Teens

Today we look at three historical novels about very strange families.  Taking things chronologically, first up is Sarah Dunant’s Blood & Beauty, about the very real, and very twisted Borgias of Renaissance Italy. Wikipedia lists among their crimes “adultery, simony, theft, bribery, and murder (especially by arsenic poisoning).”  I quite like that parenthetical at the [...]

Leonard Peacock has big plans for his 18th birthday....to kill Asher Beal and then commit suicide....This is a difficult, yet powerful, book. Quick’s use of flashbacks, internal dialogue, and interpersonal communication is brilliant.

The Bone Season is the first in a projected seven-book fantasy series by 21-year-old Samanatha Shannon. Last week it was announced as the first TODAY book club selection. There is a great deal of buzz around this book, and I believe teens will be asking for it. Shannon wrote the book while a student at Oxford. I [...]

I’ve been meaning to post about D.A. Mishani’s The Missing File for several months now, but hadn’t quite figured out what to say.  At first, I was looking around for another book to pair it with, in particular another mystery in translation because except for Sweden we don’t seem to get many mysteries from other [...]

Do you know an innovative teen/youth services library professional making a real difference? Then Library Journal needs to hear from you to help identify emerging leaders in the library world.

Fans of Gina Damico's titles Croak and Scorch don't have much longer to wait for the final title in the series, Rogue, due on shelves soon. To keep readers' baited, Damico has just announced her 2013 Rogue Blog Tour. You'll need strong powers of observation to keep up with her on this tour, and you'll need to know all the letters of the English alphabet, too.

Although the review of On the Come Up: A Novel Based on a True Story by Hannah Weyer was posted on AB4T several weeks ago, I am reposting today in conjunction with the publication of my interview with the author, which is available in the SLJ Teen Newsletter (and briefly on the SLJ homepage) today. Weyer [...]

Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate, eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one. Houghton Harcourt is giving five lucky SLJTeen readers a chance to find out who Cia can trust, and win the ultimate Testing prize pack.

We all know about the summer reading slide. This summer, 180 students from two Buffalo (NY) suburban school districts spent four weeks with grad students working on their reading and writing skills, hoping to reverse that effect.