Teen Read Week 2013: Seek the Unknown @the Library

Oct. 13-19 is Teen Read Week. It is the YALSA's (Young Adult Library Service Association) initiative to promote reading among teens and make them use libraries. This year, YALSA sails into Teen Read Week with the theme: Seek the Unknown @the Library!

What discoveries have you made in the school library? What is it that you do not know but was able to know through the school library?

As for me, it is in the school library where I discovered the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. It's where I learned how to use the photocopying machine. I understood how a good set of encyclopedia can support my basic research and that, somewhere out there, knowledge and truth is shaped and changed, consumed and created. I never left the world of books and reading since then.

Librarians Read Series of 2010

In November 7, 2010, I asked five librarians to guest in the blog and share their reading choices over the years. This blog series was in part, a carry-over of Teen Read Week 2010. From November 8-12, 2012, one Filipino Librarian was featured in the blog. I am re-posting and curating the posts as part of the Filipino Librarian blog series I'll be reviving this month.

The five reading librarians are: Darrel Marco, Ann Grace Bansig, Dean Igor Cabbab, Fe Angela Verzosa, Von Totanes

Would be cool if there's a book discussion group with librarians as members meeting once a month.

Teen Read Week 2012: It Came From the Library

October 14 - 20, 2012 is Teen Read Week. High school librarians near and far, what's your library activity to promote books and reading?

Teen Read Week 2011

The Reading Librarian: Ann Grace Bansig

Librarians Read Series: Ann Grace Bansig is currently at Flanders, Belguim for a study grant. She was formerly a school librarian at the De La Salle Zobel School.
 
I am a late bloomer reader. But I will just share books that I enjoyed most during the first two years in college and a little during high school. When I discovered the richness of the Main Library, I started borrowing books that are not so related with the academics but gave joyful and great experiences for me as a reader. So here goes my list:

1. Roald Dahl’s books – I really enjoyed the wit and extraordinary humor of this guy. Even though his books are a bit eccentric and psychotic most of the times, I will still recommend his books. In a research I read for my master’s degree, I’ve found out why his books are a bit controversial in terms of the circumstances happened to the characters he created. According to him, bad guys should be punished! Read his books and you’ll see! =)

2. Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series – I think most us read if not the complete series, then some of the books which stars these famous young detectives back in college or earlier. What I love about Joe and Frank is that they are really good in reading the clues, same with Nancy. I even read the book where both the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew worked together in solving mysteries. They are very youthful, romantic sometimes and wholesome in content, no doubt about it! Through time, the versions of their book evolved too as they are now in famous graphic novels.

3. Da Vinci Code – I read this book long before it became so famous! I remembered that it kept me awake one night to finish it because there is a long queue for this by word of mouth from a friend who read it before me. I never regretted the hours I spent just to finish this!

4. Bridge to Terabithia – I’d say this one is sad at the end but the friendship it showed is one of a kind. This book made me shed tears because of the ending. It has a movie adaptation too and I’m happy to say that I was not too disappointed with the film version.

5. Star girl – This is book is about a girl named Susan Caraway, but she uses “Star girl” as a name. Star girl is full of eccentricities and is a non-conformist. She does things that are way beyond the norms. She sings “Happy birthday” to every kid in school even if she does not know them personally. She attends funeral of other people. She cheers the enemy of the school in basketball and leaves coins in the street. What's good about this book, is that it tells us to be true to ourselves. We don’t have to be anything that we are not for fear of rejection.

6. Harry potter series – I met Harry Potter in college through a friend that reads a lot.  She lent me the book one weekend, and starting that time, I became a Hogwarts’ student wannabe. JK Rowling surely knew how to win a reader because until now Harry Potter holds a place in my heart. Though the film versions are a disappointment, I still watch it with my friends because it became a “Harry Potter tradition”.

7. Gone with the wind – Wow, I have a classic on my list! I love this book though a bit thick and long! I persevered to finish it because I want to know the ending of Scarlett O’Hara. Set during the Revolution, women can surely learn something from the wicked ways of lovely Madam O’Hara as she did her best to survive war, famine and love.

