DW Teen Blog

A big thanks to every one of the 21 teens who joined Amber Nagle in our teen writing workshop. Here are a couple of photos from the event–it seems like everyone enjoyed themselves.

In 6th-12th grade and want to have a say in the kind of events the library has for teenagers? Drop by on May 1st at 5:30 to discuss how to Make it Your Library.

The teen department has some new books that are ready for check out!

• Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Leah Kurtz has finally found a place to call home, a town where she and baby Addy can live in peace, far from the drug-infested place she grew up. Chris is one of the best parts of it, the only person who has ever made Leah feel safe. Now that she’s found him, there’s no way she can tell the truth:

Her real name is Faith, not Leah.
She’s seventeen, not nineteen.
The baby isn’t her’s. She kidnapped her.

• Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie only has the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She’s never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from Laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely.

But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love–even with someone who seems an improbable choice–is more than just a possibility.

• If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth.
  See what the book cover has to say:

What do you do when you’re American Indian so nobody in your class talks to you, dirt poor like snow-blowing-through-the-roof poor, small for your age so bullies like Evan Reiniger make you their punching bag, and a Beatles fan meaning your favorite band broke up years ago?

Well, you make friends like George Haddonfield–a new kid in town, tell lies because what George doesn’t know about your house won’t hurt him, tell truths ’cause someone’s going to listen to you about Evan, right? And make your own music.

• Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland.
  See what the book cover has to say:

For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams.

Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t.

When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-colored tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer.

But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on–most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits–that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality.

A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue.

• Five Summers by Una LaMarche.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Emma, Skylar, Jo, and Maddie met when they were ten years old–during their first summer at Camp Nedoba. Their friendship was fealed with a pact and five summers of warm days on the dock followed by giggled secrets in the bunks.

But on the last night of the final summer of camp, Emma and Adam Loring almost kissed on the big rocks by the lake. Adam leaned in but Emma chickened out and ran off with a regret she’d lug around like a sleeping bag every summer afterward. And Emma wasn’t the only one. Her best friends were all making their own mistakes that night as well–mistakes they’d soon have to face.

Now seventeen, all four friends have come back to camp for reunion weekend. A lot has changed since their last night around the campfire three years earlier. As each girl’s secrets bubble to the surface, tensions between them threaten to destroy their golden memories. Emma, Skylar, Jo, and Maddie–four girls who couldn’t be more different, brought together by the bonds of summer–must remember that true friendship is what gets you past the meanest boys and through the toughest times.

• Butter by Erin Jade Lange.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Every plan, good or bad, starts with the spark of an idea. It takes less than fifteen minutes to set up a website: get a free domain name, find a premade format, copy the HTML code, and start tinkering. A spark and fifteen minutes was all it took for Butter to announce his plan–his plan to eat himself to death live on the Internet at www.butterslastmeal.com.

He set out to command the conversation, to make sure that when people talked about him it was because he invited them to. Butter expected pity, insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it feels a lot like popularity. And that feels good.

But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn’t go through with it?

• Unsouled by Neal Shusterman. (Book 3 in the Unwind Series).
  See what the book cover has to say:

Connor and Lev are on the run after the destruction of the Graveyard, the last safe haven for AWOL Unwinds. But for the first time, they’re not just running away from something. This time, they’re running toward answers, in the form of a woman whom Proactive Citizenry has tried to erase from history itself. If they can find her and learn why the shadowy figures behind unwinding are so afraid of her, they may discover the key to bringing down unwinding forever.

Cam, the rewound boy, is plotting to take down the organization that created him. Because he knows that if he can bring Proactive Citizenry to its knees, it will show Risa how he truly feels about her. And without Risa, Cam is having trouble remembering what it feels like to be human.

• All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everthing to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present–imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hope for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she might not survive it…at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

• Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Fields’ Rule #1: Don’t fall for the enemy. Berry Fields is not looking for a boyfriend. She’s busy trailing cheaters and liars in her job as a private investigator, collecting evidence of the affairs she’s sure all men commit. And thanks to a pepper spray incident during an eighth-grade game of spin the bottle, the guys at her school are not exactly lining up to date her, either.

So when arrogant–and gorgeous–Tanner Halston rolls into town and calls her “nothing amazing,” it’s no loss for Berry. She’ll forget him in no time. She’s more concerned with the questions surfacing about her mother’s death.

But why does Tanner seem to pop up everywhere in her investigation, always getting in her way? Is he trying to stop her from discovering the truth, or protecting her from an unknown threat? And why can’t Berry remember to hate him when he looks into her eyes?

Have you read any of these books?

The teen department has some new books that are ready for check out!

• The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler.
  See what the book cover has to say:

It’s 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They’ve been best friends almost as long–up until November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh’s family gets an America Online CD-ROM in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they’re automatically logged onto Facebook…but Facebook hasn’t been invented yet. Josh and Emma are looking at their profiles fifteen years in the future. Their spouses, careers, homes, and status updates–it’s all there. But it’s not what they expected. And everytime they refresh their pages, their futures change. As they grapple with the ups and downs of what their lives hold, they’re forced to confront what they’re doing right–and wrong–in the present.

