Sunday, October 28, 2012

Georgia Peach Awards

The Georgia Peach Book for Teen Readers invites high-school teens to read and vote on their favorite books from a list of 20 top-notch nominees.  Voting is live online now at www.georgiapeachaward.org.

The current list of nominees includes Jump, by Elisa Carbone, a fast-paced story told in two voices.  If you like extreme sports and whirlwind maybe-romance, laced with a sense of impending danger, try Jump—but make sure your climbing gear is secure!

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Rock-climbing is something P. K. and Critter have in common.  To them, climbing is pleasure: pleasure in movement; pleasure in balance; pleasure in defying gravity.

The other thing they have in common?  They’re running away.  P. K. is running from her parents and their plan to send her to boarding school.  Critter’s escaping from a psychiatric ward.

They take turns telling the story of how they escaped, found each other, hitched west, and conquered Red Rocks, dodging bone-crushing falls on stony ascents.  But when the cops come after Critter, P. K. has to decide: Should she believe this amazing guy she’s trusted with her life, or believe the cops—who think he’s out to take her life?

Find out.  Read Jump.

Vanessa Cowie
Youth Services Coordinator

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Staff Picks

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Smile by Raina Telgemeier is an Eisner and Cybils award winner as well as a 2011 pick for YALSA’s great graphic novels for teens.  The full color graphics will have you laughing, wincing, and smiling as you follow Raina on her orthodontia adventures.

Raina enjoys hanging out with friends, having sleepovers, and generally being a teen.  Then she finds out she is getting braces to fix her teeth.  One night just before the braces go on, when Raina and her friends are coming home from a Girl Scout meeting, Raina trips and falls hard on the concrete sidewalk.  When she gets up there is blood everywhere, and her two front teeth have been knocked out.  Her parents rush Raina to the dentist, where he puts a dental cast on her front teeth so they will heal.

When Raina goes back to school, everyone asks all kinds of weird questions and makes fun of her tooth cast because it gives her a lisp.  Later, when she goes back to the dentist, they find out the cast didn’t help--she looks like a reverse vampire because her two front teeth are much higher than her other teeth.  By the time Raina has new fake teeth implanted, and gets
braces and headgear, 6th grade is almost over.

7th grade brings Sammy, a cute boy, into Raina’s life.  He is one whole year younger, but has braces, too.  That fall there is a horrible earthquake near her house and all the power is knocked out.  Raina decides that braces are nothing compared to an earthquake.  Near Thanksgiving, the orthodontist tells Raina that her dental surgery did not work and she is going  to lose her new front teeth.  The orthodontist plans to move her other teeth together to fill in the gap,  but it will take a few years.  Raina wonders how she will play the flute or eat at school, and what people will say.  They take her braces off, pull her front teeth, and give her new ones on a retainer.  The only people who really say mean things are the girls who have been her friends for years.  She misses a Valentine’s dance and hurts Sammy’s feelings, and they are not friends anymore.  Then the braces go back on again.  Raina decides braces are like her life: they hurt, you get used to them, then they hurt some more. 

8th grade brings physical changes to Raina and her girl friends.  Some of them even sort of have boyfriends.  But Raina is only interested in a boy who does not really notice her.  That summer Raina gets new bonded front teeth and that fall, a fresh start at a new high school. When she has lunch with her friends, she realizes they spent the summer doing things together without her.  Then Raina’s new orthodontia fun includes rubber bands that pull her jaws in line.  One day her old friends embarrass Raina by pantsing her in front of the entire school.  She is furious, but luckily she has leggings on under her skirt.

To find out if Raina ever gets her braces off or gets even with her friends, take home a copy of Smile by Raina Telgemeier today.  


Denise Leeson
Youth Services Specialist

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Staff Picks

The Help

So many friends and patrons have enjoyed Kathyrn Stockett’s The Help and at last I’ve had the chance to read it.  I definitely can see the appeal of this novel.

Kathryn Stockett’s vivid depictions of Jackson, Mississippi in 1963 and her lively characters made this a fast read even at 451 pages.  It’s hard to put down this book!
Patrons who can recall the decade assure me that Stockett’s descriptions are dead-on accurate.
 
