Ever wanted to read about strong female characters that you can live vicariously through? Here are a few series that create strong female characters, interesting settings, and a host of situations to get in and out of.
The Mid-Continent Public Library has Harlequin romances for you to check out. There are several series of romances, like Harlequin Romances, Harlequin Presents, and Silhouette Romance listed in the library catalog. The Dearborn Branch gets new Harlequin Presents paperbacks every month. Your favorite romance authors, like Penny Jordan, can always be delivered to your library branch by request.
Now here is a book that deserves to be banned. To Kill a Mockingbird has it all--bad language, rape, racial discrimination, violence against children, and the list goes on.
Whale Talk and Chris Crutcher--Challenged Too Often
Chris Crutcher is probably one of the most challenged contemporary authors in the United States right now. He is also one of the most real, most caring, and most intelligent people I’ve ever met. I have been lucky to chat with him on several different occasions.
According to some sources (as yet unverified, yet still believable), each month 17,000 new books are published in the United States. Since each month averages 22 work days, that means nearly 775 books hit the market every day. Assuming an eight-hour work day, around 95 new books become available each hour. That’s 1.6 new books every working minute of every working day. Do you ever wonder if you might get swept away by the flow of information?
And now for the next bit: Great Britain publishes even more books than the US.
In our MCPL Library system, it is our branch managers that go to a book meeting each month to purchase the books for their branches. I was able to go one month, see this process, and help purchase books for our branch collection. I purchased a book called Dump him, Marry the Horse. I am a big horse lover, so I could not see this book without getting a copy for our branch.
Should you listen to your parents, or try to press at all the boundaries that you can? What do you do when all your friends are into the bad stuff and you feel like a goody-goody?
You are not alone, even if you feel like you are the only one dealing with these issues. Whenever I feel alone and don't know how to deal, I do what any dorky, book-lover would do: I turn to a book.
Recently, I stumbled across a whole genre of "teen angst" and "how to deal" books. Here are a few that could help you out when you are feeling lost, alone, or like a big dweeb.
My name is Liz, and I’m a sub at the Lone Jack Branch. I’ve worked here for five years now, and I walk out of the library with a full bag of books at the end of almost every shift. Here are five books I love--some are recent finds; others I’ve read and reread since my teen years because I love them so much.
It's that time again, Teen Read Week 2010 runs from October 17th - 23rd. How are you going to celebrate? The theme this year is Books With Beat @ your library. The theme is to promote music books, audiobooks, poetry, and more! To get some great suggestions for titles, check out YALSA's (Young Adult Library Services Association) website.
Some days, do you want to hide under the covers mumbling, "Please, no more information: no more cell phones, TV's, I-Pods, Facebook, Twitter, computers or newspapers?" Do you long for a quiet spot to sit with a cup of coffee or tea and just reflect? Were we really meant, as humans, to process so much information?
