Teen Stuff

These books were highly recommended by participants at the recent "Books We Love" session of LOL at MHS:

We had a great discussion at our Tuesday, January 13 LOL with a wide variety of SciFi/Fantasy recommendations, which I will post here as soon as I iron out some details.

In the meantime....we just put up a display of vampire/werewolf books in the teen section, and I also came upon a list from the Boulder, Colorado teen section of more read-alike ideas.

Anyone have others to add? Also, see my previous Twilight blog post with the original read-alike or read-beyond recommendations.

Please come to our Tuesday, January 10 session of LOL to recommend a science fiction/fantasy/horror book you have read. If you need some ideas, see this booklist from VOYA.

If you are not usually a sci fi/fantasy fan, here is a few recommendations of books you might like:

I highly recommend Looking for Alaska by John Green. A Printz gold-medal winner and IA High School Book Award choice, this is one of the best novels I've read this year.

For mature teen readers through adults, the story is told by Miles, a new student in a southern boarding school, where he meets a close-knit group of friends, including a wild and mildly cryptic girl named Alaska. The voice of this coming-of-age story, although more contemporary, reminds me somewhat of A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

The characters are relateable and multi-layered, from Miles' roomate, nicknamed  "the Colonel," to the stern headmaster the students try to outsmart with a sure-to-be-legendary senior prank. This is the best kind of novel....it made me laugh out loud at times, reach for the kleenex at others, and continue to think about it long after I finished the last page.

I will likely seek out Green's other books, An Abundance of Katherines, which earned a Prinz silver medal, and Paper Towns, a well-reviewed novel published this year.

This is cool, especially if you are a fan of author Khaled Hosseini's works, The Kite Runner, and A Thousand Splendid Suns:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6618147.html

I was relieved to  hear that the novel 13 Reasons Why survived a recent censorship scare that was even more disturbing than a typical challenge because there was an effort to circumvent due process and simply remove the book from a central Iowa high school without going through the steps in place.

This book, which I listened to on CD a few months ago (and posted about on this blog), is a mature look at the issue of suicide. As a mother of teens AND someone who cares a great deal about the teens I work with through the library, I admit at times as I listened to this story, it was scary to think of the message teens would hear, especially with the "voice from the grave" narration by Hannah, the character who killed herself before the book even started.

However, the book, overall, makes you think a lot about how each of our actions affects others and can have unintended ripples in others' lives that we may not even realize. I also have faith in teens' abilities to read about all kinds of situations and characters and intermingle their observations with their own values.

This novel by John Boyne has been made into a well-reviewed movie of the same name. You can check out the book from the Teen Fiction section of the library.

I just read through a book with an interesting premise: six word memoirs collected from a variety of writers. It is really intriuging to think about how one would sum up a life in just six words and the results vary from poignant to self-deprecating.

The introduction starts out with an anecdote about Hemingway being challenged to write a story in six words...and the result was "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

With the feel of magnetic poetry, this idea has many possibilities for writers (new and old!) as both an original writing exercise, as well as using the phrases in the books as writing prompts.

The name of the book is Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure and can be found in adult nonfiction, 920.02 Not.

We had a great discussion last night about the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, predictions for the book that comes out tonight at midnight, Breaking Dawn, and the upcoming December movie.

WARNING: Don't read this post if you aren't through the whole series....or some of the suspense may be ruined.

Here are some of the things that came up...in case any readers would like to post comments: 1) Discussion about whether Bella will end up with Edward or Jacob, 2) suggestion that maybe Breaking Dawn will reveal that Bella is a witch (explaining some of her special perceptions, the fact Edward can't read her mind, etc.) 3) the fact that Breaking Dawn begins with Bella and Edward's wedding (and what that means), 4) the idea that maybe there is something about Bella that will prevent her from being turned into a vampire, even if Edward (or someone else) agrees to go ahead with that, 5) opinions about the casting of the characters to appear in the December release of Twilight....and many more ideas.

Here is a list of some ideas of books that people who enjoyed Twilight may enjoy (all are available for check out at the Marshalltown Library) Some are "vampire-y or werewolf-y," some are more the romance element, and some are the "atmosphere" of the book and voice of the narrator. Feel free to post your recomendations as comments!

Cirque de Freak series by Darren Shan
Kitty series  by Carrie Vaughn
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare
Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare (some parallels in Twilight novels)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Blood and Chocolate and The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
Birth of the Pack (#1 in the Weregirls series) by Petru Popescu
A Fast and Brutal Wing by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson
Vampire Kisses series by Ellen Schreiber
Dangerous Girls series by R.L. Stine
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Vampire High by Douglas Rees"
In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Mary Jane by Judith O'Brien (novel about Mary Jane from Spider-man)

Also, check out Stephanie Meyer's website for her list of recommended reads, her "playlist" of music she thinks goes with Twilight, movie trailers, photos of book covers from around the world, links to fan sites and more. 

