GreenBeanTeenQueen

Did you know that anyone can suggest a title for the YALSA Book Awards? You have until Decmeber 1st to get your suggestions in for what titles you think committees need to take notice of. You can suggest titles for Best Fiction for Young Adults , Fabulous Films for Young Adults , Amazing Audiobooks , Alex Awards . You can even suggest a title for the Printz Award . Your suggestion doesn't mean a book will be nominated, but it does let your voice be heard. Kelly at Stacked has a great post about why we should do our part and suggest titles for these awards. Hurry because suggestions close on December 1st!

Suzanne Collins has a new book coming next year-and it's a picture book! According to Publisher's Weekly the book is an autobiographical picture book about a young girl's year when her father is serving in Vietnam. So what do you think? I'm happy to have another book by her, but I do wish it was another YA series. Maybe someday!

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Mystery/Humor Release Date: 1/1/2010 Add to Goodreads About the Book: 12-year-old Teddy lives in a zoo. His mom is a top zookeeper and his dad is an animal photographer, so Teddy is the only kid who lives year round at FunJungle-the ultimate zoo vacation spot. When the zoo's mascot, Henry the Hippo, goes belly up, Teddy sneaks in on the autopsy and learns that the Hippo was murdered. Teddy is on the case trying to figure out what happened to Henry before more animals meet the end. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Belly Up is another book that is on our state book award list this year and I've had book clubs about the book. Our discussion over Belly Up was one of the liveliest discussions we've had this year. This is a great tween mystery-the story keeps them guessing and none of the tweens in my book clubs guessed who the murderer was from the start and all were surprised. The book moves along at a good pace and keeps readers engaged. The...

I've been thinking about book blurbs. Do you notice them? Do they make you pick up a book or not? Many years ago, before I was a librarian and blogger, I was browsing in Borders. I came across a  book that was chick lit and was blurbed by an author who had written a couple of books I read and loved. I bought the book based on the blurb. As a browsing reader, the blurb helped sell me on the book. Now that I'm a librarian, I read many, many review sources. I have a giant blog feed that I read various reviews on. And I love checking out Goodreads to see what a book is currently rated and what others have to say about the book. I also still pay attention to book blurbs, but I don't know that they carry as much weight for me as a reader anymore. I still like what other authors have to say, but I also notice the dark side of book blurbs. I notice when authors become like Marshall in How I Met Your Mother and their Stamp of Approval and I start to doubt their blurbs. Or t...

I love looking at cover changes! I understand how covers change because of marketing, but sometimes a book will have a cover I really love and change to something I'm not a fan of in the paperback.Here are some I've come across recently-what do you think? Across the Universe has had many changes-I've posted about it before. But I think the cover evolution is interesting: Hardcover Paperback New Series Covers -I think all the covers are nice and I like each of them. I also think the latest series design has the broadest appeal. Now for a cover change that I don't think I like as well- Hardcover Paperback (and new series design) -I think this one freaks me out mostly because I don't starting into a creepy eye on the cover. But it does give a very chilling feel, which is a great marketing effect. Hardcover Paperback -I like both of these covers for Born Wicked . I think the first one stands out a bit more, but...

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Humor Release Date: 9/27/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Rob never cleans his closet. Instead he tosses random junk and the books his mom gives him to read all into his closet. He even thinks that the beared man on his doorknob is a little weird, so he'd rather not think about his closet at all. Until one day a strange creature appears from the closet-it's Wonkenstein-half Willy Wonka, half Frankenstein. Rob needs to figure out a way to get the creature back where it belongs-and he might just discover reading along the way. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Author Obert Skye recently visited a local middle school and he obviously made an impression on the students because they have been asking for this series non-stop! I decided I had to see what all the talk was about. The Creature From My Closet: Wonkenstein is a great start to a hilarious new series that is perfect for readers who love humor and illustrations (ala Wimpy Kid style) in...

