Clio's Corner

3rd Annual Youth Empowerment Summit

2009-04-24T17:41:00.005-04:00

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

2009-03-20T19:14:00.000-04:00

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)

2009-02-28T10:09:00.005-05:00

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

2009-02-20T21:00:00.004-05:00

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)

2009-02-13T21:13:00.003-05:00

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)

2009-01-02T19:11:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-10T09:06:00.003-05:00

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)

Book Review: Suicide Notes (Michael Thomas Ford)

2008-11-16T09:09:00.000-05:00

It's New Year's Day, and 15-year-old Jeff wakes up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He's positive he doesn't belong there, that his parents are overreacting like they do to everything. Sure, he tried to kill himself, but that doesn't mean everyone has to get all stressed out. He's not really crazy, not like the other kids in the ward. He just made a mistake, and as soon as he gets out everything will be fine. Right?

Suicide Notes was a disappointment. The book feels as though Ford decided to write a "problem novel," and couldn't decide which "problem" to focus on. Jeff's reason for attempting suicide (he made a pass at his best friend's boyfriend and was rejected) was not presented in a believable way. Jeff himself is not a particularly intriguing character, and the cast of characters in the mental hospital were little more than stereotypes.

The book's plot is generally predictable, as Jeff slowly grows to trust his psychiatrist and the others in the ward. Several semi-consensual sexual encounters between Jeff and Rankin, another patient, left me uneasy. One final encounter passed beyond "semi-consensual" into full blown sexual assault - Rankin climbs naked into Jeff's bed and ignores his repeated statements of "don't!" I was very disappointed that the assault wasn't treated as such - although Rankin is sent away, even Jeff's psychiatrist doesn't condemn his actions as sexual assault, merely describes them as inappropriate.

For a better treatment of life in the psychiatric ward, I'd recommend Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Hole In My Life (Jack Gantos)

2008-11-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

I love Jack Gantos. He came to visit our library about 5 years ago, and was my all-time favorite author visit until this August (he's now tied with Tamora Pierce). I re-read Hole in My Life recently, and was again blown away by this story.

Gantos describes a two-year period in his life in which he went from being a troubled kid to a convicted criminal. After agreeing to sail a large amount of hash from St. Croix to New York, Gantos gets busted by the police and winds up with a sentence of up to six years in prison. Through a lucky fluke, Gantos lands a job working in the prison hospital, and is thus spared from having to stay in the general inmate population. While he had always kept a journal, in prison he was refused writing materials. He began keeping a journal between the lines and in the margins of the prison copy of The Brothers Karamazov. His job in the hospital and the journal allowed him to witness prison life without having to participate in it, and to stay sane as he dealt with the horror. Thanks to the help of the prison librarian, Gantos was accepted to college after a year and released on parole.

This is an amazing book. Although it is the story of what Jack Gantos calls the worst two years of his life, it is also the story of how he managed to turn his life around. Although he had always kept journals and wanted to be a writer, it is only during his time in prison that he developed the discipline to go from idea to finished work. This is definitely a book for older teens, as some of the descriptions of prison life are quite brutal. Still, the story of overcoming adversity and how even bad decisions can lead to a good life is wonderful for anyone.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Quote of the Day

2008-11-05T23:10:00.000-05:00

“Teenagers are the most passionate readers of all. Reading is how teenagers can escape their bodies and enter new worlds, escape their minds and try out other ways of thinking, escape their environments and imagine other ways of being”

Aronson, M. (1999). The YA phenomenon in America: Books that match teenage experience and inspire discovery. Logos 10(2), 111-117. Retrieved September 15, 2005 from WilsonWeb.

Quote of the Day

2008-10-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

It's time to try defying gravity.
--- Wicked (the musical)

Book Review: Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)

2008-10-25T23:00:00.002-04:00

We're reading Ender's Game for Teen Book Discussion this month, so I re-read it over the weekend. I'm always amazed how I get something new out of the book every time I read it, which is what inspired me to write a review.

