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.

Our next book club meeting was originally planned for September 24,  but there is an open house at the middle school that night, so we will be meeting on September 29 instead. Let’s meet at 6 p.m. In the Teen Lounge. As always, we’ll have pizza.

The book we will be reading and discussing this month is The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/record/95750. Copies of the book are available at the front desk.

Hope you can make it!

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!

Blue Baker is a normal, nice kid with a normal, nice family: a Mom, a Dad and a little sister.  He has friends, goes to school, and has regular run-ins with the town bully.  When his Dad dies, he gets set up with a counselor at school, Mrs. Molloy, who tells him to try writing out his feelings, which is how he ends up writing the story of The Savage.  The Savage is a savage: he lives under an abandoned chapel, hunts and kills for food, doesn’t speak except in grunts and has sticks and chicken feathers in his hair.  The Savage is Blue’s private story, but as he writes more and more chapters, it starts to become real.  The Savage starts showing up around town, and eventually Blue is going to have to face him.

Dave McKean’s illustrations make The Savage.  It’s a quick read from Almond, an author who has won numerous awards for his other books.  
 

Now's your chance.  We're looking for a group of volunteers to work on a new monthly podcast...    We need:

Talent! (Voices)

Behind the scenes! (recording, editing, writing)

EVERYBODY!

Come find out more and start planning the first episodes on Saturday Aug 1st at 3:00pm in the Teen Lounge. 

If you can't make it Saturday, but would like to volunteer, email hmartyn@darienlibrary.org

image courtesy of flickr user pateffron

4pm TODAY Thurs July 30

Teen Lounge

The fastest completed puzzle wins prizes!

images courtesy of flickr users jhritz and romanlily

Prom Nights From Hell is full of horrifying short stories about going to the prom, by all your fav authors.  Stephenie Meyer writes about a girl (--or is she?) with a secret plan to ruin the prom.  Lauren Myracle writes about what happens when you use magic to get a date.  Meg Cabot tells the story of what happens when a vampire shows up at school and asks your best friend on a date.

These stories are fun and well written, and a little scary.  Highly recommended, and a must if you’re trying to read through Stephenie Meyer, Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, Michele Jaffe or Kim Harrison.