What Do the Numbers Mean?

When Jem looked into her mother's eyes, she saw a number. Everytime she looks into someone's eyes, she sees numbers. When her mother died, Jem realized what the numbers meant - they are the date that someone will die. And they are always right. Jem tries hard not to be around people, but Spider won't let her be. Soon they are in a hesitant relationship. She doesn't want to be, because she knows that he is going to die soon. In fact, if the numbers she sees around London are correct - and they always are - a lot of people are going to die soon. But when Jem and Spider flee, they soon are the prime suspects. The clock is running out for a lot of people.

The Countdown is On

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Go Green: Check Out, Read, Return, Repeat

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"Glee"ful Reads

Are you a fan of Glee? Me, I'm a fan. I love music. Seriously. So let's talk about music and/or musicals in teen fic, shall we?

No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman is the story of Wallace Wallace (not a typo). Wallace Wallace never tells a lie. So when he reads a book assigned by his English teacher, his report states matter of factly that he hated the book. Wallace is assigned detention where he is forced to re-write his book report. In what turns out to be a very cool detention, he is forced to sit day after day where the theater group is rehearsing the school play which is, of course, based on the very book he hated. Leave it to Wallace to turn a book about a dead dog into a disco musical. You'll want to read every funny page to see what happens to Wallace in detention.

And in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which I mentioned last week, the 2 Will's create a school musical.

Other books that deal with music, musicals, and the theater in general include:

Act I, Act II, Act Normal by Martha Weston

Secrets of My Hollywood Life series by Paul Riditis

Dramarama by E. Lockhart

Teen Idol by Meg Cabot

If I Stay: A Novel by Gayle Forman*

Pay the Piper: A Rock 'N Roll Fairytale by Jane Yolen

Troll Bridge: A Rock 'N Roll Fairytale by Jane Yolen

Rockstar Superstar by Nelson Blake

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen**

Born to Rock by Gordon Korman

Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning

Confessions of a Backup Dancer by Kevin Shaw

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen by Dyan Sheldon

Pop Princess by Rachel Cohn

*This is one of the BEST books of last year, why have you not read it? It is seriously THAT good. Also, for those looking for tearjerkers - this is the only book that has ever made me cry.

** Read my blog entry about this book here

Congratulations to Our Teen Draw It Contest Winner

During March we held a teen drawing contest - and we have a winner!! Audrey W (grade 6) is this year's winner. Her artwork is featured on the publicity for the upcoming 2010 Teen Summer Reading Club: Making Waves @ Your Library. In addition, Audrey wins a prepaid $50.00 Visa card.

You'll want to be sure and participate in this year's Teen Summer Reading Club (from here on out referred to as the TSRC to make my life easier). One lucky grand prize winner will get their choice of an iPod Touch or a Wii. In addition, we will have tons of other prizes like gift cards to your favorite fast food joints and stores. All the fun kicks off on Saturday, June 5th.

Tine Fey Says to Read It!

There was this movie called Mean Girls. Tine Fey wrote it based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. It was a pretty awesome movie, made before Lindsay Lohan basically fell apart at the seams.

Well, Rosalind Wiseman has written a new book called Boys, Girls & Other Hazardous Materials. And Tina Fey gives the best book blurb ever: "You can't put this book down . . . or it will talk about you while you're out of the room." Actually, Tina Fey writes a pretty awesome book blurb. But what about the book?

Charlie is entering High School and looking to have a drama free year (aren't we all!). But nope, it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Her year is not helped by the return of Will, a former male bff who's back, HOT, and popular. So Will gets involved in a prank gone bad and Charlie must decide what she is going to do about it: Should she tell or keep her mouth shut?

And if you're a Meg Cabot fan - well, she says to read it too!

Nerdfighters!

So the other day I was getting my semi-regular Nerdfighters (1) fix and thought to myself - Why Have I Not Shared This With You? You should be mad at me. Nerdfighters is described as a place where "nerds gather and play" to "increase awesome and decrease suck." (2) The site was started by teen author John Green (more about him in a moment) and his brother. They have a blog and make fun video posts.

John Green is the awesome and talented writer of books like Looking for Alaska (a Printz Award Winner), An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. His books are DEFINITELY for older, mature teens. But they are awesome. Seriously.

Green recently wrote an online book that you can only get to if you solve a series of riddles at www.thisisnottom.com. I haven't read the book because the riddles are wicked hard and I haven't gotten to it yet. (3) But I am loving the process and the concept. It is wicked fun. And if you look around the net you can get cheats and hints.

