(HS LRC) May Author of the Month - Lauren Myracle

Lauren Myracle born May 15, 1969 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) in North Carolina is an American writer of young-adult fiction. She grew up in Georgia where she attended Trinity School and The Westminster Schools, is the oldest of three sisters, and has three older brothers. Lauren earned a BA in English and Psychology from the University of North Carolina where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

After that, Lauren worked for some time as a middle-school teacher in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and participated in the JET Programme in Japan. She later earned an MA in English from Colorado State University where she taught for two years and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College.

Her debut novel, Kissing Kate, released in 2003 was chosen as one of the ALA Best Books for Young Adults in 2004. Since then, she has written many books for children and young adults including the best-selling Internet Girls books: ttyl (talk to you later), ttfn (ta ta for now), and l8r, g8r (later, gator), and the Winnie Years series.

According to the American Library Association, Lauren's books were the most challenged books of 2009 and 2011. Her books continue to be challenged in school libraries usually for scenes of alleged sexuality, homosexuality, or alcohol use. Children's publisher Scholastic nearly refused to carry Luv Ya Bunches at its national school book fair events since it features lesbian mothers. The initial decision was recanted following a massive internet outcry.

Lauren is highly critical of adults attempting to keep books away from teenagers, believing that kids are smart enough to understand the message in books and learn their lessons. Regarding her own children's reading, she says: "As a mom, I want my kids to read any book they want!" She currently lives with her family in Colorado. Her younger sister, Susan Rebecca White, writes adult fiction.

(GS LRC) May Author of the Month - Debra Frasier

Debra Frasier is the author and illustrator of many brilliant picture books including On the Day You Were Born and Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster. In addition to her well-known talks on creative process, Debra’s innovative "Book Events" build a community’s creativity through projects that start with a story. She has won numerous awards and has inspired thousands in schools across the United States.

She was born on April 3, 1953 in Florida where her grandmother was a schoolteacher. Debra, her brother, and two stepsisters grew up in a remote house that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. They spent weekends and summers swimming and collecting treasures on the beach.

Even when she was quite young, Debra loved to create all kinds of artworks, often piecing together sculptures from bits of wood we’d found on our walks. Her mother says she used miles and miles of Scotch tape to make things.

In 1976, Debra graduated with a degree in design from Florida State University. She went on to attend Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina where she made massive costume puppets as large as sixty feet long. Debra married and moved to Minnesota in 1984. Debra always liked to write letters and people often would ask her why she doesn’t write books. Her first one came unexpectedly as the result of a difficult pregnancy with her only child.

When things were at their darkest, she asked a nurse at the hospital to bring her some paper so she could write down all the things on our earth that would welcome her daughter if she would just get here. Later, after her safe arrival, Debra took this jumble of words and scribbled drawings and began to turn them into a book. Now she writes and illustrates books full-time. Visit debrafrasier.com to see how a parade of words can make you laugh, how the alphabet can transform a school carnival into a Word Event, or how a talking dog can make your heart swell!

(HS LRC) May Book of the Month - The Truth about Forever

It's really all about our doting moms! Sarah Dessen's sixth novel gracefully balances comedy with tragedy and introduces a complex heroine worth getting to know, returning to a familiar theme and recognizable characters: the “perfect” girl at odds with a controlling mother and keeping boys at arm’s length because of father issues.

Here the girl is Macy Queen. Her father has died, her sensible mother can’t grieve and reels Macy back every time our heroine tries to break out of the automaton state in which she is trapped during the summer following the sudden death when she plans to work at the library and wait for her brilliant and oh-so-steady boyfriend Jason to return from "Brain Camp" – things that are safe and predictable.

"Anything he did, he did well," Macy explains. "A lot of people might find this annoying, even loathsome. But not me. He was just what I needed."

However, Macy must learn to find happiness and reassurance on her own after the boyfriend announces via e-mail that he wants to put their relationship on hold. Much to her mother's dismay, Macy impulsively gets a job with a disorganized catering company instead to work as a caterer's assistant for a very pregnant woman called Delia who thrives on chaos.

Macy's new coworkers mirror and mask similar emotions to her own – among them are a girl who is scarred on the outside but not on the inside and two motherless brothers, the older of whom, the sensitive and artistic bartender Wes, helps Macy break through as she makes new friends and finally faces her grief amidst flying meatballs, spilt wine, irate clients, and inebriated guests.

As is often the case with Dessen, the novel is a mixed bag. At its purest, the writing reaches directly into the hearts of teenage girls: Macy’s games of “truth” with Wes are unerringly conceived, sharply focused on both characters and issues. Cheer Macy on as she tentatively reenters the world of the living by taking risks and relearning how to act spontaneously, embracing change rather than avoiding it. Come find inspiration in this entertaining must-read!

(GS LRC) May Book of the Month - One Crazy Summer

Can you imagine being sent to California for a month during the truly crazy summer of 1968 with your siblings? This month's feature is a Newbery Medal Honor historical fiction by New York Times bestselling American author Rita Williams-Garcia, published by Amistad in 2010. The novel is about Delphine, 11, Vonetta 9, and Fern, 7,  who are put on a plane from Brooklyn to where they are to stay with an estranged parent. Their dreams of a warm reception however are quickly shattered.

It's 1968 when society is changing and men in berets carrying guns are shouting about black power but it's also a personal time when the girls desperately want to know who their mother is and why she abandoned them.

Cecile sends the girls for Chinese food and to keep them out of her way, she sends them to the local day camp. Over the course of the next four weeks, time is spent learning about revolution even though what the sisters want is a home-cooked meal and a real mother. Slowly, the mysterious story of their mom's flight is untangled.

Worth reading more than once for simply being a gem, it's been recognized four times. In the year of its inception, the book was a National Book Award finalist for young people’s literature. In 2011, it won the Coretta Scott King Award for the author and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Critics highly recommended the story as powerful and humorous. Teri Markson, writing for School Library Journal, states that it is emotionally challenging and beautifully written for children about ethnic identity and personal responsibility. C.J. Morales, writing for the New York Amsterdam News, states that it is written to teach black history in a meaningful and amusing way and will keep you laughing out loud.

The book is meant best for ages 9–12. Readers who enjoy Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich's 8th Grade Super-Zero, A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliot, Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Mare’s War by Tanita S Davis, E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau,  Sherri L Smith's Flygirl, and the family dynamics in The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. The Gaither girls' story continues in the award-winning P.S. Be Eleven.