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.
Though I wish I could, I can't read or review everything. Also, hearing myself speak about books gets lonesome sometimes, and so I introduce you to a new feature: Guest Teen Blogger!
This week, Victoria, otherwise known as "teen blogger extraordinaire", reviews The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by one of my all-time favorite YA authors, Libba Bray. Take it away, Victoria:
"Libba Bray wrote this thrilling historical fiction trilogy. It starts with A Great and Terrible Beauty, next comes Rebel Angels, and finally the last book is A Sweet Far Thing. It follows sixteen year old Gemma Doyle. Gemma has just lost her mother, is gaining strange powers, moving from India to England for boarding school, being watched by a mysterious stranger that she may or may not be attracted to, and creates friendships with three very unique girls. The four girls stumble upon The Realms, a magical land where the dead come to crossover the river to go beyond. Only select women from The Order have this power that Gemma possesses, and, whether she wants it or not, Gemma is now the one holding this power and must decide who to trust, who to fight, and, most importantly, what to do.
The first book, I felt, got off to a slow start. Once its momentum got going, though, I was hooked and couldn't put the book down. I found the second book extremely hard to work through. It didn't seem up to par with the first book [Insert from Kelley the Librarian: I TOTALLY AGREE!]. It started off in another person’s point-of-view without anyone knowing before just switching to Gemma’s with no warning. It made me very confused. I was hesitant to pick up the third book after the second, but I did anyway. Best choice ever! The third book blew me away. I think I liked it better than the first one. There is tons of action and the book never seems to slow its pace. The ending was a love-hate one. I loved it, but I still wanted it to be different--if that makes any sense to anyone.
I believe there is at least one character in the books that everyone will like. It may not be the same person, but they are all so unique and different that I think it’s only a matter of personality preference. The characters certainly have personality and are well developed into the story line. I highly recommend these books even though I didn't like the second one. The trilogy is a great read. I’d skip dessert to read them!"
~Victoria, Guest Blogger Extraordinaire!!!
Do YOU want to be a guest teen blogger? It's as simple as sending me an email: kblue@pls-net.org. (Guest teen bloggers must live in Canandaigua or Ontario County-abouts, and they must be teens, obvs)
Why is writing a review of a book you love so much harder than writing about one you... loved not so much?
I indulged myself by reading Shadow and Bone and its sequel, Siege and Storm, back-to-back. What a luxury it was! Things started a bit slow for me... I even doubted for a few chapters whether I would dig this series. But then! Oh my! I was swept off my feet. How? Why? Because Alina Starkov's life goes from 0 to 120 in a matter of pages, and the pace, the magic and the sensuality don't really slow from there.
The best type of heroine, Alina starts from nothing and must quickly come to grips with a tremendous power she never knew she had. This is an archetype I never really get tired of, especially when it's done as well as Bardugo does it. When we first meet Alina, she's a orphaned teen apprenticing cartography in the First Army of Ravka (peep a map at the front of both books for a geography lesson; #yeahbookmaps). An important thing you need to know about Ravka is that it has literally been torn in two by a swath of physical darkness known as the Shadow Fold (it's just "the Fold" for short, ya'll). The Fold is full of some really nasty creatures that will eat you, and the Fold may be growing. It's, like, a huge problem and plays a central role in the politics of the book. But now, back to our heroine:
By her own accounts (and she may be a tiny bit hard on herself), Alina's not much more than average in all departments, until one day a life-and-death situation while crossing the Fold forces her dormant powers to the surface, and she is thrust into the world of the Grisha.
The Grisha are people born with special abilities like summoning and controlling wind or squeezing the life out of a person's heart. In neighboring countries, they're hunted down and burned as witches, but in Ravka they are enlisted into the powerful Second Army, led by a dead-sexy character known as the Darkling.
When Alina's power is discovered, she is "taken under the wing" of the Darkling more or less by force, whisked off to the royal capital in the hopes that her powers can be harnessed and used to fight the Fold. Alina is also separated from her one and only friend/childhood companion, Mal, who she has serious unexplored romantic feelings for. Remember when I said the book swept me off my feet? This is about where it happened.
While the adventure moves along quickly, we also get some wonderful character development and growth, especially moving into book 2. I read a lot of YA, and I read a lot of YA series, but this series is at the top of my list right now, alongside Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. I will eagerly await the third book in both of these series, and gush about the first two books to anyone who will listen until then.
I am very excited to officially release this list of suggested summer reads for my middle school students out there. I know you guys in the Canandaigua area have to read 2 books this summer (at least!), so we're here to help with hand-picked books, just for you.
Who's "we"? This list was a collaborative effort of Yours Truly and Melanie Dyroff, School Library Media Specialist at Canandaigua Middle School. And, you know, double the librarian equals double the awesome.
Technical details: Stop by Wood Library and browse a print copy of the list in the Teen Scene or at the Reference Desk. All of these titles are available for check-out this summer at Wood Library and through the Pioneer Library System. Many of the titles are also available as eBooks or audiobooks in OWWL2Go. -Kelley, (Your) Teen Services Librarian
