PML YA Yakkers!

Patchogue Medford Library Young Adult Department

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Jeri's Favorite and Least Favorite 2006 Books

Hi, all!

Here are some of my favorite and least favorite books published in 2006:

Favorites (in no particular order)

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
loved it! Nick and Norah meet at a club - he's in one of the bands. His old girlfriend walks in, and he asks Norah to be his girlfriend for 5 minutes. Five minutes lasts the night, and possibly longer.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Death tells this story – the story of “a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter and quite a lot of thievery. Death does his job, but is sympathetic to the human souls he collects, especially in this busy period of WWII. The girl is Leisel Meminger, foster child to a working class family in Molching, Germany. The accordionist is her beloved foster father, Hans Hubermann. Some fanatical Germans are the Nazis, including several of their neighbors. The Jewish fist fighter is hidden in the Hubermanns' basement. And thievery sometimes became necessary to survive as money became scarce. But Leisel, whose story Death takes the time to tell, stole books. She stole her first at her younger brother’s funeral. Another was taken from a Nazi book-burning. Others were taken from the mayor’s wife. The books were Leisel’s comfort, and the comfort of others as they tried to make sense of their world, and survive.

Sold by Patricia McCormick
Lakshmi is thirteen and lives in the hills of Nepal. Her father gambles away any money the family earns, and they are very poor. But Lakshmi is not unhappy with her life. She is top girl in her school class and has friends, a loving mother and a pet goat. Until her father sells her to a woman who delivers her to a brothel in India where she is held captive, seeing almost nothing of her earnings as a prostitute. Remembering her mother's words "Simple to endure is to triumph", Lakshmi survives as best she can, hoping one day to be free again.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
I couldn't put this down! What happens when the moon is struck by an asteroid, and knocked off its orbit? In this book, the earth is racked by a series of natural disasters: tsunamis, storms, volcanic eruptions and more. How do people survive? What must they do to survive?

Incantation by Alice Hoffman
Estrella lives in a tiny Spanish village where her family has lived for over 500 years. Her family lives as Christians, although they do some things differently than their neighbors. Her life is happy, her best friend lives next door, and she meets a boy she likes - and then it all comes tumbling down, her family and home destroyed and her life forever changed when her friend turns against her.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Edward has left town, and Bella is desolate, sunk in depression for months. She becomes best friends with Jacob Black, the son of one of her father's friends. Jacob lives on the Quilite reservation, where Bella knows they don't like Edward and his family of vampires. But Bella doesn't know what extremities they go to in combatting vampires on their land. This sequel to Twilight starts a little slowly, but has several interesting twists, suspense and a new collection of supernatural beings.

Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans enlisted and were drafted like all other young men in the United States. The country was at war, and they were Americans. But many people suspected their loyalty. On the mainland United States, many Japanese-Americans were moved from their homes to internment camps. Eyes of the Emperor is based on the true story of a group of soldiers from Hawaii. The Japanese-Americans among them faced discrimination in many forms. Finally, with President Roosevelt’s approval, they were singled out for special duty – they were used as bait to train attack dogs.

Rash by Pete Hautman
Bo lives in the United Safer States of America. To be safe, you must wear protective gear even when out for a walk. It is a crime to injure anyone else, even slightly, even accidently. But the federal government no longer runs the prisons... they have contracted that out to major corporations who use the inmates as slave labor. When a school rival accuses Bo of spreading a rash at school, his future is sealed - he is sent to a work camp in the tundra.

Books I will NOT read again (my least favorites of the year)

King Dork by Frank Portman
The book is about Tom "Chi-Mo" Henderson, the self proclaimed "King Dork" who muddles through high school with his one best friend, Sam Hellerman. Tom is in a band and throughout the book, he and his friends are constantly changing the band's name. Tom also seems to have trouble with the opposite sex, as well as getting over his father's death, which may or may not have been a murder, or a suicide. This book can be funny, it can be serious, and it can be wordy. For books about teens and music, try Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (see above), Heavy Metal and You, Born to Rock or Fat Kid Rules the World.

Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
There are many good books about the holocaust for YAs. This book, the story of a 9-year-old named Bruno whose father is the commandant of a concentration camp, is overly simplified. The commandant's children are unbelieveably naive for their ages, calling the Fuhrer the Fury, and Auschwitz, out-with. It is marketed as YA, and the reading level is YA, but the language and characters are aimed younger. If you are looking for recently published YA books on the Holocaust, try The Book Thief (see above) or Daniel Half Human.

