Non-Fic for Booktalks December 27, 2007

Here are a couple of newly published titles which might interest young readers at your next booktalk. 

100 Marvels of the Modern World by Various

It’s kind of a hefty volume, but worth it’s weight in picturesque photos and fascinating facts about the world’s most amazing engineering marvels. From bridges, buildings, tunnels,  to dams every man made engineering feat from around the world is covered in this fascinating book.  Some of my personal favorites were Egypt’s Alexandria Library, The Ice Hotel In Sweden (you can connect this to Missy Elliot’s/Tweet video), and the Asahi Super Dry Hall in Japan.  

99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie your Shirt into Something Special by Faith Blackney et al.

I’m a Project Runway addict and thought this book would be fun for aspiring designers. And you know what? It totally is.  Like the title states, it’s 99 projects and patterns to turn a mundane t-shirt into a fabulous skirt or any other clothing article. You could also pair this book with Generation T: 108 ways to transform a T-Shirt by Megan Nicolay.

                     

 

(Shepard Fairy’s Obey)

Sticker City: Paper Graffiti Art by Claudia Walde.

Ever notice that random sticker placed on the exit sign on the freeway? Well this book chronicles the artists who create the graffiti sticker art you may see all over your urban jungle. 

 

What if..? 75 Fascinating Questions and Answers by HowStuffWorks.com.

This book is an easy crowd pleaser for boys and girls from 7th to 12th grade. Brought to you by HowStuffWorks.com it is a plethora of interesting and fascinating questions and their scientific answers.  For my booktalk I started off with the question “What if the Hoover Dam Broke?” and related it to the movie Transformers, where in the finale the evil robots threaten to blow up the Hoover Dam.   Other questions that tickled their fancy were “What if we had no eyebrows?” and “How would you un superglue yourself?”

 

Villainology: Fabolous Lives of the Big, the Bad, and the Wicked by Arthur Slade

A great book to bring along if you’re doing a booktalk around Halloween.  Slade takes a humorous look at some of the most meanest and creepiest Villains in history. (Real and fictional.)  Personal favorites included The Invisible Man(who apparently tried to date the Invisible women, but they were never able to find eachother), The Headless Horseman, and Mephastopheles.   You could also pair this book with How to Be a Villian: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans, and More!! by Neil Zawacki, which shows you how to formulate your own villainous name, I’m Mistress DoomHeart.

They Came From Below by Blake Nelson September 13, 2007

Emily and Reese are in the vacation town of Cape Cod one summer thinking it would be another uneventful vacation.  They plan to check out boys and hang out.  The summer starts off normally but then something highly secretive and strange comes out of the sea.  Emily’s father is a professor and he is called to try to identify the unidentifiable creature from the ocean.  However no sooner than he is called in, then the authorities try to cover up whatever it was on the beach.

Emily and Reese go about their regular routine of hanging out at the beach and eating pizza at the local pizza joint.  One eventful day changes their lives.  They meet a couple of movie-star handsome guys named Steve and Dave.  The girls are immediately attracted to them and want to get to know them better.  There’s something about them.  They go to a party with Steve and Dave and something strange happens.  After the police come to break up the party, one of the party-going kids gets spooked and tries to make a dangerous escape.  He tries to jump from the roof of a house to a tree to make his get away.  Instead he slips and falls and seemingly breaks his neck.  What happens next can only be described as a miracle or magic. 

What’s with Steve and Dave?  Why does everyone feel like helping them?  And why are they so uber attractive?  

***** 

They Came From Below is Blake Nelson’s first foray into the realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Nelson’s writing style consistently moves readers forward and although the story seems deceptively simple, philosophical questions and a poignant social commentary are subtly implied. 

Stay tuned to the YA YA YAs blog, we’ll be posting an interview with Blake Nelson sometime during the first week of November during the Winter Blog Blast Tour.      

Too bad Creature Feature was last year’s Summer Reading theme May 23, 2007

One book I always take booktalking is Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio.  And I now have more facts to talk about, thanks to this National Geographic news article. 

Cicadas spend most of their lives underground sucking sap from tree roots. The plant-based diet gives them a green, asparagus-like flavor, especially when eaten raw or boiled, according to Kritsky.

