Happy Friday. For the 2nd year in a row, an ambitious (and charming) public librarian and a brilliant (and noble) school librarian have come together to bring you the ultimate Summer Reading list for grades 6-8 (and beyond). Behold:
Here is the lists' logic: organized alphabetically by genre, then by author, all the way from Adventure to Steampunk. We strive to pick new books, published in 2013-2014, so that each year's list is always fraîche.
Find these books at your local library. All. Summer. Long.
Kelley Blue, Teen Services Librarian @ Wood Library, Canandaigua
Melanie Dyroff, School Library Media Specialist @ Canandaigua Middle School Library
"All good books are about everything, abbreviated" (Grasshopper Jungle, p.332).
Austin Szreba has a healthy preoccupation with the intersection of histories. He believes that the roads of coincidence cross back and forth across time, right in front of us. As a self-made historian, he writes these observations down. Grasshopper Jungle is Austin's recording of the end of the world. While the world is ending, our narrator is also authentically struggling to separate hormones from love and friendship, and human stupidity from beauty. It happens like this...
A gang of total oafs beat the crap out of Austin and his best friend, Robby, in the nowhere town of Ealing, Iowa, in an alleyway affectionately referred to as the "Grasshopper Jungle". Later that night, the same gang of total oafs breaks into the office of Austin's boss, an office that Austin and Robby have also just broken into. Inside they have discovered the most messed up treasure trove of Cold War era stuffs ever seen. While Austin and Robby are smart enough to stand in fear and awe of the glowing blue orb of "Contained MI Plague Strain 412E", the total oafs decide it would be fun to take it for a stroll...
It was not a good idea. You know what I mean.
The joy of the rest of this book is in letting Austin tie all the ends together while hell breaks loose in Ealing. In his own meandering, often gross, and truly funny way, Austin discovers what MI Plague Strain 412E is, what it does (bad stuff), and where it came from (totally bizarre). While he's figuring this all out, he has the unfortunate fate of being a teenage boy made horny by nearly everything, which is inconvenient when the world is ending. Incessant male teenage arousal can also be inconvenient when you're trying to figure out your feelings for your girlfriend and possibly your best friend, too. Female characters, like Shann, seem a big thinly drawn, but that may be appropriate considering the narrator, who happens to be preoccupied by unstoppable, giant mantises bent on devouring the entire human race. And other stuff.
This book is anticlimactic (in a good way!), hilarious, and somber all at once. It is certainly the most unique end-of-the-world fiction I have read in maybe ever. -Kelley, (Your) Teen Services Librarian
I'm seeing the phrase, "I don't get it" out there when it comes to this book. It's not that I don't get it, I just don't get why it is YA. (Midwinterblood, as many may know, won the Printz this year for excellence in young adult fiction.)
I hope I am not selling teen readers short, but this book will be "just right" for only the rarest of porridge eaters. When I tried to explain the plot to one of my most avid and adventurous teen readers, she just smiled and nodded at me politely. Now, maybe that's my fault, but the entire time I was reading Midwinterblood, my Teen Librarian brain kept asking, "where's the teen appeal here?" (Also, it is false advertising to throw "vampires" and "vikings" around when talking up this book, because that's not what's really going on here.)
That said, I believe Midwinterblood is a rewarding read for that right reader. The chapters are broken up into pithy, digestible bites that make it a quick read. There are seven interrelated vignettes going back in time sequentially; so, we begin in 2073 and end before recorded time. Starting in 2073 was a good choice for me; Sedgwick's version of the future coupled with the creepy, timeless qualities of Blessed Island really pulled me in. (Also, screaming "just stop drinking the tea!" got me engaged with the first story in a very active way.)
The sections are interrelated by just a few elements, and picking up the threads of how is the real pleasure of this book. I often found myself going back to a previous vignette when I realized a connection. Man, this book is smart! The threads are woven masterfully. For example, not each element appears in each story; rather, they are peppered, and sometimes so different that you don't immediately catch them.
I can't delve too much further because I would give away all the lovely weirdness. I said this book didn't have immediate teen appeal, but I think it would make for an excellent discussion with older teens about the concept of self (Are we more than just this? Are we greater than ourselves? Is there such a thing as destiny? Do we have any control over it?). Deceptively simple, there is a lot to ponder here. Or just leave it be and enjoy this haunting Ouroboros of a novel.