• A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook & Brendan Halpin.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Justin was just having fun–a lot of fun–when his dad found him and a girl in a compromising position. Add that fallout to his parents’ divorce, a handful of Tylenol, and a pumped stomach, and it’s clear that Justin is at rock bottom.

Emmy never felt like part of the family. She was adopted from China, and her parents and sister look like a Ralph Lauren catalog. Emmy definitely doesn’t. After a naked photo of Emmy leads to vicious rumors around school, she threatens to remove the man-parts of the boy who shared it all on Facebook.

Enrolled at Heartland Academy–a reform school that will force them to deal with their issues–Justin and Emmy join a ragtag group of teens who are just as broken, stubborn, and full of sarcasm as themselves. Their goal–to bust out of the school for a night of epic fun and in the end, they might just call each other friends.

• Ball Don’t Lie by Matt de la Peña.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Sticky is a beat-around-the-head foster kid with nowhere to call home but the street, and an outer shell so tough that no one will take him in. He started out life so far behind the pack that the finish line seems nearly unreachable. He’s a white boy living and playing in a world where he doesn’t seem to belong.

But Sticky can Ball. And basketball might just be his ticket out…if he can only realize he doesn’t have to be the person everyone else expects him to be.

• Tap Out by Eric Devine.
  See what the book cover has to say:

No apologies. No excuses. And no easy way out. In Pleasant Meadows, seventeen-year-old Tony Antioch has learned that survival comes down to one simple formula: keep your head down and your mouth shut.

But with a mother who serves as a punching bag for her boyfriends and a meth-dealing biker gang that is hungry for recruits, Tony finds himself in deep without knowing exactly how he got there. Mixed Martial Arts classes provide an escape but may not be all that he needs to break a seemingly endless and hopleless cycle. Tony has the blood and guts, but is it enough to give him the glory of living his own life freely?

• Twerp by Mark Goldblatt.
  See what the book cover has to say:

It’s not like I meant for Danley to get hurt… Julian Twerski isn’t a bad kid. He’s just made a big mistake. So when he returns to school after a weeklong suspension, his English teacher offers him a deal: if he keeps a journal and writes about the terrible incident that got him and his friends suspended, he can get out of a report on Shakespeare. Julian jumps at the chance, and so begins his account of life in sixth grade–blowing up homemade fireworks, writing a love letter for his best friend (with disastrous results), and worrying whether he’s still the fastest kid in school. Lurking in the background, though, is the one story he can’t bring himself to tell, the one story his teacher most wants to hear.

• The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee. (Book 1 of the Mary Quinn Mysteries.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Sentenced as a thief at the age of tweleve, Mary Quinn is rescued from the gallows and taken to Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. There, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and a surprising opportunity. The school is the cover for the Agency–a top secret corps of female investivators with a reputation for results–and at seventeen, Mary’s about to join their ranks. She must work in the guise of a lady’s compainion to infiltrate a rich merchant’s home with hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the Thorold household is full of dangerous secrets, and people are not what they seem–least of all Mary.

• Rotten by Michael Northrop.
  See what the book cover has to say:

A troubled teen. A rescued rottweiler. An unlikely friendship. Jimmer “JD” Dobbs is back in town after spending the summer “upstate.” No one believes his story about visiting his aunt, and it’s pretty clear that he has something to hide. It’s also pretty clear that his mom made a new friend while he was away–a rescued Rottweiler that JD immediately renames Johnny Rotten (yes, after that guy in the Sex Pistols). Both tough but damaged, JD and Johnny slowly learn to trust each other, but their newfound bond is threatened by a treacherous friend and one snap of Johnny’s powerful jaws. As the secrets JD has tried so hard to keep under wraps start to unravel, he suddenly has something much bigger to worry about: saving his dog.

• This is How I Find Her by Sarah Polsky.
  See what the book cover has to say:

“Your mother is going to be fine,” the nurse says. I breathe more easily but the world settles into my stomach. Fine. Was she fine before?

Sophie has always lived in the shadow of her mother’s mental illness. She checks her mom’s meds and makes sure the rent’s paid. She rushes home after school and makes dinner every night. She keeps it all a secret.

Then one day everything changes. After a desperate phone call and an intervention, Sophie finds herself living with family she barely knows–and apart from Mom. In someways, it means she’s alone. In other ways it means she’s free. But when the crisis is over, will she have to go back to being the old Sophie?

• Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton.
  See what the book cover has to say:

I can’t feel sadness, anger, or fear. I can’t feel anything. I’ve grown talented at pretending. Elizabeth Caldwell doesn’t feel emotions…she sees them in human form. Longing hovers around the shy, adoring boy at school. Courage materializes beside her dying friend. Fury and Resentment visit her abusive home. They’ve all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn’t succumb to their touch. All, that is, except beautiful Fear, who sometimes torments her and other times plays her compassionate savior. He’s obsessed with finding the answer to one question: What happened to Elizabeth to make her this way?

