Beat the Boredom!

Don't forget that the Dubbo Branch Library has boredom-busters for young people these holidays!

Use your creative flair to 'Tag-a-t-shirt' on Monday 12 July (bookings required - cost $5) or come along on Friday 9 July and Friday 16 July to Youth Cafe and show off your SingStar or Guitar Hero skills.

Photo credit

The Dubbo Branch is open 10-6 weekdays, 10-3 Saturdays and 11-3 Sundays so come and down to find a great read, use the free internet for research, play games on the PlayStation 2, or catch up with some friends.

LIAR By Justine Larbalestier

Micah Wilkins, the main character in Liar REALLY IS A LIAR!! Continuously throughout this book, I was tossing up whether I wanted to hug her or slap her. But I was only about 20 pages in when I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down before I knew the truth (the whole truth and nothing but the truth!) Now, I am not a fan of 'fantasy.' I like my novels to be realistic, I like to be able to imagine that they're actually happening to me (or at least COULD happen to me). But the 'fantasy' (ie, to me, completely unrealistic and unimaginable) part of this novel snuck up on me so suddenly, that by that time, I was already hooked.

Being a self-confessed liar myself, I totally empathised with Micah's inability to tell her story straight - I know how hard it is sometimes to keep all of your lies together in one neat, little package - and I found the different parts of this book (Telling the Truth, Telling the True Truth, and The Actual Real Truth) hilarious and frustrating at the same time.

The judges of the CBCA awards have really got their work cut out for them this year.. and that's not a lie!! :)

WINTERGIRLS By Laurie Halse Anderson

I first heard about this book here on the MRLYA blog. It made me want to read it. It made me need to read it. Having personally seen both friends and family go through the struggle of 'perfection,' this turned out to actually be a really tough book to read. So personal, you being to wonder if it really is 'fiction' because how can just anyone know the true feelings of an anorexic? This was a little like reading a diary of torment - trying to keep in check the balance between desperately wanting to be the skinniest, versus the need to stay alive.

Wintergirls is Lia's story of her all-consuming eating disorder - her struggle to pull through her own (real and imagined) demons, as her friend Cassie had not.

A shocking and powerful novel, which I read in one sitting.

STOLEN By Lucy Christopher

My dad quite often tells me that, at 23, I am maybe getting just a tad too old to be readying YA novels. I completely disagree. They're (mostly) short, sharp and straight to the point (just how I like my life to be). Stolen didn't disappoint. As one of the nominated books for the 2010 CBCA Children's Book Week Awards, Stolen had the ability of taking me from my lounge room, and pushing me straight into the Australian outback. By the time I'd finished reading, I wanted to raid my piggy bank and book a flight to Perth, to explore the 'nothingness' that Gemma describes. This book is dramatic, suspenceful, and by being written in the form of a letter, will really tug at your heart-strings. I knew that the 'bad guy' was a bad guy, but I just wanted to reach into the pages and give Ty a hug..

Oh, and about halfway through, I thought I was awesome and had solved THE BIG MYSTERY of who Ty was, and why he had taken Gemma. Turns out I was wrong, and I hate being wrong...

New Young Adult fiction @ the Dubbo Branch Library

If you like Science fiction and fantasy try these new titles:

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

No one to trust... everything to lose.
Before the accident, Lia Kahn was happy.Before the accident, Lia Kahn was loved. Before, Lia was a lot of things: Normal. Alive. Human.
Lia no longer lives in before. Six months after the crash that killed her, six months after being reborn, Lia has finally accepted her new reality. She is a machine, a mech, and she belongs with her own kind. It’s a wild, carefree life, without rules and without fear. Because there’s nothing to fear when you have nothing left to lose.But when a voice from her past cries out for revenge, everything changes. Lia is forced to choose: between her old life and her new one. Between humans and mechs. Between sacrificing the girl she used to be and saving the boy she used to love.
Even if it means he’ll hate her forever.

Hive: The Overlord Protocol by Mark Walden

Someone is threatening Number One’s supremacy – very dangerous. The same person is trying to kill Otto, star pupil of H.I.V.E. – even more dangerous, in this hilarious, thrilling and villainous sequel.
Otto and Wing have special permission to leave H.I.V.E.’s secret island location to attend a funeral (all too common in their line of business). But before they reach their destination they are ambushed. Who would risk assassinating Otto Malpense, star pupil of the Higher Institute of Villainous Education and favourite of Number One, the most powerful villain alive? A new power is rising to challenge Number One’s authority, and they need H.I.V.E. and its powerful computer to do so. Otto thought the only thing he wanted was to escape from H.I.V.E., but now he’s desperately trying to save it, and himself!

