Flint Memorial Teen Corner

The countdown begins...only two and a half days until 2005! Remember, the library will be closed on Friday and Saturday, December 31 and January 1.

Our next YAB meeting, the first of 2005, is on Tuesday, January 4 at 4:30pm. As usual, it will be in the Library Activity Room. And I hope to have some great new books for you to request. We will also be helping Nancy from the Park and Recreation Department brainstorm some event ideas for middle and high schoolers. So bring all your great ideas with you on Tuesday!

In case you haven't heard yet...J.K. Rowling just announced that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will be out on July 16. So, mark your calendars now! You can read more about the book here or on Rowling's website, www.jkrowling.com.

I will definitely be ordering a few copies of the book when I get back to work. Once the book is in the catalog I will post here and you can start placing your holds. So, check back here often.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta, YA FIC MAR

Francesca's junior year of high school is not turning out to be great, in any sense of the word. Her parents have forced her to attend St. Sebastian's school, a newly co-ed establishment that threatens to destroy any semblance of a social life Francesca may have had. "What a dream come true, right? Seven hundred and fifty boys and thirty girls? But the reality is that it’s either like living in a fish bowl or like you don’t exist." And, on the first day of the new term, Francesca's normally exuberant mother doesn't get out of bed.

As her mother's depression begins to tear her family apart Francesca has to figure out who she is in her ever-changing world. Is she the quiet girl who went with the flow at her old school, or is she someone who will dance in front of her class with one of the biggest troublemakers in school? Although the details may not be the same, Francesca's story is a familiar one - and one you won't be able to put down.

Soon it will be winter break and I hope you'll all make a trip to the library to pick up some non-required reading, or a few CDs and DVDs. But, just a reminder that we'll be closed for a few days the next couple of weeks. Here are the details:
Thursday, December 23 - Library closes at 12pm
Friday, December 24 - Closed
Saturday, December 25 - Closed
Friday, December 31 - Closed
Saturday, January 1 - Closed
Monday, January 3 - Back to regular hours

I will be on vacation all of next week enjoying the cold of Maine. Have a great holiday season, wherever you may be!

Need something good to read during your time off? Well, then you're in luck! I just put up a display of humorous stories...you know, laugh-out-loud stuff. Perfect for vacation time. Stop by the Teen Corner to check one (or more!) out. Here's an abbreviated list of what's on display:

• Squashed by Joan Bauer, YA PB B
  Sixteen-year-old Ellie Morgan's life would be almost perfect if she could just get her potentially prize-winning pumpkin to put on about 200 pounds--and if she could lose 20 herself. Ellie could then become a famous pumpkin-growing personality and squash obnoxious Cyril Pool once and for all.


• 48 Shades of Brown by Nick Earls, YA PB E
  Australian teenager Dan Bancroft has a choice to make: go to Geneva with his parents for a year, or move into a house with his bass-playing aunt Jacq and her friend Naomi. He chooses Jacq's place, and his life will never be the same.


• Swords for Hire by Will Allen, YA PB A
  New Royal Guardsman Sam Hatcher and Rigby Skeet, Sam's wisecracking mentor-of-sorts, must rescue King Olive, who was betrayed by his odd, worm-loving brother, and is imprisoned in the dungeon of the superhuman Boneman.


• Wurst Case Scenario by Catherine Clark, YA PB C
  Courtney, a vegetarian animal-rights activist, records in her diary the events of the beginning of her freshman year at a Wisconsin college, far away from Colorado and her boyfriend Grant, surrounded by cheese- and meat-lovers.

It's getting close to the end of 2004, and you know what that means. It's time for our last YAB meeting of the year! (the calendar year, not the school year) Join us on Tuesday, December 14 at 4:30pm in the Library Activity Room for a mini-celebration of the upcoming school break. There is a ton of new books to peruse and, by request, there will be my infamous "chocolate-covered spiders" as one of the snacks.

If you haven't already seen the trees and wreaths on display at the library, you should stop by the library this week! (well, you should come by even if you have seen the trees) Throughout this week the library is filled with amazing foliage decorated to represent books. And front and center is the tree that the Youth Advisory Board decorated with images from Cornelia Funke's Inkheart.

Most of the trees (and their respective books) are getting raffled off at the Open House on Saturday, December 11 from 1-4pm. Buy a few raffle tickets and enter for your chance to win the tree of your dreams! After all, the money raised will go toward cool programs in the library.

I recently put in an order for three copies of the next book from Ann Brashares in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. Although the book doesn't officially get released until January 25, you can place a hold now. And I'd definitely recommend that you do so!