Showing posts with label YALSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YALSA. Show all posts

Friday, February 25, 2011

2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens

Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) publishes a list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens. The following graphic novels were singled out for its annual Top Ten list:

Aristophane. The Zabime Sisters
Experience the first day of summer vacation with three sisters on their island home of Guadelupe.

Iwaoka, Hisae. Saturn Apartments V. 1
Mitsu takes on his late father's dangerous job as a window washer on the space ship Saturn Apartments.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Kim, Susan, et. al. Brain Camp
Two teens discover there is something far more sinister than nature hikes going on at their summer camp.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Neri, G. and Randy Duburke. Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty
The life, death and aftermath of an eleven-year-old gangbanger, based on a true tragedy.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Shiga, Jason. Meanwhile: Pick Any Path
3,856 Story Possibilities. Have you played any comics lately? Choose your own adventure.

Telgemeier, Raina. Smile
Brace yourself: Middle School plus orthodontia equals dental drama.

TenNapel, Doug. Ghostopolis
Garth Hale has gone to the other side, but he’s not dead yet.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Weing, Drew. Set to Sea
A lumbering poet discovers hardship and wisdom on the high seas.

Friday, February 18, 2011

2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults

Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) selects their top 10 best fiction titles for ages 12-18. Here are their favorites for 2011:

Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker
Nailer is a light crew scavenger tearing up old hulks of ships, living day to day, until a rich girl and her gleaming ship run ashore in a storm on the beach and his life gets more dangerous.

Donnelly, Jennifer. Revolution
Haunted by the death of her brother, Andi is taken to Paris by her estranged father where an encounter with a mysterious diary may bring her back from the edge.

Marchetta, Melina. Finnikin of the Rock
Finnikin and his fellow exiles from Lumatere wish to return to their cursed homeland. Finnikin must go on an epic journey with a mute novice named Evanjalin to return home.

Matson, Morgan. Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour
Amy and Roger must both learn to deal with loss while on a road trip across the country which doesn't go as expected.

McBride, Lish. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
When Sam discovers he is a necromancer he must learn to control his power in order to defeat a powerful and corrupt rival and save his friends.

Mulligan, Andy. Trash
Three garbage-picker boys find an item of great value to a corrupt politician on their rounds, setting off a tense hunt to see who will triumph.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Perkins, Mitali. Bamboo People
Chiko, a Burmese soldier and Tu Reh, a Kerenni refugee meet on opposite sides of war and each must learn what it means to be a man of his people.

Reinhardt, Dana. The Things a Brother Knows
Boaz is back and hailed as the hometown hero, but he is not at all the same. Can his younger brother Levi help him truly make his way home?

Saenz, Benjamin. Last Night I Sang to the Monster
Weeks in therapy go by and 18-year-old Zach is still unable to remember the monstrous events that left him alone and haunted by nightmares.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Sedgwick, Marcus. Revolver
Sig is alone with his father’s body when the lawless man his father had managed to escape appears out of the icy wilderness.
Coming soon to HBPL!

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

What If... (If you liked Mockingjay, you may like...)

Looking for something to read now that you've finished Mockingjay and the Hunger Games trilogy? Luckily for you, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has come out with a list of suggested readalikes. The "What If..." list highlights titles featuring alternative history and worlds, steampunk, apocalyptic fiction and cyberpunk, among other settings.

Also, feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments below!



FIC (YA VL) Arakawa, H. Fullmetal Alchemist

What would you give up to bring back someone you love?


FIC Barry, M. Jennifer Government

In a world where you take the name of the company you work for nothing is off limits.


FIC (YA) Bodeen, S. The Compound

After his parents, two sisters, and he have spent six years in a vast underground compound built by his wealthy father to protect them from a nuclear holocaust, fifteen-year-old Eli, whose twin brother and grandmother were left behind, discovers that his father has perpetrated a monstrous hoax on them all.


FIC (YA) Caletti, D. Fortunes of Indigo Skye

Indigo Skye loves her waitressing job and thinks she knows where her life is going- until a customer leaves her a 2.5 million dollar tip.


X SF Christopher, J. The White Mountains (The Tripods #1)

Young Will Parker and his companions make a perilous journey toward an outpost of freedom where they hope to escape from the ruling Tripods, who capture mature human beings and make them docile, obedient servants.


