Ask a teen librarian to name her top ten teen books and there's apt to be a long pause while she flips through her mental reading record, but eventually Terri gave us an answer. In no particular order, Terri's Top Ten....
1. Laura Wiess's
SUCH A PRETTY GIRL left me breathless and shaken. With her dad in jail Meredith finally feels safe, then he gets out early and he wants to get "close" to her like he was before. You'll never forget this book.
2. In
WHO'S YOUR DADDY? Lila, Meryl and Caressa are three boyfriend-less best friends. Hoping to change their luck they hold a "dumb supper" and get more than they ever imagined. No one writes relationships and humor like Lynda Sandoval.
3. Not only is John Green's
LOOKING FOR ALASKA one of the best coming of age novels EVER, it's partly responsible for getting me my job as a teen librarian.
4. This is, without question, my favorite book to booktalk. I always get a great reaction from kids. I'll just give you the short and sweet: Teens between the ages of 13-17 can be retroactively aborted. Dubbed unwinds, they supposedly "live on" by having every last part of their body medically donated. Some of them aren't willing to accept that fate and go on the run, this is their story. UNWIND by Neal Schusterman is a must read for EVERYONE.
5. Gail Giles is one of my all time favorite authors. She writes raw, real and gritty stories. There's no happily-ever-afters, but her characterizations are incredible. SHATTERING GLASS is my favorite of her books. Check out this opening paragraph. "Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was too much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn't realize it until the day we killed him." 'Nuff said.
6. I loved Gabrielle Zevin's
ELSEWHERE because it was so unique. When Liz dies she finds herself on a ship to Elsewhere where she lives her life in reverse until she's reborn as a baby.
7. I adore Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Think Harry Potter, but faster paced with more humor. Percy Jackson is the half-blood son of a Greek God and all along he just thought he was a troublemaker with ADD. Get hooked with book 1:
THE LIGHTNING THIEF.
8. I LOVE Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Underworld series so when I learned she was crossing over to YA I was giddy. Her debut,
THE SUMMONING, was not a disappointment--necromancers, wizards, werewolves and evil psychologists, oh my!
9. Meg Cabot's
MEDIATOR and
1-800-WHERE-R-U paranormal series, originally written under the name Jenny Carroll, is the series that made me fall in love with YAs and got me started writing.
10. Scott Westerfeld rocks! While most people rave about his UGLIES series, I actually liked his
MIDNIGHTERS series even better. Don't get me wrong, I love Tally, but I preferred the dark, dangerous tone and the superheroish powers the MIDNIGHTERS find in a secret, blue hour.
11--
Terri tried to keep her list going to include other books like--THE BOOK THIEF, ABSOLUTELY POSTIVELY NOT, SAINT IGGY, FREAK SHOW, the KISSING COFFINS series and LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, but we finally yanked the keyboard from her.
Tune back in tomorrow when we'll get to know Trinity Michaels, the teen psychic from SLEEPLESS a little better.
I know I've mentioned this before, but it can't be said enough...I work for the coolest library district. They've been so good about supporting me as an author. A couple months ago one of my co-workers, and an incredible mentor I couldn't live without, interviewed me for the district's first author videocast. It was a lot of fun! If you're interested in the results, here's the interview. It's done in four short parts.
Lynda and I had THE BEST book signing yesterday at Borders. It was so much fun. A big party! We had a great turn out and the management and staff loved us. Admittedly, we fed them cake and chocolate dipped fruit. <G>
Terri Clark & Lynda Sandoval
Saturday, June 28th
1:00 PM Park Meadows Mall
Park Meadows Ctr Dr, Lonetree
303-708-1735
How can anyone survive the pain of ending their first love? Breaking Up Is Hard To Do ($8.99 Houghton Mifflin) is just the prescription. Young adult authors and best friends, Terri Clark and Lynda Sandoval, will be signing their humorous and heart-warming book, giving out prizes and doing what they do best…goofing around and laughing lots.
Sometimes Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, but sometimes it's for the best.
