Teen/YA: April 2006 Archives

A fierce Amazonian tribe of women warriors battle for survival. Rain is destined to be their leader; she is the daughter of the queen, but she struggles against the cruelty and hatred demanded by her future role.

Bite size sections make the story easy to swallow, despite the serious and sometimes dark issues involved. The realities of war; brutality, murder, rape, are all there, but handled sensitively in terms of their emotional impact, rather than being disturbingly graphic.

Hoffman writes beautifully, her style blends the intimate feel of a diary with the authoritative tone of legend.

In traditional cultures rites of passage helped children to become adults. In a society lacking such rituals, it can be healing to enter, imaginatively, into a world where overt transitions do exist. Where things are simpler and deeper. Where dreams have significance, talismans have power, signs have meaning - the true magical essence of life is appreciated. Teenage readers will share a journey to womanhood which is spiritual as well as physical. With the strength of mind to follow her own heart, Rain provides an inspirational role model.

Carefully researched details about the uses of horses, bees, plants and minerals effectively evoke an ancient, nature-based culture. This earthy element should appeal to green teens. As will the fact that the publishers, Egmont, practise what they preach – the text paper on both the paperback and hardback editions of this book comes from sustainable forests and is fully approved by the Forest Stewardship Council. The company also adheres to a fair trade Code of Conduct. Commendations to Egmont for this responsible approach to children’s book publishing.

The Foretelling triumphs because it transports you to another world, whilst its emotional truths matter in this one.

Soul food for teenage girls.

Kenny Harris stands on a precipice – he must trust to jump and either find the freedom of flight or else to fall... Having entered into an uneasy alliance with Mack, a man with a chequered past, a history of violence and with a death to his name, Kenny becomes embroiled in a plot to avenge the bullying he befell at the hands of Jon Tibbs.

Running parallel to the above and the moral dilemmas proposed therein and compounds he arising sense of isolation Kenny feels (and which inevitably Mack offers sanctuary from) is a storyline that sees him fall in love with and have reciprocated a relationship with his brother’s girlfriend Natalie.

This is a dark, edgy thriller. Following on from the award-winning "Looking For JJ", this is another tautly spun tale, that makes few easy judgements, thereby forcing readers to reach their own conclusions... The question over the types of decision that Kenny will make become as perilous and, at once, engaging as does the struggle for his freedom and for his life!

Forced into Sheriffmuir with a change of home and lifestyle driven by his mother, a professional sculptor, who needs a studio workshop, Samuel is forced into union with his neighbours, the Mortons. Samuel is viewed as a threat by the Morton brother’s Charles and Sebastian, though he quickly forges a friendship with their sister Fiona, perhaps in itself a cause for antagonism between the boys.

Heavy snowfall isolates the children and their family from the rest of the community and from school, creating an atmosphere that is taught, tense and highly insular. Threads of the past in the form of ancient diary extracts, memories surrounding the tragic demise of the Morton children’s father and a dagger vested upon them form integral parts in this story which sees a coming to terms with the history of slaughter and betrayal which underpin the locality. This is a poignant novel focused around ‘ghosts’ of the past (made literal here) and their being laid to rest…