A blogger's list of sweet sexy romance novels for tweens and teens

Read Donna Freitas' list from her School Library Journal article here.  Good stuff!  Fabulous categories!

And wise, sane comments like this:

Many people view romance novels as fluffy and not worth reading. These are the same people who ask pointed questions like, Why should teens waste time on intoxicating, heady, first love when they can instead trudge through a despair-inducing journey of real-life pain and agony? Granted, books that tackle heavy issues have an important place in one’s reading life, but so do lighthearted novels that do nothing more than make your heart go pitter patter—especially during those years when kids are just beginning to feel their pulse race. So, fair warning: I’m going to be shameless in my offering of romantic bliss, even in its cheesiest, most blush-inducing form, because there’s a worthwhile place for these books in our kids’ imaginations.

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Because if one of the reasons I read for escapism, rather than always trudging through a worthy Bit of Litteratcher, then why shouldn't the school library offer the same?

I've also noticed that part of the Twilight Effect is that even if a kid has seen the film, the hit is from reading; the hit that everyone else is talking about, the hit they want to have because their friends are talking about it, is contained within the covers of a book.  Not online.  Not on a screen.  Reading a book.  Whether or not it's page-turning crack, it's getting non readers to read.  And thus some of them come back and say, what next?  What else? And we're able to offer them more of that hit.  Maybe we won't keep them all, but for some, Twilight has been the key that has opened their eyes/changed their minds/started them reading.  Hurrah!

Also on the SLJ website: Why are teens wild about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga? by Amrisa Nirajin. 

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Fiction Friday: The Twilight crowd recommends...

The Twilight crowd has been reading faster than me (or, that would be, enthusiastically borrowing books before I have time to read them myself!).  Here are some of the ones they've liked best in the last little while - some newer, some that have been around for a while longer:

(Actually, I've also been reading the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire mysteries.  We had a conversation, the Twilight crew and I, about all the vampire romances we aren't stocking in the school library.  The words "too much bonking" and "local library" came into the discussion...that's the thing about vampires.  They ain't all 'vegetarians'....).

Another reader of The Hunger Games (a Fiction Friday pick from a week or two ago) had exactly the same beef as I did with the incompleteness of the ending.  So it's not just me.

Image source

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Fiction Friday: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, was recommended by Stephenie Meyer on her website, so the Twilight fans are keen to read it, given its anointing by their favourite author EVER.  It was also favourably reviewed by Stephen King (that review is reproduced on the amazon.com page for this book).

The gist of the story: in a dystopian future America, each of the twelve districts is forced by the authorities to send a girl and a boy to participate in the annual Hunger Games: twenty-four into the arena, constantly televised, and only one will survive to be the winner - the death of the other twenty three being prime time viewing, manipulated by the authorities.  A gruesomely engaging premise, and naturally the heroine, Katniss (odd name - doesn't quite work for me) is one of the twenty-four.

It's done cleverly, sidestepping too much grue and violence (despite the setup), and will probably find a ready audience.  My gripe is with the ending - a major plot point is held over to the sequel.  I recognise that many books have ongoing plot lines linking books in a series, but this particular one was a payoff that should have been addressed - even if not fully explored - in book 1.  Just felt a tad disrespectful of the reader, to me, given that book 2 is not available/published.

Still, if Stephenie and Stephen like it, who am I to argue?

Image source.

Fiction Friday: Temeraire

This is one of the best books I've read in ages, adult or YA. It had grazed my consciousness, sorta kinda, and then something brought it to my attention again. Hmmm. Think we do have a copy of that in the library. I fished it out a couple of weeks ago, and devoured it in short order, before promptly ordering the rest of the series for the school library. What's the gist? Historical fantasy: the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France, from the point of view of the British. Oh, and the military includes an aerial corps. With dragons. Excellent dragons.

It's terrific writing, great imagination, a sense of history, good storytelling. I put it in the hands of several of my keenest fantasy readers, and they've all read it fast, asked for more and are evangelising about it independently. One of them, who'd been at the top of the list, hopping from foot to foot for months waiting for Brisingr, and enjoyed that, said this was the best book he'd read in ages and ages (and where's the next one, miss?). Well done Naomi Novik.

Temeraire is the first book (also published as His Majesty's Dragon), and then follow Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles. The last only in hardback until February next year. Peter Jackson has the film rights (director of The Lord of the Rings series. Yes, him. Should be good! - but probably not for a couple of years). Naomi Novik's website is here .

The cover on the copy I had in the library is a more painterly thing, less graphic - I like these striking covers, and the kids do too. As you would have gathered, we have a building list of reservations, and they're turning over fast.