Aliens have attacked Earth twice in the past several hundred years. The best and the brightest children of all countries are plucked from their families at the age of six or seven to go to Battle School. There they learn military tactics and prepare for the final battle, when the aliens (called buggers for their insect-like form) will return and Earth must either kill or be killed. Andrew Wiggin, known as Ender, is the best and the brightest of these children.

Ender’s Game begins with Ender getting his monitor, which has allowed the government to read his every thought, removed. He believes that this means that he has washed out of the program, been deemed unworthy of Battle School. In reality, it is simply a test of how he will behave once the monitor is removed. After a confrontation with a bully at his school, where Ender cold-heartedly takes the bully down and then kicks him to keep him down, he is judged worthy of Battle School. While on the shuttle to the school, the tactics of isolation and alienation used by the adults on the school become obvious. Although Ender is being trained to command a fleet when he is an adult, he is deliberately kept apart from the rest of the children, his resources constantly strained to the breaking point.

Many of the major scenes in the book take place in the Battle Room. There the new cadets learn to fight in zero gravity. Ender is as intelligent there as everywhere else, and quickly becomes the top cadet in other students “killed” while he stays alive. Ender also begins making friends, when he starts holding training sessions for other new recruits so that they can learn the tactics that their commanders aren’t teaching them. Several years ahead of schedule, Ender is given command of his own army, Dragon Army, which never loses a battle.

Still years ahead of schedule, Ender is sent to Command School, where he is trained by the legendary Mazer Rackham, who won the second war with the buggers and has remained alive by continually traveling at close to the speed of light, which slows down time for the person traveling. Ender begins a final series of games, which conclude with a final confrontation with thousands of Bugger ships at the Bugger home world itself. Ender, in a final desperate effort, blows up the Bugger planet. It is only then that he learns the horrifying truth—the final “games” were not games at all. Ender has been commanding the Earth fleet, and all Buggers in the universe are now dead.

Interspersed with the story of Ender are the stories of his sister, Valentine, and brother, Peter, who are becoming well-known writers (through the use of pseudonyms, as they are also still children). The fragile alliance that has held together on Earth is collapsing. While Ender is eventually reunited with Valentine, Peter remains on Earth and becomes the Hegemon, a very powerful position in global politics. Ender and Valentine leave on a ship to colonize the bugger home world, where Ender discovers that there is one bugger queen still alive, although in a sort of stasis. Ender vows to find a place for the hive queen to restart her species, and the book ends with Ender and Valentine continually traveling at near light speed, learning and studying and searching for a home for the hive queen.

Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books. I tend to read more fantasy than Science Fiction, but the story of Ender and his family is gripping. The training that Ender faces is realistically portrayed, and Ender is a very realistic hero, by turns depressed, angry, arrogant, and kind. Many things in the book are horrifying, including, of course, use of children to fight wars, and this book can lead to great discussions on the nature of right and wrong, good vs. evil. Ender is a sympathetic character, though not a pathetic one. Card uses clear, gripping language to accurately convey his loneliness and determination. The structure of the book, with the switches between Ender’s life in Battle School and his family’s life on Earth keeps the audience continually aware that everything done to Ender has a purpose, and of how high the stakes in the war really are.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: In Spite of Killer Bees (Julie Johnston)

2008-10-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

Julie Johnston's In Spite of Killer Bees tells the story of the Quade girls. After their father dies and their mother deserts them, the girls are living with a woman who owns a deli and trying to survive. Their lives change dramatically when they are notified that their grandfather has left them a house in his will. There is, of course, a catch - they will only inherit their property if they can live in the house for at least one year and convince their crazy Aunt Lily to move in with them.

Helen, Jeannie, and Aggie move to a small town populated with a variety of strange characters who are suspicious of them. The house is in desperate need of a coat of paint, is filled with junk, and has a bee nest by the front porch that no one can get rid of. Helen and Jeannie, constantly fighting, spend most of their time thinking of ways to earn enough money to leave. 14-year-old Aggie, terrified of what will happen when her older sisters finally leave her, begins what seems to be a futile campaign to convince Aunt Lily to join them, while also struggling to fit in as she never has before.

