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  • Adrienne, Books, Reviews

    Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

    25.08.11 | Permalink | Comment?

    Cross the TV epic Lost, with a reality TV show, mix in a bit of spoof and a dab of not-to-be-taken-seriously and you have Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.

    50 contestants for the Miss Teen Dream Beauty Pageant crash land on a remote island while flying to the pageant. The survivors, convinced that they will soon be rescued, set about working on their tans, losing weight (due to the lack of food) and perfecting their pageant routines. But survival becomes more important as time passes with no rescue, forcing the girls to put down their pom-poms and eyeliner and combine their surprisingly vast and useful knowledge and experiences to ensure they survive until their rescuers arrive.

    But strange things are happening on the island… there are lights flashing from the top of the volcano, mysterious men in suits with machine guns and a cave full of hair removal cream. And that’s before the pirates and film crew turn up.

    Each survivor’s back-story and their own reasons for entering the pageant are revealed throughout the course of the book. The characters are diverse and each person develops in spirit, skill and self-awareness as they struggle to survive. At the conclusion of the story the girls are hardly recognisable from the first few chapters. The message for readers: know yourself and don’t be afraid to be yourself.

    This is a humorous read that begs not to be taken seriously (especially when they start launching bottles of foundation out of catapults at their attackers) and will be a new favourite for many of us.


  • Lauren, Top 10

    Top 10: Laurens

    21.02.11 | Permalink | Comment?

    1. Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver. Lauren Oliver’s blog is here. She uses blogger.com (if you’re interested in blogging).
    2. Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood, Eileen Cook. This one gets the Lauren Award for the best book cover with the name Lauren in the title.
    3. TTYL, Lauren Myracle. TTFN and L8r, G8r too. Her blog is here.
    4. Fallen, Lauren Kate. There’s also Torment, and then Passion, which comes out in June (reserve it now! Become a Facebook fan).
    5. L A Candy, Lauren Conrad. The first in the series that also contains Sweet Little Lies and Sugar and Spice.
    6. Chestnut Hill series and the Heartland series, Lauren Brooke. For horse lovers.
    7. The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger. We also have the DVD starring Anne Hathaway ($4 for one week).
    8. The rise and fall of a 10th-grade social climber, Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser. Lauren Mechling blogs using Wordpress here.
    9. Lauren Conrad: style, Lauren Conrad with Elise Loehnen. Not fiction, fashion this time. Have a look at the Fashion Friday post inspired by The Hills.
    10. Lauren the puppy fairy, Daisy Meadows. Unlock the magic within at the official site.

    TAFN, Lauren.


  • Adrienne, Books, Reviews

    Review: Little Bird by Penni Russon

    21.07.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    4 stars! Ruby-Lee feels tiny in the world like a “Little Bird” as her older sister, Shandra, is organizing her wedding day to marry her fiancée, Damien.

    The first 2 chapters of the book were quite boring because it was mainly talking about Shandra and her wedding dress & wedding day and not about the main character of the book, Ruby-Lee. But it picked up with excitement later on in the book when Ruby- Lee babysits little baby Maisy and meets Maisy’s father, Spence, and starts to fall in love with him as they hang out together.

    This would be a good book for 13-15 year old girls who have annoying older siblings and don’t really know what love is yet.

    It’s a good book and I enjoyed it in the end with all the drama in it. This is now one of my preferred books.

    Little Bird by Penni Russon reviewed by Jayne


  • Books, News, Simon

    Glee in print

    11.06.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    In August the first book (of a series of five) based on Glee will come out. They’re for young readers, which is presumably teens! So will we get them? Probably. August is only a couple of months away, too, so hopefully they will be available shortly afterwards. August is also just ahead of the premier of the next series.

    There will be other merchandise tie-ins, though who knows what they might be. Besides t-shirts of course.


  • Competition, Jack, Movies, Music, NZ Music Month

    O.S.T. Competition!

    01.05.10 | Permalink | 4 Comments

    NZ Music Month 2010 logoAs part of New Zealand Music Month and Youth Week we’re asking Wellington Teens, in particular the readers of this blog, to re-imagine any YA book in our collection as a movie and compile the soundtrack. Hence the name O.S.T. (Original Soundtrack)

    All you need to do is email us your track listing, the name of the book your movie is based on, your name and your library card number to teenblog@wcl.govt.nz, or, fill out one of the forms at the library. Easy! And you could win prizes (Music Works vouchers, CDs).

    Entries close at 5pm on Monday 31st of May and you can enter as many times as you like.

    *This is only part one of the O.S.T. Competition, so check back here for further information for more chances to win prizes. Prizes!


  • Books, Competition, Internet, Jack, Movies, Music, NZ Music Month, Youth Week

    Coming Soon

    23.04.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    As you may well know, New Zealand Music Month is fast approaching (next month), as is Youth Week (22 – 30 May). What you don’t know, until now that is, is that the Teen Blog is going to be running an amazing, 2.0, cross-media competition to mark these dates. Also to give away some prizes we have hanging about in Teen Blog Towers. Check back here regularly for further details, and start thinking creatively!


  • Jack, Movies, News, Nostalgia

    Fantastic Mr. Fox

    27.08.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    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.


  • Books, Edna Welthorpe, Horror, Nostalgia

    Catcher in the Rye: Caulfield Strikes Back

    15.05.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    A sequel to J. D. Salinger’s classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, has been written and is about to be published. It is called 60 Years Later (it’s set 60 years later), and Holden Caulfield, now an elderly man, escapes from a retirement home to travel through New York. Permission from Salinger wasn’t given, but as he’s so famously reclusive it was unlikely to happen anyway.

    What would Holden say about it?


  • Books, Library, Prudence

    Book returned 145 years overdue …

    23.04.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    … and the $52,000 fine is waived. Who says librarians aren’t reasonable?


  • Isn't that cool?, Jack, Movies

    Where Are The Wild Things?

    26.03.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    In theatres October 16 is where. Nearly everyones favourite picture book Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is getting a big screen adaptation and somebody just emailed me this link where you can watch a very cool trailer. I know I’ll be off to see it when it comes out!


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