Teen People (April 2006)

This magazine had an interesting mix of articles. This issue featured an interview with Nick Lachey but also had interviews with teens who were trying to change the world. There are fashion hints and tips as well as a fair number of ads. I really liked the two page spread on “The best bands from before you were born” which includes Queen, The Jackson 5 and Rolling Stones.

Teen People seems to be pretty balanced between fun stuff, fashion, serious articles and star power. I have to say that I preferred Teen People to People, which often seems more vapid or reactionary. I would probably have this as a staple teen mag but I’m sure the level of the content does shift throughout the year.

Age Range: 13+
Ranking: Quality – 3.5/5 Popularity – 4/5

Seattle Public Library – Teens

The Site

This website is for the Seattle Public Library system and does fit within a corporate branding. I do like the branding as it very clear and easy to use. There is a panel where the teen librarians can highlight resources for a specific topic, like Black History Month. Also at the centre of the page there is a place to highlight YA News, which seemed to be upcoming events. The site had most of the standard pages including homework help, databases and websites as well as job listings. One of my favourite features of this site was the “Teens’ Reading Lists”. Not only does this site list general fiction for high and middle school but it also has some special interest lists, like African American Fiction. I loved that it includes a huge number of “top ten reads” in a variety of genres, including adult books for teens, adventure, biography, humour. These lists include short reviews of the books, cover art and a direct link to the catalogue. I also liked that some of the lists were a bit more general like “his reality” and “her reality”. The librarians also have a list of picks under there name. I liked that each of the teen librarians are allowed to have their own personality and are referred to by their first names. This way teens can know that they tend to like the books that Amy picks, but not those that Chance does. Allowing the librarians to be individuals (rather than the “librarian”) makes them more real and approachable.

I liked that this library site provided print, electronic, in-library and on-line resources to the teens. I much prefer the fact that they give the patrons the choice of how they want to access the information rather than assuming that teens will do it all on-line. Many of the website links provided are very interesting including health sites, games sites and serious homework sites.

Audience: 12+
Ranking: 4/5

Beaner O’Brian’s Absolutely Ginormous Guidebook to Guys

Beaner, or Hannah as she wants to be called, has a major project to do for the summer and she just can’t see how she’ll get it done. She has chosen to write a paper about the opposite sex. The problem is that Beaner doesn’t know much about guys, not like her fabulous sister or ex-model step-mother. Somehow Beaner ends up meeting a member of the hottest boy-bands SWAK, and he asks her out but even that goes wrong. Even when she tries to help her sister who is having a pre-wedding meltdown things just don’t work out. Eventually Hannah manages to get her act together and make things up to her family and friends.

I wanted to like this book but it was just too much. The plot was pretty non-existent and the writing was OK. I was hoping for more drama or romance but this book just left me hanging. The main point of the book was for Hannah to stop obsessing about her own drama and focus on the lives of the people around her.

Age range: 12-14
Ranking: Quality – 2/5 Popularity – 2/5

American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese follows three distinct yet related stories. The first is that of the Monkey King who tries to shed his “monkeyness” and his battles with “he who is” to accept himself in his true form. The second is the story of Jin the son of Chinese immigrants who, with his family, moves from San Francisco to a practically all white environment. After the move Jin struggles over the years to find his place in this new world. He also battles over his feelings for a girl in his class. The third story is that of Danny and his cousin Chin-kee. Every year Chin-kee comes to visit Danny and causes Danny such shame that he has to change schools. Chin-kee is the physical embodiment of every negative stereotype about Chinese people.

This book was absolutely fantastic. Yang is able to achieve a rich and layered story within the confines of a 233 paged graphic novel. He is able to use the medium, the three stories and his writing to take the reader beyond the littoral and into the minds of the characters. I could not put this book down and started to read it again from the beginning as soon as I finished it. He was able to get his points across without being heavy handed or preachy. I think that this book went further towards me understanding the feelings of being the odd one out better than any other that I have read.

Age range: 14+
Ranking: Quality – 5/5 Popularity 4/5

Gossip Girl – Because I’m worth it.

This is the fourth gossip girl novel and it takes place in February in New York, well the New York of the rich and fabulous. The majority of the cast of characters have put in their applications to Universities and are waiting on their early acceptances. They are all blowing off steam and having a good time. An even better one once Fashion week starts. This is almost a land of fantasy where the high school cafeteria serves wasabi-smoked tuna burgers and somehow everyone is involved in a fashion show.

Blair the “bitchiest, vainest girl in the entire senior class” tries to improve herself by helping out the younger girls but ends up in a disastrous flirtation with a much older man. Serena the vapid but beautiful one who lands a modeling gig by walking into a store. Daniel the poet and Vanessa the filmmaker who experience wild success which rips them apart. Nate gets busted buying weed and has to go to rehab but discovers that sometimes there is a reason to get clean.

The stories in these books are controversial with copious amounts of drinking, smoking, sex and drugs, but I can see why they are so popular. These books are an escapist fantasy but never take things too far or too seriously. Even though Blair ends up in a hotel room with her older man, she doesn’t do anything. Much of the book is fluff and for those kids brought up by Entertainment Tonight and People magazine this is their ideal world. I think that the controversy should perhaps direct itself outward to the celebrity culture of our world rather than into these novels.

