DBRLTeen

So many authors are writing seriously good books for teens/young adults these days, and many of these books are great reading for both teens and adults!  High school student Marcelo has Asperger’s Syndrome.  People notice that he has trouble communicating the way others do, and also has intense interests and knowledge in some particular areas.  His father wants him to be “normal”, and is pressuring Marcelo to leave the private school where he’s happy, to attend a large public high school where he can learn to act like others do.

Marcelo is constantly confronted by those who think he lacks intelligence because of his condition and the way in which he speaks, who think he can’t learn, or can’t understand what’s going on.  Marcelo proves them wrong!  Marcelo has to confront his father in the process, but he stays true to himself and his ethics and grows in the process.

So DBRLTeen recommends Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork, because by seeing what is ugly inside of ourselves, we can learn, like Marcelo, to “forgive, love kindness, walk humbly.”

Read an interview with the author about this book here, and check out the author’s website.

25 books nominated, and 25 weeks before voting begins for this year’s Teens’ Top Ten!  Just read one a week so you can make an informed decision in October.  Or, well, maybe that’s too much to ask, but check the list anyway and see if any of these titles sound interesting.  Click here to see the complete list and a short description of each.

Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year! Nominators are members of teen book groups in fifteen school and public libraries around the country. Nominations are posted in April during National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year during Teen Read Week (Oct. 18-24). Readers aged twelve to eighteen can vote online that week.

San is a new eighth-grader at school, and not particularly happy to be there.  He has a somewhat cynical yet humorous way of looking at things, as we see on page 2:

So.  Eighth grade. Second semester. New state. Math was math – algebra, of course.  They always stick the Asian kid in the algebra class.  Science was science.  Fortunately I know how to roll a stupid little metal car down a ramp and use a stopwatch, so no problemo there.  In English, all I could figure out the first day was that the teacher was nuts – so again, same stuff, different time zone.  Gym, lunch – I honed my skills at standing and sitting in the corner.  I also continued my long-standing tradition of eating nothing but pasta and fruit in the cafeteria – I’d never been to a public school that knew how to cook actual meat.  Oh, I almost forgot home economics.  Brownies.  Made with applesauce.  No wonder America’s kids have lost their way.

Great writing, even though your English teacher may object to all the incomplete sentences!  But the author creates a really interesting character that you feel you know right away.  Unfortunately San falls victim to the greatest enemy 8th-grade boys face:  their inability to successfully relate to 8th-grade girls.  We all try to make ourselves look a little better than we are when we’re trying to impress someone, but San carries it to extremes, creating a whole new persona for himself as a Zen master to impress a girl.  Unfortunately San is NOT a zen master, so many hours in the library (Yea!) researching the subject is required.  (Please do not follow San’s example by lying to a librarian in order to use the library computers!)  Lots of library humour, school humour, and zen humour, too.

So DBRLTeen recommends Zen and the Art of Faking It, by Jordan Sonnenblick. You’ll learn a lot about zen.  More important, you’ll have a chance to think about the consequences of lying about yourself to impress others.

Visit the author’s website at http://www.jordansonnenblick.com/

Like the funny-looking woman below, who should not be wasting her time trying to sing. But sometimes those funny-looking people will surprise you…

Click this link to watch on youtube – Britain’s Got Talent 2009 Susan Boyle.

The Daniel Boone Regional Library announced today that in order to make space for new items in its collection, all teen and young adult books would be removed from the library. “Teens don’t read anymore,” said teen librarian Melinda Smoof. “But we DO want teens to feel welcome here at their library. So we’ll be placing a few texting devices at various spots in the building for teens to use. We know how important finger-based chatting is to teens these days!” The texting devices won’t actually be connected to anything, but it is not expected that the teens will notice.

The library plans to convert the present Young Adult area into a Quilting Center and Knitting Nook for the Elderly.