Own the Night Teen Summer Reading

This year’s teen summer reading program has kicked off to a good start. The program runs from June 4 through August 5, and teens in grades 6-12 can sign up at the reference desk (there’s also an adult summer reading program this year — tell  your parents!). Click here to see our upcoming programs, including a great new way to find new summer reads at our Date or Hate book speeding dating event, an educational and terrifying journey into local Colorado hauntings at our Things That Go Bump in the Night evening, a visit from paranormal YA novelist Brenna Yovanoff, and a mother-daughter spa day.

After you read 12 hours, you’re eligible for a free book AND an entry into our big giveaway — a Kindle Fire! Don’t miss out!

“Waiting On” Wednesday: The Legacy of Tril: Soulbound

Heather Brewer’s dark and witty Chronicles of Vladimir Todd series (five books in total so far) are still immensely popular, so I anticipate that her new non-vampire series will be equally good. It certainly has a kick-butt cover!

The Legacy of Tril: Soulbound, by Heather Brewer
Publication Date: June 2012

Tril is a world where Barrons and Healers are Bound to each other: Barrons fight and Healers cure their Barrons’ wounds in the ongoing war with the evil Graplar King. Seventeen-year-old Kaya was born a Healer, but she wants to fight. In Tril, and at Shadow Academy, where she is sent to learn to heal, it is against Protocol for Healers to fight. So Kaya must learn in secret. Enter two young men: One charming, rule-following Barron who becomes Bound to Kaya and whose life she must protect at all costs. And one with a mysterious past who seems bent on making Kaya’s life as difficult as possible. Kaya asks both to train her, but only one will, and the consequences will change their lives forever. Heather Brewer has created a thrilling, action-packed, and romantic first installment of the Legacy of Tril series, where one strong heroine must break the rules to claim her destiny and her heart. (Annotation from the publisher, Dial)

“Waiting On” Wednesday: Two Upcoming Releases To Be Excited About

Many book blogs do a weekly event called “Waiting on Wednesday”, where they highlight the upcoming book releases that they’re most excited about. There are a lot of excellent books being released in May that you should know about (hello, anyone, how about Insurgent, the sequel to Veronica Roth’s thrill-seeking Divergent; or how about Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore’s stunning new sequel to Graceling and its companion novel Fire?), but here I want to highlight two books being released in July that would be perfect for the freedom of summer reading. I know this because I have read them both already.

The first is a lovely, sad romance between Peter Pan and Tiger Lily, written with a lot of honesty and skill; the second is a complex, rewarding high fantasy about the war between shape-shifting dragons and humans from the point of view of a girl caught between two worlds.

Tiger Lily, by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publication date: July 3

From Goodreads: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she’s ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland’s inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she’s always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it’s the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who’s everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn’t grow up.

Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman
Publication date: July 10

From Goodreads: Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina’s tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they’ve turned the final page.

New Release Radar: Just Published Books You Should Really Check Out

Summer is just around the corner, when you’ll have time to read for fun again (right? right?), but there are already a ton of excellent books out there for every kind of reader. Here’s some highlights of some of my favorite, and most-anticipated, recently published books. Most of these have just come out in April, making them the newest of the new, and all are available for check out at the library.

Pure, by Julianna Baggot. Released February 2012.
Pressia was just a little girl holding a doll when the Detonations hit, but when the bombs ended, she was as irrevocably altered as the world itself, her hand fused with the doll’s head. Those who survived found themselves mutilated and fused to whatever creatures or objects were most near – some people fused with animals into Beasts, others with people and become Groupies, some even with the earth and became Dusts. The only people that survived intact were in the Dome, a protected enclave of people now known as Pures. Patridge is one such Pure, living a safe but controlled life of genetic enhancements and behavioral control, but his discovery that his mother may still be alive and outside prompts him to escape the Dome in search of her. When Pressia and Partridge meet, they begin to uncover the dark truth about the creation of the Dome, the destruction of the world, and their inevitable connection to each other. Those of you looking for something grittier and scarier than your standard teen dystopia should check out this new series about the dark, violent life after the Detonations.

