Ages 11-18
Blog Post
Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #4: Mike Grosso!
by BugsAndSlugs
The fourth judge for this year's “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest is Mike Grosso, a 4th grade teacher, musician, and author of I am Drums. In this debut novel, sixth grader Sam will do anything to play the drums, especially when she finds out her school’s music program will be cut next year. “This is a worthy and entertaining read about how talent develops and what the potential consequences of pursuing it are: drumroll, please, for a fine homage to spirited single-mindedness.” (Kirkus)
Mike Grosso’s advice for young writers: “Read a lot. Write a lot. Pay attention to other people, even the ones you don't like. Try new things. Figure out what you have to say that nobody else has said. Restate what other people have said in your own unique way. Give yourself opportunities to fail. Remember that failing is just a step on the road to success. Eat cookies. Lots of cookies.”
Learn more about Mike Grosso the author/musician on his website and stay tuned for more information about “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!
Blog Post
Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #3: Kristin Bartley Lenz!
by BugsAndSlugs
The third judge for this year's “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest is Kristin Bartley Lenz, a writer and social worker from Metro-Detroit whose debut novel, The Art of Holding On and Letting Go was a Junior Library Guild Fall Selection in 2016. Kristin fell in love with the mountains when she moved to Georgia and California. Now she’s back in Detroit where she plots wilderness escapes and manages the Michigan Chapter blog for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
In The Art of Holding on and Letting Go, Cara, a competitive climber who feels most at home in the mountains, is sent to Detroit to live with her grandparents and attend public school when a tragedy separates her from her parents and the nomadic lifestyle she's always known. Cara's story is described as, "A hot pick for outdoorsy teens who like relatable characters, with a bit of romance, mystery, and a road trip."(School Library Journal) and "A compelling, unusual coming-of-age story.” (Kirkus)
Stay tuned for more information about the “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!
Blog Post
Art of Atari
by potterbee
Art of Atari by Tim Lapetino Atari is one of the most recognized names in the world. Since its formation in 1972, the company pioneered hundreds of iconic titles including Asteroids, Centipede and Missle Command.
Can you judge a book by it's cover? How about a video game?
"When thinking about Atari's great artwork, I think it's easy to forget how the game packaging was often the first interaction someone would have with a game," says Lapetino. "Those boxes had to handle a lot of the sales and marketing duties that today would be done using advertising or social media. There was a crucial moment in a department store or TV shop where the box art would catch your eye — and in those few seconds — without a lot of in-depth reviews or the ubiquitous word of mouth we enjoy today. You made a decision based on the excitement and energy of that box."
New to our catalog, Art of Atari is the first official collection of such artwork. Sourced from museums and private collections worldwide, this book spans over 40 years of the company's unique illustrations used in packaging, advertisements, catalogs, and more.
An interview with Lapetino includes samples of what's between the cover at the following link, Inside the Art of Atari
A sampling of other books in our collection about the development and history of video games include:
Blog Post
Graphic Novel Biographies
by potterbee
Graphic novels are great vehicle to illustrate the story of a life. If you haven't explored the genre of graphic novels you might like to start with reading a biography or memoir from our collection. Patrons of the Westgate branch will find a dedicated biography section within the graphic novels, however, these items are shelved collectively within the graphic novel sections at each branch. For a general catalog search to peruse our collection, search by keyword using the terms "graphic novel biography". Also, be sure to check out the Public Lists for more suggestions! Listed below are selections ranging from youth to adult to get you started!
Primates by Jim Ottaviani Grades 7-Up This engaging graphic novel introduces readers to three unique women whose different personalities and lives intersected because of their love of primates. They would never have met without the guidance of Louis Leakey, an anthropologist who believed that women were better at studying animals in their native environment because they were more patient and perceptive than men.
The strongest man in the world by Nicolas Debon Grades 3-5 The story of turn-of-the-20th-century strongman Louis Cyr's life is told through his imagined voice as he shares the details with his young daughter. Children familiar with modern strongman competitions on ESPN will easily recognize the seeds of such outlandishly fascinating contests here, as burly fellows lift draft horses off the ground and bend iron poles into pretzels.
The Arab of the future by Riad Sattouf Grades 10-up Sattouf recreates his childhood in France, Libya, and Syria with a French mother and a Sunni father. The narrative is honest and wandering, with insights coming from the portrayal of his proud, temperamental father's views on politics and Arab life.
Andre the Giant by Box Brown Few professional wrestlers transcended their field like "The Eighth Wonder of the World," Andre Roussimoff (1946-93). Ignatz Award-winning artist Brown brings readers Roussimoff's story from the French farm of his boyhood through worldwide wrestling stardom and his fondly remembered movie role as the giant Fezzik in the 1987 classic The Princess Bride. Highly recommended for pro wrestling fans, pop culture historians, and readers who enjoy outsider biographies.
