Farmingdale Library Teens

  Hi Kid Lit Friends, With the start of autumn, I have been looking forward to turning on the oven again as the weather cools down. If you haven’t been able to tell from these newsletters, I LOVE cooking and baking (and eating!). And I am very happy to share that there are some wonderful new middle grade books that have food themes! Supriya Kelkar’s  As American As Paneer Pie  centers around Lekha Divekar, the only Indian American kid in her small town. She feels like she has two versions of herself: Home Lekha, who loves watching Bollywood movies and eating Indian food, and School Lekha, who pins her hair over her bindi birthmark and avoids confrontation at all costs, especially when someone teases her for being Indian. But when a new neighbor named Aventika moves in and faces the same bullying at school, Lekha is surprised to find that Aventika proudly displays her culture rather than hiding it. Can Lekha do the same? A Place at the Table  by Saadia Faruq...

  Hey YA Readers! Are you itching for some time buried under warm blankets with a cuppa your favorite beverage and a great adaptation to watch? Let me help you with that last part and highlight some of the newer, recent, or potentially overlooked YA film adaptations you can stream right now. Last month I highlighted  YA series adaptations  you could stream. This month, it’s stand alone film adaptations. These are all available on Netflix unless otherwise noted — because Netflix is the largest and most popular streaming service so far, it’s easiest to search as well.  Descriptions come from the film, and as is too often the case with adaptations, this list is very dominated by white narratives. I suspect as more authors of color see their stories adapted, though, these lists will grow more inclusive and reflective of our world.  I’ve included the name of the book from which the film was adapted in cases where the title changed.  All The Bright Places (from t...

 by Kelly Jensen World Health Organization’s official World Mental Health Day is every year on October 10th.  Here are some titles about mental health and mental issues suggested by Kelly. Go to  https://bit.ly/2E7a883 for more information on the upcoming day. HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME  BY ADAM SILVERA When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course. To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart. If Griffin is ever to rebuild his f...

From an article by Brigid Alverson, SLJ May 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered schools and workplaces. With libraries, bookstores and comic shops mostly off-limits as well, readers are turning to online sources, and publishers and creators have responded with free comics and related resources. Here's a look at those offerings. Informational comics about COVID-19 Just for Kids: a Comic Exploring the Coronavirus (NPR) is based on interviews with experts and drawn by Malaka Gharib, author of the graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream. Print and fold it into a mini comic;versions are available in Chinese and Spanish. Comics for Good (Weiman Kow) is a website that publishes a new COVID-19 comic every week.  Each includes an introduction to the coronavirus and comics on topics such a hand washing, masks, and staying home. comicsforgood.com COVID-19 Myths, Debunked (Whit Taylor and Allyson Shwed) tackles some of the misinformation around the coronavirus. thenib.com/cov...

May 2020 SLJ by Mahnaz Dar Need to keep your comics-loving kids and teens occupies?  These free webcomics promise to eat up hours of time. Middle Grade Audrey's Magic Nine (themagicnine.com) This webcomic centers on a Black orphan adopted by a well-meaning but clueless suburban white couple. Written by Michelle Wright and illustrated by Courtney Huddleston, Francesco Gerbino, and Tracy Bailey. Breaking Cat News (breakingcatnews.com/past-reports) House cats Elvis, Puck and Lupin report on such breaking news stories as "The people are missing!" and "There's a box with a towel inside it on the kitchen table" in Georgia Dunn's hilarious webcomic. Cucumber Quest (cucumber.gigidigi.com/129-2) In GiGi D.G.'s video gamesque tale, adorable Cucumber the bunny and his sister Almond go up against a series of baddies. A vibrant palette, nonstop action, and a bizarre cast of friends and foes. Ozy and Millie (ozyandmillie.org) Two anthropomorphic fo...

JULY 8, 2020 Annika Voss Riveted by Simon Teen I Killed Zoe Spanos  by Kit Frick Anna Cicconi is looking for a fresh start with her summer job as a nanny in the Hamptons. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year’s Eve and to whom Anna bares an eerie resemblance. So when Zoe’s body is found and Anna is charged with manslaughter, something doesn’t entirely add up and Martina Green, teen host of the  Missing Zoe  podcast, is determined to find out the trut h Girl Unframed b y Deb Caletti Sydney isn’t entirely excited to spend the summer with her film-star mother, who prizes her beauty and male attention above all else. Sydney’s fears rise when she discovers her mother’s involvement with Jake, a dangerous art dealer with shady connections. To make matters worse, Jake’s eyes seem to follow Sydney everywhere and behaviors that once seemed like misunderstandings begin to fee...