Never Too Old:
Celebrating Youth Books
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, May 6th @ 4:30pm
 
Never Too Old meets the 1st WEDNESDAY of the month to share the diversity, depth, and relevance of Young Adult & Juvenile books.
All ages are welcome. For more information, contact Beth@LopezLibrary.org or Ingrid@LopezLibrary.org

6 May: Youth Nonfiction 500s-600s
Nonfiction 500s: Sciences
Nonfiction 600s: Technology, Medicine, Building, Farming, Pets, Cooking
 
Select a book from the tower in the Young Adult section of the library or from the nonfiction 500s or 600s section. Contact Beth or Ingrid if you need recommendations.

April summary
Four readers shared juvenile and YA titles with nature and/or environmental themes in honor of Earth Day. 
 
One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet by Anuradha Rao
One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet
by Anuradha Rao

This nonfiction book for teens profiles 20 environmental defenders of color from around the world. Their individual stories show that the intersection of environment and ethnicity is an asset to protecting our planet. Illustrated with photos of each of the people profiled.

HONEST & HOPEFUL
Parable of the Sower
by Octavia E. Butler

The collector's edition of the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror by the visionary Octavia Butler, now with a new introduction by LeVar Burton. When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny. --

PUBLISHED IN 1993, THIS DEVASTATING YET AMAZING NOVEL IS SCARILY RELEVANT.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Dry by Neal Shusterman
Dry
by Neal Shusterman

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman. The drought--or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it--has been going on for a while now. Everyone's lives have become an endless list of don'ts: don't water the lawn, don't fill up your pool, don't take long showers. Until the taps run dry. Suddenly, Alyssa's quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don't return and her life--and the life of her brother--is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she's going to survive.

REMINISCENT OF PARABLE OF THE SOWER
How to Know a Crow: The Biography of a Brainy Bird
by Candace Savage

For readers 9-12, get up close and personal with a clever corvid and discover the fascinating world of crows. Crows are all around us, shouting from lamp posts, poking around on lawns, and generally taking a bright-eyed interest in everything that moves. But most of us don't know much about their lives. In How to Know a Crow, award-winning author Candace Savage invites us into the fascinating world of these big, brash, and surprisingly brainy birds. From the moment baby crow Oki pokes her egg tooth through her shell and emerges into her nest, we are her constant companions. As we follow her through the seasons of her life, we explore how crows see and sense the world. With How to Know a Crow, uncover the answers to questions such as: Do crows have families? How do crows communicate with one another? Do crows play? How can we interact with them? Featuring gorgeous illustrations from Rachel Hudson, How to Know a Crow is a memorable journey of discovery. 

FASCINATING, WELL-RESEARCHED, HUMOROUS
How to Know a Crow: The Biography of a Brainy Bird by Candace Savage
Wings in the wild by Margarita Engle
Wings in the wild
by Margarita Engle

When a hurricane exposes Soleida's family's secret sculpture garden, the Cuban government arrests her artist parents, forcing her to escape alone to Central America where she meets Dariel, a Cuban American boy, and together they work to protect the environment and bring attention to the imprisoned artists in Cuba.

WELL-WRITTEN WITH RELEVANT THEMES, THIS NOVEL IN VERSE HAD TWO MUCH TEEN ANGST FOR TWO ADULT READERS. 
The lady and the octopus : how Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented aquariums and revolutionized marine biology
by Danna Staaf

"Follow the remarkable journey of Jeanne Villepreux-Power from her childhood in a small French village to her life as a naturalist in nineteenth-century Messina, Sicily, where she conducted groundbreaking research and invented aquariums"

AN EMPOWERED WOMAN
The lady and the octopus : how Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented aquariums and revolutionized marine biology by Danna Staaf
The Island by Gary Paulsen
The Island
by Gary Paulsen

From a master storyteller comes a unique exploration into the exhilarating joys--and the inevitable dangers--of total solitude. Every day, 15yo Wil Neuton gets up, brushes his teeth, leaves the house, and rows away from shore. He's discovered the island, a place where he can go to be alone and learn to know nature--and himself. Wil's only mission is to let go of the outside world. But the outside world refuses to let go of him. His family regards him as a puzzle. The town bully is determined to challenge him. And suddenly, even reporters know his name. He can confront them all, or he can embrace his solitude forever. Just one thing is certain now: Wil Neuton will no longer be relying on anybody but himself.
Martin Marten
by Brian Doyle

Dave is fourteen years old, living with his family in a cabin on Oregon's Mount Hood (or as he prefers to call it, like the Multnomah tribal peoples once did, Wy'east). Dave will soon enter high school, with adulthood and a future not far off--a future away from his mother, father, his precocious younger sister, and the wilderness where he's lived all his life. And Dave is not the only one approaching adulthood and its freedoms on Wy'east that summer. Martin, a pine marten (of the mustelid family), is leaving his own mother and siblings and setting off on his own as well. As Dave and Martin set off on their own adventures, their lives, paths, and trails will cross, weave, and blend. Why not come with them as they set forth into the forest and crags of Oregon's soaring mountain wilderness in search of life, family, friends, enemies, wonder, mystery, and good things to eat? Martin Marten is a braided coming-of-age tale like no other, told in Brian Doyle's joyous, rollicking style.
Martin Marten by Brian Doyle
My side of the mountain
by Jean Craighead George

A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship.

A traditional wilderness survival story that withstands the test of time.
My side of the mountain by Jean Craighead George
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Hoot
by Carl Hiaasen

This Newbery Honor winner and #1 New York Times bestseller is a beloved modern classic. Hoot features a new kid and his new bully, alligators, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes. Everybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter? Welcome to Carl Hiaasen's Florida--where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder!

Lopez Island Library
2225 Fisherman Bay Rd
Lopez Island, Washington 98261
360-468-2265

www.lopezlibrary.org