Tag Archives: YA books

#BookFaceFriday “Skeleton Man” by Joseph Bruchac

This #BookFace is sure to get your blood pumping!

We are hitting our Halloween stride with this week’s #BookFaceFriday! “Skeleton Man” by Joseph Bruchac (HarperCollins, 2003) is a chilling middle-grade read. Full of missing parents, nightmares, and spooky stories this book club kit is a great way to learn about tribal legends. Reserve it for your youth book club today!

Although it’s steeped in Mohawk lore and tradition, Bruchac’s story is contemporary both in its setting and its celebration of the enduring strength and courage of Native American women. – (ALA Booklist)

This week’s #BookFace model is our new TBBS Director, Gabe Kramer!

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Ghost of Fossil Glen” by Cynthia Defelice

This #BookFace is a graveyard smash!

We are getting into the Halloween spirit with “The Ghost of Fossil Glen” by Cynthia Defelice (Square Fish, 2010.) It’s a 3-7 grade read with a teacher’s guide available. Just like a Nancy Drew mystery if she’d had a little paranormal help. Get it reserved for your youth book club today!

An imaginative and adventurous sixth grader makes a connection with the ghost of the victim of an unsolved murder and puts her own life in jeopardy to find the killer…Fans of ghost stories…will find this excellent book difficult to put down. ―Starred, School Library Journal

This week’s #BookFace model is Cathy Hatterman, NLC’s Acquisitions Librarian! Unfortunately, we did not have access to a graveyard so our stacks had to suffice for this week’s #BookFace photo.

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Lemons”

When life gives you lemons, we make #BookFace!

NLC’s #BookFaceFriday is joining forces with Nebraska’s Reading Classic Committee!  Reading Classics is a statewide competition that promotes and encourages Nebraska Schools to form teams and recognize outstanding young readers. They just launched a friendly #BookFace competition as students await the new 2019-2020 reading list. “Lemons” by Melissa Savage (Yearling, 2018). It’s one of the 10 nominated titles for the 2019-2020 Golden Sower Chapter Books list!

“Nine year old Lemonade Liberty’s mom taught her that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  Lemonade learns how to make lemonade out of rotten lemons.  Those lemons come from losing and leaving everything and moving to a small town of Willow Creek, California with a woolly beast lurking in the woods.   This is a debut novel packed with humor, mystery, friendship, family secrets and even Bigfoot!”Cyndi Shinn

The Nebraska Reading Classic Committee chooses books for the reading list for each Division with input from coaches, team members, and many other sources. The list includes award-winning books such as Caldecott,  Newbery, Golden Sower, and many other awards. We snapped this week’s #BookFace while members of the committee were discussing titles to add or remove for the 2020 reading list. Specifically the 2019-2020 Golden Sower nominees.

This week’s #BookFace models are committee members, Cyndi Shinn, and Marjorie Brubaker!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Jane Austen: Her Heart Did Whisper”

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
― Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen really knows how to tell it like it is. This week’s #BookFaceFriday is a tribute to this favorite author and all her works. “Jane Austen: Her Heart Did Whisper” by Manuela Santoni (Graphic Universe TM, 2018) is a unique graphic novel for kids and teens introducing them to the life of the author.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman in possession of a keen mind must be in want of a husband . . . This graphic work of historical fiction, translated from the Italian, examines the life of beloved author Jane Austen. The story begins with spreads from the end of Jane’s life as she writes to her sister, Cassandra, remembering their time together as children, progressing into womanhood, and recounting how she cultivated, with the support of her father, her love of reading and writing.  The author shows faith in younger readers by including some challenging vocabulary that may have them reaching for dictionaries. However, the illustrations and context clues make the work accessible. A lovely, quick read.”―Kirkus Reviews

This title comes from our large collection of children’s and young adult books sent to us as review copies from book publishers. When our Children and Young Adult Library Services Coordinator, Sally Snyder, is done with them, the review copies are available for the Library System Directors to distribute to school and public libraries in their systems. Public and school library staff are also welcome to stop by and select some titles for their library collections. Contact Sally Snyder for more information.

