Shiny New Books!

It's just like Santa came early! Here are some of the new books that arrived this week (with summaries from our catalogue):

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson

Frances Robinson lives a quiet life, far from her horrifying past. When she was a child, her birth mother smothered her three sisters. Through pure luck, Frances survived. Now her mother has just been released from prison . . . and she wants to see Frances.

Bounce by Natasha Friend

With her trademark knowledge of what its like to be a girl, the author of "Perfect" and "Lush" pens an insightful, heartfelt story of a girl who must learn how to manage her life even when so many things are beyond her control.

The Alchemist's Dream by John Wilson

In the fall of 1669, the Nonsuch returned to London with a load of fur from Hudson Bay. It brought something else, too-the lost journal from Henry Hudson's tragic search for a passage to Cathay in 1611. The journal finds its way to the aged Robert Bylot and triggers disturbing memories of his life-memories of a plague-ridden city, the mysterious alchemist John Dee, and mutiny in the frozen wastes of Hudson Bay. Will the journal and memories finally allow Bylot peace of mind? (A Governor General Award finalist)

The Castaways by Iain Lawrence

ADRIFT AT SEA, Tom Tin and his four convict companions are only too glad when they come upon a deserted ship. The boys clamber aboard, not knowing whether they've been saved or set on a course toward doom. But after rescuing two men stranded on a melting iceberg, Tom begins to suspect that these unsavory sailors are dangerous castaways from this very vessel.

Chicks With Sticks (Knitwise) by Elizabeth Lenhard

For Scottie, Amanda, Bella, and Tay, life in Chicago is all about seeking shelter. They find it in the raggedy comfort of KnitWit, in the halls of their quirky private school, even in the arms of boyfriends. The girls are now staring down the end of high school and are fueled by the stress of college applications and service projects. Will this mean the end of the Chicks?

Hot Hands by Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica, the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of "Heat," begins "Comeback Kids," a new sports-themed series for middle-grade readers. Billy Raynor is one of the best shooters in the league. But with his dad as his coach, and his parents newly separated, somehow everything has become complicated.

Taken by Edward Bloor

BY 2035 THE RICH have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and kidnapping has become a major growth industry in the United States. The children of privilege live in secure, gated communities and are escorted to and from school by armed guards.But the security around Charity Meyers has broken down. If this were a normal kidnapping, Charity would be fine. But as the hours of her imprisonment tick by, Charity realizes there is nothing normal about what's going on here. No training could prepare her for what her kidnappers really want . . . and worse, for who they turn out to be.

And that's just a sample! Here is a list of some of the other new stuff that has arrived:

Click: One Novel Ten Authors
November Blues
Don't Call Me Ishmael
Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall
The Feathered Cloak
Breakfast at Bloomingdales

So if you have some spare time over the holidays, stop by the library and pick up a new book.

Kathleen

NEW Comics in the YA Corner

We're trying something new in the Corner, comic books. I've bought about 40 comics and they are in a magazine rack on the floor by the chairs. They are for in library use, so when you have a few minutes to fill while waiting for the rest of the family to find their books you can sit back, relax and read a comic. The titles are mostly superheros for now, but if they get used, I'm open to suggestions for other titles.

Kathleen

Cookie jars and duct tape and January prizes

The Christmas Gift Craft program went really well and I am amazed at the creativity with the duct tape! My basic wreaths look pretty pathetic compared to the fancy Santas, poinsettias, and Christmas trees other people made. The cookie jars came out really well and I am sure that they will make great gifts. The gift boxes were pretty easy to make and the little Chinese food take out box was by far the most popular.

Next month we will be taking a day to actually talk about books. Yeah books, you know the stuff libraries are full of. What did you like this year? What do you think the library should have and we don't? I'm planning on making a list of my favourite books this year and giving them all away at our discussion night. Watch the usual places for more details.

Kathleen

Christmas Gift Crafts

Can you believe it is that time of year already? It's time to dust off the glue gun and make some Christmas gifts. We are going to make a foodie gift in jar, whip up some gift boxes , and try our hand at a duct tape creation.