Black Heart (Curse Workers, Book Three), by Holly Black. Released April 2012.
This is Book Three of Black’s standout Curse Workers series, about a family of paranormally-gifted criminals working for the magical mob, starring Cassel Sharpe, the charming con man turned good guy who is torn between his decision to work for the federal government and his love for Lila, who has become a leader in her father’s mob. Now that the entire trilogy is available, it’s the perfect time to give this funny, twisty series a try. It’s been one of my favorite paranormal mystery series since it first appeared in 2010.

The Wicked and the Just, by Jillian Anderson Coats. Released April 2012.
I’m still waiting to get my hands on this, but for those of you interested in historical fiction, this tale sounds like a brutal, complex look at both sides of the English occupation of Wales in the 1200s. It follows English girl Cecily who comes to Wales with her family to settle new land and keep down the “vicious” Welshmen, and Gwenhwyfar, a Welsh girl who must wait hand and foot on her new English mistress until the Welsh rebel against their new masters.

The Obsidian Blade, by Pete Hautman. Released April 2012.
Time travel? Alien worlds? A family in peril? This adventurous science fiction novel, the start of a trilogy, is perfect for readers looking for both action and introspection. After thirteen-year-old Tucker Feye’s parents disappear, he suspects that the strange disks of shimmering air that he keeps seeing are somehow involved, and, when he steps inside one, he is whisked away on a time-twisting journey trailed by a shadowy sect of priests and haunted by ghostlike figures.

Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers. Released April 2012.
Next on my to-read-NOW list because of two words: Assassin Nuns. Seventeen-year-old Ismae avoids an arranged marriage by making a place for herself at the convent of St. Martin, where she learns of her unique gifts and must determine whether she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. This is a dark and romantic historical fantasy.

I Hunt Killers, by Barry Lyga. Released April 2012.
People are describing this as a teen Dexter by way of Criminal Minds, and it fits! This is an excellent, funny, scary psychological thriller about a boy struggling to overcome his family’s history of murder. From the publisher: “What if the world’s worst serial killer…was your dad? Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say. But he’s also the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could–from the criminal’s point of view. And now bodies are piling up in Lobo’s Nod. In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret–could he be more like his father than anyone knows?”

Froi of the Exiles (Chronicles of Lumatere, Book Two), by Melina Marchetta. Released March 2012.
This sequel to high fantasy Finnikin of the Rock is even better than anyone could expect. It’s tense, full of equal parts political intrigue, dangerous events, and slow-burning romance. Marchetta writes characters that captivate in a fantasy world that is so detailed and imaginative, it feels like a real place. This series has a special place in my heart and any hardcore fantasy fans should give it a try. From the publisher: “Three years after the curse on Lumatere was lifted, Froi has found his home . . . or so he believes. Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been taken roughly and lovingly in hand by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family, and has learned to control his quick temper with a warrior’s discipline. But when he is sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn, nothing could have prepared him for what he finds in its surreal royal court. Soon he must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad princess in this barren and mysterious place. It is in Charyn that he will discover there is a song sleeping in his blood . . . and though Froi would rather not, the time has come to listen.”

New Books March 2012

All Good Children, by Catherine Austen. Y Austen.
In the not-too-distant future, Max tries to maintain his identity in a world where the only way to survive is to conform and obey.

Pure, by Julianna Baggott. Y Baggott.
In a post-apocalyptic world, Pressia, a sixteen-year-old survivor with a doll’s head fused onto her left hand meets Partridge, a “Pure” dome-dweller who is searching for his mother, sure that she has survived the cataclysm.

Sometimes It Happens, by Lauren Barnholdt. Y Barnholdt.
With help from her best friend Ava and Ava’s boyfriend Noah, Hannah is recovering from being dumped by her boyfriend Sebastian, but on the first day of their senior year in high school, Ava learns that Hannah and Noah betrayed her while she was away.

