Open Book: April 26, 2013

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smitchill@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

-Request the book

-Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain.

Read an excerpt

Historical Fiction

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

After the death of her father in 1855, seventeen-year-old Sophia goes to live with her wealthy and mysterious godfather at his gothic mansion, Wyndriven Abbey, in Mississippi, where many secrets lie hidden.

Read an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

The Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

When his father disappears while experimenting with a black mirror that is a portal to both the past and the future, Jake encounters obstacles when he tries to use the mirror to find his father.

Read an excerpt

Romance

Kiss Me Again by Rachel Vail

Having once shared a kiss with her best friend’s boyfriend, Kevin, fourteen-year-old Charlie finds life even more awkward when their parents marry, making Kevin, still her crush, now her stepbrother.

Read an excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock

Fourteen-year-old Celia, hurt by her parents’ separation, the loss of her only friend, and a classmate’s cruelty, has only her poetry for solace until newcomer Drake Berlin befriends her, comes out to her, and seeks her help in connecting with the boy he left behind.

Read an excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabited–throughout various time periods–by Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant.

Read an excerpt

 

New Kids and Teens series E-books!

Following up our post from Tuesday, here are our new series E-book titles.

To download an e-book title, go to WestonLibrary.org and click on the Download Audiobooks EBooks Overdrive button.  Click on the Sign in button (it’s very important to do this first!) then just follow the directions.  (If you sign in first, you’ll see the books that are only available to Weston residents.)  To get one of the books on this list, click on the links below or simply search the digital catalog.

While you’re there, browse the Minuteman collection too, and see what’s available.  There are plenty of good reads!  Minuteman just added the Disney Digital e-books to our collection; these titles are always available…which means that multiple readers can read these books at the same time, and you never have to place a hold.  There are plenty of picture books, easy readers and adaptations of Disney movies, but there are also books for tweens and teens.  Just start exploring.

And…on to our new E-book series:

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The Blue Envelopes Duo, by Maureen Johnson

13 Little Blue Envelopes
When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes, she knows something exciting is going to happen.  Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket. Envelope 2 has directions to a specific London flat. The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist. Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. But will she ever see him again? What Ginny doesn’t know is that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel.

The Last Little Blue Envelope
Ginny Blackstone thought that the biggest adventure of her life was behind her. She spent last summer traveling around Europe, following the tasks her aunt Peg laid out in a series of letters before she died. When someone stole Ginny’s backpack—and the last little blue envelope inside—she resigned herself to never knowing how it was supposed to end.
Months later, a mysterious boy contacts Ginny from London, saying he’s found her bag. Finally, Ginny can finish what she started. But instead of ending her journey, the last letter starts a new adventure—one filled with old friends, new loves, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Ginny finds she must hold on to her wits . . . and her heart. This time, there are no instructions.

~*~

The Delirium Series, by Lauren Oliver

Delirium
They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie. 
It’s the near future, a time when love has long since been identified as a disease called amor deliria nervosa, and 17-year-old Lena is 95 days away from the operation that everyone gets to cure themselves. Enter Alex, a rakish daredevil who, as it turns out, is one of the Invalids—a tribe of uncured who hide out in the surrounding wilderness. With the clock ticking down to her surgery, Lena is drawn into Alex’s world, one of passion and freedom. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she submit to the procedure.

Pandemonium
The old life is dead. But the old Lena is dead too. I buried her. I left her beyond a fence, behind a wall of smoke and flame.
In this electrifying follow-up, set six months after the events in Delirium, Lena is on a dangerous course.  Her life hurtles through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement and nightmarish predicaments, with a new set of characters and ever-shifting situations.. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

(So far the third book, Requiem, is not available as an e-book.  It is available as a downloadable audio book though.)

~*~

The Divergent Series, by Veronica Roth

Divergent
In Beatrice Prior’s world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Insurgent
One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

The third book, Allegiant, is coming out on October 22, 2013!

~*~

The Wicked Lovely Series, by Melissa Marr

Wicked Lovely
Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries. Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.
Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries. Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.
Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention. But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires. Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

Ink Exchange
Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.
Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life. The tattoo does bring changes—not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . . .

Fragile Eternity
With summer approaching, Aislinn finds herself increasingly attracted to Keenan, the Summer King who stole Aislinn’s mortality to make her a monarch.  Yet Aislinn clings to her love for human Seth, refusing to release her connection to the mortal world. Seth wants to be with Aislinn forever, but he knows that Aislinn’s immortality will eventually separate them; and he pursues a dangerous remedy as tensions within Faerie increase and allegiances shift.    In this third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and to each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.

So far, the other books in the series, Radiant Shadows and Darkest Mercy, are not available as e-books in our network.  You can get the real books at the library though!

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The Septimus Heap Series, by Angie Sage

Magyk
The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this myster ious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus? Readers will set out on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. This is a story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.

Flyte
It’s been a year since septimus heap discovered his real family and true calling to be a wizard. As Apprentice to Extra Ordinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand, he is learning the fine arts of Conjurations, Charms, and other Magyk, while Jenna is adapting to life as the Princess and enjoying the freedom of the Castle. But there is something sinister at work. Marcia is constantly trailed by a menacing Darke Shadow, and Septimus’s brother Simon seems bent on a revenge no one understands. Why is the Darke Magyk still lingering?

