If I had to describe Ally Carter’s Heist Society series in one phrase it would be “Oceans Eleven” meets YA but really it’s so much more. I think that’s most apparent in the newest installment of the series, Perfect Scoundrels. Katarina “Kat” Bishop, a sixteen-year-old version of Danny Ocean himself, has had a “colorful” past for one so young. The product of a long line of con men and thieves, Kat has seen -- and stolen -- more priceless artifacts than most people see in their lives. But when the grandmother of her boyfriend, W.W. Hale the Fifth, dies, leaving him with a multibillion-dollar corporation, Kat must decide if Hale’s happiness is worth investigating what could be the longest con yet.

I’ve adored every book in the Heist Society series and Perfect Scoundrels is no exception. Ally Carter infuses such wit and charm into her characters. My only complaint is that while reading Perfect Scoundrels I was torn between wanting to slow down and really enjoy each moment with the characters she’s created -- and flying through the book to figure out what plot twist she could possibly throw at me next. She had me running to Google every five minutes to find out if insane cons like “The Three Blind Mice” or “Where’s Waldo?” were actual grifts. I almost forgot at certain points that these are only teenagers traipsing all over the world leading lives of crime. Though they’re breaking into museums and rappelling into apartments after priceless works of art, Carter’s created a team of “noble thieves” who return stolen goods to their rightful owners or steal from the corrupt and the greedy.

Perfect Scoundrels is much more personal than the other two books in the series, mostly because the con revolves around Hale and the group defending one of their own. While Hale has seemed like such an integral part of the family in the series, in Perfect Scoundrels you really see how different Hale’s childhood was in comparison to Kat. Hale’s life, while full of privilege, is cold and lonely. It’s unsurprising to see how a trust fund kid like Hale fell into the chaos of the Bishop clan, which though dysfunctional, is a tight-knit group.

Perfect Scoundrels may be one of the freshest and most energetic books I’ve read in a long time. I really can’t say enough good things about it. You don’t need to read the other books in the series to enjoy it, but I’d highly recommend the entire collection.

In Beautiful Creatures, the sleepy Southern town of Gatlin, South Carolina, is shaken awake upon the arrival of mysterious and beautiful newcomer Lena Duchannes. At least that's how it feels to Ethan Wate, whose dreams of escaping his stifling hometown were put aside as soon as he met Lena -- the same girl who inhabited his dreams months before she entered his life. The only hitch in their budding romance is that Lena is a Caster: a powerful creature with supernatural abilities whose sixteenth birthday determines whether she will be claimed by good or evil forces, which are represented by different people in Lena's quirky, supernatural family. Ethan, naturally, gets caught in the crossfire.

When we catch up with Lena and Ethan in the second installment of The Caster Chronicles series, Beautiful Darkness, Lena has just suffered a devastating loss in her family, which was a necessary sacrifice to keep the love of her life, Ethan, alive. Naturally, this causes Lena to pull away from Ethan as she decides to start hanging out with the new, dangerous, and charming Incubus in town, John Breed. Not willing to give up Lena without a fight, Ethan teams up with his best friend, Link, and the new Keeper-in-training, Liv, to reach Lena before it is too late.

Beautiful Darkness succeeds in three important ways where many second novels in a trilogy fail: Co-authors Garcia and Stohl successfully recap the first book early on, pacing moves quickly, and lingering questions from the first book are satisfactorily addressed. My interest in the central star-crossed lovers, Ethan and Lena, continued as I read Beautiful Darkness, and I was delighted by the introduction of new characters such as Liv, the spunky British Keeper-in-training. However, if I had to pick my favorite part of the book (without giving anything away), it would have to be how the town of Gatlin almost becomes a character in its own right: layers are peeled back from the seemingly normal town to reveal a history rich with supernatural elements few townspeople know.

I'd highly recommend immersing yourself in this beautiful trilogy if you have a soft spot for well-told supernatural romances with a comedic band of side characters.

In Starstruck, novelist Rachel Shukert paints an alluring portrait of Hollywood in the 1930s: Glamorous muses in designer gowns swan around on the arms of handsome men in tuxedos. It’s all very nice until you look a little closer to notice that no one is smiling. While the view might look beautiful from afar -- much like an Impressionist painting -- up close it’s just a big, incoherent mess.

Margaret Frobisher, the novel’s starry-eyed protagonist, longs to escape her prosaic life in Pasadena and join the ranks of celebrities like Clark Gable and her personal idol, Diana Chesterfield. Fate intervenes when she’s offered a screen test with Paramount Pictures. Her parents -- stuffy, staid, and snobbish -- are not amused. Margaret has to make a choice: abandon the cushy lifestyle she is used to or risk being estranged from her parents in favor of the bourgeois class. Coming out at a debutante ball or coming out at a Hollywood premiere? The choice is too easy.

In no time at all, Margaret Frobisher becomes Margo Sterling, a promising, young ingénue who is destined for stardom. But, like clockwork, unsavory rumors begin to swirl, connecting her to the missing starlet, Diana Chesterfield. There's no denying that Margo bears an uncanny resemblance to Diana -- she was even cast as Diana's replacement in the upcoming film. Some begin to speculate that Margo is looking to replace Diana altogether.

Margo meets some interesting characters along the way, and as you might expect, it’s difficult to tell between friend and foe. There’s Gabby, a chatty, boisterous young thing with a penchant for downers, who instantly takes Margo under her wing. The mysterious Amanda, easily the most ravishing on set, wears all black and stays mum about her past. Then there’s Dane -- Margo’s longtime Hollywood crush and current leading man (on-screen, and potentially off-screen, as well) -- who also happens to be Diana’s former flame.

Starstruck is a clear nod in homage to Jacqueline Susann’s pulp novel, Valley of the Dolls, a seminal work that depicts the horrors of Hollywood and drug abuse. But while Dolls ultimately ends in tragedy, Starstruck has Margo rising straight to the top. The only question remains: At what cost did she get there?

Shukert’s Starstruck reads like a cross between a film noir mystery novel and celebrity tabloid fodder. The ambiguity of characters’ intentions, along with the mystery behind a starlet's disappearance, will keep audiences captivated until the very end. But whatever did become of Diana Chesterfield?

Go ahead, judge this book by its cover. From the pastel rays of color to the Sharpie-like title treatment, one does not have to stretch far to grasp the tone of Lauren Morrill’s delightful debut novel, Meant to Be. This book is a romantic comedy befitting dreamy bookworms with a taste for screwball. Consider this literary confection the equivalent of a Cadbury cream egg – a brightly wrapped sweet treat that tugs at the heartstrings of the Anglophile in all of us.

Straight-laced uber-student Julia Lichtenstein can be a royal klutz, sure, but let no one say she isn’t organized. A textbook perfectionist and rule follower, she has planned every aspect of her life to the exact detail, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Fueled by an unwavering belief in true love and fate, Julia has chosen her childhood crush as her MTB ("meant to be”).

Of course, when does anything involving “matters of the heart” ever go according to plan, especially in high school? Julia’s meticulous world is thrown out of orbit when she is partnered with class clown and grade-A slacker Jason Lipponcott on a school trip to London. The very definition of irreverence, Jason wastes no time overturning Julia’s carefully plotted itinerary and heckling her into taking a walk on the wild side. Mischief abounds as the two embark on one crazy escapade after another against a British backdrop.

Brimming with fresh, snappy dialogue and plenty of physical gaffes, Meant to Be reads breezily and quickly. Jason and Julia’s perpetual frustration with each other and the subsequent hilarious banter is pretty predictable, but in a way that feels classic rather than cliche. Morrill does an outstanding job of putting new flourishes on the time-honored plot of “opposites attract.”

But perhaps the most satisfying delight of all, at least for this reader, were the fun details of the book’s London setting. For anyone who has traveled to England, and perhaps left a little bit of his or her heart in it, this book and you are simply meant to be.

Editor's Note: Maria Padian’s new young adult novel, Out of Nowhere, introduces readers to Tom Bouchard, soccer star, most popular, and third in his class. Everything is idyllic – until 9/11/2011. Today, Maria stops by Everyday eBook to talk about her inspiration, why she went with a quieter post-9/11 story, and more.

Although Out of Nowhere deals with broad themes of racism, immigration, and religious tolerance in a post 9-11 world, the story began for me in a more personal place. Namely, with the novel’s narrator, Tom Bouchard.

I’m a great believer that good writing is character-driven.  When you know your characters well, you can stick them in pretty much any situation, then sit back and watch a plot take shape. I have this fun writing exercise I love to do with students, where we take different characters from various books and drop them into the opening chapter of Kate DiCamillo’s novel, Because of Winn Dixie. By the end of our workshop, the kids all realize that the story doesn’t happen because a stray dog wanders into a grocery store; that beautiful novel unfolds because a lonely but loving and generous girl is standing there when the dog enters.

Out of Nowhere happened because Tom Bouchard was there when Somali refugee kids began arriving at his school.

Although the novel is inspired by actual events that dominated the headlines in Maine for months, the “smaller” story interested me. What was it like, after living in an African refugee camp for years, getting off a plane and seeing snow for the first time? Riding an escalator for the first time? Enrolling in a school where no one speaks your language?

Likewise, what’s it like when you’re a white, Catholic kid from a white Catholic town, and practically overnight your school is filled with black Muslim kids who pray on all fours in the stairwells and wash their feet in the bathroom sinks?

Sometimes, as an author, you just get lucky. I was lucky enough to be introduced to two amazing young men -- one a Somali teen, another a white teen from Lewiston, Maine -- who were friends and played varsity soccer together. Together, they regaled me with stories about their team, their friendship, their town. They helped me to understand what was possible between them, and what was still developing. They helped me to get beyond the adult world of angry people shouting at town council meetings and into the locker room and school bus and the pre-game pasta party. They reminded me that regardless of color and nationality and religion, kids are just kids, and they all want the same things: To make friends. To fit in. To have someone to sit with at lunch, whether lunch is a hot dog or a goat-filled sambusa.

I could have written about the “big” issues by picking up a newspaper, but I was able to write Out of Nowhere because I got to know this imaginary boy, Tom Bouchard. He’s far from perfect, but he’s got a good heart. He makes mistakes but he’s brave and kind. I spent a lot of time getting to know this character, and the novel followed.

I first came across Beth Reekles and her writing on Wattpad. I was blown away by the number of hugely positive comments The Kissing Booth was receiving and immediately started reading it. What struck me straight away was the natural, authentic voice of the main character, Elle – hardly surprising, as Beth is just seventeen years old herself – and the fact that the plot was so well conceived and constructed, with engaging dialogue and a perfectly pitched teen romance story at its heart.

