BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Whether you prefer your fiction to be realistic, romantic, a fantasy, or a mystery, there is something here to satisfy most every taste.  Clicking on a book cover will take you to the book in the Library's online catalog, where you may place a hold, and read reviews.  The descriptions for the award winners are from the catalog. 

The 2012 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature is:

Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley

Seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance. “Straightforward, yet increasingly complex, this novel masterfully weaves together themes of brotherhood, friendship, loss and religious obsession,” said Printz Award Committee Chair Erin Helmrich.
2012 Printz Award Honor Books:  This group of four runner ups includes: a murder mystery set in Australia; a carnivorous horse racing fantasy; a realistic humorous story about dating, souvenirs, and breaking up; and a war story set in a medieval fictional society.

2011 Massachusetts Book Awards

The Massachusetts Center for the Book, through judging committees, each year publishes a list of "Must Reads" in each of four award categories -- fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children's/young adult literature -- that have been written by Massachusetts writers or are about Massachusetts. Then, in the Fall of each year they name a winner out of the "Must Reads" from each of the categories. The Massachusetts Center for the Book is the Commonwealth affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. There is a State Center for the Book in all 50 states.

2011 Young Adult Massachusetts Book Award winner:

The Other Side of Dark, by Sarah Smith.  

Since losing both of her parents, fifteen-year-old Katie can see and talk to ghosts, which makes her a loner until fellow student Law sees her drawing of a historic house and together they seek a treasure rumored to be hidden there by illegal slave-traders. Set in Boston. Part ghost story, part romance, part historical mystery.
(I gave this book 4 stars after I read it last year. It's on the 8th grade Justice Unit bibliography.)

The other 2011 Young Adult "Must Reads" include: a dark fantasy about criminals with extra sensory powers; a realistic revenge/friendship story set in New Mexico; and a survival tale of 2 boys forced into a war in Burma. Bamboo People is also on the Justice Unit bibliography.

2012 Newbery Medal Winner:

Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos.

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, 12-year-old Jack spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with an unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.

Click on the link below to hear a funny interview with Jack Gantos about winning the Newbery Medal and about his life, which aired this past weekend on the NPR show, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!.

Newbery Medal Winner Jack Gantos Plays Not My Job

Find out more about Gantos and the story he tells on NPR in his autobiography :
Hole In My Life, by Jack Gantos, 2002.
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.

Start your engines: 50 BOOK CHALLENGE & COMMUNITY READ

Did you make a resolution to read more in 2012?  Would you like a fun way to keep track of the books you read this year?  Announcing the 2012: 50 Book Challenge...there might possibly (maybe) be a prize or two at the end -- though reading is its own reward.  The Challenge begins January 16, 2012.

 click here to print your 50 book challenge reading log

As you turn the ignition on the 50 Book Challenge, you may want to consider reading the companion book for the Library's 2012 Community Read; a biography from the teen collection: Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.  

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, 1973.   This is a short, engaging biography about a young girl and her family that were sent to a Japanese internment camp in California during the 1940s.  Houston provides an opportunity to understand what it was like to live in the camp; coping with physical deprivations, and psychological difficulties within her family.  It tells the story of what happened before the family was forced to go to Manzanar, the years of living in the camp, and what happened after people were allowed to leave. Farewell lets one look in to a murky corner of American history.  I gave it 4 stars. Recommend!

 

Turn the Page

Still waiting for snow... probably won't see even one tiny crystal flake till Janus shows his baby face.  Meanwhile, let's count up the books from 2011.  This year I am weighing in at 141 total books read (131 young adult books, and 10 books from the adult collections), -- could still (probably will) squeeze one more title in before midnight this Saturday.  How do I know how many?  I track and tag what I read using LibraryThing. You could also keep track in your library account using the bookbags feature. 141 total books read in 2011, works out to two and a half books a week. Yay, kudos, tra-la-la for me.  Soooo, which ten from 2011 did I think were tops? :

Seven from the teen collection:

Three from the adult collection:

SHOW ME THE SNOW

It's winter, and I am wishing for a little snow to lighten the days.  Maybe you are too.  So, until we get some of the real thing, here are a few books for icy crystals by proxy. This chilly list is a mix of genres. Wintersmith; Stork; Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow; Snow-walker; and East; are fantasy stories.  Whiteout is a mystery.  The White Darkness, Trapped, Revolver, and Brian's Winter are suspenseful, survival, adventure stories. Let It Snow, is a romance. Emperors of the Ice is historical fiction, based on a true story. I have read and can recommend: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, and The White Darkness. I gave both books 4 stars. Trapped, while not a favorite of mine (I gave it 2 out of 5 stars), might appeal to those of you who enjoy survival stories.  I gave Stork, three and half out of five stars.  It is an urban fantasy that weaves Norse mythology into a small Minnesota town.  There is a sequel titled, Frost.

