Table Top Gaming @ Sellers Library

Last week we had 11 teens show up to play various table top games, from classics like Connect 4 and Uno (and seriously, I'd never seen an Uno game go on as long as this one did!) to newer stuff like Castle Panic and Zombie Dice. I played Castle Panic with a small group, and while we made it quite far, our castle was eventually destroyed by the incoming horde of monsters. I think next time we'll try playing on the "less panic" rule set, our castle has been destroyed so many times! One new addition to the gaming lineup was "Life of George", a Lego game that's an iPad/real world hybrid game. You're given an image to build, then when you've built it you use the iPad camera and the game grades you on how close you came and how fast you built it. 1 to 4 players can play!

I'm often asked about when the next table top event will be, so I'm thinking that starting shortly we'll be making table top a regular monthly event. I'll have more on this soon, so be sure to check back!

Our selection of games!

Castle Panic and Connect 4 craziness!

Right as the Jenga tower fell!

They wanted to do a posed one too.

Pokemon Night X and Y tournament!

Last Friday 16 teens showed up to play some Pokemon from 6 to 8! Mary showed up as Sylveon and Devon came as Infernape! We played doubles battles with a team of 6 Pokemon. There were four rounds of Swiss pairings to decide the single elimination bracket. There was some heavy competition and a good deal of (friendly) smack-talking! In the end, Phillip took the tournament, winning a $15 Gamestop gift card! In addition to the 3DS battles going on, there was some Pokemon anime being projected on the big screen, a Wii with the 4-player Pokemon Rumble playing, and an N64 with Pokemon Snap (one of my favorite Pokemon games. SEQUEL PLEASE!) and the 4-player Pokemon Stadium.

Pokemon tournaments are always a good time, and I look forward to hosting another one shortly. Thanks to everyone that came!

Infernape and Sylveon!

lots of snacking and Pokemon playing!

Taking a break from the tournament to play some console Pokemon

The single elimination bracket

A poster with all 721+ Pokemon makes for a good "Where's Waldo"-style challenge

Sylveon and Professor Oak

some new books for the week of 3/23/2014!

A few new books this week to check out!

FICTION

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (replacement)
• Blood Red Horse by K.M. Grant

NON-FICTION

• The Missing Semester by Matt Kabala and Gene Natali Jr.
• The Early Investor by Michael W Zisa
• Not Another Teen Knitting Book by Vickie Howell

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor and Michael Wyatt

Pokemon Night upcoming!

Just a reminder, Pokemon Night is tomorrow night!!

Random-A-Thon 2014!!

Last Saturday we had our annual Random-A-Thon fundraiser! 11 teens showed up for the event, which required a minimum donation of $10 to enter. Almost everyone stayed for the entire program, which ran from 10 to 3! We started things off with some Dance Dance Revolution by hooking up the Xbox 1 (like, an original Xbox, not the Xbox One!) to a projector. The tables were set up with duct tape crafts, with a few iPads set to YouTube pages of duct tape instructions to follow along with. Although it didn't take long for some of the iPads to be hijacked for playing some Spaceteam on them, which is a riot to watch four people play at the same time.

After DDR we used the projector for a trivia game where everyone had to test their knowledge on a variety of topics such as "name that cheese", "2013", "celebrity yearbook photos" and "candy". Afterwards we broke for lunch where you could make your own peanut butter and jelly (or marshmallow fluff) sandwiches or get a Cup Noodles. During lunch there was Rock Band playing in the other room, then we brought out the Connect 4 for a short tournament where Alex was undefeated. We ended things with some Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart.

I'm still waiting for some people to hand in their fundraising packets, so I'll update again when there's a final tally, but right now I think we're at around $350! The person who raises the most will get a prize as a way of saying thank you. Overall it was a great way to spend a Saturday at the library!

trivia time!

starting the day with DDR

Chess on one side of the table, Spaceteam on the other

New books for the week of 2/23/2014

Here's a list of new books this week, including a new one by Laurie Halse Anderson, the entire Shatter Me trilogy, and a couple of cool new graphic novels!

FICTION

• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (book 1 of the Shatter Me trilogy)
• Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi (book 2 of the Shatter Me trilogy)
• Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (book 3 of the Shatter Me trilogy)
• The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Living With Jackie Chan by Jo Knowles
• Three by Kristen Simmons (an Article 5 book)
• Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian
• Starglass by Phoebe North
• OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Heck by Zander Cannon
• Johnny Hiro: The Skills to Pay the Bills by Fred Chao
• Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
• Jane, the Fox & Me by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault 

Blackout Poetry was fun!

I am officially blaming all these snow days we've had as why I've not posted up about the blackout poetry event we had two Wednesdays ago. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Anyway! We had six teens show up to make some blackout poetry crafts! We had on hand old mangas, discarded books and a ton of old magazines to go through, tear up, and scribble over to make new poems from old blocks of text. And in typical fashion, I had my phone in my pocket and forgot to take a single picture! Ah! Well, here's an example I made shortly before the event, at any rate. We had coffee cans and wooden picture frames to decoupage the poems onto! 

Everyone seemed to enjoy the laid-back nature of blackout poetry, and we all chatted while we made poems. I also had my iPod playing for some background noise, and made sure to apologize for my eclectic taste in music that I was subjecting them to. We've got the Random-A-Thon fundraiser coming up this Saturday, and I'll have supplies on hand to make more blackout poetry as well as a ton of other things!

Random-A-Thon and other upcoming programs!

Our big fundraiser for Sellers Library teen programs, the Random-A-Thon, is just a week away! Next Saturday from 10 to 3 we'll be hosting all sorts of events, from anime to Connect 4, from papercrafts to Super Smash Bros, there's something for everyone to check out! It's a $10 minimum donation to enter.

On Wednesday, March 5, we'll be doing temporary tattoo crafts at 3:30. I'll have some designs on hand for anyone to use, such as the Deathly Hallows symbol and the Hunger Games Mockingjay, but you're welcome to bring in your own or just freehand it if you're feeling brave!

On Wednesday, March 12 we'll be making 6-second book trailers for Teen Tech Week! We'll have some iPads on hand to use, or if you've got a Vine-enabled device you can use that too. We'll plan out and make some 6-second book trailers, then at the end we'll show them on the projector for a mini-marathon! Come with a book in mind, and if you have any props you'd like to use, feel free to bring them too.

March 19th is the third Wednesday of the month, and that means it's the Anime Club! Each month we vote on a title to watch while we hang out and talk manga, anime and anything else!

Pokemon Night will be Friday, March 21 from 6 to 8. We'll be having a tournament for the X and Y Pokemon games, as well as free play on older console Pokemon titles. Come in costume for a chance at a prize!

March 26 will be the Tabletop Gaming event, a personal favorite of mine, where for two hours we'll be offering a ton of board games to choose from! From classics to new titles, we'll have a little of everything. You're welcome to bring your own games as well!

I hope to see lots of you at all these upcoming events! And if you're around Saturday, make sure to stop by the Random-A-Thon fundraiser, which helps us raise money to do all these teen programs!

A few new titles

Just a few new titles added recently that I wanted to bring to your attention!

FICTION

• The Rule of Three by Eric Walters

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama (3-in-1 of vols. 7-9)
• The Property by Rutu Modan

Upcoming Winter programs!

Winter schedule brochures are available to grab here at the library, but here's some of the upcoming events:

The next three dates for Anime Club are Wed, Jan 29, Feb 19, and March 19 from 3:30 to 5:00. Come in and vote on an anime show to watch, enjoy some snacks and hang out with teens who share your interests!

Next Friday, January 31, join us at the library for a screening of Pixar's Monsters University at 4:00!

We'll be having a trivia contest on Wednesday, February 5 from 4 to 5. Come in and have fun competing for fun and prizes! 

On Wednesday, February 12 we'll be making blackout poetry by taking old books, magazines, newspapers and anything else we can find and marking them up to make new passages! 

Anime Club and our movie are drop-in, but registration is now open at the library for Teen Trivia Day and Blackout Poetry!

Lots of new titles for the week of 1/12/2014!

Another week with lots of new releases. Come check some stuff out before these shelves burst!

FICTION

• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (book 2 of The Raven Cycle)
• To Be Or Not To Be: a choosable-path adventure by Ryan North
• Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz
• Scorpion Shards by Neal Shusterman (book 1 of The Star Shards Chronicles)
• Thief of Souls by Neal Shusterman (book 2 of The Star Shards Chronicles)
• Shattered Sky by Neal Shusterman (book 3 of The Star Shards Chronicles)
• Hollow City  by Ransom Riggs (book 2 of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children)
• Frozen by Melissa De La Cruz (book 1 of Heart of Dread)

NON-FICTION

• Guinness World Records 2014 Gamer's Edition
• Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel & Matt Maddden
• S.E.X. the all-you-need-to-know progressive sexuality guide to get you through high school and college by Heather Corinna
• YOU: The Owner's Manual for Teens by Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz and Ellen Rome
• Start It Up: the complete teen business guide to turning your passions into pay by Kenrya Rankin
• How to Draw Hip Hop by Damion Scott and Kris Ex

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Johnny Hiro {Half Asian, All Hero} by Fred Chao
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Dan Duncan (vol. 1 & 5)
• Bad Houses by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki (vol. 1)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret History of the Foot Clan by Mateus Santolouco and Erik Burnham
• Battling Boy by Paul Pope

AUDIO BOOK PLAYAWAYS - FICTION

• Champion by Marie Lu (book 3 of Legend trilogy). Read by Steven Kaplan and Mariel Stern
• The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead (a Bloodlines novel). Read by Emily Shaffer

New Year, New Books

Happy New Year! We've got lots of new additions this week, and a lot of new graphic novel selections. Start 2014 off right with a new book to read!

