The Archives

Simon
What we did this week
10.07.09 | Permalink | Comment?

Recently, on this Teen Blog …

- Grimm listed the Top 10 books that feature music in some way
- The Wellington Japan Festival is on – tomorrow is the big day, in fact
- Another Top 10 list, this time collecting series about fabulous rich girls
- What’s this? Another Top 10 list? Françoise lists the best books for photographers and those who are interested in the art
- The next CHERUB book goes into the library system, ready to be reserved by most of Wellington
- The 1opm Question is read aloud on the wireless
- The next Selector is up; vote on a new magazine for the YA area and we’ll subscribe to the winning magazine
- Jack lists the newest CDs in the YA collection
- One more Top 10 list for the week – this time it’s everything Japanese, since, you know, the Japan Festival IS TOMORROW

New books next week (there’s not too many this week, to be honest).

The Urban Survival Series is coming up – there’s lots to do and things to win.
Grimm
What’s Been Going On Then?
03.07.09 | Permalink | Comment?
Recently on the teen blog:
- The Urban Survival Series is happening during July and August. Visit the page to find out what’s on when. Also, if you sign up for alerts in July or August (this year) you go into the draw to win a $20.00 library money voucher (just for kicks). You can sign up here.
- We’ve got heaps of new CDs, from MGMT to The Doors.
- We found an amusing mash-up featuring Buffy and Edward and things don’t go so well for Edward, dazzling porcelain god or not.
- On the Urban Survival Series theme: create a recipe and WIN a cookbook!
- Louise Rennison, who is quite funny, was interviewed on National Radio.
- There was a bit of news, including the trailer for The Last Airbender.
- Lynda reviewed The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (spoiler alert).
- The Penguin (as in the publishers, not the bird or the comic villain) website has some interesting footage of some well-known authors.
- Simon’s in love with the Avatar series (which is what The Last Airbender is based on).
- New books (part 1) – including Luxe and Alice novels.
- There’s been some comings and goings on the Most Wanted list.
- Some things to do these holidays.
- New books (part 2) – including the next Henderson’s Boys book, lots of horror and one called Fat Hoochie Prom Queen.
Happy holidays.
Grimm
Fortnightly Wrap
19.06.09 | Permalink | Comment?
There’s been a bit happening at the library over the last couple of weeks, what with astronomical stuff and Matariki events, and on the teen blog:
- There’s been a lot of interesting news items
- Grimm discovered a rather old and well-established fantasy subgenre
- Jack discovered what is better than lasers in the world of music video
- There’s a pool party at Karori on the 26th (bring your thermals)
- The astrodome took pride of place in the central young adult area for a week
- Exciting Futurama news was found
- New CDs, from Peter Doherty to Fat Freddy’s, arrived
- Borders has a Facebook page and book lists
- We collated some of the most popular authors out there at the moment – thanks for letting us know your favourite books!
- We’ve got a couple of new short story anthologies…
- … and heaps of new books
- Grimm is happy that the fourth book in the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner finally has a title and a publication date (spoilers inside)
- Edna’s discovered that you can do conversion calculations in Google (from leagues per hour to nautical miles per hour, even, if you want)
- What you’ve always wanted: virtual makeovers!
- Again with the new books, again.
But then what’s with the pig, you ask? What is with the pig will be revealed very shortly. Like, next week, so y’all come back now y’hear.
Grimm
The End of a Week and a Long Weekend
29.05.09 | Permalink | Comment?
Talofa! This week on the teen blog:
- We got studious and introduced the very useful Books and Authors and Literature Resource Centre databases (try them out)
- It was Youth Week (it was also Samoan Language Week)
- There was a tonne of new stuff (this was the first half of the week’s efforts)
- RSS: get all the news you’re interested in delivered to you in one handy place (explanation here)
- There are some clips for you to watch of the upcoming Vampire Diaries TV series
- Want to know some useful tips on searching the Wellington City Libraries catalogues? Well, we’ve made a page of them
- We’ve now got the complete set of James Bond DVDs in the Young Adults collection, for your viewing pleasure. But who’s the best Bond?
- Which are your favourite books? Let us know!
- If you’re on Facebook you can join online bookclubs
- Some interesting book-related facts from our newsdesk
- The second half of the week’s offering of new stuff (part one – part two will be added next week – those racy cataloguers, we can’t keep up)
- Buy New Zealand Made is running an ad competition
- The astrodome is coming to the library! (Note the title of the post that Simon was rather pleased with.)
- Electro-crunk, dub and R&B – some new CDs
- Some more authors who blog and tweet.
Next week it will be June.
Grimm
Once Again, The Week in Review
22.05.09 | Permalink | Comment?
This week:
- We visited Neil Gaiman’s Mouse Circus website, which has got (among other things) video clips of Neil Gaiman reading the whole of The Graveyard Book.
- There’s a list of nearly 10 books about proms.
- M. T. Anderson was interviewed by K. Hill on National Radio, and their website has the podcast for you to listen to (good things come from viruses and being home on sick leave).
- The New Moon movie preview posters keep wafting onto the net. Plus there are one or two other pieces of Twilight saga trivia on this post. IMDB says that the movie release date in New Zealand is set for 19 November, so mark that in your diaries (if you want to).
