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  Archived Posts From: 2009

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Blue Hen Book Award Winners!

Written on: November 9th, 2009 in Blog Posts

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Sponsored by the Children’s Services Division of the Delaware Library Association, the winning books are voted on by young readers from a list of nominees prepared by Delaware youth services librarians. This year’s winners were announced on Saturday November 7th:
A couple of boys have the best week ever, by Marla Frazee
Nightmare at the Bookfair, by Dan Gutman
Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins


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Faeries are the new Vampire!

Written on: November 9th, 2009 in Blog Posts

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In a change of pace for this week’s summary of reviews from the New York Times- this week’s edition included a special on children’s books that contained some must-read titles for all ages. And in my case, some titles that I have read recently and enjoyed a great deal.

I was most moved by Nick Kristoff’s review of 14 Cows for America, the story of a Masai community’s response to the 9-11 attacks. Masai culture teaches that “to heal a sorrowing heart, you must give something dear to your own” and so the tribe gives the great gift of 14 cows to the U.S. people. The most moving thing about this tale is that it is a true story.

Dinotrux? There should be a law against writing a children’s book that combines dinosaurs and heavy construction equipment! But the reviewer liked this obvious boy-bait.

Scott Westerfield (author of Uglies, amongst other very popular titles) most recently wrote Leviathan, and I most recently finished reading this very gripping ‘steampunk’ novel for young adults.

In this first of (at least) a trilogy, British “Darwinists” battle with the industrial-warfare obsessed Prussian “Clankers” for the loyalty of the true heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War One era Europe. It’s a fast paced adventure yarn with tremendous inventiveness- the description of the hulking kerosene-powered war machines of the Clankers versus the genetically reimagined monsters of the British Empire (including the Leviathan of the title, an airship constructed from crossing helium-excreting microorganisms with a blue whale). The moral dualism is fairly trite for an adult reader, I suppose, but it doesn’t get in the way of cross-dressing imposters in his Majesty’s Navy, treacherous Bosnian assassins, and aerial artillery in the form of metallic bat excrement. It’s a good choice for younger advanced readers as well- a challenging, long read but without the more sophisticated themes of a lot of young adult books.

There was also a special feature on Young Adult titles- it looks like the vampiric domination of the best-seller lists in this demographic may be about to be ended- by fairies, no less. It’s not suprising that books with themes centered on transformation, alienation, and forbidden love are clicking with these readers (sounds familiarly like a certain Edward Cullen et. al.) Melissa Marr’s Fragile Eternity and Aprilynne Pike’s Wings amongst several others, receive very positive reviews.





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