Title: Transparent

Author: Natalie Whipple

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date:  May 21, 2013

Fiona is invisible, which makes her the perfect tool for her father’s organized crime ring. She can spy, steal, and if her father gets his way even kill without anyone even knowing she was there. This is not the life she wants for herself, so she and her mother go on the run from her father and cruel older brother. It’s never worked before, but this time Fiona actually has friends. Can they help her avoid a life as her father’s invisible assassin?

The premise of Transparent is really interesting, unfortunately the book itself doesn’t quite live up to it’s potential. A drug meant to protect earlier generations has left mutations that give some humans special powers. The same drug is now illegal and valuable on the black market because it enhances those powers. It’s unclear if the crime syndicates exist because of this or are just a result of the decline of civilization in general.

Transparent starts off really strong with Fiona and her mother on a mission to spy on her father’s competition. If the entire book had been action packed like that, even if Fiona was set on using her situation for good, this would be a much different review. Even parts that should be exciting, like Fiona hiding in the desert lack the necessary tension.

Sadly, once Fiona and her mother skip town what we get is mostly a high school story about a girl trying to fit in and settle on the right guy. We spend a lot of time on Fiona’s lack of math ability, to the point this reader assumed it was something her father caused in some way.  This doesn’t really go anywhere other than Fiona’s barely developed romance with her tutor.

Despite the idea that Fiona wants to to take control of her own life she doesn’t starve or dehydrate after running off because the big strong boys leave her food.  In fact, Fiona never really saves herself but relies on the boys and her brother Miles to make the ultimate move.

This does have some reluctant reader potential, but I’m uncertain how many would stick around to the end. Readers who are interested in the unusual abilities of the characters should try Pivot Point by Kasie West.

Since I’ve never read The Chocolate War either I was happy to participate in the Chocolate War Read and Blog Along.  It was one of my List of Shame Books (books I’m ashamed I haven’t actually read) though probably one of the least shameful.  I won’t do a typical review as many of the things I look for in a book don’t apply to a book older than I am. How would I judge authenticity of voice?

So, instead some random thoughts:

First, I can see why this book has been challenged to hell and back.  Disrespect for authority, smoking, masturbation references, the implication that adults in general, and religious figures specifically, don’t always have teens’ best interest at heart are all hot button issues. I guarantee they came up more in challenges than the actual violence in the book. Of course, most of these things were a much bigger deal in the 70s and 80s but challenges are still around.

Unsurprisingly The Chocolate War comes across as very dated. This is more observation than criticism, as it’s unavoidable to an extent. The names of characters are most likely to be shared with teens’ grandparents or an eccentric great-uncle than teens themselves. Of course the low prices and character’s use of the term “fellows” in reference to their peers is noticeable as well. I just wanted to get the poor treasurer a spreadsheet and was especially amused at the idea of reporting prank callers to the phone company. I wonder if these things would pull contemporary teen readers out of the story?

Gender roles are also pretty clearly old fashioned. Jerry and his father have a housekeeper not because they are wealthy, but because with Mom gone someone has to do the women’s work. You can’t expect Mr. Renault to work all day and then come home and cook and clean! I do feel the thing that dates The Chocolate War the most is the casual smoking. Many of the boys smoke out in the open and this is a normal everyday thing like it must have been then. I was somewhat relieved to see the young lady from the bus stop call him out when he set her creepy meter off, as he should since she’d never even spoken to him.

Also dated is the idea that teens see adulthood as a horrible trudge lacking excitement and waiting for death. Jerry clearly feels this way about his father’s life and we get hints about it from other characters as well. I can only imagine that this is some variety of the “Don’t trust anyone over 30″ mindset.  Modern teens are more likely to look forward to adulthood and embrace it’s possibilities that dread the responsibility.

This is not to say that The Chocolate War has nothing to offer. There are a lot of strong themes here about group-think, peer pressure, and the corruption of power. The impotence of school authorities and the emphasis on keeping up appearances reminded me of Daisy Whitney’s The Mockingbirds. Certainly much could be made of comparing The Chocolate War to Lord of the Flies. I do think that the best read-a-like might be Kirsten Miller’s  How to Lead A Life of Crime. If you want more of power struggles, violence, and people wanting to get ahead no matter the price give it a try.

How To Lead a Life of Crime

This is a fun and creative project for elementary age kids, and it’s so simple and cheap.

1. First is the fun part: Give the kids a large sheet of paper and make a lot of craft supply odds and ends available with some fun metallic papers.

2. Let the kids design any kind of robot they can imagine.

3. When they have designed their robot hand out the lined paper and pencils and have them write a story about their robot.

4. Glue the robot story to the back of the original robot creation and you’re all set!

Artwork by John LeMasney, lemasney.com

Today I’m participating in Show Me the Awesome: 30 Days of Self- Promotion. You can read more about the project itself from our awesome hosts Sophie, Kelly, and Liz.

