Here are the titles from FSG kids that caught my eye:

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah - "This is how wars are fought now: by chldren, hopped up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them."

I've been reading some rather brutal books lately on war and conflict (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) and it isn't easy. Sometimes I really really get tired of how horrible the truth can be, and how powerless we all feel when faced with it. But Beah's book sounds too important and significant to pass up, and I hope to include it in my YA column so teens will hear about it.

Anything but Ordinary by Valerie Hobbs - Very very interesting sounding - it follows a young couple who have been together since the 8th grade and "pride themselves on being individualists". The girl goes off to college and the boy must stay behind to work and there things get complicated. She learns the fine art of fitting in from her roommates and he must catch up - and then they both face the lure of being ordinary. Will they prevail separately or together - unique or ordinary? I can't resist - it just sounds too different.

Rex Zero and the End of the World by Tim Wynne-Jones. I'm pretty much sold by this being a TWJ book, but it's set in 1962 in the midst of the Cold War and with a pretty funny narrator and so it is doubly irresistible. Here's a description: "With its mystery, adventure, laugh out loud scenes of family choas and underlying message of hope, this wonderfully original novel explores the impact of doomsday on the imagination of one smart and funny twelve-year old boy."

Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family by Colby Rodowsky. I enjoyed Colby's earlier book, That Fernhill Summer, and this one sounds like another unique look at family. Ben lives with his Dad and that is cool. When Dad marries Casey, that is cool too. Then they decide to adop a baby from China, well, still mostly cool. But then the family is off to visit Casey's family - all 23 of them. This is not cool and how Ben copes with one change after another should make for a funny, and wry, look at family.

Me I Am! by Jack Prelutsky. Oh please - it's Prelutsky!