The first is a Wiki called Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. This is a Wiki site (which means that any viewer can edit it, like Wikipedia) which is dedicated toward successful library practices. It also has sections which are particularly applicable to teen librarians such as a gaming section, a Programing for Young Adults section, and much more. Check it out at http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

The next is the website for Free Comic Book Day 2006. This day is just what it sounds like. It is a day where people can go to their local comic book store and receive a free comic book. The point of this is to encourage comic readership and introduce none comic readers to the art form. Check out the site for more info and a list of comics that will be offered. http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

The last link for now is a blog called The Shifted Librarian. This is a great blog dealing with technology and libraries. The most current post talks about videogaming in libraries and mentions the Gaming wiki I mentioned earlier. If you are interested in finding new ways to integrate technology into your library you should check this blog out. http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/.

There are plenty of other good sites which I will try to keep you up on but this is a good start. Check them out and let me know what you think. Definitely comment and tell me if you know of other sites or resources I should be aware of.

Adolf by Osamu Tezuka is one of the most intriguing graphic novel series I have read in a long time.  It is a five volume series which begins with Adolf, Vol 1” a tale of the twentieth century.  These books take place during the years leading up too and during WW2.  The setting switches between Germany and Japan.  It involves two stories that at the beginning seem quite different, but as the volumes play out become intricately intertwined.  The first is the story of a Japanese reporter who is in Germany to cover the Olympics in Berlin.  During his time there, his brother who was also in Berlin is murdered because of his connections with the communist party.  Toge, the reporter, attempts to track down his brother’s murderer and the secret behind his murder.  The other story involves two boys named Adolf as well as the Adolf Hitler.  The boys both grew up in Japan; one comes from a Jewish family from Germany who has been living in Japan ever since he was born.  The other Adolf has a Japanese mother and a German father who happens to be a fairly important man in the Nazi party.  The story follows as this unlikely pair becomes best friends, and continues as one rises to prominence in the Nazi party and the other roots himself firmly in his Jewish and Japanese heritage.  These stories quickly become one as all of these winds together into one of the most intricate and different stories about the war that has been put to pen.  Tezuka’s position of having lived during the war, in Japan puts him in the unique position to write about the alliance between Japan and Germany without an American bias.  This book is well written and the art is quite good.  Any body that has interest in the war or simply an interest in an exciting and griping story would benefit greatly from reading Tezuka’s Adolf series.

If you’re at all involved with young adult literature you have probably already read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  For those of you who haven’t, you need to.  It is one of the more important books in the genre and it deals with some very big teen issues.  You will get a brief idea of what the book is about from the book talk.  I can’t recommend this book enough to librarians.  While it may not be appropriate for every young adult, it can be very helpful to others and librarians need to be aware of it. If you like this book talk, please use it. For more info check out Amazon or Laurie’s website.

Laurie Halse Anderson:  Speak

Do you remember your first day of high school?  You probably felt small, scared, or insignificant.  Everybody was trying to find his or her way into a new clique.  Old friends are not nearly as close as they used to be and you don’t know many of the people around you.  These are just a few of the feelings that Melinda Sordino is feeling as she begins her first year of high school.  Only for her they are all much worse.  Over the summer something happened that caused everybody to hate her.  Her old friends won’t have anything to do with her and all the potential new friends have heard about the incident and wont talk to her.  If only she could talk to them, tell them what happened, then maybe everything would be ok, but she can’t, she won’t.

Her only refuge is found in an art class where she lets her frustration out into her art, and in an old, unused janitors closet where she has found a place to hide.  It seems like things could not get worse but they sure don’t show any signs of getting better.  What would you do in her situation I wonder?  Would you open up and let everything out thinking that life might get better, or would you keep everything bottled up until you cant take it anymore.  Melinda sure doesn’t know what to do; the only thing she knows is she can talk about it.  Anything is better then speaking.

Stotan Week,

Dec 17 to Dec. 21,

8 A.M. to Noon Daily,

Volunteers only,

Looking for a few good men,

SEE MAX.

This is the sign that greeted Walker, Jeff, Lionel, and Nortie after early morning workout on Nov 5^th.   Max Il Song is the Montana born and bread Korean Cowboy who coaches the Frost high school swim team.  Max won’t say anything about this stotan week, but the guys can already tell its going to be some week.  Knowing Max as they do they know that this week is going to push them to the utmost limits physically and it will probably be aimed at teaching them all some sort of lesson or another.  Despite their reservations they all decide to volunteer and to spend that week living in Lionel’s near condemned apartment for the week.  However this decision leaves them wondering what is a stotan, what is this week going to be all about, and will they come out of it in one piece.  For the answers to these questions and many more pick up Stotan, by Chris Crutcher.

Runaways Vol. 4: True Believers was I must say my favorite of the runaway series yet, which is saying a lot as anything Brian K. Vaughan does is A ok in my book. Any way, for those of you who might be unfamiliar with the Runaways story, it is about a bunch of kids who discover they have super powers. Unfortunately this discovery came on the heels of another discovery which was simply, that all of their parents were part of a syndicate of super villains called the pride and that they were all evil murderers. If you haven’t read any of these books yet I suggest you go out and pick up the first three volumes and read them. However I also suggest you stop reading now as this will contain a brief recap of earlier volumes, which means spoilers.

At the end of Runaways Vol. 3 we saw the group of runaways defeat their parents, and of course the traitor Alex, and escape from the underwater lair where apparently the Parents died. Now, in Runaways Vol. 4 we see the group, as they have rejoined each other after escaping from the various foster homes they had been put in. They are now trying to use their powers for good to battle all of the evil elements which have surfaced in the wake of The Pride. Unfortunately this task becomes much harder when someone from the future tells them about a horrible villain from her time that they need to stop while he is still a kid. To make matters even harder for the group they are being tracked by a group of former b-list super heroes who have formed a support group for kids with super powers. This group is trying to capture all of the runaways so they can help them avoid the mistakes they made at their age. In this volume Vaughan mixes a very interesting story with some of the very witty writing he has become known for. Anyone who has been a fan of Marvel comics will enjoy the references from past members of the Marvelverse including Darkhawk, Chamber, Wonder Man, and a variety of others. This installment is also rife with funny reference to pop culture and does a great job making its characters appeal to teens. This is perhaps the best volume yet in the series and it shows us that this could be a popular series to come.

For more info check out Brian k Vaughans website BKV.TV or Amazon

Mark Waid, like many before him, has developed a new vision of the origins and beginning of superman.  In this world, Clark Kent is a young, traveling reporter who has been trying his best to hide his powers from the world.  After some startling events in Africa Clark decides it is time to use his powers for good.  He and his mother design his suit and alter identity so he can become the popular superman we all know and love.  This story takes many cues from the popular TV show Smallville.  One example of that is that in this story Lex Luthor also grew up in Smallville and was a good friend of Clarks.  The basic thrust of the story is the idea that Clark needs to find a way to come to grips with who he is, and once he does that, becoming superman, find a way to make the public accept him.  The story is fun and it moves at a nice fast pace.  There are some holes which make the story less plausible.  One is that it brings up the ever present hole in all superman comics of the glasses.   How does a simple set of glasses disguise who Clark Kent really is.  While this is always a problem with Superman, writers and readers alike are content to just ignore it usually, but in this story Mark Waid tried to explain it without much success. This explanation forces the reader to consider how ridiculous the concept of using only glasses as a disguise really is.   All in all Superman: Birthright is an enjoyable read which is appropriate for all ages, but it does not add anything particularly important to the superman story.   It does however come jam-packed with fantastic images which will keep you reading despite your feelings about the book.

Here is another one of my book talks. The book is Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. It is, in my opinion, one of the best Young Adult Books that came out in 2004. It was both and Newbery and Printz honor book. The story is interesting, funny, and exciting, but it is also based on a true and quite horrifying history of Malaga Island. This island and its people was the site of a very sad story that happened almost a century ago and this book does a great job capturing the feel of event. While I don’t think this is one of my best book talks, it should give you a good idea for what the book is about.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

By: Gary Schmidt

Just a few hours after moving to Phippsburg, Maine Turner Buckminster has already decided that he hates it there and that he wants to move back to Boston. He doesn’t get along with the children there. He wasted no time getting in trouble with the neighbors. Perhaps worst of all they don’t even play Baseball the right way in Phippsburg. He also hates being the minister’s son in this small town, which requires him to always wear a white shirt with an overly starched collar and to act more like a minister then a boy. Turner hates it more and more every moment until he meets Lizzie Bright when he is hanging out on the shore. She is the most interesting person he has every met and having her as a friend makes this town much more interesting.

However the real problem is this. The year is 1911 and the town is losing a lot of money as its once vital shipping business dies. They decide to start making money through tourism since it is a beautiful, costal city. However tourists won’t want to come if they have to look out at the ocean and see the shanty town which is Malaga Island. Malaga Island is inhabited by a handful of freed slaves and assorted other minorities. The people there have worked hard to create a life for themselves and have received no help from any one. Now the town of Phippsburg is trying to kick them off of their island and force them to leave even though they have nowhere to go.

If you haven’t already guessed, Lizzie Bright lives on that Island, where her grandfather is the preacher, and leader of all the people there. Turner and Lizzie try everything they can to stop this horrible thing from happening but they may not be strong enough to stop it.

Here is one of my favorite book talks on a book I thought was fantastic.  Ill let the book talk speak for itself.

Stuck in Neutral.

By: Terry Trueman

Shawn McDaniel is a lot like any other fourteen year old you might know.  He likes music, enjoys eating potato chips, and has discovered a new found appreciation for the female anatomy.  However there are two very distinctive things about Shawn’s life that lead him to say that his life is like one of those Good News, Bad News Jokes.  So which do you guys want first the good news or the bad news.

The good news is that you could probably consider Shawn to be a genius.  He has a photographic memory and has been able to learn and teach himself a lot of things because of this.  He can remember everything he has ever heard after the age of about four or so and is a pretty smart guy to boot.

The bad news.  Well, he has a very severe case of cerebral palsy.  When he was born a blood vessel burst in a bad spot within his brain and he lost all muscular control.  By all, I do mean all.  He can not control his mouth, tongue, eyes, feet, legs, or anything, which means he has no means to communicate.  Because of this his family and everyone around him thinks he is a complete vegetable with the mental capacity of baby. However they are wrong, he can understand everything they say and do around him just as you or I could.

Despite this fact he is a relatively happy person.  He enjoys his life and loves his family even though he has never been able to talk to them and probably never will.  He has never known anything else in life and while he is clearly smart enough to understand his position he has accepted it and has found joy where he can.

However there is just one more important part to the story which Shawn mentions early in the book.  (Read the last paragraph of Chp 2 page 12)

The section from the book describes the fact that the worst part about the whole thing is that Shawn is pretty sure his father is trying to kill him.

This book is one of the better young adult books I have ever read.  Trueman has a great understanding of the mind of 14 year old boy.  The story is both funny and touching.  I would recommend it to any child over the age of about 13.  What makes it even more touching is that Trueman was inspired to write this by his own son who has CP and is as far as they know brain-dead.   For more info about Terry Trueman or Stuck in Neutral check out Terry’s Website .