Review: Poison Princess Opens Up YA Market for Kresley Cole

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1)
by Kresley Cole (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2012)

The other day one of my colleagues, a psychologist and an avid reader of YA literature, walked up to me in the library and said, "If I read one more book blurb about a girl discovering her abilities who finds herself 'strangely drawn' to the local bad boy, I'm going to scream."

I hear you, Kathy.

It's become an obnoxious device in paranormal romance that a young woman with "new" powers or abilities ends up transforming her personality, often with the assistance of the recently arrived bad boy who knows more than she does (yes, the sexual implication is obvious even when it goes unexplored). Even when the guy is hot and compelling, it would be an easy step to falling into the trope that a woman needs a man to draw out her best, most powerful self, and many authors have tumbled into that ditch with abandon. Yuck!

The good news? Kresley Cole's awesome new book, Poison Princess, isn't like that. Set in a post-apocalyptic world (through extended flashbacks we actually experience the apocalypse), Poison Princess is the first in Cole's new series, The Arcana Chronicles, and her first foray into the world of young adult literature.

I offer this introduction and caveat because the cover (which is lovely) and the jacket blurb could easily give this impression based on the reader's advisory conversations I've had with students.  But be aware that Cole's well-written novel is actually an amazing blend of apocalyptic fiction, paranormal romance, and occasionally horror. It's populated with flawed, interesting characters who keep the reader guessing through the course of the novel and who, I'm sure, will be further fleshed out as the series progresses.

Live vines in the bayou

Evie Greene lives in a beautiful house in one of the oldest and most beautiful houses in her Southern town. She's gorgeous, popular and dating a lovable and talented football player, but she's also just returned from a summer in a mental hospital. Her mother is walking on eggshells and Evie has managed to tell no one - not her boyfriend, not her best friend - about the horrifying nightmares which fill her nights as she worries she might end up back in that horrifying place. She fills sketchbooks with these disturbing images in an effort to purge them but worries that all the drugs and doctors in the world aren't going to give her a normal life.

At school, things aren't looking up either. Yes, her friends are great and her boyfriend attentive (particularly during their discussion about Evie losing her virginity to him) but a recent group of kids straight from the bayou have just transferred in and their poverty and their Cajun French immediately marks them as outsiders, even before their hostile attitudes register with students and teachers. That the ringleader, Jackson Deveaux, is as hot as they come doesn't make up for the chip on his shoulder. He can't stop staring at Evie but also clearly can't stand her.

When bizarre flare reduces most people and places to ashes, Evie and her mother are struggling to just survive and the outlook is not good...until Jack Deveraux turns up like a bad penny on his motorcycle offering a chance of a future. But now that Evie knows to trust her visions and has recently figured out one of her abilities (and it's one that would have her even more hunted in the world she now lives in), she doesn't trust Jack's intentions but she does believe in his survival skills, so they embark on the road to finding Evie's grandmother together.

Evie can't stop thinking about her grandmother, who kidnapped Evie when she was just a little girl, and who understood Evie's visions and tried to convince her of the magic in her blood. A tarot reader, Evie's grandmother explained a great deal to Evie but she realizes she's forgotten a lot of it and the doctors brainwashed another chunk of it out, so Evie realizes that she needs to get to this long-lost woman who might have valuable answers. Considering that her mother took a restraining order out against her after Evie's kidnapping, this isn't going to be easy.

What I think is so brilliant about Cole's writing is the romance between Jack and Evie. Jack is a total ass and Evie can acknowledge to herself that he's handsome and there's a physical attraction but that he's given her no reason to like or trust him. Readers are able to figure out that with Jack's horrible home life and role models (or lack thereof) it's entirely likely that he has no idea how to communicate his feelings at all to a girl, instead relying on cryptic conversations and anger. His Cajun French is wicked sexy but until the last part of the book, it's hard to figure out the depth of his feeling for Evie.

The other Tarot card figures are enigmatic at best and few seem to fall into the fully good or fully evil category which I love. The fact that there are still a few characters who have been seen in visions but not yet appeared in person (particularly Death, who sounds like he's going to throw a real wrench, both from a fighting perspective and a romantic perspective) makes me chomp at the bit for the next book!

My only complaint regarding this novel is that it's written in the first person (another common YA device) and I sorely miss hearing Jack's perspective, even when I agree with Cole's writer decision to give us events as they come to fruition inside Evie's head. The only time we are not with Evie's POV is when we are in the mind of the psycho serial killer, whose experience bookends Poison Princess, offering a brilliantly tight ending with the Tarot theme.

Of concern for librarians is the fact that Kresley Cole is an established adult romance writer whose excellent Immortals After Dark series is incredibly popular among adult paranormal romance readers. I wish she had taken a slightly different name for the Arcana Chronicles, because I can see a lot of teen readers eager to read more of her work picking these up. These adult romance books are also unbelievably well-written and actually hilariously funny, but on the sensuality scale, they fall between "scorcher" and "erotic" romance with their level of explicit description.

