Teen Advisory Board (September)

What am I doing today? Painting notebooks with chalkboard paint.  It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

 

These are for our first TAB meeting on September 26 which falls during Banned Books Week.  We'll be drawing banned book covers and quotes on them during our craft time.  Originally, I wanted the teens to paint the notebooks, but it took four coats (with four hours in between each coat) and a three day waiting period before they can be drawn on.  Soooo....I don't think a four day lock-in was the way to go.  I highly recommend this craft; it was simple, cheap, and fun!  I now have six teens signed up for TAB (yay! close to my goal of ten!) and I'm extremely excited for our meeting and what's to come.  Stay tuned for Zombie Prom...yes, I said it, ZOMBIE PROM!!!

What's on Display (September)

 

Banned Books Week is fast approaching (September 22-28) and I got a little anxious to put my display up early (ok, let's be honest, I thought it would take me weeks to finish because I'm craft-handicapped).  And while it's not perfect (I'm learning! Only one near limb decapitation with the x-acto knife this time), I'm pretty darn proud of myself.  I am also happy to announce my first Teen Advisory Board meeting will be Thursday, September 26.  We are hoping to take some cool mug shots of them reading their favorite banned book.  I also have a neat chalkboard notebook craft where we will be replicating (with chalk!) some banned book covers and favorite quotes (my Sylvia Plath "Weekly Quote" would be quite appropriate).

Book Review (Delirium by Lauren Oliver)

Delirium by Lauren Oliver  

Delirium takes place in a dystopian world where love, referred to as amor deliria nervosa or more commonly “the delirium," is considered a disease that must be cured once citizens reach adulthood.  Those who refuse the cure are known as Invalids and reside in the Wilds, a harsh, unregulated territory closed off from the American border.  The story follows Lena ninety-five days before she turns 18 and is scheduled for her own procedure.  For Lena, love is a curse that caused her mother to commit suicide.  Left to a life plagued by memories of her own mother’s delirium, she believes the procedure will lead to the stability she always lacked.  That is until she falls in love…with an Invalid.

Lauren Oliver creates a beautiful love story between Lena and Alex, one that is wrought with indecision and tragedy.  Can Lena leave her safe life, a life she's always craved, behind to explore the passionate, yet uncertain future with Alex?  Her decisions are defined by memories of her past which are merged expertly with the present throughout the narrative.  As dystopian fiction goes, Delirium crafts a totalitarian America that is both believable and fully realized.  The story is filled with well-paced surprises and twists.

Lauren Oliver has proved herself to be one of my favorite YA authors.  If you haven’t read Before I Fall, you should…like, right now.  It was devastatingly beautiful and blew me away.  I was thrilled that Oliver could take the emotional resonance from Before I Fall and incorporate it into a dystopian story.  Look for the other two books in the trilogy: Pandemonium and Requiem.

In My Mailbox (August)

We order books every two weeks and I have placed a lot of orders recently to help expand our teen collection.  My blog posts entitled "In My Mailbox" will let you know what's recently come in...whether new releases or just new to our library.  Now I don't know about you, but a desk stacked high with Divergent books really made my morning.  My only regret is not being able to rip into that box myself because I would have gone off on it like a 2 year-old (or 24 year-old) on Christmas morning.  However, I do have a picture of the beautiful result.

 

These copies are for the book club I'm helping with at the high school. We're planning to start in September and I'm excited that we were able to purchase the books for everyone.  This is a trend we plan to continue throughout the year.  After the club, these books will be turned into a kit to loan to other libraries.  YAY for collaboration!  Can I just say I liked Divergent more than The Hunger Games and I am fully prepared to take the consequences for that statement.  Four is my constant (where my Lost fans at?!?).  For the record, I never said I wasn't a huge nerd...you've been warned.

UPDATE:
We just got another large shipment of teen books!! The titles include the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver, the Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano, Undercurrent by Paul Blackwell, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor, and The Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilyn Kenyon.  They are not cataloged yet, but look for them soon in our new teen book section.