 Alright. Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I'm 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. The show is broadcast live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time, but if you're unable to join us on a Wednesday, that's fine. You can always go to our website. We do record the show every week and you can go to our website and watch the archives later. And I'll show you at the end of today's show where you can access all of our recordings and archives. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch, so please share anywhere and everywhere with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think would be interested in any of the topics we have on the show. For those of you not here from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries in Nebraska. So we serve all types of libraries in the state. So you will find it in the state. So you will find topics and things on our show in our archives for public, K-12, academic, colleges, universities, corrections, museums, historical societies. Special libraries. Anything that has a library or is related to doing a thing, libraries like there's potentially be a topic on our show for them. So we really cover the gamut. And we do a mixture of things here on the show, book reviews, interviews, mini-training sessions, demos of services and products, sharing cool things we think libraries could be doing or should be doing. We have guest speakers that come in sometimes from outside of Nebraska and outside of the Library Commission to talk about things they're doing in their libraries. We also have Library Commission staff that present on things that we're doing specifically here within Nebraska or via the Library Commission. Today we have Library Commission staff here with us. Sally Snyder is here joining me, our coordinator of children and young adult library services at the Nebraska Library Commission. And she does a few different shows over the year for us. New books for whatever the upcoming summer reading program is, which already was done last year. And then kind of a pair, a duo of sessions, one on Best New Children's books for the previous year that have come up and one for Best New Teen books. And that's what we're talking about today is the teen one. Yes. It's a companion show to the previous one that was done for children. So if you are the children's librarian or children's slash teen, children's YA for your library, on January 15th she did the Best New Children's books of 2019 along with Dana Fontaine, who is from our Premont High School here in Nebraska. This is she here. So you can watch that one recording. And this one today we'll be talking about the teen books. And then you have both of them out there. So I will just hand it over to you, Sally, to talk about what were our teen books this time. Before we get started on the reviews, I want to show you where the list is. So you can print that off at any time and you don't have to write everything down because we've already done that for you. So here's the Library Commission's main page. And I can't see. Oh, there he is. And so if you go to the search box right here and type in handout, which I don't have to go very, very far before it automatically starts. And the first thing that comes up as a star by it, because it's so important to know, that just means it's the best match. And so this, whoops, this is the index of staff, handouts from staff. So far it's all me. I've told people they can share this page. You just put a blurb of what it's about and stick your handouts in there. But maybe I need to say so again. So right here in the 2019 best books, whoops, sorry. I can't see this very well because of the light. There's the 2019. That is my long list for the list that Dana and I did at the EnCompass and at conference. They're down here below. These are the same list that we did again for the EnCompass line as well. So that's my long children's book list. And there's my best teen books book list. And you click it and you get a PDF. You can print out. And I'm so proud that Steven says February five. So that's how you get there. And you can see also there above that was also the list for, as I mentioned, the summer reading program. Oh, true. So on the handout page there. There. So for this, yeah, for this summer's coming upcoming, I know some libraries have already gotten this, but you just get some time. There's your list from when she did that session as well. And the, and we'll show you in the archives too. There's an archive, the recorded of that session as well. If you want to also hear Sally talk about the, that was on December 31st. So I will do now. No, I'll show it later. Yeah, it's not a problem. So you can watch the recording of that and hear her talk about them, but there's your actual list too. If you just want to print that off and have that here. So that's how you find that. So let's get into our team. And you just hit F5. It should found you. Boom. There you go. I don't know that. Yeah. Look, I changed that too. That's February. Sometimes it's this was a session from last conference, but it's okay. Well, that's part of what I have to say. This is the session. This is my session for the Nebraska school librarians association presentation, which was the Saturday after the Nebraska library association Iowa library association. Well, library association joint conference. That was last October. That was last October, but I've added a whole that you've updated a new title. I thought there would be more by now. Yeah. But for four more made the list. So that's good. And I do want for people who maybe haven't heard me give reviews before these are the books that I've encountered meaning we receive review books here at the library commission from some publishers, but not all publishers. And we don't receive every single book. Anyone publisher. Publishes. So it's kind of a hodgepodge, but great ones are in there. I also look at the public library all the time. I look at blogs and other things for titles I should be finding. And I go to the bookstore and wander around and find things there too. So I do my best to encounter titles from all kinds of publishers. But when I am talking about books, if your favorite book from 2019 is not listed, that doesn't mean I didn't like it. I didn't think it was a good for libraries. It just means probably I didn't encounter it. Or I had it, but I didn't get it read. Oh, and that's even worse. I didn't say that. Yes. So, but if you do have any thoughts, you know, as we're going through here after you see this, if there's any books that you have read that you think my Sally should know about or you want to let her know that could be a good one for the list, go ahead and type into the question section. If you don't see anything coming up or any authors or anything, she's always looking for more, more things to read. Yes, I am. Plus, we can say right now during this session, if there's one out there that I didn't happen to run across, that here's another one someone might want to look into to see about adding to their collection. Please do that. So because I am a linear thinker, I start with books for younger teens. Because younger teens, nonfiction older teens, that's how I