 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time, but if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show every week as we are doing today and it will be posted to our show archives for you watch at your convenience. This is our Encompass Live homepage here and this is our upcoming shows and right here underneath here is where you can access all of our archives. We have a search feature where you can look for everything. The most recent one will be at the top of the page here. This is our full archives of Encompass Live. Encompass Live started in January 2009 and we keep all of our archives here. So we do have it where you can limit it to the most recent 12 months if you would like, but if you scroll through this, I'm not gonna scroll all the way to the bottom because that would be crazy. You can see the dates going back. So just pay attention when you are watching a neighbor archive to the original broadcast date. Some information may still be accurate, some may become outdated, but everything has the original broadcast date in there so you'll know how old something potentially was. Today's recording will be posted up here at the top of the page. Should be there by the end of the day today after we're done with the show. I'm gonna make sure I get it up there. Here on Encompass Live, for those of you not from Nebraska, here on Encompass Live, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries in Nebraska. For you, it might be your state library. So we provide services to all types of libraries across the state. So you will find public K-12, academic, correction, special archives, everything and anything. So you'll find things on our show and in our show archives that cover all sorts of libraries. So we should be able to find something for everybody. Our only real criteria is something to do with libraries, something libraries are doing, something cool we think libraries could be doing. We bring in guest speakers from across the country to talk to everybody. We also have our own Nebraska Library Commission staff that do presentations sometimes and that's what we're gonna have this morning. But before we jump into today's show, I just want to pop over to our Library Commission homepage. And I'm sharing this, make sure everybody knows about this every week. We are still in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Things are still going strong, badly, getting worse in some places. Here at the Nebraska Library Commission, we have our collecting information to try and help our libraries handle a dealing, being in this pandemic. We will post here at the top of our homepage. It is pinned there. So we'll always appear at the top, above anything else that we post on our blog. We also have a list here. We're attempting to keep track of our libraries, mostly our public libraries, but any Nebraska library, whether they're closed, opened, special accommodations they're making for people, extending Wi-Fi in the parking lot, Carpside pickup, reopening and now re-closing again. Many places across the state and across the country when there are surges and flare-ups have to re-close. And so if you are in Nebraska library, let us know, make sure your information's up to date. I wanted to show you here in our post, where we have here, we have a form where the libraries can submit their information to us in Nebraska libraries. We have some maps here, but then we have this sub-page here with some information that can help you with your patrons, about homeschooling, what to do for fun, what about unemployment, et cetera, et cetera. This is all links curated by our reference department here at the Nebraska Library Commission. I just want to highlight here, though, the second option, what about my library? This is for you as library staff, things about helping you with closing, recommendations from ALA, World Health Organization, CDC, IMLS, Pick Your acronym, et cetera, et cetera. Anything new we find out, we try and add it to here, new information, updated resources, webinars, et cetera. Specific information for school libraries. Here are Nebraska-specific information about our Nebraska Open Meetings Act. This is specific to, as I said, Nebraska. If you're not from Nebraska, check your own state to see what your rules are. So a lot of this information is good for anybody, not all of it, much of it is not Nebraska-specific. So I just want to make sure our libraries know this is out there. If you're not from Nebraska, you're welcome to look at this and use these resources as well. Just pay attention to things that are Nebraska-specific. And check in with your state library and your state library association, and they might be sharing the same kind of information for you and your state. All right, so let's get into today's show. Sally, I am going to make you a presenter now so you can get your slides on the screen. There you go, now you're showing the commission's website. Yes, because first I wanted to show people that to find, I have a handout here for you to use. And you can find it on our webpage just by typing in C, it disappeared on me. In that search box, just type handout, and go down there. And so far it's the top one, go there, and you'll see all this list of things. We've left everything on here so far. So there's some old stuff here too. If you just want to see what was the best books in 2010, you could look. But up here at the top, it says best team books. And this is a PDF of the list. We're going to be going through today. So that makes it easier for you to take notes, find what you are hopefully looking for. So now, if I put this here, does that magically make my... There you go, it's full screen, everything happened. I have to remember to open the whole thing next time. Okay, so this is, oh, it says October 2020. There's always something I forget to change. I know it's December, but there we are. This was originally to be done in October. Yes. And I should tell everyone, this is originally supposed to be at our state library conference here in Nebraska, which was canceled unfortunately due to COVID, but luckily we can get Sally to come on here and do it today. But now I do know, because you just mentioned to me this morning, you have updated this since October. You've actually, we're putting things on like just this week. Yes, just yesterday. I was writing, see, I have my blurb sheet because if I don't kind of read from my sheet, I'll talk way too long about the first three books and you won't get to hear about the rest of them. So this is for your own good that I'm kind of reading from my sheet here. These are books that I have encountered either from once the publishers have sent here to the library commission for review, or you'll see some with the library stickers on them because I of course, I'm a library user and go over there quite often to find other titles and occasionally I buy one because I want to have it. And so I've done that on a few of them. You aren't gonna be able to tell that, but anyway. So we're gonna start with fiction for younger teens. And these are big general categories. So I'll tell you a little bit about the plot of the book and why I think it's a good choice for your library or possibly a good choice for your library. And then you can just jot on your handout or on your piece of paper what ones to consider for purchase. And once the recording's here, you can always go back and hear again what I had to say in case you're not sure, I really liked it. But if it's on the list, I recommend it. And it's up to you to choose off of here once that you think will be popular in your library. So first is Avi. Victoria or Tori is 13 and she hid aboard the ship that's taking her father and younger brother to California to join the gold rush there. They have arrived and now they find lots of mud, tents and lawlessness. They find a few friendly people who help them get settled and then dad is off to pan for gold. And he leaves Tori to keep an eye on Jacob which she resents because he is not really responsive to her suggestions. But then Jacob disappears and she is worried that he's been taken in order to be sold to work on an outgoing ship. And she knows that searching all