Wednesday, July 31, 2013

New books to read during the last weeks of summer break


Out of this Place
by Emma Cameron
A powerful novel in verse captures the voices of three teens as they struggle against hardscrabble realities -- and move toward their dreams. Set in Australia and narrated in alternating points of view, here is an affecting look at the evolving lives of three friends.
A powerful novel in verse captures the voices of three teens as they struggle against hardscrabble realities -- and move toward their dreams.

A powerful novel in verse captures the voices of three teens as they struggle against hardscrabble realities -- and move toward their dreams. - See more at: http://frvpld.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2258850035_out_of_this_place#sthash.JhI2St2r.dpuf
September Girls
by Bennett Madison
Vacationing in a sleepy beach town for the summer, Sam is pursued by hordes of blonde girls before falling in love with the unusual DeeDee, who compels him to uncover secrets about the community's ocean-dwelling inhabitants.
by Lois Metzger
Fifteen-year-old Mike desperately attempts to take control as his parents separate and his life falls apart. 
Truth or Dare
by Jacqueline Green
In the affluent seaside town of Echo Bay, Massachusetts, mysterious dares sent to three very different girls--loner Sydney Morgan, Caitlin "Angel" Thomas, and beautiful Tenley Reed--threaten both their reputations and their lives.
Furious by Jill Wolfson
After becoming the Furies of Greek mythology, three angry high school girls take revenge on everyone who deserves it.
The Secret Ingredient
by Stewart Lewis
After a chance meeting with a psychic, Olivia, a teen cook living in Los Angeles with her two dads and misfit brother, finds a vintage cookbook with handwritten notes inside and pieces together a story that turns a normal summer into a search for her birth mother.
How My Summer Went Up in Flames
by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
Placed under a temporary retstraining order for torching her former boyfriend's car, seventeen-year-old Rosie embarks on a cross-country car trip from New Jersey to Arizona while waiting for her court appearance.
Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe
While training for a surfing competition to earn a college scholarship, Grace Parker struggles with her feelings toward her best friend Ford Watson and tries to conceal her family's toxic dynamics.
The Language Inside
by Holly Thompson
Raised in Japan, American-born tenth-grader Emma is disconcerted by a move to Massachusetts for her mother's breast cancer treatment, because half of Emma's heart remains with her friends recovering from the tsunami.
Absent by Katie Williams
Seventeen-year-old Paige Wheeler died in a fall off the high school roof and now her spirit seems bound to the school grounds, along with Brooke and Evan, two other teen ghosts who died there--but maybe if she can solve the mystery of her apparent suicide they will all be able to move on.
Golden by Jessi Kirby
Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she's about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap--one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery--she decides to take a chance.
When You Were Here
by Daisy Whitney
When his mother dies two months before his high school graduation, Danny goes to Tokyo, where his mother had been going for cancer treatments, to learn about the city his mother loved and, with the help of his friends, come to terms with her death.
The Milk of Birds by Sylvia Whitman
When a nonprofit organization called Save the Girls pairs a fourteen-year-old Sudanese refugee with an American teenager from Richmond, Virginia, the pen pals teach each other compassion and share a bond that bridges two continents.
Kindness for Weakness
by Shawn Goodman
A fifteen-year-old boy from an abusive home, desperately seeking his older brother's love and approval, starts pushing drugs for him and suffers the consequences.
A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer
In the not-too-distant future when a global pandemic kills most of humanity, a teenaged girl and her younger brother struggle to survive.
45 Pounds (More or Less)
by K.A. Barson
When Ann decides that she is going to lose 45 pounds in time for her aunt's wedding, she discovers that what she looks like is not all that matters.
Identity Theft by Anna Davies
Someone claiming to be Hayley posts incriminating photographs of her online, jeopardizing her chance at a college scholarship, but when the photographs reveal dark secrets in her family's past, Hayley learns her very life is at stake. 
Nix Minus One
by Jill Maclean
More skilled at woodworking than communicating, Nix Humbolt seeks the words to deal with high school expectations, his extroverted sister, and his neighbor's neglected dog.
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
Tired of being known as "the gay kid", Rafe Goldberg decides to assume a new persona when he comes east and enters an elite Massachusetts prep school--but trying to deny his identity has both complications and unexpected consequences.
The Boy on the Bridge
by Natalie Standiford
It is 1982 and nineteen-year-old Laura Reid is spending a semester in Leningrad studying Russian, but when she meets Alyosha she discovers the dissident Russia--a world of wild parties, underground books and music, love, and constant danger.
 
Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross
Sixteen-year-old Maude Pichon, a plain, impoverished girl in Belle Epoque Paris, is hired by Countess Dubern to make her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, look more beautiful by comparison but soon Maude is enmeshed in a tangle of love, friendship, and deception.
The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
by April Henry
She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her. And that she must run. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive.
The Book of Broken Hearts
by Sarah Ockler
Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong.



Plus these books kick off new series:

The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith
By the author of the Escape from Furnace series! To defend themselves, a ragtag group of teens bands together at an abandoned amusement park after one day when, without warning, the entire human race turns against them.

