The Catcher in the Rye Author J.D. Salinger Dies

J.D. Salinger author of The Catcher in the Rye died today at the age of 91. Find out more in this article on the Today show website: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35127071/ns/today-today_books/?GT1=43001

Michael L. Printz Award Announced

On Monday, January 18th, 2010 The Michael L. Printz Award for literary excellence in young adult literature was announced. See this link to find out more about this year’s winner and winners from previous years: www.ala.org/yalsa/printz!

Current Winner
Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

2010 Printz Honor Books

The committee also named four Printz Honor Books:

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Once Charles Darwin sets his rational mind to marry the religious Emma Wedgeworth, they both must take a leap of faith in order to build a life together.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a monstrumologist, races against time to save his town (and himself) from the anthropophagi, a pod of monstrous creatures who prey on humans.

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Fourteen-year-old runaway Jamie, homeless and strung out, embarks on a harrowing journey to reach his dying brother.

Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973
by John Barnes
Karl Shoemaker wants to begin his senior year with a new identity separate from his counseling group, his alcoholic mother and the legacy of his dead father.

Book Review: Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos

I am a fan big fan of true stories. I have always been a fan of non-fiction but I read fiction too, so think this is why biographies and autobiographies resonate with me so much. I am a big fan of Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos. Jack Gantos is a well known writer of children’s and young adult books including the Joey Pigza books and the Rotten Ralph books. He developed master’s degree programs in writing children’s literature. He is a very successful person. However, when he was a young man he went to jail for a year and a half for a drug trafficking related offense. This is the story of how he got into trouble, his trial and time in jail, and how he eventually got out of jail and went to college.

As the book begins, we meet Jack as a young man living in Florida who has dreams of going to college to become a writer. During his junior year of high school things go bad for his family’s business and his family moves to San Juan, Puerto Rico. He cannot attend school there because he cannot speak Spanish so he goes to work as an electrician and lives on his own in the hotel he works in. He develops a drinking problem. He moves back to Florida to finish high school. Then he joins his family who is now living in St. Croix. This is where he gets mixed up with some drug dealers who are looking to transport drugs into New York harbor.

Much of the story is centered on the time he spent on the drug boat. I was riveted by this book. I listened to the audiobook and could not stop listening. The audiobook is read by Jack Gantos himself.

Hole in My Life has received these acclamations: an American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults; American Library Association Notable Children's Books; American Library Association Popular Paperbacks for Young Readers; Michael L. Printz Award - Honor; Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library; Parents' Choice Award Winner; Booklist Editors' Choice; Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Award; Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List; School Library Journal Best Books of the Year; Robert F. Sibert Award - Honor; Massachusetts Children's Book Award.

Book Review: It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Ninth grader Craig Gilner is at his wit’s end. It all started in eighth grade when he studied day and night working on getting accepted to Manhattan‘s Executive Pre-Professional High School. This high school was supposed to be his ticket to getting a good job and succeeding in life. Now that he is in ninth grade, he feels like his life is slipping away. He has trouble eating anything more than yogurt and mostly does not sleep. So one night he checks himself into the emergency room because he is considering committing suicide.

It is in the mental hospital that he enters after the emergency room that Craig begins to accept himself as he is. This is also where many of the funniest parts of the book happen. It’s Kind of a Funny Story is more upbeat than Julie Halpern’s Get Well Soon. And while both It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Thirteen Reason’s Why are both about teen depression, Funny Story is focused on recovery and less about the past.

I found this books to be a funny and even though it is long at 444 pages, it is a very fast read.

Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

How heartbreaking it is to be Clay Jensen. Clay, a junior in high school, comes home from school one day to find a package addressed to him propped up against the front steps. Inside are 13 cassette tapes each marked with their own number. Clay cannot believe it when he pops one into the old stereo in the garage and he hears the voice of his dead classmate Hannah Baker. Hannah was his crush and his maybe first love. She also committed suicide two weeks prior to this day. The package also contains a map of the town that Clay follows as he walks around town experiencing Hannah’s story. In Hannah’s own voice she tells about the events and people that contributed to her up to her decision to end her life.

Thirteen Reasons Why captures the way people really talk, and to some extent, the way people behave in high school. While I found some parts near the end of the story to be overly dramatic, I found this to be a really thought provoking book. If you do decide to read it I highly encourage you to have a discussion with a friend or an adult you trust about suicide.