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Life seems to ask them: well, have you grown up? Are you okay? And they cope, because they have resourcefulness, sensitivity, courage, loyalty. And generosity – they always leave adults one more chance. Books about teenagers – in our review.
Ellis Weiner The Templeton Twins. I have an idea”
Find a way out of any situation. A series of books about friendly and smart twins Abigail and John, their dad, a scientist and inventor, and the Unstoppable Dog opens with the story “I Have an Idea”. In it, the twins will save themselves and save the rights to their father’s invention (an individual single-seat backpack helicopter) from the thief. The book will surely appeal to teenagers in the manner of the American writer and screenwriter Ellis Weiner to talk to readers, ask them a lot of questions in the course of the plot, explain the phenomena of physics, chemistry, nature and the human soul and joke mischievously, ironically, provocatively.
Translation from English by Ivan Yushchenko.
Career-Press, 228 pp., 11+
Anna Nikolskaya “On a plane with an ostrich”
Face reality. The story of Anna Nikolskaya “On a plane with an ostrich” is emotional, and there are more questions than answers. It seems that everything is fine in the life of 13-year-old Vilka Botova: grandmother, fives, dad, girlfriends. Only here are the fives – crammed and out of fear, dad now and then strives to run away from home aimlessly, and grandmother – even if this is not immediately noticeable – is a real domestic despot. What was the cost of freedom to Vilka’s mother (and, by the way, where is she?), will 39-year-old Vilka’s father be able to grow up, will Vilka be able to love his relatives, weak-willed and domineering, timid and despotic, honest and not very, with their shortcomings, not so harmless, as it seems at first glance? It looks like she can do it all.
Clover, 224 p., 13+
Anastasia Maleiko “My mother loves the artist”
Take risks and trust. Lina’s parents broke up a long time ago, and now her mother loves the artist. But the bright, lyrical story of Anastasia Maleiko, who received the Krapivin Prize (2013), is more about how much Lina loves and protects her mother. About Lina herself, dreamy, light and sensitive in an adult way. About how you can be friends with old women, talk with trees, collect strange outfits in the pantry, understand at a glance all the unspoken feelings of your grandmother, mother, father, father’s wife, mother’s artist, neighbors, classmates – and be a very happy girl in a world of fuss and minor troubles.
Compass Guide, 96 pp., 15+
Wolfgang Herrndorf “Goodbye Berlin”
Fly out of the nest. Teenage loneliness is a horror that repeats itself in every generation. German teenager Mike Klingenberg is 14 years old. His mom gets drunk, dad invents “business trips” with secretaries, and both of them pretend that everything is fine with them. Mike has no friends, and unrequited love has already arrived. Emigrant Andrei Chikhachev is also 14 years old. Not a single German can pronounce his last name, he is a beggar and studies through a stump-deck. The book about Mike and Sneeze’s journey to magical Wallachia is sold in a 16+ package, as if cellophane could protect you from chopped phrases, accidents, a plastered leg, strangers with shotguns, stolen gasoline, social drama and drama of loneliness. At 16, I think it’s too late to read it. At 16, it would be nice to know that the world is safe and full of wonders, even if you explore it on a stolen Niva without a license or documents, that longing, defenselessness, despair can be overcome.
Translated from German by Alexandra Gorbova.
Scooter, 288 p., 16+