Great Graphic Novels for Teens

This past weekend and early this week, librarians from across the country met in Dallas to talk books and libraries. YALSA (the Young Adult Library Association) releases committee created lists on materials published in the past year that are for teens. There's the Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers List, the Best Fiction for Young Adults List, and the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list that I use every year to pick up the handful of titles that I may have missed while ordering.


This year's Great Graphic Novels list left me feeling rather blah about the list. It's not that it's a bad list, because it is a good list of quality graphic novels. It just isn't a list people should order willy nilly from since it doesn't feel it took popularity into consideration at all which teen appeal is part of the criteria for the inclusion on the list. Maybe I'm being too hard on the list--maybe the most popular graphic novels of 2011 weren't nominated. Maybe the committee decided not to consider books from the middle of a series. I don't know. I wasn't on the committee. All I know is that if I ordered the vast majority of these titles, I'd be weeding them out of my library system in two years with very little if any circulations.



Now that I've vented--I thought I'd share the titles from the list we do own and think will have appeal--as well as gave you some of the comments that my teens in the Ani-Manga Club made about the titles in general.


First up--Gandhi: A Manga Biography by Kazuki Ebine. When I mentioned this title--the comments were: Who is he? Is he Indian? Was he Buddha? Weirdly enough they were flummoxed by the idea of nonfiction manga.


Feynman by Jim Ottaviani. The synopsis provided by YALSA reads "The life and times of the world's smartest man." One teen's response was "I thought Sheldon Cooper was the smartest man alive." (FYI--Sheldon Cooper is a character on the Big Bang Theory)


Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol. All about a girl who befriends a ghost at her school. This was one of the titles picked up and browsed through by a teen at yesterday's meeting.


Laddertop by Orson Scott Card and Emily Janice Card. A manga style space school story. I thought it might have some appeal to the teens in the program, but not really. I don't think it was the artwork, but more my teens weren't into the whole space school idea.


Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge. New girl in town Paige uses her sketchbook to make sense of her new life. This one was also picked up at the program to take home.


Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato. Finally a manga that actually is popular on this list!!! Uber popular, this is a great action shonen title.


Mangaman by Barry Lyga and Colleen Doran. Basic premise: manga character falls into the real world and tries to survive the typical American high school life. I wanted to like it, but as one teen told me, "The artwork is really busy."


Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori. I love this one, but the teen appeal is lacking in it. Seriously how many teens do you know really want to read a book about a 19th century arranged marriage?


Axe Cop by Malachai Nicolle and Ethan Nicolle. This is what happens when an artist asks his young brother what the story should be--an axe wielding cop with a dinosaur sidekick. This one was passed around by several of the guys in the ani-manga club yesterday.


Wandering Son by Takako Shimura. This gentle story is about a boy who wants to be a girl and a girl who wants to be a boy. Personally, I haven't read another book that is so well done in it's depiction. But the teens in my group called it "Boring!" :(




Bad Island by Doug TenNapel. Family vacation becomes a shipwreck survival story. Bold colorful artwork stood out to the teens yesterday.

Bake Sale by Sara Varon. Cupcake and his best friend Eggplant run a bakery together. This is a fun title, but feels young to me.

Ruse: The Victorian Guide to Murder by Mark Waid. This is a reissue of a long out of print detective story that I adored when it first came out. Think Sherlock Holmes with a female assistant who's smart and hiding special powers. I think more teens will find this one since the Sherlock Holmes films have been popular.

So that's just a handful of the titles. Next up the Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers. I always end up having issues with them too! :)

Teens' Top Ten

Every year in the libraryland we celebrate Teen Read Week, an annual encouragement to teens to read for fun. This year the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) announced the winners of Teens' Top Ten to kick off the week. What is Teens' Top Ten you ask? A select group of teens nominate their favorite books from the last year. Then in April YALSA releases the nominees so teens can read them over the summer. Then in August and September teens vote online for their overall favorites.



This year's winner is Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel.
The first book in her Infernal Devices series is set in Victorian London. Tessa follows her brother to London after he mysteriously stops communicating to her and her search leads her into London's supernatural underworld. This series is the prequel to the Mortal Instruments series.

To be perfectly honest, I tried to read this book. I really wanted to like it. I really really did. I love the whole steampunk/supernatural elements. I just could not finish it. I kept putting it aside for another book and then another book and then... You get the picture. Maybe it's time for me to try it again--especially because the sequel is coming out soon (Clockwork Prince 12/2011)!