Physik
When Silas Heap unSeals a forgotten room in the Palace, he releases the ghost of a Queen who lived five hundred years earlier. Queen Etheldredda is as awful in death as she was in life, and she’s still up to no good. Her diabolical plan to give herself everlasting life requires Jenna’s compliance, Septimus’s disappearance, and the talents of her son, Marcellus Pye, a famous Alchemist and Physician. And if Queen Etheldredda’s plot involves Jenna and Septimus, then it will surely involve Nicko, Alther Mella, Marcia Overstrand, Beetle, Stanley, Sarah, Silas, Spit Fyre, Aunt Zelda, and all of the other wacky, wonderful characters that made magyk and flyte so memorable.

The other books in the series, Queste, Syren, Darke and Fyre are available as e-books through the Minuteman Digital catalog.  Let us know if you would like the Weston Library to order those e-books too!

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And there you have it…our new e-book series titles.  If you have any suggestions for other titles we should have, let one of our librarians know.  In the meantime, happy e-reading!

::Kelly::

Booklist: Museums!

With April Vacation week coming up, families are going to be looking for things to do!  If you’re still around, you should consider visiting one of our local museums.  Boston is one of the best places in the world for museum-hopping!  And get a good deal by borrowing one of the Weston Library’s Museum Passes…they offer discounted prices for visits.  Call the Reference and Information Desk for details.

If you do go to a museum, or if you just like visiting museums, try one of these books during vacation week.  Each of them features a museum as a key part of the plot!

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Dive into a story about
MUSEUMS

Allison, Jennifer. Gilda Joyce: the Dead Drop
When Gilda lands a summer internship at Washington, D.C.’s International Spy Museum, she finds herself embroiled in both a museum haunting and a real case of espionage. While investigating a cemetery where Abraham Lincoln’s son was once buried, Gilda stumbles upon a spy’s dead drop of classified information. Gilda’s efforts to decode the cryptic message lead to further intrigues: Is she on the trail of a mole operating inside the U.S. intelligence community? Aware that nothing is what it seems when it comes to spies in Washington, D.C., Gilda faces the most serious challenge yet in her career as a psychic spy.  Read the entire Gilda Joyce series!

Balliett, Blue. Chasing Vermeer
When a book of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen. Seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, and an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one — neighbors, parents, teachers — is spared from suspicion. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth, they must draw on their powers of intuition, their problem-solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled? If you enjoy this, check out the sequels The Wright 3 and The Calder Game.

Bosch, Pseudonymous. The Name of This Book is Secret
This is the story about a secret, but it also contains a secret story. When adventurous detectives Cass, an ever-vigilant survivalist, and Max-Ernest, a boy driven by logic, discover the Symphony of Smells, a box filled with smelly vials of colorful ingredients, they accidentally stumble upon a mystery surrounding a dead magician’s diary and the hunt for immortality. Filled with word games, anagrams, and featuring a mysterious narrator, this is a book that won’t stay secret for long. The first book in the Secret Series.

Broach, Elise. Masterpiece
Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy. After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Dürer. But James can’t go through with the plan without Marvin’s help. And that’s where things get really complicated (and interesting!).

Estes, Eleanor. The Moffat Museum
There has never been a museum in Cranbury… until now. Among its treasures are the first bike each of the Moffat kids rode, stardust from a meteor that fell to earth, a beautiful painting made by Sylvie, and — most spectacularly — Rufus, the Waxworks Boy, who is as funny as he is waxy. The museum is so interesting that Mr. Pennypepper even brings tourists to visit. But the museum is really for Jane, Joey, and Rufus themselves, so they can remember all the good times they’ve had. Because life is changing for the Moffats. Yet even if Sylvie gets married, or Joey goes off to work, or Rufus grows up, one thing will never change: The Moffats are still the sort to hilariously fill even the most ordinary day with extraordinary fun.  Read the entire Moffat series!

Flavin, Teresa. The Blackhope Enigma
An ancient painting, a magical labyrinth, and skeletons found in a locked room… For centuries, Blackhope Tower has been shrouded in intrigue, centering on a labyrinth and painting in the Mariner’s Chamber. When Sunni Forrest visits the tower and sees her stepbrother, Dean, disappear, seemingly into the painting itself, she must find him and risk being drawn into the heart of the Blackhope enigma. This action-packed debut follows Dean, Sunni, and her friend Blaise on a journey to the heart of an age-old mystery. Check out the sequels The Crimson Shard and The Shadow Lantern.

Golds, Cassandra. The Museum of Mary Child
Heloise lives with her strict and forbidding godmother in an isolated cottage where the emphasis is on doing one’s duty and avoiding all things which could be considered a waste of time. Next door is a sinister museum dedicated to the memory of Mary Child. Visitors enter the museum with a smile, but depart with fear in their eyes. Heloise has never been in the museum. When she finds a mysterious doll, she’s forced to run away, ending up in an orphanage. But one day she must return to the house where the devastating secret of her past awaits.

