12 Days of Teen Lit: 11 Teens in Bands!

For the second 12 Days of Teen Lit post, we give you:

11 Teens in Bands

(some may even be pipers!) 

 Adios to My Old Life.  As a talented singer-guitarist with a dream of going pro, Alegría Montero is getting fed up with the endless, boring parade of quinceañeras and other family party gigs. She's longing for something bigger. And Oye Mi Canto -- a new reality TV show that's searching for the next Latin superstar -- is definitely that. Ali figures she'll never make the cut, but it seems like a good way to get her overprotective father to take her seriously.

The Disenchantments. Colby's post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Beth would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

Fat Kid Rules the World.  Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.






The Five Flavors of Dumb.  Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates' popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.


I Am (Not) The Walrus.  As the singer and bass player for a Beatles cover band, Toby embarks on a quest to increase his sex appeal, a plan that derails when he finds a mysterious note inside his old bass guitar.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone.  Punk rock is in Emily Black's blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back. Now Emily's all grown up with a punk band of her own. Determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn't it lead her right back to Emily?

Lemonade Mouth. A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular local rock band. 

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.  High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.






The Piper's Son.  After his favorite uncle's violent death, Tom Mackee watches his family implode, quits school, and turns his back on music and everyone who matters, and while he is in no shape to mend what is broken, he fears  that no one else is, either.

Sister Mischief. Esme Rockett, also known as MC Ferocious, rocks her suburban Minnesota Christian high school with more than the hip-hop music she makes with best friends Marcy ( DJ SheStorm) and Tess (The ConTessa) when she develops feelings for her co-MC, Rowie (MC Rohini).

Ten Miles Past Normal.  Because living with "modern-hippy" parents on a goat farm means fourteen-year-old Janie Gorman cannot have a normal high school life, she tries joining Jam Band, making friends with Monster, and spending time with elderly former civil rights workers.

Kearsten's Book Club: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John.

Once again, Kearsten's Book Club met to discuss, yell, and laugh as we talked about this month's book, Antony John's funny, charming and musically awesome novel, Five Flavors of Dumb.  Eighteen-year-old Piper agrees to help her classmates' band, appropriately called 'Dumb', get a paying gig following a Battle of the Bands win. Unfortunately, Piper knows very little about band management or rock music, and must learn VERY quickly to get the band to work together in time for that gig.

Okay. I'm having a hard time writing this summary of our meeting, mainly because I think this book, with it's love and celebration of the music I loved in high school, its bad-ass female lead, and delightfully snarky characters, is completely EPIC. I loved it when I read it last year, and loved it even more when I reread it this weekend. It's just awesome. Go read it. Now.

As for our discussion: book club really got into Piper's story. Many felt that her parents were way out of line in taking money from her college fund to pay for a cochlear implant for her baby sister (Kyra: "If my parents did that, we would have PROBLEMS"), while Piper's parents' choice - is it okay to hurt one child in order to help another? - reminded me of Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper.  Pretty much all of us loved that Piper, who is deaf and has to rely on hearing aids, lip-reading and signing to communicate, is determined to make Dumb succeed, and not only refuses to let people discount her because of her hearing, but even uses people's prejudices to once or twice manipulate situations to her advantage. We also had a lovely interlude imagining several revenge plots for the much hated pretty-boy lead singer, Josh. He was the worst.

Happily, the author put together a song list at the end of the book, so I created a playlist on the library's YouTube channel (59Square) for your audio enjoyment. Check out a copy of the book to discover the significance of these songs!

Kearsten's Book Club heartily endorses this one, in which several teens come into their own and find their passions. If you've already read Five Flavors of Dumb, try out one of these similar reads!

Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris. Tired of interpreting for his deaf family and resentful of their reliance on him, high school senior Theo finds support and understanding from Ivy, a new student who also has a deaf parent.

Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going. Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk. When Will Halpin transfers from his all-deaf school into a mainstream Pennsylvania high school, he faces discrimination and bullying, but still manages to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a popular football player in his class.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. An angry, grieving seventeen-year-old musician facing expulsion from her prestigious Brooklyn private school travels to Paris to complete a school assignment and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help a tortured, imprisoned little boy--Louis Charles, the lost king of France

Grammy's 2011

So I'm a sucker for awards shows. I don't know why--especially since I seem to live in the bubble of having a toddler, so I'm not aware of what else is going on but Yo Gabba Gabba and Handy Manny (he got a new tool!) But I love live music and so does Charlie (my son), so I thought we'd watch the Grammy's together. While I personally thought that Eminem should have won a lot more than he did and Lady Antebellum were REALLY lucky this year. Anyway... I started thinking, you know we have music CDs, right? I could tell you that we have most of the Grammy winners on CD, but they're all checked out. Instead, I thought I'd mention some books about the stars who won and performed on Sunday.



The one I'm most excited about is Lady Gaga Critical Mass Fashion by Elizabeth Goodman. This new book is all about the Gaga look. If you are fascinated by Lady Gaga and her fashion, then you'll want to see this book. We also have biographies on Lady Gaga housed in our adult collection that you'll want to see.


Speaking of our adult collection, did you know that Jay-Z has an autobiography that is on the New York Times Bestseller list? Decoded looks at his lyrics and his life.


And for a completely different style of reading--a graphic novel about Eminem! Eminem: in My Skin by Barnaby Legg came out in 2004, so this is Slim Shady style Eminem, not Recovery Eminem.


Alright, so there's some reading for you to catch up on while you wait for the Oscar's later this month!

What I’m Reading…A Shameful Confession

What I am about to reveal may have a negative impact on my perceived credibility as a contributing member of this blog, and perhaps even as a librarian.

Brace yourselves…

I never got around to reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I don’t really have any kind of excuse. One of my Teen Library Council members did spill the beans about who dies at the end. As grumpy as I was about this, I checked out the audio version of book 6 soon after its release with the best intentions of listening to it. --- If you have never listened to an audio version of a Harry Potter book read by actor Jim Dale, you are really missing out. Jim currently holds a Guinness World Record for creating the "Most Character Voices in an Audio Book” (One Hundred and Thirty Four in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). He does a phenomenal job of creating character voices that really fit the character. I can’t even begin to imagine how he keeps all of the different voices straight. --- But, for some reason, I just never did. There was a patron waiting list, so I returned the audio book to the library in order to give some true Potter fan the chance to enjoy it.

Seeing how book seven: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is due to be released on July 21, 2007, I figured that it was time to get busy and listen to book 6. I am pleased to say that I am currently halfway through it. Unfortunately, it’s taking me a while to listen to the whole thing because of the tough commute-time listening competition it faces against a new music CD that a friend of mine just gave me: LIFE IN CARTOON MOTION by Mika (an amazing CD…I can’t get track number 4 Love Today out of my head).