Meet Sarah Mylanowski! In NYC!

To celebrate the release in the last of the Magic In Manhattan series (Bras & Broomsticks, Frogs & French Kisses, Spells & Sleeping Bags), Parties & Potions, they are running a sweepstakes to w"in a trip for four to Manhattan to have lunch with Sarah Mlynowski!"

"Answer the below question and win!
As Rachel and Miri know, life’s a ball when
you’re a witch! In 100 words or less, tell us what
you would do if you could be a witch for a day!"

Just answer the question and fill out the entry form.

If you aren't feeling up to writing 100 words or less for that question, but are still interested in the series and author, she's all over the internet with chats and interviews.

Like Love?

Harlequin, the long-lived, publisher of adult romances is starting a line for teen girls - and they want your help. On their site:

"The Harlequin™ Teen Panel is an online reader panel for teens between the ages of 13and 17.

Members of the Harlequin Teen Panel will participate in fun quizzes and discussions about things like: books, movies, music and websites. In other words, everything that you’re interested in.

This is the place to be if you love to read!
Sign up today to share your opinion about the books you’ve read and the books you’d like to read—as well as other things that help you choose your books."

More importantly, according to my sources:

"Teens will be asked to fill out fun quizzes; they’ll participate in discussions and will also receive FREE books (approximate retail value of $10-$15 per book?) and have a chance to enter into sweepstakes (with [parental] permission)."

Check it out, and remember, as always, if you find a book you love so much you think others should read it, ask the library to buy it - we probably will.

Girls Can't What?

"As women, we've all been there at some point in our lives....a job...a sport...some activity where we were told we can't participate simply because we were female."

The website, "Girls Can't What?" wants you to share your story.

Check out their site for girl-powered talk, book reviews, and real stories of girls who didn't listen to those who said they can't.

Dragon's Horde 2008

What's that? I hear you asking.

"Dragon's Horde is a contest for teen writers with the goal of discovering and publishing fresh talent in the areas of short story writing, poetry, artwork, photography, and illustrated stories such as manga. The prize is publication in a forthcoming anthology called, Dragon's Horde 2: A treasury of teen art and writing as well as copies of the book for the winners in each category."

Full info here.

Deadline is December 31st.

Good Luck!

Morris Award Shortlist

The Morris Award is given to the best debut novel for young adults; it must be the author (or illustrator's) first published book. Here are this year's nominees:

A CURSE DARK AS GOLD by Elizabeth Bunce
GRACELING by Kristin Cashore
ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS by James Lecesne
MADAPPLE by Christina Meldrum
ME, THE MISSING, AND THE DEAD by Jenny Valentine

This is just the shortlist - the winner will be announced in mid-January.

***pssst: I'm rooting for GRACELING! But I haven't yet read ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS, and it looks really good!

Feeling Creative?

Want to get your art published on a massive scale? Say 19.5 MILLION copies?

On the back of ketchup packets?

Or maybe you just want your school to score the $1,000 worth of ketchup?

Or line your pockets (or college fund) with $1,000 of your own?

Maybe you've just always wanted to draw a ketchup bottle into surreal scenes?

Well, the way to do it would be to enter the Heinz Ketchup Creativity™ Contest 2008-2009.

Live Chat with Meg Cabot!

Since you're probably stuck inside with all this snow, why not chat with an immensely popular author?

From the readergirlz blog:

"Join the readergirlz forum tonight at 9pm EST/6pm PST as we chat LIVE with Meg Cabot! Tiaras optional.

And during the day, to psych up, visit Girl Week at Reviewer X's blog."

Have fun!

I know you are looking for more books to read over break.

The New York Times agrees, but Amazon shakes it up a bit. With all of the NYT teen titles, The Kingdom on the Waves, Sunrise Over Fallujah, The Hunger Games, Little Brother, and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks appearing in Publisher Weekly's list I posted about last month. Read their thoughts.




Amazon has also released their "Best of 2008" lists. Here's their Editor's Pick (order matters):

The Kingdom on the Waves
by MT Anderson

Paper Towns
by John Green

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

Graceling
Kristin Cashore

Pretty Monsters
by Kelly Link

The Patron Saint of Butterflies
by Cecilia Galante

The Knife of Never Letting Go
by Patrick Ness

Bog Child
by Siobhan Dowd

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman

Little Brother
by Cory Doctorow

Why not try one of these over break?

C-SPAN StudentCam

Like making movies? How about documentaries?

Want a chance at winning $250-$5,000?

From their website:

"This Year's StudentCam Topic:
A message to the new President:

What is the most urgent issue for the new president to address after taking office, and why?