Woody Guthrie and the dust bowl ballads by Nick Hayes This graphic novel offers a hard look at the world that made Woody Guthrie (1912-67) the visionary he became. A powerful exploration of Guthrie's roots, providing a mesmerizing take on the socioeconomic situation of 1930s America and a prescient commentary on how the challenges of that time continue to shape our identity as a nation.
The Zen of Steve Jobs a "A Forbes and Jess3 production" This innovative graphic novel unveils a less publicized part of Jobs: his flirtation with Zen Buddhism and friendship with Kobun Chino Otogawa, and how Jobs' tinge of Zenitude affected Apple products. The story moves back and forward in time, from the 1970s to 2011, but centers on the period after Jobs's exile from Apple in 1985 when he took up intensive study with Kobun. Their time together was integral to the big leaps that Apple took later on with its product design and business strategy.
Blog Post
Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #2: Cori McCarthy!
by BugsAndSlugs
Cori McCarthy, our second Judge for the 2017 “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest is the author of the much-acclaimed YA novels Breaking Sky,You Were Here and The Color of Rain. Cori's fourth novel, Now A Major Motion Picture, will be released in April 2018.
Cori McCarthy currently lives in Michigan and spends most of her time playing guitar, reading poetry, raising her son, and running a teen writing group. Like many of her characters, she is a member of the LGBTQ community. Cori started writing when she was just 13 years old! Check out corimccarthy.com to learn all about this talented author, and stay tuned for more information about the “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!
Blog Post
Debut novel, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
by potterbee
Angie Thomas's debut novel, The Hate U Give, was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California (which the movie Fruitvale Station was based on). The title of the book comes from the late rapper Tupac Shakur's tattoo T.H.U.G. The Hate U Give is garnering both a significant amount of praise and buzz. It sparked a bidding war among 13 publishing houses, and a film version is already in the works with The Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg (who played Rue) signed on to star.
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas’s searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty. From the publisher:
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
In a recent interview, Angie Thomas shared some books which inspired her writing. Check these out while you wait for your copy of The Hate U Give to be available!
This Side of Home by Renee Watson Twins Nikki and Maya Younger always agreed on most things, but as they head into their senior year they react differently to the gentrification of their Portland, Oregon, neighborhood and the new--white--family that moves in after their best friend and her mother are evicted.
Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor Winner of the Newbery Medal, set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story--Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect. This is book #4 in a series of stories based on Mildred D. Taylor's life.
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon A 2015 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book. When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson is shot to death, his community is thrown into an uproar because Tariq was black and the shooter, Jack Franklin, is white, and in the aftermath everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events agree.
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature. Two teens--one black, one white--grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension. When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints.
Blog Post
Exit West
by Lucy S
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid's new novel, is remarkably germane. The story of Nadia and Saeed, a young couple forced to flee a collapsing city, is on one level a love story, relaying the journey that a couple takes through their relationship, but more than that, it is the narrative of what it means to be a refugee, the toll taken by the severity of the act of leaving one’s country.
Realism in Exit West has a little give to it. Nadia and Saeed leave from an unnamed country in the midst of a civil war, their exit provided through an actual door. These doors of escape can appear anywhere and lead all over. The one though which Nadia and Saeed leave is in a dental office, “the blackness of a door that ha[d once led to a supply cabinet.” The means of flight here might bring to mind other recent books where real-life or historical events are viewed through a slightly skewed reality, such as Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. And like any other channel of departure for a refugee, these doors/portals guarantee no safe exit. One is left to meet whatever is on the other side unknowingly. The use of these doors that can pop up anywhere accentuates the discordant experience that refugees must face, to forsake one world so suddenly and be born again in another “for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”
While some of Exit West exists in this semi-realistic sphere, much of it is all too real. Technology and social media play a significant role in keeping people connected. While their city is being destroyed around them, Nadia and Saeed perpetuate their relationship through texts and phone calls. The role of social media is so vital to human connection, both on a personal level and on a global level. Hamid reminds us of the clash of these worlds, the virtual versus the real. “But even now the city’s freewheeling virtual world stood in stark contrast to the day-to-day lives of most people, to those of young men, and especially of young women, and above all children who went to sleep unfed but could see on some small screen people in foreign lands preparing and consuming and even conducting food fights with feasts of such opulence that the very fact of their existence boggled the mind.” When mobile service vanishes, much human connection is severed.
The passage through doors “was both like dying and like being born,” and we understand, when Nadia and Saeed take this passage, how closely Hamid’s magical doors hew to a true refugee experience. Upon approaching her exit, Nadia is “struck by its darkness, its opacity, the way it did not reveal what was on the other side, and also did not reflect what was on this side, and so felt equally like a beginning and an end.”
Eventually, this young couple find themselves in a house of refugees, people from all over the world whose cultures and languages differ greatly but who are thrust together in a common experience. The friction of this situation creates a friction between Nadia and Saeed and highlights the strain that leaving behind the known for the unknown can take. “The only divisions that mattered now were between those who sought the right of passage and those who would deny them passage.”
