Wellington City Libraries

Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui

Search options

Teen Blog

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

Month: October 2010

BreakOut

BreakOut is a database of “scholarships for school, polytechnic or travel grants; sports and arts schemes; personal grants; personal development funds; and academic and non-academic funding” (that covers everything I guess!) for New Zealanders, young and old. You can access it (and loads of other databases) through mygateway.info, provided you have a library card.

Upcoming additions: new fiction

Hello! Revisionings of Jane Eyre and The Phantom of the Opera, a 1920s series from the author of The Luxe, a new book from style doyenne Lauren Conrad, another winning collaboration from David Levithan and Rachel Cohn (as in the writers of Nick and Norah): just some of the titles we’ve just ordered for the young adult fiction collection.

Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld – the next book in the series where the clankers and their mechs are pitted against the Darwinists and their beasties, with Alek and Deryn stuck in the middle. If you haven’t already, read Leviathan first, which is where it all starts. They’ve also got cool illustrations by Keith Thompson.

Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly – from the author of A Gathering Light, which we rather like. The intertwining stories of two girls, one in present day Brooklyn (New York) and the other in revolutionary Paris. Here’s a book trailer (where the author talks about the inspiration for the story):

 

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, David Levithan and Rachel Cohn – Lily writes a book of dares designed to entice exactly the right guy for her and leaves it in a beguiling place (a shelf in her favourite bookshop). Dash finds it and is intrigued and game, but is he indeed exactly the right guy?

Jane, April Lindner –  yay, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre, where Jane is a nanny for Nico Rathburn (actually his kids, not him), a rock star on his way back to greatness. Since it’s Jane Eyre-ish there will no doubt also be creeping mysteriousness and (I hope!) a mad woman in the attic (I will be a little disappointed if not). Also, Nico better make a good Mr Rochester.

Bright Young Things, Anna Godbersen – Luxe fans (and Gossip Girl fans)! Look here! The gorgeous elite of Manhattan in the 1920s, intrigue among the flappers, with a focus on three girls in particular: Letty and Cordelia (new to the big city) and Astrid. Anna Godbersen also helpfully has put together a playlist (it’s here – mind the html).

Jumbee, Pamela Keyes – one of those books that just sounds intriguing when you summarise: the Phantom of the Opera in the Caribbean! Esti and her mother move to a Caribbean island after the death of her father, a famous Shakespearean actor, where a spectral, mysterious friend (Alan) helps her unlock her thespian potential.

Sugar and Spice, Lauren Conrad – more from L A Candy land.

The Duff, Kody Keplinger – DUFF is the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, sadly. The story of Bianca, a seventeen year old nicknamed Duffy with a razor sharp wit and beautiful friends, who (I think) decides to even things up a bit. Don’t want to spoil things too much. Good for older teens. This is also available as a downloadable audiobook.

Swoon, Nina Malkin – a paranormal romance set in Swoon, Connecticut, with ghosts and demons, bad boys and lurve.

We’re Back

Hello again! We’re back from our hiatus. It was fun. Now it’s business as usual, with a few changes you might like to note:

1) Check your library card online. When you log in to your card you’ll notice it all looks a bit different (font, mainly). Some enhancements include:

  • You can see where you got that book. Huzzah. In the expanded view of what you’ve got out look at “loaned at”. So now you’ll never have to wonder again.
  • Again, in the expanded view you will see book covers. So you’ll know exactly what that book you can’t find looks like, which is a good starting point. Look under the couch.
  • All the fees and lost stuff is lumped together under “charges, fees and lost material”. If you’ve had something for really rather ages it won’t appear in the “loaned” list, it’ll be in the don’t really want to go there but should if I want to use my library card list. Easy
  • In the reserves you can see how many available copies the library has. Number 37 in the queue doesn’t look so bad if there are 20 copies, for example.

