Teen Strand 

 

Students ages 12 and up are invited to attend the Children's and Young Adult Literature Conference. They may attend any of the presentations, but there will be a special Teen Strand designed just for them! This strand will give students the opportunity to read for pleasure and to realize the joy of hands-on experience. 

 

The focus of the strand will be two books that students should read before attending the Conference. These are newer books that students may not have read. Good literature is not merely composed of works from the past; it is being created now! At the Conference, we will do several fun activities based on these books, such as soap carving, role playing, first impression posters, Not-so-Trivial Pursuit, and Jeopardy.

 

Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan       Naomi Soledad León Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life, her name for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, and her status among her classmates as "nobody special." But according to Gram's self-prophecies, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. Luckily, Naomi also has her soap carving, a talent at which she excels. And life at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho in Lemon Tree, California, with Gram and her little brother, Owen, is happy and peaceful. That is, until their mother reappears after seven years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions and challenging Naomi to discover and proclaim who she really is.

King of Shadows by Susan Cooper      Only in the world of the theater can Nat Field find an escape from the tragedies that have shadowed his young life. So he is thrilled when he is chosen to join an American drama troupe traveling to London to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream in a new replica of the famous Globe theater. Shortly after arriving in England, Nat goes to bed ill and awakens transported back in time four hundred years-to another London, and another production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Amid the bustle and excitement of an Elizabethan theatrical production, Nat finds the warm, nurturing father figure missing from his life-in none other than William Shakespeare himself. Does Nat have to remain trapped in the past forever, or give up the friendship he's so longed for in his own time?