Age range: 14+
Ranking: Quality – 2.5/5 Popularity – 5/5

The Beetle and Me

Daisy is in love with her Dad’s 1957 purple Beetle but it was relegated to the ice house, where it hasn’t been touched for years. Daisy decides that she wants to restore the car, bringing back with it all the happy childhood memories. Daisy is reluctant to accept any help from her mechanic family for fear that they will take over the car. Even when she should Daisy keeps everyone at arms length except for two guys. There is Daniel who is new to town. His father owns a mint-condition ’57 Beetle but Daniel is more interested in music than cars. And then there’s Billy who is just as stubborn as Daisy and knows his way around a car. Daisy learns how to restore the car making a few mistakes along the way. She also learns to explore her feelings and who she really likes and why. A non-traditional romance the real love story centers on Daisy’s feelings for the car.

I enjoyed this book, probably more than other romances that I have read. I think it is because the strongest feelings are for an inanimate object. Daisy crushes on Daniel and likes Billy but she only really loves the car. I also appreciated that Daisy needed to do everything herself even if she knew that she was making a mistake. Her independence showed me how much she needed to fail and then be able to pick herself back up again. I also appreciated that her father didn’t want to give her the chance to fail, that he would rather save her that pain. I am not a car person but I really appreciate the story and the way it was written.

Age range: 14-17
Ranking: Quality – 4/5 Popularity – 3/5

The Storyteller’s Daughter

This book recounts the tale of Shaharazad, the daughter of the vizier and the exotic storyteller Maju. The vizier met and married Maju on his travels and brought her home with him. Shaharazad grew up isolated in the court and when her mother died, Shaharazad took on Maju’s abilities as a storyteller as well as her blindness.

After the King’s wife betrayed him, he choose to turn his heart to stone. To protect himself from further betrayal he decreed that he will only take a bride for a single night but that the bride must come willingly. As the deadline of the full moon approaches and no maidens come forward Shaharazad realizes that it is she who must marry the King. She has a plan to stay alive, by telling the King a story which will keep him interested in her she hopes to see another day. As the nights string together Shaharazad tries not only to save herself but also the King, his heart and the kingdom. This book also incorporates traditional Arabic and Indian tales as Shaharazad’s stories to the King.

This story was a very engaging read that pulls you in from the very beginning. Dokey was able to balance the attention between the stories of Shaharazad and the King, the kingdom in turmoil and the individual tales that are told. I felt that my unfamiliarity with the story of Shaharazad was also a benefit as I did not have any expectations.

Age range: 12-14
Ranking: Quality – 4/5 Popularity – 4/5

The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion takes place in the not too distant future in the land of Opium, a country made up of bits of the US and Mexico. Opium is rules by various drug lords but the lord of them all is El Patrón, Matteo Alacrán. El Patrón rules his family and his estates with an iron fist despite being 140 years old. Matt is a lonely boy who knows only life trapped in a small house with Celia in the middle of the poppy fields. That is until some children see Matt and he is so desperate to play that he breaks a window to escape. When he cuts his feet on the glass the children bring him to this magical place. But this is where he finds out that he isn’t a normal child; he is a clone, El Patrón’s clone. Matt life then changes as he must learn how to negotiate is place in Opium and within the vicious Alacrán family. He also learns what it means to be a clone and struggles with whether or not he is a person. Matt also has to decide if he wants to follow in the footsteps of El Patrón or become his own “man”.

This book was gripping, I couldn’t put it down. Matt’s struggle to find out whether he is a human or not what type of treatment he deserves is heart wrenching. Although you could easily guess why El Patrón had a clone you never really knew where Matt stood. Farmer’s ability to keep you in the dark of some obvious facts added to the suspense of the novel. You wanted to help Matt but couldn’t even tell him what to do or who to trust. I would definitely recommend this book for any library collection, and perhaps you should consider a copy for the adults as well.

Age range : 14 plus

Ranking: Quality 5/5 Popularity 4/5

Ranma ½

The way that the Ranma series is organized makes it a little difficult to explain the plot. The first part of the book is the resolution of a story from Vol. 22, in the middle is a complete story and the end introduces a new story that is left open to be finished in Vol. 24. I will therefore simply discuss the complete story. The Ranma series is based around transformations, Ranma turns into a girl when sprayed with cold water. In this story he meets a new teacher who looks like a little girl but she can absorb the energy of “bad” students and transforms into a tall sex symbol. Ranma decides that he will battle the teacher and stop her from being able to absorb energy. To do this Ranma must press specific pressure points which just happen to be located on her breast (of course). This means that there is basically a comedy of Ranma trying to grab his teacher in both his male and female form and basically getting beat up.

Although this book is in the middle of a series I was slightly familiar with Ranma as my sister used to watch the television series. I did not enjoy this Manga but I think that this is basically my taste. Ranma is basically about awkward situations and sort-of sexual things going on. Transformations into busty women are commonplace. I think that these series would probably appeal to younger guys and I know that it is a popular series overall.

Age range: 14+
Ranking: Quality 2/5 Popularity 4/5

Flower: a novel

This novel is told from the point of view of three different people. Katie is a young girl in present day Canada who has lost her mother. Her father has recently remarried and is expecting a child with his new wife. Katie is feeling like an outsider in her own home when she is, in her view, shipped off to Halifax to visit her grandparents.

William is Katie’s great-grandfather and another voice in the story. Through conversations with her grandfather and first person retelling we hear the story of how William came to Canada as a Home Child. Lillie the third voice in the story is another Home Child and a spirit who appears to Katie.

This novel introduces us to the story of the Home Children; orphans, paupers and homeless children who were sent from England in the early 1900s promised new families but instead given lives of servitude.

I found the story of the Home Children interesting as it is a part of Canadian history that I had no prior knowledge of. I think that perhaps I would have just preferred to read about William and Lillie rather than Katie. The time lines come together in the end but I was far more interested in the story of the past. I felt that both Katie and William’s characters were less developed than Lillie’s.

Age range: 12-14
Ranking: Quality – 2.5/5 Popularity 2/5