Rochelle Evans is pretty, popular – and has never been kissed. She has long had a crush on her best friend Lee’s older brother Noah, who is bad-ass, volatile, and a total player. Elle is convinced that he considers her to be no more than his little brother’s annoying mate – but when she decides to run a kissing booth for her school’s Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down.

This romance seems far from fairy tale – if Lee finds out then he’d never speak to her again – and headed for heartbreak. But will Elle get her happily ever after in the end?

I e-mailed Beth through the site to see if she would be interested in discussing a potential publishing contract with us, and, happily, she was indeed! Beth and her father traveled from Newport, South Wales, to the Random House UK offices in London to meet myself and our Managing Director. We signed her on the spot for three books. It was so interesting to hear that Beth’s parents had no idea their daughter was a fledgling author; they thought she was up in her bedroom scrolling through Facebook rather than fitting in writing an accomplished novel around studying for her A Levels! Beth is sitting her end-of-high-school exams this summer and hopes to read Physics at Exeter University come fall. She is a multitalented young lady for sure!

It has been such a pleasure working with Beth and seeing the press coverage and plaudits for her and The Kissing Booth grow and grow. She is brimming with ideas for future books – including what I know will be a hugely anticipated sequel to The Kissing Booth. She is writing this now (in between serious revision for her exams!) and this will be the first brand-new, never-before-seen book we publish by her. Her legions of fans on Wattpad who have been clamoring to find out what happens to Elle and Noah after the end of The Kissing Booth will be cheering its release.

She is fantastic at interacting with her already huge fanbase on Facebook, Twitter, and Wattpad; she really is an inspiration to thousands of teenagers dreaming of becoming writers themselves one day. There is nothing I find more rewarding in my job than finding someone with true talent and huge appeal for young readers – and Beth perfectly encapsulates this. She is a star and we’re delighted and proud to be publishing her!

Editor's Note: For fans of Lauren Kate and Libba Bray, The Sweetest Dark is filled with thrilling romance, exciting adventure, and ancient magic. Author Shana Abé brilliantly captures the drama of post-Victorian England, while unfolding a passionate love story that defies time. Here, Abé shares with Everyday eBook her inspiration behind Lora Jones, heroine of The Sweetest Dark

I’m a dreamer. That probably isn’t very hard to figure out; I’m one of those people who’ll be talking to you and then I’ll trail off midsentence, my eyes glazed, because I’ve just realized I’ve got to give my heroine another darkly magical power, or another wicked frenemy, or that I forgot to water my plants for the past four weeks. It’s lucky that I became a novelist, because I think dreamers write the most interesting novels. (It’s also lucky that I have extremely forgiving plants. Thank God the dog barks at me when she’s out of food.)

I’ve been writing about secret dragons disguised as humans for a few years now, and one of the best aspects about the entire business is that I get to make up everything about them. I mean, everything – their magic, their beauty, their ferocity, where they live and what they eat and whom they love. And nobody can complain that I’ve gotten it all wrong, because, ha ha, the drákon exist only in my head. I’ve had great fun spinning them into existence, and I love every story they inhabit. But I realized a while back that the voice of the story I wanted to write next – the story that would not, would not leave me alone – belonged to a sixteen-year-old girl: Lora Jones.

I was instantly smitten with her. She’s bold the way I wanted to be when I was sixteen. But she’s better than bold; she’s brave. She’s cunning, because as an orphan, she had to be. She’s smart, but knows that sometimes the smartest thing to do is to be sneaky about it. Like every teenager ever to exist, she’s brimming with potential, with glory and savagery both. She’s a mystery, even to herself, because at the beginning of her story Lora has absolutely no idea that she’s anything other than what she appears to be: a ragged, lonely girl trying to find her footing in the world.

She doesn’t know she’s a drákon.

But once she finds out, she doesn’t need footing any longer. I gave her wings, so she could soar.

In a sense, she’s like every other girl her age, and that makes her human. But this a fairy tale of sorts, so she’s more than that. She’s magical, powerful, yet still unsure of herself. She’s living her life day by day, only her life suddenly involves turning into smoke (whether she wants to or not), and listening to the silent music of gemstones and metals, and dealing the unexpected, intense attention of two very different boys.

But here’s the real reason I wrote The Sweetest Dark: I had a vision of a scene, incredibly vivid. In it, a young dragon battles an airship beneath a deeply purple, starry sky. And I knew that was Lora, fighting desperately to save all she loves.

Like all the best stories, everything fell into place after that. Lora leapt to life, and I was honored to be the one to grant her that gift.

Robert Cormier never believed in “writing down” to teens. His novels present flawed, realistic, anti-heroes, characters that struggle with issues of rebellion and nonconformity. He makes the reader root for the rebel characters – and then he takes those characters, makes them social pariahs, beats them bloody, and flushes them down the drain.

Initially published in 1974, The Chocolate War is heartbreaking, intense, and still one of the best pieces of Young Adult fiction I have ever read. On this beautiful Easter Sunday, here are the top three reasons why The Chocolate War still kicks ass.

Reason #1: Damn the Man

Whether you’re occupying Wall Street, celebrating the demise of DOMA, or biding your time until Daenerys Targaryen returns to take the Iron Throne, everyone enjoys watching an underdog defy the status quo.

Almost immediately upon publication, The Chocolate War engendered heated controversy due to its gritty realism, adult themes, and morally ambiguous ending. According to the American Library Association, it was the third most challenged book on their list of the "Top 100” banned books from 2000-2009.

“I take real people and put them in extraordinary situations," Cormier said in an interview with School Library Journal. "I'm very interested in intimidation. And the way people manipulate other people, [as well as] the obvious abuse of authority." Thus striking a blow at all that is evil and making this world a better place to be in.

Reason #2: Secret Societies Are Cool

Harry Potter had Dumbledore’s Army, Westerburg High School had the Heathers, Blaire (briefly) had La Table Elitaire, and Cormier had the Vigils.

The Vigils, a not-so secret society at Trinity Academy, dominate their fellow students through intimidation and subtle psychological manipulation. Led by a sociopathic junior, the Vigils plan venomous pranks that not only affect their teacher victims, but also take a toll on those students selected to carry out the tasks. These students are singled out for hazing specifically because they are weak and approval-seeking. This is what makes Jerry, the protagonist of the novel, the perfect target. Jerry is a freshman trying out for the football team, and his mother has recently passed away leaving him especially vulnerable to Archie, the sadistic villain.

Reason #3: Bullies Are Forever

Cormier depicts bullying as a universal human problem where the high school setting is a symbol for a larger social issue. Indeed, the term “bully” seems woefully inadequate when describing The Chocolate War’s villain, Archie Costello. Through systemic manipulation, Archie is a student capable of operating completely independent of school rules. Further, Archie takes pleasure in the pain of others. In fact, the entire “chocolate war” is essentially his creation – built to showcase the power he has over both teachers and students.

Robert Cormier saw the world through the eyes of a teenager – and it was a frightening place filled with bullies and liars and lacking any sense of justice. Because most adults in Cormier’s fiction are either malicious or incompetent, Cormier made sure his readers had an ally when he famously included his own telephone number in I Am the Cheese. Thousands of teenagers called Cormier when it published, and the calls continued throughout his life.

Cormier passed away on November 2, 2000, having changed the face of adolescent literature forever. After his death, Robert Cormier was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring his lifetime contribution in writing for teens for The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, and After the First Death.

Jeff Baron has started a new literary adventure with his novel I Represent Sean Rosen. Already an accomplished and frequently produced playwright – his play Visiting Mr. Green is regularly staged around the world – Baron shows in his first novel the keen ear of a playwright, one perfectly attuned to his character’s voice.

And what a voice it is. Sean Rosen, the first-person narrator, is a thirteen-year-old aspiring writer/screenwriter and idea man – he has come up with a concept that will revolutionize the entertainment industry – but first he has to be heard. This is not an easy feat for a boy in middle school, but Sean is no ordinary boy. He is smart, endearing, and ingeniously inventive and creative, not to mention a pretty accomplished researcher and an avid reader of The Hollywood Reporter.

Not exactly a loner, Sean is choosy about who he hangs with. There are his friends, Javier, Buzz, and Ethan and, as in every middle schooler’s life, a bully, in this case named Doug. And I can’t leave out the effervescently spoiled little princess, Brianna, who appears pretty much only in texts. Yes, Sean is a part of the generation that considers cell phones, computers, and earbuds extensions of their bodies.

Sean is an intriguing mix of boy and adult, as are most boys of his age, especially in 2013. He is instinctive about his parents, whom he understands and clearly loves but not enough to confide his artistic aspirations, and he is clear-eyed about his grandparents, who play an intriguing role in the novel. More importantly, he is in the process of becoming himself, an adolescent approaching adulthood and independence who can say out loud (at least to his readers) that he likes buying his favorite ice cream with his own money.

Sean is entrepreneurial in a variety of ways, one of which is that he creates podcasts on varying themes from donuts to hair for which he interviews people. He tells us about these in the novel and readers can see and hear them at SeanRosen.comwww.seanrosen.com. I don’t know who does Sean’s voice, but it is now the voice I hear when I think of the book: eager, funny, and maybe just a little pushy.

Baron’s fast-paced writing manages to capture not only a brilliant voice but also to convey the humor, affection, and frustration a smart and funny thirteen-year-old has for the life around him. We don’t find out what Sean’s revolutionary concept is – maybe that’s for the next book – but Sean does create a movie idea that he pitches via Skype to big studio executives with the help of his invented manager, Dan Welch. And they love it! This is every creative kid’s dream scenario in a book that will delight any teen who dares to dream big.

Son, the gripping conclusion to The Giver series, both enhances the world Lois Lowry has painstakingly crafted over the course of two decades and also stands alone as its own expansive tale. New fans and old fans alike will revel in Lowry’s dystopia, a world of weighty unspoken tension wrought in a gray landscape.

The characters in Lowry's brave new world are assigned jobs, prescribed medications, and selected for families. Choice is an impossibility. From birth to death, each person serves as a puzzle piece, fitting neatly into the collective. Claire, who at age twelve was chosen as a Vessel, had always been content with her way of life, that is, until the mismanaged birth of the Product -- or, in layman’s terms, her son. The blemish on her stomach (so unlike the flawless births of the other Vessels) intrigues her, and she follows her curiosity, despite the heavily imposed rules and regulations of the community. She is irresistibly drawn to finding Thirty-Six, Gabriel, her Product and son.

