What will our cities look like from a preteen's perspective in the not-too-distant future when peak oil pushes gas and food prices to new heights? No rides to the mall? No eating out? City-wide blackouts? Catastrophic! It was to Luz and her friends at first, but through a little bit of creativity and preteen gumption they discover the hidden potentials of an abandoned lot in their neighbourhood. Claudia Dávila's debut graphic novel, Luz Sees the Light, sets Luz and her friends on a path to transform their fossil-fueled world.

It is increasingly difficult to find fiction for young girls which does not promote a material lifestyle, such as getting the latest designer bag or the newest beauty product to help your lips look plumper and eyes look bigger. In a world dominated by waif-like women and the need for more, more, more, Cleavage: Breakaway Fiction for Real Girls is a refreshing compilation of 15 new short stories. Each story revolves on strong, young females who yearn to break away from the arbitrary beauty ideals imposed upon them. Cleavage tackles a variety of topics, from love and sex, to body image and even discovering that your mother is completely waxed bare 'down there.'

Teen fiction, like the wildly popular Gossip Girl series, excerpted above, often reads more like a Brett Easton Ellis novel than a Judy Blume, allowing readers to spy on the lives of wealthy teens with unlimited credit card access and romanticized eating disorders. In fact, according to The New York Times, Gossip Girl and contemporaries Clique, and A-List have collectively sold 3.5 million copies.

However, being taught as a child to never judge a book by its cover (or a popular spin-off television series based on it) I stopped by the library and checked out Gossip Girl, the first book in Cecily von Ziegesar's popular series, hoping that my preconceptions might be wrong.