Staff Picks Audience: Teens

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak [Book]

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Liesel Meminger lives with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in Munich, Germany. It’s 1939 and Liesel and her family are living under Nazi rule. Despite tremendous risk the Hubermanns house a Jewish man, Max. After Liesel endures her first tragedy books become a way of life for her. Zusak writes beautifully with hints of surrealism that make this story quite extraordinary.

“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”

Don’t Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday [Book]

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This book is written as a prose poem that the tells the story of American jazz singer, Billie Holiday’s life. De Veaux writes,

“It was 1935.

American was in between wars.

Harlem was between jobs and riots.

Billie was between 20 and stardom.”

The Giver [Book]

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The Giver is a 1993 American young adult novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which is at first presented as a utopian society but gradually appears more and more dystopian.

Sensation: The Story of Tommy [DVD]

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I first heard the Who’s Tommy as a teen or pre-teen after borrowing a copy from the Russell Library in Middletown, CT. That’s really the age to delve into both the angst and sensitivity of the Who… in fact, it’s the best time to explore music in general as that feeling of the world opening up to you begins. What followed this library trip was a huge Who obsession and, after the realization that Pete Townshend and I share a birthday, I was convinced there was some sort of connection between myself and the music. I’m sure I wasn’t the only teenager who felt this way.

Martin R. Smith’s documentary doesn’t focus on the stellar musicianship of the band (that coverage can be found anywhere… I mean, listen to a Who album!); rather, it leads the viewer through Tommy‘s high concepts and tells the story of a band in a state of transition. It is evident we have a “pre” & “post”-Tommy Who for the history books. Tommy, an album many consider as the first “rock opera”, legitimized Pete Townshend as a true composer, gave Roger Daltry the confidence to stand out front as the powerful lead singer (often in fringe), took the Who to opera houses around the world and turned the band into a stadium rock monster.

The film features interviews with Pete Townshend, Roger Daltry, John Entwhistle (archival), Keith Moon (archival), former Who manager Chris Stamp, Tommy album artist Mike McInnerney, Who biographers and a couple Rolling Stone Magazine nerds. It also has audio recordings of Townshend demos and several live performance clips.

There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff [Book]

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I confess: I borrowed this book because the title reminded me of my favorite bumper sticker: DOG IS MY CO-PILOT. Also, that cloud poodle was kind of cute. You just can’t go wrong judging a book by its cover.
Anyway, this young adult novel gives the most convincing explanation yet of why the world is plagued with war, famine, bad weather, and carnivores that eat each other. In short, God is a self-absorbed teenage boy who is not paying attention. He can’t even pick up his clothes off the floor, let alone answer the mail from his billions of creations. When he’s moody, the earth erupts in natural disasters, and when he falls in love with a human, all hell breaks loose. This is my first acquaintance with the witty and irreverent Meg Rosoff and I’ll be looking forward to reading more, for the laughs, the originality and the covers.

The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie; art by Ellen Forney [Book]

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He is known as Junior on the Spokane Indian reservation he calls home, and Arnold at the all-white school Reardan in the nearby farm-town. Arnold/Junior Spirit leads a split existence once he decides that he needs to change schools in order to give himself the chance of escaping the poverty and alcoholism that he is surrounded by on the reservation. A book filled with tragedy manages to be uplifting and funny, with cartoons drawn by Arnold interspersed throughout. This young adult novel tells a universal coming-of-age story. This was also one of the Top Ten Challenged Books in 2010 according to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom – a great reason to read it!

Luka and the fire of life by Salman Rushdie [Book]

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This wonderful book is a sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, though it stands perfectly well on its own. Luka and the Fire of Life, like Haroun, is a children’s book, and like Haroun it is dedicated to one of Rushdie’s sons. This story is a fast-paced fantasy set in a world made up from bits and pieces of many stories, from ancient myths to Super Mario Brothers and Doctor Who. The writing is wonderfully witty, full of word play and puns and humour of many sorts; it had me chuckling immediately and erupting in belly laughs within the first few pages. Children and adults alike will get great pleasure from this book.

Rise Up Singing [Book]

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