Scott Pilgrim is a twenty-three year old underachiever who lives in an apartment in Toronto with his roommate, off of whom he mooches unapologetically.  Scott’s in a band, and in volume 1: Precious Little Life, he has just started dating a high school girl named Knives Chau.  Everyone, except Scott and Knives, realize that this is slimy behavior at best, but their friends are happy that Scott has stopped moping over his ex.  Then Scott starts to see a girl in his dreams: a beautiful, cool-looking Amazon delivery girl who rollerblades through his dreams.  When Scott decides to order some CDs from Amazon in the hopes of meeting his (literal) dream girl, Knives and Scott are pretty much done as a couple (...not that Knives knows about it). 

There may be some hitches along the way in the form of the seven evil ex-boyfriends Scott must fight if he wants to date the Amazon girl, not to mention Knives’ increasing obsession… but it won't be a dull ride!        

That’s right, it’s going to be a huge summer blockbuster starring Michael Cera.  So very awesome.  Everyone knows that the book is always better than the movie—so get the Scott Pilgrim series and decide for yourself.  The art is amazing, the funny quips in the margins are the best, and did I mention that Scott is an awesome fighter, his band sucks and there is going to be a video game?

 

Pancho’s mom died when he was a kid, and his dad died in an accident a few months ago.  Since then it’s just been Pancho and his older sister Rosa…  but all that happens before this story even begins.  This story begins with Pancho’s rage.  His sister’s body has been found in a motel room, and her death is ruled as having been of natural causes.  The police tell Pancho that his sister was 20 years old, and that there was nothing illegal about her being in a motel room.  But while Rosa was 20, she had the intelligence of a ten year old, and Pancho knows in his blood that whoever was there with her killed her.  Pancho has the beginning of a plan: he is going to find that man, he is going to kill him, and then Pancho is going to go to prison.

First Pancho has to get ready.  He needs money, a car, and time to research Rosa’s killer.  He is sent to St. Anthony’s orphanage, where he is given the job of taking care of a terminally ill resident named D.Q.  D.Q. is also getting ready, and he needs Pancho’s strength, his fire and his determination.  D.Q. has hard choices ahead, and while he knows what he wants, he needs a friend to make his final wishes a reality.  If Pancho will help D.Q., then D.Q. may be able to help Pancho… in more ways than he knows.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors is an amazing book.  You won’t be disappointed. While some of the subject matter is difficult, it is dealt with without being excessively graphic.  Pancho and D.Q. are really wonderful characters, but the side characters, like D.Q.s mom, and The Panda are great too.  This story will keep you turning the pages, and it will make you think about Pancho, D.Q. and their situations.
 

Will Halpin is Deaf, and it’s his first day at mainstream public school.  Being a lip reader and ignored (to the point of near invisibility) gives Will the opportunity to observe a lot about his classmates.  He gets through the day by writing his wry (read: snarky) comments in his notebook and generally trying to make sense of high school culture.  Basically, Will Halpin is hilarious:

“It is pretty much a directly rising slope of coolness from the front of the bus to the back.  From me to a weird skinny guy in a football shirt who clearly isn’t on the team, to Marie (whose last name is Stepcoat) to the trio from my morning bus stop: A.J. Fischels, Teresa Lockhart, and Gabby Meyers.  If you keep going, you’d fly out the back of the bus onto the road itself and land in the cars belonging to kids far too cool to ever set foot on a bus.”

Then, on a field trip to Happy Memory Coal Mine, the quarterback (and first-rate bully) falls to his death.  The police say it was an accident, but rumors swirl that it was murder.  Will has been watching the quarterback with fascination: his father mired in political scandals, the planned huge and exclusive birthday party the students would kill to be invited to, the looks from the flirty math teacher, the beautiful girlfriend with a sad look in her eyes…  Will may be the one with the keys to a mystery, if he can put them together, and all of a sudden he has a Hardy Boys obsessed friend to help him out.

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin is great.  Funny, a good mystery and all around a great read! 

 

Fire, the main character of Fire, grows up in the Dells, a country torn apart by political instability and characterized by the monsters that inhabit it.  Monsters can be of any type of species: mice, cats, birds, deer, cows, or even humans.  All monsters share the same characteristics: unbelievable beauty and the ability to control the thoughts of others, both of which they use to ensnare their prey.  Fire is the only, the last, human monster.  Her father was a monster who used his beauty and mental power to control the previous King of the Dells, encouraging him to wallow in base pleasures and maliciousness while the kingdom fell into ruins.  Fire is a gentler sort of monster.  Taught harsh lessons by her father’s cruel example, she never uses her mental powers, and hides her beauty as much as possible to avoid accidentally ensnaring the people she meets.  When the new King requests her help in protecting the kingdom from civil war, Fire fears that she will not be able to stop the kingdom from falling again into the control of another monster: herself.

Fire is a prequel to Graceling, last summer’s hit novel about a girl with the power to kill, but it has very little to do with the other book.  Fire and Graceling take place in the same world, but in very different countries.  Fire is a more mature book than Graceling.  Fire must deal with moral questions that go beyond what Katsa experienced, and her powers have the ability to cause more damage than Katsa’s.  She experiences hard losses and finds her way in difficult situations.  It is a fantastic read, with realistic relationships and a wonderful setting.  It’s another can’t-put-it-down book (true story: when I was reading it I had the audio book in the car, and the book for my lunch break and home.)