Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart (Booktalk)

Have you ever met someone who hated his or her name? You have to meet Lily and Dunkin.

Lily's real name is Tim, which she hates. She's always felt as if she were truly a girl, but the world sees her as a boy. Lily's mom calls her Lily, but her dad insists on calling her Tim. Lily is in 8th grade and wants to start taking hormone blockers so that she can ultimately transition to becoming female. At school everyone knows her as Tim; she dresses as a boy.

One of my favorite novels of 2016.

Norbert also hates his name, and who can blame him? He's also in 8th grade, and he's bipolar; he developed early, and he's really tall for his age. Without his medication, there are two versions of him: one is manic and filled with energy, and the other is sluggish and extremely depressed. Plus he's got that lousy name.

Do these two people have anything in common? They sound incredibly different, and they're at different popularity levels at school. But after a few encounters, they get to know each other. Find out what happens in this amazing novel called Lily and Dunkin.

Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart. 2016: 352 pages, Delacourt Books for Young Readers. Booktalk to middle school, high school.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (Booktalk)

[Start by showing the map of Beechwood Island found on the opening pages.] Imagine your relatives had their own private island. This is Beechwood Island, where the wealthy and beautiful Sinclair clan go on vacation each summer. Cadence, also called Cadie, lives in Windemere [show on map] with her mom and their dogs. Her cousin Mirren lives in Cuddledown; her cousin Johnny and friend Gat live in Red Gate.

Cadie's family's island, Beechwood, off coast of Massachusetts

Their grandfather lives in the big house, Clairmont. They have multiple beaches, a family dock, boats, and paid staff. The four older kids - Cadie, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat - are about the same age, older teens. They're called the Liars. You'll find out why. They're nice kids.

But something is really wrong. When the story opens, Cadie tells us she is almost 18. Let me quote her. "I own a well-used library card and not much else...I used to be blonde, but now my hair is black. I used to be strong, but now I am weak. I used to be pretty, but now I look sick. It is true I suffer migraines since my accident"(4). What accident? And if she's one of the liars, is she lying now?

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Delacorte Press: 2014. 225 p. Booktalk to high school. Also has crossover appeal for adults.

Book talk: 45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson

It is hard to lose weight, especially when you love lasagna, you don’t like to work out, your mother is super thin and only eats salads, and you have a part-time job selling hot pretzels. So what’s your motivation going to be? Being able to shop in “regular” clothing stores? Attracting the glance of a cute boy? Wearing a nice dress to an important family wedding? Or just…not being the target of mean girls’ comments?

For Ann it’s all of the above. She desperately wants to lose 45 pounds for her aunt Jackie’s wedding in which she’ll be the bridesmaid. And yes, she has done Weight Watchers in the past. It works, but it’s not her style.

So Ann watches an infomercial and orders this diet plan which includes supplements which make her shaky. Not good. Luckily, Ann’s smart enough to know that you don’t take those things. But calorie restriction is so….painful. Let’s not even talk about exercise. The tape that came with her diet plan is ridiculously impossible. Thank God no one is watching her attempt to do it. No…people are only watching when you accidentally get drunk at a party and puke all over the shoes of the cute boy whom you like and who surprisingly seems to like you back. And it gets posted all over Facebook. There’s no motivation like humiliation, you know?

45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson. 264 p. Viking: 2013. Booktalk to 7th - 12th grades.

Book talk: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

[In an effort not to reveal their romance or any spoilers, I limited myself to the earliest part of plot.]

It really, really irritates me when people read over my shoulder, especially if I’m on a bus or a train, because then it’s harder to get rid of them. Park takes the bus to school every day, and he’s sort of considered a cool kid, but he’s also sort of an independent. You know how high school is.  A decidedly not cool girl -- Eleanor (even her name is uncool) --  has been sitting next to Park on the bus – every single day: to school and back home – and he just figured out that she’s been surreptitiously reading his comics while he’s reading them: that’s brazen. 

 Eleanor’s the kind of girl you’d feel sorry for if she wasn’t always sitting right next to you in closed quarters. She dresses really, really oddly (a giant men’s shirt with seashells all over it?!), seems to have no friends, and is already a bully target. Park feels as if he should say something to her – in fact, he’s always felt that way about her, which is odd and unexplainable because he’s never felt that way about anyone, ever – and he wants to say something to her, but he’s gone so long now without speaking to her that he doesn’t know what to do. Something is up with him, you know. And something must be up with her, as well, or she’d sit next to someone else. For now, he makes sure she can see the books and he turns the pages a little more slowly.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. St. Martin's Griffin, 2013. 336 p. Booktalk to high school; has crossover appeal for adults, as well.