Best YA Nonfiction of 2012

2012 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction finalists announced

What is the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Assocation) Award for Excellence in Nonfiction?

Each year YALSA selects a book that is considered the best nonfiction book for young adults published within the calendar year from a list of finalists. The winner will be announced January 28th along with other Youth Media Awards.

Critically acclaimed nonfiction author Deborah Hopkinson pieces together the story of the TITANIC and that fateful April night, drawing on the voices of survivors and archival photographs.

Scheduled to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the TITANIC, a topic that continues to haunt and thrill readers to this day, this book by critically acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the voices and stories of real TITANIC survivors and witnesses to the disaster -- from the stewardess Violet Jessop to Captain Arthur Rostron of the CARPATHIA, who came to the rescue of the sinking ship. Packed with heartstopping action, devastating drama, fascinating historical details, loads of archival photographs on almost every page, and quotes from primary sources, this gripping story, which follows the TITANIC and its passengers from the ship's celebrated launch at Belfast to her cataclysmic icy end, is sure to thrill and move readers.

Check out Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson here!

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

Bomb is a 2012 National Book Awards finalist for Young People’s Literature and a 2012 Washington Post Best Kids Books of the Year title.

Find out more in Bomb: The Race to Build -and Steal- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin when the library receives it this week!

Moonbird is a fascinating look at the life of rufa red knots in general and B95, one long-lived and tough little bird in particular, and the worldwide efforts to understand and save this subspecies of bird from extinction. Through maps, photos, and descriptions of his journey, the reader will fly with B95 from near the bottom of the world to the top and back again.

Check out Moonbird by Phillip Hoose here!


"Your time is limited. . . . have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."--Steve Jobs

From the start, his path was never predictable. Steve Jobs was given up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college after one semester, and at the age of twenty, created Apple in his parents' garage with his friend Steve Wozniack. Then came the core and hallmark of his genius--his exacting moderation for perfection, his counterculture life approach, and his level of taste and style that pushed all boundaries. A devoted husband, father, and Buddhist, he battled cancer for over a decade, became the ultimate CEO, and made the world want every product he touched.

Critically acclaimed author Karen Blumenthal takes us to the core of this complicated and legendary man while simultaneously exploring the evolution of computers. Framed by Jobs' inspirational Stanford commencement speech and illustrated throughout with black and white photos, this is the story of the man who changed our world.

Learn more about the co-creator of Apple in Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal here!

In 1963, the Civil Rights movement was falling apart. After a series of setbacks across the south, the movement was losing direction and momentum. No southern city was more divided than Birmingham, Alabama, home of the infamous Bull Connor. Dr. Martin Luther King conceived an ingenious plan: fill the Birmingham jails by arranging a series of public protests at which participants would be arrested as a result of their nonviolent action, paralyzing the city and drawing national and world attention to the horrors and injustices of segregation. But the stakes were too high for much adult participant in the movement: job loss, jailing, and quite possibly even death. Instead, against Dr. King's better judgment, young people led the protests.


Find out more about this exciting time in history in We've Got A Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson here!

Which book do you think will win? Let us know in comments.

Best new YA authors

2013 William C. Morris finalists are named

What is the William C. Morris award?

Each year the American Library Association selects a young adult book written by a previously unpublished author. The winner will be announced January 28th from this list of finalists.

  

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze!

But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave.

Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.

Check out Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby here!

Love is awkward, Amelia should know.

From the moment she sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heels infatuated with him. It's problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, is 15.

Amelia isn't stupid. She knows it's not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris—at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories, bantering about everything from classic books to B movies, and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. As time goes on, Amelia's crush doesn't seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together?

Through a year of befuddling firsts—first love, first job, first party, and first hangover—debut author Laura Buzo shows how the things that break your heart can still crack you up.   Find out what happens in Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo!
(The link to the book will be updated once the library receives their copy this week.)

  Fifteen-year-old Willo was out hunting when the trucks came and took his family away. Left alone in the snow, Willo becomes determined to find and rescue his family, and he knows just who to talk with to learn where they are. He plans to head across the mountains and make Farmer Geraint tell him where his family has gone.   But on the way across the mountain, he finds Mary, a refugee from the city, whose father is lost and who is starving to death. The smart thing to do would be to leave her alone -- he doesn't have enough supplies for two or the time to take care of a girl -- but Willo just can't do it. However, with the world trapped in an ice age, the odds of them surviving on their own are not good. And even if he does manage to keep Mary safe, what about finding his family?  

Discover the answer in After the Snow by S.D. Crockett here!

When Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.

But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship--one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self--even if she's not exactly sure who that is.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

Check out The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth here!

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they've turned the final page.

Check out Seraphina, the first book in a new series by Rachel Hartman here!

