December Book Blurbs, Part 1

When you're doing an on the spot book talk (recommendation), most of the time the requester doesn't have all day to stand there and listen to you wax poetic about how the nuances of some character in such and such a book really tie it together. Most of the time, especially if they're a teenager, they want one sentence that answers the question: "what's it about?"Here are some quick, to the point blurbs for books I read last month:

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George
Summary: Cursed princesses are forced to pay off their late mother's debt by dancing from midnight to dawn.  The threat of excommunication looms over the kingdom unless someone can find out where the princesses are going each night.
About: Fractured fairy tale, love, loyalty
Genre: Fairy tales, romance, adventure
Audience: 5th-7th grade, someone looking for a quick read, someone who has heard this fairy tale before (or me, who had seen a scary cartoon version when I was younger and couldn't remember the ending)



Graceling*, by Kristin Cashore
Summary: Gracelings are people born with extreme skills (mind reading, super-killers, etc.) and one Graceling in particular, Katsa, goes on a rescue mission that turns into attempting to take down an entire kingdom.
About: Strength, loyalty, rescue, survival
Genre: Dystopia, adventure
Audience: Hunger Games fans - it's all about the kickass female, fighting and survival.  Teens, people looking for something about questioning authority




Story Time, by Edward Bloor
Summary: George and Kate transfer to a special school for the gifted that focuses solely on standardized testing.  Once there, they realize that something is off about the school and they work to take down the system.
About: Education, fairy tales, overcoming obstacles
Genre: Satire, paranormal, comedy
Audience: 6th-7th graders, someone looking for a quirky book, anyone who liked Tangerine, which is also by Edward Bloor, someone looking for an anti-authority read




My Life in Pink & Green*, by Lisa Greenwald
Summary: Lucy's grandmother owns a pharmacy that is quickly headed towards bankruptcy.  Lucy thinks she can save the store single-handedly by turning the store "green."
About: Recycling, friendship, makeovers
Genre: Chick lit (offensive term, I know, but yeah it's kind of an offensive book)
Audience: 4th-6th grade, people looking for quick reads, people who like "cute" books.  This book advises readers to avoid doing anything that will give them wrinkles, so I feel like I wouldn't want to really recommend it to anyone...



The Mother-Daughter Book Club*, by Heather Vogel Frederick
Summary: After a productive yoga class, a group of mothers decide it's a perfect idea to create a mother-daughter book club.  The group members read and compare their lives to Little Women, each effectively growing into a better person by the book's end.
About: Mother-daughter relationships (shocker), friendship, books
Genre: Chick lit (not as offensive as above), dramedy
Audience: 4th-6th grade, people who like book/movie references in their stories, someone looking for a "cute" book, people who like series books (it's the first in a series).

* I read these books because they were constantly being checked out by students and I had to know what was up.  The other two books were recommended by VOYA.

November Book Blurbs, Part 2

When you're doing an on the spot book talk (recommendation), most of the time the requester doesn't have all day to stand there and listen to you wax poetic about how the nuances of some character in such and such a book really tie it together. Most of the time, especially if they're a teenager, they want one sentence that answers the question: "what's it about?"

Here are some more quick, to the point blurbs for books I've read this past month:

Keeping You A Secret, by Julie Anne Peters
Summary: A high school senior realizes she has feelings for the new girl, but they live in a place where the School Board won't approve of an LGBT group.  She has to keep her new relationship a secret, but at many costs.
About: LGBT, relationships, coming of age,
Genre: Drama
Audience: anyone interested in LGBT rights, people who like reading about relationships




Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake
Summary: A teenage boy kills ghosts, but finds it difficult to kill the legendary Anna Dressed in Blood.
About: Paranormal, ghosts, vengeance
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Audience: Horror fans, obviously.  Boys! It has a male narrator, which usually helps pull in male readers (stereotypical, I know, I hate that.), Buffy fans, Twilight fans (the cover is white, black and red - it'll be easy to trick them into reading something well written and similar to the genre)



Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool
Summary: A young girl moves to a small town for the summer and ends up unearthing Prohibition-era town history that someone wants kept secret. 
About: Prohibition, Depression, coming of age, family
Genre: Historical Fiction, mystery
Audience: Historical fiction fans, middle schoolers, people who like the music video to Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney's "Say, Say, Say" because that's all I could picture while I read this, people looking for a solid, well-developed story



