YA Book-to-Screen Adaptations for your Spring and Summer Radar

Adapting YA books to the screen has been a craze for several years now, and 2019 is no exception. Here are some adaptations to keep on your radar this spring and summer.

Though there’s no official release date yet, it was announced in early January that Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology and Shadow and Bone trilogy were picked up for adaptation into a single, eight-part series on Netflix. Eric Heisserer, who brought us Bird Box, is heading the project. Read about in on TVLine!

Marvel fans, rejoice! Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, hits theaters on March 7. Finally, a female-led Marvel movie! Captain Marvel will be followed by Avengers: Endgame on May 3; Dark Phoenix on June 7; Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5; and The New Mutants on August 2. All of which means it’s time for me to binge-watch the Marvel movies (again).

March 15 brings us Five Feet Apart, based on the novel by Rachel Lippincott, about two teens with cystic fibrosis who fall in love, but must stay physically apart due to the risk of spreading bacteria that might make them ineligible for life-saving lung transplants. This seems like a perfect book and movie pairing for fans of The Fault in Our Stars.

The Sun is Also a Star, adapted from Nicola Yoon’s Printz-winning novel, is coming to a theater near you on May 17 with Ry Russo-Young of Before I Fall fame directing. Nicola Yoon collaborated on the screenplay for the adaptation.

Good Omens, the series based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and the late Sir Terry Pratchett, arrives on May 31 with Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Satan. Catch it on Amazon Prime.

It may not be considered YA, but Artemis Fowl and I are old friends and the books are still going like hotcakes at my library. I’m stoked for the movie release on August 9.

And remember how scared you got reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a kid in the 1980s and ‘90s? If the movie adaptation is anywhere near as creepy as those original illustrations, I’ll definitely want to watch with the lights on when the movie drops on August 9.

What movies are you excited to catch this summer? What movies are you planning to show for teens at your library? Tell us in the comments!

 

Perpetual Desk Calendars

The beginning of the year is a great time to do a calendar craft. Last year I did the Pinterest classic paint chip calendar, which was fun, but fairly labor intensive for my teens. I wanted to do something a bit lower maintenance this year. After some more Pinterest hunting, I came across this desk calendar from Martha Stewart:

These looked super cute, and fairly simple, but still a little to complicated (and pricey!) for my teens. We didn’t have time to use paint, and screwing hooks into basswood seemed like a bit much from my middle school regulars.

I did some brainstorming and decided that in lieu of wood and screws, I would simply use cork tiles and push pins. I already had plenty of those in my craft stash from previous programs. For decorating, instead of using paint, I pulled out duct tape (washi tape didn’t adhere well to the cork), and some fine-tipped markers. I bought stencils with letters and numbers in different fonts that the teens could use to write their months and dates.

Complete supply list:

• Cork board tiles (I used 12”x12” tiles that I then cut in half horizontally)
• Push pins
• Assorted duct tape
• Fine-tipped markers
• Stencils (I used these from Amazon)
• Paper gift tags. Each teen will need 26. (I bought a couple packs of these from Amazon)

Steps:

1. Let teens make borders with duct tape on their cork board if desired.

2. Hand out paper tags and let teens start writing. The first column should have all 12 months, the second column should have tags for 0-3, and the third column should have tags for 0-9. (Note: This step took a surprisingly long time. I was shocked by how many of my middle school kids didn’t know the correct order of the months of the year! Our meeting space has a whiteboard and I had to write them all up on the board!)

3. Hand out push pins and let teens attach all of their tags in each column.

 

Overall, this was a pretty simple and affordable craft that kept the teens busy. They loved being able to customize their calendars with different duct tape and stencil options, and they were all proud once they’d finished. This is definitely a project I’ll try again in the future.

Run your own March Madness Bracket: YA Character Smackdown.

Last year in the lull of cold wintertime, I  decided to create a march madness bracket between YA lit characters. After realizing the scale of work I was undertaking I offered up the program to four other branches in our district.  With them on board we were able to launch our passive program that started in the last week of February and finished up that same week of the NCAA National Championship.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1W7V1oa1zBGyX3o4bqwKV_BkjXYgk1vEx?usp=sharing

All the files I created are uploaded into google drive and most can be opened with Microsoft publisher.

