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April 25, 2009
3 WILLOWS by Ann Brashares
It is here; the follow up book to the incredibly fabulous SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS series. The book is 3 WILLOWS: THE SISTERHOOD GROWS.
We met Bree, Lena, Tibby and Carman, when they were in high school, while the three willows are Polly, Jo and Ama, the summer before they enter high school. There are references to the Traveling Pants, because these young teens live in the same community. The girls have grown up under the spell of the pants and idolized the idea of the pants.
Ama is an overachiever who was born in Ghana, but has been in USA since she was six. Her summer is spent at a Wilderness Camp with hiking and camping, but she had hoped for an air-conditioned library and academic pursuits.
Jo has discovered her parents are separating. She is off with her mother to the beach house for the summer where a summer job as a bus girl introduces her to her first fling with an older boy and the ways of high school upper classmen.
Lastly there is Polly. She doesn't know her father and her mother, an artist, hasn't paid attention to her in a long time, so she decides to change herself, both inside and outside. She goes on a diet, signs up for modeling camp, and hopes for a more glamorous life.
Each girl goes it alone. But like the first SISTERHOOD friendship is most important.
I RECOMMEND THIS TITLE FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS IN GRADES 6 TO 8 BUT OLDER FANS OF THE FIRST SERIES MAY BE DISAPPOINTED.
Mrs. Jackson
Head of Young Adult Services
Posted by fjacksonem at 9:17 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2009
SUPPORT TEEN LITERATURE DAY
Today is SUPPORT TEEN LITERATURE DAY in the USA. It was created in 2008 to be celebrated in conjunction with National Library Week. The purpose of this celebration is to raise awareness among the general public that young adult literature is a vibrant, growing genre with much to offer today’s teens.
A major project of Teen Literature Day is OPERATION TEEN BOOK DROP.In 2008, YALSA and the readergirlz celebrated Support Teen Literature Day by working with twenty publishers to donate 10,000 books, which YALSA distributed to 12 children's hospitals nationwide and in Canada so recuperating teens will have something great to read during their hospital stay. The results were so positive that YALSA and the readergirlz will do this again, along with Guys Lit Wire. In 2009, eighteen book publishers donated 8,000 books, which YALSA again distributed to several pediatric hospitals.
Learn more about the 2009 effort via this brief YouTube video
Mrs. Jackson
Head of Young Adult Services
Posted by fjacksonem at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2009
THE SCHOOL FOR DANGEROUS GIRLS by Eliot Schrefer
After the unfortunate death of her grandfather and her involvement with an older guy, fifteen year old Angela is sent to Hidden Oaks, a reform school for troubled girls. For the first month she is there, Angela is allowed no contact with the outside world and cannot keep any belongings from her life on the outside.
Although the horrible treatment inflicted on the girls is designed to keep them from forming bonds with each other, Angela befriends several other “bad girls” and together they try to figure out what is really going on at Hidden Oaks. Just as they begin to figure things out, girls start disappearing from the school. It is only after Angela herself disappears that she realizes what is happening: The well behaved girls get sent to another building to attend classes and charm school while the more difficult girls remain behind.
Angela finds that the girls are treated much better in the main building as long as they follow the strict rules, but she is not about to stop her search for the truth, especially when she hears mysterious tapping sounds behind the walls and a note from one of the missing girls appears for her through a vent in the wall. Angela will not stop until the truth is revealed even if it means putting herself in grave danger.
I recommend The School for Dangerous Girls to high school girls.
Ms. Cea
YA Librarian
Posted by fjacksonem at 9:07 AM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2009
OH MY GODS! by Tera Lynn Childs
All Phoebe wants is to finish her last year of high school and earn a track scholarship to USC. Instead, her life is turned upside down when her mother marries a man who is practically a stranger and they move to the small Greek Island where he lives with his daughter.
Phoebe enrolls in the school where her stepfather is the headmaster and clearly does not fit in. Not only are the students beautiful, brilliant and even more athletic than she is, but she finds out they are all descendents of the Greek gods and have various supernatural powers. Included in this group is Phoebe’s new stepsister who, along with her clique of popular girls, is determined to make Phoebe’s life miserable. All Phoebe has to do is make it through one year and then she can return to her normal life in the US, but will she still want to leave Greece once she meets Griffin, the mysterious guy who seems too perfect, even for a Greek God?
Full of romance, humor, and tons of mythological references, Oh My Gods! is a fun and quick read.
I recommend this book to girls in grades 8-12.
Ms. Cea
YA Librarian
Posted by fjacksonem at 3:38 PM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2009
BRISINGER by Christopher Paolini
BRISINGR is the third book in the ERAGON series by Christopher Paolini and picks up following the epic battle against the empire and Murtagh, Eragon's half brother, on the burning plains. Eragon is troubled by the promises and oaths he has made to the Vardan, the elves and the dwarfs. He feels he may not be able to keep them. He discovers why and how Galbatorix, the ruler of the Empire, has become so strong over the years and may have discovered a way to defeat him. Eragon also learns who his true father is and why the truth was hidden from him for so long. Eragon and his cousin Roran journey to Helgrind to save their friend Katrina from Ra’zac and the Lethrblaka.
I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR TEENS IN GRADES 8 TO 12.
Sherrod Falls
Grade 7
Woodland Middle School
Posted by fjacksonem at 1:02 PM | Comments (1)