Tackle Twelve - Spotlight on Read a Banned Book

As part of BPL’s Tackle Twelve promotion, 16 reading challenges have been issued. This week’s blog takes a closer look at ‘Read a Banned Book' and offers up recommendations.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Jess Aarons gains the strength to cope with unexpected tragedy by going to a secret kingdom in the woods invented by Leslie Burke, a newcomer to his rural Virginia community.

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Based on the diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user chronicling her struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes

On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Margaret Simon, almost twelve, has just moved from New York City to the suburbs, and she's anxious to fit in with her new friends. When she's asked to join a secret club, she jumps at the chance. But when the girls start talking about boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret starts to wonder if she's normal.

Blubber by Judy Blume

Jill goes along with the rest of the fifth grade class in tormenting a classmate and then finds out what it's like when she, too, becomes a target.

L8r, G8r by Lauren Myracle

Throughout their senior year in high school, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela continue to share "instant messages" with one another about their day-to-day experiences as they consider college, sex, the importance of prom, and the inevitable end of their inseparable trio.

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki

Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. It's her summer getaway, her refuge. Her friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and Rose and Windy have gotten tangled up in a tragedy-in-the-making.

This readers advisory brought to you by YA Librarian, Chris.

Young Adult Book Quiz III - Answers

Young Adult Book Quiz III - Answers

You’ll get the first sentence and have to guess which popular YA book it’s from. Submit your answers in the comment section. Have fun and good luck!

“What is the point of a high school reunion when you can already see who got fat and bald on Facebook?” asks Caryn, the intern working with me this semester, and I can’t help but laugh because she’s right.

These Violent Delights – Victoria Namkung

Unplugged – Donna Freitas

In 27 Days – Alison Gervais

Girl, Stolen – April Henry

Magnalia House was the sort of establishment where only wealthy, talented girls mastered their passion.

Prince in Disguise – Stephanie Kate Strohm

Where I Live – Brenda Rufener

The Queens Rising – Rebecca Ross

The Traitor’s Game – Jennifer A. Nielsen

This must be how madness begins.

Bad Call – Stephen Wallenfels

The Tombs – Deborah Schaumberg

Devil in Ohio – Daria Polatin

But Then I Came Back – Estelle Laure

Eight mornings before running away, I found myself at McDonald’s wondering about the direction of my life.

Down and Across – Arvin Ahmadi

Goodbye Days – Jeff Zentner

Escaping Perfect – Emma Harrison

Meet Me at the River – Nina de Gramont

The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite.

Monster – Michael Grant

Eight Days on Planet Earth – Cat Jordan

Last Night I Sang to the Monster -- Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The Bone Witch – Rin Chupeco

The apocalypse began at Starbucks.

Zombies vs. Unicorns – Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black

This Is Where the World Ends – Amy Zhang

History Is All You Left Me – Adam Silvera

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza – Shaun David Hutchinson

I am smack-dab in the middle of the Great Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exactly three feet from the spot where I barfed on my tenth birthday, just outside the Egyptian wing.

A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares – Krystal Sutherland

Love and Other Train Wrecks – Leah Konen

Dreamology – Lucy Keating

Nice Try, Jane Sinner – Lianne Oelke

I’m on the toilet at the 9:30 Club, and I’m wondering how mermaids pee.

The Upside of Unrequited – Becky Albertalli

Does My Head Look Big in This? – Randa Abdel-Fattah

Not Now, Not Ever – Lily Anderson

The Last Boy and Girl in the World - Siobhan Vivian

Young Adult Book Quiz III

You’ll get the first sentence and have to guess which popular YA book it’s from. Submit your answers in the comment section. Have fun and good luck!

“What is the point of a high school reunion when you can already see who got fat and bald on Facebook?” asks Caryn, the intern working with me this semester, and I can’t help but laugh because she’s right.

These Violent Delights – Victoria Namkung
Unplugged – Donna Freitas
In 27 Days – Alison Gervais
Girl, Stolen – April Henry

Magnalia House was the sort of establishment where only wealthy, talented girls mastered their passion.

Prince in Disguise – Stephanie Kate Strohm
Where I Live – Brenda Rufener
The Queens Rising – Rebecca Ross
The Traitor’s Game – Jennifer A. Nielsen

This must be how madness begins.

Bad Call – Stephen Wallenfels
The Tombs – Deborah Schaumberg
Devil in Ohio – Daria Polatin
But Then I Came Back – Estelle Laure

Eight mornings before running away, I found myself at McDonald’s wondering about the direction of my life.

Down and Across – Arvin Ahmadi
Goodbye Days – Jeff Zentner
Escaping Perfect – Emma Harrison
Meet Me at the River – Nina de Gramont

The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite.

Monster – Michael Grant
Eight Days on Planet Earth – Cat Jordan
Last Night I Sang to the Monster -- Benjamin Alire Sáenz
The Bone Witch – Rin Chupeco

The apocalypse began at Starbucks.

Zombies vs. Unicorns – Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black
This Is Where the World Ends – Amy Zhang
History Is All You Left Me – Adam Silvera
The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza – Shaun David Hutchinson

I am smack-dab in the middle of the Great Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exactly three feet from the spot where I barfed on my tenth birthday, just outside the Egyptian wing.

A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares – Krystal Sutherland
Love and Other Train Wrecks – Leah Konen
Dreamology – Lucy Keating
Nice Try, Jane Sinner – Lianne Oelke

I’m on the toilet at the 9:30 Club, and I’m wondering how mermaids pee.