Every Other Day, by Jennifer Barnes. Y Barnes.
Every other day, sixteen-year-old high school student Kali transforms into an invincible demon hunter, but when she sees that a popular fellow-student is marked for death in the next twenty-four hours, unfortunately it is the wrong day for Kali.

Gil Marsh, by A. Bauer. Y Bauer.
High school track star Gil Marsh comes to terms with the loss of his close friend and teammate Enko and his own mortality while on a journey to find Enko’s grave in this modern retelling of the ancient Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh.

Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books, by Francesca Lia Block. Y Block.
The collected Weetzie Bat books: Weetzie Bat — Witch Baby — Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys — Missing Angel Juan — Baby Be-Bop.

Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, Book Five), by Ally Carter. Y Carter.
Cammie Morgan wakes up in an alpine convent and realizes that she has no memory of the several months that have passed since she left Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from an ancient organization known as the Circle of Cavan.

Lenobia’s Vow (a House of Night Novella), by P.C. Cast. Y Cast.
Sixteen-year-old Lenobia, the illegitimate child of a baron who watches her half-sister get everything she wants and longs to fit in, finds herself with a group of other young girls on her way to New Orleans where she will be married off to a rich man, and, during the journey, she tries to hide from an evil bishop who had his eye on her before they left and secretly visits the ship’s stables and a handsome young man whose horses are being kept in them.

The Whisper (sequel to The Roar), by Emma Clayton. Y Clayton.
Twins Ellie and Mika use their psychic powers to read the mind of Gorman, who has rejuvenated his body with potent Everlife pills and plans to carry out his diabolical schemes with his new teenage body, and plot to force him out into the wilderness he fears.

Legacy, by Molly Cochran. Y Cochran.
Stuck at a boarding school where her fellow students seem to despise her, Katy soon discovers that Whitfield, Massachusetts, is the place where her mother committed suicide under mysterious circumstances when Katy was a small child, and as dark forces begin to converge on Whitfield, it is up to Katy to unravel her family’s many secrets to save the boy she loves and the town itself from destruction.

Unraveling Isobel, by Eileen Cook. Y Cook.
When seventeen-year-old Isobel’s mother marries a man she just met and they move to his gothic mansion on an island, strange occurrences cause Isobel to fear that she is losing her sanity as her artist father did.

Bloodrose (Nightshade, Book Three), by Andrea Cremer. Y Cremer.
Calla Tor faces new challenges as the alpha member of her shape-shifting wolf pack, and while she tries to prove herself to her pack, Calla must protect Ansel, decide whether saving Ren is worth evoking Shay’s wrath, and find a way to bring about the end of the Keeper’s magic.

Graffiti Moon, by Cath Crowley. Y Crowley.
Told in alternating voices, an all-night adventure featuring Lucy, who is determined to find an elusive graffiti artist named Shadow, and Ed, the last person Lucy wants to spend time with, except for the fact that he may know how to find Shadow.

Tilt, by Alan Cumyn. Y Cumyn.
When Stan’s dreams of making the JV basketball team fall through, he finds himself aware of the unexpected attention of mysterious Janine Igwash. Then Stan’s father arrives on the scene with his four-year-old half brother, and things become truly tilted.

Outlaw, by Stephen Davies. Y Davies.
The children of Britain’s ambassador to Burkina Faso, fifteen-year-old Jake, who loves technology and adventure, and thirteen-year-old Kas, a budding social activist, are abducted and spend time in the Sahara desert with Yakuuba Sor, who some call a terrorist but others consider a modern-day Robin Hood.

The Savage Grace (Dark Divine, Book Three), by Bree Despain. Y Despain.
After a brush with death, Grace Divine must find a way to prevent her one true love Daniel from being stuck in wolf form, while also seeking to save her family from destruction.

Fever (Chemical Garden trilogy, Book Two), by Lauren DeStefano. Y DeStefano.
In a future where genetic engineering has cured humanity of all diseases and defects but has also produced a virus that kills all females by age twenty and all males by the age twenty-five, teenaged Rhine escapes her forced marriage and journeys back to New York to find her twin brother.

