one more crazy story

Written by the writing club for 11 - 15 yr olds that meets most Thursdays from 3 - 4 p.m. Join us on January 15 or 29. We always have yummy snacks...

Laila couldn’t believe Tom decided to talk to her that day—he’d never noticed her before! From that day on, Laila knew her life wouldn’t be the same…

She got a whole new confidence she never knew she had. After that day she talked to Tom all the time. Before class, during class, after class! Her life was finally going the way she wanted it to. After a week, Tom actually asked Laila on a date! She was so excited she couldn’t help herself…

Finally the date had come. I couldn’t wait. Tom was there at a table so I went to the table. We talked and I ordered one of everything on the menu. I was eating everything and then I ate Tom. He tasted good. I’m sooooo fat!

Then I wanted to know where Tom went. Then I didn’t feel so good. I barfed and there was Tom. I was about to say sorry when he ran out of the restaurant screaming, “Mommy!” A few months passed and I decided to lose weight. When I got to a size 3, I decided to apologize to Tom. When I saw him he looked…

Yummy. “I’m really, really sorry for eating you” I said.

“It’s okay,” He actually forgave me! “You wanna try this again?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I said.

“This time don’t eat me please,” he said.

“Okay, I won’t,” he said. I didn’t know if I could promise that.

“Oh, so tonight at 8 okay?” he asked.

I nodded, “I can’t wait!”

That night when he picked me up, I looked hot. Smokin’ in fact. He said so right away. I was feeling okay and wasn’t even all that interested in eating him until he moved a little during the movie and I saw a bit of his neck from under his turtleneck.

“ohhhh” I moaned, biting my hand.

I knew that by the end of the night, I’d probably eat Tom. Anyone have any Grey Poupon??

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everybody! I hope you had fun out in the snow last weekend...and that you enjoy your days off! Come see me in the library and I'll give you candy...(we got a ton and if I eat it all I'll weigh 20 lbs more in January than I do now). :)

writing club crazy stories

We've been writing collaborative stories in our Thursday Writing Club and I thought I'd share one here. This story was written by Erin, Tessa, Andrew, Isaac, Tori, Hanna and me! You can see when it changes writers by the text (bold/regular/bold).

collaborative story 2

All of a sudden he was trapped!

The rocks had filled the entrance. There was no way to move them. How was he going to get out? Tim decided to try and explore the cave. Maybe there was a way out. He kept walking on and on. After a while he started to get bored and then worried.

What if he never got out? What if no one realized he was gone!? All of a sudden he heard a shrill shriek!

“What was that?” he said aloud. He was terrified. What if it was a monster…

From around the corner came a small, timid white mouse. A mouse! Tim couldn’t believe he’d gotten so scared over a mouse! Its squeak must have echoed in the cave.

Tim knew his classmates were somewhere up ahead—but where? How would they ever find him? He felt his hands around the cave and shone his flashlight into every crack to see if he could find a way out…nothing. With a sigh he sat down and started to cry. Just as soon as the first tear hit his nose, he stopped with a jerk. How could he just sit there? He needed to think. He needed to conserve his energy and the flashlight’s energy. He turned off the flashlight and began to shout…

All that he heard was an echo in return. He started to run, but there was nothing but blackness. Tim was shaking now when he heard something. The mouse again? No, a voice, that wasn’t his own…

“Try to find a way out!” said the voice, but then, THERE WAS THE MOUSE! It came over and turned into a banana! Then it choked me until my teeth exploded!

Then the mouse turned into a man with a white beard.

Muffled (since my teeth had exploded), I said, “Are you a wizard?”

“No, I’m a dude, guy, what are you talking about?” said the man. “I am a surfer. I can surf like no tomorrow, Dude.”

“How do you get out of here?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

I looked around me and it was a beach and surfer music was playing.

“Let’s go surfing, radical dude,” the man said.

where have I been?

I know, I know...long time no blog. We've been busy at the library anyway with Writing Club meetings for teens every Thursday from 3 - 4 p.m. and TAG meetings once a month. This month we frosted sugar cookies (pictures coming) and then ate them all. I thought about making them for shut-ins or something else like that, but it would involve making way more cookies than I actually had time for. Maybe next year.

Last night, Hailey, Kelsey & Molly were my personal heroes and helped out at the American Girl Tea Party for ages 5+. It was tons of fun!! We decorated headbands, played "Toss a Smile" and read a little from Happy Birthday, Samantha. Kelsey, Hailey & Molly were very posh and passed out lemon-ahhd to all the little party-goers (20!!).

