Dani's Story

Dani's Story is a heartbreaking story of a little girl that went through enormous neglect to come full circle and triumph to a wonderful new family. When 6 year old Dani was removed from her birth mother's home in 2005 she was not toilet trained, could not speak and walked on her tip toes. With the love and patience and perseverence of Bernie and Diane Lierow. They adopted her in 2007 and transformed her once dark and small world to one filled with love, patience and Hello Kitty. I cried and cheered for every little milestone made in this child's life and thought that God does make an incredible change in people's lives. This book is a must read!

Dust & Decay

The second book to Rot& Ruin is just as amazing as the first. Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry picks up with the kids training for their road trip to follow the jet plane. Their trip gets off to a rocky start when they discover that their old friends, Brother Davis, Sister Sarah and Sister Shanti are missing. They also meet up with a new shady character by the name of Preacher Jack. There are also some weird happenings in the Ruin. Some zombies are moving quite a bit faster than usual and they are swarming. Animals are turning up long distances from where they should be and the strangest thing of all is that some people are not re-animating after death. They have also heard rumours that Gameland is back up and running. Again this is a fast paced wonderful book. I hope that you will take the time to read the first book Rot& Ruin. I can't wait for the conclusion. Please hurry Mr. Maberry!

Drummer Girl by Karen Bass

We all want to fit in, be part of the group, and be accepted for who we are. Sid is no exception to this: as an extraordinarily talented drummer, she lives her life doing what she loves. However, Sid yearns for the opportunity to be the drummer for a local band and when she is asked to change one small thing about herself to make that opportunity happen, she drops her reservations and tries.

In some books, when the plain girl gets a makeover, the whole world changes: boys suddenly notice that she is beautiful and want to be with her, the mean girls at school suddenly realize they were wrong to bully her and the job that rejected her suddenly cannot do enough to bring her into the fold. For Sid, when she makes herself over to better fit the image of what the hottest band in high school, The Fourth Down (TFD), wants, things do indeed change for her: a dear friend is lost, unwanted sexual attention is gained and disappointment is earned from one of her mentors.

I love YA fiction (and read it almost exclusively) because it leaps into difficult subjects without hesitation and challenges with the topic without a lot of flowery fuss. Sid deals with being thought of as being gay to being the object of sexual harassment and an assault and does so in a very realistic manner. Sid is an incredibly likable character, as are all the characters in this book. They have faults, they have feelings, they have misunderstandings and tragedies and throughout the entire book, I like them all from her workaholic father to her goofy love interest Brad as well as her friends and school guidance counsellor.

Ultimately, Sid learns a lesson or two and Karen Bass makes sure it happens without being preachy. It is evident that Bass knows and understands young people and I look forward to reading more of her books!

On order at the Stettler Public Library. Place a hold on it today!

The Salt Lake Loonie: and other stories every sports fan should know by Brett Matlock and Jesse Matlock

I love sports in all forms: I play, watch and follow sports whenever time will allow it. Sometimes my schedule works around when the next Oiler or Stampeder game is televised. Needless to say, sports are an obsession to me. So when I find a sports book that interests me and is entertaining, I must tell everyone about it. That is the case with The Salt Lake Loonie.

Written by brothers Brett and Jesse Matlock, this book tells readers about sporting stories throughout the ages. From the ancient Olympics in Greece to the loonie at centre ice at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, the Matlocks tell entertaining, inspiring and tragic sporting stories from all over the world. Did you know that there is no film footage of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game on March 2, 1962 in one of the NBA’s highest scoring games? Or that Tony Hawk became a professional skateboarder at the tender age of 14?

Including stories about the woman who won the Boston Marathon by taking a shortcut, the tragic 1955 Le Mans endurance race that killed over 80 people when a pit stop went catastrophically wrong and Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope, there is something in this book for everyone to gasp at in awe or shake their collective heads over. The only downside to the book is that there are no pictures but the stories are short and entertaining and I would recommend this book to anyone especially teenage boys.

Stay tuned - this book will be in our catalogue soon!

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Lakshmi is a thirteen year old girl living with her small, poor family in Nepal. They struggle to survive, but Lakshmi enjoys her life, dreaming of the boy she is promised to, and going to school.

After a particularly devastating monsoon wipes out the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather insists that she leave home and work in the city to support the family. Instead of being taken to the city to work as a maid, Lakshmi is sold into prostitution in India.

Watch the book trailer.

Request the book now!

Teens, if you think you're too young to garden, please think again! Then go get this book!

Since reading The Secret Garden as a child, I have had a playful interest in gardening. Not once have I taken gardening seriously, never have I amended soil or checked its pH. I subscribe to the school of “let’s see what happens” and have often been quite pleased with the results.

