Just because

Oh wow. This doesn't just make me want a kitten, it makes me want to be a kitten.



Happy almost Friday, everybody!

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are in their 90th year! Here's your chance to participate in the nation's longest-running, most prestigious educational initiative supporting student achievement in the visual and literary arts and today's largest source of scholarships for creative teens.

If you are a teenager in grades 7-12 (from public, private and home schools or an American-run school abroad) you are eligible to submit your art and writing for consideration.


To learn more, visit the links above or the Scholastic Art & Writing Facebook page.

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Remember how I was complaining about supernatural-problem-solvers a little while back?  Well Libba Bray's new Diviners series is the exception to the rule.  Heck, she could write about baby seal clubbing and I would get behind it.  I LOVE YOU, LIBBA BRAY.

(Yow!  Will that come up in her Google alerts tomorrow?  I hope so.)

Evie O'Neill has a penchant for the spotlight and for getting into trouble, so of course her parents decide to send her from Ohio to New York City to stay with her Uncle Will.  Uncle Will runs a museum dedicated to folklore and the occult and shortly after Evie's arrival he is called in to assist in the investigation of a gruesome ritual murder.  Evie is determined to help, and she has a unique talent that may unmask the murderer...

If you hear historical fiction and want to punch something, this the book will change your mind.  Reminiscent of Se7en, the X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer it is still it's very own Truly Great Tale.  It doesn't hurt that The Diviners is set in the Roaring 20s, the best time period for fashion hands down.  Stop trying to bring back the poncho and flash back to this classy era, Garment Industry! 

Just take a squint:



BE WARNED: At 578 pages this book will give you a wrist cramp because once you begin reading you will be unable to set it down.  I knew this book would be witty and outrageous with character revelations, thrilling derring-do and speakeasies.  What I did not know is that it was going to be off the charts creepy.


Did I mention how much I love this woman?  Run, do not walk, to the library and get a copy of this book before they're all gone.  Then settle in with some candy corn -- after double checking that the doors are locked and that the weird sound in the basement is only the clothes dryer -- and get spooked.

Happy Birthday T.S Eliot

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized on a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question...
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Happy 1st Day of Autumn!

Brown. Brandy-brown. Leaf-brown. Russet.

Malayan yellow.

Express train Berlin-Trelleborg and the Baltic resorts.

Express Train

By Gottfried Benn

Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann

"so the doors were all bolted and the windows all pinned/ except for one window which lankin crawled in"

I was going to wait until at least October to post about the amazingly spooky book Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough, but I just couldn't stand it any longer. It is the first day of fall, though, so that's something.

Long Lankin is based on an old English folk ballad about the betrayal and brutal murder of a mother and her child. Lankin, the man (?) at the center of the legend has gone by many names as the tale passed through generations. Some know him as Lamkin. Some know him as Balankin. Ramkin, Lambert Linkin and Lammikin are all names he's gone by. It's been said he was a disgruntled stonemason getting bloody revenge for a financial grudge. Or possibly a demon making mischief for mischief's sake. Others believe he was a leper, and felt his only hope for being cured was bathing in or drinking the blood of babies.

Any way you slice it this story (and the songs based on it) are TERRIFYING, and have been for hundreds of years.

The book brings us back to the site of the original Long Lankin murders. The village has never quite gotten over what happened centuries ago. They don't talk about it, of course, but they also don't ever let their children play near the old church. Or open their windows, even a crack. Two little girls get shipped from London out to the village to live with their auntie, and the horror starts to reveal itself. This book was scary folks. Like, no joke.

The book trailer is pretty spooktastic as well.

I'm sure once October gets rolling we'll be sending other spooky reads your way. This is a terrific place to start, though.

Maggie Stiefvater in the Teen Room Tomorrow at 7pm!

Credit: Robert Severi

We are so excited to be a destination on Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys tour!  Gear up for this new series by the author Entertainment Weekly calls “one of the finest YA novelists writing today.”

Ms. Stiefvater will be reading from The Raven Boys and answering your questions. Seating for this special event is limited, so be sure to arrive on time! Porter Square Books will have books available for purchase and autographing at the event.




Did you know that not only is Ms. Stiefvater a writer, but she's also a composer AND an animator?  Which means she makes her very own book trailers!




And you can see how she does it all here:


Do not miss this AMAZING event! Save the date boys and girls.

What's Wrong with Reading?

Respect. Follow this link to read more of Anthony Turner's thoughts on reading on Youth Communication's website.

Oh My Science

Ladies.  The Science Club for Girls is hiring 7th -12th grade girls for their teen programs.  Participants receive up to $110, community services credit and the opportunity for a paid summer internship.

