YALSA's announces their Printz award for 2014!!!

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association if you're not into that whole brevity thing) awards one and only one book with it's most coveted honor (and pretty much the biggest deal ibn YA fiction PERIOD), the Printz Award.  Named in honor of Michael L. Printz, a long time member of YALSA who has passed away, the Printz is given to the book that exemplifies the best of what young adult literature can do.  This year's winner is...

Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick YP FIC SEDGWICK
Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabited--throughout various time periods--by Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant. Stories of the future, the past, fate, and tragedy wrap in and out of each other in an ever widening tapestry.  A strange, beautiful, and intricate novel of quiet power that will stay with you far after the last page. You can find Midwinter Blood in our catalog here. Watch out for my review coming soon!


 
The also excellent, very prestigious, and just-an-honor-to-be-nominated honor books are:

2014 Honor Books

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell YP FIC ROWELL
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.  Find it in our catalog here. Read my positively gushing review here.


Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal YP FIC COKAL
The wedding festivities of Scandinavian Princess Sophia are thrown into turmoil by an illness plaguing the royal family and a courtier's plot that places a seamstress and a royal nursemaid at the center of an epic power struggle. Find it in our catalog here.
 
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, illustrated by Julian Crouch J FIC GARDNER
Following a stray football to the other side of a wall where there is a secret, Standish Treadwell discovers astonishing truths about a moon landing that the overseeing Motherland, a ruthless regime, is determined to hide. Find it in our catalog here.

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool YP FIC VANDERPOOLOdyssey-like adventure of two boys' incredible quest on the Appalachian Trail where they deal with pirates, buried secrets, and extraordinary encounters. Find it in our catalog here.

2013 Teens Top ten

The votes are in and we have our 2013 picks for Teens Top Ten.  Below are the picks from teens across the country for the best fiction for teens this year.  Check them out to see what you've missed.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein YP FIC WEIN

In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can. 

Find it in our catalog here. 

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen J FIC NIELSEN          In the country of Carthya, a devious nobleman engages four orphans in a brutal competition to be selected to impersonate the king's long-missing son in an effort to avoid a civil war.

 Find it in our catalog here.

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole YP FIC COLE   
In the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, sixteen-year-old Evie, from a well-to-do Louisiana family, learns that her terrible visions are actually prophecies and that there are others like herself--embodiments of Tarot cards destined to engage in an epic battle.                                                                       

 Find it in our catalog here.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth YP FIC ROTH   

As war surges in the dystopian society around her, sixteen-year-old Divergent Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love

 Find it in our catalog here.

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross YP FIC CROSS
When sixteen-year-old Mira runs away to discover her secret past, she finds a place where Grimm's fairy tales come to life, and she cannot avoid her accursed fate.

 Find it in our catalog here.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry YP FIC MCGARRY
Rendered a subject of gossip after a traumatic night that left her with terrible scars on her arms, Echo is dumped by her boyfriend and bonds with bad-boy Noah, whose tough attitude hides an understanding nature and difficult secrets. 

Find it in our catalog here.

 

Butter by Erin Jade Lange YP FIC LANGE 

Unable to control his binge eating, a morbidly obese teenager nicknamed Butter decides to make a live webcast of his last meal as he attempts to eat himself to death. 

Find it in our catalog here.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater YP FIC STIEFVAT  
Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix.

Find it in our catalog here.

 

 Crewel by Gennifer Albin YP FIC ALBIN
Gifted with the unusual ability to embroider the very fabric of life, sixteen-year-old Adelice is summoned by Manipulation Services to become a Spinster, a move that will separate her from her beloved family and home forever.

Find it in our catalog here.

 Every Day by David Levithan YP FIC LEVITHAN

Every morning A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.









Find it in our catalog here.

And the Best Book for Young Adults (according to the America Library Association) is...

Drum roll please.  The American Library Association has announced their 2013 awards.  This year their prestigious and much valued and super-duper keen Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults goes to….

THIS IS SO TENSE!!!!

In Darkness by Nick Lake (Call Number YP FIC LAKE).  This is the dark (sorry bad pun) and compelling first hand story of a young teen from the slums of Haiti (hopelessly?) trapped under rubble following a massive earth shattering quake. I (very favorably) reviewed it here.  I am quite happy with their selection this year and truly hope it leads more people to read this stellar novel.

Below are the four Honor Books that didn’t quite make the top prize, but do not scoff! These four books definitely are honored, because they are among the top five of all YA novels for all of last year.  Pretty impressive. Check one or all of the m out today!

 
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz YP FIC SAENZ

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein YP FIC WEIN

Dodger by Terry Pratchett YP FIC PRACHETT

The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna YP FIC BRENNA

Done reading these?  ALREADY!? Okay, well head on over to the ALA and check out their other award winners! 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I finally got around to reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature back in 2007 and I've been hearing fantastic things about it ever since.

Wow, talk about a one-two punch.

The narrator of the tale, Junior, is now quite possibly one of my favorite characters. Ever. He will break your heart with his story even as he leaves you in stitches. He's funny and fearless and lovably human. And though hardly immune to his circumstances, nevertheless he forges resolutely on.

Junior has been beating the odds since the day he was born.

He wasn't expected to live past a procedure to remove cerebral spinal fluid from his brain as an infant. Instead, we find he's made it to his teen years in pretty good shape, if you can overlook the crippling poverty, rampant alcoholism and general malaise that afflicts the Spokane Indian Reservation.

It sucks to be poor, and its sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

Junior, as you can see, is not afraid to tell it like it is.

His parents are drunks. His best friend has an abusive father. His school is so underfunded that it hasn’t updated its textbooks in least 30 years. Junior himself is a skinny, spectacle-wearing, book-kissing nerd, which doesn’t exactly earn him a lot of fans around the rez.

