On Wednesday, 7 teens showed up after school to make rings for their fingers and toes! It was a lot of fun, and I wish more people had been there. As it was, everyone went home with bunches of rings. We made stretchy rings with beads and buttons, memory wire thumb rings, and even rings out of paper clips. If you couldn't be there, look for some of these projects at the Craft Closet Cleanout on Friday, May 30, from 6:30 to 8:30.
Hard at work! 
Modeling the creations.The teen section is literally going to explode one of these days from overcrowding! Here's the latest. I linked all the titles that were reviewed by the Teen Advisory Board or me on this blog.
On May 2, 9 girls came out to design purses at our first-ever purse project night! You know I am not the craftiest person in the world, so I am really glad that only 9 people came. Even then, it was completely crazy and I ended up finishing projects for people the next day. Nonetheless, everyone went home with two cute projects. One was a clutch made out of a folded placemat, and the other was a hand-beaded bag.
If you missed this event, make your own! I got our supplies at Dollar Tree and JoAnn Fabric and Crafts, so it is fairly inexpensive. Here are some helpful books with great ideas:
Beading purses
Another purse-beading shot
Posing with the purses!
Okay so I'm guessing this is new because I haven't seen this anywhere else. They have finally released an Official Trailer for Twilight the movie. you can go to the link on Stephenie Meyer's website here: http://stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_movie.html to read what she has to say about it, or you can go to the website its on directly here: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=33429578
The trailer looks very well done. The only bad thing I (constant pessimist about the movie) have to say about the movie is the girl that plays Bella over acts. She is too dramatic. But thats just my opinion...
Well, other than that, it looks pretty good. And (gasp!) Cedric Diggory doesn't look that bad as Edward, granted he's still not as good as I imagined.... but I can deal.
Once again, our library has won the We the People Bookshelf from the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities. This year's theme was Created Equal, and several of books focus on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era. Our library got 19 new books, 15 in English and 4 in Spanish. You can see all of our new books on display in the lobby this month! Also, as we have done in the past, library book groups will be reading a book from the Created Equal list next winter.
If you never know what to read next, sign up for the NextReads Teen Scene email newsletter! This month's letter features great new and recently released titles, as well as a list called "Books You Can Make a Playlist From." The playlist idea made a really great compilation, including favorites like Nick and Norah and King Dork, as well as other titles like Beige by Cecil Castelucci and I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle. I highly recommend this monthly newsletter. Sign up today!
Teen books continue to crowd the shelves, so here's what is newest:
FICTION
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
Click on the book cover to see which libraries have it.
Review by Meg
What would you do if your best friend died, and then knocked on your door a week later looking for a place to stay? This is the problem facing America in Daniel Waters' novel Generation Dead. It is set in an upper-middle-class high school with one of the best programs for the "differently biotic" in the country. A few normal students, like Goth-girl Phoebe and football star Adam, develop close relationships with the living dead, but the majority fear them. Some, namely the mentally unstable Pete, want the dead to stay dead--and aren't afraid to use violence to make it happen. When Phoebe finds herself falling for the leader of the living impaired, it sets off a chain of events that will change the lives (or afterlives) of everyone involved.
I loved this book for its extraordinary characters, fast-paced action, and deeper message. I will the be the first to admit that, upon discovering the "zombies in high school" premise, I was expecting comedy, and likely bad comedy at that. Instead, despite occasional flashes of humor, the book quickly takes a turn toward the dark side as the plot unfolds. Obvious comparisons can be drawn to racism and the Civil Rights Movement, but the novel never gets preachy. Of course, the book isn't perfect. There are several threads that never really get followed to their conclusions and detracted somewhat from the main plot (Did the augmentation work? What was the deal with the white vans?), but on the whole Generation Dead is one of the best books I have read in a while.
Review by Caitlin C.
The word “zombie” is a very powerful one. One cannot mention it in casual conversation without invoking images of reanimated, rotting corpses shambling through town, feasting on the brains of the living. This is why Oakvale High asks its students to use the terms “living impaired” and “differently biotic” when referring to their less-than-living classmates.
Some readers may be feeling pretty confused now, but that’s nothing compared to the inexplicable mystery of how teenagers cheat death in Daniel Walter’s first young adult novel Generation Dead. As expected, the living impaired aren’t welcomed with open arms into the High School, and vigilantes have already killed some of these teenagers a second time. There are some particularly active undead students, such as Karen, Evan and Tommy, who don’t let their biological differences hold them back, but most of the others walk and act in a similar fashion to their B-movie counterparts, minus the appetite for grey matter. When Alish and Angela Hunter set up a program at Oakvale High to increase awareness and acceptance of the differently biotic, only a few students attend the program, including the two protagonists, Phoebe Kendall and Adam Layman.
Phoebe is a student with an all black wardrobe and an iPod filled with songs by such artists as the Creeps and the Misfits. Adam is a football player who began studying karate after severely injuring a running-back from an opposing team with an illegal move. At first glance, one would hardly believe the two were childhood chums, or that Adam is hoping to take the friendship further. However, everything changes when Tommy Williams, a zombie classmate, tries out for the football team. The three meet up after school once a week along with other classmates interested in the cause; Karen, a skirt-loving girly-girl who’s unusually perky for a zombie, Thorny, the naïve freshman, Evan, the redheaded jokester whose only regret is that death won’t let him whistle, and Margi, who still suffers guilt for shunning her reanimated friend, Colette, in her time of need. Whether the students laugh at the misspelled hate-mail sent to the Hunter Foundation, sport the latest t-shirts advocating “Zombie Power”, or dance at the nightclub/halfway home aptly named “the Haunted House”, it seems like nothing can break up this group. Still, there are plenty of people gumming up the civil rights movement for zombies such as those in the suspicious white vans that appear during the murders of the living impaired, and Pete Martinsburg, whose hatred for the differently biotic stems from a frustrated home life and grief over his dead girlfriend, Julie, who didn’t come back.
It’s very easy to become interested in Generation Dead, and the reading is fluid and enjoyable. The teenage characters are three dimensional and well developed, and each one has something different to contribute to the story. One of my favorite characters was Karen, who disproved many of the stereotypes about the differently biotic, with her fluent speech and her ability to drink coffee. The adult characters seemed too much like cardboard figures or plot devices to be believable, and several of them, like Alish Hunter, Coach Konrathy and Skip Slydell, were never seen again once their purpose for the story was fulfilled. The teenagers are central to the story in young adult novels, but if adults are going to be introduced in a story, they should be just as deep and three-dimensional as the rest of the characters.
How to Be Bad: A Novel by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle
For the past two weeks, our blog poll has asked readers, "Since gas prices are increasing almost daily, what are your favorite kinds of local transportation?" 55 people voted, and here are the results:
walk/run--41 (74%)
bike--14 (25%)
scooter/skateboard/skates--5 (9%)
trolley--9 (16%)
subway--5 (9%)
train/el--8 (14%)
bus--10 (18%)
horse (for our rural readers!)--6 (10%)
Many of you had to read Joan Bauer's book Hope Was Here for a summer reading assignment, but don't let that turn you away from her other books. I really like her realistic, funny, strong characters and the unique situations that they survive. Her newest book, Peeled, features a school newspaper writer hunting down the truth about mysterious hauntings in her town. Read an interview with Joan Bauer to find out more about this book and her upcoming projects!
Nat's favorite was definitely the school bus.
He got to drive!
The ambulance driver let Nat try the siren. He loved it!
Nat seemed to like the back of the police car a little too much...