Johnston, Tony. The Mummy’s Mother
A young mummy boy named Ramose is awakened one day by the sound of grave-robbers invading his home — the pharaoh’s tomb. They’ve stolen his mother (who’s also a mummy) and now it’s up to Ramose to find her. With the help of a cranky talking camel and some young American tourists, Ramose finds himself en route to New York City, home of an important museum and its famous collection of mummies.

Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing that her younger brother, Jamie, has money and thus can help her with the serious cash flow problem she invites him along. Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie find themselves caught up in the mystery of an angel statue that the museum purchased at an auction for a bargain price of $250. The statue is possibly an early work of the Renaissance master Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn’t it? Claudia is determined to find out. This quest leads Claudia to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the remarkable old woman who sold the statue, and to some equally remarkable discoveries about herself.

LaFevers, R. L. Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos
Theodosia Throckmorton has her hands full at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in London. Her father may be head curator, but it is Theo, and only Theo, who is able to see all the black magic and ancient curses that still cling to the artifacts in the museum. When Theo’s mother returns from her latest archaeological dig bearing the Heart of Egypt, a legendary amulet belonging to an ancient tomb, Theo learns that it comes inscribed with a curse so black and vile that it threatens to crumble the British Empire from within and start a war too terrible to imagine. Intent on returning the malevolent artifact to its rightful place, Theo devises a daring plan to put things right. But even with the help of her younger brother, a wily street urchin, and the secret society known as the Brotherhood of the Chosen Keepers, it won’t be easy… The first in the Theodosia series.

Malone, Marianne. The Sixty-Eight Rooms
Almost everybody who has grown up in Chicago knows about the Thorne Rooms. Housed in the Children’s Galleries of the Chicago Art Institute, they are a collection of 68 exquisitely crafted miniature rooms made in the 1930s by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. Each of the 68 rooms is designed in the style of a different historic period, and every detail is perfect, from the knobs on the doors to the candles in the candlesticks. Some might even say, the rooms are magic. Imagine — what if you discovered a key that allowed you to shrink so that you were small enough to sneak inside and explore the rooms’ secrets? What if you discovered that others had done so before you? And that someone had left something important behind? Also read the other Sixty-Eight Room Adventures: Stealing Magic and The Pirate’s Coin.

Newsome, Richard. The Billionaire’s Curse
Gerald Wilkins never considered himself a particularly exceptional thirteen-year-old. But that was before he inherited twenty billion pounds, a Caribbean island, a yacht, and three estates from a great-aunt he never knew. With this fortune, however, comes a letter. One from his great-aunt Geraldine. One that tells Gerald that she was murdered, and that it’s up to him to find out why. Along with his friends Ruby and Sam, Gerald embarks on a journey that will lead him from the British Museum to dodgy social clubs for the disgustingly rich to mansions in the English countryside to secret places far underground. Who was Geraldine Archer? And what secrets was she hiding? Unless Gerald, Sam, and Ruby can find out before the killer does, they may be next.  The first book in The Archer Legacy trilogy.

Riordan, Rick. The Red Pyramid
Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives. Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe — a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.  (I don’t even have to say this is the first in the Kane Chronicles, do I?)

Santopolo, Jill. The Niña, the Pinta, and the Vanishing Treasure
Alec Flint is practicing to be a super sleuth. He’s even got a pair of super sleuth pants with lots of pockets to hide his detective tools, and a sidekick Gina, who’s a little bit bossy, but a really great detective and friend. When his dad, a local police officer, tells Alec the Christopher Columbus exhibit has gone missing from the town museum, Alec is on the case!  You can read his second case too: The Ransom Note Blues.  And more adventures should be on the way!

Selznick, Brian. Wonderstruck
Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother’s room and Rose reads an enticing heading in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing. Set fifty years apart, these independent stories — Ben’s told in words, Rose’s in picture — weave back and forth with mesmerizing symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder.

Stout, Shawn. Penelope Crumb Never Forgets
Penelope Crumb’s best friend Patsy Cline Roberta Watson is becoming best friends with another girl in class, so Penelope decides she needs to win her back.  Compliments and presents fail, and Penelope is afraid she’ll lose Patsy Cline forever, so she decides to swipe Patsy’s necklace and start a secret museum to remember all the people she cares about, in case they leave her too.  But stealing turns out not to be the best plan when Grandpa Felix calls the police about his missing camera, forcing Penelope to confess. Now she’s lost both Patsy Cline AND her museum.  But in the end she makes a huge personal sacrifice to repair her friendship with Patsy and finds out that drawing pictures—what she likes to do best!—is a way to make a personal museum that doesn’t involve any sort of stealing.

Tanner, Lian. Museum of Thieves
Welcome to the tyrannical city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime. Goldie Roth has lived in Jewel all her life. Like every child in the city, she wears a silver guardchain and is forced to obey the dreaded Blessed Guardians. She has never done anything by herself and won’t be allowed out on the streets unchained until Separation Day. When Separation Day is canceled, Goldie, who has always been both impatient and bold, runs away, risking not only her own life but also the lives of those she has left behind. In the chaos that follows, she is lured to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets the boy Toadspit and discovers terrible secrets. Only the cunning mind of a thief can understand the museum’s strange, shifting rooms. Fortunately, Goldie has a talent for thieving. Which is just as well, because the leader of the Blessed Guardians has his own plans for the museum, plans that threaten the lives of everyone Goldie loves. And it will take a daring thief to stop him…   The first in the Keepers Trilogy.