The Upside of Unrequited – Becky Albertalli
Does My Head Look Big in This? – Randa Abdel-Fattah
Not Now, Not Ever – Lily Anderson
The Last Boy and Girl in the World – Siobhan Vivian

Braden's Picks - Books

Looking for some page-turning book recommendations? YA volunteer Braden has you covered.

Here are 5 selections that make the top of his list and why they deserve such high accolades:

Warriors (series) by Erin Hunter

The reason I liked these books was because they took a LONG time to read through (which was fun). Also, they have so much lore to them that it was a "challenging" series to remember.

Eragon (series) by Christopher Paolini

Like most of the books on my list, it was a fiction selection with lots of action. It also has a great deal of foreshadowing dedicated to the direction it was going. Overall, Eragon is an interesting tale mixed with mystery.

Lord of the Rings (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The story may be hard to follow at times, but that doesn't change the fact that the series stuck to a single set of rules – how the world and its development are structured.

Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling

Compared to other books I have read, these were "relatively" easy to follow. The book had one idea and followed it faithfully to the end.

The Phoenix Files (series) by Chris Morphew

The outcome of these books could have never been predicted and that is why I enjoyed them. You never knew what would happen next. It would provide clues, but there were also twists to throw you off.

Getting to Know ... Blake!

Introducing another valuable member of our YA Volunteer Team, Blake Grove! An 11-year-old sixth grader, Blake has accumulated 10.5 volunteer hours since June 2017.

FAVORITE BOOK GENRES:  Science Fiction

FAVORITE TV SHOW:  Raven's Home

A TOPIC HE COULD DISCUSS FOR AN HOUR: Cooking 

AN INVENTION HE WOULD UNINVENT: Trampoline

ROLE MODEL: Michael Phelps

HAPPY PLACE: In bed

SPIRIT ANIMAL: Tiger

INTERESTING FACT:  "I like to play lacrosse."

DESERTED ISLAND FRIEND: Dylan Goff

FUTURE CAREER: "I want to be an Olympian."

FAVORITE QUOTE: "Ride or Die remember." Vin Diesel, Fate of the Furious

Tackle Twelve - Spotlight on Oprah Book Club Selections

As part of BPL’s Tackle Twelve promotion, 16 reading challenges have been issued. This week’s blog takes a closer look at ‘Read an Oprah Book Club Selection' and offers up recommendations.

She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Spending the years between the age of thirteen and womanhood watching television and eating the junk food her mother provides, wise mouthed and wounded Dolores Price finally decides to give her life a chance.

The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard

The disappearance of her three-year-old son Ben threatens to drive a wedge between Beth Cappadora and her husband, Pat, and transforms her older son into a troubled delinquent. Until one day, nine years later, when Ben comes back into their lives.

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

It’s the summer of 1960 in Atkinson, Vermont. Maria Fermoyle is a strong, yet vulnerable, divorced woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for dangerous con man Omar Duvall.

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s Citation for Fiction. An eleven-year-old heroine tells her unforgettable story with honesty, perceptivity, humor, and unselfconscious heroism.

The Meanest Thing to Say by Bill Cosby

When a new boy in his second grade class tries to get the other students to play a game that involves saying the meanest things possible to one another, Little Bill shows him a better way to make friends.

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

A middle-aged woman, along with her fifteen-year-old daughter, returns to her small Massachusetts hometown for the funeral of the housekeeper who raised her and finds herself thrust into the lives of the people she left behind.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The idyllic lives of civic-minded environmentalists Patty and Walter Berglund come into question when their son moves in with aggressive Republican neighbors. Green lawyer Walter takes a job in the coal industry and go-getter Patty becomes increasingly unstable and enraged.

A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons

Two unforgettable characters, Jack Ernest Stokes, known as Blinking Jack, and his wife, Ruby Pitt Woodrow Stokes, tell the story of their years together. Jack was forty and Ruby only twenty when they were married. For twenty-five years they lived together, man and wife, until Ruby died of lung cancer.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape, save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food, and each other.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Set in twelfth-century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages.

This readers advisory brought to you by YA Librarian, Chris.

Johanna's Picks -- Music

Looking for some toe-tapping music recommendations? YA volunteer Johanna has you covered.

Here are 5 selections that make the top of her list and why they deserve such high accolades.

Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey

If you can imagine a character in a post-apocalyptic world (much like Katniss Everdeen), then you can imagine these songs playing all the time in the background. I wouldn’t say these songs are depressing. I would use “melancholy” for a description – they tell of a teenage summer that gives people nostalgia.

21 by Adele

These songs resonate, especially with a strong bass stereo. My favorite is song #1, Rolling in the Deep. You can see why this description is so short – there doesn’t have to be an explanation. It’s Adele.

Greatest Hits by ABBA

These songs give nostalgia, too, but it’s not the normal kind of nostalgia where it’s fun for 4 seconds and then you’re sad. It’s the Happy, Fun Times, Oh It’s Gone But That’s Okay, type of nostalgia. 5/5 stars.

Boston by Boston

The old songs all have a special place in my heart. I was so excited when The Guardians of the Galaxy came out, so my friends could get into my music.

Blown Away by Carrie Underwood

Not a lot of people enjoy songs that give story, and usually I'm one of those people. However, this album is strong with story, and it works! My favorites are "Good Girl", "Two Black Cadillacs," and – of course – "Blown Away."