If you click on the Voting Home box on the top of the page it will bring you back to the main page of grade level choices. If you read to your little brothers, sisters or cousins, you might want to vote in those finalist sections.

Voting ends on May 9th and the winners will be announced on May 13th. For more information about the CCBA’s, check this page out http://www.bookweekonline.com/about-CCBAs.

Here are the covers for the books on the ballot:

If you haven’t read these books, they are definitely worth reading.

May your favorite book win….

by Tatiana

by Alianette

by Amira

On March 14, public schools in Chicago were told to take the book Persepolis off their classroom shelves and to stop using the book in classes. Persepolis is a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi that tells the story of her growing up in Iran during a revolution and a war with Iraq in the ’70s and ’80s and in the Chicago Public Schools, it’s taught in grades 7-12. The decision to ban the book, according to the head of Chicago Public Schools Barbara Byrd-Bennett, was made because of the  images of torture and the concern for students not being able to handle it.

After hearing about this, students at Lane Tech High School organized a rally for the next morning to demand that the book be kept in their schools. One high school senior, who read the book for class,  said Persepolis “sheds light on a different country and religion. It cancels out the stereotypes and changes your perspective.”  When asked whether the book was inappropriate for younger students, she added: “We shouldn’t have 12- and 13-year-olds who are not in tune politically. We’re being sheltered. We’re allowing ourselves to be dumbed down.” Students and teachers at another school called the Social Justice High led a read-in, reading the book in their library to protest the ban.

After these protests, Byrd-Bennett “re-phrased” the original message about all schools having to take Persepolis off their shelves.  In a letter to teachers, she stated that the book is appropriate for use in high school classrooms, but should not be used in 7th grade classes, where the book should be taken off of classroom shelves and kept in the school libraries only. Unfortunately, as others have noted, many elementary and middle schools do not have school libraries.

For me, hearing about this made me think a lot about access to information for young people and whether they have a say in that. So, I asked some teens at the Dudley Library what they thought about banning books in schools and what they think they’d do in that situation. Here are some of their thoughts:

Nathaniel: ” Why ban books? Books are about expressing ideas you never thought you had. If they ban a book I like, I might protest.”

Chole: “If someone banned A Girl Named Disaster, I would be upset because I’m reading that right now and I like it. If it was a book I never read, it would bother me because I never got the chance to read it.”

Imani: “It depends…if I like the book and it was banned in my school, I would just get it from the public library. There’s no point to banning one book because there are so many other books that probably have things in there that someone could ban it for.”

Ashley: “If a book was banned, I would try to get a petition signed or see what else is possible to do about it. We learn about war in history class. That’s not a good reason to ban a book. ”

How about you–what do you think? Have you read Persepolis? What would you do if a book was banned in your school or community?

Students will need to pre-register for this exam at www.princetonreview.com or at 800.447.0254.

Good luck everyone!

Beautiful Music For Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Read by: Anna/Copley Teen Room

This is the story of Gabe, who was born Elizabeth, and who just wants to become a radio DJ as he was meant to be. When he was ten, Gabe’s DJ mentor, John, moved in next door. Supposedly, John was the first radio DJ to play Elvis on the airwaves back in the day. To Gabe, that’s pretty cool. Pretty awesome, in fact. John helps Gabe get a radio show on the local community station at midnight on Fridays where Gabe becomes something of a local celebrity. There’s just one problem. Gabe recently graduated highschool as Elizabeth and most of the school doesn’t realize that Elizabeth has always felt like she was a boy inside. Coming out to his family didn’t exactly go as planned and his parents, struggling with the sudden change, still call him Elizabeth. No one seems to understand who he is. When Gabe wins the heart of a popular girl, things start to get dangerous with threats on his life, and that of his family. Even so, Gabe finds himself falling for his BFF since forever: pretty Paige. But does Paige return Gabe’s feelings, or will another girl take his heart? Gabe has his doubts about love and who he is throughout the story, but ultimately, he remains strong and true to himself.

This was a fast read  I couldn’t put down, and one I highly recommend. As the author states at the very end, not every person has the same experiences, yet I found Gabe’s story to be very realistic and inspiring. I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that it wasn’t perfect, as life is almost never perfect. The characters were great, and I loved the fact that Gabe wanted to be a radio DJ. Little known fact: that was my dream job when I was in middle school and early high school, so to see her living that dream was pretty awesome, especially when it seems like there are fewer and fewer DJs today than there were years ago. A note about musical taste, Gabe likes a wide variety of things, half of which I haven’t heard of and half of which was popular a bazillion years ago. That’s cool. I like the fact that she doesn’t stick to one genre of music, and I especially like the fact that she doesn’t stick to what’s popular right now. She really knows her music. Overall, this book was fabulous, and I would read it again in a heartbeat.

For those who are interested, at the end, the author included a section about what it means to be transgender and transsexual. She explains the various words that fall underneath the umbrella of transgender, including genderqueer, and what it means to not fall into the “gender binary”. This section is short and easy to understand for anyone who has yet to learn about gender differences. For this section, the author is awesome. She really did a great job.

The Teen users of the Grove Hall Branch Library have voted, and the results are in! Read on to find out which books, musicians, actors, and video games have been declared the best of the best by you and other teens!

Books

The Runners Up

• The Naruto series by Masashi Kishimoto
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

And the Winner is…

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins!

Actors and Actresses

The Runners Up

• Jennifer Lawrence
• Johnny Depp

And the Winner is…

Will Smith!

Video and Computer Games

The Runners Up

• Mario Kart
• Minecraft

And the Winner is…

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm!

Musicians

The Runners Up

• Drake
• Beyonce

And the Winner is…

Meek Mill!

Did your favorites win? Tell us in the comments! And thanks to everyone who voted.

Teens who use the Grove Hall Library filled out a survey telling us their favorite musicians, actors, books, and video or computer games. Every day this week, we will vote to see who is your favorite in each category. Tune in Tuesday to vote for actors and actresses, Wednesday for video and computer games, Thursday for books, and Friday for musicians. Winners will be revealed on Saturday! You can find today’s poll for favorite musicians here. Anyone is welcome to vote!

Teens who use the Grove Hall Library filled out a survey telling us their favorite musicians, actors, books, and video or computer games. Every day this week, we will vote to see who is your favorite in each category. Tune in Tuesday to vote for actors and actresses, Wednesday for video and computer games, Thursday for books, and Friday for musicians. Winners will be revealed on Saturday! You can find today’s poll for favorite books and comic books here. Anyone is welcome to vote!

Teens who use the Grove Hall Library filled out a survey telling us their favorite musicians, actors, books, and video or computer games. Every day this week, we will vote to see who is your favorite in each category. Tune in Tuesday to vote for actors and actresses, Wednesday for video and computer games, Thursday for books, and Friday for musicians. Winners will be revealed on Saturday! You can find today’s poll for favorite video and computer games here. Anyone is welcome to vote!