Van Eekhout, Greg. Kid vs. Squid
Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle’s seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher’s summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea. Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate—working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk. Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch’s curse?

Van Leeuwen, Jean. The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery
Tired of their comfortable digs in Macy’s department store, Marvin, Fats, and Raymond are three mice searching for adventure. Following a hair-raising ride in a shopping bag, they find themselves disembarking in front of the famous Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. There they discover many interesting things about the world of humans. Fats discovers that blobs of jam on canvas isn’t food, it’s art! But will his newfound artistic talent go to his head? Meanwhile, will Marvin be able to pull off the most daring skating stunt of the century? And will poor Raymond run out of brilliant ways to save his friends from sticky situations-or worse, the exterminator?

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AND FOR TEENS:

Bray, Libba. The Diviners
Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City — and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult — also known as “The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.” When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer — if he doesn’t catch her first.

Bryant, Jennifer. Pieces of Georgia
Like her mother, Georgia McCoy is an artist, but her dad looks away whenever he sees her with a sketchbook. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what it was like when her mother was still alive . . . when they were a family . . . when they were happy. But then a few days after her 13th birthday, Georgia receives an unexpected gift — a strange, formal letter, all typed up and signed anonymous — granting her free admission to the Brandywine River Museum for a whole year. And things begin to change.

Hayes, Daniel. The Eye of the Beholder
Tyler and Lymie are sick in bed and bored out of their minds. But while their hometown plans a festival for a famous local artist, and folks scramble to find his last known works of art, the boys hatch a clever plot. Tyler and Limy create their own sculptures as a joke and discard them near the artist’s studio. But when the sculptures are found and determined to be authentic, the art world is suddenly abuzz with news of the amazing discovery — and two boys with great imaginations are in a hilarious heap of trouble. . . .

Richards, Justin. The Death Collector
What starts as an ordinary picket-pocketing incident in Victorian London unites three teens against a madman. Eddie is the pickpocket; George is an assistant at the British Museum; Elizabeth has a nose for trouble — and all of them are being hunted by Augustus Lorimore. Lorimore is a sinister factory owner, a villain bent on reanimating the dead, both humans and dinosaurs – -and one of each is already terrorizing the streets of London. It’s up to Eddie, George, and Elizabeth to stop Lorimore’s monsters . . . or die trying.

Booklist prepared by Casey S.

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If you want an informative book about museums and how they work, try How the Sphinx got to the Museum or The Museum Book, both in our non-fiction collection.  These books are two of my favorites, which make museum visits fun and exciting, but we have many more!  The Dewey Numbers for Museums range from J 700 (for general art) to J 709 (for more specific collections.)  Come in and get some ideas for your next museum visit about what to look at and to look for to enhance your visit.

And as always, come into the Library for any suggestions about what to read!

::Kelly::

Open Book: April 5, 2013

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smitchill@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

-Request the book

-Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

Sophie is not happy to be back in the Congo for the summer, but when she rescues an abused baby bonobo she becomes more involved in her mother’s sanctuary–and when fighting breaks out and the sanctuary is attacked, it is up to Sophie to rescue the apes and somehow survive in the jungle.

Read an excerpt

Historical Fiction

The Lightning Dreamer:  Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist by Margarita Engle

In free verse, evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book-loving writer, feminist, and abolitionist who courageously fought injustice in nineteenth-century Cuba. Includes historical notes, excerpts from her writings, biographical information, and source notes.

Read an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.

Read an excerpt

Romance

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony

In a love story told in photographs and drawings, Glory, a brilliant piano prodigy, is drawn to Frank, an artistic new boy, and the farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness until the only song she is able to play is “Chopsticks.”

See inside the book

Buzz: Middle School

Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele

Jamey Barlowe has been crippled since childhood, the result of being born on the Moon. He lives his life in a wheelchair, only truly free when he is in the water. But then Jamey’s father sends him, along with five other kids, back to the Moon to escape a political coup d’etat that has occurred overnight in the United States.

Read an excerpt

Buzz:  High School

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend.

Read an excerpt

Open Book: February 22, 2013

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

-Request the book

-Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

Read excerpt

Historical Fiction

My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve

Before the start of World War II, ten-year-old Ziska Mangold, who has Jewish ancestors but has been raised as a Protestant, is taken out of Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains, to live in London with a Jewish family, where she learns about Judaism and endures the hardships of war while attempting to keep in touch with her parents, who are trying to survive in Holland.

Read excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepard

Dr. Moreau’s daughter, Juliet, travels to her estranged father’s island, only to encounter murder, medical horrors, and a love triangle.

Read excerpt

Romance

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits–smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Read excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry. Includes glossary of Spanish terms.

Read excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Six months after the events of September 11, 2001, Khalid, a Muslim fifteen-year-old boy from England, is kidnapped during a family trip to Pakistan and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is held for two years suffering interrogations, water-boarding, isolation, and more for reasons unknown to him.

