Recommended Reads: Ask Again Later

Ask Again Later is a funny book about a girl with a lot of problems. Firs off, her name is Heart LaCoeur (la coeur is French for "the heart" so her name is literally Heart The Heart you guys!). Second, she has vowed NEVER to be in a relationship because she does not want to be like her mom, who got pregnant and married at a young age and ended up leaving the family when Heart was little. Third, two guys have asked her to prom. That last one doesn't sound like that bad of a problem, except that Heart really doesn't want to go with either of them, she wants to stick to her plan of going to prom with a big group of friends and have a great time. But, she feels REALLY bad about saying no to either of them, because one is just a really nice, sweet guy from drama who she's friends with, and the other is her brother's best friend who has just been dumped by his long-time girlfriend. 

Heart can't make up her mind who to go with, so she flips a coin to see what she should do - and that's when things get weird. Basically, the book is told on two separate time lines - you get to read what happens when Heart says yes to her theater friend AND what happens when she says yes to her brother's best friend. Both turn out to be basically the prom from her nightmares - with the added complication that one of her best friends may actually have a huge crush on her, and may have been planning to ask her to prom himself. 

It's a really fun, lighthearted read and you can download it from Hoopla Digital with your library card. 

Official rating: 2/4 Booker Bears. 

Program Review - Financial Planning After High School

On Thursday, November 8th of 2018 the teen room hosted a program presented by Business Librarian Andrew Zollman on financial planning after high school for teens. Teen Blog contributor Nina Hook was at that program and this is what she thought of it.

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"I am constantly anxious about the future. I think it’s very easy to get caught up thinking about years to come, and how you are going to figure everything out. While the future is unknown, and there is no reason to fret about it, there are ways to plan accordingly to give you the best future possible. 

I recently attended a talk about financial plans after high school for teens at the Yuma County Library and it truly opened my mind to so many options that I didn’t even realize I had. It helped me understand the infinite number of roads the future as in store for me. With the immense variety of topics we covered, this talk was applicable to any and every teen! 

Also, the discussion was great because it answered so many questions that I didn’t even think I needed to ask! There is so much to living on your own that teens don’t even realize. While it was realistic, it helped me understand what I was getting in to, so I could succeed. 

I am pretty set on going to Tennessee for college. I cannot begin to express how much this discussion helped me on figuring out every inch of my move concerning my finances. There were things brought up that I did not even realize were going to financially affect me and my lifestyle. In addition to helping me figure out my financial plans, the discussion shared many helpful tips to help my budget!

Overall, there are 101 ways to get to where you want to go! But I highly recommend figuring out your financial situation before graduating so you can be as prepared as possible. There are so many things unknown to us teenagers, that information like the one I got from the discussion, is vital. 

~Submitted by Nina Hook.

Recommended Reads: The Mermaid Upstairs

The book “The Mermaid Upstairs” by Jami Lilo easily captivated me from the first chapter. The riveting, unique story keeps you on edge throughout the whole book while the realistic aspects relate to your everyday life!

As a teenager, the main character, who is around my age, has a very different life than mine. Nevertheless, I found myself relating to her in so many ways. Rules, boys, and school have never felt so relatable before. The perfect mix of fantasy and reality is found in “The Mermaid Upstairs” and I read the book faster than any before. The anticipation, love, and imagination that was poured into this book is not only eye catching, but mind catching. 

The use of detail to describe the overwhelming change in the protagonist’s life makes the reader feel as if they are experiencing it themselves, without boring them with useless information. When reading in my everyday life, I find myself drifting away from the words due to the overuse of details. However, in “The Mermaid Upstairs” the amount of detail used created an intricate image in my mind while keeping me on focus with the book. The interesting, vivid use of details help the reader zone into the fantasy of the book, while relating to the character’s very real, true problems that many teenage girls have. 

“The Mermaid Upstairs” relates to teenage girls my age and helps us realize we are not alone in our problems with boys, school, family issues, and other similar problems. It shows us the importance of family, to respect your parents, and to be true to yourself in an interesting, fantasy-like way. Showing the true importance of family is often not seen in teenage books, whose main focus is typically romance. However, “The Mermaid Upstairs” captures the importance of family, romance, and friendship all in one. It truly relates, entertains, and shows the morals needed in this world to all, especially the teenage age group. I highly recommend reading it, for it will give you a completely new perspective. 

Submitted by Nina Hook.

(Hi guys - this is Elia. Just letting you know that we do not have this book at the Library at this time, but Nina liked it so much I will do my best to order it for the teen room so we have it to check out! Keep an eye on the catalog to see when it is in!)

Shoutout to Yuma Catholic High School!

At the end of November the Main Library's teen room hosted over 100 students from Yuma Catholic High School. They came in to get brand new library cards and tour the building, which some of them had never been in before! They also learned how to navigate the library's website and catalog with a little quiz the library staff made up for them.
We just wanted to take a minute and tell them we appreciate them stopping in and we hope we see them a lot more in the future! Hope you enjoy using your new library cards guys!

Teachers - if you would like us to come visit your Middle School or High School classes, we would be more than happy to! E-mail us at teen@yumalibrary.org for more information!