The object lesson for me - and I've made a conscious effort to read more of the YA fiction this year than last - I've always read it, of course, but this year even more - is that a) I'll make happy discoveries for myself and b) never underestimate a good book, well-recommended. I know my enthusiasm meant more than if I'd just said, what about this? without having read it myself.

Oh, and will I admit to adding these to my personal library at home?

Image source: The Book Depository .

Fiction Friday: ALA 2008 Teens' Top 10 & Australia's Inkys.

Found this here.  The longlist is here.  We have all of them but the last in the library, and they've been borrowed regularly.

The 2008 (USA) Teens' Top Ten

The vote is in! More than 8,000 teens voted on this year's winners. The 2008 USA Teens' Top Ten is: 

1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
   
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
   
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
   
4. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
   
5. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
   
6. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
   
7. The Sweet Far Thing  by Libba Bray
   
8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
   
9. Before I Die  by Jenny Downham
   
10. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
    

Australia's version of this is the Inkys , results not yet in for 2008.  Inkys longlist is here ; Inkys shortlist (3 Australian, 3 international) is here and shown below.

• Town, James Roy: My brother Kimlan works all night fixing the road. He wears a shirt that reflects the light from the cars. The boss man says that if he does not wear that shirt, no one will be able to see him unless he smiles.
  
• Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun Tan: It's funny how these days, when every household has its own intercontinental ballistic missile, you hardly even think about them.
  
• A Brief History of Montmaray, Michelle Cooper: Officially, the head of our household is Uncle John, who is Aunt Charlotte's brother and Veronica's father (and the King of Montmaray), but he's rather distracted on his good days, and downright alarming on his bad ones.
  
• Genesis, Bernard Beckett: …the only thing the population had to fear, was fear itself. The true danger humanity faced during this period was the shrinking of its own spirit.
  
• Boy Toy, Barry Lyga: It was like watching the mating rituals of retarded birds, clumsily stepping the wrong patterns around each other over and over again.
  
• Before I Die, Jenny Downham: I sit up and switch on the bedside light. There's a pen, but no paper, so on the wall behind me I write, I want to feel the weight of a boy on top of me.
  

Off the top of my head, and without checking, I'd say Tales, Montmaray and Before I Die would be the ones of those which have been borrowed regularly from our library.

Fiction Friday: Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Read this one in the holidays, and it was great fun.  DJ Schwenk is like Josephine Alibrandi, a voice leaping off the page, a first person narrator who keeps you reading.  Like Josie, she's not always reliable - reflecting how her understanding changes over the course of the summer.  Her family owns a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and with her two elder brothers having decamped to football camps (they're both star players), her father being injured, her mother working two other jobs and her younger brother collecting skulls and playing sport, much of the farm work falls on DJ's shoulders.  Then the coach of a rival town's football team, and a family friend, suggests that DJ should coach one of his players who can also help on the farm.

There's a sequel: The Off Season.

Fiction Friday: graphic novels

We're about to put our graphic novels in a separate section - some manga, bought this year, but also Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows, and Shaun Tan's The Arrival, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  Be interesting to see how it goes.  My plan for next year is to have students who like manga form some sort of advisory committee to make suggestions for additions.  The Children's Bookshop in Beecroft is one specialist bookseller making a particular effort to learn about manga so it can advise teacher librarians.  Their suggestion is not to go deep in one series, but thin and broad, a few from many, to meet the widest range of user interests.  Realistically, I'm not sure that a school library can fully support every manga reader's every wish, given the volume/frequency of issue; unlike what one tries to do with popular fiction series such as Ranger's Apprentice, Redwall and Twilight, to name just three, where you do try to stock all titles.

It was therefore thought provoking to find this article from the Guardian in the UK, about a US graphic novel venture aimed at teenage girls that hasn't worked: and that one of the main issues may have been quality.

A quote from the article (which is by Ned Beauman):

 Although it does have some big hits, the manga industry is mostly a triumph of market segmentation: among the thousands of titles published every year in Japan, there is something for every conceivable taste. Coming out of this giant, delirious laboratory, a popular title may keep up such an intimate dialogue with its specific teenage audience that it is almost unintelligible to anyone else.


Discovered via Read Alert.  Image source: the Guardian article .

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Fiction Friday: gnus and lynx

A tad late (Fiction Saturday, anyone?), a few fiction-related snippets.

Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl books, will be writing a sixth and final book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.  Read more here.

The chilling children’s tales of R. L. Stine are to be turned into a film series to rival the Harry Potter movies. Well, that's how the article starts.  Read more here.

