2008 YA Literary Awards Announced!

   2008 Best Books for Young Adults 2008 Top Ten Best Books 2008 Best Books  The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), today announced its 2008 list of Best Books for Young Adults.    Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in YA Literature The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean [...]

Teen Reader’s Theatre Rehearsal

Teen Reader’s Theatre Troupe Meets on Sunday, January 13, from 3-5 pm. If you are in 7th or 8th grade and live in Evanston and love theatre, call Christie Chandler-Stahl at (847) 448-8625 or send an email to cchandler-s@cityofevanston.org to find out more about our newly formed Teen Reader’s Theatre Troupe.

Cybils 2007 Bloggers’ Literary Awards & Knitting

Come to the Loft and check out one of the finalists for the Cybils 2007, the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards, presented by the Cybils Team including co-founders Anne & Kelly. Let us know your favorite titles! The winners will be announced on Feb 14.  And stop by the Loft or call (847) 448-8625 and ask about [...]

Go Overboard and Make a Difference!

   GO OVERBOARD CHALLENGE GRANT  Start the new year with a bang and change the world! Girl Overboard author Justina Chen Headley, Burton Snowboards, and Youth Venture are co-sponsoring the Go Overboard Challenge Grant to find the best teen-created (led and managed) ideas to change the world. The best ideas will win up to $1,000 each. So don’t waste any time; [...]

Winter Break Program and Book Displays

   It’s the last Friday of winter break! Drop in to the Loft for Guitar Hero and Wii! And check out our various book displays: new titles; books that take place in the Canadian tundra, Antarctica, or other places icier and more more snow-covered than Evanston; reel books (that have been made into movies); and some of [...]

Best Young Adult Books of 2007

Here are some Best Books of 2007  lists. What are your favorites?  Let us know! Kirkus Reviews – Best Young Adult Books of 2007: Editor’s Choice from Karen Breen. School Library Journal’s (SLJ) Best Adult Books for High School Students 2007 by Francisca Goldsmith. School Library Journal’s (SLJ) Best Books of 2007: Book Review Editors [...]

Teenreads Contest!

   Win a Basket of Holiday Reading and Fun! Win a basket of 12 young adult books along with holiday goodies by entering the Teenreads.com Basket of Holiday Cheer Contest! You must be 13 years or older Deadline is December 14, 2007, 11:59 pm Read an excerpt of each of the following books and tell teenreads.com [...]

Books into Movies!

Several book-inspired movies are coming soon to the big screen! The action-packed classic Beowulf is already playing in theatres. Coming soon are the following: the spellbinding science fiction epic The Golden Compass; Satrapi’s compelling story (and stunning artistry) of coming-of-age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, Persepolis; and finally, the sweeping saga of friendship, betrayal and redemption in Hosseini’s Kite Runner. There’s so much to [...]

Book of a Thousand Days

I have been eagerly awaiting Shannon Hale‘s latest novel, Book of a Thousand Days  (Bloomsbury, 2007), and it definitely does not disappoint. The language sings! It is an imaginative retelling of a little-known fairy tale, Maid Maleen by the Brothers Grimm.   Set in a fictionalized, medieval Mongolia, 16-year-old Lady Saren is locked away in a tower for seven years by [...]

It’s Absolutely True – Alexie wins!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is this year’s winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. (Little, Brown, 2007)   Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, is born with “brain grease” (hydrocephalus, or excessive accumulation of fluid on the brain) which in his words “mucked up the works.” Junior has 10 [...]