Teen Book Club December Meeting and Year in Review!

Hey YAs, yesterday the TBC met to discuss this month's book, Stardust by Neil Gaiman and to watch the movie to compare!

Here are the discussion questions we used:

Pre-Movie

1.  What did you think of the book in general?
2.  Did you have a favorite character or scene?
3.  What do you think of Victoria Forester?  Is she worthy of Tristran's love?  Does Tristran love her?
4.  Have you seen the movie before?  What parts of the book are you most excited to see in the movie?
5.  Rating and final thought for the book.

Post-Movie

1.  What did you think of the movie in general?
2.  What are some of the changes between the book and the movie?  Which did you like, dislike?  Why do you think these changes were made?
3.  Were the characters how you imagined them?  Better, worse?
4.  This story is available in many forms; book, movie, audiobook, and graphic novel.  How does the format change the story?
5.  Rating and thought about the movie compared to the book?

Melanie: 10!  I love the writing and found it amazing how he could fit such a wonderful adventure story into as little as roughly 200 pages.
Miss G: 9  I listened to this on the audiobook version and loved it, but not quite as much as I love the movie.  They're almost two different stories, because of some major changes in the movie.

For January we are reading...

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories by various

A collection of fourteen fantasy stories by well-known authors, set in the age of steam engines and featuring automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never existed.

Meeting, discussion, and snack on Wednesday, January 29th 5:30-6:30pm

Now...for the year in review.  A reminder, here is what the book club read in 2013~

Everyone voted on their favorites, so, here are the overall rankings~

1.  Seraphina

2.  The Year of the Gadfly

3.  Stardust

4.  Delirium

5.  Code Talker

6.  Life as we Knew it

7.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

8.  Nobody’s Princess

9.  Bloody Jack

10.  Zom-B

11.  Skinned

12.  Trapped

Individual favorites were...

Melanie

1.  Code Talker

2.  Stardust

3.  Seraphina

Catherine

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

2. Seraphina

3.  The Year of the Gadfly

Clare

1.  Seraphina

2.  The Year of the Gadfly

3.  Delirium

MissG

1.  Seraphina

2.  Delirium

3.  Stardust

Now on to the new year!

Happy birthday to Maureen & Susan!

It's your birthday Maureen Johnson :)

AND!

Happy birthday to Susan Beth Pfeffer!

Teen Book Club - December

For the month of December, the Teen Book Club read Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The questions we discussed were:

1. What did you think of the book?  Basic impressions?
2. What makes Isabel a strong character?  Is she believable as a character?
3. Besides Isabel, what other characters stood out for you and why?
4. This book was nominated for a National Book Award in 2009, how did you like the writing style?  did any particulat parts stand out for you?
5. Did you learn anything you didn't already know about the American Revolution or slavery from this book?
6. What do you think about the ending of the book?  If you're interested, the sequel is Forge.

 Ratings:

Clare gave it a 7/10.  She said she liked the era in which the book was set and it was also well written.  She didn't find the story very interesting until the last few chapters.
Catherine gave it a 7.5/10.  She said it wasn't the most exciting book but it was an easy read and had an interesting theme.
Melanie gave it an 8/10.  She liked the story from beginning to end, thought the characters were really well written, and liked how the book ended.

For the month of January we are reading the audiobook version of Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  Copies of the audiobook are available at the front desk.

At the December TBC meeting we also voted on our favorite books of the year.  Here are our results:

(1 = our favorite book of the year, 12 = our least favorite)

1. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (October)
2. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce (June)
3. Unwind by Neal Shusterman (March)
4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (April)
5. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (May)
6. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (December)
7. Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill (August)
8. Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (July)
9. The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson (February)
10. Feed by M. T. Anderson (November)
11. Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt (September)
12. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Leviathan (January)

Teen Book Club - November - Feed by MT Anderson

Hey YAs~

The November Teen Book Club recap is a little late this time, cause well we were a little late.  I got sick and had to push the meeting back until Dec. 8th.  But we did it and here we go!

For Novemeber we read Feed by M. T. Anderson.

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

The questions we discussed were:

1.   What did you think?  Did you like it?
2. Would you want to have The Feed installed in your body?  Why or why not?  What are the benefits and drawbacks?
3. Do you think that The Feed is something that might actually happen in the future?
4. What did you think of Violet and her actions?  What did you think of Titus?


Our overall ratings:


Clare - Did not finish - "Didn't like the writing or the characters.  Didn't think that the author had a validated point of view."
Melanie - 5/10 - "Understood the point he was trying to get across but it didn't show what needs to be fixed."
Catherine - 6/10 - "It was stimulating, but didn't like the author's point of view."

We also voted on the next 4 months worth of books.  Here are the decisions:

January (audiobook) - Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
February (being made into a movie) - Delirium by Lauren Oliver
March (disaster/disease/virus) - Trapped by Michael Northrup
April (mythology) - Nobody's Princessby Esther Friesner


for the month of December we are reading:

After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.

Meeting for discussion and snack will be on Tuesday, December 18th 6:30-7:30.  It's a week early because Christmas falls on a Tuesday this year.  We will also be discussing all the books we read in 2012 and voting on our favorites.

Teen Book Review - Life as We Knew It

Life as we Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

 YA SFF PFE

(Hooray!  I LOVE this book!) This review is from Erin, age 12.  Erin says that this book is fiction, fantasy, and science fiction.  She gave it a 10/10. (Me tooooo!) Her favorite character was Miranda.  Erin said "The description and vocabulary used was spectacular.  It was also a page turner!"  (No arguments here!) About the cover of the book Erin had this to say, "The book cover didn't really grab my attention."  (It is a bit boring, isn't it?) She said that she would read more from this author (You're in luck, there are two more in this series!) and her last words were "GREAT! 5 stars!" 

Erin received an extra raffle ticket in this week's Teen Summer Reading Raffle.  If you would like to get an extra ticket this week too, come by and fill out a book review form!

New books for October (Part 2)

 

Modelland by Tyra Banks

Check the Catalog

Thrown into a world where she does not seem to belong, awkward fifteen-year-old Tookie De La Creme is invited to join the most exclusive modeling school in the world, where she must survive the beastly Catwalk Corridor and the terrifying Thigh-High Boot Camp in order to uncover Modelland's sinister secrets.

 The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

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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.

 Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

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Alek and Deryn encounter obstacles on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek's throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

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For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

 Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

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Willa seems to have a perfect life as a member of a loving blended family until the estranged father she barely remembers murders his wife and children, then heads toward Willa and her mother.