6-second book trailers

This week is Teen Read Week, and Sellers Library is having a contest for teens to make a 6-second book trailer using Vine. I thought I'd share a couple of other book trailers using Vine I've seen that may help to inspire! They're simple, fun, and creative!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower:
https://vine.co/v/hB21nDIJIqw



The Fault In Our Stars:
https://vine.co/v/h1mlxbxxiE1



Wonder:
https://vine.co/v/bDIYtI3LXqK



Mo' Metta Blues:
https://t.co/79KSNzuINs



The Mystery Box:
https://t.co/8WgfPLTn3W



The Choke Artist:
https://vine.co/v/btqliXHHH3W


Which is your favorite here? I think they're all pretty great! With just six seconds, you really have to have a clear idea of what you want to say! Experiment, play around, and tweet your six second book trailer to our Sellers teens account, @SellersYA with the tag #SellersTRW. Have fun!

Teen Read Week Vine Book Trailer Contest!

Teen Read Week is October 13-19, and I'm excited to announce that we're holding a contest during the week! If you have Vine for iOS or Android, make a 6-second book trailer and tweet it to @SellersYA with the tag "#SellersTRW". We'll post the submissions to the blog here and have a vote on the winner. The submission with the most votes will get a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card! Be as creative as you want, and make those 6 seconds count! The contest is open to any Sellers Library teen patrons in grades 6 to 12.

Borrow, Don't Steal!

This video was  long time coming, but it's finally online! A group of teens here at the Sellers Library made a truly great public service announcement video speaking out against theft at the library! It's great to see the hard work of everyone involved really pay off!

License Plate Journals

Last Friday, 21 teens showed up for our summer journal workshop.  We made journals out of old license plates!  (Big thanks to my dad for the donation of some old license plates from his basement!)  It was really simple.  We just hooked them together with some report rings. The hardest part was punching the holes in the paper to fit inside; everyone's hands got really tired.  We created special title pages with stickers and drawings, then broke them in with some writing.

Special thanks to Nitha and Caitlin, library grads who love to write.  They helped me out with the event, and each taught a writing exercise to the group!  Caitlin had everyone brainstorm three characters, three settings, and three props, and then use at least one of them to write a paragraph.  Nitha talked about different kinds of haiku and had people write their own.  I talked about six-word memoirs, and gave away some copies of I Can't Keep My Own Secrets while people worked on telling a story in six words.  We definitely had some creative writers in the group, and it was fun to hear everyone read their work aloud. 

I have some leftover supplies, so look for this project at Craft Closet Cleanout in August!  And, if you have some license plates of your own hanging around, try this easy License Plate Memo Board.

 Cleaning the license plates--very important!

 Assembling the journals and making title pages.

Writing!

Ninja Links

Here is lots of ninja randomness for your time-wasting pleasure:

Ninja Parade
A fake video news story from The Onion News Network about what happens when ninjas hold a parade.

Ninja Burger
You WILL experience the Ninja Burger® difference!  Guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less, or we commit Seppuku!

Ask A Ninja
It's not just a Q&A video series, it's a whole website!  However, here are the links to the two segments we watched:

• Ninja Hangouts
• Ninja Santa

The Ninja Glare
This video gets a little repetitive, but it's fun to try to master the ninja glare.  (Hint...they show it in slo-mo at the very end.)

Ninja Say What?!
This video made me crack up laughing...it's a whole new take on racism!  (FYI:  There are a few inappropriate words.)

How Stuff Works:  Ninja
Find out the history of the real ninja.  (Don't want to read?  Listen to the podcast.)

Our Own Ninja

Some videos of Dan teaching about martial arts weapons:

Sorry this is sideways, but it's a cool demonstration:

Last-Minute Ninja Costume

Don't know what to wear tonight?  Grab a black t-shirt, watch, and learn: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pobuw7Wk2k&NR=1

Video Voting, 2010 Edition

For the second year in a row, our Teen Advisory Board and friends were asked to vote for the winners of a teen video contest in Bucks County. Eighteen people got together for pizza and voting.  We watched all of the current entries, plus a few from last year just for the memories (towel boys!). 

The Bucks County teens were asked to make a one-minute PSA to promote next summer's teen reading theme, You Are Here.  We actually did the voting in August, but I had to wait until they officially announced the winners to post this.   These are the prizes chosen by the Sellers Library teens.  We were happy to award the grand prize, plus a bunch of smaller prizes.  Click on the links to watch the videos on YouTube!

