Once and For All

Dessen, Sara. Once and For All. 2017. 357p. ISBN 978-0-425-29033-0. Available at FIC DES on the library shelves.

Working for her mother, Louna has seen all sorts of weddings. Her mother is Natalie Barrett, the locally famous wedding planner, and she and her partner William have the art of the wedding down to a science. Louna has been working with them ever since she was a young girl, and her role has evolved over time to include more tasks. When asked by a nervous bride if she believes in the fairy-tale wedding and a happily-ever-after, Louna can’t answer, because she doesn’t believe any of it. She’s seen too many happy couples fail, and combined with her mother’s cynicism, Louna knows she will never live a true love story, because they don’t really exist.

Then she runs into Ambrose at his mother’s wedding. Ambrose is everything Louna is not. He’s spontaneous, she’s not. He has no ambition nor plans, she has both. Soon Ambrose ends up working for her mother, and now she has to put up with his irreverence and clear lack of wedding business skills. Ambrose rubs her the wrong way, and yet, there’s something there. Louna is not ready to date, however, not after the whirlwind she experienced with Ethan, a beautiful night and a short passionate relationship that had no time to blossom due to a school shooting that took Ethan’s life. Louna is not ready to let go of Ethan, for no other relationship could compare. Ambrose too feels that there is something there, and he endeavors to kindle the flame that will lit up their relationship.

Fans of Lock and Key will appreciate this great book about love by Sarah Dessen, this story is told from Louna’s perspective and explores how one person can overcome the sorrows that have kept them from experiencing everything that life has to offer.

We Are Okay

LaCour, Nina. We Are Okay. 2017. 234p. ISBN 978-0-525-42589-2. Available at FIC LAC on the library shelves.

Marin’s single mother died when she was a young child, so she moved in with her grandfather. Living near the beach in San Francisco, Marin met her best friend Mabel in elementary school, and their relationship has over time grown to more than just friendship. During the summer following her graduation, her grandfather dies, which sends Marin into a tailspin. She immediately leaves her house and her possessions to report to college weeks early, and broke contact with everyone including Mabel.

At the beginning of We Are Okay, Marin finds herself alone in her New York college dorm during winter break. Everyone else has left, but she’s got no place to go so she elected to stay behind. With a snow storm coming, Marin is worried, for Mabel, whom she hasn’t seen in five months, tracked her down and is coming to visit her for three days. Three long days where the two of them will be reunited. Marin is anxious. What will they talk about? Will she be able to avoid discussing what led to her hasty departure from San Francisco?

Forced to confront her past and her relationships with her grandfather and Mabel, Marin learns that your family is what you make of it, not what you get when you are born. The isolation caused by winter break and by the storm provides the background for re-examining what it means to be lonely and whether loneliness should be avoided.

Waking in Time

Stanton, Angie. Waking in Time. 2017. 360p. ISBN 978-1-630790707. Available at FIC STA on the library shelves.

 

It’s a new chapter in Abbi’s life. She’s heading to college. On her way there, Abbi stops by her grandmother’s grave. The most important person in Abbi’s life, she died before her granddaughter moved to her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin. The day after Abbi receives a hat box filled with grandmother’s memories, she wakes up in 1983. Abbi meets Professor Smith, a physics instructor, who reassures her they have met in the past, and he is working on preventing her from traveling through time. And he tells her there is one more time traveler. On her next jump back she meets Will, who also travels in time, but in his case he jumps forward. He tells here they’re an item and fall madly in love in the past. As Abbi jumps backward, she discovers that she her fate and that of her family is tied to Will and to Professor Smith. Can she hang on to her true love when they travel in different directions?

Stanton creates an intricate and well-crafted tale with the added twist of a second time traveler in the opposite direction. Abbi and Will’s growing relationship is enhanced by the time travel effect, with one party always knowing more than the other about what has happened, whether in the past or in the future. The setting itself is limited to the Liz Waters dormitory and surrounding areas of the campus, but each time period is well researched. Enough hints are present throughout the story to suggest what will occur, but the it remains filled with mysteries and revelations that will surprise the reader. Fans of Kierstin Gier’s Ruby Red trilogy and of time travel will enjoy Abbi’s travels

The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily

Cohn, Rachel & David Levithan. The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily. 2016. 215p. ISBN 978-0-399-55381-3. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

New York City teenagers Dash and Lily have been dating for nearly a year, ever since last Christmas. Lily loves Christmas, and every year she drives the celebrations at her house. This year, however, Lily’s not in the mood at all. Her grandfather had a stroke, and now he needs help even with mundane tasks. Lily is happy to assist him, for she wants to delay his move into an assisted living facility. She loves Dash, but Dash has never told her he loves her. Really close to her parents, Lily is also worried that once grandfather is out of the house they will be moving to Connecticut where her father is now the head of a private school.

