Crisscrossing the American landscape, Let’s Get Lost is an insider’s view of one girl’s epic journey to witness the Northern Lights and the stories of the lives she selflessly changes along the way.

Our sneak peek into Leila’s adventures begins with her car tune-up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she meets Hudson, the auto mechanic’s son. Their attraction is instant, but when their short fling turns from sweet to sour, she resumes her journey north without exchanging phone numbers. As we meet new people along Leila’s wandering road trip, we jump feet-first into their trials while getting only elusive snippets of Leila’s story. She reveals a bit about the curious scar on her neck to hitchhiking Bree near Kansas City; a few vague truths from her less-than-perfect love life to Elliot in Minneapolis; and shares her “I’ve been there, too” strength in Hope, British Columbia, with guilt-stricken Sonia, who’s found new love so soon after a large loss. But it’s not until Leila is in Fairbanks, Alaska, and lying under the Northern Lights that we learn the true reason for her life-affirming excursion.

Adi Alsaid weaves together the distant and disparate stories of his multiple characters, using Leila as the bright red thread to sew the patchwork quilt of their lives. The final product is beautiful, moving—and nothing like it would have been if kept separate.

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

This article was originally published in the August 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Developmentally disabled teens Biddy and Quincy have just graduated from high school. Biddy’s been living with her grandmother, and Quincy with various foster families, but now they need jobs and new living arrangements. A team of counselors arranges for the two graduates to share an apartment above a local widow’s garage. At first, Quincy and Biddy resent each other’s company, and mixed-race Quincy isn’t sure how she feels about interacting with a white landlady. But their strengths and weaknesses complement each other, and soon all three discover a sense of family and belonging that’s long eluded them.

Like other books in the emerging “new adult” category, Girls Like Us tackles issues like transitioning from school to work, paying bills for the first time and negotiating chores and boundaries with roommates. (There’s no consensual sex, although characters grapple with the lasting effects of sexual assault.) In alternating first-person narrations inspired by author Gail Giles’ longtime work with special-education students, Biddy and Quincy talk openly about their feelings, fears and daily struggles and triumphs. Sections are short (sometimes as brief as a paragraph or a single sentence), and the girls’ language is realistically simple.

This highly readable story is a welcome addition to a growing literature about teens with mental and physical challenges. Echoing the characters in John Green’s seminal YA novel The Fault in Our Stars, these two newly independent teens know that their disabilities aren’t their fault—and aren’t the only factors that define who they are.

This article was originally published in the June 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Jill Ratzan reviews for School Library Journal and works as a school librarian at a small independent school in New Jersey. She learned most of what she knows about YA literature from her terrific graduate students.

Nell Golden has been waiting for this moment for two years. She’s finally about to start high school with her beautiful older sister, Layla. Nell and Layla have always been close, and Nell is sure their bond will only grow deeper once they attend the same high school parties and play on the school’s varsity soccer team. But as soon as the school year starts, Nell feels Layla pulling away. She has some suspicions about what’s going on with her older sister, but she can’t talk about them with anyone, especially not the one person she needs the most—Layla herself.

As Nell makes her way (and sometimes stumbles) through her freshman year, she feels as if she’s missing the mentor and guide she assumed Layla would be. Meanwhile, she is dogged by her fears for Layla and haunted by the memories of two brothers who were destroyed by their own secrets. Ultimately, Nell must decide what would be the bigger betrayal: revealing Layla’s secret or keeping it.

Dana Reinhardt excels at creating complex, realistic family relationships and placing strong, provocative themes in the midst of engaging coming-of-age stories. We Are the Goldens is no exception; it’s a superbly crafted story that feels emotionally honest and expansive despite its tightly written style.

This article was originally published in the June 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Set on the beaches and back alleys of Los Angeles, The Prince of Venice Beach is the tale of a homeless runaway who lives an easy life off the grid—until his only means of income turns morally complex.

Seventeen-year-old Robert “Cali” Callahan ran away from an endless cycle of foster homes when he turned 14. Over the years, he has remained under the radar while learning about the people, locales and vibes of Venice Beach, as well as offering his help to anyone who needs it. So when a private investigator shows up at his regular pickup basketball game, Cali plays it cool enough to land a well-paying gig helping the PI find another runaway in the area. Cali goes on to get two more PI jobs, but he ends up falling for the subject of his third search—the mysterious, elusive Reese Abernathy. Cali wants to help Reese, but with rumors swirling about her mental instability and the true cause of her mother’s death, he faces tough decisions in the face of ethical ambiguity.

The Prince of Venice Beach reveals the savagery and humanity of life on the streets, and provides insights into homelessness that few are able to capture.

This article was originally published in the June 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

BookPage Teen Top Pick, June 2014

At just 18, Emi has parlayed a Hollywood internship into work as a production designer, a job for which she has natural talent. While prop shopping at an estate sale, she finds a letter from a deceased movie star that sends her and her best friend, Charlotte, on a quest to find the actor’s troubled granddaughter, Ava.

Fate, love and vintage furniture collide in Everything Leads to You. Nina LaCour, author of The Disenchantments, has a true knack for pacing, moving the story along while incorporating generous pauses to allow the characters to watch one another and see how they live. That theme comes to the forefront here, as designer Emi’s idealized movie-set worlds crash into the reality of Ava’s homelessness. People often project a story onto others based upon what they initially see; Emi loses sight of that and almost misses out on true love in the bargain. Her plan is to craft a happy ending for Ava, who goes almost literally from rags to riches. Instead Emi realizes, “She was never something waiting to be solved. All she is—all she’s ever been—is a person trying to live a life.”

Everything Leads to You has fairy-tale qualities—the letter, the quest it inspires and, of course, the glitter-coated world of Hollywood. But it’s a fairy tale made up of the magic inherent to each of us: discovering what you’re good at and pursuing it doggedly; keeping friends and family close whenever it’s feasible; and trusting your heart to lead you where you need to go. Sometimes abandoning your vision of a happy ending is the key to having one after all.

Heather Seggel reads too much and writes all about it in Northern California.

This article was originally published in the June 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Hannah loves the game of seduction. She dresses to tease and unabashedly enjoys the pleasure of sex. Her one unassailable prohibition is no sex without a condom. So Hannah is shocked when she discovers that she’s pregnant, not only because of the impending scandal, but because the only person who could be the father is the one person Hannah cannot name. More than one guy at Hannah’s high school is sweating things out when Aaron Tyler, new transfer student, announces that Hannah’s baby belongs to him.

Investigative busybodies at school have no trouble figuring out that Aaron arrived in town too late to have fathered the child. So who is Hannah protecting? And why would Aaron needlessly accept such a huge responsibility? Debut novelist Pratt slips in well-placed hints that allow readers to gradually discover answers to these questions. The very British narration alternates between Hannah and Aaron, and from Aaron’s earliest words readers find him awash in grief and remorse. It becomes clear that Aaron believes that he must atone for his past, and that helping Hannah would be that “meaningful” redemption he craves. For Hannah, the pregnancy brings her own family’s dysfunction to the forefront.

The pacing may feel slow to some readers, as Pratt allows plenty of room for her characters to grow and change. The result is a moving story about friendship and responsibility, comparable in tone to the works of Laurie Halse Anderson.

Diane Colson works at the Nashville Public Library. She has long been active in the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Association (YALSA), serving on selection committees such as the Morris Award, the Alex Award and the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award.