November 24
1:00 to 3:00 pm

Please let us know if you're coming (and bring a friend) so we have enough supplies for everybody. Call the Adult Information desk or myself to register.

Kathleen

New Books This Week

Here is a quick list of some new paperbacks that have crossed my desk this week. I'm afraid I only have time to give you the title and genre this week.

Tesseracts Ten by Robert Charles Wilson and Edo van Belkom (editors) - Canadian speculative fiction
Sniper by Theodore Taylor - suspense
Torch Red and Fool's Gold by Melody Carlson - Christian fiction
Blind Spot and Over the Wall by Chris Fabry - NASCAR sports fiction
Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Robert Skye - fantasy
How to Save the Universe Again by Rob Payne - strange, bizarre and kind of funny sci fi?
Inside Girl by J. Minter - Chick lit
The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor by Edeet Ravel - light funny chick lit
Drama Club the Big Production by Peter Lerangis - Contemporary novel for High School Musical lovers
What's French for EW? by Katie Maxwell - funny chick lit. Try it if you like Louise Rennison's Georgia.
The End of Forever Two Novels by Lurlene McDaniel - Contemporary life and death

So there you have it, a little bit of something for everyone. Enjoy!

New Books This Week

I don't think I have time to include the full details of all the books right now, but here are a few along with a list of what crossed my desk this morning.

Devilish
by Marueen Johnson
Jane Jarvis, a senior at a Catholic girl's school in Providence, Rhode Island, tries to save her best friend by making a pact with a demon--in the form of a cupcake-eating, very friendly teenage girl.
From the author of "13 Little Blue Envelopes".

Miss Educated: An Upper Class Novel
By Hobson Brown, TaylorMaterne, and Caroline Says
Having survived her first semester at a posh Connecticut boarding school, Parker Cole still doesnt fit in. When Parker and her lab partner, Chase Dobbs, discover something terrible on campus, theyll both have an even harder time fitting in. X in Flight
by Karen Rivers
"X in Flight" centers on the lives of three intriguing teens. X ; short for Xenos ; is 17, tough but shy. He's a decent golfer, but his mother thinks he's the next Tiger Woods. One night, X is shocked to discover that he can fly. Is he a superhero? An angel? Or just really screwed up?

Into the Ravine
by Richard Scrimger
Jules, Chris, and Corey get the ride of their lives when they make a raft out of a fallen maple tree and set sail down the ravine, facing natural dangers, meeting unusual people, and stumbling into wild parties along the way.

Also new this week:

• Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel
• Temping Fate by Esther Friesner
• If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko
• The Empress's Tomb by Kirsten Miller
• Miracle Wimp by Erik P. Kraft
• Deadline by Chris Crutcher

Kathleen

New Titles this Week

Since I see most of the new books that come in, I thought it might be a good idea to put out a list of what's new each week. The exceptions would be the books that already have holds on them, they go straight to the requestor and bypass me.

So, here is what's new so far this week.

Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller
Annie Sullivan was little more than a half-blind orphan with a fiery tongue when she arrived at Ivy Green in 1887. Desperate for work, she'd taken on a seemingly impossible job -- teaching a child who was deaf, blind, and as ferocious as any wild animal. But Helen Keller needed more than a teacher. She needed someone daring enough to work a miracle.

Bunker 10 by J.A. Henderson
At eight o'clock in the evening, 24 December 2007, Pinewood Military Installation exploded. The blast ripped apart acres of forest and devastated the remote highland valley where the base was located. No official cause was given for the incident. Inside Pinewood were 185 male and female personnel--a mixture of scientists and soldiers. There were also seven teenagers. This is the story of their last day . . .

All-in by Pete Hautman
At seventeen, Denn Doyle isn't old enough to gamble legally, but thanks to his talent for reading tells, he's made a fortune -- and along the way, he's upset some of the most notorious Texas holdem players in Las Vegas, including Artie Kingston, who had already lost his nightclub to Denn. But now Denn's luck has run out and he's just about broke. His only chance is a million-dollar, winner-take-all tournament at Artie's new casino, but Denn can't play unless he comes up with the $10,000 entry fee. Denn's future all comes down to one hand of poker.

