Catherine Clark writes comedies, dramas, and dramedies for teens. She also lists her cat as her hero. That earns her even more points in my book, no pun intended.

My favorite Clark novel is her most serious:

The Alison Rules

"You're begging her?" [Laurie] asked. "You'll have to work up to that. That's one of the Alison rules."

"Alison rules?" Patrick repeated.

"Yeah. Don't worry - you'll find out," Laurie said.

After Alison's mother passes away, she is reluctant to confide in anyone other that her long-time best friend Laurie. Alison decides to play it safe, rather than be sorry later.

I like this book so much, I gave it a post all its own!

Her next release, Wish You Were Here, will be available in March 2008.

Wish You Were Here

Before leaving for her summer road trip with her family, there are a few things Ariel has to do:

1) Go to Target (she's been there five times in two days to prepare for her trip)
2) Pack up her Skittles (she has six bags stashed in her desk drawer)
3) Say good-bye to her "semi-new, semi-boyfriend" Dylan (they've been dating for two weeks)
4) Temporarily give her cat to her paternal grandparents (Gloves can't come on their trip)
5) Stock up on postcards and stamps (so she can write to Dylan, her friend Sarah, and, yes, even Gloves)

Continue reading my review of Wish You Were Here.

Three of my favorite Clark comedies are about to be reprinted with new titles and new covers:

Better Latte Than Never (previously published as Frozen Rodeo)

A teenage girl's summer adventures include being chased by a crazy dog, working at the local Gas 'n' Git with a guy who thinks he's Bono, and attending a summer school French course taught by substitutes who don't actually know the language.

Written in first person present tense, Better Latte Than Never (previously published as Frozen Rodeo) focuses on a teenager named Peggy. Middle name, Fleming. Her father is an amateur figure skater turned real estate agent and her mother is a very pregnant weather forecaster. Due to her father's career, the children all have been named in honor of famous skaters. The five year old twins are named Torvill and Dean. The quiet and thoughtful three year old is called Dorothy. That in itself is sure to crack up any skating fan - but wait, there's more.

Peggy, who opts to go by Fleming, has a very interesting summer. After getting into multiple car accidents - in which she remains unscathed, but sadly cannot say the same for the vehicles - she is no longer allowed to drive and gets a job at the local Gas 'n' Git to pay her father back. Meanwhile, she takes a French class taught by a string of unqualified substitutes, fights her attraction for the cute waiter at IHOP, befriends a girl named Charlotte with a wild streak and bickers with her co-worker, Denny, who has an obsession with U2 and often attempts to look, sound and act like his idol, Bono.

Anyone who has ever lived in a small town and dreamed of getting out of it will echo Fleming's thoughts about her city; anyone who has felt pressured to take care of their younger siblings will sympathize with her family plight.

With a solid ending that ties every subplot and character together, I give this book a perfect score.

Banana Splitsville (previously published as Truth or Dairy)
Rocky Road Trip (previously published as Wurst Case Scenario)

Courtney Von Dragen Smith thought everything was going well for her. She had a great boyfriend, a job at a cool cafe with her best friend, and a family that was somewhat average, somewhat odd (depending on the family member). Senior year was about to begin, with great promise.

Then her boyfriend went to college and broke up with her. Then her dog ran away. Repeatedly. In an effort to minimize the chaos surrounding her, she makes two huge decisions: she will stop dating, and she will become vegan.

Easier said than done. She falls on and off the vegan wagon on a fairly regular basis, temped by tasty treats at the Truth or Dairy cafe. Her dog runs away again. Her classmates give her grief. Her brother sets his sights on her best friend. Courtney describes these and other melodramas in her diary, making for easy-to-follow laugh-out-loud stories. Her freshman year of college is chronicled in the sequel, which is just as good if not better than the first, and which is also written as a diary.

Banana Splitsville and Rocky Road Trip will be republished in June 2008.

Additional Titles
Maine Squeeze
Icing on the Lake
So Inn Love
Picture Perfect (Coming out in May 2008)

Visit Catherine Clark's official website.

Also visit the website of Sasha Illingworth, whose artwork is featured on the covers of Maine Squeeze, Icing on the Lake, Banana Splitsville, Rocky Road Trip, Better Latte Than Never, and Picture Perfect. She has also provided the art and/or design for many other book covers you'll recognize.

The dictionary says my identity should be all about being separate or distinct, and yet it feel like it is so wrapped up in others.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson is a stunning, fascinating novel. This eye-opening story which openly explores the concept of identity will stay on your mind for a long, long time.

Jenna was left comatose after a tragic accident. One year later, she awakens to a life she can't recall, a body she doesn't recognize, two parents and a grandmother doesn't really know, and a house she can't leave. Her parents want her to stay at home for a while in order to make full recovery and avoid a relapse. Their smiles are cautious, wary; her grandmother's smile is sad, almost bitter.

