All the Water in the World by Karen Raney

ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD by Karen Raney is a debut novel told through two voices, Maddy and her mom, Eve. Maddy is just sixteen and has cancer so both are coping with quite a bit. Eve is a single parent and Maddy has never met her dad, Antonio, which is also central to the story. Teens will like Maddy who is adventuresome, artistic and courageous with a variety of coping mechanisms. For example, she says, “I imagine wrapping myself in some big, thick, material until everything is muffled and distant. Then I imagine I am being observed by someone I can’t exactly picture, who knows everything I’m thinking and loves me anyway.  It makes me feel I can do all kinds of difficult things.” Due to all of the chemo treatments, she is home-schooled by a wise teacher: “if you go straight for an answer, you get something you already know. If you go the crooked way back, you have a chance of getting something more interesting.” With her teacher’s encouragement, Maddy gets involved in the environmental movement and that leads to time with Jack, another student who becomes her boyfriend and colleague on the campaign. When Maddy is down, she turns to her grandparents and mother for support. However, Eve comes off as very self-centered and Maddy has to worry about her, too. Maddy tries to choose independence and resilience, thinking, “Nowadays that was my motto: Keep going and see what happens.” This is a well-written and multi-layered, if sad, book. ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD received a starred review from Booklist. 

Awake in the World by Jason Gurley

AWAKE IN THE WORLD by Jason Gurley is a new work of young adult realistic fiction that revolves around two characters who are seniors in high school:  Zach and Vanessa.  He is dealing with the recent death of his father – due to an explosion on an oil rig – and the subsequent economic impact on his family.  Hard to believe that the company could be so cold-hearted (and not legally liable, especially in California) as to only offer a few thousand dollars of compensation.  Zach’s older brother has quit college to work full-time and Zach works as many part-time hours as he can while they both worry about their severely depressed mother and care for their younger sisters.

Zach’s true passion is drawing and art and it is only gradually that Vanessa, a much more affluent student with dreams of studying astronomy and attending Cornell, comes to know him better.  In this coming of age novel, both students are introspective, such as when Zach reflects, “sometimes it feels like the whole world is waiting to see what wallop of bad luck will hit me next; other times, I can feel them quietly rooting for me. I’m never really certain which is true when.” Vanessa, too, deals with disappointment relating to college and abandonment by her biological father.  She muses, “we’re never really alone. … I like to imagine that no matter how lost or different or lonely I feel, there’s always at least one other person who feels the same way, at the same moment.  Someone’s always awake, somewhere else in the world.”  Together, Zach and Vanessa seem to balance and strengthen each other in this novel which deftly explores adolescent relationships.