Although the situation is contrived, this book is carried out in a very satisfying way. The book uses wonderful imagery, and the characters are very well defined. Aggie’s fears, as well as her sisters’ ignorance of those fears, are very believably portrayed. While the ending is obvious, with crazy aunt Lily helping the girls re-form their family, the book is well told and the characters make the reader care about what happens to them.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Short But Sweet

2008-10-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago, I visited one of our local middle schools to discuss new books and talk about some of our programs. Since Graceling is one of my favorite new books of the year, I really talked it up. Last week, multiple students from that school came in, and almost all of them checked out one of the books I'd recommended - including, of course, Graceling, which has now circulated four times since being added just a few weeks ago. 2 just-turned-13-year-olds also filled out applications to join TAB.

I sometimes wonder about the effectiveness of the outreach that I do, so this was a nice reminder that it actually does matter, and can have nearly immediate results.

Quote of the Day

2008-10-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller's Day Off

More First Lines

2008-10-11T17:40:00.007-04:00

“Taran wanted to make a sword; but Coll, charged with the practical side of his education, decided on horseshoes.” - Lloyd Alexander, The Book of Three

"In the city of Ember, the sky was always dark." - Jeanne DuPrau, The City of Ember

"Once upon a time, there was a yellow cat with black spots in his fur. His name was Pickles." - Esther Averil, The Fire Cat

“Not every thirteen-year-old girl was accused of murder, put on trial, and proven guilty. But I was just such a girl.” - Avi, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

“It’s so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself.” - Ned Vizzini, It's Kind of a Funny Story

“Seven o’clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the End of the World, and the goblins had been at the cellar again.” - Joanne Harris, Runemarks

"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book" - Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen." - Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Book Review: Bliss - Lauren Myracle

2008-09-18T15:16:00.005-04:00

I am generally not a big fan of horror fiction, so I was hesitant to begin reading Bliss. I am, however, a fan of Lauren Myracle (with one exception: I am completely incapable of reading the ttyl series, due to my utter inability to withstand improper capitalization and spelling) so I decided to give Bliss a try.

Bliss-in-the-morning-dew, whose most recent residence was a commune with her hippie parents, finds herself living with her very proper, upper-class, Southern gentlewoman grandmother when her parents move to Canada in protest of the Vietnam War. Bliss discovers that she enjoys clean clothes and hot showers, but she does not understand many typical aspects of Southern life in the late 1960s. She decides that what she needs most is to make a friend, any friend – and unfortunately, this earnest desire leaves her vulnerable to the machinations of Sandy, a deeply disturbed girl who clings to Bliss with increasingly desperate desire to be the most important person in Bliss' life.

When Bliss begins attending a prestigious private school, she is shocked to hear whispering voices in her head, speaking of blood, sacrifice, and death. She discovers that the school used to be a convent, and a novitiate named Liliana once committed suicide and is still haunting the school. The increasingly disturbing entries from the journal of SLL add an extra does of creepiness as Bliss attempts to discover what Liliana wants and how she can stop it. In the concrete world, Bliss is also witnessing the effects of racism as she discovers that golden girl Sara Lynn is secretly dating the only black student at the school, following the Manson murder trials, and still trying to understand her place in the priviledged world she is now inhabiting.

There are a few too many things happening in Bliss, and the lack of character development for all characters except Sandy and Bliss was disappointing. I did a report on the Manson Family in college, so the compression of the Manson trials and information about Helter Skelter really bothered me. Myracle does include a postscript explaining that she deliberately compressed information about the trial; however, since I didn't read the postscript until after I finished the book, I kept being taken out of the story by having information about the Family exposed months or years earlier in Bliss than it was in real life. In addition, the discussion of racism and integration didn't ring true, and seemed rather tacked on and almost superficial. While Bliss was generally a believable character, at times her innocence and kindness passed into the absurd, as when she stayed overnight at Sandy's house despite the fact that (a) Sandy's bedroom was filthy and (b) Sandy appeared to be going insane.

