Posted on Thursday, June 9, 2022 by Megan
Celebrate LGBTQAI+ Pride Month by making your own beautiful melted crayon art painting! Here’s everything you need to make your own queer-colored masterpiece. Continue reading “DIY Pride Rainbow Painting 🌈”
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 by Brianna
Summer is almost here! I hope that means you’ll have some more time to read for fun. Or maybe you already have lots of time to read for fun! Or maybe you’re like me and read while you’re walking to your car because you don’t actually have time to read but still really want to. Anyway. These May new releases are books you’ll want to make time for!
“Love Radio” by Ebony Ladelle
Dani Ford is a senior in high school, focused on her dreams with no time for love. She wants to be the next great Black writer, but lately, she’s been struggling to write anything. After a traumatic experience at a party last year, Dani has closed herself off from everything and everyone—which doesn’t bode well for finishing her college essays. Prince Jones is also a senior, with dreams of working professionally as a radio DJ. He has his own segment on the popular “Love Radio” where he gives relationship advice to listeners. But with a little brother and mom with advanced multiple sclerosis to take care of at home, Prince hasn’t had time for his own romance. He’s had a crush on Dani since middle school though, so when he gets the chance to ask her out, he has to follow his own advice. Prince bets Dani that he can get her to fall for him in just three dates. It could be that this support is just what they each need to tackle the problems in their lives. This is a heartwarming and genuine love story, with a focus on family and self-love as well as romantic love.
Posted on Monday, May 16, 2022 by Dana
“Our Flag Means Death” is a runaway success on HBO Max and they have not, at the time of this writing, announced a renewal.
Which is madness. Unacceptable. Unfathomable.
So, if you’re desperate for news of a second season and looking to fill the void, I have some suggestions!
There are a host of reasons to love OFMD, and whatever your fancy is, there are books to match. Continue reading “What to Read if You Loved “Our Flag Means Death””
Posted on Monday, May 9, 2022 by Stellan Harris
Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! It is that time of year where we look at all the contributions and achievements of our friends and family in the AAPI community, both past and present. In the face of the recent marked increase in violence against Asian Americans it is more important than ever to recognize the many ways that they have helped to shape our modern world for the better. With that in mind, DBRL has created a list of titles that feature AAPI characters and stories, including some graphic novels and memoirs from a variety of voices and backgrounds. You can click here to access that books list. We’d also like to bring attention to a number of other events and resources provided by the Library of Congress and related organizations, which will be hosting a number of talks and events related to notable figures and events in honor of the heritage month. You can find the website and schedule for those events at the link here, and we hope that your May is beautiful, enjoyable, and full of great books!
Posted on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 by Megan
Happy May the Fourth! I love just about everything Star Wars has to offer — from the amazingly independent Princess Leia to the fierce, but cuddly Chewbacca, to the adorable Porgs, and don’t get me started on my obsession with Grogu (aka The Child or Baby Yoda)! Here are some fun things you can do at home to celebrate May the Fourth and the Revenge of the Fifth.
We’d love to see what you make, so send us pictures or videos to teen@dbrl.org.
Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 by Megan
Are you curious about tarot and don’t know where to start? Or are you looking for a creative way to do some self-reflection? If that sounds like you, then check out “Young Oracle Tarot: An Initiation Into Tarot’s Mystic Wisdom” by Suki Ferguson. This beautifully illustrated book is laid out in an easy-to-understand format. It begins with an explanation of tarot and how to read the cards. Spoiler alert: Tarot cards won’t predict your future. They are for you to ruminate and reflect on your own feelings and decisions. Continue reading “Books We Love: Young Oracle Tarot”
Posted on Friday, April 15, 2022 by Brianna
As promised, I’ve got a nice mix of titles for you this month! We’ve got comedic horror, romance, thrillers, fantasy and straight sci-fi. April always feels like an interminable month to me (even though it’s my birthday month), so hopefully these books can help you make it to May!
“Scout’s Honor” by Lily Anderson
Prudence Perry is a Ladybird Scout, just like her mother and grandmother before her. The Scouts are known for knitting, tea parties, and community service. What isn’t widely known is their most important community service: slaying interdimensional monsters that feed on human emotions until they evolve and feed on human flesh. Three years ago Pru lost her best friend on a hunt and is still suffering from PTSD and anxiety about it. She wants out, but the only way is to drink the Tea of Forgetting, which Pru doesn’t have access to until she graduates to be a Ladybird Dame. All she needs to do to graduate is train a batch of new recruits—and help them survive. This book is full of fun, campy horror, but what I really love is the discussion about mental health. Continue reading “The Selector’s Selections: April 2022”
Posted on Monday, April 4, 2022 by Dana
After two months of nail-biting competition, teens from all over our service area have voted on 16 of the most popular teen titles and narrowed them down to our 2022 March Madness Book Tournament Champion!
