3rd Annual Youth Empowerment Summit

I've been neglecting this blog lately, but for a very good reason. For the past month we've been finalizing the plans for our Third Annual Youth Empowerment Summit. The YES is a day when high school students come to the library for workshops on college and career preparation, as well as a few workshops that are just plain fun (such as fencing). Students have the opportunity to learn from professionals in their fields, as well as visit with representatives from various colleges and other organizations of interest to teens. The YES is sponsored by the Harley-Davidson Foundation, and I'm not sure that I can express the depths of my gratitude to them for their support.

The YES was yesterday, and it was phenomenal. We had about more students and more school districts participating than we had last year, and the early feedback seems to indicate that everyone had a great time. Some of the workshops included college preparation, film making, photography, cryogenics, poetry, writing, and a bunch more. Alex Flinn (Beastly, Breathing Underwater) presented our keynote address and two writing workshops, and she was absolutely fantastic. The Teen Advisory Board did a terrific job helping with the workshops, and I am just incredibly proud of all of their hard work. You know those days where you just love your job and everything about it? I definitely had one of those yesterday.

Teen 100 Books Meme

This was originally posted by Karen Brooks-Reese on the Teen Services Librarians facebook group.

The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Instructions:
Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "*" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!

[X] Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams
[ ] Kit's Wilderness / David Almond
[*] Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie
[+] Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson
[X] Feed / M.T. AndersonX6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
[X] 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher
[X] Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
[X] Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway
[X] Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block
[X] Tangerine / Edward Bloor
[X] Forever / Judy Blume
[X] What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell
[ ] Tyrell / Coe Booth
[X] The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares
[X] A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray
[ ] The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot
[X] The Stranger / Albert Camus
[+] Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card
[ ] Postcards from No Man's Land / Aidan Chambers
[X] Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky
[X] And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie
[X] Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn
[X] Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
[X] Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer
[+] The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins
[X] The Midwife's Apprentice / Karen Cushman
[ ] The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen
[X] Little Brother / Cory Doctorow
[ ] A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
[ ] Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper
[X] The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer
[X] Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn
[*] Stardust / Neil Gaiman
[X] Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden
[X] What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
[ ] Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going
[X] Lord of the Flies / William Golding
[X] Looking for Alaska / John Green
[ ] Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
[X] Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse
[X] Hoot / Carl Hiaasen
[X] The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton
[X] Crank / Ellen Hopkins
[+] The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
[X] Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause
[ ] Arrow's Flight / Mercedes Lackey
[ ] Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
[X] To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee
[+] Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan
[*] The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart
[+] The Giver / Lois Lowry
[ ] Number the Stars / Lois Lowry
[X] Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar
[X] Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
[X] The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler
[ ] Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey
[*] White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughreanx
[+] Sold / Patricia McCormick
[*] Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta
[X] Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr
[X] Twilight / Stephenie Meyer
[ ] Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
[ ] Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers
[X] Monster / Walter Dean Myers
[ ] Step From Heaven / An Na
[ ] Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
[ ] The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix
[ ] Sabriel / Garth Nix
[ ] Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
[X] Eragon / Christopher Paolini
[X] Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
[X] Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer
[X] The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman
[X] Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison
[X] The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan
[ ] Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
[X] how i live now / Meg Rosoff
[X] Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling
[X] Holes / Louis Sachar
[X] Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger
[ ] Push / Sapphire
[ ] Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
[+] Unwind / Neil Shusterman
[ ] Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
[X] Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli
[X] Chanda's Secrets / Allan Stratton
[ ] Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot
[X] Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas
[X] Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien
[X] Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
[X] Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar
[X] Uglies / Scott Westerfeld
[ ] Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
[ ] Pedro and Me / Judd Winick
[ ] Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
[ ] American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
[+] Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
[X] I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak
[X] The Book Thief / Markus Zusak

Total Books Read: 65/100
Total Books Loved: 9/100
Total Books to Read: 5/100

Book Review: A Curse Dark as Gold (Elizabeth C. Bunce)

I've been waiting to read A Curse Dark as Gold for several months, mostly because it's been constantly checked out since we first purchased it for our library, but also for a few other reasons. I'm always a wee bit hesitant to read books that have gotten almost unanimously positive reviews, simply because I often find my high expectations disappointed once I begin reading. I also knew that Curse was a retelling of the Rumplestiltskin story, which has never been one of my favorite fairy tales.

I must confess that I was also hesitant to read Curse because I felt unreasonably resentful of it for winning the the inaugural Morris award - I was incredibly disappointed that Graceling didn't win, so I was fully prepared to dislike the book that beat it out (because, as we all know, my love for Graceling knows no bounds).

