Five years of Teen Librarian

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Teen Librarian.It was on the 15th May 2006 that the first edition of Teen Librarian Monthly was sent out to 12 librarians. I ma pretty sure that most of them still subscribe.

The first issue is still readable here

If you are interested in writing for TLM please e-mail me at editor(at)teenlibrarian.co.uk

Satireday

I am currently reading this book, I have started it three times as I am loving the opening pages.  A vicious satire on America’s corporate culture and the super rich.

I am not too sure what I think of Jim the main character – utter philistine when it comes to art and culture but a VERY compelling character.  Honest about his aims and values.

Is he evil? At present I have no idea so I will withhold judgement until the end!

I was meant to read it through last night but I was at the Headline bloggers evening and went to the pub afterwards with some of the publicists and fellow bloggers and ended up drinking and talking books until 11pm and was in no fit state to read or do anything except fall semi-comatose into bed.

Well the Headline blogger event was fantastic, I was invited by the fantastic Maura Brickell and Sam Eades

We were shown a fab short film about their current and upcoming books, although I was blown away by the opening visuals of a pop up book that was just fantastic, it introduced all the genres that Headline produce and was beautifully made.  It was made by a graphic designer and I would really love to see the actual book…

The quiz was great fun with the team I was in not getting into the top three but having a cracking time nontheless!

We got to meet some fantastic authors,

 The fantastic Cathy Brett – I reviewed Ember Fury in 2009 and have been a fan ever since.  I now have a copy of Scarlett Dedd signed and waiting on my TBR pile ^_^

The ace Jenna Burtenshaw – I have been a fan since I read Wintercraft.


Jonathan L Howard – an author I have heard about and now finally have a copy of of Johannes Cabal: Detective

 Not pictured but also in attendance were Geraint “City Boy” Anderson – meeting him was a memorable experience, he is a very entertaining character.  I enjoyed his City Boy column in The London Paper am interested to find out what his fiction is like.

 Julie Cohen Julie Crouch and Jill Mansell – three authors outside my reading sphere but fantastic to be around and truly wonderful people – good company to have in a pub (and possibly out of the pub as well). 

Today (Satireday) I went to a blogger meet-up at Waterstone’s in Piccadilly.  Spent the afternoon comparing notes on blogging, YA books and chatting about books and hanging out.

I met Carly Bennett, Caroline Rose, Kirsty, Michelle, Sarah, Non and someone whom I can only remember as the French guy – I am so sorry but I cannot remember his name.  Coffee and much fun was had and a trawl around the YA section of Waterstone’s before home to Doctor Who, the episode written by Neil Gaiman and the best episode to date that I can recall seeing and that includes the heartbreaking one where David Tennant said goodbye to Billie Piper on the beach >ahem<

anyway I must get back to American Weather!

Rated Aarg! The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook by Jason Heller

Pirates, by nature, aren’t terribly literate. As a consequence, no book can hope to fully prepare the pampered, modern-day layabout for the lusty life of a pirate.

This book, however, will put you on the right path – the path to adventure, treasure, glory, mystery, and, every so often, the bottom of a barrel of rum.

Just in time for the première of On Stranger Tides comes The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook: a Swashbuckler’s Guide from Pirates of the Caribbean.

A handy guides for lovers of the piratical arts this book gives you the hows and wherefores of becoming a scurvy dog of the high seas.

For instance it will educate you in the different types of pirate, no longer when asked “What are Buccaneers?” will you answer “The things you listen through on the sides of your Buccan’head!” There are also corsairs, freebooters and privateers – just so you know!

Not only a shameless tie in to the popular Disney franchise it is also an entertaining and educational tome written with tongue firmly in cheek. It is a good idea to take heed of the warning on the copyright page.

This book is a fine guide for any lubber wishing to become a swaggering Pirate captain in the vein of Jack Sparrow – the finest brigand to sail with the Brethren Court.

You may be thinking that this book will only have relevance whenever a Pirates of the Caribbean  film is released – but you would be wrong.  There is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day on the 19th September. Preparation for Halloween, and any other event you can hang a piratical hat on – remember rum is good any time of year!

This book is rated Aarg!

A book for everyone who is, was or has ever wondered what it is like to be a 15 year old boy!

One seriously messed up week…

… in the Otherwise Mundane & Uneventful Life of Sam Taylor JACK SAMSONITE

Our hero? 
Jack Samsonite
His mission?
1.  pass his GCSEs
2.  get the girl (to notice he exists)
3.  survive the week without a serious face punching 
 Good thing he’s got a plan. Well, half a plan… 

One seriously messed-up week in the otherwise mundane & uneventful life of Jack Samsonite is being billed as a cross between Adrian Mole meets The Inbetweeners. It is also the only book I have had to stop reading on the underground as I was laughing too much in between cringing at the memories of my teenage years it was dredging up. I am seriously in awe of Tom Clempson, the man is a genius with the pen!  He has captured the awkwardness and uncertainty of being a teenage boy perfectly, combining crudity, romance, confusion, lust, friendship and the desire to get through the day without being bullied into the package of Jack Samsonite.

