100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

The term sideways miles refers to Finn Easton's preferred way of measuring time, by distance covered by the earth every second.  Finn is a teenager with epilepsy and heterochromatic eyes. His life was upended when, at the age of 7, he and his mother were struck by a dead horse falling out of a truck.  Finn's mother died and although Finn survived, he was left with his condition--unexpected and definitely inconvenient grand mal seizures.  Now a teenager, Finn struggles to escape from his sheltered life and figure out who-- or what--he is.  In his journey of self-discovery, Finn is accompanied by the love of his life,  neighbor Julie Bishop, and by his  borderline crazy, uninhibited (one reviewer says "raunchy") but devoted sidekick, Cade Fernandez.  Finn's narrative swings between the awkward, embarrassing, sad, and downright funny things that can happen to teenage boys.  Very entertaining.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

Magoon's novel is relevant and current, given the spate of black teenage deaths due to gun violence.  Told from the various perspectives of neighborhood residents and gang members who witnessed the shooting  and friends and family of the victim, the novel addresses issues of justice for black youths and the challenge of staying clear of gang life.  Tariq Johnson, the main character, dies in the first pages but the nature of his involvement with the local gang and details of the incident that led to his death are full of contradictions.  Did he have a gun?  Was he wearing gang colors? Tension mounts as the main characters--the young woman who administered CPR and his best friend, Tyrell, try to come to terms with the the  hopelessness of life in a world of poverty and violence.  Very thought-provoking and moving.

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Rumble is a fast-paced and emotionally gripping story told in verse.  At the center is Matt, a teenager struggling with his anger against all of those in his community--parents, school counselors,  and friends, who failed to help his younger brother, who was mercilessly bullied for being gay and who committed suicide.  The only person who can take him away from his grief is his girlfriend, Hayden, but she is becoming increasingly preoccupied with her church group, a fact which further enrages Matt because he does not believe in any god who would let his brother suffer and die.  Hopkins pulls no punches when talking about the issues Matt faces--parents splitting up, homophobia, teen suicide, gun control, and his own responsibility for Luke's death.  Matt is a character easy to root for and to hate.  This is a great read!

Zac & Mia by A. J. Betts

If you enjoyed A Fault in Our Stars, you will love reading Zac & Mia.  The life lessons come across a bit differently, as does the Australian setting, but there is cancer and it does intersect with a love story. Zac is a lonely leukemia patient in a Sydney hospital cancer ward when he hears a new patient enter the room next to his.  Mia is angry and argumentative; he can hear her yelling at her mom and refusing to cooperate with her doctors.  But Zac knows "it gets better."  Mia has a type of cancer that is treatable;  the stats are in her favor.  He wants to distract her and entertain her, without even having met her;  Mia becomes his cause.  Zac eventually gets a bone marrow transplant and goes home, but for Mia things don't get better.  She loses part of her leg and most of her perfect, athletic and popular self in the process.  Eventually, desperate and suffering, she runs away from home and tracks Zac to his family's olive farm.  The story that follows relates, from alternating both points of view,  the struggle for Mia's soul and her will to live. Betts writes with humor and heart and has created main characters with depth and feelings.  This is a great book for vacation or a long weekend.

Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews

I't hard to believe someone as young as Andrews (a high school graduate in 2014) can write so calmly and positively about the challenges he faced growing up transgender in a traditionally gendered world.  Yet he does.  He demonstrates an amazing capacity to appreciate his own gifts and hold on to his own identity even in the face of a mother who wanted her daughter to be a beauty queen and a school that saw non-normative sexuality as evil.  What I found so compelling was Arin's ability to deal frankly and without bitterness with the most painful situations growing up, from having to be a pink bunny for Halloween,  to always having to wear hair bows to please a demanding mother, to being denied contact with best friend Darien, who is lesbian.  Despite these attempts to treat Emerald as a girl, consistent with his body parts, Andrews came to realize fairly early on that  family was one of the greatest resources for support and acceptance.  By junior year in  high school, Arin was ready to start the process of gender reassignment.  The transformation from a little girl to a teenage boy is documented by a photograph at the beginning of each chapter.  The pictures help to chronicle the changes from a troubled young girl to a self-confident young man.  There were definitely bumps in the road, and Andrews emphasizes that this process is different for everyone.  He recognizes that many people in his situation are estranged from their families and suffer far greater rejection.  Andrews has written a book to help everyone better understand young people seeking to understand their gender while in the midst of the hormonal ups and downs of their teenage years.

