In this issue:

Michael L. Printz Award

Teen Tech Week

HCPL YA Staff

New Young Adult Materials

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.  The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.   The committe selects from the previous year's publications the best young adult book ("best" being defined solely in terms of literary merit) and as many as four Honor Books.

Michael L. Printz Award Book List

Harris County Public Library celebrates Teen Tech Week--March 2-8, 2008.   The theme of Teen Tech Week 2008 is Tune In @ your library! Teen Tech Week is a yearly program created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).  

Think the library is all about books? Think again. Drop by your local branch library to tune into blogs, podcasts, gaming, music, and more. 

Meredith Layton

Meredith Layton is the Young Adult Librarian for the Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch Library.

What do you like to read?

I'll read almost anything and everything.  I really enjoy non-fiction (social histories, history, and philosophy), but also love reading young adult fiction (especially mysteries, realistic fiction, science fiction, and dark fantasy).

What was your favorite book when you were a teen?

I was a total dork and loved I Claudius by Robert Graves.  I enjoyed the combination of family soap opera and military history.

What do you like best about your job?

I really enjoy working with teens; they help keep me in the know and inspire me with their honesty, creativity, and energy.  I also love that I learn something new every day and that staying knowledgeable of current events and great new fiction is part of my job.

What was your most embarrassing moment as a teen?

I was on the academic team (you know, buzzing the buzzer and answering questions for points) in high school.  Once during a math problem I was the first one to buzz my buzzer, but before I answered I knew my calculation was wrong!  I couldn't think of the correct answer on the spot so in a fit of panic I answered the first thing that came to my mind, "Oscar  Wilde?"  The opposing team started chuckling and my teammates turned bright red along with me.  I had never been so embarrassed in my life!

If you could relive your teen years what would you do differently? 

I would definitely have had more fun and not worried so much about making a good impression, having to have the highest grade, being involved in as many extracurricular activities as my tight schedule could handle, and getting accepted to my first choice college.  Excelling is really important to me, but shouldn't have been as important as my sanity!

If you could give advice or a message to you "teen self" what would it be?

You might think that haircut is awesome, but seriously, step away from the curling iron.

Peter Cameron.  Someday This Pain Will Be Useful

to You  Eighteen-year-old James living in New York City with his older sister and divorced mother struggles to find a direction for his life.

Jame DeVita.  The Silenced

Consigned to a prison-like Youth Training Facility because of her parents' political activities, Marena organizes a resistance movement to combat the restrictive policies of the ruling Zero Tolerance party.

Dalia Ephron.  Frannie in Pieces

When fifteen-year-old Frannie's father dies, only a mysterious jigsaw puzzle that he leaves behind can help her come to terms with his death.

F. E. Higgins.  The Black Book of Secrets

When Ludlow Fitch runs away from his thieving parents in the City, he meets up with the mysterious Joe Zabbidou, who calls himself a secret pawnbroker, and who takes Ludlow as an apprentice to record the confessions of the townspeople of Pagus Parvus, where resentments are many and trust is scarce.

Robert Lipsyte.  Yellow Flag

When seventeen-year-old Kyle reluctantly succumbs to family pressure and replaces his injured brother in the family racecar, he struggles to keep up with his trumpet playing while deciding how--or if--he can continue making music with a brass quintet and headlines as a Nascar racer.

Marcella Pixley.  Freak

Twelve-year-old Miriam, poetic, smart, and quirky, is considered a freak by the popular girls at her middle school, and she eventually explodes in response to their bullying, revealing an inner strength she did not know she had.

Brandon Sanderson.  Alcatraz Versus the Evil

Librarians  On his thirteenth birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry receives a bag of sand which is immediately stolen by the evil Librarians who are trying to take over the world, and Alcatraz is introduced to his grandfather and his own special talent, and told that he must use it to save civilization.

Roland Smith.  Elephant Run

Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British father's plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya, they plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

Jake Wizner.  Spanking Shakespeare

Shakespeare Shapiro navigates a senior year fraught with feelings of insecurity while writing the memoir of his embarrassing life, worrying about his younger brother being cooler than he is, and having no prospects of ever getting a girlfriend.

Cecily Von Ziegesar.  Lucky:  An It Girl Novel

Elite Waverly Academy's standards of conduct are strained when Callie and Tinsley recruit a prospective student who is visiting campus to spy for them, in order to implicate Jenny as the arsonist who burned down an antique barn at the Miller farm.

Naomi Shihab Nye.  I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You

OK?:  Tales of Driving and Being Driven   A collection of funny but wise essays, vignettes, memories, and stories.

Nicholas Einhorn.  Magical Illustions, Conjuring

Tricks, Amazing Puzzles & Stunning Stunts  A fun and fully accessible step-by-step guide to over 200 brilliant illusions, tricks, puzzles and stunts, including close-up magic, stage magic, optical illusions, party tricks, and much more.

Stephen E. Loflin.  Adventures Abroad:  The Student's

Guide to Studying Overseas   A guide for students contemplating or planning to study abroad explores the rewards and realities of the experience, discussing the options for housing; obstacles to overcome; and tips, advice, and testimonials from those who have been there.

Vernon Mahabal.  The Secret Code of Your Hands:

An Illustrated Guide to Palmistry  Introduces readers to the Eastern science of palmistry, including its origins, applications, and interpretive meanings.

Tanya Napier and Jen Kollmer.  Girl in a Funk:  Quick

Stress Busters (and Why They Work)  A stress management guide for teenage girls. Includes suggestions for mental tricks, spa treatments, self-acupressure, breathing exercises, and other natural remedies.

Mark Verheiden.  Superman/Batman  Enemies

Among Us   When Batman is attacked be one of his oldest and most powerful allies, Martian Manhunter, he seeks the aid of Superman. Soon Batman and Superman are ambushed by various off-worlders, both friend and foe. The madness spreads and Batman finds he must defeat Superman to save the human race.

Eoin Colfer.  Airman

In the 1890s Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands. He spends his days studying the science of flight and exploring the castle with the king's daughter. But his life changes when he discovers a deadly conspiracy against the king. When Conor tries to intervene, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail. There, he has to fight for his life, as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions. There is only one way to escape imprisonment, and that is to fly. 

Marian Hale.  Dark Water Rising

While salvaging and rebuilding in the aftermath of the Galveston flood of 1900, sixteen-year-old Seth proves himself in a way that his previous efforts never could, but he still must face his father man-to-man.

Joanne Harris.  Runemarks

Maddy Smith, who bears the mysterious mark of a rune on her hand, learns that she is destined to join the gods of Norse mythology and play a role in the fate of the world.

Kenneth Oppel.  Skybreaker

Matt Cruse, a student at the Airship Academy, and Kate de Vries, a young heiress, team up with a gypsy and a daring captain, to find a long-lost airship, rumored to carry a treasure beyond imagination.

John Feinstein.  Cover-Up

Fledgling fourteen-year-old sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie investigate suspicious activities at the Super Bowl after Stevie gets fired from his co-anchor job on a ground-breaking teen sports show.

Troy Cle.  The Marvelous Effect

Strange things are happening on Earth, and twelve-year-old Louis Proof discovers that he is one of the few people able to see--and combat--the responsible beings, who came from Midlandia, the planet at the center of the universe, to continue a battle that rages there.