Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

It's that time of year again. When the weather turns (just a little bit) cooler and night comes early. When things begin going bump in the dark and you see mysterious shapes out of the corner of your eye! That's right, it's All Hallows Read!  I know it's been a year, so here's a refresher, All Hallows Read is the holiday started by my close personal friend Neil Gaiman in order to share books with people! The official day is October 31st so as you can imagine the books we share are usually scary!  You know you can come in any time to get a good book from me, but I'll be pushing really good creepy/scary books until 10/31, so be on the lookout. Below are a few to get you interested. Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thic...

A few more book suggestions to round out Teen Read Week! Looking for some creepy tales with sarcastic main characters? They're my favorite kinds too! I like a few scares, but if someone is making funny quips, I like it all the more!  Skulduggery Pleasant  When twelve-year-old Stephanie inherits her weird uncle's estate, she must join forces with Skulduggery Pleasant , an undead sorcerer and detective, to save the world from the Faceless Ones. Not only is Skulduggery hilariously sarcastic, Stephanie is also amazingly snarky- which helped me not to get too freaked out. This book is nonstop danger and adventure and I can't wait to read the rest of the series (there are 7 books so far)! Hold Me Closer, Necromancer Sam LaCroix, a Seattle fast-food worker and college dropout, discovers that he is a necromancer, part of a world of harbingers, werewolves, satyrs, and one particular necromancer who sees Sam as a threat to his lucrative business of raising th...

I know I said I would be updating you on some creepy books for Halloween and Teen Read Week, and I'm ready to start! Our first suggestion is a new series called Tales From Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman and it's called Professor Gargoyle 11-year-old Robert Arthur must vanquish Professor Gargoyle and learn the creepy origin story of the brand new Lovecraft Middle School Think of it as The Bailey School Kids series, only older and creepier! Our second suggestion is one of my favorite graphic novels of the past few years, Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel. Now I love most of TenNapel's graphic novels (I also suggest Cardboard , and Bad Island ), but Ghostopolis is definitely my favorite! Imagine Garth Hale's surprise when he's accidentally zapped to the spirit world by Frank Gallows, a washed-out ghost wrangler. Suddenly Garth finds he has powers the ghosts don't have, and he's stuck in a world run by the evil ruler of Ghostop...

Ready for a new book but not sure what you want to read? Try out YALSA(Young Adult Library Services Association)'s new mobile app Teen Book Finder (free at the Apple App store!) for some suggestions.  Each day they feature 'Hot Picks' with different books in different genres. Use the search option to browse books by title, author, genre, year, award and booklists   Once you find a book you're interested in you can favorite it to find later. Or you can find what area libraries carry the book!  Here's where things get a little confusing, once you click on the pin for a library (my pin is red because I'm at the library right now, yours will be green when you're at home) the app takes you to the OCLC webpage for the book then choose the library of your choice to be taken to that library's catalog. If you're searching the Friendswood Library you'll find that the title of the book is not a link, click on the ISBN (on the l...

That's right, as Spring approaches we gear up for March Madness again! Last the most heroic character of YA literature battled the most villainous baddies in our second annual March Madness (Voldemort somehow defeated Percy Jackson). This year we will be pitting YA genres against each other! Each week you will be asked to choose your favorite of two genres as well as your favorite book in those genres. You may vote as often as you like and we will hopefully have an online component for voting as well (both here and on the TAG facebook page !) Here's a list of the genres that will be competing: Steampunk Fantasy Dystopian Historical Fiction Realistic Fiction Horror Sci-Fi Paranormal Do you have a favorite? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! DFTBA, Sti

On Monday I revealed the Maverick Graphic Novel List for 2012-2013. Today I'm happy to introduce the Texas Lone Star List for 2012. There are some seriously good books on here! Lots of dystopias, mysteries, adventures, zombies and paranormal stuff to get excited about! Dionne, Erin. Notes from an Accidental Band Geek. Frost, Helen. Hidden . Gibbs, Stuart. Belly Up. Gidwitz, Adam. A Tale Dark and Grimm. Gier, Kerstin. Ruby Red. Hobbs, Will. Take Me to the River. Lane, Andy. Death Cloud. Maberry, Jonathan. Rot & Ruin. Monninger, Joseph. Wish. Ness, Patrick. A Monster Calls: A Novel. Oppel, Kenneth. This Dark Endeavor. Paulsen, Gary. Paintings from the Cave: Three Novellas . Roth, Veronica. Divergent. Rylander, Chris. The Fourth Stall. Schmidt, Gary D. Okay for Now. Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Stephens, John. The Emerald Atlas. Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream. White, Kiersten. Paranormalcy. Young, Moira. Blood Red Road . We already ...