Registration for the 2013 TEEN SUMMER READING PROGRAM begins on June 1st! Register online here or call us at the library to register or ask questions about the program. Don’t forget to pick up your Reading Log at the library once you register.
Laini Taylor’s third “Daughter of Smoke & Bone” novel title announced and a special trailer via Entertainment Weekly.
Atop the wings was a folded piece of paper, addressed to the New York Institute. After splashing water on her face, Maryse had taken the letter and read it. It was short - one sentence - and was signed with a name in a handwriting oddly familiar to her, for in it there was an echo of Valentine’s cursive, the flourishes of his letters, the strong, steady hand. But it was not Valentine’s name. It was his son’s.
Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern.
She held it out to Brother Zachariah. He took it from her fingers and opened it, reading, as she had, the single word of Ancient Greek scrawled in elaborate script across the top of the page.
Erchomai, it said.
I am coming.
(Source: weliveandbreathewords)
Review: Kindness for Weakness by Shawn Goodman (5/5 Stars)
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Author Info: Website
Rating:
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets Catcher in the Rye.
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.”
Check out Kindness for Weakness on Goodreads here.
I don’t even know where to start with Shawn Goodman’s young adult contemporary novel Kindness for Weakness. This novel is so good, that I devoured it in one sitting.
I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.
Funny how I was wary of it at first—a teenager sent to prison because of his relentless need for approval from a less than stellar big brother? I honestly didn’t know how this was going to go. Everyone should read this.
Goodman’s writing is brilliant. He manages to draw you into a story that would otherwise make you cringe. It is so unflinchingly honest that for a while after reading the heartbreaking conclusion, you won’t know what to do with yourself. You’ll ask questions, you’ll want more, but the truth is, Goodman’s story isn’t something that can be simply filed away as fiction.
Review: Golden by Jessi Kirby (5/5 Stars)
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Author Info: Website
Rating:
“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.
Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury.
Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.”Check out Golden on Goodreads here.
That’s powerful storytelling right there.
Kirby’s novel is full of wit, romance, ghostly mysteries, and an almost impossible sense of hope.
(Source: natashakline)
10 TEEN Books About Southeast Asian Americans
Little Cricket by Jackie Brown
After the upheaval of the Vietnam War reaches them, twelve-year-old Kia and her Hmong family flee from the mountains of Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually to the alien world of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
She’s So Money by Cherry Cheva
Good girl Maya teams up with an unlikely ally Camden, the popular jock, plotting a devious plan to help her recover from a serious mistake.
Children of the River by Linda Crew
Having fled Cambodia four years earlier to escape the Khmer Rouge army, seventeen-year-old Sundara is torn between remaining faithful to her own people and enjoying life in her Oregon high school as a “regular” American.
Fresh Off the Boat by Melissa de la Cruz
When her family emigrates from the Philippines to San Francisco, California, fourteen-year-old Vicenza Arambullo struggles to fit in at her exclusive, all-girl private school.
Sophomore Undercover by Benjamin Esch
Despite obstacles, high school reporter Dixie Nguyen, an adopted Vietnamese orphan, doggedly investigates a drug scandal that may extend far beyond the football team.
Shadow of the Dragon by Sherry Garland
High school sophomore Danny Vo tries to resolve the conflict between the values of his Vietnamese refugee family and his new American way of life.
Roots and Wings by Many Ly
While in St. Petersburg, Florida, to give her grandmother a Cambodian funeral, fourteen-year-old Grace, who was raised in Pennsylvania, finally gets some answers about the father she never met, her mother’s and grandmother’s youth, and her Asian-American heritage.
Trouble by Gary Schmidt
Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin’s dying wish, sets out to hike Maine’s Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog. But fate adds another companion–the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin–and reveals troubles that predate the accident.
Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story by Pegi Deitz Shea
After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza, shopping, and beer, while her grandmother and new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.
(Source: diversityinya)
New Book Friday!!
Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood by Abby McDonald
Teenage sisters Grace and Hallie get kicked out of their house, along with their artist mother, after the girls’ father dies intestate, and their father’s new wife, Portia, takes all of his money. Luckily, their mother has a wealthy TV producer cousin, who invites them to live in his Beverly Hills guesthouse. Shy, practical Grace says goodbye to her crush (Portia’s younger brother) and silently aches for him all summer; fiery aspiring actress Hallie snubs the young Iraq War veteran next door in favor of a sexy rising rock star, who rescues her from drowning.
Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
When eighteen-year-old Becky Randle’s mother dies, she is whisked away from a trailer park to New York City, where fashion designer Tom Kelly offers to transform her into a glamorous Rebecca, a girl fit for a prince—but soon she begins to fear that she will lose touch with her real self.
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
Galen, prince of the Syrena, is sent to land to find a girl he’s heard can communicate with fish. He finds Emma and after several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, Galen becomes convinced Emma holds the key to his kingdom.
Looking for funny books? Check out our humor in YA fiction flowchart.
