Father's Day is tomorrow~

Hey YAs, lots of you will be celebrating father's day tomorrow, so lets get in the moon!  Here are 10 YA books that feature fathers as important characters, sometimes good, sometimes bad.  Enjoy!

On her eighteenth birthday, spoiled party girl Lexington Larrabee learns that her days of making tabloid headlines may be at an end when her ever-absent father decides she must learn some values by working a different, low-wage job every week for a year or forfeit her multimillion-dollar trust fund.

In the days leading up to the partition of India in 1947, thirteen-year-old Bilal devises an elaborate scheme to keep his dying father from hearing the news about the country's division.

Twenty years after the start of the war that caused the Collapse, fifteen-year-old Stephen, his father, and grandfather travel post-Collapse America scavenging, but when his grandfather dies and his father decides to risk everything to save the lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down.

In 1904, sixteen-year-old Maggie Bennet's father tears her away from their elegant Newport, Rhode Island, home on an ill-advised excursion to Yellowstone in Montana to look for her mother, who has disappeared and is presumed dead, and once there, she finds herself drawn to the son of a park geologist, and to the wild beauty of Yellowstone itself.

Raised by an unstable father who keeps constantly on the move, Sam Border has long been the voice of his silent younger brother, Riddle, but everything changes when Sam meets Emily Bell and, welcomed by her family, the brothers are faced with normalcy for the first time.

In 1945, thirteen-year-old Levi is sent to find the father he has not seen in three years, going from Chicago, to segregated North Carolina, and finally to Pendleton, Oregon, where he learns that his father's unit, the all-Black 555th paratrooper battalion, will never see combat but finally has a mission.

Two teenagers--a heavy-metal-music-loving boy who is still mourning the death of his mother years earlier, and a beautiful, popular girl whose parents divorced because her father is gay--try to negotiate the complications of family and peer relationshipsas they get to know each other after learning that their father and mother are marrying each other.

Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother's dying request to live a life without restraint with her father's plans for his "little princess," which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live "whole, pure lives."

When her mother dies, sixteen-year-old Molly moves from Indiana to California, to live with her newly discovered father, a Hollywood megastar, and his pampered teenaged daughter.

In a remote corner of Washington State where she and her father have gone to escape her obsessive boyfriend, Clara meets two brothers who captain a sailboat, a lighthouse keeper with a secret, and an old friend of her father who knows his secrets.

Happy Birthday Jackson Pearce~

Celebrate by reading one of these fantastic novels!

Halloween Books - Witches!

A witch costume was always my go to costume when I was a teenager.  It's easy, but very customizable too!  To get you in the mood for the holiday, here are a list of books with witches~

When Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she is exiled to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

Born into a family of witches, seventeen-year-old Tamsin is raised believing that she alone lacks a magical "Talent," but when her beautiful and powerful sister is taken by an age-old rival of the family in an attempt to change the balance of power, Tamsin discovers her true destiny.

A centuries-long war between daimons and witches sets the stage for three teens caught up in a deadly struggle for power and autonomy in the exotic and otherworldly Carnival of Souls, the mercantile center of the daimon dimension

When the owner of a candy shop molds magical treats that instill confidence, bravery, and passion, eighteen-year-old Gretchen's haunted childhood memories of her twin sister's abduction by a witch-like monster begin to fade until girls start vanishing at the annual chocolate festival.

Prompted by her love for the seemingly-doomed Sebastian, sixteen-year-old Evie Johnson returns for another term at the strangely sinister Wyldcliffe Abbey School where she and two close friends try to develop and combine their newly-discovered powers to save Sebastian and themselves from the encroaching forces of evil.

When prep school newcomer Emma Conner meets the rich, charming Brendan Salinger, she is instantly attracted to him, but strange visions of her past lives begin warning her to stay away or face a cursed prophecy that she will die.

Cassie is drawn into the Secret Circle, a coven of young witches whose power has controlled New Salem for three hundred years, and when she falls hopelessly in love with the leader's boyfriend, she is tempted to use dark powers.

Sixteen-year-old Lexi, who lives on an enchanted moor at the edge of the village of Near, must solve the mystery when, the day after a mysterious boy appears in town, children start disappearing.

In an alternate New England of 1900, where the Brotherhood dominates and controls society, sixteen-year-old Cate Cahill has struggled since her mother's death to keep secret that she and her younger sisters are witches, but when a governess arrives from the Sisterhood, everything changes.

Living in New York City with her mother and her younger sister, Miri, fourteen-year-old Rachel tries to persuade Miri, who has recently become a witch, to help her become popular at school and to try to stop their divorced father's wedding.

A girl finds herself running through the forest at the edge of a village with no memory of anything, even her own name, and later learns that she might be twelve-year-old Isabelle, believed to be stolen by a witch six years before.

Graphic Novels~

Schools may lock up for the night, but class is in session for an entirely different set of students. In the Nightschool, vampires, werewolves, and weirns (a particular breed of witches) learn the fundamentals of everything from calculus to spell casting. Alex is a young weirn whose education has always been handled through homeschooling, but circumstances seem to be drawing her closer to the Nightschool. Will Alex manage to weather the dark forces gathering?

Nonfiction~

A volume of spells and Wiccan lore, including such spells as "Contact someone who has died," "Getting your crush to fall for you," and "Make colleges beg for you."