those abandoned wrecks in the harbor in the San Francisco harbor is gonna be almost impossible to do but she and her friend, Thad are not giving up. As usual from Avi, this is an appealing historical fiction title with a strong female lead and a few kind people to help. This is book one of two according to Amazon. Mary is 16 and she and her father are still recovering from the death of her mother. In this new Chicago, the government has successfully ended violence and the citizens are free to live and pursue their dreams. It just seems so wonderful except it is built on a huge falsehood. Words have been carefully removed from use slowly over the 70 years since this new regime took over. The news is all positive and upbeat. Even when something bad happens, it's not really, it's not anybody doing something bad. It's like a gas leak or a car slid on the ice before it hit someone. All of many things have been falsified to make everything sound like it's just going swell. Mary is striving to be considered as an artist and she has been studying her mother's final art pieces. They are very different from any of her other work to understand what her mother was trying to accomplish but they don't make sense until a stranger hands her a piece of paper with the word verify on it. That word has no meaning to her. Soon she is following breadcrumbs to learn more about what her mother was doing and what she had discovered. Myla is in seventh grade and she finds herself the target of increasingly uncomfortable physical attention from some of the seventh grade boys. At first it starts slowly and she thinks it is innocent but her stomach turns and she feels uncomfortable being near any of this people in this group of boys. Whenever she protests and there's never a teacher around when that happens, they say she's being overly sensitive. One of her friends is even jealous of her, the attention that she's getting from them. Another friend keeps suggesting she tell a teacher or the principal. He was a victim of bullying the year before due to his being gay and Myla encouraged him to go to a teacher about it. He has frustrated that she's not following her own advice and she doesn't for way too long if you ask me but it makes sense at her age and in grade and school. This is all so new. It turns out the boys were playing a game and they got points for saying something inappropriate to her or for touching her. This is well written, Myla's confusion and frustration are clear and believable. The resolution of this situation is reasonable and satisfying. This is an important book for middle school leaders. One of the first sports books I'll talk about Lazarus or Laz is 19 and his younger brother Antonio is about 17 and they live with their mom in a rundown trailer house in a less affluent part of Seattle. Laz has a star pitcher for their school baseball team as well respected and he's crucial to their success. He has worried about his brother spending so much time with Garrett who last suspects of being a minor drug dealer. Antonio wants Laz to lay off. He says he isn't doing anything wrong, but Laz still worries. When their school drops the baseball team for Laz's senior year, he plans to travel to another school to play on the team but instead he begins going to a fancy school and living with a rich family in order to pitch for that school's baseball team. He had to move to go to the school since his family was forced out of the trailer park that they had been in for so many years and they're in a different part of Seattle now. The climax of the book is that Garrett warns Laz he has sent Antonio on an errand but didn't know it was a setup for a conflict with a rival dealer. So Laz has to try and find and help Antonio. This book focuses on a lot of good sports action that highlights Laz's pitching. It's also his belief in the concept of team and his concern for his brother. Their short chapters are a plus too. Of course it's by Carl Duker. So I probably didn't have to say anything. Molly is in eighth grade and she starts a podcast titled Dress Coded, a podcast where she interviews fellow female students from their middle school about their experiences being pulled aside and reprimanded for dress code violations. It turns out there are some very unfair things going on. The dress code is not enforced unilaterally but only on girls who are or have begun to develop curves. The reprimands have also gone beyond correcting the clothing with some shaming and embarrassing of the chosen girls. Soon a couple of high school girls has to be interviewed about their experiences when they were at the middle school. The high school does not enforce the dress code to the same extent the middle school does. They do finally manage to get this issue on school board's agenda for discussion but that only happens because an adult stepped in to demand that. Another thing on Molly's plate is her brother is selling vaping items to middle schoolers and he is also a vape user himself. There are stories told are powerful stories. I think some of them came from real life because I remember reading about some of these. There are discussions of equality, responsibility and standing together to bring change. This is a powerful book. I'm gonna use that word a lot. I'm sorry, there's a whole bunch of powerful books. Lots of good title, good books being written lately. Yeah, I'm glad. This is Anna's experiences as an Irish lass during the 1881 drumless land wars in Ireland. It's told in free verse with wonderful word choices flowing the story along. The English have taken possession of people's lands and raised the rent higher and higher until they can't afford it. Anna and her father are arrested. Anna escapes and flees for an aunt's house with her special needs, younger sister in tow. Will the aunt take them in if they can get there and is there anything Anna can do to save her father and her home? Book ends on a positive note and the author notes at the back of the book that her great-grandmother was raised in the town where the land war took place and she includes the author's note at the back. So, Mel is a junior in high school and he has a reputation for being a lady's man but actually he isn't. He has always been interested in Kira essentially since kindergarten. Now she is available and Del knows he must be careful not to be the rebound guy. One Sunday when he was daydreaming at church, a group of teens, including Kira, walked to the front of the church. Impulsively, Del joins them and then he finds out he's just volunteered to be a part of a group taking the purity pledge, choosing and celebrating abstinence, not what he's known for. As he supports others in his group, including Kira, he slowly begins to realize he isn't the good guy he thought he was but rather has enjoyed the double standard he hadn't recognized before and sees that he needs to change. Does he actually end up with Kira? Not so much. But I love the fact that he walked up there and then got kind of in his face. This is what I'm agreeing to do. Even though he has not really been a lady's man. Ross is 12, he's in seventh grade and he has an extremely rare eye cancer, a mask just above his right eye and he is more comfortable keeping that eye closed. His best friend since first grade is Abby and Isaac joined them in fourth grade. But this year, Isaac seems to be avoiding them. Once his treatment start, Ross can no longer be invisible at school. He tolerates overly sympathetic teachers, exaggerated beliefs of his condition and jokes from classmates. But the recurring meme of him as cancer cowboy because he has to wear a hat, puts him over the top. Based on the author's experiences, this is well written with believable characters and the story will pull the readers in. It opens, this is a great opening scenario. It opens with him lying on a steel table all too aware of the giant ray gun pointed right at him. Now, don't you want to find out what's happening? That's his treatment, he's kidding. McKenna 14 is ready to compete in a dog sled race in Canada. Her younger sister has Stargardt disease. As Kirkus explains it, it's a juvenile form of macular degeneration, which I'd never heard of before. But Kenna has