The Islands At the End of The World and The Girl at the Center of the Worldby Austin Aslan

This proved to be a great Thanksgiving escape!  Aslan's book has a little bit of everything--take an apocalyptic collapse of civilized society; add an an epic journey for teen Leilani and her Dad, who are two islands removed from their home on the Big Island of Hawaii when disaster strikes; and season with  large doses of Hawaiian culture,  the mysteries of space, nuclear radiation, and epilepsy.  The novel starts out slowly as we follow Lei and her dad to Oahu, where she is a subject of research on the effectiveness of a new seizure medication.  As the city gradually shuts down due to a mysterious loss of power and the resulting panic, the Miltons realize they need to get home while they still can.  This means stashing food and their gear in their backpacks and trying to find a way across two islands in the absence of air travel and cruise ships.  The series of adventures includes forced incarceration in a military camp and close escapes from crazed and desperate people struggling for their own survival.

At first this looked like another version of  Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  There is the same desperation, the same conflict between doing what seems right and what is necessary, and the deep love of family.  Aslan adds more hope and a more defined goal that keep Lei and her father going.  There are two problems and two journeys--one, how to get home and find the rest of the family, and the other, to try and figure out why their world is crumbling around them.   Aslan ties it all together in a fast-paced story that also leaves one with lots to chew on, along with leftovers.

The second volume takes up where the first leaves off.  The Miltons struggle to grow enough food and manage scarce resources to survive until order returns to the islands.  Leilani has managed to communicate with an alien presence but life is full of danger--from the warring tribes on the big island and from powers that seek to steal her power.  More Hawaiian culture and a love interest or two add to Leilani's story.

Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

What a haunting book! Teenager Ladydi Garcia Martinez narrates this tale of her harsh life in the brutal climate and equally brutal drug culture of the Mexican state of Guerrero.  Ladydi's mother takes a perverse pride in the fact that citizens of Guerrero are more dangerous than everyone else.  They have to be tough and angry to fight the poverty,  herbicides, scorpions, spiders, red ants, and poisonous snakes, while eluding the black SUV's that race through their mountain hamlet to steal local girls and sell them into prostitution or turn them into drug smugglers.  Mothers lie about their babies, announcing the birth of sons, and do their best to make their daughters ugly and dirty.  For some, this strategy, combined with safe holes where the girls can hide if there's time,  protects them. Beautiful Paula is not so lucky; known region-wide to be better looking than Jennifer Lopez, she is kidnapped by an infamous drug lord. What happens to her and how she escapes becomes part of drama that permeates their lives.

This is the story of Ladydi and her best friends,  Paula, her best friend Maria,  Estefani, and Maria's brother, Mike.  Together they struggle for an education, explore the jungle, visit the sole beauty parlor with their mothers, and dream of leaving the mountain for something better.  In this matriarchal society (all the men have gone to the U.S. or become drug dealers in Mexico City), Ladydi learn to survive through the twisted teachings and wisdom of her mother ("Those scorpions showed you more mercy than any human being ever will, my mother said."  She took off one of her flip-flops and killed all four in beating blows.  "Mercy is not a two-way street.")

Ladydi's life takes an unexpected and tragic turn when she agrees to accompany Mike to Acapulco to take a job as a nanny with a wealthy family.  Through all of her young life's challenges she discovers loyalty, betrayal, love, anger, and truth.  I found I really cared about Ladydi and her girlfriends.  The mother, not so much, but she, too had some strong qualities necessary for survival in her world.  Strong women, absent husbands, corruption and crime combine to make this a memorable tale.