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

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Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 8-9 June

What up! Another weekend looms and here’s some sweet stuff to do with it.

No doubt you’ve heard about The Great Gatsby (a lot) by now, it feels like they’ve been building hype for eternity. It’s finally here and it looks pretty suave! (Rated M)

But did you know it was a book first? Sure was, it’s an American Classic by one great F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also, it’s not The GG’s first dance across the silver screen.

Matariki 2013 celebrations start up in Poneke with the arrival of waka Te Matau a Maui. There’s a calender load of events to keep you busy over the next few weeks of the Maori new year celebration.

Sporty peepz!  The Championship Tournament of the Woman’s Basketball League is at Te Rauparaha Arena over at neighb’s Porirua. Maori ball game Ki o Rahi will have a Matariki special in Waitangi Park from 6pm Friday night (brought to you by body R2R).

The other big thing this weekend is our (Wellington’s) Jazz Festival. Before you scoff take note, Jazz is the original bad boy of music. You can thank it for paving the way to all our modern jams and the term “hipster”. Appreciate. There is a caps worthy TONNE of events going down for it. One pretty special looking one is the pop up jams planned for the city streets Friday and Saturday – keep your eyes peeled.

Shakespeare fans beware this Globe On Screen viewing at Lighthouse Cinema (a nice follow up to the recent Sheila Winn festivities).

Feeling exhausted yet?

Here’s a diddy for the weekend playlist. Lorde’s most recent ‘Tennis Court’. Peace!
Tennis Court by LordeMusic

Some Links

If you’re a Jodi Picoult fan, and you’re interested in Between the Lines, the new novel she has written with her daughter Samantha Van Leer, then here’s a Radio New Zealand interview they did together today, talking about the inspiration for stories, who to cast in the movie, and other such writerly things.

Here’s a lovely salute to Margaret Mahy by American author Kristin Cashore, focussing on the many reasons why MM’s young adult writing is so wonderful, and so deservedly award-winning.

If you are interested in the Olympic Games and statistics, the New York Times has a map of medals won by country from 1896 to 2008. It is pretty cool (if you’re not into stats) and very interesting (if you are). In 1984 New Zealand won enough medals for “New Zealand” to appear on its circle.

NPR.com (National Public Radio, I believe) in the US is compiling a list of the best young adult novels ever. You can vote for your favourites (a bit of good taste from New Zealand won’t hurt).

From the random news desk

Some quick random headlines to distract you from work:

The World Cup in Book Form
You will be pleased to read that New Zealand publishers are working overtime to produce books commemorating the epic victory. The NZ Booksellers site reports that the first books may be available from as early as tomorrow, which is also an epic effort, but doesn’t get a cup or a medal unfortunately.

Hunger Games Movie Poster Teasers
This week Hunger Games movie posters have been popping up on different sites all over the world wide web: see here for a summary of opinions. As for the posters: here are a few links:

Chaos at the Movies
Fans of the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness will be pleased to read that this is also going to be made into a movie(s)! The films are being made by the Hunger Games movie people, so they’ll appear in a couple of years. Go Manchee.

Today in History
And finally, because today’s news is tomorrow’s history: today and yet 121 years ago the first Labour Day was celebrated: read about it.

Good luck with your exam study! (Although you won’t need any luck, you’ll be amazing.)

Guess Who Competition

While the Rugby World Cup is in action Wellington City Libraries have a competition running that gives you the chance to win an official RWC rugby ball, shirt, scarf, pins & keyring (RRP $200) kindly donated by the Wellington City Council. What do I have to do to win all that sweet swag you say? Well, have a look at the silhouettes of the eight famous number tens below…

silhouettes-8
Do you recognise any of them? Yes, no, maybe? You can take a guess and enter here (the names are listed, so even if you’re not a rugby scholar like me you still have a good shot). You have to be 14 and over to enter and the winner will be announced on the 30th of October so get your entries in before then, ok?

Terms & Conditions of entry:

  1. Contestants must be over the age of 14 years
  2. Contestants must be current members of Wellington City Libraries
  3. Only one entry from each library card holder will be accepted
  4. Wellington City Libraries and their families are not permitted to enter
  5. The Prizewinner gives his/her permission to Wellington City Libraries to display photos and/or publish his/her name.