Students are asked to create a short (between 5 and 8 minutes) video documentary that explores an issue of national significance that they believe is in need of urgent attention from the new president of the United States.

Your documentary should include more than one point of view. YOU MUST USE C-SPAN PROGRAMMING TO ENHANCE YOUR DOCUMENTARY. Videos that do not use C-SPAN programming will be disqualified."

They are also on FaceBook.

Good Luck!

Love Twilight? Meetup with other fans this Friday!

Come to the Mountlake Terrace Library this Friday for a Twilight Party!

Celebrate new Twilight movie with Goth makeovers, games and fun DIY projects including making duct tape roses, Goth sock puppets and body glitter! Discuss the movie vs. the book, Edward vs. Jacob!

Mountlake Terrace Library
3:00 PM


Supported by the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation.

Spread your Holiday Cheer

Every holiday season, we look for ways to spread the cheer and help others have a better experience during what can often be a not so happy time of year.

Donating food to your local food bank is and easy way to help people in your community. There are probably donation bins all over town this time of year.

The United States Marine Corps are collecting donations for Toys for Tots, and the Salvation Army has their bell ringers and red kettles outside many stores where you'll be shopping.

I recently learned of another way to spread a bit of extra cheer. You can send holiday cards to wounded American soldiers and veterans through a program sponsored by the Red Cross called Holiday Mail for Heroes.

You can send your cards to the following address, but they ask that they are postmarked no later than December 10th. That's just two days away, but you've still got time to pop a card in the mail!

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456


If you're in the Oak Harbor Library during the next couple of days, look in the teen area for the cards to sign. I'll be sending them off soon.

~Anne

What are your reading habits?

Teens!

Library students are conducting a survey to find out more about what YOU think. They hope to hear from thousands of teens!

Take a few minutes and help them out? Take the survey.

You keep seeing that book, here's a great interview with the author

M.T. Anderson, author of one of my absolute favorites, FEED, and the critically acclaimed two-volume OCTAVIAN NOTHING books, is interviewed here. It's worth a few minutes.

Win $500 by writing a letter?

Yep. Five hundred bucks to Target, which is sorta like cash money. I could spend $500 at Target, easy.

What you have to do:

"[W]rite a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre-- fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 - 12."

Full instructions here and even more info, including examples of past winners, here.

The catch? You've only got until December 6th. That's Saturday.

Free Meg Cabot?

It's been eight years in the making - the last book in Meg Cabot's PRINCESS DIARIES series, FOREVER PRINCESS, is out on January 6th. Why am I telling you this? Well, the publisher, HarperCollins, is making an electronic copy of the first book available free online in celebration. FREE. No, really. To anyone who wants it. I read it on Meg Cabot's blog, so it's got to be true. Read it here.

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Teens expelled for silent protest

Students in Oak Harbor were expelled for refusing to take off t-shirts protesting a fellow student's expulsion.

Students demand free speech
By LIZ BURLINGAME
Whidbey News Times Reporter

“We felt if we were silent with this, no one would pay attention to us,” junior Justin Chambers said. “You need to be 40-years-old and carrying a suitcase for people to actually listen to you.”

How do you feel about this? Were these teens treated unfairly? Would you have done what they did? Why?

Another Best Books List

This time from a magazine you've probably never heard of called Publisher's Weekly. PW is one of the ways we figure out what books to buy for the library. I've stolen this from their Best Books of the Year announcement.

Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A young slave in New York City offers readers a provocative view of the Revolutionary War, within the context of a fast-moving, emotionally involving story; a National Book Award finalist.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves
by M.T. Anderson
With an eye trained to the hypocrisies and conflicted loyalties of the American Revolution, Anderson resoundingly concludes the finely nuanced bildungsroman begun in his National Book Award–winning novel.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
by Jeanne Birdsall
Even better than the National Book Award–winning original, this vivid sequel finds the four Penderwick sisters plotting to foil their aunt's matchmaking schemes for their widowed father.

Masterpiece
by Elise Broach
With overtones of The Borrowers and Chasing Vermeer, this inventive mystery about a boy, a beetle and an art heist is packed with seductive themes: hidden lives and secret friendships, miniature worlds lost to disbelievers.

Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
An exquisitely drawn romance, political intrigue, a take-charge heroine and a magnificently imagined fantasy realm—this riveting debut offers something for almost everyone, adults as well as teens.

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
In a dystopian fantasy that blends elements of classical mythology, a kill-or-be-killed competition and reality television, the author explodes a series of surprises, all the while challenging readers to consider how far her heroine can go while retaining her humanity.