Brian's Winter, by Gary Paulsen, 1996. Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author's book Hatchet, this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

East, by Edith Pattou, 2003.  A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment.

Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster and Survival in the Antarctic, 1910-13, by Richard Farr, 2008.  Apsley Cherry-Garrard shares his adventures as the youngest member of Robert Scott's expedition to Antarctica in the early 20th century, during which he and Edward Wilson try to learn the evolutionary history of emperor penguins. Includes historical notes.
 

Let It Snow : Three Holiday Romances, by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle, 2008. In three intertwining short stories, several high school couples experience the trials and tribulations along with the joys of romance during a Christmas Eve snowstorm in a small town.

Revolver, by Marcus Sedgwick, 2010.  Finland, 1910: Fifteen-year-old Sig is shocked to see a hole in the frozen lake outside his family's cabin and to find his father's corpse nearby.  Sig's sister and stepmother go for help, leaving Sig alone with Einar's body in the cabin. Soon after, an armed stranger barges in, demanding a share of Einar's stolen gold.

Snow-walker, by Catherine Fisher, 2004.  The snow-walker Gudrun came from the swirling mists and icy depths beyond the edge of the world to rule the Jarl's people with fear and sorcery, but a small band of outlaws will fight to the death to restore the land to its rightful leader.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George, 2008.  A girl travels east of the sun and west of the moon to free her beloved prince from a magic spell.

Stork, by Wendy Delsol, 2010.  After her parents' divorce, Katla and her mother move from Los Angeles to Norse Falls, Minnesota, where Kat immediately alienates two boys at her high school and, improbably, discovers a kinship with a mysterious group of elderly women--the Icelandic Stork Society--who "deliver souls."

Trapped, by Michael Northrop, 2011.  Seven high school students are stranded at their New England high school during a week-long blizzard that shuts down the power and heat, freezes the pipes, and leaves them wondering if they will survive.

The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean, 2007.  Taken to Antarctica by the man she thinks of as her uncle for what she believes to be a vacation, Symone--a troubled fourteen year old--discovers that he is dangerously obsessed with seeking Symme's Hole, an opening that supposedly leads into the center of a hollow Earth.

Whiteout, by Walter Sorrells, 2009. Sixteen-year-old Chass makes her way through a Minnesota blizzard, seeking not only the murderer of a beloved music teacher, but also something belonging to the killer who has been chasing her mother and herself around the country.

Wintersmith, by  Terry Pratchett, 2006.  When witch-in-training Tiffany Aching accidentally interrupts the Dance of the Seasons and awakens the interest of the elemental spirit of Winter, she requires the help of the six-inch-high, sword-wielding, sheep-stealing Wee Free Men to put the seasons aright.

TEEN THINK TANK'S TOP 44 READS FOR 2011

The Library's teen advisory board met last Thursday, Dec. 1 (next meeting is in February), for pizza, and, well, to meet, and eat pizza. We talked about what the 2012 poetry contest theme might be (good ideas were generated), discussed movies, and books, ate pizza (Thank you, Friends of the Library!), and whether a homework/writing drop-in program was something people would come to here at the library (members all said no).  While we ate more pizza, eleven members of the TTT wrote down their favorite reads from 2011, which I have posted below (all linked to the online catalog, of course).  

To solidify that reading mood here is a video from...
Julian Smith, I'm Reading A Book:

THE TEEN THINK TANK’S

TOP 44 READS OF 2011

  

Fiction : 

Young Samurai: Ring of Earth, by Chris Bradford 

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess 

Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll 

Hush, by Eishes Chayil

Nightshade, by Andrea Cremer

Elixir, by Hilary Duff

Hush Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick

Ranger's Apprentice series, by John Flanagan

Beastly , by Alex Flinn

Tyger, Tyger, by Kerstan Hamilton

Magic the Gathering : Lorwyn, by Cory J. Herndon

Seekers series, by Erin Hunter

Need, by Carrie Jones

Iron King, by Julie Kagawa

A Dragon's Awakening, by Aya Knight

The Power of Six, by Pittacus Lore

Pendragon series, by D.J. MacHale

Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier

The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie, by Jaclyn Moriarty

A Step From Heaven, by An Na

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Heroes of Olympus series, by Rick Riordan

Holes, by Louis Sachar

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Skinjacker trilogy, by Neal Shusterman

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Skin, by Adrienne Vrettos

Graphic Fiction and Manga :

 The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman

Naruto, by Masashi Kishimoto

Bleach, by Tite Kubo

Maximum Ride, by NaRae Lee

Death Note, by Tsugumi Ōba

One Piece, by Eiichiro Oda

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

Graphic Format Biography :

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier

Non-Fiction :

The Anthology of Rap, by Adam Bradley

The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha

 

Beats On Order

A heavy carton arrived this week;  Prince, Amy Winehouse, Common, The Doors, Joan Jett, George Harrison, Eminem, Pearl Jam, Will Smith, and a crash of rappers jostled their way out of the box.  On order, still to be published, are books about Slipknot, Abba, Ludicris, Queen, Rihanna, and Kate Bush.  The Library's teen advisory board, the Teen Think Tank, helped me choose these books for the Young Adult non-fiction collection.  Funding was provided through the generosity of the Katlyn MacCready Bird Educational Fund.

