For those of you who have been impatiently awaiting the next instalment of Ask Jack, here it is! In this episode Jack answers the burning question, “How often do Jupiter and Mars align?” (Due to some technical difficulties, the audio and video are out of sync…but stick with it, Jack always has the answers!)

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Believe it or not, Stephenie Meyer was not the first author to write a young adult vampire novel. Shocked? Whether you’re waiting for “Midnight Sun” or just wishing the whole craze would be over already, here are some books for you.

For Twilight Lovers: The Interspecies Romances

Just itching for another fix of forbidden love? Whether the romance is a vampire, a werewolf, or just a plain ol’ human, these books will surely appeal to you.

“The Silver Kiss” by Annette Curtis Klause
I cannot count how many times I’ve heard that this book ‘rips off’ “Twilight,” and that’s why it merited number one on this list. Like “Twilight,” “The Silver Kiss” deals with a human-vampire romance, but one with a bit more substance– she’s a lost, lonely human girl, grieving over her dying mother, while he’s a mysterious, alluring vampire, able to understand what she’s going to due to his desire to avenge his own mother’s death. While “The Silver Kiss” is by no means Klause’s best book, if you’re looking for another tale of forbidden love and moody undead boyfriends, this is the novel for you.

“A Great and Terrible Beauty” by Libba Bray

The Unconventional Vampire Novels

If this list is making you feel like vampires are the most overused staple in all of literature, here are some authors who agree with you. Enjoy their more original takes on the vampire myths!

“Blue Bloods” by Melissa de la Cruz

“Thicker Than Water” by Carla Jablonski

“Peeps” by Scott Westerfeld

“Sweetblood” by Pete Hautman

Hate “Twilight” because you can’t take sparkling hundred year old men seriously? Well, these books all hope that you don’t take them seriously.

“The Reformed Vampire Support Group” by Catherine Jenks

“Suck it Up” by Brian Meehl

“Bloodsucking Fiends: a Love Story” by Christopher Moore

“Interview with a Vampire” by Anne Rice

“Blood and Chocolate” by Annette Curtis Clause

“Thirsty” by MT Anderson

Posted by Bethany Davis

Bee never thought that she was normal, but this becomes even more clear when a mysterious girl who looks exactly like her appears, demanding her body back. Bee soon finds out that she’s a changeling, and changelings are never treated kindly, to say the least. Can her friends– a half-alien and a reincarnated slave girl– save her before it’s too late?

Francesca Lia Block’s novels are always a breath of fresh air, mixing mythology and modernity and poetry and prose so seamlessly and beautifully that one can’t help but savor them. The Waters and the Wild is no different from the others– achingly gorgeous and always just mysterious enough to keep readers guessing where imagination stops and reality begins. There really isn’t much that one can say about such a short novel, but this, one of Block’s newer novels, is more “PG” than, say, Echo or the Weetzie Bat books, and thus an excellent introduction to the wonder that is one of Young Adult literature’s most revolutionary authors.

Posted by Bethany Davis

Nina may look like any other fifteen year old novelist– okay, maybe a little skinnier and just a tad paler– but she has a secret, one that would be devastating if it got out. That secret? She’s not really fifteen. Well, technically she is, but she’s been that way since 1973.

That’s right, Nina’s a vampire, just like Zadia Bloodstone, the fictional heroine about whom Nina’s novels are written. Actually, not just like– because vampires, despite their reputation, have no super powers, are not gorgeous, and, well…they feed on guinea pigs if they want to survive long, because they can be killed with stakes, and no one wants that, do they

On second thought, maybe someone does. When Nina and her friends find one of their companions staked in his coffin one evening, they realize that there’s a vampire hunter on the loose, one who clearly does not know the true nature of vampires. If they want to survive, the vampires will have to leave their cozy basement lives and begin a hunt of their own.

It’s always refreshing to read a book with characters that are original for the sake of being original. Sure, the idea of vampire life being less than pleasant has been done a thousand times before– really, vampires in general have been done to death, if you’ll pardon the pun– but Catherine Jenks acknowledges this and skips over it entirely in her funny, fresh take on the cliches. The Reformed Vampire Support Group is a satire of sorts, but also an adventure novel that will keep you hooked in your seat from beginning to end, if you don’t fall out of your chair laughing halfway through.

posted by Bethany Davis

posted by Black-eyed Susan

Welcome back Ask Jack!

In this installment Jack answers the burning question, “Why don’t people wear watches, anymore?”

Enjoy!

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posted by Black-eyed Susan

posted by Black-eyed Susan

Poet Laura Shovan was our guest speaker at our November Teen ‘Zine meeting. Ms. Shovan taught us about the poetry form called “Sestina“. She explained that, sometimes when writing poetry, concentrating on a poem’s format can warm up your brain. As a group, we wrote the following sestina. Each of us wrote a stanza, then put them together to form an entire poem. Enjoy!

Monday Night Sestina

The early breeze whispered, fresh
With enough of a chill to cause a twinge in the scar
Jack was given by the evil witch.
Many years ago, in an ancient forest far
Away Jack had met his fate in the unforgiving mist,
As sullenly, though the trees, the wind blew.

My heart is blue
Though I feel fresh
I run outside in the relief,
As the soft rain hits my face like mist
I slipped and fell, and then I thought, “this is going to leave a scar.”
I try to reach for a band aid but it is too far
When I thought nothing else could go wrong, here came and evil witch.

It was then wondered which
Of them had gotten so cold as to turn blue
And leave traces of color near and far
Until it snowed and left things fresh
Without leaving any sort of scar
On the rainbow mist.

And through the mist
I thought I saw a fairy or a bird, but I didn’t know which
Stumbling to the safety of my car
I felt a small breath that blew
air that smelled so sweet and fresh
That I wanted to follow the scent to lands afar

Rumplemyer searched far wide and far.
Over hill, under rock, no place was missed.
Seeking the magical grapefruit of love–juicy and fresh,
Or was it an orange? Which fruit was which?
Then a westerly, rushing wind blew
A twig to his face, leaving only a scar.

A magic charm embedded in her scar
Gave the girl second sight. Far
Into the gloom blue
Forms of ghosts moved, barely mist
She saw their bare feed, bewitched
Float just above the snow, unmarked by footprints, fresh.

And not one of them was missed
Still we knew not which was which
The stale blue fog no longer was fresh.

Join us for our next Teen ‘Zine meeting on Monday, November 14 at 7:00 pm.

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posted by Black-eyed Susan