- L.C./Lauren of Laguna Beach and The Hills fame has written a book (are you surprised?). You can see a sample chapter.
- Jack did a witty write up of new CDs, and bashed a playlist into shape.
- There’s a New Zealand Music Month quiz! Show us how good your knowledge is, you might win something.
- Fiona, master of the library website, found out about the Amelia Bloomer project, which I looked into. This segued into the Biography Resource Centre, which is a great database for research into famous people, history etc.
- We’d quite like to find out what your all time favourite books are. There’s a form you can use to fill in your top choices. Do it now!
- The New Zealand Post Book Award winners were announced. The teen blog congratulates Kate de Goldi.
- Don’t forget to reserve a copy of Catherine Hardwicke’s account of making Twilight, if you’re interested.
So that’s all. Don’t forget to tell us your favourite books, and have a good weekend!
Grimm
A fair bit of activity: weekly wrap
15.05.09 | Permalink | Comment?
This week:
- In a fit of putting things in order, Grimm sorted a whole heap of new fiction by colour.
- Jack made a playlist of new music, using Deezer.
- Grimm did some investigating and found out about some popular sequels that will be published later this year.
- Someone in Germany is very good at folding paper so it looks like pictures.
- Photographers got the chance to learn some hints on photographing the night sky at the central library.
- Adrienne reported back on the NZMM event featuring Brad Dring.
- More new books.
- Daichi is good at beat box-ing (check it out).
- Someone’s written a book about Holden Caulfield… as an old man.
- Read NZMM news and reviews on the library news blog – more about it here.
- If you’re after useful study schools, you should give the Study It website a try.
Have a good weekend!
Grimm
This week at the virtual library
01.05.09 | Permalink | Comment?
Some stuff happened:
- Ysabeau S. Wilce won an award for her second Flora book. You should read it if you’re into fantasy.
- Adrienne contracted a book-reading bug.
- Selector finished up, complete with a helpful suggestion of yet another interesting series to investigate.
- NZ Music Month Event 1: be at the central library on May 8th at 4.30pm (Brad Dring from Rapture Rukus).
- We suggested you check out Free Realms, a game that Simon’s being playing [in his own time].
- Jack highlighted an interesting collection of three new CDs.
- NZ Music Month Event 2 : again, be at the central library on May 28th at 4.30pm (The Phoenix Foundation).
- The usual suspects were most wanted, with a couple of new additions.
If you’ve got a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask about being a musician, now’s your chance. Post a comment on this post (with your question in it) and we’ll quiz our NZ Music Month guests.
Grimm
And another week bites the dust
24.04.09 | Permalink | Comment?
This week:
- There was a creative writing workshop on Wednesday. If you missed it we’ll try and let you know when the next one (that we know of) comes around.
- Natalia reviewed a book and was sent one of those posters (there’s still a couple to go).
- We let you know that the Twilight DVD was going to be in the house on the 22nd, and then indeed it was. Are you impressed? It was delivered and catalogued and processed all before 10am on Wednesday. Thanks Leonard.
- The finalists for Selector were found, and I miss-titled the post “The Final Countdown”. I meant Showdown. Ah well, don’t forget to vote! Inside Girl v Morganville Vampires.
- Raewyn, Karori librarian with her finger on the pulse, reviewed Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman.
- Parkour on wheels – pointed out by parkour fan Simon.
- We found a trailer for the next Harry Potter movie.
- Simon found some cool pictures of Saturn.
- There’s going to be a TV pilot of The Vampire Diaries.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Too cool! Reserve it now!
- We have some new CDs and Jack’s still a bit down about playlists (the fact that there aren’t any at the moment).
- Another book list: this time books that have maps in them and/or involve road trips (of various descriptions).
- A gazillion new books were received, and summarised briefly by Simon. Spot the moody New Moon preview poster thingy too. All nice and sepia.
- New DVDs as well, including HSM3 et al.
- Someone, somewhere returned a library book late. Really, really late.
- Simon’s found some more games for you to bash around at.
That was all. TTFN.
Grimm
Post Easter Weekly Wrap
17.04.09 | Permalink | 1 Comment
This week at the teen blog:
- Round Two of Selector started. Make sure you vote for your favourite: there will be a two-series vote off to find the winner, and this round one lucky voter gets two free DVDs.
- We made a review form so you can tell us what you think of books you’ve read. Because we like giving things away (see above), we’re giving the first four reviewers a lovely poster of old Robert Pattinson (but only if you want one – you can write us a review and not get one if you’d prefer).
- Heaps of new books arrived.
- Hannah reviewed the Life As We Knew It/The Dead and the Gone duo by Susan Beth Pfeffer.
- Adrienne highlighted the annual Council Youth Forum, called ENGAGE (Friday 1 May 2009).
- Jack came back to a stack of CDs (no playlist yet because our work PCs don’t like IMEEM at the moment, much annoyance).
- Then Sam found two websites to watch.
- Next month Rapture Ruckus (as part of NZ Music Month) is going to be talking about being a musician et al – check out the when and where.
- Here are 10 sporty books. Great how you can sit on a couch and read a book about people being active.
Have a good weekend!

