Book Review: Joyride by Amy Ehrlich

In the book Joyride, Nina is used to moving around. Her mother, Joyce, sometimes just packs up everything and takes Nina and herself to the newest town. Now that Nina is growing older, she starts to wonder why she has to keep running away. Why can't she stay and keep her friends, stay on the basketball team, and be best friends with Sam Gordon? Her mother doesn't explain, and after one too many moves, Nina finds out a secret that will make her question her entire life.

I really enjoyed this book because it was a thriller and a bit mysterious. I loved the fact that Nina and her mother had to move a lot, because the author did a very good job about describing the city, it made me feel like I was there too. In the beginning, the book started off a little slow, but towards the middle and right up until the end the book really was a joyride. I had no idea what was coming! This book is geared more towards a teen and adult audience and will leave you speechless!

-Elisa A.

Book Review: Yaqui Delgado by Meg Medina

The actual, complete title for this great read is Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your A**, and since it's about bullying, the objectionable language is used for a reason.  The story shows, quite realistically to me, how a young woman, Piddy (Piedad) Sanchez--academically gifted, with great family and friend support--can get caught in a spiral of fear that almost destroys her life.    Transferring from her old high school to a new one in Queens without her best friend, she has trouble finding her place in this new, rougher neighborhood.  For reasons that are never really clear (and not the impetus for the bullying anyway), Yaqui spreads the word that Piddy better watch out.  As in most bullying situations, the imbalance of power causes the once-confident Piddy to doubt herself, to mistrust the adults around her, and to isolate herself from friends.  As she tries to deal with the looming threat of a beating, she begins a romantic relationship with a messed up childhood friend from her old neighborhood and starts to learn the truth about her long absent father.

Book Review: "Darius and Twig" by Walter Dean Myers

I'm always happy to read a new Walter Dean Myers book. The author has yet to disappoint me. His latest novel, "Darius and Twig" is stylistically familiar-- real, heartfelt and gritty, a bit less grit than usual. Also familiar is the thought I get when I read a Myers' story, the thought that reading this story could be so helpful and clarifying to some reader. I want to keep a spare copy in my purse or trunk so that I can whip it out when necessary and announce "Hello!! Please read this before you....

Book Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Let me just say that I don't read teen romances...anymore.  Unlike fantasy or mystery or historical fiction, teen romances tend to appeal only to teens, or maybe I'm just a jaded, middle-aged librarian!  I mean when I was a teen, I read romances all the time and loved them--if you haven't read  Mrs. Mike, a classic first published in 1947, you are missing out on some serious, sob-inducing romantic tragedy.  But several friends, whose taste in books I trust implicitly, recommended Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, and I was happy to find that a good teen romance knows no age limits!

How to Save a Life

Happy Teen Read Week! Are you ready to vote for the Teen Top Ten? The 2013 winners will be announced October 22!

 Because you have probably been reading many of 2013's top ten nominees,I wanted to tell you about a nominee from last year.(Topic and story so NOT so last year.) 
 How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr is a story that sticks with you---in a good way!

Jill is wrecked. Her dad recently died. She’s stopped communicating with her friends, family and boyfriend. Her mom, who should be mourning with Jill, is busy planning to adopt a baby from a teen she met online. It gets worse. Jill despises teen mom Mandy and soon Mandy will be moving in with them until the baby is born!

Mandy on the other hand has never suffered a family crisis because...

Marked

Marked, by P.C. Cast, starts off as just a normal day for Zoey Redbird at her high school, until a tracker showed up and marked her. Now Zoey has to go to a new school, meet new friends, and, worst of all, tell her mom and step-loser about being marked and having to go to a special school for marked kids where she will either die or complete the change into a vampire. Sadly, her parents don't accept the fact that she was chosen, along with many others, to become a fledgling and attempt to go through the change.

Zoey escapes her parents grasps and heads for her new school just in time, because when she gets there the headmistress is waiting for her to arrive. Zoey is told to head to the courtyard and wait there, but on her way she witnesses a strange encounter between between a really cute guy and a way too desperate girl named Aphrodite. When Zoey is seen she flees from the scene and runs to the courtyard, where she meets up with the headmistress Nefrete and tries to forget about the strange encounter. After being introduced to all of her new teachers, Zoey is exausted and ready to rest her head on her new pillow and start her new life as a vampire fledgling or die. Will Zoey complete the change or will she die? Read the book and find out.

~ Morgan Le Fay

Don't think or judge. Just Listen.