Forget CSI; Dr. Dana Scully put the awesome in forensic science.

To say nothing of boss field trips where you can learn about careers in science and technology.

As a librarian, it will be no surprise to hear that I am a devoted proponent of the maxim "Knowledge is power."  Not only that, knowledge takes away someone else's power over you.  In this century it is especially important to fearlessly embrace an understanding of science and mathematics!*

Not the Chosen One, just worked hard.

Go forth and be smart.  You can find the application for this program here.












*Probably this is nothing new, but I think there is a trend in popular movies to make science and scientists the bad guys.  Couldn't leave well enough alone, and now we've got zombies, mutant dinosaurs, evil robots, the Matrix, what have you.  And it requires some meathead with massive firepower and/or mystical powers to save us all.

Jeepers.  I'll take my chances with science and technology:  I want my smartphone, antibiotics, and the Mars freaking rover, thank-you-very-much.  Also civil engineering, sanitation, and the theory of evolution. 

Here are some books about teens solving mysteries, getting ahead and saving the day using their brains.  Not psychic abilities, not demon-slaying powers, and definitely not Edward.

Why this show was cancelled is a rant for another day.

A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan
Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal
The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Watership Down at 40

"The first rabbit stopped in a sunny patch and scratched his ear with rapid movements of his hind leg. Although he was a yearling and still below full weight, he had not the harassed look of most "outskirters"-that is, the rank and file of ordinary rabbits in their first year who, lacking either aristocratic parentage or unusual size and strength, get sat on by their elders and live as best they can-often in the open-on the edge of their warren. He looked as though he knew how to take care of himself. There was a shrewd, buoyant air about him as he sat up, looked round and rubbed both front paws over his nose. As soon as he was satisfied that all was well, he laid back his ears and set to work on the grass."

CALLING ALL SMARTYPANTS!

GUYS.

WGBH is looking for new teams to compete in the fourth season of High School Quiz Show. A honest to goodness smart skills smackdown! ON TV! The glory could be ALL YOURS!

Good heavens, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

If you and some of your friends want to put a team together to represent your school, head on over to highschoolquizshow.org and find out all about it.

Librarians live for this kind of thing, so you need to let us know when it's on...

Happy 98th Birthday Nicanor Parra!

I leave you

With a forced and sad smile.

Maybe that’s all I am

But listen to my last word:

I take back everything I’ve said.

With the greatest bitterness in the world

I take back everything I’ve said.


— translated by Miller Williams

Nicanor Parra

Start Off the School Year RIGHT, Folks.

With little intrigue, a little affair of the heart. Amour. I'm talking about love, people, or lust. I'm talking about romancey pants swoonytimes books. We've got a lot of new ones to go along with our still-as-good-as-ever old ones. A little something for everyone, I think.

Sweet and Innocent

I'm not sure why there is a cookie on the cover of this book, because Hudson, our heroine is a cupcake gourmet. That aside, what you see is what you get -- a sweet (BITTERSWEET!) story about a former competitive ice skater, who hangs up her skates for good after her parent's divorce. Totally done. Never again. She spends her time helping out in her mom's diner, and trying to forget the almost-a-star life she left behind.

Lately, though, she's been sneaking to the pond and skating a little. Just a little. It's her little secret until she smacks into the captain of the school's hockey team out on the ice. Then everything changes. Talked into using her mad ice skills to get the hockey team ready for the season (like this!), Hudson goes from quiet days spent baking to juggling her new life, her old life, two boys, her mother's failing diner, and a best friend who is getting lost in the shuffle. It's swoony and sweet and will make you want a cupcake.

Sexytimes, Holy Smokes

Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman is a different kind of book. Angel lives with her swinging single mom and two little siblings, their beach-kissed life spread over three houses on the Jersey shore. In the summer they make serious bank renting out two of the houses and all cram into the one. In the off season, though, Angel lives on her own in one of the houses, and let me tell you, trouble ensues. By trouble I mean sexytimes. Whoa.

Angel can't quite stay away from the boyfriend she keeps breaking up with, but he's had it with her shenanigans. She cares about him, or wants to care about him, but the truth of the matter is she just really likes to have sex and doesn't think she should have to apologize for it. She's comfortable with her philosophy until she trysts with her good-girl best friend's boyfriend, setting off a chain of events that make her wonder if she's gone too far. Short, steamy, and thought provoking, this is the perfect book to transport you back to the beach as the weather starts to get cooler.

The Tearjerker

A family spends one last summer at their lake house together. For sad reasons. This is one of those love stories that you don't even want to get fluttery about, because everything else happening in the book is so heartbreaking. If you like to have a good cry once in a while, and need a little swoon to go with it so you don't choke on those tears, this book is for you.