For those interested in collecting and preparing cicadas on their own,

The insects are best eaten just after the nymphs break open their skins but before their exoskeletons turn black and hard, cicada aficionados say. These newly hatched cicadas are called tenerals.

Jadin said they are best collected in the early morning hours, just after the insects emerge from the ground but before they crawl up trees, where they are harder to reach.

If tenerals are unavailable, the next best menu item is adult females-their bellies are fat and full of nutritious eggs.

So says this article by John Roach (now there’s a fitting name for the author of an article about bugs), “Cicadas as Food: Summer’s Low-Fat Snack?”

Big Island Booktalk April 29, 2007

I love the neighbor islands. The Big Island booktalk went well. Enthusiastic students, librarians, and teachers welcomed us to their school. We had a total of 4 sessions the longest 60 minutes and the shortest about 45 minutes. There were several classes in each session mixed with 9th, 10th, and some 11th graders. Booktalking went quickly because I was tag-team booktalking with Linda.

Again my non-fiction was the most popular and got the best reaction. Kenji Kawakami’s Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions is a hit with the teens. Other ones that got a good response were With A Little Luck by Dennis Fradin, Invisible Enemies by Jeanette Farrell and my Optical Illusions book. I can’t wait until the next booktalk! Wooo hoooo!

Haruki Murakami and the Big Island Booktalk April 20, 2007

I’ve been obsessing over Haruki Murakami who technically isn’t a YA author but changed my life in 1995. I was a senior in high school and finicky reader as I still am today, Murakami opened new doors for me in the literary realm. He was one of the first translated authors that I read and opened my eyes to the possibilities of works from around the world. I’ve debated with myself whether or not to include one of his works in the YA section in my library, since he had such a profound effect on me and my attitude toward literature in general, but have always come to the same conclusion: there is a decent sampling of his work in our adult fiction and the protagonists in his stories although young are not technically young adults–they’re college age and thus adults. Murakami for me fills a void in perspective. The lack of Asian American voices in writing to this day haunts me. We will cover this topic in a separate entry at a later date.

The reason for my newfangled obsession with finding information is that Murakami is doing a Q&A for a Youth Literature Conference being held at the University next weekend. The likes of Chris Crutcher and Graham Salisbury will also be there. I’m excited to say the least.

I’m also hyped about my booktalk on Kona. Although I find flying out at the crack of dawn exhausting, the enthusiasm that greets me on the neighbor islands more than rejuvenates me. I’m planning on bringing this cache with me:

More Booktalking April 10, 2007

I’m going booktalking next month to four 8th grade classes and I just realized that I can’t think of many contemporary realistic fiction titles for guys this age that I can booktalk. Maybe No More Dead Dogs and I’m debating whether or not to take Black and White, but that’s about it. All the other guy fiction I’m planning on taking is fantasy or contemporary-but-not-particularly-realistic (like Stormbreaker).

The reading levels of the students range from 3rd to 12th grade (!), and from what I understand, the teachers prefer newer books. So, any suggestions?

Non-Fiction Kick April 9, 2007

I’ve been on a non-fiction kick as of recent. I blame it on Bling, the Hip-Hop Jewelry Book by Reggie Osse. I feel such a guilty pleasure when I read about certain things, life’s little luxuries included. Bling successfully combines elements of pop cultural references with history in a neat little package complete with glossy photos. If you’re fascinated by shiny things as much as I am, you’re sure to appreciate Bling and its fabulousness.

When I first saw the John Lennon biography, I groaned. I thought out loud to the children’s librarian, “what teen is going to know John Lennon? ” Then I got around to reading John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth and realized, hey, there’s more to this book than just a dude who was famous and died earlier than most of the teens I know can remember. There’s the common thread of what it takes to be a musician and an artist. There’s elements of Lennon not knowing who he was and what to do or where to go. There’s so many themes that a YA can relate to it made me realize, hey, this book is worth a try and worth me booktalking. This book didn’t pull any punches about Lennon’s drug use or affairs. It presented them in a way that doesn’t judge. I couldn’t put it down until my curiosity was satiated. So I now hang my head in shame that I was ready to dismiss this gem of a book as not current enough to interest any teen. In an effort to alleviate some of my guilt, I will definitely booktalk John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth by Elizabeth Partridge at my next school visit.