Wellington City Libraries

Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui

Search options

Teen Blog

Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Month: August 2009 Page 1 of 2

New music is what we have

la rouxLa Roux means “red-haired one” in French – this is a good name for them since singer Elly Jackson has red hair. They’ve been topping the UK charts for a few months now with an impressive run of 80’s synth-pop inspired singles and have now released La Roux, their self-titled debut.

phoenixFrench electro-rockers Phoenix have been around for a while now, but recent release Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sees them mastering their craft and conjuring up some of the catchiest pop of the year. If you dig MGMT and Empire Of The Sun, pick this record up.

ciaraFantasy Ride, Ciara’s third is the type of album that will get plenty of play in the clubs this upcoming summer. Guests include Justin Timberlake and MIssy Elliott, the production is supremely glossy and the grooves danceable. Also included is a DVD where you can watch Ciara in the studio and at rehearsals and things.

Blindspott broke up in 2007 to focus on solo commitments playing a final set to a sold out Powerstation, this show has now been released on a handy dandy CD + DVD combo as Sold out: live @ Powerstation, for everyone who wasn’t there, or wants to relive the night. As expected from Blindspott, it’s a largely shouty, noisy affair. It also works as a sort of greatest hits package if you want it to do that to.

28-08-2k9

Fantastic Mr. Fox

This summer looks to be the summer of beloved childrens books being turned into good movies. With Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, and now Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox set for cinematic release one can only speculate what will be next. Personally, I’d like to see Willard Price’s Adventure series get a turn. Anyway, here is the trailer for Fantastic Mr. Fox, starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and directed by Wes Anderson.

New YA magazines

Not so long ago we asked which magazines should get added to the Young Adult (YA) magazine collection. Not too many people responded, but that’s okay! We’re not too disappointed! As a consequence we have added Entertainment Weekly to the YA collection – it means you can issue it for free on a YA card. (If you reserve it through the catalogue be sure to reserve the YA copy.)

We are also adding Shonen Jump. It’s not yet in the system but there is a website. Good news for manga fans, is it not. Okay, cool.

And then some AC/DC CDs came in…

Three of them actually. 1977’s Let There Be Rock, 1980’s Back In Black and 1990’s The Razor’s Edge, making all of them too old to get a YA card [see here for reference – G]. Even though they’re getting on a bit, they still rock totally hard and you can catch them in Wellington next January. Until then, why not practise your screechy vocals along with the albums?

let-there-be-rockthe-razors-edgeback-in-black1

Do you know Kung Fu?

Well not quite, but if you’re at the central library next Tuesday the 25th of August between 7 and 8pm you’ll pick up a few invaluable tips on how to keep yourself safe. The Safe and Sound seminar goes a little something like this:

– A mini Body Combat warm up class with Alice Khaw from Les Mills (what’s Body Combat?);

– A session with Tony Moore from the Ministry of Youth Development, ex police and current black belt.

Should be fun and informative. Be there and bring a friend (wearing clothes that you can, you know, bend in)!

New Anime we will get soonish

We (the library) have purchased some new anime series. But they’re not quite ready for the catalogue yet! They are in the building though. (DVDs and CDs aren’t entered into the library catalogue until they’re ready to be issued. Books are catalogued as soon as they’re ordered.) They shouldn’t be too far off, and then you can reserve them.

These are the anime we’re getting (links lead to the v. handy Anime News Network):

Ranma 1/2  – all seven series.
Fullmetal Alchemist 
Bleach
(intended for the adult DVD collection, but we hope to wrangle some YA copies.)

Good news.

More about the vampmance

The official New Moon site‘s got some more New Moon footage, featuring Taylor Lautner explanations and transformations, plus a sneaky peek at the Volturi which I believe the trailer released earlier this year didn’t have. There are also downloadable widgets, which I just wanted to add because widget is one of my favourite words: an e-card widget and a content widget.

