Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Dogs are Dead! That was Ellie's first thoughts are. They should be barking and racing to greet her, instead they lie covered with flies. She races into the house - there is no sign of life. No dirty dishes in the sink, no TV blaring or radio talking. Only silence. Where is everyone?
Ellie and six friends had been camping in the Australian outback for a few days. As they rush to each house they find the same desolation - families gone, pets and livestock dead. Panic rises in the teens. There is no power, no phones, what should they do?
Was the country invaded? What were all those planes that roared overhead while they camped? and why did they have no lights?
Now the teens have to decide whether to run back to the bush, give themselves in, or stay and fight/

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Mathilda Savitch: A Novel by Victor Lodato


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Filled with grief, guilt, and confusion, young Mathilda Savitch is preoccupied with finding the cause of her 16-year-old sister's death. Having hacked into her sister Helena's email, Mathilda finds a secret world and begins to unravel the mystery. We see Mathilda change from child to young woman as she uses her feminine wiles to gather information. What could she have discovered that leaves a family so desolated. Lodato masterfully depicts an early teen's maschinations about boys, death, parents, love, sex, and humor. A deeply psychological book that leaves the reader with a clear knowledge of who Mathilda Savitch really is.

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Inside Out: Portrait of an Eating Disorder by Nadia Shivack


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nadia Shivack’s heartbreaking true story is about her lifelong battle with anorexia and bulimia. The book is unflinching honest; the raw, graphic drawings convey the depression, anxiety, despair, and self-loathing that characterized her life. It is hearth wrenching to read Nadia's words and see, through her drawings, the extent of her inner turmoil. Although we know the hard clinical facts about the aspects of eating disorders, this book make the emotional side hit.
Told with a mixture of text and pictures drawn by Nadia, her preoccupation with food began when in her troubled household when she was in her pre-teen years. She likens her daily routine as a teen to a perilous climb up a steep, jagged mountain. Her dizzying downward spiral is sobering indeed, as her bulimia takes over her life and she becomes suicidal. This is a very sobering account of a life out of control, desperate for control and help. It gives us a glimpse of the emotional and chaotic thinking endured by bulimics. Statistics about eating disorders are found throughout the book, which concludes with a list of resources.

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Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Marji tells of her life in Iran from the age of 10, when the Islamic revolution of 1979 reintroduced a religious state, through the age of 14 when the Iran-Iraq war forced her parents to send her to Europe for safety. It is told in graphic format with simple, but expressive, black-and-white illustrations. The story combines the normal rebelliousness of an intelligent adolescent with the horrors of war and totalitarianism. You get a glimpse fo how stressful it was to live in Iran at this time. Marji had a strong belief in freedom and equality, and her education gave her a strong faith in God. The girl's independence, which made her parents both proud and fearful, caused them to send her to Austria. From this autobiography readers will learn much of the history of this important area and will identify with young Marji and her friends.
Once you have become attached to Marji you can go on to reade Persepolis 2: the story of a return.

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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Nazi cats and Jewish mice combine to make a heartbreaking and gut wrenching recounting of one family’s experience and survival of the Holocaust
Art Spiegelman intersperses his father's gripping survivor story with their present day uneasy, bickering relationship and through the text and illustrations he shows both the short and long term affects of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis, portrayed as cats, gradually introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution.
Spiegelman recounts all this without becoming judgmental. The characters have their flaws; in fact you soon forget that they are depicted as animals. Their relationships are intricate – Vladek understands why his Polish protectors sometimes demanded payment and why older people were sometimes given up to the Nazis.
Spiegelman relates the effects of those events on the survivors' later years and upon the lives of the following generation. This book is not only a recounting of a wretched time in history, it is a character study of how people survive personal hardships.

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Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great title! A story of high school angst: fitting in, betrayal, romance, friendships. All the usual but told in a funny, light and believeable prose. Charlie moves to a new high school to start afresh after a horrible middle school experience. However, her past is not cooperating and finds ways of cropping up. She learned her lessons about friendships (not the best) and betrayal (not a good experience) but can she make the right decisions now?

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