8. B1 Gang Series – I don’t know if others were familiar with this series. I think this is the Philippine version of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. The gang is composed of four high school teenagers namely: Gino, Kiko, Boging and Jo. They solve mysteries and myths as they travel around the country. I remembered we used them for some book reports. I do hope that they continue publishing these books because they promote Filipino values, heritage and friendship. Plus they can also compete with the influx of foreign books. If we can patronize foreign books, we can also do so with Philippine materials. =)

Books I read in my post-teen age that I want to recommend.
1. Spiderwick Chronicles
2. Percy Jackson series
3. Hunger games trilogy
4. Princess Diaries series
5. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
6. Books by Eva Ibbotson
7. Inkheart series
8. Series of Unfortunate Events – good for building vocabulary words
9. Newbery Award winning books
10. Filipiniana books published by Adarna, Tahanan and Lampara

The Reading Librarian: Darrel Manuel Marco

Librarians Read Series:  Darrel Manuel O. Marco is the Lower Grades Readers' Services Librarian at De La Salle Zobel School, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City

I used to love these books. Some of them were suggested by my friends, some are of sentimental values, while some are just pieces to satisfy my curiosity.

1. The Little Prince -- I really got curious about this book not because of the title but because of the author, I really didn't know how to pronounce his last name! That's why I tried to read the book, and then I realized that, oh!, I'm nearly done and I enjoyed the story. Fantastic. Profound. Antoine de Saint-Exupery really had me going not just because of his last name but because of his captivating way in writing the story.

2. The Da Vinci Code -- yes, I am still young and I was like 18 when I read this phenomenal book. Shocking. Intriguing. Revealing. If you don't have a strong foundation on your belief (and some ounces of sweat for researching), you might as well be convinced, that somehow, these revelations might have really happened or might have truth in them. I give three cheers for Dan Brown for creating this fictional book which stirred the confidence of the "Christian" world.

3. The Five People You Meet in Heaven -- This was the first book I bought from my first attendance in the Manila International Book Fair (2005). Very inspirational. Once my mom was shocked when she saw me reading this book because of the title. She thought that it was all about deaths, killings, and the likes. But then, the young reader I was, I eventually convinced her to try reading it, and she told me that she cried after reading it.

4. Tuesdays with Morrie -- Yet another inspirational book by Mitch Albom. As my college classmates and I were having some small chats on the book that we were reading that time, some of them highly suggested that I should give this one a shot. Nevertheless, I loved this book. Read this for four times and it never failed to make me pour buckets. I guess this is also one of my inspirations why I love being a teacher-librarian.

5. Pride and Prejudice -- My college bestfriend, Ella, loves the classics. So, I thought, what's with them and what makes you hooked with them? They're boring and too dragging. She lent me one of her books, I tried Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and I was proved otherwise. I loved the Bennet sisters ever since. Then came the movie with Kiera Knightly and the rest is history. Now, I am trying to read the new edition, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".

6. Ang Alamat ng Gubat -- Got curious because my high school classmates were all passing it around. Thought it was just some graphic novel book by Bob Ong, where a naughty crab was the main protagonist. But I was wrong, it was totally a book of social relevance once you tried reading between the lines. Since then, I read all the other books written by Bob Ong.

7. Love Story/ Oliver's Story -- My former housemate, Nomer, is a fan of Erich Segal books. Those were the "hell week" times that I asked him if he could give me some diversions from my acads and he suggested that I read books by Erich Segal. I picked the thinnest book, Love Story, among his collections. And Viola! I was hooked. The story is not your typical love story and what makes it more fun is the wit of the characters, Jenny and Oliver. Then, of course, I was also hooked with the sequel, Oliver's Story. This made me realize that love after all is not just all about love.

8. Acts of Faith -- The Trinoma Mall in Quezon City was still newly established then, and the Powerbooks store there was the place where I munched this book. Everytime I'd go to that store, I would really look for this particular title and continue reading it until I'm finally done. I finished this book for about five times of visiting the store within one week. This is another book by Erich Segal where love dared to transcend even the extremes of the opposites.

9. Catcher in the Rye/ To Kill a Mockingbird -- In my freshman year, I was assigned to do a report on censorship in the library. While researching for my topic, I stumbled upon these two titles which were deemed censored. So the curious cat in me wondered why. Nomer, once again, lent me his Catcher while another friend of mine, Gel, let me borrow To Kill in exchange of my Da Vinci. Both books were profoundly written. I guess that's why they're censored. Hehe. Kidding aside, Catcher has some tinge of racism in it while To Kill has aspects of violence which I guess are not suitable for the target market, Juveniles.