For his part, Dash loves Lily too, but her focus on her grandfather has tarnished their relationship. With divorced parents, Dash has never really liked Christmas (too much drama!), but he’s put up a good front for Lily last year. When Langston, Lily’s brother, approaches Dash, Dash knows that there is trouble afoot, for the two of them do not get along. Langston tells him that something must be done to bring the old Lily’s happy Christmastime spirit back. Dash agrees to take on the challenge. But with only twelve days left before Christmas, can he figure a way to bring back Christmas’ magic and help Lily realize that this is as much a part of her as helping her grandfather?

A light hearted tale following the famous Christmas song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Dash and Lily will work hard to rekindle the spirit of Christmas and find each other again.

The Disappearances

Murphy, Emily Bain. The Disappearances. 2017. 400p. ISBN 978-0-544-87936-2. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

It is 1942, and fifteen-year old Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has just died, and her father has just been drafted by the U.S. Navy to fight in the war. With no other relatives in the small town of Gardner, Connecticut, Aila and her younger brother Myles are sent to live with Mathilda and Malcolm Cliffton in another small town called Sterling a few hours away by train. Mathilda was Juliet’s best friend when they were growing up, and Aila vaguely recalls her coming to visit them when she was four with her son Will. Present at the funeral, she volunteered to house the children while their father was away.

Pulled away from everything, Aila is resentful of her mother’s death and her departure from everything she knows. Wanting a souvenir from her mother, she takes her old copy of Shakespeare’s complete works and discovers a ring and a message addressed to Stefen and hidden in the book. In the message Juliet tells Stefen she loves him. Aila has never heard of Stefen, but her mother always kept her childhood a secret.

Arriving in Sterling, Aila quickly discovers that all is not well. The town, along with two other villages, have lost several ordinary things present everywhere else. Titled the Disappearances, these elements have vanished one at a time, every seven years, over the last thirty five years. There are no smells in Sterling. No vivid colors. No stars in the sky. No dreams. No reflections in mirrors. And the next Disappearance is coming soon. The people of Sterling have developed variants, dust that can temporarily alleviate these missing things, but for the most part they do without.

The disappearances began on the day that Juliet was born, and she is known as a catalyst. Aila quickly realizes that the people in town feared and hated Juliet, for she was the only one who regained a Disappearance when she left the town. As Aila begins to investigate this mystery, she discovers that the Disappearances appear related to Shakespeare’s plays, and her mother had taken extensive notes in her book. The more she digs, however, the more she discovers information about her mother she did not know. She also begins to fall for handsome Will, who likes her as well.

But a powerful actor is bent on insuring that no one solves the Disappearances, for there is profit to be made selling variants. With the next Disappearance fast approaching, can Aila navigates small town politics and enemies before it is too late?

Yvain: The Knight of the Lion

Anderson, M. T. Illustrated by Andrea Offermann. Yvain: The Knight of the Lion. 2017. 134p. 978-0-7636-5939-4. Available in the graphic section of the library.

The Knights of the Round Table are celebrating Pentecoast when one of their junior members, Sir Calogrenant, return to Arthur’s castle bloodied and beaten. When he explains to Dame Guinevere and the assembled knights that he was defeated by the Duke of Brocéliande and barely escaped with his life, his cousin, Sir Yvain, immediately decides that he should challenge that man himself. Arthur agrees that they should all head there, after the party ends. Sir Yvain has other ideas, however, and he heads out alone to confront the miscreant.

