What Happened to Goodbye? By Sarah Dessen

So over the weekend I decided to try out reading a book on my Kindle so I settled on What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen. The story revolves around McLean - (great character name but it also reminds me of future name of a McDonald's sandwich)- except McLean hasn't gone by McLean in awhile. Instead she's gone by Liz, Lizbet and more as her and father move from town to town. Each place and each new name allow McLean to recreate herself to leave her painful past shoved in a closet somewhere. She can be a theater chick, the cheerleader, the A student, the girl with a surfer boy on the side whatever suites her fancy. She does not want to be McLean, with divorced parents, a mom who left to marry someone else and pop out twins. But when they land in their latest town to fix up a failing local restaurant- things don't go as McLean as planned she ends not going with her latest made up persona she finds herself telling people her real name, making friends and actually being herself, she even finds that she's growing quite fond of her brainiac neighbor Dave. Is McLean ready to face her past or is she just going to shut the door and run away from it again?

Posted by Renee, Teen Outreach Librarian

Book Trailer of the Week-- Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

This week's book trailer is for Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King.  Click here to find Everybody Sees the Ants in the Library!

 

posted by Colleen, Teen Services Librarian

Award Winning Books!



This morning the American Library Association's Young Adult division, YALSA, announced this year's award winning books and audiobooks.  Click here to get to official press release of the winners.  Here's a list of the teen titles that won.  Just click on the title to see if you can find it at the Library!

Prinz Award for Excellence in YA Literature
Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley 
Honor: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler 
Honor: The Returning by Christine Hinwood 
Honor: Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey         
Honor: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award (Honoring a significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature)
Awarded to: Susan Cooper

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin
Finalist: Sugar Changed the World by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
Finalist: Bootleg by Karen Blumenthal
Finalist: Wheels of Change by Sue Macy
Finalist: Music it Was by Susan Goldman Rubin

William C. Morris Award (Honoring a work by a first time author)
Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Finalist: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Finalist: Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
Finalist: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Finalist: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Alex Awards (Given to ten books written for adults that have teen appeal) 
Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin 
In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard 
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan 
The New Kids by Brooke Hauser 
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson 
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston 
The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo

The Odyssey Award (Awarded to the best audiobooks for children and/or young adults)
Honor: Rotters by Daniel Kraus, narrated by Kirby Heyborne
Honor: Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri, narrated by JD Jackson
Honor: Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, narrated by Lincoln Hoppe
Honor: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham
Honor: Young Fredle by Cynthia Voight, narrated by Wendy Carter

Pura Beleré Award (Presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work celebrates the Latino cultural experience)
Winner: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Honor: Hurricane Dancers by Margarita Engle
Honor: Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel by Xavier Garza

Schneider Family Book Awards (Honoring a work that emphasizes children or teens with a disability) 
Teen: The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Stonewall Book Awards for Children and Young Adult Literature (This award is sponsored by ALA's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table)
Winner: Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright
Honor book: a + e 4everby Ilike Merey
Honor book: Money Boyby Paul Yee
Honor book: Pink by Lili Wilkinson
Honor book: With or Without Youby Brian Farrey

The 2012 Rainbow List was also announced today.  Here are the Top 10 Titles, and click here for the complete list.
I am J by Cris Beam
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff
Sister Mischief by Laura Goode
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Shine by Lauren Myracle
Donovan's Big Day by Leslea Newman
She Loves You, She Loves You Not by Julie Ann Peters
Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan
Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

posted by Colleen, Teen Services Librarian

Book Trailer of the Week-- Tempest by Julie Cross

This week's book trailer is for Tempest by Julie Cross.  Also, click here to check out an interesting interview with the author, Julie Cross, over at EW's Shelf Life blog.  Click here to find Tempest at the Library!

 

posted by Colleen, Teen Services Librarian

Want to attend the Gallagher Academy?

If you're a fan of Ally Carter's Gallagher Academy series including I'd Tell You I Love, But Then I'd Have to Kill You , Only the Good Spy Young and more- then you should check out this awesome website where you and your friends can apply to attend the Gallagher Academy with readers from all over the world. 

 

Posted by Renee, Teen Outreach Librarian

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

Cinder had me hooked from page 1: a scene in which a cyborg named Cinder replaces her foot.  What a great way to begin a retelling of the Cinderella tale!

