Young Adult Fiction

Pay attention, Poppets! This column will be a little, teensy-weensy bit different than previous columns by yours truly--i.e. this will be a column talking about Young Adult (or YA ) books that are written for and published for boys and girls between 11 and 17-- and the subject matter is not what it was "when I was that age" (sounding like the typical "older generation".) I had asked my director, Jill, about doing a column for YA readers and she thought it a good idea and I, for some reason known only to God and me, thought that would bear fruit in, oh, 3 or 4 months.

The books arrived yesterday. I honestly did not look on their spines, of the first two books I pulled out of the box, 'cause I just knew that of course they would be fiction, for this Sunday. They were--but not adult fiction -- which I picked up real quick when the first sentence I read was; "When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl." I thought - "Oh, yeah, I dated those guys in college, figured out what THEY wanted quickly, smiled sweetly, and found a date for a tennis game--where there was a net to jump over!"

To go on, "That should have been the end of their story, but Grace was not meant to stay human--now she is the wolf." Now, I was confused--I mean, I went to high school and college with girls known to be "fast"--we all did! Remember how they dressed and the make-up and the "attitude"? Well, I suppose you could, if you wanted to, find some of my classmates who might think I had the last of the 3--but I was usually on the courts, in the pool, in the yearbook office, or getting rid of--and despairing of getting the attention of--either one type of college boy or the other. But I was not a "wolf"!

So, I looked at the book cover, and it said, "Forever", by Maggie Stiefvater, and on the spine was the YA symbol--ah yes! The clouds parted and the sun came through--Jill had sent a selection of books for teens-just as I'd suggested. I thought all was well--I'd simply look at the flyleaf info and leaf through and read parts of the book. Yeah, right.

Okay, in this book the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be killed in one big roundup and while Sam loves Grace, "and one boy and one love really change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment--a moment of death or life, farewell or forever." Yeah, I guess. In any case, dear readers, we have got to--absolutely got to--keep in mind that these books are not written for the world-weary and world-wise of we "grown-ups", but (all together now!) for Young Adults.

There's a lot of tenderness between these two people, and descriptions or scars and dirt literally on their skin and underneath their nails because they change into wolves and are in the woods, she learns who wants to kill Sam and who wishes her harm and has to use her skills, both human and wolf, to deflect the death coming at them. I am not going to divulge the end of the story but it not only involves Sam but her father and his understanding and thoughts.

Okay, next YA title. "On the Volcano", by James Nelson, which also involved grave danger but a love story and how it all affects Katie's father and their future. (For those of you who have little or no interest in YA books and are about to leave me and run errands or floss the cat's teeth, thanks for staying this long and better luck the next column For those of you who are still here and have young adults to buy for or just want to know "what's out there for my teen reader", stay awhile.) See, the thing I realized about the YA books was that if it is well written, and you start looking through it, the principles of a good story and the characters reach out and "grab" you and keep you interested.
Katie and her father live on their own, on the side of a crater of a collapsed volcano and they've built a happy life up there--"far removed from the frontier perils of the world below them"--but then Katie's birthday comes along. "With it comes grave danger and tremendous love and also, heart-pounding but tender romance, the kind to build a life on." A tragedy happens with a young man, Jess, who finds his way up the volcano side, involving the rape of Katie, and it seems as it her sense of guilt and somehow being to blame will hurt all of them.


Lorraine, who I'm sure is her father's good friend, is very supportive of her and her dad and what was necessary to do, but, of course, the sense of guilt over having to kill Jess haunts them, then another man, Dan, is killed and his father comes to face them, first saying he believes that two Indian tracks prove that two men were trailing his son, then, upon spying a glass in their cabin much like his murdered son, accuses Katie's dad, Jack, of killing him. No amount of explaining to the desperate father, by Jack and Lorraine, convince him otherwise, and he shoots Katie's dad. So, soon after Dan's father rides away, Katie knows how to track him and shoot him with bow and arrow. I think all ends up well, Katie is "taken" with the young deputy and all's well that ends well, I guess, and it seems that the deaths were easily explainable and forgivable.

Even I have heard of the authoress, Carol Lynch Williams, who wrote the excellent novel, "The Chosen One", listed on "Best Books for Young Adult Readers" and her new one is, "Miles From Ordinary", a story about a young girl, getting her first job helping at the library and Lacey, 14, is so hopeful not only for her job but also for her mother starting out on a new one at a store. Her dad's gone and her mother's always been "different" and is scared about how Momma's going to do at the Winn-Dixie food store, beginning that day also, and would she stay there?

Lacey looked forward to having a friend at the library whom she could talk to and maybe spend overnight with---if she could leave Momma overnight. She's a caring, loving daughter who has to look after her mother and worry where she is. A boy, Aaron, whom she went to school with last year, helps her look for her mother when she isn't at Winn-Dixie, later in the day, and she tells him a little about her mother's illness and her Aunt Linda. These YA books, I've learned in a short time, are constantly full of things happening, thoughts expressed--silently or aloud to others--and constant drama.


