Weekend Book Giveaway: Drama High

For something a little different this week, our Advance Readers Copy is a non-fiction book:  Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater.

Friday Night Lights meets Glee!  The incredible and true story of an extraordinary drama teacher who has changed the lives of thousands of students and inspired a town.  Why would the multimillionaire producer of Cats , Phantom of the Opera , and Miss Saigon take his limo from Manhattan to the struggling former steel town of Levittown, Pennsylvania, to see a high school production of Les Misérables ? To see the show performed by the astoundingly successful theater company at Harry S Truman High School, run by its legendary director, Lou Volpe. Broadway turns to Truman High when trying out controversial shows like Rent and Spring Awakening before they move on to high school theater programs across the nation. Volpe's students from this blue-collar town go on to become Emmy-winning producers, entertainment executives, newscasters, and community-theater founders. This is a story of an economically depressed but proud town finding hope in a gifted teacher and the magic of theater.

If you love musical theater and Glee, you are going to want to read this inspiring story.  Our library copies have a waiting list, but you might have the ARC next week, if you answer this question:   What is your favorite musical, and what is so fabulous about it?

Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday, December 3, 2013. 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 Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

From the publisher: "Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave. One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.
"
**Warning: This one's got a lot of blood**

Weekend Book Giveaway: The Eye of the Mind

How many of you read The Maze Runner by James Dashner?  I'm sure you will be excited to hear about his new book, The Eye of the Mind, which sounds pretty exciting.  Maybe like a mix of Brain Jack and Ready Player One?


Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it's addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway? But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he's holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. 

There are six people waiting to read this right now.  To enter our drawing for a chance to win an Advanced Readers Copy of this new book and beat the line, tell me what sort of thing you would like to try out if you had access to the VirtNet?  Cliff diving maybe?  Space travel?  Undersea exploration?  Or something totally different?

Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday, November 26, 2013. 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.

NaNoWriMo - last three sessions

NaNoWriMo has only two weeks left to go...are you keeping up?  It can be
hard to focus at the end, what with Thanksgiving so late in the month, but maybe writing with a few more of our awesome authors will help!




Bernadette Pajer - The Professor Bradshaw mysteries
 Wednesday the 20th - 3pm -Monroe
 Monday the 25th -3pm - Sultan




Saturday the 23rd - 2pm- Dorine White - Cleopatra's Legacy - Lake Stevens



Keep up the great writing, everyone!

Weekend Book Giveaway: The Naturals

If you are looking for a little excitement, you might want to read this week's giveaway:  The Naturals by Jennifer Barnes.

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie. What Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides--especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive. Think The Mentalist meets Pretty Little Liars-- Jennifer Lynn-Barnes' The Naturals is a gripping psychological thriller with killer appeal, a to-die-for romance, and the bones of a gritty and compelling new series.

Eight people are waiting to read this thrilling book already...you might skip the line and get an advanced readers copy, if your answer to this question is picked:  What skill do you have that might help solve crimes?

Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday, November 19, 2013. 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.

NaNoWriMo - this week's authors

Hey NaNoWriMoers!  How is your book coming along?   Need some extra motivation to get writing...join local authors at our library, for a Write-In!

This week's upcoming Write-Ins:

Thursday - 3:30pm - Mindy Hardwick - Weaving Magic and Stained Glass Summer - Mukilteo Library

Saturday - 11am - Aarene Storms - Endurance 101 - Darrington Library

Saturday - 1pm - Dorine White - The Emerald Ring - Granite Falls Library

Saturday - 1pm - Alma Alexander - Worldweavers series - Stanwood Library

Sunday the 17th - 2pm - G.G. Silverman - Edmonds Library

So what is your word count so far?

Weekend Book Giveaway: Reality Boy

This week we are giving away the Advancd Readers Copy for a book I am dying to read, Reality Boy by Printz Honor author A.S. King (who also wrote great books such as Ask the Passengers and The Dust of 100 Dogs.)


This fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge explores the desperate reality of a former child "star" struggling to break free of his anger. Gerald Faust started feeling angry even before his mother invited a reality TV crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he's still haunted by his rage-filled youth--which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle--and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school. No one cares that Gerald has tried to learn to control himself; they're all just waiting for him to snap. And he's starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that...until he chooses to create possibilities for himself that he never knew he deserved.

Wowza!  For your chance to win this incredible sounding new book, tell me about a time you got so frustrated or mad, you wanted to snap.  Or if you can't think of an incident, tell me about something (such as an issue) that makes you get all worked up.

 Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday, November 12, 2013. 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.

2013 Teen Art Contest Winners

Congratulations to our 2013 Teen Read Month Art Contest winners!

This year we had three from Mill Creek!

Amanda M.

Chana K.

 

Diego O.

And one from Edmonds - Evangeline S!


















Thank you to everyone who entered, and to the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation who funds our prizes!  Previous winners can be seen here.

Trailer Tuesday: Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

This week's trailer is for a wonderful, if dark, historical fiction that takes place in an amazing city: Out of the Easy by Ruta 

 It's 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street. Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test. 

Congratulations to Kelly H. and Sierra M.

Congrats to Kelly H. from Oak Harbor, who is the winner of our Teen Read Month book review contest, whose review of Incarceron was pulled in a random drawing.  Kelly will get a copy of this beautiful Harry Potter poster.

 Also, congratulations to Sierra M. who won a Sno-Isle Teens shirt for posting her shelfie on our Facebook page.  :)

Thanks to everyone who took part in our contests this month.  Art contest judging will happen tomorrow...check back here for the winners!

Do you NaNoWriMo?

If you are an aspiring writer, or even a published one, you probably have heard of NaNoWriMo. And if you haven't, you should know that National Novel Writing Month is now celebrated every November by thousands of people from across the world, all supporting each other in doing the work it takes to put together enough words to make a novel in one month! It is not to late to sign up. The only way to write a book, is to start doing that writing!

Sno-Isle Libraries is supporting our NaNoWriMo enthusiasts this month by having a special series of Write-Ins with real live authors this month!  You can join them (for FREE) at our library and just sit down and write along side, ask them questions about the writing process, or if you bring a book...get it signed! You can see the calendar of our NaNoWriMo events here.


Today you can even hit two events...today at 3:30 Kendare Blake, author of Anna Dressed in Blood and Antigoddess will be at the Mukilteo Library.  

Then at 6pm, A.R. Kahler, author of "The Immortal Circus Trilogy" will be at the Top Pot Cafe at University Book Store in Mill Creek.


Tomorrow we have J. Anderson Coats author of (one of my favorites from last year) The Wicked and the Just at the Marysville Library at 4pm.

Thursday Louise Marley (Singer in the Snow and The Glass Butterfly) will be at the Arlington Library at 3pm.

And Friday Richard Farr author of the awesome non-fiction adventure Emperors of the Ice will be at the Brier Library at 3:30pm.


Stay tuned for more exciting author Write-Ins!

Weekend Book Giveaway: Unbreakable

This week's promotional freebie is Unbreakable by Kami Garcia, another great one for longer darker nights!

"I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me." When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, she doesn't realize that paranormal forces are responsible--not until mysterious identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into her room and destroy a deadly spirit sent to kill her. Kennedy learns that her mother's death was no accident, and now she has to take her place in the Legion of the Black Dove--a secret society whose five members were all murdered on the same night, leaving the Legion in the hands of the next generation: a misfit group with unique skills. As the new members race to find the only weapon capable of destroying the demon, they use their individual talents to battle paranormal entities and earn their rightful place in the Legion--except for Kennedy. If she is truly the missing piece of the puzzle, can she stay alive long enough to find out--without losing her heart in the process?
"Protect Yourself."
"What you can't see CAN hurt you."

For a chance to win this spooky read, tell me if you believe in ghosts or not...and why.  OR tell me what your favorite ghost book is, and why.

Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. 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.