A blog to keep up on what's happening for teens at Brooks Memorial Library including: • new books • events • resources available • fun website suggestions • ... and more.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

YALSA TEEN TOP TEN 2009

More than 11,000 teen voters chose Paper Towns as their favorite book in the 2009 Teens' Top Ten! The winners were announced during Teen Read Week by WWE Divas Brie Bella and Nikki Bella, with a special appearance by John Green. See the video...

Paper Towns by John Green (1st Floor YA GRE)
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (1st Floor YA MEY)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (1st Floor YA COL)
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (1st Floor YA CLA)
Identical by Ellen Hopkins (1st Floor YA HOP)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (J GAI)
Wake by Lisa McMann (on order)
Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast ((1st Floor YA CAS)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (1st Floor YA LOC)
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (1st Floor YA CAS)

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Saturday, October 03, 2009

GLBTQ Booklist

Here are a few titles in our library that address the lives and issues of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-gender youth. To find other materials in the library try searching the catalog using the following subjects: homosexuality, bisexuality, lesbians, gay men, gay women, gay teenagers, gay youth, gender identity, coming out, sexual orientation or transexuals.




Dishes by Rich Wallace
(1st floor YA fiction under Wallace)
Nineteen-year-old Danny spends an eventful summer in Maine, looking for romance, working as a "straight" dishwasher in a gay bar, and trying to reconnect with his estranged father.



Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
(1st floor YA fiction under Garden)
Liza puts aside her feelings for Annie after the disaster at school, but eventually she allows love to triumph over the ignorance of people.



My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger (1st floor YA fiction under Kluger)
Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.



Empress of the World by Sara Ryan
(1st floor YA fiction under Ryan)
While attending a summer institute, fifteen-year-old Nic meets another girl named Battle, falls in love with her, and finds the relationship to be difficult and confusing.



Luna by Julie Anne Peters
(1st floor YA fiction under Peters)
Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.



Love & Lies: Marisol's Story by Ellen Wittlinger
(1st floor YA fiction under Wittlinger)
When Marisol, a self-confident eighteen-year-old lesbian, moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts to work and try to write a novel, she falls under the spell of her beautiful but deceitful writing teacher, while also befriending a shy, vulnerable girl from Indiana.



M or F by Lisa Papademetriou
(1st floor YA fiction under Papademetriou)
Gay teen Marcus helps his friend Frannie chat up her crush online, but then becomes convinced that the crush is falling for him instead.



Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
(1st floor YA fiction under Bechdel)
Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and funny, readers are drawn into a daughters complex yearning for her father. Apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books.




Hear Us Out!: lesbian and gay stories of struggle, progress and hope, 1950 to the present by Nancy Garden (306.76 GAR)
A comprehensive and rich account of gay life, both public and private, from one of the pioneers of young adult lesbian and gay literature.



Mom, Dad. I'm gay : how families negotiate coming out by Ritch C. Savin-Williams
(306.874 SAV) How do kids decide whether and when to take the risky step of coming out? What is involved in negotiating a new identity with parents? And how common are the coming out "horror stories" published in the popular press?

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

2009 Windham Country Reads Summer Reading List: 9-12th grade

On Wednesday, we posted the Windham County Reads' Summer Reading List for 7th and 8th graders. We are happy to report that Windham County Reads has pit together a similar reading list, this time with 9th through 12 graders in mind. Many of the recommended titles can be found at Brooks. When that's the case, the title has been bolded and a call number has been added to help you locate the book.

Anderson, Laurie Halse Wintergirls. 2009. Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.

Blundell, Judy What I saw and how I lied. 2008. (YA BLU) In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever. 2008 National Book Award winner.

Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451. 1953. (1st Flr Fiction BRA) The novel presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic, and critical thought through reading is outlawed. Vermont’s Big Read book

Cashore, Kristen Graceling. 2008. In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Clare, Cassandra The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. 2007. Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizzare world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster. Popular trilogy.

Doctorow, Cory Little Brother. 2008. (YA DOC) After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

Flanagan, John Ranger’s Apprentice: Sorceror of the North. 2008. Now a full-fledged Ranger responsible for a sleepy fief, Will finds a new adventure seeking the traitors who poisoned the king, investigating rumors of sorcery, and trying to rescue his friend Alyss, who is taken hostage. Book five in the popular Australian series.

Freeman, Castle Go with me:a novel. 2008. (1st Flr Fiction FRE) In the hills of Vermont, a local man has decided to make life hell for Lillian, a young woman from parts elsewhere. When the local law enforcement proves useless, Lillian decides to fight back on her own, enlisting an unlikely pair of allies in old-timer Lester and naive teenager Nate.

Going, K.L. King of the Screwups. 2009. After getting in trouble yet again, popular high school senior Liam, who never seems to live up to his wealthy father's expectations, is sent to live in a trailer park with his gay "glam-rocker" uncle.

Gould, Peter Write Naked. 2008. (YA GOU) When Victor finds an old Royal typewriter at a yard sale and takes it to his uncle's isolated cabin in the Vermont woods to attempt to write, he meets up with an unusual girl, and together they explore their concerns about the world, themselves, and each other.

