TeenScene @ WPL

Books to Read While Waiting in Line to Buy Halo 4

Posted on November 6th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: Books, Technology.

Can’t wait to get your hands on the super anticipated Halo 4? I know many of you are pretty darn excited and have lots of questions about what is going to happen with Master Chief and the gang… Will Cortana go rampant? What will humanity and the UNSC *do* with all that Forerunner technology?

Sorry–I don’t have the answers, but I can suggest some books to read while you wait!

The Doctor and Romana receive a mysterious distress signal, leading them to Cambridge University, home of The Doctor's old friend and fellow Time Lord, Professor Chronotis. Chronotis inadvertently lets a Time Lord artifact, a book entitled The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey, pass into the hands of a clueless young student. Unfortunately, an egomanic called Skagra also has designs on the book and will do anything to get it. Can The Doctor find the book, stop Skagra's nefarious scheme, and unearth the secrets of Shada?

Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's actual purpose.

Ready Player One takes place in the not-so-distant future--the world has turned into a very bleak place, but luckily there is OASIS, a virtual reality world that is a vast online utopia. People can plug into OASIS to play, go to school, earn money, and even meet other people (or at least they can meet their avatars), and for protagonist Wade Watts it certainly beats passing the time in his grim, poverty-stricken real life. Along with millions of other world-wide citizens, Wade dreams of finding three keys left behind by James Halliday, the now-deceased creator of OASIS and the richest man to have ever lived. The keys are rumored to be hidden inside OASIS, and whoever finds them will inherit Halliday's fortune. But Halliday has not made it easy. And there are real dangers in this virtual world.

Lyle, Karen, Janie, and Reese must find a way off an island while they dodge strange and dangerous things on the island.

Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth. They gave the human race the greatest technology ever seen -- four giant towers known as Ladders that rise 36,000 miles into space and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared.

Fifteen-year-old Daniel has followed in his parents' footsteps as the Alien Hunter, exterminating beings on The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma, but when he faces his first of the top ten outlaws, the very existence Earth and another planet are at stake.

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What your Costume Says you Should Read

Posted on October 31st, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: Books.

What are you dressing up as this year? Let me see your costume and I’ll predict your next good read…

Witch

Ah, the classically misunderstood female character! Persecuted throughout history for not meeting social norms, you have seriously Feminist leanings and are good at chemistry! You should read:

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, must exonerate her father of murder. Armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together and examine new suspects, she begins a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself.

Pirate

The hero/scoundrel scourge of the sea is a wonderful choice for those who like adventure and struggle with the complexities of grammar…you should read:

Piecing together information gained while skiing in the Alps, teenaged James Bond returns to Eton College and foils an assassination attempt, then goes on the run across Europe with a beautiful and dangerous Irish girl, Roan.

Sexy Anything

Oh, geesh…really? A sexy firefighter? A sexy Abe Lincoln!? What is WRONG with you? You should be spending more time with the witch and your parents should roll back your curfew. Here…read about how to be sexy and still wear a ton of clothes:

Spirited Elizabeth Bennet matches wits and wiles of the heart with the arrogant Mr. Darcy in this entertaining portrait of matrimonial rites and rivalries in Regency England

Vampire

Poor vampires–they think they want to drink blood like the creatures of the night, but what is really going on? Iron deficiency! Make a sammy!

Using a scanner and the worlds best sandwiches, Jon Chonko shows you how to build the best sandwiches...take a bite!

OSU Fan

Wow…phone it in much? You can’t wear your regular clothes for Halloween–that is cheating! Get a real costume…like a MICHIGAN sweatshirt, then we will all know that you are in disguise. Read about someone who is a classic geek masquerading as a successful actor, writer, director and cool guy extraordinaire!

From his childhood obsession with science fiction, his enduring friendship with Nick Frost, and his forays into stand-up comedy which began with his regular Monday morning slot in front of his twelve-year-old classmates, actor/comedian/writer/self-proclaimed supergeek Simon Pegg has always had a dangerous case of the funnies. Having landed on the U.S. movie scene in the surprise cult hit Shaun of the Dead, his rise to movie star status has been mercurial and meteoric.