I started the process in mid January and it was a sprint to gather up everything for the event but there were few things that were helpful.

 

1. I gathered characters for the brackets from multiple teen librarians across our system.
2. I was able to get funding for a Grand Prize (Kindle fires were on sale for that week)
3. I did a lot of hand sells in week one, tempting kids two win the grand prize.
4. After the initial voting period I also got another prize for kids to enter into a prize drawing.  Every time they submitted a ballot their name was entered into the drawing.  This helped kids who arrived late or made (terrible) Choices (no Jackson Artemis Fowl is not going to go all the way.) that kept them out of winning in the later rounds.

 

So for this bracket use the google drive.

1. Create your list of Characters
2. Print off a Giant Poster with the Brackets and dates. I divided up the regions with some silliness.
3. Print off your ballots
4. Print off the Brochures. there are ones for each region. If you add new characters replace and create a new bio.
5. Print off a leader board. Points for founds increased each round. Round 1 a right answer is worth 1 pt, Round 2=2pts, Round 3=4pts, Round 4=8points, Round 5=16 points…etc
6. Set out new ballots every week, and watch a harry potter character win…I mean err… Well probably a Harry Potter Character will win?

Overall this was a great passive program and with most the ground work done with a little printing a prize (even if it’s just bragging rights) you can set this up in your branch fairly quickly.

 

Excited about How to Train Your Dragon 3?

If (like me) you and your patrons are super excited for the release of How to Train Your Dragon 3 on February 22, you could use some great dragon YA books to help hold you over!! Also to help you through your HtTYD withdrawal once you’ve seen it! Here are some titles that I think Toothless would wholeheartedly approve of:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

“Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?”

Book one in The Inheritance Cycle this is a fan favorite, this one is a great re-read, as well as a wonderful introduction to YA or dragons! If you have read this one (and the rest of the series already), be sure to check out the newest collection of short stories The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm.

 

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

“Mathematical dragons in an alternative-medieval world to fantasy and science-fiction readers of all ages.”

The first book in a duology, Seraphina brings a whole new take on dragons. Readers of historical fiction and fantasy will both enjoy this one, as well as those that are looking for unique world building. The winner of the Morris Award, it won’t take you long to see why readers love this world of dragons.

 

Talon by Julie Kagawa

“To take her rightful place in the Talon organization, young dragon Ember Hill must prove she can hide her true nature and blend in with humans.”

If you are looking for a dragon book with a romantic twist, look no further than the talon series. Julie Kagawa is a true dragon expert, and even makes adorable polymer dragons in her spare time! This book will have you clamoring for the rest of the series.

 

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

“Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London.”

This is a wonderful adult science fiction/fantasy novel that will appeal to teens! In this unique world dragons walk among people, but you never know who might be one. As they vary from world to world, you might not expect what type of dragon you’ll meet. Along with other supernatural creatures, this book is a fantasy lover’s dream.

 

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

“Twelve-year-old Eon has been in training for years. His intensive study of Dragon Magic, based on East Asian astrology, involves two kinds of skills: sword-work and magical aptitude. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye–an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. ”

In this world where girls are forbidden to practice Dragon Magic, a young girl must risk everything in order to achieve her dream. A beautifully imagined, original novel, this has characters and dragons that will have readers avidly turning the pages.

 

(All quotes from Goodreads.com)

 

What are some of your favorite dragon reads?

Harry Potter Yule Ball – After Hours Program

What’s better than Harry Potter? Honestly, not a whole lot in my opinion. To try make it even better though, we made it a dress up party after hours for our teens and they LOVED IT. We had 38 of the 43 registered attend!!

This was the second year that we did a Harry Potter dedicated after hours event. I’m the resident HP expert in the branch and so I was over the moon when it was a success and my department wanted to do it again. This year though, we thought it would be way more fun to make it the Yule Ball so that our teens could get all dressed up for the night if they wanted to. And dress up they did! With the exception of all but maybe 4, everyone dressed up in either fandom garb or actual fancy dress. My coworkers and I also wore fancy dress – we kept it very cheap and went to the thrift stores to find some hidden gems for a great price (Check out the lovely glitter raindrops on my dress).