As a failed Vessel, Claire is reassigned to a new department, but those in charge have forgotten to allot her daily regimented pills. For the first time, Claire develops maternal instincts. Feelings awaken her numbness and she begins to yearn to be with Gabriel. However, Thirty-Six, as the others call him, is having problems fitting in and is too boisterous to be assigned to a family. When Gabriel is suddenly taken away, Claire is resolute to find him at any cost.

When Claire's near-lifeless body is found washed up onshore, she becomes known in this new environment as Water Claire. She gets a taste for another world “beyond the river” -- a place of trial and error, rude jokes, recklessness, and genuine affection. Bleak and colorless though Claire’s world might seem, a thin pink line of dawn lingers above the horizon. Aided by her new friends, fiercely strong-willed villagers who wouldn’t last a day in her old assembly line community, she gradually learns to love.

Lowry’s Son is a satisfying end to Lois Lowry's series, succeeding in bringing it full circle. The inventive world that the author creates bridges the line between science fiction and magical realism. At times the mundane routines of the community in Son seem like ludicrous exaggerations and leaps into the fantastical, and at other junctions, they are horrifyingly realistic. The novel is by no means pedantic; it moves along like a current. It isn’t all grayness and silences either. Brief flashes of color interspersed with laughter gives readers a sense of pervasive faith despite the systemized barriers that lie in Claire’s path. Lyrical in its simplicity, Son, like its iconic predecessors, will survive the test of time. It looks like there is hope for Claire after all.

My first experience with Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince -- or, in English, The Little Prince -- was in my high-school French class. It was the first novella that I read in French, the language in which the book was originally written. What a wonderful experience! While I had to reference my French-English dictionary a little more than I would have liked, my imagination ran wild. When I learned recently that the book is celebrating its seventieth anniversary this year, I was compelled to go back and reread this wonderful tale (but this time in English).

At the opening of the story, a pilot crashes into the Sahara. He is suddenly approached by the little prince, who seems to come from an asteroid. Over eight days, the little prince describes where he is from and the people he has met on his journey away from home. Throughout his tale, his refrain remains the same: Grown-ups are strange. While often viewed as a children's book, The Little Prince is filled with philosophical musings, including perhaps its most famous line, spoken by the fox: "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." ("One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.")

The intrigue and delightfulness of The Little Prince are due both to its wonderful story and illustrations and to the fascinating life of its author. Saint-Exupery was an aviator, flying reconnaissance for France prior to its surrender to Germany during WWII. In 1935, while trying to break the speed record for flying from Paris to Saigon, he crashed in the Sahara. Many believe this experience inspired portions of The Little Prince. Saint-Exupery wrote the book while in New York, where he lived while in exile from France. It was at this time that the author also created all of the watercolor illustrations.

If you haven't had the joy of reading France's most famous work, now is the time. It is a quick and beautiful read.

It takes Eleanor two minutes on her first day at her new high school to realize that the kids at the back of the bus are going to rip her to shreds. Park sees the inevitable too, and instead of watching her get tortured, lets her sit next to him. He won't talk to her -- years of working hard to stay out of the popular kids' crosshairs are on the line by just letting her sit down -- but he lets her sit with him on the way home too. So begins Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park, a story of nonconformist teens finding and struggling with first love.

Eleanor and Park ignore each other in classes and the cafeteria to avoid unwanted attention, but people can't help but notice them. Set in 1980s Omaha, Park is punk rock and half Korean in an almost entirely white neighborhood, and Eleanor's thrift store men's clothing and bright red hair prevent her from ever fading into the background. They sit together every day for weeks, while Park reads X-Men and Swamp Thing comics and Eleanor reads over his shoulder.

And then one afternoon Park gives Eleanor the first issue of Watchmen to take home with her, and their relationship starts to change. Park introduces Eleanor to The Smiths; Eleanor introduces Park to The Beatles. They fight over whether the X-Men are sexist and if Batman is boring. They hold hands on the bus, talk on the phone, and kiss behind the bushes in Park's front yard. When both want to be the Han Solo in their relationship and neither wants to be the Princess Leia, Park finds a compromise: "'You can be Han Solo,' he said, kissing her throat. 'And I'll be Boba Fett. I'll cross the sky for you.'"

As the two fall in love and find each other, there are, of course, complications. Park, a high school chameleon, struggles with the attention that comes from dating someone who draws attention and derision just by being herself. After being kicked out of her house by her stepfather the year before, Eleanor has only just been allowed to move back in, and she's walking on eggshells to stay with and protect her younger siblings. There are no mystical forces at work here, no paranormal reason they can't fall in love -- just the everyday pressures of friends and school and families, the awkwardness of being unpopular and different.

Filled with sharp, relevant pop culture references and a slow, honest love story, Eleanor & Park is a study in the little moments that change your life.

Sometimes in Young Adult fiction I find an honesty of emotion and life that doesn’t exist in adult literature. It reflects the way life is, with all of the raw emotions of growing up and finding who you are, and the mistakes made in trying to forge that path. Though some YA reading may simply serve as a guilty pleasure for adults, there is a vast oeuvre of Teen literature that isn’t just fluff or an escape. Don’t get me wrong – I love my apocalyptic, dystopian, vampire series as much as anyone, but sometimes I like to delve into the teen mind and be reminded of where I came from, what I survived to get here (and doesn’t it feel like you are trapped in your own survival game when you’re that age?!). Elizabeth Laban’s The Tragedy Paper is a book that falls into this deeper sort.

The Tragedy Paper doesn’t need to be labeled as “teen” or “YA” – it’s just a great book. Told in an interesting dual narrative, we read the story of Duncan Meade, a senior at the prestigious upstate-New York Irving School, and Tim Macbeth, a recent graduate who transferred to Irving for his senior year, to the school whose motto reads, “Enter here to be and find a friend.” Through Tim’s narrative, we learn that he is an albino, and thus does not expect to make friends when he first arrives at Irving School. However, after his flight from Chicago is canceled, he meets Vanessa, also a senior at Irving – a beautiful, popular senior.

Interspliced with Tim’s story is Duncan’s story, told in the third person. Duncan inherits Tim’s room – the dreaded, small room at the end of the hall – on his first day of senior year, and Irving tradition has it that the prior resident leaves the new resident a gift of some sort – a bottle of booze or pizza, perhaps. Tim’s gift is a stack of compact discs – through which Tim tells his story. As we listen to Tim’s story, we know that he and Duncan are connected in a way much greater than an inherited dorm room – but we don’t know yet what that connection is. Tim’s voice has a raw honesty, and he doesn’t try to explain away his actions or mistakes. As Duncan becomes more and more engrossed in Tim’s story, the reader becomes just as intrigued.

Despite having very different lives and situations, Tim and Duncan have quite a bit in common. They are both lovestruck. They both feel like outsiders. Neither feels well-understood, and they both wrestle with the insecurities that this causes. In essence, they are both trying to find themselves and how they fit into the world.

Jennifer Weiner called The Tragedy Paper “a beguiling and beautifully written tale of first love and heartbreak,” and many have compared it to Thirteen Reasons Why and Looking for Alaska. Whatever the comparisons and quotes, the bottom line is that Elizabeth Laban has written a beautiful book that will speak to everyone.

Mystic City is Theo Lawrence's first book in a young adult trilogy set in a future New York in which much of the city is underwater, politics is a dangerous business, a rebellion may be on the horizon, and star-crossed lovers must find each other. Here, Lawrence gets personal about his writing process (think snacks and a playlist!), plus shares the city that inspired his novel and a preview of book two in the series.

Everyday eBook: What book made the strongest impression on you as a child?

Theo Lawrence: I loved S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Lois Lowry's The Giver. I also remember thinking everything by Roald Dahl was both hysterical and frightening.

EE: What's your favorite snack food when you're writing?

TL: Swedish Fish. The red ones!

EE: Do you have favorite music to listen to when you write?

TL: I usually listen to music right before I write, or while I'm revising. I actually have a Mystic City playlist -- and here are a few selections from it:

"Cold War" by Janelle Monáe
I love the cool tones of Janelle's voice, plus the funky beat of this song. The line "Do you know what you're fighting for?" was something I thought about a lot as I wrote Mystic City.

"Love Is a Losing Game" by Amy Winehouse
For me, this is Davida's song. The dark, sultry tone of Amy Winehouse's voice never grows old. She is able to capture such heartbreak, and this is what Davida feels regarding Hunter, who loves Aria -- not her.

"Us Against the World" by Coldplay
Toward the end of the novel, this is 100 percent how Aria and Hunter feel. Sometimes it really does come down to how much you're willing to fight for what you want when the odds are stacked against you.

"New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra
Although this standard was originally performed by Liza Minnelli in the Scorsese film of the same name, the Frank Sinatra version is my favorite. It celebrates the city of Manhattan ... so it's the perfect song to encapsulate Mystic City!

EE: What inspired you to write Mystic City?

TL: Mystic City was inspired by a trip to Venice. I remember thinking how beautiful the city was, and wondering what Manhattan would look like if it had canals instead of streets.

EE: Can you give us a preview of book two, Renegade Heart?

TL: Renegade Heart picks up a few weeks after the end of Mystic City. [SPOILER ALERT] Even though Aria's struggle to reclaim her lost memories is over, and she now remembers Hunter and their romance, Manhattan is basically going up in flames … a revolution has broken out and everyone is taking sides. Aria has to determine what -- and who -- she is fighting for.

This post originally ran on Random Acts of Reading.

Unlike the sexier, more mainstream monsters of the vampire and werewolf ilk, zombies are often relegated to roles in b-movies and slapstick horror. Thankfully, in Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies, zombies are no longer shunted to the sidelines and take center stage as heroes instead of villains for once, and – despite their pallor and undead appearance – are actually, well, kind of hot.

Warm Bodies is a love story between a human girl and her undead admirer, “R.” R isn’t your ordinary zombie, however. He has pangs of guilt about eating humans and yearns to be one of them. He’s incapable of stringing more than a few syllables together, yet waxes nostalgic about speech patterns and has an impressive vinyl collection. He’s a poetic soul – if he still has a soul.