Little Brother
by Cory Doctorow
Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract real-life surveillance, this techno-thriller imagines a teen arrested and held in a Guantanamo-like setting by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack.

Bog Child
by Siobhan Dowd
The discovery of a child's ancient corpse launches this multilayered novel about moral choices, set in Northern Ireland amid the Troubles in 1981.

Dark Dude
by Oscar Hijuelos
The smooth, jazzy flow of the narration—along with very funny writing—sweeps readers through a '60s-era story about a Cuban-American teenager in search of his identity.

Tender Morsels
by Margo Lanagan
Dense, atmospheric prose holds readers to a cautious pace in an often dark fantasy that explores the savage and gentlest sides of human nature and how they coexist.

Savvy
by Ingrid Law
A cinematic and vibrant debut novel introduces a family whose members are each endowed with a different supernatural gift, or “savvy,” on their 13th birthdays.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
by E. Lockhart
Big ideas—about class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought—are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling, mischievous novel, an NBA finalist, about a sophomore girl who decides to infiltrate an all-male secret society at an elite boarding school.

Sunrise Over Fallujah
by Walter Dean Myers
Written from the point of view of the rank-and-file, this pointed novel allows American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq.

Nation
by Terry Pratchett
In a superb mix of alternate history and fantasy, Pratchett balances the somber and the wildly humorous as his protagonists, lone survivors of disasters, suffer profound crises of faith.

Have you read any of these? What do you think? The descriptions are a little lame - if you have a better quick description of any of these titles, stick it in the comments!

If you were lookin' for something to read...

You know how movies have award season with the Golden Globes and the Oscars and whatnot? Well, books have an award season, too, and it pretty much starts out with the National Book Award nominations. Below, with stolen publisher descriptions, you will find the 2008 Finalists for Young People's Literature:

Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson
As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

The Underneath
by Kathi Appelt (Interview)A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound dares to befriend this cat, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become an unlikely family. Ranger urges the cat to hide underneath the porch, to raise her kittens there because Gar-Face, the man living inside the house, will surely use them as alligator bait should he find them. But they are safe in the Underneath...as long as they stay in the Underneath.

What I Saw and How I Lied
by Judy Blundell, (Interview)
When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two. As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is . . . who?


The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
by E. Lockhart (Interview)
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "Bunny Rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew is lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

The Spectacular Now
by Tim Tharp (Interview)
SUTTER KEELY. HE’S the guy you want at your party. He’ll get everyone dancing. He’ll get everyone in your parents’ pool. Okay, so he’s not exactly a shining academic star. He has no plans for college and will probably end up folding men’s shirts for a living. But there are plenty of ladies in town, and with the help of Dean Martin and Seagram’s V.O., life’s pretty fabuloso, actually.

Until the morning he wakes up on a random front lawn, and he meets Aimee. Aimee’s clueless. Aimee is a social disaster. Aimee needs help, and it’s up to the Sutterman to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go
forth and prosper. But Aimee’s not like other girls, and before long he’s in way over his head. For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference in someone else’s life—or ruin it forever.


I'll follow up this post with a few more lists of 2008 favorites so you can stock up for vacations and boring holiday travel and gatherings.

Uber-fans, I'm sure have already seen

the interview with Stephenie Meyer in Entertainment Weekly.

She talks about the movie (next week!), fame, Breaking Dawn, and the Midnight Sun leak:

"For example the part that's me is where I said, ''If I wrote it now everybody would end up dying.'' But that was a joke! And it sounded so serious amidst all the lawyer talk and I think my fans thought, Wow, she's threatening to kill everyone! [Laughing] I felt kind of bad about that. I never felt any anger, actually. Just a lot of sadness. I mean it was a sucker punch — like someone came up behind you and just hammered you in the kidneys and you had no idea it was coming."

And mermaids. She says the word mermaid a lot.

awesome author - Thursday in Seattle

One of my favorite teen authors is M.T. Anderson. He has written some amazing books. The first one I read was Thirsty, about a pretty normal teenage guy who wakes up one morning craving blood, and his expensive braces get popped off by fangs! Is he happy about being a vampire? No! Lots of people think it would be great...but would it really mesh with your social life?

Feed is one of my all time favorite books, which starts with the classic line "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." This is sci-fi with attitude, humor, and chilling insight as to how the world could go very very wrong.

I've only read the first book in his series, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing - The Pox Party. I confess I hesitated to check out at first...it just looks daunting! But a precocious 7th grader shamed me into reading it. If you want a great challenging read, this is historical fiction like you have never seen it before...and a mind-blowing look at some of the crazy stuff that was going on during the founding of our country.