Football Genius by Tim Green
Troy White has a phenomenal gift. He can predict football plays before they happen. Any position. Any player. Any team. When Troy's single mom gets a job working in public relations for the Atlanta Falcons, Troy figures it's his chance to prove what he can do. But first he has to "get" to the Falcons; and with tight security and a notoriously mean coach, even his mom's field passes aren't much help. Then Troy and his best friends devise a plan to get the attention of star linebacker Seth Halloway.

The Secret Life of It Girls by Dakota Lane

Here, in words and pictures, are the thoughts,
the secrets, the lives of It girls.
The stories are fiction, but the feelings are real.
You might think you know these girls. But look closer.
You'll be surprised by what you find.

I hope you find something you like!

Kathleen

Endymion Spring author Matthew Skelton Here!

Saturday October 20, 2007
1:00 p.m.
Library Program Room

It was a dark and snowy night...

Okay, so that isn't quite the way the book begins, but it is creepy and mysterious. I was going to try to come up with a snappy summary, but this review from Kirkus sums it up really well.

"Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ This thriller takes precocious children whose lives are disrupted by their parents' separation, surrounds them with untrustworthy, professionally jealous and personally greedy academics and drops them into a mystery involving an ancient book. Said tome is made from a miraculous paper—the remains of a mythical leafdragon—and is indestructible. The result is a volume containing the secrets of eternal wisdom; it appears to be blank, but is continuously writing itself and reveals the contents only to those pure children it has chosen. The first, a young apprentice to Johann Gutenberg, is Endymion Spring, who carries the book to Oxford to keep it out of the hands of the unscrupulous Fust (Faust). Blake, a contemporary teen, finds Endymion's book hidden in plain sight on an Oxford library shelf. Characters' stories and settings alternate between medieval Germany and contemporary Oxford, and the atmosphere is steeped in cinematic imagery, especially the tenebrous world of the Bodleian Library's underground tunnels and book stacks. Allusions to legends and poetry mix with the appeal of a magical book that only answers questions in riddles. Wonderfully engaging, even addictive. (Fiction. 11-16)
(Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2006)"

I am really looking forward to meeting Matthew Skelton and I hope you join us on October 20th at 1:00 p.m.! If you have any questions, please contact the library at 459-1682.

Halloween Happenings

We had so much fun decorating the Young Adult corner last year we decided to do it again. Bring your creativity and a friend and I will provide the decorations and treats.

What is the scariest book you have ever read? I would have to say mine is The Amityville Horror by Jan Anson. I stayed up all night to finish it, mostly because I was too scared to turn out the lights!

Kathleen

Gossip Girl Sneak Preview from Youtube

Gossip Girl Hits the Small Screen

I'm sure that real fans of the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar will already know this, but I see that the pilot for the Gossip Girl tv series airs next Wednesday, September 19th. What else will be "must see tv" this fall?

Teen Advisory Board Meeting

The Teen Advisory Board took a summer vacation but now we are ready to go for another year. Our first meeting will be Thursday September 20th from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Main Floor Program Room. What will we do? I'm hoping we can come up with some ideas for fall programs but really the agenda is up to you. If this is your first visit to the TAB, bring a friend! I'll bring the snacks and see you there. If you have any questions you can call me at the library at 459-1751 or email me at kathleen@sapl.ab.ca

See you Thursday!
Kathleen

Grand Prize Winner...

Congratulations to Madeleine P. winner of the grand prize iPod Nano! I would have put up a photo of a happy Madeleine, but I forgot the camera. We enjoyed a killer game of Cranium, with the team of youngest players taking the lead throughout the game. Everyone ate their fill of pizza, chips and candy and agreed that the TeenSRC was a lot of fun and we would love to do it again next year.

Thanks to everyone who participated, I'm glad that you enjoyed your summer reading. Now that school is creeping closer don't give up on books. READ WHAT YOU LIKE.

