Bloodsuckers: Vampire Reads for Teens

Can’t get enough of vampires? Whether you love paranormal romances, or prefer the more scary aspect of the undead, here are some great selections for you to enjoy.

Thirsty. All Chris really wants is to be a normal kid, to hang out with his friends, avoid his parents, and get a date with Rebecca Schwartz. Unfortunately, Chris appears to be turning into a vampire.

iDrakula. Eighteen-year-old Jonathan Harker, his girlfriend Mina, and a pre-med student named Van Helsing team up to investigate the source of Jonathan’s rare blood disease, in a modern version of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

Pretty Dead. Beautiful vampire Charlotte finds herself slowly changing back into a human after the mysterious death of her best friend.

Marked. 1st in the House of Night series. Zoey Redbird, a vampire, is training at the House of Night to control her powers, as she deals with her bloodlust, encounters her ex-boyfriend, and confronts the leader of the Dark Daughters, who has been using her position for evil purposes.

Blue Bloods. When Schuyler Van Alen, a sophomore at a prestigious New York City private school, turns fifteen, she notices herself going through physical and psychological changes that may have something to do with a fellow coed’s murder in which she was found drained of all her blood.

Almost to Die For. On her 16th birthday, Anastasija Parker learns that her so-called deadbeat dad is actually a vampire king.

Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising. At a boarding school in Switzerland, fourteen-year-old Alex Van Helsing learns that vampires are real, that he has a natural ability to sense them, and that an agency called the Polidorium has been helping his family fight them since 1821.

Bloodthirsty.
Awkward and allergic to the sun, sixteen-year-old Finbar Frame never gets the girl. But when he notices that all the female students at his school are obsessed with a vampire romance novel called Bloodthirsty, Finbar decides to boldly go where no sane guy has gone before-he becomes a vampire, minus the whole blood sucking part.

Little Vampire Women. In this twist on Louisa May Alcott’s classic tale that chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women, the girls are vampires and neighbor Laurie wants to join them.

Vampire Crush. Sixteen-year-old journalist Sophie McGee’s junior year is filled with unexpected drama–and romance–when she discovers that her new classmates are hiding a dark secret, while the boy next door from her childhood re-enters her life.

Cirque du Freak, 1. Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices.

Eternal. When Miranda’s guardian angel Zachary recklessly saves her from falling into an open grave and dying, the result is that she turns into a vampire and he is left to try to reinstate his reputation by finally doing the right thing.

Companions of the Night. Kidnapping. Car theft. Murder. Vampires. Kerry’s got a tough night ahead of her.

Peeps. Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected.

New Book Friday: August

Of these titles, I can already recommend… Brave New World, Die for Me, The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June, Forever, The Gathering, Night, and texas gothic.

What to read AFTER The Hunger Games?

So. You read The Hunger Games. You devoured Catching Fire. You re-read the ending of Mockingjay at least two or three times.

What’s next?

Here is a selection of Young Adult novels that should sate your need:

Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill. The best way to describe this book is like a teenage version of the movie Serenity. Set in a bleak future, no one lives on Earth anymore, but on Mars. What happens when Durango and his crew are hired to protect a mining community from feral marauders? You’ll have to read to find out.

Divergent by Veronica Roth. I was the edge of my seat with this one, it was fresh and a great kick to the teeth. In a dystopic Chicago, sixteen year olds are expected to choose one of five factions, where they’ll spend the rest of their lives. However, Tris does not belong to any one faction, she’s Divergent – something that is rare, feared, and could get her killed. I screamed when I finished this book – the sequel, Insurgent, is not due until sometime in 2012.

The Girl Who Was On Fire: your favorite authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, edited by Leah Wilson. Thirteen of your favorite authors take you back to Panem with pieces on Katniss, the Games, Gale and Peeta, survival, and reality TV. This is a completely unauthorized title!

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan. In this bold and imaginative title, the Earth is long gone, and the current crop of teenagers were born in deep space. Waverly knows that her duty, at age fifteen, is to marry young and populate the new planet – but the violent betrayal of her ship by another spaceship has devastating consequences for everyone on board.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner. What if you woke up one day in the middle of a maze, with no memory, and no idea how you got there? That’s what happens to Thomas, and if he doesn’t escape … things will only get very, very bad.

XVI by Julia Karr. Dreading the government-mandated tattoo which declares her availability to the public at sixteen, Nina is shattered by a brutal attack on her mother, who before dying reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her family and her past. Will Nina be able to save herself, her sister, and her best friend Sandy?

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn. Y: The Last Man is one of those graphic novel series that you have to marathon. Don’t just inter-library loan the first volume, loan at least the first SIX to get started. The series starts on the day that EVERYONE with the XY chromosome drops dead, except Yorick Brown and his male Capuchin monkey, Ampersand.

More Books! Recommended by Philip Reeve and Eric Norton in the August 2011 School Library Journal

steampunk!

Steampunk Titles in the Young Adult Collection

Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth’s surface.

