Young Adult Titles

Elliot, Stephanie. Sad Perfect 
February 28th 2017 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline

I heard a lot of good things about this one, and enjoyed it myself. It had a very clever use of the second person, and is a very well-crafted book about a relatively new but little known eating disorder. While it would be great for high school, I won't be buying it because there were multiple uses of the f-word, which were completely uncalled for, and the romance was a little too mature.

From Goodreads.com "The story of a teen girl's struggle with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and how love helps her on the road to recovery. Sixteen-year-old Pea looks normal, but she has a secret: she has Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). It is like having a monster inside of her, one that not only dictates what she can eat, but also causes anxiety, depression, and thoughts that she doesn’t want to have. When she falls crazy-mad in love with Ben, she hides her disorder from him, pretending that she’s fine. At first, everything really does feel like it’s getting better with him around, so she stops taking her anxiety and depression medication. And that's when the monster really takes over her life. Just as everything seems lost and hopeless, Pea finds in her family, and in Ben, the support and strength she needs to learn that her eating disorder doesn’t have to control her."

White, Ellen Emerson. A Season of Daring Greatly 
February 14th 2017 by Greenwillow Books
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline

I wanted desperately to be able to purchase this one, since it is about a girl who graduates from high school and gets signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team! Yes! Girl Power! However, it's a bit slow and more YA in feeling, especially the fouled mouthed baseball players who drop f-bombs. Sigh. Will go back to Knudson's Zan Hagen books for this topic.

 From Goodreads.com"When eighteen-year-old Jill Cafferty makes history as the first woman to be signed by a major league team, she goes head-to-head against coaches, players, and fans who are determined to keep baseball an all-male sport. The first step? Proving she’s talented enough to be there. An engrossing story about defying conventions and living up to impossible expectations, for fans of John Corey Whaley and Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Jill Cafferty just made history as the first woman signed by an MLB team, joining the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate only days after high school graduation. Despite the reassurances of coaches and managers alike, not everyone is happy to have her there. A few of her teammates are giving her trouble, making crude jokes and claiming there’s no way she can play at this level. The media presence following Jill at each of her games adds to her own misgivings about choosing pro baseball over a normal college experience. And to top it all off, Jill is struggling with the responsibilities of being a national hero and a role model for young women everywhere. How can she be a role model when she’s not even sure she made the right choice for herself? "