hidden the fact that she too has it. The race is through unfamiliar territory and the dangers of dog sled racing are made clear. Befriending another racer about her age guy gives her some help in the adventure. This is about self-reliance, protecting her dog team, because that's very important, helping others when she can, finally admitting her own need for help and adventure. And this author's known for her writing about sled dog teams. She's done several books. Adam, 13 and his parents were in a car accident after Adam's father swerved to avoid hitting a large hairy man-like creature in the road by a Florida swamp near the Swanee River. Only Adam was found and taken to the hospital. After secretly talking with a man who also encountered a similar creature, Adam goes into the Swanee National Wildlife Refuge to find them and verify their existence using the disposable camera his mother had given him. He encounters many obstacles, including near starvation before he finds what he was looking for. They are more powerful and terrifying than he ever thought possible, though some do have a gentle side as well. The author at the end of the book says, this was inspired by an incident in his life. No, he did not see one. This is a well-written survival tale complete with cryptids. This is, I have two in a row here by Gordon Corman because he's always popular. This one's kind of quirky. That's a good word. Centerlight Island is half in the US and half in Canada. I think it's fictional. And now Keenan who is in seventh grade is staying with his father on this island while recovering from tuberculosis. He has to sit outside in the sun and do nothing. And he says, do you know how hard it is to do nothing? Oh, it's a very slow process to regain strength. His mother and stepfather teach in international schools so Keenan has lived many places. His neighbor, Zarabath or Zibi knows that someone on the island killed her dog, Barney, a huge destructive beast that only she loved. She draws Keenan into her investigation and then he tries to get out of it because he really wants to make some normal friends on the island. But then he feels guilty so he goes back and helps her look for clues. And soon enough, they may be in danger themselves. The book is fun and intriguing, an interesting setting and it's a good mystery for Keenan and Zibi to undertake. Before you go on, Sally, what was the name of the island? Centerlight Island. Okay, because I knew I had heard something about it. There actually is a place that is half in US and half in Canada called Rock Island, but I don't, yeah, and there's actually a library that is half in the US and half in Canada. So something that caught my attention. So they've probably come up with a fictional one, but it is something that does exist elsewhere. Interesting. That is good to know. Because on the island, the border is really quirky. It goes very zigzaggy for what it seems to me through what I think was kind of at the author's convenience. Well, this is gonna be in Canada. We'll say it went this way. This one is because it's on the between Vermont and Quebec. So not an island, it's where the, actually me. Oh, okay. Interesting. Anyway, sorry. That's great to know. Trevor 12 is crazy about war-based video games and also his great-grandfather, Jacob, who he calls GG. Jacob fought in World War II and tells tales of the war to Trevor. When Jacob was invited to the celebration in the village in France, he helped liberate, he is going. So Trevor and his dad, Jacob's grandson, go to. They revisit places Jacob had been from training in Fort Benning, Georgia to landing on Omaha Beach and fighting in the hedgerows near St. Louis, France. But there is someone or two who do not want Jacob honored in the village. They have warned him, but he says, this is just a grumbler who doesn't like Americans. As their trip gets them closer to the village, Jacob finally tells them the story of that day and of a tragedy. It gives a sense of the reality of World War II and the lack of authenticity of video games. Lucas 12 and his best friend, Ryan, play on a basketball team coached by Lucas's grandfather. Gramps loves the game, played in Ponyang and is a fantastic coach for the team, not only with plays and practices, but also with things like good sportsmanship and other issues. When Lucas's English teacher assigns a class to write a paper about someone they admire, he wants to write about Gramps, but Gramps does not want to reminisce and tells Lucas to choose someone else. Stubborn, Lucas researches Gramps and stumbles upon a secret that could hurt the team and destroy his relationship with his grandfather. So this is about ethics and sports, realistic characters, good basketball scenes and an issue to really think about. Steven is in sixth grade and he's mixed race, but has lately been had several unsettling encounters with white people. While his white mother calls him mixed, he has begun to realize that some people only see him as black. His father talked with him about the Black Lives Matter movement and how some people will always try to limit him. Steven makes some choices, changing lanes and trying things out to decide what lanes are for him. It's realistic with short chapters to appeal to readers. 1893 Lithuania, Audra 12, leaves their home with a package her parents were going to deliver after the Russians who occupied the country arrest her parents. She learns she has books outlawed by the Tsar because they are in Lithuania. She stumbles along and finds the people who are waiting for the books. Soon she joins in the smuggling of books and putting her life on the line more than once. This is a little talked about suppression of the people of an invaded country. And that is something that authors can bring to light when they research circumstances. This is volume one. I think it says, oh yeah, underneath the heart part. Black, white and aqua graphic novel first published in England. Charlie is 14 in year 10 at school and students know he is gay. He has been spending time with Ben but always in secret. When he realizes that they aren't boyfriends, he breaks it off. Now he is seated next to Nick, a rugby player who actually is pretty nice to him. I like that there's a sports player who's nice to the gay kid. Thank you. Charlie falls for Nick even though he knows he doesn't have a chance with a straight guy. Nick meanwhile is confused. He really likes Charlie and they have a lot of fun together but Nick is gay, is he? As others have said, this is a sweet story of unexpectedly finding love. Nick is a decent kid unlike Ben. He treats people with kindness and respect. He is blindsided by the thought that maybe he is falling for Charlie and it ends on a cliffhanger. But don't worry because book two is out. This starts right where book one left off. Nick is realizing his feelings for Charlie and learning that he may be bisexual. It shows the joy and tenderness they feel when together even when they have to face some homophobic bullies. Volume three is supposed to be out in early February next year so you don't have to wait that much longer for the next one. After the death of her mother, Hannah, 14 and her father leave California and they travel here and there looking for a place where they can be comfortable. End up in La Forge, a town in the Dakota territory to start a new life. Hannah's mother was Chinese and she and her father, Hannah and her father who is white face ignorance and racism wherever they go. This time while some townspeople are unaccepting they do find some friends who to help them with their new business setting up a dry good store. Hannah hopes to use the skills her mother taught her to design and stitch new clothing for the townspeople. As school library journal mentions the author addresses racism, immigration, Native American reservations, invisible histories and parental loss with skill and heart. And this is on the Golden Sower 2022 novels list. Two brothers, their mother is black and their father is white. One brother is very light and the younger brother is dark. The difference in how they are treated by the school, the students, the police, et cetera is heartbreaking. The younger brother