This week’s #BookFace model is Aimee Owen, NLC’s Information Services Librarian!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Book of Lies”

Toil and Trouble we’re seeing #BookFace double!

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble, we saved the creepiest cover for our Halloween BookFaceFriday! “The Book of Lies” by Teri Terry (Clarion Books, 2017) practically jumped off the shelves as this week’s choice. Suspense, menace, mystery, witchcraft, family secrets, and mistaken identity, are interwoven in this page-turner that will grab and thrill teen readers.

“With elements of gothic literature (and a few references to Wuthering Heights), this story could serve as a bridge to gothic classics. Thriller readers may simply enjoy the creepy mystery.” —Kirkus

This title comes from our large collection of children’s and young adult books sent to us as review copies from book publishers. When our Children and Young Adult Library Services Coordinator, Sally Snyder, is done with them, the review copies are available for the Library System Directors to distribute to school and public libraries in their systems. Public and school library staff are also welcome to stop by and select some titles for their library collections. Contact Sally Snyder for more information.

We recruited our office red heads for this week’s spooky #BookFace, Christa Porter, our Library Development Director and Lisa Kelly, NLC’s Information Services Director!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Okay for Now” & “Maniac Magee”

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream in this week’s #BookFaceFriday.

BookFace image April 6, 2018 "Okay for Now" and "Maniac Magee"

Hold onto your cone, we’ve got a two-scoop #BookFace for you this week! A few of the staff over in the Talking Book & Braille department were kind enough to help us out with this week’s Book Face (they were generously compensated with ice cream). We’re excited to highlight two great YA books in our book club collection, “Maniac Magee” by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 1999) and “Okay for Now” by Gary D. Schmidt (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013). The Nebraska Library Commission offers book club kits to both public and school libraries.  These two titles have both been honored with award nominations. “Okay for Now” was a National Book Award Finalist and “Maniac Magee” is a Newbery Medal winner! Get these young adult novels reserved for your book club to read today!

“Okay for Now” by Gary D. Schmidt 
“Reproductions of Audubon plates introduce each chapter in this stealthily powerful, unexpectedly affirming story of discovering and rescuing one’s best self, despite family pressure to do otherwise.”—Booklist, starred review

“Maniac Magee” by Jerry Spinelli
“A Newbery Medal winning modern classic about a racially divided small town and a boy who runs.” —Amazon

This week’s #BookFace models are Gabe Kramer, TBBS Audio Production Studio Manager; and Jerry Hall, TBBS volunteer! A special thanks to TBBS Director, Scott Scholz, for lending a hand.

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Killer of Enemies”

Double trouble #BookFaceFriday fans!

Today’s #BookFace is both a book club kit title and the 2018 One Book for Nebraska Teens selection! We got creative with “Killer of Enemies” by Joseph Bruchac (Tu Books, 2016) and used the back of the book instead of the cover. We just couldn’t resist it’s BookFace perfection. It’s available for your teens’ to borrow as a book club kit through your library!

“A post-Apocalyptic YA novel with a steampunk twist, based on an Apache legend.”

Joseph Bruchac is a highly acclaimed Abenaki children’s book author, poet, novelist and storyteller, as well as a scholar of Native American culture.

This week’s #BookFace model is our new Technology Innovation Librarian, Amanda Sweet!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld

Happy #BookFaceFriday from the Nebraska Library Commission!

BookFace: Uglies by Scott WesterfeldDid you know we offer YA titles in our Book Club Kits? Don’t miss out on Scott Westerfeld’s teen novel “Uglies” (Simon Pulse, 2011)! “Uglies” is the first novel in a three-part series that has more than 3 million books in print, has been translated into twenty-seven languages, and spent more than fifty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Love this #bookface & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub.

You’ve seen this week’s #BookFace model before, you just might not know it. Information Services Librarian, Aimee Owen, is also our weekly hand model holding up all the books we feature. Check out our past #BookFace photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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