A Rant

So I failed one course in what was supposed to be my final term and now I can’t graduate from UWO. It kind of sucks but it’ll be ok; I’m going to apply to the UBC program. So it anybody out there still reads this then keep your fingers crossed for me; if I get in I should be able to transfer my credits so at least the past year wasn’t a total waste. And I got to meet some really awesome people who I know will be in my life for a long time to come; so maybe that’s why I was supposed to attend UWO. And I had originally wanted to go to UBC but my undergrad grades weren’t good enough but hopefully since I got good grades at UWO I’ll be able to get in this time. Plus I was applying for the join masters that was for both archves and libraries in the past but this time I’m only going to apply for the library program.

Rant over, I have to get my dogs some treats.

Thanks!

I want to Thank everyone, but especially Paulette for a wonderful course! Also, I will continue to blog but not specifically about YA materials. Depending on what’s happening in my life my blogging could be rather sporadic.

Books from our presentation

Grief Girl: My True Story by Erin Vincent, 2007.

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: The Real Deal by Jack Canfield, 2005.

Who Moved my Cheese for Teens by Spencer Johnson, 2002.

Life Strategies for Teens by Jay McGraw, 2000.

Mad: How to deal with your anger and get respect by James J. Crist, 2008.

No Body’s Perfect: Stories by Teens about body image, self-acceptance, and the search for Identity by Kimberly Kirberger, 2003.

The Little Black Book for Guys by St. Stephen’s Community House, 2008.

The Little Black Book for Girlz by St. Stephen’s Community House, 2006.

Stress Relief: The Ultimate Guide by Mark Powell, 2002.

Sexual Decisions: The Ultimate Guide by L. Kris Gowen, 2003.

Virgin Sex for Guys by Darcy Luadzers, 2006.

Ask Cosmo Girls about Guys by the Editors of CosmoGIRL!, 2006.

Nine Steps to Success: Teens can make it happen by Stedman Graham, 2000.

The Date Book: A Teen Girl’s Guide to Going Out with Someone New by Erika Stalder, 2007.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Friendship for Teens by Ericka Lutz, 2001.

For Young Men Only by Jeff Feldhahn & Eric Rice, 2008.

Where to Park your Broomstick: A Teen’s Guide to Witchcraft by Lauren Manoy, 2002.

The Girls’ Handbook of Spells by Antonia Beattie, 2000.

Simpsons Comics: Jam-Packed Jamboree by Matt Groening, 2001.

Chocolate for a Teen’s Dreams by Kay Allenbaugh, 2003.

Our Boys Speak: Adolescent Boys Write about their Inner Lives by John Nikkah, 2000.

Best Books for Young Adults by YALSA, 2007.

What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens: Discovering Yourself, Defining Your Future
by Richard N. Bolles  and Carol Christen, 2006.

Now What?: The Young Person’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career. By Nicolas Lore, 2008.

Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron, 2007.

Testing the Waters: A Teen’s Guide to Career Exploration By Alice N. Culbreath and Saundra K. Neal, 1999.

Teen’s Guide To College And Career Success: Your High School Roadmap for College & Career Success (Teen’s Guide to College and Career Planning) By editors of Peterson’s, 2008.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey, 1998.

The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens by Sean Covey, 2006

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff For Teens by Richard Carlson, 2000.

You Are Not Alone: Teens Talk About Life After the Loss of a Parent by Lynne B. Hughes, 2005.

The Success Principles for Teens: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. By Jack Canfield, 2008.

The Social Success Workbook for Teens: Skill-Building Activities for Teens with Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder or Other Social-Skill Problems by Barbara Cooper and Nancy Widdows, 2008.

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl By Anne Frank, 1993.

Fat Girl: A True Story, by Judith Moore, 2004.

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: 101 Stories of Life, Love and Learning by Jack Canfield, Mitch Claspy, Mark Victor Hansen, and Kimberly Kirberger, 1997.

The Heart & Soul of the Next Generation: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Teens by Michael J. Bradley, 2006.

You Be Me: Friendship in the Lives of Teen Girls by contributors: Anne Fleming, Aislinn Hunter, Judith Kalman, Lydia Kwa, Gayla Reid, Karen Rivers. 2002.

The amazing true story of a teenage single mom by K. Arnoldi, 1998.

The Lindbergh Child by R. Geary, 2008.

Inside out: Portrait of an eating disorder by N. Shivack, 2007.