We started advertising our event a few months before it was to happen so that our teens had plenty of time to register, get their outfits figured out, and to spread the word. We also had so many teens that have never come to programs before, show up. There were several 16/17 year olds in attendance as well, which was fantastic because our core group of teens is usually 10-14. The older teens really seemed to enjoy themselves and got really into the dressing up.

Planning the activities was so much fun and rather easy, as we used many from the year before. Our activities included:

• Sorting – we made pins of all 4 houses and stuck them in our Sorting Hat. We then had all the teens line up, then I would pick a pin out of the hat and shout out their House. After everyone was sorted, they could swap out their pins for their respective houses if they got one they didn’t like/identify with.
• Wand Making – we used chopsticks that we collected from restaurants, hot glue guns (yes we trust our teens!), and brown paint. We had two tables for this – one for the hot glue part, and the second table for painting and drying.

• Pin the Scar on Harry Potter – we printed out Harry’s face and scar and laminated it. Then we printed red lightning bolts and threw some double sided tape on them. I wrote each teen’s name on the scars before they stuck it up so that we knew which belonged to which person. We blindfolded them and spun them a few times and then they would stick up their scar.

• 

 

• Bean Boozled – You can’t do a HP party without Bertie Botts! We luckily found party packs that contained 25 individual small bags each (at Ross of all places) so it was really easy to divvy out!

• • 
• Scavenger Hunt – We created golden snitches using gold Christmas ornaments, glitter, and wings. We then hung them up all over the library. 8 of them had letters on them to spell out HOGWARTS. We created a list of clues that our teens had to figure out so that they could find all the letters. They loved this! Their prize for finishing was a piece of gum. Sadly some of our teens couldn’t eat it (braces/dietary restrictions) so next year we are going to find a better prize that isn’t food related.
• Raffle – towards the end of the program, we passed out raffle tickets. Our items included 3D printed items like the castle, deathly hallows symbol and a snitch. We also had two copies of Cursed Child and one of Tales of Beedle the Bard that were donated.

• Food – we can’t have a party without food! We got an assortment of items and gave them all names from the books/movies: butterbeer (cream soda/soda), hufflepuffs (cheetos), broomsticks (pretzels), ice mice (marshmallows), chocolate (dementor’s kisses), and chips (crisps). We let the teens each go through once to get food, then the rest was just up for grabs. As expected, they devoured all of it.

 

Last year’s activities also included:

• Quidditch – we set up carts with hula hoops on them and had many small balls for them to use. We had a bouncy ball that someone would throw in at random to serve as the snitch. We started out with a set list of rules, but the teens took over and made it into their own game and they loved it. We didn’t keep it this year because of the formal dress, we knew it wouldn’t be doable.
• Scarves – we had printed out blank scarves on card stock for them to color. Most found this boring so we didn’t repeat it.
• Lightning Bolt Tattoos- we ordered these from Oriental Trading. They also weren’t too thrilled with this, so we didn’t bring it back. We are considering using them as the prize for the scavenger hung next year instead of food.

Have you ever done a Harry Potter party? Do you have ideas that would be awesome for one? Let us know in the comments!

What if?

One of the most motivating things for me is remembering how much I’ve grown from the fresh school librarian I was six years ago, starting out in a charter school that hadn’t had a library program before. As my school works through an expansion project that could potentially result in the creation of a new library program, I’ve been conducting a bit of a thought experiment.

What if I could start over again at my library or somewhere else but under similar circumstances? What have I learned? What would I most definitely do again? What choices would I not repeat? What would I do differently from day 1?

I would still be sure to:

• Teach as many research classes as possible, aiming to work with every student in the school in a meaningful instructional way each year. Being able to chart a program that reaches every student is one of the advantages of a relatively small school (about 700 students in grades 5-12), of course!
• Be an integral part of the instructional technology staff.
• Send regular newsletters to faculty
• Use student staff or volunteers in some capacity to help with a sense of ownership.