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff
Sixteen-year-old Boy Nobody, an assassin controlled by a shadowy government organization, The Program, considers sabotaging his latest mission because his target reminds him of the normal life he craves.

Earth Bound by Aprilynne Pike
Eighteen-year-old Tavia is the only survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents. Grieving and lonely, she starts having strange visions; of a boy she's never met but feels compulsively drawn to. A boy who tells her to do things she never dreamed of. Tavia begins to suspect that secrets are being kept from her, and that her kindly aunt and uncle know more than they are letting on. Was the plane crash really an accident? Or is Tavia part of something bigger than she ever imagined?

In the After by Demitria Lunetta
In a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is as it seems, seventeen-year-old Amy and Baby, a child she found while scavenging, struggle to survive while vicious, predatory creatures from another planet roam the Earth.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Final weekly winners, plus more recommended reads!

Saturday was the last day to turn in Recommended Read entries for summer reading. Since we received so many great recommendations throughout the program, I'm going to continue to highlight the books you enjoyed this summer. First up are our final two weekly winners for summer reading:

 
Kailey recommends The Nancy Drew Files: The Black Widow by Carolyn Keene: "It is very interesting. The mystery will keep you on the edge of your seat. I couldn't stop reading it!"

Emma recommends Wonder by R.J. Palacio: "It shows that you shouldn't judge people because it hurts their feelings. It also shows how others feel in the book."

Kailey and Emma both win $10 Target gift cards!

Hannah recommends Legend by Marie Lu: "It is a dystopian work, different than others, which tells of a North America different than the United States we now know. The characters and setting are very interesting."

Celine recommends Across the Universe by Beth Revis: "This book is about a girl who her and her parents believe that there will once be a new planet. When the girl wakes up she's alone with a guy in a small room. She also discovers someone tried to murder her while asleep."

Tanya recommends The Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan: "Really, the sequel to these chronicles was awesome! The challenge of awakening Ra, then finding he had gone senile over the last couple of eons made me want to read more!"

Teddy recommends Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: "I recommend this book because it is exciting and is a very good story."

Deniz recommends Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys: "It takes on a completely different perspective on WWII: people being deported by the Soviets. There are always books being made on Jewish people being deported by the Germans, but this was a completely different point-of-view and allows readers to see how other people were affected by the war."

Olivia recommends The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket: "It is very interesting. The plot is full of mystery and suspense. On every page something new and exciting is happening. Just when you think a person is safe from the villian, he catches them again. I would rate this book 5 stars. I love it."

Glorielly recommends A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks: "It's totally romantic and 10x better than the movie. Although most of it is nowhere near realistic is always good and fun to read through these fantasies of Nicholas Sparks' romance books."

Serena recommends Black Boy, White School: "It's about racism and how growing up in a different environment can change how people look at others and society. It's filled with life lessons and written perfectly."

Marissa recommends Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: "It is very intriguing and mystifying."

Monday, July 15, 2013

Teen Crafts and Book Tasting this week

We have a couple teen programs coming up this week. Tomorrow afternoon is Teen Crafts at 3 p.m. We will reuse maps from old atlases to make recycled flowers:
Map flowers 1

Map flowers 2

Map flowers 3

Map flowers 4

Map flowers 5

If you missed our previous Teen Crafts session in June, you can still make your own map buttons too!

On Wednesday night, join us for a Book Tasting at 7 p.m. You'll be able to skim books in a variety of genres and hopefully come away with at least one title you're interesting in reading!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Book recommendations for teens, by teens

Let's start off with our two latest winners in the weekly gift card drawings:

Bailey recommends The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak: " It had lots of figurative language and was narrated in an interesting way."

Deniz recommends The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson: "It is a heart-warming story of how three sisters cope with the death of their father. They each handle it in different ways and separate from each other, but in the end, the love of family never ceases, and brings them back together. It's a very cherishable story."

Bailey and Deniz both win $10 Target gift cards! Get your recommendations in -- we will have one more drawing at the end of this week! 

Grace recommends Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: "It's about four sisters who are just regular girls and all the adventures they had together."


Teigan recommends The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter: "This story gives you a different look at the Greek gods and how they interact in Kate's life. You also see Hades as a different person and hear how it really went when he kidnapped Persephone."

Shane recommends City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare: "The series is about Shadowhunters who are of angel descent and they fight demons."

Jennifer recommends Tempest by Julie Cross: "It is exciting, it's a romantic book. It has to do with the CIA and about people time-traveling."

Brooke recommends 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: "The library reading program this year is all about travel and so is the book. The main character Ginny goes on a long travel that her aunt sends her on."

Aynur recommends Bakuman by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata: "It talks about their different goals and dreams and what they do to achieve it. Also, it tells you to keep trying even if you failed or a family member failed."

Merci recommends Salvation by Anne Osterlund: "It's a romantic story between the most popular guy falling for the girl that is the walking disaster of high school."

Aiden recommends The Loners by Lex Thomas: "It has high intensity, and is very hard to put down."

Daniel recommends The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan: "It is action-packed and makes you think. It's full of suspense and awesome to the end. I can't wait to read the next book!"