Tag: Reader’s Advisory

Hearts for All – A Romance Booklist

Love is in the air!

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Kagome and Inuyasha denying the attraction via giphy

A booklist on romance, relationships, and friendship! Recommended for 6th – 12th graders. 

Non-Fiction:
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Chapman, Gary. Teen’s Guide to the 5 Love Languages. Includes a straightforward guide on the 5 love languages and practical tips for how to apply each language in a teen’s context.

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Eastham, Chad. The Truth about Breaking Up, Making Up, & Moving On. Explains why some people find happiness and others heartache, when to break up and when to make up. A Christian faith-based relationship guide.

Fiction:

Albertalli, Becky. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical but when his secret is at risk of being exposed, Simon must decide what to do about a cute guy and his friends.

Cass, Kiera. The Siren. Forced to work as a Siren and lure strangers to their deaths after being rescued from drowning by the Ocean, Kahlen falls in love with a human and defies the rules of her service in order to follow her heart.

Nakano, Hitori. Train Man: The Novel or Densha Otoko. An instant bestseller when it was first published in Japan, Train Man became a multimedia sensation, generating a smash-hit TV series, a blockbuster film, and multiple manga series. Now here’s the novel that started it all.

Niven, Jennifer. Holding Up the Universe. A boy with face blindness and a girl who struggles with weight fall in love.

Silvera, Adam. History Is All You Left Me. Secrets are revealed as OCD-afflicted Griffin grieves for his first love, Theo, who died in a drowning accident.

Yoon, Nicola. Everything Everything. A girl confined to her house by rare and profound allergies falls hopelessly in love with her new neighbor, in a story told through vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists and illustrations.

Popular YA Romance Series:

  • Anna and the French Kiss series by Stephanie Perkins
  • To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series by Jenny Han
  • A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori (Graphic Novel)
  • The Glittering Court series by Richelle Mead
  • Honey So Sweet series by Amu Meguro (Graphic Novel)
  • If I Stay series by Gayle Forman
  • Kamisama Kiss by Julietta Suzuki (Graphic Novel)
  • The Selection series by Kiera Cass
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han

Popular YA Romance Authors:

  • Jenny Han
  • Rachel Cohn
  • Maurene Goo
  • Rainbow Rowell
  • Sarah Dessen
  • Kami Garcia
  • Deb Caletti
  • Kiera Cass
  • Aylson Noel
  • Stephanie Perkins
  • David Leviathan
  • Richelle Mead
  • Nicola Yoon

Compiled from Novelist and Amazon.

Every Dog Has Its Day – A Dog Booklist

I made a dog-theme booklist for work and want to share!

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Cute dog via giphy

A booklist on everything dogs! Recommended for 6th – 12th graders. 

Browse these non-fiction sections for more:
Dog Breeds: 636.7 or 636.71

Non-Fiction:
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Krämer, Eva-Maria. Get to Know Dog Breeds: The 200 Most Popular Breeds. Discusses the appearance, origin, and temperament of more than two hundred dog breeds categorized into groups according to the tasks they were original bred for, including herding dogs, hunting dogs, sled dogs, lap dogs, and more.

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Dainty, Suellen. 50 Games to Play with your Dog. Discover games that are both easy to teach and fun for your canine pal. The book includes challenging mental games for indoors as well as stimulating physical games for outside the home. Learn ideas for group games that are ideal for multi-dog households and doggy play dates.

Dogs in Fiction:
Ando, Yuma. Sherlock Bones. After adopting a dog, Takeru discovers that his new pet is the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes, and that he himself must act as Dr. Watson and help his canine solve crimes.

Cameron, W. Bruce. A Dog’s Journey. Believing that he has achieved his purpose throughout several eventful lives, Buddy the dog is drawn to a vibrant but troubled teen who he struggles to help when they are separated.

London, Jack. Call of the Wild. The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch Shepherd, that was kidnapped and shipped off to Alaska to work on the Klondike Gold Rush. Buck the dog quickly learns how to survive in the wild and also learns the call of the wolf.