begins to learn fencing planning to take down the racist bully at their school. But as he learns about honor and integrity he begins to realize the defeat of the bully is no longer the point. And this also was on the 2022 Golden Sower novels list. Rory feels fortunate to have gotten a job at the Erie Foxglove Manor but he soon finds out Lord Foxglove is more evil than even he had imagined. He asks his friend Izzy to help him try to take down the supernatural forces in the manner that seem to have affected the whole town. It's a bit spooky with an upbeat ending and the possibility of a sequel of two. If you're looking for something somewhat scary but not I could read it so it's not that scary. I'm a chicken. Oh, I love this one. Shuri, 13, younger sister of T'Challa, the king of Wakanda must find out what is killing the heart shape plants her country depends on. She and her protector in training, Kamara, traveled to a few other countries via an invisible plane like craft in pursuit of the information she needs. The technology Shuri designs and uses as well as the danger they are both in will keep readers wondering what will happen next. This title is listed as book one of two. Hope book two gets here soon. I don't know when it's expected. Yesterday, I expected one of my favorites from the Marvel Universe, yes. Lux, the new girl, is book one in the Fly Girl series. Ever since her father walked out on her and her mother, Lux, a junior in high school, has had trouble controlling her temper. Now she has punched Simone in the nose after weeks of harassment from her. Her mom follows through with the stated consequence and she must now go and live with her father in his new family or she will end up at a military school. She has to toe the line and avoid conflict. She works on her photography to keep herself grounded. She meets the trio who call themselves the Fly Girls and now she has some friends. The interesting thing about this series is that they're, I don't know if you can tell, but they're rather small books. The size is not, it's almost like the size of, you remember the Valentine paperbacks? How old are you? This, it's almost, it's just a tad bigger than those. Almost the paperback size, but it's hardbound. And the second one, the good girl, Micah. Micah has panic attacks, often brought on by the sound of an ambulance siren. It reminds her of her brother, Milo, hit and killed by a car when he was riding his bike and she is trying to keep the panic attacks a secret. Also, she and her boyfriend, Ty, feel ready for a big step, doing it. The first anniversary of her brother's death is coming soon and it is affecting her panic attacks and some other things that she's chosen to do. Now, I chose to go from interspersing these titles out, pulling all the DC titles together that are graphic novels. So you can just, we'll just go through those all together. So you can see this is by Meg Carrot. Cabot, not carrot, anyway. Amazon says this is book one of two as well. So this is a new origin story of Black Canary for younger readers. Diana Lance, 13, is a middle school student and she and her two friends, Kat and V, have a band. She wants to be a police officer when she grows up. Her dad is a detective on the force. However, she is dealing with some unusual things. A glass breaking loud voice, which really puzzles her. The principal has it in for her and a mysterious black bird shows up near her from time to time, particularly when she's stressed. Imagine her surprise when she finds out she is just like her mother. They both have a sonic canary cry. This is about strong girls and women, finding yourself, friendship, learning to control yourself and your power, and dedication to justice. Looking forward to, there's a whole bunch of book twosome. Can't wait to get my hands on. This is also supposed to be book one of two and a new origin of Batman and the Batmobile. Bruce Wayne decides to restore his father's black 1966 crusader in anticipation of turning 16 and getting his driver's license. His new friends, Lena and Mateo, assist with the auto repair and the occasional missions against evil. So we have some adventure in there along with working on the car, which as you can guess, is going to become the Batmobile. Teen Titans Raven, a graphic novel in gray, black, and white with touches of purple and an occasional soft touch of other colors. Raven 17 has lost her foster mom and her memory in a car accident. Taken in by her foster mom's sister, Raven begins to put her life back together without her memories. Then the night of the prom, everything comes back to her when there was a battle between good and evil. Her memory returns, including knowing that her father, Trigon, is a demon. So she is half demon. Her new foster mom is a voodoo priestess and she calls back from death, all the women from her family and from Orleans to help fight the demon. And that's the big culmination part of this book, but you know there's going to be more because this is Beast Boy. Garfield Logan 17 is soon to graduate high school and he wants to be noticed by the most popular crowd. So he takes on some dares. His best friends, Stella and Tank, don't understand his goal. They want their old friend back. When he secretly stops taking the supplement his parents provide, overnight when night he literally grows six inches and suddenly has the reflexes of a cougar. After pulling off a couple of stunts, parents realize he is not taking the supplement anymore and explain his history from when he was very young. Now he'd take on the qualities of a variety of animals. Is college still what he wants after graduation? And somewhere it says, I must've been on Amazon, it says Teen Titans, Beast Boy Loves Raven is coming out in fall of 2021. So that's just way too long for me. Let's get it sooner. I was actually gonna say, I know there was gonna be a sequel of the two of them. Yeah, looking it up, it says September, 2021. Well, September's better than December, but I'll read these other ones because they're coming out next week, I think, in my imagination. This is for younger readers, but I put it on here because it is also a DC title. This conveys Diana's loneliness as the only child on the island and also her love and support for her Amazon family, her mother, Hanson, all on the island. When she makes a friend from clay and sand and blows on it with a wish, she is surprised when it comes to life. The trouble is her new friend, Mona, encourages Diana to get into trouble and to do some unkind things. Mona may not actually be a friend. Family, love, staying true to who you are, all are included in this shorter graphic novel. And this is one of my favorites, although I think it is designed a little bit for younger readers. It is full color, Typham, 13, is a Vietnamese American, inherits his grandmother's Jade ring and is shocked to find out her secret. She had been a member of the Green Lantern Corps and now Ty must learn how to wield the ring and protect others. Dynamic art draws the readers in and I'm waiting for again another sequel. There's a few more on the older team list that I left spread out, so we'll hit those eventually when we get to them. Yeah, that was one too. I remember reading it legacy and it was too open-ended for me. I'm like, but now what? Yeah, exactly. Where's the sequel now? Not very patient. The nonfiction for teens. This contains 42 poems as a response to the treatment of black women and in support of the hashtag, say her name, movement started in 2015 to acknowledge that women's lives also matter. The author addresses things from people wanting to touch her hair to being not the right kind of black to violence. Some poems are angry and challenging. She knows that many of her poems were inspired by the poems and writings of black women, such as Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Zora Neale Hurston. Kirkus says this empowering collection belongs on every shelf. And I got that at the library, see? This is a full color graphic memoir in more muted tones. The author tells of her experience at age 19 with her mother's cancer and death. Straightforward about her emotions and thoughts, she says on page eight that this book is for