“If there ever was a show called People Who Are Crazy and Need To Have Their Heads Examined, I’d be the very first guest.” - DJ Schwenk

Dairy Queen
Catherine Murdock
Format: Hardcover
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 0618683070

D.J. Schwenk, farm gal to the bone, has been raised under the silence treatment. Simply put: To avoid conflict, don’t discuss it. Having recently taken up milking and haying duties without fuss, DJ is bewildered by her partner-in-farming Brian’s lackadaisical attitude. And Brian, doesn’t know what to make of DJ’s cocooned emotions. After a playing a couple of rounds of my brother does this or my mother does that, the two rivals start a friendship on common ground, football. DJ’s connections allow her to begin coaching Brian for a most intense opening game. Aside from a few underdeveloped twists and bizarre cow analogies, Catherine Murdock’s first novel gracefully contributes to the unfilled tween niche.

Genre: Stubbornness/Football/Farming/Light_Romance
Read-alikes: Judy Blume; Ann Brashares; Meg Cabot; Carolyn Mackler; Prom/Laurie H. Anderson; Three Clams and a Oyster/Randy Powell
Web Goodies: Check out Catherine’s website here.

A.L.I.E.E.E.N.
Lewis Trondheim
Format: Paperback
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 1596430958

In this alien eat alien world, survival is nigh impossible when your outnumbered by cutesy yet heartless enemies. Much like a foriegn film with no subtitles, characters communicate through code which can be fun translating if you use various voices. Comic and tragic, this Burton meets Seussical realm will delight your darker wit.

Genre: Aliens/Blood/Toilet_Humor/Peer
            _Pressure
Read alikes: Tim Burton; Edward Gorey; Lemony Snicket; Jhonen Vasquez

Before I hit the awkward, self-conscious teenage phase of my life I used to spend a lot of my spare time after school lip-synching and dancing to songs in front of a mirror. I can’t believe I am actually admitting this on a widely read blog but, there you go. This particular past time of mine has always given me a sweet spot for the many lip-synching vodcasts found on the internet (Numa Numa being one of the most famous). There’s just something about getting together with a bunch of friends and making a fool of yourself in front of a camera. Times have certainly changed. Whereas I used to do this in front of an imaginary audience, teens now have the technology at their fingertips to actually make their own lip-synching video and publish it for view on the web. I think such an activity would make a really neat teen program. I’m sure many teenagers find themselves in the same boat I was in growing up. I have very little musical talent, so lip-synching was one of the few ways I could actually express myself through music. Whether they want to take it seriously or just have fun with it, lip-sychning can provide a way for teens to relate to music in a creative way.

A lip-synching program would probably be best done in the form of a contest. I’m not sure if other high schools did this, but ours used to have yearly lip-synching contests where each grade was marked on performance, creativity, costumes, style, etc. One of my favorite memories of this was when my class performed the song Step by Step by the New Kids on the Block. The only way we could convince five boys to stand up in front of an audience and pretend to be Donnie, Danny, Jordan, Jon and Joey was if we promised to mock the group. So, in the middle of the performance one of the guys pulled out a massive can of hairspray and started primping himself. However, other contenders in the contest would take things much more seriously and choose songs that would allow them to make a statement. The winner of the contest that year was actually the freshman class who did a take on Pink Floyd’s, The Wall. They put a tremendous amount of effort into their performance, had wonderful props and costumes.

Hosting a lip-synching vodcast program at a library would allow teens to experience music in a creative, fun way through the use of technology, while also encouraging positive socialization.

Hardcover

All the Way - Andy Behrens
Blood Fever (The Young James Bond #2) - Charlie Higson
Burnette’s Strike Back -Keiran Scott
Crystal Doors - Moestra
Easy - Kerry Cohen Hoffmann
Evil Star (The Gatekeepers #2) - Anthony Horowitz
Happy Kid - Gail Gauthier
Hit the Road - Caroline B Cooney
LBD: Friends Forever - Dent
Monster Blood Tattoo - D.M. Cornish
The Quillan Games (Pendragon #7) - D.J. MacHale
Rash - Pete Hautman
School’s Out (Maximum Ride #2) - John Patterson
Sun-kissed (The Au Pairs #3) - Melissa de la Cruz
The Death Collector - Richards
The Summer King (The Chronicles of Faerie #2) - O.R.Melling
Theodora Twist - Melissa Senate

Paperback

Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls - Bennett Madison
Mates, Dates and Sizzling Summers (Mates Dates Series) - Cathy Hopkins
Rapunzel: The One With All the Hair (Twice Upon a Time#1) - Wendy Mass
The Valley of Secrets - Charmian Hussey
The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls From Jersey - Lisa Papademetriou

Reprints

Fade to Black - Alex Flinn
Heavy Metal and You - Chris Krovatin
I Was A Non-Blonde Cheerleader - M Scott
When the War Began (Tomorrow #1) - John Marsden