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Before I forget to mention this. Run, don't walk, to the bookstore to get this book. It is one of the best damn things I've read all year. I did not expect to love it, but I could not put the darn thing down and stayed up last night finishing it. This novel is great. Here is why it is great. First, it reminds me of the movie Brick. It goes beyond clever. It is smart with a capital S. It is a page turner, reluctant readers will be entranced. Kyle is an everyman, everyone can relate to him which is good because the book is told in 2nd person ("You walk into a room, you cannot stand the sound of your mother's voice). I have seen this done before, but never successfully. Usually, this kind of narration sounds like a choose your own adventure novel. Not here. It works! It works so well you will be sucked into the story and forget you are not Kyle. Finally, the villian, Zack, is so complex he makes Moriarty look like like Papa Smurf. Why does this kid do what he does? We don...

The end of the world Is filled with scrappers and class war Nothing new here, alas Stories like this lead to empathy in a messy world ending sweet, I cried Thrill a minute, Mars Escapist novel fun fun Can't wait for sequel I have been a reading fool. Last week I completed some books that are nominated for the National Book Award, some for the Contempts challenge, and some just because. I also hosted an awesome Halloween Craft at the library for a great group of kids. I read One Witch by Leuck , performed my very first shadow play (I created a theater from a box and then cut out my puppets and backgrounds.) I chose a story from Short and Shivery and put my theater in front of a gooseneck lamp and let the puppets do the work. Except for the room not being completely dark (sunlight creaked through the blinds) I thought it went well. Check out this site for info about the shadow box, and free Billy Goats Gruff puppets. I found it to be very helpful. We mad...

Whooo! Two books down for the Contempts Challenge, 19 to go.... I cannot wait for Mockingbirds...which I was not going to read because the title was too close to Mockingjay. After reading the premise, I changed my mind. I hope it is as good as I hope it's going to be. Girl, Stolen by April Henry I was not crazy about Girl, Stolen. But I have to say I am not a fan of thrillers. The kill point for me in the novel was that Cheyenne was rich. Why couldn't she just have been an average girl? Why did she have to be the daughter of some millionaire? I think the story would have been a lot more realistic had she been an everyday girl. Although the story started out great, and Cheyenne is to be commended for handling the situation really well, I found Griffin to be flat and uninteresting. I just wish some of the backstories had been fleshed out a bit, because there are long periods of NOTHING going on in the story. However, now I know that rich people toast their white bread when they ...

Wow, two winners in one week. Of course, even though one has nothing to do with the other, they will be forever entwined in my mind. So what can I say that has not already been said about two titles the literati has been chomping at the bit to read for months? I found The Duff to be completely honest, and I'll be honest here. I loved this book, I loved the voice, I loved the story, and I found it to be completely real. Hats off to Keplinger for doing something no one else has done before: admit that teen girls want sex just as much as teen boys. It's true (not for everyone, but nothing is true for everyone) BUT now I have this moral/ethical problem of recommending it to my teen library patrons. Some of the sex scenes are graphic and even though the characters are careful to play it safe it still amounts to luck that nothing bad happens to Bianca. Even level headed and smart girls make mistakes (not that they make them on their own, mind you). I can think of quite a fe...

YA Library : "For INFO 683" I had to create a video for my YA Lit class. Click on the link if you would like to see my cruddy attempt at video production. I found the site pretty easy to use, but I refused to upgrade and so I was stuck with 15 slides, or 1 minute of material. Also, there is not one decent picture of me in existence, so I had to put something together at the end. I think the end result is rather spooky. How can one really choose a favorite YA novel? I couldn't, so I managed to narrow it down to two, Dangerous Angels and The Hunger Games (two books I shove into every teen's -and some adult's hands). They continue to thank me.

Have you ever had one of those days in which all you want to do is lay around and try to win book giveaways online? Yeah, today is one of those days. How, I wonder, can all of the bloggers afford the postage on all of the giveaways, it must cost a pretty penny. After a full weekend, and tons of fun at the Collingswood Book Festival, where I met Jonathan Maberry and told him how much I loved Rot and Ruin, I am just tired. I know, I know. That library school homework is not going to do itself, but I think trolling the book blogs to peek at what everyone is reading is so much fun. Plus, I am jealous of all of those who get all of the free books each week. I can imagine it gets old after awhile (well, that is what I tell myself). Here is a cute owl, to give you a dose of cute for the day. I believe he is a bookend.

I have a new favorite series. Picture a world that ended when everyone who had ever died now walks again-and wants to eat your brains. Life, or what passes for life, is lived tucked behind a fence. The outside has become like a new Wild West with bounty hunters and no rules. Maberry's new novel is wonderful. The main character, Bennie, comes of age in a world none of us would choose to live in, and Bennie must figure out what he will do to make a place for himself in a world that has shrunk to an impossibly small size. On top of that, Bennie must live up to the public's opinion of his older brother, who has quite the reputation as an unbeatable bounty hunter. Alternatlty funny and terrifying, Rot and Ruin did exactly what I thought the Passage would do for the zombie genre-make it meaningful. Where the Passage failed, Rot and Ruin is on the mark on many levels. I read this in one sitting, and am hoping for a sequel. Highly recommended for Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Joe Hil...