Exit West gives a glimpse of what it is to be a refugee and what it is to refuse refugees, the shame that comes from being displaced and the struggle to maintain a feeling of humanity. The novel is only strengthened by the fact that Hamid never gives a name to the country from which Nadia and Saeed escape. He peppers his book with tales, some almost fairy-tale like in quality, of other travelers. On occasion points of departure are named, but not always. Combining this with the unusual form of deliverance for all these refugees underscores the universality of the refugee experience.
In an interview on Literary Hub, Hamid said, “I wanted this to be a novel about refugees that reminded us we’re all refugees. A little namelessness and bending of physics went a long way.”
Exit West is filled with strikingly eloquent passages on religion and prayer, parenthood, love, and of course, the jarring difficulty of becoming a displaced person. To read it is to be submersed in this beauty and brutality all at once.
Blog Post
Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #1: Cara Chow!
by BugsAndSlugs
The “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest of 2017 is wrapping up, and it’s time to introduce the judges! If you're still working on your story, don't worry - submissions will be accepted until midnight on February 24th! Check out the Flash Fiction and Short Story guidelines for more information.
Cara Chow, author of the young adult novel Bitter Melon, was born in Hong Kong and grew up in the Richmond district of San Francisco. Ms. Chow was a 2001 PEN Emerging Voices Fellow, and Bitter Melon, her debut novel, made the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2012 Best Fiction list. Cara currently lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband and son.
Stay tuned for more information about the “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!
Blog Post
Unbecoming, by Jenny Downham
by manz
In Unbecoming, by Jenny Downham., we meet three generations of red-headed women, all with their own secrets and stories.
Seventeen year old Katie lives with her uptight mother Caroline and her younger brother, until one day Caroline’s Mother Mary abruptly comes into their lives. Estranged for years, Caroline does not want her mother to come live with them, even though she is suffering from dementia and needs care. As she temporarily stays with the family while social services sorts things out, everyone’s world turn upside down in different ways. On top of caring for her brother, and now her grandmother, Katie struggles to please her mother and keep secret who she’s been kissing. Caroline tries desperately to keep the past in the past and shove Mary away, while Mary tries so hard to remember her past as she wakes up daily wondering who these people are that she’s living with.
Wonderfully crafted, the book mostly stays in present day, but shifts back to Mary’s young adult life. The truth begins to unfold a rich family history of strong women who are either trying to break the rules or trying hard to follow them and keep things quiet and uneventful. Mary will have none of it! She wishes for adventure. If only she could remember.
It is an absolutely touching YA novel and it was a pleasure to spend time with these characters finding their place within their family and in the world. I would love to have a picnic with Mary on the beach.
The Stonewall Book Award is given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience. This year there was one winner and three honors – one of which was Unbecoming.
Blog Post
All Our Wrong Todays
by Lucy S
Screenwriter Elan Mastai’s debut novel is a delightful, insightful and wild ride that takes us on a winding path through time, space, and alternate realities, impelled by strong, witty dialogue and a looming sense of “what-if.”
All Our Wrong Todays is difficult to describe. It challenges your mind with a plot that twists through the space-time continuum with rapidity, but I highly recommend that you pick-up this witty, worthwhile book and take this incredible, zigzag of a journey with Mastai’s affable narrator, Tom Barren, as he loops back and forth through time, space and consciousness. Mastai has created in Tom a wonderfully readable narrative voice who keeps his story funny and artful even when describing frightening situations that reveal the darker forces that might be at play inside all of us. When we are introduced to Tom, he is living in a futuristic-like 2016 that could have been imagined in the 1950s and featured in The Jetsons; hover cars, clothes that are a second skin and regenerate every day, perfectly designed, person-specific meals. Everyone in this “future” has everything they could want or need. In a world where “oil was irrelevant, basic resources were plentiful, and everyone had access to all manner of technological enhancements...scientific discovery was the dominant social motivator.” And the scientific discoveries in this book are decidedly big and life-altering, sometimes literally. Tom’s father is hard at work developing the first time-travel machine, and Tom is employed as one of his back-up “chrononauts.” Tom’s failure in his father’s lab sets off a mad-capped series of events that have us boomeranging through various time periods, past and future, and altered versions of Tom himself, and of his friends and family.
All Our Wrong Todays is positively mind-bending in its whorls through these dimensions, as Tom introduces who he might have been, or still could be, in a parallel universe. Tom asks “What happens if the hard skin of reality punctures? What comes out?” His alter egos, John and Victor, show what might happen by demonstrating the success and failure, and the good and bad, that live inside each of us. Ultimately All Our Wrong Todays is about how we choose to live in the present we are given, and the way we reconcile all the dreams and voices we carry with us.
For fans of The Martian and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore