there it goes. Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host Krista Porter here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time, but if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays that's fine. We do record the show every week as we are doing today and you can watch it later at your convenience. I'll show you at the end of today's show where you can access all of our show recordings. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch, so please do share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics we have on Encompass Live. For those of you joining us who are not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries. We are similar to your state library, so we provide services and training and resources to all types of libraries in the state, so you will find shows on Encompass Live for all types of libraries. Public, academic, K-12, corrections, museums, archives, we have book reviews, interviews, mini-training sessions, demos of services and products, all sorts of things. Today we have commission staff, Nebraska Library Commission staff, the two presentations, and we bring in guest speakers, and today we have a little of both. Joining us this morning is Sally Snyder, who is the coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Good morning, Sally. And Dana Vonte, who is librarian at Fremont High School in here in Fremont, Nebraska. Good morning, Dana. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Yeah, and this is for Sally the third of her regular annual book sessions that she does. She does a session on children's books, which was done November, signed it here. That's new children's books of 2023, November 22nd, and then she does a session on books for your summer reading program for the next year, which was done in December 20th. Summer reading program 2024, adventure begins at your library. So the recordings of both of those, the children's and the adventure, and that summer reading are up on our archives. And then today is the third of the ones you usually do, which is the best new teen reads. So things for older kids that would come into your libraries. And Dana and Sally do this together, a little tag team thing. And I think we're going to start with Dana. So I will just have you go ahead and take it away, tell us about all the cool new books you read over the last year. Of course, that's how it always happens. It's been a day, guys. Yeah. Okay. If I start rambling on too long, please just cut me off and say next or something because a lot of I've been like my favorite of 23 and 2024. So I'm like, I have a really long list. And a lot of them are horror and a lot of them are LGBTQIA theme. So nice. Buckle up. And also mentioned too, while we're starting off here, so people know the slides you're going to see today and their lists will be available to you afterwards as well. So don't worry about trying to scribble down all these titles and things you hear right now. Just go ahead and listen, maybe make a little note about ones that you really are interested in, but you will have full slides and full lists afterwards to refer to. Go ahead. Sorry. It's fine. All right. And so Krista kind of introduced us already. Sally Snyder, book wizard, book wizard extraordinaire and librarian, book princess at Fremont High School. That's me. So my first, oh, why aren't the pictures coming up? That's cool. All right. Heartstopper. Well, if you guys can look at my slides as well. Heartstopper, the series, it's written by Alice Oseman. I kind of showcased the fifth book. It has real issues. It's LGBTQIA friendly. It's also now a popular series on Netflix. And then Fun Fact, last book is scheduled to come out within the next two years. So the end of the series is near, which will stop my heart because I loved it so much. Nick and Charlie are boys that are in different social circles. Nick is a jock and Charlie is more of an artist. Excuse me. They have mega chemistry, but Nick, but does Nick actually feel the same way Charlie does? Only time will tell. And spoiler alert, they do fall in love and they do say the L word and it's very sweet. And just a good wholesome, a good wholesome series to get into. Build of Screams. I just finished this one and it's a good old fashioned horror novel. It's set in Iowa, out in the country. So kind of like Children of the Corn type of thing. It's referenced. There are a ton of references, which are really fun to a lot of horror novels within the book. And it's a pretty short read. So it's good to just get it, like get it done on a weekend and just kind of indulge in that. Build of Screams. Rebecca is obsessed with ghosts. She finds out her deceased father was also obsessed with them. The adults in her life don't take her seriously and hate that she reads ghost stories. During the summer, she stays with her uncle and aunt in Iowa and she's on Babies to Need Beauty this summer. She feels that the farm is haunted. Is she seeing things or is there really a ghost on the farm?  No. Promise, boys. I begged Sally, I begged Sally to have this on my list because I loved it so much. Dark academia. Dark academia is a real trend right now in young adult fiction. Murderer, most foul. There's a horrible principal. But don't worry, he's dead. Twist and turns. Promise, boys. Principal Moore is unpleasant to say the least. He's been right abusive in some situations. There are literal lines drawn around the school and of a boy, usually an inner city person of color, steps out of line. They are severely punished. One day Principal Moore turns up dead. It's told in three alternating voices, Ramon, JB, and Tre. All three of those are accused of the murder. And yes, they made poor choices, but his murder really one of them. This is one of my favorites. Of course, all of these are one of my favorites. And then, of course, the fourth wing and the iron flame. You better buy multiple copies for your libraries. I can't, their holds list are like hundreds of people long readers and non-readers alike. This is like hunger games, Harry Potter level of wanting this book. There was even a midnight release for iron flame. So I mean, it's really hot right now. Dragons. It's basically a dragon school. I think cuckoo games meets Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones. Fourth wing. I know it does. It really does. And it has like a female protagonist and it has parental fighting and strife and things like that. And yeah, it has a little bit of everything in it. Oh, and it's also kind of classified as romantasy. That new term that's being coined. Oh, there's a little bit there as well. Violent Sorens all find out for a quiet life among books. She likes history. She likes books. She doesn't like action in the least. Needing her help, her mother shoves her into a dragon writing school where it is competitive. She might even be incinerated by a dragon and she's not careful. Her mom wants to build her up, but without being able to trust anyone, how far can Violet get? Spoiler alert. Number two, iron flame. Violet exceeded everyone's expectations. She survived. However, there is a hidden secret that only Violet and the upper administrators know about and all could come down on their heads any day now. So it's I can't keep this on my shelves. In fact, like I even bought like my personal copy to school. So guys, the Davenport written by Crystal Marquise. And then the second one is coming in November 2024. It is swoon worthy. Like there it's basically like a reality show written back in 1910. But it was based on a true story actually of this rich slave who built the marriage company. So it's really good. The Davenport, this is such a swoon worthy romance. Your readers will gobble this up. And it's obviously over dramatized, but it tells the story of four women, Olivia, Helen, Amirah and Ruby, who are part of a wealthy African American family. Two of them are sisters, but there's also like two friends that come in and make appearances. They live part of a wealthy African American family who live a lavish lifestyle. Ingros is a maid, but she was, she used to be a childhood friend, but she came on really rough times. And so the family just kind of took her in and said, you can work for us and we'll give you money. But there's drama there with love. And Olivia, the wise older daughter who's going to do her duty and get married falls in love with this civil rights leader. And