Warts and all protagonists of the male variety appear to be rare in YA fiction, it started with Adrian Mole in the ’80’s and then there was not much.  It is quite possible that we are witnessiong hte birth of a new trend in YA fiction.  The story is told in the form of a diary written as a school project. It begins with an introduction which was written at the end of the week, so I knew where Jack ended up but as someone once said “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it!”

The story starts on a Monday – with nob ache. Which, if I remember my teen years correctly, (and believe me there is not a man alive that does not – no matter what we may say. We remember every embarrassing moment clearly) is how many days start for boys in their teens. 
Read this book, gain some insight into the mind of a teenage boy and perhaps you will even sympathise with them the next time one of them really pisses you off for just being a teenI read it and loved it (unconditionally) for the laughs, the angst and the cringe-worthy memories it evoked. I was Jack without being cool but then most of us were in those days.

The Shadowing: Hunted by Adam Slater

Every hundred years the gateway opens between this world and ours.

The hunt is on. No one is safe.

The Shadowing is coming…

Callum Scott can see ghosts, it is not something that he talks about, but lately he has been seeing them everywhere. It is not just ghosts, there is also the massive black dog that lurks in the woods near his grandmothers house and the bad dreams, warning him of something coming, something evil.

Callum is a chime child, he lives alone with his grandmother outside the town in a small cottage in the woods, a loner by preference he is nonetheless a good rugby-player and well-liked at his school, but becomes a target of the local bullies after a flash of precognition ruins their plans for one of his classmates. Add to this the brutal murders of chime children across the country, the monstrous dog and its master lurking in the woods, a demon that is wearing his face and Callum’s life expectancy starts to look a bit limited, but he is not alone, his school-friend Melissa has an interest in the supernatural and the two of them begin to try to find out why he can see the things he can see.

I started reading The Shadowing: Hunted with music playing in the background as I like a bit of background noise when I am reading. I had just started reading chapter two when Creeping Death
by Metallica started playing – I don’t usually compile a sound-track for books I read, but this track would be the theme-song for this book! Adam captures teenagers incredibly well and the tone and timing of the horror is superb! His descriptions of the attacks is incredibly bloody but never becomes gratuitous and the sense of disquiet that grows throughout the book is brilliant!

I love horror and am not ashamed to say that I am a fan of gore! Hunted fed my hunger for monsters and the macabre but left me wanting more and going by the preview of Skinned I will not be disappointed!

Chime Children are an accepted part of British folklore too!

Chime hours were commonly accepted to be three, six, nine, or twelve o’clock. In the old monastic tradition these were the hours of required prayer and were frequently marked by church bells chiming the hour. In some locales, however, particularly in Somerset and East Anglia, the hours were recognized as eight o’clock in the evening, midnight, and four o’clock in the morning. A chime child is anyone who was born exactly on one of the accepted chime hours, although there was quite a bit of variance in that as well; some locales recognized those born within that hour and some recognized only the night-time hours of nine o’clock, midnight, and three and six o’clock in the morning. Some other traditions even limited the hours to specifically those who were born between midnight and dawn, Friday to Saturday.

The Ring of Water by Chris Bradford

Jack Fletcher has been left for dead…

Bruised and battered, Jack Fletcher wakes up in a roadside inn, wrapped only in a dirty kimono. He has lost everything, including his memory.

Determined to discover the truth, Jack goes n a quest to retrieve his belongings – his precious swords, his friend Akiko’s black pearl and, most important of all, his father’s prize possession.

Relying on his samurai and ninja training, Jack realises the Ring of Water is the key to his survival.

But with only a washed-up ronin – a masterless samurai – for help, what will Jack manage to find? What will he lose?

And what will he have to sacrifice?

In picking up and reading The Ring of Water I broke one of my reading rules – the one that says ‘do not start reading half-way through a series’. Okay, so not really a rule, more of a guideline. It is a good thing that I did as let me just say wow! If ever there was a book that was perfect for jumping in to a series, then Ring of Water is it!

The protagonist Jack, wakes up after a vicious beating knowing as much about his life as I did, his back story is released in flashes of memory and brief points of exposition as he tells his new companions what he can remember about his life. The Young Samurai series is set during the beginning of the Edo period in Japan, after the suppression of Christianity and the limiting of foreigners to the cities of Hirado and Nagasaki. This background makes Jack’s story all the more complicated, not to mention exciting for the reader, as he is trying to make his way to Nagasaki whilst trying to avoid the enemies he has made all the while keeping his identity as a westerner hidden.

