The Life Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty (2006)
HIGHLY RECOMMEND
Guess what? There are high school kids in Australia! I thought it was just crocodile hunters, kangaroos, and boomarangs. It turns out Australia is remarkably similar to the United States. There are teenagers, and those teenagers have trouble figuring out who they are and how they fit in with everyone else. This book is an intriguing character study of one of those teenagers named Bindy Mackenzie. It's an epistolary novel, which means it is written entirely in letters, memos, emails, and journal entries. I love this kind of novel. If you want to read an incredible classic example, and learn a lot about Julius Caesar, check out Thorton Wilder's The Ides of March. The great thing about the epistolary style is that it draws the reader into a fictional world; you start to think the letters you are reading are real. That works out particularly well for this novel, because the main character is so complex and fascinating that no matter how much you think you understand her, there's always a little bit more to find out. And you're compelled to keep reading because, as the title says, her life hangs in the balance! It's a quick read, and a lot of fun.
New words from this book: cincinnus, cineraria, cinct

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson (2007)
HIGHLY RECOMMEND
This is another epistolary novel. However, the bulk of the early chapters consist of the main character's memoirs, so it reads more like a novel in the first person. Octavian and his mother are slaves in Boston on the eve of the Revolutionary War. The astonishing part is that Octavian is not treated the way other slaves are treated. He is part of an experiment to determine whether African children have the same capacity to learn as European children. According to the author's note, these experiments were actually conducted by 18th century philosophers as a way to justify slavery. Many of the philosophers hoped to prove that Africans were incapable of learning as much as caucasians. Octavian begins the novel determined to prove those philosphers wrong. He learns Latin, Greek, French, and becomes a gifted violinist. Suddenly, the whole experiment breaks down as the colonies rebel against British rule. The Revolutionary War that ensues has an incredible effect on Octavian. The war also casts light on the hypocrisy of slave owners fighting for freedom during the revolution without freeing their own slaves. In an interview the author, M.T. Anderson, said that youth fiction needs to challenge readers. This book definitely does that. You can feel your brain growing as you read! Seriously, I couldn't put it down. Apparently, neither could the judges of the National Book Award, which Octavian Nothing just won for young people's literature.
New Words: orisons, animadvert, equipages

Thomas by Robin Jarvis (2006)
RECOMMENDED
Imagine that all of the characters in The Lord of the Rings were mice. Well, not just mice. The good guys also include squirrels, jerboas, mongooses, and even mouse-maids (like mermaids but with mice bodies instead of human bodies). The villains are snakes, toads, lizards, crocodiles, salamanders, and sea monsters. Despite the small stature of the players, this plot works out to be an epic battle as the two sides square off over the future of the planet. Thomas is part of larger series of novels popular in the U.K. called the Deptford Histories. The author, Robin Jarvis, has created a whole universe of mouse characters and given them an irrepressible intensity. Don't be fooled by the seemingly benign animal premise. This book will freak you out. It's a manic mixture of good natured adventure story and outright horror. It seems that the moment the reader learns to care for the characters they are put in constant, terrifying danger.
New Words: tetchily, fenestrated, sibilant