I just did a big update of my website --terriclarkbooks.com. I hope you'll check it out. And if you're local, my BFF Lynda Sandoval and I will be doing signings of Breaking Up Is Hard To Do in the next two weeks. Please stop by and see us!
Saturday, June 21st 2008
7:00 PM
As part of Booked, our new series of interactive events for young readers, three local authors will discuss and sign their new books for teens. Denise Vega will present her book Fact of Life #31 ($16.99 Random House), and Lynda Sandoval and Terri Clark will discuss their new book Breaking Up is Hard to Do ($8.99 Houghton Mifflin). This will not be your ordinary panel discussion. It will be three of our favorite YA authors with their guards down, taking questions, reading, offering playlists and more! Tattered Cover, East Colfax
Saturday, June 28th 2008
1:00 PM
How can anyone survive the pain of the end of a first love? This frank, humorous and heart warming book is just the prescription. Young adult authors Terri Clark and Lynda Sandoval will read and discuss their book, Breaking Up is Hard to Do at the new Park Meadows Borders in Lone Tree.
Woohoo! I just finished creating my first book trailer. It was fun, time consuming and challenging, but I like it. Won't you please tell me what you think?
I'm thrilled to say that Breaking Up Is Hard To Do has gotten some great reviews lately. I hope you don't mind my sharing.
Publisher's Weekly said, "...these four stories about love gone wrong...are likely to go over big with teens in search of solace for their own romantic misadventures."
But my favorite review came from Tirzah at the great Compulsive Reader blog. "Each of these characters will speak to the reader as their story unfolds. The writing is straightforward and perceptive, from Clark's funny and fast paced style to Hopkins's beautiful and striking poems. This is one book that holds a powerful message between its two covers: heartbreak happens, and along with it is something better if you can let go and continue to move forward."
She really got the message we tried to convey with our stories and that is everything I could hope for. You can read the review in its entirety on her site.
Have a great Sunday! :)
Two very different author events coming up in June at the Tattered Cover. They each sound intriguing but I admit I'm drawn to 6 Sick Hipsters. Here are the book store announcements.
GIRLS RULE! DENISE VEGA, LYNDA SANDOVAL, TERRI CLARK
Time: Saturday, June 21, 2008 7:00 p.m.
Location: Tattered Cover Colfax Avenue, Denver
As part of Booked, a new series of interactive events for young readers, three local authors will discuss and sign their new books for teens. Denise Vega will present her book Fact of Life #31 (Random House), and Lynda Sandoval and Terri Clark will discuss their new book Breaking Up is Hard to Do (Houghton Mifflin). This will not be your ordinary panel discussion. It will be three of our favorite authors with their guards down, taking questions, reading, offering a playlist for one of the books, and more!
Request a signed copy: [email protected]
RAYO CASABLANCA - 6 SICK HIPSTERS
Time: Friday, June 27, 2008 7:30 p.m.
Location: Tattered Cover Historic LoDo
Denver author Rayo Casablanca is a film and music critic who has contributed short fiction and pop culture criticism to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Geek Monthly, Splendid and Juked among others. In the late '90s Rayo self-published Sinema Brut, a critically acclaimed 'zine devoted to European Trash Cinema. Casablanca will read from and sign his debut novel 6 Sick Hipsters (Kensington), a hilarious, frenetic, adrenalin-charged murder mystery, that does for modern day Williamsburg, Brooklyn, what Bret Easton Ellis's Less than Zero did for '80s L.A. - but with a knowing grin and a far cooler soundtrack.Request a signed copy: [email protected]
PRIMERA PÁGINAThe
Latino Writers Collective of Kansas City announced the publication of
Primera Página: Poetry from the Latino Heartland, described as the first of its kind to feature Latino writers of the Midwest.