So what's coming up, you ask? Teen Game Day on December 18th from 1 - 3 p.m.! Invite your friends, bring your favorite game and come rock out to Guitar Hero. We've also got a volunteer opportunity this Saturday from 10 - 2 p.m. TAG members are invited to come help little kids make crafts for the Old Time Holiday Fair in Fairhaven. We're making paper doll chains, paper airplanes and snowflakes. fun!!

National Book Award winner announced tonight!

Tonight the National Book Award for Young People will be announced! Here are the finalists:

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
  
• The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
• What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

So far I've read two of these and I'm dying to read the rest.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks is a hilarious look at an exclusive boys-only secret society at a private high school and Frankie's (a girl) attempt to take it over.





The Underneath is a touching, poetic story of an old hound dog, two kittens, a thousand-year-old snake and a bitter, angry man. I couldn't put it down.






I'm off to read The Spectacular Now next. I'll post the winner tonight!

EDIT: The winner is What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell. Come get it at the library today!

Election Day is tomorrow!

Election day is tomorrow. If you're under 18, you can't vote, but you can still be involved and you are still a part of this exciting election no matter who you support or don't support. Here are a few interesting websites where your favorite YA authors and teens in general show their support for the candidates:

YA for Obama

YA for McCain

Also, don't forget about our teen events later this week!

NaNoWriMo Writing Club
Thursdays from 3 - 4 p.m.
WRITE A BOOK IN A MONTH! I'm 1000 words in so far; this is tougher than I thought it would be. Join up with fellow writers every Thursday to give each other support, play fun writerly games and brainstorm together.

TAG Meeting
Friday, November 7 from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
We'll play games, make plans for future teen events and talk about books, movies, etc. See you there!

Like to write?? Join our writing club!

Calling all 6th - 9th graders!! The Millicent Library is starting a Writing Club in November to celebrate National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo). We'll be using resources from the Young Writer's Program at NanoWriMo where you can sign up for an account. We'll each set a word count goal for the month of November and try to each write a short novel/graphic novel/comic book/manga book, etc. Sounds fun to me!



I'm writing a book, too. So far the working title is:

How I fell in love, made friends and conquered the world: A user's guide
by Laura Gardner

What do you think??




Hope to see you at our first meeting on November 6th at 3 p.m.!

HAPPY TEEN READ WEEK!!

It was great to see so many of you at our Movie today, The Little Vampire. Don't forget to show up tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. for our COMICS + MANGA WORKSHOP with Andy Fish and Veronica Hebard.

SEE YOU THERE!

Go here to vote starting Sunday, October 12!

Live chat with authors all next week!

Watch this video to find out what authors you can chat with during Teen Read Week, October 13 - 17!

All chats are at 9 p.m. EST on the Readergirlz Myspace forum

Online Resources!!

Did you know that you don't even have to come to the library to use our great resources? Visit our online resources from HOME! You can sit in your pajamas on the couch, use the library and get your projects done all at once. :) All you need is your precious LIBRARY CARD.

Resources for high school students
There is so much here! Biographies, articles about literature and authors, science experiments and much more.

Resources for middle school students
We have resources for country projects, mythology projects, science experiments, the entire World Book encyclopedia and much more. We pay for the resources, you use them!

Resources for elementary school students
(tell your little brothers and sisters! there's fun stuff here, too)

Or you can go to our website and click on Student Resources.

Happy searching!

Meeting on Thursday!

I hope to see all of you at our TAG meeting on Thursday, October 9th at 4:30 p.m.! We'll be finishing plans for our Vampire Party next week and also getting ready for the Sustainability Fair (10/18).

:)

Brisingr!

The newest book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini was released on Saturday! I recently read Eragon and Eldest, so I'm pretty excited to read Brisingr, too!! I'm dying to know if Roran and Eragon defeat the Ra'zac, rescue Katrina and defeat Galbratorix. Aren't you?

Here are some Brisingr related websites to keep you happy while you're waiting for the book:

Alagaeisa
Main website of the books

Vroengard Academy
Virtual reality site where you can pretend to be Eragon

Eragon on Myspace

Alagaeisa Adventure Game

CNN article about the author

Websites of the Week!

The election is coming, and even if you're not 18 yet, you're probably thinking about who you want to vote for. Try out these election websites for fun games and polls!

270towin
It takes 270 votes to win the electoral college. On this website you can look at electoral college maps through history and even play a game to figure out the fewest number of states it takes to win.

Living Room Candidate
Search TV campaign ads from the 50s through now. These are very interesting!

eLECTIONS multimedia game
You're running for president! Play the game to see if you have what it takes to win.

