Teens

The Griots of Oakland has been out in bookstores for almost six months now, but as far as I can tell, today’s review will represent its first appearance in a library review journal. Which is a coup for us, but a shame for the other journals, and also strangely fitting the subject matter: the invisibility [...]

Published in January 2014, the YALSA report “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action” addresses the need for a national conversation around how young adults are served by libraries today—and how to better position library centers to foster and drive learning in the future. The report is also being seen as set of best practices, which YALSA will use to re-evaluate its own best practices guidelines, says Beth Yoke, YALSA’s director.

Today we have two very different novels that feature the lives of the uber-wealthy. I love Jamie Watson’s reference to Brideshead Revisited in her starred review of The Last Enchantments. I was completely obsessed with that novel when we read it in senior year English, and I think the fact that I never fully understood [...]

Anyone who cares about narrative, movies, or both should be reading Matt Bird’s Cockeyed Caravan blog. He spends most of his time there deconstructing the narrative structure of Hollywood movies and explaining how and why movies do (and don’t) work. But while he only discusses movies (and usually big-budget Hollywood ones at that), his insights [...]

The following titles–from Justin Somper’s first foray into YA lit and Danielle Paige's wicked Dorothy Must Die to Sally Green’s witchy Half Bad and E. Lockhart’s much-anticipated We Were Liars– offer teens a plethora of attention-worthy narratives.

YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation are awarding 10 grants of $1000 to libraries with innovative programming ideas for Teen Read Week 2014. Apply by June 1.

After a successful first year, In the Margins Committee founder Amy Cheney highlights some of the recent must-have titles for libraries in urban areas that might not be on the radar of the library community at large.

Teacher librarian Krista Brakhage shares her thoughts on why Flat Connections can offer a fresh perspective in participatory global collaboration and provide a rich authentic educational experience for students.

Did you know that ELEANOR & PARK and many other award-winning titles are now available as ebooks in your libraries? Find out more in this Macmillan-sponsored post.