operate. I could change it up, but that would make me twitch. Anyway, I've just seen some. So the first book on the list is Running Wild. And five years ago, their mother died. That was when dad took Willa, who is now 12, and her younger twin brothers, Keith and Seth, who are now 10, to Alaska to live off the land. Things have been okay until this summer when dad returned from his annual trip to town with liquor. He had quit drinking when Willa was born, but now he has started again. It is fall and Willa knows they do not have enough food for the winter, so she convinces her brother to join her in taking their old raft down the river to town to call their aunt in New York. Survival, self-sufficiency, caring people, doing what you have to do are all part of this story. And this book is also on my longer children's list because it kind of covers both upper elementary and beginning middle school ages. Really well done. While Filonius Mitchell enjoys playing pranks at school to get a rise out of their teacher and the principal, there is no way he or his best friend, the Amaya, would do anything dangerous. A gun was found in the park next to the school, and the administration is on the alert as well as should. Filonius is more than irritated that the first place anyone looks for the guilty party is a special education classroom where he is, where neuro atubical students do their best and occasionally cause trouble. He is now determined to solve this crime, along with the Amaya, to prove their innocence. Mr. Blockman is assigned to work with Filonius and guide him to better choices and decisions. And the unfair accusations and suspicions hurt, and Filonius's growth as a leader with integrity is delightful to see. This is a companion book to her previous books, and it's very awkward and brave. It takes place in the same middle school. It's a full-color graphic novel of the middle school students we have come to know in the first two books. Here, the focus is on Jorge, who slowly begins to realize he has off-filtered around Jasmine because he liked her. And he just doesn't know what to do about that. It's a new experience for him. Jorge is big, so no one messes with him, and that, and so he patrols the halls between classes to step in when needed. He's also kind and thoughtful. He's a really great character. I forgot to mention that I have this paper that has notes on it, and I'm sticking to it because I get all my points made, and I'll be done in our time frame. Otherwise, we could be here for a lot longer. They'll go away, but they'll watch the long thing later. So, this is a graphic novel told in alternating times of now and then. The authors and illustrator tell of brothers Kwame, who's the older brother, and Ibo, who's 12, and their hopes for a new, better life in Europe. This is told from Ibo's point of view. When he woke up in the morning, his older brother, Kwame, had already left their village on the bus. Ibo follows, hoping to find him in the city of Agadez in Niger. They fortunately find each other and face hardships, some like threatening, on their way to a better life. Not everyone makes it. This was actually published in the second half of 2018, but I didn't encounter it until last year. It went on my list because most of the time, my lists are done in time for the October conference, and then there's still a few months left of the year. Newberry Award winner, first graphic novel to win the Newberry. Yay! I'm excited. This is one of my favorite books, too. It is also on the 2020 Great Graphic Novel List, and he also received the Coretta Scott King Author Award for this book, so pretty tremendous. Jordan Banks, who loves drawing, is new to the Ripadale Academy Day School and discovers he is one of only a few people of color in the seventh grade. This school is much larger and more confusing than his previous school. Finding friends and his way are difficult, especially with some students and teachers who are less than aware of their troubling viewpoints. As Booklist says, this remarkably honest and accessible story is not just about being new, it's unabashedly about race. Still, the artwork and Jordan's own sketchbook, Light and the Move, to make the point but not sound too harsh, I guess was the way it was. And Kirkus notes, this is a book for every middle school, and that was before the award. What's that? Theodore, or Trace Carter, he's in middle school, now lives with his aunt Leah since the death of his parents in the car accident. He was in that car too, but he survived. Moving from Baltimore to Brooklyn, missing his parents though his aunt is wonderful, and reliving the accident in a stream, leaves Trace off kilter. Now he has seen a ghost, a little boy, in the basement of the New York Public Library. It turns out that he and the ghost have a connection, and there may be a reason that Trace can see him. Always ghosts in the New York Public Library, it seems to be an ongoing problem with them. It does seem, that's the place to go if you're a ghost, I guess. Although the CIP indicates this title is Biography, I have it in fiction, as I see it, as a combination of fictionalized history and actual history, and it is poetry, so I don't know, put it in the collection where you want to. I'm just telling you, whatever it is, it's a good book. There you go. It is voices of objects that came into contact with Joan of Arc. So there's things that she touched or something she wore, and it's talking about her. It's all in poetic form. There's also her own voice from the trials that were saved, so there's quotes from those archived items. And also of people who were at the trial, who spoke in praise of her, and some spoke in disgust of her. The course of her life is followed and gives a sense of the girl who led her army. It includes direct quotes from her trials. It is also written in poetic forms from her time period, and at the back of the book it identifies which poem is which poetic form. So if you're working on poetic poetry, there's another way you can do that. April is National Poetry Month. That's right. Good call. You can do something with poetry in your... Is this middle? Yeah. And I also thought, after you look at this book, you could challenge readers or students in your class to write a poem about another famous person from the viewpoint of any object they held used, like George Washington and the Hatchetbury Chopped on the Cherry Tree, which he really didn't do. We made that up. So I'm kidding about that. But Kirk says this will appeal to Sam's adverse history and biography. And it's a slender book, too. Not too intimidating. On a completely different note, this is a full-color graphic novel. A.J. is in sixth grade. He's A.J. Levin, and he has liked Nia for years but never told her. His best friend, Hunter, keeps encouraging him to talk to her to no avail. Nia is completely enthralled with vampires. So A.J. decides to condense her that he is one. First, he tries to watch the TV show Pain Squad. He hates that. So he tries reading the book Moonlight, a novel about vampires. Are you getting any kind of care? When the new teacher, Mr. Niles, he just tears A.J. and Nia for a project. It looks like it's big chance. Their report will be on Transylvania, and