Read excerpt

Old Favorite: Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Okay, for this week’s “Old Favorite” I’m cheating.  Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys isn’t really that old (2005) but…it’s so perfect for this week that I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather write about.  And it definitely is a favorite.  So…Here we go.  Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys, by Kate Brian.

* * *

Megan Meade is happy at Fort Hood.  Her parents have finally stopped their lifetime of traveling from army base to army base and settled down for good.  Megan has spent three consecutive years at Fort Hood, a record in her wandering life.  She’s making good grades, she’s on the state championship soccer team, she has her learner’s permit, she has a best friend named Tracey and she’s finally worked up the courage to talk to Ben, the guy she’d love to date, right before the start of her junior year.  She’s *happy*!

And then her parents sit her down and announce that her Dad has earned another transfer. To South Korea. For two  whole years.

Megan, for the first time in her life, puts her foot down.  She refuses to go. She even has a bit of a temper tantrum, something that she’s never done before.  Her parents offer a compromise; she can to go Boston and stay with her father’s med school roommate, John McGowan, and his family.  Megan still will be changing schools and locations, but she’ll still able to join a championship soccer team, and she can live in one place for the two years and finish high school in the U.S.

The drawback?  John McGowan has sons.  Lots of sons. And Megan doesn’t exactly have the best memories from their previous meetings. When they were kids, the boys were one unidentifiable group, who had sticky faces and missing teeth. They lassoed her to a tree, hung her upside down, had worms in their pockets and pulled her hair.  Megan at sixteen is barely able to talk to boys, but now she’s supposed to live with seven of them?  Still, soccer. And living stateside. And high school!

When she meets them again, Megan finds that the McGowan boys have grown up a lot since she last saw them. They’re…gorgeous.  There’s Evan, who once blew snot bubbles at her and hit her over the head with a wiffle bat but who now looks like an Olympic god.  There’s Finn, who’s in her class, also a Greek god, and an artist.  There’s Sean, the mysterious brooder who works on bikes and is in a band.  Doug, who looks like the second coming of Eminem. Miller, the sports fan. And Ian and Caleb, the two youngest, the only ones who won’t be in the high school with Megan and the older brothers. The seem to be a little more like the boys she remembers, but they’re still cute.  Maybe it won’t be that bad?

But real life drops Megan right in the middle of boy chaos, and she finds that the McGowans haven’t grown up enough.  Megan’s first morning with includes dropping her bathroom supplies in front of the older boys and getting teased,  finding all her t-shirts defaced with anatomical drawings and having her bra stolen by the younger boys.  Megan revises her opinion; the McGowans are monsters!

Megan’s e-mails to her friend Tracey start to include observations on the McGowans.  It’s the only way to keep her sanity!

When Megan starts the school year, she does find out that there are advantages and disadvantages to having seven ready-made brothers. From soccer to assignments to parties and friends, the McGowans are everywhere she turns, in the house and outside of it. Only Megan discovers that she really doesn’t want to think of them as brothers, because any way you look at it, those McGowan boys are hot.  So she makes her observations to Tracy and learns everything there is to know about boys.  Or so she thinks…

* * *

Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys is funny and touching, and exasperating and full of truths.  It’s a great read about boys and girls and the differences between them, about brothers and about what makes a good boy friend.  Or maybe, a good boyfriend.  Also soccer and girl friends and sisters and friendship.  (And if you’re a girl who doesn’t  have brothers, this is a “must-read”.)

Kate Brian is the author of the Private series and the Privilege series.  She’s written several other books that are popular, among them Sweet 16, The V Club, and Lucky T.  Her newest book, Shadowlands, about two sisters who have to go into the Witness Protection program, just came out in January.  Kate Brian is a pseudonym, and under her real name, Kieran Scott has written several other titles, including the I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader trilogy and She’s So Dead to Us series.

There’s not much history to Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys, since it’s not even ten years old.  There’s only one cover, even!  When we did our most popular teen checkouts for the past ten years, it came out in the top 75, right before A Wrinkle in Time.  That may be because our staff recommends it frequently, but it might also be because most of the teens who read it recommend it to friends. It’s has huge word-of-mouth popularity.

There is some frank (and funny) discussion between Megan and Tracey about the motivations behind boys’ behavior.  There’s also several scenes on the consequences of “hooking up” at a high school party, and a bit of drinking, but nothing graphic.  Still, for those reasons, this is probably more appropriate for upper middle school and high school readers.

So if we’re snowed in again this winter, or if you want a fun Valentine’s Day read, grab Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys. See if you like it as much as we all do.

::Kelly::

Old Favorite: A Solitary Blue

Did everyone hear who won this year’s most prestigious American Children’s book awards?  The Newbery winner was Katherine Applegate, for The One and Only Ivan and the Caldecott winner was Jon Klassen for This is Not My Hat! I’m happy to say that both of these books were on my short list of potential winners!  (Basically, our staff listed our favorites as our Holiday Gift guide books, back in early December in these posts.)

There are plenty of blogs out there listing the winners; if you’d like to know more, Google the awards or go to the American Library Association’s page here, and read about these awards and all the others.  There were over 20 award-winning books announced last Monday, and with anywhere from one to five honor books named in those awards, there are quite a few books to catch up on!