Green, John Paper Towns. 2008. One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. 2009 Edgar Award for YA

Guevara, Ernesto “Che” The Motorcycle Diaries. (918.04 GUE) A freewheeling account of an extended youthful road trip undertaken in the early '50s by the future poster boy of Communist insurrection.

Johnson, Maureen Suite Scarlett. 2008. Fifteen-year-old Scarlett Marvin is stuck in New York City for the summer working at her quirky family's historic hotel, but her out-of-work actor brother's attractive new friend and a seasonal guest who offers her an intriguing and challenging writing project improve her outlook.

Juby, Susan Getting the girl: a guide to private investigation, surveillance, and cookery. 2008. Ninth-grader Sherman Mack investigates the "Defilers," a secret group at his British Columbia high school that marks certain female students as pariahs, at first because he is trying to protect the girl he has a crush on, but later as a matter of principle.

Lockhart, E.L. The disreputable history of Frankie Landau-Banks. 2008. (YA LOC) Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks. 2009 Printz Honor Book.

Lutz, Lisa The Spellman Files. 2007. Cracking the case can get complicated and outrageously wacky when a family of detectives is involved. Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, a San Francisco PI, reluctantly she agrees to take on a cold case with 14-year-old sister Rae and parents who have no qualms about bugging their children's bedrooms. When Rae suddenly disappears, Izzy and her family must learn some serious lessons in order to find her. First in the series.

Moore, Alan Watchmen. 2005. (741.5 MOO) In an alternate history United States. where freelance superheroes are outlawed, a retired group of heroes become involved in a murder investigation. A Time magazine top 100 book of the 20th century.

Oppel, Kenneth Starclimber. 2009. As members of the first crew of astralnauts, Matt Cruse and Kate De Vries journey into outer space on the Starclimber and face a series of catastrophes that threaten the survival of all on board. Third title in series.

Otsuka, Julie. When the emperor was divine. 2002. (1st Flr Fiction OTS) A story told from five different points of view; chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camp. Vermont Reads 2009 book.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth The dead & the gone. 2008. After a meteor hits the moon and sets off a series of horrific climate changes, seventeen-year-old Alex Morales must take care of his sisters alone in the chaos of New York City.

Reinhardt, Dana How to build a house. 2008 (YA REI) Seventeen-year-old Harper Evans hopes to escape the effects of her father's divorce on her family and friendships by volunteering her summer to build a house in a small Tennessee town devastated by a tornado.

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

New Books in YA

Looking for something new to read...check out these new titles in the YA section


Build a house in Tennessee with Harper in...

HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE
BY DANA REINHARDT







Travel with Terri from the predictable suburbs
to Cancun, Mexico in

FEATHERED
BY LAURA KASISCHKE






Working in a Gay bar as a dish washer can
make for an interesting summer in Maine in

DISHES
BY RICH WALLACE






My personal favorite: 5 authors tell creepytales of...
PROM NIGHTS FROM HELL
BY MEG CABOT, KIM HARRISON, MICHELE JAFFE,
STEPHANIE MEYER, LAUREN MYRACLE




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Saturday, December 06, 2008

Attention Twilight Fans!

Have you read Twilight (or are waiting for the book) and are wondering what to read next?

Here's a great list from the Abby the Librarian blog of books that Twilight fans would like:


"LJ Smith's Vampire Diaries series, a favorite of mine when I was in high school, was re-released in two volumes last year with new cover art and new packaging. Check out The Awakening and The Struggle and The Fury and Dark Reunion. The story of a beautiful girl torn between two vampire brothers will satisfy those who enjoyed the love triangle in Twilight.

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause features a teen werewolf Vivian and her longing for the (human) hunky heartthrob Aiden. Can she curb her wild nature to be with a human boy? And what about the rest of her pack?

Meg Cabot's Mediator series star a girl with a peculiar talent - Suze can communicate with people who are not so much with the living. She works as a "mediator" to put the dead to rest. When her mother moves from from New York to California, Suze finds that her bedroom in the new house is haunted... and the ghost guy is, well, kinda cute... Great for Twilighters who like a little mystery.

In Evernight by Claudia Mills, Bianca is sent to Evernight Academy, an odd school where the students seem strangely perfect. She doesn't fit in and she's drawn to fellow outsider Jared. Is their connection strong enough to defeat the forces that would drag them apart?

Demon in My View is the story of Jessica, a high schooler who pens vampire novels under a pseudonym. When one of the characters from her novel shows up at her school, she's not sure what his intentions are. She gets tantalizingly close to him as she tries to determine the truth behind his existence.

And this last one was suggested by Ellen Anne over at Alternative Teen Services. The short story collection Prom Nights from Hell includes a short story by Stephenie Meyer as well as stories by some of the most prominent YA authors out there. Each story deals with a very special night in a teen's life - Prom - but these stories are about the darker side of Prom. A bonus for this collection is that Twilighters may be pulled in by the lure of a story by Stephenie Meyer and then discover some new favorites authors! (Thanks to Jackie for the link!)"

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Cool Links...

Surf some of these sites for book suggestions - what's new and cool, podcasts, and contests:



TeensReadToo



ReaderGirlz

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