Yours,
Widget

Just two, but they’re good.

deadweatherJack White is a prolific man. If his bandmates aren’t ready to release any new material he simply forms a new band and presses on. Dead Weather being active band number three, with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs being the other two. Dead Weather is somewhat of a departure for White, who is banging the drums instead of strumming the guitar on this record. On Horehound, the bands debut, he shares vocal duties with Allison Mosshart (of the Kills), with Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs and Greenhornes) rounding out the group. If you’ve ever enjoyed any of the above bands, or even just Rock music in general give Horehound a listen.

gossipThe Gossip emerged out of the Nu-Rave scene spearheaded by The Klaxons in 2006 with Standing In The Way Of Control and now return with their new long-player Music For Men. Lead by outspoken front-woman Beth Ditto, it’s more of the same adventurously aggressive, neon-coloured electro-pop.

Vampire boys on film

Did you know that Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak books are being made into movies? I didn’t, although I may have known and since forgotten. In any case, it is, although it seems to be the first three books – Cirque du Freak, The Vampire’s Assistant, and Tunnels of Blood – that provide the film’s plot. There’s an interesting article about it here, along with a bunch of photos and an interview with the actor playing Larten Crepsley.

Watch the trailer!

Would you like some romance with your fantasy?

Supernatural romances are super hot right now, for a few reasons (well, four plus a couple of movies), and there are quite a few trilogies making waves. I’ve taken a deep breath and read three of them: The Mortal Instruments trilogy, by Cassandra Clare; Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr (there’s another one to come next year); and A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray.

The Hype
There’s internet hype a-plenty for Cassandra Clare (see here, and here for example). Fragile Eternity had a book trailer (you can visit it at YouTube here: I won’t embed it because I’m really not sure I approve of book trailers, since you don’t get to imagine what characters look like and all. He’s no Seth, that’s for sure) that made people oo and ah. Being smart writers, they all blog.

The World
Set in the late 19th Century and mostly in England, Libba Bray’s story is a bit different from the others; Melissa Marr and Cassandra Clare’s books are more urban fantasy. While MM’s books focus solely on faeries, CC’s contain basically every supernatural fantastical creature there is – a melting pot/United Nations sort of deal, which is apt since home base is New York.

The Writing
Libba Bray’s books contain a lot of dense, wordy description which is great if you love dense, wordy description but not so great if you like your books to, you know, move along at pace. The dialogue is witty (actually, witty dialogue happens in all three). As far as style goes, there’s a bit of cringing to be had in the Mortal Instruments trilogy, which needed a really good edit and didn’t get one. I got memorably fed up with being told what everyone was wearing all the time, especially in the heat of battle. Wicked Lovely (and the others by Melissa Marr) rips along at a pace similar to Stephenie Meyer’s books, so don’t start it late at night.

The Most Perfectest Man Ever?
Tell me I’m making generalisations if you like, but there’s hot competition at the moment over who can write the perfect man. In this instance we have in the red corner… Seth (WL etc). Seth could make you love multiple piercings. He’s arty, intelligent, attractive, sensitive, calm, patient, doesn’t think you’re mad if you tell him you see faeries, and (most importantly) has definition in his arms. In the blue corner there’s Kartik (AGATB etc), who also has definition, is the last word in mysterious, doesn’t mind that the girl in question has tendencies towards being a raving feminist ahead of her time, and to top it off, said girl’s friends all think he’s an exotic beauty. Finally, in the annoying corner there’s Jace (MI), although he still manages to impress the odd reader.

The Romance
There’s romance, for sure, in varying quantities, using the tried and true love triangle formula. Gemma (AGATB) must choose between traditional Victorian courtship with the dashing Simon or her less conventional dealings with the aforementioned Kartik. Ash (WL) is a really sensible girl, which is just as well when she’s faced with a choice between a beautiful faery king who’s out to claim her and, well, Seth. Clary (MI) has the option of Simon the friend or Jace, shadowhunter extraordinaire, whose relationship to Clary takes many, many twists and turns. Simmering stuff.

The Big Showdown
There’s gruesomeness to be had. Not to give too much away, The Sweet Far Thing ends with a beautifully described apocalyptic battle to end all battles (this really isn’t giving too much away, honest), complete (possibly) with some tear jerking moments. Cassandra Clare worries a bit too much about what people are wearing, as mentioned earlier, but she’s not scared of injuring her characters which is good, because you’re more likely to worry for their safety. The big showdown is yet to happen in the Wicked Lovely world: will have to wait for next year.

If you love books in this genre there is a whole heap more out there, for example:

Evermore, by Alyson Noel. Psychic girl falls in love with an immortal boy.

Need, by Carrie Jones. Werewolves and pixies.

