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Teen Blog

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

Month: April 2010

The Final Chapter of The Hunger Games: Reserve it now!

Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, is now ready to reserve! Do it now, because there may well be a queue come September when it’s finally released.

What’s going to happen? There’s Peeta to be rescued from President Snow and his cronies, District 12 to be found, the Capitol to be overthrown (hopefully), and Katniss to be enlightened as to what on earth is actually going on: is she really just a pawn, or the heartbeat of a revolution? Should be good.

Get your pink on

Logo smallPink Shirt Day is on April 28th. What is Pink Shirt Day? Here’s what the website had to say… 

Pink Shirt Day aims to show that bullying is not ok and won’t be tolerated. By encouraging the people of New Zealand to wear a Pink Shirt on the 28th of April we can help to raise awareness of bullying and show there is a  massive amount of people who support taking a stance against bullying.

Sounds good to me! Get your pink on and show everyone that bullying is so not cool!

A Few New Books

Stephenie Meyer, Marc Shapiro (211 pages) – this book tells you, all in delightful Twilight font, that it is “The Unauthorized Biography”. That makes it seem so much more interesting than an authorised one. Have all your questions about the popular author answered.

The Potato Chip Puzzles, Eric Berlin (227 pages) – Winston Breen is good at puzzles, so when a potato chip tycoon creates a treasure hunt Winston’s sure he’s in with a chance. But there are cheaters and saboutagers to deal with on top of the actual puzzles; can Winston come out on top? The book also has extra puzzles at the end for puzzle adicts.

First sentence: Winston Breen didn’t know why it was called “study hall”.

Shadow of the Leopard, Henning Mankell (175 pages) – anything I write is going to look like the back cover with the words jumbled up, so here’s the back cover: “At the age of nine, Sofia lost her legs in a landmine explosion. She still lives in a village in Mozambique and is now expecting her third child. Her beloved Armando works in the city and comes home on Saturdays. Life is hard, but things become muc worse when, one weekend, Armando does not return…”

First sentence: Sofia kept her eyes closed as she remembered.

The Master of Misrule, Laura Powell (373 pages) – The sequel to The Game of Triumphs. There’s a new master now, and Cat and her friends – and for the matter the whole world – are at risk.

First sentence: Cat was standing under the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan (310 pages) – Will Grayson is being matchmade by his friend Tiny Cooper, and, in amongst Tiny’s machinations arrives… Will Grayson; that is, a whole other Will Grayson, a sad (as in unhappy) character who captures Tiny’s heart. Chapters alternate between the perspectives of Will Grayson and Will Grayson.

First sentence: When I was little, my dad used to tell me, “Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”

My Summer on the Shelf (Miss Understanding, 289 pages) – After My Year in Agony, Miss Understanding has got a job for the summer at a London publishers, but there are all sorts of male people (Seth, Al, Casper) to make her life complicated.

First sentences: Hey you. What do you think of this?

Blood Wolf, Steve Feasey (Changeling, 300 pages) – Trey has made contact with his wolf pack, but he’s taken aback to find they’re pretty much wild and, well, wolfish, plus there’s no Lucien Charron to protect his family secret.

First sentence: The first time the girl woke had been the worst.

Push – Precious

Is Push by Sapphire on your list of things to read? If yes, then if you’re wanting to reserve it you should know that Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” is actually Push, but with the “based on the movie” cover (the movie being of course Precious). Convoluted!

We’ve got seven copies of Precious in the general fiction collection and two copies of Push in the Young Adults, but they’re the same thing, so if you’re in a rush you could try reserving the other title.