Please note: the judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

Kick Off!

The Rugby World Cup begins tonight (as if you weren’t already aware), these links will help set the mood.

Google has been rugby-fied
Do you like fantasy sports? Play fantasy World Cup here
Stuff are doing a live blog
The library News Blog has a Cup Diary
The official youtube channel will keep you informed and entertained

There, now you are ready to settle in with some tasty snacks and catch the action. Who do you think will win? Who do you think will be the player of the tournament? Will the fact that I drew England in our office sweepstake cause me internal conflict?

It will be a fun six weeks.

Cover Cousins: Football

Maybe it’s a bit counter intuitive to post about American football in the lead up week to the Rugby World Cup, however here are two similar covers that couldn’t slink under the radar:

    

Payback Time, Carl Deuker – told from the perspective of an un-athletic school sports reporter, Payback Time tells the story of a successful Seattle high school football team, and most particularly their secret weapon Angel.

Leverage, Joshua C Cohen – a challenging story of steroids, football, and bullying, and the way that things can escalate out of control in a terrible way.

There are more book cover patterns here.

New Non-Fiction, Sports

The Central Library has recently expanded its’ YA non-fiction collection – just today actually – but because it has expanded so much I cannot possibly cover all of the new material in a single post. So for now, here are the newest sport titles.

manaMana by James Kerr, photographs by Nick Danziger. This features page after page of black and white photos of the All Blacks playing, practicing the haka, listening quietly in meetings, relaxing (they seem pretty like pretty chill bros in these ones), eating, working out and showing off their sweet tats. Kind of “a day in the life” deal. Also there are photos of kids playing rugby, just like the real All Blacks, but smaller!

golden girlsGolden Girls: Celebrating New Zealand’s six female Olympic gold medalists by Margot Butcher. The title of this book sparked quite some debate at Teen Blog HQ, is it “medallist” or “medalist”? Spellcheck, the Oxford Dictionary and we say “medalist”, but this book and the MacMillan UK Dictionary say “medallist”. All confusion aside, you can expect six stories about six champion female athletes.

dan carterDan Carter: A tribute to the All Black’s perfect 10 by John Matheson. Like a biography, but in coffee table book form and with more photos. Follow his story from precocious youngster to the hyperbolic quote generating machine (eg. “… is the ‘Koh-i-Noor’ diamond of his time”) he is today. Not sure if it mentions his clothing chain or not.

all white feverAll White Fever: New Zealand’s road to the World Cup by John Matheson. Remember that time the All Whites made it to the Football World Cup in South Africa? It was pretty sweet. If you’ve forgotten some of the glorious details (tsk) or just want to relive it in text with photos form, now you can. It still makes me feel proud to see a photo of Tim Brown tackling Cesc Fabregas.

wwe encyclopediaWWE Encyclopedia: The definitive guide to World Wrestling Entertainment by Brian Shields and Kevin Sullivan. All the information you could possibly fit into a coffee table sized book on wrestling! From Abe “knuckleball” Schwartz to Zeus and all the Honkytonk Men and Ric Flairs in between. Pro wrestling in the 1980’s was hi-larious btw.

fightFight by Eugene S. Robinson. Covers pretty much everything you could think of about fighting. From the greatest boxing matches to knife techniques, there is even mention of my favourite ‘so terrible it’s fantastic’ martial arts movie, Gymkata. If that isn’t exhaustive enough, then I don’t know what to tell you.

If these new titles prove popular (and really, why wouldn’t they?) there will be more YA non-fiction popping up at branches too. Fashion and arts coming tomorrow.

More New Books

Rose Sees Red, Cecil Castellucci (197 pages) – It is 1982 in New York and Rose is a ballet dancer who attends the High School of Performing Arts. Yrena is Rose’s neighbour, a visiting Russian dancer who, due to the Cold War between USSR and the United States, is all but a prisoner in her apartment. One night Yrena, intent on experiencing New York life, escapes through Rose’s apartment window, and the two hit the town for a wild night of adventure.

First sentence: I was black inside so I took everything black.

