Nooy's Staff Picks

If the barn animals' concern over the whereabouts of Tommy don't charm you completely, Tommy's endearing announcements to his animal friends upon his return from his first day of kindergarten will swell your child's heart and put the biggest smile on their face. This is one of the very best introductions to starting kindergarten that I have come across. Enjoy!
Nooy

Too sophisticated to be narrowly defined as YA fiction The Book Thief is better conceptualized and more finely nuanced than most Holocaust novels. Midway to completion I realized that it was so richly multi-dimensional and well-written that, like an entree at the finest restaurant, should I be unable to finish it I would still be completely satisfied.

I suspected that rum-running during prohibition would be dangerous and profitable. What I did not give much thought to was the divisiveness of its practice and illegality on the lives of ordinary citizens. This book is not only a gripping mystery, it is a piece of historical fiction based on the legendary excursions of the Rhode Island rum-running boat, Black Duck, as well as a believable portrayal of the impact of prohibition and the economic crash of the 1930's on the intimate lives of parents and children inexorably drawn into the drama. Suitable for boys and girls, age 10 and up.
Nooy

Superb, spell-binding and beautifully written. This is the first part of the autobiographical trilogy of Galsan Tschinag; a boy who became a Mongolian shaman, a professor, a Tuvans Chieftain, and a gifted storyteller who writes to preserve the serenity of the Mongolian nomads and to sow seeds of respect for the Mongolian empire.
Nooy

Startlingly believable and requiring only the smallest leap of the imagination to get from our 2006 to 16-year-old Bo Marsten's late twenty-first century, this book is a picture of a dystopian future taken by a teenager who doesn't quite fit the regs for the antiseptic, robotic USSA that would rather be safe than free. This is a well-crafted piece of black humor for teenagers.
Nooy

Adam is about to set off across Europe as a member of Napoleon's army, serving in the place of his master's son. He is a fifteen-year-old, under-aged soldier in the Grande Armee, not only the biggest army in the world but one of the least well prepared for the trials of distance, inclement weather, insufficient supplies, and encounters with unconventional warfare. Josef Holub has written a credible and riveting account not only of war in the 19th century, but also of the era's character, conditions, and class distinctions.

What a whimsical, tender, touching tale of friendship, frogs and fearlessness. For young, old and all those who would be braver than they are.
Nooy

When traveler Angel Allegria arrives at the Poloverdo farm, an outpost on the desolate southernmost tip of Chile, he murders the parents of a child named Paolo. Paolo, who was once compared to "a seed planted in bedrock, condemned never to bloom," claims this as the day on which he was born. We then follow his rugged journey into a future rife with uncertainty, rivalries, and paradoxes that evade understanding, all the while fashioning survival, love, and satisfaction. This tale and Bondoux's telling of it are as august as the vitality, beauty, and wildness of nature in The Killer's Tears. One of my favorite YA books of the year.

Though she could have been anything, she is The Duchess of Nothing. Like flotsam and jetsam, a woman and her lover's 7-year-old brother are tossed together by the remorseless lover who abandons them. To avoid total disaster, the narrator effects the role of life instructor for the child whose care she has been carelessly given, all the while soliloquizing herself through the maddening and ruinous terrain of her own life. Though a bit harrowing given the degree of the narrator's muddled-ness and its possible ill effects on the boy, The Duchess of Nothing is above all touchingly affecting as well as deliciously, cleverly funny. It is truly an excellent read.
Nooy

Enter Kip, a charming, comedic guy who gravitates to Becky, a red head with wit, smarts, and a shared passion for stand-up comedy. In the alternating voices of Kip and Becky, Tashjian gradually exposes the tragic fault line undermining their tender explorations of love. This is a story of abuse minus the black and white characterizations of victim and victimizer. Tashjian offers up a well-layered, believable and compassionate account of the unfolding of an abusive relationship. Fault Line will open young people's minds to the worrisome behaviors that often precede abuse. This is prevention made accessible through terrific writing and storytelling.