Prom & Prejudice

Eulberg, Elizabeth. Prom& Prejudice.

New York, NY: Scholastic, 2011. Print.

Annotation: For Lizzie Bennett, a music scholarship student at Connecticut's exclusive, girls-only Longbourn Academy, the commotion over prom is senseless, but even more puzzling is her attraction to the pompous Will Darcy, best friend of her roommate's boyfriend.

Booktalk: This is a classic Jane Austen tale written for our modern day but with some new twists. It is a clever, modern romance. Watch the video for the inside scoop with the author Elizabeth Eulberg.

 

Honors & Awards

Not yet but favorably reviews

image credit: bookblather.net

The Princess Diaries

Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries.

New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2000. Print.

Annotation: Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne.

Booktalk: So my mom tells me she wants me to write down my feelings in this book, since, she says I obviously don’t feel I can talk about them with her. So here goes….

Thursday, October 2
Penguin House, Central Park Zoo

I'm so freaked out I can barely write. But I have to get this down exactly the way it happened. Otherwise, when I wake up tomorrow I might think it was just a nightmare. But it wasn't a nightmare. It was REAL!

I just found out my Dad is the Prince of Genovia. I think that I could deal with that, but then he kept asking me if I really understood what he was telling me. I guessed a few things. Dad could tell that he had me stumped. So then he dropped the bombshell on me. "You are not Mia Thermopolis anymore, honey." I raised my head and said, "I'm not, then who am I?" He then went on to say," You're Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia!"

WHAT!! ME!! A PRINCESS!!!

Yeah!! Right!!

So now my book has become The Princess Diaries.

Awards & Honors

• ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
• New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
• Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award
• ALA Notable/Best Books for Young Adults
• International Reading Association/Children’s Book Council Young Adults’ Choice
• Washington State Evergreen Young Adult Book Award

Megcabot.com

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Princess in the Spotlight

Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries, Vol. II, Princess In the Spotlight.

New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2000. Print.

Annotation: Mia, the fourteen-year-old New York City-raised heir to the throne of the tiny European country of Genovia, manages to alienate her best friend, her family, and her soon-to-be-subjects in the space of one national primetime interview.

Booktalk: So I just couldn’t stop reading after starting the first Princess Diary book, seeing poor Mia suffering all the “princess lessons”. Not my idea of dreaming of being a princess for sure. Let’s look at what happens on

Monday October 20^th

As if I don’t have enough problems. As if my life isn’t over already. I just don’t see how much more I can be expected to take. I mean apparently, it is not enough that

1. I am the tallest girl in the freshman class.

2. I am also the least endowed in the chest area.

3. Last month, I found out my mother has been dating my Algebra teacher.

4. Also last month, I found out that I am the sole heir to the throne of a small European country.

5. I have to take princess lessons from my paternal grandmother. Every day.

6. In December, I am suppose to be introduced to my new countrymen and women on national television (in Genovia, population 50,000, but still).

7. I don’t have a boyfriend.

Do any of Mia problems sound like the ones you are having this week? Get comfy and read on to find how Mia prepares for her upcoming interview in Princess in the Spotlight.

Awards & Honors

· New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age

· ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

www.harperteen.com

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All American Girl

Cabot, Meg. All American Girl.

New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2002. Print.

Annotation: Sophomore Samantha Madison unexpectedly stops a presidential assassination attempt while skipping art class. She becomes a national hero and is appointed teen ambassador to the United Nations. The best perk of being the hero is catching the eye of the very cute First Son.

Booktalk: Sam has been living in the shadow of the most popular girl in school, her sister Lucy. To make matters more complicated Sam is in love with Lucy’s boyfriend Jack. Wait, it does get worse when she is punished by her parents for selling celebrity portraits at school and now must attend art classes. Listen to this podcast to find out why Sam can’t believe that she could ever be and All American Girl.

Honors & Awards:

• A #1 New York Times Best Seller on its Children's Chapter Book List
• A Publishers Weekly Best Seller
• A Publishers Weekly and a BookSense Best Seller (paperback)
• Selected for the Texas Lone Star Reading List for the 2003-2004
• New York Public Library as a 2003 "Book for the Teen Age"
• ALA 2006 Popular Paperback for Young Adults: Books That Don't Make You Blush: No Dirty Laundry Here
• Won Washington State's 2005 Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
• Nominated for the 2007 Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award
• Nominated for the 2007 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award

http://www.megcabot.com/allamericangirl/aag_allamericangirl.php

image credit: megcabot.com

YA voices: Casey, age 16

I like Chick Lit because I feel, as a teenage girl, that I relate and understand them on a level better than most other readers. Plus, most of the Chick Lit books include humor and jokes that I fine especially funny. Although the thing I love most about Chick Lit is how similar their conflicts are to the ones that my friends or I may face, such as relationship problems, friend problems, school problems, peer pressure.

