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Teen Blog

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

Month: July 2012

Some Links

If you’re a Jodi Picoult fan, and you’re interested in Between the Lines, the new novel she has written with her daughter Samantha Van Leer, then here’s a Radio New Zealand interview they did together today, talking about the inspiration for stories, who to cast in the movie, and other such writerly things.

Here’s a lovely salute to Margaret Mahy by American author Kristin Cashore, focussing on the many reasons why MM’s young adult writing is so wonderful, and so deservedly award-winning.

If you are interested in the Olympic Games and statistics, the New York Times has a map of medals won by country from 1896 to 2008. It is pretty cool (if you’re not into stats) and very interesting (if you are). In 1984 New Zealand won enough medals for “New Zealand” to appear on its circle.

NPR.com (National Public Radio, I believe) in the US is compiling a list of the best young adult novels ever. You can vote for your favourites (a bit of good taste from New Zealand won’t hurt).

K-Pop

Here are some songs by a few Korean bands. Korean pop is called K-pop! (Also Japanese pop is called J-pop!) It is marked by catchy songs, incredible dancing, and hyper-fashion.

Do you like it? Should the library buy some of their CDs for the teen section? Thanks for your comments below (or on our Facebook page)!

This first group is Super Junior, and the song is called Sexy, Free, and Single. It was only released a week or so ago, so is very new and fresh. Super Junior has about nine or ten members! (I can’t count higher than six.) If you like it you will probably love their older song, Mr. Simple.

Aaand the next track is by SHINee. It is called Lucifer and you know what, it has the best dancing ever. Prove me wrong! It’s a couple of years old, though, but they’ve a newer song, Sherlock, which is also comes highly recommended (by me and some other people).

Another new song is No Mercy, by B.A.P. Click to watch! They are also a (large) boyband with great hair. I don’t know if I like this song as much as the others. Thoughts?

Finally! Here’s AAA’s No Cry No More. It is J-pop, okay.

So don’t forget to comment here or on our Facebook if you have any suggestions.

Win a copy of Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Would you like a copy of Insurgent by Veronica Roth? How about a copy that you can wipe clean even after you spill a drink on it, because it comes wrapped in the classic library protective plastic? Of course you do. Go to the Teen Blog Facebook page, be one of the first three YA cardholders to answer a very easy question and you can (w)insurgent. Cool? Cool.

Dystopian E-Books

The library has a growing collection of -ebooks, including a selection in the popular young adult dystopian genre:

0.4, Mike Lancaster

The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E Pearson

Ashfall, Mike Mullin

Candor, Pam Bachorz

Matched and Crossed, Ally Condie

The Dead, Charlie Higson

The Declaration, The Resistance and The Legacy, Gemma Malley

There’s a waiting list for the Hunger Games trilogy, but if you don’t mind that then The Hunger Games is here, Catching Fire here and Mockingjay here.

E-books are available for three weeks, and they’re free to borrow (and also don’t incur any overdue charges). So easy.

For other, print, dystopian books have a look at this list.

A Festival of Films

Have you done the International Film Festival before? If not, then maybe this is the year! There’s a fabulous aray of films, including some cherry picked here:

From Up on Poppy Hill – if you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli then you might like to see their latest on the big screen at the Embassy. To get prepared, you could also do a Studio Ghibli retrospective, including My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle.

Lore – this is based on one of the stories in The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert, in which Lore and her brothers and sisters travel 900 kilometres across post-war Germany to safety (they hope) in Hamburg.

I Wish – set in Japan, where Koichi’s family is disrupted by the separation of his parents, and he finds himself at opposite ends of the country to his brother Ryu. Koichi believes there’s magic in the new bullet train service that might reunite them (and so a plan is hatched!).

Farewell, My Queen – the last days of Marie-Antoinette (as opposed to the first days, as in the movie Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst). This is also based on the novel (same name) by Chantal Thomas.

There are many many more! Have a look at the website for more (or come into a library and pick up a brochure).

You can also keep up to date with new DVDs added to the library’s collection with this RSS feed here.

Most Searched For

Each month (ish) we check to see which library items are the most-reserved, most in demand (Most Wanted). We also keep an eye on which catalogue items are the most searched for, and the two sort of match up! Here’s a list of the top 10 young adult Easyfind catalogue searches  from June:

  1. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
  2. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
  3. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
  4. Naruto #56, Masashi Kishimoto
  5. Matched, Ally Condie
  6. Divergent, Veronica Roth
  7. Naruto #55, Masashi Kishimoto
  8. Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction
  9. City of Lost Souls, Cassandra Clare
  10. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

Spelling things correctly increases the chance of getting the results you want*: here are some words and names that sent people on wild goose chases – choclate, tradgedy, Stephanie Meyer (our old friend), Selean Gomez, cognative.

* Although Easyfind does helpfully suggest spelling alternatives for you!

Random Link

Epic Reads is a new book site focusing on young adult literature. Established by HarperCollins, epicreads is interactive (polls, quizzes, reviews, contests, forums etc) and you can sign in via Facebook to share results and content. Additionally, the site has two separate channels for paranormal fiction (called Pitch Dark) and romance (Story Crush).

For links to other sites of interest we have a list!