Something about R changes when he meets Julie. He begins to speak in sentences. He starts to dream and hope of a new life. He swears off eating humans altogether. He’s not the only one, either. His friend, “M,” and a few others also begin to sense changes in themselves and want to leave the Boneys – the group of ancient skeletons that rules over the zombies with an inexorable grasp. The undead are beginning to feel the stirrings of emotion for the first time and gain a sense of identity. They want to join the living. But the world’s in its final stage of decay, and the chasm between the living and undead may prove to be too difficult to cross. Decay, corruption, and poverty seem to be at every corner, and mistrust breeds paranoia. With Julie at his side, pitted against an army of Boneys and the living alike, R plays the role of the reluctant hero and starts a revolution to bring the two worlds together.

Marion does a great job with dialogue, stilted as it is due to Zombie-speak. Wry one-liners are often accompanied by physical humor. It also helps that much of Warm Bodies occurs in flashbacks – R has access to Julie’s memories, and frequently revisits her childhood. The reason he is able to do so is something he keeps a secret from her. He fears telling her his secret will tear them apart, and with good reason.

Warm Bodies is definitely not your typical zombie book. A far cry from the gruesome, ghoulish beings that haunt nightmares, zombies are portrayed – for lack of a better word – with humanity. And while Julie and R might not exactly be the archetypical star-crossed lovers, their romance will absolutely have audiences rooting for them to the very end.

Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a brief thing; the scant 200-plus pages are hardly indicative of the complex narrative that unfolds between the movie tie-in covers prominently featuring Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame.

Like many of today’s protagonists, the Wallflower centers on a quirky teenager who goes by the alias "Charlie" as he narrates his freshman year to an unknown person in a series of letters. As the title implies, Charlie begins as the quintessential wallflower – an introvert who prefers listening to having any sort of personal agency. We learn early on that his only friend took his life in a grisly suicide several months before the start of the year. We also learn that Charlie’s Aunt Helen, the only woman he felt understood him, also passed away relatively recently while en route to purchase a Christmas present for Charlie.

The bulk of the novel focuses on Charlie’s relationship with two seniors, Sam and her step-brother Patrick, who introduce him to a wide array of experiences – from his first kiss to experimenting with drugs and alcohol. In fact, after a near-death experience with LSD, Charlie begins to suspect that he is suffering from more than the trauma of losing two loved ones.

Like any good bildungsroman, Chbosky explores themes of sexuality, violence, and drugs all through the filter of Charlie’s neuroses. Chbosky puts the epistolary format to good use; the letters provide a realistic sense of Charlie, complete with run-ons and scant punctuation. As Charlie matures personally and intellectually, his writing improves visibly after he begins a friendship with Bill, a hippie English teacher with aspirations of becoming a playwright.

Themes of sexual and physical abuse are not limited to Charlie; various characters struggle with their own demons as Charlie’s father repeatedly assures him that “many people have it a lot worse.” It is at these moments – the moments when Charlie quietly contemplates his peer group – when Chbosky is at his best. Charlie’s quiet, understated observations about the dynamics of abuse on family and friends is believable and beautifully done – albeit a bit too reliant on common tropes.

Undoubtedly, the stereotypes and situations that Chbosky brings to bear in The Perks of Being a Wallflower are not unique or new. Despite this, the empathy the author clearly feels for his characters creates a surprisingly complex and mature take on abuse. This tiny novel examines the circular nature of sexual and physical abuse all within the framework of a highly enjoyable high school story, replete with surfing in the back of pickup trucks, keggers and football.

Editor's Note: While in college, Alexandra Bracken began writing her first novel, Brightly Woven, as a birthday present for a friend. Now comes The Darkest Minds, book one of a young adult thriller series set in the near future, in which sixteen-year-old Ruby has special powers that cause her parents to send her to a government "rehabilitation camp." Bracken leads us on a wild journey as Ruby and other runaways try to escape their bleak fate. Here, Bracken takes a few minutes to chat with Everyday eBook about her futuristic world and the dark side of human nature.

Everyday eBook: Like the work of many of your contemporaries, The Darkest Minds spends a significant amount of time depicting the ugly side of human nature to great effect. Do you think there is a reason this trend has emerged at this specific point in time?

Alexandra Bracken: I don't know that there's a simple answer in why dystopian novels are having a moment, but I do think it is at least partially because of the times we live in. It seems to me like we're all asking similar questions in different ways. In my case, for example, a lot of the thematic undertones and questions that feature in The Darkest Minds are the result of experiencing September 11 as a freshman in high school and coming of age in a time of uncertainty, fear, and economic insecurity. Things are a little better now, but I'm not sure we've ever fully shaken off the sense of dread that came hand-in-hand with a tragedy of that magnitude. To me, dark stories like this allow readers to experience horrifying events in a "safe" way; they can see possible outcomes to worst-case scenarios without those terrible events actually happening.

EE: How did you come to the decision to set the world in the near future?

AB: I think it engages readers to see some kernel of their own lives or fears reflected in albeit a very exaggerated manner; I wanted readers to feel like this is something that genuinely could happen. I wanted them to be able to find all of these places on a map. I wanted them to see something familiar to them and be hit with the emotional impact of seeing how it fared. I think, in a lot of ways, it naturally adds to the tension of a book to feel like all of this could happen tomorrow.

EE: Themes of betrayal, specifically the familial betrayal, are prevalent in the stories of several characters. Why is this particular form of betrayal such an important part of the world you create?

AB: One of the things I was very conscious of while I was working on this story was that I really wanted the world these characters live in -- their version of America -- to serve as the primary antagonist. It's an extremely hostile environment, both socially and economically, where people have been pushed to the breaking point and are willing to do things they otherwise wouldn't. Familial betrayal is, to me, the most heartbreaking kind -- because if you can't trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you really trust? Many of the kids in the book feel betrayed by their families for sending them to these "rehab" camps. They don't necessarily understand that their parents are buying into the government's messaging that the camp programs are the only way to ensure their children will survive and be "rehabilitated" from an affliction that's killed millions of their peers. They also, in many cases, don't realize that their parents have no idea how terrible these camps actually are. While there are parents who do fight to keep their kids out of these programs, there are a number of them who send their children to the camps willingly because they are legitimately afraid of them and the abilities they develop (pyrokinesis, for example, is probably a tough pill to swallow no matter how loving the parents are).

Jacob Portman is a strange kid. Circumstances haven’t exactly helped him, either; as a bottom-tier social pariah and heir to a large convenience store chain, he never really stood a chance at a normal life. His family whispers he’s become unhinged, and perhaps he has, because with his grandfather’s sudden death comes skeletons from his family’s closet, and Jacob swiftly enters the fantasy world of that fabled past in Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Riggs' novel for young adults is curiously surreal. The dreamy narrative, interspersed with sepia-tinged, crumbling photographs of sullen, floating girls, and half-human hybrids, is a foray into bizarro ephemera that is at turns poignant and deeply unsettling. On an isolated Welsh island, Jacob finds himself in great peril among murky trenches, curmudgeonly locals, and a series of disturbing lamb slaughters. From there, he sets out on his own to uncover the truth about his grandfather’s cryptic last words and what really happened on September 3, 1940. Are all the old photographs of Miss Peregrine and her wards mere parlor tricks and illusions -- a fantastical bedtime story for the young Jacob -- or was there really something magical about them?

As Jacob soon discovers, it’s the latter: “On the other side” of the island, the date is always September 3, as it has been for seventy years, and the inhabitants remain neither aged nor changed. Jacob is instantly drawn to one of the girls, Emma, a (literally) fiery, hot-tempered sprite who, we learn, had once been his grandfather’s sweetheart. Their outré but blossoming romance quickly withers in the face of the grim reality that the vicious monsters who once haunted his grandfather’s nightmares still exist and present a real danger.

Steeped both in rich history and mysticism, the novel explores the tragedy and effects of World War II, but is characteristically aggrandized by the lure of otherworldly realms. Miss Peregrine and the orphans never died in a hostile bombing, but instead continued to thrive with superhuman abilities. It is once their way of life is challenged that Jacob must step up and confront his own demons in the process.

Wonderfully eerie and eccentric, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a unique read for young readers and adults alike, who don’t mind a bit of murder with their mystery.

I have a weakness for small-town stories, and an even greater weakness for a good supernatural tale, so Beautiful Creatures is a great find that hits all the right notes. Co-authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl have created a world in which anything seems possible, while capturing both the charm and the suffocation of a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business.

Gatlin, South Carolina, is such a place, where a person's roots are everything. Most of the townsfolk can trace their lineage back to the Civil War. No one ever really leaves Gatlin and new arrivals are treated with suspicion. So when Lena Duchannes arrives in the sleepy town, her appearance is made only more surprising when it is revealed that she is the niece of Gatlin's very own mysterious shut-in, Macon Ravenwood. Still, Lena captures the attention of Ethan Wate, a closeted dreamer who longs to escape his stifling hometown. As Ethan and Lena's relationship develops, long-hidden secrets are revealed, and it turns out that Gatlin may have a more extraordinary history than anyone could have ever imagined.

It's refreshing to read an epic young adult novel in which the protagonist is male, since so many YA novels are female-driven, and both Lena and Ethan are well-rounded characters that are completely believable. Occasionally, the prose of the star-crossed lovers borders on melodramatic, but Garcia and Stohl manage to straddle the line between teen angst and a dark gothic tale.

I found the family lineage and the ties to the Civil War fascinating. Between the paranormal powers and the family drama, I think I could have read dozens of books following the history of Lena and Ethan's families. I feel like I just got a taste of Gatlin, not to mention the Duchannes/Ravenwood and Wate families. I can't wait to read Beautiful Chaos, the next book in The Caster Chronicles series, but I may have to hold out for summer because these fantastic Southern Gothic supernatural stories are just begging to be read on a porch with a nice glass of sweet tea.

Want more? The film adaptation of Beautiful Creatures is due out in theaters on February 13.

Libba Bray has been one of my favorite YA writers since A Great and Terrible Beauty, so I jumped at the chance to review her new book The Diviners and, of course, was not disappointed. Set in the 1920s, the story centers around Evie, a seventeen-year-old Ohio transplant who comes to New York City to live with her uncle, the supernatural academic, and his assistant. Shortly after her arrival the city is rocked by a series of murders, which she and her uncle discover may be connected to a darker presence lurking in the shadows.

The world that Bray has created is a thing of beauty. I love period pieces, whether they be books, TV, or movies, but find it’s incredibly hard to find the right balance of incorporating historical and cultural tidbits of the time period without becoming excessive and alienating the audience. There were a few points where I found myself saying, “Okay, I get it. We’re in the Roaring Twenties,” but overall I was just so engrossed in the story I didn’t care. Also, being a New Yorker made it exciting to place all the events in my own city. I even read the author’s note (which I rarely do -- it’s shameful, I know) at the end where Bray expounds on historical events and places from the book.

