The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette

Three years ago, the spaceship landed in the small town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts, and then nothing happened. Scientists photographed, probed and scanned the ship. The ship just sat there - no lights, no door, no noises, no aliens, nothing.
The military moved in and built a base around the ship along with manned check points at the entrances to the town. Some town residents became famous when the press showed up. And a group of dedicated (some would say odd) UFO enthusiasts are permanently camped out along the military perimeter fence. For all that and given the circumstances, a government analyst thinks the town has remained too unaffected by it all.

Sixteen year old Annie Collins knows everyone in her hometown and knows just about everything that is going on. When the analyst shows up pretending to be a journalist, Annie immediately hears about it and seeks him out. They form a reluctant partnership to try to find the answer for whatever he is looking for (even he is not sure).

Obviously, something happens with the ship or it wouldn't be much of a story. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that people who are known to be dead are seen walking around town.  Aliens (maybe), zombies and soldiers. Do I need to say more?

I don't want you to think this is an action packed story (yes, there is some), but it is also about the people of the town dealing with extraordinary circumstances. It is about Annie dealing with her sick mom and the absence of her father. It is an interesting mix of science fiction and realistic fiction. Did I mention aliens and zombies? Good story.

For more info check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog and the author's site.

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

The world may end as we know it. An asteroid named Ardor is coming to earth. Will it hit or just pass closely? Unknown. Will it change the lives of Peter, Anita, Andy and Eliza? Yes.

Anita wants to be a singer, but her strict parents have done everything to discourage her. For them, it's all about going to Princeton and becoming a respected professional. Prestige is important to her father.

Peter is an athlete dating a popular girl named Stacy, but he's not sure why anymore. He kinda accidentally kissed Eliza last year in the school's dark room. They were seen and word got around quickly. As Peter was dating Stacy at the time, she made sure everyone knew Eliza was a slut.

Eliza loves photography. Her father, who is dying from cancer, encourages her creativity. She likes being on the fringe observing rather than being observed. Getting a reputation and becoming the talk of the school was a nightmare.

Andy is a drug user living in the basement with practically no supervision from his parents. He plays guitar in a band with his friend Bobo. Their music is loud and mostly incomprehensible, but Andy does write other songs, more melodic and personal. He bets Bobo he will no long be a virgin when the world ends.

The lives of these four young people seem interconnected as society falls apart in the (possible) impending disaster. Just like the world, their relationships are in flux. Sometimes they hate each other and other times they need each other. Whatever happens (and I'm not going to tell you), the four are given new opportunities to make their lives better (no matter how short those lives may be).

For more info, check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog and the author's site.

The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond

What if Germany had won World War II? The life you know would not exist - you would not exist. There would have been no Beatles, no Martin Luther King, no walk on the moon, no President Obama. Everything we have known for that last 70 years would not have happened.

Knowing the premise, I expected that Germany would have won the war by changing one thing in history (like they built the atomic bomb first), but it turns out that they created genetically altered superhumans. That's how they overran Europe and eventually the United States. The US has been divided up: Germany controls the East, Japan the West, and Italy the Dakota region.

Zara lives in the same year we do now, but you wouldn't recognize it. Nazi's live in big, fancy houses in the center of town. Zara lives with her Uncle Red in a shack on a farm in the country. She is the descendent of Americans - even worse for her, she is part Japanese. Mixed race people are looked down upon even more than non-Germans.

Zara's uncle is a resistance fighter, but lost all energy after her mother was killed for being part of the resistance, too. Zara wants nothing more than to be part of the resistance and fight the Nazi's but her uncle refuses to let her. She lives a dreary life being a cleaning girl in a fancy prep school during the day and working on the farm until dark. The Nazi rule has left little hope for anyone not in step with the regime.

Zara is also an anomaly, a person with special powers (just another bit of science fiction). She can control the wind, even creating a tornado if she chooses. If the Nazi's found out, they would kill her for sure. It is this secret and her family's connection to the resistance that make Bastian's attention so unnerving. Bastian is a student at the prep school and the son of one of a ruthless Nazi colonel. Zara must choose her words carefully when he speaks to her, because she does not know his motive for the conversations.

As the Nazi atrocities hit closer to home, Zara is swept up in the movement to help restore America. The action and suspense will not disappoint.

For more info, check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog and the author's site.

Message to Adolf Parts 1 and 2 by Osamu Tezuka

This is an amazing complex story set in Japan and Germany in the 1930s and 40s during the time of the Nazi regime and World War II. There are three Adolfs in the story. One is Adolf Hitler. The other two start out as young boys in Japan. One is a Jewish boy whose family owns a German bakery. Having always lived in Japan, he feels like he is Japanese even though he was born in Germany. The other Adolf's father is a German official living in Japan and his mother is Japanese.

Each boy struggles with the rise of the Third Reich as Jews become persecuted
throughout Europe and life in Japan becomes affected. Friendships are tested and loyalties questioned as the Nazis become more powerful and Hitler's views spread. After the United States enters the war, the Japanese people must deal with rationing and bombing raids. This portrayal of every day struggles I found fascinating. It is not a view we often see when learning about the 'enemy.'




