Teen Scene Newsletter

A subgroup of our fabulous Teen Advisory Group has just started a teen newsletter, which will replace the old Teen Scene program brochures that were available in the library. They are now out and about in the library, but if you want to get a peek at it before you get here, or just prefer to do things electronically, the sidebar at the right has a link that will allow you to download your very own copy! A big, big thank you to Katie and Brynna for spearheading this effort. We plan to publish every 2 months, so check back mid-to-late October for the next issue.

What Mrs N's Been Reading - Here There Be Dragons and Streams of Babel

As usual, I'm a little behind on posting and have finished 2 books, this time 2 very different ones. The first was James A Owen's Here There Be Dragons. The prologue gets us started with the murder of a British professor. We are then introduced to John, a young man on leave from the British army during WWI, who had been studying obscure languages with the professor. He has been entrusted with the Imaginarium Geographica, which turns out to be magical atlas of sorts, of a parallel world known as the Archipelago of Dreams. He and 2 other young men that he meets when he responds to a summons from the professor, but arrives after his death, are taken by a mysterious stranger, to the Archipelago. The Archipelago is in the midst of political upheaval and a struggle between various races of beings for control. You see hints of references to famous classic fantasy stories, that at times don't seem to flow quite smoothly. However that makes a lot more sense at the end of the story. It wasn't a favorite of mine, but it wasn't bad, and it did take some unique views of some classic fantasy novel features. If you like it, it's the first in a series.

The second book was Carol Plum-Ucci's Streams of Babel. I've liked all of the Plum-Ucci books that I've read. (I think the only one I haven't is The She. I'll have to get around to that one.) She does a wonderful job of drawing you into the characters, and keeping up suspense. In this one, chapters alternate between the perspectives of about half a dozen characters, all teenagers. Some are residents of a small town in New Jersey where 2 women have died, with similar, odd symptoms, and a few teens seem to be developing those same symptoms. Is it a new disease, or is it some sort of terrorist activity with a bio weapon? One of the other characters is a teenager in Pakistan, who has been working as a v-spy for the US government, attempting to track and translate terrorist chatter on the web. All of the characters are gradually drawn together. As usual with Plum-Ucci, the suspense is kept up, and you quickly come to like and care about the characters. It's also an interesting look at terrorism and the strategies being used to try to fight it. Highly recommended.

Link to Summer Book Reviews

Ok, I have the link to take you directly to the book reviews from Teen Summer Reading 2009, up and running. Look for it on the bar to the right of this page, or check it out below:
Teen Summer Reading 2009 Book Reviews

As usual, I was trying to make it much more complicated than it needed to be. A big thank you to Mike, the wonderful, friendly, tech support guy at Evanced for straightening me out. Anyway, that link to the right will stay put year-round. If you didn't check out the reviews page over the summer, take a few minutes and poke around in there. You can search and sort a gazillion different ways, and see what other teens were reading, which books received 5 stars, or for that matter, 1 star, etc. If you're stuck for ideas for what to read next, this is a great source!
Enjoy!

Aquapalooza Lost and Found Alerts

Ok, we've got a couple of towels taking up space here in the lost and found area, and we have someone looking for a missing blue and white shirt. If you're missing something, or have anything that isn't yours, please come on in and help us sort it out.
Thanks!

Origami

Our last program of the season (not counting that last movie tomorrow) was Origami. A big thank you to Drew Tomes for guiding us through 2 very different types of projects. Everybody went home with something that looked pretty darn good! The second project was a modular one. See the pic of one of the final ones. Very cool!

Aquapalooza

Finally getting to posting some pics and video from yesterday's Aquapalooza program. What a blast! The weather was fabulous and we had a great turnout. Other than wondering where that one water ballon that the kids launched, that made it clear over the building into the upper parking lot, actually ended up (if you saw it, let me know) I'll quit babbling and just let the pics and video speak for the day. Definitely watch for this again next summer!

Tie Dye - Part 1

Tie dye is always a popular program. It's the only one that we have done every single year that there has been a Teen Summer Reading Program. In fact, I believe all but the first year, we've done it twice. This year is no exception. We ended up with 29 kids in the first session. If you want in on this one, and are reading this before 7:00 pm, come on in then, when we'll be doing Round 2. My only complaint about this program is that I frequently don't get to see the final product, so if you were here, please wear your shirt the next time you come into the library, and look for me.

Murder Mystery - Death Gets a Red Card

The interactive murder mysteries are always popular, and this year's was no exception. In fact, we decided after last summer's, to offer it twice this year to keep the groups to a manageable size. Good decision! It was a bit saner this year. We managed to get both sessions in before those torrential downpours hit yesterday, so that was a big plus, since we had some parts set up outside. Our chalk body outline (complete with smiley face!) is probably gone. But, as always, everyone had a great time, and some people even solved the case correctly! These are perennial favorites, so watch for one again next summer.

Video Game Day

We had another great open play video game day on Tuesday. As usual, not only were the video games in constant use, but the Nerf ping-pong was in pretty constant use as well. And I don't know why (you guys know you don't have nearly enough time to actually get a game in!) but the Risk always comes out, too. That's the last game day of the summer, but watch for tournaments once school starts.

Weekly Challenge July 20-24, 2009

Ok, we've got a break in the action between rounds of the murder mystery, so here (finally) is this week's Weekly Challenge. Sorry about the delay!

Divide the figure below into four equal areas, each of identical shape.