2) Normal common or garden variety catalogue searching. A couple of things to note on the Classic Catalogue: for some titles you will be able to read the first chapter. Also, don’t forget to read the catalogue searching help file if you want to do advanced Boolean search type things, or if you just want to know which search type best suits your needs.

Cool and useful trivia for the day: proximity searching

When searching, you can specify how close you want the words you’re looking for to be together. You can also use (w)  and (n) to retrieve results with your words in a specific order and a specific number of words apart.

(w) specifies how many words apart and in what order. Insert a number to specify that you want the words to appear no more than that number apart (anywhere from 1 to 99).  So something like Lady (3w) Grey will give you Lady Grey or Lady Jane Grey, for example, but not Grey Lady.

(n) just specifies how many words apart. Therefore green (4n) ham will give you results for green ham, and also green eggs and ham, but not recipe books involving green beans lightly drizzled with olive oil covered in ham, with a mention of a recipe for scrambled eggs at the bottom of the page.

[I learned this by reading the informative catalogue help page mentioned above.]

New Books! And Magazines!

Hi! Here are some new books.

Bait, by Alex Sanchez (239 pages) – Sixteen-year-old Diego is in trouble with the law, and has a deeply troubled past. His probabation officer, Mr. Vidas, is able to bust through Diego’s shell and help him out and ‘navigate his rocky passage to maturity.’

First line: ‘“This is Mr. Vodas,” explained Diego’s court-appointed attorney as they headed into juvenile court.

Wolf Squadron : Special Operations, by Craig Simpson (318 pages) – Secret agents Finn, Loki, and Freya must head into enemy territory to rescue downed aircrew, Wolf Squadron, and a British double agent. Finn & Co. have escaped from Nazi-occupied Norway and now work for Special Operations, a secret agency led by old Winston Churchill himself.

First line: ‘“Stop it! Leave hinm be, you two. Can’t you see you’re frightening him?” Freya reached out and grasped my arm.

Wayfarer, by R. J. Anderson (296 pages) – Linden is a teenaged faerie whose people – the Faeries of the Oak – are endangered. She has the last of her people’s magic, and with human Timothy, must save the humans and the faeries from a potent and ancient eeeeevil.

First lines: ‘The Queen is dying. The knowledge sat in Linden’s belly like a cold stone as she hunched over the tub of greasy water, scrubbing her thirty-ninth plate.

Other, by Karen Kincy (326 pages) – Gwen is an ‘Other’, in that she belongs to the barely-tolerated group of vampires, centaurs, and other mythical creatures. In her small town, however, Others are not tolerated at all, and when they start turning up dead she – and a sexy guy/Japanese fox spirit – must find the killer.

First lines: ‘I can’t last much longer. It’s been on week, three days, and I forget how many hours.

Leftovers, by Heather Waldorf (198 pages) – When Sarah’s abusive father choked to death on a piece of steak, it was the best day of her life. Shortly afterwards, after a brush with the law, she ends up doing community service at a camp for shelter dogs. There she meets Judy (a dog) and Sullivan (a human).

First lines: ‘Ah, summer. Lazy mornings in bed, flipping through back issues of People and munching on chocolate chip waffles.

Marrying Ameera, by Rosanne Hawke (292 pages) – Seventeen-year-old Ameera Hassan is falling for her best friend’s brother, Tariq. Her traditionalist father learns of this and send her to Pakistan, to get married to some guy she’s not met. Desperate to leave, she makes a bid for freedom.

First line: ‘“Ameera!” I head my name and then the single toot; Riaz was in his car already.

Graffiti Moon, by Cath Crowley (264 pages) – Lucy is desperate to find the graffiti artist, Shadow, whose secretive nature means no one know who he is (a la Banksy). Some guy named Ed, who Lucy doesn’t want to see, says that he knows where to find him, and he takes her on ‘an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

First lines: ‘I pedal fast. Down Rose Drive where houses swim in pools of orange streetlight.