It's gratifying to see a terrific author like Kresley Cole not only branching into young adult paranormal but also kicking butt with her great writing and compelling characters. Her female leads definitely don't need men to help them realize who they are and they don't put up with being treated badly. With Poison Princess, Cole has created a dark new world populated by individuals readers will want to follow to the end of the series. I for one, am glad that she has embarked on this new adventure!

YALSA Throws Down the Gauntlet with the 2013 Reading Challenge

It always happens when the book awards are announced at ALA at the end of January, a mixed reaction of shock and gratification at the announcements depending on my opinion of the books of read, followed by an overwhelming sense of "Oh, no! I need to get on the stick and read lots more books. NOW."

But it's often not that easy to get started. Leave it to YALSA to offer just the incentive I needed with their 2013 Reading Challenge. They even have put together a fantastic pdf of all the books who have won all those YMA awards, organized by author and indicating which awards the book has won. I love the range of books represented - not just your typical fiction books, but the Stonewall Book Award winners to beef up my GLBTQ list, nonfiction, audiobooks and the best graphic novels.

So I need to read these books by June 22nd (should not be a problem considering how great they look) and I love that the contest is open to ANYONE, so teens and teachers will be hearing about this from me! Participants write a comment on the blog post with all the rules and indicate their blog, Goodreads, LibraryThing, YouTube or some other link to the tracking device the person will be using. It looks like you can keep a list some other way but you might want to email them how best to do it. Every Saturday they'll publish a check in post and you leave a comment with the books you've read that week and include links to your reviews or give your opinion about them in the comment. Once you finish the challenge you get a special "Conqueror's Badge"!

So join me in tackling the best of YA literature from this past year. You'll be glad you did!!!

Untraditional Book Formats Prove Popular...But What Does It Mean for Schools Moving to Digital Collections?

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by
Caroline Preston (New York: HarperCollins, 2011)

I've been having quite a few conversations recently involving how or when independent school libraries will move over to a collection model based largely on ebooks. A lot of factors drive this conversation - wanting to remain competitive in the market, the many schools moving to a 1:1 BYOD model for computing, etc. - but administrators often seem eager to get rid of print.

A mistake? Yes and no.

My first thought is automatically cost. While some companies actually have you 'buy' the book using a one-time fee, you are still at their mercy since access is determined by them (you don't physically store the book on a server you own). The majority of ebooks, however, are made available using subscription services like Overdrive or various databases, meaning that you are paying thousands of dollars each year to provide your students with access to these volumes.

Thousands of dollars a year can create a pretty good print collection at any school, but you do have the limitation that only one student at a time can use the print volume you've purchased (some ebook providers have a single check out system as well, but others allow unlimited access). But these pros and cons aside, if a school (for various reasons) chooses to move to a more electronic collection, I still feel that a portion of the collection should be available in print form. Why?

Serendipity and format result in greater access.

Serendipity is the first issue. Particularly with recreational reading, teenager selection styles seem to be geared toward wandering stacks and displays and picking up books with attractive covers to read the dust jackets. I think there is also a tactile pleasure for many students (tactile-kinesthetic learners, maybe?) to handle books when making a decision to read them. Think of how many students love to go to Barnes & Noble and sit in comfy chairs with a stack of books to browse and a coffee - there is something about that shopping experience which appeals. You have one book in your hand and suddenly a few others in the vicinity look terrific, so you read those. Serendipity resulting in more recreational reading has taken place due to instant access.

I do think that sites like Goodreads, its YA sister site Teenreads, Shelfari, and LibraryThing are taking the place of (or highly supplementing the process) of this browsing experience. More and more students are coming to the library with a list of books they've found via Amazon or one of the above sites. I personally push Goodreads like there is no tomorrow since I think its algorithm for suggesting books after you've rated the ones you've read is the best out there.

As a collection development and display tool Goodreads can't be beat either. Want a reminder of all the football fiction books for a Super Bowl display? There's probably a list on Goodreads to help you. And since in the end what readers want most in a sense of community, the review process on these sites have a built in sense of seeing what people really like or dislike about a book or series, with users easily able to friend others and see what they are reading as well. In fact, when you look at a book to read more about it, your Goodreads friends have their reviews and ratings show first on the book's page. Really helpful.

Even if serendipity can move to a more electronic version of itself, there is the other sticky issue of format. Most fiction and recreational nonfiction translates very well to an e-reader format. It's just one page after another of text, right? As long as that's the case, the reader is just processing that text, but in the case of nonfiction with figures or images, the image can get really wonky (sidebars are notorious for wreaking havoc). There is also a growing body of fiction and nonfiction which uses nontraditional formatting for a different experience and this can be a huge problem when translated to an e-format, if it gets translated at all.

This double page format with varying type size would be
a major pain to negotiate with an ereader, which is
probably why you can't buy it that way.

Case in point, the book I placed up at the top of this post, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston which isn't available in ebook format for good reason. I enjoyed this pictorial work of historical fiction centering on a young woman from Cornish, New Hampshire with dreams of becoming a writer. The main character chronicles her journey to Vassar, then to Greenwich Village and Paris, by using typed text as well as ads and other snippets to illustrate her journey. Despite a small amount of text, a very complete picture of this story is transmitted but e-reader audiences would be denied the experience.

Chopsticks: A Novel by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo
Corral (illustrator) (New York: Razorbill, 2012)

An incredibly popular book in my library right now is the book Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony, which illustrates a tempestuous love story between a piano prodigy and the boy next door. Similar to Preston's book, the design is evocative of a scrapbook with the pages slowly revealing the madness of the young woman whose world unravels for myriad reasons. Students cannot get enough of pouring over the images and text of this story. With a size that is definitely unusual in its dimensions (about 8 by 9 inches), this book stands out from others on the shelf, by format and by ambition. Naturally, it also is not available in ebook format despite its popularity.

PostSecret by Frank Warren (William Morrow, 2005)
The first in a popular series.

Both of these volumes' appeal remind me of the nonfiction PostSecret series which students not only read regularly but also follow the website with enthusiasm. Started by Frank Warren as a community art project, contributors send him anonymous postcards with highly personal secrets on them, with the result being a moving, funny, poignant and disturbing journey. Multiple volumes are the result and I've been begged to buy all of them (I happily acquiesced). Listening to students discuss not just the text but the artwork always reminds me of discussions of the importance of visual literacy - why not start with fun fiction and nonfiction to get students used to interpreting images and reading deeper into an author's intent? While other visual literacy exercises would be available via a tablet computer or laptop, some e-readers clearly would not lend themselves as easily to this skill development. With all of the above books unavailable in any electronic format, students solely dependent on a digital formats for reading via their library would be denied access to these works.

And in the end, that's what librarians are all about - access. Access to great information, great recreational reading and caring adults who can help students and teachers.

Until access is more guaranteed digitally (and perhaps more affordable in that format) to as many options as exist in print, school libraries will undoubtedly need to be a hybrid of print and electronic options. 

In a world where we feel digital formats open up our horizons, it's vital to remember that, as of right now, they limit them as well. Our job as librarians is to be ever vigilant so we can guarantee the joy of serendipity (electronic and in person), a variety of formats and continual access to the best information to our communities.

Strong Female Protagonists and Norse Mythology: Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson

Valkyrie Rising (Valkyrie #1) by Ingrid Paulson
(New York: HarperTeen, 2012)

With the rise of mythology in the paranormal world it's nice to see the direction turn not only to Norse mythology, but to highlighting a strong female protagonist. Debut author Ingrid Paulson is a writer to watch as she grips you from the first page of Valkyrie Rising and barely lets go on the last one.

Ellie is sixteen and has always lived in the shadow of her perfect, handsome, athletic brother, Graham. He's actually a good guy but overprotective and thinks he can chime in and make decisions about Ellie's life whenever he feels like it. She's just thrilled that he's graduating and heading off to college. Better yet, they are making their annual trek to visit her Swedish grandmother and Ellie gets to go first, getting some great alone time before Graham comes to join them. One tidbit that has taken the shine off her vacation is the news that her brother's best friend, the annoying and all-too-charming Tuck, will be joining them.

Her grandmother's farmhouse is wonderful as is the attention Ellie seems to be getting from the male population. She didn't think her height and long blond hair would stand out in this country, but something about her seems to be drawing people's eye. When she realizes that there is no small amount of malice directed toward her youthful-looking and feisty grandmother, a tension that seems to be related to the disappearance of handsome young men in the area, Ellie figures out that something big is going on. After she catches sight of the stunning, supermodel women doing the kidnapping - women who cause Ellie to hear voices and feel strength she never thought possible while they hypnotize their victim - she also begins to wonder what's going on with her.

Graham and Tuck arriving only complicate the situation. Graham is prime material for kidnapping (good-looking, athletic hero-types are the victims) and Tuck not playing by the rules of their previous friendship, awakening all kinds of feelings that Ellie would rather not contemplate since she knows he'll never go against Graham's wish to keep all boys away from her. But Tuck seems to be the only one who understands that there is something seriously sketchy is happening with Ellie at the center of it. Even her grandmother is trying to ignore her questions, although the older woman definitely has the answers.

Valkyrie Symptoms (Valkyrie #0.5) by Ingrid
Paulson (New York: HarperTeen, Feb. 5, 2013)

As events come to a crescendo, Ellie not only has to deal with the new awareness of her heritage and what it may mean for her, with saving the brother she loves from death, but also must face the fact that the boy she's fallen for might have betrayed her in a way she'll never get over.

I loved Ellie's voice throughout this novel. She's smart and a little unsure of herself at the start, making this really a novel about a young girl finding herself. What differentiates it from the typical-teenage-girl-becoming-more-confident storyline is that this particular young woman happens to the granddaughter of a Valkyrie. This means the emergence of a lot of anger and power within Ellie and as much as power is something we see in paranormal YA literature, anger is a feeling often denied to young women in the popular canon, but one that feminist readers often would like to see written about.

Because of this focus, the romance with Tuck is a wonderful addition, but I liked that it was not the focus of the book. He's a terrific character and it's nice to have a paranormal book where the female lead is not compellingly drawn to the "mystery boy" and then falls in love with him in a matter of hours. I also appreciate that Paulson has a prequel to Valkyrie Rising (timed a few days prior to the start of that book) written solely from Tuck's perspective, entitled Valkyrie Symptoms. While this was released in free form by the author, don't think you shouldn't buy the ebook - that free look is only 20 pages, and the Amazon.com ebook novella is listed at 56 pages, so I have happily forked over the $.99 for my pre-ordered copy and will be waiting with baited breath for more Tuck-time on February 5th!

I also appreciated that, in a world of writers who leave you on the cusp of something at the end of a book prior to priming you for the next and you are dying in the meantime, wanting the author to stop his/her life so they can just write the sequel already. Paulson has certainly left doors open for further development of the storyline and characters, but managed to provide enough closure to the reader that there is sense of satisfaction when finishing the last page.

My one caution is that Ingrid Paulson needs to get on the bandwagon in terms of her website and social media. This talented author is going to generate a following of teens who want to see these characters and hear about the writer's ideas and interests. Right now her website is very bare bones without much recent content and the same goes for her social presence. It's hard for writers transitioning between a previous job and working as a writer full-time (and that transition can last a few years) to keep up with this type of obligation, but building a fan base based on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads posts cannot be overestimated.

I'd encourage anyone interested in Norse mythology (Thor fans, anyone?) and/or strong female leads to check Valkyrie Rising. You'll be hooked, I promise!!

Celebrating the Holidays, Library Style!

We are big Pinterest fans in my library and before the holidays, we were busy thinking about cool ways to ramp up our winter decorations. Our artificial garland had been around for ten years and was just limply phoning it in - even the tartan wired ribbon had lost its brogue. So when we stumbled upon book tree examples, we knew we had to make our own.

A lot of book tree creators wrap their books with a solid color paper or use books of a series that are the same color and size for ease of stacking (way to use those old solid green tax codes, librarians!). Most of them appeared to be green, but I thought red would be far more festive, so I hunted up books with spines in a shade of red that came from topics not likely to be used for research this time of year (we are in the midst of World Civ and U.S. History term papers, but they have a limit on how modern the topic can be). Modern China and the feminism section of the 300s yielded major dividends, so I pulled those and plenty of others so I had a nice smorgasbord of red to choose from.

Students, eager to procrastinate help, leapt on my spreading out over a hundred books around the table (I wasn't sure I could support a full book tree). I was happy to supervise, and we decided to separate out the books by size and width to insure stability and I think our STEM program would have been impressed with the degree of physics utilized to make this happen. We did a nice stack, taking about an hour and half to complete it. It took us until the next day to figure out how to top it, but we finally saw a close up picture of the smaller books stacked to a point. Some awesome gold sparkle mistletoe picks from Joann Fabrics, our leftover lights from a decade ago and a huge gold bow and we were in business!

But we got ambitious, and before I knew it we had the fake snow with donated little houses (one of them a book shop) nestled underneath. The kids visiting the library each day LOVED the tree and when we were looking at other book trees and comparing them unfavorably to our wonderful tree, we saw a picture of a book fireplace and the race was on.

Our bound National Geographic magazines stretch back to the 1920s and the bindings are in varying shades of red, just like bricks! To offer the right about of stability to the stacking, we did two rows of books on each side, sliding in a piece of black foam core to emulate the inside of a fireplace. I got a perfect piece of stiff foam at Joann's for under $10 (we used this to measure the distance of the books for the fireplace) and I covered it with a couple yards of cheap red felt, secured with quilting pins. A three dollar red sparkle bow, also secured with pins, polished up the mantle into a showpiece and I had to get a little doormat that looked like a carpet at Kmart. It was perfect for our menorah, and I love the feature of the kraft paper wrapped books for logs and with the construction paper flames coming out of them (a good use for a few reference discards).

Around this time, we discovered that some of our playful colleagues decided to have a department Christmas tree contest, so we pitted our tree against the development, admissions, class deans, and college guidance departments. Once a prize was in our sights, I'll confess we got a leetle competitive, perhaps urged on by the cheeky smack talk from our colleagues (ahem, class deans!). We made letters from famous authors writing as children to Santa (J. D. Salinger, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Clemens) using characteristics of those authors.

We won the contest and our kids were SO proud of the display and made a point of dragging other students over to see it if they hadn't been in the library for a day or two. When I went to our main school building to hear the results of the contest, the kids knew that the day of reckoning had come - I didn't realize they were all lingering in the library to hear who had won after school. When I walked in with the trophy (a spray painted ugly tree from Goodwill that will now be our Stanley Cup equivalent in years to come), the whole library broke out into spontaneous cheering! We even made a triumphal video (only available to Facebook users since it's so embarrassing how we are hamming it up dancing to "Eye of the Tiger").

I'm already thinking (and pinning ideas) about what we can do next year. This was such a fun "before holiday break" activity at a time when we most need a little focus and lift in the school year.

Predicting a Great Short Story - Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and Prediction

Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and Prediction

After taking a look at the authors who contributed to the anthology, Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and Prediction, edited by Carrie Ryan, it wasn't hard to see that this grouping of short stories was going to be terrific.

I adore short story anthologies, for a couple of reasons. I usually read the collections that have a few writers I love (Richelle Mead, Laini Taylor and Diana Peterfreund were my draws in this one) just so I can get my fix while waiting for their next book. But short story anthologies are also like trolling for new authors. After all, if I'm reading a collection, it's usually built around a theme I like and I've noticed that authors, young adult ones in particular, have a tendency to form close bonds with writers of a similar quality. Get one great YA author in a collection and chances are you've hit the jackpot.

"Gentlemen Send Phantoms" by Laini Taylor

What a perfect story to start the collection! This terrific, romantic tale is set in a time where superstition and minor witchcraft was still a part of daily life. Three friends take advantage of the idea that on October 6th, a future husband's phantom will visit his destined wife. All three girls want the handsome Matty, much to Pippin's dismay. She and Matty have been friends since childhood, but she's small and not as womanly as the others.  When she breaks the rules to save her friends, events transpire to make her think that she has no chance with Matty after all, or does she?

I didn't realize that the author who wrote the dark and haunting book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, could pen such a sweet romance but her chops come through yet again as she showcases her ability to have you buy into a fantastic setting with no reservations. It's an incredible ability not a lot of writers can boast.

"Burned Bright" by Diana Peterfreund

It's no secret that I adore Diana Peterfreund; she always blows me away with the power of her writing and this short story was no exception. Alternating points of view between the charismatic daughter of a cult leader predicting the end of the world and the boy who loves her, this contains an utterly chilling ending. I love stories where I am uncertain about what is really happening - where it's uncertain what is the "truth" - and Peterfreund weaves a complex web in this tale that has me still thinking about the characters a few days later.

The quality I love the most about Peterfreund's writing is her unbelievably strong female characters. These girls are powerful, realize it, and aren't afraid to use their gifts. I always forget how rare this is in young adult literature until I read her work. Anyone who hasn't read her Killer Unicorns series needs to get their butt in gear and do so. It's amazing.

"The Angriest Man" by Lisa McMann

I've never read anything by this author before. Set in an ambiguous semi-fantasy world with an estranged and neglected boy born with a supernatural quality, this story was beautifully written - you enjoyed the feeling of the words in your mouth all the while trying to figure out the truth. Was this unnamed protagonist truly a result of something highly supernatural? Should his mother be blamed for neglecting him? If he really was somehow endowed with otherworldly qualities, how did other people not notice and point it out?

This short story made such an impression on me that I'm definitely going to read McMann's Dream Catcher series (I've bought it for the library, I've just yet to read it).

"Out of the Blue" by Meg Cabot

There exists an entire generation of girls who have been literally raised on The Princess Diaries series, or the gagillion other Meg Cabot books which she's published to acclaim. This short story combines Cabot's signature sense of humor and cutting insight into teen relationship dynamics (the litigious psycho ex-girlfriend? Hilarious!). Cabot's whimsical and creepy tale is conveyed via interview transcripts clearly taken by "the men in black" about fraternal twins who have an encounter with a spaceship when they are six and then another, much more interesting one, when they are sixteen.

Meg Cabot has proven she can handle scifi and paranormal elements as demonstrated in her successful Abandon trilogy and the Mediator series, so it's not a surprise that she paints a creepy, dark antagonist who is all the more menacing (to say nothing of the looming and unnamed government agency questioning the kids) for the occasional injections of humor.

"One True Love" by Malinda Lo

No one can ever go wrong reading Lo (I was privileged to hear her speak at a YALSA pre-conference a few years ago), and this story lived up to my high expectations. With clearly strong ties to the Oedipus story, this work is set in a fantasy world with a princess prophesied to bring down her father the king at the time she meets her "one true love". Her heartless father sequesters her with a nursemaid for her entire life, bringing her out for royal events heavily veiled so there is no chance of her spotting a love interest or being seen by someone who might fall in love with her. When her father (who goes through wives like Kleenex), is awarded a new bride from a country negotiating peace terms, he sends the gorgeous young woman to the same tower as her daughter, who is about the same age.

Lo is renowned for her skillful handling of GLBTQ themes in young adult literature, but, while the princess falls in love with her father's young bride, this beautiful story felt to me like it was more about finding strength and power when you thought you had none. The transformation of the main character from an isolated royal to a young woman filled with the power of love was heartwarming and inspirational. Lo's writing was also sweet, strong and sensual and, as such, was a delight. Anyone who hasn't read her stunning book, Ash, or one of her many other novels, should pick them up immediately.

"This Is a Mortal Wound" by Michael Grant 

Michael Grant is the successful young adult author probably best known for his dystopian Gone series. With his facility with science fiction already established, it's unsurprising that he has chosen to include a story in this anthology set in the near future. As an educator, this storyline did make me REALLY uncomfortable, and - while I haven't known a teacher who has completely snapped - this was all too easy to believe!

This is a tale of a sadistic teacher set in a future where education is more dominated by technology than it is today. I did think it stretched the premise of "prophesy and prediction" although clearly it was meant to highlight the real future of education as needing to keep up with the fast pace of scientific discovery and change. I couldn't decide if I liked Tomaso or not, but I loved the climatic scene where his teacher gets her comeuppance as he proves to her that technology offers better quality information than his textbook. That said, the absence of an actual good teacher - one that has expertise and uses technology to help guide student learning - made me sad, but I'm sure this would be a cathartic short story for a student who has suffered with a horrible teacher (and, let's face it, we've all had at least one).

"Misery" by Heather Brewer

Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series

The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episodes I remember most as a child were the ones were protagonists found themselves in a strange town or surrounded by menacing neighbors. The show usually had some tremendous twist, a la Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," which would make me gasp. If I was lucky, it would possess enough of a resolution that I could go to sleep that night, not worrying about the fate of the characters.

Heather Brewer's short story instantly brought this scifi infatuation of mine to mind. Set in a mysterious town that no one could quite remember moving to, Alek awaits to hear of the "gift" the year would bring him, a gift predicted by the town psychic, Jordan. Jordan predicted the arrival of Alek's best friend, Sara, at a time when he was lonely, but he feels a tremendous weight bearing down on him; this year's gift might be more than what he bargained for.

"The Mind is a Powerful Thing" by Matt de la Pena

Joanna is a constantly worried sixteen-year-old. Despite celebrating her birthday with her close friends in West L.A., she nevertheless sees the worst around every corner and to her, the worst means assault and murder. After imbibing a little too much, the party gets out of control and Joanna might have irreparably damaged the one really good thing in her life.

I have a bunch of de la Pena's books in the library, but they are still on my "to-read" list. His unique voice was a refreshing change in the middle of this anthology and I loved the inclusion of Latina characters and an urban setting in a genre usually dominated by white protagonists. Diversity aside, however, I was wowed by how de la Pena conveys the idea of Joanna's paranoia, yet simultaneously gives you reason to believe she might just be worried for a valid reason. This duality kept me guessing and questioning my assumptions for the whole read. I love it when a good writer does that to me.

"The Chosen One" by Saundra Mitchell

Saundra Mitchell's fantasy story was a standout in this collection, largely due to her choice to have a scarred protagonist, yet show us this character's inner beauty from the beginning. Corvina may be the daughter of the king of Vernal, but she was born on the wrong side of the blanket and is relegated to be the servant of her legitmate sister, the stunning Lucia. Lucia is wonderful, however, and about to embark on a search for a fiancee worthy of her, so Corvina is all the more bereft when her sister falls prey to a virilent disease. Not content to stand by and do nothing, Corvina decides to embark on a quest to find a magical cup that could cure Lucia.

Isn't all good fantasy centered on an individual's quest? Corvina's fight through obstacles, her finding a handsome ally to aid her, and a wonderful resolution had me eagerly turning the pages of this tale. I know Mitchell has done paranormal and mystery, but has she done other fantasy? I'm dying for more.

"Improbable Futures" by Kami Garcia

I've only read Kami Garcia's work which she's written partnered with Margaret Stohl, so it was super to be able to hear her voice separate from that collaboration.

Ilana has been a carney since she was a child, destined to follow in her mother's footsteps to tell people their "fortunes" at the run down circus they've followed for her lifetime. She hates lying to people every night, but she does it, both because it is the only life she knows and because of the very real threat the owner poses to her. But one night, something happens to the prophecies Ilana tells her customers, and she never could have foreseen the results.

This tale was dark, dark, DARK and so rich with despair that I felt heavy after reading it. Yet I was delighted to see such a wonderful writer emerge on her own at the same time. Garcia has a new book coming out this year and this short story guarantees I'm buying it for the library.

"Death for the Deathless" by Margaret Stohl

Did you know that I actually have heard both Stohl and Garcia speak? They were a dynamic twosome during the same YALSA young adult literature presentation where I also heard Malinda Lo. Attendees actually got a copy of Beautiful Creatures as one of the take-away gifts for the workshop. I read it in one fell swoop on the plane and loved the gothic feel and strong Southern sense of place that pervaded the novel. The highly successful series established both Garcia and Stohl's reputations, so it's great to see them both writing on their own, yet enjoying each other's company in the same anthology.

