Library Talk. - Teen Books.

A Real Life Love Story

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:50:49 -0800

Charles Darwin was not given to rash decisions. When he was nearly thirty and needed to decide whether to marry, he sat down, drew a line down the middle of a piece of paper and made a list of pros and cons. On the plus side, marriage would offer the benefit of children ("if it Please God") and an object of affection, "better than a dog anyhow." On the minus side, he would miss the "conservation of clever men at clubs" and might not be able to read in the evenings.

His decision to take the leap and marry his cousin Emma Wedgwood is the subject of Deborah Heiligman's 2009 National Books Award finalist Charles and Emma: the Darwin's Leap of Faith..

Darwin was a pragmatist, an agnostic, and a scientist. Emma was his intellectual match and yet devoutly religious. Theirs was a true love story--a match of wits and wills, of science and religion. Despite her reservations about Darwin's theories, Emma helped edit her husband's work.She honestly feared for his soul and at the same time bore him ten children, three of whom died before the age of ten.

Heiligman is a skilled nonfiction writer. The Victorian Era is brought to vivid life through the couple's letters and other primary sources. This setting is the backdrop for one of the great marriages of history. Although originally published for the teen market, Charles and Emma will equally engage adult readers, who will know something more about the ups-and-downs of married life than its intended audience.

It is a story that might have turned out quite differently if Darwin had decided to settle for the company of that dog after all.

Mission Control, This is Apollo

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:33:30 -0800

Mission Control, This is Apollo: the story of the first voyages to the Moon
by Andrew Chaikin and Alan Bean

Chaikin, an NPR Morning Edition commentator and the author of A Man on the Moon, profiles each of the Apollo Missions, including the legendary Apollo 11 Mission which celebrated its 40th Anniversary this year. Each chapter briefly outlines the mission (dates, commanders, pilots, objectives, mission patches, etc), but also includes stories about the people involved. Armstrong, for instance, didn't spend a lot of time pondering his historic words; he was too busy avoiding craters! Of course, not all missions were so successful, as discussed in the chapter on the infamous Apollo Thirteen. Vintage photos show the jury-rigged filter that helped save the astronauts lives and another grainy photo shows the crippled module. Brief sections explore the finer points of space travel, from the rather discomforting physical side-effects as described in "The Dark Side of Zero-G" and "When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go" to technical details like those in "The Moon Rocket" and "Clothes Make the Moonwalker". The brief introduction outlines the preceding Mercury and Gemini programs.

In addition to the wonderful photographs, Alan Bean contributes his amazing paintings to the book. Bean, who landed on the moon with Apollo Twelve and knows what he paints, brings a unique perspective to the book. An entrancing mix of color, light and texture, these paintings bring the lunar landscapes alive. A chapter at the end of the book explains how Bean paints, a process that includes small models astronauts, replica moon-boots and even fragments of capsule heat shields and foil insulation. Informational, but also celebratory, Mission Control, This is Apollo, is a treat for history and space buffs of any age.

Tick Tock Tick Tock...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Who is the Master of the Horror Genre? Edgar Allan Poe. Nearly 165 years after he wrote his final tale, he is still loved--in fact, he is more popular than when he was alive. Nobody does tales of darkness, mystery, and the macabre like Poe. Nobody.

Edgar Allan Poe's Tales Of Death And Dementia is a graphic novel illustrated by Gris Grimly. It is the second Poe collection Grimly has done: the first, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales Of Mystery And Murder, is also awesome. I am looking forward to his third, and I hope more. His illustrations are just as creepy and understated as Poe's tone which adds a beautiful unique dimension to the tales. The tales have been slightly "nipped and tucked" from their original text, but nothing is lost. The tales are just as wonderfully creepy as they were when written.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" has to be one of the creepiest tales ever written. Written from the perspective of a deranged, cold-blooded killer, it will creep you out. As a child, this tale absolutely terrified me; as an adult, it still gets me, even though I have read it many, many times. The rest of the collection includes the scary yet humorous "The System Of Dr. Tarr And Professor Fether," the tragic "The Oblong Box,", and the weird and disgusting "The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar."

A wonderful set of classic tales to revisit next the fireplace on a cold night or maybe all alone in your room on a windy night. The wonderful illustrations make this collection of Poe's dark tales even darker. A book that anyone young or young at heart will enjoy...tick tock, tick tock....

Sprout by Dale Peck

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:35:29 -0800

Daniel "Sprout" Bradford has a secret, but it isn't what you think. Sprout's secret has nothing to do with his green hair, his romantic relationship, his mother's death, or his father's drinking. After his mother died four years ago, Sprout's father packed him in the car and drove from Long Island to the middle of nowhere - in this case, Buhler, Kansas - where he and Sprout live in a trailer covered in vines and surrounded by a collection of upside-down tree stumps.

