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Simon, Trailers
Trailer Tuesday
15.11.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Hey you guys, this is an exciting Trailer Tuesday! Sure, the other ones are exciting too (I would be the first to admit) but this is a bit more exciting. For at long last there is a proper trailer out for the teen coming-of-age adventure/dystopian nightmare horror, The Hunger Games. It really looks exactly how I (and therefore probably you) imagined it. Watch it below:

What do you think? Pretty spot-on, or a miss? Team Peeta or Team Gale (GALE). Woody Harrelson’s wig?

Snow White and the Hunstman is coming soon. Kristen Stewart is Snow White and Charlize Theron chews through the scenery as the evil queen, who hires Thor to hunt down Bella. Not sure about the dwarf situation! Unfortunately this is one trailer I can not embed, so please view it here.

Thanks.

Journey 2 : The Mysterious Island is the sequel to Journey to the Centre of the Earth (both are based on Jules Verne books). It has Peeta in it, along with Dwayne Johnson and bees! Giant bees!

AND FINALLY. This.

T H E E N D
New, Simon, Trailers
Trailer Tuesday
01.11.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Tuesday trailers! Like Hollywood but at home via your public library. And only for a few minutes.

Firstly here is some good (?) news – Fraggle Rock is to be turned into a movie! “Get your cares away!” “The trashheap has spoken!” That’s what you will be saying in a few years, probably.

A new trailer is out for for Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which seems to have action oozing from every pore.

The Lorax is a film based on the Dr. Suess book (for children, obviously). Until we saw the trailer we didn’t have much hope for this film here at Teen Blog Laboratories, but it actually seems very funny! And nice to look at. And that’s what you want in a film.

Here’s a new featurette for the Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn. Talking about the wedding or something?

And finally ParaNorman, about a boy who sees dead things? I am not sure what is going on! It is a teaser trailer.

-~~ T H E E N D ~~-
Manga, New, Simon
New Manga
31.10.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Hey, recently we left a box out in Central for people to recommend to us some new manga titles. They are very popular! We received LOTS of suggestions and if you were one of the people who filled in one of the forms (thanks heaps!) you will be pleased to learn that we have purchased some of the suggested titles. These are some of the new titles that you can already reserve (the links go only to the first volume, so to reserve the others do a title search);

Fairy Tale (vols 1-5) – Teenage wizards! Dragons! One of the best shōnen manga in Japan – as decided by Japan!
Pandora Hearts (vols 1-5) – Published by Square Enix, the studio behind the Final Fantasy series in all its forms. Publishers Weekly say, ‘A sharp eye can find many literary references in this exciting fantasy manga. Oz, the main character, is turning 15 and is all set to be part of a ceremony, only to be dragged into a hellish place called the Abyss, for reasons he doesn’t know. Previously, he was a rambunctious rich boy who didn’t treat his servants well, but the Abyss is supposed to only take the worst of the worst. In this dark and disturbing world he meets a girl named Alice, whom he may or may not be able to trust, but who might be the only way out.’
Blue Exorcist (vol 1-3) – ‘Raised by Father Fujimoto, a famous exorcist, Rin Okumura never knew his real father. One day a fateful argument with Father Fujimoto forces Rin to face a terrible truth – the blood of the demon lord Satan runs in Rin’s veins! Rin swears to defeat Satan, but doing that means entering the mysterious True Cross Academy and becoming an exorcist himself.’ – Catalogue summary.

So that’s a few we’re getting! In addition to more volumes of Bakugan, Dragon Ball Z, and Black Butler. Quite a few people wanted us to get that last one, but we already have the first four volumes! Unfortunately it is often out. But we’re getting more for you.
Horror, Simon, zombies
Scary Books for yoof
31.10.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Imagine a .pdf titled ‘Neil Gaiman Recommends Scary Books to Give Readers This Halloween’. Imagine no longer! For it is a reality.

Did you like my trick/treat? (The trick is that the .pdf is really, really big.)

