Winter Events @ the West Allis Public Library!

Whether you are in the middle of winter break from school, or just looking for something new to do, check out the West Allis Public Library! This winter we have a couple of events for you to check out, win prizes and read some cool new books!

First up is our Winter Reading Bingo. Back on December 1st we started our "Teen Winter Reading Bingo" where you read four in a row, across or four corners and enter to win gift cards and books!

Next, back again in Bucks Read to Achieve. Starting on January 3rd stop in the library to find out how you can win a free ticket to a Milwaukee Bucks basketball game by reading!

Finally, check out the 2012 MCTBA titles, and help us choose the next Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Winner! Ballots will be available in the library soon, but it's not too early to start reading.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Now giving Rotters a second chance...)

Book Review: All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Chocolate and caffeine are illegal.  New York City is rife with organized crime and run by mobsters operating speakeasies that deal in espresso and hot chocolate.  Anya Balanchine is the daughter of murdered crime boss and former chocolate factory king Leonyn Balanchine and is trying to hold her family together and get through high school.  Orphaned in the hit on her father - her mother was killed in a botched hit years earlier in the same accident that left her older brother and heir to the family business Leo with the mind of a child - Anya is responsible for raising little sister Natty (who also happens to be a genius), keeping Leo out of trouble and out of the family business, and caring for her dying grandmother.

All of which means that she should totally stay away from too-cute-to-be-true new boy Win - who also happens to be the son of the new assistant DA.  There's no way she wants sweet, caring Win mixed up in her mess of a life, even if Win seems to be perfectly happy to get mixed up with Anya.  She also definitely doesn't have time to get arrested for the attempted murder by poisoning of (absolutely ex) boyfriend Gable Arsley with contraband chocolate.  And she for sure doesn't have time, or the inclination, to accept her birthright as the head of the Balanchine family and the chocolate business.  In fact, she spends most of her time doing her best to make sure she, Leo and Natty have nothing whatsoever to do with Uncle Yuri and her cousins Mikey and Jacks, while still staying on their good side and ensuring their protection from the other chocolate families.  Which lately hasn't really been working out so well.

With faithful and eclectic BFF Scarlet at her side, the fabulous and fabulously cute Win who won't leave her side (maybe it would help if Anya could stop kissing him...), loyal family lawyer Mr. Kipling and his underling, the slightly incompetent Simon Green, and the mysterious help (and even more mysterious motives) of rival chocolatier Yuji Ono, Anya navigates the dark streets of a city that's more Gotham than New York dodging family and family rivals in order to figure out who she is, who she has to be - and who she wants to be.

If you loved Holly Black's White Cat and Red Glove or Ally Carter's Heist Society books, then this fun, fabulous gangster read that's part The Godfather and part Batman (but without the gadgets - or The Joker) is for you!  Love, loyalty, friendship and family all war for dominance in this smart, funny novel.  Make sure you grab some holiday chocolate and caffeine to enjoy while you're reading - they'll be even more delicious than usual when you know you don't have to risk incarceration for them!

Megan
(who stayed up waaaaay too late reading the delicious Clockwork Prince last night!)

Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Princess Lucero-Elisa of Orovalle is the younger of two princesses and quite used to being useless.  Ignored by her father the king and treated with contempt by her beautiful, graceful, politically shrewd older sister, Elisa has spent the last 16 years of her life filling the loneliness inside her with pastries, friendless and neglected by everyone at court except her beloved nurse Ximena and ladies' maid Aneaxi.

She is also the bearer of the Godstone.  The champion chosen and blessed only once a century, Elisa carries a sapphire jewel in her navel, a jewel that warms and comforts with prayer and grows cold as ice when danger is near.  She is uncertain of her destiny, but Elisa is quite certain that the Godstone chose its bearer wrongly - she is no champion.

Elisa is also a new bride - a political marriage arranged by her father to the charismatic but indecisive Alejandro de Vega, king of Joya, in exchange for troops in support of the war against the mysterious, wild hordes and deadly animagi of Invierne, she has no idea who or what she is expected to be.  When her new husband gently informs her that she is to be presented at the Joya court as his 'special guest' and her role as his wife is to be kept a secret, Elisa does not know how to react, much less what to do about her uncertain status.  Alejandro insists that this is to protect her, but she has no idea from what it is she is being protected.

But when Elisa arrives in Joya, she discovers that she is the only one who has been kept ignorant of her Godstone's destiny.  Kindly priest Father Nicandro reveals that there are a series of prophecies about the bearer of the Godstone, and that each champion must fulfill an act of service that will reveal itself in time.  Elisa also discovers it's not just her marriage to Alejandro being kept a secret from the people of Joya - so is the fact that she bears the Godstone.  She and her Godstone are the secret weapon in the war with Invierne - and the animagi and their spies must not discover her existence.  But is Elisa ready to do what it takes to become a champion?

Nominated for the 2012 Morris award (given to an author of teen books for a first novel of awesome), The Girl of Fire and Thorns is an intricately plotted epic fantasy with a fully realized, complex world full of political intrigue and manipulation, murder, spies, sandstorms, jungle and dessert battles, kidnapping, conspiracies and betrayal, seriously scary sorcerers who use blood and sacrifice to channel fire, a touch of romance, fierce and loyal friendships, and a very mysterious Godstone and its princess.  If you loved Kristin Cashore's Graceling and Fire, enjoyed Hilari Bell's Farsala trilogy, or think Robin McKinley's books are amazing (The Blue Sword = swoon!), you won't want to miss Rae Carson's first novel!

Megan
(now reading All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin - chocolate and caffeine have been outlawed in a New York City that's very Gotham, and main character Anya Balanchine, daughter of a notorious crime boss and chocolate smuggler, is trying very hard not to fall in love with the swoon-worthy son of the new DA!)

Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominees Announced!

We're super excited to announce the 2012 nominee titles for the third annual Milwaukee County Teen Book Award! The fifteen nominees for 2012 were selected from titles published for teens between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011.

The 2012 MCTBA Nominees are:
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Starcrossed by Elizabeth Bunce
Stay by Deb Caletti
Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
Shine by Lauren Myracle
Trapped by Michael Northrop
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Voting runs through March 1, 2012.  Read one, some, or all of these awesome books and vote for your favorite by emailing your vote to mctba.votes@gmail.com or filling out a ballot at your local Milwaukee County library (ballots available soon!).

For more info, including past years' nominees and winners, check out the MCTBA blog!

Happy reading!

Megan
(who looooooved Okay for Now SO MUCH, but I think my heart belongs to Etienne St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss... but I still haven't read Starcrossed!)

Morris Award Nominees Announced!

The William C. Morris Award, given out by the American Library Association, might just be one of my favorite awards.  Given to a newbie author writing for teens, I have so much fun trying to figure out which five of the pile of debut novels will be judged the most awesome of the year!

The 2012 Morris Finalists:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Princess Elisa is 16, extraordinarily self-conscious, awkward, and the opposite of athletic - but she is the Bearer of the Godstone, the champion chosen once each century.  The novel opens with her just married off to the king of Joya and not at all sure about her future.  I'm reading this one now, and so far it's a delicious mix of political intrigue, spies, battles, and sandstorms.

Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
16-year old Alex is racked by guilt after the drowning death of a friend.  Set at an exclusive boarding school, this one's been compared to classic novel A Separate Peace.

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Lupita is the oldest of eight children.  When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, she must step up and take care of not just her mother, but her siblings too.  Written in verse, I've been anxiously waiting for this one to come in for awhile!

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Lina is 15 and looking forward to art school - until she and the rest of her Lithuanian family are ripped from their home in the middle of the night and deported to a concentration camp in Siberia during World War II.  This heartbreaking, eye-opening novel of survival, love and hope (and based on the experiences of the author's family) shines a light on a long covered-up part of history.

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
In Cullen's sleepy Arkansas town, nothing ever happens.  Until his seventeenth summer - with the inexplicable return of an extinct woodpecker, the death of his cousin Oslo and the disappearance of his little brother, Cullen's world is suddenly turned upside down.

More info on the Morris award, including past years' nominees and winners, here!

Megan
(who can't wait to spend my Sunday morning with a pile of pancakes finishing The Girl of Fire and Thorns!)

Book Review: Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Beatle meets Destiny on Friday the 13th of Feburary.  Neither one of them was supposed to be at the tram stop.  Beatle is there because he was shooting some pool with the guys, but, due to it being Friday the 13th and Beatle being someone who exercises caution when it comes to superstition, decided to call it an early night.  Destiny is there, wearing sunglasses at night (which is why Beatle had to say something to her - how could he not?), due to the fact that she had detention for something so ridiculous it doesn't bear talking about, which led to a whole series of unfortunate events which meant she couldn't go to the Blue Train concert with her friends and is instead headed home early on a Friday night.  Without her glasses, which she left in Mathilde's purse, hence the sunglasses.