So the rest of the Top ten titles are below. Which ones were your favorites? What book missed the mark for you or is missing from this list?

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Matched by Ally Condie

Angel: A Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Congratulations to Cassandra Clare and the other honorees!

Teen's Top Ten

Self-proclaimed Manga Goddess, Kristin, is on vacation this week, but she asked me to blog this very important news---

Today YALSA announced the 2010 Teens' Top Ten list! More than 8,000 teens voted for their favorite book from the past year, and WWE star, Eve, announced the winning titles this morning. See if your favorite book made the list. See if your most hated book made the list. We'd love to hear what you think of the list, so comment away if you so desire.

And the winners are. . . drum roll please. . . . .

1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
2. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
3. Heist Society by Ally Carter
4. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
5. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
6. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
7. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
9. Fire by Kristin Cashore
10. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Hmm, I do believe this list features mostly female main characters. I haven't read them all so I could be mistaken. Thoughts on that? I have read #1, #4, #8, #9 and #10. Looks like I need to read some more. . .

So you have to read something and you don't like to read...

then this booklist is for you. Every year, YALSA creates the Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers booklist. Now, I'm not a fan of the title of the booklist, but it is essentially a list of books that were published the previous year that teens will pick up on their own and read and is geared towards the teen reader who just doesn't typically read. Think of all those teens who read Harry Potter or Twilight but would never call themselves readers and you have the main audience for this list. That doesn't mean teens who consider themselves readers won't enjoy these books, because trust me, they will.

So here's a handful of titles that I think may grab attention from the booklist. If you want to see the full list, click on the link above. And if you want to know what titles the library owns, later this week I will be finishing a bookmark that can be found in the teen area at Foothills.

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen
After living in an underground compound for the past six years that his father built to protect them from a nuclear holocaust, Eli discovers that his father has been lying about the world this whole time.

Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi
Maddy forms a manga club at her school and falls in love through an online roleplaing game.

Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez
Daisy attempts to be normal in a family of psychic detectives.

The Good Neighbors by Holly Black
Gritty fantasy author Black tries her hand at writing for a graphic novel with success. Rue thinks she's going crazy seeing things that couldn't possibly be real--could they?

Falling Hard by Betsy Franco
100 poems written by teens about love in their own world.

The Manga Cookbook
How to make all those yummy dishes found in manga.

Appetite for Detention by Sloan Tanen
The typical teenage experiences--told in photographs with pipe cleaner chickens. Hilarious.

So there they are, my highlights of the list. Of course, there are plenty more to choose from in the complete list. Next post? Who knows what it'll be on!

Best Book for Young Adults

Every year, a YALSA committee creates the Best Books for Young Adult (BBYA) List. They read a massive amount of books for this committee. 224 books were nominated for the list with 86 books making the final list. Of those 86 titles, the Glendale Public Library owned most of them already which always makes me very happy since I do a large part of the ordering. Every year, I create an in-house bibliography and a webliography to go along with the final booklist YALSA creates. Then I do a display promoting these books. My created booklist only contains the titles the library owns already, so it's not the completed BBYA list plus I use the library catalog synopses instead of the YALSA committee created ones. Oh, and if you go to the webliography, it will connect you directly to the library catalog so you can put the books on hold.

Anyway, here are some of the titles that I think teens will not only enjoy, but are also well written titles. So no, Gossip Girl will not be on the list. Even one of my favorites of last year, Sunrise over Fallujah didn't make the final cut.

Do you like Historical Fiction? Try these:

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Slave girl spies for the rebels in the Revolutionary War

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce
Charlotte tries to save her family's mill against mortgage and curses when a man who can spin straw into gold comes into her life.

How about nonfiction?

No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin
In their own voices, inmates sentenced to death as teens talk about their lives in prison.

What the World Eats by Peter Menzel
25 families in 21 countries with one week of food surround them in these portraits.

Fancy a Realistic Science Fiction Book?

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Future North America, government maintains control through televised competition that pits teens against one another.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
A terrorist attack in San Francisco has created a police state and Marcus decides to use his hacking skills to make things right.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
A teen girl recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses learns a startling illegal secret about her very existence.

Want some gritty fiction?

Kendra by Coe Booth
Kendra longs to live with her mother who couldn't deal with motherhood at fourteen.