For more websites that have to do with the election, click on election in the delicious tags to the right. We're only a month and a half from the big day, so get ready!

Teen Read Week is coming!

Mark your calendars! Teen Read Week: Books with Bite is coming in only 1 month! Here are the events that the Millicent Library has planned...

Wednesday, October 15 from 4:30 – 6 p.m....we’ll show The Little Vampire, a fun movie (based on a book!) about a young boy who befriends a vampire (rated PG).

Thursday, October 16, which is an early release day for Fairhaven public schools, the Friends of the Library group is sponsoring a Comics + Manga Workshop at 12:30 p.m. If you like graphic novels and manga, come learn from two real graphic novel artists, Andy Fish and Veronica Hebard. You won’t want to miss it so sign up!

Friday, October 17 at 4 p.m. we're having a Vampire/Halloween Party! We may have a mystery murder theme, too if our TAG members get it together. Fun times... :)

Don't forget our regularly scheduled TAG meeting next Tuesday, September 23 (a.k.a. Nadine's birthday!). I also hope to see some of you this Saturday at our Harry Potter movie at 1 p.m. We're showing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. oooh...

Rock the vote!

I don't know how many of my readers are over 18, but even if you're not eligible to vote, you should encourage your older friends, siblings and others to do their part!

Here's a website with all the details on how to register to vote here in Massachusetts. Check out all the links down the right side of the page, too for more cool links related to voting.

REVIEW: Boys that Bite by Marci Mancusi

This book was recommended to me by Sylvia...and I loved it! Sunshine and Rayne are completely identical twins. They are so identical that their mom can't tell them apart and neither can the vampire that is supposed to turn Rayne. He turns Sunny instead, instantly giving her Vampire Scent (irresistible to all human males and some females) and a taste for blood. She wants a reversal, but is it possible?

What follows is a funny, light book about vampires, love and legend. The conversational tone along with the fun twist on vampire life kept me reading along. This book is a cross between Sweet Valley Twins and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both have cultish appeal and I think this series could, as well. There are two sequels: Stake That! and Girls that Growl. Check out the author's website, too.

These books are available through Inter-Library Loan. You can place a hold using the SAILS website and your library card or call the library!

Websites of the Week!

Make your own comics with these awesome websites. For more websites that involve COMICS, click on COMICS to the right in my delicious tags. Have fun!

GoAnimate
You can create animated cartoons using standard cartoon characters or even political figures using this nifty website. Make your characters talk to each other, shake hands and more. waaay fun.

ToonDoo!
Ever want to become a cartoonist? Now you are one! You can also read and comment on other people's Toons. Here's one below...



Bubblr
Create comic strips using your Flickr photos. :)

Midnight Sun--260+ pages!

Maybe you've read the "first chapter" that was floating around. Well here is a much longer excerpt--about half the book!

Stephenie Meyer has released a first draft of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edward's perspective. Find it here for FREE!

Websites of the Week!

Websites that will help with homework (ugh!)

Math How-to library
Advice on everything from algebra to geometry. If you left your math book at school or just need a different explanation, look here!

Greek Mythology Website
Find some great facts here and also short, funny "myth of the month" stories.

FactMonster Homework Center
Useful stuff like the conversion calculator, an interactive periodic table and much more make this site very useful.

Click on the word HOMEWORK in the tags to the right to get more great homework sites! If you know of one that you like to go to, please add it in the comments.

HAPPY BACK TO SCHOOL!

Fairhaven students returned to school this week. It's been quite a bit quieter in the library ever since.

So how was it?

I want to hear all about it at our first TAG meeting of the 2008 - 2009 school year on Tuesday, September 9 at 4 p.m. I'll have some special snacks to celebrate your return to school. We're going to plan out our fall events (including Teen Read Week!) and talk about our ideas for helping out in the library.

see you there!

Book Review: My Most Excellent Year

I laughed, cried and loved this book. Told completely in letters, IM transcripts, emails and memos, My Most Excellent Year is a story of magic, love and still more magic. And it all takes place in Boston! Red Sox Nation, unite!

I loved all the characters even down to the minor characters of Mom, Dad, Pop and Lori. The three main characters, T.C., Augie and Alejandra (Ale) are particularly lovable. T.C. and Augie are best friends and even declared themselves brothers at age 7, the year after T.C.'s mom died of cancer. Ale is new in town and is somehow immune to T.C.'s charms (but not for long). Hucky, a 6 year old deaf kid who knows how to read signs and gives T.C. very helpful batting tips, works his way into everyone's heart, including the reader. I don't want to give any of the magic away, so I won't say much more other than that I promise you'll fall in love with this book!

