The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
Amy Cheney is constantly on the look-out for books that will engage her incarcerated teens, but estimates that only about one in five that she encounters will pass muster. That’s why she is so excited about a new self-published title, From Crack to College & Vice Versa.
I’m not sure what was more of a surprise to me—that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around for 30 years, or that the John Madden videogame football franchise goes back twenty five years! John Mayer has some ground to make up; his first album debuted in 2001, an Internet only album titled Room for Squares. Hopefully he’ll have the longevity of the turtles and one particular earthbound former football coach.
Do you have plans for recognizing Anti-Bullying Month in October? One great way to wrap up the month is to join the national Mix It Up at Lunch campaign. Mix It Up at Lunch Day is set for October 29, but you can plan it for any day, any time of the year.
The National Book Foundation has announced the 2013 Young People’s Literature Longlist for the National Book Award, the first time in history that a longlist of nominees will be presented for all four categories of awards: young people’s literature, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The finalists will be revealed on October 16, with the winners revealed at the awards ceremony on November 20.
Looking for career guidance resources for your teens? The “Be What You Want” series from Beyond Words may be just the ticket. To whet your appetite, the publisher is giving away 50 copies of the latest title, So, You Want To Be a Chef?!
Looking for a break from the paranormal genre? The only monsters you’ll find in these books are of the human variety—a maniacal kidnapper, an abusive boyfriend, elitist survivors, and one’s own memory.
If your teens went crazy over A.G. Howard’s debut YA novel Splintered, it’s a sure bet that the second book in the just-announced trilogy will have them Unhinged.
Though R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike may be our quickest associations with teen screams, horror encompasses a wide array of books. Teen librarian and blogger Kelly Jensen highlights the latest titles in teen fiction that are bound to give readers nightmares.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013, 3:00-4:00 PM ET Doesn’t it seem that wherever romance goes, mayhem follows? And we all know that life as a teenager is full of both of these!
Join SLJTeen’s Dodie Ownes as she moderates a free one-hour webcast featuring titles presentations from Soho Teen, Tor Teen, and Harlequin Teen,who will offer sneak previews of their new titles for Fall 2013 and 2014. You won’t believe some of the cover art—shocking, sexy, and sensational—that will have your young adult readers picking the book display clean. Register Now!
From social media to publishing industry-led initiatives, the call for diversity in children’s and young adult literature has steadily grown into a loud roar in the past months. As part of School Library Journal’s SummerTeen virtual conference, the “Embracing Diversity” panel featuring Karen Arthurton, Jonathan Friesen, James Klise, and Amanda Sun, led to a lively and ongoing conversation about the importance of not only publishing books for kids by and about diverse people, but also getting them in the hands of readers. SLJ spoke to industry professionals who are raising awareness on the need for different perspectives in young adult books, and compiled a list of resources to find these titles.
A good library orientation can make the rest of the year easier for students and teachers, as well as for you and your staff. Make it fun and the facts will be more memorable. This year, the Guybrarian is using the scavenger hunt method, with a few tech twists.
Sierra did the right thing, and finds herself about to be expelled from school, all because of a zero tolerance no-weapons policy. But are the rules really that black and white? Five lucky winners will have the chance to explore Claudia Mills’s take on this with their own copy of Zero Tolerance.
Four favorite YA authors―Holly Black, Chris Crutcher, Nancy Farmer, and Neal Shusterman―have new titles out, and fans will be clamoring for them. From a study room that’s run like Las Vegas to the cruise of a lifetime gone bad, you’ll find suspense, humor, horror, and thrills in this selection from the editors at Junior Library Guild.
Superheros, extraordinary science, and unexpected twists keep readers on their toes in Jessica Freely’s debut novel All the Colors of Love. Thirty lucky SLJTeen readers will get a copy for their library, adding to the LGBT collection.
Both Luke Bryan and The Civil Wars are award-winning country western artists. After all, what’s not to like about an album titled Crash My Party? But a mid-tour breakup has fans wondering if The Civil Wars will ever make another album. SLJ’s teen reviewers weigh in.
Joy Fleishhacker, our media maniac, looks ahead to the October release of the motion picture Parkland, based on the 2007 book Four Days in November which examines the goings-on at Parkland Hospital following the shooting of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. She’s put together a selection of nonfiction and fiction titles which will can help middle grade and teen readers get the facts surrounding the event as well as the feelings of those young people who experienced it.
Gina Damico wraps up her Croak series in “cracktastic” style with the fall release of Rogue. If you loved Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, it’s a good bet you’ll be smitten with Fangirl, “written by a writer writing about a writer writing.” The question posed in After Eden, from Helen Douglas, circles around when it is or isn’t right to keep a secret, especially when a loyal friend and a whole planet depend on it.
Teens at the Ypsilanti (MI) District Library’s Michigan Avenue Branch and the Jasper County (MO) Juvenile Detention Center will soon reap the benefits of YALSA’s Books for Teens grant awards, thanks to local dedicated young adult and teen librarians.
Imagine a day in your library devoted to the basics of coding in Python and sending a roomful of teens home with computers they can keep. Now imagine doing this for about $30! It’s completely possible, because it happened at Southwest Regional Library, a regional branch of the Durham County Library system in Durham, North Carolina.
The Queens Library branch in Cambria Heights, NY, celebrated the start of work on its new 4,000-square-foot Teen Center with a ceremonial wall-breaking last week. The library hopes to open the space—which will include a Cyber Center, a lounge and gaming area, a sound recording booth, a meeting room, and a reading room—by next spring.