Which book do you think will win? Let us know in comments.

Holiday eBooks available!

Check out these holiday eBooks today!

Make every Christmas a cookie craft Christmas! The holidays offer just the right combination of cold weather and family togetherness for cookie crafters to elevate their skills to showstopping new heights. With more than 60 new Christmas cookie designs, along with festive New Year's cookies and lovely Hanukkah treats, Cookie Craft Christmas delivers colorful inspiration to cookie decorators just when they need it most.

Each spread features a full-page, close-up photograph of one cookie cutter shape with detailed decorating instructions on the facing page. Some pages feature one gloriously decorated cookie, while others might feature two or three interpretations of the same shape — ornaments in complementary colors, Christmas trees decorated in varying styles, or gingerbread men wearing a rainbow of colors and patterns.

Decorating instructions are as simple as tinting cookie dough green before baking Christmas trees or as intricate as piping hair on a gingerbread grandma, creating a frilly pattern for her apron, and decorating her dress using a pretty feathering technique. Techniques are described in full in a Decorating Glossary, and cookie and icing recipes are included.

Fresh inspiration and fabulous decorating ideas fill the pages of this handy little sourcebook. It's the perfect gift for anyone who has ever picked up a pastry bag.

Get those Christmas cookies started with Cookie Craft Christmas by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer here!

The magic of the holidays comes alive all year long with these delightful and delicious decorated cakes from the author of Fabulous Party Cakes and Cupcakes. In her new book, Carol Deacon's incredible cake designs run the gamut of seasonal holidays to provide that special touch that only a personally baked and decorated cake brings to the table. Deacon shows you how to create 21 fabulous cakes, including Christmas cakes, Halloween cakes, Valentine's Day cakes, Easter cakes, and cakes to fit any other occasion.

The step-by-step instructions ensure that all the cakes and cupcakes will be easy to make and become the frosted focus of your holiday celebration. Each cake has a matching cupcake design that can be made as an accompaniment to the cake or, if you wish, on their own as the stars of the occasion in their own right.

Deacon also shares her winning cake baking recipes so that your holiday cakes will taste as wonderful as they look. So make the most of your next holiday by creating a cake that will impress and delight your family and friends.

Start your own Cupcake Wars! with Holiday Cakes and Cupcakes by Carol Deacon here!

Bangers and mash with Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Hogwarts dining hall.


A proper cuppa tea and rock cakes in Hagrid's hut.

Cauldron cakes and pumpkin juice on the Hogwarts Express.

With this cookbook, dining a la Hogwarts is as easy as Banoffi Pie! With more than 150 easy-to-make recipes, tips, and techniques, you can indulge in spellbindingly delicious meals drawn straight from the pages of your favorite Potter stories, such as:

•Treacle Tart—Harry's favorite dessert
•Molly's Meat Pies—Mrs. Weasley's classic dish
•Kreacher's French Onion Soup
•Pumpkin Pasties—a staple on the Hogwarts Express cart

With a dash of magic and a drop of creativity, you'll conjure up the entrées, desserts, snacks, and drinks you need to transform ordinary Muggle meals into magical culinary masterpieces, sure to make even Mrs. Weasley proud!

Accio The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz here!

Check out other eBooks and audiobooks at Great Lakes Digital Libraries - free!

Kill Switch

Some things are best left forgotten. A gripping account of espionage and loyalty from National Book Award Finalist Chris Lynch.

All Daniel wants to do is spend one last summer with his grandfather before he moves away for college and his grandfather’s dementia pulls them apart. But when his dear old Da starts to let things slip about the job he used to hold—people he’s killed, countries he’s overthrown—old work “friends” show up to make sure he stays quiet. Was his grandfather really involved in a world of assassinations and coups, or are the stories just delusions of a crumbling mind? On the run from the police (and possibly something worse) before he has time to find out, Daniel may have to sacrifice everything to protect his grandfather from those who would do him harm.  

Check out Kill Switch by Chris Lynch here!

Reached is here!

The final book in Ally Condie's Matched trilogy is here!

After leaving Society and desperately searching for the Rising—and each other—Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again: Cassia has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again.

In this gripping conclusion to the #1 New York Times-bestselling Matched trilogy, Cassia will reconcile the difficulties of challenging a life too confining, seeking a freedom she never dreamed possible, and honoring a love she cannot live without.

 

Check out Reached by Ally Condie here!

Thanksgiving Closures

The Library will be closed November 22-26 for Thanksgiving.

Have a great holiday!

"Finale" is here!

Will love conquer all?

Nora and Patch thought their troubles were behind them. Hank is gone and they should be able to put his ugly vendetta to rest. But in Hank's absence, Nora has become the unwitting head of the Nephilim and must finish what Hank began. Which ultimately means destroying the fallen angels - destroying Patch.

