Mandy's Book of the Week (2/6)

Happy February!  I hope everyone had a great time watching the Super Bowl last night (or watching the commercials, perhaps).  Our Super Bowl party here at the library was super fun.

Every month generally has some sort of theme or celebration tied to it.  This month, we have our display shelving set up to celebrate Black History Month and our glass display case set up to acknowledge Teen Dating Violence Prevention Month.

This book is heart breaking and gut wrenching.  It is the story of Melinda, who was among the most popular girls in her junior high.  She's 15 now and getting ready to go to high school.  The summer before school begins, she and her friends are invited to their first high school party.  They are all super excited to be hanging out with the upperclassmen.  Melinda is pulled aside by one of the most popular senior boys and they go somewhere private and start to make-out.  Only he wants to take it too far and when Melinda says "no," he doesn't listen.

Melinda panics and calls the cops.  And of course because that is what you're supposed to do in the event of a rape.  There is a lot of alcohol at this party, however, so a lot of people get in trouble and, when the cops showed up Melinda was too freaked out to tell them what happened.  Now everyone thinks Melinda is a tattle tale and they make it their mission to see her suffer.

Melinda doesn't tell anyone what happens and spends most of the book not speaking at all.  Her grades drop, she loses weight, she stops washing her hair; basically she does everything she can to become invisible.

When Melinda's former best friend starts dating the rapist, she know something has to give.  Namely, she's going to have to speak.

This book isn't a big thick one, but it packs a huge punch.

Mandy's Book of the Week (1/30)

Hi!  I hope you are all prepared to have an awesome week!  I've been super busy planning a spring full of awesome teen events.  I was on Talk of the Town on KTLO radio last Friday talking about some of it and will go back on the air February 27th to talk about March's events in detail (I'll post a link to the audio for last week when it becomes available).

Anyway, on to book of the week!

I just finished this book yesterday, but it was so good I wanted to go ahead and share it today.

If you like horror stories, this book is right up your alley.  It reminded me a lot of a Stephen King novel.

Alex's parents died when she was 14.  A year later, she was diagnosed with a beast of a brain tumor.  Finally, at age 17, the doctors have decided there is very little left that can be done for her.  Sure, they can do experimental stuff that may or may not extend her life, but nothing is guaranteed.  Alex decides that she's done with treatment and is going to live the rest of her life, however long that is, the way she wants.  Carpe diem, if you will.

One day, Alex skips school and heads into Michigan.  She is taking her parents ashes to sprinkle in Lake Superior, as they wished, but this involves quite a bit of hiking.  Enough that she'll be gone several weeks.

On her second day in the woods, she runs into a little girl, Ellie, and her grandfather and their dog.  Ellie has an attitude as big as she is (her father was recently KIA in Iraq) and the dog was her father's dog during the war.  While chatting over coffee, something happens.  The grandfather drops dead.  The animals go berserk.  Alex's head feels like it is going to explode.  Once the pain subsides, she realizes all the electrical equipment has stopped working.  What is going on?

Eventually, Alex persuades Ellie, who is freaking out, to come with her to the nearest ranger station.  However, on the way they fall near a ledge, causing all their supplies except a few to tumble over the side, and they divert to a nearby camping site for help.

When they get to the site, they cannot believe their eyes: there are two teens eating a person.  And I mean really digging in.  This begins the real journey.  What was that pain (and why did it cause Alex's sense of smell, long ago lost to cancer, to come back?)?  What happened to Ellie's grandfather?  And what the heck happened to those kids?

This is a great story for everyone who likes horror or mystery.  There is a very little bit of a love story, but it is so tiny and secondary to everything else that I probably shouldn't even mention it.

I returned this book today, so it is ready and waiting!

Mandy's Book of the Week (1/16)

This week's book is what they tend to call an "issues book," basically meaning that it is a piece of fiction that deals with some sort of issue that teens could possibly deal with.

Doesn't that cover look romantic?  This book is NOT a romance.  As we learned last week, don't judge a book by its cover!

This book is about Nick and Caitlin.  Nick is that hot popular guy at school who is completely out of reach of your typical girl.  Caitlin used to be fat, but she lost a lot of weight over the summer and now Nick wants to date her.

Being that she is not used to all this male attention, especially from someone like Nick, she goes out with him and they quickly fall in love.  But then he gets controlling.  And eventually verbally abusive.  And soon he starts hitting her.

But here's the thing: Nick does love Caitlin.  He loves her so much that his life is dominated by the fear of her leaving him.  In order to keep her, he thinks that he has to make her feel like absolute crap about herself so that she'll be too downtrodden to leave.

It was a hard book to read, emotionally.  It was hard for me to find sympathy for either Nick or Caitlin.  How many times did my parents tell me that you leave a boy/man that hits you?  And yet, Caitlin stayed and stayed and stayed some more.  She even went back after Nick hit her the first time.  And Nick, in the beginning, just doesn't view any of his controlling or abusive behaviors as a bad thing.  That is, until Caitlin gets a restraining order and he is forced to attend a class for men who beat their girlfriends and wives.

Once this book got going, I couldn't put it down.  It is very engaging and easy to read.

Mandy's Book of the Week (1/9)

I was hesitant to read this week's book.  I was hesitant to read it because I didn't like the cover (I'll hang my head for shallowness now).

The cover is still not visually appealing to me.  I mean, a lighter?  Some words?  There is a reason that book covers have been getting big makeovers and that's because people really do judge a book by its cover.