Also note: if you’re stuck for something to read we’ve updated a couple of our booklists here and here.
Grimm
The Week in Review
04.04.09 | Permalink | Comment?
I thought I’d do this since I’m stuck at work on a sunny Saturday. This week on the teen blog the following things took place:
- (If you’re counting last Saturday) we kept you up to date with happenings during The Almost Amazing Race.
- Grimm reviewed (sort of) Megan Whalen Turner’s books and trivially pointed out a connection with Diana Wynne Jones.
- Photos and stats from The Almost Amazing Race were posted.
- Selector began: your opportunity to tell the library what new series to buy! (See below for some background.)
- Yawn, Stephenie Meyer is still Most Wanted, yawn… and Hannah scored a poster!
- Winter’s nearly here: we’ve got some winter-ish books in the YA collection.
- Think back 20 years: the internet was being born. Fancy.
- There’s lots of astronomy stuff going on at the moment.
Selector: what is it?

Brief definition: a selector is someone who buys stuff for the library (yes, I know, cool job).

Paula, the selector in charge of the Young Adults collection, agreed to our crazy idea of letting Young Adult library card holders pick the next series she purchases. So this is your big chance! Vote on our poll for the series you think sounds the best – descriptions of the series are here, and the voting form is here. Exercise your right! Do it now!
Grimm
Another Week End
27.02.09 | Permalink | Comment?
This week on the blog there was a flurry of activity.
- Jack made another new music playlist
- Simon had a go at explaining the global recession
- Someone may have found Atlantis
- Lots of people took photos of the Cuba Street Carnival
- Jack’s second Almost Amazing Race teaser hit YouTube
- Simon found another game: Mirror’s Edge
- Grimm made a list with cats
- We summarised The Almost Amazing Race for you, for those who were wondering
- Those in higher places sent a reminder about the Waitangi Day quiz and the MP3
- Sam mentioned the Youth Week website
- Simon painstakingly summarised a whole lot of new books (and created the category “Exclusive Academies for Rich Kids Who Form Cliques)
- Noel Leeming gave us a cool camera as a bonus prize for The Almost Amazing Race (thanks Noel Leeming!)
Simon is busy making the AAR Registration form just… so…, and it will be published and available for you to register with for the race as soon as it is just… so…*

* which is just – about – now
Grimm
The Week in Review
20.02.09 | Permalink | Comment?
For those pressed for time with the misfortune of only being able to read the WCL Teen Blog once a week: this week we did the following;
- Ordered the new Demonata book by Darren Shan.
- Suggested you might like to read some children’s fiction if your list of things to read has dried up.
- Found a blog called Classic Poetry Aloud, which has classic poetry aloud.
- Wasted some time with a YouTube kinetic typography clip based on Paper Towns by John Green.
- Found a whole lot of book award websites that might be useful if you need to read an award winning book for NCEA.
- Brought to your attention the Kilbirnie Quiz Night.
- Listed 10 fab music videos (including their YouTube clips).
- Discovered the name of the sequel to The Hunger Games.
- Created a new booklist, highlighting stories from/about other cultures and countries.
- Told you about the Monet and the Impressionists exhibition at Te Papa (make sure you check it out).
Simon and Edna are back next week with new books and stuff. Also, we’re waiting with baited breath for Jack’s next Almost Amazing Race video clip (the first one is here). Apparently it is quite a behemoth and taming it is a mission (taming behemoths: no easy task) but it should be coming to a screen near you next week too.
Simon
Week End
13.02.09 | Permalink | Comment?

What’s happened this week on the Teen Blog? Well.

Facebook tips for the unwary
Skateboarding/Valentine’s Day tomorrow
New Books and DVDs
Googlewhacking is a game
Robert Pattinson bio and more Twilight
New CDS and an authentic playlist
Facebook page – be a fan. Do it!
Win something with the library’s Waitangi Day quiz
Adult books for teens win awards
CHERUB television series announced
Cuba Street Carnival
Google game
New Books part two

We still looking for teens who would like their art displayed at the Central Library. And don’t forget the Almost Amazing Race is happening in late March. And! Become a fan of our Facebook page! Have a nice weekend y’all.