The Book of One Hundred Truths

Written by: Julie Schumacher

First line: Probably because they didn't trust me, my parents were grilling me at the airport in Minneapolis, asking all the usual travel questions.

Why you should read this book: No one told Thea she'd have to spent the entire summer babysitting her inquisitive cousin Jocelyn, but Thea hasn't exactly been telling anyone the truth herself. She was hoping that a vacation at her grandparents' house by the Jersey Shore would help her get away from all the secrets and lies she's spun around herself at home, but Jocelyn has a nose for secrets, and will drag Thea into the thick of the family's deception whether she likes it or not. A book about confronting reality and facing the hard facts dead on.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You suspect that everyone is up to something.

Out of My Mind

Written by: Sharon M. Draper

First line: Words.

Why you should read this book: Born with an extreme form of cerebral palsy, which renders her incapable of walking or talking or even feeding herself, Melody is trapped inside her eidetic memory with no more than a baby's symbol board to communicate the complex nuances of her thought processes. When the school finally decides to mainstream some of the special ed kids in her class, Melody manages to express her need for a computer that will speak for her, and finds herself navigating the social world that had always excluded her, joining the school's quiz team and helping the group win a slot in the national competition in Washington, DC. With passion and pathos, she tells the story of her life in a way that wins the reader's admiration but never asks for sympathy.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You can't stop talking.

11 Birthdays

Written by: Wendy Mass

First line: The oddest thing about Angelina D'Angelo was that no one could remember a time when she didn't live in Willow Falls.

Why you should read this book: Amanda and Leo have always celebrated their birthdays together, but this year is different: Amanda hasn't spoken to Leo since she heard him talking smack about her at their tenth birthday party, and her eleventh birthday is looking like the most horrible one ever. What's worse is that every time the day finally ends, it starts over again when she wakes up in the morning, so that Amanda is trapped in the worst day of her life, celebrating an awful eleventh birthday over and over again. When she realizes that Leo is trapped in the same nightmare, they must resolve their differences and delve into the history of their town and their respective families to learn how to escape the loop and get on with their eleventh year.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've been feuding with your former best friend, and it's going to take a lot more than divine intervention for you to forgive them.

Horns

Written by: Joe Hill

First line: Ignatius Martin Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things.

Why you should read this book: Powerfully written and executed, this wonderful novel transcends horror themes and the very nature of good and evil to present an eminently satisfying story about love and the sentiments left unsaid. Ig wakes up one morning, hung over, with the nagging suspicion that he did something unspeakable the night before, and having sprouted in the night a pair of slightly painful and fairly prominent horns, which give him the power to see others' worst secrets, persuade them to act on their most inappropriate desires, and inspire them to tell him exactly what's on their mind, whether he wants to hear it or not. The first thing he learns is that everyone, including his family, holds him responsible for the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend a year earlier, and Ig suddenly finds himself on a painful, horrible, and ultimately enlightening journey of discovery and revenge against those who wronged him and his beloved.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're the type of person who frequently finds things blasphemous.

Lily Brown's Paintings

Written by: Angela Johnson

First line: Lily Brown loves her mama, daddy, and baby brother and the world they live in.

Why you should read this book: In a story about the power of art and imagination, Lily Brown transforms her world into a magical place. Her paintings portray skill, whimsy, and wonder, and transport her, and the reader, to a place of fantasy and surprise. But Lily Brown always returns at the end of the day to the real world, which is just as amazing as her imagination.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You fear your child's fantasy world.

Calvin Can't Fly: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie

Written by: Jennifer Berne

First line: Calvin is a starling.

Why you should read this book: From the moment they first leave the nest, Calvin is different from his siblings and cousins. While they discover worms and grass and dirt, Calvin discovers books and words and libraries (and finds himself labeled a nerd). They all fly off for the winter, and Calvin, who has not learned to fly, must be towed beneath them, until his superior knowledge saves his family and eventually leads to his acceptance.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Your kid refuses to participate in P.E.

The Dark Is Rising

Written by: Susan Cooper

First line: "Too many!" James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.

Why you should read this book: Mixing pagan tropes into a prosaic English village in the middle of the twentieth century, this magical tale is a battle between the forces of dark and the forces of light, with young Will Stanton caught in the middle. On this eleventh birthday, he learns that he, the seventh son of a seventh son, is an "Old One," charged with uncovering and reuniting the six signs. The forces of darkness will do everything in their power to prevent him from reaching his goal, while the forces of light working to support his efforts.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Even though this is one of the better known volumes in this five-book series, it is actually book two, and, unlike me, you probably should start with book one.

Y The Last Man: Safeword

Written by: Brian K. Vaughan

First line: Yorick always gets to be last.

Why you should read this book: Agent 355 leaves Yorick with her old friend, Agent 711, while she and Dr. Mann seek out medicine for Yorick's horrible monkey. Agent 711 subjects Yorick to the world's most inappropriate BDSM scenario, revealed after the fact to be the world's most inappropriate (but successful) suicide intervention. The group reunites in time to get into a lethal firefight with the tattered remnants of a border-guarding militia in Arizona.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Seriously, where is all this going? This volume seems pretty gratuitous.

The Adventures of Blanche

Written by: Rick Geary

First line: My favorite memories of childhood are of the summers I spent in my grandmother’s little town.

Why you should read this book: A whimsical work by an award-winning artist, this book follows the unsinkable Blanche from New York, to Hollywood, to Paris. Despite her unassuming nature, classical piano training, and somewhat Victorian sensibilities, Blanch plunges from one crisis to the next, escaping from cultists and giant tentacles, jumping off bridges, dangling from flying contraptions, and (possibly) saving the world. Good clean fun for fans of the fantastic graphic novel medium.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: This is probably just me, but I found that fact that every single character in this book is drawn in such a way that their cheekbones look like cat whiskers sort of confusing.

Children of the Sea

 Written by: Daisuke Igarashi

First line: I’ll tell you a story about the sea.

Why you should read this book: Strange things go on in the world’s oceans in this manga: global climate change, unexplained lights, disappearing fish, human children living underwater. After being cut from her handball team due to excessive violence in her defensive tactics, Ruka stumbles into these mysteries, accompanied by two strange boys who were reportedly raised by dugongs, and her own childhood memories of seeing a ghost in her father’s aquarium. Danger is afoot, and Ruka’s new friends may be threatened, or they may be about to sacrifice themselves to something amazing, spectacular, and world-changing.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: I read it three times and still can’t really explain the ending, possibly because this is actually the first volume of a much longer work.