Featured Artist: Faith

This week's artist is Faith Johnson who drew a portrait of one of our regular library patrons named Jill. Jill loved it some much she encouraged Faith to submit it to the blog so here it is! Isn't it beautiful?

"Jill" by Faith Johnson"

Featured Artist - Clarissa

Congratulations to Clarissa Jones for being our featured artist this week! This is her super Kawaii tribute to the anime Dangaronpa! We love it!

What's New At The Library - Early February 2019

More new books have just hit our shelves at the Yuma County Library and here are three that we think are definitely worth checking out!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi: Best-selling author Roshani Chokshi offers up the beginning of a brand new series. In the Paris of the late 1800's, treasure hunter Severin Montagnet-Alaire has just been offered the chance to claim his inheritance by member of a powerful secret society - the Order of Babel. But in order to succeed he must team up with a group of gifted misfits and try to stay alive long enough to find a mysterious treasure the Order needs. If you liked Court of Miracles or Six of Crows, this one is for you.

Let's Go Swimming on Doomsday by Natlie C. Anderson: Abdi is a 16 year old living in Somalia and trying to live a normal life. That all changes when his family is kidnapped and Abdi is forced to become a child soldier by the kidnappers, a terrorist group known as Al Shabaab who train him to become a suicide bomber. He manages to survive and escape only to become a homeless fugitive, hunted by both Al Shabaab and the police. The book is not for the faint-hearted, but it will definitely keep you gripped from start to finish.

The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston: Owen Foster has always been a privileged rich kid, growing up in New Orleans and attending all the best schools and going to all the best parties - until the day he learns his dad is a crook , and all the money his family has was being embezzled from his dad's company. His dad disappears before he can be brought to justice and now, in his Senior year of High School, Owen has become the most hated kid at his school, has had to get a job for the first time in his life, and what's worse, someone his dad ripped off wants Owen and his mother dead.

To find these books at your nearest library branch, click on the titled for a link to the library catalog. And stop by your closest library's teen room to see what else is on the shelf!

Featured Artist: Julia

Thank you so much to Jula Setchfield for her beautiful pencil drawing. She didn't give it a title, but we think this is an original character. We love it! Great job Julia!

Pencil on paper untitled drawing bu Julia Setchfield.

What's New at the Library - Late January 2019

More new books have just hit our shelves at the Yuma County Library and here are three that we think are definitely worth checking out!

The Fade by Demitria Lunetta: The police consider it a missing person's case. Several years ago, four girls vanished without a trace, and their families have never stopped looking, and hoping they will be found. Hayley knows the girls are dead. Murdered to be precise. She knows, because their spirits have been haunting her for a while now. Except no one will believe her. Just like they won't believe the girls have been warning Hayley that unless she can solve their murders, she will be the next to die.

Sadie by Courtney Summers: Sadie is a teenager responsible for raising her little sister Mattie - until the day Mattie is murdered. Sadie's entire world falls apart that day, and she becomes consumed with trying to find her sister's killer. Meanwhile, radio host West McCray hears about a runaway girl named Sadie, who is presumed to be armed and dangerous. He decides to make it his mission to find Sadie and stop her from doing something she could regret for the rest of her life. Told partly by Sadie and partly in the form of scripts from West McCray's podcast this is a super unique mystery that will keep you guessing until the end.

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Ellis Dayton: Six different but connected stories that take us from the near future through into a far and distant time. Each story explores what it really means to be be human and how far people are willing to go to achieve physical perfection and immortality by tackling everything from plastic surgery to gene modification. If you like Black Mirror or Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, this one is for you.

To find these books at your nearest library branch, just click on the titles for a link to our catalog. And stop by your closest library teen room to see what else is new on our shelves!

What's New at the Library - Early January 2019

Hi everyone! We just received a bunch of awesome new books at the library district and here are just a few of them we definitely recommend you check out!

Broken Lands by Jonathan Maberry: Set in the world of Rot & Ruin this book begins a brand new series set after the zombie apocalypse. When Gabriela "Gutsy" Gomez' mom becomes one of the undead, she realizes there is no such thing as a "quiet life" during a zombie infestation. Meanwhile, we also get to see what Benny Imura and his group has been up to since Rot & Ruin and we learn about their continued quest to find a zombie cure.

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas: Welcome to the town of Sunnybrook, where it is VERY dangerous to be a cheerleader! It started five years ago when two high school cheerleaders were killed in a car accident. Then, a series of horrible murders and suicides claimed the lives of the rest of the squad. Monica, the sister of the last cheerleader to die, just wants to move on from the tragedy - but when she finds some strange letters in her stepdad's desk, she realizes something very sinister is going on in her town - and her own life might be in danger.

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann: Alice has the perfect plan to get over her breakup - she's going to spend the entire summer watching TV and going to every all you can eat buffet in town, with a little bit of part-time work at the library to pay the rent. She is 100% definitely, not at all interested in finding love ever again... until she meets Takumi, who makes her feel the kind of butterflies she never thought she could experience.







To find these books at your nearest library branch, just click on the titles for a link to our catalog. And stop by your closest library teen room to see what else is new on our shelves!

Recommended Reads: Flight

This week, we're recommending a book that is kind of controversial. Actually, to be more specific, it's not so much the BOOK that is controversial but the author, Sherman Alexie. Alexie, whom you might know from reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has recently been accused of inappropriate behavior towards women  - allegations which he has chosen not to fully respond to.

So, if this is a deal breaker to you, you can stop here and we'll be cool with that.
Since YCLD doesn't censor books or limit what you are allowed to check out, we're going to recommend Flight (<--- click the link to go to the library's catalog and find a copy) to you for a couple of very good reasons. First, it's one of the books that was chosen this year to be part of the Great Stories Book Club (our library is one of only two in Arizona that was chosen to be part of this club this year!) and second, it's a REALLY good book.

Honestly. I 100% did not think I was going to like this book when I picked it up because it's pretty different from what I usually read, but I was seriously hooked from the first couple of pages. I'm not going to lie - some of the language and subject matter in the story is tough to read, and it's not going to be for everyone's tastes.

The story is basically this: Zits is a half Native-American, half Irish kid in the foster system. He's been in and out of juvie a bunch of times because, as he will tell you himself, he hates everyone - especially himself. He keeps getting kicked out of foster homes because of his attitude, and as the story begins he's just gotten kicked out of his latest one for cussing out his foster dad on his first day there. Zits gets picked up by the cops, and meets a kid his age named Justice who instantly becomes his new best friend. They run away together, and Justice convinces Zits to do something INCREDIBLY stupid: using a couple of guns Justice has gotten his hands on, they plan to rob a bank.

Not to spoil things too much for you, but things go REALLY, REALLY, super wrong and Zits gets himself shot.... and as he is dying, something amazing happens: he gains the ability to time-travel. Downside: he can only time travel by jumping into someone else's body, and he has no control over whose body it is or what time period he ends up in. I won't say much more about it, but things get weird fast, and Zits ends up learning a LOT about himself and other people. That's all I am going to say about it so I can avoid mega-spoilers, but it's definitely a good read.

Official rating: 4/4 Booker Bears