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Big Blue Marble Bookstore Young Adult Newsletter
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March 24, 2017 |
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A Weekend with Dragons!
April 1-2 - Some Highlights!
Saturday, 1-3pm - Your Personal Dragon: a writing workshop for kids, teens, and adults:
Write about -- and illustrate, if you like -- your own personal dragon.
Saturday, 4:30-6:30pm - A Special Dragon-Dense D&D Game (ages 10+): DM Wolfie will be running a special level 1 game for the weekend, for players age 10 and up. All of the characters will be Dragon-Borns (1/2 dragons) and will encounter dragons as they adventure. (Registration required.)
Saturday, 6:00pm - Movie Night: Pete's Dragon (all ages)
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 Sunday, 2:00pm - Queering The Dragon: A Reading, Discussion, and Workshop with YA Author Annabelle Jay (for teens and adults)
Sunday, 6:30 pm - Dragon Song Poetry Contest Reading (ages 16+): Dragons! Poetry! Prizes! Glory! (Submission deadline March 26)
Visit our Events page for full schedule and further details!
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Giveaway ARCs!
Be one of the first two people to email me, and receive an uncorrected proof of one of the following two books:
 1) The TransAtlantic Conspiracy by G.D. Falksen, which came out in hardcover this past summer. Steampunk meets Murder on the Orient Express, with our protagonist unexpectedly taking the first voyage of an intercontinental underwater railway, owned by her father.
...Then the murders begin.
 2) Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith, coming out in May 2017. What happens when you buy a lottery ticket for your best friend (and secret crush) as a birthday present, and it wins? No murders here, but a lot of complications.
First two responses will win!
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Peeps 2017!
Saturday, April 8 - Sunday, April 16
Back for our 4th year, it's our Peep Diorama Contest!
Get it on yo
ur calendar now, and get out and buy some peeps while you have plenty of color choices!
Dioramas will be accepted starting Saturday, April 8th.
To be eligible for Customer Favorites, dioramas must be delivered to the store by Thursday, April 13th, @ 6:00pm. To be eligible for Celebrity Judge voting, dioramas must be delivered to the store by Sunday, April 16th, at noon. The Party and Final Judgin
g are Sunday, April 16th, at 2 pm.
Check our website for more details!
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The Last Dragonslayer
by Jasper Fforde
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Dragons, like four o'clock tea, crumpets, marmalade and zip-up cardigans, are a peculiarity of the Ununited Kingdoms. They were fierce fire-breathing creatures of great intelligence, dignity and sensitivity who could and did converse on matters of great importance..."
In the early days of the 21st century, magic is waning, the wizards are not what they were (and their names and titles are shortening as well), and the Kazam Mystical Arts Management agency is being run, as best she can, by 15-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange. Not only that, but now there are visions and predictions about an arrival of Big Magic and the slaying of the last dragon. Which would result in terrible real estate battles to claim its land, from the local kingdom of Hereford all across the Ununited Kingdoms. And what if the last dragonslayer
is actually Jennifer herself?
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Seraphina
by Rachel Hartman
"That's the secret to performance: conviction. The right note played tentatively still misses its mark, but play boldly and no one will question you. If one believes there is truth in art -- and I do -- then it's troubling how similar the skill of performing is to lying. Maybe lying itself is a kind of art. I think about that more than I should."
Seraphina is in the awkward position of hiding her identity to avoid censure and shunning while also trying to stay true to her friends and her music -- not to mention helping to solve several mysteries and to keep the peace of the past forty years.
An excellent book that should resonate with anyone of mixed heritage whose ancestors are enemies, or anyone who is trying to come to terms with their families' histories. Though possibly not everyone in those situations has the experience of being half-human, half-dragon.
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Earthsea Cycle
by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Only in silence the word, Only in dark the light, Only in dying, life: Bright the hawk's flight in the empty sky."
A masterpiece of world-building, with interlocked tales of different characters growing and changing over decades as Le Guin joined new stories to the old. Sometimes a story of naming, sometimes of renaming, or possibly reframing. If you've read only the original trilogy, you should definitely (after rereading for baseline) check out
Tehanu, Tales, and
The Other Wind, to see just how well (and how often) she can turn her world and its philosophies on their heads, and to watch her characters (Ged, Tenar, Tehanu, the dragon Kalessin) develop across time.
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Books from Years Past...
2015
Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
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Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios
The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
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| Big Blue Young Adult Book Discussion For adults who read YA and teens who like to talk about books We had our final meeting on May 19, 2016. Newsletters will continue, with recommendations and reviews, and relevant events. Feel free to send a review or comment! This is the continuing newsletter of the former Big Blue Young Adult Book Discussion, led by Jen Sheffield. The young adult genre refers to the books under discussion; readers of all ages are welcome. The books do not have to be big or blue, though that's always nice. For a list of past selections, check out the Book Clubs page on the Big Blue Marble website. For links to the continuing newsletters and these new recommendations, see the bookstore blog. |
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