Blog Posts by Subject: Teen and Young Adult Literature

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it still make a sound? If somebody insults Will Halpin and he isn’t reading that person’s lips, does it still count as an insult?

Once again the dog days of summer are here, and what better way to cool off than at your local library. Our summer reading kickoff is a memory where a good time was had by all. We are really fortunate to have such talented branch supporters who helped us with the festivities. Thanks to Celeste, a local artist, balloon animals were given to each child who registered for summer reading. In addition, an awesome college student and former teen advisory member, Laura, was a huge hit with some fabulous face painting.

Talullah Casey is off to change her life in a very different environment. She’s going to be taking classes at a performing arts college. She will be living on the dramatic, damp, and windswept Yorkshire Dales where she can pretend to be Cathy looking for her Heathcliff. And yes, there will be snogging involved.

Let's keep the momentum of NYC's 2012 Gay Pride Parade going with a list of LGBTQ-themed books for young adults. New and old, NYPL has titles your teens are going to love, if they don't already. Please feel free to add recommendations or additions in the comments.

I started summer 2012 seeing One Direction, not once but TWICE in concert! Let me just say this: they were AWESOME! I could go on and on (and on, just ask my friends) about my favorite four British boys and one Irish boy, but I won’t. I could talk loads about Harry’s accent, Niall’s laugh and Louis’s trousers but I will stop myself and instead mention that NYPL has bought their journal memoir Dare to Dream! As we wait patiently for it to arrive and listen to Up All Night on replay, here are some novels filled with charming, brooding, floppy haired British and Irish boys. 

Anya moved from Russia to America years ago, but even though she lost weight and lost her accent, she still has a lot of trouble making friends.  And then one day she has an accident that changes her life.  That’s the day she meets the ghost of a girl named Emily.

We were lucky enough to have a game show and discussions with teen authors about dystopias and apocalypses and whether or not we would have the strength to survive them. The event was held at the Margaret Berger Forum in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library. It was hosted by Chris Shoemaker, Young Adult Programming Specialist for NYPL. Refreshments were served afterwards, and teens signed up to participate in the games ahead of time. Music entertained the audience prior to the event. Many people showed up to try their luck at a game show and hear from the teen authors.

Black Storm Comin'  by Diane Lee Wilson, 2005 

12-year-old Colton first becomes entranced by the Pony Express when travelling in the 1860 westward expansion on a wagon train. A horse and clinging boy sped past him and did not look back. Got him to wonderin' what kind of excitement it would be to taste that speed and urgency. So, he tries his luck and gets hired (even tho' the manager would have preferred if he were 14 years old). And to prove his meddle, he tames a black demon. But that demon ends up waking Colton up when he was 'bout to die of hypothermia. Horse wasn't much to look at, but Colton says the following about 

Gravity by Leanne Lieberman, 2008

Ellie, a 15-year-old Orthodox Jew, is happy to go to Bubbie's (her grandmother's) cottage this summer to learn about the flora and fawna. There, she meets Lindsay, a beautiful, provocative blond girl, whom Ellie is attracted to. Unlike boys, whom she is supposed to like, Ellie is captivated by Lindsay. They swim together in a canoe, and she visits Lindsay at her cottage.

If you are a huge fan of The Hunger Games Trilogy like I am, then The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook should be your next read. This book is filled with some of the most amazing dishes described within each novel (including Catching Fire and Mockingjay).

Jill’s father is gone, and her mother isn’t making sense anymore.

In the late hours of April 14th, 1912 and the early morning hours of April 15th, about 85 years before a dying Leo DiCaprio urged a freezing Kate Winslet to live, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk into the icy waters of the North Atlantic. In a matter of hours this “unsinkable” ship was on the bottom of the ocean and only 712 out of its 2,208 passengers would survive.  Since the news of the sinking first got out up to the present day, on the100th anniversary of the tragedy, there have been hundreds of stories about those who died, those who survived and what really happened on board that ship — real and imagined. What trick of fate 

A Horse for Mandy by Lurlene McDaniel, 1981

The kids in my Teen Advisory Group have been going through a reviewing frenzy recently. Here are some of the books and other “stuff” they’ve been enjoying this spring.

Firehorse by Diane L. Wilson, 2010

Imagine a world where horses pull fire engines, hoses and firemen, galloping to fight fires and save lives. Imagine a place where "ready-made" clothes are the talk of the town, and women gasp at the prices, where dalmatians nip at the heels of horses to make way for the fire horses, where a working "woman writer" at the Bostonian newspaper Argus is scandalous, and Rachel's father wonders who is taking care of the children, and who is cooking for her husband. The women of the family counter that he does not even know if she's married. Girls are not supposed to witness births, get dirty, 

Axe Cop is a policeman who uses his axe to chop off the heads of bad guys. He meets many unusual characters along the way. 

There’s Dinosaur Soldier, who was part man and part dinosaur… until he ate an avocado, at which point he transformed into Avocado Soldier. 

We were fortunate enough to have Mark Siegel at the Bronx Library Center on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at a TeenLIVE at the NYPL event. Siegel works for First Second. He wrote Moving House, Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta, and illustrated To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel.

We were lucky to have Tyra Banks at a TeenLIVE from the NYPL event on September 25, 2011.

I guess I actually have to admit that I had not heard of Banks before this event, or it had not quite clicked, that she was a supermodel and host of a TV show, America's Next Top Model. And, no, I have not been living under a rock. I did some preliminary research prior to attending this event, and I looked at her web page. The reaction she got from the teens at the "library with the lions" left no doubt about the fact that they knew exactly who she was.

Happy New Year from TeenLIVE! For our first TeenLIVE event in 2012, we were lucky enough to hear from teen author and activist Gaby Rodriguez about her book, The Pregnancy Project. Seeing the effect of teen pregnancy on her family and peers, the straight A student decided to stage a pregnancy for a senior project at school to combat stereotypes and gossip. The day after she revealed that her pregnancy was, in fact, fake, her life was blown into a media whirlwind! News outlets swarmed her small town of Toppenish, Washington, and less than a year later, she’s flying across the country to Hollywood and New York City for talk show and radio appearances, book signings and