Ghost

Oh a spooky ghos—what? you aren’t dressed as a ghost…you are a goth? Oh. uh…sorry *awkward silence* HERE–read this!

After being hit by a bus and killed, a high school homecoming queen gets stuck in the land of the living, with only a loser classmate--who happens to be able to see and hear ghosts--to help her.

Princess

Aren’t you precious? You secretly suspect that you were adopted by peasants to hid your identity! Too bad you have to put up with pretending you are just an average Jo….read this:

Working in her family's pumpkin patch every year, seventeen-year-old Jamie has dreamed of two things--dating co-worker Danny and being crowned Pumpkin Princess--but her beautiful and famous cousin Milan's visit may squash all of her hopes.

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Author Jody Casella rocked as Beta Books guest speaker!

Posted on October 25th, 2012 by Becky.
Categories: Beta Books, Books, Events.

Those of you who came to this month’s Beta Books meeting got to pick the brain of a special guest speaker: YA writer Jody Casella! Her book Thin Space will be out in September 2013, so she was the perfect person to talk to us about the real world of generating ideas, writing books, revising them (and revising again…and again…and again!), getting published, and — a topic that never gets old with us — what makes the best cover art?!

Jody wrote an awesome post about her visit on her blog — be sure to hop over and check it out. As she writes,

These kids were smart and talkative and interested, with their own stories to tell. We talked about unreliable narrators and books we liked and things that got stuck up our noses. Also, how to come up with titles and unlikely names for killers and what to do if the middle of your story starts getting boring. (Answer: make a character die.)

Aw, shucks! Thanks, Jody, for sharing your book and your wisdom with us (and playing along with our crazy nametags and icebreaker games!). Beta Books will be counting down to the release of Thin Space right along with you…and then, of course, we would love to have you back to gab about the final cover.

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Teen Read Week: The Hunger Games Thursday

Posted on October 18th, 2012 by Becky.
Categories: Books.

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know alllll about The Hunger Games book series and movie. (And if not, oh no! It seems you have a giant rock on top of your life! Get out from under there and get some fresh air — quick!) We’ve blogged about books you’ll like if you liked the HG series, and we’ve tagged a bunch of readalikes in our library catalog, too.

But what I really want to mention today is the series that came before all the HG madness: The Giver series, by Lois Lowry. That’s right: long before Katniss strung her first arrow, Ms. Lowry penned a novel about a dystopian community in which authoritative control wasn’t doing the people all that much good. Sound like a familiar theme? The book was so amazing that it won the 1994 Newbery Medal, and the recent publication of Son joins Gathering Blue and Messenger to complete what is now called The Giver Quartet. Lois Lowry talks about it, and the inevitable Hunger Games comparisons, in this article in The New York Times Magazine.

So whether you read The Giver back in the day, or are just discovering it as you realize what a cool lens dystopias offer for speculating about our world and what it could become, it’s time to pick it up and see the apple again (read it and you’ll know what I mean).

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Teen Read Week: Wizarding World Wednesday

Posted on October 17th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: Books.

Is life in this after-the-boy-who-lived time getting you down? Are you feeling less magical and more Muggle? Are your friends planning an intervention if you don’t stop inspecting the school bathroom sinks for  “The Chamber of Secrets part II?” If any of these things describe you, you may be suffering from Post Potter Problems or PPP for short.

We feel your feel–it is sad knowing that the fun is over, but believe us–there are other GREAT magical reads waiting to be asked to dance. So stop shouting, “Accio Book 8!” to the heavens and check out these other great magical reads!

You haven't READ this yet? What's a matter with you? The movie is almost out--read it already!

North Carolina eighteen-year-old Staci tries to keep her friend Faith safe from a group of witches but winds up helping the Incan mummy the group has reanimated, who also happens to be very attractive and charming.