so she wants to do her duty and get married, but she also wants to follow her heart. Helen doesn't want any part of the love stuff. She wants to just work on her cars, which is kind of unheard of for a woman back in the day. And she kind of falls in love with somebody. So that's an interesting dynamic to see. And then Davenport's number two. A lot of these advanced copies are found on NetGalley, and you can go and download them with your Kindle and read them ahead of time, which I did. It's kind of my kryptonite. So Davenport's number two, or an idolized plus. Ruby newly engaged until some Ruby is newly engaged, but someone or something threatens to ruin her reputation and reputation is everything back then. Olivia, who is hoping that she runs into her dashed where crush again, but her parents tried to arrange a marriage to somebody else. Amy Rose is following her dreams until they are dashed again. And she finds she's still in love with John, which is a brother to the other two sisters. And Helen is the one who works on cars and carriages and things. Helen wants to change the carriage industry for the better, but she needs a race car driver that kind of sweeps her off her feet. And it's a total enemies to lovers trope. It's the best. Then highly suspicious and unfairly cute. You will finish this in a day. It's adorable. I really liked that there was plus size representation in this novel. There's also mental health representation. And it's kind of a unique story and it has cryptids. Because the main character in this, Celine, she has kind of like a YouTube podcast type of thing. And everyone just eats her up because she's so cute and adorable. Celine and Bradley are ex best friends. Bradley is a jock who did Celine for the popular kids table. And Celine is a conspiracy theory loving online influencer. When they sign up without knowing the other signed up for a survival contest, they team up and try to win the grand prize. Will Celine's quirks and Bradley's OCD be a good combination or will it implode like their friendship? Arty and the Wolf Moon. This is a graphic novel. It has werewolves, fairs, representation and diversity. Arty and the Wolf Moon is a graphic novel about a teenager who was kind of a late bloomer. She and her mom move around a lot and you will find out why if you read it. Her mom works for the Game and Parks Commission. How appropriate when you find out that there are a family of werewolves. When someone makes her mad, she is bullied. She transforms into a werewolf and starts to fit in with her extended family and friends. Her family and friends are hiding secrets though. Vampires turn out to be their mortal enemies and she doesn't know who to trust or actually how to harness her powers. So her powers are kind of out of control and they just kind of pop up at the most inopportune times. Now this is more like upper high school like more adult-ish but T. Kingfisher's Thorn Edge is the best book I read in 2023. I'm telling everybody about this and it's just a really short novella but the story is amazing. It's a fairy tale retelling. It kind of has elements of repunzel. It kind of has elements of the frog prince. It kind of has elements of prince. It's a lot of folklore as well. It has great characters. Toadling is a changeling. She was born or she was stolen from her royal heritage. She was stolen from her people when she was young. She was raised in a swamp and is hiding a horrible secret. After a centuries of hanging out in the swamp, a knight comes in search of something or someone. He's kind of poking around where his nose doesn't plunge and he has Toadling to show him around and he has Toadling about a curse but Toadling will give her life to upload, to upload, uphold the said curse. So good. Moth Keeper. It's a graphic novel. There are not werewolves or vampires in this. Sorry I didn't change that. It's called The Moth Keeper. It's written by Kayoneel. It has a lot of manga elements to it. Anya grows tired of her prestigious job as a Moth Keeper. Rewind back to when she was appointed. She was excited to give back to her community and to take care of the flowers that the moths take care of. But she grows tired and lonely and she misses the daylight because it's the night position. So she sleeps during the day and it's kind of a lone position. One day Anya drops the ball and leaves her post. She does the right thing but can her mistake be fixed? And this is also like Teen Killers number one and Teen Killers number two were published in 2022 or 2021 and 2022. But Teen Killers three just came out in 2024 or 2023. And so it is like this is the best series that I've ever read. It's murderous and interesting but did they really do it? It's twist and turns. So Teen Killers number one. Signal Deer is classified as a class A felon. The most dangerous of the dangerous. To avoid prison Signal goes to a camp where they will train her for a secret project becoming an assassin. However, there here is a twist. Signal was blatantly framed for the murder of her best friend and she's not a sociopath at all. But she's with all these other sociopaths that have been like proven and like brag about the kills that they've made. She has feelings and one of those feelings is love. Signal falls in love with one of her colleagues. In fact, he's the most dangerous one of the camp that they try to escape.  However, that happened. What happens when their kills switches are disengaged?  And so the other people at the camp are tasked with finding them and killing them. But they're friends. So it's really complicated. So Teen Killers No. 3 Eric Ones Freedom. Eric is the is the boyfriend companion of Signal. And Signal wants the footage footage that exonerates her from killing her best friend. The camp members want their friendship back. There is a mole inside the friend group who wants Signal put away or killed forever. I read the first one of this series and I didn't realize the other two would come out. So I'm behind already. No, I was too. I didn't know that the third one came out my pre-order or I ordered it really fast and I read it at the end of last year and it's good. Like the and sadly did you know that there's a fourth one. But the fourth one is only in an ebook format that the author has the documents. And you have to bargain with her to get the fourth one. I know isn't that weird? That's fun. Yeah, you know, it's called like Noxium or something like that. It starts with an N or a dear moth man told in diary entry. It's a golden sort of nominee. It's a unique story in their cryptids. I have a soft place in my heart for cryptids. I think they're all just misunderstood. So agree. Yes. Yes. Hold in a diary entry and letter format. Noah, formerly Nora writes about what writes about identity in his best friend's car so that that left his best friend dead and how they are obsessed with moth man. Noah continuously writes letters to moth man and hopes that their cryptid will reveal itself. And the end of the book, Noah goes in search of moth man and I'm still determining if moth man is real or not real. Because I think in this book, Noah is a little bit of a non reliable narrator, just a little bit. So I'm still determining like what really happened. The brave girls by sharing Winston a really big sense of the community, diverse and heartwarming. Maggie and Asia have been best friends forever. They were looking forward to an entire summer of hanging out together and laughing or launching their brave business. They can make so much money in their community.  