Posts from Kingsbridge Library

Books in which creepy-crawlies (arachnids, insects, and anything in between) play a starring role and teach readers a meaningful lesson, just like Charlotte.

Eleven of our favorite challenged titles.

We asked our experts: “What’s your recommendation for a long, dense, serious beach book?”

Our expert NYPL librarians recommend their favorite books about interplanetary travel.

We asked our expert NYPL staff, “What’s your favorite book that features a protagonist with a disability, and why do you like it?”

Imagine being trapped somewhere with little to no chance for escape. Maybe you can’t get out of your school during an intense snowstorm. Maybe you’re locked inside a windowless room. Maybe you’re trapped in a coffin. Maybe you’re stuck in what FEELS like a coffin, but you can’t tell because it’s so dark that you can’t see anything. You can only hear the sound of someone walking back and forth somewhere above you… someone who’s been waiting for you to wake up.

During our last Teen Advisory Group meetings, we looked over the books on the 2015 teen summer reading lists for middle school and high school students. Then we discussed which ones we liked the best and which ones we were looking forward to reading. Check out the titles we picked, and see if you agree with us!

If I told you that we had diverse books at the library, what kinds of books do you think I mean? Would they have multicultural characters from different parts of the world? Who speak different languages? Who have different sexual orientations? Who have disabilities? YES to any or all of the above!

Members of our Teen Advisory Group have been reviewing lots of books and movies this year! Here are some highlights of the reviews we've been sharing in our Teen Review Tuesday posts on Tumblr:

Reading nonfiction books can open your eyes to different subjects and make you see them in a new light, and I’m not just saying that because I haven’t eaten a burger from McDonald’s since I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Reading nonfiction books can change your perspective in both small and profound ways.

I spent a huge portion of the last several months cramming my head full of teen books for several committees. You can see the results of my work with my NYPL colleagues in our Best Books For Teens 2014 list. But there were a few books that didn’t make the cut for that list and a few books I read after that committee was over that really deserve some love and attention, so I wanted to share some of those titles with you.

Season 5 starts in 1924 and ends in December of 1925, so what world or local events will they experience? What will they be wearing? What will they be reading?

It all started when I was looking for material for our Tumblr’s Teen Throwback Thursday posts. I suddenly remembered that I had access to a lot of retro YA material, including some stuff that’s older than I am. I’ll give you a moment to wrap your head around that idea.

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.

I love a great memoir, and I noticed recently that I tend towards a certain sub-genre of memoirs, those of the mistfit variety. These memoirs are usually brutally honest, self-deprecating, and describe life at the fringes of society, or at least behavior that most of us would be embarrassed, horrified or shocked by. Most are funny and tend to be insightful, and whether it’s a well-known celebrity or someone I’ve never heard of, I find them relatable and refreshing.

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!