If this short story doesn't become a full-fledged book or series, it's a waste of a terrific idea. Beginning in the dark recesses of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, we meet two immortals, Luc whose job it is to use the enigma machine to receive prophecies from an unknown dimension, and the beautiful Adrienne, who must communicate them, good or bad, to the head immortals. Sorcerers, vampires, and werewolves abound in this world, and when Luc receives a communication about death to immortals, he and Adrienne are terrified to see the repercussions when she delivers the message, and for good reason.

I loved that the POV switched between the two characters and this world is so rich and nuanced, it left me wanting much, much more. I hope I get it!

"Fate" by Simone Elkeles

I'm not sure I would have put a second short story which also alternates POV between the male and female protagonist, but Ryan did. Luckily the two stories couldn't be more different. While Stohl plays to her strengths (and established fan base) in paranormal romance, Elkeles knows her forte is undoubtedly contemporary YA romance and she delivers.

Carson is an eighteen-year-old recently homeless and from a rough background; his father is in jail and his mother abandoned him when he was young, seeing him sporadically but always with little commitment. A loan allows him to rent a run-down RV in a trailer park and while it's not much, it's home, even if it comes with a chattering sixteen-year-old redhead girl next door. Willow doesn't seem to know how to take a hint, but she is determined to help Carson and he discovers that maybe it's time he opened up a little after all.

Sweet romance but it felt highly compressed to me - I would have enjoyed this in a longer book!

"The Killing Garden" by Carrie Ryan

Carrie Ryan was on the cusp of the zombie resurgence in YA literature and her books always kept me wide awake waiting for the pandemic that would turn us all into cannibals. I think she has an ability to draw a world that has you believing this could be yours under different circumstances, a chilling view of alternate history that is the fuel of nightmares.

While there are no zombies in this short story, the premise is equally as frightening. Tanci is the first female heir born to a long line of gardeners to the emperor, and her birth is a tremendous disappointment to her father, who does not feel she will be strong enough to carry on his legacy. Not just in charge of the elaborate royal gardens, the gardener is also responsible for weeding the court of enemies and threats, a weeding that consists of racing the condemned through the gardens and then strangling the accused on the execution platform.

Tanci trains her entire young life, casting aside any doubts and toughening her body. When she proves her strength, beating her father at the age of fifteen, she feels that there should be more than the numb emptiness she carries. But she doesn't really begin to question her role until she comes in contact with a particular prisoner who has her rethinking her vocation.

What chills you to the bone about this story is a society in which a teenage executioner is completely accepted and how Tanci can divorce herself from any doubts or feelings and make her work merely a test of skill and strength, even as she snuffing out the life of another person. Ryan's pacing is pitch perfect, so much so that this story gives the impression of a longer novella as it takes the reader on its main character's emotional journey.

"Homecoming" by Richelle Mead

Finally, the story I actually purchased the book to read! I am a gigantic fan of the Vampire Academy series and it's companion Bloodlines series (The Indigo Spell #3 is coming out on February 12, 2013!). In all of YA literature (and most of adult romance), I defy you to come up with a hotter male lead than Dimitri Belikov. YOU CANNOT DO IT. I've got lots of teenage readers backing me up on this, people, trust me (and a few adult ones, as well).

After Rose Hathaway, the protagonist of the Vampire Academy series helps free Dimitri of his Strigoi fate (and they have an eventual happily ever after, at least enough that the Bloodlines series can begin), you next "see" them in Bloodlines, getting Jill settled in with her Alchemist handler, Sydney, our protagonist for that series. I knew, somewhere along the line, that Rose and Dimitri must have gone back to Siberia to visit his family. Rose's time in that landscape with the Belikov's were some of the most moving emotional scenes of the series as she wrestled with her grief and the knowledge that she had promised to hunt him down, and I wanted to see them all again.

I was not disappointed. Not only did I revel in seeing my two badass lovebirds together in Russia but it was wonderful to see all of Dimitri's relatives, even his witch grandmother, the cryptic Yeva. Yeva annoys Rose once again (Yeva claims she new that Rose would be Dimitri's salvation, information Rose would have enjoyed having prior to trying to hunt him down and kill him) when an Alchemist arrives to tell them about a dangerous Strigoi nearby, the Blood King. The Alchemist convinces Rose and Dimitri to try and rid the area of this menace as so many humans are getting killed. Naturally, they head off to do just that.

Rose and Dimitri are just as fabulous a couple as they always were and Mead has chosen to showcase them at their loving best - fighting Strigoi. This is a story which will not disappoint fans of the series, particularly with all the hints that Dimitri is set on convincing Rose to marry him.

So Who Wins the Blue Ribbon?