Nora will never let that happen, so she and Patch make a plan: lead everyone to believe they have broken up, and work the system from the inside. Nora will convince the Nephilim that they are making a mistake in fighting the fallen angels, and Patch will find out everything he can from the opposing side. They will end this war before it can even begin.

But the best-laid plans often go awry. Nora is put through the paces in her new role and finds herself drawn to an addictive power she never anticipated.

As the battle lines are drawn, Nora and Patch must confront the differences that have always been between them and either choose to ignore them or let them destroy the love they have always fought for.
   

   

Find out in the final book in Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush series: Finale here!

Buried Treasures

Through the captivating images of acclaimed photographer Stéphane Compoint, Buried Treasures takes readers on a worldwide exploration with today's most esteemed archaeologists as they search for traces of civilizations presumed lost forever and ancient animals that once roamed the earth.

Mysterious colossal statues found on a remote Pacific island, a mythic bear covered in blue fur, a whole city wiped out by a volcano--these are just a few of the amazing discoveries showcased here. From sweltering deserts to the frigid North Pole to an ancient, underwater city, readers will follow scientists as they uncover the secrets of our past. Whether it's been dug up, lifted out of the water, or reimagined from extensive research, each of these treasures is a testament to the wealth and diversity of cultures that have come before and that have shaped ours.  

Find out about blue bears, the lost lighthouse of Alexandria, and the largest land mammal to have ever lived in Buried Treasures: Uncovering Secrets of the Past by Stéphane Compoint!

Blues & Chocolate Fundraiser tonight!

Tickets are available at the Library and the Butler Theatre!

Call 906-486-4381 for more information.

P.C. & Kristin Cast live chat tonight!

Live Video Chat with P.C. & Kristin Cast tonight at 7pm ET on Goodreads!

Join Goodreads today at 7pm ET/4pm PT for a live video chat with bestselling authors P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast! They'll be discussing their new book Hidden (House of Night #10), as well as their previous work, and their lives as bestselling writers. The chat will last about a half an hour, and will be archived for later viewing if you miss it.

Click here to join the chat!

Neferet’s true nature has been revealed to the Vampyre High Council, so Zoey and the gang might finally get some help in defending themselves and their beloved school against a gathering evil that grows stronger every day. And they’ll need it, because Neferet’s not going down without a fight. Chaos reigns at the House of Night.

Click here to check out Hidden (House of Night #10) by P.C. and Kristin Cast!



It's Banned Books Week!

Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading a banned book!

Printz Award-winning author John Green speaks out against censorship.

Check out the book mentioned in the video, Looking for Alaska, which won the 2006 Michael A. Printz award for young adult literature, here!

For John's other books click on a title below:

An Abundance of Katherines

The Fault in Our Stars

Paper Towns

Will Grayson, Will Grayson with author David Levithan

DFTBA!

Vote!

The Vlogbrothers (John and Hank Green) remind us of the importance of voting!

Curious about voting? Check out these books for more information:

• Choosing the President, 2004: A Citizen's Guide to the Electoral Process by League of Women Voters
• The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen (audiobook)
• See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race to the White House by Susan E. Goodman
• Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom by Sue Macy

Look for more information on voting closer to November!





New from James Patterson!

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.


On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?  

Check out the first book in this thrilling new series: Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro here!

Sequel Alert!

A SCARY funny book or a FUNNY scary book? You decide!

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.

With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?  

Read the first book in this hilarious series here!      

*Book Two just released!*

Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride

With the defeat of the evil Douglas behind him, Sam LaCroix is getting used to his new life. Okay, so he hadn’t exactly planned on being a powerful necromancer with a seat on the local magical council and a capricious werewolf sort-of-girlfriend, but things are going fine, right?

Well . . . not really. He’s pretty tired of getting beat up by everyone and their mother, for one thing, and he can’t help but feel that his new house hates him. His best friend is a werebear, someone is threatening his sister, and while Sam realizes that he himself has a lot of power at his fingertips, he’s not exactly sure how to use it. Which, he has to admit, is a bit disconcerting.

But when everything starts falling apart, he decides it’s time to step up and take control. His attempts to do so just bring up more questions, though, the most important of which is more than a little alarming: Is Douglas really dead?  

Continue this favorite series of Jesse and Kelly with book two here!  



TTT: All These Things I've Done

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

Engrossing and suspenseful, All These Things I've Done is an utterly unique, unputdownable read that blends both the familiar and the fantastic.

Be sure to check out All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

Vote now! All votes must be received by TOMORROW, September 15th!

TTT: How to Save a Life

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Jill MacSweeney just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she’s been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends—everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she’s somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it’s like to grow up unwanted—to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she’s sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It’s harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy—or as difficult—as it seems.