Split, by Stefan Petrucha (257 pages) – After his mother’s death, Wade can not decide whether to become a musician or a scholar. So he splits his mind into two and becomes both. But soon these two worlds begin to collide, and Wade will need to ‘save himself’.

First line: ‘I’m staring at Mom’s face, a face I’ve seen at least as often as the sun or the moon, only something’s gone from it now.

Witch Breed, by Alan Gibbons (311 pages) – Book four in the aptly titled Hell’s Underground series, about the demonic entity under London. In this volume, Paul travels to the 1700s when it was an especially rough time for women accused of witchcraft.

First lines: ‘‘Tell me you will never forget me.’ The quill pen falters on the page.

Moment of Truth : The Laws of Magic Book 5, by Michael Pryor (442 pages) – I will quote a comment from Gill when we wrote about the fourth book in this series: ‘Laws of Magic is a wild steampunk fantasy adventure with nice touches of humour and even romance. It’s a world like ours just before WW1 but with magic. Lots of spying and plots and assassinations and misunderstandings. The main characters, Aubrey Fitzwilliam, is the son of the prime minister and he’s also sort of dead thanks to a magical experiment gone wrong. He’s involved with his friends in adventures. Great books!’

First lines: ‘Aubrey Fitzwilliam was on a mission. Determined, unwavering, purposeful, he would not be diverted from his goal, especially since spring was in the air.

Operation Ocean Emerald : A Luke Baron Adventure, by Ilkka Remes (307 pages) – Fourteen-year-old Luke Baron sneaks aboard the luxurious cruise ship, The Ocean Emerald, and encounters a criminal gang who have captured the ship. Only he can escape and save everyone.  The cover (ominously!) features an exploding cruise liner!

First line: ‘Luke was looking at the computer games and didn’t notice a thing when Toni slipped the DVD into his shoulder bag.

And this week’s magazines:

Transworld Skateboarding October 2010 – Skateboarding | skateboarding | skateboarding! | skateboarding? | shoes
Dolly October 2010 – What to do when your friends ditch you | Bonus! Quiz book inside | Denim again, but with polka dots?!
Entertainment Weekly #1122 – Modern Family | Reviews, and more

Bieberbio

Justin Bieber has written an autobiography! Is there nothing he can’t turn his hand to? We will get it at the library, but it might be a while. (System upgrade, you see.)

More DVDs Than I Could Carry!

There are an awful lot of new DVDs, which is good news for fans of watching things.

Hating Alison Ashley
“14-year-old Erika Yurken (Yuk) is a melodramatic teenager living in a chaotic house with an unconvential family. At least at school Yuk feels she is shining. That is– until the arrival of miss perfect, Alison Ashley ruins all her plans. Alison is beautiful and rich and to top it all off, she is smart.”
– Cover

Sister Act 2 : Back In The Habit
The lounge singer turned Nun, Deloris Van Cartier, returns to the habit to help her fellow sisters run an inner city school full of rowdy teenagers.” – Cover

Hulk : 2 Disc Special Edition
Scientist Bruce Banner has anger management issues. His quiet life as a brilliant scientist working with his ex-girlfriend conceals a painful past. A freak lab accident reveals his heroic impulses but also unleashes his inner demons. He becomes the most powerful being on earth, a super-hero and a monster.” – Cover

Material Girls
“As ‘celebutantes’ who have inherited their father’s multi-million-dollar cosmetics empire, life for Ava and Tanzie Marchetta is a rollercoaster ride of fun parties, gorgeous guys and designer clothes. But when they are implicated in an awful scandal, they are suddenly stripped of their money and possessions! Now, Ava and Tanzie are going to have to learn to live in the real world– and discover what they’re really made of.”
– Cover

Fantastic 4
“After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. The media loves them, the world loves them, but unfortunately not everyone’s a fan,as they quickly learn when the sponsor of the mission that created them reveals his own tranformation… into the world’s most lethal super villain!”
– Cover

Lord Of The Rings : The Fellowship Of The Rings
“With the help of a courageous fellowship of friends and allies, Frodo embarks on a perilous mission to destroy the legendary One Ring. Hunting Frodo are servants of the Dark Lord, Sauron, the Ring’s evil creator. If Sauron reclaims the Ring, Middle-Earth is doomed.”
– Cover

Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers
“The fellowship has broken, but the quest to destroy the One Ring continues. Frodo and Sam must entrust their lives to Gollum if they are to find their way to Mordor. As Saruman’s army approaches, the surviving members of the Fellowship, along with people and creatures of Middle-earth, prepare for battle. The war of the ring has begun.”
– Cover

Lord Of The Rings : The Return Of The King
“The final battle for Middle-earth begins. Frodo and Sam, led by Gollum, continue their dangerous mission toward the fires of Mount Doom in order to destroy the One Ring. Aragorn struggles to fulfill his legacy as he leads his outnumbered followers against the growling power of the Dark Lord Sauron, so that the Ring-bearer may complete his quest.”
– Cover

The O.C. : The Complete First Season
“Money and beauty are the key values of this Southern California coastal enclave. But from the moment troubled outside Ryan Atwood moves in with the Cohens, all statuses aren’t quo. Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan and Adam Brody play the Cohens, a family willing to give a newcomer a chance. Ryan’s arrival triggers a Newport wave of peer pressure, love triangles, generational conflicts and more.”
– Cover

Gossip Girl : The Complete Third Season
“Our beloved Upper East Siders, all grown up. Though high school may be behind most of them, you can be sure a future of love, scandal, and, of course, secrets awaits. Told through the eyes of an all-knowing blogger, Gossip Girl, who, via constant, avidly read text messages, is determined to uncover and fuel every scandal possible on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where gossip rules and affluent young people find themselves with the money, access, and appetite to explore.”
– Cover

Avatar, The Legend Of Aang : Book 2: Earth, Volume 2
“Now a master Waterbender, Aang leaves the Northern Water Tribe to continue his quest to master the next element, Earth. Along with Katara and Sokka, they visit new Earth Nation cities, encounter a slew of different Earth Kingdom citizens, and even reunite with a crazy old king!”
– Cover

Avatar, The Last Airbender : Book 3: Fire, Volume 1
“The kids enter the Fire Nation with the goal of covertly moving from island to island to the Royal Palace, where they will eventually confront and defeat the Firelord. Along the way, they discover the people of the Fire Nation are not all that different in their needs and desires from the other peoples of the world.”
– Cover

The Oh Yay It’s Almost Exam Time Blog Post

KitKatNearly time to study for exams? Never fear, here are some links and stuff that will help you:

Rather than shutting yourself in your room to study, you could also consider the library as a venue: we’ve got copies of NCEA study guides, and some past exam papers (or you could download from the NZQA site at the library), tables, chairs, and ambience.

If you’re needing to procrastinate take a small micropause, here are some non-study related links that may interest you:

New Music, New Haiku

linkin park

Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns

Not even the light
from a thousand suns can pierce
maturities’ gloom

shihad

Shihad – Ignite

Stalwarts of local
scene truck on, introduce new
colours to palette

kelis

Kelis – Flesh Tone

Being overlooked
results in a move to the
dancefloor it would seem

scott pilgrim

Scott Pilgrim vs. the world : original motion picture soundtrack

Graphic novel as
film offers up better sounds
than most of its ilk.

interpol

Interpol – Interpol

Self-titled release
indicates return to roots,
results may vary

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)

Television and Movies

New movies and an awful lot of Doctor Who on DVD! Also The O.C.!

Letters To Juliet.