The inclusion of snippets of Japanese belief and history maker this book all the more real for me, I loved the inclusion of the Tanuki, and the ronin being a master of Drunken Fist kung fu, actually I enjoyed the entire book but those two snippets stuck in my mind! I am a major fan of Japanese culture and history, I also enjoy a thrilling read and since reading The Ring of Water I have become a fan of Chris Bradford, and have ordered all the preceding titles in the series.

The Ring of Water was a thoroughly enjoyable read on its own but, like most books in series, enjoyment will be enhanced by reading the books that come before it. I will read the entire series and post more thoughts once that has beendone.

Library of the Living Dead

This is brilliant!

Staff at McPherson College’s Miller Library in Kansas, USA, have produced a library guide in graphic novel format, Library of the Living Dead. Intrepid bearded librarians extinguish a horde of zombies, teach something about the Dewey Decimal system and demonstrate the value of library and information lore in the process.

Available to download as a pdf here

Eight Questions with… Chris Westwood

Chris was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to sit down with Teen Librarian and take part in the Eight Questions With… interview which follows below.

What influenced your decision to write for Teenagers?

Robert Swindells had a lot to do with it. About the time I was starting out, struggling with a first novel I never finished, I heard he was conducting a writing workshop at my local library so I went along to say hello. Robert was incredibly generous with his time, read the sample pages I’d brought and recommended a number of YA novels he thought I should read. I had a background in the music business as a journalist with a weekly paper called Record Mirror, and Robert suggested I try writing fiction for a similar young readership. My first novel (A Light In The Black) wasn’t actually planned as young adult fiction but as soon as I started the first chapter, the voice – the tone of the piece – took it that way. I guess that’s what Robert was getting at: writing in the voice that comes naturally to you.

 

How do you get into the heads of your characters?

I suppose it’s a little like acting, role-playing, putting myself in someone else’s place. There’s a lot of me in my characters anyway, and I like to think most of us have enough in common emotionally that we can relate to the same things in similar ways, whether it’s the heartbreak of being jilted or the fear of the sound of a dentist’s drill. Also, characters do have this alarming way of taking on lives of their own and beginning to speak for themselves, whether or not I agree with what they’re saying. I’m just hoping the reader will pause and go, “Wow, I didn’t know anyone else felt that way too.”

Do you know instinctively what will appeal to Teens or is it more a hit or miss process?

It’s more about finding something that appeals to me. I try not think in terms of what will grab, say, a thirteen year old reader; you can’t second-guess what others will like, I’m not sure you should even try to. First, entertain yourself. If an idea gets its hooks into me, I’m hopeful it will do the same for others. Does the story I have in mind already exist? If not, I’d better settle down and write it…

What is the most satisfying part of the writing process for you?

It’s nearly all good. There’s the first spark of inspiration that kicks off an idea… and lasts for about ten seconds. After that there’s a lot of hard work, which often feels like pushing a dead-weight uphill, but there are also times when the story seems to be writing itself – when I’m not absolutely sure where it’s going but I’m willing to go along with it to find out. If I’m lucky I’ll eventually see what my subconscious has been doing all along… and if it all makes some kind of sense, that’s the best. Oh, and finishing work is hugely satisfying too!

Do you ever read the works of other Teen/YA authors? If yes what can you recommend?

There are so many fine writers in this area – Malorie Blackman, Anne Fine, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman – but I’d like to mention a few of the books which made the greatest impression on me as a young reader, some of the ones that made me want to write:

JD Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye; William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies; Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War. There’s also Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is simply magical no matter how old you are; and Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, the granddaddy of the zombie novel, which is booming right now.

More recently, I was really knocked out by Louis Sachar’s Holes and John Boyne’s The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, and I’ve just finished the first of ND Wilson’s 100 Cupboards trilogy, a fabulous fantasy from a writer with a lovely, surprising turn of phrase. Can’t wait to start the next in that series.

Are any of your novels based on personal experiences?

I’m not sure I could write anything without making it personal – whether it comes from family life, school days, or all the ups and downs between then and now. For Ministry of Pandemonium I drew a lot from my own experience of losing my parents; that’s what the book is really about, and writing about it was a way of coming to terms with it. When I came back to London for the first time in ages, I started discovering parts of the city I’d never seen before, made some wonderful new friends, had my sunglasses stolen from a shop in Hackney… those things found their way into the story too. Sometimes personal experience adds extra colour and believability to a scene. Sometimes it gives you so much more, entire story-lines and themes.

