Aquapalooza Reminder

Remember you need a signed permission slip to get into Aquapalooza tomorrow. Link to a downloadable version is to the right. Looks like fabulous weather, so I'll see you tomorrow!

Murder Mystery

Always enjoy the interactive murder mysteries. This year's was Rock and Roll Over Dead, with a dead librarian case to solve. We ran 2 sessions to get everyone in without it being too crowded. It seemed like more of this year's participants solved the case correctly than some other years, so it came down to justifying your solution. Congrats to winners. Pics below. We do one every year, so look for a different one next year.

Video Game Day

The video game days are always a lot of fun. Call of Duty and Nerf ping-pong were the most popular games of the day, but there was also plenty of board game activity, as well as a variety of Wii games, and some Guitar Hero. A big thank you to the guys who helped with cleanup. Look for tournaments in the fall.

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

This was another one of those "finally-got-around-to-this-one" books - Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It's the story of Arnold "Junior" spirit, a young native American who decides as a freshman, at the urging of one of his teachers, to attend school off the reservation where he lives, in order to get an education that would give me a chance at attending college. Junior is smart and a kid whose heart and intentions are good. On the negative side, he's scrawny, with a host of medical issues. He has a hard time fitting in anywhere, since many on the reservation consider him a traitor, but the white kids at his new school aren't real receptive to an Indian attending their school either. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes sad look at both the positive and negative sides of reservation life, and a realistic look at the struggles and successes of a young man that almost anyone could relate to. Highly recommended. Enjoy

Build 'Em, Smash 'Em - Summer Edition Update

We just finished up our latest round of, what we call, Build 'Em, Smash 'Em. We did this one back in the spring, and it was so much fun, we brought it back. Basically, teams of 2-4, are given a certain amount of set materials, some size parameters, and 90 minutes to design and build a structure using those materials and parameters. Then we smash 'em, by gradually adding sand to a bucket on top of the structure. The team whose structure holds the most weight before being crushed wins. If needed, pre-smashing height is the tie-breaker. Today's materials included hot glue, toothpicks, spaghetti, loose-leaf paper, and scotch tape. Materials change every time we do this one. We had 24 kids in 7 teams competing today. 2 teams' structures were DQ'd for not meeting the minimum height requirement. We smashed 'em anyway - why not? Of the teams remaining, first place went to DeAnne M., Maria O. and John Paul O. Second place went to Ameer Q., Cody P, and Riley F. Just watching this one is a lot of fun, since you get to see the very different approaches that different teams take. And, of course, when the weight is added, there's usually a surprise or two - either a great looking structure that collapses immediately, or a questionable looking one that turns out to be sturdier than it looked. Congratulations to everyone who competed. Look for this again in October.

Weekly Challenge July 26-29, 2010

Next week's is easy (unless your brain is completely out of math mode for the summer). Here it is:

List 6 odd numbers that add up to exactly 100.

Good luck!

Video Game Weapons and Tactics

We had a great program this afternoon, presented by Lt. Col. Kyle Burley from the Army War College. He looked at the wepaons and tactics used in video games like Call of Duty, and compared them to what is actually used by the military. He also talked a bit about the conditions that modern soldiers fight in everyday - a bit different from what you see in the movies or video games. He also brought along a WWII Mauser rifle and a modern AR15 (firing pins and ammunition all removed for safety) to give the kids an idea of the actual size and weight. We had originally planned to show a little of Call of Duty as part of the program, but there were so many good questions and great discussion that, in a room full of gamers, we never actually got to the game! Quite a testament to the program content! If you missed it, keep an eye out - we may try to bring him back sometime in the future. Pics below.

Ultimate Frisbee on the Library Lawn

We actually ended up out on the adjacent lot. Despite the heat, everyone had a lot of fun learning the basics of Ultimate Frisbee with the help of Pat Wright, the Messiah College coach. Thanks Pat! Pics below.

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - Blood Brothers

Just finished S.A. Harazin's Blood Brothers. Recent high school graduate, Clay, has had some tough breaks in life. His mom died giving birth to him and his dad has been kind of lost ever since. His older sister, who really raised Clay, moved out of town years earlier to pursue a music career, unsuccessfully. Joey has been Clay's best friend since Clay's family moved nearby when he was seven, and Joey's dad helped Clay's dad get a job. Joey's family lives in a nice house, has just about everything they want, and Joey is headed to Duke to study pre-med. Clay and his dad live in a tiny apartment and he works at the local hospital as a med tech, dreaming of someday becoming a doctor. On his way home from work one night, Clay finds Joey, uncharacteristically, under the influence of something and acting pretty wild, including attacking Clay. When Clay pushes Joey away in self-defense, Joey falls back and hits his head on a concrete floor. Clay had already been on the phone with a 911 operator trying to get help for Joey, so an ambulance and the police appear pretty quickly. Things seem to be OK, but Joey later slips into a coma before he can tell anyone what happened. The police, Joey's parents, and most of the kids in town think Clay tried to hurt Joey in a fight over a girl. Despite his life getting awfully complicated awfully quickly, Clay vows to find out what happened to Joey and set the record straight for both of them. The author is a former nurse, so I'm presuming that the medical terminology, which there is plenty of, is accurate. Don't let that frighten you away from this one. It's in there so that you can actually be inside Clay's head. Clay is a very likable character that I found myself pulling for. There are several back stories about Clay's family, his relationship with Joey, the issues with the girl, a planned cross-country bike trip, the relationship that develops between Clay and the police chief, Clay's job at the hospital, etc., that all get resolved by the end, some positively, and some not. A quick read that packs a lot of punch.

Enjoy!

Can Tab Bracelets

Looks like we had almost 40 kids here in two sessions yesterday to make these very cool can tab bracelets. If you missed it want to try it on your own, please DO NOT use the instructions on the website that was listed on the resource sheet in your summer registration packet. I put that in there before I had a chance to try it out. As it turned neither Meaghan nor I could make heads or tails of those directions. I found much better ones - try this site. Some pics below of the two sessions. With decent directions they are actually very easy to make. Everyone was able to make at least two yesterday. Definitely look for this program again. We even had tabs leftover that we're saving for the next time. A big thank you to Nia for the suggestion, and to all of library staff, patrons, and anyone else who collected tabs for us the last few months.