1. Grand Prize (unanimous)
2. Best Comedy
3. Best Marketing Plan
4. Best Use of Theme
5. Best Props (love the dogs!)
6. Judges' Choice: Best Use of Library Building
7. Judges' Choice: Best Selection of Library Materials

Here is our esteemed group of judges:

Robert Is Bothered

Thanks to the magic of DVR, I get to watch all the late night television I love without having to stay up late! I am enjoying Conan's move to The Tonight Show and Jimmy Fallon's take on Late Night.

Anyway, I mentioned to a few of you that Jimmy Fallon has done some amusing impersonations of Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen on a segment called Robert Is Bothered. I think it's hilarious because I hate Robert Pattinson as Edward. Jimmy Fallon's imitation is spot-on!

And the Award Goes to...

Back in August, our Teen Advisory Board and friends gathered to eat pizza and vote on the winners of a video contest that Bucks County Libraries ran for their teens this summer. The contest was to make a one-minute public service announcement (PSA) for next summer's reading theme Make Waves @ Your Library. They had over 20 entries and we had fun watching them all. It was hard to pick a winner, but luckily we were able to award some smaller prizes along with the grand prize.

Anyway, on Monday night I drove out to the Yardley-Makefield Branch for their awards ceremony. They decorated their program space like it was the Oscars, with a red carpet, movie snacks, balloons, and swag bags for everyone. Some people even got dressed up, which was fun. The best part was that I got to present the grand prize of $2500 to the winner we selected! Tim said that he made over 600 separate frames of animation to create his winning video, which is just amazing. It took him almost the whole summer to complete it. He definitely deserved the grand prize! I also enjoyed meeting the "towel guys," who were really funny and personable. They offered to send autographed pictures to their fans at our library. It was a lot of fun to meet all the teens who created the videos!

Here are the winners we selected:

Grand Prize--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2vlQScdOOA
Honorable Mention--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k94PIlxHkGw
Most Humorous--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JECVRNHVsqc
Most Professional--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhhB1tTxPcs
Best Use of Theme--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ZqcBRyDoQ
Best Costumes--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=842EkeopVaM

They had a bunch of swag bags leftover from the event, so I got to bring home one for each person who helped judge the contest. I will give them to you as I see you in the next few weeks. All the librarians up there were grateful for our help in judging because they thought the decisions would have been too hard for them!

This is our voting group, including members of the TAB, book groups, and gaming club.

It is a rule that any serious group picture should always be followed by a silly one.

Dance Like an Egyptian

Last Wednesday, we were pleased to welcome Habiba (a.k.a. Barbara Siegel) to teach us about traditional Egyptian dancing. The program was arranged through the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which has a really wonderful outreach lecture program. I picked this program to tie in with the summer theme of Express Yourself, and 12 brave teens came out to learn how to dance like an Egyptian villager. Habiba teaches dance at her studio in Philadelphia, so you could even take another class with her sometime! I personally had a great time dancing in this style and would love to do it more often.

Habiba tied a traditional turban on this guy, but he was too tall to wear the clothes that went with it!

To set the tone, Habiba dressed up two teens in some traditional Egyptian clothing.

Habiba taught us about the arm movements immortalized in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. They are much more fluid than the stone carving style would lead you to believe.

In addition to teaching us, Habiba did a demonstration dance.



Something new on our blog...I took a little dance video! This is a dance movement based on the idea of greeting.



Here's another video of the group doing some movements in a circle.

Catching Fire

A friend just let me borrow her ARC of Catching Fire, the upcoming sequel to The Hunger Games. I only meant to read a few chapters last night before bed, but actually stayed up until 2:00 a.m. to finish it! The books are set against the backdrop of a yearly gladiator-style tournament for teens in what was once the United States.

I found Catching Fire equally as compelling as the first book, with plenty of action and a complicated plot. Every chapter takes you deeper into the compelling story and the dysfunctional society of the districts of Panem. You know I can't resist a dystopia! This is the middle book in a trilogy, but it is a good story in and of itself. And it has a wicked cliffhanger of an ending! This is a must read.

Want to know more about this series? Read my review or Beth's review of The Hunger Games. Then, read it to get ready for the release of Catching Fire on September 1!!