Showing posts with label teens top ten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teens top ten. Show all posts

17 January 2012

The Fault in Our Stars

I admit it: John Green can do no wrong. Even though I didn't love Paper Towns as much as everyone else seemed to, I just can't help but dig every little thing about this author. The Fault in Our Stars is no exception - and, in fact, it might be my favorite John Green book yet.

Hazel has terminal cancer. She's basically normal except that her lungs don't work (hence the oxygen tank perpetually in tow); she was taken out of high school years ago because, really, what's the point?; and her mom keeps bugging her to get a life, but her social scene mainly consists of a cancer support group of kids who are either dying, hoping to die, dead, or blind. Then Augustus Waters arrives to change everything. Hazel fights falling in love with Gus of the prosthetic leg, the unlit cigarette, and the adorable crooked smile. But he wins her over, and they settle upon a whirlwind romance. And like most whirlwinds, I imagine, this went by too fast, leaving a lot of aftermath. But the bottom line remains: It was worth it.

John Green has this talent for creating characters and exploring settings and storylines like very few authors in the world (not to be dramatic or anything). And though the writing is impeccable and intelligent, his stories speak freely and comfortably, without making you feel stupid because you might not know so much about famous people's famous last words, anagrams, cartography, or anything else cool. His books make you feel cool just for being in the same room with them.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.

31 October 2011

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

In this follow-up to If I Stay, we learn a lot about where Adam has been and who he has become in the years directly after his (ex-)girlfriend Mia woke up from a coma after an accident that killed her entire family.

Adam "Wilde Man" Wilde is the lead singer and guitar player of the chart-topping Shooting Stars, he has hot model girlfriend Bryn on his arm, and he's got a steady supply of cigarettes and pills to help calm his nerves and keep his depression and anxiety at bay - most of the time. The one thing he doesn't have is Mia. Since leaving their hometown in Oregon three years ago for an illustrious Julliard education, she never once looked back and ultimately cut off contact with Adam. And despite his outward success, he hasn't been the same since this loss of the great love of his life. Until he's in the NYC with the band and sees that Mia is playing a show at Carnegie Hall. The whirlwind of memories, emotion, secrets, and revelations that follow is breath-taking, exhausting, and oddly refreshing as we watch Mia and Adam reconnect and - in some ways - deconstruct.

Readers might be sucked into this love story even without knowing the back-story, but those who already had their hearts broken and put back together again while reading If I Stay, will cry and cheer alongside old friends.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.


16 August 2011

Vote for 2011 TEENS' TOP TEN!

Voting for the 2011 Teens' Top Ten is open and accessible through September 15.
Teens' Top Ten

Go directly to the Teens' Top Ten homepage or go here: www.surveymonkey.com/s/teenstopten11.
Winning titles will be announced at www.ala.or=/teenstopten during Teen Read Week, October 16-22.

The Teens' Top Ten is a reading list chosen entirely by and for teens. The twenty-five official nominations were chosen by sixteen teen book groups from across the U.S. that participate in YALSA's YA Galley project, in which publishers provide book groups with galleys and the teens provide feedback. Last year, more than 8,000 teens voted for the Teens' Top Ten, choosing Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins as their favorite title.

This year, the 25 nominees are:

Bachorz, Pam. Drought.
Beam, Cris. I Am J
Beaudoin, Sean. You Killed Wesley Payne.
Card, Orson Scott. The Lost Gate.
Clare, Cassandra. The Clockwork Angel.
Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay.
Collins, Yvonne. Love, Inc.
Condie, Ally. Matched.
Cremer, Andrea. Nightshade.
Fitzpatrick, Becca. Crescendo.
Grant, Michael. Lies.
Hawkins, Rachel. Demonglass.
Hawkins, Rachel. Hex Hall.
Kagawa, Julie. The Iron King.
Lore, Pittacus. I Am Number Four.
Moore, Peter. Red Moon Rising.
Nelson, Jandy. The Sky is Everywhere.
O’Neal, Ellis. The False Princess.
Patterson, James. Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel.
Pearce, Jackson. Sisters Red.
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. Blessed.
Westerfeld, Scott. Behemoth.
White, Kiersten. Paranormalcy.