GreenBeanTeenQueen

Remember when I posted about running on the ballot for the 2013 Printz Committee? Well, I got a call today that I was elected onto the committee!! I am thrilled beyond words and I can't wait to meet the other committee members and discuss YA. I have to say a huge THANK YOU to all the readers, bloggers, and librarians who helped spread the word and who voted for me. I feel so loved and I'm so amazed at all the congrats that keeps pouring in-you guys are seriously making me blush!! But wait...what does this mean for the blog? As of right now, I don't know. I'll keep it going, I know that, but I think the amount of postings will go down come February 2012 when committee work starts. Most likely the amount of reviews will decrease as well, but I'm hoping to post more booklists, reader's advisory materials, program ideas, and Tween Tuesdays.

Rumor is that Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz have been offered roles in The Hunger Games . Woody Harrelson would play Seneca Crane but no word on the other two roles. My guess is that Stanley Tucci would be Cinna (which I think would be great!!) but maybe he's set for President Snow? And I'm not sure what role Lenny Kravitz could be filling-maybe he'll end up being Cinna? What are your thoughts/guesses?

We're all guilty of judging a book by it's cover. I can't help it-if the book cover is pretty and calls to me to pick it up (even better if it has a gorgeous dress on it!) then I want to read that book. I was browsing upcoming YA releases and came across some covers that in hardcover didn't catch my eye or seem interesting, but in paperback make me want to pick the book up right now and read it. Nothing has changed, it's the same story, same writing, but the cover markets to me in a different way and now I'm interested. So I'll admit to you my judging of books just by their new paperback covers! First up: Legacy by Cayla Kluver -This is the self-published cover. This cover is OK, but nothing special. It might make me pick up the book if I can't find anything else that catches my eye, but it doesn't really interest me. Cayla Kluver has the same story has Christopher Paolini-young writer, parent self-publishes book, then it gets the attention of bigge

photo credit: Randy Matusow Please welcome Barbara Dee, author of Trauma Queen , to GreenBeanTeenQueen! I love her guest post about tweens and the library. This is exactly why I hope more libraries start to provide programs and books just for tweens! Switching Rooms at the Library When I was twelve years old, I ran out of books. This was a big disaster for me, because I was the type of kid who lived at the public library. We had a pretty decent children’s collection—in fact, if I close my eyes right now, I can see where they shelved Harriet the Spy, A Wrinkle in Time, Pippi Longstocking, The Black Stallion, Beezus and Ramona, and all the Little House books. These books felt like my closest friends, and I read them all a gazillion times each. Really, I loved everything about the Children’s Room—not just the books but the shaggy red rug and the oversized chairs and the smiling librarians. But one day, I realized I’d outgrown that cozy room. And that meant my only option was—gulp!—the gro

Tween Tuesday is a weekly mem hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens! Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary/Humor Release Date: 4/19/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Marigold has spent her whole life being embarassed by her mother. Sure, kids are always embarassed by their parents, but for Marigold, it's different. Her mother is a performance artist, which means she's always doing crazy things in public and on stage-embarassing things like wrapping herself in saran wrap. In fact, the last performance caused such a problem that Marigold is starting over at a new school yet again. She's trying to maintain her friendship with her BFF from her last school and make friends at her new one, but her mom isn't making it easy. Even worse, she's signed up to teach an improv class at Marigold's school! Now Marigold has to keep her mom away from her new friends and try to save herself from any more trauma. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Barbar

Rumors are circulating about John C. Reilly playing Haymitch in The Hunger Games movie . Although he was never anyone whose name I heard come up, I really like this pick and I think he would be great! I hope these rumors come true!! What do you think? In other Hunger Games news, Paula Malcomson has been cast as Mrs. Everdeen . I think she looks like Jennifer Lawrence and I love when fake families in movies look like real families! (Maybe that's weird, but it's kind of a big deal to me-I hate when they don't really look like a family-anyone else??)

The Hollywood Reporter reports that newcomer Willow Shields will play Prim in The Hunger Games movie. I'm really glad they're getting unknown actors as well and I think she looks like a great Prim! What do you think?

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Dystopian Release Date: 5/3/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: In futuristic Chicago, the city has broken up into factions depending on value you hold most important. Are you selfless? Abnegation is for you. Value honesty about all else? Candor is your faction. Is bravery the most important thing? Dauntless is where you belong. Sixteen-year-old Beatrice was born and raised in Abnegation, but she knows she can't stay. At the choosing ceremony, Beatrice decides to switch factions and become Dauntless. But becoming Dauntless won't be easy. The Dauntless will only accept ten new members into their faction and to become Dauntless, the initiates must compete and train in various skills. Beatrice transforms herself into Tris and tries to excel at Dauntless training and decide who to trust. But Tris is hiding a secret from them all-one that could be dangerous to her and her new faction. As she uncovers a growing unrest among the factions, Tris must decide wh