My topic is staying awesome during  a hiatus. My family recently relocated for my husband’s job and for a number of reasons it’s not practical for me to look for a job right away. We had a deal that when he was finally done with school I could take a little break. I love being a librarian, and will go back probably sooner rather than later so I want to stay on top of things during my break.  Here is how I’m doing that:

1. Keeping up with my Professional Learning Network

This is a fancy way of saying that I’m following a lot of great librarians on Twitter and I read a lot of blogs. I added a large number of blogs to my RSS reader which is Feedly at the moment. I was already following a good number of librarian blogs and added more, as well as a number of book blogs and child focused blogs not run by librarians.

2. Blogging

I started this blog about the time our plans were confirmed. Not only does it help me stay a part of the library community but it keeps me accountable to read and think about library topics regularly. It encourages me to look for new ideas for programs and services and will be one way to show to future employers that I’ve stayed current on literature and best practices.

3. Webinars

With no desk schedule to meet I have a lot of free time to take advantage of free webinars. I’ve participated in webinars on the Common Core, serving children on the Autism spectrum, and book previews just in the last little while. School Library Journal, YALSA, and ALSC regularly offer webinars and some past offerings are available to members for free.

4. Chats and Conferences

There are a number of youth services and literature related Twitter chats. Usually these are done around a hashtag with a leader asking questions and participants tweeting their responses. I try to participate in each #readadv chat, and #ewyagc. I’ve seen many good discussions in #libchat, #alscchat, and #titletalk as well. Try searching the hashtag in Twitter to find out when the next session of each is scheduled.

5. Reading

If you’ve been working full time you probably imagine being unemployed as a paradise of unlimited reading time. Somehow I haven’t quite managed to make that work yet. Between family obligations, household duties, blogging, and committee work I don’t get as much done as I’d like. Still, reading is a necessary part of keeping on top of things. In addition to titles for youth don’t forget to take time to check out titles on topics like early childhood development or youth participation that can inform your thinking for the better.

Welcome to my new weekly feature: Writing Program Wednesdays. Every week I’ll be sharing a different idea to encourage writing. Some weeks will feature teen ideas, some weeks school-age, and some preschool.

Great First Lines

This week’s idea works great as a meeting for a regularly meeting writing club, but is fun for a standalone program too. This can work for middle grade readers and up.

1. Gather a collection of great first lines from books appropriate for your audience.

2. Share the first lines with the group and talk about what makes them great. Do they build suspense? Introduce a character? Set a mood? Establish a setting?

3. Have the group go and look for books they love with great first lines. Give them five or ten minutes and then share and discuss these with the group.

4. Give the group a set amount of time to come up with as many first lines for original stories as possible.

5. Share and discuss the results and have group members identify first lines they would like to turn into longer stories.

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True  by Sarah Strohmeyer

The Reece Malcom List by Amy Spalding

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen 

Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman

I’d Tell You I Love You, But I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

Title: The Lucy Variations

Author: Sara Zarr

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: May 7, 2013

Before she was old enough to drive Lucy Beck-Moreau was a well-known concert pianist. Her future was bright and her path certain until the day she walked away from everything, literally. Betrayed and grieving Lucy abandoned the piano completely leaving her younger brother Gus to fulfill their grandfather’s dreams. When Gus’s handsome new teacher asks Lucy if she’s ever thought of playing just for herself Lucy’s life becomes just as complicated out of the spotlight as in it.

Zarr’s protagonists are generally flawed, smart teenage girls with believable problems. Lucy is no exception. Despite her unusual talent she faces the very real challenge of deciding how something she loves will fit into her life beyond childhood and how she can avoid it being used by others to further their own fame.

As Lucy comes to understand these challenges in a very natural, authentic way the reader has the benefit of taking this journey with her. We are given such a rich understanding of Lucy’s world and of grandfather’s and Will’s manipulation that when Lucy finally sits down at the piano and plays what she wants we can truly appreciate the moment for what it is.

Lucy’s talent and unorthodox childhood have complicated every relationship she has. This plays out most noticeably in her relationship with Will, but it affects every connection she has from her family to the high school teacher she doesn’t quite understand the boundaries with.

It would be easy to let Zarr’s intriguing main characters overshadow the power of the writing itself, but that too is excellent. Powerful descriptions that read like they come from the mind of the teenage main character go hand in hand with thoughtful mood setting. All together I expect to see The Lucy Variations on many if not all of the year end best lists.

Readers who enjoy the story of a gifted teen learning to live on their own terms should try An Abundance of Katherines by John Green while fans of Zarr’s serious look at girls facing real issues should check out Sarah Ockler and Jennifer Brown.

*ARC provided by publisher

It happens to the best librarians, sometimes you just don’t have any more to give. Here are some thoughts on what leads to youth librarian burnout and hopefully it can be prevented.

How To Burn Out:

1. Adopt every controversial library and kidlit issue on a personal level.

We should know what is going on and, of course, we need to advocate for our kids and teens. However, it seems like there is a new library controversy every week and that’s not even counting the internal drama at our places of work. We need to ignore some of it. Just don’t click the link. Youth Services librarians will still be around when everything else turns to ash. We can probably spend less time validating our existence to other librarians, since the PEW study makes it clear our patrons totally get it.