Despite a few things that didn't ring true to me, overall I found Bliss very enjoyable. The ghost story was well-written, and the horror was more psychological than gory. The fish-out-of-water theme can be difficult to do well, but overall Myracle succeeds.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Tamora Pierce is Awesome

2008-08-17T21:57:00.004-04:00

I've been a wee bit nervous about one program this summer, our annual teen author visit, which took place on August 14th. Although the vast majority of my experiences with authors have been wonderful, there have been a few authors whose behavior has left me, shall we say, less than impressed. Unfortunately, sometimes an author's behavior or attitude can leave me less able to enjoy his or her books.

This summer, our author visit was with none other than Tamora Pierce, who has long been one of my favorite authors. While I had no reason to expect that she would be anything other than fantastic, I had a bit of nagging doubt in the back of my mind as August 14th approached. Could anyone possibly be as exceptional as I was hoping for her to be? And if she wasn't fantastic, would it injure my enjoyment of Tortall and Emelan?

Fortunately for me, Tammy far exceeded my expectations. I had anticipated that she would be funny, intelligent, and interesting, and she was. She was also thoughtful, kind, and delightfully sarcastic. I really have a difficult time imagining how the visit could have gone any better than it did.

The night before our program, we took her out to dinner with 12 adult and teen staff members. The teens were awe-struck, and kept playing musical chairs so that they could sit next to her. I heard her answer the same 3 questions at least 7 times, with no hint that she was being forced to repeat herself. Several of my teens are aspiring authors, and her advice was both practical and encouraging. The look on one teen's face came close to making me tear up (something which I do NOT do frequently!) because his eyes were just shining so much.

At the visit itself, Tammy wowed the crowd with a reading from the unpublished Bloodhound, and answered numerous questions. I was particularly excited when someone asked her what her favorite book was that she has written, because she said that if she had to choose, it would be Squire - which has long been my favorite book of hers. Several of my TAB members enjoyed watching me bounce up and down and try to avoid squealing when she said that.

We had one of the largest crowds we've ever had for an author visit, and she patiently signed multiple books for each person, chatting with them and offering anecdotes and advice as she did so. Although the library closes at 9, we weren't finished with the signing until nearly 10:00, and nobody minded the extra wait. Despite her very long day (3 visits at 3 different libraries, beginning at 10 am) Tammy remained enthusiastic and positive until I dropped her off at her hotel. I am exceedingly grateful that we had the opportunity to host her at our library, and hope to have the chance to work with her at some point in the future.

Favorite First Lines

2008-08-11T22:11:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, I saw a list of first lines in science fiction novels, and it made me think about the best (or at least my favorite) first lines of novels. Some of the lines made me instantly want to read more, others made me think, and a few are simply appealing because they are able to transport me instantly back to childhood. So here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite first (and occasionally second) lines.

Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

Here is a small fact. You are going to die. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

"When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news." Alex Rider: Stormbreaker (Anthony Horowitz)

We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." Feed (M.T. Anderson)

It was a pleasure to burn. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. 1984 (George Orwell)

Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)

"The Hermans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world." The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Barbara Robinson)

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. Holes (Louis Sachar)

All this happened, more or less. Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis)

Album Cover Fun

2008-07-22T00:24:00.001-04:00

One of my friends did this on her blog, and I found it quite entertaining. To design the cover of your album, use these links:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Rand om The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. You then take the pic and add your band name and the album title to it, then post your pic.

Why yes, I am easily entertained. Why do you ask?

Book Review: Must Love Black - Kelly McClymer

2008-07-06T11:09:00.006-04:00

The ad reads "Nanny for 10-year-old Twins. Maine Coast. Own Room and Generous Salary. Must Love Black."

It sounds like Philippa's dream job. The semi-goth girl is thrilled to receive the job that will save her from being a third wheel on her dad's honeymoon with his new wife, and she isn't worried about the strangest twins she's ever met, the ghost she keeps hearing about, or the manager who wants to help "cleanse her aura."