Professional resource review

Koelling, H., & Carter, B. (2007). Best books for young adults. Chicago: American Library Association

The major problem with this type of professional resource is that it soon becomes out of date.  But this does not mean that it is not a valuable resource. This particular issue is broken into as few different parts; the most notable being Current Trends in Teen Publishing; Themed Lists; Books By Author and Books by Year.  The books by author section is annotated so it is easy to look up an author and a title to see if  that particular work would fit into your collection.  It could also be used as a reader’s advisory tool. The books by year section ranges from 1966-2007; the same works are included in the books by author section but that is alphabetical. That could be a problem as someone could be very interested in a book but it could be out of print.The Themed lists can be very useful if a teen wants books on a particular topic or if a library is looking to add works on a particular topic to their collection.

Highly recommended.

Scholarly Journal review

Horn Book Magazine, Nov/Dec2009, Vol. 85 Issue 6, 596-704  View this issue

I looked at the online version of this journal available through UWO libraries. I also went to the journal’s website in order to see what the cover of the issue I was reviewing looked like. By looking at the website I can see how the table of contents lays out the journal articles as opposed to how to the articles are presented in the online version.  The biggest difference is that the table of contents lists the Reviews after the Features and before the Columns but the online version has the Reviews last and does not specify if something is a Feature or a Column.

This journal is well suited to anyone interested in working with young adults or children in the library field. It contains articles on the benefits of fan fiction, what makes a good popup book as well as an article on what it was like growing up in New Zealand without a lot of books set in New Zealand or written by local authors. There is also an article that tells how an author began to shape her story and there is an interview with another author.  None of the articles are overly long and they are all easy to read, something that is rare to find in a scholarly journal.

The bulk of this journal is book reviews; this issue is the November/December issue so it has mostly Christmas and Hanukkah themed books. But there are also other books reviewed; both fiction and non-fiction. Each page has more than one review but each review is listed by the title of the work, this means that by clicking on a different title can take you back to the same page you were just at. The same is true of inserts in an article, for example the interview with Margaret Mahy contains an exert from one of her works The Changeover, the next title is “From The Changeover” which I thought would be more from the book but instead it was just the same exert. The final problem I noticed was there was supposed to be either a review of the poem by Margaret Mahy entitled Christmas in New Zealand or the poem itself, it was not clear which was to be included. But I could not see either the review or the poem on the page it was supposed to be on.

Despite a few problems I highly recommend this journal.

Music used in my booktalk

A lot of people gave commented on the music I used in my booktalk and I just realized (thanks to Paulette) that I did not credit the song. Its called Disarray and its by my favourite band Lifehouse.  Its from their fourth studio album entitled “Who we are.”

Readings on Non-Fiction for Catherine’s and Debby’s seminar

Required

Watson J. and Stencel, J. (2005). Reaching Reluctant Readers with Nonfiction in

Young Adult Library Services; 4 (1), p8-11. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=18695642&site=ehost-live

The authors discuss the fact that nonfiction books can be easier for reluctant readers to get interested in as they do not have a plot and they cover a wide range of subjects so there are some that suit the interests of just about anyone.

Recommended

Goldsmith, F. (2008). Don’t Bother Me, I’m Reading, Too. School Library Journal, 54 (11), 40-44. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=35226033&site=ehost-live

This article is about how teens, especially teenage boys, are embracing graphic nonfiction intended for adults. This is because adult graphic novels offer better storey telling and graphics than the ones intended for teens.

Aronson, M. (2006). Originality in Nonfiction. School Library Journal 52 (1), 42-43. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=19484097&site=ehost-live

This article was written by an author who writes non-fiction for young adults. He suggests that librarians separate original non-fiction out from the non-fiction that was created to fulfil a “dutiful purpose.” His intention is allow easier access to original non-fiction to young adults as he argues that most of the non-fiction they currently have access to is reliable adult non-fiction that has been simplified.

Jones, P. (2001). Nonfiction: The Real Stuff. School Library Journal 47 (4), 44. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=4307338&site=ehost-live

This article argues that non-fiction for pleasure reading is not highly valued in the classroom or in some libraries. The author argues that non-fiction needs to be more readily available to young adults and they need to be aware of the fact that reading non-fiction can be pleasurable.

Lempke, S.D. (2004). Taking Stock of Series Nonfiction for Teens. Booklist 101 (4) 416.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=14905570&site=ehost-live

This article is about serial non-fiction for young adults. “These series tend to be bouncy

in tone and often seek to help teens, especially girls, answer such age-old questions as Who am I? Quizzes and personality tests abound—readers can analyze their handwriting, identify

their inner goddesses, or, assess their ability to manage stress.”

