New Graphic Novels Arriving at the Main Branch!!

Good news for all readers of manga and graphic novels! The bevy of new graphic novel acquisitons that we've been anxiously awaiting has finally begun to arrive! To whet your appetites for graphic novels, I'm going to give you a little taste of our newest additions:

Salem Brownstone
by John Harris Dunning and Nikhil Singh


This creepy tale appeals with equal parts of  strangeness and loveliness. Its serpentine illustrations and odd storyline together make for a book that reads and looks like a noir detective film set in haunted circus. There is definetly a touch of genius, as well as a touch of insanity in this slim book... for truly remarkable artwork that will lurk in your brain for weeks after, give Salem Brownstone a try!

The Tragedy of Mass Shootings

Welcome to That Reminds Me of a Book, a regular feature where we link current events and pop-culture happenings with YA books.

Hate Gets a Gun

 
As another story breaks about a mass shooting, this time in a Denver movie theater, it's so hard to grasp around why someone would shoot and kill random, innocent people. These latest shooting victims were just watching a Batman movie.

Thankfully, good fiction can offer insights into the real world. For instance, events like the movie theater shooting affect many, many people, even people like us who weren't involved. But imagine that you were. One teen book tells the story of a school shooting from a unique perspective: a girl who helped to make the list of victims. Check it out:


Hate List
By Jennifer Brown

At the end of their junior year, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend pulls a gun at school, leaving six students and a teacher dead and many others wounded. Valerie gets shot in the leg trying to stop him just before he ends his own life.

Until then, Valerie had no idea that the "hate list" she and Nick created would be used to target victims in a vengeful shooting spree. For her, the list of tormentors was a way to ease the pain of being bullied and an outlet against the constant fighting between her parents. Although the police investigation reveals that Valerie had nothing to do with the shootings, many people, including her parents, have a hard time believing that she is not at fault too.

After a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends, and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy--and her role in it.

(Click on the title to reserve a copy at your favorite CCPL branch.)

What Are Teens Reading This Summer?

HERE'S WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY...

What are your fellow teens reading this summer? Dystopias, romance, you name it. Here are recommendations straight from our summer reading contest entries! (Click on any title to put the book on hold at your favorite CCPL branch. Or, click here to search our eBooks.)



Divergent
By Veronica Roth

Rate it! Excellent (9th grader)

What's it about? Beatrice Prior lives in post-apocalyptic Chicago where people are locked in by a metal fence surrounding the city. On kids' 16th birthdays, they must choose a faction. When you choose a faction, you must remain in that faction or you will become faction-less, homeless, and destitute. The factions are: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent).
(Sequel: Insurgent)

Cinder
By Marissa Meyer

Rate it! Excellent (8th grader)

What's it about? It is a retelling of Cinderella with a big twist: The girl, Cinder, is a great mechanic and also a cyborg. She lives in China, and when it gets infected with a disease, she is immune—and the only ones immune to the disease are Lunars, who are from the moon.

 

Palmer's Picks: Review of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You: A Novel

Hi guys! My name's Palmer, and I work in the Young Adult Services department of the Charleston County Public Library. I love graphic novels, root beer floats and thunderstorms (and flip glasses). I also love finding truly awesome books and sharing them with you avid readers! Remember to click on any title to put it on hold.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You

by

Peter Cameron

The facepalm that graces the cover of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You speaks more precisely of the plight of our hero, a socially and intellectually frustrated high school senior named James Sveck, than any other illustration I can imagine. James's life seems to encompass everything a facepalm stands for—frustration, humiliation or, to borrow a definition from Urban Dictionary, "The only logical answer to a stupid question or statement."

James, as a highly intelligent but slightly socially awkward teen, finds himself at odds with the world at every turn. He can't identify with other teens his age, his self-described "shark" businessman father, his thrice-divorced mother, or his snobby sister. A botched attempt to establish a connection with the one person he can identify with (other than his grandmother) lands him in hot water, with his sanity and sexuality being questioned by both his family and the new therapist they've enlisted to help wheedle out of James exactly why he doesn't want to go to college.

Jen's Picks: Dead To You

Greetings! I'm Jennifer Hawes, and I work with young adult books at the Charleston County Public Library. Welcome to my random thoughts about books for teens. If a book grabs you, click on any title to reserve a copy, or search CCPL's ebooks. Happy reading!

Dead To You

By Lisa McMann

Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was just seven years old. When we meet him in Dead To You, he's 16 and awkwardly awaiting a reunion with his family at a train station. 

During that long gap of years, Ethan grew up with a woman he figures must have been responsible for his abduction. Maybe she'd just wanted a child—although she was hardly the model mom. She sold her body, abandoned him for periods of time, and eventually dumped him for good at a group home. Miserable, he ran away and became homeless.

That’s when he started looking at missing children reports and found news of the abduction. At last, he's about to meet his real family, one who will love him unconditionally. Sounds awesome, right?