Our Newest Music

There are six new CDs in the YA collection. Here they are…

justin bieber my worldsFirst, and most exciting, is My Worlds by Justin Bieber. This is a handy collection of both of the autotuned youngster’s previous EPs, therefore it represents the easiest way to carry them home. Includes that one song with the video where he organises a party in Usher’s house while he’s out doing groceries and they go crazy with the dancing and silly string. The rascal.

timbalandTimbaland presents Shock value II features quite the spectrum of guests, there’s something for everybody. Visiting friends include Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Keri Hilson, Jet and, ummm, Chad Kroeger from Creed. Is there anyone famous he hasn’t worked with? Probably not, he’s clearly a popular man.

jason deruloLady Gaga’s opening act, Jason Derulo has also been topping charts lately with his debut, Jason Derulo. He’d been writing songs for Diddy and Sean Kingston for a while and decided he should keep some for himself and make an album. Good decision, his R&B styled pop has seen him become a bankable star in his own right.

Evermore by Evermore is a retrospective compilation from Feilding’s second most famous that includes three new songs. Along with all the familiar hits is a DVD that chronicles a European tour in support of P!nk along with a performance at London’s O2 Arena that should have fans excited.

New Zealand singer/songwriter Hollie Smith is back with Humour and the misfortune of others. It’s already made number one on the local charts, so it seems her dubbed out soul will again be heard at cafés throughout Wellington.

Also new in the New Zealand collection is Dane Rumble’s The Experiment. Those of you that remember The Fast Crew will know him as the voice of said group. Those that don’t should expect poppy hip hop.

George Washington’s Overdue Fine

George Washington by Gilbert StuartAccording to the New York Society Library, George Washington owes about $300,000 in overdue charges for an item he borrowed on the 5th of October 1789 and never returned.

Do you want to avoid a George Washington moment? You might find Library Elf a good thing then – read about how your elf could remind you to return items before they’re due here. There’s also a tutorial showing you all the stuff Library Elf does here.

Think you’ve already had a George Washington moment? Give us a call (801 4060, when the library’s open) or come in and talk to us. It might not be as bad as you think. (At the very very least you’re not in nearly as much trouble as the first president of the United States!)

Calling all supernatural creatures

Are there any more out there? The teen blog new books posts have been inundated by angels recently (see this, for example), and we’re told that they’re the new vampire. We were told previously that zombies were the new vampire, but it’s tough being a romantic love interest when you’ve got no brain (or is it?). Last year I thought maybe fairies would do the trick.

So, if you’re getting picky about your supernatural creatures (fair enough), then here’s a tip on how to search for them in the library catalogue: in the classic catalogue, choose a keyword search and then type, for example, zombies young adult fiction (or zombies fiction if you want to broaden your search). You’ll end up with a list that looks a little something like this. So, they’re all here: zombies, fairies, angels, vampires.

If you want to do some more in-depth browsing then Fiction Connection in MyGateway would be an excellent place to start.

Getting back to angels, here are a few novels that feature angels, but not necessarily in the dark, brooding, fallen romantic sense that you might be interested in:

Meridian, Amber Kizer (2010). While, yes, this does appear to be romantic, the angel is a girl angel, so worth noting.

Going Bovine, Libba Bray (2009). Going Bovine contains a bizarre collection of characters, including Dulcie, who is, I’m pretty sure, an angel, with pink hair and white wings even.

Skellig, David Almond (1999). Michael moves into his family’s garage as his premature baby sister fights for her life and his home becomes an anxious place. In the garage is Skellig, a creature that appears to be part owl, part angel, who is not doing too well, so Michael and his neighbour Mina nurse him back to health.

Dark Angel, L J Smith (1998). Once again, L J Smith is so cutting edge that she’s got in at least 10 years before others (the first Vampire Diaries book was published in 1991), and she’s already done angels. Angel saves Gillian’s life and becomes like her guardian angel, who only she can see. Gillian’s star is on the rise, thanks to Angel’s influence, and her crush starts to notice her, but then her life becomes increasingly dark and dangerous…

Music, Music, Music

gorillazDamon Albarn and his cartoon pals, Gorillaz, return with Plastic Beach. The so-called virtual hip hop is as catchy as ever, with the album’s many guests (including Lou Reed, Mos Def, De La Soul and the ever grumpy Mark E. Smith) turning in top performances. But adding in the visuals really puts the project over the top, as always the videos are stunning, but this time there’s even a game. What band could more embrace media than a band made entirely of media?