I regret that I didn't pick this book up sooner.  It is a mystery and a thriller all rolled up into one ugly cover.

Ok, I'll quit talking about the ugly cover now.

Vera's mom took off when she was 12 and she's lived with just her dad ever since.  The one true constant in her life has been her best friend Charlie.  Eventually this childish, best friend love begins to transform, but Vera doesn't admit it to Charlie.  She barely admits it to herself.

Once Charlie and Vera get to high school, things start to change.  Vera is on the academic track while Charlie, who COULD be on the same track, has been convinced by his dad (who beats his mom) to take a different path.  Charlie starts getting detention and eventually falls in with the "detentionheads," the kids who spend practically their whole lives in detention.  One of the girls, jealous of the attention that Charlie gives to Vera, starts spreading rumors, namely things that Vera said about Charlie (like that his dad beats his mom, which is the family's dirty little secret), causing Charlie to start spilling Vera's secret (that her mom used to be a stripper).  There is a huge falling out.  And the downward spiral begins in earnest.

This book reads in a split format; some of the chapters are from the present and some flash back to the past.  Sometimes that can be irritating, but it really works in this book.  It is super easy to follow and there are some really funny chapters written by the dead kid (that'd be Charlie) or Vera's dad.  Did I not mention that Charlie was dead?  My bad.

Ignore the cover.  PLEASE ignore the cover.  This book is so good that it was shortlisted for a major award.  Come get it!

Mandy's Book of the Week (12/19)

I made a New Year's Resolution today.  In 2012, I'm going to ROCK these book of the week segments.

This week, my book of the week wasn't written for teens, but I bought it and stocked it in our section anyway.  The main character is 15 years old, so it fits I think.

This book takes place roughly 30 or so years after the zombie apocalypse.  I'm really into zombie books right now, can you tell?

The main character is Temple, who is 15 years old and a drifter.  Her parents are dead and she was taken in by a stranger after the child care center she was in was "eaten up by meatbags."  She came to regard this stranger as a father and the boy who was also taken in by him as her brother.  Unfortunately, the man is bitten by a zombie eventually and infected, leaving Temple and her "brother" with no place to call home.

Early in the book, Temple stumbles upon a community that is set up in some old skyscrapers and, while she doesn't feel totally comfortable there, she thinks it would be a great place to rest for a bit before getting back on the road.  On her first night there, a drunk man, who had been leering at her for quite some time that evening, comes in her room and attempts to sexually assault her.  He doesn't get anywhere with it, mainly because Temple is a warrior and ends up killing him, although it is completely accidental.  The fact that it was accidental doesn't matter to the man's brother, however, who then sets off after Temple (who gets out of there as fast as she can after the incident) with the purpose of killing her.

This is basically the story of Temple running and the things that happen to her along the way in this really screwed up world.

There is some language and sex (although nothing I'd call explicit at all), so be warned.

This book is written so beautifully and it was a real pleasure to read.  I enjoyed it immensely.

December's Second Saturday

I have to admit that I've not done the greatest job about getting the word out about our newest ongoing program: Second Saturday.  The second Saturday of every month during the school year, we'll be doing some sort of activity from 1-3pm.  In October, we had an origami workshop.  In November, we celebrated National Gaming Day.  And in December, we had an art workshop.

I'm really lucky that one of the kids on the Teen Library Council is a very talented artist.  He volunteered to come and host our Second Saturday this month and I was glad for it.

A cool new thing that I'm seeing pop up on the Internet is melted crayon art.  I actually created one on canvas several months ago for my house.  So when Steven told me that is what he wanted to do for Second Saturday, I was really excited.

A few pieces of foam board, four blow dryers, a bunch of crayons, and one blown out fuse later, we had some really unique pieces of art for our participants to take home.

Clean-up was difficult, to say the least.  Getting melted crayons off those chairs was tough.

We had a really great time and hope to see you at our next Second Saturday in January!

Hello Again!

I'm not exactly sure where November went and here we are, smack in the middle of December.  My sincerest apologies for not blogging last month!  I didn't realize that I'd skipped out on my job until I logged in today and saw that my last post was on Halloween.  I'm so embarassed.

In the spirit of playing catch-up, here is what has been going on in the Teen Library:

Teen Read Week Read-a-Thon

Held at the end of October, the Read-a-Thon was a smashing success.  Teen Library Council members, along with anyone else who wanted to participate, raised money in support of teen programs in 2012.  $204 this year, rock on!  Fueled by a lot of pizza and cokes, they came and read from 7pm-1am.

I gave them time to take a break about every hour and a half.  And what do they do?  Go play tag in the freezing weather!

National Gaming Day

This year was the first year that we celebrated National Gaming Day and it was so much fun.

We had board and card games set up all over the library for free play.

We also had the multipurpose room set up with the Wii and XBox 360 w/Kinect.  I'd never set a system up on our big screen before; I have to say it was really cool.

After watching their kids play, mom and dad had to have a go!

We also participated in a National Gaming Tournament against libraries from all over the United States.  In the whole state of Arkansas, it was just us and the public library in Fayetteville who participated.  Fortunately, there were tons of other libraries involved.  I'll spare you the details of how long it took me to enter in all the friend codes.  We ended up ranking 15th out of about 36 libraries.  Not to shabby for our first year!

Amy and a few of the people who participated in the tournament.

We've been having a blast! 

Be sure you join us for our Ugly Sweater Party coming up December 20th!  Whoever comes wearing the ugliest sweater will leave with a $20 gift card to Hastings.  Hope to see you then.