The Breakfast Club summer program for teens hosted Des Moines vintage clothing designers, Julie and Melissa, for a workshop on altered tshirts. Several participants changed an existing shirt or two into a new, updated shirt.

Pictured modeling her new shirt, which started out as a regular Community Y tshirt is participant Melisa Fonseca. Visit the consignment shop online site (or head there in person),Vintage Vitae, where Julie and Melissa sell their own creations, as well as other local and Iowa designers.

The movie for the 2nd in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares is coming out this August. See more info at http://sisterhoodofthetravelingpants2.warnerbros.com/

Check out (or place holds on) any of the four novels in this series at the library, or listen to the books on CD! We also have a companion book: Keep in Touch: letters, notes and more from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

I just read Uglies for our Breakfast Club book discussion last week. This dystopic novel deals wtih a futuristic society where everyone gets "Pretty" surgery when they turn sixteen, which is sold to them as a great "equalizer" making their society superior to the "Rusties"...the "old" humans that would characterize our current society. Tally Youngblood is looking forward to her surgery, when she meets Shay, another "Ugly" who invites her to run away with her to live with an "outlaw" group that lives "primitively" in legendary place called the Smoke.

For those who have read and liked Uglies, other dystopic novels include Feed by M.T. Anderson, The Giver (and others) by Lois Lowry, The Bar Code Tattoo, and of course, the classics 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. Jennifer Government and The Stepford Wives would be two additional ideas of novels from our adult collection, as well.

Fans of Uglies might also like other books by author Scott Westerfeld including the Midnighters series, the sequels to Uglies (Pretties, Specials, and Extras), as well as stand alone novel, So Yesterday.

Read about Twilight's Stephanie Meyer "in concert"...or sort of.

Also, watch for news about a book discussion open to teens and adults this summer of the first, and possibly second in the popular vampire series by Stephanie Meyer. Interested? Let us know and we'll make sure you get an email or phone call when the date is set.

I just listened to the relatively newer young adult novel, 13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. It was particularly suited to audio, because the story begins with a set of cassette tapes received in the mail by Clay, the narrator, giving the "story"....the 13 reasons why...leading to the suicide of Hannah Baker, according to Hannah Baker.

The set of tapes are "mandated" listening to all the people who are mentioned by name on the tapes. The alternating voices of Hannah telling her story and Clay's interpersed thoughts, feelings, and even interruptions, give the story an urgency that makes you sit in the car long after you've arrived home to listen just a little longer to this audio on your car stereo.

While I don't think that the people and incidents listed on the tapes are the "causes" of Hannah's suicide, they are very real reminders of the major effects even small things can have on another's life. The listener (or reader) is really reminded that sometimes things that are "no big deal" or "just a joke"--can be really a big deal to someone else, especially if he or she is already in a very vulnerable place.

From an adult perspective, this was hard sometimes to listen to because I always worry about the "glorification" of suicide in stories or movies...but overall, I think that this is a honest portrayal of this girl's life and her tragic decision. The story of just a few weeks of Hannah's life ultimately makes you feel cheated that she gave up, instead of telling her story as bluntly as she does on the tapes, to enough someones who would listen, and help that story--and her life--continue.

Eragon is the winner of the Iowa Teen Award for the 2007-08 school year. See the recommended reads section of the Teen Zine page for more teen choice books.

Eragon is the first in a dragon trilogy by Christopher Paolini, who was a seventeen year old homeschooled student when he began writing the first novel. The sequel, Eldest, is currently also available for check-out, and the third book, Brisigr, will come out this fall.

Most of you have probably heard that the movie planned for the final installment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,  will be broken down into two separate films.

I think this is particularly interesting, since during our multiple sessions of book discussions about the concluding book in J.K. Rowling's famous series, the overwhelming conclusion was that she should have actually had EIGHT books in the series. Most of the readers who attended these discussions felt that there was just too many loose ends, and too many new ideas introduced to do all of these things (and the characters) justice in a single book.

What do you think?

BRISINGR, Book Three in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, will be published in September, 2008.

New York Times bestsellers , Eragon and Eldest have both been New York Times bestsellers and Eragon was made into a movie.

A reserve list is already started for Book #3. Call the youth dept. at 754-5738 and ask to have your name added.

Twilight series author Stephanie Meyer has posted the first chapter of the story from Edward's point of view (instead of Bella's). She hopes to someday publish the novel Midnight Sun, which will tell his story in its entirety.

Meanwhile, she is hard at work on the fourth in the series, Breaking Dawn, which is tentatively scheduled to be published Fall, 2008.

Also, just FYI in Twilight movie news, a publicized open casting call went out January 18th for the actor who will play Jacob Black.