I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak

Ed Kennedy is a self-described loser, an illegal cab-driver who spends most of his time playing cards, drinking, and hanging out with his ragtag collection of lost souls (his friends). Then, one day, Ed finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery. He does something heroic which hits the papers. Soon, he's is receiving mysterious cards in the mail, most of which contain addresses. Curious, Ed begins going to the locations on the cards.

At his first house, Ed witnesses something harrowing: a woman is raped and brutalized nightly by her drunken husband while her daughter bears witness. After seeing the pattern, Ed realizes that he is being called on to end the nightmare.

Over time, the cards get closer and closer to home. Ed, a loafer all his life, keeps getting involved in various ways. But who is sending the cards -- and the violent goons who force Ed to follow directions?

Very intense at times, this is a completely unpredictable and thoroughly enjoyable mystery about getting involved in life. The ending is fantastic, but you've got to pay attention!

Bibliotherapeutic value: This is a story about reaching out to others in order to find yourself. A wonderful book about creating the kinds of connections that sustain a person through life.

Zusak, Markus. I Am the Messenger. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006.

ISBN: 0375836675. $8.95.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Collector's Edition) by Sherman Alexie

Arnold Spirit, Jr., was born with water on the brain, bad eyesight, and suffocating poverty. On his Native American reservation in Washington, he sees people trapped in their lives -- hungry, drunk, and stuck, and, when a teacher on the reservation tell him that his only hope is to go to a white school over twenty miles away from the reservation, he decides that doing this, the unthinkable, is his only hope.

Facing racism at school and perpetual tragedies at home, Junior’s path is an uphill battle – one that he often has to walk alone, 22 miles to his school.

Full of the kinds of risky and controversial behaviors that teens see every day, Arnold has to deal with the trouble all around him, from alcoholism to life-crushing recklessness, child abuse to gambling addictions. Hilarious all the way through, Junior faces life’s dangers with a searing sarcasm and true grit.

Bibliotherapeutic value: All around him, the narrator sees his friends and family trapped in a cycle of poverty and alcoholism. This is a book about facing life’s most difficult challenges head on.

Note: Details below are for the collector’s edition because this one’s a keeper!

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Collector’s Edition). New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009.

ISBN: 0316068209. $19.99.