11,000 teens cast votes selecting the Top Ten Teen Reads for 2009.  Is your favorite on the list?

1. Paper Towns by John Green (Penguin/Dutton)
2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
4. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
7. Wake by Lisa McMann (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse)
8. Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast (St. Martin’s Griffin)
9. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (Disney-Hyperion)
10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Read Beyond Reality @ your library®! October 18-24. Stop by any Genesee District Library during Teen Read Week to read beyond reality! Check out materials to change your world, take you somewhere unlike your world, or learn about other cultures. Stop by today and pick up a page turner that you can read or listen to, just for the fun of it!

Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott

          Amy’s self-perception leads to a risky lifestyle.  The consequences of her choices unfold slowly, revealing the complicated layers of her relationships with her best friend, non-friends, boys and parents.  I listened to this on Sunday using the GDL’s Overdrive digital library. 

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

          This book has been winning all the major awards and receiving accolades from teens and parents.  Michigan teens voted this book number one for the 2009 Thumbs Up award.  The sequel, Catching Fire, is now available for holds (all copies are currently checked out.)  Click here to visit the Teenreads.com interview with the author.   

The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones

          My current read.  Like a vampire needs blood, Cassandra Gray needs tears to survive.  Discover why her nomadic great-grandmother, Veronica, moved the family to Lapeer, Michigan.  Mr. Jones grew up in the Flint area and takes his readers to places in and around Flint. He was a page at the GDL Baker Park Branch in Burton.  Find more of his books on the GDL catalog. 

Other Titles of Interest

Breathless by Jessica Warman

Diary of a Witness by Catherine Hyde Ryan

The Hunting, Book One: Z. Rex by Steve Cole

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

Planning to attend a Michigan college?  Check out the Teens page.  Links to all two or four year, private and public schools are under Michigan Colleges and Universities.  Schools are listed with telephone numbers and clickable links to their websites.  Find research information on campus tours, college rankings, financial aid and more under the College page.  Still deciding on what to do? Search the Career page for job descriptions, projections and jobs.  Need more information?  Visit your local GDL branch.     

There’s still time for a few good books during summer 2009.  Check out Make Waves @Your Library, compiled by the Michigan Center for the Book and the Library of Michigan.   It features authors who write about Michigan.  One of the authors on the list worked as a page at the GDL Baker Park Library in Burton.  Guess who?  Watch for a review of his new book, The Tear Collector, in a future blog.

Journalist Angela Seyfried will present a program at the Flushing Area Library on August 11, 2009.  Discover what it’s really like to work for a newspaper.  The program begins at 10:00 AM.  For more information call the Flushing Area Library (810-659-9755) or the TeenFusion Librarian (810-653-2022).

How are our TeenFusion Programs this summer?  Please Express Yourself to the TeenFusion Blog.

What is your all time favorite book and why should others read it?

There’s still time to enter the TeenFusion Talent Show.  The next performance date is July 9, at the Grand Blanc-McFarlen Branch.  Audition your talent on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/group/teenfusion.  Round one events are also scheduled for Davison on July 16, and Clio on July 23.  All three events begin at 6:00 PM.  Finals will be held at the GDL Baker Park Branch on July 30, 2009 at 6:00 PM.  For more information please call the Teen Services Librarian at 810-653-2022.

Share favorite title(s) with a comment to the blog.  I just finished The Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers, a powerful story of teens growing up in Harlem.  Discover the ”it” in Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford.  After a nuclear attack, Eli and family are confined to The Compound by S. A. Bodeen, a tale with surprising twists.  The Department of Homeland security goes awry in Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and computer geek Marcus and friends use technology to fight back.  Meet Ama, Jo and Polly in Ann Brashares new sisterhood adventure, 3 Willows.  Your opinions and reading suggestions are always welcome on the Rate Your Read page.