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens. It's poetry month and this week I've got a great poetry book for tweens! Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Poetry Release Date: 3/15/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Poetry can be squeezed from one single word. Taking one word and rearranging the letters, Bob Raczka creates poems ranging from funny to serious in a fantastic poetry collection. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Lemonade has library program for tweens written all over it! I first heard about this book during a upcoming book release webcast and knew I had to get my hands on it. I'm a big fan of Raczka's book, Guyku , and I was intrigued with the idea of taking one word and creating a poem. The poems are so creative and fun! I love the layout of the book which lets the reader see how the poems were made and what letters were used. On the next page, the actual poem appears. This would a be a great tween program and I plan o

The Hunger Games has cast Thresh and Rue! Dayo Okeniyi and Amandla Stenberg will play the tributes from District 11. What do you think of the casting? I think they look perfect!! You can follow The Hunger Games facebook page for more casting updates and news-and of course I'll post news here as well!

Children's Book Week is celebrated May 2-8 this year. Children's Book Week is a national celebration of books and reading for youth. As part of Children's Book Week, there's a Children's Choice Book Award. The award is given by children and teens of all ages. Readers can vote at their school, library, bookstore or even online at Book Week Online . The deadline for voting is April 29th, so get your votes in soon! This year's Teen Finalists are: Burned (House of Night, Book 7) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martin’s Griffin/Macmillan) Fang (A Maximum Ride Novel ) by James Patterson (Little, Brown) Mockingjay ( The Final Book of The Hunger Games )by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press) Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) by Richelle Mead (Razorbill/Penguin) Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton/Penguin) To celebrate Children's Book Week, I have a set of the teen finalists to give away to one lucky reader! -Contest open to 13+

Photo Credit: Michelle Rowen Please welcome Jackie Morse Kessler to GreenBeanTeenQueen! Jackie is the author of Hunger and the recently released companion novel Rage . Both books are part of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse Series. Jackie has a post about libraries and storytelling which I love. I'm currently taking a storytelling class, so her post really made me smile. I hope you love it! A Love Of Stories By Jackie Morse Kessler When I was in elementary school, the Internet was decades away. If you said “google” to anyone, they’d probably think you were saying something dirty or maybe that you meant a “googolplex.” Back then, the library wasn’t about computers or other media. (Sadly, it also wasn’t about comic books, one of my true loves.) It was all about books, and a fabulous librarian to help you find the things you didn’t even realize you were looking for. My librarian was amazing. When I’d get lost in the aisles (because there were so many terrific stories to steal my atten

Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary with a touch of Fantasy Release Date: 4/8/11 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Missy didn't mean to cut. But after a bad school party and torment from her ex-boyfriend, Missy seeks comfort in the blade. Then Death shows up and grants Missy a sword and claims she is now a Horseman of the Apocalypse, more specifically, War. As War, Missy has a larger blade that can cut down anyone in her path. Through it all Missy learns the one thing that's been missing: control. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Rage is part of Jackie Morse Kessler's Horsemen of the Apocalypse series, which are very inventive books that tackle very serious issues. When I first read the premise of the books, I wasn't sure how they would work, but the author manages to pull off a story that takes an issue that needs to be discussed and handles it in deft way. She's never preachy and the story is never perfect with a happy ending. Even with it's bent of fantasy with t

It's National Library Week-have you visted your library yet? I wanted to share a guest post I wrote last year in honor of National Library Week. I still think it's one of the best things I ever wrote as a guest post and I hope it captures why I do what I do as a librarian. If you met me today, especially in the library, you would probably not believe me when I said that I used to be painfully and awkwardly shy. I walk up to strangers in the library, talk to people every day, and I’m very energetic and outgoing. But as a kid, I couldn’t bring myself to talk to people. I talked to my family, but that was about it. I was actually loud and outgoing at home, but get me in public and there was no way I was going to say anything. I remember having to psych myself up before I approached kids in my class just to say hi. So I read a lot as a child. I am very lucky to have grown up in a home of booklovers and my parents took me on weekly (sometimes daily) library trips. I would come home

Happy Birthday Beverly Cleary! Today is Ms. Cleary's 95th birthday and it's also D.E.A.R. Day (Drop Everything And Read). I remember reading the Ramona books as a kid, checking out each book from the library, and laughing along with all of Ramona's adventures. Then after I read the books, I checked out the TV series from the 80's starring Sara Polley as Ramona-anyone else remember this?? (I was a child of the 80's so it didn't look dated to me, it just looked cool!:) I loved Ramona and her sister Beezus and they were some of my favorite books I read growing up. And it wasn't just Ramona. I adored Ralph S. Mouse and his motorcycle! And I read all about Henry Huggins (who doesn't love Henry?) What I love most about Beverly Cleary's books though are that they really do have a timeless feel to them. I read them when they were considered "outdated" but I didn't care. I could relate to Ramona and she was so funny and spunky that I didn't

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens. There's a fantastic middle grade author blog called From the Mixed Up Files....of Middle Grade Authors. This month, the authors are taking off on a Skype Tour Contest. It's such a fantastic idea, I had to share all the details!! A group of noted middle-grade authors hits the virtual highway this month as the huge Mixed-Up Middle-Grade Skype Tour begins cruising through cyberspace. Destination… maybe a town near you! Every month for the next year, classrooms, book clubs and groups will have the chance to win a free, 45-minute Skype visit with a noted middle-grade author simply by entering at From the Mixed-Up Files…of Middle-Grade Authors , a group blog of middle-grade writers. “As far as we know there’s never been another SKYPE tour with so many authors, so many potential destinations, and so many WINNERS!” says tour organizer Tami Lewis Brown.

