Otaku USA Magazine now in the teen section!

I'm happy to announce that we now carry the magazine Otaku USA at Sellers! The magazine covers "manga, anime, videogames and Japanese pop culture from an American point of view". It also includes preview chapters of upcoming manga in each issue. The magazine is bi-monthly, so look forward to new issues every other month. I've always thought it was a shame that Shonen Jump made the move to digital-only and have been looking for a magazine to fill the void. While not offering the same type of content, I hope that Otaku USA will cater to the same audience and beyond, with the inclusion of videogame and movie news and reviews. Our first issue is currently on the teen graphic novel shelf, and will be shelved next to the Shonen Jump magazines in the future.

New Titles for the week of 4/21/2013

New titles for the week, including the sequel to I Hunt Killers, which I've not yet read but heard is quite good, and Death Note volumes 9-12, which completes the series! Stop by the library and pick up some new titles!

FICTION

• One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
• Game by Barry Lyga (sequel to I Hunt Killers)
• Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen (replacement copy)

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Mars by Fuyumi Soryo (vol. 1-8)
• Marmalade Boy by Wataru Yoshizumi (vol. 4)
• Love Com by Aya Nakahara (vol. 2-3)
• The Gentlemen's Alliance by Arina Tanemura (vol. 1-4)
• Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (vol. 9-12)

Movie Day: Wreck-It Ralph!

Last Wednesday, 11 people showed up to watch a screening of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph. After watching it, Nitha said that it should have won the award for best animated feature, which Brave took instead, and I have to agree. I haven’t seen Brave yet actually, but I just really love this movie! 

If you missed this movie day, don’t fret, because we've got a double feature coming up on May 4^th, also known as Free Comic Book Day! We’ll be showing two movies inspired by comic books, starting with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, followed by The Amazing Spider-Man!

In the meantime, here's some fun Wreck-It Ralph coloring pages:



And Disney's site has some papercrafts inspired by the movie, which is great, but I wish they had some easier ones!

New titles for the week of 4/7/2013

Here's the new titles we've got at the library this week! Pick them up and get something new to read this weekend!
FICTION

• Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick
• Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab
• Scrivener's Moon by Philip Reeve (book 3 of the Fever Crumb series)

New titles for the week of 3/31

Probably the weirdest of the bunch this week would be Riese, which is a prequel to a series of webisodes on SyFy!

FICTION

• Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard
• Touched by Cyn Balog
• Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick
• Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry (book 3 of the Rot & Ruin series) (replacement)
• Riese: Kingdom Falling by Greg Cox
• The Girl is Trouble by Kathryn Miller Haines (sequel to The Girl is Murder)
• Small Damages by Beth Kephart
• Poison by Molly Cochran
• Wait For Me by An Na
• Skellig by David Almond

Upcoming Spring Schedule, April-June

Here's the upcoming events for the next three months, ladies and gents. Some of these events are available to register for now. I'm still working on finishing the sign-up packets for the upcoming Random-a-thon, so that should be ready in a few days.

SPECIAL EVENTS 

Movie Day: Wreck-It Ralph

Wednesday, April 17, 3:30 to 5:30

Join us for a special viewing of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph! Register now.

Random-a-thon Teen Advisory Board Fundraiser

Saturday, April 27, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm

Ask for hourly pledges from family and friends, then come to our event for as long as you can! The longer you stay, the more money you'll help raise for teen programs in 2013. Pass the time with all kinds of library activities, including video games, crafts, board/card games, and random surprise events throughout the day!  Register now and pick up a participation packet with more info.

Dance Dance Revolution

Wednesday, May 1, 3:30 to 5:00

Show your moves at our Xbox DDR program!  Dance for fun, then enter a tournament.  Register now.

Comic Book Swap & Movies

Saturday, May 4, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

It's Free Comic Book Day at participating comic book shops! Come celebrate by trading in your old comic books and graphic novels for new reads! We'll be showing two classic movies inspired by comics, Scott Pilgrim vs The World (PG-13) followed by The Amazing Spider-Man (PG-13). Stop in just to swap, or stay for as long as you'd like! Register now. 

