Category: YA Fiction

With the Fire on High

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

The two most important people in Emoni Santiago’s life are her daughter (two year old Emma, affectionately called Babygirl) and the grandmother who is raising her (‘Buela). Emoni is a senior in high school this year. When her school decides to offer an elective class in culinary arts, she is torn between the desire to improve her cooking skills and the knowledge that she doesn’t have time for a seemingly frivolous class. But Emoni’s cooking seems to be magical – it brings out emotions in the people who eat it. In her heart, she knows that cooking is her calling.

I absolutely adored With the Fire on High. The chapters are written in short vignettes, so it’s a great book to read if you only have a couple minutes at a time. But be forewarned – it’s so compelling that you can’t help but pick it up again shortly after you put it down. It’s a great read for high school students, particularly for those who are trying to decide how they want to navigate life after high school. It comes out one week from today, and is a must to add to your TBR list!

Favorite Passage:

I dream everyday for Babygirl. I see people in business suits on the bus and I imagine Babygirl grown up with a briefcase and a nice executive office job. I watch a TV show and imagine Babygirl as a famous actress winning an Oscar. There’s so much I want for her that somethings I think the seams of my skin aren’t enough to contain every hope I have. And I whisper it to her all the time. When I’m feeding her. When she’s asleep in my arms. When we are playing at the park. I whisper all the everything I know she can be and the ways I’ll fight for her to be them. I want her to know her entire life her mommy may not have been much but that her moms did everything so that she could be an accumulation of the best dreams.
— Dreams

What I Loved Most:

I’ve read several books about teen pregnancy, but they always seem to be about that moment when the girl finds out she’s pregnant and is deciding what she wants to do. With the Fire on High is an empowering story of a teenager who is successfully raising her daughter. It goes beyond the “OMG I’m pregnant” time period to focus instead on what it looks like to raise a child while being in school and working to help support a household. Emoni is a great mom, and I loved exploring her mindset and the way she cares so fiercely for her daughter.

Read this book if you like:

Contemporary fiction, teen moms, dreaming, charting your own path

Book Details:

The First True Thing

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Marcelle’s best friend, Hannah, asked Marcelle to cover for her. The next day, Hannah is missing, and Marcelle doesn’t know what to do.

Marcelle has been sober for just a couple of weeks, after drunkenly crashing her bike, ending up in the hospital, and being mandated to attend treatment at the Center. As part of her recovery process, she promised her parents she wouldn’t lie to them anymore – so now she feels like she can’t come clean about Hannah’s text that night. But the longer she goes without hearing from Hannah, the harder it’s getting to maintain the delicately balanced statements she made.

The First True Thing is told partially as a narrative of current events, and partially in flashbacks of Marcelle’s drinking days. This is a really heavy book, dealing with serious issues like drug and alcohol addiction, sexual exploitation, and death. It’s definitely not for younger teens, but it tells an important story. People who are in recovery might find some of the scenes triggering, so read with caution. I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book from the publisher, HarperTeen. It will officially be released one week from today – look for it on April 23!

Favorite Passage:

More than anything, I wish Hannah and I both could go back in time. But I know it’s useless to think this way. I am the girl who crashed on the Death Wish path. I can’t be any other girl.
— Chapter Fifteen

What I Loved Most:

Needell’s portrayal of addiction and recovery is raw and real. She doesn’t shy away from addressing how addiction can comprise someone’s identity, and how stopping addictive behavior often means removing the major thing that you identify yourself with. I am of the opinion that getting sober is one of the bravest things you can do. We’re starting to see more books being published for teens that address mental health issues like addiction, which I feel is crucial for helping teens identify these issues in their own lives or the lives of those around them.

Read this book if you like:

Suspense, identity searching, gut-wrenching honesty

Book Details:

Sorta Like a Rockstar

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Amber and her mom are temporarily homeless – just until her mom can find them a place to stay, which she keeps promising will be soon. In the mean time, they’re sleeping in the school bus that her mom drives. Amber’s group of friends are the other kids who don’t quite fit in at her school – a kid who uses a wheelchair and his brother, a kid with Autism, and the only African American kid in the whole school. The rest of the cast includes her lovable dog, a Vietnam vet with a passion for green tea and haikus, and a smart, strong lawyer who won’t give up on Amber.

In this book, we walk with Amber through the halls of her school, seeing the people who love her and the people who don’t acknowledge she exists. We see Amber’s relentless positivity being challenged when tragedy hits her life. We watch Amber slide into depression. We feel her friends and the caring adults in her life come alongside her to help her get back on her feet. Sorta Like a Rock Star doesn’t pull any punches – it shows what it’s like to experience homelessness, to go through grief, to be depressed, and to have to figure out how to keep going.

Favorite Passage:

We’re celebrating our freedom. We’re celebrating our ability to be kids when everything is trying to take that away from us. It’s a choice, Ty. We can do whatever we want.
– Chapter 59

What I Loved Most:

I came across Sorta Like a Rock Star while planning a social justice book club for teens, and loved the way it showcased homelessness and mental illness in a real way. A 2017 study found that over the course of a 12 month period, one out of every thirty kids aged 13-17 in America experienced homelessness. That’s about 700,000 high school kids who were homeless over the year that they measured. Homelessness is a real problem facing so many of our students, and I appreciate the way this book shines a light on what it’s like to be a homeless student.

Read this book if you like:

Unique protagonists, accurate portrayals of homelessness, creating a family of choice

Book Details: