Thursday Thoughts: Cinder Book Club at the Library

As most of you know, I’m a Young Adult Librarian. I’ve posted about some of the programs I host and you guys always seem to enjoy when I talk more about my job. One of the things I’ve been doing is posting about the teen book clubs I do every month. We’ve read THE RAVEN BOYS and MOSQUITOLAND and THE YOUNG ELITES (but I realized I forgot to post about that one, so I’ll do that soon). During the book club I ask my teens to describe the book and each of the main characters using only one word. It’s a lot of fun for all of us and it gets them to use their vocabulary. Plus, I think you guys like seeing these. Right?

This month we read CINDER by Marissa Meyer. I just read this series for the first time a few months ago (and finished WINTER recently), so I was really excited to talk about this book with my teens. We talked about the persecution of cyborgs, what cyborg ability they’d like to have, the morality of what Dr. Erland did, the setting, the fairy tale parallels, and more. Everyone seemed to really like/love the book, and we had a good discussion. And then we got to our one-word part. Here we go:

THE BOOK

beautiful // perfect // amazing // fascinating // favorite

CINDER

outcast // independent // relatable // sassy // b.a. // sarcastic

KAI

This was the only response – *giggles and blushes* – literally, one of my girls giggled and blushed

IKO

sassy // adorable // fierce // sweet

DR. ERLAND

wise // smart // deceptive // secretive // protective

PEONY (spoilers!!)

awwwwww // sweet // lovable // not one word, but (very seriously while also being silly): taken from this world too soon

LEVANA

ugly // psycho // controlling // manipulative // a witch

ADRI & PEARL (we grouped these together)

bleh // horrible // rude // not a fan // manipulative // cold

What do you think of my teens’ descriptions?

Thursday Thoughts: Mosquitoland Book Club at the Library

Last month was my very first YA book club at the library, and it was amazing and wonderful. My teens and I had an hour and a half long discussion about The Raven Boys, and at the end of it, they told me they wanted me to pick out the next read. Well, I’m sure you guys know by now how much I love David Arnold’s debut novel, Mosquitoland, right? If not, just check out my 10/10 review of it, and/or check out my Twitter page because I talk about it like 3 times a week at least/my Twitter header image is my copy of the book. My teens decided they wanted to go with Mosquitoland aka I practically word-vomited my love of it and they liked that. 🙂 Either way, we read Mosquitoland for our September book club, and then discussed it this past Monday.

Last month I decided to ask them to describe each of the characters and the book overall in one word at the end of the discussion and they seemed to enjoy that, so we did it again, and here are the words they used for Mosquitoland.

MIM

Sassy // Witty // Spirit-animal // Adventurous // Relatable // Quirky // Smart // Well-done

BECK

Ahhhhh // Heart-Eyes emoji // Responsible // Moral clock // Compassionate // Nice // Charismatic

WALT

Awwwww // Innocent // Adorable // Huggable // Loveable // Wonderful

ARLENE

She smells like cookies // Pizzazz // Warm // #oldpersongoals // Inviting

KATHY (Potential spoilers)

Redeemed // Underestimated

SPOILERS – PONCHO MAN

Creepy // Pedo // Bigot // UGH // *insert bad words here* // Overgrown primate

MOSQUITOLAND

*Sighs contentedly* // Sassy // Indescribable // Realistic // Beautiful // We can’t just pick one word

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I’m really happy that 1. all of them loved the book (like, seriously, it was just an hour and half love fest), and 2. we actually had three new members!

So David, being the wonderful human he is, signed some bookmarks for my teens when I met him at the Decatur Book Festival last month, and my teens were SO EXCITED when I handed them out. Thank you again, David, for being so generous – and also answering some last minute questions via Twitter! My teens are as in love with the book as I am, and they are equally as enamored with you. I was somehow able to tone down my word-vomit love to lead a thoughtful, interesting, love-filled discussion for over an hour with a group of 8 teens about Mim, family, Mississippi, psychosis/medication/etc, romance, road trips, flaws, and so much more, and I’m pretty dang happy about it. All of the teens in the book club – except the one boy who had to leave early for Boy Scouts – are teenage girls, and we talked about how well-done Mim is and how they could relate to her so much because her voice is just like theirs. That, to me, is the mark of an amazing YA book.

Check out this picture of my teens with their bookmarks, my coworker (the super tall one) who I convinced to read the book and she also loved it, and me, looking happy af.

Next month’s read is I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson!

Thursday Thoughts: My New YA Library Book Club Read The Raven Boys and LOVED It

Monday night, I had my first young adult book club at the library. I chose The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater for our first read (duh). I was a little worried that my teens weren’t going to like it – not because it isn’t GREAT (because it is. Like, seriously), but because it is quite different from most of the books I’ve seen them read. I was so overwhelmed with happiness at their reactions to the book and our discussion, which, by the way, lasted an hour and a half! We talked about the characters and the setting (we loved everything about both), the magic and the journey that each of the characters are on, what all of the characters are looking for (like Adam is looking for a family and Ronan is looking for redemption) and which of the characters was everyone’s favorite (Ronan, obviously). We discussed the fact that the romance was more of an underlying theme in the book and that the friendships and bonds between the characters was the most important aspect. We chatted about Blue and how being the only non-psychic in her family makes her different from a group of people that are already different and how that shaped who she was as a person. We swooned over characters (mostly Ronan and Gansey) and were creeped out by others (Whelk and Noah – half of us loved Noah and half thought he was weird). It was a brilliant discussion and I was so impressed with my teens.

I promise this isn’t a whole post about me being excited and happy with the turnout (even though I TOTALLY AM). One thing I asked them to do was to come up with ONE word to describe each of the characters and the book overall. I adore this series, so I thought it’d be fun to share these descriptions with you guys.

ADAM
Relatable // Underdog // Brave // Emotionally strong (okay, two words. Whatever)

GANSEY
Irritating (she wanted me to point out she only felt this way at first) // The perfect guy // Smart // Huggable (she didn’t want me to share this one but it’s too cute)

BLUE
Spunky // Quirky // Sassy // Outsider // Relatable

NOAH
Creepy // Confusing // Weird // Wonderful // They liked his name

RONAN (aka my boo)
Dangerous // *heart eyes emoji* // Indescribable // Sweet AND salty // Bada$$ (she said bad a-word. Lolz.) // Everyone’s favorite

THE BOOK OVERALL
Sad // Intelligent // Mesmerizing // Complex // Smoldering (I said this one and they all agreed) // Enchanting // Perfect (I was over the moon when they said this)

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As I’m sure you can all imagine, I was unbelievably happy about their reaction and the fact that it went so well. After our discussion, I told them I was going to let them make suggestions for our next read and then we’d draw it out of a hat if we couldn’t come to a consensus. This was when my little librarian heart grew three sizes: they said they’d actually rather I decide because they trust my judgment and they knew I’d get them to read something they wouldn’t usually pick. I could have CRIED, you guys. I gave them a few suggestions and told them what the books were about (and maybe got a little too passionate about a few of them), and they decided to go with…MOSQUITOLAND by David Arnold. YES YES YES. I cannot wait to discuss this book with them! We also decided on the two months following September: we’ll be reading I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (asdfjkl) and The Young Elites by Marie Lu (ASDFJKL;). I’m just really glad that I’ve got teens who are willing to try new things and who want to read and who love TRB and…