Along for the Ride

Dessen, Sarah. Along for the Ride.

New York, NY: Penguin, 2009. Print.

Annotation: Auden gets a chance to recapture the carefree teen life she missed while her parents were going through a divorce when she goes to spend the summer with her dad and his new family in a charming beach town and meets fellow insomniac Eli, an intriguing loner fighting demons of his own.

Booktalk: What does one find to do in a small little coastal town all during the night? Well there is definitely the Gas/Gro for coffee and snacks but Auden doesn’t consider herself a store-goer. We are going to follow Auden, an insomniac overachiever who doesn’t really know how to let loose, live, have fun. Her ambitions for achievements in academia make less favorable abilities to connect with people. She is not sure what to do with the summer after she graduates high school and before she starts her freshman year at a prestigious university. So, on a whim rather than stay at home with her overbearing, intellectual, egotistical mother, she decides to visit her father, his new wife, and her new baby sister in the beach town of Colby. When she packs, she fills an entire suitcase with her textbooks to get an early start on college reading– because that’s the kind of girl Auden is, but that’s not who she’ll be at the end of the summer. With the help of Eli, another loner and fellow night owl that becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests. Auden will learn to just go along for the ride.

Honors & Awards

YALSA Pick for Teen’s Top Ten 2010 No.7

www.ala.org/teenstopten/

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YA voice: Jayrn age 14

I love to read "Chick Lit"! To be honest I am a huge girly girl! I love the drama and the humor in it. It covers every day things so sometimes I get good advice on girl things. But overall the romance and the humanity of it draws me.

My Boyfriends’ Dogs

Mackall, Dandi. My Boyfriends’ Dogs.

New York, NY: Dutton Children’s Books, 2010. Print.

Annotation: Bailey Daley is soaking wet and wearing a prom dress when she walks into an after-hours diner in St. Louis with three dogs in tow--Adam, Eve, and Shirley--and recounts how each of the dogs is the fruit of a failed relationship.

Booktalk: What if when you get a broken heart from a relationship isn’t really the only thing you end up with? Would you agree with Bailey the love stricken girl of this book - if only boys were more like dogs? Would you agree that she wants what every girl wants from her boyfriend: enthusiasm, loyalty, and unconditional love? From the boys, not just the dogs!

Honors & Awards

No awards but this is an award winning author of over 400 books for children of all ages, with sales of 4 million copies in 22 countries.

Amazon.com

image credit: onceuponaromance.com

Bras & Broomsticks

Mlynowski, Sarah. Bras & Broomsticks.

New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 2005. Print.

Annotation: Living in New York City with her mother and her younger sister, Miri, fourteen-year-old Rachel tries to persuade Miri, who has recently become a witch, to help her become popular at school and to try to stop their divorced father's wedding.

Booktalk: Rachel thinks that magic can be the answer to all her problems. Although she thinks that it is completely unfair that her young sister Miri got the powers she will just have to convince her to work on spells that will solve her problems like:

1. Making her popular and on the A-list crowd

2. Getting on the dance team for the most important event at her school.

3. Having a perfect complexion.

4. Getting a boyfriend and taking her to Spring Fling.

5. Canceling her father’s wedding

Yes, Rachel thinks this is going to be her year to shine. But what if magic doesn’t really fix problems just makes bigger messes?

Honors & Awards

· Summer Children’s Book Sense Picks

· Kentucky Bluegrass Master List

Randomhouse.com

image credit: fictiondb.com

YA voice: Pearl, age 12

I read "Chick Lit" because I find it entertaining occasionally, though it can get repetitive.
I like to read it because when you read a book for the first time you practically feel an adrenaline rush as the story unfolds and when you read the book the second or third time it feels like an old friend is welcoming you to read their story.

Angus, thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging

Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson.

New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2002. Print.

Annotation: The humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl, Georgia, who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighbor’s poodle, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.

Booktalk: Let’s see if American teens are anything like their counterparts in England. With the help from Georgia and her glossary we can compare:

Angus: Georgia’s mixed-breed cat, half domestic tabby, half Scottish wildcat. The size of a small Labrador, only mad. Likes to stalk Mr. & Mrs. Next Door’s poodle. I used to drag him around on a lead, but, as I explained to Mrs. Next Door, he ate it.

