Thursday, January 26, 2012

Printz Watch (winner edition)

Well, the Printz Watch at Pearl wasn't exactly successful...at least in terms of correctly identifying the winner. There were a lot of surprises this year at the Youth Media Awards. The Printz Award was given Monday and here are the results:




Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Summary: In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen Witter’s senior year of high school, everything he thinks he understands about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town vanishes. His cousin overdoses; his town becomes absurdly obsessed with the alleged reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; and most troubling of all, his sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother, Gabriel, suddenly and inexplicably disappears.










Honor: Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

Summary: Charlie, 13, is woken up on a hot summer night by teenage outcast Jasper, who wants to show him something secret. That secret turns out to be the dead body of Laura Wishart, Jasper's occasional paramour and the older sister of Charlie's own crush, Eliza. The boys, assuming that Jasper will be blamed, hide the body, and Laura's disappearance combines with the boys' guilt and lies to create an ongoing spiral of stress.












Honor: The Returning by Christine Hinwood

Summary: Cam Attling, having lost an arm, is the only one from his town of Kayforl to return after twelve years of war. All his fellow soldiers were slain, and suspicion surrounds him. When his betrothal to Graceful Fenister is called off and his role in the community questioned, Cam leaves to find the lord who maimed him but spared his life, seeking answers and a new place in the world.









Honor: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Summary: Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.








Honor: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater


Summary: It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.Some riders live.Others die.At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.


If you'll remember, The Scorpio Races is the only Printz book that we read and reviewed for this blog series. Our recap is here but what we may not have mentioned in that review is that we LOVED it. The language is gorgeous, the story moves along quickly, and the race itself is amazing. This book is totally deserving of its honor!


Find all of these books at your nearest CMRLS library!


Even if we didn't correctly identify the winners/honors, we're counting Printz Watch 2012 a complete and total success. I read a lot of books that I normally would not have, and even found a book to count among by list of all-time favorites (Chime by Franny Billingsley--loved it!!). We're going to be reading reviews and books like crazy...it's not too soon to start Printz Watch 2013!!!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Printz Watch (part 4)

This is the last Printz Watch blog because the Printz Award winner and honor books are announced MONDAY! We're super excited about that announcement over here at Pearl, but until then, here are the two final Printz contenders that we read:


This book is told in three voices, in two different times. Rebecca is forced to move from Greenwich to a tiny coastal village. She is angry and isolated until she meets local girl Ferelith, who begins to tell her about the dark secrets and legends of her new town. Ferelith is the strangest girl she's ever met, but Rebecca is fascinated anyway, until things start to get stranger and stranger. The second storyline comes in the form of increasingly frenzy and upsetting journal entries of a local priest in 1798 who enters into a dangerous partnership with a mysterious man. As the story of what they're up to unfolds, you'll be shocked. Y'all, this book is actually, truly terrifying. If you're a fan of horror or gothic mystery, you'll love it.









Elisa is the younger of two princesses, but she is the chosen one: she has the godstone embedded in her belly button. Though, she reasons, it hardly seems to matter when she is the shy one, the overweight one, the one everyone forgets about. When she is quickly married off at sixteen and sent to a kingdom she knows little of, she has no idea what's happening. As her story unfolds, she finds herself the victim of a politically and religiously fueled kidnapping and must avoid bandits, war, and those who would kill her to cut the stone from her body. This fantasy novel is unique and engaging and Elisa is not your typical hero. She is shoved, quite unwillingly and without any kind of preparation, into a new life. The world that she inhabits is thrilling, with deserts and rainforests, devout religion and dark magic. Though the first book in a trilogy, this one is a delight on its own.

Friday, January 13, 2012

CD Clocks Completed!

The teens at Brandon Public Library came out and did a great job making their one of a kind CD Clocks! I can't wait to see what they come up with at our next class when we make laptop sleeves (other media such as iPads and Kindles are also welcome)  from recycled sweaters! That will be Thursday, January 26th @ 6:00. Please call ahead so we can save your spot, 601-825-2672!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Book That Kept Me Up All Night

My most recent literary obsession was finishing this book, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. I could not close my eyes until I found out the fate of Rory Deveaux, a Louisiana teen spending the school year in a London boarding school. Rory comes from a small town full of eccentric characters, most of whom she's related to. But nothing could have prepared her for her arrival in London to find that there was a copycat "Jack the Ripper" killer roaming the streets surrounding her school. Perfect. One mangled body after another is found and news crews are a constant presence. After a too close for comfort encounter, Rory soon learns that field hockey is the least of her worries. If you're into mystery, suspense, and the random everyday embarrassment of an American overseas, you'll love this book! Click on the title above to request your copy!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Printz Watch 2012 (Part 3)

The announcement of the 2012 Printz Award is less than three weeks away! In preparation, we have read four more possible Printz titles and they are awesome! Check these out at your library:



Everybody Sees the Ants by. A.S. King

Lucky Linderman never smiles. He is bullied relentlessly. He is tired of his parents' constant bickering. And he thinks he might be going crazy because his dreams about his grandfather (who went missing in Vietnam) are just a little too realistic. Will a trip to Arizona to visit with his aunt and his uncle bring relief and perspective, or will it makes things worse?







A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness inspired by an idea by Siobhan Dowd

Conor's mother is very ill and dealing with it is becoming more and more difficult. One night he awakens to find a giant monster outside his window. Over time, the monster tells him three ambiguous, confusing, and thought-provoking stories before demanding from Conor a story of his own that will "tell his truth." The artwork is haunting, and the story is gut-twistingly relatable. It's a beautiful book.






Every You, Every Me by David Levithan (photographs by Jonathan Farmer)

Evan's best friend Ariel is gone and his feelings about that are overwhelming. That's when the photographs start to appear. Someone is stalking with him and messing with his head. Is Ariel behind this? Is her absense his fault? Exactly what happened to Ariel, anyway? The creepy photographs make the story come alive and seeing them makes the reader really understand why Evan is so terrified.





Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Seventeen-year-old Karou is a normal enough high school student living in Prague. Or is she? Her family--the only one she has ever known--is comprised of chimaera. She runs errands for Brimstone, through shadowy portals to the other side of the world, to retrieve mysterious packages. For this, she is rewarded with wishes. She doesn't know anything about her past or origin until all of the portals are slammed shut, cutting off her access to her family. This leads to a collision with the alarmingly beautiful Akiva and her introduction to an ancient war, the true purpose of her errands, and a story that will change her life.

Come in to your library to request one of these titles and be sure to listen for news of the Printz Winner on January 23rd!