A.J. decides to lay a trail for her to the point that he actually drinks some fake blood. Only to find out that she is planning a vampire killer, and she is out to get him. Complicating that is the fact that one of the teachers in the school really is a vampire. Will they alter lives? It's tongue-in-cheek, and it's not, it's more hubris, it's scary, but it still is a lot of fun. Again, on a completely different note, this is Alan Gratz's newest book as far as I know, and this book takes place all in one day, as you might guess, in 1944, D-Day. And we meet several people who are involved in D-Day. D Carpenter is 16, and he is landing on Omaha Beach, and we encountered him several times throughout the book. It changes from different locations, Omaha Beach and other places. Samira Zidane is 11. She's a French-Algerian resistance member, and we encountered her a couple of times while saying that because everybody shows up. James McKay is a Canadian paratrooper, and Bill Richards is a British tank driver. Monique Marchand is 13. She's a French citizen, and she and Dorothy Powell, a U.S. reporter, are helping soldiers on Omaha Beach, helping them get to the aid stations, et cetera. And the loss of life, particularly on Omaha Beach, is portrayed and presented, but it's not overwhelming to the reader, so you get a sense of what a terrible thing that was, but also that some people survived and went on to invade France. As Cook has said, in the end, all the threads come together to drive home the point that allies are stronger together. There's a 14-page author's note at the back that clarifies the truth, and Brad took some poetic lessons for the sake of the story. One of the things that happened in the book he had happening during the day and night of D-Day when actually it was the next day. That's pretty close. I think that's okay. Not that he cares. I'm sure he cares about people's opinions. Teddy Youngblood is 13, and he's just finished his first week of football practice when something happened, and now he is in a coma with a head injury. Traditionally, the Friday practice ends with the seniors giving a kind of a up exercise called rookie rumble to the freshmen to help with team bonding. The coaches were looking elsewhere, and they were trying to figure out what happened. This takes place mostly in his hospital room. What people say while they're visiting Teddy is told in three verses. There are also text messages that are inserted in the story, interviews, and other forms of communication of how the story is told. Every once in a while, you get some fuzzy thoughts that turn out to be Teddy trying to come back to consciousness. This is a full-color graphic novel, and it's quite a bit of fun. There's some confusion at the beginning of the book, and I think that echoes space confusion about middle school, because middle school is different from elementary school, and it's kind of confusing, and she's not sure where she's supposed to be or what's going on. But as she begins to find her way, the book settles down as well. Eighth grader, Amanda invites her to join the soccer team, and faith at first thinks they will be friends, and then won't that be great. But newbie faith that they're not so good players, and rarely sees Amanda. Over time, friendships form, and the third-stream team members discover that they are bad with soccer, but good with friendship, just as it says under the title there. And I thought that was great. They really do have form, a strong team spirit about being friends, not so much about soccer, which is kind of fun. They're just not very good. As long as they're enjoying it. So it's finding oneself and connecting with others that makes middle school doable. This is from a Nebraska author who lives in Omaha. Hannah has never left the room she shares with her mother on the spaceship. They live on a sentient spaceship, and Hannah was genetically designed to communicate with the ship via the colors it shows. Hannah wakes up from another sleep time wondering why things feel wrong. It turns out everyone is gone, and a ship with several volunteers has landed to document the path of the ship. They will die there too, but other people will benefit from their final wishes. Now Hannah and Sam, a young man, try to find a way to survive beyond the ship cycle. But there are things neither of them realizes about the other mercenaries and about cycle. Survival, ethics, not giving up, and some romance are included. It's an intriguing premise for a sci-fi adventure story. At least something I hadn't encountered before. Well, Gordon Corman, he's done, so we even have to talk about it. Due to a misunderstanding, temporary transfer student Keanu Robini is not properly enrolled and is sent to room 117, which turns out to be the room assigned to the unteachable of Greenwich Middle School. Troublemakers, kids with learning disabilities, unusual situations at home, and some who push the boundaries are all in the class. Their teacher this year is Mr. Kermit, a disillusioned teacher who only wants to last for the year to his early retirement. At first, all Mr. Kermit does is sit in the room with the kids. No discipline, no interaction. He's working the crossword puzzle. But over time the teacher and the students begin to find some common ground and positive things are happening. It's touching, funny, and clever. This book brings what readers expect from Gordon Corman. And it is Golden Sower 2021 Novel's nominee. So that will be not this who is the next year. This is a graphic novel of the original book The Givers by Lois Lowry. It's essentially the same story originally told in the text. The graphic novel version gives the boy slowly dawning knowledge and assist with the slow addition of color in the art. It's a good refresh for this classic. The first color that really comes through is red. I think it's an apple he sees first is red. He has to know what that is because he's never seen the color before. It's well done and it's another way to look at The Givers. I can see you using both the novel and the graphic novel in the class study. And it is on the list of the 2020 great graphic novels as is this book on the list too. Middle school music class the assignment is for each student to find the perfect song that that's just who they are right now. Charlie, Charlotte, is at a loss. Nothing is her right now until she hears Maria Callas sing opera. A student Luca is missing from class since he sang a song to another boy Emile and Charlie worries about where he is now. Beautifully told in art and text and music, this graphic novel is colored in browns and yellows for the present time in blues for the past and in reds for Maria Callas's life. Blend it all together through this girl. Brian is in sixth grade and he is encouraged by his mother to be friends with Mike, someone who was polite to Brian's mother but a bit on the wild side but not his own. Mike takes Brian on some wild adventures which are fun but dangerous and sometimes just wrong. Brian is confused and also challenged by Mike about being brave and being a man but is this really how he should do it he's not sure. His father has anger issues not with the family but he uses his fists when he's angry or feeling put down and Brian is