In celebration of our upcoming 2 part writing workshop and Meet the Author evening with Holly Thompson, the second Young Adult book list of the summer features 22 novels-in-verse. Stories told in verse format, using fewer words to build a picture than prose novels, quickly bring a cinematic quality to the reading experience. Take one for a spin, --and don't miss these two great programs scheduled here this summer:
TELLING YOUR STORIES IN VERSE: A WRITING WORKSHOP
for Teens and Adults with HOLLY THOMPSON
Join
Holly Thompson, author of the Young Adult verse novel Orchards, for a two part
creative writing workshop,
for teens(ages 12-19) and adults, on writing your story in verse.
She will introduce verse novels and some of the poetry
tools used in narrative verse, and will then lead participants to writing a
scene in verse.
Holly Thompson was raised in New England (a graduate of Hamilton-Wenham Regional
High School), earned a B.A. in Biology from Mount Holyoke
College and an M.A. from New York University's Creative Writing Program.
Long-time resident of Japan, she is a lecturer at Yokohama City
University, where she teaches creative and academic writing.
Workshop dates:
Tuesday, July 10, 6:30 PM to 8 PM
Thursday, July 19, 6:30 PM to 8 PM
Bring a writing notebook/paper, and pen or pencil to the workshop.
Reserve your place in this FREE 2 part workshop. There is a 20 student limit. Sign up at the Reference desk, or call 978-468-5577.
MEET the AUTHOR: HOLLY THOMPSON
THURSDAY, JULY 12, 6:30 PM to 8 PM
Holly Thompson, is the author of
Orchards, the picture book
TheWakame Gatherers, and the novel
Ash. She is also the editor of
Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories, a Young Adult anthology of Japan
related stories to benefit teens in quake/tsunami-hit areas of Japan. Holly's fiction is often set in Japan.
Ms. Thompson's
novel-in-verse Orchards, received the 2012 APALA (
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature). In it, Kana, a half Japanese and half
Jewish-American girl, is sent to spend the summer with Shizuoka
relatives after the death of a classmate.
Ms. Thompson will give a presentation and slide show focusing on her
book,
Orchards. Following the presentation there will be time for questions, and book signing.
Below is a selection of Young Adult verse novels. Descriptions are from
EBSCO's NoveList database. Clicking on a title takes you to the Library's online catalog.
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone, 2006. When a handsome senior boy enters their mix, friends Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva soon find themselves in questionable situations where each girl must make the right decision before their personal sacrifices become too great. Awards: Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2007; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2007.
Crank, by Ellen Hopkins, 2004. Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter, but she meets a boy who
introduces her to drugs and becomes a very different person, struggling
to control her life and her mind. Awards: Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award; Gateway Readers Award (Missouri); Soaring Eagle Book Award (Wyoming); YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2005.
CrashBoomLove, by Juan Felipe Herrera, 1999. After his father leaves home, sixteen-year-old Cesar Garcia lives with
his mother and struggles thorugh the painful experiences of growing up
as a Mexican American high school student. Awards:Americas Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2001.
Exposed, by Kimberly Marcus, 2011. High school senior Liz, a gifted photographer, can no longer see things
clearly after her best friend accuses Liz's older brother of a terrible
crime. Awards: YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2012.
God Went to Beauty School, by Cynthia Rylant, 2003. A novel in poems that reveal God's
discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created. Awards: YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2004;YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults - Religion: Relationship with the Divine (2007);YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2004.
Hard Hit, by Ann Turner, 2006. A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Hidden, by Helen Frost, 2011. (
Crossing Stones, by Helen Frost, published in 2009, is a choice on the
8th grade summer reading list this year.) When fourteen-year-olds Wren and Darra meet at a Michigan summer camp,
both are overwhelmed by memories from six years earlier when Darra's
father stole a car, unaware that Wren was hiding in the back. Awards: ALA Notable Children's Books - Older Readers, 2012.
