The Librarian Writer

Title: The Infinite Moment of Us Author: Lauren Myracle Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Publication Date: August 27, 2013 ISBN-13: 978-1419707933 336 pp. ARC provided by publisher Confession time here. This is the first Lauren Myracle book I've read. I know her books have been banned a gazillion times, and more power to her for not being afraid to write about things she knows will offend some readers in order to reach those readers who connect to the material. The Infinite Moment of Us is a romance about a Wren, a sheltered good girl, and Charlie, a foster kid who had a rough start in life. The book starts with them just before high school graduation. They run in different crowds, but they have secret crushes on each other. An accident gets them together and they have a blissful summer romance. But once fall comes, Wren will be off to Guatemala for a gap year and Charlie will be going to college. This is the biggest conflict in the book, and the ending was no surpri...

Celebrate Teen Literature was on Thursday, and YALSA announced this year's nominees for Teens' Top Ten. This is a teen choice list, selected by participating teen book groups throughout the country, and their top 25 titles are this year's nominees. Starting in August, any teen can vote online for their favorite nominee and the final Top Ten will be announced during Teen Read Week in October. I promote Teens' Top Ten nominees as much as I can in the library because I know these are books that teens already love. I already had most of the nominees on the shelves and only had to order a few to round out the list. But what I found interesting is that the few I hadn't ordered had mixed or even bad reviews from the publications I use most to select books - Kirkus , Publishers Weekly , School Library Journal , and VOYA . The main complaint with the reviewers was that they couldn't connect with the main character, and therefore, couldn't connect to the sto...

Title: Reality Boy Author: A.S. King Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Publication Date: October 22, 2013 ISBN-13: 978-0316222709 368 pp. ARC provided by publisher I've worked in "reality" television, so I know there's a lot of manipulation in creating what the audience sees. Sometimes it happens during production by influencing what participants are doing or saying. Sometimes in happens in post-production by changing context during editing. It's usually done to build a narrative arc, to streamline the messiness of real life into a half-hour or hour format. But at least on the shows I worked on, it was never done maliciously. Reality Boy , however, imagines a show that does. Gerald was on a Supernanny -like show when he was five years old and became known as The Crapper because he defecated all over the house, including the dining room table. Millions of television viewers think he's the problem child. What the camera doesn...