Cinder is set in a future Asian nation. Clearly, this Asian Commonwealth is the super power in the world. There have been wars, great advances in technologies, and a plague. Cinder is a cyborg mechanic, living a pitiful life of servitude after the man who saved her died and made his wife swear to keep Cinder safe. At the beginning of the novel, Cinder is spending just another day at the market when she is approached by a cloaked man asking her to fix his android tutor. This cloaked man turns out to be Prince Kai. The story that follows is not your traditional Cinderella story, however. The plague is sweeping through the nation, the Prince’s father and Cinder’s beloved step sister Peony are dying from it. After Cinder is involuntary drafted for plague testing on cyborgs (thanks to her evil step mother) Cinder finds out that she may hold the secret to the cure the disease. What follows is an exciting tale that keeps you guessing until the end.

I would highly recommend Cinder to any reader. This is a great science fiction read, with the added bonus of a retelling of the Cinderella story. However, this is not a strict retelling, Meyer only has nods to the original fairy tale. For me, Cinder was one of those rare books that I couldn’t put down and it is also one that I have been recommending to everyone! 

Also, check out this great book trailer:

 

posted by Colleen, Teen Services Librarian

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Texas Gothic  revolves around Amy Goodnight, who is house sitting with her sister Phin for their aunt.  Now the Goodnights aren't your average family they have some added magical flair.  Some of them create magically things like lotion that makes all your aches and pains go away or others are psychic.  Amy wants nothing to do with her magic side whatever her skills might be, but she finds herself attracting ghosts and whole lot of trouble instead. After a skeleton is discovered near her aunt's ranch Amy and Phin find themselves more involved than they ever expected, which puts the towns folk in tizzy when people start getting hurt and ghost rumors and Goodnight connections to the events start to fly. There's a bit a romance (not pukey) between Amy and ranch neighbor Ben, which is pretty amusing.  With a good dose of creepiness and intrigue this is a guaranteed scary read.

Posted by Renee, Teen Outreach Librarian

Book Trailer of the Week-- Fracture by Megan Miranda

This week's book trailer is for Fracture by Megan Miranda.  Click here to find Fracture in the Library.

 

posted by Colleen, Teen Services Librarian

All Things John Green

If you're a fan of John Green and are excited about the recent release of his book The Fault in Our Stars, but haven't been able to get your hands on copy yet, here are few things to tide you over until you do!

First here's the book trailer for The Fault in Our Stars:

 

Here's John Green reading the first and second chapters of the book:

 

 

and finally an interview with John Green and Ilene Cooper, who wrote the introduction for The Fault in Our Stars

 

Posted by Renee, Teen Outreach Librarian

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Nightshade

by Andrea Cremer

Humans who turn into invincible wolves, wizards protecting secret sites, conspiracies, forbidden love, and even a supernatural love triangle.  Nightshade has it all–including a strong and interesting female lead.  The story centers on Calla.  When we first meet her, she is in her wolf form.  She is the alpha of her pack, the Nightshades, who are destined to protect the next generation of keepers.  The Keepers are magicians who protect sacred spiritual sites and control the wolf packs.  Calla and her pack mate Bryn are patrolling the mountains they are sworn to protect, when the come upon Shay, a human guy about their age who is out hiking.  He is under attack from a big grizzly bear.  Calla can’t figure out what compels her to save Shay, but in doing so she exposes her secret–that she is a human who can transform into a wolf.  After Calla saves Shay’s life she realizes she has a strange attraction to him.  But she has to ignore her attraction because he is just a human and she is set to join with another pack’s alpha, Ren.  She knows that this is her destiny, and that she has no choice in who she can love.  Things get complicated, though, when Shay shows up at their elite school as a new student.  Shay is determined to learn more about Calla and unfortunately the more Shay finds out, the more danger he and Calla get into.

So, I was surprised to find that I loved this book!  I picked it up because there was a ton of hype surrounding it, and of course there were comparisons to Twilight–a love triangle, forbidden romance, and supernatural elements all guarantee that any book will be compared to Twilight.  I thought that Nightshade was an excellent read.  The mythology that Cremer creates regarding the wolves and magic is believable.  Also, the love story is not too dramatic either.  But what I liked best about Nightshade was that the main character Calla was a strong female!  Not only does Calla save Shay’s life twice, she also is fighting against the life that is imposed upon her. 

Nightshade is the first book in a planned trilogy.  Click here to find Nightshade, the first book in the trilogy, in the Library.  Click here to find Wolfsbane the second book and here to find Bloodrose the third and final book that was just published last week!

posted by Colleen, Teen Services Librarian