social media – Page 2

Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

“Cyrano de Bergerac in yoga pants”: Cici Reno, Middle School Matchmaker

Posted on April 16, 2016April 16, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Cici Reno: #MiddleSchoolMatchmaker, by Christina Springer (Apr. 2016, Sterling Publishing), $14.95, ISBN: 9781454917519

Recommended for ages 9-13

Middle schooler Cici Reno is the go-to person for… well, darn near everything. She knows just the right thing to say, just the right advice to give. Maybe she’s so Zen because she takes classes in her mom’s local yoga studio and tweets advice about the right pose for the right mood? The thing is, her best friend, Aggie, is crushing on Drew – who happens to be Cici’s brother’s buddy – but has no idea how to talk to him. Cici volunteers to create a fake Twitter account and talk to him online, posing as Aggie. And that’s where the trouble starts: Cici finds herself falling for Drew. Drew falls for the girl he’s chatting with online, who he thinks is Aggie, but he’s totally confused as to why Aggie’s so different when she sees him in person. And Cici? Well, for possibly the first time in her life, she doesn’t have the answers.

Cici Reno is a fun intro to crush and romantic fiction for tweens, and a sneaky/smart way to introduce the classic tale, Cyrano de Bergerac, to middle schoolers. It’s a classic tale of miscommunication that fits perfectly with today’s kids, who largely interact online. I also love the introduction and description to various yoga poses, and the mental/emotional benefits of each, that Cici Tweets out at the beginning of each chapter. Not only does it gives readers a clue as to what’s going to happen in the upcoming chapter, it offers a little bit of yoga instruction that I appreciate and hope tweens will take the bait and discover on their own.

Cici is a likable character. She’s not a mean girl; she’s not vapid; she’s a realistic tween who does a favor for her shy friend, with the best of intentions, and finds herself stuck in a situation she didn’t expect. Aggie is a surprisingly supportive best friend; I normally find myself irritated with the classic “best friend breakdown” formula that many books fall into, but Cici and Aggie avoided all that by simply talking things out. Thank you for that, Ms. Springer! It’s going to be a talking point when I booktalk this one, because I will be adding this to my shelves for summer reading. I think the use of social media and miscommunication will fit nicely with my tweens, and it gives me a great jumping off point for a discussion on how you can pretend to be someone else online – and, in classic devil’s advocate mode, how someone shy and/or introverted can use social media to interact more comfortably than he or she would feel in person.

Christina Springer’s author website offers more information about her books, a link to her blog and appearances, and contact information.

Here’s a glimpse at #MiddleSchoolMatchmaker:

Fiction, Humor, Puberty, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Kill the Boy Band takes aim at fandom

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Kill the Boy Band, by Goldy Moldavsky, (Feb. 2016, Point), $17.99, ISBN: 9780545867474

Recommended for ages 14+

Four super fangirls stalk their boyband favorites with disastrous results in this insanely funny dark comedy.

The Ruperts are the boy band of the moment, and our narrator – who takes on the names of ’80s teen movie heroines – and her three (mainly online) friends have a plan to be near them, securing a room in the same hotel as the boys. When one of the girls encounters her favorite Rupert (they all have the same first name) at the ice machine, she overreacts and the girls find themselves with an unconscious boy bander in their hotel suite. And things get crazier from there. Each girl has a different agenda, and before the day is over, there are going to be some ugly revelations and even uglier circumstances.

Kill the Boy Band is at once a laugh-out loud black comedy in the vein of Pulp Fiction and Fargo and a scathing look at fandom and fangirl culture. Ms. Moldavsky takes aim at the culture that expects us to destroy our idols, even as we worship them. She looks at the long-established culture of loathing popstar girlfriends, celebrity stalking, and what happens when you find out that the man behind the curtain really isn’t Oz at all.

As a Duranie who was a teenager during the social media-bereft ’80s, Kill the Boy Band made me laugh and cringe, often at the same time. With boy band and fandom culture at an all-time frenzy now, teens will recognize themselves (hopefully, not too much) or laugh in recognition of someone they know. There’s a great whodunit that will keep readers guessing until the very last page – and maybe even after. You’ll laugh, and you’ll think – it’s a great book to have a discussion group with.

Great addition to collections with a thriving teen population that’s plugged in. This should be a good summer read. For older teens, consider introducing them to Pamela Des Barres’ I’m With the Band for a look at pre-online fandom culture.