Our next teen event will the Teen Advisory Board meeting on Thursday September 20th from 5 to 6 pm, but you can watch for more about that in the next few weeks.

TeenSRC Wrap Party

Wow it's almost the end of summer already! Okay we have a few weeks left, but you still need to plan ahead. The last day for our Summer Reading Club will be August 19th. The website will stay up and you are welcome to use it all year, but for the purposes of parties and prize draws, August 19th is the end.

If you have participated in the Summer Reading Club you are invited to the TeenSRC Wrap Party on Thursday August 23 from 4-6 pm. We will be playing some games, eating some pizza and drawing for some prizes (most notably that iPod Nano!). If you have 4 approved reviews by August 19th then your name will go in the draw. I know that there has been some backlog in the posting, so I will try to help them out and post anything from St. Albert. If you sent something you don't see on the lists, please let me know.

Please call and pre-register just so I know how much pizza to buy. Questions? Call the Adult Reference Desk at 459-1682. I'm away on a well deserved holiday for a bit, but I'll be back in time for the party. See you there!

Kathleen

TeenSRC Weekly Winner

Congratulations to Tiona L., this weeks winner of the weekly prize draw! With only two weeks to go the odds of winning that iPod nano are still high! Get your reviews in soon!

TeenSRC Weekly Prize Winner

Congratulations to Lauren R., winner of this weeks prize bag! Lauren has two approved reviews (and maybe some in the queue). We only have three more weeks left before the final party, so keep reading!

TeenSRC Back

The site is back up and running as of this morning. There is a major backlog of reviews to be posted, so be patient if you haven't seen yours up yet. There are now about 2,500 users on the site, 40 from St. Albert.

TeenSRC site Under Repair

I was informed this morning that the TeenSRC site was compromised and currently under reconstruction. They are asking us not to try and log in while they are working on the fix. Sorry for the delays!

Year Of Wonders

(Geraldine Brooks) It’s hard not to believe one isn’t living alongside young Anna Frith as she deals with the hardship of her small town being untimely stuck by the Plague of 1666. Brooks weaves an amazingly vivid tapestry of imagery that whisks the reader to a faraway time from the first sentence. The sensory description is very rich, and the character development is impeccable. Anna is a very likable character; she is strong of will and quick witted, but is not immune to the ravages of the plague as she sees it take some of her family members and closest friends. Despite these horrors, she struggles on as best she can, lending a hand to anyone in need and trying desperately to assuage some of their many grievances. I thought this book was great, albeit at some times deeply sad. (Necessary in a book about the Plague, I suppose!) Also, some of the descriptions of plague "symptoms" were a little icky!
Still, I found I would awaken from Anna’s world after a couple of hours and realize that I had paid no attention to anything else that was happening around me. An interesting choice too, who usually reads about the Plague on a hot summer’s night?

TeenSRC Weekly Prize Winner

Congratulations to Jordan T, the winner of this weeks prize. Jordan has already put in 5 reviews and will be invited to the wind up party in August. Only four more weeks to go! (Does that mean summer will be ending soon too? Sigh.)

The Zahir

In this novel of surprising impact, Paulo Coelho paints a vivid picture of one man’s pilgrimage to discover a much deeper understanding of himself and the world around him. After the unexpected departure of his beloved wife, the narrator struggles in vain to comprehend the reason why. The thought of her torments his awareness day and night; Esther had become his Zahir, “someone or something which gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else.” Progressively, the narrator begins to abandon his personal history in favor of the freedom of spiritual enlightenment, and begins to distinguish the reason why so many people in our society today have everything they could wish for, yet are still trapped in the pitfalls of unhappiness. Coelho writes in such a soft, flowing voice that it is easy to lose yourself for hours on end, deeply immersed in the emotion of the narrator and his plight. I greatly enjoyed reading this book, for I even felt slightly enlightened when I had finished it. (Cheesy as that sounds!)