10. Harry Potter series -- One word: FANTASTIC! I hate that it is being compared to the Twilight series. HP is legenday. The plot thickens along the way. The struggles become harder and tougher but in the end, our victor would still emerge, of course, victorious! It's children's literature for the whole family. Now, I am re-reading the whole series and I really want more!

May I also suggest some of the books that I love to read even though I'm not a teenager anymore? Here are some:
1. Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins -- never thought I'd love this series. I want more!
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan -- who wouldn't want to be a demi-god/goddess?
3. Geronimo Stilton series by Geronimo Stilton -- Yeah, blame it on my babies! They love the series and I got infected. The humor is infectious and the lessons as well as guide in good writing is incomparable
4. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman -- The first movie, Golden Compass might not have given it a good justification but the series is really good.
5. Lord of the Rings trilogy -- I started reading it when I was 20, not a teenager anymore. :P Epic saga. Very nice.
6. Books by Eric Carle -- yeah, I'm going back to my childhood years
7. Books by Dr. Seuss
8. The Polar Express -- Can't help but cry everytime I read this. Very touching.
9. Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull -- fairies, nyphs, satyrs and every magical creatures
10. Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi

I also hope that we read more Filipiniana books and enrich our Filipiniana literature by contributing more creative Filipino stories. Such creative books are:
1. Tuwing Sabado
2. Asan na ang sundo ko
3. Ang pambihirang buhok ni Raquel
4. Half and Half
5. Tight times
6. The Yellow Paperclip and It's Bright Purple Spots
7. Bruhahaha - bruhihihi
8. Filemon Mamon
9. Barumbadong Bus
10. Bisikleta ni Monmon
11. Pilandok series

I hope that as you read this article, you are now considering to try to read at least one of the titles. Or any titles for all I care, just so as long as you keep reading, you love learning and you never stop sharing what you've learned to the world. Start with one page at a time, and soon you'll find out that there really is no harm in reading.

The Reading Librarian: Igor Cabbab

Librarians Read Series: Dean Igor Cabbab of the UP School of Library and Information Science. 

Please note that he made the list before his formal appointment as dean of the UP SLIS. Either way, congrats to the new post and more power to UP SLIS!

Oh, I wasn't much of a book reader way back then. I remember reading the following:

1. The Prophet by Khalil Gibran (library book, I really don't know why I picked up that book O_o;;)

2. Encyclopedia Brown, The Hardy Boys Series and The Nancy Drew Series (borrowed from cousins)

3. Complete Works of Shakespeare (around the house, my parents)

4. Mythology, Edith Hamilton and Age of Fable, Thomas Bulfinch (around the house, my parents)

5. Le Morte d' Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory (around the house, my parents, yeah, Dragonball Z even before Son Goku! Knight gets stronger during the day, weaker at sunset, three days of fighting nonstop. ^_^)

6. The komiks section of Liwayway (every week when I visit my aunt, Agua Bendita anyone?)

7. A ton of Komiks!!! (while tending my lola's store, hospital overnights, long bus rides... Wakasan, Funny Komiks, etc.)

8. DC comics 12-issue arc "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (loaned from my hs pals, hey, multiple universes and a seemingly invulnerable superhero like Supergirl dying f***s up one's childhood like no other)

9. TinTin and Asterix the Gaul comics (library books)

10. Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems: Sonnets from the Portuguese (around the house)

Oh, and a ton of Sweet Valley High and Sweet Dreams(?) paperbacks my sister leaves in the toilet for reading (ei, they're there, need to read something ^_^;;)

Come to think of it, this probably explains a lot why I am what I am today.

The Reading Librarian: Von Totanes

Librarians Read Series: Von Totanes,  PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, licensed librarian in the Philippines and hibernating blogger in cyberspace.
 
Here are the ten that I kept reading over and over again in high school and beyond:

Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman
Airport - Arthur Hailey
The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
Doctors - Erich Segal
Evergreen - Belva Plain
The Firm - John Grisham
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon
Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer

I was 13 in 1986, when my dad told me that I needed to move up from the Hardy boys and handed me the Bourne Identity. He initially had to force me to read one chapter every week, but eventually I had to plead that he let me finish the book. From then on, I just kept reading what I thought of as grown-up books!

Perhaps the ones that need the most explanation are the lone non-fiction book--adventures--and the one by a woman. Adventures was one of the few new books at the library. I didn't really have any idea what it was about, but it looked interesting, so I borrowed it. And ended up getting hooked on a book that I later learned was THE classic book on screenwriting with the oft-repeated "no one knows anything," in reference to Hollywood.