They both sense that the key to Elizabeth’s condition is somehow connected to the paintings of her dreams, which show visions of death and grief that raise more questions than answers. But as a shadowy menace beings to stalk her, Elizabeth’s very survival depends on discovering the truth about herself. When it matters most, she may not be able to rely on Fear to save her.

• How Not to Find a Boyfriend by Allyson Valentine.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Nora Fulbright is the most talented new cheerleader on the Riverbend High cheerleading squad. Never mind that she used to be a friendless overachiever with a penchant for chess–this year, Nora is determined to leave all of that behind and transform from brainiac social larva to full-blown butterfly, even if it means dumbing herself down.

But when Adam moves to town and steals Nora’s heart with his ultra-smarts and incredibly cute dimple, Nora has a problem. How can she prove to him that she’s not really the airhead she’s made herself out to be

Nora devises a seemingly simple plan to wow Adam with her intellect. Yet soon after setting things in motion, Nora qucikly loses control of her strategy and struggles to keep her image in check. Will she be able to prove that she can be both a butterfly and a nerd?

• Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff.
  See what the book cover has to say:

They needed the perfect assassin. Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school in a new town under a new name, makes a few friends, and doesn’t stay long. Just long enoughfor someone in his new friend’s family to die–of “natural causes.” Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, moving on to the next target.

But when he’s assigned to the mayor of New York City, things change. The daughter is unlike anyone he has encountered before; the mayor reminds him of his father. And when memories and questions surface, his handlers at The Program are watching. Because somewhere deep inside, Boy Nobody is somebody: the kid he once was; the teen who wants normal things, like a real home and parents; a young man who wants out. And who might just want those things badly enough to sabatoge The Program’s mission.

Have you read any of these books?

The teen department has some new books that are ready for check out!

• Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Ella and Z have been friends forever, but Z has always been ‘the weird kid’ in their class. This was okay back in third or fourth grade, but by now their other friends have ditched both Z and Ella. He doesn’t care, but Ella longs to be part of a group where people won’t make fun of her.

When a new boy, Bailey, moves to town, he befriends Ella because they are the only two black kids in class. Bailey is popular–popular eough to make Ella cool and give her a wider circle of friends, but only if she stops hanging out with Z. Ella is faced with a difficult decision: remain loyal to the boy who has been her best and only friend for years…or embrace the opportunity to be one of the popular kids–what she has always longed to be.

Ella’s decision will affect not just her, but everyone around her. Can she make the right choice?

• No Easy Way Out by Dayna Lorentz. (Sequel to No Safety in Numbers)
  See what the book cover has to say:

It’s been seven days since Lexi, Ryan, Marco, Shay, and thousands of other shoppers were quarantined in their suburban mall. Seven days of no showers, no information, limited food, and rising panic. Seven days of watching as a mystery virus sweeps through the mall, killing hundreds of people.

The government has pulled out, leaving the shoppers to their fate. Lexi’s mother, a senator, takes charge. She enforces strict rules, and uses Marco to help control the rule-breakers, most of whom are also teens. But Marco has his own agenda, and begins a dangerous game, playing all the angles. Caught in his web are Shay, Lexi, Ryan, Mike, and Drew.

But unbeknownst to all of them, it’s not just Marco who can’t be trusted, and as the days pass, each of them will learn the price of making a mistake.

• Glass by Ellen Hopkins. (Book 2 in the Crank series)
  See what the book cover has to say:

Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it’s all the same: a monster. And once it’s got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.

Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she’s determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life. She needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina’s life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves–her baby.

• Everlost by Neal Shusterman. (Book 1 of the Skinjacker Trilogy. Book 3, Everfound, is available as well. Book 2 can be placed on hold.)
  See what the book cover has to say:

Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident…but their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to go either. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It’s a magical, yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.

When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he’s found a home, but Allie isn’t satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the ‘Criminal Art’ of haunting, and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

• Pretty Amy: A Novel by Lisa Burstein.
  See what the book cover has to say:

Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands–earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx–Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Even worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing–like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy.

• I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. (Book 1 of the Lorien Legacies. Books 2 and 3 are also available.)
  See what the book cover has to say:

We may be walking past you right now.
We are watching as you read this.
We may be in your city, your town.
We are living anonymously.
We are waiting for the day when
We will find each other.
We will make our last stand together–if
We win,
We are saved, and
You are saved as well.
If we lose, all is lost.

Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books–but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.

But they know.

They caught Number One in Malasia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next.

• The Last Apprentice: Grimalkin the Witch Assassin by Joseph Delaney. (Book 9 of the Last Apprentice series)
  See what the book cover has to say:

One witch is the most feared, the most ruthless, and the most deadly of all the witches in the county. If she hunts for you, she will find you. If you have crossed her, you don’t stand a chance. She is the witch assassin and her name is Grimalkin.

Grimalkin’s one alliance is with Tom Ward, the Spook’s apprentice. With Tom, she plans to rid the world of the most terrifying evil, the Fiend, who once did her great wrong.

Grimalkin has never been defeated. But can she survive an enemy created for the sole purpose of destroying her?

Have you read any of these books?