Annabel Greene begins her Junior year of high school ostracized by her peers and hated by her friends. She is haunted by the unthinkable events of a party that took place at the beginning of the summer, which she has kept secret from friends and family. This is one secret among many that she keeps from the world. She also suffers silently from the pressure from her mother and her fear for her oldest sister's health. In a time when she needs a friend more than ever, she meets Owen Armstrong, a music-obsessed classmate with anger management issues who is as ignored by the rest of the school as she is. In a "right place, right time" situation, he instantly goes from someone she watches from a distance to her only friend, saving her from lunch hours spent in isolation and teaching her the value of speaking up and making herself heard.

Just Listen is a story which induces both laughter and tears, and is highly recommended for anyone who has ever feared voicing their own feelings. Sarah Dessen is also the author of other popular young adult books such as The Truth About Forever, This Lullaby, and Lock & Key.

-Micheala

Keep on running!

For numerous reasons (most involving weird and unfortunate injuries), I am not a jock. I am, however, in awe of people who are because it seems like an awful lot of work, usually taking place too early in the morning or in the afternoon when I'm already exhausted from the rest of the day. Then there's competition and all the work that entails. But what happens when that hard work looks like it was a waste? Or if it has to come to an end completely? In Wendelin van Draanen's book "The Running Dream," 16-year-old Jessica is a dedicated track and field star for her high school; running is her life. At least, it was until the accident. Now she is missing her right leg below the knee and has to learn how to walk again, this time with a prosthetic. If she can barely walk, how can she run? If she can't run, what's the point? Then she meets Rosa, a math genius in her algebra class who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Rosa offers to tutor Jessica and slowly they become friends. With her help, maybe Jessica can learn to be more than a runner and more than an amputee.

~The Stacked Librarian

Comics by Girls for Girls

Let's just take a moment to celebrate some of the comics written by women, shall we?  They're awesome and deserve some recognition.  (Hooray for fully-fledged characters in realistically propotioned bodies!)  Some of my favorite graphic novels are:

The Plain Janes and Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci.  When Jane moves to suburbia, she decides to not make friends with the popular girls and instead befriends the Janes.  They soon call themselves the P.L.A.I.N. Janes and set out to make guerrilla art throughout their town.  In the sequel, Janes in Love, the Janes fall in love.  But nothing ever goes smoothly in the course of true love. 

Mercury by Hope Larson.  Josey lives in Nova Scotia in 1859.  Tara lives in Nova Scotia today.  These two girls' stories are intertwined by magic, betrayal, buried treasure, and first loves.  As much as I want to tell you more, I don't want to give anything away, either. 

Token by Alisa Kwitney and Joelle Jones.  Her dad's in love with his secretary with no time for her and high school sucks, so Shira starts shoplifting.  When she gets caught by a Spanish boy, they become friends and then more.  The art here is fun - I love the facial expressions on Shira's grandma and her best friend Minerva. 

Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki.  Emi is facing the most boring summer of her teen life until she goes to the Freak Show, an underground performance art venue.  Emi falls in love with the idea of performing, but there's just one problem: she doesn't have a talent.  Wanting to be famous, she steals something she shouldn't.  And then things get weird.  Well, weirder.

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks.  Maggie's starting high school after being homeschooled.  She's nervous, but she has her big brothers to watch out for her.  And a ghost that follows her.  Not everything is spelled out in this graphic novel, so take your time, enjoy the art, and don't be afraid to reread it. 

Pick one up and check it out! 

~ Book Ninja

Earth Angel

Angels are a hot topic in teen literature these days. In some books they're vicious, scary creatures bent of ridding the world of humans; in others, they're guardians who are fighting for the wellbeing of Earth. In Cynthia Hand's brilliant series, however, it's not exactly the angels who are the focus of the story--that title goes to the angel-bloods, the off-spring of angels and humans.

In Unearthly, Clara Gardner is one such angel-blood--she's a quarter angel, to be exact, and has received a vision of the "purpose" she has been put on Earth to complete. Unfortunately, her purpose involves saving a mysterious boy from a raging forest fire in Colorado. She has no idea when, where, or why this fire happens, but she does know one thing; if she doesn't get it right, someone could die.

