Upcoming library program: College Advantage Workshop

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 28. We are having a College Advantage Workshop for interested students and parents at 7 PM downstairs in the Meeting Room. Presenter Betsy McDaniel will talk about the details involved in the process of applying to college. After attending this workshop you will learn how to make your college search easier and more affordable. You may register online or by calling the Information Desk at 847-428-3661 x 308.

Interested in writing a novel in a month?

November is National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to write an entire novel (50,000 words for adults) from November 1-November 30. For the Young Writers Program, each person can choose his or her word count goal. Depending on your grade and the time you can spend on writing, look at this chart to see a suggested range for your word count goal.Writing can be done on a computer or by hand. After making it to your word count goals you will be able to print out a certificate from the website.

You can start signing up now at the Information Desk, but you can’t start writing yet (it is okay to write down ideas and notes). You can also set up an account on the site NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program. The YWP site has lots of helpful ideas and writing tools. Note: if you've already registered on the site we still want you to let us know you signed up, because we are ordering a kit of free incentives/progress charts for the teens who participate.

This is a program that anyone can sign up for on their own, but I thought it would be fun to get a group together at the library to help motivate each other if we were all writing toward our goals together. I will be participating as well, my word count goal is 50,000. You can also call the Information Desk at 847-428-3661 x 308 to sign up, or email Danielle.

TAG meeting this Saturday

Don't forget that we have a TAG (Teen Advisory Group) meeting this Saturday, September 2, at 9:30 AM in the Craft Room. If you have never made it to a meeting before, no big deal! Newcomers are always welcome. We have some fun teen programs coming up in the fall!

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

There's a new shapeshifter in town-- Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher will appeal to fans of Hunger Games and the Gone Series

Incerceron is a prison unlike any other. Its inmates live not only in cells, but also in metal forests, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness. The prison has been sealed for centuries, and only one man, legend says, has ever escaped.

Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, can't remember his childhood and believes he came from Outside Incercaron. He's going to escape, even though most inmates don't believe that the Outside even exists. and then Finn finds a crystal key and through it, a girl named Claudia.

Claudia claims to live Outside-her father is the Warden of Incarceron and she's doomed to an arranged marriage. If she helps Finn escape, she will need his help in return

But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eyes.Escape will take their greatest courage and cost far more than they know:

BECAUSE INCARCERON IS ALIVE.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

In the novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Stephenie Meyer writes from the point of view of Bree, a newborn vampire. This book is a companion to the novel Eclipse, in which the vampire Victoria has Riley recruit vampires for an army to fight the Edward and the Cullens to avenge death of her mate, James. Because Eclipse is told from the point of view of Bella, we do not see much of the newborn vampires except during the fight with the Cullens and the werewolves. Bree is the only vampire in the fight who surrenders.

Riley attempts to keep the group of twenty or so young vampires in line and decides when each vampire is able to leave the house to hunt. He acts on the orders of Victoria, who the newborn vampires never see (they don't even know her name). Most of the vampires also have no idea why they have been made vampires and brought together. I found it interesting to discover how little the newborns know about being a vampire. For one, the vampires think that sunlight will kill them; during the day they remain in cramped quarters in a basement. Also, the newborns have no clue about the wider vampire world --they do not know about the Volturri, and can hardly fathom the idea of living or befriending humans instead of feeding from and killing them. Furthermore, they do not even know that they are considered "newborns;" they know how strong they are and figure that will help them prevail in any fight. Riley keeps information from the vampires in order to keep them under his control, but at the same time this lack of knowledge hurts them later on when they do go to fight.

Bree follows Riley's rules, such as only feeding on the "dregs" of society, and also keeps her distance from the other newborn vampires, several of whom often pursue confrontations, going so far as to kill within the group. Most of the newborn vampires are very immature. They go out to hunt and make a huge scene with destroyed property and dead bodies but don't clean up their mess. But Bree does find makes friends with Diego, who is someone she can actually talk to. She also finds a friend in Fred, who repels everyone; Bree hides behind him to allow her to remain unnoticed.