my mom and for me and for anyone struggling with loss who just wants someone to get it. At the end of most chapters are a variety of items. A flow chart for, should she answer the phone or not? A helpful suggestion of what to say and what not to say when talking to someone who is grieving, the stages of grief and other items. While the subject is sad, the approach and excellent writing in the book pull the reader along. This is an excellent purchase for a teen collection, telling it like it is with heart, compassion and humor. And we all face loss in our lives. So this is a good thing to read when that happens. Full color graphic memoir, Robin at 14 has lived all her life in Seoul, Korea being raised by her single mom, her father's off somewhere else. Out of the blue one day, her mother tells her they are taking a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama. While there she is introduced to an extended family of people also from Korea. Soon after her mother tells her she is marrying one of the people she just met, Mr. Kim and they will live in the US. Robin is shocked. She is missing her friends, her comics, everything she has ever known and she is struggling to find who she is, where she is now. She knows a little English, some English and is now attending school that has no ESL program. So she's just kind of thrown to the sharks. Her experiences will give readers an idea of what it is like to go to a completely new place to try to get along, fit in and deal with bullies. This is one I bought. So there you go. This has 17 entries by a variety of authors, including Tracy Baptiste, Duncan Tana Tui, Nikki Grimes, Tori Maldonado, I'm sorry Tori, along with illustrators like Christopher Myers, Derek Barnes, Grace Lynn, et cetera. Each entry is a personal experience of the writer talking about how his or her parents talk to them about being careful or about how the individual talked with their child or children. And this is a quote, to give them the tools to make their way as safely as possible in a society that is too often hostile to them, quote, quote. As the authors and editors say in their forward, oh, another quote, these are stories and images are filled with love, acceptance, truth, peace and assurance that there can be hope for a better tomorrow. And it's a relatively short book, thin book, but it has so much in it. And so does this one. Finding out what systemic racism is and how we need to be, I'm a white woman, so I need to be aware of this and how I can change what I'm doing and ask other people to change what they're doing. This is the book that I've encountered. I'm sure there, I know there are plenty of other books written there, but this one, if there are stories from the author's life, comments, examples and requests from others, guide the reader to see how, from microaggressions to outright physical injury, we need to stand up and speak out against systemic racism. It's powerful and helpful. And all the way through, he'll tell you, if you don't know what, I can't think of it, but if you don't know what this is, Google it. You need to do it right now, go do it now. And I did not do that, so I have to do that over the weekend so I can catch up on all the things I missed. Now talk about music, go listen to this now. There's one he says, don't do it. If you decide to do it anyway, remember I warned you, don't listen to this one. So you can have those warnings and those instructions, yes. So, amazing book. Now on a completely different topic, this book contains 41 poems of the author's personal experiences of World War II as a child in Hawaii and as a child in Japan after the war. And one of the reasons, this is the title and we have this image, is that she had some pictures from when she was a child and there's a picture of her playing on the beach here and she was showing it to some friends and the one friend said, look at that, that ship out there, that's gotta be something or other ship because she knew what date this photo had been taken and that's one of the ships that were destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. And she didn't even notice the ship was in the picture, let alone that that had happened. It's pretty amazing coincidence. You know that it was there when she was just playing there on the beach, I'm sure, yeah, just, wow. So, like you said, powerful. Yeah, more powerful things, right? This is also amazing. This is the first book out of the ones in the nonfiction batch that I read. Reynolds takes the information Dr. Kendi had researched and placed in his national award-winning title and in Reynolds' styles, he shares the information with teen readers using short chapters, occasional large and bold type to make a point and clear explanations of history, even though he reminds us this is not a history book. This is about racism and how it has gotten stuck in America all this time. It's a very readable look at the beginning of racism and how it has persisted through the year. See, I wrote it a lot better than I did. School library journal states, the tone of the writing varies from provocative to funny to gentle. And they also say it's highly recommended for library survey, serving middle and high school students. Rosen speaks to the reader and brings us along as he struggles to discover what happened to his aunts and uncles during World War II. They were living in Poland and France and then they weren't. His father told them, told him, they were there at the beginning of the war, but they had gone by the hand. I suppose they died in the camps. And when his father told him that, he didn't even know what he meant by the camps. He didn't know about any of that. He is straightforward and clear and shows the steps of his investigations. He explains things the readers may not know from common nicknames for one of his uncles to the date of D-Day, the landing of the allies in France. He also draws a parallel between the Holocaust, its beginnings and troubling things that are happening in the world right now. It's a good addition to any World War II and Holocaust section of a library collection. Wow, this is a heavy book. I mean, heavy and holding up. June 23, 2018, a well researched account of the situation that trapped the boys and their coach in the cave for 16 days, how the rescue was organized and the contributions of many toward the goal of rescue is included. A map of the cave and many color photographs of the terrain in that area of Thailand and of the people working together for the rescue makes an attractive and appealing book. And it's already slated to be on some best lists coming up next month. Rumor has it. Covering 2011 to 2019, this is the author illustrator's journey through art school and onto being an adult while also dealing with some health issues she has had. She could sabotage her own enthusiasm and positive mindset right in its tracks without understanding why she was doing that, what brought that on. This is a look at one person's journey to adulthood and self-care that teens may be drawn to. She is known for her graphic novel, Nimona, which won some awards and was on numerous best lists. That was on my list too. I do wanna note that there's two pages where she's talking about her life drawing class and how that's where she discovered that ads are liars. Oh, those are my words. That's when she really discovered that ads are not inclusive. There are all kinds and shapes of women and the people that are in the ads are all a specific type of person. So there are a few drawings of nude women in the book from her as an example of what she was discovering from her life drawing class. 11 snippets of stories of real teens hoping to make it to the United States. Some are heartbreaking and some are hopeful. Some of the stories leave the reader hanging wondering what has, will or has happened to the teen. We never find out in this book. It's just snippets of stories. This is a full color graphic novel and I'm just gonna quote from the Nebraska Golden Sower nominees titled page 2021, 2022 novels. They say, the author turns the spotlight on his life, his family and the high school where he taught. Gene understands stories, comic book stories in particular, but he doesn't get sports. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he was teaching it's all anyone can talk about. Once Gene gets to know the players on the team he realizes their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on the comic book page. And I gotta tell you, I read this book and this is also a heavy book. And I'm going, why am I so enthralled with this book about high school basketball team from several years ago? I just have to keep reading it. It's true. So interesting. I'm not even looking at the time. Okay. For older, for older teens. And I'll just mention that if we do go over time this happens often with Sally and her reading list. Too many good books out there. We keep going until you've gotten through your entire list. If you need to leave when we do hit the top of the hour we're still got more than 10 minutes. That's fine, we'll be recording the whole show and you can watch anything you miss later. Good point. This is told in free verse and in the alternating voices of two almost 17 years of year olds who find out about each other and that they are half sisters only after their father dies in a plane crash. Yahara lives in New York with her parents and misses her father when he travels to the Dominican Republic every summer. She thinks it's for business. Camino lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic and loves the summer since that's when her father is with her and that's why he goes there every summer. Coming to terms not only with their father's death but also with the secret families is hard for each of them and their futures are now at risk too. So this encompasses grief, overcoming disappointment and betrayal, family, how important family is and finding a future for both of them. David is skinny and has no muscle on the last day of school before summer break. He receives an unexpected hard slap in the locker room after gym class. He goes down on the floor and someone records it. It goes viral and he vows to work all summer to build up some muscle so he won't be that guy anymore. David finds a gym he can afford and gets to work. As he gets to know some of the regulars he learns some facts. He cannot build the muscles he wants in three months. Before long he is on steroids telling himself it is only for senior year of high school so people will forget who he was but he's going down that road and he has some conflicts with his father. Things tumble down harder and harder. Jamie 17 is happy to volunteer to help his local state Senate candidate but please do not make him talk to strangers. He chokes up. Maya's Ramadan is the worst. Her best friend is too busy for her and now her parents are separating but why does her mother think political canvassing is a good idea for her this summer? Soon Jamie and Maya are paired up going door to door and over time they get to know each other. Maybe this was a good idea. There's a little bit of a mystery in there too that they're puzzled by. So an interesting look at political canvassing and at that point in time the upcoming votes. So this could of course be read any year but there's an election happening. Here's another DC book. This is a full color graphic novel and it's another origin story for her. Diana's 16th birthday party is interrupted by people hoping to land during a storm. She disobeys her mother, the queen and dives into the water to save some children. When she has, she finds that she and the boat have floated outside her island's protective barrier and she cannot get back. Here is where she learns about war, the suffering of others and the dishonesty of some humans. When Diana comes to the U.S. she continues to encounter the needs of others including refugee status, poverty, hunger and human trafficking. All are handled well and Diana's compassion and strength will keep her focused on those in need. Here she feels this is where she needs to be. And so it has a good solid ending to it but of course we're hoping for more, right? Another one that I was like it was a great setup and now I wanna see what else happens. Yes. I also, I'm not gonna give any spoilers but I also very much enjoyed the, because this is kind of a retelling so they retell other things. Their presentation, representation of Steve Trevor? Yes, right. I forgot to mention that. A very unique and I liked it a lot. Yeah, yeah. Read it if you like it. I approve. Sydney Riley is 16 and has a bad feeling about her visit home with her mother, the famous movie star Lila Shore. Once in San Francisco, she finds that her mother's latest boyfriend Jake is a real estate mogul and an art dealer or is he an art staff thief? During the summer, Sydney also finds her first real boyfriend. Her awakening surprises her. Lila is planning to remake the movie Peyton Place. At their first reading, Sydney runs out of the workroom because it echoes her life with Lila and Sydney's new boyfriend, Nico. All of this book is about a person's self who they really are and who sees them like that. And what kind of control do I have over my own self? One thing that she quoted towards the beginning of the book is becoming sexy seemed to happen while you were minding your own business. Like one day you weren't in the world where grown men wanted you. And then you were, it completely surprises her that men are interested in her. And towards the end of the book, she says, but men and women both, we learn about power and powerlessness from our mothers and fathers first, right? And they learn from their mothers and fathers and so on and so on. This fix that beep. Because she's talking about, here's how people are treating her because they think that's what they can do. And how do you stop that? There is no answer. Oh, a prequel to The Hunger Games. This is about Corey O'Lana Snow. He is 18 in this book and he is taking his one chance to rescue the House of Snow since their financial disaster in the war and the death of his father. The reaping for the 10th hunger games are underway and Corey O'Lana has been approved to be a mentor for one of the tributes. This is the first time they will have mentors. It's a new experiment. This is also the first time observers will be encouraged to provide items for the tributes during the games due to a suggestion from Corey O'Lana's class. He is hoping for a good contender because he needs to win in order to go on to college. He is dismayed when he has assigned the girl from district 12. But Lucy Gray Barrett is interesting and captures the crowd with her showmanship and singing. It's a fascinating look at an early hunger game and how the games began to evolve and the choice that Snow makes in this book on his way to becoming the person he was when Katniss came along. It's a thick book. Aleve and her four closest friends have graduated high school in Melbourne, Australia and have traveled to spend part of their summer on an archeological dig in Dubai with Aleve's father. When a sandstorm leaves a part of them lost in the desert, they find a large unknown oasis that saves their lives. But soon, everything is strange and freaky. Is the oasis alive or is there an alien entity there that is using the teens for its own purposes? Psychedelic weirdness, strange dreams and reality may not even exist anymore. Compelling writing leaves this reader unsettled pondering larger questions about life and reality. Friendships, survival of fear, life fulfilling wishes and guilt for feeling a lucky to be alive for all in here. Savannah 16 lives with her mother and her mother's current boyfriend Tim. She takes Kung Fu once a week and has been reading about Bruce Lee and his philosophy of life. Then she is kidnapped after class, locked in a trailer in a wrecking yard and left with another girl, Jenny who is supposed to teach her the rules. Jenny was badly injured after her attempt to escape and is resistant to Savannah's ideas on what they can do. Told an alternating chapters of Savannah, Jenny, the kidnapper, parents, Savannah's Kung Fu friend Daniel and more. Suspense will keep readers on edge, reading quickly to keep up with the pace of the book. This is another winner for the author who she also was extremely popular. Book two of a duology that's a sequel to