headed that way. His dad has told him that it is better to be hard and feared than to be light. That's his view. But what feels good or tight to Brian are his comics and drawing superheroes. Brian walks a fine line but in the end chooses to control his anger and stay with activities he enjoys as well as limiting the drama in his life. He's finding the right path for himself. This is a full color graphic novel and the introduction the publisher says it's a compilation because they've covered up the title with a good point. It actually says Marble Rising underneath there. That's a good point. If you have the paper in front of you you can tell that but some people don't have the paper. The title is Marble Rising and the publisher says this issue is a compilation of four comics. It is the transition story from the classic to the newly imagined in the tradition of expanding the Marvel universe. This is a collection of Marvel graphic novels. In this one Doreen Green is teaching a programming class and one of her students is Camilla Kahn who is Miss Marvel. They are soon working together to support threats to members of the class and other pastors by. There seems to be a new villain in town and Doreen and Kamala are hard pressed to protect both the citizens and their secret identities. They are not just a few of the two of us to face and to satisfy readers. Be sure to use the ISBN that's on the handout to find this. When I searched for it on Amazon under Marble Rising it brought up several choices and it wasn't sure which was just one of the four comics and which was this compilation and there was some other things. Use the ISBN to find that you can get them all together as a collection in one book. This book is the reference of the book Young Adult Novel Award. It takes place in Lincoln, Nebraska. Flint is in sixth grade, he's 13 and he is losing his eyesight. It has been deteriorating for a while and now he sits alone at lunch working on his entry for the find a comic book star content hoping to finish it before his eyesight is completely gone. His former best friend now bullies him since Flint can no longer play on the football team like he used to then one day the new girl, Miquel sits with him at lunch and it is not part of a trick but she thought it might be because she is friends with the popular group but he and Miquel begin to form a friendship and that's focused on Miquel's brother Danny's challenges on YouTube hitting topics such as bullying empathy, law and friendship as school library journal says recommend for any library serving middle grade readers and they say it is for grades 5 to 7 and they begin that going over between upper elementary and middle school. Another full color graphic novel though more in music colors this is titled Goods for grades 7 to 12 I'd say it's the first of the new DC ink line this was the first one for young adults and it introduced us to read it to Mira from Aquaman and tells her story not his. She admires and wishes to emulate her deceased mother who was a warrior on her own she decides to take on the job of killing Arthur Curry who is at this time unaware that he is the heir to Atlantis but she finds love instead. Mira is capable, intelligent and strong and since this one was published several other titles focusing on each independent character have been published. Catwoman and Teen Titans, Raven Harley Quinn, etc. I haven't gotten the hold of any of those I've never read this one. The others are probably terrific too have you read any of those? Actually we have them I can bring them in for you. I know we have Raven and Catwoman personally at home I don't I might have a Harley Quinn I'll check. Thank you. I can have an amendment to my sorry I have to start working on 2022. That's true. It's still just beginning of February. The subtitle of this is A Tale Told in 10 Blocks At Pump Creek Festival Jason Reynolds said that publishers do not want to call this a short story collection because they believe kids and teens do not read short story collections. I believe they will read this one and you can title it however you want. At the end of the school day students re-enter their usual lives of friendships, bullying, negotiating and facing life while doing so. Characters and stories connect with each other so throughout you'll see characters pop up again. The students face fears and bullies questioning of one's own sexuality and also an appreciation of a strong friendship and other issues. Reynolds uses sincerity, humor and bases it in reality. As Bookless said, here Reynolds exhibits a mastery of character. Each protagonist is distinct engaging, sympathetic complex, each story uniquely memorable. And it's not a long book so again that's appealing in another way that it's very readable. Carter's 12 and his family is a little broken. His father is serving in the army in Germany and he and his mother and three younger sisters are still reeling from his younger brother's death three years ago at age 6. The book opens with the arrival of Carter's grandfather Mr. Bold's Fitzpatrick. Recently deceased his grandfather had willed the butler to the family. The butler insists on using proper English and proper decorum and he also has a fondness for the game of cricket. The masterful way with Mr. Bold's Fitzgerald's guide and helps Carter and his family as well as the other young players who have joined the cricket team is engaging and honest. Humor and lots of cricket terms will entertain readers or drive them crazy because you can skip over some of them if you want to. Yes, if you know cricket it would be nice but it might be a way to learn it. I want to talk a little bit about cricket and that's kind of fun. So I would call it the sport book but you kind of have some sports in it. Jimmy 13 is stunned to learn that he is expected to give a short eulogy at his cousin's funeral the next day. His dress panthers too small and may tear at any time and he has nothing positive to say about Patrick and everything he attended birthdays, family get-togethers every time he went over the top and ruined it. He was too boisterous and always going too far. Jimmy tries to find something positive to say while hiding during the viewing at the mortuary but each positive start soon diminishes into the chaos Patrick brought with him. Finally as Jimmy is standing at the pulpit the truth he needs to say comes to him and it touches those listening Patrick's younger sister Sophia who is deaf and who is quiet calm had helped Jimmy speak. This is also a golden sower 2021 nominee and for people from other states I didn't mention that the golden sower is the Nebraska Children's Choice Award so you can look under if you just google golden sower Nebraska you'll find the website all about it with all the lists on them. Thank you. I've done it that way. That's the way for me. Cass age uncare has a special gift in her past she drowned but managed to get back to life and now she can see spirits or ghosts if she looks at a particular angle she can see the veil that separates our world of the living from the dead her best friend is a ghost as a matter of fact he helped her out of the water that drowned her her parents have put together an investigation show about finding ghosts and