Prom Book Display

It's hard to believe, but for many high schoolers prom is only a few short weeks away.  This means that teenage girls are busy finalizing their hair and makeup plans and trying on dresses, while boys are renting their tuxes and planning elaborate "promposals."  For many teens prom is a watershed rite of passages and as such, it has often been the subject of books targeted at teens. 

In honor of the upcoming festivities, I put together a display of prom-themed books in the teen area.

 
Here are a few of the titles featured:

Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson
When a faculty advisor is arrested for stealing the funds for the prom and the event is cancelled, Ashley Hannigan feels terrible for her best friend and prom-enthusiast Natalia and so comes up with a plan to get the prom back on track.

Perfectly Dateless by Kristin Billerbeck
Entering her senior year at St. James Christian Academy, Daisy has less than 200 days to look stylish, develop social skills, find the right boy for the prom, and convince her parents to let her date.

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg
This book is modern adaptation of the classic Jane Austin novel.  For Lizzie Bennett, a music scholarship student at Connecticut's exclusive, girls-only Longbourn Academy, the furor over prom is senseless.  Even more puzzling is her attraction to the pompous Will Darcy, best friend of her roommate's boyfriend.

Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin
Feeling humiliated and confused when his best friend Tessa rejects his prom invitation and comes out of the closet, high school senior Luke must decide if he should stand by Tessa when she invites a female date to the prom, sparking controversy in their small Indiana town.

21 Proms edited by David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft
A full spectrum of good dates, bad dates, unexpected dates, and more is covered in 21 stories from a range of YA authors, including Jacqueline Woodson, Holly Black, Melissa de la Cruz, E. Lockhart, and Leslie Margolis.

Captain Underpants Display

Recently we decided to replace all of our well-worn Captain Underpants books with brand new, shiny, clean copies.  Since we're likely to never again have them all in one place at the same time, we thought it was a good time to do a fun display:

 

I giggle every time I walk past the display.  Wouldn't you?

All underpants displayed here are brand new, but will eventually go home to certain staff people's husbands. 

Gaming Trophies

Not long ago I hosted a Wii gaming event for kids of all ages.  We spent two hours playing Mario Kart and Wii Sports resort.  I've done this sort of event before with great success, but this time I added a new twist to the program.  In the back of our storage closet I found a box of small plastic trophies we had purchased from Oriental Trading for a long-forgotten reason. 

I set the trophies out at the gaming event.  When the kids asked about the trophies I told them that I would decide who got a trophy and when.  They might get one for winning the game they were playing, for example, but I would give trophies for other things too.  It was all up to me!  The kids were somewhat intrigued by this and constantly come running to me to brag about their accomplishments.  Many of these involved winning:  Long winning streaks (or thwarting long winning streaks!), perfect scores, etc.  But there were other achievements too, such as helping a younger child learn to play the games or organizing a rotation system so that everyone could get a turn to play.

Over the course of the afternoon I found a reason to reward every child who attended the program with a trophy.  The highlight of my afternoon came at the end of the day when one of the older kids saw that, miraculously enough, I only had one trophy left in my box.  He took the trophy, handed it to me, and told me that I could keep it because I was the best at setting up the gaming program.  Isn't that sweet?

Label added by yours truly after the fact.

But kids aren't simply sweet.  Sometimes they say the darndest things.  Over the course of the afternoon I was able to show off my own gaming skills by competing with the kids in attendance.  After schooling a couple of fifth-grade boys at Mario Kart one of them turned to me, patted me on the shoulder, and said:

"You're pretty good for an old person."

I didn't know if I should take that as a compliment or as an insult!  When I posed the question to the boy he actually thought about it for a moment before telling me that he wasn't sure either.

Across the Universe

Amy's parents, who have military and science backgrounds, are selected to help build a new colony on Centauri-Earth.  Unfortunately, the trip through outer space will take about 300 years, so Amy and her parents are cryogenically frozen along with 97 other passengers for the duration of the journey.  But when Amy is woken up fifty years too early it soon becomes clear that life aboard the Godspeed isn't at all what she would have expected.  Was Amy's awakening really an accident?  Soon it becomes clear that someone is trying to murder the other passengers who lie frozen in the ship's cargo hold, and only Amy cares enough to try to solve the mystery.  As Amy races to unlock Godspeed's secrets she encounters Elder, a teenage boy who is destined to become the leader of the ship's crew.  Is Elder Amy's greatest ally...or does he deserve a spot on her list of suspects?

Beth Revis' Across the Universe is one of the best science fiction reads I've encountered for the teen audience in quite some time.  There is some romance, but rather than dwelling on it as so many teen reads seem to do, this book does what science fiction does best:  It explores the human condition.  The story is narrated in alternating perspectives by Amy and Elder, so readers really get to see both sides of the story and the individual biases that form the basis of these characters' opinions.  This book has mystery, intrigue, a fascinating setting, and interesting characters.  What more can you ask for? 

Overall Grade:  A


But the story doesn't stop there!

In A Million Suns, Elder is now the leader of the Godspeed and is ready to enact his vision of what life on the ship could be like.  Unfortunately, his reign isn't going as smoothly as he had hoped.  While Elder has the beginnings of a rebellion in his hands, he and Amy learn that there are even more mysteries to be uncovered on Godspeed.  As they put together the pieces of the puzzle, Amy and Elder soon make a startling discovery...

In the final volume, Shades of Earth, Amy and Elder have finally made it off of the ship and onto the planet Centauri-Earth.  But even with the warnings they have received, the planet proves more dangerous than imagined.  Soon it becomes clear that Godspeed's crew isn't alone on the planet.  But what is the real danger:  The giant dinosaur-like creatures, the flowers with mind-numbing toxins, or something else - or someone else - entirely?  Amy and Elder will have to figure it out quickly, before the planet they worked so hard to reach kills them.

One downloadable novella and several short stories further flesh out the story of Godspeed's journey to Centauri-Earth. 

This series is well worth the effort.  I love that while the plots of all three books are intertwined, each book stands solidly on its own.  Each book has elements of mystery that drive the story, and it's fascinating as a reader to imagine what they would do in this unusual situation.