The Traitor’s Smile (sequel to The Pale Assassin), by Patricia Elliott. Y Elliott.
In 1793, Eugňie de Boncoeur arrives at the home of her English uncle and cousin, but the French Revolution has pursued her in the form of Guy Deschamps, who is determined to bring her back to Paris to marry the Pale Assassin.

The Butterfly Clues, by Kate Ellison. Y Ellison.
Penelope “Lo” Marin’s copes with the stress of constantly moving by collecting–sometimes stealing–things from each new place, a habit that has become more compulsive since the death of her brother, but while she is wandering around Cleveland, Ohio, Lo finds a butterfly pendant at a flea market she recognizes as something stolen from a recently murdered girl and begins to piece together clues to find out the truth behind her death.

Harbinger, by Sara Wilson Etienne. Y Etienne.
In a near future in which the diminishing oil supply has led to mass rioting, sixteen-year-old Faye is sent to an educational facility for “delinquents and crazies,” where she is tormented by strange visions of a being sent to destroy the earth in order to save it.

Next Program: Hunger Games Release Party

The Hunger Games Release Party
March 18, 2 p.m., Altenbach Room

The Hunger Games will have its first showing on March 23, 2012. Will you be there? Do you want a chance to win movie tickets, posters, and other HG items? Come to our release party on March 18 and celebrate what will hopefully be the biggest and best YA book-turned-movie in a long while! Stay tuned for more details of the party challenges we’ll be throwing down.

For teens ages 12-18.

New Books February 2012

Everneath, by Brodi Ashton. Y Ashton.
Teenaged Nikki regrets her decision to forfeit her life on Earth to become an immortal on Everneath, a world between Earth and Hell, and is given the chance to return to the Surface for six months.

Drummer Girl, by Karen Bass. Y Bass.
Sid is good enough to play drums for her school’s best rock and roll band, but how far is she willing to go to get the gig?

Pink Smog, by Francesca Block. Y Block.
While thirteen-year-old junior high school outcast Weetzie Bat is mourning the life her family lost when their cottage in the Los Angeles hills burned down, her father leaves her alcoholic mother without telling either of them where he is going, and she must learn how to stand up for herself and to find beauty in even the most difficult situations.

The Gathering Storm, by Robin Bridges. Y Bridges.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1888, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret–that she has the ability to raise the dead–but when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

Dragonswood, by Janet Lee Carey. Y Carey.
In 1192 A.D. on Wilde Island, Tess, the daughter of a cruel blacksmith, is accused of witchcraft and must flee, but when she meets a handsome and enigmatic warden of Dragonswood who offers her shelter, she does not realize that he too harbors a secret that may finally bring about peace among the races of dragon, human, and fairy.

The Way We Fall, by Megan Crewe. Y Crewe.
Sixteen-year-old Kaelyn challenges her fears, finds a second chance at love, and fights to keep her family and friends safe as a deadly new virus devastates her island community.

Tempest, by Julie Cross. Y Cross.
Nineteen-year-old Jackson uses his ability to travel through time after his girlfriend, Holly, is fatally shot during a violent struggle, but his journey two years into the past leads him to make a startling discovery about his father and the powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to recruit him for their own purposes.

Jessica Rules the Dark Side (sequel to Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side), by Beth Fantaskey. Y Fantaskey.
Newly married Jessica Packwood is having a hard time adjusting to life as a vampire princess, and when her husband, Lucius, is implicated in the murder of a powerful elder, she must find a way to clear his name before it is too late.

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. Y Green.
Sixteen year old Hazel, who has cancer, meets Augustus at a kids-with-cancer support group and as they fall in love they both wonder how they will be remembered.

Hallowed (sequel to Unearthly), by Cynthia Hand. Y Hand.
Clara Gardner, part girl and part angel, questions her feelings toward Christian–and her boyfriend, Tucker–while she struggles to make sense of what happened on the day of the fire and come to terms with the knowledge that her fate will force her to lose someone she loves.

Slayers, by C.J. Hill. Y Hill.
At a rustic summer camp, sixteen-year-old Tori, a senator’s daughter, learns that she is descended from medieval dragon slayers, that dragons still exist, and that she is expected to hone her special abilities to join her fellow campers in battling the beasts and the man who controls them.