The Children of the Lost, David Whitley (357 pages) – the second book in the Agora trilogy that began with The Midnight Charter. Mark and Lily are exiled from the city of Agora, and find refuge in a small nearby village. Lily is happy, but Mark longs to return to Agora to take revenge and find answers.

First sentence: Gradually, Lily became aware that she was being watched.

Kick, Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman (197 pages) – Ross Workman wrote to Walter Dean Myers saying he was a fan of his books and Walter Dean Myers replied saying let’s write a book together, so they did. True story. Kick is about a troubled boy who’s an excellent football (soccer) player, on his way to the state cup final, until he ends up in jail. Can he and his mentor, a policeman called Sergeant Brown, turn his life around?

First sentence: Bill Kelly and I had been friends since we played high school basketball together.

I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend, Cora Harrison (342 pages) – Jenny Cooper is Jane’s cousin, and goes to live with the Austens, which is an education in the world of balls, beautiful dresses, turns about the room, gossip, and other such things. When she (Jenny) falls in love, Jane is there to help her out.

First sentence: It’s a terrible thing to write: Jane looks like she could die – but it’s even worse to have the thought jumping into your mind every few minutes.

Pathfinder, Orson Scott Card (657 pages) – Rigg is able to see into people’s paths, a secret he shares only with his father. When his father dies, Rigg learns that he’s been keeping a whole lot of other secrets, about Rigg and his family. Rigg has other powers…

First sentence: Rigg and Father usually set the traps together, because it was Rigg who had the knack of seeing the paths that the animals they wanted were still using.

Firespell, Chloe Neill (278 pages) – Lily is a new girl at an exclusive academy and she doesn’t fit in and has no friends apart from her roommate Scout. When she discovers that Scout has magical powers and protects the city from supernatural monsters, Lily is keen to help, but can she, if she has no powers of her own?

First sentence: They were gathered around a conference table in a high-rise, eight men and women, no one under the age of sixty-five, all of them wealthy beyond measure.

The Body at the Tower, Y S Lee (344 pages) – the second book in the Agency Victorian detective series (the first is A Spy in the House). Mary Quinn, under cover, investigates the mysterious scandals surrounding the building of the Houses of Parliament, but there are distractions (suspicious workmates, past secrets, and the return of James Easton).

First sentence: A sobbing man huddles on a narrow ledge, clawing at his eyes to shield them from the horror far below.

The Doomsday Box, Herbie Brennan (328 pages) – a Shadow Project book. Time travel is possible, trouble is someone (secret codename Cobra) has used it to transport the black plague into the 21st Century. The supernatural teen spies of the Shadow Project must avert disaster, while also averting their own disaster, on the run from the KGB in Moscow in the 1960s.

First sentence: Opal fastened the strap around her ankle and stood up to admire her new shoes.

Zora and Me, Victoria Bond and T R Simon (170 pages) – based on events in the life of author Zora Neale Hurston. When a young man’s body is found on train tracks in a small Florida town Zora thinks she knows who did it, so she and her friends set out to prove her theory and search for the truth. Narrated by Zora’s best friend Carrie, hence the title.

First sentence: It’s funny how you can be in a story but not realise until the end that you were in one.

The False Princess, Eilis O’Neal (319 pages) – Nalia believes herself to be princess of Thorvaldor, but discovers she’s actually a stand in. She’s cast out, called Sinda, and sent to live with her unwelcoming aunt in a village where she (Sinda) learns she has magic, which is Sinda’s ticket out, albeit a dangerous ticket. This one is called “A dazzling first novel” and “an engrossing fantasy full of mystery, action, and romance”, which sounds great.

First sentence: The day they came to tell me, I was in one of the gardens with Kiernan, trying to decipher a three-hundred-year-old map of the palace grounds.

Fallout, Ellen Hopkins (663 pages) – the companion to Crank and Glass. About Kristina’s three oldest children, who must climb out from under their mother’s meth addiction and the hold it has over the family. Novel in verse form.

First sentence: That life was good / before she / met / the monster, / but those page flips / went down before / our collective / cognition.

Accomplice, Eireann  Corrigan (259 pages) – Two friends stage a kidnapping as a joke and in order to gain notoreity. Of course this is going to be a very bad idea indeed.

First sentence: The picture they usually use is one from the Activities spread of the yearbook.

