Smile

by Raina Telgemeier

Middle school can be tough.  For Raina it was a funny, painful, often embarrassing journey.  In sixth grade Raina tripped, fell, and knocked out her two front teeth.  In order to fix the problem, and other dental issues, she had to wear braces, headgear, a retainer with two fake front teeth, and suffer through oral surgeries.  Follow Raina as she navigates dental drama, the confusing world of boys, changing friendships, middle school, and the transition to high school where she finally finds herself and her smile.  This graphic novel is based on the author’s real life experiences.

If you like this book try:Copper, Rapunzel’s Revenge, The Storm in the Barn, When You Reach Me, Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf

Calling all Rangers between the ages of 9-14.  Here is your chance to become Apprentice to One, Hero to All.  The publisher of the Ranger’s Apprentice series written by John Flanagan is sponsoring a contest to win in a trip to the Ranger Corps training camp being held this June in Austin.   Check out the Ranger’s Apprentice website at www.rangersapprentice.com for all the details.  And while you are there, check out all the fun stuff on the website.

Of course, if you don’t happen to win the contest, you can always register to attend the camp.   The camp is held by Book People in Austin.  Join the Ranger Corps. and learn the craft of the elusive and misunderstood Rangers of Araluen. They will be accepting apprentices between the ages of 9-14.  Click  here for more information.

Book Trailer for Erak’s Ransom

Click here to view the embedded video.

Books in the Ranger’s Apprentice series: Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, The Icebound Land, Battle for Skandia, The Sorcerer of the North, The Siege of Macindaw, Erak’s Ransom

The 2010 Michael L. Printz Award has been announced.  The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.  This is the big annual prize for young adult literature.

And the 2010 winner is:

Going Bovine by Libba Bray.

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob’s (AKA mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

Other books by Libba Bray: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing

The 2010 Honor Books are:

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Once Charles Darwin sets his rational mind to marry the religious Emma Wedgeworth, they both must take a leap of faith in order to build a life together.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a monstrumologist, races against time to save his town (and himself) from the anthropophagi, a pod of monstrous creatures who prey on humans.

Other books by Rick Yancey: The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon, Alfred Kropp: The Thirteenth Skull

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp

Fourteen-year-old runaway Jamie, homeless and strung out, embarks on a harrowing journey to reach his dying brother.

Other books by Adam Rapp: Ball Peen Hammer

Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes

Karl Shoemaker wants to begin his senior year with a new identity separate from his counseling group, his alcoholic mother and the legacy of his dead father.

Shiver

by Maggie Stiefvater

An unusual twist on the werewolf story that is full of romance and suspense. Grace has always felt a kinship with the yellow-eyed wolf that keeps watch over her from the woods behind her house.  When fate brings her together with a boy named Sam, she knows that she has found “her wolf”. Wonderfully told with alternating narrators, Shiver tells the tale of one boy’s struggle to maintain his humanity through the enduring love of one young woman.

Click here to check if the book is currently available @ GPL.

Book guest reviewed by Amy Nolan.

If you like this book try: Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klaus.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If I Stay

by Gayle Forman

Mia is a seventeen year old high school senior facing one of life’s forks in the road.  After graduation should Mia go to Julliard and pursue her own musical dreams or stay and follow her rock star boyfriend and his rise to fame.  Then, in one moment, a terrible car crash changes everything.  Suddenly should she stay or should she go becomes a life or death decision.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you like this book try: North of Beautiful, Along for the Ride, Wintergirls, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Thirteen Reasons Why, Impossible

King Of the Screwups

By K.L. Going

Liam Geller seems have it all.  He’s handsome, popular, and gets all the girls.  He’s the son of one of the world’s wealthiest men and his mother is a supermodel.  So why does he screw things up all the time?  During his senior year Liam’s father has finally had enough and kicks him out of the house.  Liam has nowhere to go but to a small town in upstate New York to live in a trailer with his uncle. Liam is upset until he realizes this is his chance to remake himself into something, someone his father would notice and appreciate.  Can Liam transform himself into a non popular, studious, business minded success like his father?  Or will he screw up the ultimate makeover?

Check out these other books by K.L. Going: Fat Kid Rules the World, Garden of Eve, Saint Iggy

Notes from the Midnight Driver

by Jordan Sonnenblick

So Alex Gregory made one little mistake.  So what?  He’s a good kid.  Nobody was hurt in the car crash except a garden gnome.  It wasn’t really his fault anyway.  Now, in order to fulfill the community service hours given to him by a hardhearted judge, Alex must baby sit some crazy, cranky old guy at the nursing home where his mom works.  This on top of school, jazz band, his parents impending divorce, and his confusing feelings for his best friend Laurie, who by the way could kill him with one finger.  What did he do to deserve this?  This is the story of Alex Gregory, his guitar, his best pal, Laurie, and the friendship of a lifetime.