And so of course they go she goes and lives with her dad. Callie shows up and Callie and Asia become best friends and Maggie's kind of left out a little bit. Maggie didn't even know that she had a half sister now she's taken over her life. When the three go to camp and campers hair starts to grow out. Deja, Callie and Maggie take the bull by the horns and start braiding. Arrival braiding start up challenges the girls money and business hopes may the best braiders win. Guys, this book, you need to buy two copies for your library because I think it's going to be amazing. So everyone's comparing it to dumpling and Jason jumps in the sex, but it is giving straight up Dolly Parton vibes. Yes, it's, I guess that from the cover right away. It is, I have two on the list that are like that. So it's LGBTQIA plus and it's coming in April 24 but you can get, you can get the ARC, the ERC, IDOLX plus or NetGalley and I finished this in like a day. It's just so awesome. I received it. It flashes back and time and it goes back and forth from the 1960s when Declie was up and coming Declie Castle. Declie Castle is dead. Her televised funeral unveils an empty time capsule. They're surprised whoever finds it and opens it. Darren purchased a lifetime country fan and Declie obsessive is on the case. She will find this time capsule if it kills her because she is obsessed with Declie Castle. She sets on a road trip with her co-worker Kendall back in the 60s up and coming Declie begs, borrows and steals her way to glory. She collaborates with McKinley and when like McKinley is another star and when they're on top of their careers McKinley disappears and there's a family secret that nobody is talking about. There's always secrets. There's always secrets and everything. So but it's a page turner. It's so good. The Lost Library had to include a library book on here because but who can really say no to a narrator named Mortimer the cat who's a big fluffy orange cat that's talking. Like how can you really say no to that? Albany, California a small town with big consequences. There was a oh wait no sorry The Lost Library told an alternating points of view Mortimer the cat out of the ghost librarian and Evan the boy in the story a little free library just pops up unannounced in the little town of Mainville. Nothing exciting ever happens here but there's a first time for everything. Evan chooses two more in books. One is the link to along and go secret. One that nobody wants to talk about. Again what actually happened? So it's a little bit of a mystery and there's a little free library in it and I love it. Accountable and this is nonfiction. It reads like realistic fiction. It talks about the dangers of social media and who's accountable and just as is really certainness. Albany, California a small town with big consequences. There was a social media account that made racist and sexist remarks. They click a real life burn book for mean girls. This book or the events of this book rather took place when social media was in its infancy. This book discusses cyberbullying and cybercrime. Who is accountable and how are they made to be accountable when everything happens behind a screen and you may not know who the author actually is. Sally did you have an award certificate on the I mean an award thing on the on the cover. What award did it win? I'm not sure. I'm trying to know. I'm not sure but I also thought it won a prince. Might be a cyborg or something. I don't know. I'll have to look it up. Yeah I will have to look it up too but I'm pretty sure it won a prince as well. Oh yeah so but I'm not sure. I'll have to look that up too. Sally did you have the thieves gambit on your page? No I don't. I haven't read that. I have had several titles I haven't even run across so I'm going to be busy. I know it has been a crazy year. So all right the thieves the thieves gambit like think of Hunger Games, Inheritance Games, Mr. Limoncello's library, all of those like in in the thieves gambit. Action, action, action. This has also been flying off my shelves. It's very diverse. Much like the Inheritance Games and the Hunger Games the main character Roslyn Quest competes in the games where the world's best thieves are invited. And there was a lot of drama going up to this and where she was kind of caught so she needs to pay off some debts. She and she has to learn how to trust no one and keep her eyes on the prize which is one wish for whoever wins. Roslyn really needs the money to make her mother better. I looked up that accountable one. The one that looked like it had a little award thing. Yeah it did. It won the ALA's 2024 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. That's what that is on there. Yeah. Which was just announced what two days ago. All right Creep Balls. Sally remember that book that we both liked that no one else liked like the oddity book? Oh yes. Yeah that we both liked that no one else liked. This is kind of like that book. What? I'm gonna love it I'm sure. Oh yes it is funny. More middle grade than young adult but it's STEM. Far Fetched STEM like creating humanoid creatures STEM but it's still STEM nonetheless. Auburn Asher Academy of Science where all the students are encouraged to great and learn and interact with Mongolian death words. No that can't be right. When students at the academy try to save a beloved teacher's department they try to create something magnificent and so they create six humanoids who wreak havoc on the campus. Enter the bad guy. It seems that there's an evil force the academy making sure that the good guys don't win this time.  It's creepy there's like I said there's a lot of horror on my list this time. It's short it's kind of like the taking of Jake Livingston. Who needs haunted houses when you have a full immersive experience? Charity is the final girl in a terror game where guests pay to be scared. However at the end of the summer her co-workers start disappearing. And her and her girlfriend I think it's like Jesus or Bexes or something. She they're trying to work together to figure out the murder mystery but will charity be the actual final girl?  Tilly and Technicolor this is another really cute read. Both of the characters in this book are neurodiverse. So one has executive functioning disorder and one has autism. It's a sweet summer romance though. Tilly is a little bit neuro spicy. She does not know what she wants but she does know it's not working for her sister's startup. Then she meets Oliver. Oliver is also neurodivergent except she does know what he wants and knows how to get it. When these two come together chaos ensues can they survive the summer together? Camp Damascus. This is really like a ways heavy on your heart kind of but it's a horror novel but it's truly horrific. It's a little bit of allegory and symbolism. This camp is marketed as the best conversion camp that will scare the gay away. However in the administration building something dark and sinister awaits the campers and they don't know okay I don't want to get turned to it but it's a G and there are some trigger warnings on the homophobia. So it's a short read but very good. On the Black Queen. Noah Albright is dead. She was set to become the first Black homecoming queen and the person who actually tries to solve the mystery is the white runner-up. So she also wants to solve the mystery of Noah Albright. She was going to break boundaries. Someone didn't give her that chance. The white runner-up and Nova's friends have to solve this mystery before anyone else ends up dead or worse. And then another one that's kind of like the every time you hear that song is called A Little Bit Country except this is kind of like LGBTQIA. Lots of Dollywood vibes except this this land is called like Wanda land and it's romance and realistic fiction. Wanda Jean Stubbs, the country music legend and amusement park owner has been feuding with Werner Rose since the beginning of time. However Werner Rose's grandson hates country music and but all of a sudden he has to work at Wanda land. When Emmett takes the job at Wanda World and Werner Rose's grandson does the same sparks fly but every feud there is a secret. What does Werner's roses and Wanda's do? And then my last two is Laura Limpis. It is a webtoon originally and they just compiled these. It's based on mythology and it's in graphic novel format. This is a little spicy but it really focuses on this story of Hades and Persephone with lots of side stories from other gods and goddesses and there's a modern twist with these though. Sometimes they're a little spicy but the artwork is great and so these came out a couple years ago and there's the third one but the fifth one just came out and they're all just like you can read them in a day and the artwork is just great. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference of like who everyone is like within the gods and goddesses but it's a very good story and it's kind of it kind of has like a modern twist. All right only she came back. Social media inspired it's very twisty and turny. This is kind of based on that true crime story of that that girl who's murdered in the van by her boyfriend and she was on social media and all those things. Yeah Carrie Dunsmore is the only suspect in her boyfriend's disappearance out in the desert. One of her high school classmates put together podcasts wanting to prove that Carrie didn't do it. However there are so many twists and turns that no one knows what to believe anymore. Oh and this is really good. So all right that is the end of my presentation and I won't keep everyone to share that. All right. I have a lot more books to read now.  