I read this book very quickly because I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next.

This book is located in the YA section of the Millicent Library with the new books!

Just when you think you've got a handle on things...

they change!

We're holding a Harry Potter Movie Series here at the library to get ready for the 6th movie's release on November 21, 2008 but then the studio went and changed the release date to July 17, 2009! (don't worry, we're still showing the movies starting September 6th at 1 p.m.)

Why the change, you ask?

One rumor is that studio execs were worried about the Twilight movie release eclipsing the release Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. see mtv article for more

Another rumor is that producers don't want viewers to be put off by Daniel Radcliff's other starring role, a Broadway play which involves nudity.

But the most likely reason is simply that somebody wants to make more money and summer blockbusters are the best bet for $$$$. how annoying.

Oh, well. We'll be watching all 5 HP movies on Saturdays this fall anyway.

In the meantime, here's a preview for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. enjoy!

Musings on kissing a goat...

So today I kissed a goat. It really wasn't so bad! It reminded me a bit of kissing my dog, Fielder. The goat's name was S'more. He tried to get away, but I planted one on the side of his face anyway. Why did I kiss a goat, you ask? The answer is that I was keeping a promise. I promised the children of Fairhaven that I would kiss a goat if they read over 2000 hours...and so far we have 2023 hours recorded! I also got to announce that we are getting a WATER BUFFALO for a family through Heifer International thanks to all your reading. Good work

Today was the Teddy Bear Parade and there were over 150 children and 100 adults there to march around town with their teddy bears. Do I have the best job in the world or what?

A BIG THANK YOU to all the TAG teens who helped out today. You were great! Bria, Nadine, Hailey, Kelsey, Tori...I really couldn't have done it without you. Also, big thanks to Alderbrook Farms for bringing the goats and sheep (yes, there were sheep, too!). Wow, what a great day!

Summer!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starting to get sad about the approaching end of summer. :( Things have been crazy at the library all summer with the summer reading program, but I'd really like the summer to last a bit longer.

This week on Teen Tuesday we had our GAME DAY at the library, which was lots of fun. We played Guitar Hero on the big screen and had a few intense matches of Frogger, as well.

Next week is our last Teen Tuesday and we'll be making duct tape wallets or cell phone holders! I have all different colors of duct tape...should be fun!

Here are a few links on duct tape crafts:

http://www.ducttapecreations.com/

http://ducttapefashion.com/

And a YouTube video in case you can't make it next week:

Pictures from the Twilight Party!

We ironed on our "team edward" or "team jacob" letters. Tori decided she liked them both!

Bria got creative with the back of her shirt, too!

Here are the fabulous t-shirts we created!

To see more pictures from this party, go to my Flickr set.

Twilight Party!

Thanks to all of you who came to our Twilight Party celebrating the upcoming release of Breaking Dawn! We made Team Edward/Team Jacob t-shirts and a couple tried out making Cullen Body Glitter (or Edward's Sunscreen as Nadine so aptly put it!). We listened to music that inspired Stephenie Meyer to write the books and watched a few of the previews on the big screen. Oh, and we ate bleeding cupcakes and drank Bella's Blushing Punch.

Fun times!

Pictures to come...

Website of the Week: Wordle

Wordle is a pretty fun website where you can paste in any amount of text or a link (like our blog here) and it will come up with a word cloud. Here's a wordle for this blog below. The bigger words are the ones used a lot (like BOOK, duh) and the smaller ones are the ones I don't use as often. Go try your own!

Teen Tuesday: PARTY!!!

Next Tuesday, July 29th join Laura at the Millicent Library at 3 p.m. for a party celebrating the release of the newest book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer! Breaking Dawn is the 4th book in the series and will be released on August 2nd. Fans of the book, vampire fans or anyone who's interested in having a good time is invited! We'll be making t-shirts (are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?), Cullen body glitter and duct tape roses. We'll listen to music that inspired Meyer to write the book and we'll eat Bleeding Cupcakes and Blushing Punch.

Don't miss it!

Interview with Laura (umm, me)

What do you think?

For those of you who have read some of the Twilight series, what do you think of Edward and Bella? (I have my own opinions, but I'm staying silent for now...)

Don't forget to put the Twilight/Breaking Dawn release party on your calendar!! It's July 29 at 3 p.m. Breaking Dawn comes out on August 2nd. Twilight the movie will be released in December...just 5 months from now.

Summer Reading!

Summer Reading!
Originally uploaded by millicentlibraryteens

Stop by the library to sign up for the Summer Reading Program! We have lots of great programs lined up for teens, including Teen Yoga, Duct Tape Crafts and more.