Must Love Black had a lot of potential, but was a disappointment in the end. There are too many half-developed plots, including glimpses of magic and ghosts that are never fully explained. Several things are mentioned for a few pages the dropped to never be heard of again. The characters were little more than cardboard cutouts (the absent-minded father, termaganet business partner, unusually intelligent children, hot potential love interest are all accounted for). Philippa's motivations never become clear, and her actions frequently have no apparent rationale.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Lowered Expectations

2008-07-03T22:49:00.004-04:00

I've had a couple of conversations lately that have left me feeling somewhat...unsettled. Every summer, we hire teens to run the summer reading club table in the Children's Department. We also have our regular Teen Advisory Board members who are volunteering and doing all of the tasks that they are responsible for, including running the book sale, planning programs, and generally helping out in a variety of ways.

In the past few weeks, I've had several staff members and members of the public tell me that my teens are doing a great job, sometimes mentioning a specific teen. I am always gratified to hear this, and I usually ask for examples so that I can pass along the specific compliment to the correct person. Sometimes, though, I am a bit disheartened by what some people consider “doing a great job.” One staff member mentioned that the teen staff members were always at work on time; another mentioned a teen asking for a new task when she had finished the first; one mentioned how straight some papers had been cut; and a customer made it a point to tell me that one of my teen staff members was “so well-spoken!”

Does this strike anyone else as being somewhat condescending? Things like coming to work on time don't equal “doing a great job”. I expect my staff and volunteers to come to work on time, dressed appropriately, and spend their time constructively, and I expect that no matter how old they are. I am grateful that they've chosen to spend their time at the library, and I thank them frequently, but I'm not going to applaud them for doing the basics. Once they've made the decision to come here, I expect them to follow through on their commitments and do them to the best of their ability. I thank people for their efforts....but I don't praise them for coming to work on time.

I think a lot of the difference in expectations is probably because I work with teens on a daily basis. I feel pretty confident that I have a good grasp on what they are and are not capable of, and thus am not wildly surprised when a teen accomplishes something.

Don't get me wrong – I'm thrilled that the positive things are noticed and appreciated. It just makes me sad that the bar was apparently set really low to begin with.

Book Review: Hero-Type - Barry Lyga

2008-06-29T00:19:00.002-04:00

Kevin Ross (Kross to his friends) is a genuine hero. Outside the library one day, Kross was able to rescue a girl named Beth from a serial killer, wrestling the serial killer to the ground. He is given the key to the city, reporters are following him everywhere, and he even gets a great discount on a car from the Mayor (who also runs a car lot).

The car is where the problems really start. The mayor throws in a couple of “Support the Troops” ribbons, and Kross' dad, who served in the military and hates the ribbons, forces Kross to remove them. The act is witnessed by a reporter, and suddenly the headlines saying “Local Teen is a Hero” change to “Why Does Kevin Ross Hate America?”

Kross actually hadn't thought much about patriotism or what it means to “support the troops” or “love your country,” but self-defense (and a desire to prove his greatest rival wrong) drive him to the Internet and library to learn more. He is also still trying to understand his actions the day he rescued Beth, and everything that preceded and followed that fateful day.

As always, Barry Lyga's strength is in his characters. Kross isn't always likeable – many of his actions are creepy at best, and illegal at worst – but he felt real. He struggles with his guilt, with his anger, and his desire to “do something” - even when he doesn't know what that “something” is. The secondary characters are also well-drawn, especially Kross's father and his friends Tits and Fam.

There are a lot of issues in this book – what patriotism really means, living with guilt, dealing with the fallout of divorce, obsession...the list could go on an on. What is remarkable to me is that the book never dissolves into preachiness. There are no easy answers to the questions raised, and the book doesn't insult the reader's intelligence by attempting to provide neat answers.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

ALA Annual - Day Two

2008-06-28T23:49:00.005-04:00

I've decided that the only bad part about this conference is that I feel like I'm on information overload. Between the program sessions, exhibits, and unofficial activities, I feel like I'm running around crazily without time to really appreciate anything. I'm taking a bunch of notes, though, so hopefully once I get back to PA I'll be able to fully process everything. Anyway, here were the highlights of my day:

I got to see Barry Lyga, Holly Black, and Kazu Kibuishi speak in a panel discussion about one of my favorite things (pop culture) and one of the things I'm passionate about (reaching reluctant readers). I knew that Barry was ridiculously funny and highly entertaining, but I didn't realize that both Holly and Kazu were hysterical as well. Even better, I actually learned some things.

