Scrambled Eggs at Midnight

By Brad Barkley & Heather Hepler

Published in 2006 by Speak, New York.

This story is told in alternating viewpoints, moving back and forth between Cal (short for Calliope) and Eliot. Both are fifteen years old, at odds with their parents, and - within a few chapters - deeply in love. Eliot's father runs a Christian weight-loss camp, while Cal's mother has been trekking across the country, from Rennaissance fair to Rennaissance fair (say that ten times fast), selling her jewellery and working as a bar wench. This transitive lifestyle seems to doom the blossoming romance between Eliot and Cal, but a (slightly unbelievable) happy ending means that the couple will live happily ever after, or at least until the next school year. While the ending rings a little false, the rest of the book rises above the dreck that marks much "teen romance." It is pointed out more than once that Eliot (with one L) shares his name with the poet, Thomas Stearns. This is fitting, because the book is surprisingly well written, and full of passages that capture the heady thrill of falling in love, first touches, first kisses, and so on (but not too far, mom).

Falling.

I feel it, like she's the white hole, she's the light, and I can just let myself fall into her, tumbling like an astronaut whose safety cord is tied only to a voice that says, wait, wait, wait. My voice saying it, inside me. Wait, because yeah, the guy in space is weightless and it looks so beautiful and it is, but the guy who falls out of a plane, the guy whose parachute fails? He's weightless too. Most people don't know that, but I also learned that in physics last year, that falling people are weightless, which is why you see skydivers doing flips in the air. And they are weightless for the whole drop, up until the point that htey hit the ground, and without a parachute they get their full weight back right then, on impact, times a thousand. It crushes them, and that's how falling people die, crushed by nothing more than themselves.

Falling can do that too. It's not all pretty. Not all a dream. (84-85)

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight is a really lovely story and book. It is smart, funny, and light without being paper thin. A good modern love story. Beats the pants off of most of the romances I read in high school.

7.5/10.

Ages 12-16.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

By Stephen Chbosky.

Published in 1999 by MTV.

Depression. Drugs. Alcohol. Death. Abortion. Sexual abuse. Crushes. Sex. Suicide. Poetry. Literature. Rocky Horror Picture Show. Zines. Breaking up. Homosexuality. Mix tapes.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower deals with all of these issues (and no doubt I've missed some), and it does it well. The story is told in a series of letters to an unnamed recipient, from a fifteen year old (and eventually sixteen) boy, Charlie. Charlie comes across as simultaneously naive and wise, and is a wonderful narrator. The letters are written during his first year in high school, and detail the relationships he has with his family, friends and teachers, as well as the ups and downs that categorize his struggle with depression and anxiety. The story is kept from being too much of a downer by the beautiful insights Charlie brings to his exploration of very serious issues. His voice is filled with so much hope and love that the story feels balanced, never heavy-handed or overly dramatic. I love the fact that it presents such a thoughtful, sensitive male character and textured relationships. The book is refreshingly lacking in cliche, and presents a very real, non-judgmental, hopeful and funny view of adolescence.

Ages 13-18.

8/10.

Skim

Words by Mariko Tamaki.
Drawings by Jillian Tamaki.

Published in 2008 by Groundwood Books, Toronto.

Kimberley "Skim" Keiko Cameron is sixteen, and as she puts it, "Being sixteen is officially the worst thing I've ever been." Skim's all-girl private school is knocked off its axis when a student's ex-boyfriend kills himself. Her outsider tendencies leave Skim vulnerable to the attentions of a well-meaning school counselor and other students who seem to think she might be next. While externally quiet and somewhat withdrawn, internally Skim is almost exploding with emotion and newness. Something is developing between Skim and her English teacher, Ms. Archer, and it's taking up her world.

Skim is a really beautiful graphic novel that captures the pathos of high school and friendship and being in love, whatever that is. The characters and their emotions are beautifully rendered on the pages, and the drawings, while simple, hum with life. Skim's internal monologue is full of perfect descriptions of her feelings, phrases that brought her feelings into my own body. My favourite: "My stomach feels like it's popping, like an ice cube in warm Pepsi."

Real. Honest. Funny. Sad. Brilliant. Awesome.

10/10.

Ages 13+.