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Teen Blog

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

Month: July 2010

Library week comps

Library Week is coming up, and they are running a graphic novel competition. There are two age groupings! One for teens, and one for adults. You only need to add four frames to the continuing story to enter, and it begins on Monday, the 26th (and finishes on the 20th of August, during Library Week).

There are other competitions you can enter as well.

Re-Draft 2010

Re-Draft, an annual competition for teenage writers is on again. Your work could be selected for publication by judges Tessa Duder and James Norcliffe. Check in your school library for last year’s copy of the Re-Draft book ‘Fishing for Birds’ and you’ll find the entry form in the back. Good luck!

Music, Music, Music

A whole bunch of new music has come in. Good news, huh?

radiohead ok computerRadiohead’s masterpiece, OK Computer was originally released in 1997, but has since been given the deluxe re-issue treatment that is so trendy right now. So now in addition to the full album you get an extra disc with all the b-sides from the singles, live tracks and remixes. If that isn’t enough, we have the same deal, but with 2001’s Amnesiac. Hours of Radiohead!

beatlesWhilst on the subject of influential British bands getting re-issued, there’s a couple of Beatles albums new to the shelves that’ve been given a loving remastering. 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and 1968’s The Beatles (or the White Album as it’s most commonly known). These two records find the Fab Four at the peak of their studio wizardry and experimentation. Essential.

band of horsesBand Of Horses aren’t actually a band of horses, rather a band of bearded gentlemen who play alt-country. It’s a good thing when you really think about it, because after the novelty of musical equines wore off it would become all too apparent they couldn’t really play instruments with their hooves and everything. Anyway Infinite Arms is perfect for the indie kid who digs folk rock.

In between jumping motorbikes over things, the Crusty Demons do more than a bit of compiling shouty metal onto CDs. Latest shouty metal compilation, Crusty demons : beyond the Apocalypse continues the trend. Featuring tracks from Slipknot, Fear Factory, 30 Seconds To Mars, Audioslave and a whole lot more spread over two discs.

jimi hendrixMore deluxe re-issuing, this time for the late, great Jimi Hendrix. His 1967 classic, Axis : Bold As Love now comes with a swell DVD showing the man at work and enhanced CD material that I haven’t checked out, so it could be anything. Anything! If you’ve yet to get into Jimi, please do yourself a favour and pick this up.

stone temple pilotsMid-nineties alt-rockers Stone Temple Pilots recently reformed to record a new album showing that time (and the lure of money) can heal all wounds. The self-titled effort is a return to the grungey, 70’s stadium sound that made them stars in the first place, so fans can look forward to more of what they do best.

miley cyrusMiley Cyrus has gotten all tough and grown up on her new one, Can’t Be Tamed. Shedding the Hannah Montana image by sporting a black leather jacket and darkened hair on the cover, she matches it with a more mature, synth based sound. Whilst it’s a little bit edgier than what we’re used to from Miley, her fans will still be right at home.

Overdrive: Newish Digital Audiobooks

What’s newish for young adults in Overdrive (WCL’s digital audiobook collection)? Well, there’s Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (to go with The Hunger Games), and also The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer.

There are some (new) classics too: The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 1984 by George Orwell, and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (and much more), all of which feature on our semifamous classic novels in haiku booklist here.

Haven’t used Overdrive before? Have a look at the Quick Start Guide which tells you what you need to do to get going. There’s also a Guided Tour.

So, browse Overdrive for Young Adult titles here, download them onto your MP3 player and go running, or something.

In fact, here’s the QR code for the YA on the Overdrive catalogue, so if you have one of those fancy phones this will save you a few seconds: just take its picture and hey presto you’re searching through the titles just like that.

QR Code for Overdrive YA Fiction

Isn’t technology marvellous

Shibuya-giant-barcodeTwo weeks ago we posted a weird, black and white square and asked that you figure it out. Only two people did! That’s no good. It was, in fact, a QR code, which you photograph with your cellphone. Your phone cleverly translates it into an URL and takes you to a webpage. It’s big in Japan you know. Here’s how you do it.