FIC (YA) Dashner, J. The Maze Runner

Thomas wakes up in an enclosed environment with 60 other boys and no memory. He must learn to work with the group if he expects to survive.


FIC (YA) Doctorow, C. Little Brother

Marcus must fight for his freedom after a terrorist attack.


X SF DuPrau, J. The Diamond of Darkhold

Lina and Doon venture back to the City of Ember to find a gift left by the Builders.


FIC (YA) Fukui, I. Truancy

It's students vs. teachers in a fight to the death.


SF Gibson, W. Neuromancer

The book that started it all...


FIC (YA) Grant, M. Gone

What will kids do when all the adults have disappeared?


FIC (YA) Kostick, C. 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.


FIC (YA) Lloyd, S. The Carbon Diaries 2015

It's the year 2015, and global warming is ravaging the environment. In response, the United Kingdom mandates carbon rationing. As multiple natural disasters strike and her parents head towards divorce, Laura's world spirals out of control. Chronicling the daily insanity is all Laura can do to stay grounded in a world where disaster is the norm.


X SF Malley, G. The Declaration

For others to live forever you must not exist.


FIC (YA) Marsden, J. Tomorrow, When the War Began

Group of teens go on a camping trip. Upon return discover their country has been invaded by an army and all their family and friends held captive.


FIC (YA) Ness, P. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, Book 1)

One month away from officially turning into a man, Todd learns his world isn't what he thought it was.


X Oppel, K. Airborn

A luxury airship, pirates, and an undiscovered species make for a great adventure for Matt and Kate.


FIC (YA) Pfeffer, S. The Dead and the Gone

Alex must fend for himself and his sisters after an asteroid hits the moon.


FIC (YA) Pfeffer, S. Life As We Knew It

The world changes when a meteor hits the moon.


FIC (YA) Rosoff, M. How I Live Now

War breaks out across the ocean, teen and her family must cope and survive amidst danger.


FIC (YA) Ryan, C. The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The zombies have breeched the fences and Mary must venture out into the forest or die in the village.


FIC (YA) Simner, J. Bones of Faerie

Liza, born after the Faerie War, flees her town when she discovers she is developing magical abilities, a certain death where she lives.


FIC (YA) Sleator, W. Test

Ann, a teenage girl living in the security-obsessed, elitist United States of the very near future, is threatened on her way home from school. Soon she and a new friend are caught up in a vast conspiracy of greed involving the school testing company. Students who pass this test have it made; those who don't, suffer. For those who question the test the results may be deadly.


FIC (YA) Westerfield, S. Leviathan

In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

YALSA announces 2010 Margaret A. Edwards Award

Jim Murphy is the recipient of the 2010 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring his significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens.

Murphy’s well-researched books bring history alive through multiple narratives involving young people. Primary sources, maps, photos, illustrations and dialogue reveal the drama of historical events, making Murphy’s books fast-paced reading of particular interest for young adults. The reader participates in the lives of these individuals and the events that shaped history.

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 tells the story of the devastating course of the epidemic and highlights the heroic efforts of some, and the ignorance of others, to curb this disease that has yet to be eradicated.



Blizzard! The Storm that Changed America tells the chilling story of the three-day 1888 storm that crippled the East Coast.


The Great Fire reveals the myriad events that led to the catastrophic fire that destroyed much of Chicago in 1871.

The Long Road to Gettysburg details perspectives of young soldiers on both sides of the Civil War and the events that culminated in the Gettysburg Address.


A Young Patriot: The American Revolution as Experienced by One Boy follows 15-year-old Joseph Plumb Martin, from his enlistment through the many battles and hardships of the American Revolution.

We're big fans of Mr. Murphy and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on this well-deserved honor!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

YALSA announces 2010 Alex Awards

Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) chooses 10 adult books with special appeal to teen readers (you!) to receive the 2010 Alex Awards.

Some of the 2010 Alex Award winners are:


The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff
A young woman runs away from home and finds love in the most unexpected place.






Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr.
In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophesy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in thirty-six years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question: Does anything I do matter?










The Magicians by Lev Grossman
A thrilling and original coming of-age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world.


My Abandonment by Peter Rock
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," Rock's "My Abandonment," inspired by a true story and told through the startlingly sincere voice of his young protagonist, offers a riveting and unsettling account of a girl and her father who live off the grid.

Don't be afraid to wander out of Teen Space and into the adult book stacks to find these engrossing books, and more!