white stripesIf you, like me, have been enjoying Jack White’s side projects (The Raconteurs, Dead Weather) but have been longing for the simple old days of  the one guitar, the one drum set and three colours approach of The White Stripes I have good news. Under Great White Northern Lights is a 92 minute tour doco that follows Jack and Meg through an exhaustive tour of Canada. They play favourites old and new in bowling alleys, fishing boats and daycare centres, then they package it with a CD to boot. Treat of the week!

mint chicksSelf-described “troublegum” purveyers The Mint Chicks released Screens late last year and now the library has it. You’re welcome. After listening to the always great art-pop on the CD, head over to their website and have a go at designing a t-shirt for them and you could win prizes. Sweet, sweet prizes. They get my vote for best band going in New Zealand at the moment.

I Like Turtles is a mix put together by the omnipresent tastemaker, Diplo. It’s designed for the dancefloor and includes remixes of tracks by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nirvana, Queen, Mr. Vegas, Sizzla, Bart Simpson and others. Bart Simpson you say? Well, back in the days of cassettes he had a hit single with Do The Bartman, reaching number one in New Zealand. Here’s the video for anyone who wants to relive the wackiness that was 1990.

Californian metallers Atreyu say their latest Congregation Of The Damned is “darker” and “heavier” than albums previous they also say “it makes more sense” than earlier efforts. While coherence isn’t a necessity for a good metal album, darkness and heaviness certainly are. If you never heard Atreyu before, but fancy you some rifftastic loudness, this is a good starting point.

Also, two soundtracks and a compilation; Avatar : music from the motion picture and Fame : original motion picture soundtrack along with Now that’s what I call music 32

A picture of some new DVDs we’ve bought

newdvds

(they’re not catalogued yet, but will be soon)

New Moon: Ready for Borrowing!

In the spirit of being really onto it, Wellington City Libraries has New Moon on DVD for you. Reserve it now (everyone else will)! It’s not even afternoon yet.

Special features include “Team Jacob v Team Edward: The Ultimate Love Triangle”.

Our copies came complete with three T-shirts, so there may be a giveaway right here on the blog soon.

Entertainment Weakly

Here is some entertainment news! Tickets for Eclipse go on sale tomorrow, WELL in advance of the first screening but you can’t never be too quick with these things can you? Reading Cinemas is on Facebook and Twitter, should you want more immediate information about this historic occasion.

Also a new series of Glee begins tomorrow in the US of A, at long last. But it’s difficult to find out when it begins on television here, unfortunately! A bit like Vampire Diaries, it is a mystery. So until then, here are a couple of promos.

Free Cooking Classes

Evolve and Motoko Aotearoa present FREE cooking classes for young people!

Jacinta Saeki is an experienced chef. For 7 weeks she will be teaching young people to cook cheap, healthy and delicious food at Te Ruru Hou (Evolve). Limited to 12 participants – this is a hands-on class where young people 14-24 years make the food and then eat it – YUM!!

Starts Monday 12 April 4.00-6.30pm

To register please email simon@evolveyouth.org.nz or phone 801 9150

The Almost Amazing Race: Registrations Closed!

Registrations for the Almost Amazing Race 2.0 are now sadly closed (on account of the race being less than a week away!).

Did you register as an individual saying you’ll register your team later? If you’ve done this then what you need to do now is email us (teenblog@wcl.govt.nz) with the details of your team (names, ages, email addresses, postal addresses, and your team name). We’ll be checking up on you probably anyway.

Want to find out more about the Almost Amazing Race and how come it’s almost amazing? Have a look at this post.

If you’re a registered racer you’ll be receiving vital information before next Friday, but you can always email us if you’ve got a query.

So, keep up with your training regimes (or not) and have an almost amazing time until we see you on Friday the 16th of April.