You should see the pop up for that. So nice. Cool. All right you just got to swap your things. If you go up to display settings at the top you can switch your monitors. There you go. Perfect. Yay. Well I hope Dana is still around so she can make comments on okay I want you to make comments on my choices too and you had a couple of titles that I have too but that's fine. Please make your comments like yeah please talk about them and I want to hear your point of view as well. Okay well I will then. I decided because this is not my entire list so when we get our lists up you will see one that says the encompass live list and then another one that says Sally's complete list or something like that because I had more books than we're going to have time to talk about today. Fortunately Dana hit a couple of them so that helped. So I'm calling this the best of the best teen reads of 2023 for this show today and we're going to oops I always have the voice takes me a minute there we go. So I did mine in a in a my usual order so I start with fiction for younger readers and I put this in the younger readers category it's kind of an upper elementary middle school title but I had to add it here. This is a Newberry Honor book. It's hilarious goofy and heartbreaking. This is an amazing book. Simon and his parents moved from near Omaha to a part of Nebraska that is a national radio quiet zone. That's fictional. The real one of those is in West Virginia. There is no internet access in this town and the town grin and bear at Nebraska are living with it. Simon has been home schooled for the past year but now excuse me now he is back in public school for the seventh grade. He makes a couple of friends and he begins to settle in. His mom is an undertaker for the town and they live in the mortuary. His dad works for the Catholic Church. Amazingly written quirky people and animals unusual situations will keep the students reading. There is a spoiler I have to give you a school shooting that happened in the past is revisited. It will break your heart. This is a full color graphic novel. Mia has a Jewish mom and a new step father and they both encourage her to participate and find herself in the Jewish faith and she's doing that. She's attending a Jewish school and she's enjoying learning about her Jewish side but her birth father is Native American and she wants to learn about that side of her heritage too. Since her mom doesn't want to talk about him Mia decides to secretly visit him and his family. Attending a pow wow and learning about his Muskegee Nation culture is satisfying he lives in Oklahoma.  Over time her mother comes to understand Mia's need to know her father and her Muskegee ways. They come to an agreement to set up a schedule for Mia to visit Oklahoma. This is fiction inspired by the author's life and it's very well done and you get a real sense of her bringing these two cultures together for her life who she is. Julia is 13 and she will soon be starting eighth grade and she enjoys volunteering with rescued horses at the stable where she rides. Her best friend Nori who is not a horsey person supports her but after being gone to camp for two months Nori has a new boyfriend and Julia is feeling left behind. Julia's sister Danielle gives her a makeover since Julia is feeling low but she sees the results she can't believe it she looks 16. Danielle has to leave so Julia takes a few selfies and posts one on social media. Soon she is DMing with a cute guy from a nearby school he is in the 10th grade and seems to understand her much better than anybody else does. After a couple of safe dates where they meet at the mall they stay in the mall when they separate to go home again he takes her to a nearby hotel to meet his friend. When she realizes what is really happening that she will soon be a victim of human trafficking she manages to escape. She never wants to think about it again but now one of her new friends is talking with a guy she doesn't know and Julia realizes she has to tell her friends what nearly happened to her. It's definitely a cautionary tale but the story flows well and readers will relate to the changes Julia is going through and will care about her troubles and her good times. So pretty scary stuff scary in a different way from the books that Dana was talking about. That is my nightmare though human trafficking stuff. This is a full color graphic novel and it's a sequel to her first book which was who to f are you. The family takes a road trip and visits Disney world who to try to let the stairs from others roll off her back hence the title. Trying not to care about what other people think of her she and her family the all of the girls her sisters they all wear the oh I can't hit you. Is that it. Anyway and the typical questions that aren't you hot and that kind of thing they get. She meets a girl at the at Disney who is loving the same book she does and they really hit it off and that girl never asks her a stupid question though the boy with her does and it's really a lovely way of demonstrating things that people face again and again Muslims and other people all have some things that we who do not understand their life ridiculously ask either innocently or intentionally mean but when when they hit it off it tempts her to disobey her parents but they have for them visiting the park still she bonds somewhat with their sisters and her new friends and overall they do have a good time that is 14 and she and her family live on the edge of the red light district in Bihar India. She has been told all of her life that her contribution to the family will be to be sold to the into the sex trade when she comes of age and that time is imminent. She accepts the opportunity to learn kung fu with the girls living in the hostel next to her former school it gives her a feeling of control and stability and soon she is at the hostel for her own safety after nearly being kidnapped by the man who was counting on buying her when she shows her prowess competing in kung fu events the family is thrilled since it is actually her heritage her family her uncles had all been competitors in the past and she does win some prize money the man who believes he owns her or will discovers that he never had a chance with all the family and friends who now support her so she has a positive outcome but this is something that happens today to young women first time in five years that karl hyacin has written another book for younger readers young adults valdes jones the eighth he's 15 and he uses the nickname wrecker because his five greats grandfather made a living salvaging ships he is biracial having both black and white family members he west his home and he loves being on the water in a skiff but one day he accidentally became trapped into helping a smuggler and he cannot seem to find a way to free himself from this it has an intriguing mystery touches on some sad local history from 1921 there are also concerns about the damage big big cruise ships inflict on the ecosystem of the harbor and living in the middle of the covid 19 pandemic there is a new friendship with willy who has her own issues that she's dealing with but she's also helping him work through this mystery so there's a lot going on but it's well written of course because it's karl karl hyacin i did i love i forgot to mention that i have these crib notes here because if i don't um i will be talking at noon and and everybody will be mad at me so that's why i keep looking down at my papers so i stay on topic borden korman had two new books out last year and i'm going to talk about one of them the super teacher project it's told from several points of view the new teacher mr a decked is he looks like a student teacher but he has a student teacher who looks old he calls the students pupils which they all think is weird and he can catch a fly between his thumb and thing forefinger just like that not a problem strange as he is the students begin to like him and he assume the favorite teacher at the middle school one day friends oliver and nathan