1. Make sure your cellphone is able to even do it! Look at this list or even just google your phone’s brand and ‘QR code’. If your cellphone can’t do it, then, I guess that’s too bad.
2. Find some compatible software to download to your cellphone. Not all software will work on all phones. Again, check sites like this one.
3. Install the software. Hopefully your phone will know what to do. Mine did. <3
4. Start the application, take a photo of a QR code*, and be amazed.

Charges may apply. See your cellular phone provider for more details! (Usually it’s about $1 for 10MB.)

*You might find them in books, or magazines, or who knows where. Billboards? You can make your own QR code.

Much Wanted Sequels in 2010

Have you read and loved Fallen, Hush Hush or Beautiful Creatures? If  yes, then you’ll be interested to know that you can now reserve their sequels! Be first(ish) in the queue and reserve them now(ish).

On the subject of book covers that look alike: both Torment and Crescendo look, well, tormented and stormy. Maybe dark grey is the new black as far as supernatural romances are concerned?

  1. Torment, Lauren Kate – October. The sequel to the horrendously popular Fallen. Fallen reminded me of Beautiful Creatures (see below), and Evernight (by Claudia Gray). Luce is in hiding at Shoreline, a school for “unusually gifted” kids; Daniel is hunting outcasts who want to hurt her (Luce), and he’s hiding things (because that’s what mysterious supernatural types do).
  2. Crescendo, Becca Fitzpatrick – October. The follow up to Hush Hush. Now Nora is coming to terms with being a Nephilim, and having a guardian angel (the most dodgy guardian angel in the world, in Patch), and the fact that she’s in constant danger.
  3. Beautiful Darkness, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – October. The next after Beautiful Creatures. Ethan sees strange visions, Lena is behaving secretively after a tragic loss and there are more supernatural happenings in the Deep South (and, hopefully, grits).

Also availabe for reserving: Linger, by Maggie Stiefvater (sequel to Shiver).

Book Covers: Hands and Glass

Is there something secretive and maybe a bit thriller-ish, spectral, about books with mysterious shadowy hands and/or glass? Perhaps, mostly: here are some book covers we thought looked like they shared some genes.

Wish You Were Dead, by Todd Strasser: someone writes on their blog that they hate Lucy and they wish she was dead, and lo and behold, Lucy mysteriously disappears. Then another, and another. Madison must try and find out what’s going on, while dodging social networking threats.

Chasing Brooklyn, Lisa Schroeder: another novel in verse by the writer of I Heart You, You Haunt Me. Lucca is accidentally killed by Gabe in a traffic accident, and Gabe, guilt-stricken, commits suicide. Brooklyn and Nico are haunted by their ghosts, and each must find out what the spirits are demanding.

Beautiful Malice, Rebecca James: a really good psychological thriller, told in alternating past and present storylines. Katherine is starting over after a family tragedy and meets the magnetic Alice at her new school. Alice is gregarious, beautiful, popular, and perhaps a little bit dangerous. We know from the first sentence of the book that Alice is dead, but the question is why.

Black Box by Julie Schumacher: not so much a thriller, but a story about depression. Elena’s sister and best friend Dora is hospitalised with depression, and when she gets out she’s quite different, skipping school and lying. Elena has to deal with her feelings of guilt about her sister’s illness, and the seemingly new person Dora has become.

Reader Review from Miria

City of Bones, Cassandra Clare

The Mortal Instruments series is a very good series and not to long as many series are. Yes it does have some lovey dovey things in it, and let me tell you I don’t really go for this sort of thing but the tension that’s wrapped into this book will wake you up. Clary and Jace (the main characters) are very likely characters and the story line is amazing. At the start it seems like a normal teenage life when suddenly you are hurled into a world you’ve never known before, never even contemplated! A very good series. 5 stars

~ Miria of Wadestown

We want you!

Coming soon…

You get the chance to tell us what you want over some nibbles. Want in…?

Email: adrienne.hannan@wcc.govt.nz

Phone or text: 021 227 8637

  Beware of the Book

We’re looking for people aged 13-18 years old to tell us what you want the library to do for you; we’ve got a couple of questions for you too.

4.30pm on Thursday 29th July at the Central Library.