You even get a free book when you sign up, so stop by soon... All our reading is helping people this summer, too. We'll get an animal for a family in another part of the world that can help them increase their income. Check out http://www.heifer.org for more information. (and check out our cute summery animals above) :)

Also, if you read lots this summer, Laura will kiss a goat!! Who wants to miss that??

Being silly

Being silly
Originally uploaded by millicentlibraryteens

Thanks to everyone who came to our game night last night! We had a really great time playing Guitar Hero, Frogger, Mancala, The Game of Life, Cranium and TWISTER! We'll have another one again soon!

Click on the link above to see more pictures from the game night!

Interview with the Millicent Library Director, Carolyn Longworth!

TAG meeting minutes

Thanks to everyone who came to Friday's meeting! If you missed it, we missed you. :)
We did the following...

• did a scavenger hunt around the library
  
• planned our first GAME NIGHT for this Thursday, June 26th! (3 - 5 p.m.; members show up at 2:30 p.m. Tell your friends!!)
  
• helped me prepare for the Pokemon party (next Saturday the 28th at 10 a.m....if you know Pokemon, please come help me! I'm clueless...)
• interviewed the library director, Carolyn Longworth (video forthcoming!)
• stuffed more summer reading program bags

I look forward to seeing all of you at the game night! I'll be calling you today and tomorrow to see if you can bring some equipment. :)

Happy Summer Break!

Today is the last day of school here in Fairhaven...CONGRATULATIONS! I hope you all enjoy your summer lots and lots...and that you come see me at the library for TAG meetings, Teen Tuesday events (Movies, Game Night, Breaking Dawn release party and more...see the Millicent Library calendar for more details) or just to come in and check out a book.

If you come in anytime in the next week, though, you might be sad to see that I won't be there. I'm on vacation from June 12 (today) and won't be at work again until Friday, June 20th. Hopefully I'll see all of you at the TAG meeting on the 20th at 2:30 p.m.

In the meantime, enjoy the sun, have some fun and don't forget to keep reading! I want to hear all about what you read at our next meeting. Oh, and the next time you're in the library, be sure to check out the awesome Wild Reads display that Kelsey and Bay put together. Thanks so much, girls!

Pen pal letters coming!

Our pen pals at the Sturgis Library are having a game night this Friday the 13th and they plan to respond to us then. Check out the blog post from the Sturgis TAG here and feel free to comment on how much you are looking forward to pen pal letters!

We should have the pen pal letters by our June 20th 2:30 p.m. meeting.

TAG interview

Here is the TAG group interviewing Erica, a circulation assistant at the Millicent Library. It's pretty silly!

Website(s) of the week

Create your own avatar!

Here's an avatar I made on Meez:




Umm, yes, I'm a body-surfing librarian.

Also check out what I made on Mr. Picassohead here.

You can find other great avatar makers by clicking on the word "avatar" over in the delicious tags. Check out all the delicious tags to find lots of cool stuff!

TAG meeting minutes

Thanks to everyone who made yesterday's meeting such a success! 15 teens were present to eat food, play a fun game, talk about books, music and movies and plan our upcoming Game Night.
Here are some things that happened at the meeting in case you couldn't come:

• Laura gave out jobs so she doesn't go insane. Jackie will be taking attendance; Rachel is the new phone junkie calling people about upcoming events; Tori and Shay are in charge of keeping noise under control (somewhat) and we even have awesome volunteers to help set up and clean up.
• Teens also signed up to help out at the Pokemon Party that the library is holding on Saturday, June 28th at 10 a.m. If you weren't at yesterday's meeting and you want to help out with this, email Laura!
• Our second Interview video was recorded! Bay, Hailey, Matt and Adam interviewed Erica, one of our library's fine circulation assistants. I promise to upload the video tonight!
• Rachel and Bre started creating a Game Night flyer; our FIRST GAME NIGHT is planned for June 26th from 3 - 5 p.m. in the library auditorium (downstairs). I really need all of your help in planning and promoting this!
• We also looked at all the new books and a bunch of them got checked out

Our next meeting is Friday, June 20th at 2:30 p.m. I'll be on vacation from June 12 - 19; see you when I get back!

Breaking Dawn first page!

For all you Twilight fans out there, here is the first page of Stephenie Meyer's newest book! Breaking Dawn isn't coming out until August 2nd, but you can get a sneak peek here.

I can't wait to read more about Bella and her engagement to Edward! (I'm personally hoping she realizes her HUGE mistake and ends up with Jake).