Reaching the magical fountain in the woods of Brocéliande, Sir Yvain is attacked by the same Duke, but he manages to slay him. Following the body back his castle, Yvain is stuck inside and meets Lunette, the Duchess’ servant. Wielding magic, she protects him from the soldiers who search for him, and he witnesses the Duke’s burial. Glancing the Duke’s widow, Yvain immediately falls in love with her, and through careful planning Lunette is able to set them together. Now married, Yvain agrees to protect the fountain, but Sir Gawain manages to convince him to depart for a year’s worth of tournaments. Yvain’s new wife, Laudine, warns him that if he does not return in one year he will be forever banished from the castle and from her life.

When Yvain fails to return, Arthus is notified of Laudine’s order, and Yvain, realizing that he has lost everything, decides to end it all. Wandering the forests looking for death, he discovers a lion fighting a dragon, and he slays the dragon and cares for the lion. Now known as the Knight of the Lion, Sir Yvain searches for ways to atone for his sins and regain Laudine’s confidence and love. In the process, Yvain destroys more monsters, frees slaves, and fights his best friend in a battle to the death, all to find salvation.

Based on a tale told in one of Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th century epic poems, Sir Yvain’s story explores the meaning of love at a time when women controlled precious little. The illustrations lavishly render this period in history into visual representations that add to the storytelling. Fans of the Middle Ages and of graphic novels will appreciate this book and Sir Yvain’s quest to become a better person.

What Light

Asher, Jay. What Light. 2017. 250p. ISBN 978-1-59514-551-2. Available at FIC ASH on the library shelves.

Every year, Sierra and her parents head down to California, south of San Francisco, to sell Christmas trees from their farm in Oregon. Sierra has never known a white Christmas at home, but she relishes the adventures that take place one month a year. Leaving Rachel and Elizabeth, her best friends from Oregon, behind, Sierra reconnects with Heather, her best friend from California. This year, however, promises to be bittersweet. Sierra overheard her parents talking, and it looks like it makes no financial sense to return to their lot another year. Her junior year in high school might be the last she spends Christmas time in Oregon.

This year, Heather is insistent that Sierra should find a temporary boyfriend so that they could double date, given that Heather finds her current boyfriend to be uninspiring and plans to dump him, but not before the holidays. Sierra wants none of this, however. Her parents are very strict about dating local boys, as her father and mother met on this very lot years ago when her father and her grandfather used to come down and sell their trees. They know it’s hard to make such a relationship work, and they only want the best for Sierra. And Sierra is not that interested anyway.

But when she meets Caleb, she is intrigued. First off, he has a nice dimple. Second, he seems very mysterious. Heather tells Sierra that rumor has it that Caleb attempted to stab his sister a few years ago inside their homes, and that this sister no longer lives here in California. Despite this warning that Caleb might be dangerous, Sierra finds herself falling for him hard. When she discovers that he uses his tips from the restaurant where he works to purchase Christmas trees for folks who can’t afford him, her opinion of Caleb increases. How could a boy who do such nice things do the unspeakable? The more time she spends with Caleb, however, the more time Sierra realizes that Caleb is not only capable of doing such an action, but that is has clouded his entire existence. Can true love help Caleb find the courage to finally conquer his demons and redeem his life?

Fans of Sarah Dessen’s Lock and Key, Saint Anything and The Moon and More will enjoy this story of hope, love, and redemption.

Every Hidden Thing

Oppel, Kenneth. Every Hidden Thing. 2016. 361p. ISBN 978-1-48146416-1. Available at FIC OPP on the library shelves.

At the end of the 19th century, the world has just discovered that large reptiles dwelled on the land and in the water millions of years ago. Paleontology is a growing science, and prospectors are scouring the globe for the best specimens of dinosaur fossils. Samuel Bolt’s father is a self-made paleontologist who has already discovered a few species, but he’s always looking for the next big thing. Rachel Cartland’s father is chair of the new paleontology department at Yale, and he also has discovered new species. The two professors positively hate each other, and they are in fierce competition with one another.

When Professor Bolt receives a tooth in the mail the size of a human foot, he knows that it belongs to the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever seen. This tooth represents a financial windfall for whomever finds the body first. Samuel and his father are willing to do anything to be the first ones to dig the fossils of the rex, the king of dinosaur, out of the ground of the Badlands out west.

Unfortunately, Professor Cartland has also heard of this find, and he comes well equipped with an army escort, several students from Yale, and all of the provisions in the closest small town. Samuel and his father only have a few dollars left, no team, and little hope. For Professor Bolt, the rex will cement his legacy as one of the greatest fossils hunter. For Professor Cartland, the rex will provide more funding to his new department. For Samuel, the rex is freedom from his father’s life and making a name for himself. For Rachel, it’s attending university and hunting her own fossils.