What I’d do differently:

• Build relationships with administrators sooner. It’s taken six years to get to the point where I can self-advocate the way I should have in the first few months.
• Run more school-wide or family reading events and try to work on author visits.
• Start out with better promotion of the program to our full community (fundraising with our development coordinator, for example).
• Set up more organized collection maintenance policies and structures. While I’ve learned a lot about collection maintenance as I go and it’s hard at the beginning to do everything all at once in a new space, I’d be thrilled to use what I know to do better next go around.
• Try to figure out a self-circulation system that really works. Unfortunately, our LMS isn’t that user-friendly, so it’s better to have trained staff for all of the time school is open.
• I’d recruit like-minded faculty to work in the library during their planning periods and help with the library culture from day 1. We have an open library policy but a small building, so in some years the library has had a very lounge vibe. That would be ok, but again, small building, so small library, and many students and faculty truly are looking for a workspace (your context may vary!).

I would not:

• Decide to circulate laptops every period of the school day as a solo librarian without dedicated professional circulation staffing. The 30 laptops we circulate have created many logistical challenges around my teaching. It was my idea to circulate laptops in the library to generate engagement and traffic, but I didn’t think through the challenges of needing to staff the circulation desk while I was trying to teach classes.

These are just the starts of my lists as I think through the challenges that might come if I started over. What about you? What would you be sure to do or not do if you could start again in your library?

YA Books with Low or No Romance

Every February, romance novels get a lot of promotion: in library displays, booklists, at bookstores, and all over social media. It’s no secret that romance is a huge part of YA, and for some teens, that’s the best part! But, there’s also an equal amount of teens who don’t want to read romance, and that is just as valid. I always remind the teens at my library that they should never feel embarrassed or shameful about what they like to read— my job as a teen librarian is to help connect them with the books that they’ll love, no matter what genre those books are.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find YA novels that are romance-free. Even ones outside of the traditional definition of the romance genre, like science-fiction, horror, mystery, or fantasy, often have romantic sub-plots, crushes, or romance subtext. I’ve had teens who want absolutely no romance as well as ones who are fine with a tiny bit of romance so long as it’s not the central plot. Today, I’m sharing a brief list of go-to reading recommendations for both types of readers.

Books are in alphabetical order by author’s last name; titles link to the books’ respective Goodreads pages.

 

Books with No Romance

These novels are romance-free and focused on a variety of topics across genres.

“Contagion” by Erin Bowman, 2018; science fiction, horror

“The Girl from the Well” by Rin Chupeco, 2014; horror, paranormal

“Long way Down” by Jason Reynolds, 2017; contemporary, verse/poetry

“Jackaby” by William Ritter, 2014; fantasy, mystery, historical

“Challenger Deep” by Neal Shusterman, 2015; contemporary/realistic

“The Cheerleaders” by Kara Thomas, 2018; mystery/thriller

“Piecing Me Together” by Renée Watson, 2017; contemporary/realistic

“Quiver” by Julia Watts, 2018; contemporary/realistic

“Code Name Verity” by Elizabeth Wein, 2012; historical

“Spill Zone” by Scott Westerfield & Alex Pullivan, 2017; graphic novel, science fiction

 

Books with Low Romance 

These novels may have very minor romantic sub-plots, brief scenes of romance, or make mentions of crushes or romantic relationships. Romance is not the central plot, but it is mentioned somewhere in the novel.

“Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo, 2015; fantasy

“You Don’t Know Me But I Know You” by Rebecca Barrow, 2017; contemporary/realistic

“Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now” by Dana L. Davis, 2018; contemporary/realistic

“500 Words or Less” by Juleah del Rosario, 2018; verse/poetry, contemporary/realistic

“On the Edge of Gone” by Corrine Duyvis, 2016; science fiction/dystopian

“Dread Nation” by Justina Ireland, 2018; historical, horror, fantasy

“Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany D. Jackson, 2018; contemporary/realistic

“Sawkill Girls” by Claire Legrand, 2018; horror, fantasy

“Nyxia” by Scott Reintgen, 2017; science fiction

“All of This Is True” by Lygia Day Peñaflor, 2018; mystery

 

This is by no means all the books out there! Do you have any other YA recommendations with low or no romance? Feel free to share them with us!