I never saw the Evergreen miniseries, but I did see a few minutes on TV once and thought maybe I should read the book. After reading so many action-packed bestsellers, you'd think it was really not my style and give up. But back then I thought I HAD to finish every book I began, and eventually fell in love with its very slow pace, and ended up going back to it (i bought my own copy) every now and then. I tried reading a few of her other books, but I don't think i ever finished--and certainly didn't REread--any of them.

The Reading Librarian: Fe Angela Verzosa

Librarians Read Series: Madame Fe Angela Verzosa and her books read as a teenager. 

It took me quite long to make this list (4 hours?), because I had hundreds of favorites during my teen years, when my early life was half-spent in reading good books by great minds. Because you defined the period from 13-18, I had to eliminate the first 3 formative years when I was still in High School and reading a lot of Nancy Drew mysteries plus the required literature readings from my English and Lit subjects, and concentrated on the latter 3 years of my teenhood to come up with this list. My favorite books, in the order of how they affected my adolescent thinking are:

• Platero y Yo by Juan Ramon Jimenez . I fell in love with the book and the author, a Spanish poet, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. This book was given on my 16th birthday by a bosom friend, with whom I had a passionate relationship later in life. From then on, I decided if ever I would write poetry, it would be in the style of Juan Ramon, a prose poem.

• The Little Prince (or Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French aviator, who wrote the novella in 1943. I was so moved by the lines - "One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes." – that for years, it was my favorite motto. My favorite chapter was 21: when the prince meets and tames a fox, who explains to the prince that his rose is unique and special, because she is the one whom he loves. ("It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so important.")

• The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, is a book written by psychologist and social philosopher, another gift from my first boy friend. I still have the book published in 1956 by Harper & Row and treasures it to this day. This bestseller is a favorite companion to another book he wrote Escape from Freedom, where he postulated 8 basic needs: Relatedness (relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge), Transcendence (creativity, developing a loving and interesting life), Rootedness (feeling of belonging), Sense of Identity (seeing ourselves as a unique person and part of a social group), Frame of orientation (understanding the world and our place in it.), Excitation and Stimulation (actively striving for a goal rather than simply responding), Unity (a sense of oneness between one person and the "natural and human world outside"), and Effectiveness (the need to feel accomplished).

• Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is an inspirational book that I continue to read over and over again, especially during times of soul-searching and agonizing need for peace and solitude. Anne Morrow Lindbergh (known as the first American woman to have a pilot’s license) was an admirable woman, and her stoic character was sharpened by many tragedies in her life.

• The Grass Harp by Truman Capote, a story of youth and loneliness, was among the great books I read in my teens. After reading this novel, I went on to read "Other Voices, Other Rooms,” and into more Capote works, and decided Truman Capote deserves to be among the literary giants in American literature.

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, her first of many novels, about eccentric characters, portraits of the rejected, forgotten, mistreated and oppressed. Needless to mention, after this, I devoured the rest - Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding, and the novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.

• Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. I first read the expurgated version, not knowing I was missing some chapters, and after reading it from our school library, discovered that an unexpurgated version was available (from a friend’s library possession), and read it over and over again, graduating to more of his novels, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love.

• Jude the Obscure by Tomas Hardy, another English novelist and poet, who had a profound influence on my literary taste. I was first introduced to Hardy’s novels after reading The Return of the Native (a required reading), and after reading Far from the Madding Crowd , The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I decided the best was Jude the Obscure. I will never forget his precocious child, Little Father Time.

• Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Black Spring by Henry Miller, a revolutionary and controversial writer, whose first of this trilogy was banned in the US for almost 25 years, until the US Supreme Court declared it to be a work of literature and not pornography.

• The Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) by another English novelist, Lawrence Durrell, which fascinated me because of its exotic setting in the city of Alexandria. I read the tetralogy in hurried succession, after watching the epic movie, Lawrence of Arabia.

Librarians Read Series: The Reading Librarian

From November 8-12, 2010, the blog will feature one librarian per day and their list of books read as a teen. Yes, it's a spill over of Teen Read Week 2010!

This is what I got for having invited readers to join in the Teen Read Week list mania. No regrets! The more the merrier!

The five Filipino librarians who replied to my call for participation in this blog's Teen Read Week list mania is a very small percentage of the big group of  Filipino librarians out there who read. I've often met people from outside the profession who complain that librarians do not READ. Shame it is to hear and know about this. A librarian who does not read should re-examine his or her career path. Librarians MUST be models of the reading habit especially in the community of learners that they belong to. It is not a requirement to read every book there is in the vast collection of the library or online resources but, it is essential that the librarian is a READER.