In a recent article for librarians (4), Green talked about the "magical moment when the space between you and me evaporates, and we are all of us making a story real together". He says that "reading is an act of translation—taking seemingly random scratches on a page and turning them into a story in your head—a book is, more than any new media, a cocreation of reader and writer." (School Library Journal, January 1, 2010). Imagine that - an author who respects the reader.

John Green's newest book is Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan. This is the story of two boys, both named Will Grayson, and how their lives come to intersect with each other. The two authors got together and decided they would write a story - each one focusing on one of the Will Graysons. Levithan chose the characters first name and Green chose the characters last name. As the two become friends they produce a high school musical (5) that tell their story. And this book - it is laugh out loud funny. And touching. And amazing.

Awesome quotes by John Green:

"Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself."

"Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back." - An Abudance of Katherines

"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?" - An Abundance of Katherines

"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive." - Looking for Alaska

"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane." - Looking for Alaska

"'Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.' " - Looking for Alaska

"What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person." - Paper Towns

"The town was paper, but the memories were not." - Paper Towns

This is me trying to be witty and copy John Green's source notes:

1. Go to http://www.nerdfighters.com/

2. More awesome is good.

3. Seriously, if you figure it all out PLEASE let me know. I need help.

4. Hey, that would be me :) Guess that's why I read it.

5. No, not THAT high school musical.

Graphic Novels 101

Graphic novels and manga are so popular right now, even your favorite books are being made into graphic novels. Some popular titles include Twilight (yes, THAT Twilight), the Maximum Ride adventures, Artemis Fowl, Cirque Du Freak and Alex Rider series. Popular adult authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Sherrilyn Kenyon are also diving into this very popular and very graphic medium. Harlequin, the popular romance publisher, even produces a line of romantic graphic novels known as Harlequin Pink

Some of the most popular manga series (Don't know what manga is? Just check out the handy GN Dictionary below) include: Beauty Pop, Blade of Heaven, Bleach, Chroncles of the Cursed Sword, Dragon Hunter and Naruto. Some of the most popular Graphic Novels include Bone and The Simpsons. And of course whatever superhero is popular at the moment.


GN Dictionary
Comics - The big umbrella term for stories told with pictures and words
Graphic Novel - A graphic book, or collection of comic books, that are put together like a book
Anime - Japanese animated cartoons
Manga - A Japanese comic book, usually black and white and read from right to left
Manga style - Like manga, but produced outside of Japan
Mecha - Anime or manga featured mechanical creatures, usually awesome giant fighting robots
Shojo - Comics for girls, usually romantic
Shonen - Comics for boys, usually action/adventure

Other interesting terms:
Panel - One part of a comic book page
Gutter - The space between the panels

Great GN and Manga Sites:
Bookshelf: Diamond Comics
Comic Book Resources
Comics Worth Reading
Newsarama
No Flying, No Tights

Free Comic Book Day with Brad's Bookstore and Marion Public Library

Join us on Saturday, May 1st for Free Comic Book Day. We will be giving away free comic books, provided by Brad's Bookstore and Comics, to teens who come visit (while supplies last). Each teen will have their choice of 1 of the titles provided.

April is National Poetry Month

It's April . . . which means it's National Poetry Month. Poetry is everywhere.

Poetry is in you. It's in the air you breathe. The chair you sit. And the car

you drive. It is simple. It is complex. It is everything. It is nothing.

So don't just sit there . . . get creative! Want a place to start? Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan Wooldridge is one of the best poetry writing books ever. The author gives you great tips such as collecting words and creating a wordpool: "A word can trigger or inspire a poem, and words in a stack or thin list can up make up poems" (p.10).

Other great things she talks about include grocery weeping (and we're not just talking about the cost of your grocery bill or wilted lettuce), joywriting, poem sound and song, fear of poetry (come on, some of you have it), dreamsense and being visited by words. Imagine answering the knock on your door and there at the open door stands the word "awesome". I'd like to be visited and told that I am awesome. As Wooldridge says, "Writing this way seems like being visited. And as with any visitor, I have to make room and time" (p. 190).

Or you can go online and play at "magnetic poetry." You know, those little word magnets that you put on your fridge and rearrange to make a poem. You can go here to create your own magnetic poetry.

Or use the following URL and make any page you love into your own person magnetic poetry kit. Simple replace the part after the url= with your own web address and presto - it is magnetic poetry. Here's this blog done as magnetic poetry.

http://wearehugh.com/public/2003/02/poetry.cgi?url=teenservicesmarionpubliclibrary.blogspot.com

So have fun with poetry this month . . . and remember the words of Piri Thomas:

"Each child is born a poet and every poet is a child."