Francisco Aragón, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Letras Latinas and Institute for Latino Studies, writes, “
Primera Página is more than a book, more than an anthology. It’s a community—one borne of community-building in the best sense of the term.” Poet
Virgil Suarez writes, “This first anthology ... by the Latino Writers Collective, is a breath of fresh air. The voices here have verve and power.” This anthology includes poems by such established poets as
Gloria Vando, editor of
Helicon Nine Editions and winner of the Latino Literary Hal of Fame for her poetry collection
Shadows & Supposes (Arte Publíco Press). Also included are former Taco Shop Poets member
Tomás Riley of California, who was featured at the collective’s reading series in Kansas City last year, and
Andrés Rodríguez, author of
Night Song (Tía Chucha Press). Newer voices include
Chato Villalobos, a Kansas City, Mo., police officer;
Marcelo Xavier Trillo, a former gang leader and past intern to poet
Jimmy Santiago Baca;
Gabriela N. Lemmons, who has work forthcoming in
Just Like a Girl: A Manifesta (Girlchild Press), and
Angela Cervantes, a recent runner-up in The Missouri Review’s Audio Competition. Other contributors include
José Faus, editor of the
Kansas City Hispanic News, and
Linda Rodriguez, author of the forthcoming
I Don’t Know How to Cook Mexican (Adams Media).
The Latino Writers Collective, based in the Kansas City metropolitan area, organizes and coordinates projects for the larger community, especially to showcase national and local Latino writers and provide role models and instruction to Latino youth. The collective sponsors an annual reading series in Kansas City and plans release of a performance CD later this year.
Primera Página is $16.95 in trade paperback, 173 pp. For more information or to request a media review copy, contact
Ben Furnish at (816) 824-6814 or
[email protected]. This book is available to bookstores and libraries through Baker & Taylor.
Scapegoat Press, P.O. Box 410962, Kansas City, Missouri 64141
WHEN PIGS FLY, MEN HAVE BABIES, AND PEACE AND JUSTICE RULE THE WORLD
One night only! Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 7:30pm in the Ricketson Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Complex downtown. Tickets are $22 general, $18 students/seniors/NPAC participants, with a special $16 comadre group rate. Call El Centro Su Teatro at (303) 296-0219 to purchase your tickets today! Seating for this performance IS ASSIGNED. The first buyers get the best seats! Celebrate summertime with this hilarious barrio fairytale. Call now!
ARTICLE ON ILAN STAVANS The
Stanford Daily carried a piece about
Ilan Stavans, prolific writer, professor, editor, etc., who recently visited the Stanford campus. The article reported that Stavans's lecture touched on a variety of subjects including the "cultural phenomenon" of Spanglish; why he thinks it's important to translate
Don Quixote into Spanglish; and how Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are in some ways the Jews of today, arguing that “no other groups would accept such [verbal abuse]” like the abuse immigrants receive. The article is worth a look.
Later.
Helen Keller said, "We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough." Let's face it, the road to publication is often pebbled with rejection, criticism, self doubt and frustration. Those who continue the journey will eventually find success. Just ask Terri Clark.
I'd been writing for over 11 years when I finally got THE CALL. I’d begun by writing romance and for several years I kept hearing “You’re sooo close,” but I never quite got over that hump. Well, that’s not exactly true. I actually had a Harlequin editor tell me she wanted to buy my book after reading it when I finaled in the Golden Heart for the second time. Then she got fired and the book was never bought. Needless to say, my frustration was overwhelming. I just didn’t know what I could do differently. Then my best friend,
Lynda Sandoval, suggested that my voice was really well suited to YA. She started me reading
Meg Cabot’s 1-800 and Mediator
series’ and I immediately fell in love and knew that’s what I was supposed to write. For a year I read nothing but teen book after teen book. Not only did the books inspire me to write YA fiction, they inspired me to pursue working with teens at my library. The first YA I wrote was never bought, but my agent at the time had heard that HarperCollins was looking for gritty stories and she knew I’d just started one. She asked me to get something to her ASAP and I did. On December 19, 2006, while I was walking into my daughter’s orthodontist appointment, I got the call. After five complete adult romances and one YA I ended up selling
SLEEPLESS on proposal. The long, long wait finally led to everything I imagined and more. You might not know exactly when your dream is within reach, but if you give up you'll never get there.