The Swallows of Kabul

(Yasmina Khadra) A poignant, heartbreaking tale of two couples living in the utter squalor of Kabul under wicked Taliban rule: Mohsen & his wife Zunaira, and Atiq & his wife Mussarat. The author follows the couples in a very emotional portrayal of a country beaten down from the inside out. Their fates seem to be in the hands of pure chance as a world thrown into disarray deals them blow after blow. Khadra shows the Taliban as a disease that strikes down everything that is pleasurable and that gives man a reason for living.
Most importantly, the story of The Swallows of Kabul is one of love: love for a country, a belief, an ideal, but also a love (or a lack of love) for mankind. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to read something a little different. Once tossed into the uncertain world of the Taliban through Khadra’s eyes, one starts to realize that the vivid depictions of brutality and madness are not far from today’s truth in the Middle East. It is not exactly a ‘light summer read’, but it provokes a great deal of thought in the reader, as well as a heightened appreciation of the prosperity that we possess.

TeenSRC Week 2 Winner

This weeks winner is Ellexis L. ! Congratulations! We now have 30 players from St. Albert Public Library and more joining all the time. Ellexis has posted 4 reviews already so she is sure to be in the draw for the iPod at the party in August. The odds of winning are sure to be good, so keep posting!

The Party That Shall Not Be Named

In anticipation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows we will be having a teen only after-hours party on Friday July 20th. Did you ever wonder what the library was like after closing? Come to The Party That Shall Not Be Named and find out! We will watch a Harry Potter movie (your choice, you vote), play some Harry Potter trivia, eat some snacks and indulge in some wild speculation as to the fate of Harry, Hermione and Ron. Costumes are encouraged (hint hint). Space is limited so call to register early! Because this is a special program, we will need permission slips signed before you can come in. Pick one up from the Reference Desk next time you are in the library or you can print off the pdf form here.

Call 459-1682 to register.

TeenSRC Weekly Prize Winner

Congratulations to our first weekly prize winner Jessica M! With the first week of the summer reading club gone, we have 22 St. Albert teens signed up along with 17oo across the country! If you haven't started yet, it's not too late! It's summer, read what you like.

And We're Off!

All is well with the TeenSRC site. You can sign up with St. Albert Public Library in that long list box of Alberta libraries. As of last Friday, there were over 1000 teens signed up from across the country. I'll let you know the St. Albert statistics once they start reporting them by city. If you have any more problems, please let me know. Thanks for your patience!

Can't Sign Up for TeenSRC?

AARGH! For reasons beyond my control, St. Albert Public Library isn't showing up on the list yet! Please be patient, I am hoping it will be rectified on June 29th. I'll keep you posted.

Summer Reading Club is Open!

It's here! The Teen Summer Reading Club is waiting for your reviews. St. Albert Public Library is participating in an online summer reading project sponsored by the British Columbia Library Association so you will be interacting with teens from across the country. In order to participate you need to set up an account with the site. Be sure to indicate that you are from St. Albert Public Library so that you are eligible for our prize draws.

So how does it work? The TeenSRC summer club will run from June 28th through August 19th with the summer windup party on August 23rd. You get to read what you like for the summer and then submit reviews to the TeenSRC website through your account. Each week I will draw a prize winner from the reviews submitted from our library. Anyone who submits at least four reviews in the seven weeks of play will be eligible to come to the final party and their name will go in the draw for the grand prize iPod Nano!


Each review you post is moderated before it shows up on the listings. So how do you write a review? Don't panic, it's not that complicated and this isn't school. Here are some tips.

• Tell a bit about the book. Where is it set? Are the characters believable? Is it creepy, sad, funny, boring, realistic? Remember detail is good but NO SPOILERS. Reviews with spoilers don't get posted.
• Tell us your opinion! What made you like it or hate it? Did you like the dialogue, the characters, the plot, or the artwork? Why was it boring?
  
• Does it remind you of anything else? A movie, tv show or another book?
  
• Do you recommend it? This is where you get to rant or rave. Reviews are all about your experiences not anyone else's.

You can probably do it all in four good sentences. Please check out the FAQ section of the TeenSRC website for the full details about review posting.

