GreenBeanTeenQueen

Rating: 5/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 10/19/2009 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Blake has a girlfriend and a friend that's a girl. There's a delicate balance between the two, but everything seems to going OK. But when Blake takes a photo of a homeless woman and finds out that it's his friend Marissa's long-lost meth addicted mom, their friendship slowly starts to change. Blake finds himself caught between two girls-one who needs him and one who loves him-and finds himself learning who he is in the process. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Alright I'm warning you-there will be gushing in this review!! I LOVED Flash Burnout -like totally and completely fell head over heels for this book loved it. This book had everything I could want-a great narrator that I could relate to and an authentic male teen voice, a delicate dance of friendship and romance, a bit of mystery, fantastic character growth, and one of the best YA family's I've read about in a long

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens! Add your own Tween Tuesday review and share the fun! How to Grow Up and Rule the World by Vordak the Incomprehensible Add to Goodreads If you have not read this book, you need to get your hands on it ASAP! This is one of the funniest tween books I have read and this is topping my gift list for tweens-you know what I'm getting them for Christmas! I've even had teens on my teen library council read it and love it, so it has a wide age appeal. It will appeal to the Wimpy Kid crowd and there's a layer of humor that parents and adults will appreciate. I'm delighted to have Vordak the Incomprehensible visit GreenBeanTeenQueen! Welcome Vordak-thanks for doing an interview. I know you're busy taking over the world. What tips do you have for librarians (like me) that want to be a librarian supervillain? Wear an intimidating mask, unleash your Evil Laugh as frequently as po

Here's Part Three! ( Part One and Part Two ) Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card Release Date: November 23, 2010 Need to Know: Orson Scott Card has a readership among teens and adults, so expect his new series to have wide appeal. Rigg is a boy who can see the path’s of people’s paths, but when his father dies, Rigg learns secrets that were kept from him and the fact that he can change his past-and his future. What if it’s not in: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix, The Softwire by P.J. Haarsma, Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff Release Date: September 21, 2010 Need to Know: The horror offering of the “Penguin Five”, Brenna Yovanoff is Maggie Stiefvater’s (of Shiver fame) critique partner and Maggie offers a blurb on the book which is sure to help it sell. The two along with their other critique partner Tessa Graton, have a website, The Merry Sisters of Fate, where they post short stories, that

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary/Christian/Chick-Lit Release Date: 5/5/2009 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Poor Bella Kirkwood. She's been made to move from New York City, where she was popular, had a best friend, a loving boyfriend and Daddy's credit card, to boring Oklahoma all thanks to her mother getting remarried. Bella is not happy with the move and doesn't know how she's going to survive small town life. Now she has to deal with no stores close enough to shop at, a stepfather that has a secret, two stepbrothers, and a journalism editor that assigns Bella stories on school trash. This is so not happening. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: I've been a big fan of Jenny B. Jones for a long time now ( I love her blog-if you're not reading it, you need to do so !), so when I found out about this series I knew it would be a great read. But you know, I typically hate Christian fiction and what it was overly sappy? I didn't think Jenny would do that to m

You know I love fictional boys and have many book crushes. But none of them have ever sent me presents, so I think Shay Doran from the upcoming novel Nightshade might be winning the number one book crush spot! You see, last week I got a very large box with a card that read "An Invitation": And I when I opened that box, inside was a flower wrapped in book pages and it matched the cover of Nightshade ! Ok, so getting a flower is nice and all (thank you Shay!) but I didn't know there was anything else until I looked more and found this key: The key was actually a USB so I put it into my computer and author Andrea Cremer popped up on my screen saying "Hi Sarah" (Yes I squeeled!) and that she had seen Journey live singing "Don't Stop Believin" (she said not to be jealous, but I'm sorry Andrea, I just can't help it-that's so not fair!!) She then told me about this awesome new video series that one of Nightshade's characters is creating.

Here's part two of my Need to Know list. You can find Part One and more about the list here . Halo by Alexandra Adornetto Release Date: August 31, 2010 Need to Know: Halo is written by an Australian teen author making her US debut. The story involves three angels who visit Earth and one of the angels finds herself drawn to a human boy. There’s a planned trilogy, so paranormal fans will be eagerly awaiting each volume. I’ve had guys and girls read this one and rave about it. What if it’s not in: Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler, Hush , Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Fallen by Lauren Kate, Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens, Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler Release Date: October 18, 2010 Need to Know: Dystopian meets issue driven. The first in a series, Hunger is the story of an anorexic girl who is the new Horseman of the Apocalypse, Famine. What if it’s not in: For realistic issue driven novels try: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, nov

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens. And this week I have a tween giveaway!! The Magnificent Twelve: The Call by Michael Grant About the Book: Twelve-year-old Mack MacAvoy suffers from a serious case of mediumness. Medium looks. Medium grades. Medium parents who barely notice him. With a list of phobias that could make anyone crazy, Mack never would have guessed that he is destined for a more-than-medium life. And then, one day, something incredibly strange happens to Mack. A three-thousand-year-old man named Grimluk appears in the boys’ bathroom to deliver some startling news: Mack is one of the Magnificent Twelve, called the Magnifica in ancient times, whatever that means. An evil force is on its way, and it’s up to Mack to track down eleven other twelve-year-olds in order to stop it. He must travel across the world to battle the wicked Pale Queen’s dangerous daughter, Ereskigal—also known as Risky. But Risky sounds a

