It's always fun to find a book that brings in a strong male protagonist, but mixes it with a love story. That's what Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick does. This story follows a journalist as he leaves England, moves to Russia, and gets caught up in romance and revolution. When Arthur Ransome moved to Russia, he had no idea what was in store for him. He went to work as a journalist and finds himself suspected of being a double agent. When he tries to get out, along with the girl he loves, he faces danger like nothing he has known before. This may be a timely theme with all of the news of Russia and spies and conflict that we hear of in our news each day.
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I have a daughter in Hawaii right now, so I have been thinking about volcanoes. She has experienced the ash in the air and the difficulty breathing. Her eyes are blurry because of the ash, and she now knows what an earthquake feels like. So, as I walked around the Young Adult shelves, the series Survive caught my eye.
Survive is a series of books written by different authors and the stories place the reader into a variety of survival situations. The Evil Wind is written by Brian Crawford. A group of American young people have been visiting Rwanda, and they are about to climb a sleeping volcano. At least it was sleeping...maybe not anymore. Darkness is by Sagine Jean. This is a 'where were you when the lights went out' story. A hurricane makes landfall in New York City and the subway station gets flooded. Survival can require just getting from one place to another in the dark. It seems like we are hearing more and more about plane crashes and difficulty with travel. Well, this book will have you struggling to survive a plane crash in the desert. Crash by Wylie Ender faces the elements of the Arizona desert. All three of these books are designed to be quick reads without a lot of pages and larger print. So, if you're looking for an exciting read that you can finish quickly, these might be for you. There are twenty-five books on this years nomination list for Teens Top Ten. Every one of these books was chosen by teens as some of the best books of the year. Here are two more titles from that list.
Remember Me Always by Renee Collins reminded me of a recent news story that I read. The news story was about a young woman who suffered a stroke and lost all of her memories. Well, this book is about a young girl who was in a terrible accident and they used therapy to remove her memories of the accident. Only, life can never be so simple as to erase it. Inevitably there will be something, or someone, who will cause a memory to return. Whether this is a good thing or not, is left to be seen. The second book today is Waste of Space by Gina Damico. Reality TV has taken over the airwaves in the last several years. Well, now it has infiltrated the books. Ten teenagers think they're going into space, but it's really a big theatrical production. They enter the spaceship believing it's real, but when they start to figure things out, trouble starts to brew. The Teens Top Ten nominations always make for some interesting reading. You might try one for yourself. Each year teens have the opportunity to vote for their favorite Young Adult books. The Teen's Top Ten nomination list is available and teens can voice their opinion throughout the next few months as they vote for the best of the best. I like this award because the books on the nomination list are chosen by teens. So many of the award books are chosen by adults, and yes, we try to stay up on what the teens we work with are interested in, but this list comes directly from them. So, here are two of the books that have made the nomination list.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber is relevant to our culture of gaming and escape rooms. Two sisters are invited to the Caraval, a live performance where the audience become the actors. Only this year's performance revolves around one of the sisters as she is stolen away and must be recovered by the end of the week or there will be consequences. This is a story of mystery, magic, and love. The second book that I will mention today sends us out to space and into a war. Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray takes place during an interstellar war and places a young girl and a robot together to work to bring an end to the fighting. This book will challenge your thinking on humanity, and the value of life. There are twenty-five books on this year's Top Ten nomination list. If you're a teen, you might want to get in on the fun and read as many of them as you can over the summer and then vote! |
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AuthorHi! I'm Sonya, the Young Adult Librarian at Algona Public Library. I'll be sharing about YA books - old and new. Archives
June 2022
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