Tandem Team

  • Mindy
    Mindy is a librarian (MLS '01) with a background in working with teens. She loves to read all over the map and has been blogging about books since 2003.
  • Vanessa
    Vanessa is a teacher who is nearing completion of her MS Ed. degree from the University of Minnesota. She especially enjoys humorous picture books.
  • Anne
    Anne is a librarian (MLS '02) who has worked in publishing and libraries for 11 years. She loves YA fantasy, historical fiction, and chick lit.
  • Kelly
    Kelly is a teacher with experience in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and abroad. She is always looking for books with classroom connections!
  • Emily
    Emily is a librarian (MLS '02) who has worked in school libraries and a children’s literature collection at a university. She particularly enjoys realistic fiction and stories about traveling.
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October 09, 2007

Teen Read WeekTM Round Up

Everyone likes to laugh, right?  Well, rubber chickens, whoopee cushions, and handshake buzzers may not be what the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has in mind for this year’s Teen Read WeekTM (TRW), but you can bet that with a theme of LOL @ your library, people are going to be having a good time.  Good thing too, because TRW’s initiative aims to encourage 12-18 year-olds to “Read For The Fun Of It” and with its 10-year anniversary to celebrate this October 14-20, 2007 you can bet plenty of teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other concerned adults will be ROTFL (Rolling on the floor laughing) or at the very least LOL / GOL (Laughing / Giggling out loud).

Who knows you may already have these books on display for this year’s TRW-  GMTA (Great minds do think alike), but if you’re game here’s a round up of some funny YA fiction for MS and HS students:

Sue Limb’s fun and funny British-flavored series that will not disappoint students in Grades 7-10-   Jess Jordan takes us through her teenage life with razor-sharp observations and deadpan humor as a Girl, 15: Charming But Insane, Girl (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture and Girl, Going on 17: Pants on Fire. The fourth Girl 15 series book, Girl, 15: Flirting for England, is due out in January 2008 and is a prequel to book one.

Fans of the Girl 15 series will also what to check out Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson’s diary series.  Georgia Nicolson, like Jess Jordan, is from Billy Shakespeare land, but her diaries include the kind of heartbreaking, embarrassing, and familiar confessions that so many Hamburger-a-gogo land dwellers already find marvey.

Neal Shusteman’s Schwa Was Here is aimed at middle school readers and while being funny teaches readers that even accidental relationships can be better than expected.  This book’s characters are so real and interesting that all readers will want to keep up with this unlikely crew and its adventures.

Tried and true favorite to make you LOL are Richard Peck’s A Long Way from Chicago and companion novel A Year Down Yonder where Joey and his sister, Mary Alice spend nine unforgettable summers with the worst influence imaginable—their grandmother!

  Girl_15_charming_but_insane_3  Angus_2 Schwa_was_here_2  A_long_way_from_chicago_2

Please visit Teen Read WeekTM website for more information and ideas.

Posted at 08:15 AM in Book Round Ups, Kelly's posts |