Anya's Ghost, by Vera Brosgol
Summary: A teen depressed with her lackluster social status enlists the help of a ghost to help her gain popularity, but the ghost has other plans.
About: Coming of age, immigration, assimilation
Genre: Supernatural, Graphic Novel (yes, it's a form, not a genre, but libraries still shelve them separately)
Audience: someone looking for a story on outcasts, graphic novel fans, anyone who likes supernatural shows would love this




UnWholly, by Neal Shusterman
Summary: A sequel to Unwind, this book continues the fights against the Unwind system (Unwinding is the process of your parents signing you over to have all of your organs donated - your spirit lives on while you do not. It's like a retroactive abortion). 
About: Abortion, rights, teenagers vs. adults, decision making
Genre: Dystopia, action
Audience: Angsty teens, dystopia fans, civil rights activists, unelected Republicans (would learn a thing or two), action fans

November Book Blurbs, Part 1.

When you're doing an on the spot book talk (recommendation), most of the time the requester doesn't have all day to stand there and listen to you wax poetic about how the nuances of some character in such and such a book really tie it together.  Most of the time, especially if they're a teenager, they want one sentence that answers the question: "what's it about?"

"Aboutness" is a subjective term, of course.  Is Harry Potter about magic or overcoming adversity? Trick question, it's about friendship! Maybe.  There's no correct answer. 

Regardless, because I've been reading far more books than I can review, I decided that was actually a good thing, because that's not what the patrons need for on the spot, no time to wait requests.  So for all of the books I've quickly read this past month (in my attempt to reach my goal of 100 books a year), here are some quick, to the point blurbs.

Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin
Summary: A teenager dies and must come to terms with her departure from Earth during her afterlife in "Elsewhere." 
About: Acceptance, death, love
Genre: Drama, Romance
Audience: Teens who like some sappiness in their books.  Someone looking for a quick read.  Future Jodi Piccoult readers.  If you can pick those patrons out (and I can), then give them this book now.  That is to say nothing against Piccoult, she just writes for a very particular audience. 


The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Summary: It's 1995 and after a teen girl downloads AOL, her future Facebook page comes pops onscreen. She and her neighbor attempt to make decisions to lead to their future lives as seen onscreen.
About: Facebook, present and future decisions, teen angst
Genre: Dramedy, Romance
Audience: Teens (or adults) who like some emotion with their comedy.  People who like multiple narrators. People who are starting to get annoyed with the fake/overdramatic personalities encouraged by Facebook. 


Between Shades of Grey*, by Ruta Sepetys
Summary: In 1941, Lina's family is imprisoned by the Soviet Secret Police in labor camps in Siberia and the North Pole.
About: Survival, love, death
Genre: Historical fiction
Audience: Anyone interested in the Holocaust period would enjoy this book.  People who aren't afraid to feel all the feelings. Someone looking for historical fiction.
*NOT PART OF THE FIFTY SHADES TRILOGY - a woman grabbed my arm on the T when she saw me reading this book and eagerly asked if another book had come out. NO.


Ten Cents a Dance, by Christine Fletcher
Summary: Set in 1940s Chicago, a young girl leaves her low paying factory job to take up "taxi dancing"* in a nightclub to help support her family, but it ends up turning her life upside down in ways she could never have imagined.
About: Taxi dancing, the mob, racism, post-Depression era
Genre: Historical fiction, drama
Audience: Historical fiction lovers, people who are interested in dance, people who love movies about the depression
*Taxi-dancing does not equal prostitution, although it did in some cases.  Basically, it was like a strip club minus the stripping, where men paid to dance with the ladies and you could earn a lot more doing this than factory work.


The Boy Who Dared, by Susan Bartoletti
Summary: A boy in the Hitler Youth illegally listens to the BBC news to find out what is really happening in WWII.
About: Holocaust, Hitler Youth, courage
Genre: Historical fiction (the author, a noted YA nonfiction author, used her book on Hitler Youth to create this story)
Audience: Students learning about the Holocaust (only because some of the information seems heavy-handed and takes away from narrative flow - she is a nonfiction writer after all)


More tomorrow!