Dickey, J. &  Jones, P. (1993). Informational nonfiction for YAs. School Library Journal 39 (1) 40.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=9301210427&site=ehost-live

This article is about how teens often feel uncomfortable checking out books on sexual orientation, alcoholic parents or birth control. The author suggests that these books should be shelved so that the teens can find them with little or no help.

See Debby’s Blog for the rest of the readings.

Go Ask Alice- Bookreview.

Anonymous. Go Ask Alice. New York: Simon Pulse, 2006.

I had not really heard of this book before, I first picked it up because I was intrigued by the fact it was written by Anonymous. It states that it is based on the diary of a fifteen year drug user but it is also classified as fiction. Therefore I caution the reader to take the book with a grain of salt. When I read it I hadn’t seen that it was fiction and therefore I thought that it was the actual diary of a fifteen year drug addict and that only a few things were changed to protect the identity of those people mentioned in the diary. But after finding out that it was classified as fiction a lot of things began to make more sense, such as how the diarist was able to continue writing  in her diary even when she was high. Those diary entries were apparently undated and written on paper bags and single sheets of paper but it never made sense to me that the editors were able to find all these loose entries or that she even wrote them at all.

Whether this book is seen as fiction or nonfiction it is a good cautionary tale against drug use. The main character is unknowingly given LSD in her soda at a party and soon is hooked on all drugs. This lets the reader know that it really only takes one time to get addicted to drugs without being preachy. This is a book that teens and their parents should read and discuss; the teens need to be aware of the dangers of drug use and the parents need to be reminded of how the minds of teenagers work and how easily it can be for them to give into peer pressure and try drugs.

Highly recommended.

Booktalk

Anonymous. Go Ask Alice. New York: Simon Pulse, 2006.

Plot Summary: This book is based on the diary entries of a 15 year old girl. After her family moves to another town she is worried that she’ll never get to see the boy she likes again. Her parents agree to send her to stay with her grandparents for the summer; it is during this trip that she is first introduced to drugs and she quickly becomes hooked. Each time she takes drugs she promises herself it will be the last time. She soon finds herself selling drugs for her boyfriend and after she sells drugs to an elementary school student she realises she needs to change her life. But she isn’t clean long when she falls back into her old habits. This book is all about her struggle to kick the drugs once and for all but even with the love and support of her family this is not an easy task.

Notes: This book is quite controversial not only for the drug use depicted in it but also because it is classified as fiction despite its claims it is based on an actual diary. Some people argue that it is complete fiction and the woman who is listed as the editor in some editions is actually the author. While I do not know if this book is complete fiction or if there is any truth to it I do think it is important to acknowledge the controversy even if it does take away some of the impact of the book. The book is named after the Jefferson Airplane song White Rabbit.

Characters/People:

Anonymous: The main character is the 15 year old diarist, whose name we are never given. Some people refer to as Alice but this is simply because it is convenient.

Mom and Dad: The parents of the main character who she thinks don’t love her but they always welcome her back with open arms every time she runs away.

Tim and Alexandria: Her little brother and sister.

Jill: The girl who invites her to the party where she first tries drugs.

Carol: Her friend and co-worker, they run away together to try and kick their drug habits.

Jackie: Another drug addict who does not want Anonymous to quit taking drugs.

Joel: A boy she meets and who she wants to get clean for.

This book is intended to be read by teens of any age. I have seen it categorized under Children’s Books, Teens and Secondary (senior) school students. Despite to subject matter no part of this book is extremely graphic which makes the book appropriate for readers as young as 12 or 13.

Wii raffle

Hey fellow YAers,

After Aaron’s presentation do you have the urge to play video games but don’t have a Wii? Well you’re in luck! Librarians without Borders* is raffling one off; tickets are 1 for $2, 3 for $5 or 10 for $10! The raffle will be drawn in December so whether you want to prepare yourself for the upcoming post apocalyptic future or you are worried about someone you love then you still have time to act and buy a Wii ticket!

Plus the proceeds will got to helping build the first ever library in the village of El Huma Costa Rica.

Contact me for tickets!

We also have lovely calendars featuring some of your fellow MLISers! Including yours truly and one of your other classmates from YA materials; which one? You’ll have to buy the calendar to find out!

*Not affiliated with Doctors without borders