London, Jack. White Fang. The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog who is part wolf and how he comes to make his peace with man.

King, Stephen. Cujo. A family’s two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard is transformed by rabies and the insidious guidance of demonic forces into a terrifying monster.

Murakami, Takashi. Stargazing Dog. Fed up with his down-and-out life, Daddy sets out in his car to just get away from it all to nowhere in particular. His family and friends have abandoned him. The one companion he can count on completely, his dog, follows him blindly and faithfully to the end.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. A satire on totalitarianism in which farm animals overthrow their human owner and set up their own government.

Reichs, Kathy. Virals. Tory Brennan is the leader of a band of teenage ‘sci-philes’ who live on an island off the coast of South Carolina and when the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever.

Sakuragi, Yukiya. Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs. When eighteen-year-old Suguri moves from the countryside to the big city to find a career and a new life, she lands her first job at a pet store and meets an assortment of quirky dogs and even stranger owners.

(GN for Graphic Novel) Compiled from Novelist and Amazon.

Crime and Thrillers

I’m currently on a true crime/crime fiction binge. I recently finished the Netflix original series “Mindhunter” and am halfway done with John Douglas’ book. I started looking into True Crime for  YA but couldn’t find much (will need to exercise more on this) so I made a post with a mix of YA Crime and Thrills.

  • The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller The gruesome murders of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother made headlines in the late 1800s. The suspect in the murders is daughter Lizzie, whose alibi is seriously put into question. Narrated like a novel, it makes it hard to believe this was a real crime. The research that went into this book includes pictures, newspaper reports, and interviews (a hallmark of many a crime book). Did she do it?
  • Monster by Walter Dean Myers monster
    An award-winning book (Coretta Scott King Award, Michael L. Printz Award, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature) and a classic in it’s own right. At sixteen, Steve is held in a juvenile detention hall awaiting trial for the murder of a drugstore owner. He is an aspiring filmmaker, thus writing his story like a screenplay. It is unclear what Steve’s role was in the murder gone afoul. In-between his screenplay are journal entries that show a raw look at a teen suffering through doubt and fear for his life.
  • One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
    A group of teens enter detention. One doesn’t make it out alive. Follow the clues and motives, find who killed the creator of Bayview High’s gossip app. You get the stereotypes of each teen (homecoming queen, jock, the brain, the criminal) in detention and what they have to lose if exposed to their social circles. Why go the whole nine yards and kill the outcast? How badly did the killer want his/her secret safe?
  • Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe getting away with murder
    I am very excited to re-read this book due to a revised edition released earlier this year. Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy visiting relatives from Chicago when he was murdered for allegedly whistling at a Caucasian woman. His body was found three days later. The book weaves Till’s murder with America’s Civil Rights Movement. Revised edition includes new information by Till’s accuser which caused sensational headlines in late 2017.
  • Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
    I read this back in high school which became a guilty pleasure among the Agatha Christie novels I hungered for. Includes pictures from the Jack the Ripper Case. Cornwell did a great job framing the story however with a multitude of suspects in the Whitechapel Murders, this is but one of many to suggest who Jack the Ripper really was.
Bonus: The Stuff You Missed In History podcast is wonderful and has a few episodes on crime, suitable for history buffs at their own discretion. They do great research and narrate in a way that leaves you wanting more. Search under “Crime” to find episodes tagged. I like listening during my drives to and from work. Happy reading!

“Graphic Novels and You” Info

I figured I would make a separate post on the information regarding the brochure that was given out during the “Graphic Novels and You” panel Hillary and I hosted. I reformatted it so it fits a blog post rather than the trifold brochure. Please contact me if there are any questions!