 

Reader vs Reader: Internment

Welcome to Reader vs. Reader.  Two librarians who have read the same book will discuss it critically.  They may agree, agree on certain points, or completely disagree.  RvR will challenge your reading comfort zone and dig deeply into the text to find potential problems or subtle brilliance.  And maybe both.  

In January, Andrea and Pam both read Internment by Samira Ahmed 

[book-info]

The Quick Reactions:

Pam: I didn’t think it would be this hard for me. Overall I’d say a thumbs up BUT I have some serious issues, mostly with the first half. But also with Jake.	Andrea: I mainly thumbs up. It’s an overall story that could terrifyingly be true, but it’s not without its faults. There’s a lot of melodramatic scenes that kind of take away from the book.

Snippet of our conversation (Warning: spoilers everywhere!):

Spruce Up your Teen Space: LED EDITION

Hello Friends,

So before the chill of winter set in, my manager asked me to build a branch shadow box to act as a fun display piece for winter.

The one on the right actually. But have it be free standing…and a little thicker. 

Being semi handy with building things, and any chance to flex some creative muscles is one i tend to take. I became quite excited at the idea of replicating this but I also began to search for shadow boxes and became slightly obsessed with the idea of creating something for my teen area.

There is a lot of amazing shadow boxes out there they run between oh that’s cool but too simple…and

THAT’S THE MOST INSANELY COOL AWESOME ART THING WHY AM I NOT CRAFTIER!!!!

Knowing what I created would be somewhere in between.  I decided I would do a silhouette or sorts.  It seemed feasible and not terribly expensive.

I then went onto amazon and purchased these items in order to create some sweet shadowy things.

My first goal was to create a fun light up sign for my Teen Area. We call our teen events teen zones and that seemed like a logical place to start.  I specifically chose an LED pack with a plug as  apposed to battery as I didn’t want to be constantly replacing or rechargeable batteries or . I bought the transparency sheets to use as a backing in order to give it a fun colored sign.

I then went on Microsoft publisher and Created this fairly simple design.  I decided I was going to use red and blue transparencies.

I enlarged the REVERSED image to fit the 20″ x 30″ foam board printed it off on 4 11×17 page papers and then pasted them on.

1. Using the carving knife I removed the areas that were red and blue.
2. Using painters tape and pasted the transparencies onto the foam board and had the front cover.
3. I cut 2, 1″ x 30″ pieces and 1-1″by just under 20″ pieces.
4. With a hot glue gun I glued these smaller pieces to create the frame of the box.
5. Then glued and taped the LED light strips to the box and plugged it in and Boom!

 

Below is a fun video link…

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jHsC14ajwmDrgBBNA

Now I would have loved to have included some step by step pictures as visually that is way way way more helpful but…..I wasn’t thinking…which happens often and so here is my second project.

Newly confident in my foam board carving and excited to use these newly acquired skills for another project I decided to go after a little more complex project. My desire was to try something a little more complex and up the cool.  And because of the sheer amount of artistic options to choose from I chose Harry Potter as the theme of my new sign.

The first thing I did was Google “Harry Potter Stencils for pumpkins”

I then opened up Microsoft Publisher and created a page size of 20″x30″ and created the document I wanted.

 

After REVERSING the image and printing it off on 4 separate 11×17 pages.  I glued it to the foam board using a glue stick.

After the Gluing was finished.  I began to start carving out the pieces.

Pro-Tip: Start with the small delicate pieces first.  Cut them out but do not remove the pieces until later. This will help keep things stable as there will be a lot of cutting and tearing.

Pro-Tip: Use a sharp blade,  I changed the blade four times for this project.  If it gets dull it will cut poorly and so will the results be.

The lightening bolt on Harry’s face was small and delicate. I made sure to cut this area first

After a bit of work and lots of time spent punching the pieces out and trying my best not to have too many tears in the foam board it looked like this!