Seventeen-year-old Amy Goodnight has long been the one who makes her family of witches seem somewhat normal to others, but while spending a summer with her sister caring for their aunt's farm, Amy becomes the center of weirdness when she becomes tied to a powerful ghost.

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. To break the spell, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic...and the growing romantic tension between them.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead. Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England–a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off

Two powerful young enchanters, Cat, the future Chrestomanci, and Marianne, who is being trained to be Gammer of the Pinhoes, work together as friends to try to end an illegal witches' war and, in the process, right some old wrongs.

A centuries-long war between daimons and witches sets the stage for three teens caught up in a deadly struggle for power and autonomy in the exotic and otherworldly Carnival of Souls, the mercantile center of the daimon dimension

Separated since birth, seventeen-year-old twins Thais and Clio unexpectedly meet in New Orleans where they seem to be pursued by a coven of witches who want to harness the twins' magickal powers for its own ends.

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Drama, by Raina Telgemeier: A new book trailer for your Friday

Posted on October 12th, 2012 by Becky.
Categories: Books, Movies.

It’s a happy day when there’s a new book by Raina Telgemeier! Lots of readers at WPL loved her graphic novel Smile, about her own experience as a girl when she fell and knocked out her two front teeth, resulting in years of braces, headgear, and surgery.

She’s just released her latest book, Drama, in which main character Callie does the set design for her middle school play — and as much of the drama happens off-stage as on-stage! Check out the trailer below! Have you read it yet? Tell us what you thought in the comments!

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You + Books with Cool Math = Awesomesauce

Posted on October 10th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: All posts, Books.

Are you a math geek? I’m not, but I still appreciate a good equation now and then…and I love a good math doodle. Have you seen this cool doodle video by math-fun guru Vi Hart? Check it out – you’ll never look at your in-class doodles the same way again.

All excited about math now? Go read these! Ok, ok – these aren’t all “math” books, but hey sometimes math is the story and sometimes math just makes the story better!

Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.

Fourteen-year-old Mike, whose father is a brilliant mathematician but who has no math aptitude himself, spends the summer in rural Pennsylvania with his elderly and eccentric relatives Moo and Poppy, helping the townspeople raise money to adopt a Romanian orphan.

The call comes in from the shadowy Ternky Tower: 13 robberies, one on each floor, all the way up to the penthouse, where obnoxious importer Bevel Ternky has been relieved of the numbers garlanding the legendary Emerald Khroniker, his priceless, ancient clock. Readers must conduct their own investigations, scouring detailed illustrations for hidden clues and knotty puzzles

After Earth is demolished to make way for a new hyperspatial expressway, Arthur Dent begins to hitch-hike through space.

While hiding out from the mob in the suburbs with his mother, a singer, Jackson uses his fascination with math and numbers to make friends, but strange phone calls and even greater threats endanger not only Jackson and his mother, but his new girlfriend, as well.

"In Girls Get Curves, Danica applies her winning methods to geometry. Sizzling with her trademark sass and style"

1 comment.

Are you Free to Read? Banned Books Week is September 30- October 6

Posted on September 29th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: Books.

Banned Books Week is upon us! But why should you care? Everyone should care about book banning or, more commonly, book challenges. What am I talking about? Here is how The American Library Association explains it:

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.

Choosing what to read is a personal thing and if you are a teen–personal decisions may still involve discussion with your parents, your religious leader, your friends, your teachers or anyone else whom you look to for guidance. Most librarians take your freedom to read really seriously–that is why we celebrate Banned Books Week. It is a way to bring awareness to issues of censorship and have community discussions about books and why every citizen should value his or her freedom to read them.

You might be surprised by which books have been challenged or banned–often they are considered classics! Frankly, once I hear that a book has been banned, I can’t WAIT to read it! Can you name these famously banned books by their descriptions?  Give me your answers in the comments and be entered to win a signed copy of Ship Breaker by Paulo Bacigalupi. It hasn’t been challenged that I know of…it is just a wicked good book!!

Mystery Banned Book Number 1

Mystery Banned Book Number 2

Mystery Banned Book Number 3

Mystery Banned Book Number 4

Mystery Banned Book Number 5

3 comments.

