Author John Green Coming to Third Place Books

If you are a fan of teen books, you know who John Green is, and that he has some fans. And by fans, I mean Nerdfighters. Nerdfighters are just any fans...they are SUPERfans, who not only read all his books, but also follow the wonderful vlogbrothers he shares with his brother Hank.

John's new book The Fault in Our Stars came out this week, and he is embarking on a big tour...and he is bringing his brother Hank!  This tour has sold out in many places, but you can still get tickets (for the price of the book) for their Seattle area event.  It will be taking place on Monday, January 30 at 7pm at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.  You can buy a book/ticket and get more info here.

I wish I had a copy to give away, but alas, I do not.  :(  But I have seen John and Hank live before, and I can tell you it is quite a treat, and worth the drive!  Just note, it is one ticket per book, so if your friends want to go with you, or your mom is driving you and wants to attend too...they will need to buy books.  (Not my rules!)  If you go, have fun and report back here to let me know how it goes :D

Author Marissa Meyer - tomorrow @ B&N in Lynnwood!

Just heard from Barnes & Noble in Lynnwood...they have an exciting author visit this weekend!  Marissa Meyer will be reading and signing of her debut YA novel, Cinder:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Sounds awesome, doesn't it?

Sunday, Jan. 8th, 2:00 PM - Alderwood Barnes & Noble

Weekend Book Give-Away: Unison Spark

This week's book give away is for all you science fiction lovers out there.  Unison Spark is author Andy Marino's first teen book.  From the publisher's page:

Everyone is obsessed with Unison, the social network that knows you better than you know yourself. Everyone who can afford it, that is. Living beneath the vast ceiling that separates Eastern Seaboard City into rich topside and poor sub-canopy zones, fifteen-year-old Mistletoe can only dream of logging in and has to make do with technological hand-me-downs. 

Worlds collide when Ambrose Truax, the privileged heir to the Unison empire, wanders into the dangerous sub-canopy streets and Mistletoe saves him from suspicious, uniformed men. They soon discover that they share eerily similar dreams, hinting at a significant past. 

Together, Ambrose and Mistletoe begin to unravel the mystery of their identities and learn that they’re pawns in a bigger game: the Unison 3.0 upgrade, a whole new kind of Friendship. 

To enter to win this fine brand new hardcover, all you have to do tell me what you think would make an awesome improvement to today's social networks.  What would be a cool 3.0 improvement for you? (The ability to smell online? Actually poke your friends? ???)
 
Winner will be selected by my buddy Random Number Generator on Tuesday January 10, 2012. Be sure to leave a name with your entry, and check back to see if you won. To win you must be a teen (6th-12th grade, or 12-18) who uses a Sno-Isle Library. 

Geek Out: Book Recommendation and Tech Tip

Right now I'm listening to a really fun book called Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If you like video games, 80s culture, sci-fi and/or quest books, you are going to LOVE this.

It is about a bazillionaire game designer who creates an amazing virtual universe that humanity basically plays/hides in while Earth falls to pieces. When he dies, his will reveals that he is going to give away all his wealth to whoever can solve the game he has been creating in anticipation of this event. You get the story from one of the teens competing for this prize, and along the way learn the story of the genius programmer.

I'm always super impressed with folks who teach themselves how to code.  I seriously never gave it much thought, only doing a little bit of basic html when I was in school.  But now, it is so much apart of our world, and so many jobs use it...I feel like I'm carrying around some major ignorance on this subject.  Which is why when I heard about Code Year, I got pretty excited.

Basically, this new website Codecademy is offering FREE weekly online lesson on coding:

Make your New Year's resolution learning to code. 

Sign up on Code Year to get a new interactive programming lesson sent to you each week and you'll be building apps and web sites before you know it. 

The first lesson goes out next week, so why not give it a try?  Maybe it will send your life in a whole new (awesome) direction!

Teens review books for publishers--and you!

The members of the Teen Advisory Board at the Mukilteo Library work hard planning and putting on library programs, but that wasn't enough for them. They were eager to take on even more work reviewing books for publishers and were chosen by the American Library Association to be a Galley Group. Publishers send copies of books to the teens and the teens send reviews to the publishers. Win win!

The Mukilteo Beacon, our local newspaper, heard about the program and asked one of the teens to explain it to their readers. Zoe Jovanovich's article was published today and it's great! This is a great example of how teens can contribute to their library and their community.

So, what new books are we seeing? 2012 will bring fallen angels, cute demons, Cinderella as a cyborg and much, much more--and our teens will review it all!

Trailer Tuesday: Dark Eden

Patrick Carmen's last book, Thirteen Days Until Midnight, gave me the heebie jeebies, so I'm both excited and apprehensive about Dark Eden. They've also got an app for this that I'm curious to try out. Have any of you read this, or seen the app? What did you think?

2012 YALSA Non-Fiction Award Finalists Announced

Last month YALSA announced five books as finalists for the 2012 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, which honors the best nonfiction books written for young adults between Nov. 1, 2010 and Oct. 31, 2011. YALSA will name the 2012 award winner at the Youth Media Awards on Jan. 23, during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Dallas.

What is YALSA, you ask? YALSA stand for the Young Adult Library Services Association; it can be thought of as the teen 'branch' of the American Library Association, or ALA. YALSA's mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens, aged 12-18.

The 5 books selected were:

Click on each book cover to learn more about the title or to place a reserve at your local Sno-Isle Library!