Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love

By Lauren Tarshis

Published by Dial Books for Young Readers
Copyright © 2009

“Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love” is the sequel to the successful young adult novel entitled “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree”.

In the first installment of the Emma-Jean Series we meet a somewhat odd young girl. It wasn’t her appearance which makes her odd, for she is considered by some to be very pretty, but it is her detachment from her classmates. While Emma-Jean thinks well of her classmates in general, she finds them to be quite illogical. In her attempt to mingle with them and be of help she ends up causing a lot of trouble for them and herself.

In this second installment we find Emma-Jean in the company of her 7^th grade classmates. To some extent she has come to understand and accept the eccentricities of her teen peers. But now she is coming up against a new problem school dances and boy-girl relationships.

Emma-Jean finds herself having weird and irrational feelings when she is around Will Keeler. She is drawn to him and her heart skips a beat when she is around him. She even considers asking him to the upcoming spring dance. She is not quite sure what it is she is going through though, and she doesn’t seem to like the way it makes her lose her concentration.

Emma-Jeans friend Colleen suffers from self-esteem issues and doesn’t know who would want to go to the dance with her. Then she finds a mysterious note in her locker from a nameless boy who really likes her, and she begins to transform into someone more confident in herself and less concerned with what others think of her. She is only concerned with what her boy thinks of her, and he thinks she is great. But how will she ever find this boy who likes her? Colleen can think of only one person smart enough to figure out who it is, Emma-Jean.  But will Colleen like what she finds out?

While Emma-Jean’s Spock like tendencies (“that is illogical”) seem to be a little unrealistic for a modern teen, she does make for a character that you want to root for. And, while the book does have a relatively agreeable ending (I won’t give it away) I did want the school dance to turn out a little differently. But all-in-all in this second novel Lauren Tarshis presents us with a young girl who is smart, who is confident, who knows what she is ready for, and who is just fine being herself and that is the type of character that more young girls should be exposed to.

You Killed Wesley Payne

By Sean Beaudoin
Published by Little Brown
Copyright 2011

Pulp Fiction P.I.'s meet high school in this mysterious and funny novel. You'll never look at high school cliques the same again.

Dalton Rev is a teenage private detective with a serious case to crack. Macy Payne has hired Dalton to find out who killed her brother and upon being intercepted by the principal (Principal Inference) he has also found a second case – tracking down $100,000 in stolen racket money.

Wesley Payne was found dead, wrapped in duct taped and hanging from a goal post at the Salt River High School football field. It becomes apparent to Dalton very soon that Wesley’s death is not the suicide it was cracked up to be. Salt River High is out of control with two raging cliques that want to rule the school, the Balls and the Pinker Caskets, and the various fringe and hangers-on cliques. The Fack Cult T is more than willing to look the other way as long as their price is met. The only thing that keeps the school from full scale violence is the looming threat of the Lee Harvies, who thwart violence with the threat of violence. This is going to be a tough case for Rev to crack by himself.

Sean Beaudoin has written your classic pulp-fiction novel that is updated with a seriously modern and off the wall cast of jocks, geeks, nerds, preps, goths, psychopaths, and depressed loners. And don’t forget those tough as nails police detectives that inevitably have to be circumnavigated. “You Killed Wesley Payne” is prison rules high school with high fashion, tough mystery, snarky Ironic humor, and witty banter.

This is an awesome book for high level teens (grades 9-12). While some content in this book is a little edgy, I applaud him for accomplishing this without the excessive use of foul language which tends to find its way into high level YA Literature. I love Beaudoin for bringing back the hard-boiled mystery/crime genre. This book is going to resonate with teens of every ilk because of Dalton’s anti-superhero, how many times can I be beat unconscious, everyman persona, as well as for the plethora of cliques that will enable most teens to find someone they relate to.