* * *

This week’s Old Favorite was a Newbery Honor book back in 1984.  (Knowing how the awards are voted on and given, it is my firm belief that the Honor Books are often better than the winner.)  It is a book I’ve read several times, and each time I see or feel or understand something different.  So here we go: A Solitary Blue, by Cynthia Voigt.

* * *

Jeff Greene was only in second grade when his life changed forever.  He got home from school to discover a note from his mother, Melody, telling him that although she loved him, she was leaving him to work to make the world a better place for animals and other children.  Jeff didn’t really understand why Melody felt like she had to take care of the whole world before taking care of her family, but that had always been the way she was.  He and his father, The Professor, discussed their options, and decided on a good course of action.

Jeff and his father muddle through third grade, fourth grade and fifth grade with the help of a yearly graduate student and a lot of planning.  In sixth grade, The Professor made friends with Brother Thomas, a teaching fellow at the seminary school.  When Jeff gets sick with bronchitis, it’s Brother Thomas who forces The Professor to face up to things like doctor visits, dentists, and finally talking about Melody.

The Professor finds Melody and gets in touch with her. The summer before seventh grade, Jeff is sent to spend a few weeks with his mother in Charleston.  He also meets Gambo, Melody’s grandmother, his great-grandmother and two more elderly aunts, Aunt Booty and Aunt Dodo.  Melody is nothing like the mother he vaguely remembers, and exactly like what he remembers.  He spends the summer in a daze of wonder, learning about his mother, her causes, and his southern heritage.  At the end of the visit, he’s sent back to Baltimore and The Professor.

Getting back home takes some getting used to, and The Professor seems surprised about what Jeff learned in Charleston about Melody, Gambo and everything else. Surprised and not too pleased, in some cases. But as the school year passes, Jeff and The Professor finally start to see each other as people, not just an old man and a young man who happen to be connected by blood and live in the same house. Jeff becomes interested in music, and The Professor becomes less distant, more interested in Jeff.  They talk. And Jeff goes to visit Melody the next summer.  And everything changes. Again.

* * *

A Solitary Blue is one of those books about life and choices and learning where you belong.  It’s introspective and questioning. It’s full of details and feelings and disappointment and happiness. It’s about learning that your parents are people too, with their own hopes and dreams.  It’s about survival and music and love and life.  Jeff learns that there aren’t any easy answers to the questions he has for both his parents.

A Solitary Blue is part of Cynthia Voigt’s Tillerman Cycle, but it really does stand alone. The cycle starts with Homecoming, about Dicey Tillerman and her journey to get herself and her younger siblings halfway across the country in an impossible journey to find family to care about them.  Dicey and Jeffrey are friends and kindred souls; however, there is no reason you couldn’t read A Solitary Blue first.  The story is sort of a parallel to the events in Homecoming and Come a Stranger, about another of Dicey’s friends. In fact, A Solitary Blue is my favorite book of the Tillerman cycle.  Dicey’s Song, the second book, won the Newbery Medal in 1983.  Homecoming and The Runner, set ten years before Homecoming and about Dicey’s uncleare also award-winners.  Voigt’s book The Callender Papers won and Edgar Award for best juvenile mystery and two other books, Izzy Willy-Nilly and Tell Me if All Lovers are Losers won prestigious awards as well.

I do love the way Cynthia Voigt writes. Her descriptions of places and how people are feeling puts the reader right in that spot with the character.

A Solitary Blue is in both our Juvenile and Teen Collections. It is not an easy book, it requires some careful reading and a willingness on the part of the reader to open themselves up to  emotions, to put themselves into another person’s perspective.  It is, however, well worth that effort.  Jeff ages from seven to seventeen over the course of the book.  I would recommend this book to thoughtful readers in grades five through nine.

So, if you’re ready for something less action-packed and more introspective, try A Solitary Blue. And let me know what you think.

::Kelly::

 

 

Teens: If You Liked The Hunger Games

Feed by M. T. Anderson

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card

Book 1 is Ender’s Game.  A veteran of years of simulated war games, Ender believes he is engaged in one more computer war game when in truth he is commanding the last fleet of Earth against an alien race seeking the complete destruction of Earth.

Graceling series by Kristin Cashore

Book 1 is Graceling.  In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Selection by Kiera Cass

America Singer is chosen to compete in the Selection–a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea’s prince–but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her.

Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Book 1 is City of Bones.  Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizzare world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

Matched series by Allyson Condie

Book 1 is Matched.  All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, whom to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn’t be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky’s face show up on her match disk as well?

After the First Death by Robert Cormier

Events of the hijacking of a bus of children by terrorists seeking the return of their homeland are described from the perspectives of a hostage, a terrorist, an Army general involved in the rescue operation, and his son, chosen as the go-between.

Maze Runner series by James Dashner

Book 1 is The Maze Runner.  Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

Incarceron series by Catherine Fisher

Book 1 is Incarceron.  To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, a futuristic prison with a mind of its own, decides to help a young prisoner escape.

Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia

Book 1 is Beautiful Creatures.  In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

Eon series  by Allison Goodman

Book 1 is Eon.  Sixteen-year-old Eon hopes to become an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune and learn to be its main interpreter, but to do so will require much, including keeping secret that she is a girl.

