Celebrity Mash-Ups Contest, February 1 -13

Here you go blog viewers (and Facebook fans) - you can get up to a
3 day jump start on the upcoming Celebrity Mash-Ups contest. People are doing amazing things with technology - and creating some freaky pictures. Practice your Internet searching skills to discover what 2 celebrities make up each 1 picture for your chance to win a $10.00 gift certificate. You'll need to identify both celebrity halves in each picture to win. Most correct answers wins, a random drawing will break a tie.

While you are out there searching the webs, see what kind of cool pics you can find. And hey, you may even want to try your hand at creating some cools pics of your own. The skills will come in handy for next month's Draw It contest - your chance to draw the artwork for our 2010 Summer Reading Club.

Here are some cool photo galleries for you to check out:
www.freakingnews.com (A gallery which highlights photoshopped pictures generated from the news.)
www.worth1000.com (Artist galleries and contests. An awesome collection of fun and creative photos. They have a great set of mash-up photos of celebrities mashed up with art masterpieces.)

Quotastic!

Everyone has a hobby, right? Some people collect stamps. Or Magic cards. Or postcards. Me? I collect quotes. I love the power of words. So when I am reading a book, I keep a journal close by to jot down a quote that speaks to me. Here are some . . .

"It was a pleasure to burn." Ray Bradbury, from Fahrenheit 451 (One of my top 10 all time favorite books).

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going inti it, if you want to know the truth." J.D. Salinger from Catcher in the Rye

"It was a wild, windy, southwestern spring when the idea of killing Mr. Griffin occurred to them." Lois Duncan from Killing Mr. Griffin

"When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news." Anthony Horowitz from Stormbreaker

"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." M. T. Anderson from Feed

"We will rise to the occasion, which is life." Virgina Euwer Woff from True Believer

"Strange how when you most want to say things, your brain gives you the least vocabular." Will Weaver from Claws

"Hope and sense aren't exactly kissing cousins" Margaret Peterson Haddix from the story Destination Unexpected

"All I know now was that nothing lasted forever, even a friendships, and that being different felt the same as being alone." Lauren Myracle from Kissing Kate

"Maybe people were always coming to each other - from the beginning of their lives. Maybe Miah had always been coming to me, to this moment, sitting in Central Park holding hands. Coming softly." Jacqueline Woodson from If You Come Softly (and if you really want to read an amazing love story, read this book.)

"As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air." Maggie Stiefavter from Shiver

And I will leave you, dear blog reader, with this interesting discussion about boys in the novel Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer . . .

"Like all males, Hope, he has a code that has to be deciphered."
"What's the code?"
"I have no idea. But it's probably weirder than hieroglyphics."

And with the immortal words of Dr. Seuss . . .

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

Drop me a comment and let me know what your favorite book quotes are.

Fallen Book Trailer

I admit it, I'm obsessed with book trailers. How cool are they, come on?

But actually, I am reading this book right now. Literally, right this very moment. And if you are a fan of Twilight - chances are you will love this new series. Fallen is book number one. Luce is sent to Sword and Cross reformatory school after a night that she can't remember ends with her date going up in flames, literally. She doesn't know what happened, but she knows is must have something to do with the dark shadows she always sees. On her first day at Sword and Cross she meets Daniel, but she can't escape the feeling that she has met him before. Soon there is another fire and other strange happenings. And there is Cam - he too seems to be interested in Luce. But which one is good for her - if any of them are? It seems that is has all happened before. Can they stop it from happening again?

Other books you may be interested in: Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, Need by Carrie Jones, Meridian by Amber Kizer, The Immortals series by Alyson Noel

Beautiful Creatures Book Trailer

Beautiful Creatures is the next book on my To Read list - so I was excited to find this book trailer for it. Can't wait to read it - review coming soon.

COSI was Here, Harding Band Rocks!

On Saturday, COSI came to the library and offered a fun Launch into Space program. About 20 members of the Harding High School band came and helped out. One member got up and demonstrated what it was like to wear the first space suit. Then everyone got their hands dirty and helped the kids do a variety of fun activities, including making space food and practicing space experiments using space gloves. You can see the complete photo album by becoming a fan of The Teen Scene @ Marion Public Library on Facebook.

And thank you to the Harding HS Band!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 Alex Awards

As you may know, it's awards season. Oscars. Golden Globes. Emmys. Grammys. And yes, there are book awards, too. Book awards that you may care about. The Alex Awards represent the top 10 titles written for adults that teen readers may think are awesome. So here they are . . .

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
• The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff
• Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr.
• The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
• The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir by Diana Welch and Liz Welch with Amanda Welch and Dan Welch
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• My Abandonment by Peter Rock
• Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
• Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

Honestly, I have read none of them. I did just finish reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters which Stephen King said was one of the best 10 books of 2009. It's a gothic ghost story, very reminiscent of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights in tone. Although I liked it, kind of, it is not really on my top 10 list. And I may have posted on my Facebook status that Stephen King's pants were on fire for saying this is one of the best books of last year. But if you like historical fiction and ghost stories, this is also a good adult read for older teens. It's kind of slow starting, but once it gets going you want to know what is happening. You can get Stephen King's complete top 10 list for 2009 here (http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20317203_20331246_10,00.html)

Actually, fans of Stephen King should know that he writes a regular column for Entertainment Weekly and he is quite humorous. He talks about movies and music as well as books.

2010 Printz Awards Announced

The Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for teens were announced . . .

Going Bovine written by Libba Bray is the 2010 Printz Award winner.

Four Printz Honor Books also were named:

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman,

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp

Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical

Romance, 1973 by John Barnes