Bonus factor? This book got me to use "Ouroboros" in a sentence.
Second bonus factor? This book was partially inspired by this crazy painting.
Hey all. I'm very excited to announce that the Wood Library Teen Scene has finally taken a time machine to 5 years ago and established its very own Facebook page. While the library has had its own FB page for a while now, I was feeling kind of guilty for flooding it with teen stuff all the time. So, I've struck out on my own. Check it:
Give us a like if you, like me, love to read posts about YA reads, movies, fandom, geekdom, pop-culture, cats in people clothing, and pop-tarts. Or any combination thereof. -Kelley (Your) Teen Services Librarian
The purpose of TRW is to e-specially single out teens and get them excited about reading and libraries. As if reading and libraries weren't already exciting to all the teens in the world, right??? This week is just for you, and the theme is "Seek the Unknown"... via sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, or any combination thereof. How tantalizing.
Here's a quick list of suggested, YA-friendly titles that will help you celebrate Teen Read Week, for all your unknown-seeking-needs. Apologies that this list leans heavily sci-fi. Books marked with a * are some of my personal favorites.
In a post-apocalyptic world where those undamaged by the cataclysmic events are kept safely inside the Dome, a young girl on the outside teams up with a boy on the inside to search for his missing mother.
In 2029, hoping to bypass the exams and training that might lead to a comfortable life, Susan, her almost-boyfriend Derlock, and seven fellow students stow away on a ship to Mars, unaware that Derlock is a sociopath with bigger plans.
Immersing himself in a mid-twenty-first-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty, and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world's creator.
In Victorian London, Albert Garrick, an assassin-for-hire, and his reluctant young apprentice, Riley, are transported via wormhole to modern London, where Riley teams up with a young FBI agent to stop Garrick from returning to his own time and using his newly acquired scientific knowledge and power to change the world forever.
In a future where poor children and teenagers work for corrupt bosses as gold farmers, finding valuable items inside massively-multiplayer online games, a small group of teenagers work to unionize and escape this near-slavery.
After being in a car accident, a patient recovering in her mother's research facility is given the task of creating the perfect boy using detailed simulation technologies.
Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet.
When fourteen-year-old Everett Singh's scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves a mysterious app on Everett's computer giving him access to the Infundibulum--a map of parallel earths--which is being sought by technologically advanced dark powers that Everett must somehow elude while he tries to rescue his father.
When fourteen-year-old Itchingham "Itch" Lofte discovers a new radioactive element, he must use all of his wits and scientific knowledge to stop a top-secret government agency, his greedy teacher, and an evil corporation from getting hold of it.
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.
To support herself and her younger brother in a future Beverly Hills, sixteen-year-old Callie hires her body out to seniors who want to experience being young again, and she lives a fairy-tale life until she learns that her body will commit murder, unless her mind can stop it.
Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's actual purpose
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.
When a vaccine to save endangered bees causes their sting to turn children into ferocious killer beasts, the uninfected build a wall to keep the beasts out, but Fiona wakes up on the wrong side of the wall.
Happy seeking! -Kelley, (Your) Teen Services Librarian
You may or may not be surprised to learn that librarians like me are all over the internet fanning out. And thank goodness for that, because these people are full of fabulous ideas and inspiration. Case in point: Teen Librarian Toolbox's Take 5: It's Elementary (YA Fiction for fans of Sherlock Fans). A list like this so needs to exist. Click on the link for their awesome suggestions.
I've read 2 of the suggested titles, The Name of the Star and Code Name Verity, and really enjoyed both of them. The Name of the Star has boarding school, London, secret organizations AND Jack the Ripper's ghost, so how could you not want to read that? I wouldn't have thought of recommending Code Name... to Sherlock fans, though it is an epic read, full of intricate details that you gradually begin to realize you are piecing together into one shocking whole (kind of like a Sherlock episode). Plus, it's got lady spies, and lady pilots, and complex villains. The audiobook was phenomenal, especially if, like me, you're super into UK accents.