When Jenna watches old home movies, she can't help but think of herself as two people. (Since she narrates the story in first person, it's easy to follow this train of thought: there's "Jenna," dancing and smiling away on the recordings, and there's "I" or "me" watching them in the present day. Also, there are shaded pages, passages in which Jenna has mental confessions about the past, present, and future.) She knows she was a dancer, a daughter, a student, a friend, and that she was happy, but the most of this knowledge comes from outside sources rather than her own memories. She does not want to rely on what the videos show and what her family tells her - she wants to know herself, herself.

Bits and pieces of her past begin tug at the edges of her mind, but they are not always happy and rarely are they clear. If anything, these blurry scenes and feelings only make her more confused about what happened to her, with her, around her. With the help of others - some forthcoming and some reluctant - things begin to clear up. The edges of her mind are still jagged and raw. Tidbits scraping there only serve to open up old wounds and leave new scars.

Wanting to know who she was, why she is the way she is, and what happened the night of the accident, Jenna pushes her parents' buttons as well as her own physical and mental limits. Her arms, hands, legs and feet, which once were "perfect," don't look, feel, or move the way they used to, her physical changes being as obvious and frustrating to her as her mental blocks. Though she is at first scared and tentative, Jenna keeps trying to get to the bottom of things until she gets through to others and dares to walk on a new path.

Are the details of our lives who we are, or is it owning those details that makes the difference?

This book brings up many questions, not only physiological and psychological but also philosophical:

How much can you really trust your memories - and if you lose them, can you get them back? Can you get yourself back?

People often refer to the five senses, meaning mechanoreception (also called tactition, touch), gustation (taste), vision (sight), audition (sound), and olfaction (smell). But what about the sense of self? Doesn't that rely on other senses as well, like proprioception (body awareness), equilibrioception (balance), nociception (pain), and even thermoception (temperature)? How can and do you use sense memory to (re)construct your sense of self?

Maybe that is all any life is composed of, trivia that eventually adds up to a person, and maybe I just don't have enough of it yet to be a whole one.

I could easily reveal crucial elements of the story, but I'd rather conceal them, as I don't want to spoil or spill a drop for anyone. There's at least one story I want to compare to Adoration, but I am holding my tongue until Adoration is released in April 2008.

For now, I'll say:

This is one of the best stories I've read in months.

For now, I'll sing:

When the time we have now ends
When the big hand goes round again
Can you still feel the butterflies?
Can you still hear the last goodnight?
- from the song For Me This Is Heaven by Jimmy Eat World

Read my interview with Mary E. Pearson.

Read my review of Mary E. Pearson's novel A Room on Lorelei Street.

Visit www.theadorationofjennafox.com

( Watch the trailer )

I'm pretty cut-and-dry about certain fantasy elements.

A story which includes things that don't exist* = fantasy.
A story which details events that could reasonably, truly happen = not a fantasy.

* Ghosts, vampires, zombies, unicorns, etcetera.

Both BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and WITHOUT A TRACE have dealt with helping people, having a dangerous job, dealing with interpersonal relationships, and coping with loss. However:
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Fantasy.
WITHOUT A TRACE: Not a fantasy.

Both THE GOLDEN COMPASS and BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE boast determined young girls who keep their favorite animal (almost) always by her side and who have questions about her parents. However:
THE GOLDEN COMPASS: Fantasy.
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE: Not a fantasy.

I could say THE GHOST WORE GRAY by Bruce Coville is about overcoming prejudice and THE DOLL IN THE GARDEN by Mary Downing Hahn is about consumption, but they still have ghosts in them and thereby drift into the land of fantasy. THE GHOST WORE GRAY and THE DOLL IN THE GARDEN are both good historical mysteries for kids that include friendly ghosts. If I had a nickel for every time I read either of these books . . .

Some books toe the line between genres or blend them into a delicious smoothie. (Mmm, smoothie. I'll have soy milk and strawberries in mine!) Is THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick a graphic novel? No, not in the way that collected comics or manga are, I suppose, but it's certainly not a picture book either. HUGO is an illustrated novel, with its pictures just as important to the storyline as the text.

I enjoy dystopic futuristic novels that detail advancements in technology, but I'm quick to point out which stories are just that - futuristic and plausible sci-fi - as opposed to outright fantasy. I really enjoy the UGLIES sequence by Scott Westerfeld. It doesn't have any unicorns in it, but it does have hoverboards, screens, and tracking devices which may be closer to being in existence than we think. After all, some of the spy gadgets I saw on COVER UP and other spy-based television programs twenty years ago are now being used by people on a daily basis. Consider webcams, for example. They are not unlike the little cameras or projection screens the good guys used during briefings. Think about all of the programs that are available on cellular phones and similar hand-held devices. Those are based in pixels and chips, so they aren't the same as unicorns.

Maybe someday Unico will gallop through the fields while talking to Stephen Colbert on a hands-free (hooves-free?) cellular earpiece. Until that day comes, if someone writes a fictional book about it, I would shelve it in fantasy.

Related Posts:
Genre Study: Fantasy
Fantasy Novels for Kids and Teens
Funny Fantasies for Kids and Teens
Fairy Tales Retold
Booklist: Dystopia