If you liked this book, try these other books by Jordan Sonnenblick: Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie; Zen and the Art of Faking It

Thirteen Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen had a crush on Hannah Baker.  He hoped he was finally getting to know her better.  That was until she committed suicide.  Two weeks later, as he is struggling with the aftermath of her death, Clay finds a shoebox addressed to him on his porch.  Inside the shoebox was the last thing he wanted or expected.  The shoebox contained tapes recorded by Hannah.  Hannah’s voice explains that there are 13 reasons she decided to end her life.  Clay is one of them.  If he listens he will find out why.  What follows is a nerve wracking, life altering night where Clay travels around town learning things about himself and others he would rather not face.  Through the tapes, Hannah’s life and death unfold showing us that we never know how people are connected or what kind of effect our actions and words will have on someone else.  Once you listen, Hannah’s voice will grab you and not let you go.

If you like this book try: Before I Die by Jenny Downham, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, I Heart You Your Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

The first ever Read-It-Forward in GISD has begun. The Georgetown Middle Schools and Ninth Grade Center join Georgetown Public Library to offer this fun and creative reading experience. Over 400 copies of  Gordon Korman’s book Schooled have been released at various locations on their campuses as well as at GPL. Students who find the packages first get to unwrap and start the reading chain.

Each book has instructions describing steps that the reader should take when the book is finished. GPL is providing a website that will track each copy as well as reader comments. Click the Read-it-Forward graphic above or look for a link on any of the participating campus library web pages.

The most important step is to take the copy and “read-it-forward” by passing it to a friend or leaving it somewhere on campus for another student to find. With so many copies circulating, the goal is to have at least 1000 readers before the end of school.

Georgetown Public Library and the Friends of the Library will host an “After-Schooled” wrap up party on May 9, 2009.  So, read the book, pass it on, get the invitation and then party.  We’ll celebrate the end of Read it Forward with pizza, tie dying, Guitar Hero and more.  Watch for more details on the Schooled tracking site, your campus web page or check with your librarian.

Now go get schooled.

The Graveyard Book

by Neil Gaiman

Read this book.

The first reason to read this book is because it begins with this sentence: “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” The second reason to read this book is because of, well, all the sentences that follow. Though it’s not as simple as that. It never is with Neil Gaiman.

“The Graveyard Book” is the story of a child who unknowingly escapes a sharp death-a death intended by the hand and the knife alluded to above. While his family is being slashed in their sleep, the boy climbs free of his crib and stumbles out of his home and into a nearby graveyard, where a pair of ghosts decide to take the child in and raise him as their son. Since the boy has no name, since he is basically nobody, his name becomes Nobody Owens, which eventually is shortened to Bod. Not Bob. The Owens ghosts raise the boy with the help of a mysterious person who is almost certainly-though Gaiman never actually uses the word-a vampire. A good vampire.

Bod is given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which bestows upon him a number of special abilities, like slipping through walls and down through tombstones into dark recesses where ghosts abide. He can see spirits and commune with them; he can Fade into nothing so that people’s glances slide off him and he is forgotten just as swiftly, like he never existed. Mostly his presence is like a thin wisp no one ever notices. Like a ghost.

As each chapter progresses, Bod gets a little older. We get to know the strange and compelling denizens of the graveyard. Some are ghastly and gruesome, like the ghouls who come from the ancient and forsaken city of Ghulheim. Some characters are uproariously funny, like the dead poet Nehemiah Trot, who serves as a brilliant comic release to the story. All the characters, though, are unique and vivid, and linger long in the mind.

Like all fiction by Gaiman, the real charm in “The Graveyard Book” is in the story telling. The way the author masterfully weaves all the strands together like the most skilled prestigitator-a magician of the highest rank. I get the sense that Gaiman is always there in the background smiling at me, mischievously, a hand outstretched to offer something of tremendous value, though each time he pulls back right before I can clamp my finger around the treasure. And I know that by the end of the story I’ll get that treasure.

I have never encountered a book by Gaiman that did not thrill me. Whether you are a teenager or a retiree, this book will delight you. The catharsis at the end will make you want to live a richer life, a fuller life, for that is ultimately what the book is about. The celebration of life.

If you like this book try these books by Neil Gaiman: Stardust, Coraline,  The Wolves in the Walls,  M is for Magic,  Interworld,  Beowulf, or the biography on Neil Gaiman.

Review by Billy Cryer
Library Assistant
Georgetown Public Library