Tucson Festival of Books Author Spotlight: A. S. King

Some authors find their groove and stay there--think Meyer (vampires), Rowling (wizards) or Paolini (dragons).  If you like their stuff you are set, unless they crash and burn after a few books!  A. S. King is definitely "groovy", but don't try to pin her down.  Since I can't reduce her books to one word, I will have to try two:  reincarnation and pirates, death and justice, bullying and Vietnam, and sexuality and fear.  And by all accounts, her new book coming out in October 2013, Reality Boy, is about reality tv show child stars and runaways.  Okay, I'm cheating a bit there but you get the idea!  What she lacks in consistency, however, she more than makes up for in ingenuity, and that is a rare talent indeed.

Fall From Grace

Have you ever started a book and realized it is just not what you expected?  This is after looking it over and reading the inside cover.  Well this book threw me for a loop!  And it makes me wonder if that is how the character Sawyer felt in Fall From Grace by Charles Benoit. 

Sawyer has other people planning his life like his parents and girlfriend, but he is thinking about what he wants to do or be.  Then he meets Grace and all of a suddent he has plans.  Some of these plans are getting a little crazy. 

This story unfolds quickly and the ending comes out of nowhere!

A Winter's Tale

When Grace was eleven, she was attacked by a pack of wolves. They dragged her into the snowy forest of Mercy Falls, Minnesota, and she would surely have died if not for the intervention of one particular wolf. For the six years since she has been obsessed with him, following every movement of his pack as they roam the woods near her home.

Sam has been a werewolf for most of his life. However, it isn't the moon that dictates his form, but the temperature--in winter he's a wolf, in summer he's a boy, and he's been in love with Grace ever since he rescued her that cold day years before. But how can he ever tell her, especially when he only has one year left before he becomes a wolf permanently?

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is a haunting, lyrical story that takes star-crossed lovers to an entirely new level--one where the lines that separate good from evil are constantly blurring, and humans can be just as cruel as the monsters they fear.

Flights of Fantasy

The best part about anthologies and short story collections is finding an author you wouldn't have encountered otherwise.  And then devouring everything else that author or artist has ever written.  So pick up a copy of Flight, any of the volumes, and dive in.  There's something for everyone in this collection of indie comics edited by Kazu Kibuishi. 

The library has several comics by artists who've contributed short stories to Flight.

Speed Reading

You know what I hate? Lengthy tomes that actually take the full three weeks to read. I'll admit to having the general attention span of a sugar-high chipmunk & I want books that are either 1) so interesting & awesome that I finish it in a week or 2) so short it would be impossible to NOT finish it in a week. Stickman Odyssey, an Epic Doodle: Book One, Chopsticks," & Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary all took an hour each to read. No joke. Three books in three hours. Why are they such quick reads? Cause thanks to the brilliance of creative authors these books mix multimedia, drawings, comics, poetry, and photography to tell a story rather than just words

Book Girl -- No, This Isn't an Biography

“This is why you have to watch your back around book girls. Their minds are full of literature without any concept of reality, so if you take your eyes off of them, there’s no telling what mischief they’ll get into.” ~ Mizuki Nomura, from Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime.

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

...That the month which contains so much love-themed commercialism leaves book lovers in want of Pride and Prejudice. One of my favorite light reads last year was Prom and Prejudice, which our Book Lady blogged about here. It's a modern-day update set in a prep school, with way more coffee.

Sidescrollers

There’s a picture somewhere of my brother and I both trying to read this comic at the same time while eating oatmeal. It’s Christmas morning and everyone else is running around with new toys and videogames, but we’re totally immersed in Sidescrollers by Matthew Loux. And for one very simple reason: it’s awesome. And I know that sounds like hyperbole, but no, really. Awesome.

Project Costume Designer

Now that zombie season has officially ended I can actually start reading books that don't give me dreams involving being trapped in libraries & eating brains. Interestingly enough, I suddenly discovered I had started reading the girliest books possible: ones where fashion is practically it's own seperate character. I'm chalking this up to some sort of mild post-zombie apocalypse shock. The cool thing about these three books -- "Freak Show," "Lola and the Boy Next Door," and "Hollywood Nobody" -- is that the fashion isn't some magazine's idea of what'll be cool next year. Instead, it's all about declaring yourself awesome and wearing whatever makes you happiest, even if it's a mermaid outfit complete with Cheerio suction cups on your face.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder

I have a confession to make: I was a high school nerd. So when Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern was recommended to me by several other library staff, I picked it up and thought I'd check out a couple of chapters. I started reading at the dinner table just before bedtime and wound up staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish the book. It was so engrossing, I never even moved despite losing circulation in my legs at one point.