Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park share a bus seat on the ride to and from school.  They don't talk.  They don't look at each other.  They don't even acknowledge the other's prescence.

One day, Park notices that Eleanor is reading his comic books with him each day.  Then he sees the song titles written on her text books.

And they strike up a conversation.  Soon those conversations are the best part of each of their days.

The conversations grow until Eleanor and Park realize the feelings they have for each.  But can their star-crossed relationship survive?


This was a great look at life in the mid-1980s.  It's amazing to see how people lived without all the technology we take for granted.  It also a great love story that both girls and boys would enjoy reading.  I would recommend this book (or the audio version) to all teens.

And the Winner Is . . . The Printz Award

The Michael L. Printz Award is given annually for excellence in literature written for young adults. 

2014 Printz Award Winner
Midwinter Blood by  Marcus Sedgwick
Doomed love circles back through the centuries in a series of seven intricately plotted, interlocking stories set on a mysterious, isolated island. Forgetting and remembering, blessed and cursed, modern and ancient, these dualities brilliantly infuse the novel’s lush landscape.

Printz Honor Books
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Unlikely love blossoms on the bus when two unique, exceptional souls find strength in each other’s differences in Rowell’s emotionally charged and hopeful novel.

Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

Impeccably researched and darkly disturbing, this complex literary tale reveals the sordid side of palace life in a 16th century Scandinavian kingdom where the royal family, the Lunedies, is cursed by a mysterious illness, and political machinations cast doubt on who will rule.

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
In Sally Gardner’s explosively original dystopian novel, Standish Treadwell and his grandfather show quiet defiance in the face of the oppressive, merciless Motherland. The cleverly parallel illustrations highlight a story as offbeat and perceptive as Standish and his mismatched eyes.

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
Jack Baker, uprooted suddenly after his mother’s death, and Early Auden, the strangest of boys, meet at a Maine boarding school. Their friendship culminates in a treacherous quest and unexpected self-discovery. Vanderpool delivers an emotionally powerful novel in an untamed setting as the boys head up river in search of the Great Appalachian Bear.