Potential Racers…

… You have only a few short hours left to get a team together for the Almost Amazing Race 2.0, as registration closes at 5pm today. At the time of writing there is less than four hours remaining! So make like an upward pointing sign and sign up here. Or something.

TWTWB

John Marsden’s ever-popular Tomorrow, When the War Began (see also our Top 10 Books with Death and Destruction), is being made into a movie. Yes! That’s right! And the trailer has been released.  You can watch it in HD on the official site, at this link. Or just watch this non-HD embedded clip.

It stars Lincoln Lewis, who was? is? in Home and Away, and is perhaps an Australian Taylor Lautner. He is interviewed here.

Short Descriptions Of New Sounds

robin thickeR&B man Robin Thicke returns to library shelves with Sex Therapy: The Session. It was released a few months before Tiger Woods was in therapy, which makes him either cutting-edge or prescient. It’s more of what we’ve come to expect from Thicke, syrupy sweet ballads mixed with more “banger-y” numbers.

cheryl coleFormer Girl Aloud Cheryl Cole has an album out called 3 Words. The title is a reference to her marriage break-up with English footballer, Ashley Cole (trust me, I read her wikipedia page and carefully deduced it so). Will.I.Am appears on four tracks, so it’s a welcome bonus for fans of holographic political pundits.

Local indie-rappers Bandicoot have an ep on the shelves entitled Jurassic Warfare. On the back cover is a picture of a Triceratops shooting lasers out of its horns. Lasers out of its horns. I realise that doesn’t have anything to do with the music therein, which is a lot of rockin’ good fun, but dinosaurs and lasers should be enough, right?

justin bieberCandian heart-throb Justin Bieber’s My World makes a long overdue appearance on the catalogue this week. From uploading his bedroom performances of Usher’s songs to youtube, to working with Usher and having his face adorn the bedroom walls across the tween demographic, it’s been a meteoric rise to fame for the youngster. Coming soon, My World 2.0?

Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds To Mars released the Tiger-covered This Is War last year to much fawning over sculpted cheekbones and immaculate fringes. They’ve stepped sideways from the screamo of works previous and adopted The Edge’s guitar sound, whilst never losing sight of their grand, stadium-packing vision. Try if you enjoy Muse, The Killers and My Chemical Romance.

One of my favourites, Connan Mockasin, dropped his solo debut, Please Turn Me Into The Snat a few weeks ago. Just trust me when I say it’s well worth a listen and is surely one of the best New Zealand albums of the year. Previous ep Uuu It’s Teasy is excellent also.

Fans of YA music should watch this space in the coming weeks, a large shopping bag was filled with CDs recently…

Yet More New Books

Another large load from the new book factory.

Meridian, Amber Kizer (305 pages) – “dark, lovely and lushly romantic” says the cover. Meridian is half human, half angel and she’s packed off to her great aunt’s to come to terms with this fact. Here she must learn how to be who she is, work out how to use her gifts, and deal with the ever-present dark danger of the Aternocti. If you like books like Hush, Hush you might be interested?

First sentence: The first creatures to see me were the insects; my parents cleaned the bassinet free of dead ants the morning after they brought me home from the hospital.

The Mark, Jen Nadol (228 pages) – Cassandra can tell when people are about to die (there’s a glow like candlelight that only she can see). After coming to terms with this fact she sets about working out what this means, and whether she can influence fate.

First sentence: There is nothing like the gut-hollowing experience of watching someone die, especially when you know it’s coming.

The Orange Houses, Paul Griffin (147 pages) – Three outsiders – Mik, who is hearing impared; Jimmi, a street poet; and Fatima, a refugee – form a tight friendship and “set off an explosive chain of events that will alter the course of each of their lives.”

First sentence: Everybody’s eyes were like, Say what?