Wings, by Aprilynne Pike. Faeries again, this is the first of a planned series of four.

Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. Read a review at teenreads.com.

Read all this? Well Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is coming soon. Grace is a girl, haunted by a yellow eyed wolf; Sam is a yellow-eyed werewolf… (here’s an excerpt from teenreads.com).

Also, don’t forget Holly Black’s modern faerie tales.

ps “supernatural romance” isn’t a catchy enough name we decided, so what to call these books? Well, here were some suggestions (not all strictly relevant): supernatromance, phantasromance, zom-rom, boo woo, hell-odrama, vampmance, fantmance, horromance, creepy-crawly-lovey-dovey, unexplained flingnomena

You’re all winners, really

We’ve some winners for a few recent competitions we ran. Hannah wins a copy of Sam Stern’s Cooking Up A Storm for her recipe;

Completely Unspecified Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Chocolate Chips, Milk, Baking Powder, Eggs (Remove shells if you feel that it is a good idea), Anchovies (No, that’s not a typo.), Salt, Sugar, Butter, Flour

Put as much as you want of basically everything in a bowl. The anchovies add a somewhat fishy quality to the mixture, so just remember that. Cook somehow. Don’t ask me how.
Failing that, just use the leftover milk and get the weetbix, sugar and the unlabelled can out of the pantry (Make sure it is fruit or something pleasantish before you slop it on your weetbix) and have that instead. Probably more nutritious at the very least.

Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

And Melissa and Rachel have both won a library DVD voucher for completing our recent Magazine Selector. I will post them out sometime later! I promise!

Library Week Competition Results

Library Week is now over, and people have won prizes and reviewed and written and created art, and here are some results from the competitions we told you about:

The Graphic Novel competition, 13 to 18 year olds, and for 19+ year olds.

The video competition (voting is open until the 23rd of August).

Also, here’s how the interactive story panned out.

Review: City of Bones

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

This book is just incredible and fantastic!

It’s about a girl who finds out her mum is a shadowhunter and her dad is a shadowhunter, an evil shadowhunter to put it correctly, and the shadowhunter she loves might turn someone completely different, but still very close.

In the mundane (human) world, the night children (vampires) hunt, werewolves defend their packs, and sexy shadowhunters prowl the streets of New York city. This book I couldn’t put down, and I’m so glad I shared it with you.

 A whopping 5 Stars for this popular book!

Thanks, Elena, for sending us your book review. We appreciate that.

A competition for you

Te Papa have given us some double passes for Our Space to give away, so we’ve thrown together a little quiz to do. It’s really easy, although I wrote it so I probably just think it’s easy. It might actually be quite hard. Anyway, all correct (or mostly correct) entries will go in the draw for one of the double passes. We’ll draw the winners next Friday, the 21 of August.

All entries must be WCL YA cardholders! Sorry but there it is.

Update (a couple of days later, namely on Tuesday the 25th): C’est fini! Congratulations to Zach who will be getting some passes in the post as soon as Simon comes back from his day off.

Little Brother Goes Into Overdrive

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, which was one of the books we liked best in 2008, is available for download from Overdrive, WCL’s audiobook collection.

You should have a look at what’s available; for example there’s also Bloody Jack by L A Meyer (for pirate lovers), or Lewis Hamilton (for lovers of sports in which (mostly) very little men with very strong necks hurtle around tracks at a fast pace in cars that sound like bumble bees), or What Would MacGyver Do? (for lovers of getting out of sticky situations using only duct tape and hair gel).

So don’t forget Overdrive: visit, browse, listen to excerpts, download etc.

Smells Like New CDs

paolonutiniPaisley, Scotland’s Paolo Nutini was all set to follow his father into the family fish and chip shop business before getting signed two weeks before his 18th birthday. Sunny Side Up is his second album and will be enjoyed by people who normally enjoy folksy pop-rock, also perfect for this nice weather we seem to be having of late.

sevendustJust in case you were worried another week was going to go by without some new metal, fret not, for Sevendust’s Animosity is here. Originally released in 2001, it’s been all remastered and stuff for new fans to pick up and enjoy. Expect heavy riffs and downtrodden lyrics.

sepulturaSpeaking of heavy riffs, Sepultura’s Arise has been remastered too. This was the album that turned the Brazilian death metallers into international stars. Your parents won’t like it, and as always, that’s the whole point of metal isn’t it?

