Elena is the most beautiful, and the most popular, girl in school, but she has always felt like something was missing.  She returns from her summer vacation in France determined to break up with her quarterback boyfriend Matt, who she loves, but only as a friend.  Then Stefen shows up at school.  He’s Italian, mysterious, superhot, and does not even take a second look at Elena.  Or so she thinks. 

While Elena is becoming more and more obsessed with Stefen, Stefen is doing his best not to stare.  He has enough problems trying to control his thirst and his powers, and now this girl, this girl who looks exactly like his lost love Katherine, is sitting in front of him in World History.  Then, just as Stefen thinks he is getting control of himself, people start dying all over town. 

The Vampire Diaries is a fun vampire romance, with a lot of horror mixed in.  Elena is petty, superficial and vain, but she becomes more likeable as the book progresses.  Stefen is brooding, but genuinely loves Elena for herself.  Aside from Elena and Stefen’s romance, there is lots of intrigue and drama- both of the high school and the centuries-old-vendetta varieties.  Fans of the The Vampire Diaries on the CW, or of Twilight, will want to check this book out.  

Check it out in the Teen Lounge. It's FUN.

Boo!

Homecoming is the sequel to Ghostgirl, in which our heroine Charlotte meets her demise (chokes on a gummy bear) and ends up in the afterlife (Dead Ed: high school for dead teens).  In Homecoming, Charlotte and her classmates have graduated from Dead Ed, and are now staffing a helpline for troubled teenagers, where the ghosts act as the consciences of the callers.  In the land of the living, things are rocky between Scarlet (the BFF) and Damen (the cute boy), and Petula (the most popular girl at school) has landed herself in a pedicure-induced coma.  With the afterlife somewhat lacking in excitement, Charlotte will do her best to help her friends.

The Ghostgirl books pretty much need to be read in order, so get Ghostgirl first, then Homecoming.  They are funny, full of great quotes and big colorful characters.  Charlotte is full of insecurities and loneliness, but she is truly a good friend and a kind person.  This is an entertaining story. 
 

This is the latest book by the author of Elsewhere, and it is even better.  In Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Naomi falls down the stairs at the front of her school, hits her head and passes out.  When she wakes up the first thing she hears is James telling the EMTs that he is her boyfriend.  When they get to the hospital, Naomi knows her name, but she doesn’t know why she is in the hospital, what year it is, that James is not her boyfriend, or that her parents are divorced- she has forgotten the last four years of her life.  Once she gets out of the hospital, she has to try to start living her life again, but it’s not easy.  Along with her memories, she’s lost her likes and dislikes: why she’s dating boring, binge-drinking athlete Ace; why she spent hours every day co-editing the yearbook; what made her mad enough at her Mom to give her the silent treatment for three years; why she hates her Dad’s fiancée.  Everyone expects Naomi to go right back to her old life, but without her memories, she’s no longer the person she was. 

This is a really good story, and an excellent read.  It’s partially a family story, and partially a romance, but mainly it’s about a girl who is trying really hard to put the pieces of her broken life back together.  While her amnesia is in no way a good thing, in some cases it gives her a new perspective on her choices and lets her try things that she might not have in her pre-accident life.
 

Good Read!

Molly and Trevor have been dating for three months, ever since Trevor dumped Barbie-doll Felicia.  Trevor is pressuring to take things to the next level, but Molly’s not so sure.   Kissing Trevor feels amazing, but it’s only been three months and he’s still refusing to meet her family.  When Molly catches Trevor kissing his ex, she’s heartbroken but vows to move on.  With Trevor trying to win her back, and her best friend trying to set her up with a string of rebound guys, Molly finds solace in the place she least expected it: her little neighbor’s Girl Corps troupe.  Sure, at fifteen she looks out-of-place among the pre-teen Girl Corps, but hanging out with the troupe is giving her a sense of empowerment and identity she’s never had before.   