Gone series by Michael Grant

Book 1 is Gone.  In a small town on the coast of California, everyone over the age of fourteen suddenly disappears, setting up a battle between the remaining town residents and the students from a local private school, as well as those who have “The Power” and are able to perform supernatural feats and those who do not.

Among the Hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Book 1 is Among the Hidden.   In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family’s farm, until another “third” convinces him that the government is wrong.

The Enemy series by Charlie Higson

Book 1 is The Enemy.  After a disease turns everyone over sixteen into brainless, decomposing, flesh-eating creatures, a group of teenagers leave their shelter and set out of a harrowing journey across London to the safe haven of Buckingham Palace.

Brave New World by Alexander Huxley

The astonishing novel Brave New World, originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley’s vision of the future-of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of speculative fiction sheds a blazing critical light on the present and is considered to be Huxley’s most enduring masterpiece. Following Brave New World is the nonfiction work Brave New World Revisited, first published in 1958. It is a fascinating work in which Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with the prophetic fantasy envisioned in Brave New World, including threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion.

Homelanders series by Andrew Klavan

Book 1 is The Last Thing I Remember.  High school student Charlie West awakens bloody and bruised in a concrete bunker, only to discover that he has lost a year of his life and remembers nothing about escaping from prison after being convicted of murdering his former best friend, or why he is being pursued by both the law and a group of terrorists trying to bring down the government of the United States.

Epic series by Conor Kostick

Book 1 is Epic.  On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik pursuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik’s father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.

The Lorien Legacy series by Pittacus Lore

Book 1 is I Am Number Four.  On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik pursuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik’s father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.

The Giver series by Lois Lowry

Book 1 is The Giver.  Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi

Ostracized or incarcerated her whole life, seventeen-year-old Juliette is freed on the condition that she use her horrific abilities in support of The Reestablishment, a postapocalyptic dictatorship, but Adam, the only person ever to show her affection, offers hope of a better future.

Legend series by Marie Lu

Book 1 is Legend.  June and Day make their way to Las Vegas where they join the rebel Patriot group and become involved in an assassination plot against the Elector in hopes of saving the Republic.

Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr

Book 1 is Wicked Lovely.  Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer King and Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance.

Wake series by Lisa McMann

Book 1 is Wake.  Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people’s dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true power.

Acceleration by Graham McNamee

Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.

Cinder by Melissa Meyer

As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

Host by Stephenie Meyer

The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. But Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves–Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she’s never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness

Book 1 is The Knife of Never Letting Go.  Pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron, young Todd and Viola set out across New World searching for answers about his colony’s true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing hopeful settlers from Old World.

Birthmarked series by Caragh O’Brien

Book 1 is Birthmarked.  In a future world baked dry by the sun and divided into those who live inside the wall and those who live outside it, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone is forced into a difficult choice when her parents are arrested and taken into the city.

1984 by George Orwell

While the totalitarianism that provoked George Orwell into writing ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ seems to be passing into oblivion, his harrowing, cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate, and its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade.

Maximum Ride series by James Patterson

Book 1 is The Angel Experiment.  After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the “bird kids,” who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.

Life as We Knew It series by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family’s struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Delirium series by Lauren Oliver

Book 1 is Delirium.  Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

Across the Universe series by Beth Revis

Book 1 is Across the Universe.  Teenaged Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed, wakes up to discover that someone may have tried to murder her.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

Book 1 is The Lightning Thief.  Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea.  His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

Under the Never Sky series by Veronica Rossi

Book 1 is Under the Never Sky.  Aria and Perry, two teens from radically different societies–one highly advanced, the other primitive–hate being dependent on one another until they overcome their prejudices and fall in love, knowing they can’t stay together.

Divergent series by Veronica Roth

Book 1 is Divergent.  In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth series by Carrie Ryan

Book 1 is The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Unwind series by Neal Shusterman

In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs–and, perhaps, save their own lives.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater

Book 1 is The Raven Boys.  Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent’s only gift seems to be that she makes other people’s talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own–and that together their talents are a dangerous mix.

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

Book 1 is The Uglies.  Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally’s best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all.

Paranormalcy series by Kristen White

Book 1 is Paranormalcy.  When a dark prophecy begins to come true, sixteen-year-old Evie of the International Paranormal Containment Agency must not only try to stop it, she must also uncover its connection to herself and the alluring shapeshifter, Lend.

Old Favorite: The View from the Cherry Tree

Mayhem, mystery and…murder!  Everyone enjoys a good mystery, especially one with a character that’s believable, a dangerous situation, and a setting that’s realistic.  And that’s what you will find in today’s Old Favorite, The View from the Cherry Tree, by Willo Davis Roberts.

* * *

Rob is stuck at his house this summer, “helping” his older sister Darcy get ready for her wedding. Most of his help seems to involve staying out of the way, not making any noise, and being ignored by everyone.  It’s not a happy experience, no matter what the blushing bride and his bustling parents say.

Rob takes to hanging out in the middle of the backyard cherry tree, high above the chaos below, spying on all the comings and goings of Darcy, her fiance, their parents and all of Darcy’s friends and ex-boyfriends. He’s heard a lot of secrets as he sits up in the tree, hidden from sight, eating the cherries and spitting out the pits out toward the people walking below.  When he “borrows” his father’s binoculars, he can even see further, into the surrounding yards and houses.

