novels of LGBTQ

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher looks at many facets of life for a transgendered teenager. While the story wasn't "perfect" for me, I do appreciate that the characters are composites of many real people.
Almost Perfect adds to a genre that many teenagers (and adults) need to explore or learn about in order to help him/herself and/or to support others. I would pair this book with She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan.

However, I like the teen characters in Almost Perfect. As an adult, I enjoyed She's Not There, and I will recommend it to teens. If I have a student read it, I'll be eager to know if he/she can appreciate the story since the focus is more on adulthood of Boylan rather than childhood. I also hope to have students read Almost Perfect, as I wonder if students know someone like Logan. He seemed almost too sophisticated emotionally.

I wonder, though, if a book like Almost Perfect will be read by a male audience. The cover lends itself to a female audience. While we should not judge a book by its cover, we do. This is one of several books I've read that has male characters, yet I doubt the cover would be read by many males. I know so much time is spent on book jackets, and would like to see something more suited for male readers.

I do hope that these stories are being read by those who really need these stories. To know that all the Sages out there are accepted by others, embraced wholeheartedly, and supported in the process would be such a statement towards cultural diversity.

History in a "new" light in New Boy by Julian Houston

Not to judge books by covers, New Boy by Julian Houston may be overlooked by its cover. Rob Garrett is one of the new students at Draper, a boarding school in Connecticut. Up from Virginia, Rob is also the first African-American student to attend. Jim Crow laws are still in effect in the South, yet the rumblings of change and action are starting.

Rob experiences racism and prejudice between all races and ethnic groups, and realizes that he isn't the only one that has such experiences. Yet, he also discovers that maybe he should have done more to help a friend.
Rob's friendship with Gordie brings to light not only the fact that he can be friends with someone who "seems" different from himself, but that prejudice can occur within his own race; a hard reality, but one that lights a fire within Rob. He is motivated to make change for his generation, and becomes involved in a student group to organize a sit-in at his local Woolworth's restaurant.

Not held down in details, Houston writes a realistic tale of a young boy experiences personal motivation for change, love, freedom, and self-reliance. A bit of U.S. history in an easy-to-read and engaging format. A lesson for us all.

Where to Find Free Online Books

If you just blew your budget buying an ipad or kindle ...and don't have money to actually buy books, see some quality resources for online books:

Online Books Page of the University of Pennsylvania -one million+ free books; a majority are older titles but some are newer

• use for research! for example - browse by call number or alphabetical subject list
  many of the titles are pulled from U.S. govt. docs and the Gutenberg Project
• browse Library of Congress subjects and find: Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000, by Jason Gauthier (PDF at census.gov)
• You can read many banned books online! see curated list of banned books

Project Gutenberg - digital books with expired copyrights  

• use for research -& and bookmark while reading!
• see: top 100 downloads
• 
  see also: offline book catalogs to download and use at home

Read Print Library - thousands of classics books online; see also poems & short stories

AskSam Ebooks has a collection of free e-books (classic literature), and legal and government texts.

BookBoon – Provides free ebooks textbooks for students and travelers in PDF format. No registration is required.

Book Gold Mine - large collection of quality e-books, lectures, notes, and other kinds of documents at no cost to the user; great for computer science, business, biology, physics, and math texts

EBooks Directory - 5572 free e-books in 535 categories - free web resource which contains links to free downloadable e-books, technical papers, documents, as well as user contributed content, articles, reviews and comments. 


Alex Catalogue of Electronic Books: focus is on history and philosophy titles

Google Books: one million+ titles in the public domain


Bartleby - diverse collection


Great Books and Classics: as advertised in the title, a collection of classics

Kindle Resources:

I Love My Kindle - blog for finding some ebook deals

A Kindle World Blog - finding Amazon deals


Free Kindle Classics List from Amazon

History in a Murder Mystery!

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan - a murder mystery with a complex interplay of characters within the main storyline and those on the periphery. There is no obvious answer to the crime!
This story is based on a true event that happened in New York City in the 1850s. The death and the trial was the talk of the town!

Depth and complexity in Crazy by Han Nolan

Crazy by Han Nolan is a well-written story with thoughtful and complex dialogue between Jason and his “friends.” The dynamic interplay that brings to life the voices in Jason’s head reflects a sensitive and acute awareness of the reality of one’s life with such circumstances.

Through no conscious effort of his own, Jason has caught the attention of his English teacher and, as a result, will have to meet with Dr. Gomez, the school social worker, on a regular basis. He’s not sure how he can hide his real life from Dr. Gomez and the other students in the group. The silver lining is that these friends may be just the therapy he needs to reconcile the loss of his mother, and quite possibly, the loss of his father.

A book not to be overlooked by teenagers or adults.

Han Nolan is winner of National Book Award for Dancing on the Edge.

To Keep A Secret....is this the right thing to do?

Our Little Secret: The TRUE story of a Teenage KILLER and the SILENCE of a Small New England Town by Kevin Flynn and Rebecca Lavoie is quite the suspense story. Heck, the words capitalized in this post are capitalized on the cover of the book, which is a compelling visual.

One Saturday afternoon Daniel Paquette is murdered in his backyard. The shot is believed to have come from the forest that is behind his house, which makes the investigation difficult. The investigation remained troubling, so much so that it was not solved for 20 years.