In the beginning I found myself worried I would hate Evie. She was rather shallow and the quintessential “bright, young thing,” yet I ended up loving her. Her bravery and charm quickly won me over. Bray has a knack for creating realistic, flawed characters for whom you can’t help but root. It also helped that, while Evie was at the center of the action, Bray had a well-rounded cast, each with his or her own story and mystery (and a few with extraordinary powers) that I’m eager to see play out in the coming books.

And did I mention this book was scary? Like, really scary. I am still getting chills thinking about Naughty John and the rhyme he sings while carrying out his dirty deeds. I was a little surprised at the amount of gore, but I appreciated Bray not trying to sugarcoat any of it. And none of it was gratuitous. The religious and supernatural aspects that unfolded were incredibly creepy, yet at the same time kept me turning pages even faster to see how it would all come together.

I find The Diviners almost hard to review because I’m loathe to give anything away. There are secrets upon secrets throughout the book and just when I thought I’d figured it all out Bray threw a curve ball that had me racing to see what would happen next. What Bray has created here is a tight mystery, a chilling ghost story, and a sprawling piece of 1920s history all in one incredibly entertaining package. The Diviners are gearing up to be the X-Men of the Roaring Twenties and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Reviewing a No. 1 New York Times bestselling book that Time magazine called “damn near genius” is a tall task. It makes me wonder what I could possibly say that would persuade a reader to pick up the book, if they haven’t done so already. So why did I agree? Because I am awestruck by John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.

Yes, this is a book where the main characters are teenagers living with – and in some cases, dying of – cancer, but it is most certainly NOT a book about cancer. It is a heartbreaking love story about living, truly living, no matter the circumstances. You will cry, but I guarantee you will also laugh. You might even cheer for Hazel and Gus at times.

Hazel Grace is sixteen years old, and while a trial drug has slowed the progression of her disease, she is terminal, or as she puts it, “My final chapter was written upon diagnosis.” Urged by her parents to attend a cancer support group for teens, she meets the love of her life, Augustus Waters. Theirs is a bold, sweet, charming, and wry story full of wit and irreverence that sweeps you along, making you forget they are fictional characters.

The Fault in Our Stars is technically a Young Adult book, but it defies categorization, and appeals to readers of all ages. While Green is writing about teens, there is nothing juvenile about his subjects or his writing. Like any great piece of fiction, it provides “a vital means of imagining a life other than our own. In turn making us more empathetic beings” (Ann Patchett). Don’t read this book just because it is an example of exceptional Young Adult literature, and by the same turn, do not miss this book because it is categorized as YA. Just read it because it deserves to be read.

Markus Zusak is a bit of a legend, having written the profound award-winning novel, The Book Thief. One of his earlier young adult books, I Am the Messenger, displays his immense talent for authentically portraying the experiences of his characters. He did so with the girl struggling to survive Nazi Germany in The Book Thief, and he does so here, in the story of an unmotivated young man whose life is upended when he embarks on a mysterious, dangerous mission. Family, friendship, love, and the moral responsibility that connects all three surface in this story, adding up to become a novel that is heavy and light, serious and funny, and especially thought provoking.

Set in contemporary Australia, Ed Kennedy is a nineteen-year-old cabdriver who grew up on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks. He's an underachiever who spends his time playing cards with his friends, one of whom -- the beautiful Audrey -- he's secretly in love with. His kind but unsuccessful father has recently died, his older brother can do no wrong, and he barely tolerates his verbally abusive mother. Ed lives alone with his smelly dog, The Doorman, his most loyal companion.

Everything is going along as usual until the day Ed unwittingly stops a bank robbery and apprehends the robber. From that moment on, he's a local hero. Soon, he begins anonymously receiving mysterious playing cards in his mailbox, Aces to be specific, on which clues are written. Compelled to decipher the clues and go where he is directed, he winds up intervening in people's lives, sometimes with encouragement, sometimes with a gun. It's menacing, ominous business, because when Ed tries to stop, he is threatened and beaten. And so he becomes "the messenger," fixing lives, helping or hurting as needed. Ultimately, Ed has been given an odd opportunity to exercise a strange power, through which he discovers his desire to be more than a nobody, to live up to his potential. Zusak paints his rough-edged protagonist with a tenderness and thoughtfulness that is impossible to resist.

I Am the Messenger is a natural fit for young adults, as it speaks to the feeling of being an outsider and choosing one's path in life, but it appeals to mature readers with its complex characters, moral conflict, and suspenseful plot. Who is behind the playing cards? Who is forcing Ed to comply? This is no innocent tale. There has been some debate about the novel's ending, which takes an existentialist turn, but I think it fits well with the world Zusak has created for Ed Kennedy. You'll have to read it and decide for yourself, but I do promise you'll feel rewarded.

Remember your first serious crush? Are you cringing, looking back? Okay, good. We have all been there and endured the awkward splendor and hormonal grief of a (likely) unrequited relationship in our early teen years. While it is often humorous in hindsight, it is drama of the highest order while it is happening. There is an art to documenting the plight of your first love: a tall order that first-time Australian novelist, Laura Buzo, has brilliantly executed in Love and Other Perishable Items. This delightful book was originally published in Australia two years ago as Good Oil, where it was nominated for the prestigious Prime Minister's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction. Buzo manages to tackle two subjects that are often reduced to cliches (your first teenage crush and becoming a grown-up) with fresh insight and pathos. It's a joy to read.

Meet Amelia: a socially awkward, naive fifteen-year-old working a crappy part-time job as a supermarket cashier. Her situation would be totally unbearable if it weren't for her coworker Chris, who is the only person in her life to whom she feels connected. The only trouble is that Chris is a wayward twenty-two-year-old college student, licking his wounds from a recent breakup and trying to figure out how to become an adult when he feels anything but. From the onset it's clear that a seven-year age gap rules out the prospect of dating. However, Amelia and Chris connect so well that a friendship naturally blossoms.

Love and Other Perishable Items alternates between Amelia and Chris's perspectives, which gives the reader deep insight into both characters. One of my favorite elements of this book  is that Chris and Amelia are both so darn well-written to the point that I half expected them to step off the page and join me for a chat over coffee. This book has something for readers of all ages: Amelia's story will make you reminisce about being a silly, love-struck teenager, while Chris's section of the book will give you insight (or the ability to reflect) on the limbo that comes from straddling the years between adolescence and adulthood.

Rebecca Stead’s Liar & Spy chronicles life from the point of view of the diffident Georges, a seventh-grade Brooklynite who has just moved from his childhood home to a nearby apartment complex. It’s in his new residence that he meets Safer, a trench-coat wearing, coffee-drinking enigma of a twelve-year-old who recruits Georges to spy for him. Their target is Mr. X -- a fellow resident, who may or may not have bodies filed away in suitcases.

Life’s not easy for Georges. Not only does he have to juggle Safer’s increasingly absurd espionage schemes, but he also has to deal with his father’s recent unemployment and his mother working long hours at the hospital. On top of that, poor Georges endures harassment at school from a few clowns who call him everything from Geek to Gorgeous. He bears it all pretty well, but when Georges discovers that someone he has trusted has betrayed him, his world comes crashing down.

Stead is worth her salt. Her depiction of Georges’ trials and tribulations, as well as the building, dissolution, and rekindling of his various relationships is more than admirable. The coming-of-age tale she has written is a modern twist on the classic -- a far cry from the dreamy landscapes of heroes of yore, Georges grows up in the city and frequents unromantic haunts such as a pizza parlor and a Chinese diner. Instead of the usual bandits and pirates, his rivals are his fellow classmates -- rogues of a different yet no less callous sort. His biggest rival of all is his own self and the secret delusions he harbors.

Georges is an immediately likable, sympathetic character, especially for those who have shared similar painful experiences as a social wallflower navigating through young adulthood. He's not particularly bright or wry, but it's his ordinariness and loyalty to his friends and family that make him simultaneously endearing and enduring. Despite his surroundings, which range from bleak to bizarre, he soldiers on and meets every challenge he encounters. Georges bridges the divide between childhood and young adulthood and, eventually, he finds himself on the other side.

This is a story about growing up. As the novel progresses, so does Georges, by gaining insight into those around him and learning about himself and what kind of person he wants to become. Bravery is not instinctual to Georges, but with the help of a few allies, he emerges from his shy cocoon to stand up for himself and what he believes in. Liar & Spy is a sharply intuitive, engaging tale that teaches, through Georges’ example, how to be independent, and perhaps, most importantly, how to be brave.

Does Laini Taylor know how to title a book or what? She’s also managed to kick the whole second-book-in-a-trilogy-sucking curse right in the behind. The best way I can describe her latest, Days of Blood and Starlight, is (to borrow from one of my other favorite author's books, North of Beautiful) jolie laide, literally translated from the French as “pretty ugly.”

Let me explain (and try to do so without revealing any spoilers for those of you who may not have read the first novel). Days of Blood and Starlight is not an easy read by any means. We, as readers, are deeper in blue-haired orphan Karou’s world of angels and chimera, and war has taken its toll there. The tone of the whole book is darker and full of the bleak realities of war. Taylor takes an unflinching view of the sheer brutality of both sides, and how war makes monsters of all of us.

In the midst of all this, however, there is beauty. There is beauty in the full awareness of her life and who she is that Karou now possesses since the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. There is beauty in following her as she becomes more confident in herself. There is beauty in small moments, in unexpected friendships and allies. And of course, Taylor’s writing is as beautiful as ever.

Again, this was not a carefree romp of a book. But it will leave you thinking about greater things in life, and leave you wanting more. And so the countdown begins for the last book in the trilogy, slated for 2013.

The book is always better than the movie. (Okay, maybe not always but it usually is.) I don't know why it took me so long to read Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I really loved the movie so I think I was worried it would taint my memory if the book didn't live up to expectations (or even made the movie pale in comparison). Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the book had everything I loved about the movie and more. Set against the backdrop of New York City, teenagers Nick and Norah spend one adventure-filled night chasing the elusive band "Where's Fluffy?" Their search takes them all over the city as they avoid their exes, deal with drunken best friends, and even fall in love.

Told in alternating points of view from two different authors, this book seems personal and intimate, yet fast-paced and full of adrenaline. The dual points of view are a fun way to see how words and actions can be misinterpreted despite the best of intentions. You can't help but fall in love with each character, flaws and all. Nick is the quintessential Emo kid. His outlandish statements about the state of his broken heart made me want to smack him and give him a hug at the same time. Norah is so incredibly neurotic and paranoid that I … well, actually I saw a lot of myself in Norah so that's probably why I loved her so much. Their chemistry and witty dialogue really lives up to their predecessors, Nick and Nora of The Thin Man.