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz
The main characters in this book are Gucci, Prada and other designers. The premise is that the Blue Blood families of New York City are actually clans of vampires. Their children all go to private school together and they all dress very well and attend fabulous parties. But there is something hunting the teenaged vampires...unfortunately, we never find out what. Read Twilight and New Moon for really good paranormal romance (see above). Sunshine, published for adults, or Peeps are also good. For fun, try Boys that Bite.

Brian's Best and Worst YA Books Read in 2006

The Best YA Books I Read in 2006

From Lowest to Highest


6. Storytime by Edward Bloor

This book wasn't written in 2006 but I read it (or listened to it) over the summer on tape. I thought the plot was very interesting, with a mix of weird and scary. The characters were well developed, and the ending was fulfilling. READ IT!

5. A Mango Shaped Space

Meet Mia, your average 7th grader. She has a brother, a sister, and two loving parents. Except that she sees colors associated with words. Her name is red with a touch of green. The slamming of a door produces a brown coil. And her cat Mango, produces puffs of Mango colored air when he wheezes. Is she a freak? Is this normal? This book is a great read!

4. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Bella is your typical teen with a modern divorced family. She moves to a town called Forks where she meets a very handsome but mysterious boy. There is one catch though, he's a vampire. This book was very good. Despite it being 500 pages, it is a fast read!

3. The Burn Journals by Brett Runyon

This book was an amazing page turner. Meet Brent Runyon, a 14 year old who decides to kill himself one day by setting his entire body on fire. But he survives. Brent takes you through his journey to recovery, both mentally and physically. He teaches the importance of communication and the value of family. This book was extremely moving and made me pleased to have obtained a copy of it.

2. The Girls by Lori Jansens

Meet Ruby and Rose, who are conjoined twins. They were given up at birth and raised with their Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash. The book takes place between the past and the present and it is a heart wrenching story, that has a ticking time bomb that you KNOW will go off eventually. I dont' want to go into detail as to what that means, but you'll find out. This book was written between the perspectives of the two girls. I found it to be very fresh and enjoyable.

1. Saint Iggy by K. A. Going
This book was gripping and powerful, with a very sad, likable main character who will definitely catch any readers interest. READ IT!









On a pessimist's note….The Worst YA Books I Read in 2006

From Worst to Best

3. Live Bait by Francine Pascal

I started reading the Fearless series when I was in my early days of college. Gaia Moore, the girl who cannot feel fear really caught my attention. And even though the books got worse, I kept reading them. Pascal decided to end her series and start a new one, Fearless FBI which took away all of the lovable side characters and left us with Gaia and a bunch of boring new characters. No thanks!


2. King Dork

With all the hype on this book, I really expected it to be a fun, interesting read. Instead, I got bored, confused and disinterested. I stuck through it mostly because I kept hoping it would get better. But sadly, it never did!



1. Anything by Chris Krutcher

I don't mean to put down Chris Krutcher. I can wholeheartedly appreciate everything he does for the YA community, but so far, when push has come to shove, I CAN'T GET INTO ANYTHING HE'S WRITTEN! This year I tried both Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes AND Whale Talk and the stories simply didn’t grip me!



**Honorable Mention**: Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty.
I've enjoyed her Jessica Darling works since the very beginning, but there was something off putting about this particular volume. It wasn’t necessarily a BAD book, but it was a letdown.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Random Acts of Kindness

Congratulations to our Random Acts of Kindness Community Service Group on a successful food and toy drive!

Our dedicated volunteers collected a carload of food and toys to be delivered to the Lighthouse Mission. They also assisted at the PML Players puppet show, collecting and sorting the donations brought in by the puppeteers, band members and audience! Our always creative teen performers put on a great show, featuring handmade puppets and original music and stories.

At our last Random Acts meeting, we made holiday cards for hospitalized children. These will be delivered when librarians go on their hospital visits next week. We are awed by the creativity and good will expressed on the cards. Thank you all for your efforts and kindness.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 17 at 3:30. Join us, help your community, and earn community service hours. We look forward to seeing you there.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Caught reading!



Read anything good lately? Anything you want to recommend?

Have you been caught reading?

Send us comments and pictures - we'll post them!

Friday, December 01, 2006

advanced battle books

Today we can announce the titles of the books that will be used for Battle of the Books Advanced Division!

They are:




Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going



A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray



Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman

Three great books - now we need a great team!

Call the YA desk at 654-4700, ext 257 or come in to the library to sign up and be on our battle of the books team!

Our first team meeting will be on January 29, 3:30-4:30. The battle will be held on March 23.