Generation Next Gaming Club starts Thursday

The new Gaming Club geared towards 18-29 year-olds will be starting this Thursday, June 6, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. If you're in the current gaming club and a high school graduate, you're automatically on the list for the Generation Next Gaming Club. Once the Generation Next club starts meeting, I'll be asking all gaming club members that are high school grads to please meet at that one instead of Monday's club. In the case that you're 18 and still in high school, you can choose to attend one club or the other (but not both). If you have any questions about the gaming clubs, feel free to shoot me an email or come talk to me!

Book Review: If You Could Be Mine

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

Review by Elena Nasto

If You Could Be Mine is a unique story centered around the strict society in Iran. Both religion and tradition are the foundation of several rules enforced which limit how citizens are allowed to wear, act, and express themselves. For example, all women must be covered up and wearing a hijab or full body outfit as part of their religion. Moreover, certain acts such as public affection are greatly prohibited. Those who are caught disobeying these laws are subject to getting arrested and most likely physically abused by the police. The main character, Sahar, is going through a bad time in her life because she is in love with her best friend Nasrin, who is a girl. Because girl relationships are illegal, they risk keeping their relationship a secret. However, when Nasrin is set up to marry a handsome and wealthy man, Sahar is heartbroken. The story tells the entire journey the girls go through trying to stay together in a place where they simply do not belong.

In my opinion, I thought this book was a shocking burst of reality. While reading it, I truly realized that there are many places in the world that do not have many of the freedoms such as in America. As a result, people have to suffer and keep secret while they try to somehow to live a normal life. The story was especially compelling to read because the characters are adolescents and are making huge decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. I definitely recommend this book to everyone because it is something that everyone should be aware of, regardless if you do not support gay rights. It is surprisingly different from other stories in that it does not present a perfect ending but rather the truth about what happens in the world today.

Sellers Library Teens Tumblr page

There is now yet another way to follow the goings on at Sellers Library, as I've started up a Tumblr page:
SellersLibTeens.Tumblr.com
In addition to postings of events and things going on at Sellers Library, I'll probably be doing plenty of reposting of other library and book-related awesome stuff. Follow the new Tumblr page, and feel free to comment on what I could do to make it awesomer (that's totally a word, spellcheck).

Sellers teens making the world better!

This is just a post to say congratulations to Genni Naklicki, a member of our own Teen Advisory Board,  for her help in turning an empty patch of land by the side of the road into a 4,650 square foot garden! She was interviewed in the Daily Times (link here), the online version of which includes a video. This was really inspiring to see, and it's great to see people helping out the community! Good work Genni!

Free Comic Book Day and TAB Bake Sale!

Saturday was a busy day for Sellers Library! We had Truck Day going on for the kids, which meant that outside there were all kinds of trucks (fire trucks, police cars, construction vehicles) parked everywhere. There was also a used book sale going on outside. In addition to that, it was the first Saturday in May, which meant it was Free Comic Book Day at many comic stores around the country. More and more libraries are getting in on FCBD each year, and this year we celebrated by having a selection of free comic books and a double feature of comic book movies. Patrons were allowed to take two comics each from the selection, then grab some snacks and relax to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World followed by The Amazing Spider-Man. 13 teens showed up for the comics and movies, and I believe all but 1 stayed for both!

As if that wasn't enough activity for one library, the Teen Advisory Board was also running a bake sale in the lobby during the afternoon! In addition to raising money for the teen programs and supplies at the library, a portion of the money raised by the bake sale also went to help the family of a friend in the TAB, whose family is dealing with the aftermath of a house fire. Altogether the TAB raised $138 in the bake sale, which is awesome!

The comic selection, shortly before being picked through.

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.

Mario Night!