What I loved most about the book compared to the movie (sorry, I can't separate the two, though I know I should. I think it'd be the other way around if I read the book first): Tris. In the movie she's a throwaway one-dimensional character. She's just the girl in the way of Nick and Norah's relationship. Yet, in the book there's so much more to her and you see why she makes the choices she does. It's a great peek at the dynamics of female relationships and what girls will do to "fit in."

As the story unfolds, I found myself not really interested in finding the mysterious band. I just enjoyed watching two broken people fall in love page by page. The evolution of Nick and Norah's relationship may seem to happen fast since the entire book spans just one night, but that's the thing about New York. One night can feel like more like a month and sometimes one night is all it takes to really connect with someone.

If you've seen the movie, definitely read the book. If you've read the book, give the movie a try. They're similar in spirit and both are infused with frenetic energy full of pop culture, music trivia, and New York tidbits, but both the movie and the book will surprise you in the turns they take with the same story. If you haven't had the pleasure of either, what are you waiting for?

In his New York Magazine review of “Lincoln,” directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Tony Kushner, based on the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Edelstein said, “By the time the movie ends, you don’t feel as if you know Lincoln – few, in his own time, claimed to know him. But you feel as if you know what it was like to be in his presence.” The sixteenth president of the United States is indeed reputed to have been hard to get to know personally. Thankfully, numerous biographers and journalists have delved deep into the history books and further, working wholeheartedly to uncover not just one of the greatest presidents in history – but also a most interesting man. Here’s a look at a few of those works worth checking out if you're interested in knowing the man behind the presidency.

A. Lincoln, by Ronald C. White, Jr.
Princeton PhD Ronald C. White, Jr. conducted meticulous and expansive research to write his comprehensive biography of Abraham Lincoln, touching on Lincoln’s personal, political, and moral evolution. From who he was at home, in the public eye, as commander-in-chief, and more, White’s biography is where you should start if you’re looking for an all-encompassing portrait of Abe Lincoln.

Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America, by Harold Holzer
Harold Holzer’s Lincoln is written as a companion to Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” which stars Daniel Day-Lewis, and is appropriate for a young adult audience – but still holds appeal for adults. Holzer is the chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation and one of the country’s leading authorities on Lincoln. His book focuses on the months leading up to Lincoln’s assassination – but works backward, too, to tell a fuller story of Lincoln’s life. For a kid-friendly look at the life of Lincoln, Holzer's book is one to read.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s tome, on which the Daniel Day-Lewis-starring “Lincoln” is based, focuses on the politics of Abraham Lincoln. If you’re hungry for an in-depth chronicle of the very dramatic – and wildly interesting – political history and shaping of Lincoln, Goodwin’s biography is where you want to head.

The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, by Daniel Mark Epstein
They say that behind every great man is a great woman. Whether you choose to believe that sentiment or not, the relationship dynamics of power couples past and present are intriguing, to say the least. The goings-on of Mary Todd (portrayed by Sally Field in “Lincoln”) and Abe were no different. Epstein’s portrait of the couple is likely the most honest look you’ll get into the private lives of President Lincoln and his First Lady.

The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Philip Van Doren Stern
Abraham Lincoln was many things, including a talented writer. His Gettysburg Address – “Four score and seven years ago…” – considered widely to be one of the greatest speeches in American history, is one of many pieces of writing penned by this brilliant man. If you’re curious about his lesser-known works, you’ll want to check out this vast collection of Lincoln’s writings.

I first met Kirsten Hubbard at the launch party for her first novel, Like Mandarin. I loved that book and its thoughtful exploration of the intensity of teen friendship. When I heard that we were publishing another young adult novel by Hubbard, I couldn't wait to read it, and Wanderlove didn't disappoint. I can't say that I loved it more than Like Mandarin, but only because they were both so beautifully written and captivating, and it would be impossible to choose a favorite! Hubbard has a true gift for both character and setting. Wanderlove dropped me into Central America, in the midst of backpackers and wanderers, like Rowan and Starling, two siblings with whom the book's main character, Bria, becomes entangled. Here, Hubbard reveals her own backpacking experience that inspired this novel, the joy of living in the moment, and her personal "beautiful mania."

Everyday eBook: What inspired you to write about backpacking in Central America?

Kirsten Hubbard: I first backpacked through Central America at age twenty. My now-husband and I spent six weeks there, traveling all over the isthmus. Since then, I've returned many times, occasionally on press trips for my Central America Travel site, but mostly as a backpacker. There's a big difference between travel and a vacation, I've found. I'm not sure I've ever taken the latter, abroad, at least. Once I'm elsewhere, I'm just so struck by all the things to see and do, I want to go, go, go. It's like a beautiful mania. Plus, I love having everything I need strapped to my back, like a bohemian tortoise. I knew I needed to share both the travel serendipity I've experienced and the backpacker lifestyle in a young adult novel.

EE: What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

KH: Oh, totally, the kissing scene. Honestly, this book's just packed with joy in so many parts. It's all about Bria learning to jump in and participate, to embrace the moment, and every time she does -- riding a boat through a thunderstorm, playing soccer in the mud with a bunch of local kids, even just climbing into a hammock with Rowan and talking travel philosophy -- the scenes were thrilling to write.

EE: Which character speaks the loudest, to you? Do any of them clamor to be heard over the others?

KH: Besides Bria, the protagonist of Wanderlove, it's Rowan's sister Starling who really speaks to me. She's eccentric, a total in-your-face spitfire, but with a great heart. I'd love to write her story someday.

EE: Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?

KH: Travel! Experience the world yourself. It can be so much cheaper and easier than you think, and it opens your eyes like nothing else. If Wanderlove inspires a few teens off the beaten path, I've done my job.

This post originally ran on Random Acts of Reading.

Happy Birthday, Everyday eBook. On November 15, 2011, we welcomed EverydayeBook.com into the digital space. Since then, we’ve covered hundreds of books, recommending to you, our dear followers and readers, some of the best of what we’re reading -- through prose, interviews, author-penned pieces, and more. In honor of our first birthday, we’d like to take a look back at some of the posts from our early days that we think you may have missed and that we’re particularly fond of. Happy eReading!

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Tom Brokaw
By Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw has been delivering the news in his distinctive style for decades. His career has taken him all over the world, and has brought him into countless American living rooms nightly. Now, Brokaw gets a little personal on Everyday eBook.

An Introduction to The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
By Alexander McCall Smith
Beloved author Alexander McCall Smith welcomes us into the fantastic world of Precious Ramotswe and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

On the Success of Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
By Edward Kastenmeier
With over sixty-five million copies sold, and fans worldwide spanning ages, classes, and sexes, it’s clear that the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy is not only an enormous commercial success, it has directly impacted our culture. But why?

How to Read Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in 5 Easy Steps
By Jennifer Ridgway
Is it worth it? What’s it actually about? Here are a few recommendations for those on the fence about whether or not they should read what may be the most famous Russian novel.

Gone Girl: A Q&A With Gillian Flynn About Her Sharpest Object Yet
By Kristin Fritz
Gillian Flynn, author of Sharp Objects and Dark Places, sat down with Everyday eBook upon the release of her latest mind-blowing novel to talk about inspiration, the dark side of marriage, playing favorites, and more.

A Murakami Primer: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
By Courtney Allison
With the widely publicized release of 1Q84, it’s worth taking a look back at Haruki Murakami’s earlier works. Let's start with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a rabbit-hole into Murakami’s world. It’s kind of like "Lost." But in book form. And weirder. Think raining fish.

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher: Rogue Shark or Jack the Knife?
By Christine McNamara
Lee Child's main man is like a shark in more ways than one. Oh, you've not tested the waters he swims in yet? Well get ready to dive in.

6 Must-Read Books for ‘Downton Abbey’ Fans
By Juliet Simon
If you’re taken with the drama, history, and romance in this series and are craving more, try capturing that feeling in book form; it lasts longer than an episode and will transport you just the same.

Perfectly Paired with Wine and Cheese: Julia Child’s My Life in France
By Richard Callison
'Last Saturday, I conveniently found myself at home opening a bottle of wine and tackling one of my favorite dishes, Coq au Vin, from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. Nothing gets me in the mood for French cooking more than spending a couple of hours revisiting France through Julia Child's eyes, so before I rolled up my sleeves, I cracked open my well-worn copy of her memoir, My Life in France.'

Remembering Lois Lowry’s The Giver
By Naina Sharma
'I was nervous when I picked up Lois Lowry’s The Giver recently. I was worried that what had seemed profound and poetic as a child would become trite and lack depth as an adult. Luckily, the book, and my memory, did not disappoint.'

When you live a comfortable life and have all your basic needs taken care of, it's easy to forget that much of the world is not nearly as lucky. I'm a firm believer that it's important to expose ourselves to the plight of the less fortunate as a reminder of how lucky we are by comparison. This personal philosophy (coupled with a true adoration of Young Adult literature) is what initially attracted me to Andy Mulligan's marvelous novel, Trash.

Set in an unnamed Third World country in the near future, three young "dumpsite boys" support themselves by picking through mountains of garbage that lie on the periphery of their city. One fateful day, a dumpsite boy named Raphael comes across a special and mysterious treasure in his daily digging. Although the police immediately offer a handsome reward for the missing object, Raphael teams up with his friends Gardo and Rat to keep his find secret. The three boys are soon thrown into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, as they must outsmart and evade the authorities despite having no resources in the form of family, money, or education.

Andy Mulligan's storytelling is so visceral that you can practically feel the weight of the mountains of garbage looming around you and the pungent stench invading your nostrils. Trash kept me on my toes throughout, as the bounty of twists and turns propelled the story forward at a breakneck pace. Mulligan does a brilliant job of capturing the voices of the invisible by using their own language and slang style. Additionally, the story is told from the perspective of each boy, which helped the novel feel more intimate and varied. While the book is aimed at teenagers in grades 7-10, I would highly recommend it for adult readers as well. Anything we can do to help acquaint ourselves with the struggles faced by others helps us become more compassionate people.

Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone was published in the fall of 2011 to quite a bit of fanfare in the young adult book world. For some reason, I stubbornly refused to pick this book up until a few months ago when a coworker urged me (very passionately) to read it immediately. I did, and realized the full extent of my own folly -- this is one of the best books I've ever read.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone weaves an intoxicating tale about blue-haired Karou, who is studying art in Prague. But studying art isn't all she does. Karou also runs mysterious errands collecting human teeth all over the world for a creature named Brimstone. I couldn't help but compare the beginning of the book to "Alias" (a favorite TV show of mine). The blue hair, the spy-like secrecy surrounding her errands, the international destinations -- I loved the mystery of it all. And there are plenty of mysteries. For one, who is Karou? She doesn't know who her parents are, or where she comes from. What purpose do the human teeth serve? Who is the beautiful stranger with golden eyes she is inexplicably drawn to? And why are black handprints showing up all over the world?

Taylor answers all of these questions while raising more, in the best way possible. The rest of the story unfolds like an exquisite flower. The more you read, the more you want to know about this world that Taylor has created. Yes, the first few chapters are a bit slower moving, but as the scope of the story expands, the pace picks up.

I couldn't stop reading this book until I was finished. I tore through it and then was sorry because, at the time, I had to wait another six months for the sequel. You, however, are one lucky reader because Days of Blood and Starlight, the sequel, is out early November, so you can devour both books, one right after the other. Once you've had a taste of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, you'll not want to stop.

Reading Jerry Spinelli's wondrous young adult novel, Stargirl, published in 2000, it seemed like something plucked out of a time capsule from the 1970s -- there were no vampires, no caged battles to the death. This made sense when I realized that Spinelli's first young adult work was released in 1982 and he had been writing them before and ever since. Spinelli sets this quiet coming-of-age story in an ordinary town in a desert community in Arizona at a typical high school. Or, typical until an extraordinary new girl shows up.

Spinelli's tale is narrated by Leo Borlock, a sensitive sixteen-year-old who fits in among his classmates. Everything is going along as usual when Stargirl, fresh from homeschooling, arrives. She is unlike anyone else. She twirls and plays the ukulele in the cafeteria, serenading students with "Happy Birthday." She puts a vase of flowers on her desk every day. She wears the wrong clothes and no makeup. She gives out homemade cards that are unsigned. She cares for people -- but she doesn't seem to care what people think of her.

At first, the students -- Leo especially -- are fascinated, absorbing her brightness and reflecting it themselves. Leo and Stargirl gravitate toward each other and enter their own magical world of first love. But then Stargirl does something just a little too unusual -- an act of good will, really, but directed toward the wrong group -- and the school turns against her. Leo is caught in the middle and finds himself wanting his girlfriend to be "normal," because now he's also being treated as an outcast: "I knew exactly what I had done. I had linked myself to an unpopular person. That was my crime."

"I’m not connected!" Stargirl responds when Leo asks her why she doesn't behave the way other people do. And what is Spinelli really saying here? At times we wonder: Is she mentally ill, an alien, weird, or just … kind and sincere? And as for Leo, continuing their relationship would mean being shunned by his so-called friends. He must answer a tough question: Whose affections are more important: Stargirl's or everyone else's?

Stargirl is as relevant today as it would have been in 1978 because Spinelli captures the timeless experience of the peer pressure to fit in, and the resulting teen angst and bullying if one doesn't comply. This is a modern classic about popularity, the threat of nonconformity, and the choices we make during those teen years that seem so crucial. In 2007, Spinelli published Love, Stargirl and I'm excited to read more about this enchanting young woman. I would like to think I had the moral character to have been her friend in high school (but I can't say for sure).

I will admit right up front that I rarely read dystopian young adult books. I've read The Hunger Games series, but the sea of paranormal, dystopian, and fantasy books that crowd bookstore shelves these days leaves me cold. I blame this on a combination of factors: no longer being a teen myself; a preference for wistful, angsty contemporary fiction; and a genuine fear of the dark future world depicted in many of these books. But when I realized that a book we were publishing was written by a local Southern California author, a book I had heard much internal buzz about already, I decided to give it a try. I'm so glad that I did, because Starters, by debut author Lissa Price, is a fast-paced thrilling book that I read in just one sitting.

Set in the near future, after everyone but the very young and the very old have been killed in a bio-warfare attack, the book opens with Callie, a teenager, deciding to "rent" her body to wealthy seniors wanting to be young again, through the shadowy and mysterious organization called Prime Destinations. Needing the money they promise her to care for her sickly younger brother, Callie agrees to the "rentals." During a routine rental, however, a neurochip malfunction leads to Callie waking up. At first, Callie relishes her temporary life, living in a mansion, driving a flashy car, and befriending other Enders in young rented bodies at special nightclubs. But when she realizes that her Ender has a deadly plan for Callie's body to carry out, she must decide who she can trust: her Ender, Prime Destinations, or her own survival instincts.

Starters is a must-read for teens or adults looking for a worthy successor to Suzanne Collins' books. It's exciting and funny, with a strong female heroine, a hint of romance, and a touching brother/sister relationship. Fans will have to wait to see what happens to Callie after the book's cliff-hanger conclusion, when Enders, the sequel, is published (coming soon!).

This post originally ran on Random Acts of Reading.

Editor's Note: Sarah Rees Brennan is the author of Unspoken, the first book of her young adult trilogy, The Lynburn Legacy. Kami Glass is an outsider in her sleepy English town mainly because she's in love with someone she's never met -- a boy she talks to in her head. When disturbing events begin happening, Kami realizes her town is hiding secrets, and a murderer. The key to it all might just be the boy in her head, who, it turns out, is deliciously real. Here, Brennan talks about her trilogy, Gothic novels, and reading minds.

Everyday eBook: What inspired you to write Unspoken?

Sarah Rees Brennan: I've seen in a lot of places the idea that reading someone else's mind would be romantic, and always thought it might be much more complicated than that -- shocking and difficult to deal with instead -- so the idea of a girl finding out her imaginary friend was a real guy was the first inspiration for the novel. And I've always loved Gothic novels, in which so often the hero is hiding a Dark Secret from the heroine (wife in the attic, say) and I love trope reversals. The idea of a pair investigating a Gothic mystery who really can't keep any secrets from each other appealed to me greatly. Thus I launched in on a yearlong attempt to read every Gothic novel in the world! Turns out they are absolutely chock-full of people getting buried alive. That's the major theme; I was surprised too.

EE: What was your favorite chapter, or part, to write and why?

SRB: The part where Kami and Jared first meet: the shocking moment when imagination and reality first intersect, with what I hope are surprising and interesting results.

EE: Which character speaks the loudest to you?

SRB: Different characters speak loudest at different times, really! Kami of Unspoken really works for me as a continuous voice, because she’s goofy and sees the world much like I do. I said recently of the hero, "I like it when Jared isn't happy, because he is SUPER FUN to write then." He's a really dramatic guy with many feelings. At one point he tries to strangle a dude with the tie to his own bed curtains. (Oh sorry. That's a spoiler. And it isn't even in the first book. But in the first book he does stage a dramatic break-up with someone he's not dating, so.) I think there's a time for each character to come center stage: I have this one very laid-back, funny character called Rusty who was a real help making the tensest scenes of book two be fun as well as tense.

EE: What was your favorite genre to read as a teenager?

SRB: As a teenager, I read much the same way I do now. (I'm, uh, very mature.) I read everything: lots of teen fantasy, absolutely, and Tamora Pierce and Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley were the best introductions a girl could have, but I also love romance, and crime, and science fiction, and literary fiction, and even poetry when I only have three minutes to have leisure reading. (Yes, I may have just admitted to reading poems in the ladies' bathroom.)

This post originally ran on Random Acts of Reading.

It did not take much coaxing to convince me to read David Levithan’s new novel, Every Day. While I was initially pulled in by the book's description -- “Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.” -- I ultimately kept reading because of Levithan's masterful ability to craft a wonderful story. Full disclosure: I cried upon reading the last few pages, which does not happen often.

In Every Day we are introduced to A, a teen who wakes up in a different teenager's body daily and is forced to inhabit his or her shoes for a full twenty-four hours before moving on to the next body. Despite having no control over who is next, A has made peace with the situation by going unnoticed and avoiding connections with other people. It's a lonely life, yes, but that is all A knows. A is not described as having a gender or physical appearance. One fateful day, A wakes up in a boy named Justin's body and by the end of the day has fallen deeply in love with Justin's mistreated girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment on, A does everything possible to be by her side, even if it means drawing unwanted attention to the host bodies. Trouble soon finds A after a careless oversight is made while inhabiting a boy named Nathan.

Let me put it simply: This book packs a powerful punch. David Levithan succeeds in weaving threads of humanity, equality, and love into Every Day, creating a luminous tapestry of characters and resonating takeaways. The biggest question I was left to ponder upon finishing this book was: "Could I love someone if I never knew what they looked like?" Every Day is the kind of book that has the potential to make a real impact among teen and adult readers alike, thanks to Levithan's imaginative method of showing us how two people can fall in love with every odd stacked against them. I consider this my gateway drug into diving deeper into David Levithan's literary catalog.

Our favorite literary holiday, Banned Books Week, is finally upon us. In case you are not familiar with it, Banned Books Week is an annual national awareness holiday held during the last week of September that celebrates the freedom to read by drawing attention to books that have been challenged or banned in schools and libraries. According to the American Library Association, there were 326 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2011 for reasons such as language, violence, and sexual content. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the observance of Banned Books Week, which inspired us to recount our favorite banned books. The biggest challenge we faced was narrowing down the list to a mere seven favorites. Be sure to weigh in below with your favorite banned books.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry
It comes as no surprise that a young adult novel dubbed "the suicide book" caused waves among parents. Lois Lowry's 1993 Newbery-winning dystopian classic about a society that managed to outlaw negative feelings has the distinction of being one of the most frequently challenged books in middle school libraries across the United States. Parents find fault with the actions of the government in The Giver, responsible for a myriad of horrible offenses they consider routine, such as euthanizing the elderly and killing one child in a set of twins. Luckily, most of the challenges made against The Giver have been unsuccessful, helping younger generations retain access to Lowry's powerful statement against totalitarian government control and the loss of emotions.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Numbering among the most ironically banned books (along with 1984 and Brave New World), Ray Bradbury's brilliant 1953 vision of future government using firefighters to burn books that have the potential to inspire critical thinking has been continually met with opposition since publication. Most of the complaints have been about the offensive language (too many "hells" and "damns" for parents) along with "anti-Christian" allegations, due to the fact that the bible was among the books burned. Those who opposed Fahrenheit 451 made the claim that Bradbury advocated bible burning, while in fact the opposite was true: Bradbury attempted to illustrate how out of control government censorship had become when religious texts were among the books burned.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling’s seven-book series centered on teenage wizards battling evil forces has continued to delight and entertain millions since the first novel was published fifteen years ago. However, Harry Potter managed to upset conservative parents in the United States. In 1999, a group of South Carolina parents lobbied to have the Harry Potter books removed from the classroom on the grounds that they glamorize the occult. It’s a shame that one of the series credited for inspiring children to love reading has been met with opposition. We can only hope that upon the publication of the final book in J.K. Rowling’s trilogy, when good triumphs over evil, some of the opposition was inspired to see the light.