Paper Towns by John Green
Q basks in normal life until the fabulous Margo takes him on a midnight adventure and then disappears.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Here's the synopsis from YALSA--much better than the library catalog's! Abducted at the age of ten, Alice has lived as a sex partner for Ray for 5 years until he informs her that she’s "too old" for his love.

Hopefully that will give you some more reading suggestions for the week. Later on I'll post about quick picks and popular paperbacks!

The Book Version of the Oscars

Okay, so we don't get all dressed up and have a red carpet to walk down, but the Monday morning of the ALA Midwinter Conference is the morning that the big announcements are made. It's the morning that we all wait with anticipation to find out who won the Printz, Newbery, Caldecott, and other book related awards. Since this is the teen book blog, I'll start with the Printz award. This award is given to the book that "exemplifies literary excellence." It must be written and published for teens in the US the previous year (2008). This year's winner was quite a surprise to me. I didn't go into the program thinking that a particular book was a sure thing unlike a few years ago when Looking for Alaska by John Green won. I was pretty sure that I knew one or two of the honor titles though.

This year's Printz Award goes to... (drum roll, please) Jellicoe Road by Melina Marvetta. Seeing as I haven't read a new book except for reviewing purposes this year, I haven't read it yet. But here's the synopsis the library has for the novel. Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia. So now I'm going to be number 6 on the holds list for this book, unless I scrounge up a copy I got at ALA Annual this past summer...

Now the Printz committee, consisting of 9 librarians across the nation, also select honor books. This year's honor books (which I got one right!)were:

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

There were plenty other awards announced at this program. For the full list of winners check out the YALSA website--especially the Morris Award which was awarded for the first time this year and is for the best debut book.

Moving away from teen stuff for a moment, I'd also like to mention the Newbery Award. This is the award most people are aware of--best literary book for children 8-14 years of age. For the past few months, the Newbery award has come under fire for choosing books that are liked by librarians and adults, but not children. Part of me thinks that they may have chosen this year's winner to counter-act this debate, but for whatever reason they decided to give the award to a favorite writer of both children and adults alike and I couldn't be happier.

The winner of the John Newbery Award is Neil Gaiman for his novel The Graveyard Book. Congratulations, Mr. Gaiman! We were very excited to hear your name announced as the winner. If you want to hear his story of his own reaction, check out his blog. By the way, if you don't follow his blog, I highly suggest you start! It's great.

Anyway, I suppose those are the major announcements you readers would be most interested in. In the upcoming days, I'll be blogging about the different selection lists that YALSA committee members created at the midwinter conference, so there will be plenty more reading options to come!

The Printz Award

On Monday, I went to the Printz Award reception. There the honorees and winner of the Printz Award presented their acceptance speeches. A variety of book genres and accents were represented with the winners. The honorees were from New Zealand, Australia, and two from America (one with a Southern accent). The winner was from the United Kingdom. The honorees were a nonfiction title, a fantasy, a black comedy, and a realistic fiction book. The winner was a survival story. What a variety! There's something for everyone in this year's list of winners!

The first honoree of the evening was Judith Clarke. She was honored for her book, One Whole and Perfect Day. This book focuses on families. Lily has an eccentric family and when preparing for her grandfather's 80th birthday celebration, she just wants them to be normal for one day. But of course, that's really too much to ask for! Ms. Clarke was unable to attend the reception, but she sent a video that I hope will be available later on for other people to view.

The fantasy winner was Elizabeth Knox for her second book in the Dreamhunter Duet called Dreamquake. This New Zealander has a fabulous accent. Seriously, I just wanted to listen to her talk nonstop! I don't know many people who have read this book or the first one in the series, but hopefully this award will grab some people's attention! This fantasy delves into dream worlds which has always fascinated me...

The next author who won a Printz honor award was Stephanie Hemphill. She won for Your Own, Syvlia. The author writes a wonderful nonfiction book about the life of the famous and tragic poet, Sylvia Plath. And she does it in verse. When Ms. Hemphill spoke she began her speech in verse which made me want to listen to her so much more! Karen wrote about this book when it first came out, so after you read this post, make sure to read Karen's take on this book! I have a soft spot for Sylvia Plath, so I'm always happy that there are writers who love her too.

