Books for (teen) Guys Part II

And the list continues. I hope that someone finds this list interesting. If you think I have forgotten something please respond and let me know.

• I am the Messanger by by Markus Zusak
• The Hunger Games by by Suzanne Collins
• Street Pharm by Allison van Diepen
• Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi
• Fade to Black by Alex Flinn
• Peak by Roland Smith
• Deadline by Chris Crutcher
• The Buffalo Tree by Adam Rapp
• The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
• Damage by A. M. Jenkins
• The boy who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
• Coal Black Horse by by Robert Olmstead
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• Mergers by Steven Layne
• Rebound by Rob Krech
• The Rhyming Season by Edward Averett
• RX by Tracy Lynn
• Skate by Michael Harmon
• Ten Mile River by Paul Griffin
• Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
• Monster by Walter Dean Myers
• Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena
• Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

Books for (teen) Guys Part I

It's time for me to get out my soapbox. There has been a trend that has been bothering me and I feel the need to vent.

There is a big push to get boys to read. Studies have shown that boys don't read. Of course there are many factors to this such as home life, outside activities (video games, sports, working etc.) and the "it's not cool factor."

There have been numerous websites dedicated to guys and reading. As a librarian I strongly support this. But most of the sites forget that there maybe a young man over the age of 13 who wants to read, or is being made to read by his evil English teacher. Either way they do not give teen guys any books to choose from.

So where are the suggestions for teen guys? There are none. Or if there is a list of books you see the standard answers such as Stephen King or Lord of the Flies. Boo! So here is a list that I have made. This is only a partial list, but these are the books that my male patrons love.

I will create Part II in a few days. I hope it is useful.

• Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac
• Homeboyz by Alan Lawrence Sitomer
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
• The Hoopster by Alan Lawrence Sitomer
• Bootcamp by Todd Strasser
• Quad by Carrie Gordon Watson
• Black and White by Paul Volponi
• Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund
• Acceleration by Graham McNamee
• Ball don't Lie by Matt de la Pena
• The Perfect Shot by Elaine Marie Alphin
• Tyrell by Coe Booth
• Rats saw God by Rob Thomas
• Endgame by Nancy Garden
• Kerosene by Chris Wooding
• Nailed by Patrick Jones
• Demonata Series by Darren Shan
• No Right Turn by Terry Trueman
• Private Peaceful by by Michael Morpurgo
• Raider's Night by Robert Lipsyte
• Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle
• Crackback by John Coy
• The Trap John Smelcer
• Open Ice by Pat Hughes
• Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson
• Doing It by Melvin Burgess

I am a child of the 80s

Deaths come. Deaths go. I normally do not mention such events on my blog. However this time I thought I had to.

Michael Jackson was part of my childhood. I am a child of the 80s and part of my childhood died yesterday. Bits and pieces of everyone’s childhood die as they grow older. We expect it. But I guess I wasn’t expecting such an icon to die when he did.

I remember dancing to his music in my living room. I remember listening to the tape(yes, I said tape) and I remember going to my grandmother’s house(they had cable, we did not) and telling my brother to change the T.V because Thriller freaked me out.

In recent years his behavior was erratic, eccentric, and questionable. His actions cannot be excused, however the memories I recall are those mentioned above. For better or worse Michael Jackson was a part of my childhood.

His influence on music will live on.

Sarah Dessen talks about her new book

Sarah Dessen has a new book out called Along for the Ride. It came out June 16. I have a lot of students that read Ms. Dessen's books so I thought I would pass this along. Enjoy!





I want everyone to know that next week there will be another book giveaway. This time I will be giving away a copy of Wintergirls. Stay tunded for details.

Can a God love a mortal girl?

Soah is a young woman who must be sacrificed to the Water God Habaek. Her village needs rain and the only way to do that is for a a pretty young woman to die. Soah is the unlucky winner.

Once in Habaek's kingdom she meets some unusual characters, and some with some dark secrets, including the Water God himself.

While I enjoyed the story I felt that there wasnt a whole lot going on, but thats typical with manga. There are all these little secrets and you can't find out what they are until you read the next volume. I think the premise is a good one and I'll pick up these to see what else happens in the series. To date there are three volumes.

The first two pages are color, showing Soah in her wedding dress which is a beautiful red. I wish the entire book would have been in color becuase I think it could have been breathtaking. But, since its manga its in black and white. The illustrations are nice and I really enjoyed them. This also reads like a typical book(left to right) not like your other manga titles.