If you are a fan, or just want to hear an amazing author talk, make your way down to Seattle this Thursday night to check him out!:

Thursday • November 6 • 7pm
M.T. Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume II: Kingdom on the Waves (CANDLEWICK)
Reading & Book Signing
Seattle Public Library, Central Branch, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle

Meet Tamora Pierce in NYC?

I know some of you out there LOVE Tamora Pierce. I've talked to you. I know this is a fact.
How'd you like to win:

• A trip for two* to New York City and free passes to the Comic-Con Convention
• Lunch with Tamora Pierce
• A podcast of your interview published on Tamora's web site and in the Strange Lands Newsletter

All you have to do is fill out this form with 10 questions you'd like to ask this amazing author and tell them in less than 200 words why YOU would make a great correspondent. It almost seems too easy!

*If winner is under 18, the travel companion must be a parent/guardian.

Dear Mr. President...

If you had an opportunity to write a letter to the next President of the United States, what would you say?

So far over 5,000 teens across the United States have shared their concerns and ideas as part of the Writing Our Future: Letters to the Next President project. The project is sponsored by Google Docs and the National Writing Project, and is a way that classes learn about civic engagement and improve their writing skills at the same time.

The site can be searched by region, if you want to know what other teens that live near you are thinking about, or you can search by a particular topic that interests you.

I'm really looking forward to reading these letters.

And remember to vote on Tuesday if you can. If you're not old enough to vote, then encourage everyone you know who is registered to cast their ballots!

~ Anne

Last day for art contest!

Today is the last day to get your entry in for the Books With Bite art contest! We have some really awesome entries so far...I hope to see more still :)

4 winners will get a $25 gift card for Amazon.com and posters made of their art.

Libraries close today at 6pm...except at Oak Harbor and Lynnwood, where they are having a parties from 7-9 and 8-10, respectively.

(Thanks for the correction Jackie!)

Costume Party!

Hey Guys,

When I asked you what you wanted to do at the Lynnwood Library you said that you liked after hours programs, that you like parties, and that you thought scavenger hunts and goth sock puppets were cool ideas.

GUESS WHAT?

Well, you probably figured it out already what with the title and your inherent cleverness (note the blatent sucking up on my part)... but all of those lovely things you expressed interest in are combining into one simply spectacular evening of awesome!

We shall have a Costume Contest - a Scavenger Hunt - we'll make Goth (or Emo, if that's your thing) Sock Puppets - you'll witness The Return of the Button Machine - the old favorite, Guitar Hero - and we'll screen a classic black & white Horror Movie to set the scene.

And, of course, there will be Candy & Pizza. But you knew that, right? *grin*

SO HALLOWEEN NIGHT (that's Friday) 8PM - 10PM

If you want to help out, shoot me an email or show up at 6 or 7.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS!!!

--Jackie

Sherman Alexie on The Colbert Report

If you haven't read
THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN, well, if that doesn't make you want to, nothing will...

Spooky times in Oak Harbor!

This Friday is a very special after hours event for teens in Oak Harbor.

Join us from 7-9 pm for a haunting Halloween celebration, as we wrap up Teen Read Month.

We'll have plenty of food and drink - pizza, punch, and especially something to please your sweet tooth.

There will be games, and a costume contest - with prizes!

Be there!

Half-Blood Prince International Teaser Trailer *NEW*

I'm completely in love with the last bit between Harry & Hermione!



We blogged the last trailer, if it's slipped you mind.

author Nancy Werlin in Bellevue this Sunday

This Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 5:30pm at the Bellevue
Regional Library award winning author Nancy Werlin will deliver the
2008 Kim Lafferty Lecture. Nancy has been a National Book Award Finalist and an Edgar Award Winner. Her newest book Impossible has received four starred reviews.

My personal favorite is her totally riveting book The Rules of Survival, about a kid who is trying to find help for him and his sisters...but no one seems to believe the terrible things that are happening to them!

She is a great author, and if you can find a way down to Bellevue, it should be a awesome presentation.

Were YOU in the 8,000+?

Last week we told you to about the Teen's Top 10 and encouraged you to go vote for your favorite titles from last year. Here are the results:

1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
   
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
   
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
   
4. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
   
5. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
   
6. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
   
7. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
   
8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
   
9. Before I Die  by Jenny Downham
   
10. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
    

What do you think? Did your favorites get in? Dawn's did, they are numbers 8 & 10. Mine, not so much, but I knew I was rooting for the underdogs. Even so, humor me: Take a look at Wicked Lovely & Tamar. They are truly worth your time.