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Teen Blog

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

Month: March 2009

My Little Joker

Some of you may have had My Little Ponies when you were growing up – but they probably didn’t look like the ones in this new collection! The new range, designed by Mari Kasurinen to resemble characters from movies, are selling for £330 each, so start saving I guess. My favourite is the Joker one, miss u sooo bad Heath. I wonder if the Care Bears are in line for a similar makeover?

Where Are The Wild Things?

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!

Free Lightbulbs

VOTE EARTHThis Saturday at 8.30pm is Earth Hour, which means that you should switch off your lights (presumably you can keep your computer/console/television on). I wrote about it last week, and embedded a rather neat Youtube channel.

Currently we’re giving away Ecobulbs – lightbulbs that use up less power than your standard, usual lightbulb and are made from recycled materials – to anyone who asks for them, really. So if you want a free lightbulb come on in!

The deal will last until tomorrow or at least until they run out (and we have a lot). See the awesome photo.

This New Music We Have

Three new CDs this week. If you want them, now you can issue them. Yay!

First is Old Skool Summer Jams, a 2 disc compilation of classic hip-hop and R&B tracks with a summery feel from 1988-2002. Included are The Fresh Prince, Naughty By Nature, TLC, Coolio and a bunch of other stuff to help squeeze the remaining fun out of the pretty much over summer.

Sound Of The Overground is another compilation, this time from 2004-2008. It’s a mix designed for dancing to and includes tracks by Ladyhawke (whom I adore), Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and many more.

We also have Lily Allen’s new album It’s Not Me, It’s You. Expect more of her tongue in cheek pop cheekiness and hit after hit. I just listened to it and it’s ace. We also have her previous one here if you haven’t already listened.

20/03/2k9

Earth Day

VOTE EARTHOn Saturday the 28th of March is Earth Hour. To take part in this global event, all you need to do is to switch off your lights at 8.30pm for an hour. Which is pretty easy! There is more about Wellington’s efforts for the day here.

(I initially said that it was this Saturday, which is wrong, although you could still turn your lights off for an hour if you wanted to.)

Read about Earth Hour here, or watch some of the Youtube clips below.

Beautiful new books & DVDs

Remember This, by S. T. Underdahl (282 pages) – Lucy’s looking foward to summer. But she embarrasses herself when trying out for the cheerleading team, ends up dating a boy she previously disliked, and has to watch her grandmother suffer from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

First sentences: ‘Remember this: I love you. It was the special saying my Nana Lucy and I had for each other, ever since I was tiny.

Sword : A Novel, by Da Chen (232 pages) – Martial arts expert Miu Miu turns fifteen and is told by her mother about her father’s violent death. Miu Miu is asked to avenge her father, and to find her fated true love, all in the faraway city of Chang’an. The Emperor has ‘other plans’.

First sentence: ‘On the morning of Miu Miu’s fifteenth birthday, her mother did not arrange a visit by a matchmaker, as all the mothers of Goose Village did when their daughters reached marriageable age.

The Bloodstone Bird, by Inbali Iserles (326 pages) – Sash finds a riddle in his father’s study, which leads him – and his enemy, Verity – on the search for a magical bird. Their search takes them to a dazzling new world.

First sentence: ‘“In the beginning, Aqarti was a lush paradise surrounded by endless sea.”

Sharp Shot, by Jack Higgins and Justin Richards (297 pages) – Twins Jade and Rich are kidnapped and find themselves at the centre of a deadly plot, involving the first Gulf War and explosives. This is the third book in a series.

First sentence: ‘John Chance raised his powerful binoculars and focused on the low building on the other side of the sand dune.

The Other Side of the Island : A Novel, by Allegra Goodman (280 pages) – Honor and her family move to Island 365, where the weather is always nice, there’s no unhappiness or violence, and everyone prays to Earth Mother and her Corporation. Honor and her family don’t fit in, however, and she meets Helix; together they uncover a terrible secret about the island.

First sentence: ‘All this happened many years ago, before the streets were air-conditioned.

Crushed : A Year in Girl Hell, by Meredith Costain (137 pages) – It’s Lexi’s first year of high school and life is changing fast. Her friends split up and Lexi has to choose between her old friends and her new, cooler friends. And she develops a crush on Jack, one of the cool kids. For younger teens.

First sentence: ‘“Lexi, can you hurry up please?”

Undiscovered Country : A Novel, by Lin Enger (308 pages) – Seventeen-year-old Jesse is out hunting with his father in Minnesota on a cold, wintery day. His father is shot; and it looks like he had killed himself. His father’s ghost begins to haunt Jesse, and he soon uncovers family secrets and his own, new responsibility. This book is a ‘bold reinvention’ of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

First sentence: ‘As I write this, I am sitting in the kitchen of the small house where we’ve lived now for a decade.

Fouth Comings : A Novel, by Megan McCafferty (310 pages) – This is the fourth Jessica Darling book and it will be very difficult to summarise in my usual two or three sentences. But if you’ve read the others you will be hanging out for this (I know Grimm will probably be first to read it).

First sentence: ‘”Waiting sucks.” The voice was male and came from behind my right shoulder.

Bliss, by Lauren Myracle (444 pages) – Bliss has grown up in a Californian commune, and is sent to live with her strict grandmother and to study at Crestview, an exclusive school for the rich with an old, dark history. There she is targetted by Sandy, a girl obsessed with the occult. A ‘contagiously creepy tale of high school horror.’