Switched (Trylle series), by Amanda Hocking. Y Hocking.
When Wendy Everly was six years old her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her, and eleven years later Wendy learns that her mother was right and that she is actually a changeling troll, who, at the age of seventeen, must be returned to her rightful home.

The Darlings in Love, by Melissa Kantor. Y Kantor.
Three fourteen-year-old best friends experience the joys and heartbreaks of first love.

Truth (sequel to XVI), by Julia Karr. Y Karr.
When Nina Oberon’s mother is killed, she discovers that her father is the leader of the Resistance and gets the same Governing Council-ordered tattoo of XVI on her wrist as the other sixteen-year-old girls. Nina joins an organization of girls working within the Resistance, determined to put an end to a terrifying secret program.

January 2012 New Books!

Dark of the Moon, by Tracy Barrett. Y Barrett.
Retells the story of the minotaur through the eyes of his fifteen-year-old sister, Ariadne, a lonely girl destined to become a goddess of the moon, and her new friend, Theseus, the son of Athens’ king who was sent to Crete as a sacrifice to her misshapen brother.

Death Watch, by Ari Berk. Y Berk.
When seventeen-year-old Silas Umber’s father disappears, Silas is sure it is connected to the powerful artifact he discovers, combined with his father’s hidden hometown history, which compels Silas to pursue the path leading to his destiny and ultimately, to the discovery of his father, dead or alive.

Buried Thunder, by Tim Bowles. Y Bowles.
Just after fourteen-year-old Maya’s family acquires the Rowan Tree Hotel she is drawn into the nearby woods, where she finds three bodies that disappear before police arrive, and soon Maya feels hunted by both human and supernatural forces.

Wolf Mark, by Joseph Bruchac. Y Bruchac.
When Lucas King’s covert-ops father is kidnapped and his best friend Meena is put in danger, Luke’s only chance to save them–a skin that will let him walk as a wolf–is hidden away in an abandoned mansion guarded by monsters.

First Day on Earth, by Cecil Castellucci. Y Castellucci.
A novel about the true meaning of being an alien in an equally alien world.

Girls Don’t Fly, by Kristin Chandler. Y Chandler.
Myra, a high school senior, will do almost anything to win a contest and earn money for a study trip to the Galapagos Islands, which would mean getting away from her demanding family life in Utah and ex-boyfriend Erik, but Erik is set on winning the same contest.

Sweet Venom, by Tera Childs. Y Childs.
As monsters walk the streets of San Francisco, unseen by humans, three teenaged descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned in Greek mythology, must reunite and embrace their fates.

Witchlander, by Lena Coakley. Y Coakley.
After the prediction of Ryder’s mother, once a great prophet and powerful witch, comes true and their village is destroyed by a deadly assassin, Ryder embarks on a quest that takes him into the mountains in search of the destroyer.

A Beautiful Dark, by Jocelyn Davies. Y Davies.
When Skye, who lives with her aunt in Boulder, Colorado, turns seventeen and is suddenly pursued by two boys who are polar opposites, secrets of her true identity–and destiny–begin to emerge.

Wherever You Go, by Heather Davis. Y Davis.
When Skye, who lives with her aunt in Boulder, Colorado, turns seventeen and is suddenly pursued by two boys who are polar opposites, secrets of her true identity–and destiny–begin to emerge.

The Pledge, by Kimberly Derting. Y Derting.
In a dystopian kingdom where the classes are separated by the languages they speak, Charlaina “Charlie” Hart has a secret gift that is revealed when she meets a mysterious young man named Max.

Winter Town, by Stephen Emond. Y Emond.
Evan and Lucy, childhood best friends who grew apart after years of seeing one another only during Christmas break, begin a romance at age seventeen but his choice to mindlessly follow his father’s plans for an Ivy League education rather than becoming the cartoonist he longs to be, and her more destructive choices in the wake of family problems, pull them apart.