Her mother is possessed by Granddaddy's memory, adopts his voice and then tell Lacey that he misses both of them and wants both she and her mother to "join him" and Lacy is propelled to her bedroom, by Momma, and turned towards the closet where Granddaddy hung himself--you'll have to get the book and read the final chapter yourselves! Be warned--this is not a "pretty" story.
Gary Schmidt wrote "Okay For Now", and I'm hoping, as I open it, that it's less dramatic and quirky and frightening than the previous books. The story is about a young man, Doug Swieteck, and his daily living in a new environment/home he calls "the Dump. " It is the summer of 1968, the Apollo space missions are underway, Joe Pepitone is slugging for the New York Yankees, and the Vietnam War is raging.

"His home life includes a father who has lost his way, a brother accused of robbery and an older brother coming home from war--and what wounds will he have and how will his being added to the family affect Doug's life? Then, he meets Mrs Windermere "who drags him to a theater opening he does Saturday grocery deliveries and meets people who will surprise him and affect his life. This is, supposedly and an aim of the author's, that transforming power of Art over disaster in a story about creativity and loss, love, and recovery, which includes survival. A grand plan for any author, I thought, and began to look through it.

His wonderful art instructor also teaches him about life, a little about love, and he also learns his brother, Lucas, is coming home "a little bit changed", the letter says from his buddy written to his mother, and his father made them all go to the Bullard Paper Mill annual picnic and he and Mr. Bullard won the contest on Baseball stats, and Mr. Bullard teaches him how to throw horseshoes, and his sort of- girlfriend gets him to show her, and lots of things happen to young master Swieteck. There's saving Joel in a bad, really bad asthma attack, there's the part about being bribed by a print of Au dubon's, "The Snowy Heron" to help in a play, Lucas gets a job helping the Coach at the high school (who was really impressed at how well Lucas could handle his wheelchair going up and down the library steps) and all's well that ends well for Doug's family and friends. The End.

Good Heavens! These YA books can wear you out just trying to tell about them, much less, as a reviewer, having to read almost all the book to see what else is coming around the corner for the characters. I can certainly see why the readers get so involved in the stories! I'm most admiring of the authors who have the "secret" to writing challenging plots and believable characters, and I can pity the writers who think writing a book for young readers is a piece of cake--you better have an excellent, empathetic sense of what's going to come out real and believable or else think of something else to do. These stories are really good, and in trying my feeble best to tell about them--I'd have to write a column for each book--as witness the last part of my effort to "wind up" the story "Okay For Now." I had a hard time even finding a stopping point, so much was still happening up until the last three pages and I just finally stopped--and could have gone on for another 6 or 7 sentences. I'd unequivocally urge you to pick up one of these titles or any on the shelves in the library and begin reading--you'll be there for another hour, standing or sitting in the same place--and just "pulled in" to the characters and their lives.

I will promise to do this twice more before the end of the year; meanwhile, eat your veggies, don't complain about the heat--you have shady spots and air conditioning--no one likes a whiner, if, by the time you read this no compromise has been reached by the "I've taken a stand and won't move off it" men and women of Congress, pray for all of us! I'd have been, with that attitude, sent to my room "to collect myself" and it's always tough when people "take a stand" and express it verbally and in writing because then they can't or won't abandon it for fear of appearing "weak." As one of my neighbors can say (with devastating tone and puzzled look--very effectively) "Really?

I loved the last part of "Harry Potter" and thought the actors had matured in their craft well and ended with a flourish and my next movie is going to be "Cowboys and Aliens" 'cause who wouldn't want to watch the fun of seeing Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig stand off winged monsters and awful creatures--all the while on horseback? The trick is to do it with aplomb (no, I won't tell you what it means--look it up!) Y'all take care and let's all rejoice that we're going to have Football season--here in Texas it's un-American to have it cancelled for any reason!

Summer Events

Summer Reading 2011 has now gone into the history books here at Memorial Library. Readers have turned in their logs and the tee shirt order has been submitted. High readers were rewarded with Grif Golf and a picnic this past Tuesday. Everyone who attended had a fun (but rather warm) time out in the sun, but then got to eat their fill of pizza in the nice, shady picnic area. Our high readers are to be commended. It takes at least 35 hours of reading in the five weeks of summer reading to get into the club. As a whole, Summer Reading 2011 was very successful. Well over 450 young people took part, with 3,522 hours of total reading time turned in between the children and the teens.

The only thing that remains is for everyone to claim their tee shirts, which will take place on Thursday, August 4, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. If your child earned a tee shirt, please mark that date on your calendar. It is truly a shame to have children work for their tee shirts then not have them claimed.

Doing cooperative projects with other agencies is one of the fun things about this job and a great one is coming up. As was mentioned in this column space last Sunday, Mid America Air Museum is bringing an exhibit called Wartime Escape from Exhibits USA to their facility from July 27 to September 23. The library is planning some interesting programs in conjunction with the exhibit. The exhibit tells the story of Curious George creators H.A. and Margret Rey and their escape from Paris just as the Nazi invasion was taking place during WW II.

The Children's department is planning programming to showcase Curious George and will host special programming as well. A complete schedule will be available in the near future. All the events are made possible by a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council.