Anyway, read the rest of the All Hallow’s Read before … it’s TOO LATE
Movies, Simon
Trailer Tuesday
25.10.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Tuesday already? Man, it feels like the last Trailer Tuesday was only yesterday.

The first trailer is for a game that you either don’t care about or are champing at the bit to play. Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm is the game! It is massively popular. Playing the first Starcraft competitively is a major sport in South Korea, interestingly. ~0Oo~ The More You Know ~oOo~

This game won’t be out until next year sometime.

Here’s a trailer for a film called Chronicle, due out early next year. It looks great! Sort of like Akira, I thought, although a lot of others say it’s like Misfits. I say both!

The trailer now has like 4.5 million views – when I saw it on the weekend it had only a few hundred, so it seems interest is running high. I can not wait to see it!

Don’t forget to watch the second trailer for The Adventures of Tintin. Watch it here in HD and be BLOWN AWAY. Even though it’s not out until just before Christmas here, it has already earnt some very good reviews.

Aaaand did you know that early next year Star Wars 1 : The Phantom Menace is to be re-released early next year in 3D? Each film in the series will be released annually thereafter, in 3D. Not sure if they will be re-edited (maybe get rid of Jar-Jar, or that weird robot waitress in that cafe in the third one, do you remember that? Eeesh) but probably.

~ Le Fin ~
Simon, Trailers
Trailer Tuesday
18.10.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Time for Trailer Tuesday, an occasional regular feature. “One day you’re in, and the next day you’re out” – Heidi Klum.

The first trailer for The Avengers (the superhero group consisting of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and a few others without their own movies sadly but may have had bit parts in other films, who can remember, frankly?) is out. It is directed by Joss Whedon, who came up with Buffy. So it might be good! But he’s also responsible for The Dollhouse, so it might not be that good! (Sorry, Joss). Anyway, here it is.

Here’s the new video for Beyonce’s latest, Love on Top. Not a trailer, but who makes the rules? ME

A new trailer for the forthcoming Muppet film can be viewed here (along with all the others). It (the film, not the trailer) contains ‘mild rude humor,’ so you might want to be discrete.

War Horse, a Steven Spielberg film based on a Michael Morpurgo book, has a pretty epic trailer. At last; a film that will delight people who like horsies as well as fans of war films.

~ The END ~
Balls, Books, Comedy, Espionage, Horror, New, Sci Fi, Simon, zombies
New Books
02.09.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Finder’s Shore, by Anna Mackenzie (218 pages) – This, the ‘gripping finale to the award-winning Sea-Wreck Stranger Trilogy’, has Ness returning back to the island she fled from three years previously. A ‘haunting exploration of belonging, of life’s tangled threads, of the stark and unsettling reality of ambition and greed.’ Look for it in next year’s NZ Post Children’s Book Awards, and say to yourself, “man, that guy on that library blog was right – again”.

First lines: ‘Blood binds me to this place. Blood and memory.‘

King of Ithaka, by Tracy Barrett (261 pages) – Telemachos is the son of Odysseus, king of Ithaka, and although the island has been doing okay without its ruler (who has been dealing with the Trojan War) for many years, the people are getting restless. They want a new king! So Telemachos leaves home to find his dad with only a cryptic prophecy to guide him.

First line: ‘Brax snorted and stamped, his bony knee grazing my ear.‘

Bad Taste in Boys, by Carrie Harris (201 pages) – Kate Grable wants to become a physician, so when she gets to help her high school football team she’s thrilled, as it’s a nice career move. And she also has a crush on the quarterback. However, the idiot coach has been giving the team steroids which somehow turn the team into zombies who crave the ‘other’ white meat, if you know what I mean (i.e., they literally want to eat Kate and her pals). Can Kate find an antidote? Or will she be food?

