Weekend Book Give-Away: The Girl is Murder

Looking for a sweet mix of historical fiction and mystery? This week's book give-away is The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines.

In 1942 New York City, fifteen-year-old Iris grieves for her mother who committed suicide and for the loss of her life of privilege, and secretly helps her father with his detective business since he, having lost a leg at Pearl Harbor, struggles to make ends meet.

I love the elegance of the cover, which makes me think of all those dark noir detective movies with all the men wearing hats, and the ladies looking glamorous and chic. But instead of the girl playing the femme fatal, it looks like she is going to be the one to save the day here! (At least I hope so).

To win this book, tell me about your favorite mystery, and what you love about it. (Mine is The Beekeeper's Apprentice...16 year old American orphan meets Sherlock Holmes, and proves she is every bit his match!)

Drawing will take place Tuesday August 16th. Look here for the winner!

Weekend Book Give-Away: To Timbuktu

This week's book is the perfect read for our Summer Reading Program's theme: You Are Here. It is a terrific book written by Casey Scieszka (daughter of Jon Scieszka, the hilarious children's author) and illustrated by Steven Weinberg called To Timbuktu. They met on the road, and created this book together!

Casey and Steven met in Morocco, moved to China then went all the way to Timbuktu. This illustrated travel memoir tells the story of their first two years out of college spent teaching English, making friends across language barriers, researching, painting, and learning to be themselves wherever they are.



Tell us about the coolest thing that has happened to you while traveling, and you could win this book! Winner will be selected Thursday August 4th, as I will be out and about traveling myself!

Weekend Book Give-Away: Ruby Red

The week's book is a Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier, in which sixteen-year-old Gwyneth discovers that she, rather than her well-prepared cousin, carries a time-travel gene, and soon she is journeying with Gideon, who shares the gift, through historical London trying to discover whom they can trust. Here is a trailer:




Once again there is a waiting list for this awesome book if you get it from the library. But if you want to read it next week, enter here to win!

To enter leave a comment telling us where and when you would go if you could time travel. ( Me, I'd like to see the Beatles live in concert.) Winner will be selected on Tuesday July 26, 2011.

Weekend Book Give-Away: The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

This week's book giveaway The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente is a splendid fantasy story that will make you feel like a dreamy little kid again.

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland.



You can begin reading the book online here, or get it from Sno-Isle here, too if you don't mind a bit of a wait.

To enter to win this book, leave a comment telling us about your favorite fairytale daydream...either current or from when you were a kid. Me, I liked to image I had a pet dragon!

Winner will be selected on Tuesday July 12, 2011.

Weekend Book Give-Away: Enclave

If you were tantalized by Nate's great review of Enclave by Ann Aguirre earlier this week, you are in luck...it is this week's free book giveaway! For anyone hungering for a Hunger Games follow up, this might just be the book you have been looking for:

In a post-apocalyptic future, fifteen-year-old Deuce, a loyal Huntress, brings back meat while avoiding the Freaks outside her enclave, but when she is partnered with the mysterious outsider, Fade, she begins to see that the strict ways of the elders may be wrong-- and dangerous.



Right now there are a ton of people waiting to read this book...so get out of the line and cut to the front, by winning your own copy! To enter leave a comment saying what skill, talent, or knowledge you have that would help you survive a post-apocalyptic future? Winner will be selected on Tuesday July 5, 2011.

Weekend Book Give-Away: Seven Kinds of Ordinary Catastrophes

This week's book is a personalized and signed copy of Seven Kinds of Ordinary Catastrophes by another wonderful local author, Amber Kizer. It is the long awaited sequel to One Butt Cheek at a Time, bringing you the further adventures of Gert Garibaldi.

Okay, so here's the deal: there are books about volcanoes erupting and meteorites hitting Earth and plane crashes where the survivors have to eat people—those are extraordinary crises. That's not what this book is about. I'm more the ordinary catastrophe type. This second semester of my sophomore year, there are basically 7 KINDS OF ORDINARY CATASTROPHES: high school, boys, heartbreak, family, job, friends, and the future. Well, I guess everyone's life is full of ordinary catastrophes. These are mine. Hi, I'm Gert Garibaldi. Welcome to my crazy life.

To enter to win this awesome book, leave a comment telling us about an ordinary catastrophe from your life! Winner will be selected on Tuesday June 28, 2011.

Weekend Book Give-Away: The Year We Were Famous

This summer we will be giving away a bunch of FREE books. Unlike library books, after three weeks you get to keep these :)

The first book we are giving away this summer is The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg, a local author and retired librarian!

Based on the true story of seventeen-year-old Clara Estby's walk across America with her mother Helga in 1896, to win a ten thousand dollar prize and save their home from foreclosure. This fast-paced historical adventure takes place during the time of the suffragist movement, the 1896 presidential campaign, and the changing perception of "a woman's place" in society.

Right now there are 36 Sno-Isle fans waiting to read this...but you can win your own copy. To enter leave a comment telling us something cool about your own family history! Winner will be selected on Tuesday June 21, 2011.

Give a Book, Get a Book

Ballou Senior High School in Washington DC has over 1,200 students. In a count earlier this year the school library only had 1,150 books in it. That's less than one book per student. The American Library Association recommends that there be 11 books per student in a school library. That's a pretty huge disparity.