In Verona, Italy – the beautiful city where Romeo first met Juliet – there is a place where the heartbroken leave notes asking Juliet for her help. It’s there that aspiring writer Sophie finds a 50-year-old letter that will change her life forever. As she sets of on a romantic journey of the heart with the letter’s author, Claire, now a grandmother, and her handsome grandson, all three will discover that sometimes the greatest story ever told is your own. (cover)

Doctor Who : The Complete Second Series

Originally released for television in 2006, this is the second season with Billie Piper who older readers might remember for this. Included are 6 discs with more than 18 (!) hours of dalek thwarting shenanigans for fans of the Doctor and sci-fi in general.

Doctor Who. The creature from the pit

This is a selection of Doctor Who from the Tom Baker years (back in the late 70s). The back cover promises regtag groups of bandits, giant eggshells, some things called Wolfweeds and somewhat mysteriously, soething only described as very large with a terrible secret. Also included are a generous selction of special features.

Doctor Who. Spearhead from space

This is from the early 70s, also known to Doctor Who afficianados as the John Pertwee years. Expect mysterious meteorites, people going missing, a man with two hearts, faceless creatures and other irregular happenings. Time is raced against whilst the earth is saved.

Doctor Who. The tomb of the Cybermen

This time from the Patrick Troughton starring 1960s, our Doctor saves the day in black and white. It appears that the Cybermen are all dead, but then it appears that they aren’t. Chaos ensues.  If you watched all the new Doctor Who this week it would probably take an entire day. Think about that.

Doctor Who Series 5, Volume 3

More Doctor Who if you can believe it. This is the newest Doctor, Matt Smith. Once again the world, and universe (I assume), is in danger and only Doctor Who can put things right. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but everything works out just fine.

The O.C. Season Two

The romances of Ryan-and-Marissa and Seth-and-Summer go from very over to very on, Sandy and Kirsten face choices that could trainwreck their 20-year marriage, felon (and Ryan’s brother) Trey gives Newport Beach living a try, Julie’s past comes back to haunt her and others with shady pasts and shaky futures join the scene (cover)

Dodgeball

The comic story of a dodgeball championship. Under the painful tutelage of legendary ADAA champ Patches O’Houlihan, Peter LaFleur and his Average Joes take on the Purple Cobras, led by egomaniacal fitness guru White Goodman.

Just Married

Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy take the cake in this outrageous hit comedy! Sarah (Murphy) is a happy-go-lucky rich girl whose meddling family is as snobbish as it is wealthy. Tom (Kutcher) is a hope-I-get-lucky party guy who prefers sports bars over fancy cars. But opposites attract sidesplitting fun when these two young newlyweds embark on their perfectly planned European honeymoon with disastrous – and hilarious results! (cover)

New Digital Audiobooks

If you like listening to books then you’ll be keen to see what’s new in the digital audiobook collection: a couple of princesses, some vampires, a high school student who can travel through spacetime to distant territories, and something for Glee fans.

The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor – “Princess Alyss Heart is brutally cast out of Wonderland by her vicious Aunt Redd, who beheads Alyss’ mother (Off with her head, she cries!) and begins to rule over Wonderland with an iron fist.” (Overdrive catalogue)

Princess Ben, Catherine Gilbert Murdock – “With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle’s highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts: mastering an obstinate flying broomstick, furtively emptying the castle pantries, setting her hair on fire…” (Overdrive catalogue)

Also new to Overdrive are: The Strange Power and The Possessed, L J Smith, books one and two of the Dark Visions series, and also all eight books in the Pendragon series by D J McHale. Finally for Glee fans you can listen to the first spin-off book, Glee: The Beginning by Sophia Lowell.

You can browse the Overdrive collection: have a look at the young adult collection, and also the children’s fiction collection: start here.

What’s Overdrive? It’s a collection of digital audiobooks that’s available to you for free if you have a WCL library card. It’s easy to use: just download the Overdrive media console (kind of like an iTunes equivalent), browse for books and start downloading (each catalogue record will tell you about format and compatibility).

Teen only night! At! Karori!

teenonlynight