msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

The year? 2083. The illegal substance? Chocolate. Yes, chocolate. Anya Balanchine is the sixteen-year-old daughter of a dead Russian mafia crime boss slash chocolate overlord. She's running the show at home, taking care of her slow older brother Leo, her super genius younger sister Natty, and her slowly dying elderly grandmother Nana, and in general trying to create a sense of normalcy and control in the aftermath of her parents' double murder at the hands of rival gangs. When Anya meets Win, son of an up-and-coming wealthy politician, the plot thickens. ATTID will appeal to fans of Kathy Reich's Virals and readers who like a bit of romance in their fast-paced-adventure-romance-futuristic fiction. Check out the extras on Ms. Zevin's fanpage. Grade 8+

When author and artist Belle Yang returns home to escape an abusive stalker boyfriend, she finds more than simple refuge. Her father, who named her "forget sorrow" in honor of his family's new beginning in the United States, regales her with tales of her ancestors' troubles in Manchuria during WWII. Belle rediscovers herself as her father dishes out doses of her family history, and eventually makes her way to China to reconnect with her relatives. FS has been compared with Maus and Persepolis, and fans of those books will find much to enjoy here, but Yang's earthy black strokes and dark-yet-funny storytelling mostly resemble David B.'s Epileptic , a book often left unmentioned in graphic memoir lists. An excellent addition to any memoir study. Grade 8+

If you were born in the 70s and grew up in the Pacific Northwest, you know about the Green River Killer . Gary Ridgway murdered dozens of women in the Puget Sound region, dumping most of their bodies near or in the Green River. He wasn't captured for twenty years; detective Tom Jensen spent most of his career dedicated to the case. When Ridgway was finally hauled in after a breakthrough in DNA testing, Jensen spent 180 days interviewing the suspect, locating undiscovered bodies and eventually making a plea bargain with the killer, who received a life sentence without possibility of parole. Jeff Jensen, the son of detective Ton Jensen, tells the story of his father's lifelong dedication to providing closure for the survivors of Ridgway's victims without turning the grisly details of the killings into a sideshow. This isn't Gary Ridgway's story, it is Detective Jensen's. Jonathan Case's art is flawless and on par with the work of Adrian Tomine and Craig Thomps

Harvey Pekar 's American Splendor got me through many hot, smelly, ill days during the two years I lived in Delhi. Each morning I would relish a couple of pages in order to gain perspective as I set out on my endlessly entertaining ten-minute morning promenade to work. Reading about other peoples' ordinary everyday existences somehow soothingly balanced out the exotic strange that surrounded me at the time. HWV, one of Pekar's last works, collects four stories centered around his trip to a book fair in Huntington, West Virginia. All of the art is provided by Summer McClinton and the illustrations don't add much to the work. If you're already a Pekar fan, you'll enjoy HWV anyway, but if you haven't read him before you should start with his piece de resistance, American Splendor, which is illustrated by a bevy of talented artists, and required reading for anyone who enjoys comics. Grade 10+

Tiger Mother meets Mommie Dearest in this stinging portrayal of abuse, coming of age, and finding your voice set in the Richmond District of San Francisco . Seventeen-year-old Frances is resigned to achieving her mother's dream for her: she will go to Berkeley and become a doctor. A door is opened when she accidentally ends up in Ms. Taylor's speech class, and as Ms. Taylor becomes her personal cheerleader the windows of the future are blown wide open. Watching Frances learn to take risks and grow to accept herself in spite of the warehouse of imaginary faults so frequently pointed out by her mother resembles seeing a delicate flower stuck in a bed of ugly weeds slowly unfurl. Ms. Chow eloquently reminds us of the infinite difference one person can make in a teen's life. Frances's tentative romance adds extra appeal for fans of the genre. Give this one to readers who enjoy Sara Zarr and Gabrielle Zevin. Grade 8+

Warning: the culminating scene will make you cry. Friends and family are stunned when Levi's big brother Boaz announces that, rather than heading off to the Ivy league school of his choice with his classmates, he is joining the Marines and leaving to serve in a war that Levi doesn't understand. Two years later, Levi is looking forward to Boaz's return and what he thinks will be the resulting restoration of his family, who have essentially been on pause since his superstar brother's departure. Someone who looks like Boaz shows up, but Levi realizes his brother is profoundly changed: he doesn't leave his room, he screams in the night, he won't ride in cars, and he is planning a secret trip using Levi's old atlas. When he makes a rare appearance to announce his intentions of hiking the Appalachian Trail, Levi knows it is a hoax - he has been snooping through Boaz's browser history. Levi sets out to reveal his brother's real plan, along with best frien

Would you make the choice to be cryogenically frozen if it meant waking up with your beloved family 300 years later? Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents in the icebox aboard the spaceship Godspeed, destined to land on Centauri Earth, but her plans are altered when she is woken up 50 years before contact. Elder, the dark, tall, and handsome future leader of the ship, is the guy who couldn't resist thawing her out, and their romance paired with the discovery of foul play on the Godspeed keeps this sci-fi adventure moving. Don't miss the cool 3-D interactive diagram of the ship on Ms. Revis's website! Book one in a planned trilogy, Revis's debut novel is a perfect match for sci-fi book clubs. The relationship between Amy and Elder will engage readers of realistic fiction or romance, and the use of alternating perspectives will keep even reluctant readers turning the pages. A must-read for fans of Ender's Game. Click here for the full YA Reads review . A Million