The final honor book was awarded to A.M. Jenkins for Repossessed. Out of all the books that won this evening, this is the title I was most excited about. Repossessed is the type of book that no one really ever thinks has a chance to win a literary award (or an Oscar if it was a movie for that matter). Funny books simply aren't taken as seriously as those realistic fiction titles. Ms. Jenkins' last three books have had a supernatural slant to them --ghost story, vampires, and this one, fallen angels. Kiernan is a demon--working in the depths of hell, day in, day out for years--so he leaves hell. A vacation of sorts and inhabits the body of a 17 year old boy and learns all the little things about life. Karen also wrote about this one, so go check out her thoughts!

The winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for 2008 was Geraldine McCaughrean for White Darkness. This survival story is set in Antarctica as teenager, Symone, discovers that the man she thought was her uncle is obsessed. Karen wrote about this one too. Karen finished this book and nominated it for our Mock Printz award and told me that this was the book that was going to win. Some years we really have a good as to what book will win or at least get an honor. This year, I don't know of a single mock Printz group that called it. Except Karen. That's pretty impressive. Karen reads a lot and loves literary books, so if you're looking for book suggestions on that level--check out her posts. Not that the rest of us aren't as good as Karen! I don't want you (or her) to think that. We don't need to feed Karen's ego! ;)

Anyway, those were the winners that were announced in January. But I just heard their acceptance speeches last night at the ALA conference. I was told that they were going to be putting the acceptance speeches on YALSA's website at www.ala.org/yalsa. So keep an eye on that site and hopefully they'll be up soon!

American Library Association Annual Conference

So I'm currently at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Anaheim. I'm always exhausted when I get back from a conference, but this time it's been a little different. I think I've grown used to going on 4-6 hours of sleep instead of my usual 8-10; being gone from 8 am until midnight or later each day; and tyring to remember all the meetings I'm supposed to attend. When I first began participating in the Young Adult Library Association (YALSA), I was able to attend author signings, professional development programs, and meetings about the best books written for teens. This year I have only been able to attend my assigned committees (intellectual freedom --three of them; and popular paperbacks for young adults). But I have been able to meet loads of authors at dinners and receptions!

I adore meeting authors and hear them speak. Their passion about writing and their books make me want to go out and read them even more! Plus, I get their books signed for people...

So I thought I'd mention some of the authors I met this time around.

Probably my favorite was Neal Shusterman. When I first heard of his new book Unwind, I immediately was reminded of the argument my mother would say whenever we were fighting. "It's not too late to abort you!" This book is set after the second Civil War. Before the age of reason--thirteen, life is precious and untouchable. But those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others. Unwind follows three teens who aer trying not to be unwound. With my mom's threat in my mind, I find this book fascinatingly creepy. Mr. Shusterman was very kind and listened to people gush to him about his writing and signed my book with a personalization!

At the same dinner, I spoke about Ellen Hopkins' books' popularity with our teens in Phoenix. I am always amazed that teens will read not only these massive tomes of books, but also about such gritty and edgy topics in VERSE! But they do and they love her honesty in the books. Her newest book, Identical, delves into the topic of sexual abuse. The library hasn't ordered this yet, but look for this fall.

At another reception, I met Melissa de la Cruz. You know, the lady who writes the massively popular Blue Bloods series! She was nothing like i imagined her to be. A teen asked me to look for an advanced copy of book three in the series. I am sorry to say that they only had a preview of an excerpt of it. I did get it so that the teen would be able to have at least that!

The last author I'm going to mention in this post is the winner of the Margaret Edwards Award. This award is for the life time achievement of writing for young adults (you know, teens!). This year's winner is Orson Scott Card. I was really interested in what he would talk about since he doesn't really like to discuss his books as well as the fact that there was some controversy over having him as the winner. His book Ender's Game is one of the best coming of age science fiction story I've ever had the opportunity to read. But besides that, he is an extremely gracious man. I spoke with him when I had a book signed by him. I had him sign it for my nephew who is a teen. He and his father read the series together and over Thanksgiving, he told his grandfather that he thought he would enjoy them. So my father-in-law asks me for the whole series so he can discuss them with my nephew. Here is three generations reading the same book and each finding valuable things within it to discuss with one another. How amazing is that! I'd love to hear about more experiences like that. I love how books can reach different aged readers!

So, there were some of the authors I met at the conference. I also received many advanced copies of books that I think people are going to love! But since I'm going to be on vacation soon, Karen will most likely beat me to reading those!

School Visits

I think we're all catching up on our blogging! Emily's posted today, I'm going to post about a few different things, and maybe Karen will sneak one in too!

