This is the story of six teenagers, each struggling with problems and needing somewhere to escape. At some point or another, they all end up at Keesha's house, a house actually belonging to Joe, but has the house open to anyone who just needs a place to stay while working out their problems.
Whether it be teen pregnancy, alcohol abuse, being kicked out, or abusive parents (among others) Keesha's house is a safe zone for all as they help themselves and help each other.
The story is told in short narrative poems with each character speaking its voice, but it reads like a novel.
What I Thought: What a superb work!! Don't let the poetry scare you away from this work, it seriously reads like a novel.
Frost does a great job letting the readers feel the characters' emotions and pulling you into their lives. I highly recommend this novel.
This book is a 2004 Printz Honor Book as well as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
Bella is a teenager from Phoenix who has just moved to the small town of Forks, WA to live with her dad. When she starts school at the very local high school, she seems to make friends easily. But this one guy...Edward Cullen tends to blow her off.
One day Edward literally saves her life revealing some superhuman abilities, and from that moment on it seems that Edward and Bella are inseparable.
Then Edward reveals who he truly is: a vampire. But it's too late: Bella is in love.
Thus begins an adventure that is full of romance, adventure, and life threatening danger.
Did I mention the vampires?
What I Thought: Um, WOW. I have put off reading this book for some time now, but at a friend's request I gave it a shot. I actually listened to most of this book via CD over the course of a couple of weeks. (How I cherished my commutes to work and to Nashville! I actually cheered for traffic!) But when I concluded my last road trip and realized that I only had a couple of chapters left, I grabbed my copy of the book and curled up in bed for the amazing conclusion.
While some of the language drove me bonkers (I mean really, how often do we really need to hear how beautiful Edward is?), I think that this book is deserving of all the hype and mania that it has received over the past year or so. In fact, I have continued the mania and pushed this book off on everyone who listens.
So, listen! If you haven't read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, you need to go get a copy and read it right now. You won't be able to put it down! I already have the next three books purchased and ready to read!
Jonah is an eleven, almost twelve, year old boy who lives in a society where everyone essentially the same. It is a world unlike any on our planet, as no one feels pain, the effects of poverty, hunger. But, the people in this society do not have the opportunity to experience love (mainly romantic and sexual love) or free will. A group of elders choose a profession for each person, as well as life mates and place children in homes after much consideration.
At the yearly “Ceremony of Twelve,” where each child is assigned their profession assignment, Jonah is given the honor of being the new Receiver of Memory. He will obtain memories from the current Receiver of Memory (who is now called “The Giver”) and hold these within himself, sharing when asked by the community’s elders as they contemplate various issues at hand.
As Jonah receives these memories from generations before him, he realizes that his society is missing out on so much and realizes grim truths about his own society. In the captivating climax, Jonah kidnaps a young child who is scheduled to be “released” and attempts to escape.
What I Thought: Wow. This book absolutely floored me and spoke to my inner core. How lucky we are to live in a society with free will, the freedom of choice, and a world full of different and exciting things that we can choose to discover. We can feel, we experience color, we can love and even feel pain. We can cherish our memories.
If you want to read a book that will change your life, The Giver is for you.
This book is highly acclaimed: it is the winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Notable Children's Book, Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book, and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, just to name a few.
It all begins with Roscoe in time-out, and he explains to his readers exactly what he did to get there.
Roscoe is gathering items for the art closet at school when he sees the “don’t-you-dare” glue. With some contemplation, he adds it to his donation for the class. Later that day, as his class is gearing up for their bee presentation for Parent’s Day, Roscoe “helps” his classmates by applying the “don’t-you-dare” glue to the bee antennae as he is passing them out. He also puts a little on some chairs to keep the drummers still in their seats (of which he is one!).
You can only guess what happens after a great performance. Which is why Roscoe sits in time-out, telling us his advice on how to not get in the same predicament.