Thongs: Stupid underwear worn by old Swotty Knicker, Lindsay. What’s the point of them anyway? They just go up your bum, as far as I can tell.

Full-Frontal Snogging: Kissing with all the trimmings, lip-to-lip, open mouth, tongues… everything (apart from dribble, which is never acceptable).

Georgia through her daily, sometimes hourly accounts in her diary will take you on the ups and downs of being a teenager. Some of the words may be different but being a teenager can be a universal event.

Honors & Awards

• Not Just for Children Anymore! (Children's Book Council)
• Michael L. Printz Honor Book
• Book Sense 76 Pick
• IRA/CBC Young Adults’ Choice
• New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
• ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

Harpercollins.ca

image credit: ioffer.com

YA voices: Hannah, age 14

I do read chick lit books because I can relate to most of the things that happen in the books and some tell a good teenage girl story.

A Wrinkle in Time

L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle In Time.

New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1962. Print.

Annotation: Meg and her friends are spirited to another world by three extraterrestrial beings where they find her father and undergo many adventures and terrors before they free him.

Booktalk: If you had the opportunity to time travel, would you? If you could chose the time, what time period would you travel to? The past? The future?

Meg Murry and her younger and very intelligent brother Charles Wallace are going to travel by way of the tesseract. How to travel by tesseract you ask? It is a wrinkle in time of course. This possibility of instantaneous time and space travel in the fifth dimension seems practically “normal” as the characters travel to and from and in and out of planets and time.

Meg, Charles Wallace, and Meg’s friend Calvin will travel through time and space with three celestial beings, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. Why must they time travel? Because Mr. Murry, Meg’s father, has been missing for a year and is in grave danger from the Black Thing. This is an science fiction adventure of good versus evil. You will fine that we are connected to the creatures from other planets if the rising of IT and the darkness takes over our universe. Will Meg’s abilities to love wins against the IT to save herself, her family, and her friends?

Honors & Awards

• Newberry Medal
• Sequoyah Book Award
• Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
• Runner-up Hans Christian Anderson Award
• ALA Best Book for Young Adults
• Horn Book Fanfare Best Book

image credit: www. en.wikipedia.org

YA voices: Jaryn, age 14

Anything that takes me out of my usual life to something fun! I like science fiction just for that reason. I get to let my imagination go wild and I love the interesting things authors come up with.

Tyshanna, age 16

The content of fantasy or mystery generally won't be the same as the books I've read before, so i can always count on having something reasonably original to read.

Rapunzel’s Revenge

Hale, Shannon & Hale, Dean. Rapunzel’s Revenge. Illustrated by Nathan Hale.

New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2008. Print.

Annotation: In an Old West setting, the familiar tale of Rapunzel with her 30-foot braids sets out to break free of her tower prison and defeat Mother Gothel.

Booktalk: How many of you have tried reading a novel in pictures? (wait for response). Yes, I am talking about a graphic novel where the story is propelled by the fantastic pictures of a story in action. (Hold up to see front cover of book). This is the familiar tale of Rapunzel, who is taken away from her family and kept captive by the evil Mother Gothel. This re-retelling has a Old West flair and many new twists along the way. First, the story does not begin so badly for Rapunzel. She is living in a beautiful garden villa where she is practically a princess. [show page 4-5]. Rapunzel has a reoccurring dream that troubles her and not knowing what is on the other side of the tall garden wall. [show page 8]. She finally makes it to the top of the wall to see that the people live in a wasteland [show page 12] and not at all in a beautiful place like her villa. This discovery leads her to find her real mother, the image from her dream! Many questions later and a very angry Mother Gothel, Rapunzel finds herself in the tower [Show page 26]. If this was the traditional story, we would think all she has to do is wait for her prince – right? This Rapunzel is not a damsel waiting to be rescued but takes her own destiny into her hands. She is going to discover her own talents and motivation to escape the tower and defeat Mother Gothel. In her journey she will find the surprise help of another familiar storybook character. Any guesses of who could be a love interest for the spunky Rapunzel? (wait for response) The story is full of action and even a touch of romance watching the adventures unfold through the graphics. You won’t want to put this story down to see if Rapunzel finds her own way to happily ever after.

Honors & Awards

• ALA Notable Children’s Book
• Amelia Bloomer Project Selection
• An Al Roker Today Show Book Club Pick
• An IndieBound Next Pick
• Cybils Award (Graphic Novel)
• YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens
• YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults
• Texas Maverick Graphic Novel List
• Utah Book Award
• Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee

http://www.bloomsburykids.com/books/catalog/rapunzels_revenge_pf_883

image credit: storysnoops.com