I recognize that a lot of science has gone into gardening and those who use the science actually have beautiful gardens. But who can plod through testing the soil, having the latest gadget and learning the Latin names for plants? I cannot. Gardening to me is about having my hands in the soil, taking risks and hopefully ending up with some carrots at the end.

It is that attitude that I found in “No Guff Vegetable Gardening: Garden Coaches Chat”: the attitude of play, the attitude that this is not all serious, the attitude that there may be more than one right answer. Gardening coaches Donna Balzer and Steven Biggs bring you along for the ride as they expose the “guff” (the nonsense) and share gardening fun with the reader.

Between them, Balzer and Biggs have years of gardening experience but they don’t necessarily agree on everything. Dare I say there are gender differences in gardening? There are also differences in geography: Balzer gardens in Calgary and Biggs in Toronto but both have gardened across Canada.

No Guff Vegetable Gardening is such an appealing book: it is full of colour, illustrations, photographs and no end of humour. Every page is an expression of the excitement the authors obviously feel about gardening. When it arrived in the library, we were all immediately enthralled and even the non-gardeners among us wanted to read the book! And of course I recommend it to you, too. Yes, I realize it is nearing end of the season, but admit it: this is when you start planning for next year!

Request this book now.

Pilot & Huxley by Dan McGuiness

Pilot & Huxley are two boys whose adventures are chronicled in (so far) three hilarious graphic novels by Dan McGuiness. Huxley is the smart, uptight one. Pilot is the goofy, absent-minded one. Together they form a duo who can stop aliens from taking over the world, travel to other dimensions, and beat entire video games.

Just be prepared to laugh your butt off.

Check out these two cool dudes at their website by clicking here.

Unbearable Lightness: a story of loss and gain by Portia de Rossi

Although this is very much an adult story, weight conciousness is something that beings very young. This very frank account of her eating disorder that ruled her life for decades relates her years of anorexia, bulemia and overexercising, the trouble they caused her and how she is healing. Not healed, by any means. She quite openly admits that she's still struggling and dealing with issues.

Eating disorders aren't pretty. Portia de Rossi doesn't glamourise her years of struggle, but rather relates the horrors she lives from eating only a tablespoon of tuna to the fear experienced by her loved ones when they realize that she weighs only 82 pounds and is very likely to die.

I hope this book finds the hands of a young person who is struggling and helps them on their road to healing.

Request it now!

Noah Barleywater Runs Away by John Boyne

"Noah is running away from his problems when he takes the untrodden path through the forest. He comes across a very unusual toyshop and meets an unusual old man who is a toymaker. He's not sure what to expect. But the old man has a story to tell  full of adventure, wonder, and broken promises. Noah has stories to tell too and he learns life lessons from this peculiar old man."

 John Boyne has also written The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. So if you cried while reading that one, this one will more than likely do the same.

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

If you laughed out loud at Louise Rennison's first series (which you obviously did):

You will love the first book of her NEW series as well:

Georgia's younger cousin Tallulah is just as hilarious, charming, and oblivious as Georgia herself. Just add a few more owls and sheep, a dash of the knobbly knees, and a goofy new version of the Ace Gang. Brillo-pads.

Memoirs of a teenage amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin.

Imagine waking up at age 16 and remembering nothing of your life after you turned 12. Meet Naomi, amnesiac (after a terrible fall), year book photographer, girlfriend to Ace, best friend of Will's. Or is she? She cannot remember any of it.

As Naomi struggles through daily life, she has the opportunity to explore life as a completely different person. Does she realy love Ace? Why is she on yearbook? Who really is James? What is Will hiding? Can she heal her relationship with her mother? Can she like her father's fiance?

As she regains her memory, Naomi meets her authentic self as she rebuilds her life from a blank slate.

Enjoy the book trailer.
Better yet, request the book!

Didsbury's teen page

We are not the only library blogging these days. Follow Didsbury's Teen Advisory page for more book suggestions and things happening in their library.

Rot & Ruin Pt.2

So I finished Rot & Ruin and I am here to tell you that this was an excellent read. It never really slowed down from start to finish and I am very happy to find out that there will be a sequel. It is a great coming of age novel and the main character,Benny Imura, realizes that his brother may not be the coward he always thought he was and the heroes that he worships are not what they appear to be. Lots of great twists and turns and plenty of action!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Meet Charlie, 16 year old, sophomore and although not the least popular boy at school, he's not the most popular either. Shy and introspective, Charlie is a wallflower, not really participating in high school, but rather, observing it from the sidelines. Charlie speaks to the reader through a series of letters to an unknown person and through them we share in his experiences and insights into his life.

With the help of a teacher who recognizes his wisdom and intuition, and his two friends, seniors Samantha and Patrick, Charlie mostly manages to avoid the depression he feels creeping up like kudzu. When it all becomes too much, after a shocking realization about his beloved late Aunt Helen, Charlie retreats from reality for awhile. But he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all that it may bring. Charlie, sincerely searching for that feeling of "being infinite," is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X.

Request the book here

Book trailer here.

And keep an eye out - it will be out as a movie soon!

Rot and Ruin

I am reading this amazing book called Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. So far, awesome!! It is a zombie/dystopic novel and I honestly thought that I would put the book down as soon as the first brain was eaten. Halfway through I have yet to see the typical movie zombie but I am really interested in the way that the main character and his brother see the "zoms", as someone's mother, brother, grandparent or aunt. So far this is an incredible book. I will let you know when I am finished!!

After being hit by a car, Jane is found almost picturesquely laid out in the midst of a rosebush, a battered and broken girl in a party dress eerily resembling the photographs she herself arranges for her Dead Princesses series. She awakens in a hospital room with only scattered memories of the events that culminated in her being struck and left for dead, and it soon becomes clear (to her anyway) that this was no accident, and that someone is eager to finish what he or she started.

Her image-conscious mother and her doctors, however, suspect that the trauma of the experience is making her paranoid, so it is up to her and a hot bad-boy hospital volunteer to figure out who among her apparently devoted friends wants her dead. Jane’s memory returns in flashes, deepening and twisting the mystery as suspects multiply such that even seasoned mystery buffs will have a hard time predicting the nail-biting conclusion. Unlike Jaffe’s previous books, this doesn’t have Scooby Doo–style antics and richly comic laugh lines; instead it meditates on the grotesqueries of high-school popularity games and the deep-seated unmet needs of those who play them. The mystery has plenty of intrigue and the overwrought high-school drama plenty of appeal, though, so Jaffe fans may enjoy the change of pace, and crime fiction buffs will relish Jane’s search for answers.

Review from BCCB Review

Click the book image to request this book now.

And the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erSz9qsAITE

Fever Crumb / Philip Reeve

Fever Crumb is a girl who has been adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the Order of Engineers, where she serves as apprentice. Soon though, she must say good-bye to Dr. Crumb--nearly the only person she's ever known--to assist archeologist Kit Solent on a top-secret project.

As her work begins, Fever is plagued by memories that are not her own, and Kit seems to have a particular interest in finding out what they are. Fever has also been singled out by city dwellers, who declare that she is part Scriven. The Scriveners, not human, ruled the city some years ago but were hunted down and killed in a victorious uprising by the people. If there are any remaining Scriven, they are too be eliminated. All Fever knows is what she's been told: that she is an orphan. Is Fever a Scriven? Whose memories does she hold? Haunting, arresting, and astonishingly original, Fever Crumb will delight and surprise readers at every fast-paced, breathless turn. (review from Scholastic)

Request the book today!
Watch the book trailer.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

We recently blogged about Lauren Oliver's new book Delirium, but her less-hyped first novel, Before I Fall, is also a real champion.

From the inside cover:
Samantha Kingston has it all: the world’s most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last. Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Click here to check out Lauren Oliver's website and learn more about the characters in Before I Fall.
Click HERE to watch a killer book trailer on it.

Happy Canada Day weekend!

Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives by Marthe Jocelyn

A male publisher in 1855 complained about the irritating fad of "scribbling women". Those women could have been writing journals, writing letters to friends, or were professionals. But those irritating scribbles are what helped document history.

Marthe has researched and filtered it down to some of her favourite women. Some are highly educated, some are barely literate. But in some way, all of these women have affected history with their journals, letters, or books. One was the first undercover detective. Another sailed the ocean as a whaler. One woman was a criminal. Another believed that from her travels, the European oppression in Africa was revolting. One women was a survivor of a disastrous scientific expedition. There are many other stories as well.

This book is just an example of how women have kicked butt throughout history.

You can request this book from the Stettler Public Library here.

Book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaQpaHtuWS4

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

At first I was hesitant to read this book, but it surprised me. For some reason, I could not put this book down. It was creepy, memorable, fast-paced, and sexy. The rugged angel Patch is way better than a sparkling emotional vampire. He has scars, gets dirty, and kills. If you love a bad boy, you can request this book here.

Nora Grey is an independent high school girl. She's never been interested in guys, even if her best friend Vee tries to throw them onto her. Then she meets Patch in her biology class. His personality obnoxious; however mysterious, and Nora knows better than to become friends with him. But she finds herself strangely attracted to him. She becomes intrigued by him and wants to dig deeper into the mystery of Patch. But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora begins to second guess herself. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and somehow knows more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide if she should fall in love or run and hide. And when she beings to uncover some answers Nora finds an unsettling truth.

Check out the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1wdnz7wSKA&feature=player_embedded

Becca has written a sequel called Crescendo, and the final chapter of this series called Silence will be released in October 2011.