Isn't that the truth? Guess we're learning two things writers must have are patience and persistence. (One may be easier to come by than the other.) Tommorow we're going to hear possibly one of the worst things ev-er. Imagine t his: you finally get that sale and pick up the phone to call everyone you know and no one is home! Could anything be worse?!?
by Renee Kirchner, Teaching Tips Contributing Editor
Autumn, also known is fall is the transition season between summer and winter. In the northern hemisphere autumn starts in September and in the southern hemisphere, it starts around March. Although there are different definitions of autumn, it is generally assumed that autumn lasts from September through November. During these months the days begin to shorten and animals and plants prepare for the upcoming cold season.
When we think of fall, we usually think of beautiful fall colors such as red, yellow and orange on the trees. As the days become shorter, trees do not have enough light for photosynthesis. The leaves begin to stop producing the green chlorophyll and we begin to see pretty fall colors such as yellow and orange. Small amounts of this color were in the leaves during the summer, but the green chlorophyll covered it up.
Try this fun art project with your children:
FALL LEAVES (Torn paper collage)
Supplies:
Black construction paper (8 _ x 11)
Brown construction paper
Red construction paper
Yellow construction paper
Orange construction paper
Glue
The black construction paper will be the background for this collage. Tear red, yellow and orange construction paper into small one-inch pieces. These will be the leaves on the fall tree. Using a pencil, draw a tree trunk in the brown paper and carefully tear it out. Glue the tree trunk onto the black background. Arrange the leaves on the tree in a pleasing way and glue them down. It looks nice to scatter some of them on the ground for a true fall effect.
The black background will make the bright colors seem more vivid.
Fall Books to Read:
Fall by Nuna Roca. Barron’s Educational Series, August 2004
This title is for children in preschool through grade 2. Filled with colorful illustrations and sample projects and crafts, it is a great introduction to the season of Fall.
When Autumn Falls by Kelli Nidey. Albert Whitman, September 2006.
As the heat of summer fades, fall begins. The temperatures drop as well as the leaves from the trees. Children will enjoy reading about familiar fall pastimes such as piling leaves up and carving jack-o’-lanterns.
Now It’s Fall by Lois Lenski. Random House Children’s Books, October 2000 (reprint).
This newly reissued classic by Lois Lensky holds all of the pleasures of fall. A whole new generation can fall in love with her books.
autumn,
fall crafts,
Kelli Nidey,
Lois Lenski,
Now Its Fall,
Nuna Roca,
Renee Kirchner,
teaching tip,
When Autumn Falls
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Great list!!
I finshished Speepless late last night--loved it!! But that Rafe freaked me out--so glad I didn't dream about him!!
Great list, Terri! I'm enjoying your week here!
Great list! I love Mediator series, The Summoning, and Freak Show. I really want to read a lot of those other ones you mentioned, esp. Absolutely Positively Not. It seems like a book I would enjoy.
PS Terri- glad you want my dreams. Next time I have a weird one, I'll let you know about it. :P hehe
Such a Pretty girl is soo haunting, isn't it? I agree--it's a book that sticks with you!
You really liked? I'm so glad. Now that I'm all done reading Ellen Hopkins books I'm starting Undone. yay!
Thanks, PJ. :)
Absolutely, Positively Not is a real gem. Utterly hysterical. I wish he'd write something else for teens. And please DO let me know the next time you have a cool dream. ;)
Jessica, I read Such A Pretty Girl on my agent's recommendation and I really feel like it's one of those books that live with your forever. I enjoyed Leftovers too and can't wait for her next.
Aw, thanks for invoking the BFF's credo and including WHO'S YOUR DADDY?, but you really didn't hafta. :-) I mean, come on. John Green. Gail Giles. Lynda Sandoval. Not really in the same category.
That said, thank you. SMOOCH. I'm going to keep this list to read some that totally intrigued me.
I also loved John Green's An Abundance of Katherines, Jennifer McMahon's My Tiki Girl, Sara Zarr's Story of a Girl, and A Mango Shaped Space, which is sort of a tween book, but so amazing.