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Graphic Novel/Historical/Mythology Release Date: 10/12/2010 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Homer's epic poem about Odysseus trying to return home after the Trojan War transferred into a graphic novel format. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: I had to seek this one out and read it after The Odyssey knocked out my pick One Crazy Summer in SLJ's Battle of the Kids Books . I mean, how could something beat out my pick, One Crazy Summer ?? I had to know! It's an impressive undertaking to transfer this poem into a graphic novel format. Some might think because it's a graphic novel it would be easier to read, which isn't the case at all. It's still a very dense book with a lot of detail and a lot of story. It's also not toned down at all for young readers. I think it's easy to say, oh this is The Odyssey , so we can hand this over to Percy Jackson fans! But this is not the lighthearted, funny story of Percy. This is The Odyssey , complete

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Historical/Suspense/Mystery Release Date: 7/16/2009 Add to Goodreads About the Book: It's 1910 and Einar and his family are living in a small cabin in the Arctic Circle. Sig has just discovered that his fathers sled fell through the ice when trying to cross. Now Sig waits alone in the cabin with his fathers corpse, waiting for help to arrive. A stranger appears at the door, demanding that Sig give him his share the gold Einar had stolen from him. Sig knows nothing of the gold and must find a way to escape the strange man and save himself. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: In my attempt to read all the award books this year, I picked up Revolver . I don't know if I would have picked it up if it wasn't for the Printz Honor, so I'm grateful for the award for forcing me to read it! I really enjoyed Revolver and I think readers who like suspense and mystery stories will love this one. I also think teens who enjoy survival stories will be drawn into this

UPDATE : WOW! Thanks for the comments everyone! I know the rating discussion gets talked about every now and then, but I wanted to post about it because I love posts that generate discussion. I also love hearing that a lot of people really like ratings-makes me feel better!:) I think I'm going to work on a larger rating system (plot, characters, etc) so that will be in the works. And thanks again-you guys made my day! This is one of the reasosn I love blogging-I love reading everyone's thoughts!:) There's been some discussion about book ratings recently which has gotten me thinking about book ratings on my blog. Currently I rate books on a 1-5 star scale and I put this information at the top of my reviews. I like to be able to give people a snapshot look at what I thought of the book, and if they're interested, then they can read the entire review. But maybe this just encourages my readers to be lazy. They don't have to read a review, instead they can just look at

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens. Join the fun and add your link below. Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 7/9/2009 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Newt Newman is overlooked at school and lives in the shadow of his big brother Chris, the football star. At the big game, Chris is knocked into a coma. To keep his mind of his brother, Newt's friends encourage him to find his "inner other" for their Halloween costumes. Newt throws something together and discovers Captain Nobody, defender of the little guy. Soon Captain Nobody is saving the day. Can he also save his brother? GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Captain Nobody is on the 2011-2012 Mark Twain list (our state reading list) and I think readers will love having a funny book on the list! When I first picked this book up, I thought it was more a silly superhero story. At first I was a bit confused how the storylines worked together. I don

Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth have been cast as Peeta and Gale. They have the opposite hair colors than the characters in the book, but I think they both look good. (And I can overlook the hair color thing-not sure how Josh would look as a blonde...) So what do you think? Do you like Peeta and Gale? Thanks to Entertainment Weekly for the news!

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 1/1/11 Add to Goodreads About the Book: When June and Wes first meet, Wes thinks June looks like a fish girl. June thinks Wes is weird. June starts to date Wes's friend Jerry, but she's not really interested in him. June and Wes start to spend time together and they realize that a romance might be developing. But then June's Dad gets another new job and they have to move. Will June and Wes stay together and can first love really last? GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Thank you Pete Hautman for writing a fantastic look at contemporary romance and first love! No vampires, no love triangles, no major family drama or issue driven plots. This is just a contemporary love story about meeting someone, falling in love, falling out of love, and wondering where it all leads. Pete Hautman evokes the feelings of first love so perfectly. How at first June and Wes aren't sure about each other, then they want to spend time together, then th

Here are the winners of the contests that recently closed at GreenBeanTeenQueen. Clarity Winners: Rachel Leigh Heidi Mark Blogversary Winner: Michelle Grogan Congrats to the winners!