Are you working on anything new at the moment or do you have anything planned?

I’m now adding the final touches to a sequel to Ministry of Pandemonium, and looking ahead to the third book in the series, which is only very vaguely planned so far but at least I know how it will begin and end. I’m less sure about everything in between!

Do you ever do Library visits to Teen Reading Groups? If yes, what is the best way to get into contact with you or your agent about it?

Yes, so you could either call the publicity team at Frances Lincoln or email me or my agent at the addresses on the Contact page of my website http://www.chris-westwood.com

Ministry of Pandemonium Launch Event

It was 18:20 on the 5th April when I found myself outside the Islington branch of Waterstone’s Bookshop just down from the Angel underground station. Nicky Potter had invited me to attend the launch of Frances Lincoln‘s latest YA thriller, Ministry of Pandemonium by Chris Westwood.
The Waterstone’s crew were still setting up when I went indoors so I browsed the shelves until other librarians, booksellers and various fans of Mr Westwood started arriving. Sean Edwards, one of my colleagues on the Youth Library Group (YLG) London committee, was one of the first to arrive and we ended up comparing notes (as we usually do) on what we are reading, and who has received which desirable proof. It is one of the few games of good natured one-upmanship that I have noticed that librarians play, seeing who gets what proof copy from the publishers and which authors we land to visit our libraries. Karen Robinson, another friend from YLG was also there with some colleagues and students from her school.
There was a table of snacks and drinks to keep people occupied until Chris arrived. The children’s section of Waterstone’s was packed out with a mix of adults and young people all eager to meet Chris. The speeches were over quickly and Chris read an extract from his book, where Ben Harvester is introduced to some of his duties at the Ministry, typing up copies of how people are going to die for filing and use by field operatives, the dark humour of the codes denoting causes of death was appreciated warmly by the audience, particularly the 43765 (man packages himself up in a cardboard box and mails himself to his fiancée as a surprise birthday present. Fiancée opens it carelessly with a pair of scissors… ) which sent paroxysms of laughter around the room.
Once the talking stopped, the attendees fell upon the display of books and whisked the m off to the tills, after which they then had them autographed by Chris who spent the remainder of the evening signing and chatting away to his fans.

The good news once you have finished Ministry of Pandemonium is that there is s second book nearly finished – and the possibility of a third!

The evening was brilliant and many thanks must go to Nicky Potter and Frances Lincoln books!


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Nintendo 3DS & Libraries

On Friday the always amazing Carl Cross of Derbyshire Libraries sent an e-mail to the Lib Gaming UK mailing list. You can join the list here – go on you know you want to!

It was a great post and naturally I wanted to share it, and since Carl gave permisison to have it rebroadcast on Teen Librarian, here it is in its entirety! Enjoy:


Last week Nintendo launched its glasses free 3D handheld the 3DS.

There are at least two other librarians on this list with one /waves/ and probably a few more.

For those of you who don’t have one it has an inbuilt social gaming feature called Street Pass. The idea is that your 3DSes send information to each other as you pass unknowingly in the street. Hence the name.

At the moment the information is your Mii (avatar) and a few game specific features such as downloading your best laps in racing game Ridge Racer as a ‘ghost’ for the other player to beat. Streetfighter takes a similar approach by having your team of trophies battle each other for fun, profit and prizes.

There’s loads of fun stuff built into the 3DS that encourages social interaction from early JRPG-alike StreetPass Quest to the utterly mad face shooting ARG Face Raiders.

All cool stuff but what has it got to do with libraries?

Not everywhere is as population dense as Tokyo or London or Manchester and your chances of meeting another 3DS owner in the wild are sometimes slim.

Some enterprising folk are using the power of social media to hook up with others in real life to swap data and to game. All you need is a location and a bit of advertising, preferably in an online space like the Meet Mii Facebook page.

See what it’s got to do with libraries now?

It needn’t stop at that of course. While only one of the launch lineup of games offers online multiplayer (Streetfighter IV for the curious) others have local multiplayer as long as both players have a copy of the game. We’d be offering ourselves up as a venue to find other players.

Of course there are problems with this idea. As far as I can see two biggies and the usual ones about noise:

Biggie 1: It’s potentially a shop window for potential muggers – the 3DS is an expensive piece of kit and if they know there’s a whole load of people with one in their pocket they may well take advantage.

Biggie 2: It’s no good trying to limit this to a given age group. If you’re going to do it at all it must be for all comers which means parents need to be warned. It’s a good opportunity to talk about online security in general of course.

I’m considering trying this in a couple of our libraries and see what happens. I will also be starting a regular Wii club in the near future so I expect that to form part of that too.

Anyone else tempted? Can anyone else see any major problems with it that I’ve missed at this stage of a Friday?