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Teen Scene

JUNE 15, 2011
Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance by Brendan Halpin and Emily Franklin
Teen idols Charlie Tracker and Fielding Withers have starred on the hit TV show “Jenna and Jonah’s How to Be a Rock Star” for the past 4 years. Also, at their agents’ advice, they have pretended to be in a romantic relationship to please the viewers and secure their show’s success. They’ve got all the moves down for the paparazzi, but secretly they despise each other. When delicate negotiations quickly deteriorate following rumors that Fielding is gay, Charlie and Fielding are sent to Oregon to perform in Much Ado About Nothing at the Shakespeare festival in an attempt at damage control. While the other actors notice that their lives mirror their roles of Beatrice and Benedick, Charlie and Fielding are oblivious. Told in alternating perspectives, there is more meat to this story than would be first thought, with each questioning their previous work and wondering what the future holds for them.

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JUNE 9, 2011
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker
This interesting non-fiction title shows the work of forensic anthropologists as they uncover and analyze 17th and 18th century graves in Jamestown and three sites in Maryland (Providence, St. Mary’s City, and Harleigh Knoll) including that of a teenage indentured servant hastily buried in a trash pit, a grouping of prominent colonists laid to rest in lead coffins, and a woman of African heritage who likely toiled as a slave.
The scientists are able to determine, sex, age, cause of death, and approximate how long the person lived in the colonies, as well as differentiate between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans using knowledge, testing and a little detective work. Historical records are able to fill in a few more answers about these earliest settlers. With many photographs throughout, the book is not intimidating but the reading level is fairly high (AR 9.0). Readers with an interest in history or forensics (and shows like CSI) will enjoy this. It is considered an "exceptional title in Social Studies for intermediate grades".

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JUNE 1, 2011
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
13-year-old Natalie Minks has a beautifully restored bicycle she had begged her father to purchase and fix up for her, even though they both know it will be hard-to-control. It is a Chesterlane Eidolon, a bone-shaker…one of those bicycles that rattles your bones when you ride it, no matter how smooth the road. Natalie loves all mechanical things. She loves how the gears fit together to make something run. She is currently working on an automata of a flyer like the Wright Brothers built, but so far it won’t fly. When Dr. Jake’s Limberleg’s Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show arrives in Arcane, Missouri after losing a carriage wheel at their crossroads, Natalie is instructed to take the strange man with flaming red hair to her father to see about repairs.  Discovering her flyer, he somehow makes the propellers spin like a fan without even winding it up. Something is very strange about this man and when his show opens the next day she intends to find out if he is a “snake oil salesman” as some in town claim, or something else altogether. This is a story full of strange and scary elements in the generally festive setting of a carnival. It reminded me of “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, a favorite book of mine as a high school freshman, where like this one, the supernatural takes center stage. Readers in grades 8-12 will enjoy this.

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