Wini Ashooh

The votes are in and the winners have been chosen.  The 7th and 8th grade students at Rodney Thompson Middle School have chosen their favorite titles for this year's Cafe Book program.

Top Picks:

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex
A boy who may be part changeling, twins involved in a bizarre secret experiment, and a clurichaun in a red tracksuit try to save the world from an evil cereal company whose ultimate goal is world domination.

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

Michael Vey seems like an ordinary teenager, but he has a unique power. After his mother is kidnapped he and his friends have to find his mother and fight the hunters to save other kids with the same powers.

Other Favorites:

Starters by Lissa Price

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel

Apothecary by Maile Meloy

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Scariest Book Contest for Teen Read Week - there were some great titles nominated. 
The chosen nominations were: It, by Stephen King;  Unwind, by Neal Shusterman; Death Note series, by Tsugumi Ohba; The Devouring, by Simon Holt; and Lord Loss, by Darren Shan. 
The winning title is It, by Stephen King! Prize winners will be notified by email...so be on the lookout. All the information regarding the prizes will be in the email.

You can find information about upcoming teen programs on the website, and don't forget about our teen Facebook page!

Deo and his brother Innocent live in a village in Zimbabwe.  One day when they are outside in their village playing soccer, trucks with soldiers aboard arrive armed with guns. In the book Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams, an ordinary day that started with soccer games with friends ends with tragedy and carnage. Deo and Innocent are the only surviving members of their village. Everyone else has been murdered by the soldiers. The brothers must secretly leave the village and try to find safety elsewhere. The brothers manage to escape only after Innocent convinces Deo to go back and retrieve his "Bix box" that contains all his prized possessions. Deo has his soccer ball which is stuffed with money.

Deo and Innocent must make their way to South Africa where they can work, go back to school, and find their father. The only clue they have to his whereabouts is a crumpled picture of him standing in front of a truck with a phone number on it.

Michael Vey has a secret.  He and his mother moved away from their home in California so that his secret would not be discovered.  Michael has Tourette's Syndrome, but that is not his secret, though the facial tics that are associated with his condition often make him the subject of bullying and teasing.  On the way home from school one day, Michael encounters some bullies who attempt to beat him up. At that moment, Michael's secret is revealed.  He can harness electricity and send it out of his hands.  This event is witnessed by Taylor, a popular cheerleader.  Taylor confronts Michael at school the next day and questions him about what she saw.  Taylor, it turns out, also has a secret.  In the book, Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, Richard Paul Evans, introduces us to a different breed of superheroes...teens with superpowers.

Imagine a future where teens rent their bodies to senior citizens who want to relive the moments of their youth. In Starters by Lissa Price, this is exactly what happens. A genocide spore killed everyone who wasn't vaccinated in time. Left behind are the very young and the very old. Many children are left without parents or caretakers. They must survive in an unfriendly world where they are viewed as unattended minors and are forced to resort to any means possible in order to survive.  If a teen agrees to rent out their body to a senior, they are paid a substantial sum of money. It is very enticing to a starving and homeless teenager.

"Crossing the street Papa says 'La mano' and he takes my hand." The love between a father and his son is apparent in Papa and Me by Arthur Dorros. The strong bond between them leaps from the colorfully illustrated pages of this book. As they begin their morning and make breakfast together and head to the bus, they revel in the joy of a simple day.

While making breakfast together, they invent a "special food." "Sabroso" they declare, delicious, as they taste the eggs and pancakes. The book uses both English and Spanish to tell the simple story. The characters are happy and they move between English and Spanish effortlessly. 

When my son was in kindergarten, he was diagnosed with a "lazy eye."  I do not know if that is still the appropriate term to use, but the result was that he had to wear a patch over one eye (the stronger one) to force the other eye to work harder and to strengthen.  In the book The Pirate of Kindergarten, by George Ella Lyon, the main character, Ginny, receives a similar diagnosis when she does not pass a routine vision screening at school.  Ginny has difficulty seeing.  She runs into things in the classroom, and some of her classmates laugh at her.  Ginny loves reading but when she reads she has trouble seeing the letters, and she has to get very close to the page.  The imagery of the letters hopping "around like popcorn" and the number 2 looking more like a swan help bring the reader into Ginny's world.

Kenneth Oppel introduces us to young Victor Frankenstein in his new book, This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. Victor is sixteen years old and very curious about alchemy. He lives with his twin brother Konrad and his cousin Elizabeth. They are victims of typical teen curiosity and idle times. As they explore their extensive chateau in Geneva, they discover the previously unknown Dark Library. Clearly, this is a forbidden area to explore. They discover books about alchemy and ancient remedies. Their foray into the off-limits room is discovered by Victor and Konrad's father. He is incensed and instructs them to never go into the room again and to certainly never explore the writings.

Years ago, three-year-old Gerald was left home alone in an apartment where a fire broke out. When authorities discovered that Gerald was home by himself, he was removed from the custody of his substance-addicted mother Monique and sent to live with his aunt. While living with his Aunt, Queen, Gerald is happy. After his aunt dies when he is nine, his mother returns but now she has a new husband, Jordan, and a daughter, Angel. Gerald goes to live with them, but he soon learns that all is not well. Jordan works sporadically and is abusive towards Angel and Monique. Monique does not stand up to Jordan--in fact she spends most of her time trying to please him. Jordan's abusive behavior towards Angel is a constant source of distress for Gerald. Soon the problems escalate to a point that force Gerald's hand in Forged by Fire, by Sharon Draper.

You are invited to join members of the library's Youth Services Team as they choose the title they think will win this year's Sibert Award.  The youth services staff  will hold a mock awards ceremony prior to the actual announcement.  Please join us at 4 p.m on Thursday, January 19, in the Headquarters Library Theater. 

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is awarded annually to the author and illustrator of a children's informational book published in the United States in the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books of Jacksonville, Illinois. The actual award winner for 2011 will be announced  at 7:45 a.m. CT on January 23, 2012.

On January 9th, team members will present and discuss the following titles which they have chosen as finalists:

Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White

The tiger is just one of thousands of animals -- including the ground iguana, the white-rumped vulture, and the partula snail -- currently in danger of becoming extinct, joining the dodo, the marsupial wolf, the great auk, and countless others we will never see again.

Flesh and Blood so Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy by Albert Marrin

Provides a detailed account of the disastrous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 garment workers in 1911, and examines the impact of this event on the nation's working conditions and labor laws.