I love doing school visits. Well, let me rephrase that. I love doing school visits when I'm in the mood to do them! :) I've been trekking over to schools the past week or so to talk about the Teen Summer Reading Program. While there, I talk up a handful of books. Sometimes, the teens ask about specific types of books. (ie, "I love Twilight!!!--Squeee!" and then I mention L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries as a good book to read next) But most of the time, I use books to give the teens an example of what's expected from our book review forms they can fill out this summer. I thought that our readers of this blog may also like to know what I've been using!

The first one is Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers.

I reviewed this book several months ago for a library journal. So, I wasn't going to talk about it here. But I wanted to share to the classes a realistic fiction book that boys would enjoy. A companion book to Fallen Angels, Myers' Vietnam War novel, this novel can be read without knowing a single thing about Fallen Angels. Robin Perry is fresh out of high school and has enlisted in the military. It's 2003 and the Iraq War is about to begin. Perry receives minimal weapons training because he's a Civil Affairs soldier--the soldiers who come in after the fighting to help civilians. He's told that he'll be away from the fighting and he believes it until his hummer crosses the border of Iraq and he sees the body bags lined up. Welcome to Iraq.

This is the first Iraq War novel written for teens. Myers writes subtly and leaves a lot to the imagination of his readers. Unfortunately for me, I have a vivid imagination. So when Robin has to kill at close range, I envision the blood splatter. Those images will be different for every reader which is why this is a great title to booktalk. After my first day of presenting, I had people trying to buy the book off of me. I told them to come to the library...


The next books I talked up are ones from my assignments for the popular paperbacks committee for YALSA. I've already spoken about one in a previous post: The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. So I won't discuss that one again. One of my assigned themes is Spies and Intrigue. Think Stormbreaker or The Bourne Identity and you have a good idea what the theme is all about! This book, I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter is a fun grrl power book. Cammie is a Gallagher Girl, a student at the all-girls boarding school, Gallagher Academy. To the outside world, the school looks like a very elite and private school that pampers to the wealthy girls of the uppercrust. Once inside, you would discover that it is true--it's very elite and private and the school does pamper to a certain clientele. But that clientele isn't the welathy uppercrust. It pampers to the CIA, FBI, Interpol, MI6. That's right. All the students there are daughters of current or former spies and this school is training them to follow in their parents' footsteps. On her first covert op training mission, Cammie and two of her classmates must tail a professor to a town festival to find out what he drinks with funnel cakes. Her classmates are discovered and only Cammie finds out. As she reaches into the trash to pick up the empty glass bottle of Dr. Pepper, she realizes that she's been spotted by a teen boy. And what's worse--he starts to talk to her and possibly flirts with her. Between Cammie and her friends they decide to investigate him to find out if he's a mole sent to infiltrate the Gallagher Academy or is he just a teen boy looking for a girlfriend?

Fundamentally a relationship book, but has humor, action, and spy technology that makes this a great read for the summer. Oh, and Disney has optioned this for a movie. Who knows if or when it'll come out. But there you have it!

So there's a few of the books I booktalked for the past week or so. I need to get them turned in now so the teens can read them!

Magic in the Real World Popular Paperbacks for teens

Okay, post 2 (Karen has usurped my throne as blog queen, but never fear- I will defeat this coup attempt!)

Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults created 4 themed booklists this year. The second one I want to post about is Magic in the Real World. These books take place firmly in the real world. They ask us to imagine--what if magic existed and we just don't know it? These books explore what happends when people discover the fantasy elements surrounding us. Below are two of my favorites of this booklist.

Holly Black is one of my favorite authors. She writes fabulous dark fantasy stories. Her second book, Valiant made the list. After betrayed by those she loved, Valerie runs away from her home to New York City. Rescued by her new friends, they become squatters in the subway system. This gritty runaway story is filled with the horrors of drugs, but told in a fantastical manner. The drugs they use are magical; creatures are real, and trolls really do live underneath bridges.

I can't stress how much I adore Ms. Black's writing. She's gritty, realistic and yet, completely fantastical at the same time. One can always relate to her characters, even if they're a changling, a faerie, a runaway, a troll... They're still real.

The other title I enjoyed immensely was The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. Jack always took his medicine--his heart medicine. But one day he forgot and it changed his world. Discovering his warrior powers that were hidden by his medicine, Jack is thrust into a battle between warriors and wizards--and their designated fighters decide who will rule until the next decisive battle. Most fighters are killed before the battles even occur and lucky Jack--he's a fighter.