Do you like Minuit? If so you’ll be pleased to have seen all the posters about for Find me before I die a lonely death.com, their new one. As far as I can tell it’s not too much of a departure and fans will enjoy. They’ll be touring soon too, so go have a look.

cut-off-your-handsSticking with the local content, Cut Off Your Hands followed up the excellent Blue On Blue ep with You & I last year. Pick it up, it’s the sort of poptastic treat that gets quite happily stuck in the head for days at a time.

South Auckland born J. Williams has a record out called Young Love. A quick google search revealed he is also a champion break-dancer and should appeal to fans of Chris Brown, T-Pain etc. Fun fact: Older sister Emily Williams placed 2nd in the 2006 edition of Australian Idol.

Also some compilations: Onelove : smash your stereo 2009 is a summer dance collection, as is Summer sessions from those Ministry of Sound chappies and Fly girls! celebrates 30 years of women in rap over 2 cds.

Get your Soft Lighting and Trickling Waterfalls!

book coverIn May we reported that Lauren Conrad of The Hills fame has published a book called L. A. Candy (a cunning disguise for a sort of autobiographical fiction perhaps?).

Well, this book is doing so well on the bestsellers lists that we just had to get a copy or two – place a reserve now if you’re an L.C. fan.

Next Week

Is a busy one. Things to note:

Tuesday 11 August – Urban Survival Series “Staying Sane” 7-8pm at the Central Library. This week’s session (“Work & Wage”) ended with a couple of job interviews for a couple of people, so we’re wondering what will come out of this next session? Email us your questions on life, relationships with parentals and friends and stuff to teenblog@wcl.govt.nz.

Wednesday 12 August is Hoodie Day – you can find out more about this here and here. More trivia: Wikipedia says that hoodies are referred to as “bunnyhugs” in Saskatchewan (Canada).

Most importantly, Thursday 13 August is International Lefthanders Day, so be nice to us (be nice to us anyway). Because we like lists, here’s a list of famous lefthanded people. The library’s also got a collection of books about being left-handed.

That’s approximately everything at the moment.

The Last Post for Vampires?

Neil Gaiman thinks that vampires might be on the way out. He put it like this in an EW interview: “if they could go back in their coffins 25 years and come out the next time as something really different, that would be cool.”

Among other things NG acknowledges the important role that The Count (as in Sesame Street) has played in establishing vampires as loveable rogues, which is a triumph for preschool popular culture.

So what might the “something really different” be? Discover it and you could be the next big thing.

In the mean time, if you’re a bit sick of studying classic literature (or you’re dreading having to) then here’s a pretty cool thing:

 

Trivia: The Last Post is the bugle call you hear on ANZAC Day.

This Week in New Books

This week there’s lad lit, chick lit (complete with pink covers), some history lessons, thrillers, studies in complex psychology and rites of passage, spy books, serious stuff, frivolous stuff, books written in traditional prose, books that throw things like emails and lists in too.

North of Beautiful, by Justina Chen Headley (373 pages) – I was going to summarise this in my own words, but the last paragraph on the dust jacket seems to be just the ticket: a novel “about a fractured family, falling in love, travel, and the meaning of true beauty.” Fans of Sarah Dessen and Elizabeth Scott have a read and tell us what you think.

First sentence: Not to brag or anything, but if you saw me from behind, you’d probably think I was perfect.

A Certain Strain of Peculiar, by Gigi Amateau (261 pages) – Mary Harold, a 13 year old psychological mess retreats to her family home in Alabama where hard work, her Grandma Ayma, and friendship help her recover her sense of self and things like that.

First sentence: What happens in my mind sometimes is complicated.

Just Another Hero, by Sharon M Draper (280 pages) – the conclusion to the story begun in The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. The alarm goes off in school and everyone assumes it’s just a prank, but it’s not. Certainly not.

First sentence: “Grab his arms!”

Swim the Fly, by Don Calame (345 pages) – you thought right: this is a novel where swimming is involved. It’s a humorous coming-of-age novel which wonders if it’s harder to swim the 100 metres butterfly or impress a really hot girl. Doing the one well might cause the other to happen, and hopefully it’s not a case of neither.