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Photo by marguerite/Flickr

Top Recommended Graphic Novels for Your Library

  • Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi
  • Bone by Jeff Smith
  • Case Closed by Gosho Aoyama
  • The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
  • Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
  • Fables by Bill Willingham
  • Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya
  • Level Up by Gene Leung Yang
  • Maus by Art Spiegelman
  • Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu
  • Oishinbo by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
  • Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan
  • Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
  • A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima
  • Smile by Raina Telgemeier
  • The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
  • Watchmen by Alan Moore

(Note: Feedback from people who attended the panel, we should have added suggested age ratings as well as separate recommended lists for Juvenile, Teens, and Adults. This will be rectified in the future.)

Non-Fiction Books

  • Comics Confidential: 13 Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box by Leonard S. Marcus
  • 100 Greatest Graphic Novels: The Good. The Bad. The Epic. by Katrina Hill and Alex Langley
  • Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
  • Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Manga edited by Bart H. Beaty and Stephen Weiner
  • The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Graphic Novels by Francisca Goldsmith
  • Graphic Novels Core Collection edited by Kendal Spires, Gabriela Toth, and Maria Hugger

(Note: Originally the books were separated between books that were available for patrons to check out versus books that were used for reference-only/non-circulating use for library staff. I decided to put them together because shouldn’t have to be separated!)

Non-Fiction Electronic Resources

What is the Graphic Novel?

The Graphic Novel is defined as a story presented in comic-strip format and published as a book. It has many names from the East, from manga (Japan), manhua (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan), manhwa (Korea) to the general term comics in the West. Graphic Novels appeal to all ages, now a part of the popular culture that encompasses movies, novels, television shows, and politics.

Age Ratings

Many publishers have a suggested rating on each graphic novel published, oftentimes on the back of the book. As a librarian, you use your judgment, research reviews, read
the graphic novel, ask colleagues in order to determine where the Graphic Novel should be (Adult/YA/Children collections). Graphic Novels have a general rating system across the board: E for Everyone, Y for Youth (10+), T for Teen (13+), OT for Older Teen (16+), and M for Mature (18+). This is a general system and certain publishers might have a different age rating (i.e. DC Comics has 15+ for OT but but Yen Press lists 16+) so it is something to keep in mind.

Articles

Don’t Judge a Manga by Its Rating…
From YALSA’s The Hub is an article about how sometimes you need look beyond the rating to determine if a graphic novel would be a sound choice for teens.
http://tiny.cc/yalgn

Graphic Novels: A Road Map to Academic Success
From the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is an article written on the empowerment of graphic novels.
http://tiny.cc/skoolgn

How Graphic Novels Became the Hottest Section in the Library
Publisher’s Weekly released an article on Graphic Novels and “How [They] Became the Hottest Section in the Library”. For one library, graphic novels make up 10% of the collection but accounts for 35% of their circulation.
http://tiny.cc/pwgn

The People’s Comics…
School Library Journal’s article “The People’s Comics: Using the Graphic Format to Teach About Current Events” is an excellent read regarding the graphic novel’s growing presence in the classroom.
http://tiny.cc/sljgn

(Note: Originally there were QR codes which readers can scan onto their phones to read but tiny urls were also included. I took our the QR codes for this post.)

Reader’s Advisory: Advisory on the Past

Note: This isn’t an R.A. post on books about the past. I found a treasure chest and I’m currently wondering what to do with it.

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I’ve been focused on creating new booklists that I forgot about the ones that I currently have. I have a 5 inch binder full of booklists and reader’s advisory notes going back to 1986 (or more, I’m still looking through it). The archivist in me is super excited with this find! Yes, I want to keep it because hey, it could be useful in the future.

However… It is a very large binder. I haven’t used it nor have I seen others use it. Is it due to the size and weight? I’ve been keeping the booklists I’ve made in a separate binder. Seeing this, it seems redundant to have.

I’m wondering about scanning the papers and having them online but… It feels like the same as having the binder but not reading it.

I’m thinking 10 years? Maybe I’ll go with 5 years and update from there. That way the binder will be compact, light, easy to handle and with up-to-date information!

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