The companion (not necessarily a sequel) to the book came out in 2007--The Wizard Heir. But beware, it has a very similar cover to this one. It just has a little more green to it!

Sex is... Popular Paperbacks for teens

So my year of reading books dealing with sex written for (or appeals to) teens is finally over. We had over 40 nominations. We podcast our 2 hour meeting where we discussed the nominated titles. It's not on YALSA's website yet, but hopefully they will put it up soon! The final list can be found on YALSA's website. I think the list is pretty diverse. We have straight and gay love, celebacy, nonfiction and fiction, novels and graphic novels, books on desire. Pretty much however you define Sex there is something for you. My particular favorites of the list are as follows!

Forever by Judy Blume

The Classic book of sex for teens. This has been passed around teen girl readers ever since it was first published in 1975. Hey, this teen book is older than me! This story is all about first loves and how forever may not really last forever. A fabulous story with a new updated cover! Highly recommended even with some corny lines thrown in every once in a while. I read this one sitting on the beach in Mexico!

Hail Caesar by Thu-Houng Ha

Caesar's really not named Caesar, it's just what everyone calls him. He's the all powerful jock, girl swooning heart throb, and king of the school. Everyone loves him--except the new girl at school. And he can't stand that she doesn't adore him like everyone else. If you've ever wondered what guys think, check this book out and also Doing It by Melvin Burgess. Another cool fact about this book is that the author is a teen girl! She's now in college, but she wrote this while in high school.

Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart

This is more about the mechanics of sex than sex itself. Gretchen finds herself transformed into a fly in the boys' locker room after making a wish. As she observes the boys in all their glory, she discovers many new found truths and confidence within herself. Chick lit fun. And let's be honest, girls are curious about boys and all their parts probably just as much as boys are interested in girls' parts! Great pink and white cover too!

Since this is a booklist all about sex, we wanted to find some great, popular (or could be popular) nonfiction books on sex ed. After reading so many books on the topic, our committee discovered that there are a lot of DRY sex ed books out there! Geez, it's kind of sad that a book could be boring on such a "racy" topic! But we found two great titles that we really liked. My favorite one was Doing it Right by Bronwen Pardes. This is a solid resource--lots of fun banter, but very honest and informative text. Heck, I even learned something from here!

The last books I want to highlight from the list are books on desire. Sex doesn't actually take place in these books but desire is pouring out of the pages. The first one is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. In order to avoid his ex-girlfriend, Nick asks the girl next to him at punk rock show to be his girlfriend for five minutes. This begins a hot and steamy night told in both Nick and Norah's voices. Great music book too!

The other one is a supernatural title, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. Vivian is trying to fit into her new suburban home but when she falls for a human, she has to figure out where her loyalties lie --with her werewolf pack or with the "meatboy" human. I first read this when I was living in Indiana. It was nominated for an Indiana award similar to our Grand Canyon Reader Award. I read all the books nominated for the teen list, but this one really stuck with me. I remember sitting in a comfy chair, reading the whole book, finishing it in one sitting, going to take a potty break and then rereading all the good parts again! This book is the first teen book that I can remember reading really talking about desire and what it feels like and what it means to "want" somebody. Oh so good. Just don't judge the book on the movie--I'm sure it was horrible in comparison!

So that's my highlights of the Sex is... list. Don't just take my opinion for the list, read the books and let me know what you think!

Brent Hartinger

Brent Hartinger is tomorrow's live chat author on the Readgirlz MySpace page. I'm in the middle of reading The Order of the Poison Oak right now for my YALSA popular paperbacks sex booklist nominations. Geez, I love being able to say that I'm on the Sex Committee. It cracks me up every time! :) Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Hartinger is a great author! I've heard him speak once before at a conference. His topic was on gay and lesbians portrayed in teen literature. Most of his books touch on this topic. I know that Readergirlz is doing this month-long celebration of teen literature and teen authors in collaboration with Teen Read Week, but I think it's worth pointing out that this particular week is Banned Books Week. I had always wondered how authors feel when one of their books are removed from a library for being deemed inappropriate. Mr. Hartinger brought it to life for me in his talk a few years back. His book Geography Club had been banned in his own community. How very sad for him AND his community. What message did that library send out to their community when they decided to remove a book about a group of gay and lesbian teens who find support in their "Geography Club" at school? I don't remember if the book had been removed from a school or a public library, but it breaks my heart to hear about these types of challenges throughout the nation.