Now I imagine teaching LIS (Library and Information Science) in college. If I were, I would ask the college applicant these two questions: Do you read? What have you read recently?


If you are a college freshman and is considering taking LIS as a major course (and brave enough to reply to this post), hit the comment button and share your reading list!

Happy reading!

Teen Read Week Round Up

And so the carnival of Teen Read Week (TRW) 2010 comes to a close. It was fun doing the list mania but I'll cook up something for next year's TRW. For now, here are thoughts and inferences I've drawn up from the blog activity. Feel free to add yours if you have one or several.

* Edith Hamilton and books on mythology are a big hit among teen readers.

* There were a few Filipiniana Young Adult books in the list of the ten readers who participated. Majority are foreign books. We, people in the book and publishing industry, should do something about this. I'm sending an email to a local publisher right after writing this entry.

* There are a reader's rite of passage books -- books that a reader in one particular age group read through -- Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Dreams, Sweet Valley, Mills & Boon, tons of comic and graphic novels. It only goes to shoe that books written and produced for young people must address their developmental needs. This does not mean though that adult books are forbidden for them to read. Reading is developmental and interest based. There is a necessity to recognize this reality.

* The reading young adult is a curious monster to tame.

* The choice of reading materials reflects the reader's personality. Haha!

I wish to thank all who sent their list - Rayvi Sunico, Mike Rivera, Carlo Go, Paolo Chikiamco, Blooey Singson, Liwa Malbed, Maricel Montero, Kenneth Yu, Candy Gourlay and Anthony Mariano. For those who did the list in their blogs like fantaghiro23 many thanks as well for others have followed suit and responded in earnest via comments. The PBBY board joined in the fun too! Click this and see our fave books when we were teens.

Off to November now which is Library and Information Services month. I'll be resurrecting the Author of the Month; will feature five librarians and their reading list from their teenage years (yes, we can't get enough of books and reading!); post a few library related topics; and will share some workshop highlights and library projects.

Anthony Mariano: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Anthony Mariano, founder of Sambat Trust, a UK based charity dedicated to help build libraries and assist Tanauan schools in developing literacy sent his list of books read as a teen. Anthony is based in Japan teaching English but his heart and memory fleets from London to Tanauan, Batangas -- places where he grew roots and wings!

Wow! Looking at my list, I must have been a morose teen.

Here they are:

1. Adrian Mole books- Sue Townsend

2.Animal Farm- George Orwell.

3. Lord Of the Flies- William Golding

4. Catcher in the Rye- J.D.Salinger

5. An Evil Cradling- Brian Keenan

6. To Kill A Mocking Bird- Harper Lee

7. 1984- George Orwell

8. Early Bill Bryson travel books.

9. Grapes of Wrath/ Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck.

10.Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood.

Candy Gourlay: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Candy Gourlay, journalist and author shares her list of books she read as a teenager. Candy's debut novel, Tall Story, is a smash hit in Manila and in London. The book will soon come out in the US and I expect that Fil-American teens particularly will love it!

Candy blogs and her website is fantastic! You can read her whereabouts there and watch trailers of her book, Tall Story. If I am not mistaken, Candy is currently writing her second novel for young adults.

Below is Candy's top ten reads!

This is very revealing of one's age but here you go:

1. Prince and the Pauper by Samuel Clemens - how many times did I read this? and it was always brilliant!

2. Rich Man Poor Man by Irwin Shaw - here's where I figured out what sex was about and I remember being so appalled. I read it because of the mini series starring Nick Nolte.

3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - my role model was Jo March - read the entire series and decided I would become a novelist who lived in a house filled with little boys (I kind of fulfilled that wish).

4. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - read this because of the movie and loved it even though the language was very difficult.

5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - read this because of a Ladybird book I read about it.

6. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - I thought I was so cool reading this. Now I totally disagree with the philosophy.

7. The Quiet American by Graham Greene - loved Graham Greene but now I would be hard pressed to recall the stories.

8. The Water Method Man by John Irving - this was so funny and so adult for innocent me.

9. The World According to Garp by John Irving - I loved this book but only in my maturity realized that it was an anti-feminist tract!