What I Thought: I am in love with Roscoe Riley. What a sweet little guy living the first grade life and learning those life lessons in such precious ways. I love the glue story...who hasn't been tempted by some "don't you dare glue?" I know I have!!
This is the first book of a six series about Roscoe. If the following books in the series are as good as this one, this will be a series kids will be clamoring for. Highly recommended!
This weekend I attended the First YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium in Nashville, TN. I had a super time and learned so much.
I have had a couple of days to mull it over and am excited to wrap up my weekend with you!
The theme for this year's symposium was "How We Read Now." I attended several sessions wrapped around this theme.
Session One: "Thrilling Young Adults: How to Keep the Attention of Today's Teens. In this session we discussed how young adult literature has changed over the years. No longer will teens sit through a book with long descriptive narratives (unless the setting is in a fictional world that must be described). They want action-packed, fast paced books that hold their attention.
The panelist for this session was Amy Alessio, author and teen coordinator for the Schaumburg Township Library in Illinois, Margaret Peterson Haddix, renowned author and has won numerous awards for her books, Deborah Noyes Wayshak, editor for Candlewick Press and author, and author Patrick Jones.
Session Two: "Reading: It's Not Just About Books Anymore" In this session, Linda Braun discussed a number of ways we read without using paper or conventional means. Think about it: you are reading this blog, may read text messages, use a Kindle or another electronic reader or even your cell phone. Braun demonstrated a number of other web resources that can be used to reach kids in this technological age.
We discussed Voice Thread presentations, a web based presentation tool where you can record your voice over the slides and all can see. Some other tools we discussed was Twitter and tumblr -microblog tools, wordle-a website to create very cool word clouds, and wordia-a place where you can view and post videos of word definitions.
Click below to check out the presentation that was presented during this session using Voice Thread.
Session Three: Fandom, Fan Life, and Participatory Culture In this session, Elizabeth Burns and Carlie Webber discussed fandom.
I had no idea what this concept was, and surprised to know that I am a member of several fandoms! Basically, a fandom is a group who love something and get together to discuss or celebrate that thing. Whether it be through discussion boards, websites, conferences, or whatever, it is neat to see people get behind a book, tv show or movie and dissect it to its core. They used the popular novel Twilight by Stephanie Meyer to illustrate this concept.
We also explored how we can use this in the library and I got all sorts of fun Teen program ideas to pass along. (Twilight Prom anyone??)
Session Four: "Just Keepin' It Real: Teen Reading Out of the Mainstream" Rollie Welch, Collection Manager at the Cleveland Public Library and former Teen Services Librarian discussed inner city teens and street lit in this very informative session.
Rollie gave a lot of great booktalks and even tested our knowledge in a fun game of Jeopardy! I came away with an extensive list of books to order for our library!
Session Five: Quickest of YALSA's Quick Picks Diana Herald and Diane Monnier discuss the process of YALSA's Quick Pick Awards and then booktalked a number of the titles on those lists or those being nominated for this year's list.
We had a special treat of hearing David Lubar, who has written a number of books and having a couple be on the Quick Picks list. Lubar is quite hilarious and I'm excited to order some of his books, as well as some on the Quick Picks list that we do not have, for our library quite soon.
We also were armed with titles to hand reluctant readers when they say "I don't like to read!" or "I'm too busy with school!" and how to spot a quick pick book. Very awesome.
As you can see, I learned a lot and am armed with more knowledge to efficiently do my job. A highlight of the weekend was getting to visit with some of my classmates from UT-Knoxville who were there as well.
Thanks to YALSA for a fun weekend, the books, the food, and the cool loot. Check out this cool bag they gave us at sign in:
The next Literature symposium is in Albuquerque, NM in 2010. Road trip anyone??
While I link each book to Amazon, I receive no funds from them for this action. I simply do this as a service in case anyone would like to read further reviews (professional or otherwise) for more information. Thank You!