The Lonely Hearts Club, Elizabeth Fulberg (285 pages) – Penny swears off boys and forms The Lonely Hearts Club which becomes super popular, which is only bad when the founding member of said club finds a boy she kind of likes…

First sentence: I, Penny Lane Bloom, do solemnly swear to never date another boy for as long as I shall live.

Boys, Girls & Other Hazardous Materials, Rosalind Wiseman (279 pages) – Charlie is trying to lay low in high school, since middle school ended up getting a bit ugly, but then her old best friend, Will, arrives back in town and he’s super popular on account of being hot, and Charlie ends up in the thick of things again, which turns “near deadly”. A story of friendship and what happens when you try too hard to fit in.

First sentence: Here’s the deal.

Hold Still, Nina LaCour (229 pages) – Caitlin’s friend Ingrid committed suicide, leaving behind her journal of writings and illustrations, which Caitlin reads and processes in the subsequent year.

First sentence: I watch drops of water fall from the ends of my hair.

The Vinyl Princess, Yvonne Prinz (313 pages) – Allie’s into vinyl and works at a record shop – bliss if you’re really into music. In this environment she works on her Vinyl Princess persona, publishing her first zine, blogging, and finding the true music geeks she knows must be out there. A story riding the Zeitgeist.

First sentence: I sense him in my midst.

The Life of Glass, Jillian Cantor (340 pages) – Melissa is coming to terms with the loss of her much-loved father, and with what it means to be beautiful, on the inside and the outside.

First sentence: The last thing my father ever told me was that it takes glass a million years to decay.

Last Night I Sang to the Monster, Benjamin Alire Saenz (239 pages) – Zach is eighteen and in rehab, suffering from amnesia induced by alcohol and depression. With help he can (we hope!) work through it all toward a better life.

First sentence: I want to gather up all the words in the world and write them down on little pieces of paper – then throw them in the air.

Lockdown, Walter Dean Myers (247 pages) – Reese is in juvy and wants to get out as soon as possible, but his friend Toon is getting a hard time and it’s hard being squeaky clean when people want to push you around.

First sentence: “I hope you mess this up!”

Undead Much?, Stacey Jay (306 pages) – zombies running amok again at school, with Megan Berry having to sort out the undead mess, which is hard when one of the undead might be even hotter than your hot boyfriend (and psychic too – how can you be psychic though if you don’t have a brain?).

First sentence: Okay, this was it.

A Voice of Her Own, Barbara Dana (343 pages) – subtitled “Becoming Emily Dickinson”. Emily Dickinson is one of America’s pre-eminent 19th Century poets, an unusual character known for her poems about death (‘Because I would not stop for death he kindly stopped for me’ etc), and who wore only white and refused to conform to society’s expectations. A Voice of Her Own brings to life her childhood and her unique voice.

First sentence: It was too dreary, the last of our family’s possessions piled by the side of the road as if Gypsies had relinquished squatter’s rights and were moving on to points unknown.

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, Ying Chang Compestine (176 pages) – the cover says “A collection of deliciously frightening tales”. Chinese ghosts, apparently, are a bit of a nightmare unless you offer them some tempting food. Lucky, then, that this collection of short stories also contains recipes.

First sentence (from ‘Steamed Dumplings’): Long ago, in 200 B.C.E., there was a small village called Bright Stars situated in the northern mountains of China, along the midsection of the Great Wall.

Nothing, Janne Teller (227 pages) – translated from the Danish and described as ‘A Lord of the Flies for the twenty-first century’. Pierre Anthon climbs a plum tree and doesn’t come down because life is worth nothing. His friends are, unsurprisingly, concerned for him, so set about proving there is meaning in life by creating a “pile of meaning” in a sawmill, an exercise which sounds pretty cool on face value, but becomes sinister as the friends push each other beyond the limit.

First sentence: Nothing matters.

The Billionaire’s Curse, Richard Newsome (355 pages) – Gerald is a billionaire at thirteen, which sounds pretty cool, but his new status as a billionaire means he must solve a murder, with the help of his friends, because his life is in imminent danger.