Abba the Scrapbook, Jean-Marie Potiez, 2012. (on order, expect delivery in February)  Illustrated with unique photographs and rare memorabilia, ABBA The Scrapbook gives a history of one of the best-loved pop groups of all time: including their early days in Sweden; relationships within the band; the Eurovision victory; the1970s fashion and style of ABBA; and the eventual break-up of the group.

Amy Winehouse : The Biography : 1983-2011, by Chas Newkey-Burden, 2011.  A detailed biography of Winehouse's turbulent life and untimely death. Winehouse's blend of jazz, pop, and soul singing and songwriting brought her a host of awards--including two Ivor Novellos and five Grammys.

The Anthology of Rap, edited by Adam Bradley, Andrew DuBois ; foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ; afterword by Chuck D and Common, 2010.  From the school yards of the South Bronx to the tops of the "Billboard" charts, rap has emerged as one of the most influential cultural forces of our time. This anthology brings together more than 300 lyrics written over 30 years, from the "old school" to the present day.

The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, by Greil Marcus, 2011.  There have been many books on the Doors. This is the first to bypass their myth, their mystique, and the death cult of both Jim Morrison and the era he was made to personify, and focus solely on the music.

The Way I Am, Eminem, 2008.  A rap artist shares his private reflections, drawings, handwritten lyrics, and never-before-seen photographs.

George Harrison : living in the material world, by Olivia Harrison; foreword by Martin Scorsese, 2011. Olivia Harrison reveals George's life through his archive of photographs, letters, diaries, & memorabilia; from his guitar-obsessed boyhood in Liverpool, to the Beatles years, to his days as an independent musician and bohemian squire.

Joan Jett, by Todd Oldham, 2010.  Rock-and-roll goddess, Joan Jett, started her first band, The Runaways, at age fifteen.  The book chronicles all aspects of her career and passions through images--from forming The Runaways to her years of touring with her band, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

Ludacris, by PhilipWolny, 2009.
The rise of Christopher Bridges -- Hitting the big time -- Superstardom and beyond -- The actor, the mogul, the legacy.

One Day It'll All Make Sense: A Memoir, by Common with Adam Bradley, 2011.  The Grammy Award-winning recording artist and actor shares the story of his life, from his youth on Chicago's South side and rise in the hip-hop industry to his movie appearances and the lessons he has learned as a son and a father.

Pearl Jam Twenty, by Cameron Crowe, and Pearl Jam, 2011. Published in celebration of Pearl Jam's 20th anniversary and in conjunction with Crowe's documentary film and soundtrack of the same name.  Contains behind-the-scenes anecdotes, rare archival memorabilia, and the band's personal photos, tour notes, and drawings.

Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks, by Ronin Ro, 2011. In his 3 decades-long career, Prince has had nearly 30 albums hit the Billboard Top 100. He is the only artist since the Beatles to have a #1 song, movie, and album at the same time. "Prince" is the first book to give full treatment to this artist.
 
Queen: The Complete Works, Georg Purvis, 2012. (on order, expect delivery in March)  Queen's place in history as the greatest glam band of them all is rock solid.  A session-by-session, song-by-song, album-by-album, tour-by-tour record of the band's progress. 

Rihanna: Rebel Flower, by Chloe Govan, 2012. (on order, expect delivery in May)  An in-depth look at the life of one of pop music's international stars. The story of her transformation from schoolgirl Robyn Fenty to R&B artist. Features exclusive interviews with Rihanna's schoolfriends, producers, songwriters, video directors, journalists and many more.

Slipknot Unmasked....Again, by Joel McIver, 2012. (on order, expect delivery Summer 2012)  The first edition of this book published in 2001 followed the band from their inception in Des Moines, Iowa in the mid-90s through to the release of their second album.  It's now a decade since the first volume appeared, and in that time Slipknot have evolved into a different band from the one that first emerged in1999.

Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, by Graeme Thomson, 2012. (on  order, expect delivery Summer 2012)  The first in-depth study of Bush's life and career. Features interviews with school friends, band mates, studio collaborators, former managers, producers, musicians, video directors, dance instructors and record company executives. Every aspect of her music is discussed from her albums to her solo live tour, her pre-teen poetry, and unreleased songs.