If you need some suggestions of books to read, check out the online booklists at the TeenSRCbooklists in the Teen Corner. You can always check out what other teens have been reading by looking at the reviews online.

Log on to www.TeenSRC.ca and get reading.

If you have questions, contact Kathleen at 459-1751 or ktroppmann@sapl.ab.ca

Tamar by Mal Peet

The subtitle of this book is A Novel of Espionage, Passion and Betrayal which defines the story.
On one hand it is a compelling mystery and thriller. Another plot line looks at the joys and perils of love and how loneliness and fear can make you mad. Set in Holland in 1944 as well as England in 1995, Tamar follows the story two SOE agents working as resistance fighters and the fifteen-year-old granddaughter of one of the men. She knows that she has been named Tamar at her grandfather's request but she has never known why. When her grandfather commits suicide he leaves her with a box full of items that send her on a journey of discovery (literally) where family secrets are revealed. The author gives you glimpses of what might come and yet the discoveries are still surprising. This book won the Carnegie Medal for Children's Literature in the U.K. but it is aimed at young adults in the 14+ age range due to the emotional complexities of the story.

Teen Summer Reading Club Coming Soon!

The online Teen Summer Reading Club (TeenSRC) will launch soon. It will run for seven weeks and offer weekly prizes as well as a chance to win the grand prize of an iPod nano! Watch for details here and in the library, and get ready to `Book a Trip`with the Teen SRC!

Tattoo by Jennifer Barnes

Bailey and her three best friends are hanging out at the mall on their usual Friday shopping trip. Strange things start to happen after they decide to wear the temporary tattoos Bailey bought from the strange lady at the accessories booth. The girls discover that the tattoos have given them supernatural powers that they will need to fight the ancient fairies who control fate. It's a crazy mix of supernatural oddities, Celtic mythology and high school mean girls. This is a fast paced fun read for fans of Charmed and Buffy.

Teen Advisory Board Meeting

Summer is coming and it's time to finalize the details of the summer reading program and start thinking about fall. Bring your ideas and a friend and stop by on May 24th! If you have any questions contact me .

Kathleen

The Golden Compass Movie

I love the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman and I am looking forward to the movie version. The website looks great! Check it out at www.goldencompassmovie.com. You can even find out what kind of daemon you would have if you lived in their world. If you haven't read the books yet, a daemon in their world is where your soul resides and your daemon changes as you get older and your personality and character become more set. I took the quiz and found out that my daemon is Boreallus, a male lion. What do you think? Does it suit me? As people look at the link below, the daemon might change. I'll wait to see the final result.



If you haven't read the books yet, you are in for a treat. Check out the website and then pick up the books.

Creative Writing Workshop

Wow, my first post on the SAPL Teen Corner Blog! As you can see, I'm Kelci, and I'm part of the Teen Advisory Board here at the Library. We always welcome new members if this tickles your fancy!

Anyway, back to the point. On Saturday, April 14, I met an author. Award-winning teen author Don Trembath was in town conducting an interactive Creative Writing Workshop for teens! (Turns out authors are just like regular people! Who knew?) With Don leading the way, all 17 of us created and meticulously described a house, a character, and concluded our three hour journey by composing a dialogue between our character and one that another student had created. We were instructed to "write as we speak" and generate a conversation where our character was trying to sell the house we dreamed up. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in a bit of relaxing writing for the afternoon, and one can’t forget about all the scrumptious snacks! All it all, it was a great time, and I look forward to similar events in the future. Many thanks to Kathleen and Don for volunteering their time to create a fun-filled afternoon for us kids!

Teen Movie Night

Drop in at the library on Wednesday night and join us for "Night at the Museum". No registration required, bring a friend and enjoy snacks from me (gum gum anyone?)! What's "Night at the Museum"? Here's the short form:

"In this wild comedy fantasy, a bumbling night watchman (Ben Stiller) at New York's Museum of Natural History inadvertently triggers a dormant curse that fully animates the dioramas, causing Mayans, Romans, Gladiators and cowboys to emerge, not to mention an angry T-Rex."