As the two fathers scour the hills trying to find the rex, Samuel and Rachel fall in love with each other and decide that they will strike on their own and find it first. But with Sioux warriors ready for a fight, will the rivalry between the two groups keep Rachel and Samuel apart or will they be able to find the rex before their fathers do?

A great love story set among a fierce rivalry in the badlands, fans of historical novels and of dinosaur hunters will enjoy Samuel and Rachel’s tale of searching for the dinosaur that will eventually be named Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. 2008. 105p. 182 mins. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

The Western world’s most famous love tragedy, Romeo and Juliet tells the trials and tribulations of two young lovers who, unfortunately for them, belong to two rival houses who are sworn enemies. Having met by accident, Romeo and Juliet fall in love quickly and determine to keep their relationship secret, knowing that their respective families will oppose their union. They plan on marrying first, then revealing their deed so their families will have to accept their marriage.

Unfortunately Romeo is involved in a scuffle following the Prince’s edict that there be no more fighting between the two sides which results in his friend Mercurio’s death. He avenges Mercurio, a relative of the Prince, and kills his assailant. Forced to defend his edict and inflicting punishment, the Prince banishes Romeo on the pain of death. Juliet’s father decides to marry her to Count Paris, another relative of the Prince to make amend. Juliet, not wanting any of it, drinks a potion that will make her appear dead. She is discovered and buried in the family crypt. Word is to be sent to Romeo so he can come and retrieve her.

Unfortunately word does not reach Romeo in time, and hearing of Juliet’s death by poison resolves to do the same. He breaks in the crypt and is confronted by Paris, whom he kills. Having killed another relative of the Prince, and facing a life without Juliet, he drinks the poison and dies. When Juliet comes to from the effects of her sleeping draught, she finds Romeo dead at her feet, and, facing a life without him, kills herself with his dagger.

Horrified at these senseless deaths, the two families reconcile and end their feuds. The lovers, who could not be together in life, continue to be the quintessential star-crossed youth who could not get what they wanted.

I Am Number Four

Lore, Pittacus. I Am Number Four. Book 1 of the Lorien Legacies series. 2010. 440p. ISBN 0061969559. Available at FIC LOR on the library shelves.

Eleven years ago, the planet Lorien was invaded by the Mogadorians. Though the population was scientifically advanced and possessed enormous powers called legacies, the surprise attack all but obliterated what was a beautiful planet, turning it into a wasteland.

Nine children, each accompanied by a tutor, were able to board a spaceship and escape to Earth, where they have been hiding ever since. The group split up and now each pair of trainer and child disappeared into the population, slowly training and awaiting the emergence of their legacies. Their hope is to re-establish life on Lorien and rebuild its prosperous civilization.

The Mogadorians followed them to Earth, however, and each of the nine is hunted down by these sadistic soldiers. Fortunately, they are under Lorien’s protection and can only be killed in numerical order. When Number Four, going by the name John Smith, is alerted through a painful tattoo that Number Three has just perished, he knows the Mogadorians are coming after him next.

Now established in the small town of Paradise, Ohio, John and his trainer Henri attempt to lay low. Unfortunately, John falls for beautiful Sarah and runs afoul of Mark James, captain of the football team and a bully. He also becomes friends with Sam Goode, an alien conspiracy theorist.

As the school year passes, John is forced to evade questions about his origins, while Henri continues to push his training and work on his legacies, which include resisting fire and minor telekinesis. Unfortunately, a party at Mark James results in the house burning down, and John is observed saving Sarah and Mark’s dogs from the second floor room where they were stuck. Now John’s picture and name is out on the Internet. With no time to spare, John and his friends must get ready for the Mogadorians’ assault and their dreaded monsters. Can a motley group of aliens and humans survive one of the savagest races in the galaxy?

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B

Toten, Teresa. The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780385678346. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Adam Ross has problems. Lots of them. So many of them, in fact, that he meets with a support group once a week. The other kids in the group, like him, are dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for each one it manifests in different ways. For Adam, it’s crossing thresholds, having to count series of odd numbers, and performing actions in the same way every time. Adam’s home life is also hard. His mother and father divorced years ago, and his mother also suffers from mental health issues but Adam’s not sure how to help her. His father remarried, and he and his new wife have a son, Wendel but also known as Sweetie, who has panic attacks and needs his big brother to help him. Adam’s plate is full, and just making it through one day is tough enough.

