Milwaukee Bucks Reading Challenge

There are still two weeks left in the Milwaukee Bucks Reading Challenge! This is a great way to read your way to a FREE ticket for a Milwaukee Bucks basketball game. Sign-up at any Milwaukee County public library; check out our website for more info.

Milwaukee County Teen Book Award

You can still vote for your favorites in the Milwaukee County Teen Book Award! Haven't heard about this great new award? Currently in its first year, the MCTBA is a shortlist of 15 books vying for the title of favorite book in Milwaukee County. And you get to help decide the winner!

Not sure what books are nominated? Check out this video and go to the MCTBA website to read reviews. We're putting up 2 reviews each week, right now we're about half way through the list.

And don't forget to vote for your favorites by March 1, 2010. You can vote at the Shorewood Library or via email (waplteens@mcfls.org).

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

Ok, for full disclosure, one of my favorite books is The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. So it's no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed her latest novel, Tangled.

Meet Jena, Skye, Dakota and Owen. On the surface...Jena is an ordinary girl, Skye is a beautiful upcoming actress, Dakota is a good looking jock, and Owen is an anti-social computer geek. But when these four meet in Paradise, a tropical resort, while on vacation, they're lives become interconnected and they prove first impressions can be deceiving.

Told from the perspective of each person over the course of the four months following their fateful vacation, Jena, Skye, Dakota, Owen find their lives changing in unexpected ways.

Teen Book Award Winners Announced

The winners of the Printz Award for YA Literature and the Morris Award for Debut YA Author were announced this week.

The Printz Award winner is...Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Honor books are:
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes
Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heligman

The Morris Award winner is...Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan
Honor books are:
Ash by Malinda Lo
Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
The Everafter by Amy Huntley

For info on the National Book Award winner and the Teens' Top Ten check out my listing.

Amazing New Releases

There are lots of great new books coming out the next few months!

February
Chronicles of Vladimir Todd: Eleventh Grade Burns by Heather Brewer
Heist Society by Ally Carter
Finnikin on the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Gone by Lisa McMann

March
Hourglass by Claudia Gray
Fang: a Maximum Ride novel by James Patterson
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco Stork

April
The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
Runaway by Meg Cabot
The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti
A Coven of Witches by Joseph Delaney
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green
Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
The World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

May
Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti
Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey
Ranger's Apprentice: The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan
Hell's Heroes by Darren Shan

June
Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter
Carter's Big Break by Brent Crawford
Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository by Melissa de la Cruz


July
The Clique: My Little Phony by Lisi Harrison
Dark Flame by Alyson Noel
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater


August
The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
The Hunger Games (book 3) by Suzanne Collins
Ranger's Apprentice: Halt's Peril by John Flanagan

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

The last book on my Morris Award list is Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan.

Meet Blake, a 15 year-old comedian with a pretty amazing family. He also has a wonderful girlfriend, Shannon, and some great friends, including Marissa, a girl he hangs out with in photo class. When Blake gets involved with helping Marissa and her drug addict mother, he might be in over his head. While struggling to balance his loyalty to Marissa with his love for Shannon, he risks losing them both.

While dealing with some serious issues, Flash Burnout is "unexpectedly hilarious." Blake's sense of humor, along with several great characters, keep the book thought provoking, yet funny. I can't wait to read L.K. Madigan's next book, The Mermaid Mirror, coming out Fall 2010.

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

I took a break from Morris Award nominees (only one left and review coming soon), to read Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor.

This National Book Award finalist is a stunning collection of three fantasy short stories. Ranging from contemporary Kizzy who is enticed by a goblin, to demons and curses in British-ruled India, to immortal shape-shifting creatures, all three center around a kiss that changes lives. Enhanced with beautiful illustrations, Lips Touch: Three Times is a magical and thrilling read.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

The fourth book on my list of Morris Award nominees is Hold Still by Nina LaCour.

Caitlin is left stunned and alone when her best friend Ingrid commits suicide. Dealing with her own grief, anger, and confusion, Caitlin struggles to reconcile the Ingrid she knew with a person who would commit suicide. Then Caitlin finds Ingrid's journal, will it share the answers she so desperately wants?

Wonderfully written, this story of loss is emotionally honest and believable.

The Everafter by Amy Huntley

The next book on my voyage to read all the Morris Award nominees was The Everafter by Amy Huntley.

"I'm dead.
Not my-parents-told-me-to-be-home-by-twelve-and-it's-two-o'clock-now dead. Just dead. Literally."

Maddy Stanton has died and is now in the Everafter. She discovers that objects she lost during her life now enable her to relive those memories. With a lost bracelet she remembers the day she fell out of a tree, a set of car keys takes her back to her first kiss with her boyfriend Gabe, and with a lost flower she returns to her sister's wedding. Yet the one thing Maddy can't remember is how she died. And the one thing she can't seem to find is Gabe.

A thought-provoking story about a girl struggling to reconcile her life with what happens after you die.

Ash by Malinda Lo

Book two of the Morris Award Nominees is Ash by Malinda Lo. A Cinderella retelling with a few twists.

Ash has grown up listening to fairy tales and living in a world where fairies seem just beyond the woods. So when she meets Sidhean, a fairy, she longs to be with him instead of living her life as a servant to her stepmother. But when Ash develops a friendship with Kaisa, the King's huntress, her longing for Sidhean begins to wane. Until Ash must decide what she wants more, a life with Sidhean among the fairies or with Kaisa in the real world.

Ash is a beautiful, magical love story told with understated yet lyrical language. I truly did not want Ash's story to end and am happy to hear that Malinda Lo is currently working on a new book about the first huntress of Ash's world.