September 18, 2013

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Weekly Reviews: The Power of Words

Why do some words have more power than others? Today we look at two very different ways of looking at that crucial question.  The first, Melissa Mohr’s Holy Shit, is an earnest, well-researched history of the most powerful words in the English language: curse words.  Some people (for example, me) have tried to claim that [...]

Weekly Reviews: Alex Winners Redux

Weekly Reviews: Alex Winners Redux

And speaking of Alex Award winners, today we have two more reviews of novels by previous winners. Neil Gaiman is one of those magical writers who seems to be able to write for any age level, with a Newbery Award under his belt, popular graphic novels for teens and adults, and two Alex Award winning [...]

Linguistics and Teens

In just two weeks, Manchester, UK will be hosting the 11th annual International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL), an international competition for high school students to show off their skills in linguistic puzzles. The puzzles require no knowledge of specific languages, and sometimes use invented languages.  Instead, the teens use logic and their general linguistic knowledge.  Here’s [...]

Alex Winners: Where Are They Now?

Alex Winners: Where Are They Now?

As I sat at home last weekend, not going to ALA and the Alex Awards Program,  I started thinking about how many books by former Alex Award winners we’ve looked at this year.  In my head, it seemed like a lot, but I thought I should actually crunch the numbers.  So, here they are, for [...]

2013 Alex Award Program, ALA Annual

On the Sunday morning of ALA, I attended the 2013 Alex Awards program. Three of the ten winning authors spoke – Derf Backderf, My Friend Dahmer Julianna Baggott, Pure Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore Each author spoke for 10 minutes, followed by Q&A with the audience and a signing, with the books donated by [...]

Book/Multimedia Review Stars List | July 2013

Image from, The day the crayons Quit (Daywalt)

Drew Daywalt on crayons, graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang, and much more…

Based on a True Story

Before I began writing this post, I always believed that the famous retort to the question of why one would climb Mount Everest–”Because it’s there”–had been spoken by Edmund Hillary, the first Westerner to ascend to the peak. But in fact, they were the words of George Mallory, the first of three real life figures [...]

Weekly Reviews: Great Spring Fiction

Today we highlight three very different spring novels that all hinge on a crucial element of teen appeal — forging one’s own identity. Daniel Wallace is best known as the author of Big Fish. The Kings and Queens of Roam combines folklore and light fantasy elements with family drama, in particular that of two sisters [...]

Graphic Novel Review: You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack

Graphic Novel Review: You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack

from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: What’s So Funny about Parody? Artful parody, as the American journal The Onion shows readers again and again, makes us laugh for a couple of reasons: often, the parody presents a situation that is farcical on its face, and it also tickles our brains with the surprise of [...]

Best of the Year so far, 2013

Summertime…and the livin’ is easy… Speaking to all you school librarians out there — is there anything better than the first weeks of summer vacation? When time suddenly opens up, sleep is a possibility, and opportunities to read seem to be everywhere? Many teens feel the same way. Here’s hoping some of them find these [...]

Weekly Reviews: Debut novels

Can I really call Jeannette Walls’ The Silver Star a debut novel? After all, everyone knows The Glass Castle. And Half-Broke Horses was a novel, wasn’t it? Well, yes, but it was a fictionalization of her grandmother’s life. The Silver Star is Walls’ first work of pure fiction. It touches on many of the same themes [...]

Weekly Reviews: Boarding Schools & Sports

Today we review two notable debut novels featuring teen protagonists who are talented at the sports they love — riding and rowing. There are a surprising number of similarities between these books. Both take place in elite boarding schools, and feature teens who are new kids among long-time classmates, less wealthy outsiders struggling for the [...]

Nonfiction Graphic Novels – A Continuing Discussion

Nonfiction Graphic Novels – A Continuing Discussion

Back in January, we had a conversation (in reference to Derf Backderf’s Alex Award-winning My Friend Dahmer) about what makes a graphic novel “nonfiction” and the rigidity of categories like “fiction” and “nonfiction.” A couple of new comments have been added to that thread, so please head over to the above link to read the whole chain, but [...]

Weekly Reviews: Science & Knots

Weekly Reviews: Science & Knots

In both of today’s nonfiction titles, the authors speak directly to their readers. Both have the potential to become favorites with the right teen reader.  First up, Edward O. Wilson’s passionate and inspiring Letters to a Young Scientist. Maybe it’s the time of year, but I can’t help thinking that this would make a terrific graduation [...]

Weekly Reviews: Mid-year Graphic Novels

Today we have three very different graphic novels.  Matt Kindt’s Red Handed, a gorgeous, full-color novel with an intricately structured plot has been the source of a bit of debate.  Kimberly over on Stacked.com, while granting the novel’s interest, found its experimental structure ultimately frustrating.  And when I gave the book to one of my [...]

More on the Law of Superheroes

More on the Law of Superheroes

For fans of James Daily and Ryan Davidson’s The Law of Superheroes (which we reviewed here), or for anyone who is interested in the idea but doesn’t want to invest in reading the whole book, Daily and Davidson have been guest-blogging on the very influential legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. They’ve been addressing such pressing [...]

Weekly Reviews: Self-Publishing Phenomenons

Weekly Reviews: Self-Publishing Phenomenons

It is my great pleasure to write about The Sea of Tranquility today. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book quite so much. I read it at the same time as a few other books because I wanted it to last. Each time I checked something while writing the review I got caught [...]

Weekly Reviews: Strangerer Than Fiction

Last month, we looked at four stories too unbelievable not to be true, and I thought those would be the strangest stories I heard this year.  That was before I heard about Marina Chapman, for whom being raised by monkeys is only the beginning of her troubles–and not even the most trying.  She was also [...]

Book/Multimedia Review Stars List | June 2013

Inside Outside (Boyd)

Novels by Holly Black, Cynthia Kadohata, Rita Williams-Garcia, and others.

Adult Books 4 Teens | June 2013

Among the Stars: Historical fantasy fiction; World War II heroes; a memoir by a son about his CIA father