2008 Best Books for Young Adults (2)

The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Edited by Claire Nouvian

This beautifully photographed nonfiction book conveys underwater life extraordinarily well. I believe the pictures provided in large full color will delight readers with images that most will not be afforded the opportunity to see firsthand. I think readers will be able to absorb meaningful information from the outstanding depictions of deep sea life. These visuals are also accompanied by essays from deep-sea biologists who add even more realism. The large format of this book presents the uniqueness of the abyss to reflect the beauty the lies beneath.




What They Found: Love on 145th Street
By Walter Dean Myers

In a neighborhood, most of the families and friends have a common thread that draws them together. This book picks up from a previous novel by Myers entitled 145th Street Short Stories about the lives that revolve on 145th Street in Harlem. What They Found: Love on 145th Street centers on exactly that, LOVE. Young adults will be attracted to this book’s revelations to the complexities of love. It is the different facets of love portrayed on 145th Street that is revealed and each story shares a relationship - romantic love, sibling love, parental love, and more. For example, the frustration of loving a brother who is a constant disappointment to the family and leading a life of drugs and crime takes its toll on love. Myers describes the tough love of women raising children alone or trying everything to hang onto the father of a child. Love in some relationships beat the odds stacked against them, while others continue to exist only in fantasies. I felt that each chapter shares a story and many of them overlap and intertwine as readers are reacquainted with the neighborhood of 145th Street and the love that is shared. I think Myers leaves the reader with an explanation of the frightening need for love while facing the world beyond 145th Street.