I know that this post is quite a bit more scattered than my posts are usually, but there was a lot in this one paragraph. I hope you give his books a chance!

Sex, sex, and more sex

Let's see if that headline gets us blocked on any filters! Since Karen seems to think she has all the power of blogging, I figured it was a good time to jump in and correct her...So I'm on PPYA, right? And man I am soooooo behind in my reading. ALA conference is a week away and I still have 18 books to read. I've acknowledged that I will not finish all of the titles to discuss them at this conference. Luckily, the voting doesn't take place until January!

Anyway, I'm on the Sex is a Touchy Subject committee. This requires me to find and read books for teens about sex--both fiction and nonfiction. So far we have 20 titles nominated. I'll be honest, I reall need to nominate more books. I've been slacking off this first 6 months of the year. I'll have to work harder after summer reading ends. There's some newly published books that have been nominated that I really have enjoyed--much more than I thought I would too!

The Making of Dr. Truelove by Derrick Barnes

This novel focuses on Diego's secret efforts to win back the girl of his dreams, Roxy. After a humiliating sexual incident, Diego brushes Roxy off. When he sees the consequences of his actions, which has led Roxy to only be his friend and to give her affections to a hot-shot basketball player, he is devestated. His best friend comes up with a plan--an online love columnist complete with a secret identity, promotional posters, t-shirts, and appearances. While Diego loves writing the column and gains some valuable romantic confidence, he worries that his friend takes things with Dr. Truelove too far.

Diego is real. He has many different layers that come out in Dr. Truelove. His columns are filled with double entendres that will make the readers chuckle and think "Man, that's a line I could use!" The beginning chapters detail his embarassing incident, and Barnes keeps it genuine. There's no tip-toeing around the sex talk here! This urban title hasn't seen alot of circs at Foothills, but I think once word gets out about it, there will be plenty of readers for Dr. Truelove.

Lost It by Kristen Tracy deals with Tess and her ridiculous life. Her parents abandon her to attend a survival camp, leaving her cigarette smoking, lottery winning grandmother to stay with her; her best friend is trying to build a bomb to kill a poodle; and she thinks she wants to lose her virginity. A lot to pack into a 276 page book. One of my PPYA committee members said that this is like an episode of a beloved sitcom. I definitely agree that it's sitcom worthy, but not just one episode--maybe half a season. The other half would take care of the things left behind at the end of the book.

Tess has always had her best friend and vica versa, but when Tess gets a boyfriend, she forgets for awhile that she's supposed to be a friend too. It's hard to be a friend to a friend in need, especially when you're trying to figure out these other things on your own. How scary would it be to have your parents just leave you behind while they tried to figure out their own lives? Sure it'd be great the first bit, but what about food? the Bills? Help with your own problems?

The first chapter tells the ending of the love story and then the rest is told in a long flashback, so you know that the boy she thought would always love her and possibly give her a wedding ring one day, isn't speaking to her anymore. Even with all these bad things happening to her, the book is still absolutely hilarious and real. Try it out, girls; you won't be disappointed!

And finally, my favorite of the three books: Pop! by Aury Wallington. First of all, I love the author's first name. How cool is that? Second, check out this cover. It's bright and cheery and totally plays on the title! In this book, Marit discovers that she always breaks up with her boyfriends when it gets a little too physical. She freaks out. At first, she thinks that she'll be able to move past this on her own now that she knows about her
"fault", but then on the beach with Noah, the hot new guy in school, she totally freaks after accidentally grabbing his, you know what, when she loses her balance. Her older sister, Hannah, suggests that she should have sex with someone she feels safe with--just to get her virginity out of the way. Then, she probably wouldn't freak out with her boyfriend! great advice, right? Marit decides that her best boy friend Jamie fits that bill perfectly. And quickly learns the consequences of Friends with Benefits.

Wallington has an ear for dialogue, which makes perfect sense since she wrote for Veronica Mars and Sex in the City. While the ending may be looking through the world with rose colored lenses, it is definitely enjoyable. The realistic depictions of sex aren't as blushworthy as in Truelove, but curious readers will find enough about the emotional and physical side to romance to fulfill most of their curiousity.

So now Karen, there's proof that other people are reading. Maybe my next post will be on fantasy since that's the other committee reading I'm doing!