That’s when Robyn joins his group. He is as drawn to her as a moth is to a flame, and it becomes his goal in life to protect her. His OCD can’t let him enjoy this growing relationship, however, and he is completely focused on what it would feel like to kiss her. Not that a girl like that could ever fall in love with a guy like him. He can’t even imagine what a normal relationship would feel like. The group, under the leadership of their therapist, adopts a superhero persona, and suddenly Adam becomes Batman, while Robyn is, well, Robin. As Adam learns to navigate a complicated relationship along with the daily challenges that being severely OCD present, he must also deal with the threatening letters his mother is receiving and the hoarding that’s turning their house into a dump. Can Robyn truly be the anchor that helps him get better? Can Batman really save Robyn? More importantly, can Batman save himself?

Dear Future Boyfriend

O'keefe Aptowicz, Cristin. Dear Future Boyfriend. 2011. 120p. ISBN 9781935904717. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Focused on loneliness and the hope of one day attracting the person you’re really attracted to, this collection of urban poems explores the meanings of one-way relationships and the heartbreak that comes from being alone. Filled with social commentary on dating, love, and relationships, this short compendium of poems provides the weary soul with tools to deal with a condition that afflicts everyone at some point in their lives. Fans of poetry will appreciate O’Keefe Aptowicz’s take on love, breakups, and other teen stories.

Burned

Hopkins, Ellen. Burned. 2006. 532p. ISBN 1-44249461-1. Available at FIC HOP on the library shelves.

Pattyn Von Stratten has always been a good Mormon girl. The eldest of seven girls, she’s been helping her mother raise her sisters, and has often questioned the purpose God has for her. But when she has her first sex dream about a boy at her school, Pattyn suddenly finds herself moving away from God and the teachings of the Church of Latter Day Saints. It doesn’t help that her father is a violently abusive and alcoholic husband.

As she begins to experience love, Pattyn starts neglecting her familial duties and experiences a crisis of faith. Caught in a compromising position with a boy named Derek, her father sends Patty away to live with his sister for the summer. Aunt Jeannette and her father had a major disagreement when they were young. He had threatened to kill both her and her boyfriend at the time. Jeannette lives in rural Nevada hours away from a city. There, Pattyn meets Ethan, and soon the two are lovers.

Pattyn’s happiness soon collides with reality. Her mother is pregnant again, and about to deliver. Pattyn must return home to help her, but at the same time she will be returning to be tormented by her abuser. Is Ethan’s love strong enough to allow Pattyn to endure her situation until she turns eighteen?

This book is another great e. lockhart novel. If you enjoyed it, be sure to read We Were Liars by the same author.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7: The Third Wheel

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7: The Third Wheel. Book 7 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. 2012. 217p. ISBN 978-1-4197-0584-7. Available at FIC KIN on the library shelves.

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, Greg Heffley is hoping to secure a date to the dance. Being in middle school, however, is tough, and it is hard to attract the ladies without a trick up your sleeve. Greg reviews his life as a child to discover insights on how he should approach this problem. His uncle Gary, who’s a dead beat, suggests that Greg should use a wingman to help him in his quest. That’s perfect. Greg can use his best friend, Rowley, to help him secure a date, and, if there is time afterwards, he can help Rowley get his own date.

When Abigail’s date, Michael, cancels on her, Greg finds the opening he’s been waiting for. He asks her out, and she agrees to go as a group with Greg and Rowley. With the big night coming, Greg has a lot of plans. They’ll go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, and Abigail will clearly see that Greg is the man of her dreams.

Unfortunately, one night can be a long time in a middle schooler’s life, and Greg is about to discover that you can’t buy love, even if you buy an expensive meal at a restaurant.

It’s Not Me, It’s You

Strohm Stephanie Kate. It’s Not Me, It’s You. 2016. 288p. ISBN 9780545952583. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Avery Dennis is the social queen of her school. For as long as she can remember, she’s never been single. Not even in kindergarten. But with less than a week to go before prom, Avery finds herself unexpectedly single when Luke breaks up with her. This breakup takes place in public and suddenly Avery is the subject of everyone’s conversation at her small school. What will she do? It would be unthinkable to go to the prom alone.