I think teens who are looking for a little romance in their manga will enjoy this novel. There is some sex in it however so it may not be a wise purchase for school libraries. It isn't really graphic, but I'm wondering if this title should end up on my shelf.

Overall, a good read. I'm looking forward to the second volume.

It's manga time!

In my quest to read more manga I decided that Bizenghast looked like something I might be interested in so I gave it a go.

Dinah is a teenage girl who lost her parents in a car accident and is currently living with her aunt in the rundown town of Bizenghast, MA. Nothing ever happens and Dinah is slipping into madness. She sees ghosts and is haunted by them.

Vincent is her only friend and together they sneak out of her house and go to a local cemetery. Its there where Dinah is forced to release restless sprits ...or else.

To be honest with you I have no idea if I liked the book or not. Does that sound strange? I mean the premise sounds interesting. The art was nice. Dinah is in a new outfit almost in every panel and she looks like a goth girl. However most of the book deals with her releasing spirit after spirit after spirit, which gets old quickly. I was wondering where the rest of the story was. Things seemed to pick up towards the end though, so maybe there is hope for this series.

I borrowed the next three volumes from my local library and I’ll give a report on them later.

I like the idea about a young girl being haunted by ghosts (supernatural and her own demons), but I’m not sure about this book yet. So I can’t say if teens will enjoy it or not.

Awards! Awards Everywhere!

A special thanks to Kate who handed out these awards. Its nice to be recognized. Thanks so much! I'm going to have give them to other blogs later because tonight I am packing for a trip to Chicago. I am off to a historical fiction conference!

Ciao for now!

I'll return Sunday with a review of Bizenghast.

Upcoming June Releases

I'm a little late with this month's new releases, but here they are. I have to say the cover for Blood Water rocks. It's freaky and cool. I love it.

Below is a list of books that will be released in June. It is not a complete list, but I hope you find something interesting.

• Sea Change by Aimee Friedman
• Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
• Unsigned Hype by Booker T. Mattison
• Lunatic: The Lost Books by Ted Dekker & Kaci Hill
• Blood Water by Dean Vincent Carter
• Bait by Alex Sanchez
• Goddess Boot Camp by Tera Lynn Childs
• Night Fires by George Edward Stanley
• Saving Rafael by Leslie Erika Wilson
• Alyzon Whitestarr by Isobelle Carmody
• L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
• A Sweet Disorder by Jaqueline Koslosov

Dull. Painful. Agonizing Do not read this....

The concept of the book sounds really interesting. Calder is a Fetch. He has been dead hundreds of years but looks 19. His job is easy. Calder is to bring souls to the next world. But life isn’t easy for Calder when he falls in love with a mortal and soon the balance is disturbed.

I was excited to read this book, but my enthusiasm quickly faded. The author dropped the ball with this book. She made it dull. For instance, Calder falls in love with a mortal woman who is nursing a dying baby. But later his unhealthy, and somewhat creepy, infatuation turns cold when he realizes the woman of his dreams is not what he had hoped for.

Enter the Romanovs. I love the Romanovs and I love Russian history however those who are not well versed in this time period may find the story difficult to follow. The problem is the author does a poor job of explaining who the Romaovs are and unless you know your Russian history you will not understand the way the author ties history into this story. There are various historical events that are mentioned, including the Titanic, but unless you know your dates you might miss these nods to historical events.

The middle part of the story deals with a very unexciting quest around the world to find some dumb key. I never under stood this part of the story because I thought I read that Fetches don’t need a key to open a door…but maybe I got confused. Anyway the middle is quite dull and if you need something to help you fall asleep on some sleepless night then read the middle part of this book.

The love story was nonexistent. First Calder falls in love with a mortal woman then he moves on…to nothing. Then I am supposed to believe that there has been some burning romance between Calder and Anastasia because the author says so in the end of the book but doesn’t show it. Someone please explain to me how that works?

I can’t see how any teen would enjoy this. I know that’s a powerful statement to say, but I think the author had a great idea but executed it poorly, very poorly. Students of supernatural stories won’t enjoy it because it drags on and on. Students who love supernatural romances won’t like it because there is none. Students who enjoy historical fiction..well they may enjoy it.

Overall, I would pass on this book. I hear the author’s first book, A Certain Slant of Light, is quite good. Maybe I should have read that one.

Has anyone else read The Fetch. I would be interested to hear what you think.