the three of them are off to Edinburgh Scotland the city of ghosts they have no ability to see them and Cass is not going to tell them that she can because she knows what would happen then the show would be all about her while in Edinburgh Cass encounters a girl who also has the gift and Cass learns more about why they have this ability danger spookiness there's a touch I can handle it because I'm a chicken big chicken and concern for what her parents might accidentally stumble into keep Cass busy book two tunnel of bones takes place in Paris and that is out now I haven't read it yet city of ghosts is also a golden sewer novels nominee for 2021 it's like it'll be on your list for 2020 if it came out this year well it came out August no that's not true that was this one it came out anyway we're on to kiss number eight this is on the 2020 great graphic novel list as well it's in black white and gray high school junior Amanda or mad has a lot happening right now she has fun with her best friend cat she is avoiding getting kiss fire neighbor Adam he seems interested in her she's not interested in him she goes to my living baseball games with her dad and they have a great time there but her dad is hiding something big and it might destroy their family and she's not sure what it is she is beginning to realize she does not want to kiss Adam because she really wants to kiss cat her girlfriend she finds some new friends at school who do not label themselves how many kisses will it take for her to find and get who she really wants as Kirkus says the character shine fully human and permitted to be flawed which is nice I'm swan Gabe is 11 and he must climb onto the roof to rescue a prize chicken in a storm and that is when he loses his life a tornado picks him up and the next thing he remembers is waking up in his caregiver bed with his dog Ollie next to him soon he realizes he is dead and he is run off by the townspeople after a few days and nights in the woods a girl finds him and leads him to Bone Hall he discovers that when the girl is deaf and has spent three years now she is tiring and Gabe is her replacement having already lost his parents and then his grandpa Gabe doesn't think he can take anyone away from their families that's just something he can do but maybe that isn't exactly what when the it's a bit of a supernatural some spookiness and some tenderness this look at death and how people prepare for it is thoughtful and comforting now we'll go into some nonfiction routines and this is going to be hard a couple of them including this first one this is Anderson's memoir in free verse it is her personal experience and journey after being raped at age 13 it is honest and accusing at times as she says in the introduction this is the story of a girl who lost her voice and wrote herself a new one because she wrote the book speak sorry booklist says her sensitive incisive book is essential for all young people and it is a top 10 of the 2020 quick picks for reluctant young readers little one that was announced January with the other strangers assume my girlfriend is my nurse is a set of 23 essays about his thoughts his life and how he functions and it is a follow up to the first set of essays titled laughing at my nightmare she again hops around a bit while explaining what his life is like with final muscular atrophy or SMA and he tells it like it is bathroom humor quits and some offensive language are included as well as clear information on how he and his brother or father or friend get something done most of his numerous and occasionally eye opening as to some of the things people ask him really I can't believe that people have some nerve yeah I think just so you know chapter 17 this title your complete guide to Shane's sex life where he assures readers that he can and does have sex without revealing any details this is a graphic memoir in blues reds and black it is marketed as an adult title but she does spend quite a bit of the book five of the eight chapters on her childhood through college starting with how both of her parents came to the US her mom from the Philippines her dad from Egypt met married had a child and eventually divorced she works her way through identity issues is she Muslim Christian how can she be both plenty of microaggressions such as you are so exotic excuse me you are so exotic and I didn't even know you were as ethnic again the things people say it concludes with meeting then marrying the man for her and her hopes for the future and this is a top ten of the 2020 great graphic novel I'm really happy I had it okay this is an important book but it's also a hard book to read at times it includes some details of a few well-publicized rates and the resulting court decisions knowing more than once that men are raped as well as women she quotes a CDC survey one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped during their lifetime and over 50 percent of gender non conforming individuals are raped that's a horribly astounding number over 50 percent the author defines race culture so it and toxic masculinity have compounded the problem she gives suggestions of how to help bring about change at the end of most of the chapters book that says this book isn't an exhaustive look at the topic but it is a straightforward well-organized overview for young people a school library journal highly recommended for every library that serves teens you put it in your collection where you think it belongs because you know your community and I I won't tell you how to do handle this fiction for older readers oh man I'm going to get that it's okay this is a wonderful book I did not read her first one which I believe was Poet X because Jill read that one Emoni Santiago is in her senior year at high school she is thinking of the future but also about her daughter Amon and her abuela with whom they live Emoni is Afro-Latina she loves cooking in the kitchen and has an almost magical touch and those who eat what she has cooked always comment on how the food helps them with whatever issue was in their lives she wants to become a chef but that may be impossible a new elective offered during her senior year is just what she needs including a chance to go with the class to Spain and be a chef there for a week Emoni takes on so much still she's not sure what we felt in what she was just for and I read something that the author was talking about recently and she said she wanted to highlight a person who had some tough situations but was endeavoring to get on with her life and move forward and be positive and she doesn't want this to be seen as what a miracle that she got out of this spiraling situation but that she handles things and it's not easy but she's doing it and there's a lot of people out there who are doing the same thing the point the author was making and I think a lot of teens who are probably struggling in the same with their own things but the same way Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hitt Noah is 17 and white and he has feelings for longtime friends Samantha they call her Sam but has yet to say anything to her best friend Walt is African American and he's now going by the name Swing he encourages him to let Sam know how he feels Walt is determined