as sex, boredom, and lots more. Most of these problems are solved in weird and funny ways. Fiddler is a dog in Mush! that has problems of his own that he tries solving. Yet other dogs keep asking him to solve their problems. The art adds to the funniness of the situations that these odd sled dogs find themselves in. Mush! will tickle your funny bone and gives you a bigger respect for sled dogs and their “issues.”

Reviewed by Soren

by Nancy Kress

In the year 2013 mathematician Julie Kahn notices an odd yet persistent pattern of kidnappings and store break-ins. Elsewhere, in 2035, fifteen year old Pete is on duty monitoring the Grab platform, which allows a ten minute trip to “before.” Part mystery, part science fiction, part coming of age story.

for teens entering grades 7 through 12

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