Flint Memorial Teen Corner

Are you looking for something to do after school this Friday, December 3? Then head over to the library for our first-ever Teen Book Swap! Join us in the Activity room from 2:30-4:30pm to trade books, hang out with friends and enjoy the free food and hot chocolate. Bring some old books and go home with new ones. What better way to spend the afternoon?

I'm back after a week-long trip to California to visit my family. I had promised some of you that I would post while I was away, but the lack of technology at my parents' house prohibited that. Many apologies!

Do know, though, that I thought of you all as I took pictures of the two feet of snow that covered the mountains near home. Yep, two feet. Of snow. I had expected warm and sunny weather, but the weather gods thought otherwise. The Inland Empire (a region of Southern CA) received record-breaking snow - the most in fifty years! I'll post a picture here as soon as I can.

While on my trip, though, I caught up on some lapsed reading. Here is the list:

• Second Helpings: a novel by Megan McCafferty (we do not own)
  It is the summer before senior year at Pineville High for Jessica Darling in this sequel to Sloppy Firsts. She's had a tough junior year and is trying to recoup at a writer's camp where, hopefully, she can avoid everything that reminds her of He Who Shall Remain Nameless. But, of course, life never works out the way you want it to. Throughout the school year Jessica's caustic wit and humor peppers her journal entries, making this a funny and believable book. I'll be getting copies of both this and the first book, but you can request it now through iPac.



• The Misfits by James Howe, YA PB H
  Being an outsider in middle school is hard enough. But, try running for student council under a new "political" party. That's what four friends try to do when they decide that enough is enough. I read this one in one morning! It was an interesting and quick read that gave me a lot to think about. We also have it on CD and in hardcover.



• Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan, YA PB T
  Rumor has it that Jake Semple burned down his old school. Only one place will take him now--a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic family of artists. Jake thinks surviving this one will be a breeze. But is he really as tough or as bad as he seems? Laugh-out-loud funny, this was a great book for a vacation. I actually read it because it's on the Salem State Massachusetts Book Award List and a lot of classes are requiring it. It's one of those books that will make you enjoy doing homework!

Next week is Thanksgiving! Can you believe it's here already? The library will be closed both Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26. Stop by the library early in the week to get some great books and movies for the long weekend. Here are a few new ones to try:

The Cup of the World by John Dickinson
- When Phaedra, a willful daughter of a baron, decides to marry for love, she sets off an unforseeable chain of events and a battle between good and evil.

Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales edited by Deborah Noyes
- Creepy and tantalizing tales by great YA authors like Neil Gaiman, M.T. Anderson and Garth Nix.

Blood Secret by Kathryn Lasky
- Fourteen-year-old Jerry Luna, mute since her mother's disappearance, is sent to her great-great aunt Constanza's house, where she discovers a trunk that draws her into the world of her ancestors during the Spanish Inquisition.

I made a mistake. It turns out we are not scheduled for a YAB meeting on Nov. 30 after all. But, we do have something going on that week! The YA Book Swap (where you can bring in your old books and take home "new" ones) is that Friday, December 3 from 2:30pm (right after school) to 4:30pm. I guess I got so used to the every-other-Tuesday pattern that I was hoping we were having a meeting on the 30th. So, to make it up to you all, if you'd like to have a meeting (or if you're already planning on being in the library), I'll have some new books in the Teen Corner on the 1st floor at 4:30pm. We can't use the Activity Room since it's already booked for a Girl Scout troop. It won't be our usual meeting with food, but it's a close second. And you'll have the Book Swap to look forward to!

In a recent issue of Publisher's Weekly I read that the movie version of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will be out in May 2005. That's only six months from today! I checked imdb.com for more info and learned that Arthur Dent will be played by Martin Freeman. "Who," you ask? Martin Freeman, of course. He's had small parts in Shaun of the Dead and Love Actually, but otherwise he's relatively unknown here in the U.S. Zooey Deschanel (who was in Good Girl) will play Trillian, and John Malkovich makes an appearance as Humma Kavula.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Then pick up a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide.... It is probably one of the funniest books I have ever read. We have a few copies of it, both in the Teen Corner and in the adult section. And, it's an EBS book, too!

We're making decorations for our Inkheart tree at our next YAB meeting, Tuesday, November 16 at 4:30pm in the Library Activity Room. Bring your creativity (and some friends!) to help with the endeavor. Have an idea for an ornament? Then email me at cshowman@mvlc.org or call me at 978-664-4942.

And, of course, there will be snacks to munch on while we create. Hope to see more of you there!

And the winner is.... Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

Over 2,000 teens voted online during Teen Read Week to choose this year's top ten books. Here is the final list:

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling - Fantasy.
2. Eragon by Christopher Paolini - Fantasy.
3. Pirates! by Celia Rees - Historical Fiction.
4. Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce - Fantasy.
5 Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - Fantasy.
6. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray - Supernatural.
7. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale - Fantasy.
8. Princess in Pink by Meg Cabot - Realistic.
9. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler - Realistic.
10. Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L.A. Meyer - Historical Fiction.

The Warner Bros. movie studio has cast the next Superman! Brandon Routh, a relatively unknown actor, will take over the title role for Superman Returns, which should be in movie theatres in 2006. Any thoughts on who might be cast as Lois Lane?

Tomorrow is Election Day....come vote for your favorite book of the year. Your contributions will be part of the next bulletin board in the Teen Corner!

What: Youth Advisory Board meeting
When: Tuesday, November 2, 4;30pm
Where: Library Activity Room
Why: Eats, books and fun....what more could you ask for?

New members always welcome!

"Set in a strange, alternative London with a darkly Gothic feel, this enormously inventive and gripping novel combines a Buffy the Vampire Slayer background with a scary Jack the Ripper plot. It has terrifically cinematic scene-setting, more tension and suspense than a Hitchcock movie, and wonderful action sequence...not to be missed." -- The Daily Telegraph

Seventeen-year-old Thaniel Fox is a wych-hunter in city that is being terrorized by gruesome creatures of the night. While tracking one such beast, Thaniel discovers Alaizabel, helpless, half-insane and posessed by a powerful spirit. In his efforts to help Alaizabel Thaniel uncovers a terrifying plan that threatens to destroy all of humanity. A horror story, a love story and an intriguing mystery all rolled into one; The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray has it all and more. For a truly creepy spine-tingler with compelling characters you can't do better than Wooding's new book.

I just finised reading A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. It's up there with my favorites for the year! It's the story of Mattie Gokey, a sixteen-year old girl living with her family in the Adirondacks in 1906. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds Mattie is about to finish high school, the first in her family to do so. And her writings have captured the admiration of her teacher who is encouraging Mattie to attend college in New York City. But her resonsibilities and a promise to her dead mother may make college nothing more than a dream. Told in alternating chapters of Mattie's life before and during her work at a resort for the rich, where a young girl is found dead, A Northern Light is a genuinely well-crafted novel. Mattie is a lover of words, a person who finds solace in language and who wants to share that with the world. And Donnelly does an amazing job sharing that with the reader. I knew I'd like Mattie in the first three pages of the book. She is playful, strong, intelligent and determined. And her word games with her friend, Weaver, are captivating. I couldn't put this one down....and I even bought a copy for my friend's birthday. I know she'll like Mattie as much as I did.