Celebrate The Hobbit!

Posted on September 21st, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: All posts.

Do you know about second breakfast? Elevensies? If you are a fan of Middle Earth you do!

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of the classic J.R.R. Tolkien book, The Hobbit. How better to celebrate than to nosh–Hobbit Style! Join in with fans across the world and have a celebratory nibble, but act fast it is happening at 11am! Don’t worry if you miss the time–Hobbits always have a little something tucked away for just such an occasion!

While you are snacking, enjoy this trailer for the first movie in Peter Jackson’s three part adaptation…it doesn’t come out until December so that gives you plenty of time to read the book….and pack some more snacks.

Bonus question—can you name all the dwarves? Give me a shout in the comments!

 

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Do you like Parrots? Muppets? Johnny Depp? You are Going to Love this Post

Posted on September 19th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: Events, Random Fun.

The pirate speaks,”Books and Fun about Pirates! Today be talk like a pirate day and we love pirates! Read about them, find your own pirate name, learn the lingo and sing a song o’ the high seas! Talk like a pirate day be about fun and if you don’t like it you can walk the plank!”

• Need a good yarn? Read these books about pirates! (WPL is not responsible for your sudden desire to own a talking parrot)
• Don’t have a pirate name? Find your name and insist that your parents call you by it! Like this, “Mother–you simple DO NOT command Captain Jane Squiddly Britches to clean her room.  Saavy?” (WPL is not responsible for groundings and/or lectures about respectful discourse)
• Learn the lingo. Don’t Sprechen Sie the lingity? You can learn to speak pirate with our Mango Language program from our online collections.
• Sing a pirate song! Here is a super mash up video from Pirates of the Caribbean and Muppet Treasure Island. Have you considered the life of a professional pirate? Maybe you should! (WPL is not responsible for angry guidance counselors or your sudden disinterest in attending business school)

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Books about Carnivals: Creepy or Cool?

Posted on September 12th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: Books.

After watching this video today  from the Vlogbrothers about an abandoned Ferris Wheel that still turns….10 years after the park closed, I started thinking about how creepy a carnival can be. I have never actually had a bad experience at one so why can they seem so creepy? Is it because it is so “other-worldly” to have garish lights and music going at all hours? Maybe because it is unnatural for our bodies to fly and twist they way they do on rides? Maybe. But those are also the reasons that make carnivals and theme parks SO MUCH FUN!

How do you feel about it? Have a story to share? Let me hear your best and worst carnival story in the comments and enjoy these top 5 YA carnival books….got one to add? Give me a shout back in the comments.

#5 The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Gabry knows it is wrong to sneak out of the compound's protection and into the abandoned theme park, but her friends are doing it and the boy she likes wants her to go and the fences will keep the zombies out, right? Wrong, Gabry....dead wrong.

#4 Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman

When sixteen-year-old Blake goes to a mysterious, by-invitation-only carnival he somehow knows that it could save his comatose brother, but soon learns that much more is at stake if he fails to meet the challenge presented there by the beautiful Cassandra.

#3 The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe

It's all fun and games until you are being buried alive. Tell that to Fortunato-he was partying at Carnival with his "good friend" and by the time he realizes his life is in danger, he is too drunk and too alone and too far under the city for anyone to hear his cries.

#2 The Likes of Me by Randall Platt

Where do you find work in 1918 when you are half Chinese and half Albino and all in love with a carny boy named Squirl? You join the freak show. But does that make you a freak??

#1 Something Wicked This Way Comes: Graphic Novel Adaptation by Ray Bradbury

The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.

BONUS BOOKS! Like adult reads? Check out these two creepy carnivals from the adult section…

The story of what is perhaps America's first serial killer. He stalked his victims on the grounds of the beautiful Chicago's Worlds' Fair. True Story Bro.

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.

3 comments.

Fame, Fortune, and the Bran Muffins of Doom: A Beta Books Review

Posted on August 31st, 2012 by Becky.
Categories: Beta Books, Books, Events.

