Teen Read Week 2011!

Look out, Cardinals! TRW 2011 is coming soon: October 17th - 21st. We've got a full week of activities to celebrate books:

Monday: Wear Your Teen Read Week Shirt! (See Mrs. Niche to order. Order by November 5th)
*Film a book trailer: Create a short commercial for your favorite book then come into the library during English to film it. Just talk on camera about a favorite book. That's it! Going on all week. Videos go on our YouTube and TeacherTube channels. Make a commercial, get an ice cream party ticket.
*Quote Graffiti: Pick a favorite line or quote from a book and write it on the sidewalk during English class.
*Voting for the Talon Awards begins

Tuesday: Character Costume or T-Shirt Day

Dress like a character from a book or make and wear a t-shirt representing that character. Stop by the library to be photographed in your costume/shirt. Everyone who is photographed gets a ticket to the ice cream party on Friday.

 

Wednesday: Poster Contest

Advertise your favorite book/series/author. Everyone who turns in a poster to be judged gets a ticket to the ice cream party. Turn in posters by the end of lunch (5th period) Wednesday. Must show effort to earn ticket!

 

Thursday: The Pajama Read-In & Make a Music Playlist (NEW!)

 Read-in during second and third periods: Come dressed in appropriate pajamas. Bring your pillow, your blanket, and something good to read. Read!

Or...

Make a music playlist to go with a book you like. Tell which songs go with what action in the book and why. Print it out for display. Give to Mrs. Niche to earn an ice cream ticket!

 

Friday: Ice Cream Party Hot fudge, banana splits, whoo hoo!
• Ice cream party during lunch for those who’ve earned ice cream tickets
• The Talon Awards announced.
• Costume and poster contest award winners announced

• Book trailers unveiled

 

Things That Bugged Me About Deathly Hallows, Pt.2 (Movie)

Don't get me wrong....I loved it. Great spectacle, Dan Radcliffe was terrific, I cried. But:

• Harry is still supposed to have his scar at the end. To change that was awful.
• McGonagall never sent the Slytherins to the dungeon. No true Hogwarts teacher would do that. 
• Harry didn't break the Elder Wand and pitch it over the (nonexistent) bridge. He put it back in Dumbledore's tomb.

Anything bug you?

List Me: Most Memorable Characters

So it's like 107 outside. Time to crank the AC, stay inside and read. Time for another list. Something about characters, I think. Not best-loved, not favorite exactly but characters who stick with you for some reason. And let's make this list good guys. We can do villains later.


My most memorable characters is Young Adult (YA) literature list (protagonists).....

In no special order...

1. Ponyboy Curtis, The Outsiders
2. Miles Halter, Looking For Alaska
3. Anonymous, Go Ask Alice
4. Bee, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series
5. Harry Potter, Harry Potter Series
6. Meg Murry, A Wrinkle in Time
7. Lyra Belacqua, His Dark Materials Series
8. Matt Cruse, Airborn series
9. Simon, Mortal Instruments Series (oooh, or Magnus Bane)
10. Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games series
11. Kristina, Crank
12. Kidd, I WIll Save You

Runners up: Darren from Cirque du Freak, Percy Jackson,Johnny Cade from The Outsiders, T.J. Jones from Whale Talk, Connor from Unwind.

I did not put Katniss Everdeen down. I sympathize with her and admire her but find her strangely sterile. That girl is emotionally broken. I like my characters to ooze pain and passion!

Yours?

Road trip to the Texas Library Conference Teen Event!



We got Everfound!

Graham, Nikita, Corey, Sky, and Willie joined me on a road trip to Austin last week...wow, did we have fun. Some highlights of the trip were:

• Getting free advance reader copies (ARCs) of about 30 books each, including Everfound by Neal Shusterman.
• Hanging with authors like James Dashner (Maze Runner) and Carrie Ryan (Forest of Hands and Teeth). We have video to prove it!
• Lunch on Sixth Street
• A midnight dinner at IHOP where we saw many interesting sights (you'll have to ask them). Hint: A floral sundress was involved.
• Being stuffed into the district truck, hopping curbs because I can't drive a dualie, singing old 80s songs to drown out Sky's disturbing fondness for country music.

Hope I can take more of you guys next year. It was a blast.



Getting ready for lunch
on 6th Street







James Dashner

 

In Honor of Night by Elie Wiesel

Listy, Listy: Characters I'd like to smack

Hmmm, how about a list of characters I'd like to smack, lol?

1. Draco Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. And basically, everybody from Slytherin.
2. "Wet" Lindsay from the Georgia Nicholson series
3. Roland from Unwind.....even though ;)
4. Mr. Collins and Lady de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice...oh, and Lydia!
5. Penelope from The Luxe (Like to lock her in a room with Lindsay)
6. Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye (soooo whiny)
7. Bob Ewell from To Kill a Mockingbird
8. Mrs. Coulter from the His Dark Materials series (evil, EVIL golden monkey!)
9. Every single character in Tunnels by Roderick Gordon. No, seriously. I mean ALL of them.
10. Wen Fu from The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
11. Tradd St. Croix from The Lords of Discipline (Such a weenie)

How about you?

Thanksgiving Reading

One of the best things about Thanksgiving break week was the chance to settle in on the couch for a nice, long reading session each day. Here's what I read and thought:

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
   I really took my time with this one, not because I didn't like it but because the story was complex, with rich word choice and alternating points of view. It's sort of like The Maze Runner in that the main characters don't know what's going on in their world. Their confusion is your confusion and that's....confusing!

   Incarceron is this seemingly vast prison controlled by some sort of computer? superhuman? consciousness. More than a century ago, all of the society's misbehavers were sealed inside in what was supposed to be a Utopian environment, designed to rehabilitate them. Something went badly wrong though, because Incarceron is a hell. Teen protagonist Finn is trapped inside, his mind wiped of any early memories, but he just knows he comes from the mythical "outside". Only one man has ever escaped Incarceron, the legendary and perhaps fictional Sapphique. The prison warden's daughter Claudia is outside, equally trapped by a pending arranged marriage to a slimy weasel of a guy she doesn't love. In her world, everybody lives according to the "protocol", which means pretending like it's1840...no electronic technology at all. It's a Disneyesque steampunk version of society where the privileged class uses technology in secret while everyone else rides around on horses and does laundry in a tub.

   Finn finds a key, Claudia finds a key and they realize they can communicate with each other. There are enough plot twists for three novels but it's really the well-drawn characters that kept me turning pages, wanting more. The sequel, Sapphique, comes out December 28th and I'm counting on getting it as a post-Christmas gift.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
   I can't begin to tell you how much better I like this book than The Red Pyramid. It restored my faith in Rick Riordan as a great storyteller, not just a sellout looking to cash in on previous success. Yeah, I was thinking that. The new kids at Camp Half Blood are terrific characters. Leo was my favorite. He's a wisecracking guy from Houston who will make you laugh yet break your heart with his back story about losing his mother. Many Percy Jackson characters return, including Thalia and Annabeth. Percy himself is missing and you won't believe where he's suspected to be!
   The action is fast and not at all predictable (unlike Red Pyramid which made me think, "been there, done that"). The new baddies are either terrifying, hilarious, or both (King Midas, I'm talkin' to you!). The ending is a complete surprise, setting up next fall's sequel.

   Come in to the library and we can argue about Piper. I can't decide if she embodies female empowerment or female stereotypes. Thalia invites her to join the Hunters of Artemis so that counts for a lot!