2. Compare your collections, services, and programs to other libraries constantly.

There is nothing wrong with learning from each other, it’s one of the things I think youth services librarians do really well. On the other hand, comparing ourselves to better funded, staffed, or located libraries or libraries with a very different patron base then our own just leaves us feeling inferior. Take a minute to celebrate what you are doing for your community. When you envy another library program consider how your resources and patrons differ. It might be good but it might not be possible. It might not even be what your patrons need. On the other hand, if they match up then go for it!

3. Be so focused on the big picture and/or administrative issues that you don’t get to actually interact with patrons.

If you love being a librarian because you enjoy working with kids and/or teens and helping them get what they need then make sure to make time for doing that. Especially as we become coordinators or managers it’s all too easy to spend our days on meetings, training, budgeting, and other things that don’t have the same magic. Find a few hours to be on the reference desk, work an outreach event, or offer to do storytime next week. You’ll feel much better.

4. Say yes to everything.

We want to help people. We want to serve our patrons. We want to be visible members of the community. That’s all great but if we say yes to every outreach event, group program request, partnership suggestion, and grant-writing opportunity we can’t possibly do all of them well. Work with your supervisor to prioritize these opportunities so they fit your library’s goals. Maybe you can even connect some of those groups to each other so everyone wins.

5. Judge yourself by program numbers alone.

This is an easy trap to fall into. Big splashy programs with big numbers are easy ways to show our impact to administration. They make great blog posts, tweets, and conference programs but what percentage of your patrons does that measure? Don’t forget about all the other ways that we serve people. The biggest impact you made this week might be the struggling reader who finally finished a book you helped them find, or the middle-schooler that passed algebra because you showed him how to use online tutoring.

6. Read only what you “should” read.

Sure, it’s not all about books but most of us do this because we love books to one extent or another. It’s easy to get caught in the trap of reading the “big buzz books” or the “starred review books” or what you need to get done for programs and forget to make time to read books because you actually want to read them. At some point our reading slows down, then we feel guilty for not reading enough, and that makes it even worse. Read for fun. You never know when that will be the perfect book for work anyway!

7. Do everything yourself.

Yes, we know best but sometimes we need to delegate. What jobs can be left to a volunteer? To a paraprofessional? What book can we skip and just read reviews instead? It might not be as perfect as if we did it ourselves, but it will be done. If it doesn’t make a difference in service let it go. Don’t forget that your assistants/clerks/volunteers can’t develop skills if they are never challenged.

Title: Nantucket Blue

Author: Leila Howland

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Release Date: May 7th, 2013

Cricket is psyched to spend the summer on Nantucket with her best friend Jules’s family. After all, she’s basically adopted them as her own.  She has her heart set on sandy beaches, parties, and a whole summer to make Jay Logan her boyfriend. Then Jules’s mother dies suddenly and not only is she uninvited for the summer, but Jules doesn’t want anything to do with her at all. Cricket finds a job and goes to Nantucket anyway, hoping to save her magical summer but nothing turns out as she plans.

Let’s start with a positive. Nantucket Blue truly delivers on setting. The reader can easily imagine themselves walking along quaint beachfront streets with Cricket and digging toes in the sands of beautiful beaches.

If this book had been a straight-up romance like the cover suggests that might have been one thing, but Nantucket Blue tries to be a book about grief, growing up, and family. Sadly, it leaves us well in the shallow end of ocean so to speak. Nothing is really explored deeply enough, and that lack of development is why this book just didn’t work for me.

In Kelly’s post about unlikable characters she notes that privilege often plays a role in making characters unlikable. That is certainly the case here. The problem is not so much that Cricket is unlikable, plenty of good books have flawed heroines, but that I get the impression we aren’t supposed to hate her guts. Despite turning 18 she is selfish and immature. Cricket is more worked up about the loss of her job-free party summer than a woman she claims is like a mother to her. She outright resents her three year old stepbrother because he has emotional problems as a foreign adoption and therefore needs a lot of adult attention. This is an eighteen year old, not another young child.

The hardworking woman who actually has to clean hotel rooms for a living instead of for a beach vacation is met with derision for wanting to do a superior job.  No worries though, since only rich people go to the island there is no crime there……(Wow, really? is Chappaquiddick that far from Nantucket?). These are Cricket’s bonus activities when she’s not busy fat-shaming and slut-shaming most of the other girls she pays any attention too.  To be fair, near the end of the book Cricket almost catches on that this is a bad idea but like everything else it’s just no developed enough to be a satisfying change of heart.

There are a ton of tutorials for giant Jenga on the web. This one seems pretty easy to follow.

If you have someone with real DIY skills they can make you a giant Kerplunk game with directions from This Old House. 

Photo: Room 5 Films

You could easily make your own sticks for a game of Giant Pick-Up Sticks

This youth ministry blog has a rather ambitious but amazing life-size Hungry Hungry Hungry Hippos game. This might work for large systems that will get multiple uses out of the equipment.

How about life-size Pac Man. Even better as part of an 80′s party!

One family made a giant Bananagrams game. Read the comments for tips on making your own. Half-sheets of poster board would work for a quick one.