A thread throughout the story involves secret documents that some believe could bring down Hitler. The documents pass through many hands and are hidden and secretly moved about throughout the country. People will torture and kill to obtain the documents before they become public.

You have no idea how much more I want to share from one of the best graphic novels I have ever read, but it would spoil key elements of the intricate plot. There is action mixed with deeper questions of identity and loyalty to country and race. There are moments of humor, too; mostly in the forms of character overreactions to situation (as depicted in the way the characters are drawn). These reactions are very much in the manga tradition. No surprise since the author is a pioneer of manga and anime.

Make no mistake, this is the Holocaust and the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people is graphically portrayed. It is not just the actual violence, but the thought of how human beings were treated that is sickening.

For more info about these books, check out the Indianapolis Public Library catalog for part part 1 and part 2.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

I don't recall ever reading a book quite like this. It is mostly realistic but has a touch of surreal bits thrown in. These bits come in the form of Lucky's dreams where he 'travels' to Vietnam to rescue the grandfather that never came home from the war. Lucky's dad never seemed to recover from growing up without his father and puts the MIA/POW emblem on everything. He also spends so much time at his restaurant that Lucky feels like his father is missing, too.

Lucky and his mom leave to spend time with her brother and his wife in Arizona after Lucky is attacked again by Nader, the bully that has been terrorizing him for years. Lucky has tried being friends with Nader and ignoring him, but nothing helps...except escaping with his missing grandfather.

Lucky's grandmother never accepted that her husband died in Vietnam and she asked Lucky on her deathbed to rescue him. So Lucky drifts off and visits his grandfather who lives in a constant state of being a prisoner of war. It could be just elaborate dreams, but Lucky always 'returns' with something physical on him like a makeshift headband or dirt.

Away from the bully and his dad, Luck and his mom try to sort things out in Arizona - a nasy face wound, a strange aunt, a sympathetic uncle and a beautiful rebellious girl are all part of the journey...and what about those ants that Lucky sees everywhere...

Click here for more info about this book from the Indianapolis Public Library catalog.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

With Banned Books Week coming at the end of September, I have been discussing challenged books with teens. I was thinking about one of my favorite books, Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers that happens to be on the list. I will not go into the reasons some people have requested that this book removed from libraries or schools. Suffice it to say that it is about young soldiers in war and that war is not pretty.

When I was in library school, I wrote about this book because it touched me emotionally. I am reprinting what I wrote here because I know that it is better than anything I could write now about this powerful book. Here is what I wrote then and still believe now:

My Uncle Bobby died in Vietnam. He was killed in action on August 19, 1969. For his actions he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Bobby Joe Likens served in Vietnam for 16 days.

“The real question was what I was doing, what any of us were doing, in Nam.”

Fallen Angels is the story of young army soldiers in Vietnam in 1967-1968 as seen through the eyes of Richard Perry from Harlem. There is no real plot and no climatic battle. This is a story of young Americans thrown into a hellish situation in a foreign land. Who will live and who will die? The soldiers are not perfect. They question their leaders. They fight with each other. They use fowl language and racial slurs. They make mistakes. They just want to get back to ‘the World.’ They want to see their homes again. Perry wants to go back to Harlem and see his mother and brother Kenny even though he knows he will not be the same when he returns.

“I didn’t want to say that I had a feeling that I wouldn’t get back home.”

I felt Bobby on every page. Did he live the lives of these soldiers? Did he have days of boredom while waiting for orders? Did he tease and curse and embrace the men who served with him? Did Bobby pray to himself? Was he scared? Did he see one of his buddies die? Was he afraid to write home to tell his family what was really happening around him and to him? Did he question those who lead him into battle? Did he kill anyone? Did he feel the shrapnel? Did he know it was coming? Did he wonder why he was there?

“The neat pile of body bags was waiting for the rest of us.”

I was born in 1970, so I never knew Bobby. His brief time in Vietnam is a mystery to me. As a child, Vietnam was just the place where my uncle died. After reading this book my question has gone from “What did he do there?” to “Did he do this or that?” Ultimately, I am left with more questions than answers, but I feel this book has given me some insight into Bobby’s life.

At the end, Perry finds out that a nurse he had met has been killed. He says nobody back home “would know about her, how this part of her life had been, what she had seen, or how she had felt at the end. They would get a telegram, and a body, but they wouldn’t know.” So true.

Click here for more info about this book from the Indianapolis Public Library.

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick

War is ugly. Things happen so fast you cannot even be sure of anything including what happened yesterday. Matt Duffy wakes up in a military hospital in Iraq. His head injury makes it difficult for him to remember how he even got there. He knows he was on patrol and that he and his buddy Justin chased a car into an alley. The rest is just flashes of memory.

Matt tries to make sense of everything he is learning knowing that he will be questioned about the death of a civilian during the incident. Who can he trust when his own brain seems to be working against him? There are no easy answers.

Patricial McCormick tackles serious topics (see Cut) and makes them accessible through the eyes of her characters. Matt is still a teenager when he is wounded in Iraq. Through Matt's story we get a glimpse of what life might be like for the many troops currently serving in war zones. I recommend this book to anyone curious about the lives that soldiers are living.

Click here for more info about this book from the Indianapolis Public Library.