Forget flying broomsticks, this book unveils the real workings of the Wiccan Craft. Gwinevere Rain, a practitioner since she was 14, shares her insights and experiences as she illuminates the true practice of Wicca. Confessions of a Teenage Witch reveals such essentials as how to: set up a sacred altar, form a personal circle casting, celebrate Wiccan holidays and harness the full power of the moon.

Embracing both the spiritual and the practical, Wicca for Beginners is a primer on the philosophies, culture, and beliefs behind the religion, without losing the mystery that draws many students to want to learn. Detailing practices such as grounding, raising energy, visualization, and meditation, this book offers exercises for core techniques before launching into more complicated rituals and spellwork.

Your newest summer reads...July books! Part 3

My Beating Teenage Heart by C. K. Kelly Martin

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Two unexpected and heartbreaking deaths cause the lives of two very different teenagers to become intertwined as one struggles to deal with his grief and stay in this world, and the other finds herself inexplicably caught between this world and the next.

 Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

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When the owner of a candy shop molds magical treats that instill confidence, bravery, and passion, eighteen-year-old Gretchen's haunted childhood memories of her twin sister's abduction by a witch-like monster begin to fade until girls start vanishing at the annual chocolate festival.

 Friend Me: 600 Years of Social Networking in America by Francesca Davis DiPiazza

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A string of beads : uniting native nations -- The knitted city : puritan New England -- Coffee and conversation : a notion of freedom -- People skills : creating community in slavery -- A very social time : networking in a new nation -- Wired! : love, death, and the telegraph -- Small world : XX -- Hardwired : from earth to the stars -- Source notes -- Selected bibliography -- Further reading and website.

 Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics by John Feinstein

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Two teenaged aspiring journalists who are dating solve a mystery at the 2012 Olympic Games, while one simultaneously competes for a gold medal in swimming.

Stunning by Sara Shepard

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Struggling to return to normalcy after surviving Alison's attempt to kill them, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna endure a series of disasters before realizing that they are being stalked by a new "A" who knows all of their secrets.

Teen Book Club - Sisters Red

Well the Teen Book Club met last night to discuss June's book -- Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce.  And let me tell you, we all liked this one alot!  Here are the discussion questions we used:

1. Did you like the book?
2. Which of the two sisters did you relate to more? Why?
3. What was your favorite moment in the story?
4. This book was set in the modern day.  Did it feel like it was to you?  Why or why not?
5. How did you like the way the traditional elements from the fairy tale were worked into the story?  How many did you spot?
6. When did you begin to suspect that Silas was the potential?
7. Was there anything about the book that you didn't like?
8. Did you like the ending?  Was it how you thought it would end?
9. What are some other fairy tales that you would like to see retold as YA novels?
10. What do you think of these alternative covers?  Which is your favorite?

Then we moved on to our ratings and thoughts~

Clare gave it a 9.5/10 - It has great aspects of action and romance in a cool spin off of a fairy tale.
Melanie gave it a 10/10! - Definitely a book i would read more than once!
Catherine gave it a 9.5/10 - Really expresses well the bond of sisters.
Miss G gave it a 9/10 - I love retold fairy tales, but I kept imagining them running around in red riding hood cloaks, which I thought was weird for modern day.  But otherwise I loved it!

Alrighty, so Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce gets a  9.5 from the Durham Public Library Teen Book Club!  Very high praise - we loved it!

Grab a copy of July's book and we'll meet on Wednesday July 25th at 7 to discuss it and have snacks.  Hope to see you then!

July's TBC Book:

Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.

What flavor is your birthday cake, Jackson?

Personally, I like lemon...

Happy birthday to Jackson Pearce!

**Teen Book Club book for June!** After a Fenris, or werewolf, killed their grandmother and almost killed them, sisters Scarlett and Rosie March devote themselves to hunting and killing the beasts that prey on teenaged girls, learning how to lure them with red cloaks and occasionally using the help of their old friend, Silas, the woodsman's son.

Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother's dying request to live a life without restraint with her father's plans for his "little princess," which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live "whole, pure lives."

April showers bring May...books :) (Part 4)

The Blood by D. J. MacHale

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A final showdown is in order between best friends Marshall and Cooper and the terrifying villain Damon, who's more determined than ever to break down the walls between the worlds of the living and the dead. Marshall is forced to make a brave and shocking choice when the battle is on the line, and he and Cooper might be rewarded with help from someone quite unexpected.

 Purity by Jackson Pearce

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Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother's dying request to live a life without restraint with her father's plans for his "little princess," which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live "whole, pure lives."

Battle Fatigue by Mark Kurlansky

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Joel Bloom chronicles his life experiences during the 1960's which eventually lead him to oppose the war in Vietnam and to flee to Canada rather than be forced to kill Vietnamese.

Ascend by Amanda Hocking

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Duty-bound to marry her friend Tove in order to give the Trylle people their strongest king and queen in history, Wendy, a changeling troll princess, is torn between two other suitors, Finn and Loki.

Grimalkin The Witch Assassin by Joseph Delaney

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Provides insights into the life of Grimalkin, one of the deadliest witches in the country, if not the world, whose uneasy truce with the Spook's apprentice, Tom, unites them against the ultimate evil of the Fiend.