FICTION

• Never Have I Ever by Sara Shepard (A Lying Game novel)
• The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler (replacement)
• Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan
• Pieces by Chris Lynch
• Unbreakable by Kami Garcia (The Legion Book 1)
• How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller
• The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural by various
• Taken by Edward Bloor

NON-FICTION

• The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent
• Doing it Right: making smart, safe, and satisfying choices about sex by Bronwen Pardes
• Freaking Out: real-life stories about anxiety  by Polly Wells
• Minecraft: Essential Handbook by Stephanie Milton

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley (replacement)
• Doctor Who Omnibus vol. 1
• The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and Hyekyung Baek
• My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
• Runaways: Pride & Joy by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
• Fullmetal Alchemist  by Hiromu Arakawa (vol. 1, replacement)
• Dragonball by Akira Toriyama (3-in-1 collecting vol. 4-6)
• Dragonball Z by Akira Toriyama (3-in-1 collecting vol. 4-6)
• Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori (vol. 2-3)
• Soul Eater by Atsushi Ohkubo (vol. 2-3)
• Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen & Faith Erin Hicks
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Sins of the Fathers by Kevin Eastman (vol. 4)
• I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura

Since I'm always trying to find a way to use Vine, here's one of some of the new graphic novels we got in! (Some like the Dragonball volumes and the Clockwork Angel were already checked out by the time I shot this!)

Tabletop Gaming @Sellers Library!

Last Wednesday we had 17 teens show up to play all manner of tabletop games for a couple hours! Of course the classics were still played plenty, such as Connect 4, Clue and Monopoly, but a lot of people tried new stuff too! Sarah brought her copy of Tsuru again, which is a game I really enjoyed from the last event, plus she brought a card game about the stock market called Pit which was really cool! A group played a few games of King of Tokyo, one of my favorites, where each player is a giant monster and has to get enough power to rule Tokyo! I led a game of Castle Panic, another personal favorite that has all the players working together to defend their castle from orcs, goblins and trolls that are attacking from the forest. Unfortunately, we lost the castle to the monster horde!

The event was a lot of fun, and lots of people asked when we would do this again. Soon! Tabletop gaming is a great way for people to get together, think creatively and have fun, and I'm looking forward to doing another one as soon as possible! This was the last event of the Fall schedule. The Winter schedule of events should be up around mid-January, so please look forward to it!

Playing Castle Panic. "We're about to lose!"

King of Tokyo

Operation (Nightmare Before X-Mas Edition) and Donkey Kong Jenga!

A shot of the game selection before everyone dug in!

Hardware Jewelry craft happened despite the snow!

We've had quite the winter weather these past few days, but even though the library was closed on Tuesday, we were open on Wednesday, where four teens braved the cold to make some jewelry out of hardware items! (Unfortunately Tuesday is when we would have sent out reminder calls, but being closed they were never made!) We had fun making a couple bracelets from rubber o-rings, copper wire, and s-hooks as well as a necklace that used L-brackets as decoration!

Things got much more interesting though as the teens started improvising and doing adding bits from one jewelry piece to another. Every time someone added something, it totally improved upon the instructions that I handed out!

Silver jump rings were added to the o-ring bracelet to make it a bit jangly!

Adding an o-ring and two jump rings to the s-hook bracelet made it fit much better, and made it look more interesting!

Thanks to those that came out in this cold, cold weather to make some hardware jewelry at the library! It was a lot of fun and allowed for some cool creative twists. 

New books! (it's a big one)

This is one big addition to the teen book collection! Everyone come check out some books, help me clear some space! There should be a pretty big list of new arrivals next week too, so keep checking!

FICTION

• Nowhere to Run by Claire J. Griffin
• The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer (sequel to The House of the Scorpion)
• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (book 3 of The Infernal Devices)
• The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (replacement copy)
• Ali's Pretty Little Lies by Sara Shepard (A Pretty Little Liars prequel)
• United We Spy by Ally Carter (book 6 of the Gallagher Girls series)
• Perfect Scoundrels  by Ally Carter (A Heist Society book)
• Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
• In The After by Demitria Lunetta
• Forged By Fire by Sharon M. Draper (book 2 in the Hazelwood trilogy, replacement)
• Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos
• Crap Kingdom by DC Pierson
• Immortal: Love Stories with Bite by P.C. Cast (replacement)
• World After by Susan Ee (sequel to Angelfall)
• Erebos by Ursula Poznanski
• Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (a Throne of Glass novel)
• Splintered by A.G. Howard
• The Eye of Minds by James Dashner
• Winger by Andrew Smith
• Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout (A Lux novel)
• The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead (a Bloodlines novel)
• Just One Year by Gayle Forman (sequel to Just One Day)
• Archenemy by Paul Hoblin (part of the Counterattack series)