to make the baseball team so this coming for this coming year and he has a love of jazz so both combined through his new self-imposed nickname when Noah finds some old love letters and a gently used handbag he bought for his mother he has inspired to use them as a guide to write to Sam but he has caught off guard when Swing gives her one anonymously all of this is swept aside after a tragedy in the park jazz, poetry and art love told in free verse as Crookish says Noah is the narrator but it is Swing with his humor, irresistible charm and optimism who steals the spotlight Abby 17 and a senior and her family must move away from Omaha after her mother's a teacher's affair comes to light Abby was abandoned by her friends and bullied until they left town after Minnesota homeless and Abby is trying to keep a very low profile at her new school she has some new great friends, a possible boyfriend and some success at school and she is waiting for this other shoe to drop and eventually it does the stigma of homelessness at least in Abby's mind the hardship of sleeping in their van in the cold eating at soup kitchens and looking for workers lived by Abby and her family Emma Saylor Payne 17 has been fortunate that her father diversified all she needs and she has never had a job until she spends three weeks on Lake North with her maternal grandmother whom she barely remembers now Emma is called Saylor's because that is what her mother who died of a drug overdose had called her meeting family, aunts, cousins, good friends she last visited when she was four it is strange and then it is familiar she begins to learn the stories everyone on the lake already knows and begins to see things from a new perspective soon jumps in to help clean the rooms of the motels of grandmother's own and there is always plenty needing to be done and not enough people to do it when her father and new step-mom return from their honeymoon she must spend two more weeks at the lake but on the ritzy side this time she is uncomfortable that and worries about how her mother's family is doing coming out of age and embracing the opportunity to see life from more than one viewpoint road-crypt just as a senior year of high school begins he takes his mom's credit card his late father's car and he hits the road he doesn't know what he doesn't have a destination he just has to drive he finds himself on the great river road but she didn't even know existed while he meanders he encounters people who become new friends and a few who use him or rob him handling grief finding out who you are now and discovering how long you can keep driving is all included in this this is a little spooky Adele 17 has recently stopped taking her med her father and their doctor believed she had mental issues that she used to claim to see and talk with dead people like her mother did she hasn't seen any for years due to the medication but now she's beginning to see them again one of them is her former best friend Tori who asks her to find out who killed her Adele had attended the party at Tori's house the night she was killed not usually a drinker Adele did drink at this party and now she begins to think she might be guilty of the murder since they had been learning about blackout drinking in school and she cannot remember how she got from walking away from the party back to her home as she closes in on what's happened the murderer may be closing in on her so obviously she is not but if you can only buy one new April Henry book I think you should go with this one that's pretty good if you like helping ghosts this one there are run hide and fight back are the three choices several teams face when a shooting occurs at a Portland shopping mall some teams hide some are captured and held as hostages and some people are killed immediately there seems to be hope for those who have been captured they are being used as a shield while a few teams have found refuge in the back hall linking the stores it is likely only a matter of time before they will be found and this thriller will capture teams attention I think and so it is well written and it moves right along and unfortunately very chocolate unfortunately too this book is entirely written in text messages between two people so that might drive you crazy or it might be okay there are two fellas named Martin Nathaniel Monroe II they are cousins and they are both in Haley's high school history class when she receives a text from one of them she asks one you are both in U.S. my U.S. history class to which the reply is the good one thus throughout the book she thinks she is texting with the Martin she thinks so that is the good one but it is actually the other Martin the format like I said might be considered tedious but it does kind of help the book move along too it is a little bit thicker but it moves right along ultimately this is an interesting story of high school communication and potential romance and you know it makes somebody answer specifically who are you I am just kidding it turns out he is not such a bad guy three years ago there was a school shooting at the Virgil County High School three of the four survivors who were in the line of fire in different places gather each year on the anniversary of the shooting and they are not gathering at the school that day as it says on the inside front cover a story has grown up around one of the victims Sarah McHale she died proclaiming her Christian faith but Leanne Bauer was there with her best friend Sarah and knows what happened and she has a choice stay silent and let people believe in Sarah's martyrdom or tell the truth the fact is someone else wore the necklace and said those words but she and her family basically run out of town proclaiming the story for her and so now there is going to be a movie made about it and Leanne is struggling with should I just let it keep moving and not say anything and why didn't I help this girl when I could have spoken up then and it's not the fact and it is the fact that somebody did say that to the shooter and it's just not the right who it was so another tough book but well done because you want something a little lighter Kimmy is a high school senior who is supposed to be working on her ultimate painting that will be submitted as part of her application to the Lou Fine Arts Academy following her high school graduation instead she has been focused on creating clothing Kimmy original because it brings her joy then a letter from her mother's estranged parents in Japan invites Kimmy to visit during the two week spring break period after her mother finds out that Kimmy has painted nothing Kimmy takes the opportunity and flies to Kyoto I'll be away from mom for two weeks over the course of the two weeks she learns a lot about her grandparents a new boyfriend and herself I think chased is one word you can use for this book that he are it is a romance but they are in Japan yeah no is that dumb what's the word you want stereotyping maybe sorry this is hashtag murder trending is the name of the book it is gruesome icky this is not my kind of book but I could read it have I read the second one yet D was quickly convicted and sentenced to her for her steps sister's murder and now she has been sentenced to Alcatraz 2.0 