Blog Posts by Subject: Teen and Young Adult Literature

Last year I wrote a popular blog post entitled "OMG! I Love That Song!: A Guilty Pleasure Playlist" where I confessed my song shame only to find out that many of you shared the exact same musical taste. Than this past February, several of my choices also ended up winning Grammys. I should have named that blog "A Not-so-Guilty Pleasure Playlist" instead. This year this post is once again a "no judgment zone" and I am declaring my love for the songs that I have on constant replay and can't get out of my head. Chances are they're on your player too and if they're not they should be. Okay, now I'm judging you.

I can't say that I've always been the biggest poetry fan. But lately I've been getting into novels in verse, which have been popping up all over the YA Fiction scene for awhile now. Ellen Hopkins is the queen of this and if you've never read her work before, do yourself a favor and check out Crank as soon as possible. You will be hooked... freaked out... and hooked.

Every year the Young Adult Librarian Association (YALSA) awards the William C. Morris YA Debut Award for the best novel by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature. It is named for William Morris, a legend in children's and teen publishing who worked tirelessly promoting children's and teen literature and the importance of libraries.

The award honors books that have compelling or high quality writing, that have proven or potential appeal to teen readers and the integrity of the book as a whole. This past year I was honored to serve on the 2013 committee. It was a tough decision choosing a winner and four honor books but 

Cassie, a 6th grader, is an avid reader and has pretty much read everything worth reading in the Seward Park teen collection. In fact, to find her something she hasn't read usually takes a lot of effort — on both our parts. Her favorite genre? Supernatural romance. "You're not getting bored by it?" I ask. "Never! It's so interesting to see the connections between the human characters and the supernatural ones. Even if it's the same type of supernatural being there is always a different plot." That's not to say that she likes everything she reads. She definitely knows what she likes and what she doesn't like and she is always bringing books back and letting me 

The NYC Teen Author Fest is BACK, and the Mulberry Street Library is happy to host a panel with some of your favorite authors on Monday, March 18th at 6 p.m.! The panel's title is "I'll Take You There: A Change of Scenery, A Change of Self" and will focus on characters getting pushed into new places and forced to revel their true selves. Sounds pretty great! Take a look at the authors that are stopping by!

Browsing the shelves for a good book to read can be intimidating. There’s thousands of new books published every year and how do you know if a book is good anyway? It’s cover? Haha! Every year the Young Adult Library Association (YALSA) publishes lists of books that have been certified by librarians and readers as excellent reads. One of those annual lists is the Alex Awards. The Alex Awards are given to books that have been written for adults but have special appeal for teen readers. So if you are looking for great books that tackle complex subjects you’ve come to the right book list.

When I first saw a copy of Regine's Book: A Teen Girl's Last Words by Regine Stokke, my first thought was that this would be a great book to recommend to teenagers who are always looking for more books like Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" and other books that are both tragic and real.

The members of our Teen Advisory Group have spent many hours reading, watching, and reviewing so that they can recommend the best of the best to you. Here are some of their favorite things they enjoyed in 2012…

Lia lives in a world highlighted by food. Never mind her parent's divorce, or her friend Cassie's death of a ruptured esophagus for binging too much. None of that is important if she can control her food intake; hopefully, she will not pass out again at the wheel of a moving vehicle. Only problem is... her parents keep hospitalizing her. When she does not have enough energy to get medication for her sister; her stepmother shoves a gigantic oatmeal cookie in her face and tells her to stop being so selfish.

Okay, you're probably busy putting the finishing touches on your wizard's robe and/or brushing the hair on your furry hobbit's feet so that you will be as stylish as possible when you arrive at the movie theater to catch a midnight showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey later this month.

A is sixteen years old, and has never been the same person twice. Every morning, A wakes up in the body of a different sixteen-year-old: a boy, a girl, an athlete, an addict, a star student, a burnout. Then A falls in love, and things get REALLY complicated.

I'm sure you've heard of blockbuster movies, but have you read a blockbuster book? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary online, a blockbuster is one that is notably expensive, effective, successful, large or extravagant. For example, the Harry Potter series of books and movies were blockbusters. Other blockbusters from the past include The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and The Lightning Thief and other Percy Jackson and the Olympians books by Rick Riordan.

Shelter by Harlan Coben, 2011

Sniper by Theodore Taylor, 2007

Imagine lions and tigers in your backyard and a house cheetah to guard your family. Thanks to an endowment from a wealthy widow his parents met in Africa, this is Ben's home.

Part photography program. Part exploration of personal history. All teenagers. The American Teenager Project has combined photographic portraits with oral histories of hundreds of teenagers over the last several years, and now is the chance for YOU to participate in this unique program at the Kingsbridge Library in the Bronx.

Cas Lowood uses his father's blade to send ghosts out of this world and back to where they belong. Cas used to help his father with this task, but now his father is dead, murdered by one of those evil spirits. Cas has battled with many ghosts in his time, but when he meets a ghost named Anna, his unusual life takes an even more dangerous turn.

Booktalking Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff by Walter Dean Myers, 1975

Somehow he became known as "Stuff." Anyhow, one of the funniest things he ever observed was Cool Clyde, aka "Claudette" jiving with Fast Sam, who was "getting into his thing" on the dance floor in a competition. One by one, couples were asked to sit down by the announcer jovially saying, "Hey, hey. Let's give a big hand to..." and then he announced the couple's names. The pace of dancing would rise to a frenetic pace in the few seconds before the announcement, each couple throwing a few more daring moves in fervent hope that it would not be them to drop next. As 

A few years ago, I put together a list of my favorite back to school books. It was a list of fun books to read after all of the mandatory summer reading that you had to do. Over the last two years, I've read some more really great books with a common theme: transformation.

The Cruisers: Checkmate by Walter Dean Myers, 2011

Alexander, "Zander" for short, is a student at the elite Da Vinci Academy for the Gifted and Talented. There, he belongs to a club known as the Cruisers that publishes an alternative newspaper, The Palette. Each member of the Cruisers has a special talent. Kambui, Zander's best friend, is into photography. LaShonda designs clothing, Bobbi is fascinated with numbers, and Zander wants to be a writer.