Reviews and Blog Posts: Teens

Teens and adults alike have been captivated by Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. If you haven't had enough of the Hunger Games books, and want more books with similar themes, check out the If You Like The Hunger Games page on DPL's Teen Website, eVolver! I recently did a poll of my colleagues who enjoyed The Hunger Games for their ULTIMATE Hunger Games read-a-like.

While some of these books/stories may not be in the Denver Public Library's collection, they may be worth seeking out if you are interested in issues of gender in science fiction and fantasy. Please note all the teen books on the list--several of which were on my favorite reads of 2011 list!

The 2011 Tiptree Award Winner is: Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston (Aqueduct Press, 2011)

The Honor List includes:

The Mysterious Benedict Society is a curious story, indeed! It all starts with several children answering the following newspaper ad: "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" Once the chosen few have passed a series of bizarre tests, they are trained, their special gifts are sharpened, and they are set for – what else – an undercover mission to stop evil!

Check out the full schedule of events, including events across almost all of the branches of the Denver Public Library system. I wanted to highlight some of the events that will be happening here at Central, most of which will be on the 4th floor in the Community Technology Center.

Nominated for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel:

How about ones specific to genre fiction? Here are some awards lists you might not have thought to look for your next teen read. Of course, these books are great for adults, too!

Many of the adult book awards include a subcategory for teen books. This is the recently announced Andre Norton Award Shortlist for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (part of the Nebula Awards):

GIMP is free software for manipulating images and is installed on all of our public PCs. You can find it in the Start menu under Utilities.

It is a very robust, powerful program that you can spend a lot of time getting to know. (See the documentation and some tutorials at gimp.org/docs.) What I want to share with you is a very simple and specific procedure: creating an animated gif like the one at the top of this post.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, by Jeff Kinney

Runners up:

The Maze Runner, James Dashner

City of Glass, Cassandra Clare

The Hundred Dresses is a 1944 classic by Eleanor Estes. In this age where bullying is a serious topic, the story of Wanda Petronski, who is teased for her name, where she lives, and the fact that she wears the same faded dress every day, will really hit-home with readers. Wanda insists she has one hundred beautiful dresses at home and when the girls at school mock her for it, she stops coming to school and her family decides to move to a bigger city.

The library and other organizations like the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Dumb Friends League and the Denver Zoo, rely on volunteer involvement to assist in many important and fun tasks! The experiences you have while volunteering will help you know what kind of career you might be interested in pursuing.