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!