tried to look up mr a decked on the internet but they find nothing they do find the student teacher mr pertin's address so they go over there write their bikes over there find his apartment number and they use one of those old-fashioned cardboard periscopes to look in the window and what they see shocks them the three just will have suspected mr a decked is not human he is a robot when mr a decked's future is threatened by the government agency that created him the students put together a plan to save him and this is a great effort to make sure that he can get away and live his life korman addresses artificial intelligence middle schoolers behaviors intricate planning and different points of view it's lots of fun and you're moving through a debt a senior in high school jared volunteers to help for a week at camp sunshine his name was drawn out of a hat and off he went not knowing what to expect he was assigned along with another person joy a one-on-one with the ego who's 13 who had brain cancer and along for jared he also is assigned a family with three kids one of whom had recently completed chemotherapy at first he thought working there would be sad and depressing but instead it was fun and positive families were taking a break from chemo and operations in order to just be together in a fun environment so the whole family is there not just the child and his job was to focus on the fun for the kids he's assigned and after I graduated from college I worked for that summer at camp Easter seal and I had the same experience as he describes in here so I could really relate to what he was talking about it's a wonderful full color graphic novel and I think it's a great addition to anybody's collection I got a little creepy I don't have near this tolerance you do Dana for scary but I started to try to read their vicious games and I couldn't I had to put it down I don't know if you read that the vicious games their vicious games oh yeah I have not I will it's not on my list because I I took it back to the library I'm sorry I'm a chicken I apologize anyway Maggie is extremely disappointed that her parents at the last minute let her know that instead of going to camp rising star for three weeks with her best friend Maggie she will own up with her best friend Maggie will be attending Camp Sylvania a fat camp once there Camp Sylvania is weird the campers have the expected exercise each morning up the hill down hill up the hill down hill but only 15 campers are allowed to swim in the lake each day and no one can use the jet skis they're too dangerous and campers are expected to give blood almost every day and they're teenagers they're not adults to give blood so this is all kind of weird Maggie begins to suspect that the camp owner sylvia is a vampire body acceptance supporting each other and meeting a ghost are included in this tale living in London maddie 14 the middle child for older sister chichi 17 and younger brother tana 10 are all missing their mother who had passed away chichi has been acting out terribly so their father baba takes them on a trip through their natives in bobway maddie is slowly telling the story of what happened why they are on the trip to a mystical being called a metachize visible only to maddie who comes and goes and he is also helping her with her grief reforming as a family feeling love and living through grief is all that they can do they know things will never be the same but they could become something else that is good lost here we go this is the first book in the noah files noa 14 lives in a small oregon town and wishes for a larger place to live for more opportunities but unusual people showing interest in him it is just all too weird his best friend Ogden has a unique viewpoint of the world and knows a lot of unusual facts he is the best friend anyone could hope for then know what begins to experience some bizarre things like he got to school much faster than he should and he accidentally flattened sehera a member of the school's girls gymnastics team she says he jumped out of a tree but he doesn't remember being in a tree i don't know what's going on noah realizes that some people want to capture him and he is pushed to avoid them while finding out what is up with this unusual abilities it seems he can manifest different animals capabilities and defense mechanisms fast paced humorous over the top intriguing readers will be ready for a second novel about noah this family and his friends i like all of his other covers except for this one yes i didn't like this one now i understand now why it's that way but i still find it off-putting or something yeah laila she is rising high school senior she is hard of hearing she uses hearing aids and lip reads but she still misses parts of conversations her friends are supportive but they're not aware of how left out she sometimes feels she spends the summer as a camp counselor at a camp for the deaf and hard of hearing her sign language is slow because she doesn't use it very often one of the other counselors spends time with her helping her improve she doesn't realize it at first but her lack of sign language ability is hurting her ability to help her campers over time she improves and begins to see how she had let people down like her friends at school had unknowingly let her down there's some romance along the way with some of the issues that the deaf community faces and the author is deaf this is a full-color graphic novel siblings jj and althea are both in middle school they are first generation filipino americans and find it a little hard to fit into school their mother tells them these folklore stories that should help them but mostly it just makes them roll their eyes oh no she's telling us another one of those stories about those stupid creatures that i'm tired of it however when their uncle arvin arrives from the philippines with dire warnings for their mother the family soon encounters creatures from their mother's folk tales the family must pull together jj and althea must discover their hidden talents and skills to help save the world i mean i've never had the opportunity to help save the world but i'm going to hope i'm ready when the turn when my turn comes oh this is this is just lovely it's a full-color graphic novel mazy is 14 and she is excited to be attending her first fan con she and her mother are going together they are both fans and just as they come inside the door she immediately meets all a 15 who is working with their father on door duty at the con and they click mazy is an amputee and bisexual the venue has a quiet room in some couch corners and she will take advantage of them whenever she feels overwhelmed mazy's main purpose at the fan con is to meet cara ufano an amputee who plays one of the characters on her favorite tv show unfortunately the actress was sick and not able to appear that's a big disappointment but there was still lots to see and do at the con spending more time with ollie who was non-binary was part of that and then they had to say goodbye maybe they can meet again at next year's con and yes they do have a nice little kiss this is just hilarious and i had to believe it in here because it's by jean luan luan yang and it's book one volume one and it's crazy eroticus terry is a legendariously legendary hog rider of triumphica but he really doesn't fit the mold he is smaller and tends to fight in his own way rather than following orders his brother leader of the hog riders sends him with three others to overtake the town of jessie pickelton things start out great for terry but then something huge powerful and unrecognizable defeats them soundly his brother kicks him out of the group and granny pokus she's a hog trainer convinces him to find out what i'll find out more about this secret weapon of jessie pickelton during his infiltration he begins to enjoy living there and is torn when his brother asks for information on this is an homage to the video game's clash of clans and clash royale which i've never seen or played myself i should look for those this is the first book in a new series that sets the stage for terry the people of jessie pickelton and the dastardly hog riders it is likely the more battles are on the way some nonfiction for teens don brown had two new books out last year this is the one that came out earlier and of course he uses the graphic novel format for his nonfiction when i read this back in