First sentence: The clock on the wall chimed twice.

Drama Girl, Carmen Reid (Secrets at St Jude’s, 287 pages) – Gina, Niffy and Amy discover that mixing their home friends and their school friends can be problematic. Drama ensues.

First sentence: ‘Mom!’ Gina Peterson exclaimed, holding her arms wide for a hug.

Some New Books

There’s a fair bit of ghosty historical stuff in this batch, plus some spies and intrigue.

This Full House, Virginia Euwer Wolff (476 pages) – a novel in verse form, and the final book in the Make Lemonade trilogy (which is a great name for a trilogy). In which LaVaughn is in her senior year at high school, with the glimmer of hope of college at the end, but events during the year challenge what she thinks she knows about life and love.

First sentence: I could not have known.

Magic Under Glass, Jaclyn Dolamore (225 pages) – the cover says this is a story for fans of Libba Bray and Charlotte Bronte. Nimira works as a show girl in a music hall. When Hollin Parry, wealthy sorcerer, hires her to perform for him on his estate she thinks life is looking up, but then there are rumours of ghosts and madwomen, and her performing partner, an automaton that plays the piano, seems too real to be mechanical…

First sentence: The audience didn’t understand a word we sang.

The Shadow Project, Herbie Brennan (352 pages) – Danny accidentally attempts to rob the headquarters of The Shadow Project, which uses teen spies to astrally (is that a word?) project on missions around the world. He’s captured and then identified as gifted and soon finds himself caught up in a world of danger and supernatural intrigue.

First sentence: Danny would never have noticed the door that night if it hadn’t opened a crack.

Voices of Dragons, Carrie Vaughn (309 pages) – While rock climbing on the border between the modern and ancient worlds Kay Wyatt falls and is saved by the dragon Artegal, and a friendship develops between them. But human/dragon relations are strained and war is brewing: can their friendship stop the inevitable?

First sentence: Her parents were going to kill her for this.

Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen (164 pages) – Samuel knows how to take care of himself in the wilderness, and when his parents are captured by the British during the American Revolution, Samuel takes off in pursuit, all the way to New York City.

First sentence: He was not sure exactly when he became a child of the forest.

Ruined, Paula Morris (309 pages) – Rebecca moves to an exclusive academy in New Orleans where she is snobbed by her classmates (except for the lovely Anton (but why?)), but then she meets Lisette, who’s keen to be her friend. Trouble is, she’s also a ghost on a mission. Hurricane Katrina also stars.

First sentence: Torrential rain was pouring the afternoon Rebecca Brown arrived in New Orleans.

All Unquiet Things, Anna Jarzab (337 pages) – Audrey and Neily try to find out who killed Carly (friend and ex-girlfriend respectively): it’s got something to do with Brighton Day School’s dark underbelly.

First sentence: It was the end of summer, when the hills were bone dry and brown; the sun beating down and shimmering up off the pavement was enough to give you heatstroke.

The Long Way Home, Andrew Klavan (345 pages) – action and thrills a-plenty. Charlie West wakes up one day to find that terrorists want to kill him, the police want to arrest him (they say he’s killed his friend), and he must return home to find some answers and, hopefully, dig himself out of this big mess. The back cover says, winningly, that this is “like a teenage version of 24“.

First sentence: The man with the knife was a stranger.

Heist Society, Ally Carter (287 pages) – another punny title from the Gallagher Girls creator. Kat has been trying to leave her family business (being one of jewel heists and scams), but when a noted mobster’s art collection is stolen and her father ends up being suspect number 1 Kat must find who is really responsible, and keep one step ahead of Interpol and the mob.

First sentence: No one knew for certain when the trouble started at the Colgan School.

Plus we’ve also got:

Fade Out (Morganville Vampires), Rachel Caine

Falling Hook, Line and Sinker (An Electra Brown book), Helen Bailey

The Den of Shadows Quartet, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (this is In the Forests of the Night, Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror and Midnight Predator in one volume).