I got my copy of Graceling signed by Kristen Cashore.

The TAGS committee meeting went fantastically, and we have a couple of great opportunities coming up in the next year. I feel so fortunate to be on that committee – the women I get to work with are phenomenal.

I sent 2 boxes of ARCS back to my library.

I met Andrew Clements, Bruce Coville, and David Levithan.

I found a bunch of graphic novel resources for Eric (my staff member who purchases our teen and adult graphic novels).

I ran into a woman I haven't seen since college, who is now also a librarian.

I got a Twilight tote bag. I'm not going to keep the tote bag (unpopular opinion alert: I don't really care for the Twilight series). I'm excited about the bag because I'm going to be able to give it to one of my teens who is a huge Twilight fan. Of course, I don't know which teen gets it yet – I may have to stage gladiator-style fights to decide a victor.

Did I mention I got my copy of Graceling signed? Seriously, I'm such a fangirl for this book that it's a little embarrassing.

I'm sure that more cool things happened, but those were the highlights.

ALA Annual - Day One

2008-06-27T21:00:00.006-04:00

I'm in California!

This is the second ALA Annual conference that I've gotten to attend, and I have to say, it's awesome and a little intimidating. I'm hoping that I'll be a bit more organized than I was last year – I really didn't understand the enormous scope of the conference, and I got quickly overwhelmed by all of the choices. This time, I have a plan, so I think should be able to both spend a lot of quality time in the exhibits and attend a bunch of program sessions. We have our “Teen Advisory Groups” committee meeting tomorrow morning, which I'm very much looking forward to. I'm also ridiculously excited by the opportunity to get my copy of “Graceling” signed by Kristin Cashore. The only problem I have is that I really need to develop that time-travel technology, so I can attend a session, then set the clock back and go attend the concurrent session that I had to miss.

The only thing I've gotten to attend thus far is YALSA's “Serving Tweens and Teens” pre-conference. I was really excited when I saw the topic of the pre-conference, because I've been thinking a lot about “tweens” this year. As a side note, I actually hate the word “tween,” because it sounds dismissive and slightly insulting, but I haven't really come up with a better descriptor for those 6^th - 8^th graders (or 5^th – 9^th, depending on whose definition you're using).

But anyway, I always start thinking of the middle-school crowd during summer reading club time. All of our teen programming starts at age 13, and I don't really have any desire to change that. The teen summer reading club offers fantastic prizes, including a $150 Visa Check card for the top reader, and a bunch of great raffle prizes to various stores. The Children's SRC is great for young children and elementary schoolers, but those middle-schoolers are really left out. We do have some programming directed toward that age group, but not a lot, and I've really been brainstorming on how we can increase our services to those kids who don't really fit into either the Children's department or the Teen department.

The author presentations at the pre-conference were great. We got to hear from Lisa Yee, Jon Scieszka, Bruce Hale, Amy Goldman Koss, Lisi Harrison, and Ingrid Law. I particularly enjoyed Jon Scieszka - I hadn't had the opportunity to hear him speak before, and he is hysterically funny. I was a bit disappointed by one thing – I was really hoping for more practical ideas on programming for and working with the middle-school crowd, and I didn't feel that the programming aspect was as well-covered as the literature aspect. The panel discussion at the end was relatively informative, and I would have enjoyed hearing more about programming best practices. Ultimately, I think the pre-conference was worth the extra day's travel, and I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Graceling - Kristin Cashore

2008-06-01T18:37:00.004-04:00

Katsa is a Graceling, blessed (or cursed) with the ability to kill with her bare hands. Since she is the niece of the King, she is used as an enforcer, sent out to torture or kill those who have wronged him in some way. Although she doesn't particularly enjoy her job, she is very, very good at it. What the King doesn't know is that Katsa is also the founder of the Council, a group of nobles and commoners who work together to protect those who are vulnerable to the often cruel and frequently capricious whims of the powerful. When a prince from another kingdom is kidnapped, the Council sets out to rescue him and discover both the person behind the kidnapping, and its purpose.