Tapped by his hard-drinking but no-nonsense English teacher to compete in the statewide Kansas essay contest, Sprout spends the summer before his junior year under her tutelage. Mrs. Miller urges Sprout to divulge his secrets, both public and private.

Sprout is an intelligent and wisecracking narrator, and the novel is full of wordplay. But until Sprout begins talking about his first relationships, we really don't know much about him. From his purely physical relationship with jock Ian to his feelings for the new kid Ty, Sprout's romantic entanglements force him explore his own motivations and desires. But will this self-examination come too late? Sprout: Or My Salad Days, When I was Green in Judgment is a poignant, entertaining look at growing up gay in small-town America.

The Fire That Changed The World

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:33:28 -0800

There are a few events in US history that are so complex, tragic or emotional that they are still compelling to readers, even decades afterwords.

The Civil War is a good example--new books on Abraham Lincoln and the war seem to come out every month and still make the Best Sellers list. The sinking of the Titanic is another event that still fascinates readers. One event about which I've read voraciously is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.

One hundred forty six workers died in a fire that was under control in less than an hour. Situated on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of a new "skyscraper" in New York City, the Triangle Factory made ladies' shirtwaists which were all the rage at the time. Like the Titanic tragedy, there are many "if onlys" in the Triangle story that would have meant many lives being spared: proper fire escapes, doors that were not locked by factory bosses, fire hoses that actually worked, enforcement of the non-smoking rule.

In Margaret Peterson Haddix's book Uprising, she brings to life not only the facts of the story, but three young girls who lived them. Yetta from Russia and Bella from Italy both came to the US looking for a better life and hoping to save enough money to bring their families from their homelands.

Caught up in the workers' strike that predated the fire, Yetta and Bella befriend Jane, a lonely society girl who becomes involved in their crusade. Their friendship is a big part of the story, as is the plight of many other girls newly arrived in the States and held at the mercy of greedy factory owners.

Haddix, who is the author of the popular Shadow Children series for kids and teens, has a talent for mixing history and fiction and the ability to write about tragedies like the Triangle fire without making them maudlin. Even though we know how these sad stories end, in the hands of a skilled author, they are worth the read.

Real Life Horrors Just in Time for Halloween

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:42:13 -0800

Maybe it's kind of gruesome, but I always like a good archaeology book with lots of pictures of skeletons and bodies. It's fascinating what the combination of archaeology, forensics and cultural anthropology can tell us about people and cultures that lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. And, as science and technology continue to advance, we get to learn even more about the people who came before us. Two books I always pull from the shelves for those who share my love of preserved people are Bodies From the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii and Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.

Bodies from the Ash is always a hit with kids and adults alike. After a brief introduction about the eruption of Vesuvius, the author really starts digging into the good stuff like how, exactly, archaeologists made all those incredible plaster casts of the volcano's victims in Pompeii. Details from jewelry and clothing provide all sorts of clues into the identity of some of the people who were excavated and, because the disaster happened so quickly, we have learned quite a bit about the daily life of people living in Pompeii.

Written in Bone is an incredibly fascinating read that will appeal to both fans of archaeology and early American history. Through careful and extensive excavation of cemeteries, homes and other sites throughout the James Fort area in Jamestown, Virginia, readers get a very intimate glimpse into the lives of some of the people who lived in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 1600s and 1700s. Clues such as copper pins and coffin materials provide insight into whose remains have been found buried in grave sites. When excavations are compared to various journals and logs from the era, it is possible to pinpoint exactly who many of these people were. Not all of the excavations were so benign, however. One skeleton was found under a hearth, and scientists were able to determine from the arrangement of the bones that he was hastily buried, and they even found evidence of the digging tools!

Book Group Gathering

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:50:09 -0800

For many years, each fall - The King County Library System has offered a Book Group Gathering and invited members of book groups to get together and learn about the resources the library system can offer to help organize, support, and energize book groups.

On Saturday, September 26, over 130 people gathered, (mostly women) at the KCLS Service Center for this year's program. With Nancy Pearl offering wonderful ideas for organizing, sustaining and controlling book groups, refreshments and prizes donated by the North Bend, Snoqualmie and Fall City Friends of the Library, and a busy morning of programs, it was huge success.

One of the most interesting items not on the agenda was an opportunity for spontaneous book sharing when one of the speakers had an emergency and couldn't make it. People raised their hand, stood up and gave a title their book group had read, and a very brief book talk.