It's silly, it's funny and it's free! Hope to see you there. For more information, contact Kathleen at 459-1751 or Kathleen@sapl.ab.ca

Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen by Glen Huser

I always enjoy reading about foreign lands and landscapes but sometimes it's comfortable to read a book set close to home. Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen is set in Edmonton. It mentions Whyte Avenue and Glenora and then takes a road trip through Jasper and off to Vancouver. Tamara is a foster kid on her way to a new home when we meet her. She's in a car with her social worker being careful to say the right things and smile at the right times. I quickly decided that she wasn't all bad, just very self centred. She comes up with multitudes of reasons to skip school - mostly because she wants to watch some kind of fashion program on tv. When she is forced to attend a school visit to a retirement home she is paired up with Jean, The Wrinkle Queen, who has her own agenda. Jean's dream is to attend Wagner's Ring Cycle in Seattle one more time, a trip that her doctors tell her she is too weak to take. Tamara wants to go to modelling school in Vancouver. With these two strong minded women in cahoots, trouble is sure to follow. I thought this book was a riot and it's a quick read too.

Online Photo Editing

If you need a place to quickly touch up a photo before you send it to all your friends, check out Picnik. This is a brilliant site that lets you pull pictures from your computer, a website, Yahoo, Flickr, or a webcam and then edit them. You can fix colour, red eye, resize as well as play with fun effects. After you have tweaked the picture you can save it back to your computer or send it to a website or add it to your Flickr account or even print it. And it's free! (well so far) Go ahead, play!

Sold by Patricia McCormick

I want to tell you that you must read this book. I want to tell you that it will change the way you feel about sharing your room or having to eat leftovers again tonight. I want to tell you that reading this book will change the way you think about your everyday life. All of that is true, but reading this book will also show you things that are so painful that most of the world likes to pretend that they don't exist. Sold is the story of thirteen-year-old Lakshmi who is sold into prostitution by her step father. She has been living a subsistence life with her mother and younger sister in a hovel in Nepal. When she is sold to an "Auntie" she thinks she will be working in the city as a maid and this will allow her to send money home to her mother. Instead she is sold to a brothel in India with bars on the windows. She is broken and left without hope as her body and mind are abused night after night. She snatches brief moments of peace through friendships with the other women in the brothel, but these friendships themselves are dangerous because it leaves her with something more to lose. The story is written in prose poetry. The shortest chapter can tell of indescribable pain in short blunt sentences that leave you feeling breathless and afraid to turn the page. The author based the experiences in this book on interviews with some of the thousands of girls and women sold into the sex trade in India.

March Teen Advisory Board Meeting

We will be meeting on March 15th so those of you heading out of town for Spring Break can finnish your packing the next week. Please bring your agenda items along. At the last meeting we made up a list of potential donors for the Summer Reading Club. I'm hoping that some of you bring your artistic talents along and create the posters for next month's creative writing workshop. If you have any questions call me or send me a note.

Red Kayak by Pricilla Cummings

Red Kayak is a powerful book about the choices we make and the consequences of them, about friendship, families and the power of sadness. The book reads like a mystery in some ways and the story is gripping even if you figure out what is happening before the author gets around to telling you. The story is about Brady, a thirteen year old boy whose family's livelihood comes from the river. When new neighbours buy up the farm next door and build their mansion on the hill there is some resentment in the community. A malicious prank gone wrong has tragic consequences that ripple through all of the families involved and Brady has tough decisions to make regarding his role in the events. This is one of the books nominated for the YRCA Middle Division. I think it was a great read (I ditched chores to finish the book) and would highly recommend it.

Creative Writing Workshop

I have been able to book author Don Trembath for a creative writing workshop for teens on April 14th. I'll send out more information and and registration info in early March. It will run from 12 to3 on that Saturday and we will limit it to 15 people. Stay tuned for more info!