First sentence: “Movies don’t count,” Cooper says.

Boy Minus Girl, by Richard Uhlig (246 pages) – Les seems to be the harmless, shy, geek type in whose life girls just don’t feature (see title), but then Uncle Ray arrives, who is quite the opposite and therefore either potentially a really good role model or a really bad influence.

First sentence: “Seduction Tip Number 1.”

City of Ghosts, by Bali Rai (385 pages) – a story based on events during the 1919 Amritsar massacre.

First sentence: Udham Singh watched the chairman of the meeting, Lord Zetland, gathering up his notes as another member of the panel answered a question.

If the Witness Lied, by Caroline B. Cooney (213 pages) – something terrible happened to Jack’s family three years ago and now his aunt has decided that the only way to heal and move on is to have some sort of healing and moving on fest – on camera. The press are dead keen, too (Jack’s not), and the re-hashing leads Jack and sisters to ask probing questions about what really happened.

First sentence: The good thing about Friday is – it’s not Thursday.

Killing God, by Kevin Brooks (233 pages) – from the author of Black Rabbit Summer. The blurb says: “Dawn Bundy is fifteen. She doesn’t fit in and she couldn’t care less. Dawn has other things on her mind. Her dad disappeared two years ago and it’s all God’s fault. When Dawn’s dad found God, it was the worst time ever. He thought he’d found the answer to everything. But that wasn’t the end of it.”

First sentence: This is a story about me, that’s all.

Girls to Total Goddesses, by Sue Limb (314 pages) – Zoe and Chloe have seven days to glamourise themselves. Will they do it? Will dastardly things foil their fabulous plans?

First sentence: “Right,” said Chloe.

The Agency: A Spy in the House, by Y S Lee (341 pages) – it’s Victorian London and Mary Quinn is a seventeen year old spy working for The Agency. The first book in a promised detective trilogy.

First sentence: She should have been listening to the judge.

Tales of the Madman Underground, by John Barnes (531 pages) – an epic tome. Karl Shoemaker is in his senior year at high school in 1973. Subtitled “An Historical Romance 1973”, I’m thinking this is one of those stories about completely normal boys that make for good reading and a laugh (see a bit further up too).

First sentence: I had developed this theory all summer: if I could be perfectly, ideally, totally normal for the f irst day of my senior year, which was today, then I could do it for the first week, which was only Wednesday through Friday.

Touch, by Francine Prose (262 pages) – something happened to Maisie at the back of the bus, and she becomes embroiled in the out-of-control aftermath; lies, rumours, stories that don’t match, the press… when your story is so heavily scrutinised working out what’s true and what’s not becomes increasingly difficult.

First sentence: “Are the boys who assaulted you present in the courtroom?”

It’s Yr Life, by Tempany Deckert and Tristan Bancks (280 pages) – Sim and Milla are opposites (poor/rich, male/female etc) and they have to email each other for a school assignment: the story unfolds from there. A story told in emails (like some others mentioned here).

First sentence: 10th Grade English Assignment: Communication.

The One, by Ed Decter (316 pages) – the first Chloe Gamble novel, because (the book says) there’s always more Chloe. Chloe is a big city girl in small town Texas, dreaming of becoming famous. Again a novel in manuscript excerpts, emails and not-to-do lists etc.

First sentence: When the police came to see me about the “incident” I told them a lot of things about Chloe Gamble, but I didn’t tell them about this manuscript.

Summer Sun & Stuff According to Alex, by Kathryn Lamb (172 pages) – the third pink cover this week. Alex’s boyfriend Mark is going to Italy with some other girl’s family and Alex and her friends are determined that she will get him back, but things never pan out in expected ways.

First sentence: I am HOME ALONE!!!!!

Ghostgirl: Homecoming, by Tonya Hurley (285 pages) – sequel to Ghostgirl, and also with a very cool cover and fancy silver-gilded page edges. After graduating Dead Ed Charlotte is a little dismayed to discover she now has to complete an internship at a hotline for teens.

First sentence: Dying of boredom wasn’t an option.

Plus some others:

Diary of a Snob: Poor Little Rich Girl, by Grace Dent (247 pages)

The Battle of Jericho, by Sharon R Draper (337 pages)

November Blues, by Sharon R Draper (383 pages)

Page 1 of 2