The most wonderful part of this experience was the passion that surged through the room, as someone suggested a title, if others had read it, there was an audible sigh, nods and once in a while, even a shake of the head. The point wasn't to convince others that this was THE book their group should read, but to offer suggestions, endorsements and above all, to share a love of books, stories and literature.

We agreed to compile the list of suggestions and post it to our blog.

The Color of Lightning - Jiles, Paulette

Fieldwork - Berlinski, Mischa

Little Bee - Cleave, Chris

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Kidder, Tracy

A Far Cry from Kensington - Spark, Muriel

The Poisonwood Bible - Kingsolver, Barbara

"If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:17:20 -0800

Music is everywhere in Mia's life. Her parents were rockers. She's an accomplished cellist. Her boyfriend Adam has his own punk band. She's applied to Julliard and life after high school is finally showing more potential.

But one snowy morning everything changes. Mia and her family are driving along the highway when a semi-truck collides with their car, instantly killing Mia's parents and her younger brother. Mia finds herself outside her own body, not dead, not alive, and not knowing what to do. As a ghost-like spirit, Mia spends time at the hospital, observing her own coma state. Limbo is confusing....should she join her family in the afterlife, or return to her human body? Is this even Mia's decision to make?

Life without her parents and brother would be devastating. But, at 17 years old, is she ready to give up on what the future may hold?

This is a beautifully written book, full of grace and possibilities. It's a quick read, wonderful for fans of The Lovely Bones or Elsewhere.

The Vast Fields of Ordinary

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:00 -0800

The Vast Fields of Ordinary follows high school senior Dade Hamilton as he suffers through once last summer in the suburban midwest before he leaves for college. His parents' marriage is falling apart, his sorta-boyfriend Pablo only seems interested in Dade when they're alone, and his job at Food World just plain sucks. Unable to tell his parents he's gay, he practices on inanimate household objects like the ceiling fan in his bedroom and the soap dish in the bathroom. Then Dade meets mysterious Alex Kincaid, stoner extraordinaire, and Lucy Savage, whose own parents have shipped her off to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle after she reveals she's a lesbian, and suddenly the summer looks much brighter. Alex and Dade's relationship sparks Pablo's jealousy, and readers can see the collision coming before Dade does. In the space of one short summer, Dade will fall in love, visit his first gay bar, have an encounter with a missing girl, come out to his parents, and deal with the unforeseen consequences of his relationship with Dade. Dade is a sensitive soul and his friends are likeable misfits, not unlike the characters in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Readers will be reminded of their own pivotal summers before heading off to college and transitioning into adulthood.

Before There Was Twilight...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:58:55 -0800

...there was Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Known for her award-winning fantasy books, McKinley creates a familiar-feeling world where vampires and magic are very real, but so are coffee and cinnamon rolls.

Rae lives in the small town of New Arcadia, where she wakes up at 4am everyday to bake Cinnamon Rolls as Big as Your Head for a coffee shop in Town. She doesn't really mind getting up early, since she loves the warm morning light, and the feel of soft dough between her fingers. Sounds kind of cozy, huh? Well, then, let me tell you a little more about New Arcadia. One branch of the police force there is called SOF: Special Other Forces. They deal with the Others, the most dangerous of these being the Suckers. That is, vampires. There are Others that aren't really legislated against, like Weres, Demons, and Sprites...I mean, everyone knows someone with a little sprite or peri blood in them. But it's the Darkest Others, the vampires, that you really want to avoid.

So when Rae takes a nighttime drive out to her parents' cabin by the lake, she's not really surprised when she gets kidnapped by a gang of suckers, tied hand and foot, and left in an abandoned house...but not alone. She's been put there as supper for Constantine, the gang's rival, who does end up surprising her, in more ways than one.

This refreshing fantasy presents a world where the supernatural is normal, but so are friends, family, and fragrant baked goods.<

The Great Wide Sea

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:06:46 -0800

It's been two months since his mother died in a car accident, and Ben's family is struggling to cope. His father sells their home and buys a sailboat, then takes his three sons out of school and embarks on a year-long sailing trip around the Bahamas. From the start, Ben's anger at his father, who has disrupted the boys' lives even further, is palpable. And now that the family is living aboard a 30-foot-long boat, he's impossible to avoid. Then one morning, Ben wakes up and his father is gone. Did he fall overboard? Commit suicide? Though Ben and his younger brothers can't agree on what happened to him, their arguments reveal volumes about the type of man they believe their father is.

But The Great Wide Sea is much more than a book on father-son relationships; it's also an excellent tale of emotional and physical survival. Struggling to navigate the sea after losing their father, the boys encounter a storm and end up stranded on a tiny island with little food and no radio to call for help. The sailing and island scenes will keep you turning the pages, but the rich language, including the incorporation of poems by Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas into the text, will have you thinking about this book long after you finish reading. This is M. H. Herlong's first novel, and I'm excited to see what she comes up with next.

