WARP SPEED by Lisa Yee

Marley is an expert on Star Trek - TSO (the Original Series), AV equipment, and bullying.  He's a seventh grader who recognizes his place in the school social network - Geek with a capital G.  He's not alone.  Ramen, Troy, and Patrick are also fellow geeks and members of the AV Club.  There's also a new member named Max who turns out to be quite a surprise.

Now that the AV Club has been awarded the status of an actual class at Rancho Rosetta Middle School, the group at least has a place to feel safe once a day.  They have fun learning about AV equipment and being the minds behind the real workings of the school.  Without their expertise, teachers would have malfunctioning computers, tangled film projectors, and DVD players with no sound.  Marley feels comfortable with the equipment and happy arguing with his friends about which is best Star Trek or Star Wars.

Before and after school is a different story for Marley.  He is the target for every bully in the school.  He is so used to being punched, shoved in his locker, and chased home by the biggest jerks in the school, that he has come to expect nothing less.  Reporting the harassment is not an option since the school principal doesn't even know his name and his parents have problems of their own.

Marley lives in an ancient movie theater called the Rialto.  His father doesn't like going out in public and chooses to spend his time running the theater which is pretty much a losing proposition.  Marley's mother is blind.  Despite her challenging disability, she teaches piano lessons, cooks wonderful meals, and spends her free time playing golf.  Marley knows his folks love him, but he doesn't feel he can share his troubles with them since they have so many of their own.

Seventh grade is proving to be more of the same as far as the bullying goes, but several new developments have Marley hoping this year might be different.  First, there's Max the new member of the AV Club.  Marley and his buddies are shocked to learn after several days in class with this Max character that Max is actually a girl.  She's not a Star Trek or Star Wars fan; instead she's all about Batman, but they still welcome her into their group. 

Then after the collapse of AV teacher Mr. Jiang, the group finds themselves stuck in Home Sciences class working on some crazy partner project involving garbage bags and fashion.  Marley can't believe his bad luck when he is partnered up with Emily Ebers.  She seems pretty bossy at first, but the more they work together the nicer she is to him.  Maybe this is the year he will have some luck with girls.

Author Lisa Yee's WARP SPEED continues the stories she has created in MILLICENT MIN GIRL GENIUS, STANFORD WONG FLUNKS BIG-TIME, AND SO TOTALLY EMILY EBERS.  Marley's character returns to share his own story.  It is full of humor, crazy middle school antics, and family problems.  The use of a bullying theme also gives it a current connection to what is happening in schools today.  Middle grade readers won't let this one gather dust on the shelves.

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SHINE by Lauren Myracle

Cat and Patrick were inseparable friends until a few years ago.  Things happened in Cat's life that resulted in her withdrawal from most of her friends and even some family members.  She's been living in self-imposed isolation with secrets she isn't willing to share.

When Patrick is attacked and beaten outside the Come 'n' Go convenience store where he works, Cat is drawn back into his life.  The attack is not due to your average robbery or smash and grab, but rather a malicious hate crime.  His attacker left him tied to a gas pump with the gas nozzle shoved into his mouth.  Everyone is speculating the attack was a reaction to Patrick being gay.

Cat's guilt threatens to consume her.  If she had still been friends with Patrick, could she have protected him?  She always acted as his protector in elementary and middle school, and then she simply left him alone.  Her guilt and her continued feelings of friendship have her determined to find Patrick's attacker.

With her own secrets adding strength to her determination, Cat begins snooping around.  She questions everyone from fellow classmates and neighbors to the local meth dealer.  As she digs to find out the truth, she finds much more than she bargained for in Patrick's case, and at the same time she also begins to face some of her own demons.

Lauren Myracle's latest novel takes a somber look at a hate crime that grips a tiny community.  She examines the varied reactions from those who demand justice to those who would prefer to sweep this sort of tragedy under the rug and move on.  Readers will champion Cat and her insistence that Patrick deserves the same justice as everyone else.

DROUGHT by Pam Bachorz

Water is precious. Water has made slaves out of Ruby's people. While the rest of the world lives normally, Ruby and the people in what is referred to as the Congregation, spend their days gathering water.

Although there is a small lake nearby, the members of the Congregation are forced to seek water in the forest. Each one armed with simple tools, a spoon and a cup, they struggle in the oppressive heat to collect water drip by tiny drip. They are forced by the Overseers, lead by a tyrant named Darwin, to gather their daily quota. Failure to meet their quota earns them a beating.

Members of the Congregation are unique. Ruby, for instance, is two hundred years old, but she doesn't look a day older than seventeen. Blessed from birth with some special power in her blood, she is destined to be the group's leader, perhaps sooner than she even expects.