To coincide with Teen Tech Week, on Friday March 15, 17 teens showed up to celebrate Nintendo's famous mascot, Mario. The main event was a Mario Kart Wii tournament, which lasted up until the very end of the evening. It was a pretty close game, and in the end David took home a $15 Gamestop gift card and John took home a $10. The first and second place winners also took home a random Mario Kart capsule toy, and all participants got Mario themed candy. In addition to Mario Kart Wii on the main projector, we had a Gamecube hooked up to a second projector and an N64 hooked up to the TV. There were also some activities for those not currently playing a game, such as a Mario-themed word search, a Mario maze and some coloring pages. It was a really fun night and I look forward to doing another soon!

Mario Kart Wii tournament

N64 feels right at home on an old TV

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Here's the Super Mario Maze (it's harder than it seems!):

And here's some Mario coloring pages!

couple of new titles

Here's a few new titles that have come in recently, be sure to check them out! If you're a fan of The Legend of Zelda, you'll definitely want to check out Hyrule Historia!

FICTION

• Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon
• Homeland by Cory Doctorow (sequel to Little Brother)
• Nerve by Jeanne Ryan
• When We Wake by Karen Healey
• Requiem by Lauren Oliver (final book of the Delirium trilogy)

NON-FICTION

• The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia 

I'm guessing Don't Turn Around has nothing to do with Ace of Base, but I can't help but hear that song anyway when I read the title.

Rock Band Jam Session!

Last Wednesday 7 teens showed up to rock out in our Rock Band jam session. While it was a smaller group than usual, that just meant that everyone got more time to play! While I started off grabbing the microphone and singing (my apologies to everyone present), I was surprised to see that the microphone got passed around quite a lot during the event! We had some players who were seasoned veterans of the game, and we also had some people who had never played before! We played a lot of Rock Band 3, then popped in Lego Rock Band after a little while (once again, no love for the Beatles!). There was also popcorn, pretzels and cookies to snack on in between songs. Everyone had a good time and I can't wait to do it again!

We have new shelves!!!

I'm happy to announce that our teen corner just got a bit more spacious, as our new shelves were installed this week! The new shelving was installed where the manga shelf was before. This gives us enough room to fit series in to the corner, after the fiction ends, then series continues out to where it's always been located, with manga/graphic novels starting there as well. The layout definitely has more of a flow to it, and even gives us more room to put displays on top of the shelves and show off new titles!

lots more space!

Un-Valentine's Day Party!

Last Wednesday, 16 teens stopped by to partake in our Un-Valentine's Day party! With a mix CD of anti-love songs playing in the background by artists such as Tom Waits and Weird Al, we played some games, ate some snacks, and made some cool looking crafts. First we built little marshmallow shooters out of plastic cups and a balloon, and launched heart-shaped marshmallows at partners who tried to catch them in a cup. After 60 seconds, whichever team caught the most won candy prizes, then we switched launchers and catchers. It was pretty frantic and fun. Then we made some duct tape roses, but out of duct tape options such as black, or black with skulls, and red with black dragons! They came out looking pretty cool! While making the roses I wheeled out some snacks, "broken heart" cookies and "Hershey kisses of death!". We ran into a snag when I tried to play some anti-Valentine's day clips on YouTube, as the wifi was being fickle. Oh well, we still got to watch Adam Sandler sing "Love Stinks" from the Wedding Singer before it refused to cooperate! All in all it was a fun day that went by too fast!

making duct tape roses

the dragon tape came out looking great, and this rose even has leaves!

another rose with leaves that came out great!

New titles for the week of 2/10/2013

FICTION

• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
• What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard
• Crash by Lisa MacMann (Visions book 1)
• The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Right State by Mat Johnson and Andrea Mutti
• Bring the Thunder by Alex Ross and Jai Nitz

Mini Desktop Calendars

Last Wednesday we had 15 teens show up to make mini desktop calendars that use an inverted CD case as a stand. Tables were scattered with various kinds of paper, crayons, colored pencils and magazines to tear up in order to decorate the monthly calendar pages. Everyone's calendars came out looking totally unique but all equally awesome. Thanks to everyone that came by to participate!