Because of this, GuysLitWire has decided that their annual book fair will benefit Ballou. You can get in on the action by checking out the full post at GuysLitWire, and following the instructions to buy books through Powell's to donate to BSHS.

Similarly, KidEquip has partnered with The Giving Effect where people can donate 10 of their own gently-used books and get free postage to send to low-income and at-risk kids in the Detroit Metro area. So if you have books laying about that would be good for any child from birth to age 12, check out all of the details here.

Or, search The Giving Effect database for a local cause, and find out what you can do to help your community.

Give to any of these efforts, or spread the word about them, and tell me what you did in the comments. Every single one of the commenters will win a NEW book to keep for themselves, from us. So, when you comment, tell me what your favorite book is, and I'll try my best to match a freebie with your tastes.

Only students ages 12-18 or in grades 6-12 who can pick their winnings up at one of the 21 Sno-Isle Libraries are eligible for free books.

Make Your Own Comic Strip

Have a few minutes to kill or a great joke you'd like to see illustrated? Fancy yourself a budding comic artist, but find yourself lacking in the artist department?

Make your own digital comic strip with Strip Generator!


See it bigger here.

Share a link to your comic in the comments, and you win The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks. You've got until midnight on May 1st to make your comic and submit it here (the comic you make does not have to be library related)!

(note, Strip Generator is all ages, and some user submitted content might be better suited to older viewers)

via I Heart Daily

Eragon Series Announcement and Giveaway!!

I've been watching your faces fall for over 2 years as you learn the fourth and final book in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle hasn't been announced or even titled yet. So I know how many of you have been waiting for this announcement!

Publisher's Weekly posted today that the 4th book will be called, appropriately, Inheritance, and will be out November 8, 2011.

Enter your thoughts, expressions of excitement (or derision) and/or speculations in the comments, and I'll choose one random commenter to win a copy of Brandon Mull's new title BEYONDERS: A WORLD WITHOUT HEROES.

You have until midnight on Sunday, March 27th to comment, and only those ages 12-18 or in grades 6-12, who can pick up the prize at a Sno-Isle Library are eligible to win.

The Hunger Games Movie has a Katniss!

And it will be Oscar-nominated Jennifer Lawrence!

What do you think? Relief? Travesty?

I'll admit I was hoping for Hailee Steinfeld, as I think that Jennifer Lawrence, at 20, is too old to play Katniss for the many years it will take to complete the trilogy. But maybe when I see Winter's Bone (the movie that propelled her to the Oscar nomination) I'll change my mind.

The Wrap also mentions that Alex Pettyfer is rumored to be the first choice for the role of Peeta. I haven't heard any rumors for casting Gale, have you?

Sound off in the comments, and one of you will win DROUGHT by Pam Bachorz.

"Ruby's blood holds the secret to the Water that keeps her and her fellow Congregants alive and enriches Darwin West, who has enslaved them for two centuries, but when her romance with an Overseer, Ford, brings her freedom in the modern world, she faces a terrible choice."

You have until midnight on Sunday, March 20th to comment, and only those ages 12-18 or in grades 6-12, who can pick up the prize at a Sno-Isle Library are eligible to win.

Sarah Dessen's New Book

Ok, so What Happened to Goodbye is not released until May, which means you can't even request it from us yet. BUT. Dessen put the first chapter up on her blog a while back, and while the die-hard Dessenites are probably FULLY aware of that fact, I think maybe some of you aren't.

SO. Go. Read. Come back and tell me what you think, and your comment will enter you in to win...

Girl Stolen by April Henry:

"Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen--with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price?"

--publishers description.

You have until 11:59pm on Sunday, February 20th to comment.

Only students in grades 6-12 who can pick their winnings up at one of the 21 Sno-Isle Libraries are eligible to win.

via the ever-helpful Bookshelves of Doom.

100 Teen Books for the Feminist Reader

This is possibly one of the coolest lists ever compiled. I wanted to highlight just a few of my favorites that made the list, but those few quickly became DOZENS. Dozens, I tell you.

Such an awesome list. So, go. Take a look at the awesome, and share in the comments one or two of your favorites that made the list (or a glaring missed title) and your comment will randomly enter you in to win a....

copy of INCARCERON by Catherine Fisher.

You have until Sunday, February 6th, midnight, to enter. And don't forget to enter the Wesley Payne contest!

Only students in grades 6-12 who can pick their winnings up at one of the 21 Sno-Isle Libraries are eligible to win.

Upcoming Movies Based on Awesome Teen Books

I Am Number Four is just the latest in the slew of teen books becoming movies, according to Word & Film.

All of these movies will soon be heading to a large screen near you. If you haven't already read them, be sure to place them on hold before everybody else catches on:

Fallen by Lauren Kate


Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (but you guys are all over this one!)


Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
According to the article, "Taylor Lautner is attached to star." (!!!)



Matched by Ally Condie


The Maze Runner by James Dashner


The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Read the full article for the full scoop!

Which of these are you most excited about? Have you got your eye on a different movie you can't wait to see? Share in the comments and one commenter will win an ADVANCE COPY of Lauren Oliver's DELIRIUM. It's not out until February, and the library hasn't even purchased it yet. While you wait you can place yourself on hold for Oliver's first book, Before I Fall.

Comment by midnight on Friday, January 28th, and I'll announce the winner on Saturday!

Only students in grades 6-12 who can pick their winnings up at one of the 21 Sno-Isle Libraries are eligible to win.