2008 has been a fantastic year for young adult  books. Here are a few more tiles too good to miss.

 

Atomic Robo by Brian Clevenger is just too much fun and too funny.  A robot with automatic intelligence works for the U.S. military on top secret missions. It is loaded with plenty of action and great art, but what sets this superhero apart is the clever dialog and hilarious situations.

 

 

In My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath we meet Jane, ready for a life of adventure. She explores questions of who to trust and what to believe as she babysits, hands out Bibles and struggles to learn the identity of her father. While the audience for this book tends to tween-age, the characters are endearing, the setting delightful and the writing excellent.

  

Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key introduces us to  Ruby, a girl who has learned to fend for herself, when abandoned by a dysfunctional mother. Being underage, she is forced to move in with her older married sister. Ruby must decide if she can learn to trust another with her life and her heart. A sweet well-told story.