New Series! Evernight

I know, I know, vampire books are everywhere. Ever since Twilight, we have had a lot of copycats around with books that are, lets face it, pretty weak. So I was pleasantly surprised when I came across Evernight by Claudia Gray.

The first book of the Evernight series takes place at Evernight Academy, an exclusive boarding school in the middle of nowhere. Bianca is forced to go there when her parents both get jobs as teachers and she is running away, pretty much to get attention from her parents. That's when she runs into mysterious and handsome Lucas.

Bianca and Lucas seem destined for each other...but then a dark secret comes to light and threatens to tear them apart.

I won't tell you what the dark secret is! I won't! But if you love star-crossed romances, this is a great book for you.

Magazines!

New Magazines this week:

Latina

ESPN

Game Informer

and Spin (featuring The Flaming Lips you need to listent to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots...amazing)

Hate List

Hate List is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel by first time author Jennifer Brown. The novel picks up five months after a tragic school shooting in a small suburban town. Valerie has spent the last five months trying to get over the guilt she feels after the shooting. She and her boyfriend Nick spent countless afternoons putting people on their "hate list," a notebook that the police found after Nick went on a shooting spree in his school, killing students, teachers, and then himself. Even though she never pulled a trigger many people in her community blame her for what happened, including herself.

I started reading this book thinking, how could anyone possibly cope with this? It was an impossible task, handled well by the author. There are no easy answers when you are faced with a tragedy like this and Brown didn't try to give you one. My only compliant was that Valerie's parents seemed a little too awful, especially her father, blaming her for getting between him and his mistress with the shooting. But you know, sometimes people can be just awful.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

I'm not a manga expert by any means. In fact, I've only read a handful of graphic novels and manga since I started as a librarian, mainly because people who liked it knew way more than me and didn't need any suggestions. But while I was shelving yesterday I came across the first in a series by Koji Kumeta called Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei: The power of negative thinking volume I. Quite a mouthful.

The book follows Nozomu Itoshiki, a depressed schoolteacher who is the head of a class of very eccentric students. Kafuka, one of his students, finds him trying to kill himself (he is constantly looking for the perfect place to die) and saves him, she also happens to be the world's most optimistic person. There is also a stalker, an obsessive-compulsive, and a girl who comes to class with mysterious bruises.

Itoshiki seems like the worst possible teacher to be but in charge of the class, but it works, with hilarious results.

This series is definitely for older readers because of its sophistication, its also a great start for manga novices.

It's also a tv show.

This Week's Magazines

We have new issues of:

Nylon

Teen Vogue

Shonen Jump

and of course,

ESPN

Upcoming Field Trip: :01 First Second Books

Teens! Remember that next Friday is Teen Adivsory Group's first trip. On October 16th we are going to :01 First Second books, a publishing house for some really great graphic novels for all ages. We will be touring their offices and learning more about how great novels such as American Born Chinese, The Sardine series and Robot Dreams, were created.

Pick up a permission slip anytime this week or next week before Friday at the library. We'll meet on the 3rd floor (as usual) for snacks and then head over to the Flatiron Building around 4:30. See you then!

TAG Display!

Every month, Muhlenberg's Teen Advisory Group picks out their favorite books for a display in the Teen Space. Here's October's picks:

Leafar picked The Giver by Lois Lowry because it has suspense and drama and would recommend this book to someone who likes suspense and drama and "is not afraid of a long chapter book."

David picked The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan because it talks about ancient Greeks and the gods.

Winona picked the book Wake by Lisa McMann because its is filled with enough action, romance, and tragedy to keep you flipping pages. She would recommend this book to girls over the age of at least 12.

Samson picked the book Elf Realm: The High Road by Daniel Kirk because it was action packed, he would recommend this book to people who like fairy tales.

Jorge picked the book Brisingr by Christopher Paolini because it is very exciting and has a lot of action in it. He would recommend this book to anyone who likes action and adventure books.

Ginnah picked the book Hotlanta by Denene Miller because it has a lot of drama and its good. She would recommend this book to anyone who likes drama.

Rafael picked DriftX: Slide or Die by Todd Strasser because it has a mix of genres like mystery, drama, action, and racing. He would recommend this book to teens who don't like to read.

Oscar picked Eldest by Christopher Paolini because it is interesting.

Xena picked The Simpsons comics because its funny!!!