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin's progressive 1899 novella about one woman's radical decision to revolt against traditional femininity by leaving her family to take a lover and pursue a career as an artist in an Orthodox Southern community was considered immoral and censored upon publication, due to Chopin's brazen portrayal of female sexual desire. Despite the fact that The Awakening garnered a number of strong reviews, the backlash proved to be so intense that Kate Chopin never wrote another novel. We feel fortunate that she was brave enough to publish The Awakening, which is today recognized as one of the founding texts for the women’s movement.

Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison’s novels have never shied away from confronting heavy subjects such as racism, evil, and loss of innocence head-on. Her 1987 classic, Beloved, is no exception. Beloved tells the story of Sethe and her daughter Denver after their escape from enslavement during the Civil War. Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988, Beloved was challenged by many concerned parents who protested the book on grounds that it contained incest, rape, sex, infanticide, and profanity.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
It’s hard to believe that a book widely regarded as one of the resonating works of classic literature documenting the atrocities of the Nazi regime was successfully banned from Virginia school systems in 2010. Anne Frank’s firsthand account of her two years hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam warehouse was protested on the grounds that it contained “sexually explicit material and homosexual themes.” The version that was successfully banned in Virginia was The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition, which contained passages previously excluded from the original 1947 edition.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
A generation of teenagers sat up and paid attention to Stephen Chbosky’s 1999 ode to awkward adolescence. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is told from the perspective of a teenager who calls himself “Charlie” as he documents the ups and downs of his freshman year of high school. There have been at least ten instances of the book being challenged or banned since publication, mainly attributable to sexual content and drug use. If you ask us, coming-of-age novels that exclude those subjects are potentially disingenuous.

Before I talk to you about my latest book, I have a confession to make: I love ebooks. As an author, I know that I'm supposed to prefer the heft and feel and "bookishness" of print books -- and I don't dislike them by any stretch of the imagination. But as ebooks have grown in popularity, I've had to ask myself what exactly is most important to me about books, and the only answer is: the words. Separating words from pages and covers can be liberating. The words feel more like ideas that way: spontaneous, flowing, easily accessible. I still buy print books, and I miss spending time in bookstores since there are fewer of them around, but the truth is that thanks to the ready availability of ebooks I'm reading a whole lot more than I used to. So, fellow ebook lovers, here's to the easy and open exchange of ideas!

My new book, The Paladin Prophecy, is the first in a trilogy. This story has been trying to break out of me for years, and when it finally did it took me over two years to put it on its feet. The Paladin Prophecy represents a vision of everything I loved about the sci-fi and fantasy adventures that thrilled my younger self. Authors built worlds, peopled them with characters I wanted to know -- or wanted to be -- and then sent them on journeys to places deep in the heart of the human mystery we're all living. I believe in the power of mystery and the evolutionary purpose of it in our lives, particularly in that perilous passage between childhood and the grown-up world, when everything still feels possible.

Many of those stories that I loved as a kid relied on myths from other cultures, but after 250 years, we have American mythologies of our own that need exploring. In The Paladin Prophecy you'll find frontiers and pioneers, the West, the East, Native Americans, technology, futurism, progress, the myth of exceptionalism, and the pitfalls of imperial power. All in a contemporary setting that's hurtling toward an exciting but uncertain fate. Put a group of interesting young people in a setting like that, give them unimaginable dangers to confront and enough talent and skill to feel they have a chance against them, then take them on a ride that wraps our past, future, and present into a mind-bending experience. That's what The Paladin Prophecy is all about. I hope you enjoy!

Editor's Note: Alyssa B. Sheinmel is the author of the young adult novels The Beautiful Between and The Lucky Kind. Her latest book, The Stone Girl, is a sensitive, beautifully written look at a high-school girl struggling with relationships, friends, and her self-image. This is an important book for teens to read, but the story connects with those of all ages. Here, Sheinmel offers some insight into her new novel.

My third novel, The Stone Girl, is about a lonely girl named Sethie, who skips the meals she can and vomits some of those that she can't. I imagine Sethie as starving from the outside in: She thinks so little of herself that she doesn't think her body deserves physical nourishment, let alone emotional nourishment.

Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of girls out there like Sethie, girls whose stories haven't been told; girls who don't have -- or believe they don't have -- real eating disorders. There's a scene in The Stone Girl when Sethie is reading articles about eating disorders in her school nurse's office: None of them say whether a girl is bulimic if she only throws up some of the time, if she's anorexic if she only starves herself some of the time. Sethie lives somewhere in between: not anorexic enough, not bulimic enough. And just as she doesn't think that she deserves to call herself anorexic or bulimic, she certainly doesn't think that she deserves to ask for help.

I wrote The Stone Girl on evenings and weekends, on vacation days and summer Fridays. I wrote my first two novels, The Beautiful Between and The Lucky Kind, the same way; while I wrote them, I had a day job -- I worked in the marketing department at Random House Children's Books. Last summer, I made the gut-wrenching decision to leave RHCB to write full-time. Without a doubt, it was the hardest decision of my adult life -- I spent more time thinking about it than I had deciding whether to say yes when my husband asked me to marry him! Random House had been my home since I was twenty-four years old. I honestly couldn't imagine my life without going into that office every day, couldn't imagine my days without my Random House family.

I don't really know what to say when people ask me how my life is different now that I'm writing full-time. Of course, I have more time to write, and I certainly get to write more than I did before. I'm no longer surrounded by the hum of the office, and I'm not with my Random House family five days a week (though I do see them as often as I can!). But in many ways my writing life is the same, because I have the same goal now that I had when I wrote only in the evenings and on the weekends, on vacation days and summer Fridays: every day I sit down at my computer and try to write better than I wrote the day before.

This post originally ran on Random Acts of Reading.

Although Niall Leonard’s first young adult thriller, Crusher, involves handcuffs and secret liaisons, fans of E. L. James will find it satisfying in an entirely … different way.

In Crusher, Leonard brings to bear a landscape of heroes who become villains, cops on the take, dangerous damsels in distress and at least one ruthless killer with a heart of gold -- a joyous hearkening to the fiction of Alistair MacLean or Irvine Welsh for the teenage set.

Leonard invokes the London underworld through Finn, a dyslexic teen raised by his caring (if habitually unemployed and intoxicated) stepfather. When Finn finds him bludgeoned to death in the midst of writing a docu-drama about a notoriously violent gangster, Joseph “Guvnor” McGovern, Finn begins to suspect that perhaps the fiction his father was researching had become all too real.

But Finn is a survivor. Having suffered early abandonment by his mother, incompetence on his father’s end, dyslexia in the classroom, and a juvenile record for drug distribution, Finn is teen fiction’s most unlikely hero. Despite his challenges, however, he slowly begins to unravel the mystery of his father’s death as he infiltrates the Guvnor’s operation.

Suspects in the brutal slaying include his stepfather’s secret girlfriend (who seems overeager to assuage Finn’s grief), a manic pixie dream girl whose timing is suspicious, London’s most feared mobster, and even Finn’s biological mother, who has oddly reappeared after the funeral. This colorful ensemble lays the backdrop for Finn’s odyssey as he stumbles in and out of trouble with law enforcement, hardened criminals, and his own past in a tale that speaks to Leonard’s pedigree writing and directing films for the big screen.

Crusher succeeds as a thriller not only due to careful plotting and accelerated pacing, but because it takes a teen’s worst fear -- the fear of suddenly being left alone in the world -- and uses that as the starting point for a riveting murder mystery.

The fiction of Niall Leonard -- replete with shadowy henchman, alternate agendas and hidden pasts -- is not to be missed for those who enjoy escaping into the London underworld that is so often depicted in the films of Guy Ritchie or Danny Boyle. Finally, the British gangster genre comes to young adult fiction!

Click here for a peek inside Crusher by Niall Leonard.

The first time my heart broke as a young reader was at the conclusion of Charlotte's Web. I never saw the passing of that beautiful arachnid coming; it hit me like a slap in the face. I was turned off to tragedy for years, leaving the family room when I sensed impending on-film sadness on family movie night, turning off the Atari when I wasn't happy with the inevitable results of Space Invaders, keeping my feet bare well into autumn. I didn't think I could take any more. But then, as I approached the worldly and savvy age of ten, I picked up Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia. My mother screened my reading choices as a child, lest I accidentally and prematurely cross the bridge from Judy Blume's Freckle Juice to Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, and when I brought Terabithia to her in the bookstore, she eyed it warily, remembering the aftershocks of Charlotte's death. But here I was, determined and so much wiser. And then there I was a short time later, heartbroken again.

Paterson's Newbery Award-winning book tells the story of Jess Aarons. Jess has been training on his family's farm in rural Virginia all summer long for one reason: to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. The school year begins and the first race finally rolls around. Jess is confident that he's going to win. But then, in a shocking turn of events, Leslie Burke (a girl!) finishes first. Leslie is the new girl in town. She and her parents, free-spirited writers, moved to a house near Jess's family's home. In spite of their rocky beginnings, Leslie and Jess soon embark on an incredible friendship. Two loners with big imaginations escape together day after day to the magical kingdom of Terabithia, gotten to only by rope swing, a land in which they rule as king and queen, with a dog named P.T. as protector and jester.

And then fate steps in. On a rare day that finds Leslie heading to Terabithia alone, tragedy strikes, and Jess's world is forever changed. Readers are pulled into Jess's struggle as he grapples with loss. As a young reader, one is introduced to grief -- and yet learns to reconcile grief with gratitude, as Jess finds warmth in his heart for the short time Leslie was part of his life.

There are certain books that we read over the years that stay with us for any of a multitude of reasons. Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia is one of those books. The reasons? Its lessons: tragedy is manageable, grief is natural, true friendship is special, and imagination is key. The second time my heart was broken was with my first reading (of many) of Bridge to Terabithia. If you've not read it, read it now. If you have read it, revisit it. Read it and revisit it and then share one of the most beautiful heartbreaks you'll ever experience.