Tap Out by Eric Devine YP FIC DEVINE

Tone knows the rules.  Keep quiet. Keep hidden.  Try to survive.  That means ignoring the cries of his mom’s latest boyfriend beating her, the drug dealing biker gang next door, and all the pain and horror that he sees on a daily basis.  But his one and only friend has found something that seems to actually make him happy.  MMA.  And when Tone gets pulled into the world of sport fighting he starts finding things in himself he thought were long dead.  Things like pride, respect, and even hope.  But those things can get you killed in Tone’s neighborhood.  Now Tone has to make a choice between hope and survival, and he’s not sure that he has a choice at all.

This book is a dark, bleak, gritty, and hard.  It felt like a punch to the gut, or maybe repeated hooks to the head and knees to the face.  Something very painful and violent anyways. That being said, I think it’s a great read.  The characters are sort of straightforward and the language is simple and direct, but all that works for the world this book describes. The action scenes are clear, direct, and brutal.  They will leave you pumped for the MMA style fighting and feeling beat and disgusted at the street violence.  The contrast between the two was a clever way to show the difference between violent sport and violence at home. The action scenes are wisely spaced far apart and the book focuses on the day to day drudgery of Tone’s life. This may not make you feel sunshiney and bright, but it is a real slice of what all too many teens have to face in the real world. Now, that’s an entire subgenre of realistic fiction and I can understand wanting to take the occasional break from the dreariest corners of the world and read about vampires and whatnot too.  However, if you want a hard knock book that will keep you hooked then this is a really solid title.

You can check our catalog for Tap Out here.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life: Color Edition by Bryan Lee O’Malley YP FIC OMALLEY

Scott Pilgrim is dating a highschooler! And he’s totally 23 (and unemployed)!  (Don’t worry, they’ve only held hands.) Just when things feel nice and simple he meets the girl of his dreams, (Literally.  She rollerblades through his dreams to deliver packaged for amazon.com), and decides to fall head over heels.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell his high school girlfriend and even more unfortunately his new girlfriend has Seven Evil Exes that he must defeat to continue dating her.  NOW IN COLOR!

Okay, I know I already gave a rave review to the Scott Pilgrim series, so it may seem silly to re-review a book just because it’s in color.  Who do I even think I am, Ted Turner!?  Well, I understand your skepticism and must admit that I too was skeptical of a Colorized Scott Pilgrim, cynical even.  However, the superb job Nathan Fairbarn (the ONLY colorist I’ve yet to praise by name) did on this book really makes it worth a second look even if you have already read the series. I rarely find a series that changes so much with the addition of color as this one. It adds a new depth to the art and the new larger pages are dynamite.  Maybe even best of all is the extra content at the back.  There’s character design sheets and stories about how O’Malley came up with all the names and designs and ideas in the book!  Scott Pilgrim fans simply HAVE to read this and Soon-to-Be-Scott-Pilgrim-Fans should read it too.  I think anyone with an even passing interest in comics or manga should give this one a try.  

You can check our catalog for Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life: Color Edition here.

The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks by Max Brooks; Illustrated by Ibraim Roberson

Max Brooks has made a name for himself writing about zombies. If there could be an authority on these creatures, Brooks would most likely be it. The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks is an illustrated history of zombie attacks throughout history. There is an old adage that history will repeat itself if we don’t learn from previous mistakes. Brooks considers this in the presentation of his story.

The Survival Guide is full of graphic zombie attacks since the dawn of time. The retelling is presented as a collection of short stories beginning in 60,000 B.C. in Central Africa and traveling to various locations across the globe, such as Feudal Japan (A.D. 1611) to 1992 at Joshua Tree National Park in California.

The overall story is light on character development, since each story is 9-10 pages long. However, the illustrations provided by Roberson assist in making these short stories entertaining and a little horrifying. For a more character-driven zombie story Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead: here we remain (YP Fic Kirkman) is recommended.

Max Brooks is also the author of World War Z: an oral history of the zombie war (SF Brooks), which is also available at the Moore Memorial Public Library in the science fiction section.

The Dark Hunters Volume 1: Story by Sherrilyn Kenyon; Art by Claudia Campos

Author Sherrilyn Kenyon is known for the romantic fiction series The Dark Hunters, which is the basis for this new manga series. Set in New Orleans, The Dark Hunters Volume One sets the story about Amanda Devereaux, an accounting student, who is in denial of her super powers. All of her sisters have embraced their special abilities, but she longs for normalcy and does everything possible to make it happen. She even dates boring men, including Cliff, with whom she was engaged until her magical family freaked him out and he broke things off.

One day when she reluctantly visited her twin sister’s house to let out her dog, Amanda is hit over the head and abducted. She awakes to find herself handcuffed to a gorgeous, blonde hunk of a man, who introduces himself as Hunter. He’s a vampire- kind-of. Really he is a Dark Hunter, who are the good guys in the world of vampires. Dark Hunters fight daimons, who are the bad guys and suck out people’s souls. Amanda and Hunter find themselves united together beyond the hand cuffs they share when one of the deadliest vampires comes after them. Together they must save themselves and the rest of humanity. Along the journey they discover things about themselves and fall for one another.

The story is loosely based on ancient mythology with a vampire twist. There are gods, tough warriors, spells, psychic dreams, and visits from the undead. Volume One of The Dark Hunters acts as an introduction to Kenyon’s story and characters. At times the pages are text heavy, but this seems necessary in order to fit in the weighty story line. Claudia Campos’s illustrations capture the manga style, but unfortunately are forced to compete with the text throughout the story. Kenyon leaves the reader wanting more, but Volume 2 won’t be published until March 2010. In the mean time, if you enjoy this book, check out the original Dark Hunters series. Readers who love romance and vampires are sure to be satisfied while waiting for the release of the next book in the manga series.

A Matter of Trust by Anne Schraff (from the Bluford High Series)

A Matter of Trust, written by Anne E. Schraff, focuses on Darcy Wills, a high school student, who helps take care of her grandmother with her younger sister, while her mother works overnight at the local Emergency Room. Darcy was once close friends with Brisana Meeks, who stopped being her friend when Darcy started hanging out with Tarah, Copper, and Hakeem. Brisana sees these new friends are losers, and Darcy is missing out on a more popular high school experience. Darcy has been seeing Hakeem, who often gets made fun of by the other students because he stutters. When Brisana finds out that they are dating she tries to make Darcy jealous.

A Matter of Trust examines the trust we can or cannot place in people. Darcy is not only grappling with the drama started by a former friend but also trying to figure out if she can forgive her father, who walked out on her life when she was younger. Based on his track record she isn’t sure she can place her trust in him. The story also addresses violence acts, including fighting and a drive-by shooting.

The Bluford High Series focuses on the lives of high school students, their family, and friends in contemporary urban America. Many of the characters attend Bluford High School, which is named after Guion “Guy” Bluford, who was the first African-American astronaut. The stories focus on complicated issues that are relevant to many of today’s students, including love, friendship, family, peer pressure, violence, and jealousy. The series has male and female protagonist, who are primarily African-American, and contain elements of mystery, suspense, and romance.

The Bluford High Series is new to the Moore Memorial Public Library. Currently the library has nine of the fifteen books that have been published to date. Anne E. Schraff and Paul Langan are the authors. The books are located on the New Book Shelf area, but will eventually be located in the Young Adult section of the library. A Matter of Trust is the second book in the series. The following books in the series are currently available:

Books by Anne E. Schraff
Someone to Love Me
Until We Meet Again
A Matter of Trust
Secrets in the Shadows
Lost and Found

Books by Paul Langan
Payback
The Bully
Brothers in Arms
Summer of Secrets

The Photographer: into war-torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, and Frederic Lemercier (Translated by

Graphic novels are a unique format of storytelling, where image and text are used to communicate. Often times mistaken for comic books featuring superheroes, graphic novels feature a variety of characters and portray fictional and real life situations. The Photographer: into war-torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders is based on the real life experiences of a team of mostly French doctors and journalists, who were on mission in 1986 in Northern Afghanistan. During this time Afghanistan was a hotbed of violence between the Soviet Union and the Afghan Mujahideen. Using illustrations drawn by Emmanuel Guibert and the photographs and text of international photojournalist Didier Lefevre, The Photographer demonstrates the hardships of the Afghani people and the doctors determined to help them.

This graphic novel is unlike the typical illustrated story because of its use of Lefevre’s raw photographs- many of which are viewed from their original contact sheets. The drawings and text expand upon the photos and provide the narrative of this difficult journey. At times graphic, the reader encounters the same victims as the doctors, including children with fatal injuries. The cultural differences and political turmoil of the area travelled by the doctors is also communicated. The graphic novel easily expresses the physical and mental exhaustion experienced by all of those involved and visualizes the hardships of war. The story also dispels certain myths about the Afghani people, who have been misrepresented in the media. This story is relevant today because of the current democratization of Afghanistan and United States’ military involvement.

Currently the book is located in the New Books section at the front of the library. Once the book is added to the regular collection it will not located in the Young Adult collection. Instead it will be located in the Non-fiction section toward the back of the library. The call number for the book is: 070.4909581 Guibert.

Rumble Fish / by S.E. Hinton

The problem with a reputation is that it's owned by others. Something Rusty-James can't seem to figure out about the rough and tumble world of gangland politics. Younger brother to street-legend and current top dog "Motorcycle Boy", his own ambitions aspire likewise even if his fists lead him into more trouble than they can get him out of. An absence of discernment and poise is fine while your brother's around to bail you out, but not all battles can be fought halfway. Nothing betrays a lie like the truth. It's not long before Rusty-James jams himself into circumstances too comprimising to escape from as, left to his own devices, his authority and the shaky influence with others begins to falter.

Post-Holden Caufield but pre-Drugstore Cowboy, there was S.E. Hinton. A teenager, and girl no less, this anomaly of Faulknerian proportions defied mainstream stereotypes to become a touchstone of YA fiction, penning her first novel--The Outsiders(1967)--at 18 while still attending her Tulsa high school. Still the second best-selling YA book ever, 'Outsiders' was a stark representation of personal alliegances within rival street gangs and the violent consequences enmeshed therein. Its publication made Hinton a household name nearly overnight and is still required reading in many secondary schools. Her other books, all involving teenage boys at life's crossroads, have served to cement her among the pillars of the genre.