My Name is Not Easy, by Debby Edwardson. Y Edwardson.
Alaskans Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Donna, and Amiq relate their experiences in the early 1960s when they are forced to attend a Catholic boarding school where, despite different tribal affiliations, they come to find a sort of family and home.

Unforgettable, by Loretta Ellsworth. Y Ellsworth.
When Baxter Green was three years old he developed a condition that causes him to remember absolutely everything, and now that he is fifteen, he and his mother have moved to Minnesota to escape her criminal boyfriend and, Baxter hopes, to reconnect with a girl he has been thinking about since kindergarten.

The Lost Stories (Ranger’s Apprentice), by John Flanagan. Y Flanagan.
In 1896, an archaeological dig unearths an ancient trunk containing manuscripts that confirm the existence of Araluen Rangers Will and Halt and tell of their first meeting and some of their previously unknown exploits.

December 2011 New Books

The Future of Us, by Jay Ashes and Carolyn Mackler. Y Asher.
It’s 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on–and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

Frost, by Marianna Baer. Y Baer.
When Leena Thomas gets her wish to live in an old Victorian house with her two closest friends during their senior year at boarding school, the unexpected arrival of another roommate–a confrontational and eccentric classmate–seems to bring up old anxieties and fears for Leena that may or may not be in her own mind.

The Goblin War, by Hilari Bell. Y Bell.
After crossing over from the Otherworld where they have been trapped in mortal danger, Tobin and Makenna must figure out how to help Jeriah stop an army of barbarians from taking over their Realm.

Ashes, by Ilsa Bick. Y Bick.
In a future Manhattan devastated by environmental catastrophes and epidemics, sixteen-year-old Lucy survives alone until vicious hounds target her and force her to join Aidan and his band, but soon they learn that she is the target of Sweepers, who kidnap and infect people with plague.

Brooklyn, Burning, by Steven Brezenoff. Y Brezenoff.
Sixteen-year-old Kid, who lives on the streets of Brooklyn, loves Felix, a guitarist and junkie who disappears, leaving Kid the prime suspect in an arson investigation, but a year later Scout arrives, giving Kid a second chance to be in a band and find true love.

iBoy, by Kevin Brooks. Y Brooks.
Sixteen-year-old Tom Harvey was an ordinary Londoner until an attack that caused fragments of an iPhone to be embedded in his brain, giving him incredible knowledge and power, but using that power against the gang that attacked him and a friend could have deadly consequences.

Liar’s Moon, by Elizabeth Bunce (sequel to Starcrossed). Y Bunce.
In a quest to prove her friend, Lord Durrel Decath, innocent of the murder of his wife, pickpocket Digger stumbles into a conspiracy with far-reaching consequences for the civil war raging in Lllyvraneth, while also finding herself falling in love.

The Beginning of After, by Jennifer Castle. Y Castle.
In the aftermath of a car accident that killed her family, sixteen-year-old Laurel must face a new world of guilt, painful memories, and the possibility of new relationships.

Clockwork Prince (Infernal Devices, Book Two), by Cassandra Clare. Y Clare.
As the Council attempts to strip Charlotte of her power, sixteen-year-old orphaned shapechanger Tessa Gray works with the London Shadowhunters to find the Magister and destroy his clockwork army, learning the secret of her own identity while investigating his past.

The Auslander, by Paul Dowswell. Y Dowswell.
German soldiers take Peter from a Warsaw orphanage, and soon he is adopted by Professor Kaltenbach, a prominent Nazi, but Peter forms his own ideas about what he sees and hears and decides to take a risk that is most dangerous in 1942 Berlin.

Drink, Slay, Love, by Sarah Beth Durst. Y Durst.
After sixteen-year-old vampire Pearl Sange is stabbed through the heart by a were-unicorn, she develops non-vampire-like traits that lead her to save her high school classmates from the Vampire King of New England.

Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, edited by Melissa Marr, et al. Y Enthralled.
A collection of fourteen original teen paranormal short stories from some of today’s bestselling YA talent, united with the common theme of road trips, and edited by bestselling authors Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong. Contributors include: Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Carrie Ryan, Jessica Verday, Rachel Vincent, Jennifer Lynn Barnes and more.