Love Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:47:48 -0800

Denis Cooverman is socially-challenged, which is unfortunate since he is also in love with the most popular girl in school. Instead of pining for her from afar, he uses his high school valedictory speech to declare, "I love you, Beth Cooper!"

Debut author Larry Doyle knows from mayhem (he writes for The Simpsons). In I Love You, Beth Cooper the reader follows Denis through graduation night, which turns out to be the best and worst night of his life. It starts when Beth decides to drop by Denis's graduation "party" (two guests: Denis and his sexually-ambiguous best friend, Rich) and ends as most of these stories do, with the boy-least-likely getting the girl-who-know-one-else-understands. In between, a cast of mean girls and enraged boyfriends keep the action moving.

Does all this sound familiar? It is not surprising that I Love You, Beth Cooper is already a summer teen movie. In a season crowded with blockbusters, it will likely sell better on DVD. Doyle is keenly aware of his market. Each chapter begins with a famous quote from a teen film (Say Anything, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles--they're all there) and a cartoon-image of Denis as his night gets stranger and stranger. Rich cleverly peppers the book's dialogue with film quotes, lending to the book's self-aware cache.

If you are looking for a familiar and fresh love story that will bring back your teen years, I Love You, Beth Cooper is a better choice than its movie-trailers would lead you to believe.

Bittersweet Summer

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:10:41 -0800

Every summer, Luke and his family spend two weeks at their little cabin by the lake. It's something he looks forward to every year, and this one is no different. His excitement builds as they pass the familiar landmarks - the ice cream stand that sells the best flavor (peppermint stick), the decrepit barn, the little factory belching out smoke - until they finally hit the gravel road that takes them to the cabin and the lake.

Surface Tension: A Novel in Four Summers is a poignant and bittersweet coming of age tale. At 13, Luke is still excited to swim, go hiking and hang out on the lake. But the next year, Luke is starting to see things a little differently; has the cabin always looked so small and run down? And just when did his parents start getting so annoying? By the time Luke is 16, he is learning some pretty hard lessons about what it means to grow up. As his personal life gets more and more complicated, Luke begins to crave the simplicity of his childhood summers when things were easy and fun. But, as we all know, you can never go back, much as you might like to. And that, perhaps, is the hardest lesson of all.

The Waters & The Wild: A Story for Misfits, Faeries and Aliens

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:18:53 -0800

Changeling.

"A child believed to have been secretly substituted by fairies for the parents' real child in infancy" ("Changeling." A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Edited by Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. King County Library System. 25 July 2009.).

"The apparent changeling could also be a stock, an enchanted piece of wood that would soon appear to grow sick and die" ("Changeling." Wikipedia. 2009. Web.25 Jul 2009.).

"A person or thing (surreptitiously) put in exchange for another; A child secretly substituted for another in infancy; esp. a child (usually stupid or ugly) supposed to have been left by fairies in exchange for one stolen" (Defs. 2, 3. The Oxford English Dictionary. "Changeling." Defs. 2, 3. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed.1991. Print.).

She comes to you, and she's bitter when she comes but she's not real. "You are me," she says, then disappears.

Bee remembers never quite fitting in. Not even Occupational Therapy could teach her how to understand facial expressions. She was the kid who fantasized about eating dirt and lived in the garden. The girl is right; Bee definitely doesn't belong but a changeling? Who's going to believe that? No one. Or at least no one except maybe that weird guy who sits alone at lunch reading books; Haze. And let's face it, he thinks he's an alien so really, how much can he be trusted? Whether Bee likes it or not, something is about to change because this girl, this girl who is Bee, she wants her life back.

The Waters & the Wild by Francesca Lia Block.

Francesca Lia Block fans: place your holds on Pretty Dead, out this October and on order at the King County Library System.

Jolted! Newton Starker's Rules For Survival

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:32:18 -0800

14-year-old Newton Starker refuses to believe he's cursed. Like many family members before him, Newton attracts lightning. His family's long list of rules to avoid getting struck by lightning ("Beware of cumulonimbus clouds." "When thunder roars, run indoors.") didn't manage to save his mother, who died two years ago. Now Newton has decided to leave his home in Snohomish and enroll in Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. There he'll make new friends, including a truffle-sniffing pig, cook with ground squirrel, and learn why his great-grandmother has survived so long. But will Newton discover the secret to survival before it's too late? Filled with funny moments and a few gross recipes, Jolted is an excellent read for fans of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Click here to listen to the author read the first page of the book.