"You know what your problem is? Your problem is that you let The Man rule your life." 
Matthew's heart belongs to the drums, but somehow his dad talked him into playing the trumpet, the musical instrument of choice for the Swanbeck family. Oh, and some argument about by the time you pack up your drum set the trumpet player would have left with all the good looking women.
No big deal, Matthew thought, he can still pursue the dreams on his own, and "on his own" is how The Man wants to keep it.
Who is The Man, you ask? Matthew's parents, who refuse to raise his allowance but opt for building character instead. Uncle Kyle, who finds a way to deduct money from Matthew's hard-earned paycheque. Mr. Murphy, who doesn't understand marching band uniform is not summer clothing.  The Man is everywhere, and Matthew is not going to let The Man run his life anymore.
There's some great humour in this light read, which is a welcoming change from all the dystopian books out there. Love the expression on Matthew's face on the book cover, though the youngish look, and the illustrations peppered inside, awesome as they are, may deter older teens. That's too bad, 'cause they will get a kick out of the little guy coming out on top. The authentic teenage voice is captured well without being overly sarcastic or obnoxious, and Matthew's parents are a riot. Will appeal to those who grew up on Wimpy Kid. Check out more of Travis Nichols' doodles on his website ilikeapplejuice.com.
Who is The Man in your life, and what are you going to do about it?

If you can attend a school where there are no adults, where your fellow students are the teachers, the admin staff, the cafeteria workers, and some days you get to play paintball all day, and some days you study random topics like land surveying, and on top of all that, there is no such thing as tests or grades, would you jump at the chance?
Sounds good, doesn't it?  After being moved from one foster family to another, Benson Fisher thought he's finally got himself out of that depressing neverending cycle when his scholarship application for Maxwell Academy got accepted. In less than an hour at his new school though, Benson would give anything to be back in a foster home, because Maxwell Academy was only desirable if you could overlook a few things: there were cameras everywhere watching your every move, there were a ton of rules to follow, students who broke the rules and were sent to detention never came back. Stuff like that...
Oh, and once you were in, you could never leave the school again.
Benson was outraged at this prison-like treatment, and he couldn't figure out why the rest of the students didn't seem to be in any hurry to escape. Rather, after some arguing and fighting, the kids have reached a truce and organized themselves into three big gangs to govern themselves. Fine, they might be content to go to class and decorate for school dance and do all the "normal" high school stuff, but Benson was going to get away.


Books that have hit it big always has a slur of wannabes following in its footsteps, and they don't always measure up, but I think Variant is a worthy readalike suggestion for readers of Maze Runner. It was an intriguing read from beginning to end, especially the dynamics among the kids. It's scary when you realize that whoever that put these kids and lock them up in the school may not be the kids' biggest enemy. The kids themselves are going to be.  Then when Benson discovered the secret of one of his classmates, time's running out and everything got scarier and scarier (you'll never think about woodland creatures like deer and bunny rabbits the same again). And the cliffhanger ending... man, when's the next book coming out?
So pretty much nothing to complain about, except the cover!  There's got to be something more exciting than that.
To be published in October 2011. Thank you to HarperCollins for providing an advanced e-galley at netGalley. 

Does the age of the characters in a book affect whether or not kids and teens want to read the book?
I just finished The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander and it got me thinking about this question. In this book, Mac and his best friend, Vince, are running a business out of the washroom of their elementary school. They solve problems and do favours -- like getting test answers, R-rated movie tickets, forged hall passes, doctors' notes -- for a fee of cash and return favours. Business is going well and Mac is respected and popular, until a legendary bully, Staples, begins to take control of the school through extortion and violence. Mac sets out to bring down Staples but things get complicated when he realizes someone -- possibly his best friend --is informing his enemy of all his plans.
I definitely liked the premise of this book and the plot itself played out pretty well too. It's really a sort of parody on the GodFather and other mafia/mobster stories. (you might notice a resemblance between the cover of the book and the GodFather Movie poster... ) I found it a little strange that at many points the characters acted more mature than their age. Mac was hiring third and fourth graders to be "hit men" and he himself was only in grade six and talking like he was far older than that. (this was probably intentional and part of the whole parody thing) I wondered if high school would be a better setting for the book... and then wondered if teens would be willing to read this book regardless of the fact that the main characters were only in elementary school (it is also classed as children's fiction). The content and language are not childish and I do think Mac's covert mafia-like business would be interesting to teens. In general I think most kids/teens will read books with main characters that are older than them (in fact, some of them may prefer this), but what about the reverse?

I think a lot of us wish there were more books like the Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. So when I heard that this new book was the "Wimpy Kid for high schoolers" I was definitely interested in taking a look at it.
Larkin Pace is a very ordinary 14 year-old dealing with the usual bullies at school, a bratty, spoiled older sister and confusing relationships with girls. Like Greg in the Wimpy Kid series, he has a best friend, Freddie, who is pretty clueless and socially awkward. There are some funny parts -- Freddie who wears his bedroom slippers to school, Larkin's plans to impress Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard with his movie ideas about shampoo girls, and Larkin's attempts to impress the girls at the school dance by wearing multiple shirts under his regular one to make himself look bigger.
I didn't find it as funny or as natural as Wimpy Kid -- and parts of the storyline were pretty cliche. The illustrations and font didn't have the fun cartoon feel either. But to be fair, reading this after Wimpy Kid probably affected my perceptions...

Twelve-year-old Oliver Watson pretends to be the dumb kid -- but he is in fact a genius who has made himself rich and is plotting his way to world domination. When Oliver’s father — and archnemesis — brags about winning his middle school election, Oliver decides to spite his dad by proving that anyone -- even himself-- can win a class election. Since he isn't exactly the most popular kid in his class, he resorts to intimidation, bribery, and blackmail... A funny read with lots of pranks, (darts that give gas, chemicals that give colds and rashes, letting the air out of tires), a kidnapping, bombs and violent dodgeball.