Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Celebrate Teen Literature Day!

Today is Celebrate Teen Literature Day!

As outlined on the American Library Association (ALA) website, Celebrate Teen Literature Day was first celebrated in 2007 by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA, a division of ALA) under its original name, Support Teen Literature Day. The day is intended to raise awareness about the "vibrant" and "growing" young adult genre; these books are enjoyed not only by teens, but by many adults too!

Celebrate this special day by checking out a teen book from the Community Library today!

Book Summaries (from left to right)

Esther Grace Earl died of cancer in 2010, at age sixteen. This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl (with Lori and Wayne Earl) is a collection of her journals, letters and sketches. The book also includes photographs and essays by family and friends that help tell Esther's story.

Emma's stepfather is keeping her mother's body alive, even though she has passed away, because she is pregnant in Heart Beat by Elizabeth Scott. Emma find herself connecting with a juvenile delinquent, Caleb.

Before My Eyes by Caroline Bock is narrated in turns by three separate voices - Claire and Max, two seventeen year old children, and a twenty-one-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, Barkley. Claire has a complicated home life and Max's parents are too busy with their own lives to take notice of his pain.

Click here for more information on Celebrate Teen Literature Day.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Celebrate Teen Literature Day!

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