First line: ‘“You’re one of thos genius types,” said Coach, nudging me with a beefy elbow.‘

The Unidentified, by Rae Mariz (296 pages) – It is … the future! But it’s a dystopian future, sadly. Fifteen-year-old Katey goes to school in a mall/school (‘The Game‘) run by corporations, who use the students for market research and product creation. One day she witnesses a shocking anticorporate prank, and by following the clues she discovers a counterculture group who call themselves The Unidentified. They too become part of the marketing they so dislike, so Katey decides to do something that could change The Game forEVER!

First lines: ‘If reality TV cameras were installed in my high school, the would be focused directly on the Pit. That’s where all the drama plays out.‘

Picture The Dead, by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown (262 pages) – I am having trouble summarising this book, so here’s the catalogue; ‘After Jennie Lovell’s fiancé, Will, is killed during the Civil War, she forms an alliance with a spirit photographer and uses her ability to talk to the dead to investigate the secrets Will was hiding and how he really died.’ This book (a ghost story and a mystery!) has many lovely illustrations!

First line: ‘It’s dark outside, an elsewhere hour between midnight and dawn. I lie awake, frozen, waiting for a sound not yet audible.‘

Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt : And Other Things I learned in Southern Belle Hell, by Crickett Rumley (296 pages) – Deliquent seventeen-year-old Jane has been expelled from thirteen boarding schools, and so is sent back to the small town in Alabama her family comes from. There she finds herself stuck in Magnolia Maid Pageant hell, where everyone wears pearls and those massive Gone With The Wind-type dresses covered in ruffles and lace and drink sweet tea and eat fried green tomatoes. Can she escape, or will they make a Southern belle out of her?

First line: ‘There’s a whole chapter in the Magnolia Court Orientation Handbook titled “Manners Befitting a Maid Upon Announcement of Selection to the Court.”‘

The Midnight Palace, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (298 pages) – Ben and Sheere are twins. When just wee babies in Calcutta, they were rescued from an unthinkable threat. Later, in the 1930s and on their sixteenth birthday, it reappears and so they – and a secret society of orphans – must face ‘the most frightening creature in the history of the City of Palaces’. This book is translated from the Spanish, which suggests that it’s probably going to be quite creepy somehow (the scariest night of my life was due to a Spanish horror film. It haunts me still).

First line: ‘Shortly after midnight, a boat emerged out of the mist that rose like a fetid curse from the surface of the Hooghly River.‘

Mostly Good Girls, by Leila Sales (347 pages) – Catalogue, please: ‘Sixteen-year-olds Violet and Katie, best friends since seventh grade despite differences in their family backgrounds and abilities, are pulled apart during their junior year at Massachusetts’ exclusive Westfield School.’ “Brilliant, poignant, and straight-up hilarious,” says Lauren Oliver. “Recommend this to fans of Meg Cabot’s novels and academy-based stories,” argues Booklist. “Suggest this one to readers who enjoy the writing style of Ally Carter. A strong debut that is not be missed,” adds School Library Journal, knowingly.

First lines: ‘Poor Mr. Thompson. Mr’s Thompson is my precalc teacher, and he is also the only male at the Westfield School.‘

Payback Time, by Carl Deuker (298 pages) – Mitch wants to be a writer, so he becomes – a little reluctantly! – the sports reporter for his high school’s newspaper. The football (not soccer, or even rugby, but gridiron) team’s quarterback, Angel, is obviously really talented at his ball-handling abilities, but doesn’t appear too keen to show them on the field. And the coach never lets him anyway. What gives, Angel? What’s the story here? Mitch is determined to find out, ‘in this thriller both thought-provoking and suspenseful.’

First lines: ‘I’m going to be a famous reporter. My name – Daniel True – will be on the front page of the New York Times.’

The Anti-Prom, by Abby McDonald (280 pages) – Three girls, each somehow done a wrong by the guys who were supposed to take them to the school prom, decide to seek revenge and ‘team up for a night of rebellion, romance, and revenge.’ Sort of like Carrie but funnier and not a horror. Heh. Eh heh heh.