This is a short read, and I thought the change in point-of-view was a refreshing addition to the Twilight series, in that this part of the story has nothing to do with Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle. You are also able to see how out-of-control newborn vampires actually are. The Cullens seem tame and domesticated compared to the red-eyed vampires under Riley's control. Even Bree, who avoids fighting at the end of the book, doesn't think twice when she goes out to hunt and kills people. Definitely pick up this book if you have already read the Twilight series. Bree, Diego, and Fred are welcome and intriguing additions to the Twilight series. Even though I knew what was going happen to Bree, I still rooted for her as I read the book. I would like to see Stephenie Meyer write other novellas that explicate the Twilight mythology even further-- Edward's first years as a vampire, Carlisle's time with the Volturri, etc.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
TEEN MEYER
Find it in the catalog!

Wendelin Van Draanen' s Flipped becomes a movie

Happy 4th of July

A different look at history

History + graphic novel + humor = Larry Gonick's cartoon history books. I think these books are helpful to read to refresh your memory about historical events. Gonick condenses the information down so that the narrative fits into word balloons and description in the comic panels. If you're looking for something different to check out, try one of these books!

Cartoon History of the United States
YA GRAPHIC NOVEL GONICK
Covers U.S. history up to 1991. Includes an index and an illustrated bibliography, which is something I've never seen before. Find it in the catalog!

The Cartoon History of the Modern World. Part 1, from Columbus to the U.S. Constitution
Young Adult 909.0802 GON
Find it in the catalog!

The Cartoon History of the Universe
part 1: YA GRAPHIC NOVEL GONICK 1
part 2: YA GRAPHIC NOVEL GONICK 2
part 3: YA GRAPHIC NOVEL GONICK 3
Find it in the catalog!

Who do you cheer for?: Team Edward or Team Jacob

One of the things I did to prepare for last Friday's Eclipse Movie Release Party, in addition to baking cupcakes, was create two short videos supporting Teams Edward and Jacob. Many Twilight fans consider themselves to be on Team Edward or Team Jacob when it comes to who they think should be with Bella. So, I brainstormed cheer ideas for both teams and got my cousin Mike to assist me with filming. We came up with our own cheers and choreography to demonstrate the obsessive support fans have for characters in the Twilight series. Neither of us had any experience with cheerleading (which will be obvious once you view either clip), but we had a lot of fun making the videos. The inspiration behind the videos was SNL's Spartan Cheerleaders (played by Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri). We had hoped to debut the videos at the Eclipse Party, but the computer would not play the files. I was very disappointed after all the work spent on planning, filming, and editing. Well, now thanks to YouTube, our embarrassing antics and choreography can be viewed on any computer. Enjoy!



Cheers for Team Edward:


Cheers for Team Jacob:

Photos from our Eclipse Movie Release Party

On Friday we had an Eclipse Movie Release Party for fans of the Twilight books and movies. We even celebrated the vampire Edward Cullen's birthday (he turned 109 last Monday). In addition to answering trivia questions for prizes and listening to music, we also enjoyed eating Red Velvet Vampire Cupcakes and Jacob Black Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (made by yours truly)! I added a few pictures below. There are more on the library's Facebook page. Thanks to everyone who came to the party! We had 25 attend.

Only six more days until Eclipse

World Cup Action

Novels in Verse

Have a Beastly summer

HUNGER GAMES-- READ IT NOW --VIEW IT LATER

Teen Summer Reader Gets Creative

WHAM-O SUPER BOOK: THE MOST FANTASTIC BOOK EVER CREATED BY SCIENCE

CELEBRATING 60 YEARS INSIDE THE FUN FACTORY

They made toy that made summer's more fun.

Slip'n Slide
Frisbee
Hula Hoop
Hacky Sack
Wheelie Bar

Short Classics -- You'll have to read them sometime--why not now?