New titles for Vampire and Paranormal fiction lovers...

The Van Allen Legacy: a Blue Bloods novel by Melissa de la Cruz
With the stunning revelation surrounding Bliss's true identity comes the growing threat of the sinister Silver Bloods. Once left to live the glamorous life in New York City, the Blue Bloods now find themselves in an epic battle for survival.
Not to worry, love is still in the air for the young vampires of the Upper East Side. Or is it? Jack and Schuyler are over. Oliver's brokenhearted. And only the cunning Mimi seems to be happily engaged.
Young, fabulous and fanged, Melissa de la Cruz's vampires unite in this highly anticipated fourth instalment of the Blue Bloods series.

The Splendour Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Sylvie Davies is a ballerina who can’t dance. A broken leg ended her career, but what broke her heart was her father’s death, and what’s breaking her spirit is her mother’s remarriage. Still reeling Sylvie is shipped off to stay with relatives in the back of beyond. Or so she thinks, in fact she ends up in a town rich with her family’s history . . . and as it turns out her family has a lot more history than Sylvie ever knew. More unnerving, though, are the two guys she can’t stop thinking about. Shawn Maddox, the resident golden boy, is the expected choice. But handsome and mysterious Rhys has a hold on her that she doesn’t quite understand. Then Sylvie starts seeing things – a girl by the lake and a man with dark unseeing eyes peering in through the window . . . Sylvie’s lost nearly everything - is she starting to lose her mind as well?

Feel like a read that is like real life?

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
Lia and Cassie were best friends. But something went wrong and Cassie changed. Now Cassie is dead and Lia has thirty-three unanswered calls on her phone, thirty-three messages from her ex-best friend, all sent the day she died.
How did she die? Why did she cut herself off?
While Lia searches for answers, she drives herself relentlessly down her own path to destruction—to be thin, strong, in control. And completely empty.
Wintergirls is a powerful but intimate story of one girl’s chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

New books about centaurs and mythology...

Brighid's Quest by P.C Cast

Rather than follow her family's restrictive rules, centaur Brighid chose to set out on her own to make friends and form relationships with humans as well as centaurs.Now she's facing her toughest challenge yet. While helping guide home a grieving human - Cuchulainn, her friend Elphame's brother - Brighid finds herself beginning to care for him. An emotion forbidden by her clan.To add to her troubles, the Great Goddess has awoken the power of the Shaman within Brighid - the first centaur so blessed in ages. And just as she's torn between taking up a power she never expected and a love she's afraid to admit to, Brighid receives a vision of a tragedy that might destroy everyone she's ever cared about.

Halo by Zizou Corder

'Until you know who you are, you're no one.'
Washed ashore as a baby in ancient Greece, Halo is discovered by a family of centaurs. Although her true identity remains a mystery, she is loved as one of their own. But when Halo is dragged away by fishermen, her wild adventure begins . . .
Halo soon realizes that if she is to survive then she must live in disguise – as a boy. A violent war is threatening to erupt and Halo is at the mercy of the mighty Spartan warriors. And as she battles to hide her secret, Halo never forgets her quest to find out who she is – and where she really came from.

The Vampire is just not that into you by Vlad Mezrich

The Vampire Is Just Not That Into You, is a tongue-in-cheek look at the ups and downs of loving a vampire.

Are you in love with a vampire? Are you worried that you might not be his (blood) type? Do you wonder whether that cold stare means he isn't interested ... or if it's because he's been dead for three centuries (nothing personal)? Have you tried to coax him out of his crypt with a flash of your neck or a near-death situation that requires him to save you at the very last possible moment? Have you ever considered what it will be like to introduce him to your mother?

Even though your vampire's skin is transfixingly translucent, he can still be very hard to read. Sometimes he's simply holding back his true feelings, resisting the urge to bite you on the chance that one day you will truly love him. And other times ... well, he's just not that into you. How can you tell? Undead dating specialist Vlad Mezrich has all the answers, utilising quizzes, Top Ten lists, language analysis, real-life (and real-death) testimonials, and fancy charts to show you what you need to do in order to get your vampire and keep him forever.

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Romance was not part of Nora Grey's plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment. But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those who have fallen -- and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

I really enjoyed this book. It is well-written and I didn't want to put it down. A particularly good quality first novel from Becca Fitzpatrick.