Board Game Day

Wednesday, May 15, 3:30 to 5:30

Do you want to try out a new game?  Do you have an old favorite to share?  Bring your own or use ours, hang out with your friends, eat snacks, and win prizes! Registration begins April 15.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Saturday, June 1, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Relive the days when Saturday mornings ruled. Bring in your favorite childhood cartoon DVDs or select from the ones on hand. Cereal will be provided.

Registration begins May 6.

YouTube Viewing Party

Wednesday, June 5, 3:30 to 5:00

Show videos in the categories of humor, music/anime, and other to win prizes. We will hook a laptop up to a projector so that everyone has a great view. Come prepared with ideas *appropriate* for the whole group.

Registration begins May 6

Pokemon Night

Friday, June 28, 6:30 to 8:30

We’ll be celebrating Pokemon with lots of activities, including a costume contest, Pokemon Stadium battling, watching the cartoon, and more!

Registration begins May 27. Permission slip required.

CLUBS

Gaming Club

Mondays, April 1 to June 24

3:30 to 5:00

Bring your Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, DS, PSP, or any other game you’re into. We'll also hook up the Wii or Xbox for multiplayer gaming. Hang out, relax, and play

whatever you want!  Permission slip required. Club size limited to 35 members.  Registration is ongoing until spaces are full.

Asian Culture Club

Every 2nd and 4th Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:00

We meet twice per month to watch and discuss great anime shows, participate in an art challenge, and learn about Japanese culture.  Registration is ongoing until spaces are full.

iPhone Alive fun!

Last Wednesday I had 7 teens show up for some activities based on Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds. The Plants vs. Zombies portion had us constructing our own "pea shooters", which were actually mini-marshmallow shooters from PVC pipe. While I walked through the "correct" way to assemble the pieces, some decided to see what other shapes they could make that would still work, which I thought was a pretty cool idea. Since I had a few pieces left over in case more people showed up, those were raided and used to mod their shooters. I put on some Plants vs. Zombies music from my iPod (yes I have the PvZ soundtrack on my iPod) and we took turns seeing how many shoot zombie head targets we could shoot in two minutes. Micah and Alex had a tie for 16 shots so we held a final face-off.

The marshmallow shooters were so popular, actually, that we never got to the Angry Birds portion of the program! But everyone was fine with it, and we had a lot of fun! Maybe we'll reschedule the Angry Birds stuff for a later time.

Apparently, the marshmallow shooters were also useful for blowing up balloons...

The zombie targets.

Book Review: Coda

Coda by Emma Trevayne

Review by Elena Nasto


Coda, written by Emma Trevayne is a unique book centered on music and dictatorship. The setting takes place in future New York, where years after some horrible war the city is known as the Web. Everything runs on a network, including the people themselves. Instead of money, people have credits, which automatically get used with a swipe of microchips implanted in their wrists. The Web is governed by a group of elite leaders that are part of the Corp and use the citizens to get what they want. They use addicting music to send messages to their brains to keep them in check. No one has heard “real” music, until a group of musicians comes out of hiding and show people how it is like. Once the Corp starts to come up with even more unique ways of brainwashing people, citizens are urged to start a revolution so that they can finally have their freedom back again.
When I first started reading this book, it was extremely confusing and hard to understand because all these new terms such as “choice” and the “Web” were just thrown around with no clear meaning. As the plot unraveled, the setting became much clearer and the idea that music was controlling citizens interested me and made me want to read more. However, as the storyline progressed, it seemed to me as if the book was going to be another Hunger Games, where a whole country revolts against the government. A lot of aspects were just so similar that I felt like the author was just copying Suzanne Collins entirely. For example, someone who commits a crime they get their hearing taken away, much like their tongue in The Hunger Games. Overall, the book was a cool spin on the vision of the future of America.