Be sure to check out How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

Votes must be in by tomorrow, September 15th!

TTT: The Scorpio Races

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Be sure to check out The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

Votes must be in by September 15th!

TTT: Between Shades of Gray

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

Be sure to check out Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

Votes must be in by September 15th!

TTT: Divergent

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Be sure to check out Divergent by Veronica Roth, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

Votes must be in by September 15th!

TTT: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. Fiction is based on real black and white photographs. The death of grandfather Abe sends sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and explores abandoned bedrooms and hallways. The children may still live.

Be sure to check out Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

Votes must be in by September 15th!

TTT: Across the Universe

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Be sure to check out Across the Universe by Beth Revis, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: This Dark Endeavor

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures...until the day their adventures turn all too real. They stumble upon The Dark Library, and secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies are discovered. Father forbids that they ever enter the room again, but this only peaks Victor's curiosity more. When Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is not be satisfied with the various doctors his parents have called in to help. He is drawn back to The Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life. Elizabeth, Henry, and Victor immediately set out to find assistance in a man who was once known for his alchemical works to help create the formula.

Determination and the unthinkable outcome of losing his brother spur Victor on in the quest for the three ingredients that will save Konrads life. After scaling the highest trees in the Strumwald, diving into the deepest lake caves, and sacrificing one’s own body part, the three fearless friends risk their lives to save another.

Be sure to check out This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: A Monster Calls

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Be sure to check out A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

New books today!

UnWholly (Unwind #2) by Neal Shusterman

It’s finally here. The long-awaited sequel to the bestselling Unwind, which Publishers Weekly called a “gripping, brilliantly imagined futuristic thriller.”


Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simltaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

You'll have to check it out for more; I don't want to include spoilers!

If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.
Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.
Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Check out If I Lie here!

The Girl Who Owned a City: The Graphic Novel by O.T. Nelson, adapted by Dan Jolley, illustrated by Joelle Jones, colored by Jenn Manley Lee

A deadly virus killed every adult on Earth, leaving only us kids behind. My parents are gone, so I'm responsible for my little brother, Todd. I have to make sure we stay alive. Many kids are sick or starving, and fierce gangs are stealing and destroying everything they find. Lots of people have given up, but here on Grand Avenue, some of us are surviving. Because of me.
I figured out how to give the kids on Grand Avenue food, homes, and protection against the gangs. But Tom Logan and his army are determined to take away what we've built and rule the streets themselves. How long can we keep fighting them off? We need to find another place for us to live safely. A strong place. A secret place.

In a world like this, someone has to take charge. But do I have the strength to take charge of a whole city?

Jesse gave it 5/5 stars. Check it out here!

TTT: Shine

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.

Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.

Be sure to check out Shine by Lauren Myracle, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: Cinder

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Be sure to check out Cinder by Marissa Meyer, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: Hourglass

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may also change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Be sure to check out Hourglass by Myra McEntire, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: Legend

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee


What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel is sure to move readers as much as it thrills.

Be sure to check out Legend by Marie Lu, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: Page by Paige

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Paige Turner has just moved to New York with her family, and she's having some trouble adjusting to the big city. In the pages of her sketchbook, she tries to make sense of her new life, including trying out her secret identity: artist. As she makes friends and starts to explore the city, she slowly brings her secret identity out into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding.

Laura Lee Gulledge crafts stories and panels with images that are thought-provoking, funny, and emotionally resonant. Teens struggling to find their place can see themselves in Paige's honest, heartfelt story.

Praise for Page by Paige

“Gulledge's b&w illustrations are simple but well-suited to their subject matter; the work as a whole is a good-natured, optimistic portrait of a young woman evolving toward adulthood.” –Publishers Weekly

Be sure to check out Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!



Summer Reading Survey

Summer Reading ends today!

Our Teen Summer Reading wrap-up party is today @ 2pm!

Stop by for our prize drawings, including the Grand Prize of a Samsung Galaxy Player, Skullcandy headphones, and an awesome speaker/carrycase!

We hope you had fun this summer reading lots of great books!

Please let us know what you thought about the program by taking this super short survey here.

Thank you!

Also: Stop by this September for Banned Books Month! Programming will be announced on this blog, so make sure to check back!

TTT: The Fault in Our Stars

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Be sure to check out The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: Eona

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee


Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon's army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona's power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled "Emperor" Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power - and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . .

Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama and romance, its unforgettable fight scenes, and its surprises, is the conclusion to an epic only Alison Goodman could create.

Be sure to check out Eona by Alison Goodman, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!

TTT: Scarlet

YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

Be sure to check out Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen, vote for it (if it's your favorite), and view the rest of the nominees!