the trailer is here...

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

How easy it would be for any of us to fall out of the nest.

Ransom Riggs is an author of young adult literature. He wrote Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and just released book 2 Hollow City.

He also makes films. You can watch them on his YouTube page: www.youtube.com/ransriggs.

Here's one I adore...

"a scar beneath the sleeve that will never disappear. We are so breakable; our bodies so easily pierced. Our bones so easily crushed. How easy it would be, I often think, for any of us to fall out of the nest."

awesome book list requested by my pal Jessie ...

The Daisy List…

Here's a great list of books for those 12 and up:

Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Navigating Early by Claire Vanderpool

The School for Good and Evil 

by Soman Chainani

Rump by Liesl Shurtliff

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

The Real Boy by Anne Ursu 

(or, you know, anything by Anne Ursu)

Wonder by RJ Palacio

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead 

(or When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead)

One for the Murphys 

by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

May B by Caroline Starr Rose

more teen-ish options:

The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Matched by Ally Condie

Scorched by Mancusi Mari

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Wally List…

Here's a great list of books for 4th grade 

boys and up:

The One and Only Ivan 

by Katherine Applegate

Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis

The Amulet Series by Kazu Kibuishi

Treasure Hunters by James Patterson

I Funny by James Patterson (again)

Big Nate series by Lincoln Pierce

(and, of course, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
by Jeff Kinney)

The Templeton Twins by Ellis Weiner

(book one and two)

The Familiars 

by Adam Epstein and Andrew Jacoson

Justin Case by Rachel Vail
(and book two too)

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Cardboard by Doug Tennapel 

(or Ghostopolis or Bad Island)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle 

(the graphic novel)

Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger 

(or anything by Tom Angleberger)

Stick Dog by Tom Watson

The Name of this Book is Secret (series)

by pseudonymous bosch

the people who have seen too much

I saw this amazing advertisement from the Dutch organization KNGF -  service dogs for veterans...



… and I couldn't get it out of my mind. 

The translation: 'We teach our dogs to wake up people with a trauma when they are experiencing a nightmare, because we don't only help people who cannot see, but also the people who have seen too much.'

Then this weekend I read The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson. The Impossible Knife of Memory uses contemporary young adult literature to shed light on the growing, devastating, complex effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hayley Kincain, our heroine, is in her senior year of high school. She lives with her dad, Andy, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. Andy has PTSD; he is tormented by memories of his tours of duty. The chapters told from Andy's point of view provide a glimpse into the chaos and despair that is war.

This book is intense, but has a lot of heart. It is a beautiful look into a dark but ever relevant topic.

Teens will love the cynical, smart, disillusioned, rebellious Hayley. She has just enough wit and hope to tackle such a painful story.

Get this book for yourself, for the teens you know, and for anyone who loves good writing that pulls you in from page one.

For more information on service dogs in the United States, check out The Humane Society program called Service Dogs for Veterans or another program called Operation Freedom Paws.