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Rust: Visitor in the Field by Royden Lepp
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and Cassandra Jean
• Cardcaptor Sakura vol. 1 by Clamp
• Soul Eater by Atsushi Ohkubo vol. 1
• Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama (vol. 1-3)
• Over the Wall by Peter Wartman

NON FICTION

• How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg and Kevin O'Malley
• The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb

Hunger Games Night at Sellers Library!

Last week on Black Friday we had 11 teens show up for our Hunger Games Night. There were games, a trivia contest and a Hunger Games related craft. We started things off with the Cornucopia Challenge, where 26 items were scattered around our "cornucopia" and everyone was divided into two teams. Each team sent one person to the cornucopia to grab an item, then slapped the hand of the next person who would run out, until all the items were gone. Afterwards I read out a 3-day scenario and when an item was mentioned the team that had it would hold it up and get points for it. The whole scenario can be found here, where I "borrowed" the idea from. : ) I unfortunately forgot to take any pictures of the relay as it was happening, it was so crazy and fast! The winning team got candy prizes.

Next was the archery contest! Everyone got two practice tries with our bow and arrow, then five shots. While Katniss shot an apple out of a pig's mouth, we instead had some red plastic cups balanced on top of an easel. The middle cup was worth five points, and the two on either side were worth two points. The game was harder than it looked, and we had some good competition! Siaka ended up the winner here, with some Hunger Games magnetic bookmarks!

After that we divided the group into three teams for a trivia contest that covered Hunger Games and Catching Fire. We played a short game afterwards called Poison Berry, in which there's a series of balloons, or berries, that everyone pops. Inside each of them are either slips of paper with skulls, indicating the berry was poisonous, or mockingjays, indicating they lived. Only five of them contained mockinjay pins, so most people will end up dead! Winner got candy prizes.

We played a game of blow darts next, with short lengths of PVC pipe and mini marshmallows! Each person had two minutes to get as many mini marhmallows into the cups as they could. Cynthia and Siaka tied for first on this one! Both took home some Hunger Games pin sets!

Lastly there was a table for crafting some Hunger Games themed magnets! These are easy and fun to make for any occasion, actually, so I made a couple of sheets of Hunger Games images sized for the magnets, which I'll link to below. One sheet has the book cover images, and the other is all the district logos. All in all it was a fun night, and a much better way to spend Black Friday than running around to different stores and standing in long lines!

Upcoming November events

This Wednesday will be our Explosion Box craft at Sellers Library from 3:30 to 5:00! I've started an example box, which you can see below. The outside is blackout poetry, the inside is cut up manga!

Next week on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:00 will be our Anime Club meeting! We'll have snacks and vote on an anime to watch and play some anime bingo!

Friday the 29th will be our Hunger Games Night! From 6:00 to 8:00 we'll be playing Hunger Games related ...well, games, as well as trivia and crafts! Signups are currently open for the Explosion Boxes and Hunger Games Night. The Anime Club does not require registration. 

Lots of new books to check out!

Lots of new titles added to the teen collection this week! I met the authors of Fair Coin, Tragedy Papers and Empty (who also wrote Cracked) and all thee of the books sound great, but I really want to read Fair Coin! Here’s the full list:

FICTION

• The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door  by Karen Finneyfrock
• Sylo by D.J. MacHale
• Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout (book 4 of the Lux series)
• Dead River by Cyn Balog
• Champion by Marie Lu (book 3 in the Legend trilogy)
• The Elite by Kiera Cass (part of the Selection series)
• Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown
• Relic by Heather Terrell (book 1 of the Books of Eva series)
• Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter (book 2 of the White Rabbit Chronicles)
• The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson (final book in the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy)
• Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
• Skinny by Donna Cooner
• Fair Coin by E.C. Myers
• The Tragedy Papers by Elizabeth Laban
• Empty by K.M. Walton

Any you’re looking forward to reading?

Cast your vote on Goodreads

If you've got a Goodreads account, voting is currently underway for their Best Books of 2013 awards! Categories include “graphic novels & comics”, “young adult fiction” and “young adult fantasy” among many others! Cast your vote for your favorite books!

I Was a Teenage Zombie

During the Halloween Party last Friday at the library, there was an iPad set up as a photo booth, allowing people to take their pictures and zombify themselves! Below are a couple of pics that turned out really well!