Bunheads, by Sophie Flack. Y Flack.
Hannah Ward, nineteen, revels in the competition, intense rehearsals, and dazzling performances that come with being a member of Manhattan Ballet Company’s corps de ballet, but after meeting handsome musician Jacob she begins to realize there could be more to her life.

The Poisoned House, by Michael Ford. Y Ford.
As the widowed master of an elegant house in Victorian-era London slips slowly into madness and his tyrannical housekeeper takes on more power, a ghostly presence distracts a teenaged maidservant with clues to a deadly secret.

Beautiful Chaos (a Beautiful Creatures novel), by Kami Garcia. Y Garcia.
Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand and control the impact of Lena’s claiming, which is even causing her family members’ abilities to dangerously misfire.

Cold Kiss, by Amy Garvey. Y Garvey.
When her boyfriend is killed in a car accident, high school student Wren Darby uses her hidden powers to bring him back from the dead, never imagining the consequences that will result from her decision.

The Faerie Ring, by Kiki Hamilton. Y Hamilton.
Tiki, living with her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway in 1871 London, steals a ring belonging to Queen Victoria that binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace, and when a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and Tiki’s blood, Rieker secretly watches and protects her.

Bleeding Hearts (The Drake Chronicles), by Alyxandra Harvey. Y Harvey.
Lucy, her boyfriend Nicholas, and his brother Connor try to keep secret the undead drama of Violet Hill when Lucy’s cousin Christabel comes to live there, but after Christabel is kidnapped by the ruthless Hel-Blar vampires, they must let her in on the secrets and the battle.

The Iron Knight (Iron Fey, Book Four), by Julie Kagawa. Y Kagawa.
Faery prince Ash–the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court–finally gets to tell his story: how he escaped the Winter Court with his life intact and the promise he made to the Iron Queen.

2012 Youth Media Awards Madness

I had the fortune to actually attend the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards (where they announce such awesome book awards as the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz) in Dallas, TX, this Monday. This event is like the Super Bowl for writers, publishers, and librarians, and it was so wonderful to be in a huge room full of people totally invested in recognizing the power of stories to influence lives. Every time a book was announced, whether it be a winner or an honor book, people cheered, and clapped, and whistled, and called out stuff like “Yeah!”, and I felt like I was at a sporting event or a concert, but for BOOKS. It may make be a big book nerd, but it was super fun. The full list of awards announced are here at the ALA web site but below I want to highlight the Michael L. Printz award for best teen fiction and the William C. Morris award for best teen debut fiction.

This has never happened before, as far as I know, but the same amazing book won both of these big awards, and it’s one I recently highlighted on my Top Books for 2011. Here’s what I recently wrote about it: Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley, is a strange one, but its strangeness is why I love it so. This literary novel tells intertwining stories of people searching for meaning and redemption in a messed up world. Cullen Witter lives in a tiny Arkansas town that is experiencing a revival after a birdwatcher claims to have seen a woodpecker long thought to be extinct. But while the townspeople are obsessed with searching for this mythical bird, Cullen is desperately searching for his missing younger brother, who disappeared at the same time. Meanwhile, Benton Sage, a missionary traveling in Africa, becomes disillusioned with his calling and sets up a chain reaction of events that dovetails perfectly with Cullen’s story. This excellent debut novel is both funny and meaningful. I urge anyone looking for something different to give it a try.

Four other books were named as Printz honors:

Why We Broke Up, written by Daniel Handler
The Returning, written by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races, written by Maggie Stiefvater

Also, four other books were Morris honors:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, written by Rae Carson
Paper Covers Rock, written by Jenny Hubbard
Under the Mesquite, written by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Between Shades of Gray, written by Ruta Sepetys

All of these books are available at our library, so read some award winners today!

Some more excellent places to look for good, new reads:

ALA’s Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults
ALA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top Ten List
ALA”s Alex Awards (best adult fiction for teen readers)