First lines: ‘He doesn’t kiss me like that. That’s the first thing I think when I find Kaitlin Carter getting to second base with my boyfriend in the back of our rental limo.‘

An Act of Love, by Alan Gibbons (295 pages) – When only seven-years-old, besties Chris and Imran became blood brothers. Now, eleven years later, one has joined the army and is serving in Afghanistan, and the other is a potential jihad recruit. They certainly aren’t friends anymore. ‘Will their childhood bond be strong enough to overcome an extremist plot?’

First lines: ‘you think you’re invincible when you’re a kid. Invincible, that’s a laugh.‘
Simon, Trailers
Trailer Tuesday – Film Festival Special
26.07.11 | Permalink | Comment?

The International Film Festival is starting this week, and there are some really good films screening. They are all good! Sure! But some might be better than others. Some are rated 16+ or 18+, so might be out of your league. But the tickets are pretty reasonably priced for students/under 15s, so you have no excuse really.

Troll Hunter is a Norwegian mockumentary that I am particularly looking forward to. The trailer (below!) is great.

Space Battleship Yamato! The title says it all. Space! Battleship! Yamato! Here’s the official website. And here is the trailer. Or maybe several trailers together. It looks epic – if you don’t want to see it then I don’t know what to tell you.

Another Japanese film worth watching is Studio Ghibli’s latest, Arrietty. Trailer! Go!

There are heaps more. Browse the website!

* T H E E N D *
New, Simon, Trailers
Trailer Tuesday!
19.07.11 | Permalink | Comment?

There are SO MANY movie trailers out. It is exciting! An exciting time to be into film!

First, and it’s a week old I know, is Tintin, which needs no introduction. Watch it here at the official site!

What? The? Heck? A Glee movie. In 3D, too.

Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret has been made into a film. It is a kid’s book, sure, but I am certain that it can be enjoyed by all ages. Like Harry Potter, or Lego. Here is the trailer.

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the original Tarzan stories. A hundred years ago! That is how old Tarzan is. Burroughs also wrote about John Carter, a man from Earth who ends up on Mars, where he saves the planet’s inhabitants (we don’t seem to have any of the books, sadly). And now a film has been made! Here is the first trailer.

Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows now has a trailer. I enjoyed the first Holmes film quite considerably! It was silly, silly, fun, and we all need a little silly fun now and then (FACT!)

There’s still one more trailer! It is for the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Go here to watch it (some trailers just don’t want to be embedded!). It’s only a teaser, so don’t expect too much. Because really it’s just a man in a hospital bed talking.

~ Le Fin ~
Books, Fantasy, Horror, New, Pirates, Simon
New Books
12.07.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Battle Dress, by Amy Efaw (290 pages) – West Point is a really, really old school in New York for officer cadets in the US Army. It is steeped in tradition! But don’t just take my word for it; check wikipedia! Seventeen-year-old Andrea Davis has been accepted, which gives her the chance to escape her dysfunctional family and to ‘prove to herself that she has what it takes’. But is she prepared for what the training (which is called “Beast” by the cadets, so presumably it’s far from easy). Battle Dress is based on the author’s own experiences.

4First line: ‘The morning I left for West Point, nobody showed up at my house to say good-bye.‘

Family, by Micol Ostow (376 pages) – Melinda Jensen is seventeen, and flees to San Francisco to escape her abusive home life. She falls in with Henry, a charismatic leader of a cultish ‘family’ of people. It is the seventies! Henry is a bit Charlie Manson-ish! This book is written in the form of episodic verse (poems).

First line: ‘I have always been broken‘

Purple Daze, by Sherry Shahan (207 pages) – 1965, and the times were changing very quickly! Riots, assassinations, wars, and all the kinds of other social upheavals that made the decade famous. For those things. You know what I mean. This group of high school friends live through it all, and their stories are told via letters, diaries, notes, and poems. Mainly poems, for it is written in the form of episodic verse.

