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218 pp.
| Dutton
| March, 2016
|
TradeISBN 978-0-399-18722-3$17.99
(3)
YA
Originally published in paperback in 2008, this is a powerful cumulative portrait of one teen and the community that admired but couldn't quite accept him. After Joel dies on a hike in the Grand Canyon, six young adults recall their experiences with him, building a credible profile of this gay boy's life, and implicitly illustrating how difficult it is to truly know someone.
(3)
YA
Illustrated by
Gris Grimly.
With spindly lines; whimsical, off-kilter perspective; and a playful balance of dark and light, Grimly's ink drawings and watercolor plates give a comic gothic vibe to Doyle's unabridged tale of murder, Mormons, and revenge. Sherlock Holmes, in Grimly's art, is long, lean, and angular while Watson is his portly foil. It's a brilliant, if non-canonical, visual study in contrasts.
296 pp.
| Dutton
| April, 2011
|
TradeISBN 978-0-525-42199-3$16.99
(3)
YA
Joy's boyfriend, unconventional Zan, escapes their ultra-Mormon Utah town for the freedoms of college in California. Joy coerces Zan's friend Noah into a road trip to be with Zan, only to discover that he was also eager to escape her. The humanizing of too-good-to-be-true Zan and some (slight) boundary-pushing by otherwise vanilla Joy and Noah add some depth to this romance.
218 pp.
| Simon Pulse
| March, 2010
|
TradeISBN 978-1-4169-8681-2$16.99
(3)
YA
The only life sheltered teenager Alva Jane knows is within the walls of a fundamentalist Latter Day Saints community. When an innocent first kiss results in violence and isolation, Alva Jane must decide whether to challenge her strict mother's admonition to always "keep sweet." Though the transition from believer to apostate is abrupt, Greene creates an engrossing narrative.
219 pp.
| Front
| April, 2008
|
TradeISBN 978-1-932425-26-0$17.95
(4)
YA
Set against the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, this novel is a complex portrayal of politics and mental illness. After Jude's Mormon family moves to Prague for a yearlong fellowship, Jude suffers increasing mental breaks from reality. Because depictions of Jude's irrational moments are so compelling and dark, readers may be skeptical about her abrupt healing.
48 pp.
| Houghton
| October, 2006
|
TradeISBN 0-618-39685-3$17.00
(3)
4-6
This book chronicles the settling and development of the historic eastern Illinois Mormon community of Nauvoo in the 1840s. The murder of Mormon leader Joseph Smith and the group's continued persecution, which forced it to flee Nauvoo, are detailed, along with the group's resettlement in Utah. Numerous contemporary and historic photographs along with maps, charts, and diagrams enhance the text. Bib.
(4)
4-6
This sequel to Through the Open Door follows ten-year-old Dora Cookson through her first year of school--where she works to move from the first grade to the fifth. Sugary sermons delivered by Dora as she learns her lessons, both in school and in life, impede the flow; still, fans will be glad to see Dora's story continue.
(2)
YA
Nikki, Sam, and Alicia (friends who've grown up together in the Mormon faith) will each choose someone with untapped potential and remake that someone--and then they'll take their creations to the prom. The story quickly leaves the territory of teen-Pygmalion romance, however, as their travels into other lives result in the alteration of their own instead. The first-person narratives are skillfully interwoven in this fresh, energetic novel.
Reviewer: Lauren Adams
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
July, 2003
(2)
4-6
In a unique coming-of-age story, a spirited Mormon girl travels with like-minded souls from their native Wales to America. The first-person narrative tells of the walking trek from Iowa City to Utah and of Charlotte's caring for a baby girl whose mother dies in childbirth. Her fantasy--a future with baby Rose--is destined to hurt her, but with help, she does what she knows she must when Rose's father comes to reclaim his daughter.
199 pp.
| Scholastic/Orchard
| October, 2001
|
TradeISBN 0-439-29314-6$$17.95
(2)
4-6
Young Clem resembles his hero, Oliver Twist, a lot more than he'd care to admit. Starving, and with little hope of making his farm productive, Clem goes to live with a no-account family who severely exploit him. He strikes out on his own, making an episodic westward journey. His numerous adventures, recounted in Clem's honest and humorous voice, blend comfortably with the occasional history lesson and move the plot along at a fast clip.
Reviewer: Betty Carter
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2001
260 pp.
| Holiday
| May, 2001
|
TradeISBN 0-8234-1541-4$$16.95
(4)
4-6
Based on real events, this novel relates the experiences of three German Mormon teenagers, narrator Rudi and his friends Helmuth and Karl, who listen to forbidden radio broadcasts and distribute anti-Nazi handbills. The teens are imprisoned and one sentenced to death in a story that suffers from a flat and distant prose style. An author's note provides additional information, and a time line is included.
162 pp.
| HarperCollins
| July, 2000
|
TradeISBN 0-380-97870-9$$14.95 1991, Deseret Book Co.
(4)
4-6
In this story based on a real person, nine-year-old Dora was born with an immovable tongue and has been unable to speak until a chance visit to a doctor corrects the defect. During her Mormon family's covered-wagon journey from Utah to New Mexico and the first few months on the family's new farm, Dora learns to speak well enough to attend school for the first time. Other characters are somewhat flat, but Dora is compelling.