While working at summer jobs in San Francisco, twins Sophie and Josh find themselves caught up in the deadly, centuries-old struggle between rival alchemists, Nicholas Flamel and John Dee, over the possession of an ancient and powerful book.

In 1872, English gentleman Phileas Fogg has many adventures as he tries to win a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days.

When Jake Limberleg brings his traveling medicine show to a small Missouri town in 1913, thirteen-year-old Natalie senses that something is very wrong, and after investigating, learns that her love of automata makes her the only one who can set things right.

Long ago in Germany, a storyteller’s story and an apprentice clockwork-maker’s nightmare meet in a menacing, lifelike figure creature by the strange Dr. Kalmenius.

Tessa Fell’s search for her missing brother leads her into Victorian London’s supernatural underworld, where she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.

Assigned to solve an underwater mystery, fourteen-year-old English spy Modo races against French adversaries to locate an enormous sunken ship amid rumors of sea monsters, an attack on their vessel, and Modo’s discovery of deep-sea human life. Sequel to The Hunchback Assignments.

Raised by a member of the Order of Engineers, apprentice Fever Crumb is dispatched to assist archaeologist Kit Solvent with a top-secret project that causes Fever to recall bizarre memories that raise questions about her origins.

Living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College, Lyra hears rumors of a magical dust that supposedly possesses powers that can unite whole universes, and beings a difficult and dangerous journey to find it.

To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, a futuristic prison with a mind of its own, decides to help a young prisoner escape.

A quiet English country village is disturbed by the arrival of a mysterious stranger who keeps his face hidden and his back to everyone.

In an alternate 1914 Europe, Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from forces who are attempting to take over the world with machinery, forms an alliance with Deryn, who is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

Seven days. Seven keys. Seven virtues. Seven sins. One mysterious house is the doorway to a very mysterious world – where one boy is about to venture and unlock a number of fantastical secrets.

Thirteen-year-old Theo, who has lived in seclusion his entire life, discovers he is the descendant of the Candle Man, a Victorian vigilante with the ability to melt criminals with a single touch.

When Alexia, a soulless spinster with the ability to negate supernatural powers, accidentally kills a vampire, her life goes from bad to worse.

In the quiet English hamlet of Wall, Tristran Thorn embarks on a remarkable journey through the world of Faerie to recover a fallen star.

An English astronomer, in company with an artilleryman, a country curate, and others struggle to survive the invasion of Earth by Martians in 1894.

New Book Friday! July

SYNC YA Literature into your earbuds

Hey everyone! The Teen Summer Reading Club has kicked off, and starting on Monday, you can come in and earn book bucks!

In case you dig audiobooks (and yes, they count – just find out how many pages the book has), SYNC is offering free audiobook downloads ALL SUMMER LONG. (You know who else offers free audiobooks? We do. Oh yeah).

SYNC YA Literature into Your Earphones

2 Free Audiobook Downloads Each Week

June 23 – August 17, 2011

Teens and other readers of Young Adult Literature will have the opportunity to listen to bestselling titles and required reading classics this summer. Each week from June 23 – August 17, 2011, SYNC will offer two free audiobook downloads.

The audiobook pairings will include a popular YA title and a classic that connects with the YA title’s theme and is likely to show up on a student’s summer reading lists. For example, Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, the first book in a popular series with strong allusions to Romeo & Juliet, will be paired with Shakespeare’s classic.

To find out when you can download titles to listen to on the run this summer, visit www.AudiobookSync.com or text syncya to 25827

There will be posters up all summer in the Young Adult Audiobook Area, along with bookmarks, about what book will be released when.

Teen Advisory Board

Why should you join the Teen Advisory Board, if you are in grades 6-12?

1. Your voice counts! At our meeting in May, the fifteen teens who came told us what they wanted. An ice cream party, board game night, a screening of the Justin Bieber movie… guess what’s happening?

Ice Cream Party (make your own sundaes) at our next Teen Advisory Board meeting on June 30th

Board Game night in September

Justin Bieber movie screening, also in September

2. Attending a Teen Advisory Board meeting = a community service hour. You are donating your time to the library and helping us create better, more awesome programs for teens. When’s our next meeting? June 30th… sign-up ahead of time HERE and show up at 7!

3. Heads-up on programs that you’ll be interested in. Need to learn how to babysit? Want to see how you would do on a (free) practice SAT? Interested in ghosthunting? Want to find out what new books are in the Teen Section before New Book Friday?

So, the message is: come to the Teen Advisory Board meetings. Starting in September, meetings will be on the first Thursday of every month. This summer, we’re playing a little fast and loose with meeting dates, so watch the website (or call the library at 631-692-6820) for time and date.

Summer Assignments, East Woods School

Congratulations, it is summer time!

And you have summer reading.

The Cold Spring Harbor Library has copies of the 2011 summer assignments for the East Woods School, grades 7 through 9.

To make your life easier, here is a list of the books you may be required to read this summer (check your assignment). Each title is a link to the catalog, where you can a) see what’s on the shelf and b) request a copy.