So have you heard the news about #SpeakLoudly? A friend of mine is a teacher at Republic High School and she's the one that told me about this banning a week ago. Now it's blown up and it's all over the place. This is happening in the area where I live. Republic is a fifteen minute drive from my house and they are part of the county that my library system serves. I am embarrassed for my community and I'm taking a stand. Missouri State University Professor Wesley Scroggins is throwing a fit over various subjects and books being taught in the Republic Missouri school system. He has a 29-page document he presented to the Republic School Board and wrote an opinion piece in the local newspaper . You can bet I'm fired up!! This all comes about a week after a banning of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian in a town about two hours away from Republic. (As a side note, I love this opinion piece on the Stockton banning from one Stockton's

Rating: 5/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 9/14/2010 Add to Goodreads About the Book : (From Goodreads) Inside the closed community of Borough Park, where most Chassidim live, the rules of life are very clear, determined by an ancient script written thousands of years before down to the last detail—and abuse has never been a part of it. But when thirteen-year-old Gittel learns of the abuse her best friend has suffered at the hands of her own family member, the adults in her community try to persuade Gittel, and themselves, that nothing happened. Forced to remain silent, Gittel begins to question everything she was raised to believe. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Hush is a powerfully haunting book. The author is writing under a pseudonym and by writing this book is giving a voice to all those who have remained silent, and with Hush I believe she does. The book flashes back and forth between the past and present for the first half, which works really well. You get to understand Gi

photo credit Christopher G Knight Please welcome author Kathryn Lasy to GreenBeanTeenQueen! Kathryn Lasky is the Newbery Honor author of over one hundred fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can visit her online at http://www.kathrynlasky.com/ A meditation on heroes, superheroes and anti-heroes I have always been fascinated by the hero’s journey which became Soren’s journey in Guardians of Ga’Hoole . To my mind there are three kinds of models for hero characters in fiction writing -- the super hero, the anti-hero, and the everyday ordinary hero. I have a definite preference for the third model. The super hero’s extraordinary powers—X-ray vision, iron clad suit, or outrageous muscles—may be exciting for some, but not so believable for me. The anti-hero is often deeply attractive because he or she is so completely antithetical to the heroic criteria that one can begin to identify with such characters. But

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars Genre: Fantasy/Animal Story Release Date: 2003 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Soren is a young barn owl who has grown up hearing legends of knightly owls from Ga'Hoole. When Soren falls (or is he pushed?) from his nest and ends up being captured by a school for orphaned owls, St. Aggie's. But St. Aggie's isn't as good as it seems and Soren and his new friend Gylfie must discover a way to escape and find out if the legends of the guardians are true. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: I'm not a big fan of animal fantasy, but Guardians of Ga'Hoole is a series that I could really get into and enjoy. Kathryn Lasky's writing makes the owls so believable and Soren is a reluctant hero that you want to cheer for. This is the first book in the series, so while it has a story on it's own, it's also setting up the rest of the series and Soren's journey. All the characters are well written and fun to read about and I really liked the owl m

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens! Join the fun and add your Tween Tuesday link below. Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Mystery Release Date: 1/1/2008 Add to Goodreads About the Book: When Franny's younger sister Zoe meets politician Martha Evergood, Ms. Evergood suggests that Zoe would be a perfect candidate for a private boarding school she is on the board of, Allbright Academy. Allbright was founded by two Nobel Prize winning scientists and the program is for the best and the brightest and tailored to their skills and learning style to give them the best education. Zoe's condition of acceptance is that her siblings have to join her. So all three Sharp siblings are accepted to Allbright. But while at Allbright, Franny and Zoe start to change. Their younger brother notice it as well as Franny's best friend back home. But is being perfect such a bad thing? Or is there something more going on at Allbright Academy? Gr

I love, love, love, the reader's advisory aspect of teen services. (For those not familiar with library jargon, reader's advisory is the process of finding and suggesting the right book for the right reader at the right time.) So for the past year and a half, I've made "Sarah's Picks" list for my co-workers. I format these lists with information that staff need to know (at least that I think they should know anyway) as well as suggestions of what else they can look for if the book the patron is interested isn't on the shelf. These are based on what I think is going to be checked out and asked for at my library and I had to limit myself so it wouldn't go crazy long, so this list is in no way all the books coming out in Fall or everything you should know or a prediction of what will be the next big bestseller. It also doesn't include all August releases, as I had some included on a previous list. Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan suggested I share my list here a

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan Release Date: May 4, 2010 Need to Know: Probably the biggest need to know middle-grade/young adult release of 2010. From the author of the Percy Jackson series, The Kane Chronicles is the story of two teens and Egyptian mythology. With the same mix of adventure and humor, fans will be eager to get their hands on this one. A new Camp Halfblood series is expected in October. What if it’s not in : Warrior Princess (and sequel) by Frewin Jones, Nobody’s Princess by Esther Friesner (and sequel), Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy, The Shadow Thieves (and sequels) by Ann Ursu, The Magic Thief (and sequel) by Sarah Prineas, Gods of Manhattan (and sequel) by Scott Mebus Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles Release Date: April 13, 2010 Need to Know: The sequel to Perfect Chemistry , these books are perfect for readers looking for contemporary romance. They have a Romeo and Juliet feel and very steamy. What if it’s not in : Simone Elkeles ha