Weekend Book Give-Away: The Dead of Winter

I don't know about you, but I am SO ready for spring. I'm tired of winter, cold, cloudy skies, rain, and waking up with frost on things. But...I just got this awesome sounding book called The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestly that takes place during Christmas, and I guess I could bear just a little bit more winter:

In Victorian England an orphaned boy goes to stay with his strange guardian in a desolate, moated manor house during a cold and snowy Christmas, where he soon realizes that the house and its grounds harbor many secrets, dead and alive. 

Sounds a bit like The Woman in Black, no?

To win this gorgeous brand new hardbound ghost story, tell me about any hauntings you might have encountered, or ones you have heard rumors of in your community.  If you can't think of one of those, just tell me what your favorite ghost story/book is.

Winner will be selected by my buddy Random Number Generator on Tuesday April 17, 2012, as Dawn is going on her own Spring Break. 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.  

Video Contest - First Five Entries

Time is almost running out for you to get your Teen Tech Month Video Contest entry in!  You can submit until 11:59pm on Saturday March 31st.  Just be sure not to used copyrighted music without permission!  Find more details here on free sources for music you can use.

Here are our first five entries:

Ginger May's Trip To The Library


My Entry


Peace


The Magic of Reading


Sno-Isle Teen Tech Month Video Contest Entry



Think you can do better?  You have 3 days...

Earth Hour is March 31st at 8:30PM

If you are unfamiliar with Earth Hour, it is a global event organized by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) that began in Australia in 2007. It has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with the goal of raising awareness towards the need to action on climate change. To learn more about Earth Hour, click on the WWF's 2012 Earth Hour webpage.
 

The library also has several great Teen Non-fiction books you can check out to learn more about the issues surrounding climate change.  Here are three good ones:

Sno-Isle's Science databases page is also an excellent place to begin researching this topic.  And don't forget that your local librarian is always eager to help you learn about any topic you may be interested in as well!

Trailer Tuesday: The Replacement

I've always been intrigued by the idea of changelings, and I'm surprised that there aren't more books using that trope. Obviously, Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement does.

And the trailer is super creepy. Especially that hand. yikes.



You have mere days until the deadline for our annual video contest! Don't forget to submit, before it's too late!

Fantasy Fiction

Librarians are all about putting the right book in the right person’s hands.
Sometimes this goal makes it hard for us to decide where to shelve a book in the library.
Should The Hunger Games be shelved in Teen or Science Fiction?
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite Teen books of all time. It is officially shelved in the Science Fiction section but you can also find it in Teen paperback collections all around Sno-Isle.  I recently read two books that were found in the Fantasy section even though the main characters were distinctly youths.

In The Left Hand of God, Thomas is a 16 year old who has been raised in a massive monastery, under deprived and strict conditions, to be a religious warrior. Not alone, he is a part of a vast army of children being raised to fight in the name of faith.
However, throughout Thomas' "education" he has repeatedly been selected for especially rigorous and brutal treatment. It is not until he escapes that Thomas finds out the destiny he was being groomed for.


Prince of Thorns is a book that will really surprise you…and not necessarily in a good way. Jorg, the main character, is not a likeable kid. In fact, he is a cold blooded killer, a sociopath born from witnessing the horrible murder of his mother and brother.
The book is fast paced, gritty, violent, and disturbing as it follows Jorg and his gang of killers around a bleak sword and sorcery landscape. It takes a quick turn when Jorg reveals to his followers that he is a prince and that the time has come to reclaim his birthright.
The supernatural or magical elements of this book have a unique and distinct flavor to them. It was something I couldn’t quite figure out until about half way through the book when there is a significant and surprising reveal about their world. I really enjoyed both of these books but Prince of Thorns was ultimately the better book.

Weekend Book Give-Away: Pure

Hey everyone!  How is your Teen Tech Month going? When you think about technology and the future, are you excited by the endless possibilities and mind-blowing technology we will see in our lifetime? Or do you dread the weird, dark, and creepy things people will do with it?  Normally I am a bit of an optimist, but this book description starts to tip me into the other catagory a bit:

In a post-apocalyptic world, Pressia, a sixteen-year-old survivor with a doll's head fused onto her left hand meets Partridge, a "Pure" dome-dweller who is searching for his mother, sure that she has survived the cataclysm.   

WHAT?  There are many terrible things I have read it dystopian novels, but the idea of having a dolls head fused on my hand freaks me out more than I should admit.  If that is exactly the sort of crazy plot-line that makes your ears perk up, Pure by Julianna Baggott may be just the book for you.

Here is the book trailer:



Want to win this book?  Tell me the most disturbing thing you have encountered in a book this year (but no graphic details, please!)


Winner will be selected by my buddy Random Number Generator on Tuesday March 27, 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.  

Trailer Tuesday: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith looks utterly adorable. In fact, I already have it on hold for myself. I'd even check it out, if I could remember to return my overdue books (yes, even librarians get blocked when they don't bring back that which they checked out. le sigh.)

Have you read it yet? Or anything by JES? I keep meaning to read The Comeback Season.



Don't forget that March is Teen Tech Month, and that means our annual video contest! The last day to enter is March 31st.