Love Valentine’s Day? Hate it? Or are you totally indifferent, thank you very much?
Whatever your feeling towards this 14th of February check out The Loft list of recommended love-themed books and movies to see you through the week and beyond. Come talk to one of the Loft staff members for more information or for more recommendations.
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1. Read What They Found: Love on 145th Street by Walter Dean Myers. The author of Street Love returns to the world of 145th Street to show how love can be found, and thrives, in the most unlikely places.
2. Read Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. She’s a werewolf, he’s an unsuspecting human boy. Should she reveal her true, violent, animal nature or keep it a secret from him.? For fans of Twilight!
3. Watch Pretty In Pink. When she falls in love with Blaine, a boy from a nasty clique of rich kids, Andie suffers humiliations and a rift with her goofy new-wave best friend Duckie (who “worships” her) that test her character. With a soundtrack that features The Psychedelic Furs and The Smiths, this is one of John Hughes’s best films.
4. Read Blushing. This is your one-stop shop for poems on love and loss, heartache and cupid’s chokehold. Shakespeare, Nikki Giovanni, Pablo Neruda – they’re all here.
5. Read Love Is Hell. Five sci-fi/fantasy authors tell five different tales about the power of love in futuristic and magical settings.
6. Watch Say Anything. John Cusack with a boombox lifted high above his head blasting “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel to the girl he loves – it’s an iconic moment from one of the best teen romance films of the 80s.
7. Read Empress of the World by Sara Ryan. What do you do when you think you’re attracted to guys, and then you meet a girl who steals your heart?
8. Watch West Side Story. Arguably the greatest movie musical of all time. Tony and Maria are the Romeo and Juliet of New York City, their love forbidden because she’s a Puertro Rican immigrant and his gang is at war with the “dirty PRs.” Astonishingly gutsy and vibrant dance numbers combined with tunes you’ll be singing for days. Highly Recommended!
10. Read Who Am I Without Him? by Sharon G. Flake. Teens laugh, cry, scheme, and dream about the opposite sex in this fascinating short-story collection spanning the scope of adolescent love.
11. Read Boy Proof by Cecil Castelucci. Victoria Denton hides behind the identity of a favorite movie character until an interesting new boy arrives at school and helps her realize that there is more to life than just the movies.
12. Watch Sense and Sensibility. Love, repression, and drama on the English countryside! This 1996 film directed by Ang Lee is considered by many to be the best adaptation of a Jane Austen novel.
13. Read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. What do you do when you keep getting dumped by girls named Katherine? You take a road trip with your best friend when high school ends and you find what you’re looking for in a town called Gutshot. Funny and moving, this tale about a prodigy lost at emotional sea is a great read for anyone about to graduate high school.
14. Read The Possibilities of Sainthood by Donna Freitas. Fifteen-year-old Antonia Labella prays to assorted patron saints for everything from help with preparing the family’s fig trees for a Rhode Island winter to getting her first kiss from the right boy.
15. Watch Across the Universe. This 2007 film directed by Julie Taymor (who directed The Lion King on Broadway) features a beautiful young cast singing an all-Beatles soundtrack. Set in the 1960s, it’s the story of an artist and an activist who fall in love against the violent backdrop of the 1960s anti-war movement. You’ll hear songs like “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Let It Be” (sung as a gospel hymn) in fresh renditions that will deepen your love for The Fab Four.
16. Read Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon. Antonio and Natasha’s world is turned upside down, and their young love is put to the test, when Antonio finds himself in jail, accused of a shocking crime.
17. Read We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier. As The Avenger searches for the teenage boys who trashed the Jerome home and left 14-year-old Karen Jerome in a coma, Buddy, one of the trashers, increases his drinking in order to cope with his parents’ separation and his obsession with Jane Jerome, Karen’s sister.
18. Watch Save The Last Dance. Sara (Julie Stiles) wants to be a ballerina, but her dreams are cut short by the sudden death of her mother. When she moves to Chicago’s South Side, she meets Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), a popular fellow student with a passion for hip hop dancing and a future brighter than his troubled past. As Victoria’s relationship with Derek grows, her repressed ambition is released through a revitalized interest in dance.
19. Watch Once. Once is the story of a young street musician who meets a lonesome, yet warm-hearted young woman with a beautifully eerie singing voice. As they write songs (and perform them) together their feelings for each other deepen until she is forced to make a difficult choice between her past life and her new musical one. The duo (featuring the lead singer of The Frames) won the 2007 Oscar for Best Song and have since released an album together called The Swell Season. A romantic, but totally unsentimenal love story.
Thanks to everyone who signed up to be part of the Teen Advisory Board yesterday at the ETHS Community Service Fair! The first meeting is Wednesday, September 30, from 6-7:30 pm in the Evanston Public Library Community Room. 
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