10. Nora Aunor and Other Profiles by Nick Joaquin - this made me want to become a journalist and write similar profiles.

Hey this list made me realize that teen reads are not necessarily confined to kids' books.

And yeah, ten is a very small number.

Maricel Montero: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Executive Director of Museo Pambata, Maricel Montero, shares her list and recommends books that teens should read!

Now you got me into remembering my teenage years and the books I read . Okay aside from the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Mallory Towers, Mills and Boon and Barbara Cartland books and lots of Almanacs, hahaha!

I will never forget the following titles: Not in their order
Thimble Summer by by Elizabeth Enright (First book I really enjoyed reading, because I am a small town farm girl : )
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Gift of Acabar by Og Mandino
The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery
The Dune by Frank Herbert
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Drifters by James Michener
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Books I read from our personal library at home --

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Call of the Wild by Jack London
(We had a set of the Reader’s Digest collection of classics with themes e.g. Animals and I enjoyed reading them : )
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Chariots of the Gods by Erick Von Daniken and other UFO books
The encyclopedia ( I love searching the different countries and remembering their capitals and imagining how it looked like. I also enjoyed looking at different breeds of dogs : )
Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton (of course!)

Recommended reading for young adults ( not in order)
Senior’s Ball by Rene Villanueva
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
Barefoot in Fire by Barbara Ann Gamboa – Lewis
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O’ Dell
And of course, a smattering of the classics.

Kenneth Yu: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Kenneth Yu, writer, editor and publisher of The Philippine Genre Stories sends his list of books read as a teenager. I've featured Kyu in this blog before and he happens to be the third Xaverian to join the Teen Read Week list mania!

Kyu is one voracious reader. He could not contain his reading choices to only ten. He has twenty! He blogs at Philippine Genre Stories.

My list, in no particular order:

1. D'Aulaire's and Edith Hamilton's Greek Myths, and D'Aulaire's Norse myths
2. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
3. The Prydain Chronicles by Alexander
4. The Narnian Chronicles by Lewis
5. The Earthsea Tales by Le Guin
6. Agatha Christie mysteries
7. The Time Quintet by L'Engle (actually, there were only the first three when I was between 13 and 18)
8. Stephen King horror tales of this era (Carrie, Night Shift, Christine, Salem's Lot, The Stand, Pet Sematary, Cujo, The Shining)
9. Edgar Allan Poe's stories
10. Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes
11. Roald Dahl's books (The Charlies books, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach, Danny, Champion of the World, etc.)
12. H.P. Lovecraft's The Lurking Fear and Other Stories
13. Various short stories by Asimov, Dick, Clarke
14. The short stories of Hemingway and Faulkner
15. Doyle's Holmes stories
16. Howard's Conan stories
17. Watership Down by Adams
18. Dune by Herbert
19. Tolstoy's short stories
20. Chekhov's short stories

Liwliwa Malabed: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Liwliwa Malabed shares her reading list. Liwa is a friend from KUTING (Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting), the premiere organization of children's book writers in the Philippines. She is currently its Vice President. Busy with KUTING work, as the organization os scouting for new members and inking writing projects left and write, Liwa does freelance writing for TV, magazines and the likes.

1.The Hobbit - Tolkien
2. The Thief of Always/Imajica- Barker
3. Walk Two Moons- Creech
4. Hope for the flowers-Paulus
5. Calvin and Hobbes-Watterson
6. Wasted-Alanguilan
7. Kitchen-Yoshimoto
8. Dance dance dance- Murakami
9. Of Love and Other Demons- Márquez
10. Alchemist-Coelho
and of course, pugad baboy, agatha christie and sweet valley (haha)

Most are books my brother (Jong) lent me. Everytime my kuya comes home to Ilocos, he would bring me a book or two. Just so i'll stop reading Sweet Valley.

Blooey Singson: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Blooey Singson is a writer, public relations executive, newspaper contributor, and freelance illustrator. She is a member of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang I.N.K.) and an administrator of the Filipino book club Flips Flipping Pages. Blooey is a book lover who reads over two hundred books a year, and a compulsive book shopper who cannot get through the week without adding a book (or ten) to her collection, which ran out of shelf space a long time ago. She reviews books and blogs about her book adventures on her website, http://sumthinblue.com.


TOP TEN BOOKS I READ WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER

1) The Harry Potter series (Books 1-5) by J.K. Rowling- I discovered Harry Potter when I was 14 years old, and the rest of my teenage years were spent reading the series, making it a huge part of my adolescence. I feel like I grew up with Harry and his friends.