run by the Postman which was supposed to be only for the most heinous of criminals so why is she here she will eventually be killed by one of several sanctioned killers who carry out the sentence all shown on a page channel on television each killer has his or her own persona and torture is allowed inmates cannot harm each other they must wait for their turn with one of the killers your family is threatened for one thing to keep you from harming other people it's all to entertain the masses while the sentences are carried out except D did not kill Monica how could she prove it and get out of this the situation the sequel is titled hashtag murdered funding and I just haven't picked that up I did once but I put it back down not every book is for everyone that's true but this was well done so on another note Sophie and her band friends are involved in fundraising over the summer before her senior year in order to pay for the band trip to perform in the Rose Parade Sophie has the idea to ask Country Singing Star Megan Pleasant to perform at a fundraising event since Megan lived in Acadia when she won the next Country Star shows contest unfortunately Megan has made it clear she will never return along with everything else Sophie has fun spending time with August the new guy in town so she is avoiding any type of romantic behavior as she believes that she is asexual a courier for the Jewish resistance in Poland due to her fair hair and skin color using forged documents she becomes a Polish girl she smug of food documents and when possible people to save lives things get infinitely harder when Chaya and Esther end up with a mission on their own Esther is not experienced and Chaya does not trust her but they are sent to the Warsaw ghetto after their group is shattered descriptions of hardship, starving, torture are more implied than detailed Chaya says several times that the Jewish resistance members did not expect to survive only to make a difference as it says on the book jacket though the Jewish resistance never had much of a chance against the Nazis they were determined to save as many lives as possible and to live or die with honor and this is the Golden Sower 2021 novel List nominee also this is the first book in the Comey Can't Communicate series Comey is the ultimate student at the high school and the students are afraid to talk to her because she is aloof and extraordinary Tadano is just happy he is now going to Eton private high school and he is planning to blend in and not be noticed but the first day of school he finds himself alone in the classroom with Comey after all of the students and teachers have left there he discovers that Comey is not aloof she freezes whenever she tries to speak to someone she wants to make friends and now Tadano has promised to help her make 100 friends starting with him the artwork showing Comey with huge eyes or frozen and trembling does a great job of conveying her level of discomfort and social anxiety and I've only read this one the first one I think there are a few more out now and I'm going to have to get my hands on them because it was really interesting this is a full color graphic novel there are I think a total of five being expected in the series as far as I can tell so far Nicholas Cox is the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion he is determined to earn a place on the King's Row school fencing team so he has a long way to go to prove himself his half-brother Jesse Cox and prodigy Sejai Katiyama will be challenging for him to defeat or even keep up with when he arrives at the school Nicholas finds that Sejai is his roommate very little school action here it is all about the fencing and the competition to get on the school fencing team one competitor is a cad he is leaving around with one handsome guy after another for the course in this book this is volume one and there's fence volume two 24 matches are held over three days to determine the team membership Nicholas lost his first match but there are plenty more to give him the chance to make the team this volume is all competition which is not yet completed at the end of the book but no worries so yay the final matches are held to determine who will make the King's Row fencing team Nicholas and Sejai face off but there is a surprise in store for the competitors and of this list books two and three are on the 2020 great graphic novels list because they came out I think the first volume one came out actually in 2018 but I included it because how can you read you can't start with two I'm very fond of reading all of them in order interesting on the covers how they have one two and three of the characters yes for volume one everybody always looks so fierce yeah competition well if you want and ultimately they're hoping to win the championship of the school fencing with other schools right since things are determined in this one and I won't tell you the answer I'm assuming that the next volume will start on the team and then following is now competing against other schools right I could be wrong the other volumes out yet or are we only up to you know that might be another one out by yeah the field guide to the North American teenager this is the 2020 Morris Award winner that's for a debut both this is his first book Ben Fleab is the author in the book Norse Kaplan a black French Canadian is now living in Austin Texas his family was there he is smart clever and a little pessimistic a tough combination for the Texans to handle now in a new high school constantly sweating profusely because he's unaccustomed to the hot weather he steps back from everyone and judges who they are and what they do over time he begins to see the other students as people some he likes and some he does not and after he makes a bad mistake he realizes he has to step up face the music and see what he can do with his life I make him sound unpleasant he's really a pretty likable character and some of the other characters in his life are really pretty swell but he's sure that they have an ulterior motive a couple of them and it's humorous and it also is he does talk a bit about how he knows how American schools are because he's seen some of those TV shows I can't remember oh maybe it's pretty little liars or stuff like that so that's what school is like in America so that's kind of fun Denise Barber is 17 and her mom a new stepdad who is pretty okay has just moved back to New Orleans several years after her king Katrina the house on 312 Argonne Street hence the name Agony House her mom hopes to repair and turn into a bed and breakfast needs a lot of work and it appears to have a ghost or two one friendly and one not she is accused of her family is accused of being carpet beggars by another girl in the neighborhood and she says but we used to live here we are moving back after Denise and her new friend neighbor Terry a guy find an old comic book hidden in the attic they begin to put together what happened in the house many years ago the book contains occasional three to four page graphic novel type inserts that contain the comic book story she needs to find out what happened in the past because dangerous things keep happening here in the house bricks fall all floors collapse and there is a spooky