young adult books

The Lifeguard

by Deborah Blumenthal

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ABOUT THE BOOK

It's a turbulent summer for Sirena Shane. Back in Texas, her family is splitting apart, but at her aunt's strange beach cottage in Rhode Island, everything is different. Especially with him around.

Pilot.

He's the lifeguard with extraordinary looks and mystical powers, who's unlike any boy she's ever known. He's the one who both saves her and makes her feel lost at sea. So she begins an unforgettable summer of obession and discover.

"A gorgeously written, richly atmospheric novel about a sixteen-year-old girl's life-changing summer on the beach, where lonely ghosts, an unexpected job, and a mysterious lifeguard challenge everything she knows-in the best of ways."

- Melissa Senate, author of The Mosts

From Voya
In the summer of her sixteenth year, Sirena's parents announce that they are getting divorced and send her to Rhode Island to stay with her aunt. She leaves with a message from her friend, "arrive the same, leave different." Here Sirena spends time with an aunt that lets her truly be herself; Antonio, an artist who inspires art in Sirena; and a young boy named Cody who lies in the hospital struggling to survive. Sirena also falls in love with a mysterious lifeguard named Pilot who seems to have magical powers to heal, which she will soon find herself needing. Sirena is a fiery, headstrong young lady who grows leaps and bounds into her skin over the course of the summer, and young teen readers will enjoy reading her story. At times the prose is filled with sage wisdom and gorgeous atmosphere, but other times Sirena comes across as a petulant twelve-year-old in whom someone like Pilot could never be interested. Sirena's voice seems inconsistent, although those ups and downs in maturity are typical for a teen. The writing style is reminiscent of Sarah Dessen, and the magical summer concept brings to mind The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares. At the end of the day, this is a touching love story with just a hint of magic and mysticism to please teen romance readers.
-Karen Jensen

From Kirkus Reviews
A girl spends the summer at her aunt's beach house and falls for a fascinating, handsome lifeguard with supernatural healing powers.

From Booklist
With her parents divorcing, 16-year-old Sirena travels from Texas to Rhode Island to spend the summer with her Aunt Ellie at her seaside home. Though she misses her friend Marissa, she is soon distracted, and later obsessed, by gorgeous, enigmatic lifeguard Pilot, and puzzled by his inexplicable gifts: he resuscitates a seemingly drowned man and weirdly appears whenever he is needed. There are other mysteries, too, like Sirena's vivid, disturbing dreams and her seemingly haunted bedroom. While at the beach, Sirena meets elderly artist Antonio, who provides friendship and inspiration. But the ocean holds secrets and unforeseen dangers, including an incident that jeopardizes Sirena's life. Ultimately, her summer experience proves transformative in diverse, sometimes mystical ways. Incorporating suspense, fantasy, and romance, this entertaining read interweaves issues of self-esteem with family issues and coping with change. Though events can be confusing chronologically, and occasionally elements are predictable, the descriptive prose and some well-drawn supporting characters, especially nature-lover Ellie and Antonio, make for an escape that paranormal romance fans will especially enjoy.
-Shelle Rosenfeld

Fat Camp

by Deborah Blumenthal

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Camp! Freedom, first kisses, summer fun...but not at Camp Calliope, a prison camp for the overweight. That's where Cam Phillips' parents have shipped her off to eat controlled portions, endure rigorous exercise, and sleep in a bunk full of girls who'd rather exchange recipes than ghost stories and gossip. Except for one cool girl from Texas, Faith Masters-who's normal enough to help her stay sane and temporarily replace her best friend, Evie. And then there's Jesse-the only thing close enough to drool-worthy on the camp's menu. Cam can totally relate to him, since his basketball-coach Dad sounds a lot like her perfectly thin, successful Mom. It looks like for the next eight weeks, only the issues (and not the food) on Cam's plate will be supersized.

From Entertainment Weekly.com
By her own definition, Cam Phillips is ''pudgy.'' ''And don't ask me what I weigh, I'm not telling,'' she informs the reader testily. She becomes even testier when her image-conscious parents — thin, the pair of them — pack her off to a weight-loss camp. What happens that summer to Cam, and to the friends she makes at camp (and the friend she leaves back at home), might be the stuff of melodrama, but it's the stuff teenagers will relate to, no matter what they weigh.

—TJ
Recommended ages: 13 and up
Entertainment Weekly.com

From ellegirl books
Teen girls sharing a cabin and late-night chats: Not too unusual, right? Except that they are all overweight-one is bulimic, one is depressed and one's a drama queen. Welcome to Fat Camp, where everyone exercises a zillion hours a day and eats like birds. Main character Cam Phillip is lovably chunky and honest, and the book, surprisingly, isn't an annoyingly virtuous diatribe about weight loss.

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