Enter Prince Po, the kidnapped victim's grandson, whose Grace makes him almost a physical match for Katsa, and whose personality makes him endlessly fascinating to her. After Katsa refuses to carry out one of her uncle's orders, she and Po set out to discover the reason behind his grandfather's kidnapping. On the road, they discover more about their unusual skills, and encounter a King with a Grace so powerful it could literally destroy their universe.

Graceling is, quite simply, one of the best new fantasy books I've read recently. Katsa is a fantastic heroine. Her relationships with family, conspirators, and Po unfold naturally, and her journey from enforcer to protector is well-crafted and believable. The concept of some people having superpowers is not, of course, new, but the Graces in this book are presented in a very unique, original way. One of the things I particularly enjoy is that not all of the Graces mentioned would be useful in any real way, which adds a touch of realism. Graceling will be released in October 2008, and I'm already hoping eagerly for a sequel.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Youth Empowerment Summit

2008-04-23T19:53:00.004-04:00

I love my job.

Don't get me wrong - working with teens can be incredibly difficult. There are times, when I've just been sworn at, or had to deal with a fight in the library, or just had one too many people give me that look (you know the one, the "I-can't-believe-you're-making-me-deal-with-you" look that teens are so very good at) - days when I leave work seriously wondering "Why, exactly, do I put myself through this?"

And then I have days like today.

Today we had our second annual Youth Empowerment Summit. We took the idea for the YES from the Free Library of Philadelphia, which has been doing it for several years, and a couple of other libraries in the state which do something similar. Students are bussed in by their schools, and spend the entire day exploring college and career preparation topics, with workshops such as interior design, careers in the comic book industry, writing, speech, and more. We had an author, Barry Lyga (who wrote Boy Toy, which everyone should read immediately!), and all of the other workshops were taught by professionals in their fields.

The students who came all seemed to have a great time, and they had an opportunity that they normally wouldn't. Even better, our Teen Advisory Board did an amazing job today. Our TAB is currently small, only about 10 members, and they're young, almost all 14 and 15, yet their level of commitment was astounding. They've spent their time emailing and calling to get presenters; volunteering extra hours to create fliers; talking with their school officials to get their schools to send students; coming in after closing last night to set up - in short, they've been fully devoted to making the YES a success - and they pulled it off beautifully. We all left exhausted, but my crew had the glow that comes after finishing something great. What more can I ask for?

Fascism

2008-04-06T12:29:00.003-04:00

Did you know that I'm a fascist?

A semi-friend and I were talking about the librarian (library assistant, whatever) in California who called the police on someone viewing child pornography in the library. My friend was horrified that the woman had dared to a) violate library policy by going over her supervisor's head and b) pass judgment on someone's viewing habits. Our conversation went something like this:

Him: Why did she even know what he was looking at? That's a total violation of privacy!
Me: What privacy? The guy was in a public place.
Him: What business is it of anybody else's what someone looks at, anyway?
Me: Are you serious?
Him: Of course I don't like child porn, but people have the right to view whatever they want!
Me: Child pornography is illegal. And disgusting.
Him: So, what, would you call the cops?
Me: On someone viewing child porn? Hell yeah I would.
Him: I can't believe you're such a fascist!

Honestly, any time you use the phrase "I'm opposed to child pornography, but..." I start losing respect for you. I do believe in the right to privacy, and intellectual freedom, and all of those good things that librarians love. I also believe that those engaging in illegal acts in the public library should be, at the least, barred from the library, and, depending on the action, turned in to the police. Apparently, that makes me a fascist. Who knew?

Animals Are Amazing

2008-02-21T23:57:00.000-05:00

My library hosts a series of programs called the "Go!" series three times each year. We're currently in the middle of a theme called "My Precious Planet," and tonight we had Zoo America do a program for teens. They brought 8 different animals, including owls, snakes, birds of prey, and a skunk, and did an hour-long demonstration and discussion about animals that are native to Pennsylvania.

