The Year of the Beasts vs. The Big Crunch

The Year of the Beasts combines graphic novel and prose to tell the story of sibling rivalry and jealousy between Tessa and Lulu.  The sisters were close until they both got a crush on the same boy.  Their adventures with friends and family make up the bulk of the story. The prose part of the story moves forward, while the graphic novel seems to move backwards in time.  Upon finishing the book one might feel the need to re-read the beginning of the graphic novel and say 'ah, I get it...'

The Big Crunch is a story of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and Spoiler Alert * boy and girl end up together.  If you don't want to read this book, just look at the cover - it tells the whole story.  While it was a decent, light, moderately entertaining read, it was nothing special.  There are certainly girls we would recommend it to at the high school level.
*strange note - the fly leaf lists the names of the characters as Jen and Wes, when they are actually June and Wes.

Even though The Year of the Beasts was somewhat confusing, we couldn't put it down.  It was intriguing and  captivating and we couldn't stop reading. We're sending it through to the next round.
Barb and Mona