Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz


My 2 cents:

Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe is like its title – large. Benjamin Alire Saenz's new YA novel covers a large amount of territory between its end flaps. It's a coming-of-age story, for sure, about two high-school boys, Dante and Ari, who experience a lot of “firsts.” First car, first job, first kiss, first great poem, first fight, first serious accident, and first time smoking pot.

Some parents will not want their teens reading this book, because <spoiler alert> not all the first kisses are between a boy and a girl. Some parents will not want their kids reading this book, because a few of the characters try marijuana and alcohol. I would say this to those parents: read the book for yourself before you decide. Saenz addresses a number of sensitive topics in Secrets of the Universe with a tender, insightful touch.

Length: 359 pages

Worth Your Time? Yes, for high-schoolers and up. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels by Helene Boudreau (Author/Interview)

Image
My 2 cents: Mermaids! Mermen! Ninth grade. Jade and BFF Cori, boyfriend Luke and frenemy Lainey Chamberlain. Add all this to a small town on a lake and the ocean, and you have just hit the jackpot for YA Literature. Helene Boudreau's newest mermaid novel, Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels , comes out this month (February, 2013). Sweet, funny (and suspenseful), this little treat of a book is ready for publication just in time for Valentine's Day! Just as Jade enters ninth grade at Port Toulouse Regional High, ready for lockers and lunch (free of teacher supervision), and walking to class with her cool, new boyfriend (Luke), she finds herself suddenly back in Defense Mode, preparing to fight off a new attack from the errant Mermish Council. New friendships form, discoveries and rescues are made, but will Jade save her mermaid family and friends in time to attend the Fall Folly Dance? And, more importantly, if she is free to go, what will she wear? 12
Read more

Interview with Melissa Keil

Image
Tell my readers a little about yourself I’m a writer and children’s book editor, and a self-confessed lover of pop culture and all things nerdy. I’ve had lots of odd and varied jobs in my career, including working very briefly as a high school teacher, but making books – writing and editing – is really my dream job. Melbourne, Australia is home, though I have lived all over the place, including stints in London, and northern Minnesota for a short time when I was younger. Life in Outer Space is my first published novel, although like most writers, I have a bottom draw filled with half-finished manuscripts. How did you get the idea for your characters, Sam and Camilla? Sam’s voice really came first; one of those odd moments where I was looking for inspiration for a new project (having decided to abandon the novel I had been working on), but really had no idea what the ‘new’ thing was going to be. I was attempting to write in a café when I spotted a poster for a horror fil
Read more

Legend by Marie Lu

Image
My 2 cents: You have about six weeks to read Marie Lu's breakout debut novel LEGEND, before the sequel, PRODIGY, is released January 29, 2013. Temple Hill Entertainment (Twilight) and CBS Films bought movie rights to LEGEND, and there is constant cyber-talk about which actors will play which characters. Will Kristen Stewart play June? Who will play Day, an Asian-Mongolian-Caucasian teen boy? Will Marie Lu get her wish of Ben Barnes portraying June's brother, Metias? Who will play Commander Jameson? Angelina Jolie? Or Meryl Streep? Enough talk about the movie that is soon to be in the making. Let's talk about the novel. First, no question, similarities abound between Legend and Hunger Games. Like Suzanne Collins, Lu sets her novel somewhere in North America's future. Both Day and June (Lu's central characters) live in the “Republic of America,” which is in Los Angeles, California, and is at war with the Colonies, the rest of the former United States, appa
Read more