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

image credit: openlibrary.org

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.

A Step from Heaven

An, Na. A Step from Heaven.

Asheville, North Carolina: Front Street, 2001. Print.

Annotation: A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.

Booktalk: How does your own culture define who you are and what you become? Four-year-old Young Ju leaves her small fishing village in Korea for a new life in "Mi Gook" – America. This place makes her parents smile and all Young Ju knows about Mi Gook is that people say it is heaven to live there. Her family takes the bus that flies in the sky so that must mean they are going to heaven. After arriving in American, her family laughs at this misunderstanding and tells Young Ju it is almost as good as heaven. Let us say it is a step from heaven. As time goes on, Young Ju feels further and further from heaven. Her family has very little money and rents a small, dingy apartment. At her new school, it is very hard to get her tongue around the new language. Her experiences are told through a series of vignettes portraying the world she is caught between - the old and new countries and her parent’s generation. Young Ju family is barely held together by the power of love and torn by the violence of despair. Young Ju's family struggles to stay afloat and you will see through her own voice the family's battles with economic hardship and physical violence as her desperate father, Apa, descends into alcoholism.

“We thought nothing would happen the way we wanted. Not ever. Not the time Apa, with a distant edge in his eye, took us to see the new houses being built on a nearby hill and said, we shall see. But then we never did see, although Joon and I asked every day and even packed our clothes in brown paper grocery bags in case we had to move fast.” (Page 72)

Young Ju attempts to find her place in her new world somewhere between Korean and being American. Does she find her new identity?

Honors & Awards:

• 2002 MICHAEL L. PRINTZ AWARD
• 2001 National Book Award Finalist
• 2002 Children's Book Award in YA Fiction – International Reading Association
• 2003 - 2004 Gateway Readers Award Nominee, Missouri Association of School Libraries
• 2003 - 2004 William Allen White Children's Book Award master list
• 2002 Notable Books for a Global Society – International Reading Association
• 2002 Notable Children's Book – American Library Association
• 2002 Best Book for Young Adults – American Library Association
• 2002 Children's Literature Choice List
• 2002 Notable Books for the Language Arts – NCTE
• 2001 Editor's Choice – Booklist
• 2001 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
• 2001 Best Books – School Library Journal
• 2001 Kiriyama Prize Notable Book Shortlist
• 2001 Best Children's Books – Publishers Weekly
• 2001 Best Book – teenreads.com
• 2001 Book LInks Lasting Connections
• 2001 Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children
• 2001 Top 10 Youth First Novels – Booklist

http://www.anwriting.com/astep_awards.html

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