UPDATE: Check out the cover!


2ND UPDATE: a fan blog took pictures of the whole first chapter of Breaking Dawn from the Eclipse Special Edition...see it here!

Interview with Doreen!

Sorry this took so long to upload, everybody. Here it is, though, our first interview video! Here is Courtney interviewing Doreen Skidmore, circulation supervisor at the Millicent Library. The giggling girl in the background is a bit of a distraction, but no matter! :)

Website(s) of the week

Think you have a pretty amazing life story? Why not write your story for all the world to see! Ourstory.com is a great service that makes your life story into a timeline complete with pictures, videos and more. You can even have your friends and family members help you tell your story. Check out my simple and short story below. If you're into it, try the delicious tags to the right to find more fun tools.



Start your own timeline at OurStory.com

Website(s) of the week

Website of the week: online mixtape sites
(for more music sites, click on the word 'music' in the delicious tags to the right)

When I was a kid, making a mixed tape (especially off the radio) was a painstaking process involving lots of stop, record, rewind...ugh. By college, things had gotten easier with mix CDs and in the past few years CDs have all but disappeared and now we make playlists for mp3 players like ipods.

Meet the newest evolution of the mix tape: online mix tapes.

Muxtape.com and Mixwit.com are sites that allow you to create your own 'mixtape' and then share it with your friends through MySpace, Facebook or even here on Blogger. Of course you can also just send your friends a link to your mix (muxtape allows you to do this). So far mixwit is considered legal (they've worked out licensing deals), but muxtape is a bit murkier.

Here's a short mixtape from Mixwit:

First TAG Show Podcast!

It took me a few tries to get it right; sorry it was messed up before!

Drum roll please...here is the TAG Show!



Or go to the Switchpod page to hear our podcast!

Here's how we made it:

1) Download Audacity
2) Download LAME (instructions here) so you can turn your .aup file into a .mp3
3) Create an account on Switchpod (click 'Register' and register for a Podcaster account)
4) Go to your 'Control Panel' and click 'Upload Now' to upload your .mp3 file
5) Use the tools on Switchpod to 'Get a List Player' like ours above or publicize the podcast to iTunes, etc.

It's really pretty easy!

New books!

J Fiction:

Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes
Confessions of a Serial Kisser by Wendelin Van Draanen
100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

YA Fiction:

Me, the Missing and the Dead by Jenny Valentine
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
How to be Bad by e. lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle
The Market by J.M. Steele

Science Fiction:

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
The Gravity Keeper by Simon Bloom

Surfing the Web video

Our first TAG video! Watch it here or go to YouTube to watch it.

New books!

Fiction and SciFi
First Shot by Walter Sorrells
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Lucky by Rachel Vail
Skin Hunter by Kathleen Duey
FrostBite (A Vampire Academy Novel) by Richelle Mead
Borderline by Bonnie Rozanski

Graphic Novels
A Nightmare on Elm Street by Dixon/West/Almond
Laika by Abadeis

The Host by Stephenie Myers

Stephenie Myers is best known for her Twilight series for teens. The love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob (go Jacob!!) is exciting and engaging. I've loved all of her books so far and often find myself reading late into the night to finish them.

The same has so far been true for her newest book. The Host, which is marketed to adults, but is definitely appropriate for teens (so far) is Myers' first book outside of the Twilight series. In the book an alien species called 'souls' has taken over earth and possessed almost all humans body-snatcher style. The souls are implanted in the brain and completely take over the body...most of the time. The book is told from the perspective of Wanderer, a soul who has already traveled to nine planets. Wanderer has been implanted in Melanie's brain, but Melanie hasn't disappeared. In fact, Wanderer and Melanie are co-existing and Melanie slowly exerts her control. Eventually they find their way to an enclave of humans who have escaped implantation and are living underground out west. The humans, who know Melanie, immediately know Melanie is no longer herself. But they are merciful and although there is conflict, Wanderer/Melanie becomes a part of their world. Besides all of this, there is also a bit of a love triangle...but I don't want to give anything more away so I'll save that for you to find out on your own.

So far (page 265 out of 600 as of now), this book is completely absorbing the same way all the rest of Stephenie Myers' books have been. If you want to read it, be sure to put it on hold as soon as possible!

UPDATE: It only took 48 hours to finish the book and I loved it. I think I liked it more than any of the books in the Twilight series. It really was that good!

Meeting minutes

Great meeting today, everyone! I'll get those pen pal letters out and we should have responses soon. We're coming along with our podcast and vodcast scripts...let's try to start recording at our next meeting! Also, get ready for our first game night in June. Hooray!