At the same time, Avery is assigned an oral history project she must complete to graduate. Clever girl that she is, she decides to research her history of dating by interviewing each and every boy she dated to see how the relationship evolved and how it ended, to help her draw conclusions about why Luke dumped her. In this endeavor, she will be assisted by her best friend Coco, whom she has known since before her birth, and by Hutch, the smartest guy in her school and her lab partner for the last four years.

As Avery starts to question every boy she has ever dated, and many of the girls, an unflattering but strong portrait of the teen emerges. And as she pursues her goal of talking to everyone involved in her dating life, she begins to discover patterns and hints that the boy she should have been dating all along has been closer than she ever thought.

Told in the form of a series of interviews and interjections by Avery, the editor of the oral history project, the reader is able to explore Avery’s dating scene and the stereotypical guys and girls that surround her, from the dumb jock to the super-smart budding scientist with a few patents already to his name to the mean girl and her cronies. Absolutely hilarious, the story redeems Avery’s perceived shallowness and make her a better person in the end. Will it be enough for her to find a date just in time for prom?

Wink Poppy Midnight

Tucholke, April Genevieve. Wink Poppy Midnight. Dial Books. 2016. 256p. ISBN 978-0803740488. Available at FIC TUC on the library shelves.

Poppy was Midnight’s first love. But Poppy did not love Midnight. Not then, when they first met and not now, when their relationship has gotten to the breaking point. Poppy doesn’t love anyone. She is toxic, a beautiful girl but the biggest bully in their little town, ruling over a group of vicious boys and girls known as the Yellows. Still, Midnight loved her, despite all that. But not anymore. Now he only wants to get as far away from her as possible. But like a virulent disease, Poppy keeps coming back and messing with him.

So when Midnight and his father move to a house outside of town, he hopes that the distance will be enough to keep Poppy and her lackeys away. Across the gravel road from their new house is the Bell household, led by a single mother with so many kids it’s impossible to get an accurate count. Wink is the second eldest Bell, and she is everything Poppy is not: red head, quiet, in tune with her environment, a loner. And she seems very much interested in Midnight. Until Poppy shows up, ready to ruin this new relationship. Can Midnight stop Poppy before it’s too late?

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Sijie, Dai. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. 2002. 184p. ISBN 9780385722209. Available at FIC DAI on the library shelves as well as an audiobook on Overdrive.

In the 1960s, China underwent a convulsing period of its history called the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao unleashed legions of fanatics determined to uproot bourgeois and counter-revolutionaries throughout the country. Those who had the misfortune to be educated or better off than the average were forcibly made to present excuses and to apologize. They were also oftentime sent away for re-education into Communist ideas.

The narrator of this story, along with his best friend Luo, are children of professional families. Luo’s father is a famous dentist and even worked on Mao’s teeth. The narrator’s mother is a famous doctor. Having been declared enemies of the people, they are sent to a mountain to work as peasants in the local fields, where their re-education will instill in them pride in their Communist heritage. Arriving on site, they discover that the peasants are backwards and uncultured. The narrator almost loses his violin, his only possession, but Luo manages to convince the village headman that it is used to play music to glorify Mao.

The two of them settle into a hard working routine, until their talents as storytellers are discovered. Suddenly, they are dispensed from work to attend movies in the closest town, two days’ travel away, and then return to the village to retell the story to everyone. One of the most highly sought person in this region is the seamster, who comes around and creates clothes for the residents. His daughter, also a seamstress, is said to be beautiful. Luo and the narrator eventually meet her and they fall desperately in love.

During one of their trip to town they meet with Four Eyes, who is also on the mountain to be re-educated. His mother is a famous poet, and Four Eyes has made the cardinal sin of taking books with him. Though he has tried to keep them hidden, the boys discover them and eventually badger Four Eyes into lending them a thin book by Balzac. Luo and the narrator decide that they will read this book to the Little Seamstress.

By consuming these foreign and illegal novels in China, they are doing more than corrupting their ideas. They are opening their souls and their sight to other worlds beyond their desperate circumstances. And once out, it is hard to tame desire back into its cage. As the three of them grow ever closer, hard choices will have to be made, and not everyone can live happily.