The Short List

We just got a new shipment of YA books, some of which are on summer reading lists, and they’re on our shelves now:

Ivy by Julie Hearn ~~ In mid-nineteenth-century London, young, mistreated, and destitute Ivy, whose main asset is her beautiful red hair, comes to the attention of an aspiring painter of the pre-Raphaelite school of artists who, with the connivance of Ivy’s unsavory family, is determined to make her his model and muse.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow ~~ After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld ~~ Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally’s best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. A Nutmeg 2009 book.

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver ~~ 6,000 years ago, twelve-year-old Torak and his guide, a wolf cub, set out on a dangerous journey to fulfill an oath the boy made to his dying father–to travel to the Mountain of the World Spirit to destroy a demon-possessed bear that threatens all the clans.

Looks by Madeleine George ~~ Two high school girls, one an anorexic poet and the other an obese loner, form an unlikely friendship.

The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman ~~ A Brooklyn eighth-grader nicknamed Antsy befriends the Schwa, an “invisible-ish” boy who is tired of blending into his surroundings and going unnoticed by nearly everyone.

Tweak by Nic Sheff ~~ Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he developed addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to.

Catch the Reading Bug @ Your Library.

The Summer Reading Program is open to children of all ages from preschool through high school. Children must read 10 hours to complete the Summer Reading Program. Great prizes that children will earn by completing the Summer Reading Program are: An Ice Cream Cone from Sweet P’s on Main St in Essex, Tickets to a CT Defenders Game or a New Britain Rock Cats Game, and several others that have not been confirmed yet… Many thanks to the generous sponsors of the Essex Summer Reading Program.

Check our website for a complete list of summer activities for kids. http://www.essexlib.org/services-childrens.html

If you’ve looked at a New York Times Bestseller List or Amazon’s Top 100 List recently, then you know that author Stephenie Meyer’s has tapped a vein with her Twilight Saga vampire series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse). The fourth and final book in the series, Breaking Dawn, is being masterfully marketed and is due out on August 2nd. The series, designed for young adults but also very popular with adults, has caught the attention of the Hollywood crowd. Twilight, the movie, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson is due out December 12th.

The Essex Library now has a teen blog available. It is a space where teens in the Essex area can make the library their own. Find out about teen programs, books and interesting web sites. We’re looking for feedback from our local teens, so log on and let us know what you’d like to see and do at the Library.

We gave you the list of nominees for Best Novel and Best First Novel. The winners will be announced on May 1st. Here are the nominees for Best Young Adult and Best Juvenile mysteries:

Best Young Adult:

• Rat Life by Tedd Arnold
• Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney
• Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin
• Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin
• Fragments by Jeffry W. Johnston

and Best Juvenile:

• The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
• Shadows on Society Hill by Evelyn Coleman
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
• The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh
• Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database is hosted by The Cushing Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection and Institute for Scientific Computation at Texas A&M University. The ISFDB is a community effort to catalog works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It links together various types of bibliographic data: author bibliographies, publication bibliographies, award listings, magazine content listings, anthology and collection content listings, and forthcoming books. It also has a list of top 100 science fiction novels as voted by users.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

The Baen Books (publisher of many popular science fiction authors) website allows users to read sample chapters, figure out the order of books in a series and when the next book in a series is due out.
http://www.baen.com/

And finally, io9.com is a blog about everything science fiction including books and movies. It’s written and maintained by people who are definitely, happily, obsessed with science fiction. Reminder: Don’t be shy about letting us at the Library know if there are any sci-fi materials you’d enjoy borrowing. E-mail us at: staff@essexlib.org

http://io9.com/

The Nutmeg Book Awards were announced the other day. These awards are “chosen by Connecticut’s youth” in two categories: the intermediate list is aimed at children in grades 4-6 and the teen list is aimed at kids in 7th and 8th grades. This year The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan won in both categories.

Other finalists in the teen category included:

Emako Blue by Brenda Woods; Down The Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams; Sea Of Trolls by Nancy Farmer; Revenge Of The Witch by Joseph Delaney; In Darkness, Death by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler; Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson; Shackleton’s Stowaway by Victoria McKernan; The River Between Us by Richard Peck and Bucking The Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Other finalists in the intermediate category included:

Escaping The Giant Wave by Peg Kehret; Shredderman Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen; White Star: A Dog On The Titanic by Marty Crisp; The 7 Professors Of The Far North by John Fardell; A Bear Named Trouble by Marion Dauer; Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park; Ravenmaster’s Secret by Elvira Woodruff; Hatching Magic by Ann Downer; and Jackie’s Wild Seattle by Will Hobbs.

During Teen Read Week in October more than 6,000 teens voted New Moon as their favorite books for 2007. Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year! Nominators are members of teen book groups in five school and public libraries around the country—the 2007 nominees were chosen by book groups in Connecticut, Kansas, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Utah, selected for their experience in discussing books.

The 2007 Teens’ Top Ten is:

• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
• How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles
• Maximum Ride: School’s Out – Forever by James Patterson
• Firegirl by Tony Abbott
• All Hallows Eve (13 Stories)by Vivian Vande Velde
• Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
• River Secrets by Shannon Hale
• Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe
• Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks

http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/teenstopten.cfm

On Tuesday, November 13th from 7-8p.m., local columnist Sam Rosensohn will present “Should You Take The SAT Or The ACT and How To Ace Them.” Young adults in grades 9-11 and their parents are invited to attend this important informational meeting. College preparation is a lengthy process and the earlier you begin to think about it, the better prepared you’ll be.

The Library will be graced with crafts expert Merry Coleman for two programs in November:

On Monday, November 5th at 6:30 p.m. Merry will lead a necklace-making workshop for young adults in grades 6-8.

On Thursday, November 8th from 4-5p.m. Merry will teach children in Kindergarten - 2nd grade how to make Dreamcatchers.

Please call or e-mail the Library (767-1560) or jmccann@essexlib.org to register.