Dread Nation. It picks up where the first book ended. Jane Backeen, Catherine Devereaux and others are fleeing across the plain of Kansas hoping to reach the town of Nicodemus before the horde of shamblers or zombies find them. This is only the beginning of a long hard road for them both together and apart. It is 551 pages that fly by while written engaging with friendships and loathing things of life. Chapters alternate between Jane and Catherine's points of view. There is killing not only zombies, but of others, hardship, suffering and hopelessness. Powerful and much more than a zombie bug. Tracy 17 has written a letter every week for seven years asking Innocence X, a fictional innocence project organization to take on her father's case. He is now on death row and has less than a year to live. Things get even more complicated when her track star older brother is wanted for murdering a white girl and he is on the run. Tracy is a fighter and continues to hope for her father while trying to solve the mystery of who really killed Angela and why. Microaggressions and full-on aggressions from strangers as well as others in school with her give some insight into how unexpectedly hatred can come at somebody. It includes an author's note at the back of the book. Elatsoe, it tells you in the book how to pronounce the name. In a slightly alternate US full of magic, monsters and legends, Elatsoe usually called Ellie is 17. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, something that came down to her through her life in Apache family. She has Kirby, her former pet now a ghost dog that she has been training. Her six times great grandmother was a skillful and powerful person who trained ghost animals and fought the monsters that threatened people. Her cousin, Trevor, has just been murdered and Ellie is determined to find and bring his killer to justice. It will not be easy. The main characters are seniors in high school, which is why it is on the older teens list. It would be a fine for younger teens to read too. Though it does have a bit of language. Pepper is stressed about her grades, her college applications and the Twitter feed for her mom's corporate account. Her mom and dad are divorced, but they own big league burgers. Now the fourth largest burger chain in the country. Jack works with his parents at the local deli that they own. When it looks like the new grilled cheese sandwich, big league burgers is promoting was stolen from the local deli, a tweet war begins. Throw in Pepper's older sister, Paige, who was in college and currently not talking to their mother and Jack's twin brother Ethan, who seems to be the golden boy. And these family situations will intrigue readers and wondering how it all will turn out. It's told in alternating chapters in Pepper and Jack's voices. I want to go back to Elatsoe. Darcy Little Badger is a life and Apache herself. So she's writing about her own people and they're in that story. Sorry about the noise. Ashley, it's the summer before her senior year of high school. She and her friends go off into the woods much further away than they really should have because they didn't want to get caught drinking and whatever might else be going on. She's extremely knowledgeable about survival in the wilds of the smokey mouths because she's been studying that herself for a long time. But she finds her boyfriend with another girl and she runs away into the woods because she's so angry and she doesn't have her shoes, doesn't have any food and she has lost. It's quite gritty. She gets an injury that is quite serious and infection does set in. Her survival depends on eating protein and one animal provides it for her. It's rather grim but she does kill it to eat. But she is struggling to survive and every piece of knowledge she has is gonna help her stay alive another day. This is the graphic novel version of Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down. It came out in one of the Walter Dean Meyers Award in 2018, the original free verse book. All the text version is, it's all the text version is plus more. The art conveys a message so well it's as hard to think about going back to the original one, which was terrific. Will's older brother, Sean, is dead, shot by someone and Will thinks he knows who. So now it is up to Will to take his brother's gun from his dresser, ride the elevator down and go after the killer. At each floor the elevator stops and a person will knows is dead, gets on and talks to Will about life, about what he is planning to do and what will happen after that. It is powerful and amazing and the art just really brings everything to the front. This is a muted color graphic novel and another DC title. Jack Hyde, a high school senior lives with his mother in the New Mexico desert. He wants to study oceanography but his mom wants him to stay away from water since his father drowned so many years ago. His best friend and neighbor, Maria supports him and is interested in being more than friends but he is not picking up on that. He is dealing with something strange that happens when he is around water and the fact that he can control water and his feelings for openly gay Kenny. And in this title, I read a couple of reviews that said that this character is a young Aquaman but that is not true because the Aquaman is seen on the TV screen with Superman on page 36 and the boy and some people are watching it. So don't be fooled. No, no, it's not. But you must have the... Unlike many of the graphic novels that, I mean, you mentioned a lot of them which are doing retellings of origin stories of a lot of the well-known superheroes. This is not one of those. This is a whole different opinion novel. You could call it that. Because it's about someone who has some certain abilities but not that person. Yes. And I'm looking forward again to another book. I don't know if there'll be one. Oh, speaking of characters. This is a graphic novel in blues with occasional flashbacks or action in orange. Harleen Quimsel, 15, arrives on a bus in Gotham City. Her mother sent her there to live with her grandmother who she finds has passed away. With nowhere to go, she is happy when Benny allows her to stay and she calls him mama. Benny owns a theater where drag queens perform and now their block has been selected for a gentrification and urban renewal. There is no way they will be able to raise enough money to pay the tripled rent is the certain individual's way of getting them out of there. Harleen makes a friend with Ivy who loves growing things in the community garden. Harleen is also intrigued by a young man who goes about at night in unusual omega. She makes some decisions that ultimately result in her arrest and incarceration. This is a reimagining of Harleen's beginnings, entertaining and educational edifying and a little bit of language because no, it's Harley and people she knows. I hadn't read anything. I've only encountered her in the movie so I hadn't read anything about her before. So this was a lot of fun for me to read. Have you read anything about her before? I have, yes. Not this one actually, my husband did. He's got this one. Well, and again. Harley Quinn is an interesting character in that she is not, if you know the history of it, from the original Batman universe. She was introduced as part, as in the animated series as a character in that, not from the comic books. That's not where she originates from but then has become so well loved and made such a huge impact that he has now become a comic book character and a big part of the DC universe and et cetera. Thank you, I didn't know that. Yeah, I am only a beginner in the different universes. Six seniors, three guys and three gals are locked in a room. Each received an invitation to a congratulatory dinner at a local restaurant as they were each to receive a scholarship for college. Once there, the restaurant was closed except for their private event in the separate room. When all had gathered, the door slammed shut and could not be opened. A note told them that they had one hour to decide which one of them would die or they would all die due to the bomb that was in the room. As time ticks by, we learn more about the characters