First line: ‘We’re slumped on the front seat of a low-slung Pontiac, cherry paint job.‘

Long Lankin, by Lindsey Barraclough (454 pages) – Long Lankin is a very old folk song about a man who murders his lord’s wife and infant son when he’s not paid for some work he did on the lord’s castle. I didn’t say it was a happy song! Grim were the days before Fair Go, haha. ANYWAY, this book is about two girls who go to stay with their great-aunt who lives in ye olde house, Guerdon Hall. The aunt isn’t too happy they’re there; the last time two young girls were there her life was ‘devasted’. And now an old evil presence has been awakened …

First line: ‘There’s too much sky, and the further out of London we go, the more of it there is.‘

Venomous, by Christopher Krovatin (323 pages) – High-school junior Locke Vinetti has a problem with his anger. He can not control it, and he calls it ‘the venom’. Now he’s a bit of a loner! He meets Renee, the ‘beautiful, messed-up goth girl of his dreams’. But can he get rid of the venom also? This book is interspersed with comic-style illustrations!

First line: ‘The city is absolutely gray today.‘

Rampart, by Diana Peterfreund (402 pages) – Astrid Llewelyn’s boyfriend is rendered unable to take her to the prom when he is attacked by a killer unicorn. Astrid had always ignored her mother’s belief in killer unicorns (can you blame her) and now she’s off to Rome to train as a killer unicorn hunter at the ancient Cloisters, for she is descended from one of the greatest killer unicorn hunters that ever hunted. Killer unicorns!

First lines: ‘“‘I will never really leave,’ said the unicorn. Diamond sparkles floated from the tip of its glittering silver horn. ‘I will always live in your heart.’” I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and forced myself to continue reading.‘

Crusade, by Linda Press Wulf (245 pages) – A boy atop a white charger rides into Georgette’s village. He is surrounded by other children, and he wants more to join his Crusade to the Holy Lands. It is a journey of great danger and peril! And one that may have happened, and most likely failed disastrously. (Another book set during the Children’s Crusade is Angel Fish, by Lili Wilkinson.)

First lines: ‘Foundling. Orphan. Parish child. All these names belonged to him but he didn’t want to belong to them.‘

Steel, by Carrie Vaughn (294 pages) – Jill is sixteen and a master fencer. She goes on holiday with her family to the Bahamas and finds a old, broken, piece of a rapier blade. It transports her back it time, and she winds up on the deck of a seventeenth-century pirate ship. Luckily she can use a sword! ‘Time travel, swordplay, and romance’, says the blurb, accurately.

First lines: ‘Jill shook her legs out one at a time. Rolled her shoulders. Rearanged her hold on her weapon once again, curling gloved fingers around the grip.‘

Shine, by Lauren Myracle (359 pages) – When sixteen-year-old Cat’s former best friend, Patrick, is founded nearly beaten to death for being gay, she swears vengeance on the attackers. She doesn’t believe the sherriff, who reckons it was done by out-of-towners, but Cat is sure it was someone in their isolated rural community. ‘Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone in the name of justice.’

First lines: ‘Patrick’s house was a ghost. Dust coated the windows, the petunias in the flower boxes bowed their heads, and spiderwebs clotted the eaves of the porch.‘

Ruby Red, by Kerstin Gier (330 pages) – Gwen is a normal teenaged girl living in an exclusive part of London. Her family haven’t told her about the ability some of the women have to time travel, since it seems that the gene skipped over her. But! When she started time travelling she doesn’t know what’s going on, and so goes on a crash course in time travel, secret societies, living in the olden days, and Gideon, a gorgeous fellow time traveller.

First lines: ‘Hyde Park, London: 8 April 1912. As she fell to her knees and burst into tears, he looked all around the park. Just as he’d expected, it was empty at this early hour.‘

Through Her Eyes, by Jennifer Archer (377 pages) – Tansy Piper moves to a tiny Texan town with her mother. They move into an old, spooky house, and Tansy finds some things that belonged to Henry, a mysterious and troubled man who lived (and died!) there long ago. She can visit his world through the lens of her camera and soon she becomes more involved with his life than the real life of the present. oOooOo ghoooooosts oOooOo

First line: ‘I died on a bitter, cold night.‘