NC Young Adult Book Award Nominees 2014-2015

The following titles are on this year's list of nominees.  Voting will occur in March 2015 and the winner will be announced in April.  As you are reading these titles and others throughout the year, keep any in mind that you would like to nominate for next's year's competition.  We can submit suggestions in March, when we vote.

• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, 2013 Putnam Juvenile
• The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas, 2013 Balzar + Bray
• I am Malala by Malala Yousafzal & Christina Lamb, 2013 Little Brown and Company
• Invisibility by Andrea Cremer & David Levithan, 2013 Philomel
• No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale, 2014 Harper Teen
• Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, 2013 Arthur A. Levine Books
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, 2012 Bloomsbury USA Children's
• Tilt by Ellen Hopkins, 2012 Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams, 2012 Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
• Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina, 2013 Candlewick 

Library Club Meeting - Tuesday, September 23rd

The first meeting will be on Tuesday September 23rd in the media center after school.  It will be an open discussion session of the books we read over the summer.

We are going to add after school activities to our book discussions this year.  Each month we will meet to discuss what we have been reading and also do an activity that might include a craft, game or some other event.  

We will also be making beaded bookmarks as our activity at the September meeting.  Join in on the discussion and offer some suggestions for future events.  

There are no dues to join the library club.

SYNC Goes Live for 2014 : Free Audiobooks!

Download Free Audio Books throughout the summer. First set of books starts today.  All you need to do is register and you will get reminders each week when the new set of books becomes available. Click on the titles to learn more about each book.

Click on SYNC Schedule or click on the  Sync logo at the top of the page in the right-hand column for a permanent link.

SYNC Schedule

SUMMER 2014 SYNC TITLE LINEUP
May 15 – May 21
WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library)
THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library)
May 22 – May 28
CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio)
OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks)
May 29 – June 4
CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio)
THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narrated by Richard E. Grant (Harper Audio)
June 5 – June 11
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill, Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)
JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare, Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)
June 12 – June 18
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)
THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)
June 19 – June 25
I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter, Narrated by Renée Raudman (Brilliance Audio)
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery, Narrated by Colleen Winton (Post Hypnotic Press)
June 26 – July 2
FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin (Hachette Audio)
OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister (Brilliance Audio)
July 3 – July 9
TORN FROM TROY by Patrick Bowman, Narrated by Gerard Doyle (Post Hypnotic Press)
PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Narrated by Jim Dale (Brilliance Audio)
July 10 – July 16
CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose, Narrated by Channie Waites (Brilliance Audio)
WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED by Carolyn Maull McKinstry with Denise George, Narrated by Felicia Bullock (Oasis Audio)
July 17 – July 23
THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books)
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II by Arthur Conan Doyle, Narrated by David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks)
July 24 – July 30
HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link, Performed by Deidrie Henry, Ernie Hudson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Scott Wolf (L.A. Theatre Works)
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson, Narrated by Scott Brick (Tantor Audio)
July 31 – August 6
DIVIDED WE FALL by Trent Reedy, Narrated by Andrew Eiden (Scholastic Audio)
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane, Narrated by Frank Muller (Recorded Books)
August 7 – August 13
LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Ben Lesser, Narrated by Jonathan Silverman and Ben Lesser (Remembrance Publishing)
THE SHAWL by Cynthia Ozick, Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson (HighBridge Audio)

YALSA Book Award Winners

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) a division of the American Library Association has announced its 2014 Best Lists for Young Adult Literature.

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.  The award went to Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick and the Honor Books are: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal, Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, and Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool.

The Edwards Award which recognizes an author for his/her body of work went to Markus Zusak for The Book Thief, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger.  The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction went to The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi written by Neal Bascomb.

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 to 18.  This year's winners are: Brewster by Mark Slouka, The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell, Golden boy: a novel by Abigail Tarttelin, Help for the Haunted by John Searles, Lexicon: a novel by Max Barry, Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, Mother, mother: a novel by Koren Zailckas, Relish by Lucy Knisley, The Sea of Tranquility: a novel by Katja Millay, and The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence.

For a complete listing of these awards and also lists of Best Fiction for Young Adults, Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Great Graphic Novels, Outstanding Books for the College Bound, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, and lists for Amazing Audiobooks and Fabulous Films go to this website link:   http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook

There is also an App that can be downloaded YALSA's Teen Book Finder for your phone or iPad.  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/products/teenbookfinder

 

A Little Speed Dating in the Library

Mr. Thomas's English classes started off the week with a Book Speed Dating session.  Before we started Mr. Thomas went over his expectations for the activity with each class and what book speed dating is and Mrs. Absi went over genres and how to look on the book jacket and inside the book to find summaries, reviews and other information about the book.

There was an array of books from different genres on each table and the students had six minutes at each table to review the books and take notes.  They then switched to another table for another six minutes and continued moving to each of the nine tables to look over the selections on each one.  When we finished the students were able to choose their perfect date book to check out.