Wise Young Fool by Sean Beaudoin YP FIC BEAUDOIN

Ritchie Sudden has 90 days.  90 days to think and write about why he's got 90 days.  Well, maybe not think.  Ritchie doesn't want to think the way he thinks you want him to think, but he's worried that that's a cliche so he doesn't care about that...I think.  He does care about his one true friend El Hella, his new very old guitar, a girl that may be just screwed up enough to like him, and his terrible band Wise Young Fool.  Maybe just one or two of those days he'll figure out why everything happened and if it means anything.  Maybe he won't. He may even end up a wise young fool. If not, two out of three ain't bad.

Ritchie has a hilarious and very genuine voice.  Beaudoin totally nails the trying-way-too-hard-to-not-try-too-hard that comes all too often with being a teenager.  Ritchie's crushingly stupid mistakes and unnecessary (but totally awesome) punk rock defiance end up making sense and seeming almost rational as he slowly lets us know more about who he is and what his last few weeks of freedom were like. Especially excellent is the very authentic understanding of music and being in a band.  Beaudoin nails this to the wall and slam dunks it and sundry other expressions for exactitude. It is a welcome change from the often idealized and false look at teen music that comes from writers that have clearly watched too many of those super-awesome movies form the 80s about teen bands Makin It! (this is NOT really the title of a movie starring Lea Thompson and a young Demi Moore, but it could be. It could be.) The music , the grime, the feeling of crushing conformity all make this a book with unique texture, attitude, and spark.  My one gripe is that it definitely suffers from Main Character Making references that are From Author's Teen Decade and Not His Own Too Often, but hey I'm old too so I actually get them! It may be one of many wayward young man write from a correctional facility in a snarky voice and eventually (maybe) learning something from the writing (symbolic of how writing and reading of novels can form a catharsis, perhaps?), but it is definitely one not to miss. 

You can find Wise Young Fool in out catalog here.

Violence 101 by Denis Wright YP FIC WRIGHT

Violence is the best solution to every problem! At least, that’s what 14 year old Hamish Graham believes. That’s also why Hamish ahs just made the Manukau New Horizons Boys' Institute his new home. Told mainly through the diary of Hamish with the occasional report by adults that watch Hamish, this is a dark look at a brilliant and troubled mind and the very nature of violence itself.

Violence 101 is dark with a capital D, but I liked it anyways. Hamish is a great narrator, because he carefully explains his logical reasons for his violent actions. This is a realistic look at a young teen that has the makings of a sociopathic serial killer. His cunning and logic is really creepy, because sometimes he almost makes a weird sort of sense. There is a good deal of suspense especially in the later chapters. I found some of the later chapters’ action and heroics a little farfetched, but by that point I liked the characters enough that it didn’t ruin anything for me. I liked that Hamish doesn’t have any miraculous changes and the changes he does have make sense. If you like realistic fiction about troubled minds then take a look at Violence 101.

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers YPFIC MYERS

Maurice "Reese" Anderson is locked up and feeling beat down. Reese is serving his 22nd month of a 38 month sentence in juvie for stealing prescription drug pads. He starts working at Evergreen, a senior assisted living facility (old folks home), as part of an early release program. There he meets and is continually belittled by Mr. Hooft, a racist Japanese Internment camp survivor. Soon he finds that his past crime may have him doing even more time as the cops tell him he’s being fingered for another crime (one he didn’t do this time!). If that weren’t enough he has a drug addicted mom, a brother going down the same path as him, a little sister he wants to protect, an inmate named King Kong that wants to bust him up, and a sadistic guard named Pugh looking for any excuse to bust his head. And if Reese can keep all this from breaking him he still doesn’t see any hope waiting for him on the outside, but when he begins to get to know Mr. Hooft he learns that tragedy doesn’t always define us and how to learn to “make up life as you go.”

Walter Dean Myers is one of the best Young adult authors that write about crime and its consequences. All the characters in his books always have real depth and never seem like some TV bad guy. The supporting characters all seem pulled from real life and add a lot to the story. Mr. Hooft especially is picture perfect as a scared old man that knows a lot more about the real world than Reese expects. Reese is smart but is constantly surrounded by violence and Myers recognizes that there aren’t easy choices or easy answers for kids or adults surrounded by poverty. It was also nice that Myers doesn’t have Reese become an entirely new person by the end of the book; the changes Reese makes happen over time and are realistic.