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.