The Congregants follow a mysterious leader they call Otto. According to her mother, Otto is Ruby's father. He left before she was even born, and now the group works tirelessly and waits for his return and the hope that he will set them free. But the wait is taking its toll on the members. Some are losing faith and arguments between them threaten to weaken the group. Also, secrets known to only a few could either save them or cause a rebellion.

Most evenings Ruby visits the huge cisterns that store the gathered water until the Visitor comes to collect from the containers. The purpose of her nightly visits is to add drops of her own blood to the water creating a life-sustaining element to the liquid. Like her father, she possesses the power that has allowed her people to carry on for centuries.

During one visit to the cisterns, Ruby meets an Overseer named Ford. He treats her kindly, and a friendship begins to form. Soon Ruby finds herself thinking about Ford all the time and watching for him as she collects her quota every day. He may represent her chance for freedom, or her destruction if he reveals the mysterious power of her blood.

Pam Bachorz is the author of CANDOR, another unusual dystopian YA novel. DROUGHT presents the secret world of a group still living in the past but working to provide for the world of the future. Bachorz takes her readers into the life of Ruby and her people to illustrate the unreasonable and frightening control one group of people can hold over another.



KNIFEPOINT by Alex Van Tol

It was supposed to be a chance to get a taste of country life before she had to settle down to something more serious.  Jill thought working in the mountains taking vacationers on horseback adventures would be a great summer job.  Unfortunately, things were not working out on a number of different levels.

Her co-workers seemed to have more fun partying every night which left Jill to take up the slack every morning.  If that wasn't bad enough, her boss James seemed to think it was his duty to make life even more miserable.  He was demanding, and at the same time incredibly creepy.  She was beginning to think this might be her last day on the job.

The day started out with a nearly impossible task - rounding up 60 horses and getting them saddled and ready for the scheduled trail rides.  The work was exhausting and made more difficult by the fact that Jill knew her co-workers were probably still tucked in their beds sleeping off the fun times of the previous night.  The only thing to brighten her day was the good looking guy she spotted hanging out around the corral.

After a morning trail ride, Jill expected to have a quick lunch and get a few minutes of rest, but the handsome tourist approached her and stated that he was her next scheduled appointment.  He announced that he was interested in a wilderness adventure ride.  The adventure rides were really for the experts, and Jill had never put herself in that category, however, James was right there to insist that she was the person for the job.

Once the ride began, Jill quickly assessed that her companion was not much of a horseman so she was able to slow things down and truly begin to enjoy the afternoon ride.  They headed up to an area surrounding a deserted mill that always impressed the visitors.

Jill isn't prepared for what happens next.  This ride may turn out to be the last one she ever takes.

Author Alex Van Tol takes readers on a terrifying adventure.  The relaxing mountain ride becomes a life threatening experience when the handsome tourist turns out to be a psychotic killer.  More than half of this short, fast-paced book is filled with deadly action.  Readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough to find out how everything ends.

REAL LIVE BOYFRIENDS by E. Lockhart

Ruby is back with a whole new set of problems.  I'll never get tired of E. Lockhart's Ruby Oliver.  She is a senior now and seems to have this boyfriend thing under control.  Or does she?

Ruby is pretty sure Noel is "the one."  He treats her just the way she thinks a real boyfriend should.  Why is she worried then?  Well, that's how Ruby is.  She still sees a therapist on a regular basis, although she isn't completely convinced that it's working.  Things become even more confusing when dreamy Gideon begins paying attention to her.  It's complicated by the fact that Noel is visiting his brother in New York and not communicating as much as a real boyfriend should.  Should she be satisfied with a few really nifty poems he has sent, or should be expecting more?

At the same time Ruby is dealing with Noel and Gideon issues, her grandmother dies.  She's sad and knows she will miss her father's mother, but her father is taking the death of his mother a bit too far.  He sleeps on the couch, rarely changes his clothes, and stumbles around eating nothing but orange snack items.  She is left to eat the meals her mother fixes that suddenly include every meat product known to man.  Why can't her mother acknowledge the fact that Ruby is a vegetarian?

Home life continues to deteriorate when her mother decides she has had enough and heads off to some women's retreat with a friend.  Ruby is left behind to muddle along with her depressed father.  She must try to think about college preparations, hang on to her remaining friends, and figure out why Noel has changed since his return from New York.

E. Lockhart has a unique talent for capturing the angst of being a teenager while at the same time including laugh-out-loud humor that allows anxiety ridden teens to find the humor in their own situations.  I certainly hope readers will be able to follow Ruby a bit further as she begins college and continues her adventures with family, friends, and boyfriends.