Here’s The Help in a nutshell: a young journalist in Jackson, Mississippi pens a tell-all from the point of view of “the help.”  The maids’ stories and the reaction of their employers when they find themselves the subject of the book echo the real life drama of the times.  

The Help is heartbreaking, enlightening, and surprisingly hilarious at times.  On the serious side, Civil Rights leader Medger Evans is slain during the course of the story.  The attack sends shock waves through the black community and highlights the fact that there really are two very separate Mississippis in 1963.  While the white community is a land of country clubs, white gloves, and tea parties, life for most blacks is filled with so many struggles they cease to even notice them.  Even so, maids like the kind, wise Aibileen and feisty Minny (especially Minny!) find ways to dish out some just desserts.

I just love these characters!

Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Staff Picks

Attack of the Growling Eyeballs by Lin Oliver


This book is the first in a series called Who Shrunk Daniel Funk?  Daniel is a boy who feels outnumbered.  He lives with his mom, his three sisters, his grandmother and his great-grandmother.  So, as the only male among a pack of females, he spends a lot of time wishing for a brother.  Then he discoverers he has one:  a twin brother who is only an inch high and has been kept secret and raised by his grandmother.  Once he meets his tiny bother, Daniel finds himself shrinking to match.  This can be a lot of fun, like when they release a roach into his sisters’ slumber party, and of course, chaos ensues.  But if the roach turns on you and you are only an inch tall, it can be dangerous.  Finding out the fate of the brothers is a fun ride.  This book includes humourous illustrations that may remind you of comic pages.  Even better, at the beginning of each chapter is a “funky fact,” which can be funny, interesting or just plain gross. For example: did you know that when you sneeze, air rushes out of your nose at 100 miles per hour?  How about the fact that your feet sweat an average of 10 gallons a year?  So, if you delight in funky facts and a funny story, you may enjoy this book and the others in the Daniel Funk series.

Virginia McCurry
Youth Services Specialist

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Staff Picks

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol is an award-winning Teen Middle graphic novel.  The black and white drawings are full of emotion and are quite expressive.  Anya is a pretty typical young girl who wishes she were skinnier, that her family would stop embarrassing her, and that Sean, the cute boy at school, would notice her.  Anya's best friend Siobhan gives her grief over her crush on Sean, and tells her she will never be the skinny one who gets the guy.  Skipping school because she has had enough, Anya mutters to herself about her life, and falls down a deep, dark hole.

When her eyes get adjusted to the dark, Anya looks around to see a skeleton with a ghost attached to it in the hole with her, and freaks out.  Emily the ghost tells Anya that she too fell down the hole many years ago while being chased by a murderer, and died of starvation.  Anya is recued by a passerby but unknowingly scoops one of the skeleton's bones into her backpack during her rescue.  When Emily shows up, Anya realizes that where the bones go, the ghost can go.  At first, Anya begins to think ghosts might be fun.  Emily helps her with a test she had not studied for and finds out Sean’s schedule so that Anya can walk past him several times a day.  Anya makes a necklace of the bone so Emily can go everywhere with her.


Emily helps Anya get a ride to a popular party with Sean and his girlfriend and encourages Anya to wear clothes that are too tight, too short, and not like anything she would normally wear. When Anya finds out that Sean is not so hot or so cool and wants to leave the party, Emily gets angry.  She wants Anya to get the guy no matter what it takes.
Emily seems to be getting stronger as a ghost so Anya heads to the library to research Emily's death, to find out if Emily’s story is true.  Anya finds an old newspaper account of Emily’s death.  Emily had murdered a boy she liked and his girlfriend, then disappeared.  Anya goes home to tell Emily to leave her alone, but by this time Emily has become stronger and can push objects and cause trouble.  When Anya catches Emily poisoning food and causing Anya’s mom to fall down some stairs, she decides to take the bone back to the hole and leave Emily there, but the necklace is gone. 

To see if Anya can bury her ghost, take home a copy of Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol today.

Denise Leeson
Youth Services Specialist