Understanding how and why the step-daughter of Paquette and her friend Eric turned on a step-father and stranger explains what transpired leading up to and beyond the murder. Many more people were involved….as bystanders. Are bystanders just as guilty as the one who pulled the trigger? Is the step-daughter guilty for her ideas and involvement, even though she didn’t pull the trigger?

One may find this story hard to believe, but that which is hard to believe may also be intriguing. With Eric, Melanie, and others in this community, the line between right and wrong becomes a zig-zag; black and white become grey; memories change to protect self and others; reality becomes what people want or create it to be.
Secrets are only secrets when never shared. Guilt can be a heavy burden to carry, even if you did nothing wrong.

The Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois' High School Readers' Choice Award

ISLMA describes the Abraham Lincoln Award:

The Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book AwardThe Abraham Lincoln Award is awarded annually to the author of the book voted as most outstanding by participating students in grades nine through twelve in Illinois. The award is named for Abraham Lincoln, one of Illinois' most famous residents and himself an avid reader and noted author. The award is sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA).The Abraham Lincoln Award is designed to encourage high school students to read for personal satisfaction and become familiar with authors of young adult and adult books.

Linda Straube recently shared the 2012 Abe Lincoln Award Nominees and we'll  have print copies available at both Winnetka and Northfield libraries. Judy Macnab will be ordering the titles in ebook version for the library Kindles.

Recent purchase in hardcover at the New Trier Library: I live in the future & here's how it works

A Highlight and Note from Michael Stephens

Just like me, the generation coming of age in this digital society doesn’t see or perceive much difference in types of media. Video? Words? Music? Computer code? It doesn’t matter. The actual tools used are irrelevant. It’s the end result—the storylines, the messages—that matters. This generation thinks in pictures, words, and still and moving images and is comfortable mixing them all in the same space.

Note: the tools are irrelevant. this speaks well to transliteracy

Shared on February 25th, 2011 from Kindle

The overdone memoir . . .

Everyone's writing memoirs! NYT Book Review

Film Complements Book

Christopher McCandless will not be forgotten. He, his thoughts, and his actions will be discussed from various perspectives for some time. At least this is what I hope. The book, written by Jon Krakauer, presents McCandless in an objective light, allowing for conversations debating his actions and rationale. The film, produced and directed by Sean Penn, presents a different exposure to McCandless.

The "writing" on the screen of his journal entries and the narration of his sister throughout the film provide a greater understanding of why McCandless acted as he did. Some of the relationships he develops during his journey give him a sense of love, importance, and purpose. And he impacts those he meets along the way. His idealism is admirable, and I wish that he would have had the opportunity to continue to act on and fulfill such dreams. I continue to think "if only he was prepared better; if only he had organized his trip in a thoughtful and purposeful manner."

I appreciate that both the book and the film are thought-provoking and allowed me to understand McCandless more fully, as we all are multi-dimensional. May his spirit live in the people who knew him, and may his actions encourage everyone to take flight with a sliver of caution.

More sources to check out....

Here's a link to The New York Times' podcasts of Book Reviews which appear every Friday. This page in turn links to NPR, New Yorker and other podcast book reviews.


For more books to read, check out the Google eBookstore
Enjoy!

Book True to Reality

Theories of Relativity by Barbara Haworth-Attard (2003) is true to life, according to youth who live just like Dylan and the other characters in the book. Dylan is 16 years old and lives on the street; he was forced onto the streets by his mom on his 16th birthday.
He must survive, and will do almost whatever it takes to survive; though, he won't give in to Vulture, a guy who is as conniving and manipulative as his nickname suggests.

Dylan develops his own personal "theories" as he lives on the streets, yet certain experiences challenge these theories, for better and for worse, and challenge his ability to survive physically and mentally.

Haworth-Attard includes an Author's Note to all the young adults who read this book, and it's an important message they need to know: "be aware of that kid on the corner of a city street.....You will grow up to help run this country and inherit the problem. We must all work toward a solution" (230).

Thank you, Barbara Haworth-Attard.

2011 ALA Award Winners

2011 ALA Award Winners
Alex Award winners announced today in San Diego:


The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults, and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens.

·  The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson, published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc. (ISBN 9780307474612)

·  Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard, by Liz Murray, published by Hyperion (ISBN 9780786868919)

·  Girl in Translation,by Jean Kwok, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group ( (ISBN 9781594487569)

·  The House of Tomorrow, by Peter Bognanni, published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of the Penguin Group (ISBN 9780399156090)

·  The Lock Artist, by Steve Hamilton, published by Thomas Dunne Books for Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press (ISBN 9780312380427)

·  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel, by Aimee Bender, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. (ISBN 9780385501125)

·  The Radleys,by Matt Haig, published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (ISBN 9781439194010)

·  The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel by Alden Bell, published by Holt Paperbacks, a division of Henry Holt and Company, LLC (ISBN 9780805092431)

·  Room: A Novel, by Emma Donoghue, published by Little, Brown and Company a division of Hatchette Book Group, Inc. (ISBN 9780316098335)

·  The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel, by Helen Grant, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,  division of Random House, Inc.(ISBN 9780385344173)

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