What Mrs N's Been Reading - The Adoration of Jenna Fox

I've enjoyed most of the books that I've read recently, but it's been a while since I finished a book, closed it, and just sat there and said, "Wow!" That is, until last night. OK, actually it was a little after midnight, so I guess technically it was this morning. Anyway, I just finished Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Wow! What a great book! It opens with 17-year-old Jenna waking up after having been in a coma for several months. As she adjusts, she notices a lot of things that just aren't quite right. Her mother has moved her across the country. Her dad is still visiting occasionally, but still lives back east. She has no contact with any old friends, and mother is reluctant to let her out of the house. She has been given video of her life to try to jog her memory. As she starts to put the pieces together, she realizes that something is horribly wrong. The book deals with some heavy issues like life after death, the nature of the soul, and what it really means to be human. But it does it without being preachy, and keeps you absolutely riveted to the story. There really isn't anything objectionable for middle-schoolers, but I'd recommend it for high school students and adults, simply because they will get a lot more out of it. Very highly recommended!

Flight Program

Lou Thiebelmont presented a really wonderful program last night. Lou is a retired pilot and FAA instructor. His program started with a really good explanation of how pilot's navigate, the forces on an airplane in flight, and the various instruments and how they work. It was really well done. Explanations were short, so you weren't bored if the science wasn't your thing. But they were really concise and packed with info, so you got a lot out of it, if that was your thing. He then brought up Flight Simulator, and showed us how all of those instruments actually work in different types of planes. I really looked at Flight Simulator in a whole new light, having seen it used by someone who actually knew what he was doing. There were a lot of requests to get Lou back again, so keep your eyes open. Thanks Lou!

Mario Kart Tournament Update

Just wrapped up our first ever Mario Kart Tournament. We will definitely be doing this again! It was a fast moving tournament, even with a loser's bracket, so everyone got to play at least twice. We even had time for some open free play after the tournament. Not that I'm at all biased or anything like that, but it was great to see 2 girls in the final round! Our big winner ended up being Christian G, with Grace B, who had quite a cheering section, pulling out a second place finish. If you missed it, pics below. Watch for another one of these in the fall.

Fitness Program

We just wrapped up a great workout with Jim Launer from Most High Sports Complex. It was basically a full body workout with no equipment. Jim always does a great job. We look forward to having him back again this summer as part of the Teen Summer Reading Program. This summer he''ll be doing another agility training session. Watch for it! If you missed tonight's program (And most of you did! The folks who came got lots of individual attention though!) a few pics below.

What Mrs N's Been Reading - Doctor Illuminatus

Just finished Martin Booth's Doctor Illuminatus. It's the story of Pip and Tim, sister and brother, whose family has just moved into an old British estate. During their first night there, a pale, scrawny young boy appears from inside Pip's bedroom wall, claiming to be the son of the original owner of the estate, born in the 1400's. Turns out his father was an alchemist who was executed for witchcraft, but not until after he had developed a potion that could put a person, essentially, into long term hibernation. He shared that, and many of his other secret's, with Sebastian, his son, before his death. Sebastian has been in hibernation on and off over the centuries, awakening when an evil alchemist who is trying to create a humunculus, is active in the area. Since Sebastian is awake, there's plenty of danger nearby. A fairly quick read, great for middle-schoolers. Well-written, with good character development for a short book, and very good, but not overly long descriptions. If you enjoy this one there is also a sequel, Soul Stealer. Enjoy! (Once I remember to bring it back, that is. Sorry!)

Call of Duty Tournament Results

We just wrapped up our first ever Call of Duty Tournament. We had a real nice turnout, with 16 in the tournament and half a dozen or so more who just came for the ambience, as usual. I actually like when the turnout is between 16 and 24 or so, because we usually have time to make the first round double elimination and everyone gets to play at least twice. Zach B was our winner, with Caleb L coming in a close second. If you missed it, pics below. Join us next week for Mario Kart!

Wii for Seniors Program

The Teen Advisory Group invited anyone over 55 years of age for an afternoon of Wii Sports this past Saturday. As an added surprise we also brought out the Guitar Hero World Tour. We have some of the coolest senior citizens around here! I love these programs! The kids and the seniors really let their hair down and get to know each other and just have a blast. We had a budding Pat Benatar in our senior group. Who knew?! All in all a great day. Look for it again in the fall. Pics below.

What Mrs N's Been Reading - Time's Chariot

Just finished Ben Jeapes' Time's Chariot. It's in the don't-go-messing-with-the-space-time-continuum genre. It's got time travel, political intrique, social conditioning to eliminate violence, a murder (ok, so that conditioning wasn't always successful) and plenty of plot twists. After time travel was invented, correspondents were sent back in time to record events and interview significant historical figures and relay reports to a moon station to be accessible in the future. Correspondents were genetically enhanced to be able to live several thousand years, and be brought back to the Home Time at a specific recall date that would be shortly before several timestreams converge and make time travel impossible again. But a lot of things aren't what they appear toe be, or are supposed to be. Not a bad book, but it could have been better with better editing. It didn't always read as smoothly as it should have. If you're interested in the topic, I'd suggest Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch.

Link Updates

I finally got around to taking a look at some of the links I've been plugging. Good heavens! I really should have gotten to that much sooner! My apologies to anyone who was hijacked by that link to B. J. Pinchback's Homework Help site. It certainly wasn't like that when I first stuck it on this site. If anyone wants to recommend good sites, especially in the Fun Ways to Waste a Few Minutes of Your Time category, please send 'em to me. I've added a bunch of teen author's websites, and mostly subtracted in the other categories. Hopefully I'll get around to adding to those again soon. Stay tuned...

What Mrs N's Been Reading - Antsy Does Time

Just finished Neal Shusterman's Antsy Does Time. It's a companion to The Schwa Was Here which I enjoyed a lot. The main character, Anthony "Antsy" Bonano is now in high school. After both he and Antsy witness and get pretty freaked out by, a freak accidental death during the Thanksgiving Day parade, a fellow student, Gunnar Umlaut, tells Antsy that he has a terminal illness and has maybe 6 months to live. In trying to think of something he can do for Gunnar, Antsy tells him that he'll give him a month of his life, symbolically, of course. Gunnar jokingly asks for a contract to that effect and Antsy types one up and gives it to him. It's a quirky inside joke that made Gunnar feel a little better. Simple enough. But word gets out and this takes on a life of it's own, soon spinning out of control with the student council vowing to get enough people to sign contracts to get Gunnar to retirement age. But of course, things aren't quite what they seem as Antsy tries to figure out the strange things that are going on in Gunnar's family. There's also a Grapes-of-Wrath-inspired dust bowl, a gorgeous Swedish girl who seems to actually like Antsy, and a mistake that lands Antsy on the front page of the New York Post. Yes, it has it's serious moments, but this book is laugh-out-loud funny in many places, purely because Antsy is such a wonderfully written character. If you liked the Schwa, you'll love this one as well. Highly recommended for all ages.

Enjoy!