I have two carts in the office with new Graphic Novels and High School Fiction just waiting to go out on the shelf. What are you waiting for?! Either put these titles on hold or browse the shelves for them the next time you’re in the library.
Naruto Vols. 34-44
The Adventures of Blanche by Rick Geary
Honey Hunt vol.1 by Miki Aihara ( I really liked this story when I read it in Shojo Beat magazine)
Hello Goodbye by Emily Chenoweth
Just ordering some new books. Thought I give you guys a heads up on what will be appearing soon. There are no catalog records for them yet, but there will be soon.
High School Fiction:
Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia by Cindy Pon
That one looks really cool.
Will be the best book ever, hands down. Combines my love of P&P and zombies. Fabulous!
Hunted by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Highway to Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore
High School Non Fiction
Ghosts Caught on Film by Melvyn Willin
Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year Old GI by Ryan Smithson
Graphic Novels
Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry
90 Classic Books for People in a Hurry by Hendrick Lange
Hope this gives you guys something to look forward to! Keep your eye on the catalog so you can put holds on these! And if anyone knows of something good coming out, post a comment or give your opinion on how you think these are going to be.
Looking for something new to read? Check out ALA’s list of 2009 Best Books for Young Adults. There are 86 books on the list! Now you don’t have an excuse when you say you can’t find something to read. Check it out at HERE!
We’re gotten a lot of books in lately (or they’re on order). Check them out!
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Night World No.1 by L.J. Smith
Beautiful Americans by Lucy Silag
You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay
Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link
I’m most looking foward to You Are So Undead to Me. Gotta love a book whose description includes: Her life – and more importantly, the homecoming dance – depends on it.
What are you looking forward to?
A cart of brand new high school fiction books arrived in the office this morning! There are a lot of great sounding books I think you guys would enjoy:
Stake That! by Mari Mancusi is about a vampire slayer who would rather be a vampire.
Another vampire book, Boys That Bite by the same author as the above, is about a girl who will turn into a vampire unless she can reverse it in time. Looks super cute (and cheesy, but in a good way)!
Freefall by Anna Levine is about an 18 year old girl whose about to start her service in the Israeli army, and wants to try out for the elite combat unit. Plus she has three (3!) guys she’s crushing on at the moment.
Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley is another vampire book, but if I judge by the cover- and I am- it looks super adorable. Tag line says: The all-true confessions of Mina Hamilton, teen vampire *maybe. Sarah Mlynowski (author of Bras and Broomsticks) says “Great concept, great character, great fun!”
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve is another version of the Arthur legend, but sounds darker. I can’t wait to read this one.
For those of you that read dark, terrible, could-be-true books, then Living Dead Girl is for you. By Elizabeth Scott, this book will not be for the faint of heart. It’s very short (170 pages) but it’s about a girl who was kidnapped at 10 years old. She is 15 now, but her kidnapper speaks very openly about the girl’s death. After 5 years of torment, she’s ready for it too. It’s intense, and you’ll want to get to the end to find out. For mature high schoolers.
And ending on a light note, Everything You Want by Barbara Shoup has the cutest picture of a duck on the cover, and it’s about 18 year old Emma, who has the normal problems of life, until a lucky lotto ticket turns everything better-or worse?
What are you interested in? I want to read Everything You Want and Here Lies Arthur. Pick something off the list and let me know what you think!
Last Saturday, I was lucky to attend the 5th Annual Young Adult Literature Conference. Even though it started at the awful hour of 7:30 in the morning (on a Saturday? come on), it was a pretty amazing day. 6 authors (Suzanne Collins [her latest The Hunger Games sounds INCREDIBLE-it's on order], Ellen Klages, John Stokes, Holly Black, Nancy Werlin, Caroline Cooney) spoke about their latest books and how they came to write them. In between, there were different discussion groups that you could go to, like “Writing Fantasy”.
The three discussion I went to were: “Local Treasures” (Chicago area authors); “New Voices” (new authors) and “Writing Memoirs”. “Local Treasures” featured Andy Behrens, Pamela Todd, and Stephanie Kuehnert. Stephanie is also a new author, and her book is I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. It’s about a girl whose mom left her as a baby to follow the music scene so when Emily starts her own punk rock band she thinks it’ll bring her mom back. A sex, drugs, rock n roll kind of book that’s also a coming of age story, author Melissa Marr (Ink Exchange) called it: “Teeth. Punk. Combat boots. Attitude. Feminism. Family. Girls with guitars. Relationships that jack you up. Sharp things of the not-good kind. Friendships. Love…. It’s all here; it’s all pure and real.”
