“What the Moon Saw,” by Laura Resau (Delacorte Press; 258 pages; $15.95)
In Resau’s debut novel, a first-generation American teenager visits the Mexican grandparents she never knew as a child. On the southbound plane, Clara imagines their house having “Latino flair, like Mexican restaurants,” and pictures dining on nacho chips, salsa and shredded iceberg lettuce.
Three bus rides and a long walk later, the grandparents introduce Clara to their home, a cluster of wood-and-bamboo shacks in a tiny village. She looks in vain for a DVD player before she comprehends there are no electrical outlets.
Secondhand, tire-soled sandals replace Clara’s shiny black, blister-making shoes, marking the first stage of a spiritual evolution. As Clara relaxes into the agrarian rhythm of life, her grandmother recounts her own story as a healer. Between her awakening soul and a romance with a village goatherd, the American teenager is transformed. Ages 9 and up.
Resau and K.A. Nuzum, another Colorado young adult novelist, will read at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Tattered Cover, 2526 E. Colfax Ave.
“Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie,” by Jordan Sonnenblick (Scholastic, 304 pages; $5.99)
First published in hardcover in 2004, this begins as a coming-of-age novel that’s a few cuts above the rest, and then author Sonnenblick hits the reader between the eyes with an apocalyptic twist.
The result is an insightful, intelligent story about the enormous changes that follow when a child is diagnosed with cancer. The responses of parents, siblings, schoolmates and the patient himself all ring true. Sonnenblick doesn’t shy from the black humor that permeates chemotherapy centers, and lets his characters stumble on with the ambitions and worries that persist despite the fateful diagnosis. Ages 11 and up.
“Fairest,” by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins, 336 pages; $16.99)
“The Fairy’s Return,” by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins, 390 pages, $14.99)
After hitting a home run with “Ella Enchanted,” author Levine seemed to flag a little, but she’s got her groove back by returning to the pragmatic yet whimsical Kingdom of Biddle and village of Snettering-on-Snoakes.
Levine’s forte is putting a hard spin on convention. Thus, the maiden in “Fairest,” Levine’s revision of the Snow White legend, is uncomely. “The Princess Test,” a retelling of “The Princess and the Pea,” features a phenomenally clumsy and hypersensitive young lady. The witty title story in “The Fairy’s Mistake” displays the downside of drooling precious jewels, along with an instructive lesson in opportunism.
These are fairy tales that won’t disappoint readers weaned on “The Simpsons.” Ages 9 to 12.
“The Sledding Hill,” by Chris Crutcher (HarperTeen, 256 pages; $6.99)
This lively, engaging story tackles death and censorship, not always in that order. “Life in the universe is always about freedom,” observes the narrator, Billy Bartholomew, who dies somewhat comically in the first chapter.
“The Sledding Hill” acknowledges the sizable debt it owes to “The Lovely Bones,” borrowing the concept of a benevolent and startlingly inclusive afterlife and a dead narrator who monitors a grieving friend and parent.
Billy’s friend Eddie, reeling from his own father’s untimely death, feels himself disintegrating until he decides to champion a banned book. The title is one of the author’s own, which makes for a regrettable self-referential dimension.
Apart from its author’s self-serving device, “The Sledding Hill” offers a perspective of life and death that’s fresh and surprisingly consoling. Ages 12 and up.
“Desperate Journey,” by Jim Murphy (Scholastic, 278 pages; $16.99)
This somewhat overwrought story about an impoverished family’s struggle to make a deadline illustrates the workingman’s Erie Canal. The people shepherding their barges ranked pretty low on the social caste, taunted by people whose homes were rooted on land.
The best of the novel lies in the details of canal life. The plot involving an unjustly jailed boatman feels awfully contrived. Bear with that, and you’ll never hear the folk song “Erie Canal” quite the same way again. Ages 9 to 12.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
