“Crispin: At the Edge of the World,” by Avi (Hyperion, 240 pages, $16.99)
This elegant sequel to Avi’s “Crispin: The Cross of Lead” finds the 14th-century adolescent orphan and his guardian, Bear, on the lam. They’re eluding a syndicate known as the Brotherhood, a syndicate convinced that Bear is a traitor.
Crispin’s new status as a free man becomes almost nominal as the pair hastens to avoid the pack.
Crispin’s thrill at encountering a world beyond his village of Great Wexley is compromised when Bear becomes gravely injured and grows worse when their presence provokes the murder of a new friend. Crispin finds help and solace in the friendship of a healer’s apprentice who also is a social outcast.
“At the Edge of the World” is even better than its Newbery Award-winning predecessor. The lambent language reflects the overwhelming superstitions of the period, and the themes of loyalty, conflict and deception are timeless. Ages 10 to 14.
“The Boy in Striped Pajamas,” by John Boyne (David Frickling Books, 224 pages, $15.95)
The book jacket warns, “This isn’t a book for 9-year-olds,” but that’s underestimating young readers. This fable about a stunningly naive boy, son of a Nazi commandant assigned to Auschwitz, and his attempt to make sense out of an imcomprehensible situation, speaks to nearly everyone.
Swathed by the gauze of wealth and privilege, little Bruno’s biggest problems are boredom, loneliness and the annoying Nazi lieutenant who persists in derisively calling him “little man.”
The first two problems dissolve with the fortuitous but limited friendship with another boy his age. Unfortunately, Shmuel lives on the other side of the fence at the place Bruno phonetically calls “Out-With,” as in “Out with the people who lived here before us,” Bruno’s sister loftily explains.
For readers who know the horrific story of the death camps, Bruno’s cluelessness seems almost willful and implausible. The final chapter is both ambiguous and quite specific. Ages 9 and up.
“Tyrell,” by Coe Booth (Scholastic Press, 320 pages, $16.99)
Son of a drug-dealing jailbird father and an aggressively irresponsible mother, 15-year-old Tyrell finds schooling secondary to looking out for his 7-year-old brother and himself as his family bounces between New York’s housing projects and homeless shelters.
His mother won’t work, so Tyrell earns what his best friend calls “chump change” by using his MetroCard to “swipe in” subway passengers paying a black market price.
Tyrell hews to his own skewed values, refusing to deal drugs “and make some real money” with his friend Cal, but also to be sexually active with his 14-year-old girlfriend and another girl at the shelter.
The language is as raw as Tyrell’s life. Coe presents the sex and drugs scene as a given for kids in the projects and shelters. Few other current novels so profoundly illustrate how mercilessly existing conditions ensure that poor remain poor.
A good ending, from Tyrell’s viewpoint, is getting to go back to the projects from the tawdry shelter. This is a powerful, unforgiving and important illustration of an increasing population of U.S. residents who are hungry, homeless and deliberately ignored by their government and compatriots. Due in bookstores by Oct. 1. Ages 12 and up.
“Buried,” by Robin Merrow MacCready (Dutton Children’s Books, 208 pages, $16.99)
“Out of Focus,” by Margaret Buffie (KCP Fiction, 239 pages, $16.95)
“Lush,” by Natasha Friend (Scholastic Press, 178 pages, $16.99)
These three novels present the adolescent children of alcoholic parents with stories that weave between the girls’ miserable home lives and the fragile facades they construct at school.
All escort readers on the psychological journeys that go with the territory, though “Buried” takes this to an extreme that Alfred Hitchcock would admire.
Though these fall into the sometimes regrettable category of Novels About Important Issues, the stories are well told, lively and potentially powerful for readers who need to know that alcoholism is an enormous problem. Ages 12 and up.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