See you next Thursday, May 15th at 4 p.m.!

Storytubes!

Go to the Storytubes website to vote for the best video of the week! This week's videos are about Hair Raising Tales...

Books to Movies

With the next Chronicles of Narnia movie coming out this weekend, Prince Caspian, it got me thinking...what are your favorite books-to-movies adaptations?

Do you love the Harry Potter films but hate The Golden Compass? Here are some resources for those of you who are interested in the longstanding books-to-movies trend...

Entertainment Weekly's Read the Book! Slideshow
Do you agree with EW?? I kind of liked Prozac Nation...

Books to Movies Database
Want to know if your favorite author has had any of his/her books turned into movies? This is the place to go.

Books into Movies from Teenreads.com

Here's the trailer for Prince Caspian, too...

New Poll!

Turns out we like walking outside best of all in good weather.

There's a new poll up...what's your favorite website for online games? You can choose several if you can't narrow it down to one. If you have other favorite websites that aren't listed in the poll, put them in the comments!!!

All the websites listed in the poll are in the del.icio.us tags, too. Just click on the word games off to the right and start exploring!

MySpace and Facebook

Did you know that the library has a Facebook page and a MySpace page?

It's true! Make the library your friend today.

Meeting Minutes

We had 11 teens at our second meeting where we decided...

1) to stick with the name of the group as TAG
2) to create a podcast/radio show and call it 'The TAG Show'
3) to create vodcasts on the history of the library, our favorite books, movies, etc.
4) to have a teen movie night in May or June
5) that we love rice krispie treats!

We also spent some time looking at the teen blog and delicious tags. Everyone agreed that both are great but we need to add to the delicious tags. Please add your favorite websites in the comments so I can add them to our delicious!

Our next meeting is Thursday, May 8 at 4 p.m.

Sample vodcast (video) and podcast (audio recording)

Here is a sample video I made using the Flip video recorder and YouTube.



Here is a sample audio podcast I made using Audacity and Switchpod, both of which are FREE.

You're invited!

I've sent some of you an invite to post to the teen blog. If you're having trouble figuring out how to do this, why not watch this first?

Video: How to post to the teen blog

New Stuff!

We just got some new YA Graphic Novels in the library...

Clubbing
Re-Gifters
Confessions of a Blabbermouth
Kimmie66
Good as Lily

Madlibs turn 50!

Did you know that Madlibs have been around for 50 years? Make your own MadLib below--don't forget to scroll down (or go play MadLibs games on the website) and then check out my madlib!






Diva Girl Mad Libs
Copyright (c) 2004 by Price Stern Sloan

The Adventures of Jane

Jane no way! is a great comic book. It's the story of pretty Jane Jones, who is a/an librarian by day, but sneaks around the city of new york by night as a/an nurse. Jane is asked by a group of dogs to help them ran and protect the planet from the zoinks! Armada, who are going to climb, attack the planet, and destroy all the mice! Jane no way! has some of the most brainy gadgets around. She wears a/an purple on her pants and carries a rocket-powered neck. She even has a/an book that turns into a/an shoe at the heater of a button! I think, if I could be any comic-book character at all, I'd want to be Jane no way!, wouldn't you?

Meeting minutes

Hooray for an awesome meeting! Eleven teens met in the library auditorium today for the first-ever Millicent Library TAG meeting. We introduced ourselves, talked about what TAG is and then got down to fun with a scavenger hunt all around the library. Tori and Jackie won with 11/15 correct answers. Whoooo! Next up we took a quick survey to find out what events we were interested in...here are the results:

11 votes for Movie Nights
10 votes for Game Nights
10 votes for Ductigami
10 votes for Raise $$ for comfy furniture for teen area
9 votes for Creating videos
8 votes for Book Clubs
8 votes for Role Playing Games (like Dungeons & Dragons)
7 votes for Jewelry making
6 votes for Improv workshop
6 votes for Scrabble tournament
6 votes for Mehndi/Henna Tattoos
6 votes for writing on the teen blog
5 votes for Teen Yoga
5 votes for Open Mic Poetry Night
4 votes for Book Swap/Game Swap
4 votes for Zine Workshop
4 votes for Audio Podcast

See you all at our next meeting on Thursday, April 24th at 2 p.m.!

Teen Group starts tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the first meeting of the new Millicent Library Teen Advisory Group (possible new name coming soon). I'm really excited and I hope all of you are, too!!! You were all nominated to the group by someone who thinks you're awesome. I can't wait to meet you all...

Some things we might do:

• publish our own podcast or vodcast about books, the library, etc.
• help me write on this blog!
  