Then one day, prodded into action by his teacher, Junior decides to take his fate into his own hands. He decides to transfer to the all-white school in the neighboring town of Reardan, 22 miles away. His parents support the move, recognizing that it will allow Junior to get a better education and access to more opportunities. But they’re pretty much the exception. Junior's community proceeds to treat him like he's betrayed them. The Reardan High School kids ignore him.

Junior's beauty is how he weathers his hardships with such aplomb and good humor. Though lonely and confused, he hangs in there, funneling his energy into positive outlets, from doodling comics to joining the basketball team. And slowly but surely, things begin to change.

I recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a pick-me-up. Diary is a daring book, too, pushing the boundaries of young adult lit with its dark humor, language and examination of race, all of which has frequently landed it on Top 10 lists for most frequently challenged titles. We have it in book form (YP FIC ALEXIE; you'll get to see Junior's awesome doodles, drawn by Ellen Forney), audiobook (AD YP FIC ALEXIE), and downloadable audio. I listened to the audio version, which is narrated by the author. I'm sometimes leery of authors reading their own stuff but Sherman really knocks it out of the ballpark and brings 14-year-old Junior to life.

Junior may endure, at times, the unimaginable, but it's a statement to Sherman's talent how we still feel optimistic and hopeful for Junior’s future.

2012 Alex Awards

Every year the Young Adult Library Services Association bestows the Alex Awards, which recognize novels written for adults but still have a unique appeal to youths ages 12 to 18. Check out the list below:

Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
The acclaimed author of Repeat After Me presents a scathingly funny and moving novel about a 16-year-old girl who becomes caught in a controversy that might bring down her whole school — a scandal that has something to do with the fact Judy is three feet nine inches tall.
In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
The beguiling fourteen-year-old narrator is a late bloomer used to flying under the radar. Luckily, she has a best friend, a similarly undiscovered girl with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood but in time, their friendship is tested.
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
The nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.
The New Kids: Big dreams and brave journeys at a high school for immigrant teens by Brooke Hauser
A singular work of narrative journalism, The New Kids chronicles a year in the life of a remarkable group of these teenage newcomers — a multicultural mosaic that embodies what is truly amazing about America.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
It is called Cirque des Rêves and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.
Ready Player One by Earnest Kline
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be. Wade dreams of being the one to discover a series of fiendish puzzles hidden inside the OASIS that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them.
Robopacalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.
Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward
A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family — motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce — pulls itself up to face another day.
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston
A spirited, visually lush, and stunning novel, inspired by the art of scrapbooking and told through a kaleidoscopic array of vintage postcards, letters, magazine ads, ticket stubs, catalog pages, fabric swatches, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, menus, and more, starring an unforgettable heroine and set in the burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

"If an entire nation can seek freedom, why not a girl?"

Chains tell the story of thirteen-year-old Isabel, who is a slave living when the Revolutionary war begins. Isabel and her sister, Ruth, were promised freedom upon the death of their owner, but somehow ended up the property of a pro-British couple living in New York City. Isabel meets Curzon, who is also a slave, but has ties to the Patriots. Curzon urges Isabel to spy on her owners, who are privy to the invasion plans of the British, but is conflicted because of the potential danger. However, certain unfortunate events force Isabel to place her loyalty with those who can offer her what she and the Patriots wants most: freedom.

Laurie Halse Anderson was recently won the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the Young Adult Library services Association for her works Catalyst, Fever 1793, and Speak. These books, among others, are available at your library.

The White Darkness: a novel, by Geraldine McCaughrean

Symone, Sym for short, is a thirteen year old girl from England, who has such a hard time at school with her peers that she has created a fantasy life. It started when she watched an old television series called “The Last Place on Earth” that dramatizes Robert Scott’s ill-fated 1912 expedition to the South Pole. She already knew about Antarctica because her Uncle Victor had loaded her with books on the subject since she was small. Something about the series mesmerizes her, and especially the actor playing Titus Oates, one of Scott's party. He has become her constant companion, her soul mate, who encourages her when she’s afraid, keeps her going when all looks dark.

And she needs someone like that after Sym and her crazy uncle go down into Antarctica, first on a deluxe adventure tour that turns into a more personal and much more dangerous quest than she or you could ever imagine. Although the book is very engaging and you can’t help but be enthralled by each crazy plot development, I could not believe in her “mind” person/friend. I just don’t buy an available “alternate universe”, at least not one that materializes so conveniently exactly when you need it. But the book is worth reading, despite this quibble.

For Teens: Tayshas Reading List

Looking for good YA books? You may already be familiar with the Texas Bluebonnet Books, an annual reading list for elementary school children. The Texas Library Association, which oversees the Bluebonnet books, puts out several recommended reading lists including one for teens.

The list for high school students is called the Tayshas* Reading List.

The 2007-2008 list includes fifty-five books which represent a wide range of genres and topics. We have most of these books at Moore Memorial Library.


Here are just a few:

Rash
by Pete Hautman

A Sci-Fi Thriller about a young man in a futuristic society who must escape from prison with the help of an artificial intelligence program.

A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life
by Dana Reinhardt

Simone's life and beliefs change when she contacts her biological mother who is dying from cancer.

Born to Rock
by Gordan Korman

Straight-laced Leo is surprised and dismayed when he learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend.

Poison
by Chris Wooding

Poison must rescue her infant sister from the band of faeries who kidnapped the baby.

For more titles included in this list, visit Tayshas on the TxLA website or come by the reference desk.

*The word "Tayshas," according to the TxLA website, comes from a Caddo Indian word for "friends or allies."