The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Summary:

"The Awakening starts with Chloe Saunders and her fellow supernatural friends Simon, Derek, and Tori making a great escape from the Edison Group. Unfortunately the supernaturals find themselves in this situation several times throughout the book, barely escaping the Edison group each time. Chloe and her fellow escapees Simon, Derek, and Tori finally decide to find a family friend that might be the only adult on their side.The stress of being a runaway is very trying on Chloe. She has to constantly control her supernatural abilities of raising the dead, which even includes raising by accident dead bats, rabbits, and humans. This is Chloe's most trying obstacle and she looks to an unlikely friend Derek to help her out. In the beginning Derek and Chloe had a very trying relationship but grows as Derek is able to help Chloe control her supernatural abilities. As Chloe and Derek's friendship blossoms,  Simon's affection for Chloe is threatened. Of course "The Awakening" ends with a cliff hanger so you will have to wait until the release of "The Reckoning" coming out May 1 2010.

My Opinion:
I have to say that I very much enjoyed the first book in this series "The Summoning" and was disappointed with second installment to the series "The Awakening". Like with a lot of series the second book always seems to be "a waiting in limbo" plot where nothing much happens. Characters create more solid relationships with each other and that is about it. This is exactly how "The Awakening" lays out, Chloe learns a little more about herself creates some solid relationships, and the supernaturals figure out a plan, the end! I just felt like there was no substance, storyline, or a solidified plot. Just a bunch of teen runaways who get into trouble but somehow get away. Armstrong could have completely left this book out of the series, and readers would be missing a whole lot of nothing. I am still going to pursue the third installment to this series as I think it will be a good one, that is to stay "The Awakening" did leave you with a great cliff hanger that makes readers want to come back for more.   

The Darkest Powers Series
The Summoning
The Awakening 
The Reckoning due May 1 2010

Teen Tech Week March 7-13 2010

This is the first year I decided to do anything for Teen Tech Week, in the past it has always been on my mind but I never actually developed or carried out any programs for it. So I was excited in my new job I had time to carry out a mini celebration. 

First I created a Teen Tech Week booklist and pathfinder which includes websites that support the teen tech week theme of Learn, Create, and Share. I had a hard time coming up with ideas for some websites. I knew I had packed away notes of techy websites from all the workshops I have been to, but couldn't find them! But I found this really great article in Young Adult Library Services journal Winter 2010 called "Free Online Tools for Serving Teens Four Verbs to Live By and Great Technologies to Try" by Mary Fran Daley. The article had some really great ideas for websites to help teens learn, create, and share technology. I was so thankful Mary wrote such a helpful article. Here is the link to the Teen Tech Page on our website and you can click on the link to get to the book list and pathfinder.


We also decided to have a contest for teens; they submit their favorite website or tech book and write a review of either to be entered to win an I-Tunes gift card. We are using Evanced for the contest and the teens submit their entries and share their reviews through our website. The reason I wanted to do this particular program is because it is easy! But alsol promotes the theme of Teen Tech Week by letting teens share and learn new tech websites and books with each other.

Enjoy!