I was a little worried about holding the program in the Teen Forum itself, as we've had problems with people talking and being disruptive during other programs. I decided to have it in the Forum, though, because I know that sometimes people won't come down to the program room. We shut down the computers, and hoped for the best.

I was thrilled that my misgivings were completely unfounded. Live animal demonstrations get everyone excited, and this group was no exception. The zoologists spoke for about 10 minutes about each animal, and walked them around the room so everybody got a close-up view. A few people were freaked out by some of the animals - one kid literally scrambled over the back of a sofa to run when the zoologist brought out a snake, and I discovered that owls still freak me out (I hate that they can turn their heads almost all the way around). Overall, though, it was fantastic - people were polite and respectful, asked plenty of questions, and at the end of the night, one of our regulars (who rarely speaks) came up to thank me for having the program.

I got to have a great program, educate some teens, and pet a snake. My job is awesome.

888 Challenge

2008-02-10T20:53:00.005-05:00

I recently discovered the 888 Challenge, more information about which can be found here. In a nutshell, you read 8 books in 8 different categories, with up to 8 books being listed in multiple categories. Last year I read about 250 books, mostly YA fiction, but I've been feeling like I need to expand my horizons a bit, so I think the 888 challenge will be fun. Here's my list of books and categories that I've thought of so far. As I finish the books, I'll change the font color from black to blue.

Classics I Read In High School But Have Mostly Forgotten
1. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
2. Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
4. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
5. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
6. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
8. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Biography/Memoir
1. Jesus Land: A Memoir - Julie Scheeres
2. A Paper Life - Tatum O'Neal
3. Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia - Jean Sasson
4. Love in a Torn Land - Jean Sasson
5. Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
6. Mixed: My Life in Black and White - Angela Nissel
7. Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood - Julie Gregory
8. Smashed: The Story of a Drunken Girlhood - Koren Zailckas

Printz Award Winners or Honor Books
1. White Darkness - Geraldine McCaughrean
2. American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang (also in graphic novel list)
3. Looking for Alaska - John Green
4. Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers
5. A Step from Heaven - An Na
6. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing - Traitor to the Nation - M.T. Anderson
7. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
8. Kit's Wilderness - David Almond

Graphic Novels
1. American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang (also in Printz Award list)
2. Maus - Art Spiegelman (also in Pulitzer Prize list)
3. Blankets - Craig Thompson
4. Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
5. Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
6. Sin City - Frank Miller (also in Books to Movies list)
7. Buffy Season Eight - Joss Whedon
8. Collected Beowulf - Gareth Hinds

Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award Winners
1. Maus - Art Spiegelman (also in graphic novel list)
2. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian - Sherman Alexi
3. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA - Tim Weiner
4. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl - Timothy Egan
5. The Singing - C.K. Williams
6. Polio: An American Story - David M. Oshinsky
7. Gulag: A History - Anne Applebaum
8. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide - Samantha Power

Books to Movies
1. I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
2. 30 Days of Night - Steve Niles
3. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
4. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
5. Sin City - Frank Miller (also in Graphic Novel list)
6. V for Vendetta - Alan Moore
7. A Mighty Heart - Mariane Pearl
8. Thank You for Smoking - Christopher Buckley

Nebula/Hugo Award
1. Seeker - Jack McDevitt
2. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
3. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
4. Slow River - Nicola Griffith
5. Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold
6. Rainbow's End - Vernor Vinge
7. Spin - Charles Wilson
8. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

First Books Published in 2008
1. Undone - Brooke Taylor
2. Bewitching Season - Marissa Doyle
3. Braless in Wonderland - Debbie Reed Fischer
4. Alive and Well in Prague, New York - Daphne Grab
5. The Opposite of Invisible - Liz Gallagher
6. Sleepless - Terri Clark
7. Read My Lips - Teri Brown
8. The Magic Thief - Sarah Prineas

Well, Hello There!

2008-01-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my little corner of the web. I'm a teen librarian, so I'll be posting book reviews, links to interesting information about libraries and teen services, and random facts that catch my interest. I'm hoping to update once a week or so, but who knows? I'm actually really terrible at introductions, so I'll stop now and post something more interesting later today or tomorrow.