March is Women's History Month and what better way to kick off Teen Central's celebration of the contributions of women than to share our Top Ten list of the most powerful, brave, and downright awesome female characters in Young Adult Fiction!  

Mystery, adventure, drama, horror, and more...

Check out this week's featured new arrival for children, On the Road to Mr. Mineo's.

The Spanish were the first Europeans to encounter Native Americans in South Carolina, a region that the inhabitants referred to as Chicora.  During one of the explorers’ incursions on the coast they abducted a native man, whom they named Francisco de Chicora, and brought him to Spain. On the return voyage, Francisco dove overboard and returned to his nation, escaping from a life of slavery. Native Americans had occupied South Carolina since the Pleistocene era, originally as bands of hunter gatherers following the migrating herds of large game.  Over the millennia these bands settled into more permanent villages, and inhabitants on the coast of the state were the first to develop pottery in North America. By the time that the Spanish first made contact, the Native Americans of South Carolina had coalesced into tribes, lived in small towns, and were experienced farmers of the three main domesticated crops of squash, maize and beans.­ At the this time there were 29 named tribes in South Carolina.  Sadly, initial encounters with Europeans brought these Native tribes in contact with Old World diseases such as small pox and influenza, which devastated their populations.  By the time the English founded Charles Town in 1670; Native American society in South Carolina had already been altered dramatically.  Furthermore, outside groups such as the Yamassee and Westo entered and took advantage of the weakened tribes. These new tribes were eventually defeated by the English colonists and the Catawba and Cherokee became the dominate Native American powers.  During the Revolution the Catawba became fierce allies of the colonists while the Cherokee, fearing encroachment on their lands by the Americans, sided with the British. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the Cherokee to move from their ancestral lands in South Carolina while the Catawba were allowed to stay.     

Drop by the library to see what's new for teens!  Get a sneak peek by checking out the titles, below.

Are you working on your school research paper? Have you found tons of secondary sources, but not enough primary sources?  Do you feel like you've exhausted all of your research tools? If this describes you to a tee, then we've got a few tips for you. (And, no they don’t involve pulling your hair out or changing your research topic.)

It doesn’t have to be snowing or super cold outside to enjoy fantastic Winter Reads. Our teen collection features great winter and holiday titles that are both frightful and delightful.   Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is a fabulous book. The title alone makes me want to grab a warm blanket.  You might also enjoy Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble. 

I feel like I’ve mastered the concept of saving money. Like Suze Orman recommends in The Money Class, I live beneath my means and any money that I don’t spend by the end of the month, I put it into a savings account and pretend like it doesn’t exist unless a financial emergency arises. Saving is one way to build wealth, slowly, but I’m quite comfortable with that. When I think about other ways to make my money work for me, I always get terrified when I hear these two phrases: STOCKS and WALL STREET!

As we bid farewell to 2012 we also close the chapter on some of the year's great YA books! But never fear... 2013 is shaping up to be a year of fantastic books!  With sequels to popular titles like Brodi Ashton's Everneath on the horizon and new book releases from authors like Lisa McCann and Cassandra Clare, 2013 is sure to be an amazing year of reading.

Fans of Fforde’s other works (the Thursday Next Series, Shades of Grey) will recognize the subtle and offbeat humor sprinkled throughout The Last Dragonslayer.  Fforde’s first foray into teen fiction follows the young Jennifer Strange, a not-quite 16 year old foundling who has taken on the task of running Kazam magical management.  When magicians across the country begin to have premonitions of the death of the last dragon, and something called Big Magic, Jennifer decides to get to the bottom of things by seeking out the last dragonslayer.  Magic, mayhem, twists, and turns ensue as Jennifer discovers the history of dragons, magic, and her own role in the world of magic.