“New Voices” was an awesome discussion! It’s great to be able to discover new authors and tell you guys about them. Ingrid Law has written an amazing sounding book called Savvy. It’s a tall-tale kind of story about a family where on your 13th birthday you receive your savvy- a kind of supernatural power. It’s a younger, more YA kind of book but it sounds fantastic. Paula Yoo is a violin playing, Yale graduate who has written the book Good Enough. It’s about a teenager named Patti whose Korean-American parents want her to get into HarvardYalePrinceton and get perfect SATs and play the violin perfectly. But Patti starts thinking, maybe there’s other things that life’s about besides perfect grades? Cameron Tuttle wanted to write a book that was the opposite of Meg Cabot’s How to Be Popular, where the girl discovers that being “unpopular” is actually more fun than being “popular”. It’s called Paisley Hanover Acts Out. The section that the author read is completely relateable, and even though the book isn’t coming out till March of next year, I got a copy.
“Writing Memoirs” was fascinating because both of the authors that spoke were speaking about their real life experiences that led to their books. Cylin Busby’s father was a policeman and was set to testify in a case. Driving home one day he was shot in the face. Cylin was nine at the time, and together she and her father wrote this book, The Year We Disappeared, that tells the story from each of their perspectives. The other author was John Stokes, who at 19 walked out of school with his classmates to go on strike to protest separate schools and the horrible conditions of the school that black students attended. Their lawsuit helped lead to the end of segregation. A horrible part of America’s past, he didn’t speak about it for over 50 years. His book, Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown and Me, is on the 2nd floor. He was an amazing speaker.
Each of the individual authors talks had a way of making you inspired to read and to really think. I encourage you guys to branch out and try some of their books- you might discover a new favorite!
PS For Nancy Werlin fans, she revealed in her speech that she’s getting married in six weeks!
Nancy Werlin
Amber’s recent comment made me want to write a post about the new Nancy Werlin book! We all remember when we were lucky enough to win that author contest, and Nancy came to the library and hung out with us. She also gave a preview of the book that was to be published next. (I just looked up when that was, and it was last November! I can’t believe it was so long ago.) Well, Impossible was just published and DPPL has two copies on order- one for YA and the other for the High School collection.
Impossible is a modern tale that’s based on “Scarborough Fair”. Lucy is discovers after becoming pregnant on prom night that the women in her family are all cursed. They all give birth as teens, before they descend into madness. To break the curse set upon her, she will have to perform 3 impossible tasks, which are detailed in the song. Luckily she has the support of her adoptive parents and the boy-next-door. All of the reviews that I have read about the book have been really positive.
I’m super excited about reading this book as soon as it comes in. Plus I’ll get to see Nancy again this Saturday! I’m lucky to be going to the 5th Annual Young Adult Literature Conference, where Nancy will be there along with Holly Black, Suzanne Collins, Caroline Cooney, Ellen Klages, and John Stokes. Anyone you think in particular I should single out to talk to? Comment away! And while you’re at it, put Impossible on hold.
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini comes out tonight at midnight. Is anyone looking forward to this book? Are you interested in reading the first two books, or why not?
We’ve just gotten some new High School books and Graphic Novels in at the library, so I thought I’d share what looks interesting on the cart before they get shelved into the collection.
Amber will appreciate this one: My Tiki Girl by Jennifer McMahon- same author of the Island of Lost Girls. Maggie was injured in a car accident that also killed her mom. Now an outcast she becomes friends with Dahlia. But her feelings towards Dahlia start to resemble something more than friendship and she has to make some choices about what she feels. If it’s anything like the Island of Lost Girls it’ll be a fast read.
Suite Scarlett is Maureen Johnson’s latest book, and I picked this one to write about because I loved LOVED 13 Little Blue Envelopes. Scarlett lives in a small hotel in New York City, and it’s family tradition that when a child turns 15, they take over care of a suite in the hotel. Scarlett’s suite has a permanent guest named Mrs. Amberson. What grabbed me was the line in the book jacket: “Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery, Broadway glamour, romantic missteps, and theatrical deception.” I think that sounds like a perfect book for the last days of summer.
For the people out there who like the graphic novels that Minx puts out, you’ll like the latest one: Water Baby by Ross Campbell. Bordy is a surfer girl who just survived a shark attack, although is now missing a bit of her leg. Trying to get back into the water, her ex boyfriend Jake shows up. So in an effort to make things great again she takes a road trip with her friend Louisa to get finally get rid of Jake.
(Oh, and for fans of The Plain Janes, there’s going to be a sequel! I’m ordering it for the collection of course, but for now you can see what it looks like on Amazon- it’s called Janes in Love.
And there’s a new graphic novel from Dean Koontz and based on this Odd Thomas series. It’s called In Odd We Trust. Odd Thomas is a 19 year old who can see the spirits of the dead. So when a ghost of a boy reaches out to him, Odd Thomas is going to help. Even if the killer is a step ahead…This one sounds really good, and the black and white art looks really sharp. I’ve always wanted to read the Odd Thomas series, and I think I’ll start with this one.
Has anyone read anything good lately that they can recommend? Or seen anything at bookstores that looks stellar and we should own it?