voice every so often she needs to get that all taken care of this is a debut novel is long but good Jack is a high school senior he has two best friends Jillian whom he pines for and Franny Francisco who is now Jill's boyfriend then he meets Kate a college freshman and she is it Kate dies of sickle cell anemia and Jack is thrown back to the past where he first met her is he supposed to do something to prevent her death what but then in his concern for Kate he messes up things with Franny he relives the four months five times in the book so later he says it was at least three dozen times he reduced it for the readers can he ever get everything right so they can all move forward this is a full-color graphic novel by Rainbow Rell or Omaha Hauser Deja and Josiah who goes by Josie are great friends and have worked together each fall at the pumpkin patch this is the last day of their last fall together Deja is determined to get Josie to talk to his four-year crush the fudge girl he is reluctant this final evening is a whirlwind of hitting different parts of the patch to try to find his crush they encounter a snack thief a runaway goat the maze lots of chances to eat all of Josie suffers anxiety about actually talking the fudge girl a school library journal says the characters in this graphic novel are so expressive and authentic it's impossible not to love them the dialogue is cute, funny and funny and it is also on the 2020 great graphics novel this yay Rainbow and my last book on the list is by edited by E.B. Zoboy black enough stories of being young and black in America there are 17 stories by well-known African-American authors and I think the subtitle says it all this is indeed a short story collection but it is really well done and it's combined together there aren't carry-over characters but the flow was great and it is a 2020 quick pick for electing young adult readers list member 2 thank you do we have any comments from anybody anybody have any comments, questions ideas of book titles of your own go ahead and type it into the question section of your go-to webinar interface yeah sure and we'll get out of here so the recording as we mentioned earlier will be available afterwards and the list, the book list with a link to the list will be included and slides too you guys put up the slides as well in case you're a visual rememberer I am a visual rememberer that you'll have those as well available afterwards everything will be on our Encompass Live website so go ahead and type in Encompass Live there go ahead and type again you can find it in our website but also if you just type Encompass Live into your search engine of choice so far we are the only thing called it on the internet so you will come across our website you're welcome to go Encompass Live these are upcoming shows but I'll tell you this is where the archives will be hopefully by the end of the day today as long as we go to webinar and YouTube cooperates with me it will be posted up here as the most recent one and you can see here is our Best of Children's book, the companion show to this one where you see we have the recording, the presentation slides and the children's handout as well as the summer reading program one was at the end of December same thing so if you're looking for book titles for your summer reading coming up for all ages of the summer reading you'll have that there this is our full archives you can want to search on here if you want to and find any of our previous shows you can also limit to jump something in the most recent 12 months if you want to just pay attention if you are searching the full archives this is our entire archive going back to January 2009 when Encompass Live premiered and you just pay attention to the date when something was originally broadcast when you're looking at things there will be things here that are old outdated information is changed links to things like not work services or products might no longer exist or have changed drastically over time so just pay attention to that when you are on our archives here next week's show on Encompass Live is legal research for non-lawyers and librarians so we do get this coming into libraries a lot I'm sure people come in and ask you for helping with tax forms, help wanting with health and medical information but if you have been asking about legal research we will have staff come with us next week from here in Nebraska the Schmidt Law Library at the University of Nebraska Richard Leder and Keelan Weber from there will be coming as well as Maureen who is from our Nebraska State Law Library Supreme Court Deputy Librarian so they're going to talk about the kind of things you can we do have available for people if you need to help with it of course the due to disclaimer I am not a lawyer so do not take this as legal advice but we can help you. Here are some things that are out there that can be used so please do sign up for that next week's show and other upcoming episodes come for Encompass Live. I also want to remind everyone about Big Talk from Small Libraries this is coming up at the end of this month February 28th the last Friday of February Big Talk from Small Libraries is our annual online conference with presentations from libraries people from libraries who have a population served of 10,000 or less that is our cut-up, these are little guys so if you are at a small library or interested in what small libraries your colleagues at small libraries are doing take a look at our schedule here it is free and open for anyone to watch it is an all day event on Friday February 28th the schedule is available here we have the topics of all our shows here we are waiting for some full information about descriptions and things at least you can get an idea of the topics and who all our presenters are register for it on our registration page and you will get the link to log in for the day it works the same way as Encompass Live does we use our GoToWebinar software to run this event as well so definitely sign up for Big Talk from Small Libraries if you want to join us for the day so all those times are central oh it says right there central time we are in the central time everything is central so adjust for your time zone wherever you are across the country or the world we don't care we are open to anybody the entire day is recorded every year as well if you are not available on February 28th that is okay as you can see here we have our previous conferences and recordings from all the previous years the recording sessions will all be up there as well for you if you cannot join be there on February 28th so sign up for Big Talk from Small Libraries sign up for upcoming Encompass Live shows and we will see you online in one of those places in the future great thanks so much Sally it looks like nobody had any, just a few thank yous for you so that's great, thank you you can take later of a title that I really should look at send me an email look on our website you can find your contact info there give her some tips of their bookstreet and throughout the year as well so we can work on the 2020 list working on it now yeah alright so thank you everybody and we'll see you next time on Encompass Live thank you Krista, yeah thank you bye bye