First sentence: ‘Grandmother won’t tolerate occultism, even of the nose-twitching sort made so adorable by Samantha Stevens, so I’m not allowed to watch Bewitched.’

In brief:
The Beginner’s Guide to Living, by Lia Hills (248 pages)
A Small Free Kiss in the Dark, by Glenda Millard (225 pages)
Dead is a State of Mind, by Marlene Perez (175 pages)
Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, retold by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Chris Riddell (347 pages)
Saving Sam, by Susan Brocker (192 pages)

New DVDs:
Skykids (Rated M) – Two friends sneak aboard a plane for a look and it takes off. They discover a bomb and then – to compound the dire situation further – realise that they’re the only ones left on board.
Grange Hill Series 1 & 2 (Rated PG) – Grange Hill was a British drama series about a group of kids at a high school. It lasted from 1978 until late last year. This DVD collects the first two series. Very retro. Maybe.

A chip off the old block

The skeleton of a ‘vampire’ has been exhumed in Venice. It’s not a pretty sight though – she’s no Edward Cullen – so be warned!

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by “vampires” which, rather than drinking people’s blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this …

Other titles we considered for this post:
Let them eat brick
Eating humble brick
Don’t talk with your mouth full
A brick a day keeps the vampire away
Brick wouldn’t melt in her mouth
Don’t cry over spilt brick

Er … any other ideas?

Patrick Ness

Patrick Ness is the author of the recent award-winning YA book, The Knife of Never Letting Go (his latest book, The Ask and the Answer, is on order). He is also the first ‘online writer in residence’ for the British charity, Booktrust. Normally a writer in residence gets a house in a nice part of the world to live in and write for a year, a la the Katherine Mansfield prize. An online writer in residence doesn’t get all that, sadly, but Patrick Ness has a very nice blog going. You may also want to check out his tips for new writers.

Music. New Music.

Miley Cyrus, the wildly popular daughter of Billy-Ray Cyrus (remember him? possibly not, but he was responsible for the world going line-dance crazy for a brief period in the 90’s) and star of Hannah Montana has gone platinum. So here is Breakout: Platinum Edition.

Tha 411 3 bills itself as “18 monster new tracks from the global urban directory”. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then good, because we have a cup of tea for you. Includes Nelly, Usher, Alicia Keys, Bow Wow and other similar Top 40 bothering songsters.

And finally, local hip-hoppers The Fast Crew return with Truth, Lies and Red Tape. You might remember them from 2004, when they released Set The Record Straight

10/3/2k9

Buses.

You know how buses often have those advertisments stuck to the sides of them? Here’s a page full of some of the better and more clever ads on buses from around the world.

Take some photos and enter a competition

The New Zealand Schools Photographic Competition is the largest photographic competition for students in New Zealand and it’s been around for about four years. Entry is free for anyone in New Zealand who is at a primary or secondary school (or is home schooled).

The top prize pack includes a digital camera, a canvas reproduction of the winning photo, a certificate and a trophy. We like trophies. Check out the website for more information (excuse the flash stuff).

The theme this year is “celebrate!”. Entries for this year close on 31 July 2009, so download the entry form (pdf) and grab your camera and start celebrating phototaking.

And go see some photos (advance warning)

Te Papa has got a display of some of the finalists’ photos from last year’s batch, so you should check them out. The display is from 1 April to 31 June 2009 (at the Angus Rooms on level 3).

Zac-less High School

It’s been announced that there will be a High School Musical 4. It won’t have stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, unfortunately, but will replace them with a new cast of singing and dancing actors. It won’t be released to theatres (instead it will screen on the Disney channel) and will be unleashed in 2010.

We have all kinds of HSM stuff in the YA section – oh look at it all:

High School Musical (soundtrack)
High School Musical (DVD)
High School Musical 2 (soundtrack)
High School Musical 2 (DVD)
High School Musical 3 : Senior Year (soundtrack)
High School Musical : The Concert (Live DVD) 
High School Musical : The Essential Guide (Book)

Dracula vs. Santa

Zuda Comics collects user-submitted comics. The comics then compete with one another – they’re rated by users – and the winner is published. There’s some great work there, and the latest, Dracula vs. Santa, is hysterical. My aching sides!

3-2-1 Contact

The UN has revealed that about half the planet’s population use cellular phones, which is pretty impressive. The first small ‘flip’ cellphone came out in 1989, almost 20 years ago – I vaguely remember my dad had one for work, which was pretty impressive. At the time. Nowadays phones are vastly cheaper, smaller, and have many more functions. (Though it would be nice to own a retro phone.)

So, assuming you have one, would you like us to text or email you with information about upcoming events and news the Wellington City Libraries are planning for teens? If you would, please fill in the contact form below! Thanks!

The Edge Summer JAM Music festival

They’re back!  After a five year hiatus The Edge Summer Jam is returning to Wellington,  March 4 at the TSB Arena.  This year’s lineup includes P-Money, Metro Station and Midnight Youth, with The Veronicas as the headlining artists.  Tickets are available now through Ticketek. Check out the promotional video below. 

P.S.  The Edge Summer Jam is pretty pricey, so if you don’t have the dosh you can go the cheaper option and reserve some CDs through our fantastic catalogue 🙂