NEST

NEST by Esther Erlich. Wendy Lamb Books, 2014.

Chirp loves her family.
But Mom is depressed, absent.
Everything seems wrong.

How to save a life

THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales. FSG, 2013.

Elise seems to have never fit in. Despite spending the summer studying fashion and music and trying to copy styles, she is still an outcast. And the target of some of the mean girls at school. Elise considers suicide, even going so far as to pick up the sharp blade and cut herself. Her failed attempt makes her a bigger target than ever. Her only escape seems to be heading out at night and walking until she is tired enough to fall asleep. And then she discovers an underground party, a couple of girls who seem to accept her for herself, and a DJ who lets Elise try out her skills. Maybe things are looking up?

Winger

WINGER by Andrew Smith. Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Ryan Dean is 14, sort of scrawny, and a better than average winger (rugby). He lives in Opportunity Hall, the boarding school dorm for kids who have had some "trouble" adjusting to life and to the rules. His best friend, Annie, is someone he would prefer be more than a friend. And his roommate is a bit of a bully. Smith tells readers just enough of Ryan Dean's past as he propels them further into the very comic and sometime tragic present that is Ryan Dean's life. Honest (lots of talk of bodily functions), irreverent (Ryan Dean and his pals know how to manipulate adults fairly well), charming (the budding romance); this is a book that makes you lower your guard and then packs a walloping punch. WINGER is a book that will haunt long after the reading ends.

Quick on the Trigger

FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick. Little Brown, August 2013.

Quick (author of THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK gives readers an inside look at a teen pushed beyond the fringe, tottering on the edge of life. On his birthday, Leonard Peacock hides a gun in his backpack and heads off to school. Today is the day he has selected to kill his former best friend and then himself. What else can he do? His mother is more than absentee, and his closest relationships are with his Bogart-loving elderly neighbor and his history teacher who is instructing less-than-enthusiastic kids about the Holocaust. Quick spins out the story of Leonard and how he has come to believe suicide is the answer in short bursts of information, always leaving the reader guessing and wanting more (sort of like Leonard himself who is trying best he can to figure out his path in this world). Leonard is a kid readers will come to admire: his sharp mind and quick sense of humor are winning. Because of that, readers will stick to this story hoping that somehow Leonard will find redemption and salvation.

So Shelly, Bryon, and Keats!

As SO SHELLY by Ty Roth (Delacorte 2011) opens, readers meet Gordon Byron and John Keats as they are stealing Shelly's ashes from the altar of the church where her funeral is being held. Shelly has left instructions for both of them, though separately. They are to head out to "her" island, spread her ashes, and listen to a CD she has made. Shelly, it seems, has thought of everything. This modern environment of he friendship among these writers of a bygone era follows some of the history the three shared in their lives. Setting the story in contemporary society will permit those who know the works of these three to see their timelessness in art and in personality. However, readers who are not privy to the past will also find much to appreciate here. <508>