(Hey, has anyone here read them? If so, please tell me how prevalent the giant psychic spider is in them.)

I asked a friend. She said, "Fairly."

I can't remember the author, but there's a YA book called Thirst that was quite good. And with a male protag, so not Twilight.

Are you thinking of Thirsty by M.T. Anderson? Because Thirst is also the title of the reissues of Christopher Pike's awesome The Last Vampire series, which has a female protagonist.

Public Librarian Voice Of Beth:

When I use the words age appropriate I think 'what will parents want to know' and 'what do many of the kids in that age group object to"

for example : an 11 yr old kid picked up the first Terry Goodkind -- and he asked me about it -- and so I told mom most of the story would be good, but it had graphic S & M style sex - In this case mom didn't stop him -- she wasn't overly concerned with trying to stop him .

But I have also found that most of the 11- 14 yrs in my area aren't really interested in Murder mysteries. or drugs in books. and most of the still prefer any romance not to get much beyond hand holding.

It isn't that I'll not tell them about a book - but more warn them about some things.

And I keep every kid away from The Old Man and the Sea I think you need a little working life behind you to read it . I don't care that it is short

Kara's reading Blue Girl, by Charles de Lint, with ghosts and a thrifting gothy-ish HS protag, and there's Yarrow as well. There's also the Terry Pratchett YA. There are the Nurse Matilda stories, which Nanny McPhee was based on; Edward Eager's collection for magic; Kara likes magical animals, too, and is reading the Seeker series (about bears. not sure of the author). She might like Andre Norton--Witch World and the more juvenile stuff. There's also Patricia McKillip and Robin McKinley.

Books that I knew were glorifying gang life and violence, espcially with kids I knew were mixed up with gangs, I would read, and talk with the student about what was and was not realistic and/or biased, and had some great talks with kids on some very tough subjects

Yes, this. We do this with music that we teach, a lot. I think some of our donors would be unhappy to know that we'll teach a student music with some of the lyrics we do. But I am much more willing to have a candid discussion with the student about what the song is saying, rather than have them walk away thinking, one more person who is against me.

Music and literature are great ways to open up doors with students.

Indeed, Liese. How are students going to learn to think critically about difficult subjects, if you don't talk about it with them?

I mean, I wouldn't sit down to talk to an 11 y.o. about "Hey, it's time to talk about S&M! You're 11!" BUT, if a youth is starting to evince an interest in, or be exposed to, an issue, then you can and should ask some questions: "This book/song talks about X? What do you think that is? Do you understand what the people in this book are doing? What do you think about this in the real world, with real people, as opposed to characters in a book or in a song?"

Oh, and also, Jilli, Meredith Ann Pierce! The Darkangel books -- vampires on the Moon. LOVED those books.

In case you're wondering, "How bad can those Dune prequels really be?" One man reads and reviews them for you.

These books are… I don’t know if I’d say terrible.

He's far too kind.

I just happen to be listening to Dune on my commute these days. This further validates my decision that, although I like Dune, I can skip anything other than the original book.

I was in the local Barnes & Noble and saw "Standing Small" ... a history of Legos.

I was looking up Jane Aiken Hodge because I was trying to remember the title of one of her books, and I saw that she had died last year. Sad. And then I read the details.

After taking an overdose of pills the 91-year-old novelist lay in bed, alive but unconscious, for four days last month, watched by her daughters, before she finally died. Her daughter, Jessica Hodge, described yesterday the dilemma faced by the family and the “inhuman” legal position they have endured as they await a decision on whether anyone will be prosecuted.

She'd been planning it for years but hadn't mentioned it to anyone because she didn't want anyone in legal trouble.