Kill the Boy Band has been selected as an Independent Booksellers’ Debut Pick of the Season.

Uncategorized

#Presidents: Follow the Leaders – A funny social media guide to the Presidents

Posted on September 19, 2015September 18, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

#presidents: Follow the Leaders, by John Bailey Owen (Aug. 2015, Scholastic), $9.99, ISBN: 9780545849388

Recommended for ages 8-13

Imagine for a minute, if all the Presidents – all 44 of them! – were on Twitter? And they could talk to one another? Can you imagine what you’d find out if you were able to follow them? That would be the best history lesson ever!

#presidents: Follow the Leaders does exactly that. We hear from the Presidents – and some Vice Presidents and First Ladies! – as they tell us a little bit about themselves and react to other Presidents. There are hilarious screen names, too: James Madison, our shortest President and the author of the Constitution, goes by @LILJCONSTITUTION; William Henry Harrison, who caught a cold during his inauguration speech and died after 32 days in office, can be found @ILLWILL_H. Bill Clinton can be found @CLINSTAGRAM, and our current Prez, Barack Obama, is @BAMIMOBAMA. We’ve got some guest stars, like the White House Pets, Camp David, the Secret Service, and the White House Chef, and the Rules of Running for President makes sure everyone knows how the process works.

There are profile pictures, hometowns, hilarious hashtags, even #tbt pictures. A timeline of the U.S. Presidency rounds out the book. It’s a fun companion to a kid’s history books, but make sure no one’s doing their history homework with this as their sole source of information (I can see some of my patrons trying it)!

Author John Bailey Owen is a humorist. His author website offers blog posts and links to his other books.

Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Uncategorized, Young Adult/New Adult

What do you NEED and what are you willing to do to have it?

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Need, by Joelle Charbonneau (Nov. 2015, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s), $17.99, ISBN: 9780544416697

Recommended for ages 13+

A social network promises you whatever you need – but nothing comes for free, and the teens at Wisconsin’s Nottawa High School discover just how far they are willing to go for concert tickets, gym equipment, or just the thrill of a mission. Kaylee Dunham, social outcast at Nottawa, needs a kidney for her sick brother, but she discovers pretty quickly that the site is causing havoc around her. When things turn deadly, Kaylee starts digging to find out who’s behind NEED, but what happens when you’re up against a social network that can send someone to kill you in exchange for someone’s greatest wish?

NEED is a fast-paced thriller that teens – boys and girls – will enjoy. Everyone’s life seems to revolve around a multitude of social networks, so joining one more – that promises to give you free stuff for just one little task – will click. The tasks start off almost innocuously – more like pranks, really – but as the situations escalate and everything starts falling into place, the book becomes tense and unputdownable. The pervasiveness of social media and a seemingly invisible antagonist who can contact you anywhere, anytime – and can assemble your own classmates against you – is truly unsettling.

NEED is a good addition to collections for fans of tech fiction and a good thriller. It also lends itself to a good discussion on wants versus needs.

Joelle Charbonneau is a New York Times bestselling author of the Testing trilogy. Her author website offers links to social media, information about her books and appearances, and a section dedicated to authors united in support of Ferguson, Missouri’s youth by supporting their library, which stayed open and provided a safe space for the community during the riots. NEED will be available in November 2015, but you can pre-order a signed copy from Ms. Charbonneau’s site.

Possible booktalk: Kaylee signs up for NEED because she wants a kidney for her sick brother. Other classmates sign up for NEED because they want material possessions like concert tickets and gym equipment. What is a want versus a need? If someone offered you the chance to have something you really wanted, but you had to complete an anonymous task, would you blindly do it? Would you question it at all? Is there always a price to pay for something that appears to be free?

Early Reader, Fiction, Graphic Novels

Flop to the Top – A WhatchaReading Review!

Posted on July 24, 2015July 23, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

TOON Books is knocking it out of the park with the graphic novels they’re putting out for younger readers. I love Toon Books. Their Fall lineup looks amazing – check this space often enough, and you’ll hear all about it. Flop to the Top is a great book about learning to be a good friend and a great commentary on the role of social media in pop culture today, all written and illustrated for young kids.

Check out my review, plus a preview, over at WhatchaReading!