If you like The Hunger Games...(and who doesn't?)

Check out this awesome 5-page flowchart that shows a plethora of suggestions for what to read next if you enjoyed The Hunger Games. Thanks to the Lawrence, Kansas Public Library for putting that together and displaying it on their website. Pure librarian brilliance!

Book Rec! Terrier by Tamora Pierce

Beka's a 16 year old girl with the ability to speak to the restless dead and an insatiable need for justice. Pounce is an extremely powerful supernatural being, the earthly avatar of a celestial constellation, who for its own reasons walks the world in the form of a cat.  Together, they fight crime!

Beka and her younger siblings were orphaned several years ago. Beka feared they would be cast into the streets, but instead they were taken in by a nobleman who was also the Lord Provost, in charge of the Dogs who make up the city watch. Beka's brother and sisters are being trained in useful trades that will allow them to support themselves, but for years Beka's had her eyes set on being a Dog and patrolling the streets of the slums they used to live in. She knows that her ability to speak to the souls of the recently dead and to other spirits of the city will help her in that work, but she still has no idea what she's in for.

Together with Pounce, the magical black cat that has adopted her for reasons of its own, she joins the Watch and is teamed up with two legendary Dogs. It will take all of their power, skill and luck to survive the mean streets of the city and bring to justice the evil forces that are preying on the poorest and most helpless citizens, the people no one cares about. No one but Beka and her comrades.

There are three books in the series, all of them great reads. Start with Terrier, and I guarantee you'll want to continue on to Bloodhound and then Mastiff.

Book Review! Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Book review by Sara, one of our teen patrons:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

A good book series that I would recommend is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It has a lot to do with Greek mythology coming to life in an adventure you will be drawn into. While reading this book I couldn't put it down for anything. I felt as if I was there in the book. In the first book Percy finds out many things and fights time and gods to prove his innocence! While underneath everything there is an evil lurking, growing, and waiting for its revenge...

Katsa vs Katniss

I've got my eye on you, Katniss...

I just finished reading Graceling by Kristin Shore, and I loved every minute of it. Katsa (the main character, a "Graceling" born with superior fighting/survival skills) is one of those strong, brooding female types who can beat anyone in a fight but who's resistant to feeling emotions towards other people. Because, as we all know, "feelings" only lead to vulnerability, and vulnerability leads, apparently, to very bad things. <<Insert sarcastic eye roll here.>> This premise got me thinking about another female character we're all intimately familiar with who exhibits some of these same tendencies--Katniss Everdeen. As in, Hunger Games-heroine, torn-between-two-guys, survivalist-extraordinaire, Katniss Everdeen.

This, in turn, got me wondering--Katniss vs Katsa? Who would be victorious in this most epic of fantasy battles? Of course, this being the age of information ("information" being a term associated with both useful facts and utterly useless but highly entertaining gobbledygook)  I knew that I'd be able to find and connect with others who have wondered about this very topic. And 'lo and behold...

A GoodReads discussion board has pondered this very idea: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/556264-katniss-everdeen-vs-katsa

A blog post much more exciting than this one has broken down every nuance of the fantasy battle between Katsa and Katniss: http://dailyfig.figment.com/2011/10/02/katsa-versus-katniss/

And finally, courtesy of YA Fantasy Showdown, a short story about what it might actually look like if Katniss and Katsa ever threw down for real: http://yafantasyshowdown.weebly.com/fan-fight-13.html
(The writing in this is not the greatest, I have to be honest. But, it's Fan Fic so one must read with a grain of salt, right?)

Now, being a pacifist at heart, I personally think it would be way cooler if Katniss and Katsa were to join forces and work for justice and equality around the land. What would that look like, I wonder? Thoughts, anyone?

Book Review! The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

Our first book review written by an actual teen library user! Read on....

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

The beginning started out really slow. There wasn't a lot of detail. Once you got to chapter 4, it started giving a lot more detail as well as action. Anyone that likes going into a different world should read this book.

If you like this book you might like other fantasy books such as The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.

I give this book 4 out of 4 stars.