This is appealing to me as a teacher. I wish I had known about books like this a few years ago. I had a student that was obsesed with drawing manga and this would of been a great way to reach her. I always found Shakespeare confusing and I can really appreciate how the picture tell most of the story. (plus its manga so the kids just think its cool) This wasn’t as overdramatic as the other manga I’ve read and I’m not sure if it was because it wasn’t a typical manga story or another reason. I don’t know if kids would care about that or even notice but I know that its one of the things that bothered people in class, as well as myself, about manga.

Body Type is a great book to just pick up and flip through. Having books like this around on tables in a library, coffee shop, classroom will tempt teens to pick them up and read. this is great for a reluctant reader or just someone who is more visual.

The smurfs of course….. I never thought of it that way but I guess its a good analogy. I found myself wondering how old Felicia was the whole time I read this book. Judeing by the music she listens to and the shows she watches I would think we are about the same age. In my opinion teens are drawn to this book for “shock value”. This book is so different from their real life (hopefully). There are some teens who’s lives are similar to Felicia’s unfortunately and they may read this book for that reason. To know that there is someone else like them out there who has succeed and turned around. My students seamed very interested in this book while I was reading it. They kept asking me about it. What was it about? Why I was reading it? Who was the girl on the cover? They asked to read the back. Last friday when no one had home work to do in study hall, I asked them to pull out a book to read. One student asked if she could read my book then another and another asked so I offered to read it to them. I had never seen a bunch of middle schoolers listen so intently. After that I couldn’t keep their hands off it in study hall so I gave up on reading in school. I asked a few if they liked the book and why. One of the boys told me “its just so different, we read stuff like red fern in school, not stuff like this”. The sixth grade just started reading Where the Red Fern Grows. Its a great book, the students really enjoy it, but come on their parents read it too. Even the short story they just finished, Ricky Ticky Tavi, is old. They are not exposed to new books in school. Im not sure if its because the teachers have been using that book for years and just don’t want to change their plans or routine. Whatever the reason, I wish they would mix in some of the new. Before I left (my last day was today) I made sure that the study hall took a trip to the library, where we browsed, and I made a few suggestions. I also explained the catalog and the interlibrary loan system. They were amazed that they could get basically any book they wanted about anything at their school library. The librarian is great but I just don’t think she has the time

Guess what! Hollywood is making My Sister’s Keeper into a movie! http://www.jodipicoult.com/ Now you can all go see it and see how great it is (but read the book first). Production just started so it won’t be for a while. Unfortunately they want to change the ending so email these guys and tell them thats not cool! MarkJohnson: mark@granviaprod.com Toby Emmerich: toby.emmerich@newline.com  If you cant wait to see a Picoult on screen (like me) then tune in to Lifetime sometime in June for  The Tenth Circle.  

         I grew up in Enfield Connecticut and yes I spent a lot of time in the public library. Whenever I think about working at a library (one day) this is the one I think about. I stopped in one day after work a few weeks ago to talk to the teen librarian about what teens read and maybe get a few suggestions and a few books for my book chat. Enfield was (when I lived there) a regular old town. Now It seams to be getting really big, or maybe its just me getting older. Back in the 1990 the town library was renovated to include a big beautiful children’s’ room and a decent teen room. When I used the library as a teen we had a shelf. I never imagined the amount of books they have now. They also rarely had events, never any for teens. Now they have all sorts of neat book chats and things going on. (no gaming tho) The librarian that I spoke to was very helpful, suggesting books on my lists that teens read and that they had available. So I filled up my official Enfield Public Library book bag with an assortment of goodies for the teens to flip through. 

         I had my sister call up a bunch of her friends and tell them to meet us at Friendly’s with the promise of soda, ice cream and french fries. I had some books for them to look at and a form for them to fill out. Lets just say my sister has a wide variety of friends. There was a giggly girl, a dark and greasy guy, who brought his older brother (fresh from a school expulsion), a classmate from the Hartford Academy of Arts and a boy who used to play guitar in jazz band with her. In all there was 2 girls and 3 boys ages 14 to 18. I passed around the books I had brought asking if anyone was interested in reading them. The collection I had borrowed from the local library consisted of non-fiction and fiction books from the YALSA Best Books list and the Quick Picks list. I also brought some of the books that I had from class. None of the teens had read the books I had brought but I did see some page flipping and even a glance or two at the back covers. So I asked if anyone was interested in the books I had brought. I got a lot of maybes, a few yeses and an “I don’t read”.

         So I asked the teens (even the one who doesn’t read) what kind of books they like. One of the girls said that she liked to read books about vampires, the other girl (my sister) said she likes to read books that other people recommend and anything else that looks interesting. One of the boys said he likes to read about different societies in different countries. I found that interesting and rather mature for a teen. The boy who didn’t read admitted that he reads graphic novels. and the last boy said he really enjoys science fiction. Unfortunately no one seemed ultra interested in the books I brought but I asked them what draws them to a book and makes them want to read it. Some said they like to look at the cover and some said they read the back. The giggly girl said that she won’t buy a book that doesn’t have a summary in it. The boy from Jazz band actually sits down and reads a few pages. If it doesn’t get him right away he puts it back on the shelf. At that point I passed out and explained the reading logs. When I was satisfied that everyone understood, I made sure everyone had a ride home (or to the mall because some of them were going to hang out after).

            A few days later when I got all the logs back I talked with them again. I asked for the second time how much they read and their answers were different. The brother who didn’t read realized he did a lot of reading, just not in books. The other teens realized they did a lot of reading for school that they didn’t even think of as reading before. I realized that teens have a broader reading interests then I previous thought (broader then even the teen librarian thought). I also learned that Im not particularly good at picking out a stack of books that teens will read. Altho my sister has borrowed quite a few of them since the book chat, but we always had similar interests.