Teens & Tweens Book Club!

The first meeting of the Teens & Tweens Book Club will be on Thursday, October 4th @ 7:00 PM. We'll be discussing Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer. Copies are available for you to pick up at the circulation desk. Come prepared to snack, discuss, and have fun!

Staff Book Pick of the Week: Does My Head Look Big In This?

This week's pick is Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah (YA ABDEL-FATTAH).

Amal has just made one of the most major decisions of her life to date - to wear the hijab (the Muslim head scarf) whenever she is outside of her home or in the presence of strangers. While Amal's parents have always taught her to be proud of her faith, at first they are concerned with her decision - what will the students at her snooty Melbourne high school say? However, Amal is determined. Of course, there are definite obstacles - the taunting words of the meanest girl in class, the possibility that her crush won't understand just what the hijab means, and the reaction of the rest of the world is not always the most pleasant. And Amal soon learns that while she may have made an extremely difficult but rewarding choice, it is just the beginning of her journey to understanding who she really is.

New Books!

Check out these new books on display in the Teens & Tweens space:

I Am Rembrandt's Daughter by Lynn Cullen (YA CULLEN)
River Secrets by Shannon Hales (YA HALE)
The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper (YA HARPER)
Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson (YA JOHNSON)
Someone Like Summer by M.E. KERR (YA KERR)
Dramarama by E. Lockhart (YA LOCKHART)
First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins (YA PERKINS)
Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells (YA WELLS)

New Books!

Check out these new books on display in the Teens & Tweens space:

Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky (YA SNADOWSKY)
Tall Cool One: An A-List Novel by Zoey Dean (YA DEAN)

Staff Book Pick of the Week: The Plain Janes

This week's pick is The Plain Janes by by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (YA PLAIN JANES).

Jane's family moves to suburbia after a tragedy in Metro City leaves her parents convinced something more horrible will happen if they stay. Jane can't imagine that there's anything interesting to be found in the sticks, until she meets the other Janes - Jane the theater diva, Jayne the brain, and Polly Jane the athlete. All three Janes have been banished to the loser lunch table, and at first they're not very keen to have Main Jane join them. But Jane is convinced these Janes are her friends, and that they can make a difference through art - they just have to try.

Staff Book Pick of the Week: Monkey Town

This week's pick is Monkey Town: the Summer of the Scopes Trial by Ronald Kidd (YA KIDD).

When the summer of 1925 kicks off, fifteen-year old Frances thinks the highlight will be playing tennis with newcomer John Scopes and getting him to be as interested in her as she is in him. Little does Frances know that her father's grand plan to put Dayton, Tennessee on the map by hosting a trial on evolution will result in a town filled with mayhem, a young man's life changed forever, and her own worldview irrevocably spun around. How does a simple scheme to create publicity for Dayton get so out of hand? Find out in Monkey Town.

New Books!

Here are some new books available for checkout in the Teens & Tweens Space!

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (YA DE LA CRUZ)
The Killer's Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux (YA BONDOUX)
The Moon Riders by Theresa Tomlinson (YA TOMLINSON)
Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore (YA CLEMENT-MOORE)
Sofi Mendoza's Guide to Getting Lost in Mexico by Malin Alegria (YA ALEGRIA)
True Talents by David Lubar (YA LUBAR)
The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer (YA MEYER)

Book Fair Next Week!

The Teens & Tweens programs are over for the summer, but the Scholastic Book Fair begins on Monday, August 13th, and runs through Friday, August 18th. It will be open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to come and redeem your reading bucks!

Staff Pick of the Week!: Brother Hood

This week's pick is Brother Hood by Janet McDonald (YA MCDONALD).

Sixteen-year old Nate lives in two worlds, that of his exclusive private high school Fletcher and of his neighborhood in Harlem. Somehow he manages to move seamlessly from one to the other, until one side of his life starts impinging on the other. His brother Eli is moving from one spot of trouble to another, his friend Hustle doesn't want him to forget his knowledge of the street, and his girlfriend Shantay is becoming more and more of a stranger. When his Fletcher friend Spence gets pulled over and the cop chooses to grill Nate (even though he's the passenger), he begins to realize that keeping his two worlds separate is not as easy as he thought. Will he still be able to keep the actions of one from affecting the other? Will he keep his dream of college together? Find out in Brother Hood.

More New Books!

Here are a few more new books on display in the Teens & Tweens Space:

Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglas (YA DOUGLAS)
Cures for Heartbreak by M.E. Rabb (YA RABB)
Epic by Conor Kostick (YA KOSTICK)
Harlem Hustle by Janet McDonald (YA MCDONALD)
La Linea by Ann Jaramillo (YA JARAMILLO)
Mercy on These Teenage Chimps by Gary Soto (YA SOTO)
Monkey Town: the Summer of the Scopes Trial by Ronald Kidd (YA KIDD)
More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglas (YA DOUGLAS)
The Red Thread: A Novel in Three Incantations by Rod Townley (YA TOWNLEY)
Survival: A Novelization by Walter Sorrells (YA MACHALE)
A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd (YA DOWD)
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA ANDERSON)
The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance by Catherine Ryan Hyde (YA HYDE)

New Books!

Check out these new books we put up this afternoon in the Teens & Tweens Space:

Away Laughing on a Fast Camel: Even More Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison (YA RENNISON)
Chocolat 1 (YA CHOCOLAT)
The Christopher Killer: a Forensic Mystery by Alane Ferguson (YA FERGUSON)
Deep and Dark and Dangerous: a Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn (YA HAHN)
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah (YA ABDEL-FATTAH)
Gift of the Unmage by Alma Alexander (YA ALEXANDER)
Hamlet (YA MANGA SHAKESPEARE)
Megatokyo: Vols. 1, 3, & 4 (YA MEGATOKYO)
Miki Falls: Book One, Spring (YA MIKI FALLS)
The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty (YA MORIARTY)
Never Kiss a Stranger: Harlequin Pink, Vol. 4 (YA HARLEQUIN PINK)
Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell (YA HOWELL)
The Prince of Tennis: Vol. 4, the Black Unit (YA PRINCE OF TENNIS)
Romeo and Juliet (YA MANGA SHAKESPEARE)
Ttfn by Lauren Myracle (YA MYRACLE)

Mission Accomplished!

To celebrate the end of the 2007 Summer Reading program, we'll be having a party! Come have pizza and snacks and participate in the final Read It & Rate It drawing of the summer. See you next Thursday, August 9th, @ 3:00 PM!

Staff Pick of the Week!: H.I.V.E.

This week's pick is H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education by Mark Walden (YA WALDEN).

Otto Malpense is already somewhat of a criminal mastermind the day he wakes up in a helicopter that is headed to H.I.V.E., a school that was created to turn teenagers talented in crime into supervillains. In order to keep the school a secret, students are kidnapped and brought to an island that looks like an active volcano, and no one is allowed to leave until they graduate. But Otto has always been able to get himself out of difficult situations - even if no one else has ever escaped H.I.V.E., won't he be able to? With the help of his friends (a jewelry thief, a technology whiz, and a skilled martial arts guru) Otto plans to do the impossible - get out of H.I.V.E. Read the book to find out if he succeeds ...