help me do my job!

[orangerful]

I'm posting while at work but it is okay because it is about work stuff! And I know you all would be awesome at helping me with this!

I'm going to visit the middle school in May/June. Originally I was going to just promote the Summer Reading program BUT the teens seems to have been forgotten from the program this year (don't get my started, that is a rant for another post).

ANYWAY I just read a blog post about using gifs in booktalks and I feel like this is the way to go to make my presentation more amusing for the kids.

And I KNOW you all have giant folders full of awesome GIFS and also large GoodReads lists of fantastic books to recommend. If you are willing to share with me, that would be awesome and make my presentation that much better.

Target audience is 6th and 7th graders. So that's 12-14 year olds. Of course, their interests and reading levels will vary so give me what you think would be good suggestions. I've got a few of my own already but I know we all ready different stuff. :)

Comments

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I'll look through my folders and see what I have.
You want them emailed to you if I find any?

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Sure! I'm orangerful at gmail :)

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find anything age appropriate, or appropriate for your presentation :(

[penderies.livejournal.com]

I have like 200 on my laptop. Do you want book specific stuff or just general gifs?

Here are some you might like :)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

LOL OMG THESE ARE A PERFECT START!

I already know I will use the Community one with Jeff as a way to talk about using our online resources to brush up before school starts LOL!!!!! Oh you have inspired me to make my entire presentation GIF FILLED!

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

6th and 7th grade, eh?

Hm.

Well I love the Vampirates series by Justin Somper, those are amazingly fun. Anything by Rick Riordan--those FLY off the shelves at ours. Also, I dunno how it is at your library, but has the different series shelved either in Childrens or Teens, and I honestly don't know why. I haven't read those though.

Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Overlander is excellent, for kids who are curious about the author who wrote The Hunger Games but maybe too young to go there yet.

I loved, loved, loved The Neverending Story, which I usually find in Teen shelves, but I think it reads a little younger personally. (Author is Michael Ende, and I strongly recommend the hardback edition with the different colored fonts to indicate whether you're in the fantasy world or the real world, if you can find it.)

Dunno how you feel about comics and manga, but I'm loving Fullmetal Alchemist right now. It's geared towards teens, at least in Japan, but it's weird--thematically, it's a lot darker than I expected, but the tone is a lot younger than what I'd think would be appropriate for teens. That's Japan for ya though--their standards are slightly different from ours. There are 27 of them altogether.

I've only read three so far, but Jospeh Delaney's Last Apprentice series is pretty great--and very popular. Like Neverending Story, it's usually shelved with Teen stuff, but I think it reads younger. First book is Revenge of the Witch, second is Curse of the Bane, and there's a thing out right now called Seventh Son with those two in one volume, and the movie poster with Ben Barnes. It's NOTHING like the movie, but the important thing to remember is that version doesn't have the maps or illustrations.

Lastly, Cornelia Funke's Inkspell. It is THICK, and translated from German just like Neverending Story, and surprisingly lyrical and symbolic. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing, and another Breaking the Fourth Wall sort of thing. I've only read the first book, but it's fantastic.

I might be back with more when I think of them!

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

50 points to Gryfinndor! You pretty much picked all of my favorites LOL. I love 'Gregor the Overlander'. SO GOOD!

I've never read Vampirates but I know we have it and I wondered if it fell into this age range. Who doesn't love pirates and vampires?

I think everyone had already read the Percy Jackson books in my area LOL. At least, it FEELS that way! Any time I suggest them the kids have read both series.

This is a fantastic start!!! Give me more when you think of them! (Do you think AMITY would be too scary for that age?)

[saturnsdaughter.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if some of these are written for older teens or not, but here's what came to mind:
The Maze Runner series by James Dashner
The Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman
The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness
The Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson
The Legend trilogy by Marie Lu

I wish I could remember more about what I was reading at that age. This is all stuff I've read recently.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they have all heard of Maze Runner because of the movie but OMG UNWIND! One of my favorites. Honestly, it's heavy stuff but if they are big readers, that would be a good one to suggest. I freakin' love those books.

I prefer NEW stuff anyway. School libraries and teachers who don't read YA tend to suggest old books and "classics" so I want to bring NEW stuff. :)

[saturnsdaughter.livejournal.com]

I would love to see some movies or a TV show based in the Unwind world. It's grim but it really sucks you in.

That's a good approach. I think kids who are only exposed to the old stuff tend to shy away from reading. Every once in a while my teachers would find something fun for us, like Harry Potter. But there was never a good balance between teaching us some particular theme and keeping things interesting.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Shusterman has said they are working on the movie right now but he legally can't say anything beyond that. **crosses fingers** Though I don't know if film can capture the horror of the last few chapters of the first book, I remember having to set it aside many times.

Exactly! And my attitude is IT IS SUMMER, READ FOR FUN! So I'm going to recommend things that are short and fun, comic books etc, something that will hopefully appeal to all levels of readers. Plus mention some of the other things we offer through the library, like the playaway portable audiobooks which teens love because no one has a portable CD player anymore.

[ekaterin24.livejournal.com]

I don't have any awesome GIFs, but feel free to raid my Goodreads! Check out my YA and probably also my "boy books" list.

[jellibean.livejournal.com]

I don't have any good book recommendations for that age range (sadly,) but I'll look through my gifs and try to throw some in Dropbox for you!

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

Book ideas!

Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins. It's dark, so not for really sensitive readers, but it was really good.

I have a fondness for John Bellairs books, they're maybe a bit easier but for readers who need an easy and scary read they're awesome.

Kit Pearson has some great YA books. I loved The Sky Is Falling series, The Daring Game and A Handful of Time.

Voices After Midnight by Richard Peck is another one that I really liked around that age.

The Hunter's Moon by O. R Melling. It's actually the second in a series but I read it as a standalone and loved it as such.