Saturday, April 14, 1PM: Pete Hautman

Kicking off a riveting sci-fi trilogy, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman plunges us into a world where time is a tool - and the question is, who will control it?

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished - only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing - one right on top of the roof - hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he's launched on a time-twisting journey
- from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker's actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. Hautman knows how to project a voice. In Sweetblood, (2003), the voice was that of a diabetic who felt a kinship with vampires. Here, the voice belongs to a disaffected 16-year-old, Jason Block, who decides to invent a new religion with a new god--the town's water tower. Finding converts is surprisingly easy. His small group includes his twitchy friend Shin, a self-styled scribe who is writing the new testament (snippets enticingly appear at the beginning of each chapter), and Henry, a bully who undergoes changes when he is named high priest of the "Chutengodians." In a smartly structured narrative that is by turns funny, worried, and questioning, Jason watches as his once-cohesive little congregation starts wanting to "worship" in its own ways, some of them deadly. Not everything works here. Shin's meltdown doesn't seem real, even though it has been thoroughly foreshadowed. But most scenes are honest and true to the bone, such as the one in which Jason and Harry agree that their dangerous stunts are worth their weight in memories. Anyone who has questioned his or her religion, especially as a teenager, will respond to Jason's struggles with belief. Many individuals, upon reading this, will consider their own questions once more. 

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* When June starts her junior year of high school in Minneapolis, she isn’t looking for love. Thanks to her management-consultant dad’s constantly shifting positions, this is June’s sixth new school in four years, and she’s learned to guard against getting attached. Then she literally crashes into classmate Wes at a convenience store, and what begins with a black eye for June and a head bump for Wes turns into a true, deep romance that the teens try to sustain after June’s dad moves the family once again. As in Lynne Rae Perkins’ novels, this story’s delight lies in the details. National Book Award–winning Hautman writes with wry humor and a comic’s sense of juxtaposed phrases and timing. From guys’ lunchroom conversations (“How come you didn’t just go online for your porn,” says Wes to a friend who excavates an old Penthouse from his neighbor’s recycling bin) to June’s father’s corporate mantras of self-control and forward thinking, the dialogue is refreshingly honest, particularly in the bewilderingly urgent, awkward exchanges that fuel the attraction between June and Wes. Hautman skillfully subverts clichés in this subtle, authentic, heart-tugging exploration of first love, but his sharp-eyed view of high-school social dynamics and the loving friction between parents and teens on the edge of independence is just as memorable. 

From Publishers Weekly:

*Starred Review*  Hautman, an insulin-dependent diabetic, brings an unusual perspective to the anemic horror topic with his portrayal of Lucinda Szabo, the vampire-obsessed diabetic who narrates this tale with wit and sarcasm. "Diabetics were the original, the real vampires," she writes in "The Sad Truth About Bloodsucking Demons"—an English assignment that lands her in hot water with her parents and teacher. Like his Stone Cold and Mr. Was, Hautman creates an edgy protagonist in the sharply intelligent Lucy. From the first chapter, the author lays out her love/hate relationship with blood: "Blood is my friend. Without it my cells shrivel," she begins. By the end of the chapter, she concludes, "Blood is my enemy. It carries death to my cells." Hautman traces the 16-year-old former A student's slide downward as she dyes her blonde hair black, wears attire to match and almost drifts away from her best friend, Mark. Lucy (aka "Sblood") haunts vamp/net chat rooms as she researches her "condition," bringing her under the radar of Wayne "Draco" Smith, a middle-aged cybervamp who feeds off minors by staging goth parties featuring alcohol. The novel turns darker as he seduces Lucy intellectually, appealing to her wit and her pride in her uniqueness. Smith discovers "Sblood's" location and tracks her down via a classmate, who scores her an invitation to a Halloween party that turns into a life-threatening event for Lucy. As Lucy enters an insulin-deprived state of mind, her narrative mirrors her sense of insanity, the blending of the real and unreal. The exotic theme coupled with the heroine's highly recognizable feelings of oddity and isolation make for a tantalizing read.

From School Library Journal:

*Starred Review* Grade 7 Up–Seventeen-year-old Dougie takes everything literally, lacks social graces, and is a loner, except, perhaps, for his one friend, athletic and popular Andy Morrow. But readers know almost immediately that something tragic has happened in the recent past: "Andy and I had some bad luck with fires when we were kids. We're more careful now." Other students feel threatened by Dougie's disturbing behavior and react by targeting him with cruelty and violence, which only serves to escalate his descent into unreality, isolation, and obsession. The teen has been working for nearly three years on his model railroad set, using 22,400 headless matches to build a bridge connecting portions of the "Madham Line." As his life deteriorates, this obsession and his nightly talks with Andy are the only things that keep him clinging to normalcy. He resists the help of his psychiatrist and hides his medication. Ultimately, he is forced to remember what actually happened on that fateful night. With its excellent plot development and unforgettable, heartbreaking protagonist, this is a compelling novel of mental illness.