and why someone might want one or another of them dead. This is a title for teens who want suspense and or to try to second guess the author and ponder away how for the characters or wonder which one is going to end up dying. It's a psychological. Oh yeah. And the answer at the end has probably made sense to everybody. I didn't see it coming, because I guess I, but. Yeah. I don't always see those things coming. I'm surprised more often. Yeah. I'm bad at mysteries, I guess. I'm gonna read and find out what happens. I don't wanna have to work to figure that out. This is told in free versions and told in several voices, obvious from the different fonts and the placements on the page. We hear from students, both angry and not involved, town people, national guardsmen and professors with quotes from President Nixon and others. It gives a sense of the different opinions and viewpoints at the time, the confusion, frustration, insistence on being heard and the shock of the three days of demonstrations on the Kent State campus. It's powerful, historic, had tragedy, four were killed and nine were wounded. And it includes a 13 page author's note at the back of the book. So to get a sense of how confusing and muddled things were at the time. And some people were very much into the protest and other people were just walking by to go to class when shots were fired. And look, we're at the last book, we're not that late. This is told in free verse also. In this book, Amal Shadeed 16 was involved in a fight and he was convicted and sent to prison. He did throw the first punch, but not the last one that left a white boy in a coma. Still he was in prison. He pulls himself out of anger and hopelessness by tuning into his art and poetry. One of his experiences of his trial is expressed on page 202. He says, we were a mob, a gang, ghetto, a pack of wolves, animals, thugs, hoodlums, men. They, the white boys in the fight were kids having fun, home, loved, supported, protected, full of potential, boys. And that is the crux of the situation. It's a fictional story that brings Yusuf Salaam's experience as one of the exonerated five. He was in prison for a crime. They didn't do the Central Park jogger case. Brings that to the fore. It's received starred reviews in Bookless School, Avery Journal, Kirkus, to name a few. It is amazing. And with E.B. Zaboy and Yusuf Salaam telling the story, it of course is incredibly well written. Thank you. That's my list. I just had one new title in the series that's added onto the list there. You have the Fence series about fencing in England, in private schools. We call them private schools. They call them how to get them mixed up. Another book in that series. So I didn't even tell people if you wanna make comments during the presentation, you were welcome to, so. Yeah. Now, well, I didn't talk about the beginning. Yeah, so thank you so much, Sally. This is great. As some of you may know, some of you not. You can leave your slide up there. If you want to leave the thank you up for now. Okay. In case anyone wants to look at anything. This is an annual thing that we have Sally do. She does it for our state conference. As I mentioned at the beginning, if you were here, it was canceled this year. But we always have her redo this on the show. And we do have, thank you, Sally. Tammy is saying lots of great titles to read. Yes. This presentation and the one about the children's books are always good ways to find gifts. That's what I use them for. Gifts for any of the children and teens in your lives. Maybe a little close to the holidays we've got happening right now. Or pass some of them, I know it is that time of year. But that's okay, you can get them for anything. Yeah. So if you have any titles that you might want to let Sally know about, you can type them in the questions or you can reach out to her here at the library commission. She's always looking for new things. As was mentioned at the beginning, this is not an exhaustive list. This is the ones that Sally sent or that she has heard about, just some picks. There's plenty of others out there, but these are just her annual picks for the teens. And I love to hear about books that I didn't even run across before. I have three more books at home that I didn't get read in time for today. There's just so many coming out, yeah. Could we make this a little later? No. Yeah. Because I'll just keep reading. I'm gonna switch to my screen here and begin. All right. People saying happy holidays to everyone. Very good. Thank you so much, yeah. So that is today's show. I mentioned brief, just to hear about the children's book one. We kind of do, Sally kind of does companion sessions. She does this at our conference too. Best of Teen Reads today, but we also have, if you are the children's librarian or you also do children's, the best new children's books of 2020 will be our first session in 2021. So this one, Sally does along with Data Fontaine librarian at our Fremont High School here in Fremont, Nebraska. So if you do wanna find out about all the children's books, sign up for that session. And you can just go on over there. Sally did mention the handout link that she showed at the beginning. When I put up the recording for today's show, we'll have a link to that page as well. So you have a quick jump over there if you wanna actually get her handout for the Teen Reads. And the children's one will be added to there too. As she, as Sally mentioned, she was working on this just this week. I'm sure the children's one too. Her and Dana will be adding more to that up to the last minute as well. But that'll be available for you. The recording for today's show, I will have finished by the end of the day today. We here at the Nebraska Library Commission we're a state agency. We are actually closed the next two days, Thursday and Friday for the holiday. So I'm gonna get the recording done today and out to you guys so you don't have to wait till next week or if you wanna watch it or share it or have it for anybody. So that will be out to you by the end of the day today. Everyone who attended today or registered for today's show will get an email from me letting you know when it is ready and on our archive page here. There'll be a link to the recording in our YouTube account and a link to Sally's handouts for you and Sally's slides. I almost forgot about that part, yes. Oh yeah, I'll put those up for you. Yeah, if Sally will have the links to the slides as well. So if you wanna just be able to see, I know some people like the list, some people like to see the book covers, whichever works for you will have both of those available. We also have a Facebook page for Encompass Live. You see here I have links to that. This is our Facebook page. We post reminders and notices over here. If you like to use Facebook, give us a like there. We'll announce here as well when the recording is available. Here's the one from last week's recording is available. So if you do follow us on there, that's where you can find up that. We also post on our various other social media, Twitter, Instagram, I'm not sure where else. Encompass Live here is the hashtag we use for the show. So look for anything called that. So you get all that information today. I hope you join us for one of our future shows here as our schedule for December and January. And next week's show is our pretty sweet tech. The last Wednesday of every month, Amanda Sweet, who is our Technology Innovation Librarian here at the Nebraska Library Commission. She comes on the show and does her pretty sweet tech session. So if you're a techie person or interested in tech, this is definitely the show for you. We do other tech stuff throughout the month, but always Amanda's will be. And she's gonna tell us how to do a video production. I could probably use that for the videos I do here for the Encompass Live. But some tips and tricks on how to do that for yourself if you're doing any videos at your library. So please do sign up for that or any of our other upcoming shows. Thank you everyone for attending. Thank you, Sally, for sharing your best new teen reads with us today. And happy holidays to everyone. Bye, everybody. Thanks, Krista. Thank you.