Pride, Robin Wasserman (231 pages) – one in the Seven Deadly Sins series, and we have the complete set.

Animals, Sport and Music

Some new documentaries on DVD!

Best of Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr

“Reptile agent Dr. Brady Barr has spent his entire career studying some of the world’s most amazing and deadliest animals. In the hit series Dangerous Encounters, Barr travels around the globe on a series of death-defying, hair-raising expeditions to study reptiles and other wildlife in their native habitats. His main goal is to study these animals before their habitat is destroyed to better understand what they need to survive in the wild. Best of Dangerous Encounters features Barr’s most dangerous moments with some of the planet’s most unapproachable animals, including his headline-making bite from a 12-foot reticulated python” (cover)

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa : The Final, Netherlands vs Spain

“Every four years the world stops to watch football’s best of the best. Over a billion people tuned in to see if the Netherlands or Spain would be the 2010 FIFA World Cup Champions. Neither country had ever won the cup, so it would be a first for one of them. Here is the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final from start to finish including the presentations – an unforgettable souvenir for every fan of the beautiful game” (cover) 

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa : The Highlights

“Here are the highlights of the 2010 FIFA World Cup including all the action from each group – A through to H, Round 16, the quarter finals, semi-finals, and the final itself. The goals, the drama, interviews and excitement – all the highlights are here, followed by the final summary from SBS special commentators Les Murray and Craig Foster” (cover)

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa : New Zealand

Features all three matches played by the New Zealand team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but the All Whites ended the tournament as the only undefeated team. Relive the magic.

Crusty Demons, the 7th Mission

A group of men, set out on their seventh motorbike adventure together. Then they jump all their bikes of big cliffs and things and they crash, breaking bones and causing fleshwounds while Papa Roach, Powerman 5000, White Zombie etc. shout things. Mission accomplished?

Nirvana : Unplugged in New York

An acoustic performance taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993 for the television series MTV Unplugged. Features two songs not originally broadcast plus five previously unreleased rehearsal performances.

Awesome; I… Shot That!

“On October 9, 2004, at a sold-out performance in New York’s Madison Square Garden, longtime rap superstars the Beastie Boys revolutionized the formula for concert films by distributing cameras to fifty audience members and encouraging them to shoot their own footage of the musical performance. Capturing the event in a completely fresh and prismatic way, these fifty filmmakers used their diverse points-of-view to bring to life the total experience of a Beastie Boys concert, from the stage to the back rows, from the performers to the adoring fans.” (cover)

Parkour

It’s  been an age since we linked to some parkour/freerunning videos. So we must remedy that! Watch this video and marvel as gravity is defied.

Do you like this? Go to the NZ Parkour Association website!

ETA: some more on parkour, here’s a summary of Chase Armitage (professional free runner (which you can be)) and his talents.

The window is the best bit.

Comment And Win!

winWe have some sport themed prizes to give away; All Whites posters courtesy of New Zealand Football and Rip Curl Pro Search surfing DVDs courtesy of Kiwi Surf. If they sound like your cup of tea, be one of the first two people to comment on this post and they’re yours. Easy.

John Green on the All Whites on Twitter

John Green, co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Web 2.0 enthusiast had this to say about the All Whites’ effort against Italy at the World Cup (so we thought it was worth a mention): “A heroic, relentless performance by #NZL. Just unbelievable. I am kind of in tears to be honest.” (In context here. He’s set up a special world cup Twitter account @johnsworldcup, plus his regular Twitter account is @realjohngreen, complete with a million + followers.) Needless to say, we like John Green.

Speaking of Twitter, Wellington City Libraries is on Twitter too (@wcl_library). You can follow us for updates on recently acquired interesting library items, what’s going on at the moment, and notifications of new blog posts, like on this here blog, for example.

This post was brought to you by Library Serf, in the absence of regular football reporter, Roberto B, who is recovering.

(Thanks to Kym for info too.)

Go To The World Cup! Sort Of

The Football World Cup kicks off tomorrow morning, most of us won’t be in attendance because South Africa is a long way away. But thanks to technology you can travel to the stadiums the games will be played in from the comfort of your own home by following this link. Sure, you could just watch the games on TV, but these virtual tours are in 3D thanks to Google Earth and therefore cooler.