Young Reader's Choice Awards

The Young Reader's Choice Awards are one of the oldest literature awards in the US and Canada. Each year the Pacific Northwest Library Association collects nominations for and winning votes for the Young Reader's Choice Awards (hereafter called the YRCA). How does it work? Nominations are taken only from children, teachers, parents and librarians in the Pacific Northwest - Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Nominations are based on popularity, not necessarily literary merit. The nominations are then divided into three age divisions - Junior, Middle and Senior. In order to vote, you must read or listen to three nominated titles in that division. This year the nominees in the Middle Division (grades 7-9) are:

• Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
• Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
• Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
• The Outcasts of 19 Schyuler Place by E.L. Konigsburg
• Red Kayak by Pricilla Cummings
• The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
• The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
• The Teacher's Funeral by Richard Peck

The nominees in the Senior Division (grades 10-12) are:

• Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
• A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
• Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman by Eleanor Updale
• My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

For a full description of each book check out the YRCA website and click on Discussions. The library owns several copies of each of these titles. Voting begins March 15 and closes March 30 so we can get our votes to our provincial representative to pass on. I am working my way through as many as I can in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted on my opinions, but feel free to disagree! If you want to vote we will have voting slips available in the Young Adult Corner by March 15. Remember, your opinion is the one that counts!

February Teen Advisory Board Meeting

At our last meeting we talked about the possibilities of a summer reading program for YA as well as siginging up extra reviewers for this blog. On the agenda this month is more planning for the Young Adult summer reading program, talking about an upcoming creative writing workshop and the Young Reader's Choice Awards. We'll meet on Thursday February 15th, 5:00 - 6:00 pm in the Training Room on the second floor. New members are always welcome!

What Happened to Cass McBride?

I annotated this book for the Gazette for next week, but I think it deserves a bit more than three sentences. I enjoy a good thriller, but I don't like it when everything ties up at the end and everyone goes back to their same old lives. That's where this one is different. The story is told in alternating voices: the captor, the police, and Cass who is the captive. What seems like a straight forward revenge tale ends up much more convoluted and complex with each character having many reasons for ending up where they are. Sometimes the voices get confusing when you hear about things from the past and the present together, but is works to tell the story. I like the fact that the ending is really messy, meaning that you know what happens but you also know that nobody had a "happily ever after" moment either. It's not a long book, a quick read and worth your time. If you like this one, check out some of Gail Giles' other titles.

If I was a superhero...

My daughter sometimes asks me what superpower I would like most. I think I would have to say the ability to fly. No cape. Apparently I won't get my wish. According to thesuperheroquiz.com I would be Wonder Woman if I were a superhero. I think Catwoman is much more interesting, but that nasty do gooder streak of mine eliminated my chances. Try it for yourself at www.thesuperheroquiz.com.

If you like comics or even comic genius try Stuff: The Life of a Cool Demented Dude by Jeremy Strong.

Part novel, part comic strip, this is the story of Stuff (AKA Simon) who is a fourteen-year-old boy with a host of problems. His father’s girlfriend has moved in with her evil daughter and feminist attack rabbit. He has fallen for the new girl at school even though he has a girlfriend and now the girlfriend’s insane big brother is going to pound him. Luckily, his art teacher at school has recognized his genius and given him free hand to draw his comic strip for the school paper. I liked the comic strip inserted throughout the book. Let me know what you think.

Eragon (the movie)

Against my better judgement, I went to see the movie Eragon this weekend. I have read both of the books in this series and enjoyed them both. I don't think that the writing was always brilliant, but compared to the movie it was sheer genious! The movie left out three quarters of the plot making the character development almost nonexistant. For people who don't know the complete story, it must have been very confusing. The CG work was okay, and the settings were beautiful (it was shot in Hungary) but the acting was thin through most of it. I can only hope that they don't make a sequel. If you are at all interested in the story, please read the book! They are thick, but they move quickly and are much more intellegent than the halfhearted plot the movie provided.

January Teen Advisory Board Meeting

It's the start of a new year and we are excited to be planning new things for our Young Adult department. I am looking forward to the first Young Adult summer reading program, some new furniture for the Teen Corner and more programs. Our first T.A.B. meeting of the year will be Thursday January 18 from 5-6 p.m. Looking forward to seeing you there!