My picks from YALSA’s 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults

Posted: May 18, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Libraries, Readers' Advisory, Young Adult | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

I know it’s a little late in the year to be posting about last year’s books but I’m gonna do it anyway!

I read several books on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list for 2012. Here are the ones I absolutely loved:

  • The Diviners by Libba Bray
  • Every Day by David Levithan
  • Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

These books I also liked but didn’t quite blow me away like the first 3 did:

  • Croak by Gina Damico (recommended to me by a teen)
  • The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison
  • The Fault in our Stars by John Green
  • Chomp by Carl Hiaasen (listened to the audio read by James van der Beek)
  • Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

I started these books but never finished (usually because some other book was screaming “Read me NOW!):

  • The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
  • The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour (would like to try again with this one!)
  • Boy21 by Matthew Quick
  • The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman (currently reading)

Books on my MUST READ list:

  • Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
  • The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
  • The Brides of Rollock Island by Margo Lanagan
  • I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
  • Cinder by Marissa Meyer
  • Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Wish me luck in getting around to the rest of these books!

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2012’s Most Read YA Authors at AFL

Posted: January 25, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Readers' Advisory, Young Adult | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Wordle: 2012's Most Read YA Authors at Abington Free Library

Click on the pic above to see the word cloud I created showing the most read Young Adult authors in my library in 2012. The bigger the name, the more popular the author. I pulled this information from the top 50 circulating YA titles last year. I’d like to print this out and put it up somewhere in the YA area to promote the collection and also let teens see what authors are hot right now.

Top 10 YA Titles of 2012 at Abington Free Library

  1. Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
  2. Son of Neptune – Rick Riordan
  3. Divergent – Veronica Roth
  4. Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero – Rick Riordan
  5. What Happened to Goodbye – Sarah Dessen
  6. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
  7. Clockwork Prince – Cassandra Clare
  8. Legend – Marie Lu (and my personal favorite!)
  9. Scorch Trials – James Dashner
  10. Matched – Ally Condie

OMG that book is, like, so funny

Posted: August 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Readers' Advisory, Young Adult | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Made with memecreator.com

The newest issue of VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates, Vol. 35, Iss. 3, Aug 2012) has a great article about the status of humor in YA fiction (“A Funny Thing Happened,” p. 16-18). Why doesn’t humor get more respect in the YA literary world? After all, a lot of teens might want to read something that will make them laugh rather than sob hysterically. And yet, if your main character doesn’t have cancer, or isn’t trying to survive a deadly reality competition, or doesn’t have a life-threatening addiction, then the book doesn’t get as much press or clout. Don’t get me wrong, I love these deep, intense books. But I also like when an author perfectly mixes humor with real-life problems. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie does this spectacularly.

I’ve noticed teens in my library who want to read something entertaining that will make them giggle, laugh, or ROFL. So I decided it would be a great time for a YA book display on the theme of humor. Here’s some of the books in our collection that I recommend to any teen that needs to laugh it up:

  • The Hunger Pains by Stefan Petrucha
  • I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
  • Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
  • The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
  • Flush by Carl Hiaasen
  • Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
  • Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
  • There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff
  • Attack of the Theater People by Marc Acito

Share your favorite funny YA books with me!

More Summer Reading Lists – 2012

Posted: June 27, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Readers' Advisory | Tags: , | Leave a comment

flickr.com – aafromaa – CC license

Even more summer reading lists!

Oprah Summer Reading

Posted: June 26, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Libraries, Readers' Advisory | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

ImageOprah’s Summer Reading is the adult version of a school summer reading list… but usually with more murder, spirituality, and extra-marital affairs.

Here’s this year’s list. I gotta go memorize it now and get used to putting lots of holds on these titles for the next few months.