IT'S ALMOST TIME!!!!!!!

The excitement is building as the time approaches for the Teen Summer Reading Club End of Summer party! It is going to be a rockin' good time! There are going to be lots of games, good music playing and some great snacks! The big event is taking place on Friday August 8, 2008 from 5-9 p.m. Don't forget that registration is required! To register, all you need to do is visit any library location and ask a staff member to sign you up.
On a side note, once you are in the party, you are in. There will be no in and out once the party has begun.
The party will take place at the Central Library at 101 East Abram St. on the lower level. Woohoo!!!!

Only 3 MORE DAYS!!!!

Until the Twilight Trivia Challenge at the Woodland West Branch, that is. I know you want to sign up for the last few places! You know what, though? Even if you don't grab a spot on the registration list, that's okay! We only have prizes for those who register, but everyone can participate in the trivia. Don't be shy. This is your chance to meet other Twilighters and talk about how awesome the books are. And you may be surprised by how many library staffers are complete Twilight fanatics. Like someone whose name begins with an A- and ends with an -ngela.

And I nearly forgot! Adults are now welcome to join in the Twilight Trivia madness. You guys wouldn't believe how many adults have been asking to participate. Madness, I tell you. Madness!!

Has everyone else been keeping up with the Breaking Dawn Quote of the Day on the main page of Stephenie Meyer's website? These quotes are driving me CRAZY!! A certain someone (begins with an A- and ends with an -ngela) clued me in to these quotes and I will never forgive her for the daily torture of trying to analyze and decode each string of dialogue.

While I'm talking about Twilight, I should mention the brand new trailer for the movie. There is a link to it on Stephenie Meyer's website. Personally, I like the teaser trailer better, but I want to know what everyone else thinks! (That includes the library staff.)

And, for your amusement, some Twilight-related links:

Twilight Guy: A Guy Reads the Twilight Saga (I think the name explains it all. Visit this site. You will love it.)
Twilight Teez (Where you can buy Bella's wedding ring!!)
His Golden Eyes.com (With theories about the Breaking Dawn quotes.)
With You (This site has some awesome Japanese Twilight illustrations. Look for the link on the left under MultiMedia)

Zombies!

Everyone likes zombies. Adults like zombies. Kids like zombies. Cats, dogs, even babies like zombies.* And now, finally, teens are turning into zombies. Well, not really, but there are a couple of brand new teen books featuring zombies. But first, let’s do a very quick and off-the-top-of-my-head zombie history recap.

Night of the Living Dead, George Romero’s 1968 cult classic, is really (if you ask me) what started it all. Now, maybe Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein helped, but Night of the Living Dead really inspired 20th century zombie lovers to create a plethora of zombie novels, zombie comic books, zombie movies, even zombie celebrations . There have been dozens upon dozens of zombie movies; Too many for me to even begin to name. Wikipedia (oh, most helpful of sites) has a great list of zombie films.

The true zombie madness died down a bit during the 1990’s, but I like to think that books such as The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z by Max Brooks* and movies such as Shaun of the Dead and Resident Evil (based on the games, of course) really helped bring back the zombie craze. Since then, Stephen King has written a zombie book (Cell) and Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed Planet Terror. You can even find some zombie manga (Zombie-Loan and Reiko the Zombie Shop)!

But now, finally, we have some teen zombie novels!


The basic premise of the book? Kids are starting to not die. But don't call them zombies. They are "differently biotic" or "living impaired." Phoebe is a goth girl. Her best friend, Adam, is a jock. And Phoebe's crush, Tommy, is "living impaired."

Some of the kids in school don't like those who are "living impaired." I mean, really don't like them. But Phoebe doesn't care. And this may lead to something dangerous for Phoebe, Tommy, and even Adam.




This is taken from BarnesandNoble.com:
From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong.A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah's first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders-the most popular girls in school.The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in their appearance. Blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.But Hannah wants desperately to fit in-regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: If she doesn't watch her back, she's going to be blonde and popular and dead-just like all the other zombies in this town . . .



*Although this is not a proven, scientific fact, I bet if you asked a bunch of babies (or cats or dogs) if they liked zombies they most likely wouldn’t tell you that they don’t like zombies, so it is probably safe to assume that babies (and cats and dogs) do, indeed, like zombies.

* Son of one of my personal heroes, director Mel Brooks, who directed Young Frankenstein, which harkens back to our friend Mary Shelley’s well-known novel

Twilight Trivia Challenge 2008!

Haven't had your Twilight fix since the The Bella Cullen Project concert at the Central Library?

Not to worry! The Woodland West Branch is gearing up for the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, by hosting the Twilight Trivia Challenge 2008.

The Twilight Trivia Challenge 2008 will take place Thursday, July 24 from 6 pm to 7:30 pm.

Registration is required for this event. To register, call 817-277-5265 or ask a library employee in person. Sign up ASAP if you're interested, because space is very limited and we're already filling up!

Have some Twilight gear at home (i.e., shirts, buttons, hats, or other crazy schtuff)?? Wear it while you battle your friends with your astounding knowledge of Bella, Edward, Jacob, and every other character we all love to read about over and over again (or maybe that's just me...)

And if you haven't already done so, visit Twilight Tuesdays at MTV.com to see the article and some videos of The Bella Cullen Project.

Also, check out the new Entertainment Weekly article on Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight movie and tell us what you think. Do you like the cover photo (on page 4 of the article)? We want to know!!

Little Brother and Wordle

I am in love with Wordle, a site that makes tag clouds out of any text, including del.icio.us links. For instance, the above is the tag cloud for the YA book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (if you click on the link, you can read the whole book ONLINE for free!). Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies and Midnighters series calls the book "A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion, as necessary and dangerous as file sharing, free speech, and bottled water on a plane", while Neil Gaiman blurbs on the front cover: "I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year." Since Westerfeld and Gaiman are some of my favorite authors, I am going to start reading this one as soon as possible!

********: It's Back

Come on over to the East Arlington Branch on July 3, 2008 at 2 p.m. and find out what the real movie title is. It's sure not "********." Coincidentally (or is it?) this movie is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary and is going to be shown in theaters later this month. The library showing would be a great time to see the movie and judge whether it will be worth the ticket price! (Or it would be an opportunity to see a movie over and over again!) Join us and celebrate the strange allure of 80s movies!

Here's the info:

Thursday July 3, 2008 2p.m.
East Arlington Branch
1624 New York Ave.
Arlington, TX 76010

Read-A-Thon @ Woodland West Branch