• plan teen events like game tournaments (think DDR, Guitar Hero, maybe Rock Band??)
• share our favorite books with each other
• play games (like the scavenger hunt we're doing tomorrow)
  

See you tomorrow in the library auditorium/activity (downstairs). I'll be the one with pop, juice, brownies and rice krispie treats. :) (any other suggestions for snacks? put them in the comments and maybe I'll bring them to a meeting!)

Check out the weekly poll!

I've added a poll feature off to the right (scroll down a little bit). Be sure to weigh in before the week is out!

Yum yum...Del.icio.us!

Have you noticed the new addition to the blog? The word cloud off to the right (crafts, recommendations, etc.) is a Del.icio.us tag cloud. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site...instead of hitting "Bookmark this page" in Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can add all the websites you want to go back to later using Del.icio.us. This is great, because you probably don't use the same computer every day. I know I love it...I can still find my bookmarks whether I'm using my home computer, my work computer or a computer at a friend's house.

I've created a Del.icio.us page for teens in this area...check out some of the links to the right! Try the word games to find links to fun online games. Check out recommendations for websites that will recommend new music, clothing, etc. for you. The words that are bigger are the ones that I've used most often to "tag" or describe the websites. For pandora, my favorite music website, I used these tags: music, recommendations, social, search. These are all words that I think describe the website.

You can help me add to this, too. Email me your favorite websites whether they're games, music sites or whatever. Feel free to tell me what to "tag" them, too.... Or you can make your own del.icio.us account and we can be in a "network" so we can see each other's tags.

Tell me what you think in the comments!!

Where did Ms. Sonya go?

So it's been 2 months since Sonya left the library. I'm sure many of you miss her as much as I do... So, where did she go? Well, besides to Boston, Sonya has moved on to LibraryThing where she is working on LibraryThing for Libraries, which is really pretty awesome.

For example, if you were to search for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the Danbury, CT Library Catalog, which has LibraryThing for Libraries, here are the tags that would come up:

adventure boarding school british children children's children's fiction children's literature England fantasy favorite film friendship harry potter juvenile kids magic mystery rowling witches wizardry wizards young adult
You can then click on any of those tags and be directed to other books that have similar elements. Another cool feature is that you can get recommendations of similar books. Here is one recommendation for HP and the SS:
Charlie Bone and the castle of mirrors / Jenny Nimmo.

Pretty cool, huh? LibraryThing is something you can join (if you're over 13! and then w/parent permission), input your own books and then get great recommendations for similar books, meet other members who have similar books, write reviews and more. If you join, make me your friend. You can search for me on the Search tab under Members. I'm lalalibrarian.

New Stuff!

Come in and check out our new books or go ahead and put one on hold now!

New YA Fiction
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Prom Kingss and Drama Queens by Dorian Cirrone
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
Bounce by Natasha Friend
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick
Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson

NEW YA Science Fiction
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Final Warning by James Patterson (last in the Maximum Ride series!)
Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins

NEW Graphic Novels
Amulet Book 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer

Not so new, but new to us!

FICTION
Rhymes with Witches by Lauren Myracle
Devilish and 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

SCI-FI
Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins
Specials and Extras by Scott Westerfeld

News from Library Land

The fourth book in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series releases today! Check it out or put it on hold today because it's going to be popular...

Harry Potter #7 the movie is going to be released in two movies. Wha?! Go here to read more.

What do you think? Is it great b/c that means more movies to watch or annoying b/c it's longer to wait??

Why haven't you posted in a week?

a) I've been weeding books like a madwoman and I can barely move my forearms
b) I'm a new insomniac and I may be going insane
c) I'm starting a new teen group next month and then the blog will be written by teens
d) all of the above

and the answer is...what do you think?

Welcome to the teen blog!

Hi! I'm Laura Gardner, the new Youth Services Librarian here at the Millicent Library. I'm very excited to work with the teens in this area!

I love reading teen books best of all (see some recent reads below)

I also love playing with new technologies like...

Voicethread (here is a short voicethread about my dogs)
This is a great service where you can upload a picture and then start a conversation!
Goodreads see above...you can be my friend! just ask... :)
LibraryThing catalog your own books! this is where my predecessor, Ms. Sonya works now...
Twitter short conversations...fast updates

and lots more...

If you're interested in participating in this blog by writing reviews of books, music, movies, games, etc. and/or if you're interested in joining the new Teen Group at the Millicent Library, contact me either by stopping by the library, emailing me (lgardner at sailsinc dot org) or calling the library (508.992.5342).