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?

Jen's Picks: The Fault in Our Stars

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 the title to reserve a copy, or search CCPL's ebooks. Happy reading!

The Fault in Our Stars

By John Green

This week, I fell in love.

I fell in love with a guy named Augustus Waters. I also became quite fond of his girlfriend, Hazel Lancaster. But mostly I fell into awe of John Green, author of my new favorite teen book of all time, The Fault in Our Stars. Anyone who uses words like “cancertastic” and who actually made me want to read a book about teens facing death by cancer surely warrants so much admiration.

Honestly, I’m not big on reading depressing books just for fun. But I am a sucker for smart sarcasm, and the book (TFiOS as fans call it) opens with Hazel at a cancer support group held in a church basement that she’s dubbed the Literal Heart of Jesus. Every week, the group leader reminds them that he's alive despite losing both testicles to cancer, which leaves Hazel musing, "AND YOU TOO MIGHT BE SO LUCKY!"

Jen's Picks: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

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 the title to reserve a copy, or click here to search CCPL's e-books. Happy reading!




The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

By Rae Carson

Elise is a 16-year-old princess about to marry a king she’s never met – and she actually hopes he’s old or ugly or fat or smells or something, anything, that will keep him from being disappointed with her.

You see, Elise loves to eat. She eats when she’s stressed out, bummed out, or just plain bored. The result: She’s overweight and insecure.

But Elise has this to offer: She is God’s chosen one, according to the magical stone she was born with in her belly button. Trouble is, she has no clue why God would choose her to do anything.

Jen's Pick: The Future of Us...Your Future on Facebook

Greetings! My name is Jennifer, 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 the title to reserve a copy…or click here to search CCPL's e-books. Happy reading!






The Future of Us

       The Future of Us

By Jay Asher

and

Carolyn Mackler
 

 

Imagine seeing your Facebook self 15 years in the future. Maybe you’re married to the hottest guy or girl in school, you’re making big bucks, and you have a gaggle of cute kids? Awesome!

Sure, but what if your future life really stinks?

So goes the premise of The Future of Us, the new book by Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why) and Carolyn Mackler (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things).

Jen's Pick: A Monster Calls

Hi there! My name is Jennifer, 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 your interest, click on the title to reserve a copy…or click here to search CCPL's e-books. Happy reading!

A Monster Calls

By Patrick Ness

To appreciate this haunting new fictional story, you must know Siobhan Dowd’s real-life story. She was a human rights worker and a popular author. A Monster Calls would have been her fifth young adult novel. She’d created the idea, the characters and the novel’s beginning.

Yet, she died of cancer in 2007 at age 47, taking her artistic energies with her.

In stepped Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go series. He had never met Dowd.

But he'd heard about her monster.

Ness embraced her story, infusing his own creative vision to give it a full life, with gut-gripping results.