Girl to the Core is a really fun read.  Molly is a good character and her relationships with her friends and with the younger girls are interesting and authentic.  She gets herself into some difficult situations, but with her strong sense of family and the lessons she learns at Girl Corps, she manages to become a stronger person because of them.
 

Auden is the child of divorced university professors.  Pretty much since birth she’s been pressured to succeed academically, and in the quest for the highest grades and most attractive college application package she’s missed out on a lot.  She’s never had close friends, been in a food fight, or learned to ride a bike.  Her acceptance to a prestigious college secured, she heads off to spend the summer with her Dad and his new wife and daughter.  All is not well at her Dad’s house, and the stress soon has Auden wandering the streets of the sea-side town at night, plagued with insomnia.  She soon meets the small town’s other sleepless residents, including Eli, a boy with a secret hurt of his own.  Eli and Auden decide to spend the summer nights filling in her lost carefree highschool years.

Along for the Ride is sweet and funny.  Dessen is as amazing as always at describing the nuances of families and writing characters that sound and act authentic. Highly recommended, especially if you liked Dessen's other books.

A few years ago 30-something Sarah Brown started sharing her old diaries with friends and strangers, through the web and at a coffee-house event in New York.  The project prompted an open call for old teenage journals, poetry and other writings from anyone willing to share; the most cringe-worthy and embarrassing results became this book.  The entries are funny and sad, but it shows pretty clearly that a lot of people go through the same experiences.   

As an FYI- Cringe contains uncensored journal entries, and some of the subjects covered are pretty sobering and explicit.  Brown’s and the original authors’ approach to all the entries is tongue-in-cheek, so the commentary does not take even the most heart-wrenching subjects seriously.   
 

In the America of the distant future books are outlawed.  Guy Montag is a fireman, a burner of books, who has always followed the rules.  He likes his life, and has never really questioned it, until one day, on his way home from work, he meets a unique young woman who is walking near his house.  Soon after, his wife overdoses on sleeping pills and is revived by uncaring paramedics.  Finally, while at work he accidentally reads a line of a book, something he has never done in his long and distinguished career.   He steals the book, placing himself among the ranks of the insane and probably dangerous. 

The book by Ray Bradbury came out in 1953 and is an excellent read.  This new graphic novel adaptation by Tim Hamilton is faithful to the original and brings the characters to life once again.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Poccreia who assures that the pictured books were not burned maliciously.
 

Sisters Octavia and Talia are pretty much prepared for the summer from hell: accompanying their 80+ year old grandmother Mare on a cross-country road trip to a reunion in Alabama.  It’s not going to be pretty. Octavia and Talia haven’t really been friends lately, and Mare is far from being a normal sweater wearing, pie making grandma.  Instead she drives her convertible like she’s in NASCAR, wears stilettos and smokes like a chimney.  Along the way, Mare starts to tell her granddaughters about her history: what it was like growing up in the Depression, living in the segregated South, running away from home at 17 to join the Women’s Army Corps, about getting shipped off to Europe to help fight the Second World War.

Mare's War is a really good book.  The story of the road trip is interesting and Octavia and Talia are good characters with a pretty realistic dynamic between them.  The best part of the book is Mare’s storytelling.  She is vivid, engaging and strong.  Her story is heroic, and describes a little-known part of history, but it isn't preachy.      
 

Come join in on the fun!

The Teen Lounge now boasts four iMac's exclusively for Teens to enjoy. That's right, fantastic four!!!

Here's a list of iMazing things you can do:

• Create movies in iMovie
• Sample your own beat in Garageband
• Chat with your friends in iChat
• Take photos of yourself and do all sort of crazy fun stuff in PhotoBooth
• Play Plants vs. Zombies!
• Design simple video games in Scratch
• Surf the interwebs and of course lots more!!!!

So, invite your friends and check out the awesome Teen Lounge on the Lower level of the library!!

See you there!