I was very happy to discover that A Curse Dark as Gold was every bit as excellent as all of the reviews indicated. Set in England at the start of the Industrial Revolution, Curse tells the story of Charlotte Miller, a young woman whose father's death has left her the proprietor of Stillwaters, a mill that is famous for both the unusual color of its cloth and the fact that it may well be cursed. Charlotte and her sister, Rosie, must contend not only with the curse (which Charlotte is determined not to believe in), but with the villagers who depend on Stillwaters for their livelihoods, rapidly changing technology that may make Stillwaters obsolete, their scheming uncle who appears to “help” them, their own changing relationships with eachother and their romantic partners, and a rival firm which wants to place the Stillwaters name on inferior cloth.

The discovery that their father has taken a large mortgage on the mill before he dies introduces Charlotte to both banker Randall, the man who will become her husband, and to Jack Spinner, a mysterious stranger who appears at each time of trouble to offer his unusual skills at an increasingly terrible price.

Using lovely, evocative language, Bunce capably weaves together (sorry, couldn't help myself) the story of the curse, information about mill workers and small towns, the difficulties a young woman faces in running a business in a male-dominated world, a romance, and Charlotte's overriding love for family. Charlotte is a resourceful, although stubborn, heroine, and the supporting characters are well-drawn and believable. The resolution of the curse and the truth of Jack Spinner is creepy and satisfying, although the resolution of the mill's financial problems is less so, relying on a deus ex machina that is less than convincing. I will be strongly recommending A Curse Dark as Gold to fans of fantasy and supernatural romance.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

100 Books Meme

This meme is a few months old, but I just came across it tonight so I figured I'd give it a try.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Book Review: Sister Wife (Shelly Hrdlitschka)

Celeste was born in Unity, a fictional town clearly based on Colorado City, Arizona, the home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Almost everyone in Unity is a member of the Movement, a fundamentalist religion that requires men to have multiple wives to reach the highest levels of heaven. Sister Wife brings the concepts of love, religion, marriage, family, and expectations together in a thoroughly believable story of one young woman and her attempts to discover how her life should be lived.

Although she wishes to be faithful, Celeste has long struggled with aspects of life in the Movement. Women and children are expected to be unthinkingly obedient, and Celeste has watched her pregnant mother grow progressively weaker in a community that doesn't believe in medical care. Taviana, a newcomer to the community who was rescued from a life of teen prostitution and homelessness, tells Celeste stories of her life outside that leave Celeste both confused and intrigued. To add to her troubled mind, Celeste is about to turn 15, the age at which the Prophet will reveal the man to whom she will be assigned in marriage. Celeste knows that she will undoubtedly be assigned to a man who is as old as her father, and this reality is becoming more untolerable to her, especially since she has become interested in a young man closer to her own age.

As Celeste's friends begin to leave the Movement, Celeste is caught between her desire to follow them into the outside world and her loyalty to her family. Celeste's struggle is compassionately and realistically portrayed, with her primary motivation to stay being her strong loyalty to her family and her desire not to cause them disgrace or pain. Her relationships with family members and friends ring very true, and her decisions are utterly believable.

The story is told in alternating chapters between Celeste, her younger sister Nanette, who is eager to become a sister-wife and begin raising children, and Tavaina, a newcomer to Unity who was rescued from her life of teen prostitution and homelessness by a member of the community. The alternating viewpoints somewhat weakened the novel, as the girls did not have distinct voices - I sometimes found myself having to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to see who was speaking.

I'm often skeptical of books with a "ripped from the headlines" feel, but I was pleasantly surprised with the way polygamy and religion were handled. A primary strength of the novel is that there are few villains; the characters were clearly struggling to do the right thing, even when they didn't know what that "right thing" was. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Sister Wife.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Hot Girl (Dream Jordan)

It's going to be a long summer for Kate. She's missing her best friend, Felicia, struggling to get along with her foster mother, and trying to get the attention of Charles, a hot basketball player who only thinks of her as a friend. Kate is also struggling with the repercussions of her life as a foster kid, trying to keep her temper under control and not get kicked out of this foster family as she has so many others.

Enter Naleejah, a fly-girl with an attitude, who can help Kate become everything she's ever wanted. From fixing her hair to giving her tips to catch Charles, Naleejah seems to be the answer to Kate's prayer.

Hot Girl was...okay. Although the story was compelling, the author spends a lot of time on backstory, spelling out things that should be made obvious in the text. The characterization of Kate is uneven at best, and the supporting characters are little more than stereotypes. I can definitely see why this book will be appealing to teens, though, and definitely plan to purchase it for our collection.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Morris Award Shortlist Announced

I was extremely excited when I got the notification that the Morris Award shortlist had been announced. The Morris Award "recognizes excellence from a first time author writing for young adults," and more information can be found here.

I've only read 2 of the shortlisted books, but one of them is Graceling by Kristen Cashore! I'm such a fan-girl for this book that it's a little embarrassing, so obviously I'm hoping it gets the win. The rest of the books are...

A Curse Dark as Gold (Elizabeth C. Bruce)
Absolute Brightness (James Lecesne)
Madapple (Christina Meldrum)
Me, the Missing, and the Dead (Jenny Valentine)