The head-to-head competition has been fierce and we’re ready to announce the winner!
Many thanks to the teachers and school librarians who have supported this program, and to all the teens who have participated! Teens who voted were added to a drawing for cool prizes and we’ll be contacting them soon.
And now, our 2022 champion is….
Posted on Friday, April 1, 2022 by Stellan Harris
Chattering Joke Teeth, a Prank Tool for Your Grandparents
Ahh, April Fools’ Day. It’s a day where vast portions of the world, including many large corporations, play a communal joke on all of us. A day where anything you read on the internet is suspect, at least for a few days afterwards, until either the joke is revealed or the horrible truth is realized. Fear not, dear reader, because Daniel Boone Regional Library has no lies or tricks for you on this day. Well, at least no tricks of our own to play on all of you. Still, even we cannot dispute the allure of a good prank, a clever joke, and even occasionally a well-executed con as long as the people being conned are fictional. Pranks and cons are hard to pull off well, and there can be a lot of payoff in seeing a well-planned con or prank go off without a hitch. Sometimes it’s even more satisfying to see well-laid plans fall to pieces, and watch the fallout that ensues. So with that in mind we’ve gathered a number of books that feature the funny, the chaotic, and the foolish for you to enjoy on this April Fool’s Day. You can find the list by following the link here, and we hope that you have a safe, skeptical April Fools’ Day!
Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 by Stellan Harris
We’ve come to the final two entrants in this year’s Teen Book Tournament once again, with our finalists battling it out for the coveted place as the 2022 Teen Book Tournament champion. But before all of the discerning teens in our service area crown another winner, I thought it’d be interesting to look back at some of our previous winners. The Teen Book Tournament has been a place for the community to choose the best of the best for years now, and maybe one of these titles could be the next thing on your to-read list!
2016 was the year that saw “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins beat out “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green for the championship, a clash between two of our most popular and reoccurring authors. Both of these books saw a lot of press at the time, and both have had film adaptations since, meaning the 2016 finals was definitely a clash of the YA titans. With the trend of our finalists having, or gaining, film adaptations, I think it is safe to say that our teens are just as plugged in to quality books as Hollywood is.
2017, interestingly, was a year where two of our older nominees met in the finals. “Holes” by Louis Sachar (1998) was our champion that year beating out “The Giver” by Lois Lowry (1993!), capping out a year in which the teens in our service area were loving books that were, to be honest, more than a little retro. It just goes to show that sometimes an old book can be just the book you’re looking for. The fact that both are award-winning titles might have something to do with it, but it is still a mark of their enduring quality for our readers.
2018 was another year where our tournament finalists had the benefit of a film adaptation to help their chances of taking the crown. “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs beat out “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher to be our 2018 champion, and based on the continued popularity of both of those properties, with the final novel and the final season of the drama for each property respectively coming to an end only last year, it would seem for a good reason.
2019 saw our two final spots go to novels with feature Black women as their protagonists, something that is becoming more common in our lists as the years go by. Ultimately the winning spot went to “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, beating out “The Sun Is Also a Star” by Nicola Yoon, but both titles are fascinating tales of different aspects of the Black experience that are sure to enthrall readers.
2020 is the start of an interesting pair of years, and not just because of any of the major world events that happened that year (and continue to happen…). 2020’s Teen Book Tournament champion was “Turtles All The Way Down” by John Green, beating out “Renegades” by Marissa Meyer and earning Mr. Green a spot in our illustrious list of champions after getting to the finals in 2016. Just goes to show that the authors at the top of our tournaments might just come back to win it all…
Which is precisely what happened in 2021, when “Renegades” by Marissa Meyer fought its way back to the top of our list and took the crown, beating out “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds and many other top titles in the process! It is truly an accomplishment to make it to the finals of our Teen Book Tournament two years in a row, not even taking into account the fact that Renegades won on its second showing, and it speaks volumes of the quality that it must have to perform such a rare feat. Maybe it won’t be the last we see of Marissa Meyer in this competition, but only time will tell.
Now we’ve come back to the current competition, where our community will choose what title will join the illustrious, the chosen few, the cream of the crop that is our Teen Book Tournament Champions. We’ve narrowed down all of the 32 entrants for this year to our final two: “One of Us Is Lying” by Karen M. Mcmanus and “The Inheritance Games” by Jennifer Lynn Barnes! Votes will be accepted through April 1, and we’ll have our newest champion to announce on April 4. You can find the ballot at this link, in case you haven’t voted in the final already, and you find out who the winner is on April 4 right here on the DBRL Teen Blog!