World Cup

(Not the rugby one, but the real football one.) Awesome! The All Whites will be playing the Australian Soccoroos on the 24th in Melbourne (kick-off is at 9.30pm NZST) and five days later they’re up against Serbia. Exciting!

To whet your appetite do watch this.

Watch Football For Free!

wellington_phoenix_jpg_4ad4721e8fFor the Wellington Phoenix’s next home game, tomorrow Friday 12th Feb, under 16s can get in for free. Free! Just turn up with an adult and three of you can keep your wallets in your pockets as you walk through the turnstiles. Money saved at the gate can be spent on delicious (?) stadium hotdogs. If you’re older but still studying it’s only $20 anyway. Still a bargain then.

World Cup Draw Announced

The draw for the Fifa World Cup 2010 was announced last night, see the groups here. The All Whites must finish first or second in their group to advance to the knockout stages, getting past Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia to do it. A tough ask, but not entirely impossible. My pick for the final is Spain over The Netherlands, what do you think?

Caught Football Fever?

wellington_phoenix_jpg_4ad4721e8fWas watching the All Whites big win on the weekend so exciting that you can’t possibly wait until the World Cup in South Africa to get your football fix? If the answer is “yes” here is a suggestion; go to a Phoenix game.

There are six current All Whites in the squad (including Teen Blog fave Leo Bertos), passionate and vocal fans, and the handsomest uniforms in the A-League. What better way is there to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon than watching some quality football and shouting loudly? And it’s cheap too, tickets start at $17 for students.

Also, keep up to date with the happenings in the world of football with the libraries’ magazine selection here.

Bunch of links

Is zombie fiction the new vampire fiction? Zombies rise in teen lit. (Read our interview with Amanda Ashby, author of The Zombie Queen of Newbury High.)

Two mothers spend US$28,000 to get Twilight star Robert Pattinson to kiss their daughters. (You can also pay to be taken on a tour of the film set in Vancouver, Canada: “Twilight fans don’t have to schlep all the way out to New Zealand for their fan fix.” Hah.) There are some exclusive pictures from New Moon here.

Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro discuss their plans for the forthcoming films of The Hobbit. (Del Toro is in Wellington, and was recently interviewed by Stuff.)

Could a virtual racing champion be turned into a real-life racing champion? Well?

Chase cryptids via CryptoZoo. The game’s creator was inspired by freerunners in Wellington (you can even see the library). We’re famous!

Top 10: pushing play

This isn’t really a Top 10 list as such, since I know zero about sports fiction and have no idea what’s top and what’s not; this is more a selection of young adult fiction that has sporting themes of different sorts. See what you think anyway. Let me know if you’ve read a good sports book recently too (I refrained from putting my favourite book here, Life at these Speeds, but, oh no, there I go, I’ve mentioned it anyway (athletics)).

  1. book coverAmazing Grace, Megan Shull (tennis)
  2. Ironman, Chris Crutcher (triathlon)
  3. Hero, Perry Moore. This is sport but with superheroes. It’s good.
  4. Rash, Pete Hautman. Reading Rants (which is a great review website, by the way) suggests this is futuristic, dystopian and involves football.
  5. Soccer Chick Rules, Dawn Fitzgerald (football)
  6. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher (swimming)
  7. book coverBall Don’t Lie, Matt de la Pena (basketball)
  8. How to Ditch Your Fairy, by Justine Larbalestier. When I first saw this book I thought “Nooooo!”. I mean, it seems very silly, but everyone actually likes it. Charlie is a freshman at a sports school and has the misfortune of having a personal parking fairy (as opposed to, for example, an “all the boys think you’re wonderful” type fairy) – you can see why I had doubts.
  9. book coverDairy Queen, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. This is football of the American variety, and the main character is female, which seems refreshing. People like this book (I haven’t read it yet), and its sequel The Off Season.
  10. Alex, Tessa Duder. The great New Zealand literary swimming sensation.

City Safari

If you liked the Almost Amazing Race (or wanted to do it) check out the City Safari, which will take place on the 17th of May. It’s an all-day orienteering competition around Wellington that utilises public transport. School teams may enter. Take a look at the website for more information.

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