Posts by Andrea Lipinski

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately for several committees including NYPL’s Best Books For Teens 2014 (coming later this month -- stay tuned!) When I looked back over all the young adult books I read this year, I definitely noticed a recurring theme of poetry.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so I thought that this was the ideal time to share some books from our young adult fiction shelves on this painful subject.

Some of my favorite nonfiction books to recommend to teenagers are collective biographies, which provide information about different people who were famous for different reasons. They’re good for homework, good for browsing, and good for spontaneously discovering people you’ve never heard of before.

Earlier this year I read a young adult novel called The Boy on the Bridge by Natalie Standiford. Then more recently I read Tsarina by J. Nelle Patrick and Sekret by Lindsay Smith, and I started thinking … hang on … is Russian historical fiction a “thing” now?

Books for kids and teens that tie into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) are all the rage nowadays. Here is a list of books for kids and teens that are related to those subjects but which you’ll find in some unexpected areas of the library -- fiction, graphic novels, and poetry!

The cold weather gave our Teen Advisory Group the opportunity to bundle up indoors and catch up with lots of books over the last few months. Now it’s time to finally celebrate springtime, and for you to see if you agree with their reviews!

I have to admit that I’m a tough audience when it comes to romance novels. Whenever I see a book that promises readers a heart-pounding romance, often featuring someone looking dramatically windswept on the cover, my first instinct is to look at it and laugh.

Recently, our library received a donation of several audiobooks for teens, and that gave me an idea for another Teen Advisory Group project.

During the course of several conversations I’ve had with the kids in my Teen Advisory Group over the last year, they told me that they use Tumblr more often than they use Twitter or Facebook. More importantly, they told me that Tumblr was one of their favorite ways to get book recommendations. And that’s what set the wheels in motion.

Many authors have used fairy tales as starting points for new ideas, and some of their books explore questions based on the original tales. For example, if you're rewarded for your kindness by having gold dust fall from your hair or diamonds fall out of your mouth… isn't that reward REALLY more trouble than it's worth?

Perhaps you thought that everything that can be said about the zombies-vs.-survivors story The Walking Dead has been said already. You've already read the graphic novels, watched the TV show, and talked about each episode after you watched it. Ah … but have you played the board game?

Earlier this year I received a copy of The Walking Dead board game that is based on the TV show (there's another board game based on the graphic novels), and I figured that my Teen Advisory Group would be up to the challenge of playing it. I also figured that Friday the 

The teens in our Teen Advisory Group have been doing a lot of reading this fall. See if you agree with their reviews!

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender For as long as she can remember, Colette Iselin has been waiting to go to Paris in order to learn more about her heritage. However, upon her arrival she soon learns that there has been a series of peculiar murders. Each victim is an heir of an upper-class family, and their heads are always chopped off! What's even 

The concept of vampires has grown and expanded over the last few centuries. Sometimes they suffer from a disease, or sometimes they just evolve this way. Sometimes they prey upon humans, or sometimes they live among humans in peace. Sometimes they even sparkle in the sunlight.

Here are fifteen novels that you can find in our young adult collections that embrace many different aspects of vampires: the dangerous, the romantic, the bloodthirsty, and the beautiful.

In the Forests of 

As your summer vacation ends and the new school year begins, it's time to consider: Who are you? Who are you now, who do you want to be, and will you/can you/SHOULD you try to reinvent yourself?

Here's a list of twenty fiction books for teens that deal with the topic of identity, from realistic fiction to fantastic fiction and beyond.

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead A boy wakes up in Penn Station. He has no memory of how he got there, how he got his head injury, or even his 

If you enjoy weird mysteries and separating truth from fiction, then you'll definitely enjoy Dead Strange: The Bizarre Truths Behind 50 World-Famous Mysteries by Matt Lamy.

This book covers different topics from alchemy to zombies, and the author discusses the difference between the myth and the reality of each topic. Along the way you'll learn about mysteries like Area 51, Easter Island, ESP, the Loch Ness Monster, Men in Black, and poltergeists. And hey, if you learn how to prepare for 

Making the transition from homeschool to high school is tough, and Maggie is going through a lot of culture shock. Being able to see ghosts isn't making things any easier.

In Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks, Maggie is surrounded by more people than ever before, and yet she still feels all alone. Her older brothers are busy with their own friends, her mother is gone, and her father is busy with his new job. But little by little, Maggie starts finding her way around her new 

Sloane lives in a world where teens have to hide their true emotions. If a friend, teacher, or even a family member sees her having an emotional outburst, they could report her and have her taken by force into The Program. That's why she can't risk crying where anyone else can see her. Because while the treatment she would get in The Program would remove her depression, it would also remove her memories. In other words, she might as well be dead.

Suzanne Young's novel The Program opens 

As yet another school year draws to a close, here is our next batch of recommendations to tide you over until the fall!

Books

Peanut by Ayun Halliday & Paul Hoppe [A book so popular that we've got TWO reviews!]

Sadie moves to a new town, starting her sophomore year in a new school. Fearing that she'll be boring, she fakes a peanut allergy, which is a bigger responsibility than it seems to be … even I didn't know it was THAT big of a deal! This book teaches 

One of the most common questions we get from our young readers is "Where are your scary books?" Unfortunately, books for children and teens that will keep readers on the edge of their seats are usually mixed in with the rest of the fiction section, so they can be a little tricky to find… until now.

Here is a list of twenty-five great crossover books (that is, for older children and younger teens) about lots of scary subjects. Sure, there will be plenty of vampires, ghosts, and even zombies. But there will also be nightmares, mysterious phone calls,