So they go get an ice cream.  And Destiny kisses Beatle.  And it's amazing.

But there's the tiniest catch - Beatle's girfriend, Cilla.  Who is his twin sister Winsome's best friend.  And who stuck by him when he had his stroke.  Which is why Beatle definitely shouldn't have taken Destiny to the botanical gardens for a Valentine's Day picnic lunch and more kissing when, out of all the coffee shops in Melbourne, Destiny walks into his 4 minutes before his shift ends.  Add into the mix that Destiny's older brother Frank is Beatle, Cilla, and Winsome's English teacher, and you've got pretty much a huge mess of fate.  What's a boy to do when he meets the perfect girl at the wrong time?

If you adored Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Gayle Forman's If I Stay and Where She Went or wish author Stephanie Perkins was your best friend, add this smart, sweet and very quirky romance about chance, coincidence, and finding your destiny at the oh-so-wrong time to your must read list!

Megan
(now reading Morris award nominee The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson)

Gingerbread House Decorating Thursday December 15th 7PM

Come on out to the library on Thursday, December 15th at 7 PM and decorate a Gingerbread House with us! We'll have all the supplies you need to make a wonderful tasty treat!

No registration is required and this event is open to Milwaukee County Teens, ages 12-18 or those students in grades 6-12!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (whose desk is full of candy just for tomorrow's program!

Book Review: The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

Three years ago, Levi's older brother Boaz announced at the dinner table that instead of going to college, he was joining the Marines.  Now he's coming home, and Levi doesn't know how he feels about that.  He's not even sure if he loves his brother anymore.  How can he, when Boaz's choice took away the choices of everyone else in his family?

But having Boaz home every day is almost worse than the everyday not-knowing of having him overseas fighting a war in a foreign desert.  He won't come out of his room and he won't talk to anyone - all Levi can hear is his computer keys, the radio turned to static, and sometimes, late at night, the sound of his brother whisper-screaming.  His mother's anguished pleading, his father's exasperated yelling, even Boaz's high school girlfriend, the mind-bogglingly gorgeous Christina Crowley, have no impact.  Until the motherboard on Boaz's computer dies, and he asks Levi to borrow his laptop.  Levi agrees - so long as he can have it after school for a couple of hours a day for homework and Facebook stuff.

Which is when Levi does something he's not proud of.  He tracks everything Boaz is doing on the computer, and what he finds are maps - extremely detailed road maps of the east coast.  And when he gets a rare glimpse into Boaz's room, there are maps covering every surface.  Maps with names and addresses written all over them.  So when Boaz announces that he's going to hike the Appalachian Trail over the summer, Levi doesn't know what his brother is really up to, but he knows it sure isn't hiking in the mountains.

With the help of his grandpa Dov and best friends Pearl and Zim, Levi decides he's going to do whatever it takes to understand his brother's choices and to make his brother understand his.  Sometimes, there are things a brother knows - and sometimes, there are things a brother has to know.  By turns heartbreaking and hopeful, heavy and flippant, angry-making and laugh-out-loud funny, The Things a Brother Knows is, at its heart, just a story of two guys figuring out what it means to be brothers.  For anyone who's known someone serving overseas, thought about joining the military, questioned their own beliefs about war and serving their country, or just anyone with a brother, Levi and Boaz's journey will strike a chord.  Don't miss this quick, powerful read!

Megan
(who just finished the deliciously quirky romantic comedy Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams!)

Teen Winter Events @ the library!

Happy Monday! Can you believe December is almost halfway over? Some of you are preparing for finals, or gearing up for a great winter break trip, but perhaps you might want something else to do?

Check out the library! This winter we are offering two awesome programs for teens!

Thursday December 15th at 7 PM we are going to be decorating gingerbread houses in the Constitution room. We'll have all the supplies for you to make a graham cracker candy creation to take home and enjoy!

From December 1st- January 31st give our Winter Bingo a try! You'll read books and do other library activities to win cool prizes, like gift cards and books!

Stop in the library, check out the Teen Space and let us know what you think!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie

Book Review: Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

Lucky Linderman is anything but lucky. He has a mother who would rather live in the water and a father who he compares to a turtle, always retreating during times of danger. Add in being consistently bullied by Nader McMillan at school and the pool, it's no surprise that his happiest times are when he dreams of rescuing his grandfather, a POW from Vietnam who was never found.

Because of his "morbid" survey for part of a school assignment, and the follow through of teachers, counselors and other professionals who want to help him, and adding in the eventual final straw with Nader introducing his face to the concrete at the pool, Lucky's mother pulls him away from his Pennsylvania life to visit her brother and his wife in Arizona for a few weeks in the summer.

Lucky finds his aunt odd, but starts to enjoy spending time with his uncle, lifting weights and doing guy things. He's so much better than the turtle Father Lucky has back home.

Slowly things from the past come to light, and nothing is what it seems. With help from a beautiful Ninja girl and her friends, and of course his grandfather in dreams Lucky starts to put the pieces of his life together.

A.S. King writes a powerful book about bullying, family relationships, war and growing up. Lucky seems so normal, and so different at the same time. His life as a high school freshman was defined by one event that he thought was funny, and while that propels him forward, things really go deeper than that assignment.

Fans of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Looking for Alaska by John Green and Leverage by Joshua Cohen will find Everybody Sees the Ants to be an excellent and engaging read.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie

Gingerbread House Decorating December 15th 7-8:30 PM

It's a winter wonderland out there, and while visions of sugar plums may dance through your head isn't it time to see some sugar plums in real life?

Bring those sugar laden dreams to life at the library with our gingerbread house decorating event! We'll have icing, graham crackers and all sorts of edible decorating for you to make a house fit for winter! After we're done decorating, we will vote on our favorites, and everyone will leave with a house!

Like all West Allis teen programing, this event is open to Milwaukee County Teens, ages 12-18 or in grades 6-12. Sorry, younger/ older siblings moms and dads, this programs is just for the teens!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Have you started Winter Reading Bingo yet? Why not?)

Book Review: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Jill is not happy. She is waiting for a train to come, that will change her life completely. She is not happy with her mother's decision to adopt a child, especially with no legal arrangement or anything in writing. Just an agreement that will change their lives forever.

Mandy is on the train, sure that she is doing the right thing. Riding on the train to Colorado to meet a woman who she met on-line, who will raise her baby. She's 19, and has runaway from her mother and her mother's boyfriend. She doesn't want anything to go wrong. So much depends on that, and where she will go after the baby is born.

Two girls from two very different worlds are forced together when Jill's mother decides to adopt a baby after the death of Jill's father. Jill has lived a life of privilege, never really wanting for anything however with the sudden death of her father has fallen into a pattern where she pushes everyone away from her. Mandy has never had much, living with her mother and what ever guy she was seeing. She learned from an early age not to strive for too much, except for finding a guy and settle down .

Tied together by the upcoming birth of the baby, there is a lot they have to face. Sara Zarr takes a lot of tricky subjects and weaves them together skillfully to create a believable story based on unusual events. Both girls have to deal with their past. Jill shut out a lot of people after the death of her father, and will have to work to rebuild old friendships, and let her guard down to make new friends. Mandy has never really had a life of her own, and lives to please others. Living with Jill and her mom shows her a life she never knew was possible.

How to Save a Life will appeal to fans of Sara Zarr's other books, as well as authors like Sarah Dessen and Laurie Halse Anderson.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Now reading A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament Saturday!

Join us this Saturday, December 3rd in the Constitution Room beginning at 2PM for our annual fall Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii tournament!  We'll start with a few 4-player warm-up rounds to test your skills and order the tournament brackets.  Tournament gaming will be 2-player, double elimination rounds (in other words, you can lose once before you're out!).  All items (Smash Balls too!) will be on and set to high.  Tournament rounds will be anywhere from 3-5 minutes each, depending on total number of gamers competing, with 3 lives per round.  Register at the door on Game Day - we'll be opening the doors a few minutes before 2PM.  Gamers limited to 24.

So, grab a friend, head to the library, and get ready to compete for the prizes - $25, $15, and $10 gift cards to Game Stop.  What's not to like about that?!

Megan

Teen Winter Reading Starts Today!

Are you looking forward to reading this winter break? Have you checked out some new blogs, websites or done research at the library this fall? Are there any movies based on books that you can't wait to read? Are you just looking for something new to read?

Then stop in the library and try our Winter Reading Bingo!

Stop in the library starting today (December 1st)and pick up a Bingo card in the Teen Space or at the Adult Information desk. You'll read books, and do other library-esque activities, and when you get a BINGO, bring the card back to the library and be entered to win gift cards, books and other fun library stuff.

Like all of our teen programs, this contest is open to teens living in Milwaukee County, ages 12-18 or in grades 6-12. Complete rules are on the Bingo card!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie