Great Irish Stories for St. Patrick’s Day

  March to me means two things- NCAA March Madness and Saint Patrick’s Day.  I’ve always loved Saint Patrick’s Day and my family always had a huge party to celebrate.  Of course my grandparents last names were Murphy, Mulligan, McGillicuddy, and Carney.  So, yeah we’re pretty Irish!  We still have a while to go until the actual Saint Patrick’s Day, [...]

Calling All Comic, Graphic Novel, and Manga Readers!!!

The nominations for YALSA’s 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list have been finalized!  All year I’ve been reading all the new graphic novels, superhero stories, and manga I can get my hands on to evaluate and nominate titles, because last year I was selected as a committee member for this list.  But the committee [...]

Something Like Hope – A Neglected Read

Normally the new teen books from East Liberty get checked out a couple of times before they become just regular teen books. But sometimes a book or two slips through the cracks for some indiscernible reason and doesn’t get checked out at all. Nothing! For six months, many sets of eyes pass these books by.  [...]

Funny Books: Destroy All Cars & Burger Wuss

Is the thought of going back to the classroom getting you down?  I suggest reading a funny book to take your mind off of things.   Specifically, I suggest reading one or both of the following books: Burger Wuss is the tale of Anthony, a guy whose entire being is  bent on revenge.  His girlfriend cheats [...]

Teen Intern Manga Review: A Certain Scientific Railgun

Today CLP East Liberty‘s own Teen Youth Intern, Savion, will review a recently published volume of manga. It was sent to me for review by the publisher, Seven Seas, and I wanted to see if had any appeal for the teen collection. Here’s what he has to say: This manga called A Certain Scientific Railgun [...]

Poetry Review: David Berman

I know from being on the Ralph Munn Creative Writing Contest Committee that there are many local teen poets and so, presumably, poetry readers out there. But sometimes trying to find new poets to read is overwhelming. So I’ve decided to do some poetry reviewing to introduce some of my favorites to you.  Maybe you’ll [...]

Good books that are hard to read

This year I’ve come across 3 books that were hard to put down but hard to get through.  Not because of the writing, but because the subject matter was sad, even brutal, and the author made the story so heartbreaking and real that I sometimes had to compose myself before going on.  If you, like me, appreciate [...]

Teen Intern Review: Love Poetry Out Loud

Today I gave my summer intern a chance to write a review for the blog.  Victoria is a poet, going into her senior year of high school, and she’s been assiduously reading a book of poetry from the Sheraden branch.  Here’s her review: Well, considering I like to write poems, I use poems others made [...]

Not Your Momma’s Book Trailer

Over at the MacKids blog, Jessica Brody shows us what happens when a former worker at MGM Studios becomes an author of a YA novel and decides to produce a book trailer. Normally book trailers are still pictures and text, with an overlay of music and/or narration.  The trailer for Wake by Lisa McMann is [...]

Just in time for football season–

When Jomo Rodger’s junior varsity football teammates give out goofy trophies at the end of the season, he gets the “If He Was Just a Little Bit taller, He’d Be a Big-Time Baller” award.  It’s better than the “Most Likely to be Kicked in the Ass By the Coach” award, but not by much.  And [...]