Including the house of Mrs. Calloway, the cranky old lady next door.  When Rob was young, he believed the stories about how she caught children and ate them, just like the witch in Hansel and Gretel.  Now, however, he knows that she’s just a mean old lady who lives alone and doesn’t like anyone. She calls his parents frequently to complain about Rob, their guests, the cat, and any perceived issues with her property.

She hates Rob’s cat S.O.B.  Of course S.O.B. isn’t exactly the nicest cat in the world, and the hate seems to be mutual.  Sometimes, S.O.B. seems to try to anger the elderly neighbor, like the day he jumped into her house through an open window and scratched her when she threw him out.  His defense of S.O.B. leads to a confrontation with Mrs. Calloway and her broom, and a black eye for Rob.  His family is disappointed in his behavior and Darcy starts wailing about wedding photos.  Rob is grounded.

Rob keeps his cool, but decides to keep an eye on Mrs. Calloway, either to catch her doing something mean or to get an idea for getting even.  He tries a few tricks, but it only gets him in more trouble.  Rob develops the habit of peeking into Mrs. Calloway’s house through her windows whenever he’s in the cherry tree, just in case.  He never expects to hear Mrs. Calloway arguing with a tall man, nor to see the man push her out the window.  And then, she’s dead. He runs into the house and gets his family, and they call the police about her “accidental” death.

Rob tries to tell his family that he saw her murdered, but no one believes him.  Rob is on his own.  He tries talking to his family one on one and in groups, trying to convince them of the truth, but people just get mad at him, and think he’s trying to distract them from Darcy’s wedding.  And then it gets worse.  Because it seems like the murderer knows he was seen, and is trying to kill him too…

* * *

Willo Davis Roberts actually wrote The View from the Cherry Tree with an older audience in mind; by 1974 she was an established adult mystery author with 35 books published in twenty years.  However, when her editor read the manuscript she urged Mrs. Roberts to submit it as a mystery for younger readers. She recognized that Rob and his point of view made it more accessible to  a younger audience. It was also good timing because younger readers were ready for more realistic situations in their books.

After a year of stamping her feet (by her own admission!), Mrs. Roberts submitted it as a book for young readers. It was published in 1975, and won a Children’s Book of the Year Award from the Library of Congress.  Her career took an unexpected turn after The View from the Cherry Tree was published, and she became a highly praised, award-winning and popular author of mysteries and adventures for middle grade and teen readers.  She was working on her 100th book when she died in 2004; more than half of those books were for teens and middle grade readers.

The View from the Cherry Tree is my favorite of her books, and one of my all-time favorite mysteries. I read it when it was first released–I remember there was a waiting list for it in our library system.  It’s a thrilling mystery, and it was one of the first that I read that didn’t seem to talk down to the reader.  Other books written by Willo Davis Roberts that I loved include The Girl with the Silver Eyes, Twisted Summer, Jo and the Bandit and Baby-sitting is a Dangerous Job.  Hmm…maybe some future Old Favorites!

The View from the Cherry Tree is appropriate for fourth through sixth grade readers.  It does deal with a murder, so readers of a sensitive nature will want to remember that. (I’ve also been told that I should give a warning for spiders, because of something that happens later in the book. It didn’t bother me, but I can see the reason!)  It would be a fun book to share with a class or to read for a mystery genre assignment.  It is a fast read, and very suspenseful.  So read The View From the Cherry Tree and see what you think.  I think you’ll like it.

::Kelly::

*I apologize for the weirdness with the posting. WordPress somehow lost the post and reverted back to the first draft.  I had to rewrite most of it, so if you got a mailed copy, the original post was a little different.*

Open Book: January 18, 2013

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

-Request the book

-Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

Sophie is not happy to be back in the Congo for the summer, but when she rescues an abused baby bonobo she becomes more involved in her mother’s sanctuary–and when fighting breaks out and the sanctuary is attacked, it is up to Sophie to rescue the apes and somehow survive in the jungle.

Read an excerpt

Watch a video from the author

Historical Fiction

Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson

In 1919, seventeen-year-old Hattie leaves the Montana prairie–and her sweetheart Charlie–to become a female reporter in San Francisco.

Read an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve

Foundling Fever Crumb has been raised as an engineer although females in the future London, England, are not believed capable of rational thought, but at age fourteen she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.

Watch the trailer and read an excerpt from all the books in the series

Romance

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Sparks fly when American good girl Allyson encounters laid-back Dutch actor Willem, so she follows him on a whirlwind trip to Paris, upending her life in just one day and prompting a year of self-discovery and the search for true love.

Read an excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Kiss Me Again by Rachel Vail

Having once shared a kiss with her best friend’s boyfriend, Kevin, fourteen-year-old Charlie finds life even more awkward when their parents marry, making Kevin, still her crush, now her stepbrother.

Read an excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Girl with Borrowed Wings by Rinsai Rossetti

Seventeen-year-old Frenenqer lives a controlled and restricted life in the desert, like everyone else there, but when she meets Sangris, a Free, winged shape-shifter, everything changes.

Read an excerpt