Find video of the New York release party for Brisingr, including a speech from Christopher Paolini, on the Suvudu blog here.  Note: video is YouTube, which may not work if you're on a school-based computer.  We've got a waiting list for Brisingr and  our library's copies will be zooming out on loan early next week.  One kid's been asking for DAYS when it will be available, even though I explained (each time) about embargoes and special release dates...he can't wait to read it.

To know that Where the Wild Things Are is 22nd on the current Amazon.com children's books bestseller list (whoo-eeee there's a lot of Stephenie Meyer ahead of it) makes me a happy happy reader.  For children of a certain age, this is a book that just stills them and talks to the depth of their minds.  Again, they say, when you reach the end.  Read it again.  And I do.  There is a Spike Jonze film adaptation of this book due out in the US in October 2009.  More info on that here.

Currently, the most stolen books from our library (not a happy list to think on - our loss rate's usually pretty low and we do have a security system): unsurprisingly, Stephenie Meyer.  We're down two Twilights, one Eclipse and one The Host.  I hope they're hidden elsewhere in the library.... but we've decided to keep Meyers behind the counter for now, visible but having to be asked for, to deter other light fingered fans and preserve them for other borrowers, and have put a sign on the section of shelves where they'd normally be (it's handy to have the actual Twilight-cover font to play with - if you want all four Twilight fonts, here's my blog entry about them.).

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Fiction Friday: The story of the little mole who knew that it was none of his business

I run a high school library, and this is one of the most popular books in the place.  Juniors, seniors, the kids read it together, read it aloud, read and laugh and enjoy an experience they can only get from a book.

The mole, at the start of the book, acquires the head decoration you see here.  Yup, it's poo.  So he goes in determined search of the rotter what done it, consulting various experts along the way - most of whom helpfully demonstrate that it isn't their poo.

You can see the appeal - kids, poo, a marriage made in... well, made somewhere.  A guaranteed snigger, at worst, but this book is so much better than that.  It's just fun, and gets a chuckle from pretty much any kid (I've used it as a mood-changer).  And does the mole succeed?  Ah, read it and find out.

If your home library and school library don't have this one, buy it!

Image source:  The Book Depository.

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Fiction Friday: Cycler

Cycler is by Lauren McLaughlin, and I want to read it almost entirely (well, entirely) because of this blog entry from Scott Westerfeld (author of Peeps, Uglies etc). In it, he IM's with Lauren McLaughlin (what a great format/entry to show students as a type of text/review!). (If you're not sure what IM means, it's instant message - go look at the blog entry and All Will Be Clear).

I've read Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness several times and found it a challenging and vaguely unsettling read, uncovering as it does our innate expectations about gender. Sounds like this one could be another such exploration.

Here's the beginning of Scott Westerfeld's blog entry about the book:


Early last year, I got to read the unfinished manuscript of a book called Cycler, by Lauren McLaughlin. It was about a girl named Jill who has a problem: she changes into a boy four days a month.

Obviously, this isn’t the best way to go through puberty, what with all the identity issues and stuff. So with the help of her parents, she’s managed to keep her transformations hidden. In fact, she’s repressed her memories of being a boy to the point where her male self, Jack, has developed his own personality–and he’s very much a boy.

A boy who’s getting really tired of being hidden . . .

Needless to say, the book was really awesome, and I wound up blurbing it:

Artfully fractured and wickedly smart. A brilliant screwball comedy about love, self knowledge, and the secret identities inside all of us.

Picture from the blog entry.

Fiction Friday: Tales from Outer Suburbia

A teacher librarian friend said to me earlier this year, "You have to read this book."

I said, "Yes, sure.  It's by the guy who did The Arrival (last year's Picture Book of the Year).  I should read it."

I meant to.  For yonks, I meant to.  Recently, I did.

This teacher librarian says to you, dear blog reader, "If you haven't read this book, you have to read it."

Shaun Tan has an amazing imagination.   It works in all sorts of different, thoughtful, unexpected directions.  Sometimes the stories in this book will make you think.  Some will make you wonder.  The final double page spread of "Eric" had me smiling in delight, and sharing this story with anyone who came into the library that day whom I could collar for long enough to read it.  (I was halted by someone then borrowing it...)

The publisher's website page for this book sums it up thus:

Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.
 
I'd happily bought it for the school library.  Among its many possibilities, it could be used for related material for the HSC Area of Study: Belonging.  All of the stories are illustrated, but in a variety of different ways - the balance of text/illustration in telling each story depends on the story.
 
Enough of it being useful.  How much do I like it?  I went back and bought a copy for myself.
 
Read an extract here (.pdf)  It includes "Eric".  Consider yourself collared.
 
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