With fourteen short stories, I feel like I should at least highlight the best quality stories in this anthology. Naturally, my favorite is Mead's "Homecoming" but I'm willing to admit that someone who was unfamiliar with the Vampire Academy series would not get as much out of this story as I have (although I think they'd be tempted to read more of the series). "One True Love" by Malinda Lo and Saundra Mitchell's "The Chosen One" are stellar examples of strong female fantasy characters. Margaret Stohl's "Death for the Deathless" has also been staying with me for days, and I really do have my fingers crossed that this is a precursor to a series.

Carrie Ryan should get a bruise from patting herself on the back for this collection. She has successfully corralled some of the best quality writers in the young adult genre, building a terrific anthology of short stories which delivers to readers, not only an excellent taste of each of these authors, but also fourteen compelling emotional journeys.

I hope I can prophesy that she'll do this again for us.

Inspiring Writers: The Night of Writing Dangerously

One of the most important parts of successful library program relates to serendipity. By being among students in unscripted settings (for me, it's sitting out at the desk with kids casually hanging out at our "information bar"), I hear their interests and can bounce ideas off of them. I think of it as my "daily zeitgeist" reading.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with the head of our creative writing group (a group who are resurrecting our school's defunct literary magazine). A bunch of my writers are taking part in National Novel Writing Month, known to devotees as NaNoWriMo, where participants pledge to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. Impressive, yes?

I was exploring the site's companion Young Writer's Program as well as the main site and reveling in all the information. Granted my teenagers seemed to fall between the YWP and the adult version of the program, but the flyers and free supplemental materials were terrific (awesome Facebook banner, anyone?). That's when I stumbled on "The Night of Writing Dangerously."

Seemingly meant as both a motivator to write in a party-like atmosphere and as a fundraiser for the nonprofit that runs NaNoWriMo, The Night of Writing Dangerously seemed to have food, fun and writing all in one package. Why couldn't we have a writing party at school? When the kids and I began talking, we quickly made the connection to the fact that November is the end of our fall term semester - and it's crunch time for a lot seniors working with December 1st college deadlines. This was one event that could combine creative writers, kids working on term papers, and our college-bound seniors in one fell swoop.

It was just crazy enough to work. I bought some prizes from the NaNoWriMo website which was for the creative writers at the party (so popular!!) and contacted by Director of Student Life since this would be a nighttime student activity. He said that end of term activities the weekend before exam week were always tough to plan since we want kids to relax but also don't want to distract them from studying, so this fit the bill. He was happy to provide the pizza and soft drinks and I would handle the sweet stuff.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I take sugar very seriously. "Teenager" is synonymous with "hungry wolf-like human who loves chocolate" in my opinion and I have enough of an established reputation as a baker to draw kids in. But I wanted to make this extra special and pull out the stops. We had a sign up sheet (exclusivity gives it a little more cachet and helps you predict how much food to make) and I was astonished to have 60 kids sign up in two days! I actually had to turn people away since more than 60 kids makes the library kind of zooey. I could have easily added 10 more students if my library could have accommodated them. Here's what to make for 60 kids:

• Order 12 pizzas
• Have a case of bottled water and a couple boxes of soda
• Keurig hot beverage maker and a couple boxes of the entertaining assorted cups for hot drinks
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes (12)
• Vanilla w/Vanilla Bean Frosting Cupcakes (24)
• Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes w/Lemon Frosting (24)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (48)
• Brownies (36)
• English Toffee Pretzel Bark (2 1/2 pounds)
• Cake Batter Bark (2 pounds)
• Homemade marshmallows (for the hot chocolate K-cups)

Because I wanted to make sure everyone who came understood they needed to work, I built off of NaNoWriMo's idea of "Guilt Monkeys". In actuality, I have no idea what the heck these are, but my local NaNoWriMo leader threatened people with them. I decided to create Guilt Monkey stickers (Avery label 22807) that we would slap on people if they weren't working. Three Guilty Monkeys and you were out of the library. Kids loved the Guilt Monkeys so much (I only gave out two and each to a different person) that they actually asked to have one to keep at the end of the night, which made me laugh.

The night was incredible. To see between 50 and 60 students diligently working on their writing projects on a Friday night from 6 pm to 10 pm was so gratifying and they seemed to love having the opportunity to work. We took a break midway through to run around the library (literally - see below video) and then got back to business. I interviewed the kids between helping students, so here's the video of their feedback about the night (it's about fourteen minutes).

I think we will definitely do this at the end of each semester - I might be ready to collapse from all the baking but it was so helpful (this number of kids represent about 15% of our school population) that I can't deprive them of this opportunity.

I'm glad that NaNoWriMo managed to inspire me to reach out to all kinds of writers and that I have a student body willing to immerse themselves in the fun of a work night. I ended up having a ball with all the sugared up enthusiasm floating around and cheerfully look forward to future Nights of Writing Dangerously.