Edrictheninja, another book fan at Beta Books, our read-’em-before-they-are-published teen book club, has submitted our latest review! Check out his thoughts below. Curious? Get the scoop here, sign out a book from the Teen Center, and mark your calendar for the next meeting!

Reviewer: edrictheninja

Title: Fame, Fortune, and the Bran Muffins of DOOM

Author: Marty Kelley

What did you think of the cover? It definetly made attracted your attention and the way he wrote the title made it clear that it takes place in elementary school.

What did you think of the book? the book was good and also pretty funny but had a lot of big words I understood most of them but i dont know if the target audience (young peaple according to holiday house a part of the marketing campiagn) would understand it. also the title made it sound as though it was more focused on bran muffins of doom versus the fame and fortune part

How would you rate this book? 3 stars – Pretty good. I wanted to see how it ended.

0 comments.

The Homework Help Center is Open!

Posted on August 30th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: All posts.

Need help getting started on a homework assignment, paper or project? Stop in our Homework Help Center staffed with volunteers eager to help.

• When: Mondays from 3:30-8pm, Tuesdays & Thursdays from 3:30 to 6:30pm
• Where: Youth Services Department
• Who: This service is provided for all elementary, middle and high school students.
• How: Students will be helped on a first come, first served basis.

Homework Help Center volunteers can assist you with:

• Understanding your assignment.
• Attacking your studies.
• Finding ways to do research.

Need help now?

Can’t wait until the Homework Help Center opens? Try our KnowItNow chat reference service, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Don’t forget our on-line databases and librarian-built explore guides–don’t see what you need? Just ask–we are here to help!

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Hello Mars and Goodbye Neil: Books about Space Fiction and Space Fact

Posted on August 27th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: All posts.

It has a big month for space nuts what with the thrill of Curiosity landing on Mars and with the sad news that space legend Neil Armstrong has died.

In celebration of Neil’s life and of Curiosity’s success, here are some of our favorite books about space exploration – a bit of history, a bit of fiction, but I’ll wager that all of them will change the way you think of that quiet night sky for good.

In 1969 Houston, Texas, thirteen-year-old Scott learns to fly from his father, an Air Force flight instructor, but when NASA needs him for a secret space mission, Scott's elation is tempered by concern that his mother, who has moved to Florida, will find out.

Laika tells the story of the Russia's Sputnik II program and the satellite's canine astronaut, Laika. The book focuses on the dog's hard early life and her bond with a trainer named Yelena.

Astronauts describe their experiences in their own words...behind the scenes stories and great photos!

Now we are on Mars--what are we going to do? As a member of a young crew of astronauts on Mars, the reader is faced with real dangers and must make decisions that will determine the success of the mission.

n 2019, teens Mia, Antoine, and Midori are selected by lottery to join experienced astronauts on a NASA mission to the once top-secret moon base, DARLAH 2, while in a Florida nursing home, a former astronaut struggles to warn someone of the terrible danger there.

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream is a book about thirteen women who fought to be admitted into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The United States created NASA in 1958 with the requirements of flying, courage, intelligence, resistance to stress, and being in top physical shape. The unspoken rule at the time was that you also had to be a man.

A high school senior wins a space suit in a soap jingle contest and suddenly finds himself on a space odyssey.

Think you have what it takes to be a rocket scientist? Read on and then try your hand at NASA's rocket simulator

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Have You Seen…er…Read This Yet? Book Trailers for New Teen Reads

Posted on August 17th, 2012 by Mickie.
Categories: All posts.

I admit it–if the book doesn’t have a good cover, I won’t pick it up. And if it doesn’t have a good jacket description, I won’t check it out. I really need to be hooked in the first 30 seconds of meeting a good book or I just won’t give it the chance it probably deserves. Are you that way? I think most people are whether or not they admit it.

SO – this is why book trailers are so exciting to me, because they give a book a new hook. Check out these new releases that are on my radar now just because the trailer was so interesting.

Do you have a favorite to share? Link to it in the comments…

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