Once summer reading is completed, planning for fall begins once again. Our storytimes will start on Thursday, August 18. The various ages of little ones will return to their previous groupings: Lapsit storytime is for children birth to 19 months; Toddle In storytime is for children 19 months to 3 years, and preschool time is for children 3 to 5. The session times are just going to be tweaked slightly. Preschool time still begins at 9:15 and ends at 10:00, but toddler time is moving up by five minutes to start at 10:15 and end at 10:35. Lapsit time will then begin at 10:50 and end at 11:10. Storytimes are grouped into six sessions, followed by a break of two weeks before the next session begins. Schedules for the first session are now available both in the library and on our website. Be sure you stop in and sign your little one up.

A lot of parents and grandparents have been in this summer wanting to start their children reading or wanting to know what we have for young readers. Our easy reader collection used to be shelved in the center of our easy books. Since the installation of our bins for easy books, the easy reader collection has moved. It is now located on the west side of the first set of north-south running shelving. A lot of the books have the reading level right on the spine, making it fairly easy for someone who has a little time to invest to locate the level of books they are looking for. However, using the card catalog could prove to be a more efficient way.

Once in front of the card catalog screen, click the 'advanced search' button. This allows movement to the center column and changing of the blue word location from 'Liberal Memorial Library' to either 'Children's Area' or even, in this case, 'Easy Reader Books'. Once you have done that, type in 'I can read'. If you want a specific reading level, you can type in 'level 1, for instance following the 'I can read'. For those who are in search of the very first readers, type in 'My first I can read'. Library staff members are happy to assist patrons in locating materials or with any questions they may have. There are a lot of great titles in this section, with new titles arriving regularly. Stop in and check out what we have. See you at Memorial Library!

I Geek...

Residents of Liberal may soon add a new verb to their vocabulary-- 'geek.'

The Liberal Memorial Library is participating in Geek the Library, a community-based public awareness campaign. The campaign highlights what people are passionate about and how libraries can support them, in an effort to heighten awareness about the critical funding issues public libraries face.

Geek the Library features local educational material that introduces 'geek' as a verb, and encourages the public to talk about what they 'geek'--whether it's engineering, superheroes or art. The public awareness campaign illustrates the fact that everyone is passionate about something--everyone 'geeks' something--and that the library supports them all.

"This campaign is designed to provoke conversation about the vital role that public libraries and librarians play in today's challenging environment," said Cathy De Rosa, global vice president of marketing for OCLC, a non-profit library cooperative which led campaign development and conducted a pilot campaign from June 2009 to April 2010. "We hope it will spark important community discussions about how public libraries can remain strong."

The awareness campaign features advertising, social networking elements, a Web site and grassroots community initiatives to draw attention to the need for increased library support. The campaign Web site, www.geekthelibrary.org, provides information about how people can get active and support their local library.

As the economic downturn slowly recovers, millions of Americans are turning to local libraries for educational opportunities, job-searching resources and entertainment. The increased demand for library services is taking a toll on libraries already experiencing flat or decreasing budgets. And state and local cuts are impacting public library hours, programs and staffing, forcing some libraries to close indefinitely.

While most people have visited their public library and understand its important role in their community, many do not know that libraries are at risk or that local funding for libraries is heavily influenced by community members.

This public awareness campaign hopes to start a conversation about library funding to inspire more people to take personal responsibility for keeping their local public libraries vital in their communities. The campaign will not support or oppose any candidate for public office, nor attempt to influence legislation.
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The Liberal Memorial Library and the Seward County Historical Society welcomes award-winning authors Phyliss Miranda and Linda Broday to Liberal from July 14-16.

Miranda and Broday will be discussing their latest western romance, "Give Me a Texas Outlaw" at a social at the Library on Thursday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m. and at a breakfast at the Coronado Museum on Saturday, July 16 at 8:00 a.m.

Both events at the Library and the Coronado Museum are free to the public.
"Give Me a Texas Outlaw" is the fourth in a series of anthologies by Miranda, Broday, Dewanna Pace and best-selling author Jodi Thomas. A fifth anthology is slated to come out in October of this year.

The first three books are "Give Me a Texan," "Give Me a Cowboy," and "Give Me a Texas Ranger."

For more information on the events, contact the Liberal Memorial Library at (620) 626-0180 or the Seward County Historical Society at (620) 624-7624.

For more information on the authors, you can visit their websites at www.phylissmiranda.com and www.lindabroday.com.

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The Liberal Memorial Library is happy to be partnering with the Mid America Air Museum on its latest exhibit, "The Wartime Escape: Margaret and H.A. Rey's Journey from France."

The Library will be running programs in coordination with the Air Museum's exhibit, which tells the tale of Margaret and H.A. Rey perilous escape from France during World War II. The Reys are the renowned authors the Curious George series.

The Library will have children's programming on Curious George for the children as well as programs for adults and teens on World War II and the Holocaust. We will also have tickets to the exhibit.
"The Wartime Escape: Margaret and H.A. Rey's Journey from France" is expected to begin at the Mid-America Air Museum later this month.

For more information on the exhibit, you can contact the Air Museum at (620) 624-5263. For more information on Library programming, you can call us at (620) 626-0180 or visit our web site