No More Boring Clipboards for Us

The Teen Cafe crew have been hard at work giving the library's clipboards a makeover. This is a talented group and you can see their hard work (and individuality) here. Some of these were used during the recent Branford Wreath Extravaganza, and local store merchants put bid sheets out on the clipboards. The next time anyone in the library needs some papers clipped to a board, we'll be doing it IN STYLE. Seriously, these things are awesome.

We love this group and all the hard work they do!

-- Katy McNicol, Blackstone Librarian

All Hail The Red Queen

Rise as red as dawn with 2015 fantasy novel, Red Queen.

In a futuristic world where the people of red blood are discriminated by the silver blooded gifted people, seventeen year old red blooded Mare Barrow finds herself caught in a web of lies fabricated by the royal family by revealing to have silver abilities that she didn't know she had. In Victoria Aveyard's debut novel, Mare must look, act, and think as a silver in a a palace full of them, away from the home she loves, engaged to the younger prince, the son of her tormentors.

This book has to be one of the greatest fantasy young adult novels of this generation. It is action-packed and creates a strong female protagonist on top of developing one of the greatest YA book villains, in my opinion, of all time.

Mare is a headstrong and fight or flight kind of girl from the slums. Throughout the book, she explores the extent of her abilities and attempts to learn basic royal protocol. With the help of the half brother princes, Cal and Maven Calore, Mare must live a lie she was forced into with no chance of any possible escape.

The development of the characters throughout this book and series as a whole is remarkable. Aveyard understands right where she should hit readers for the most... um emotional reaction. On top of the characters, the action scenes are written so well, it's almost as if you're watching the scene yourself. There are several clashes of the super-powered silvers including the classic mean girl, Evangeline Samos, Cal, Maven, and the several other side characters which still leave lasting impressions on readers. The question of why Mare is red blooded but holds gifts of a silver is explored as a large mystery in the book. There is a perfect balance of romance, story, and action and has the essentials of a phenomenal story but only the beginning to a legendary series.

This book is a 9.9 out of 10 the only missing thing being a bit of a slow beginning but it takes off after a certain point immediately. It's 100% worth the read so pick up as soon as you can, folks.

And remember when Maven tells you to hide your heart, you should listen. Victoria Aveyard will completely destroy it.

-written by your favorite booknerd,

Riya Bam :)

Welcome to the Blackstone Library Teen Blog

The newly created totally awesome Teen Advisory Board will be managing this blog and keeping you updated with the new changes coming to the library to better suit teenagers. AKA the dominant specie.

Every week we will update this blog with our reviews of books, movies, etc and even add our own art, stories, and music.

For now, you can go to the different tabs on this website and see what the Teen Advisory Board has been doing these past few weeks.

The YA Books