Thursday, January 29, 2015

Teen Pick of the Week: Polly and the One and Only World

Polly and the One and Only World
by Don Bredes
Polly and the One and Only World is set in a much-diminished future America called the Christian Protectorates, a poor country ravaged by coastal flooding, drought, and cataclysmic social upheaval, the story features 15-year-old Polly Lightfoot, a maiden witch of rich heritage and tender ability in the craft. When the story opens, Polly is forced to flee New Florida, where she has taken temporary refuge to escape a military purge of the country's infidels, pagans, and followers of false creeds. With the help of her steadfast familiar, Balthazar, a raven, and her brave teenage companion, Leon, whom she meets on the way, Polly undertakes an epic journey from the deep south to the wild north to be reunited in Vermont with her family and to save her ancient craft from obliteration.
Don Bredes is a versatile, visionary novelist. His frightening, vividly realized depiction of our stricken land in the stifling grip of fundamentalists offers young readers a galvanizing motive for preventive action. Not only do readers learn a great deal about witchcraft and religious oppression, but the chilling aspect of an America dominated by hateful zealots in the wake of climate catastrophe presents them with an inspiring challenge-today-to forestall the dire consequences of climate chaos. Gloomy though Polly's world may be, her story does not make use of the horrific realism found in dystopian novels like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, or even in Susan Collins's Hunger Games. Rather, Polly and the One and Only World gives young readers a vision of a future that will inspire them to appreciate their own freedom and their own capacity to work for positive social and political change.
Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Library.
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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Teen Pick of the Week: Firefight

Firefight
by Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Words of Radiance, coauthor of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn Trilogy, presents the second book in the Reckoners series: Firefight, the sequel to the #1 bestseller Steelheart.

Newcago is free.

They told David it was impossible, that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet Steelheart--invincible, immortal, unconquerable--is dead. And he died by David's hand.

Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life simpler. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And no one in Newcago can give him answers.

Babylon Restored, the city formerly known as the borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic Regalia, Babylon Restored is flooded and miserable, but David is sure it's the path that will lead him to what he needs to find. Entering a city oppressed by a High Epic despot is risky, but David's willing to take the gamble. Because killing Steelheart left a hole in David's heart. A hole where his thirst for vengeance once lived. Somehow, he filled that hole with another Epic--Firefight. And now he will go on a quest darker and even more dangerous than the fight against Steelheart to find her, and to get his answers.

Check out an audio excerpt from Firefight here.

Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Library.
Read a great book lately? Want to recommend it as Pick of the Week? Email me!
Curious to see what other new and hot titles we've added to our collection? Check out the NEW Graphic Novel and YA Fiction boards on the Ventress Memorial Library Pinterest page

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Teen Pick of the Week: All the Bright Places

All the Bright Places
by Jennifer Niven
The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.


Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.




Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Library.

Read a great book lately? Want to recommend it as Pick of the Week? Email me!
Curious to see what other new and hot titles we've added to our collection? Check out the NEW Graphic Novel and YA Fiction boards on the Ventress Memorial Library Pinterest page

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Small Fry Pick of the Week: Ice Whale

Ice Whale

George, Jean Craighead
Middle Grade School

In the far north, beneath the ice-blue waves, a great whale swims.  This whale is Siku, Ice Whale.  He is wary of humans, for he has seen the great harm hunters do.  But he seeks a young Eskimo, the one with kind eyes.

On the water, a boy also searches.  Years ago, he unwittingly let Yankee whalers slaughter a pod of ice whales.For this act, the young Eskimo received a curse of banishment--along with the charge to protect the great whale Siku as long as he lives.  His fate and that of his family are tied to this one whale.  

Over the years, much changes.  The curse is passed down from generation to generation.  New threats abound.  But this bond is strong. It can never be broken.  Told in alternating voices, both human and whale, Jean Craighead George's last novel is a far-reaching quest which take us beneath the waves and onto the forbidding Alaskan tundra. 

Read a great book lately? Want to recommend it as Pick of the Week? Email me!

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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Teen Pick of the Week: Kaleidoscope - Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy

Kaleidoscope:
Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy
What do a disabled superhero, a time-traveling Chinese-American figure skater, and a transgendered animal shifter have in common? They're all stars of Kaleidoscope stories!
Kaleidoscope collects fun, edgy, meditative, and hopeful YA science fiction and fantasy with diverse leads. These twenty original stories tell of scary futures, magical adventures, and the joys and heartbreaks of teenage life.
Featuring New York Times bestselling and award winning authors along with newer voices including:
Garth Nix, Sofia Samatar, William Alexander, Karen Healey, E.C. Myers, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Ken Liu, Vylar Kaftan, Sean Williams, Amal El-Mohtar, Jim C. Hines, Faith Mudge, John Chu, Alena McNamara, Tim Susman, Gabriela Lee, Dirk Flinthart, Holly Kench, Sean Eads, and Shveta Thakrar
Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Library.
Read a great book lately? Want to recommend it as Pick of the Week? Email me!
Curious to see what other new and hot titles we've added to our collection? Check out the NEW Graphic Novel and YA Fiction boards on the Ventress Memorial Library Pinterest page

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Teen Pick of the Week: The Wrenchies

The Wrenchies
by Farel Dalrymple
Sherwood and Orson should never have gone into that cave.
That day, a door was opened from our world into a dark and profane realm...and earth's destiny was changed forever.
In this demented future, whatever life remains on earth is oppressed by the evil shadowsmen. Only a gang of ruthless and powerful children called the Wrenchies can hope to stand against them. When Hollis, a lonely boy from our world, is magically given access to the future world of the Wrenchies, he finally finds a place he belongs. But it is not an easy world to live in, and Hollis's quest is bigger than he ever dreamed of.
Farel Dalrymple brings his literary and artistic powers to bear in this sprawling science fiction graphic novel about regret, obsession, and the uncertainty of growing up.
Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Library.
Read a great book lately? Want to recommend it as Pick of the Week? Email me!
Curious to see what other new and hot titles we've added to our collection? Check out the NEW Graphic Novel and YA Fiction boards on the Ventress Memorial Library Pinterest page