Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Simon Glass is a complete geek: greasy, doughy and clumsy, a perfectly classic computer nerd. Then Rob, a relative newcomer who vaulted to the top of the high school's popularity perch within weeks of his arrival, decides to make Simon a project. He's going to take him to the top, too.

It's pretty easy. For one, Simon is rich, so new clothes are not a problem. Two, Simon is a willing (if suspicious) co-conspirator.

Soon, Rob and his friends -- including the writerly rich-kid narrator Thaddeus R. Steward IV (aka Young) -- see their experiment with popularity and power go awry as Simon becomes the prototypical Frankenstein's monster.

A real page-turner, but full of well-trodden tropes about power, control, creation, and high school popularity.

Bibliotherapeutic value: There is a discussion of bullying and power tripping. Also, it's a lesson in looking beneath the surface. Cathartic, but not terribly deep.

Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass. New York: Simon Pulse, 2003.

ISBN: 0689858000. $7.99.

Coraline: The Graphic Novel by Neil Gaiman

Coraline and her family have just moved in to a new home, a large rural manse inhabited by an odd mouse trainer and two blowsy yet charming ladies who used to be actresses. An inveterate explorer who is mind-numbingly bored in this new place, Coraline explores her strange new home.

On her travels, she discovers a door that carries her to a parallel world where her "other mother" -- an extremely creepy maternal doppelganger with the general looks of her real mother but buttons for eyes and witchy hands -- and "other father" live. Suddenly, Coraline's real parents vanish, and Coraline knows that only she can save herself and bring them back.

Chilling (yet at times funny), Gaiman's story taps into some deep fears about abandonment and the dangers lurking in the world outside the home. P. Craig Russell's meticulous, painterly illustrations bring the humor and strangeness of this tale to life.

Graphic novels of books have always seemed like film novelizations to me -- an abbreviated shadow of the original. I've always heard that this is one graphic novel that one-ups the original story. And what a spooky story.

Bibliotherapeutic value: A curious girl who ventures into a perilous world, Coraline is a great model of a self-reliant tween who battles a force that threatens to swallow her up. A story about facing down life's dangers.

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. New York: Scholastic, 2003.

ISBN: 0380977788. $16.99.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Jerry Renault's life has just turned upside down; his mother has just died, and he has very little connection with his hard-working father. But he's tough -- even when pushed hard, he won't back down. When the controlling gang/secret society at his Catholic private school forces him to refuse to sell chocolates during their yearly fundraiser, the group begins a full-on war between Jerry and Brother Leon, one of the scariest teachers to ever grace the pages of a YA novel.

A harrowing book about power and authority, The Chocolate War definitely feels like it comes from a different era, a time when no student would dare defy a teacher. However, the well-drawn characters and tightrope-taut plot has a pull all their own. This is a world -- distant, strange, and old school -- that crawls into your veins. Explosive and heart-wrenching.

Bibliotherapeutic value:  Times have changed, but students will be able to relate to the power struggle. Anyone who has ever been forced into doing something by a parent, friend, or peer group will relate to Jerry's struggle and admire his guts. There's no clean message here, but it's a powerful meditation on power and control.

Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1986.


ISBN: 978-0440944591. $7.99.