I’ve mentioned before that we purchase books from the Junior Library Guild because they make great choices. Here are recent purchases that looks good:

Excerpted from the Junior Library Guild Reviews:

Girlfriend Material

Kate had been looking forward to a fun summer at home in Utah taking a fiction writing class, playing tennis, and hanging out at her best friend’s pool. Instead, she is on her way to Cape Cod with her mother. The only saving grace for Kate is the chance to renew her friendship with Sarah, the daughter of her mom’s friends. But two things soon become clear to Kate: Sarah never considered Kate a friend, and Kate’s mom isn’t just spending time away from her husband; she is considering a divorce. Could anything save this from being the worst summer of Kate’s life?

JLG Reviewers Say: Although filled with references to the literary classics Kate adores (Ernest Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, and Agatha Christie), Girlfriend Material has all the trappings of a great beach read, including a fast-paced storyline, relatable characters, and a setting one can get lost in. Through Kate, readers are transported to idyllic Dryer’s Cove, where well-to-do New Englanders summer in spacious homes situated along the bay. Readers join Kate as she explores her relationships and picturesque surroundings.

The Waters & the Wild

Bee believes she is a changeling. Always feeling somewhat awkward and out of step with other kids her age, Bee finally finds her place in the world when she befriends two other outcasts, one a self-professed alien and another who insists she is a reincarnated slave. Their friendship works a magic that lets Bee feel as if she can do anything—except stop her shadowy double from haunting her.

JLG Reviewers Say: As spiky and otherworldly as Bee herself, Francesca Lia Block’s slim novel, The Waters & the Wild, gives readers a visceral sense of the hazards of adolescence through the imagery of magic and fairy tales. With language both ethereal and sparse, Block brings to life the feelings of what it is like to be young and strange with all the energy and immediacy that accompanies it. “And then with the curse, or, in this case, blessing, of the unpopular, the unathletic, the overweight, the strange, they vanished like shadows into the spring night.”

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

JLG Reviewers Say: Frankie Landau-Banks, a sophomore at the prestigious Alabaster Preparatory Academy, thought she had her school’s social dynamics figured out. But when she begins dating the gorgeous and witty senior Matthew Livingston and hanging out with his rich, popular friends, Frankie senses there’s something that they’re not telling her. She soon discovers that they are members of an all-boys secret society. Frankie lets them keep thinking she’s just a cute, clueless girl, all the while implementing a plan with a seemingly impossible goal: to take over the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound. A 2009 Printz Honor Book.