june it was hard to read knowing all of it was continuing to happen as i was reading this book the author shows the destruction of the city the death of the citizens and the efforts people went to to survive and to escape the city this is all taking place in my brain just lost it who did russia invade ukraine thank you ukraine i don't know why my brain just i don't have it down here there are black and white and gray illustrations with of course an occasional red or orange this book came out a little bit later last year again the graphic novel nonfiction approach is muted full-color art with occasional splashes of red or orange brown tells the story of a number of jewish children who escape the nazis with help from others hiding in barns fields of wheat or as the children of christian people helping them to safety it's both sobering and hopeful and includes source source notes and an extensive bibliography this is well researched and the author uses oral histories letters and first-hand accounts of the war in the philippines and during world war two the loss of the philippines to the japanese the baton death march and the rescue of prisoners in the katana to on camp in the fear that they would be killed is relayed they kept that's very secret because they were afraid if word got out that they were trying to rescue them they would all be killed immediately it includes a few poems of some of the soldiers photos from the time and maps plenty of back matter sources index web pages and the bibliography as kirkus says she does not shy away from relating the horrors of these events in an age-appropriate way and school library journal says a must buy for any public school library they did rescue them occasionally worried most all of them i so i didn't want you to to despair this is a full color graphic memoir adopted from south korea as an infant as what's her older sister sara who now uses they them finds it hard to fit in anywhere their parents are white and never taught sara or her sister much about their heritage bullying at school is almost constant for them until their skill in art brings some admiration in grade school middle school is different whenever they feel low or like striking out they see themselves as a monster as you can see on the cover and this monster face appears from time to time throughout the book anime is a wonderful discovery for them and they immerse themselves in it others at first think it is weird but over time it becomes more popular and over time sara discovers they are queer have you seen this book yet um dina you by them i read it though okay it is a wonderful guide to writing including tips some personal stories of hers an encouragement that everyone has a story to tell specific suggestions for example she at one point says list three mistakes you've made and why they were mistakes now list a benefit that came as a result of each mistake ways for you to look into your past and your life and things that have made you who you are today and each chapter concludes which with a page of writing prompts so anyone who's having uh like public library some of them have writing groups that get together and practice writing this has would have a lot of things in there that you can use for that writing group or can can go through it dina that would be great for creative writing club yes perfect and you learn some things about her life that you never knew so that's kind of fun too i love that author okay so i'm going to talk about some fiction for older readers all her high school life perla has concentrated on her family's plan for her do all the things on the list and she will be going to delmont university in the fall on her way to becoming a doctor except she is not accepted at delmont and all her other choices reject her too is it because she's only 16 having skipped a couple of grades was her s a two weeks she doesn't know so she fakes an acceptance letter and her parents proudly take her to delmont where she sneaks into an unoccupied dorm room attends some classes and makes a couple of friends her plan is to experience delmont so her winter application and essay will be accepted eventually it all falls apart what can she do now then the next book was going to be promise boys but he already talked about that so i'm moving on to royal blood right 17 is the king of england's illegitimate daughter she has known it for most of her life but has not been known publicly she is in trouble again at her 12th or so boarding school and her assigned caretaker brings her to britain to winzer castle too soon the paparazzi are all over everything she does and everywhere she goes at a party her half sister princess mary who is her same age and has her same birthday princess mary takes her to this party she is given a date rape drug things get blurry but she struggles to make her way to the door before she blacks out when she when she comes to she learned that the guy she was with has been killed and she is the top suspect did she did someone else and who would that be this is the first title in a new series and just so you know the author supposes that king edward the eighth did not abdicate and this is his line that is continuing on the throne so it's not the current king of england that's the father it's a different line of people and it was intriguing and a good mystery and of course i am a little bit of a royal follower in that i like to know stories there are so many stories about princes and princesses except they're fun i don't believe anyone will ever really meet one but there you go oh this is sally what's that have you seen the musical six no it's all about the Henry Henry the eighth six wives oh i just recently saw some like clips and things from that now like what is this that i'm seeing it looks very interesting i'll have to very thank you that's fun i loved this book fc is a high school senior she has terrible palsy and uses a fiddle chair she has been frustrated for years by the school's lack of accessibility now her mother tells her this year she will have to be the advocate for herself her mother has charged down to the school every whip stitch didn't get things better for her but this year as a senior she needs to stand up for herself because next year she's going away to college that's what her mother tells her also going on are her years long crush on a classmate wilder and her efforts to determine which college best suits her neighbor and her major excuse me her major and her needs this is well written the author also has cerebral palsy and the reader can see at these point of view and it will be and they will be irked at the issue she has to confront everybody has to meet outside the front door if there's an emergency there are stairs why would she go to the front door for you out of an emergency this kind of stuff drives me crazy i know schools have limited funds but come on you gotta have a door this girl can get out of okay lecture over moving on i just want to jump in before we go any farther to let people know it is a little after 11 o'clock we started a little after 10 that's fine but we will go as long as it takes for sally and dana to get through all the books are still talking about i'm not sure how many more you still have sally but i want to let people know if you do need to leave because you only a lot of the hour for this that's fine we're recording the whole show and you can watch the rest of it later that your convenience when it's in the show archives but we will keep going as long as it takes um and if you have any comments or questions or books that you want to share type them into the question section of the go to whatever inch webinar interface um dana and sally are always happy to hear about more books um these are just a few of the ones that they are highlighting there are so many books that are published every year of course they do not mention every single one but i'm always looking for other titles as well thank you that's true yeah so go ahead i have a sports book i'm really bad about reading sports books tre brun 15 is thrilled yet nervous about being pulled up from the junior varsity team to play for the varsity team of the ojue reservation school in minnesota two players were suspended for two games his older brother jackson had been an amazing basketball player for the team but now he has gone due to a car accident this contains a good amount of sports action along with