2) The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - I've read many more mystery novels after reading this book, but The Westing Game remains to be one of the most brilliantly plotted mysteries I have ever had the pleasure of reading

3) The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois - I discovered this book back in the 4th grade, but it remained one of the most read books in my library up to my teens. It was the first travel book I ever read, and it has always made me wonder how it would feel to just drift aimlessly on a hot air balloon.

4) Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl- I've been reading Roald Dahl since I was young, but when a college friend lent me this collection of short stories, I discovered a whole new level of appreciation for Roald Dahl. Today, I love his adult works more than his children's books.

5 - 6)Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume and Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech- These two novels deal with coping with the grief of a loved one. I lost my dad at age 11, and it took years for me to get over it, but these books really helped a lot.

7) The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery - This book will always remind me of my 4th year literature class, when forty-four of us girls in blue and white uniforms sat enthralled as our teacher read us passages from the book. We were tamed for life.

8) Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal- I enjoyed this high school requirement immensely, even when we read the full length Tagalog novels and we had to consult the Filipino dictionary with every sentence!

9) P.S. I Love You by Barbara Conklin- They weren't selling Sweet Dreams in the bookstores anymore when we were in high school, but a classmate photocopied her older sister's battered copy of this book and it was passed around in class, drawing collective sighs from thirteen year old schoolgirls.

10) Love Story by Erich Segal - Along with P.S. I Love You, this was another one of those books I read in high school, during that phase when all we ever wanted to read were books about undying love that made us gush and sigh, and cry and wish that someday we'd be able to experience the things we read about!

Paolo Chikiamco: Books I Read When I was a Teen

Paolo Chikiamco, Palanca awardee, speculative fiction advocate, blogger and Pinoy folklore enthusiast sent his list of books read as a teen. He is the second Xaverian to join in the Teen Read Week carnival of this blog :-)

Paolo blogs at Rocket Kapre.

I made an earlier post on my old blog about books I treasured early in my life as a reader, and it seems fitting to continue now, for Teen Read Week 2010, with books from my teen-age years. These aren't young adult books for the most part: for one thing, that genre didn't really exists aside from the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Sweet Valley juggernauts; and for another, I was already reading "adult" level genre fiction before I hit puberty. Given that these were some of my most productive years as a reader, it'll be hard to create a list of ten, but I'll give it a shot.

JEDI DAWN (Star Wars Game Books) by Paul Cockburn: Simply reading stories was never enough for me - I wanted to be a part of those worlds, to enter them. Before I discovered that I could sit down and write my own adventures, and before video games reached the point where the world and the story were as important as the gameplay, choose your own adventure books were the closest I could get to that--and this book was the best one I ever read. In 1993, I went to England as part of a summer exchange program, and I fear I might have left a bad impression with the foster family I was staying with, because after a visit to a London bookstore I had absolutely no interest in socializing with them. This book is one of the reasons why that was the case.

ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE (and the Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb: I'm sure that the Farseer trilogy wasn't my first exposure to the first person POV, but it's the first one I remember, and it certainly set the bar for all those that came after. Hobb was the first author I ever read who really, really didn't shy away from having terrible things happen to her characters, and the fact that Fitzchivalry Farseer was--and still is, for me--one of the most grounded and sympathetic characters in fantasy fiction made his trials all the more heart wrenching.

NEVER DEAL WITH A DRAGON (and other Shadowrun novels) by Robert N. Charrette: In retrospect, the fact that I used to buy tabletop roleplaying game modules and construct adventures solely for myself to enjoy seems a bit pathetic. I was an only child whose few friends just weren't interested in "playing pretend"--but really, I didn't mind, not when making those stories was such a joyful process. Shadowrun was my first exposure to genre-bending and cyberpunk and the novels were always fun in and of themselves, and useful as resources for my own stories.

GOD TALES by Nil Guillemette: I'm not sure which one of these books I first read, but I know that after I finished the first book, I went back to the St. Paul store and bought all the other available volumes (only a few were available at the time--now of course there are more than thirty). Even in my youth I was never comfortable with the harshness, rigidity, and simple inconsistency of certain Catholic teachings. These books presented in their stories --many of them with speculative elements--a morality that I understood, one where the focus was on love and reasonableness and not punishment. I still remember vividly one story which had Mother Mary defending a sinner in a makeshift legal trial, and successfully proving that all it took was one selfless act in a lifetime to shield a soul from the fires of hell. The early books in this series played a huge part in my ethical development.

