Puyallup Public Library Teen Group

Watch out for Little Brother

bonnielibrarian — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:18:56 +0000

Good gracious me… This has been an awesome year for teen books! And I don’ know that there are many more awesome books than Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. It’s the story of Marcus, a teenager not unlike yourself, who lives in San Francisco. Marcus knows his technology backwards and forwards, and he uses it to get past his school’s security system, with its RFIDs, gait-recognition cams, and truancy websites. He and his friends ditch one day to go play Harajuku Fun Madness, perhaps the coolest Alternate Reality Game ever not to exist in real life.

But Marcus and friends end up being in the wrong place at a very wrong time – San Francisco is attacked by terrorists, blowing up the East Bay Bridge and killing thousands. When the Department of Homeland Security comes on the scene, they suspect Marcus and his friends as terrorists and subject them to days of interrogation and torture. They finally release them, but warn Marcus that “this is as good as it gets.” They will be watching him and if he ever tells anyone that he was tortured by his own government, the DHS will come for him. They’ve made the Bay Area into a police state, where people are constantly tracked and monitored, and teens are always suspect. Marcus isn’t the sort of guy to let this pass. He starts up a movement amongst the teens of the Bay Area to fight the DHS and keep the rest of the country from turning where Big Brother is always watching.

If you love technology, it’s hard to resist this book. And if you’re like me, and have a good smattering of tech-knowledge (ha ha ha), then you’ll appreciate how Doctorow explains things like hacking an xBox 360 or tunneling or encryption. Nothing in this book is outside the realm of possibility right now, which makes it all the more scary.

But what’s that you say? You want to read Little Brother, but you don’t have time to check it out? Well, why didn’t you say so? Cory Doctorow has made it easy for you to download the book for free and read it. Check it out on his website!

October is for lovers of the library!

bonnielibrarian — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:22:45 +0000

Boo! I bet you’re wondering what sort of fantastical things are going on at the library this month. Well, wonder no more! This month is full of monsters, masks, makeup, and madcap adventures! Well, maybe not madcap, but you get the idea. Here’s the skinny:

October 1st, 3-5pm – Anime Club is back! After a summer of reading relaxing, we’re ready to sit back and enjoy some anime! Join us for some of your favorites or discover something new. We’ll be meeting the first Wednesday of every month, so mark your calendar!

October 8th, 3-5pm – Make a Mask! That’s right, not all masks have to be scary. We’ll be making cast masks of our faces. Bring yourself and a shirt you don’t mind getting a little dirty.

October 15th, 3-5pm – Monstrous Makeup & Horror Effects! Pick up a trick or two in time for Halloween. Bonnie A., one of our librarians, will be demonstrating makeup that will have you squirming!

October 22nd, 3-5pm – We’ll be puttin’ on the ritz with a classic monster movie, Young Frankenstein (PG). Don’t worry, it’s less scaring, more laughing.

October 29th, 3-5pm – Why not try out your costume a touch early and join us for a party? There will be snacks and games!

New books make librarians happy…

bonnielibrarian — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:49:51 +0000

Or at least they make this librarian happy! We have lots of new books in the teen section of the library (or Young Adult, if you’re being more official). If you want a sampling of some of these newbies, check out our Teen Books Newsletter (and subscribe to it for regular updates!).

I’m probably most intrigued by How the Hangman Lost His Heart by K. M. Grant. It’s supposed to be similar to The Princess Bride in tone, and that’s one of my most favorite movies. If you saw The Dark Knight and loved it, you may get a kick out of Batman Unauthorized, which analyzes Gotham’s Caped Crusader’s mental well-being. And for the fans of vampires, werewolves, and all things Twilight, we have copies of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer – watch out for the hold list! If you’re waiting to get your Edward/Jacob/Bella fix, you might want to try Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses series, The Poison Apples by Lily Archer (wicked stepmothers and fairy tales come to life), or Generation Dead by Daniel Waters (undead teenagers going to school?!?).

I’m also adding some video game guides and walkthroughs. If you have a suggestion for a game guide you’d like to see in the library, post a comment here for me! Until next time…

En Garde! Teens take up fencing!

bonnielibrarian — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:47:10 +0000

So how cool was it when the Metro Tacoma Fencing Club came to the library to show us some fencing basics? Lots of people turned out for the workshop and got to try on the fencing gear and even have a few bouts! The instructors were very cool – we really appreciated them coming to teach us!

Teens lined up to follow the instructors back and forth, advancing and retreating.

I come in peace! Fencing and Star Trek do seem to go hand in hand…

And they’ve only been practicing for an hour… watch out!

Sleeveface at the library?

bonnielibrarian — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:40:47 +0000

Recently we tried our hand at sleeveface… what is sleeveface, you ask? Well, it’s when you take a record sleeve, obscure a part of your body with it, and take a picture. You try and blend the sleeve and yourself, making a seemless and hilarious photo! Okay, so maybe that didn’t explain it all. If that doesn’t make sense, check out this video on How to Sleeveface. Or just look at the photos we took!

Teen Read Week – you decide!

bonnielibrarian — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:06:58 +0000

I have a favor to ask you all! Teen Read Week is in October and the theme this year is “Books with Bite.” This actually leaves a lot of room for interpretation – books that have something to do with cooking? Or books that deal with monsters like vampires and werewolves? Or perhaps books that deal with technology, like Books with Byte (no groaning!)? Or do you want to suggest an entirely different theme? So I thought I’d put the question out to you – what sort of a theme would you like for Teen Read Week? This would be reflected in a display at the library, booktalks I do at the schools, and programming for the week. I’ve got a survey up – it’s one question, so it shouldn’t take too much time out of your schedule! The sooner you vote, the sooner I can hammer down the details.
Click Here to take survey

The survey will be closing on July 29th – please give me your opinion by then!

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac – read or else!

bonnielibrarian — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:59:51 +0000

Ack! I just finished reading this awesome book, and I wanted to let you all know how much I enjoyed it. It’s Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. This was the sort of book where I would read paragraphs and then want to run to my email (can you do that?) and type those paragraphs up and mail them to my friends and say “Isn’t this awesome writing? Don’t you wish that you could write a story like this?” But I refrained from doing that. Now I’m just going to give you a quick blurb and say that if you like a book that has some romance, mixed with a snappy, sarcastic narrator, and a dash of sad but hopeful moments, then this is your book. And, of course, the memory loss!

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

Eoin Colfer signing

bonnielibrarian — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:52:10 +0000

The Time Paradox

Heyo! If any of you are Eoin Colfer/Artemis Fowl fans, the sixth book in the series, The Time Paradox, is coming out this month. There will be a reading and book signing at Town Hall Seattle on Saturday, July 19th, at 6pm. That gives you plenty of time to come to our cosplay program at the library, and then head up to Seattle! Mwahahah!

Ranting is good for the soul!

bonnielibrarian — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:30:28 +0000

Two posts in one day… it’s like Christmas! Okay, not really. Librarians love to talk to each other and teen librarians love to talk about their teens… so through the librarian grapevine, I heard about this video rant about the book Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause vs. the movie. I thought you might get a kick out of the comparisons! Check out the video rant!

Roll on into the library… get it? Hah!

bonnielibrarian — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:07:12 +0000

Yesterday we spent the afternoon making sushi rolls. It was most definitely sticky, and a little stinky, but it was pretty cool! Everyone got really creative with their rolls, and I was surprised at how much people experimented with the hot sauce and wasabi. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Rice, cucumbers, crab sticks, and avocado… this is us getting started!

Huh?

There was a lot of trial and error with the thickness of the rolls. We improvised with the nori!

Behold, the finished product!