Filmmaker-in-training Tash Zelenka is adapting Anna Karenina into a contemporary web series titled, “Unhappy Families.” Sure, it’s a challenge, but Tash loves her Tolstoy. With her best friend, Jacklyn (Jack), as co-producer and a cast of talented teen actors, Tash revels in translating Tolstoy’s words and characters into modern parlance.

When a famous vlogger calls “Unhappy Families” an “undiscovered gem,” subscriptions leap from a few hundred to more than 40,000. Success, however, brings unintended consequences. Tash’s new preoccupation with fame distances her from Jack, and she also gets involved in an online flirtation with a fellow vlogger, which carries potential complications should the two meet in person.

Tash is heteromantic asexual, meaning she is susceptible to romantic attraction but completely disinterested in sex. This story is intensely focused on Tash’s process of self-discovery. Her beloved “Unhappy Families” is suddenly the focus of thousands of comments on YouTube, which causes her to question her creativity. Issues related to family life, friendship and romance are well-developed, explored through natural conversations among characters and through Tash’s proclivity for introspection. Readers who like the honesty of Jenny Han’s novels, combined with the creative, quirky characters in Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun, will love this heartwarming novel. While it’s not necessary to have read Anna Karenina to appreciate the story, some familiarity with the characters and plot will definitely enhance the reading experience.

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Sam wants a boyfriend. But having exhausted all known possibilities (specifically his ex-boyfriend and now best friend, Landon), he feels like he’s out of options. Maybe, he muses, he should give up on love entirely and focus on his creative writing instead.

When his other best friend Meg, a practicing Wiccan, suggests a love spell, a skeptical Sam decides to give it a try. He composes a “Perfect Ten” list of the top 10 characteristics he wants in a beau and burns the list at midnight in a spooky cemetery ceremony.

Enter a parade of prospects, including a sexy French exchange student, a quiet and intense painter, a just slightly dangerous lead guitarist . . . and Landon, who wants another chance. Could any—or all—of these suitors be Sam’s Perfect Ten? Or is the whole idea of a Perfect Ten list the wrong way to think about finding the right guy in the first place?

Rather than being an angst-ridden story about coming out, Perfect Ten is a romantic comedy that happens to be about boys dating boys. Don’t think too much about where the line falls between realism and campy wish-fulfillment here: Like its literary godparent Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, the point of L. Philips’ lighthearted story isn’t to reflect reality so much as to enhance it. A fun, sweet and sexy summer read for anyone who’s ever sought (and maybe even found) that special person, perfect or not.

BookPage Teen Top Pick, June 2017

A teenager gets a blast from her past as she faces the future in Jodi Lynn Anderson’s latest novel, Midnight at the Electric.

The year is 2065. Sixteen-year-old Adri Ortiz has been chosen to join a group of young scientists who will be living and working on Mars. As an only child who was orphaned at an early age, Adri is surprised to learn that her distant cousin, 107-year-old Lily Vega, would love to have her stay in her Kansas home during Adri’s three months of training for the mission. Adri is skeptical about her relationship with this kindly old woman until she finds a journal and letters from more than a century ago.

Anderson divides her plot into sections, contrasting Adri’s life against the lives of two women from different eras: Cathy Godspeed, who experienced both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, and Lenore Allstock, who lived during the aftermath of World War I. Although completely engrossed in Cathy’s journal entries and Lenore’s letters, Adri doesn’t anticipate the impact these women will make on her own life.

Although Adri is a talented, burgeoning scientist, she can often be apathetic. But Anderson plops her protagonist into emotional, three-dimensional stories that expand her heart and connect her to her lineage. Anderson seamlessly shifts between all three narratives as she connects the dots and draws her audience into an engaging, inventive story. This charming coming-of-age tale will have readers hooked from beginning to end.

This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mina was born in Afghanistan. Her tragic story begins when her father is gunned down in their home, leaving his small family no option but to flee. After a long, terrifying journey, Mina and her mother arrive in an Australian detention camp. It takes years for them to build a life in Western Sydney, a place both lauded and feared for its vibrant commingling of cultures.

Michael is the son of parents deeply invested in the Aussie Values movement. He has never really questioned their belief that Islamic refugees are terrorists bent on destroying “true” Australian culture. But then he meets beautiful, smart, hardworking Mina and loses his heart. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story for our times, infused with the insight of accomplished author Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Mina can barely remember Afghanistan, but her refugee experience separates her from her white peers. Like the United States, Australia is a nation of immigrants, which undermines claims by predominantly white-skinned people who cling to so-called intrinsic values. Antagonism against the refugees pits the Aussie Values organization against Mina’s family, leading to the outing of undocumented workers. Michael tries to help, but it becomes apparent that he must take bold action against his own family.

The current tide of Islamophobia is well integrated into The Lines We Cross, and the teen characters believably work through the fears and prejudices of family and society to find their own convictions. Abdel-Fattah offers young readers immeasurable perspective into a present-day crisis.

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

When Bannerman Prep invites Tanner McKay to leave his public school and join their world-class debate team, he sees it as his big chance to catch the eyes of Stanford recruiters and to set himself on the path to success. But when the debate teacher partners Tanner with “The Duke,” that clear-cut path no longer seems quite so straight and narrow.

The Duke is untouchable: He’s a straight-A student who rarely cracks a book; he’s adept at pulling strings and calling in favors; and he’s a notorious host of elaborate parties in the city. But the Duke isn’t all he seems, and soon his carefully crafted identity begins to unravel.

Katie A. Nelson’s debut novel, a contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, captures the glitz, glamour and mysterious emptiness of its predecessor with very few of the cheap winks and nudges so prevalent in modernizations. Though Nelson’s characters feel, at times, like incomplete renderings, she deftly recreates the high-stakes environment of an elite prep school as well as the fierce competition for social status that will feel familiar to any young reader.

The high-pressure world of Bannerman Prep, the intrigue of Tanner and the Duke’s strange friendship and the lavish social scene all harken back to Fitzgerald’s classic but stand on their own in this compelling new novel.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.