life on the reservation and the temptations of partying and alcohol the author is objue and also played high school basketball on the red lake indian reservation in minnesota so he knows what he's talking about in this book this was so fun i kept hearing about this book and i was on the list for it at the library and i was like number 75 so uh it's in paperback i think it's only in paperback and so why just bought my own copy to care of that this is this mallory is 18 it's her the summer after she graduated from high school and she is not planning on attending college she has a car repair job and uses the money it's never enough to help her family pay the bills her mom is struggling with rheumatoid arthritis and her father is dead and her two younger sisters 14 and 12 at the beginning of the book always have things they need want then a friend asks her to play chess in a low-key charity event and there she soundly defeats the reigning world champion she had a promising chess career earlier and walked away from it for the sake of her family now she accepts a fellowship in a new jersey chess club she will make more money for that than she did fixing cars soon she is immersed in chess again and loving it after she promised herself it would only be her day job some romance and finding out who she is and what she wants you heard about this book danie checkmate yeah she wrote a lot of like the love hypothesis books and things like that okay yeah i haven't read it though i've read them one too it's a good one look at that i'm gonna go ahead and since you asked me to i'm gonna go ahead and read my blurb on it said in england the book opens with a three page glossary of english colloquialisms and cultural references for us readers which is greatly appreciated that it's at the beginning of the book and not at the end we're like oh now i can use that sooner saline is 17 and bradley is 17 and they used to be best friends but when according to saline brad dropped her for the popular crowd and the software they say football in england team she chose to loathe and ignore him now they are both buying for one of three college scholarships by participating in the break spear enrichment program a nature boot camp plus a chance to meet katherine break spear a civil rights lawyer saline admires they end up on the same team as an as time goes by they each find themselves yearning for the other with no intention of ever mentioning it this book and several others are the inaugural list of books from the joy revolution imprint guided by david and nikola youn they are young adult romances featuring and written by people of color and i loved i saw a program where they talked about this and david refers to these books as dread free reading so as a person of color when you're reading a book about people of color you're halfway always waiting what are they going to say that's wrong and stupid it's going to happen it's going to happen these are dread free reading because they're written by the people that are representing and i love that phrase dread free reading yes and also they're probably happy and upbeat and not like you know they're fighting through this unwinnable cause you know good point yes there are stories of people is what this all about another book in that list is queen b lady aila derby 15 has been disgraced all lie told by her former best friend poppy she is sent north to a seminary for for girls three years later lady lyra whitley 18 a reinvention of gala has come to london for the season and for revenge against poppy for mentor and benefactor known as church had warned her that revenge was not the way to go but illa now lyra has spent the three years planning the downfall of poppy still and making new friends real friends and then once again seeing the mark weston ridley so handsome and her former friend as well because where's my other people here he's second guess is her plans and is unsure what she really wants now there's plenty of tingling pounding hearts and chase longing people of color others and others who were left out of regency romances before do populate the aristocracy in this book as they did in real life as stated in the author's note and i also have hopped up hop stopper heart stopper volume five i did i do have the two novellas that she wrote that are not graphing novels one title nick and charlie a heart stopper novella and the other titled this winter also a heart stopper novella they came out in like january and later in the fall last year so you can look for those two but the reason i have this up here and i have enjoyed this series so much i've read them all it is a continuing love story of nick and charlie including dealing with the fact that next year nick will go to college and charlie has one more year of high school and i do make a note i think it's important for me to let you know that this is the first book in which they have sex as it is a graphic novel the pages show them in bed with one on top of the other the blanket up around the armpits and um there's kissing and cuddling but nothing shows no demonstrations of what they're actually doing and the author does say that volume six will conclude the series which dean mentioned i hope my hope is that they when they go to college i hope they don't break up like that's what i'm really worried about but me too because they have had such love for each other it's hard just think that that could happen but i don't know what she's going to do right she'll be 16 as a high school senior and because she skipped a grade it takes a while to find out that shelby has bipolar disorder and had a very bad episode in the recent past she is now concentrating on keeping a low profile and graduating high school enter andy crittle a high school senior also who accidentally texted her a wrong number text while drunk at a party she asked him not to drive but he does and has an accident shelby he's okay but shelby finds car accidents seems interesting and she finds andy's wallet returning it to him at school as a friendship begins shelby asks andy to sign a friendship agreement which includes number six do not under any circumstances fall in love with shelby and he signed things go well for a while as friends and then they go badly by the end of the book andy is going to a a and shelby will not see him but is continued she is continuing to take care of herself so it's quite a um a trip they they were both on and the last book on my oh i'm going to mention a couple of other things so sorry this is the last book i'm going to talk about specifically hungry ghost it's four-color graphic novel with black white light green and blue gray throughout the book val is a high school senior and she has spent her life worrying about food and her weight she regularly purchased what she has eaten keeping that secret even from her mom who constantly encourages saying eggs her not to eat too much she hides what she does whenever she can she bombets the food she ate but on a school trip to paris purging is difficult and she begins to consider her life she has to return home home early because her father died in a plane crash he had always said that he would have no regrets because he lived every day to its fullest thou has not and she wonders what her father would have said after an outburst had her best friend jordan who is plump fun and brings out the best in others val realizes she needs help to manage and work through her opinions of herself manifested in binging binging and purging the author's note states val does not me but i am her and there are also resources listed and the only thing i wanted to mention beyond this is on my on my full list you'll see this series new titles in series etc i do list three titles written by rainbow row about she hope who and i have read those they were fun i never knew anything about she hope before i read those so i know that the other people were writing she hope books and but these are the ones by rainbow row so i thought people should at least know that they're around maybe have she hope fans at their library i yeah absolutely all right you said that was your last one sally yeah okay awesome all right thank you so much dana and sally um no i just look like any um anyone had any questions or comments that's fine um i am going to uh poll presenter control back to my screen because i wanted to show um so as i said all of the the slides and um the list will