Sweet, Hereafter by Angela Johnson YP FIC JOHNSON

Angela Johnson finishes the Heaven Trilogy started in Heaven and The First Part Last with the story of Shoogy Maple. Shoogy leaves home for reasons she isn’t completely sure of and lands at the cabin of Curtis Johnson a young man she has talked to only a few times before. Curtis takes her in without a question and their relationship begins to grow. But as Shoogy is finding peace for the first time Curtis is running from the past, his memories of serving in Iraq, and the dangers the future hold for him. When all this catches up to him Shoogy learns the pain of first love lost.

Sweet, Hereafter is told entirely from Shoogy’s point of view and this works well because she is a funny and intelligent young woman. Johnson’s writing is deceptively simple. She uses as few words as possible to convey the most emotion and depth she can, so this is a short read that stays with you long after you put it down. I would suggest reading Heaven and The First Part Last before you read this one though, because the characters and situations referenced will make more sense if you do. It is absolutely no surprise that Johnson has won the prestigious Coretta Scott King award three times. She is one of the best writers of African American characters working in Young Adult Literature today.

Wolverine: Prodigal Son written by Antony Johnson Illustrated by Wilson Tortosa YP FIC JOHNSON

Wolverine: Prodigal Son is a brand new manga that completely reimagines the x-Men’s greatest icon: Wolverine. Logan is a fourteen your old boy living in a dojo in the woods of Canada. He was found years before asleep in the snow watched over by a wolverine and with no memories. Now ‘Wolverine’ as his friends call him is the school’s best fighter, helped by his amazing ability to heal any wound. But under his skin hides a secret and his past hides even deadlier secrets. When enemies from his past come looking for him Logan has to unleash all his power and skill to stay alive and uncover the secrets hidden in his lost memory.

Wolverine is without any doubt one of the coolest comic book heroes of all time, so I was really stoked to read this one. I was not disappointed. The art is super cool and stylish and the action is off the charts. It has some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in a comic or manga for a while. Also, the story really drew me especially after the villains appeared and started wreaking havoc. Even if you know nothing about comic books you can jump into this one because it’s a whole new take on the character. If you like Wolverine, super heroes, or manga this is a great read that will have you jonesing for the next volume.

Maximum Ride by NaRae Lee YP FIC LEE

What if you could fly, soaring majestically like an eagle through the skies? Would it be a dream come true. Well for Max Ride, and her makeshift “Flock”: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel it’s more like a nightmare. With the dizzying freedom comes paralyzing fear as they are hunted by werewolf-like supermen called ‘Erasers’ that want to take them back to an ultra-secret base known only as “The School.” When the erasers capture Angel, the youngest of the Flock, everyone has to work together to get her back in this manga adaptation of the hit James Patterson series.

The first volume of this series starts with a bang and doesn’t let up. Lee has done a great job of bringing the novels to life. Things move a lot quicker than in the novels, but a picture is worth a thousand words so I think the equation works out pretty well here. The characters from the books are represented really well here and come to life just as well as in the novels. I think Maximum Ride fans will really like this and I think manga fans will really enjoy it too. Absolutely check out the Maximum Ride novels if you haven’t in YP FIC PATTERSON.

8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich YP FIC RHUDAYPE

Reggie McKnight wants to be like Night Man, the super hero in the comics he writes, but to the whole school he is Pukey after an ‘embarrassing’ incident on stage at a school assembly. He’s decide to ride the rest of 8^th grade under the radar and hope things eventually blow over, but fate has other plans. He starts becoming more involved in his community by participating in the big Buddy program and spending most his afternoons helping out at a local shelter. He decides to take his community involvement to the halls of his school as campaign manager for a overachieving egomaniac named Vicki, but when Vicki ignores all his advice Reggie strikes out as his own candidate and makes himself the center of attention.

This book does a really good job of taking a lot of issues and seamlessly blending them into the overall story. Reggie struggles with issues of identity, what it means to be ‘authentically black’, the pressures and demands of faith, responsibility for a community, and budding romance. All of these feel important to the story and occur in a natural way. Also, there are a good amount of characters and Rhuday-Perkovich does a wonderful job of giving each one a voice. This is a novel full of wit and charm with a really great message. It’s a perfect read for younger readers looking for something light and funny.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Volume 1 by Motoro Mase YP FIC MASE

“Congratulations! You have been randomly selected by the government…to die in 24 hours!” In the near future, Japan has come up with a solution to apathy: randomly killing one citizen every day by a time released poison administered in grade school. Everyone knows they could die at any moment so they work hard to live full and productive lives. When Fujimoto starts his new job delivering the ikigami or death notices he starts to question if all these deaths can really be for the greater good.

This is a chilling and dark look at how a government or society can control our fates. The idea of a nation so devoted to productivity that it murders its own citizens is a great allegory for the excesses of a consumer society. The even bigger hook is the idea that every victim is notified 24 hours before they die. “What would you do if you had just one day left to live?” is an old question, but Ikigami looks at in a very fresh way. I can’t wait for more books to see how the different people react and if Fujimoto will defy the system. The art is done in a cool realistic style and adds to the overall creepiness of the story. I think Death Note fans will especially like this one.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford YP FIC STANDIFORD

Beatrice (Bea for short) is a robot, at least according to her increasingly erratic mother she is. Jonah is a ghost, if you believe all the taunts of his classmates. Soon they begin to bond over the air as listeners of the same old time radio show. Ghost Boy and Robot Girl become inseparable as they support each other as their families fall apart. But when Jonah’s family completely falls apart he begins to disappear completely and Robot Girl has to learn how to say goodbye.

This is a brilliant story with very well developed characters and dialogue that sparks. It’s very much a love story, but one based around a friendship instead of the usual Romantic Love. I love that the author makes Jonah so difficult to like, because as you read the novel and discover more about him you understand why he acts the way he does. It would have been easy to make Jonah more relatable, but the fact that he isn’t relatable is much more realistic given what he has been through and moves the story forward. This would be a great read for older readers, especially those that like Chick Lit. Fair warning: you may want some hankies before this book is through.