THE EYE OF THE WORLD (and the Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan: This was the series that defined epic fantasy for me and a generation of readers. The series lost me toward the middle, and with no end in sight I stopped reading… but when the able Brandon Sanderson brings Robert Jordan's saga to a close, I'll read it straight through from beginning to end.

NOBODY'S SON by Sean Stewart: Most of the books I gravitated to were parts of a series, as opposed to stand alone novels, mostly because those were the books that dominated the shelves in those days, so Nobody's Son was a bit of a strange choice for me and the bookstores both. I never regretted my decision though. This book was the first to show me how to put a twist on an older story in order to make it new -- or maybe it's just that by this point I'd read enough to realize when tropes were being subverted, as in this case where the novel starts from the point which, in most other stories, would be the end of the tale.

THE MAGIC OF RECLUCE (and other Recluce books) by L.E. Modesitt Jr: Modesitt's writing was like nothing I'd ever seen before, with a rigor and consistency I admire to this day. The level of thought he put into his magic system made it seem real to me, and the level of detail he put in his description of everyday jobs (in the first book, wood carving; in a later book, forging/engineering) made them seem magical.

LEGEND by David Gemmell: Gemmell's books were comfort food for me, my equivalent of (high quality) Hollywood blockbusters, packed to overflowing with action and thrills and heroism. Legend was my very first "siege warfare" fantasy story, and also my first "old warrior comes out of retirement" story, and it's still the standard against which all similar tales are measured.

A PLAGUE OF ANGELS by Sherri S. Tepper: I'm a bit of a sap, so it's not strange for me to finish a book a bit teary eyed, but no other book has made me weep like a candy lover at the dentist. In a strange way, I've always felt that it was this book--more than any homily or teacher--that taught me the meaning and value of sacrifice and the cross.

THE MYTHOLOGY CLASS by Arnold Arre: The fact that I own the original four issue version of Arre's first graphic novel is a point of pride for me -- my proof that I was there when the komiks industry began to evolve into a new form. It was the first work of fiction I’d ever read to include -- to celebrate -- elements of Philippine folklore and myth, and no doubt because of that, it's the first book by a Filipino that I ever fell in love with. Much of my interest in local myth and legend can be traced back to this particular "class" -- and I've been learning ever since.

Honorable Mentions:

* The Lone Wolf series (gamebooks and novelizations)

* Wizard's First Rule (and the Sword of Truth books)

* Ender's Game (and the Ender Quartet)

* The Dragonbone Chair (and the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series)

* The Elenium and the Tamuli

* Sandman

Carlo Go: Books I Read When I was a Teen

This list is from Carlo Go, a senior at UP Diliman taking up Business Economics. He is the School of Economics Representative to the USC - University Student Council.

Carlo is a former student.

I just realized that I'm not a teenager anymore. HAHAHAHA!!

1. Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
2. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
4. Atonement by Ian Mc Ewan
5. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
6. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
7. The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
10. The Odyssey by Homer

I read most of these books during the latter part of my teenage years. Most of the books that I love devouring would be Man Booker winners. These books helped me get through my college life and my somewhat insane personal life. I couldn't imagine my college life without these books. :)

Mike Rvera: Books I Read When I Was a Teenager

Mike Rivera, writer and food blogger, recollects memories of the books she read as a teen and why!

1. Agatha Christie books- particularly preferred the stories featuring Hercule Poirot.

2. Futureshock by Alvin Toffler- was very hard to read. I was just a High School senior. it was just fascinating to read about how someone envisioned the future. I got myself another copy recently and still amazed how many of Alvin Toffler's theories played out true 20 years after reading it.

3. Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Valley of Horses- was amazed how one could tell a story of a time before language was invented.

4. A Past Revisited and Continuing Past by Renato Constantino- was required reading in 4th year social studies but it left me amazed that history could be so anti-colonist. It felt subversive to read it even post EDSA Revolution. I eventually took to reading it on my own time.

5. Isaac Asimov's Foundation series- discovered this summer after graduating from High School.

6. 1984 by George Orwell

7. The Exorcist- Scared the shit out of me but I read it twice!

8. Tom Clancy Novels- I would read them after my father finished reading his copy.

9. Sweet Valley High- Was through with Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and I thought the Bobsey Twins were lame.

10. Mills & Boon- This was my high school equivalent of erotica.