I've been wanting to do a life size game of some sort at my Library for awhile. So when this year's Big Read book was The Maltese Falcon, I knew a game of Life Size Clue would work well for the mystery theme. I sort of made up how to run the game and hopefully I can explain it well enough for others to copy. Here's what we did: We had a room set up perfectly for the game board already. Our Storyhour Room has a tile floor with squares. Using masking tape, I tape off six rooms (the game board has nine, but I wanted to make sure the game didn't take forever if we only had a couple of teens playing). I counted off tile squares for the size of the rooms, made doorways, and made sure to include signs in four rooms that listed secret passages that would lead you directly across the game board into another room. The rules we followed were just like the game board. We had a case file box in which we placed a weapon, suspect, and room. Then we passed out one card fo...

Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Mystery/Historical (set in 1985-yep, that's historical!:) Release Date: 4/15/2010 Add to Goodreads About the Book: When Sadie and her younger sister Zuzu move to Salt Lake City, they discover a room in the attic called Palace Beautiful. Inside Palace Beautiful is a journal belonging to a girl named Helen who lived in the house in 1918. Along with their next door neighbor Bella, the girls decide to read the journal entries which have parallels to what's happening in their lives. The girls become obsessed with the story of the influenza outbreak that happens and are determined to find out what happened to Helen. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Palace Beautiful is on our state book award list for grades 4-6 (Mark Twain Award) and it's the book my Chat & Chew (aka book clubs) are talking about this month. So far the three groups I've visited with about the book have all loved it. Palace Beautiful is a gentle read and a light mystery. Th...

Hello Springfield Leadership Academy! I hope you're enjoying your Library visit and scavenger hunt and have a wonderful education day!

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Animal Stories/Historical Release Date: 10/13/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Did you know mice in houses and wear clothes and take the family name of the family they live with? The mouse Cranstons live within the walls of the human Cranston family home. When the human Cranstons decide to travel to England to find a husband for one of their daughters, the mice Cranstons decide they must follow their humans and travel over the scary sea as well. As the mice try to secretly help their humans out on their adventure, they have adventures and romance of their own! GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: If you're looking for historical fiction ala Downton Abbey , Secrets at Sea would fit that need-and would be perfect for tweens who are fans of the BBC show along with their parents. (I've had a few tween fans come into my library-they do exist!) The story is a humorous historical fiction with a twist because the entire story is told from the point of v...

I am so late in posting about this! Lalitha at Masala Reader asked me ages ago to write up what we did for our Zombie Prom and I'm finally getting around to it. Zombie Prom happened at my library this past summer. It was the brainchild of my Young Adult Librarian. For the past two years I had run an end of school/start of summer dance at the library. The first year was Moonlight Masquerade  and the next year Geek Prom . So we decided to repeat that idea this year only with zombies. We had also been contacted be a local band whose members are in middle school and high school and they really wanted to play a show at my branch. I had talked to the teens earlier about them playing and they weren't too thrilled with the idea. So I suggested the band become the live music for our Zombie Prom. It ended up working out really well because they got the crowd they wanted and we didn't have to worry about creating a playlist for the event. (We did make a short playlist for ...

The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson, Illustrated by Eleanor Taylor   Rating: 4/5 Stars   About the Book: Peter Rabbit can't stay away from adventure! This time he travels beyond the McGregor's garden and encounters new friends and challenges. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:   I was nervous when I heard there would be a new Peter Rabbit book, but Emma Thompson captures the essence of the original tales perfectly. It's a fun, delightful tale that fits Peter wonderfully and I really enjoyed it. It has a sly sense of humor. The illustrations are beautiful and look just like the original Peter Rabbit tales. A very nice addition to any collection. Perfect for Peter Rabbit fans new and old alike!

And we're off! I'm heading to the YALSA Literture Symposium this weekend with my teen librarian. If you see us there, be sure to say hi! I'll be tweeting about the conference and you can follow along at @greenbeanblog and #yalit12 See you soon librarian friends!