The next step I took was to apply wax paper to the back of the foam board in order to evenly dispense the light from the LED strips.

Cutting the paper this way made sure to avoid seams in visible areas.

After gluing the wax paper, I had the front of my sign finished and it was time to build the box.

 

1. I cut 2 ~ 2″ x 30″ strips and 1~ 2″x20″ strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Then using a hot glue gun I glued the strips to a new backing.

 

 

 

 

 

3.You can purchase LED light strips that have adhesive backings and so I removed the backing just applied it to the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Using some painters table I sealed off the connections and taped the cords to the inside edge piece. I also added poster board to the backing so that it would be more reflective of the LED lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. After gluing the front onto the frame I added two holes on the tops of either side and threaded cord through and then glued around the area in order to be able to hang the sign.

 

 

 

 

 

And here it is!

 

PRO TIP: Be sure to test your LEDs to make sure they work and by using hot glue instead of super glue you have the option of reheating the glue to make any repairs.  Also make sure you don’t buy the cheapest LEDs.

 

These were the ones I created following the Harry potter project.

 

 

P.S. Humblebrag: Here are the shadow boxes that my manager asked me to build.

 

What to do when your Book Discussion fails

When I started at my new library I was excited to be leading a monthly book discussion. My previous library only did book discussions in the summer and my thought was to be doing it monthly must mean high interest, right?

Wrong! I have lead three discussions as of this post and I wouldn’t exactly call them a success.

My first discussion in October, I had two boys attend. One of which did not read the book and the second only read the first two chapters. Since we couldn’t discuss the book, I just forgot about it and instead I let them take control and share what they have read and enjoyed with me.

In November, I had one girl who only read about ⅓ of the book.

For December’s, I had one girl (who was not from the month before) who signed up late and only read about ¼ of the book. Both months, I talked about what I could with each girl. It was hard because the second was a mystery but she was definitely intrigued to finish the book.

It was disappointing month after month to not be able to fully discuss the books I carefully chose to discuss with teens. The important thing to remember if this happens to you is to not let it get you down. Discuss what you can of the book with who shows, and/or discuss what they just like to read.

What I discovered though, is that something different needs to be done. The book discussions for January, February and March were planned before I discovered what low attendance I was having and I am willing to keep consistency for the Spring but I am definitely looking to revamp after summer.

How may you ask?

Step 1: Reduce – Yes, we are libraries and books are our thing but a monthly discussion can be to much for teens. Between school, homework, school sports and clubs and other extracurricular activities, teens reading time is limited and would likely prefer to read what they really want to.  Instead, make discussions either bi-monthly or once a season. You can always add more for summer if you like.

Step 2: Best time to schedule – Like I said, teens are busy. Schedule book discussions either the week of or week after a school break or long weekend. Time off from school allows more time for teens to get in reading and therefore more likely to complete and attend the book discussion.

Step 3: Audio books – Try selecting a book that is available in audio format from your library. This allow teens who walk to & from school or can’t read on the bus to take in the story you selected. They can also listen while doing other things such as getting ready for school and cleaning their rooms.

Step 4: Snacks – If you don’t already supply snacks you should. Teens are always more likely to come if free food is offered. Offers first dibs to those who finished the book.

Step 5: Get the teens who come involved in the planning – Chose a selection (no more than 3 or 4) and let the teens who are attending the current meeting vote for the next book or the one after depending on your library. At my library we put the titles in the newsletter so I may have to have them vote for the one after. Having teens select a book they are interested in means they are more likely attend.

Another Option: Instead of choosing a book, choose a genre or theme. Let’s say you pick Fantasy or Road Trip Novels. Have the teens select a book that meets the genre or theme for the discussion (have recommendations available) and then let them book talk what they read. With this teens are more likely to read a book they are interested in and may even walk away with some titles to add to their TBR list. 

Just remember what works for one library may not work for another. Maybe you will want to alternate between everybody reading one book and everybody reading the game genre or theme. You may also need to revamp every couple of years as teens age out and new teens age in.

Whatever you do, don’t give up on your book discussions!