Jinx, by Margaret Wild, 2002. With the help of her understanding mother and a close friend, Jen eventually outgrows her nickname, Jinx
, and deals with the deaths of two boys with whom she had been involved.
Karma, by Cathy Ostlere, 2011. In 1984, following her mother's suicide, 15-year-old Maya and her Sikh
father travel to New Delhi from Canada to place her mother's ashes in
their final resting place. On the night of their arrival, Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated, Maya and her father are
separated when the city erupts in chaos, and Maya must rely on Sandeep, a
boy she has just met, for survival. Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Youth-Older Readers Category: 2011; YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012
Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff, 1993. In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits
for a teenage mother of two. Written in 66 chapters, with text lines
that break at natural speaking phrases. Awards:ALA Notable Children's Books: 1994;Golden Kite Award: Fiction; Josette Frank Award;Oregon Book Awards: Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Readers (1990-2002); Thumbs Up! Award (Michigan); YALSA 100 Best Books (1950-2000).
One Of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, by Sonya Sones, 2004. Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend,
her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los
Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her
mother before Ruby was born. Awards: Iowa Teen Award; Rhode Island Teen Book Award; YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2005.
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, 1997. In a series of poems, fourteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships
of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust
bowl years of the Depression. Awards: Winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal, and the 1998 Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction award.
Psyche in a Dress, by Francesca Lia Block, 2006. A
young woman, Psyche
, searches for her lost love and questions her true self in a
modern retelling of Greek myths.
Purple Daze, by Sherry Shahan, 2011. Six high school students in Los Angeles cope with everyday life amid the
turbulent events of 1965, as one girl gets involved with drugs and a
boy gets drafted and sent to Vietnam, in a novel told in historical
data, poetic prose, and free verse.
The Realm of Possibility, by David Levithan, 2004. A variety of
students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of
interconnected free verse stories. Award: YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005
Ringside, 1925: Views From the Scopes Trial, by Jen Bryant, 2008. Visitors, spectators, and residents of Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 describe, in a series of free-verse poems, the Scopes
"monkey trial
" and its effects on that small town and its citizens. Award: Oprah's Kids' Reading Lists - 12 Years and Up.
Sold, by Patricia McCormick, 2006. When she is tricked by her stepfather and sold into
prostitution, thirteen-year-old Lakshmi becomes submerged in a nightmare
where her only comfort is the friendship she forms with the other
girls, which helps her survive and eventually escape. Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Books for Youth-Older Readers Category, 2006; California Young Reader Medal: Young Adult; Quill Book Awards (2005-2007); Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2007; YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2007; YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Social Sciences: 2009.
Song of the Sparrow, by Lisa Ann Sandell, 2007. In 5th-century Britain, nine years after the destruction of their home
on the island of Shalott brings her to live with her father and
brothers in the encampments of Arthur's army,
17-year-old Elaine describes her changing perceptions of war and
the people around her as she becomes increasingly involved in the bitter
struggle against the invading Saxons. Award: Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2008
Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, by Margarita Engle, 2009. Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee
dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets
of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away. Award: Sydney Taylor Book Awards: Teen Readers
The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices From the Titanic, by Allan Wolf, 2011. Recreates the1912 sinking of the Titanic
as observed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, a beautiful young Lebanese
refugee finding first love, "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Captain Smith,
and others including the
iceberg itself. Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Books for Youth-Older Readers, 2011; YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012
Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials, by Stephanie Hemphill, 2010. A fictionalized account, told in verse, of the Salem witch trials, told
from the perspective of three of the real young women living in Salem in
1692--Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr. Award: School Library Journal Best Books: 2010
Join Holly Thompson, author of the Young Adult verse novel Orchards, for a two part
creative writing workshop, for teens(ages 12-19) and adults, on writing your story in verse.
She will introduce verse novels and some of the poetry
tools used in narrative verse, and will then lead participants to writing a
scene in verse.
THURSDAY, JULY 12, 6:30 PM to 8 PM