be um sally's list will be available there we go um we got some thank yous coming in of course uh to this thank you christa dana sally you're welcome sally always posts her lists for the children's books some reading program and the teens on our website in our handouts page if you go to the Nebraska library commission's homepage and just use the search feature up here at the top and type in handouts you'll see that comes up as a suggestion and it is the first link that comes up as one of our starred links so um her the list for today is not up yet she's still needs she's been traveling doing some doing some reading program workshops but will be up maybe by the end of the day tomorrow um she'll have so you'll have the actual list with all of the you know the author information published information everything will be on here just like the previous ones and you can see there's a summer reading one program one from last year and the best new children's books one so the new ones and all of her previous lists are here too it's a nice long page so if you do um just want to see some previous lists and see what books that she um mentioned um you can go back and look through any of these is there anything else you want to say about your lists here sally i know i think you covered it pretty well thank you i know you usually show you so that sometimes when you're doing it but i wanted to make sure we got that out there for everyone all right so um that will wrap it up for today's show i'm going to pop back over here to my um compass live pages and i did mention that um we do record the show i have in our archives uh if you go online anywhere and use your search engine of choice and type in and compass live the name of the show um well the only thing that comes up in your search results you'll be a link to our main page here with our upcoming shows and also potentially links to our archive shows but here's the link to the archive for underneath our upcoming shows today's show and there's last week so today's show will be at the top of the list most recent ones first it should also be by the end of the day tomorrow we post as long as go to webinar and youtube cooperate with me um everyone who attended today's show and registered for today's show get an email directly from me um when i also posted out to our mailing lists here in Nebraska letting you know when the recording is available and we also push this information out to our um social media we do have a facebook page for encompass live if you like to use facebook give us a like over there we do reminders here's the reminder about logging in today's show meet the presenter sessions um yeah we got here uh here we go recording of yesterday's the previous week show so when recordings are available so if you want to keep up on things we are doing you can um give us a like over there we also post onto twitter and instagram using the um hashtag for the show and comp live a little abbreviation of our show name so you can keep an eye on things we're doing there as well um and also just you know watch the websites uh join our mailing lists or Nebraska mailing lists for Nebraska library staff while we're here on the archives i will show you there is a search feature if you want to see if we've done a show on any topic you might be interested in you can search the full show archives or just the most recent years worth most recent 12 months um if you want something just current and that is because this is our full show archives and i'm not going to scroll all the way down because it's a giant page as you can see here um and encompass live premiered in january 2009 so this year 2024 is our 16th year of the show oh my gosh we're sweet 16 um and uh we have all of our shows here um so that's why there's a huge list over 700 um archive recordings uh but they do all have an original broadcast date listed to them next to them so um many of the shows will be fine to watch you know whenever they stand to test their time great useful resources um but some things will become old like like you know sally's previous all the all sally and dana's previous shows about book talks i can't imagine how they would ever be you know they just won't be new for that year but the books are still out there and still good books um but some things will become old and outdated resources may have changed drastically or have you know disappeared completely um people will work at different libraries now potentially um there may be broken links because if things have changed so differently or gone away so just pay attention to that when you're watching any of the older shows but they all have an original broadcast date so you know when they were actually um originally done but as long as this is something libraries do we keep things for historical purposes so people have access to them and as long as we have a place to host our shows which right now is on the library commission's youtube channel we will always have them out there available to you so that wraps up for today's show um thank you everyone for being here thanks again dana and sally's is great i always get good ideas for my nieces and nephews from watching your shows um and previously it was the children's ones that you all did but now my nieces some of them are getting older i have anywhere from two-year-old up to who's the oldest one 14 now yeah so i always get ideas for them for gifts these gambit yeah yes got things on my list yeah um so thank you so i hope you all join us possibly next week when it is the last wednesday of the month which means it is pretty sweet tech day as you can see here's pretty sweet tech also for end of february um pretty sweet amanda sweet is our technology innovation librarian and the last wednesday of the month she always comes on the show to do something techie related we do other shows throughout the month that are tech related too but you know i guarantee that the last wednesday of the month will be amanda talking about something and next wednesday she is doing a wordpress website refresh session so if you have a wordpress site either through the library commission or um where we host websites for public libraries or your own uh sign up for that one and see um what amanda has to share with you about updating your website and one last thing i want to mention you might have seen it as i was scrolling through here is our big talk from small libraries online conference this is the when we shared it out to um the page uh big talk from small libraries is our annual um conference where it is online all of the presenters are from small libraries with an fte your population served of 10 000 or less and uh the it is on the last it's always the last friday and february so this year is on february 23rd and just yesterday the full schedule was posted i got that all figured out so if you are interested i want to see what your rural and small libraries are doing and this is a this is not a nebraska thing this is a national event so if you go to the link for the schedule here you will see that we have um presenters from all over the country a district columbia arizona we will also be having you see here the best small library in america uh the that award came back this year had been on hold since the pandemic had started um but page public library in arizona was awarded that they will be joining us but the full schedule is here and you can register for it registration's been open so if you're interested in hearing what your small and rural library colleagues are doing all across the country uh check out the schedule check out information about the speakers we've got i'm getting more information in i'm still filling out this page with full schedules there but i'm still getting speaker info so you can you'll see that page will get more filled in in the next week or so um and then register go ahead and sign up to um join us on february 23rd the entire day is recorded so if you're unable to join us stay for the whole day um or you start to pop in and out or some of them you will have available in our previous conferences we have all of our previous recordings um as well so i just want to give a plug for that since we i did just yesterday announce that the that this full schedule is ready all right so that wraps it up finally i'll stop talking thanks everyone and i'll hopefully see you on a future episode of mcompass live thank you bye bye dana bye