Weekend Book Give-Away: Promised

This week's book is the third in the Birthmarked series, Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien, which I'm sure some of you must be excited about, as there are 19 holds on this book right now!

After defying the ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever.  She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland.  In Gaia's absence, the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or rebelling have never been higher.  Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to sacrifice what--or whom--she loves most?

For a chance to win this book, tell me what has been your biggest challenge ever, and how you dealt with it.  Just three or four sentences will do.

Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday November 13 , 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.

Featured Teen Book Review of the Week: Whirligig

This week's book review of the week features a title I've long been a fan of, and am delighted to see people are still discovering!  

Whirligig

3 stars.

Describe the book: Brent, a 17 yr old, gets in a car crash and kills the person in the other car. For repentance the deceased Lea's mother asked him to build whirligigs in the 4 corners of the US, as doing so he slowly heals...and his whirligigs have some interesting effects on the people who find them.

What did you think: I loved it, specifically the last whirligig he built in Main, I'm not ruining it, but its interesting, and has a small sense of closure.

Who would you recommend it to: People who like books that are probable.

 - B.K. (Grade 9) from Arlington Library


B...I'll be sending you a surprise book to the Arlington Library.  Jocelyn, our teen librarian there, will let you know when it arrives!

2012 Art Contest Winners

Wow!  You guys really came through with some amazing entries this year.  There have been some challenging years for our judges to pick just four winners, but I honestly think this was the hardest for them.  We had 173 entries this year (which I think is a record) and SO MANY of them were fantastic!  I am so proud of the creativity and artistic flair possessed by the teens in our community.  Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us.

So, with no further ado, our 2012 Teen Read Month "It Came from a Book" art contest winners are:



Megan M. from Lynnwood



  






Chana K. from Mill Creek



 
 






Emily B. from Marysville




  





Jake T. from Mountlake Terrace



 





The winning art will be posted on our website very soon, and in a few weeks will be showcased on posters throughout our two counties in libraries and schools!  


Each winner will be recognized at their local library with a special ceremony and receive a $50 gift card for Amazon.com provided by the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation.

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and to the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation for its continued generous support of teen programs and activities!

Trailer Tuesday: Eve & Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

Normally I bore you with some ramblings in my own words about books, but the publisher description for Eve & Adam is so good, I'd rather share that:

In the beginning, there was an apple --

And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker's head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother's research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die -- not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect . . . won't he?

Thinking About College

As I write, about 36 teens are taking a practice SAT at the Mukilteo Library. That's an amazing number of teens giving up a Saturday afternoon to take a test! Some of them look pretty calm, others are tense, but all of them are thinking about college.

Our web site offers practice for college tests, too. Take a look at LearningExpress Library (find it at the Teen Homework Resources) for eBooks, eCourses and sample SAT and ACT exams. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection and your library card to get started. The Gale Virtual Reference Library (find it under Electronic Media) lets you search the full text of Scholarships, Fellowships and Loans and The College Blue Book to find out about what colleges offer and ways to pay for it all.

And then there's my favorite, the book Colleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope. Everyone knows about the University of Washington and Harvard and Stanford, but there are many, many colleges that aren't so familiar. This book will tell you about 40 fine colleges that could be a wonderful fit for you even if you don't have straight A's and aren't the captain of the football team and don't have your own charitable foundation. Take a look--and ask your local librarian for more information about applying to college. We're here to help!

Weekend Book Give-Away: Monstrous Beauty

Looking for something both magical and spooky to read?  Maybe you would like Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama:

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences. Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

For a chance to win a lovely new hardcover copy of this book, tell me the biggest thing that would you be willing to give up for love?  Creative answers encouraged!  Winner will be selected with Random Number Generator on Tuesday November 6, 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.

Do you like to write?

I don't know about you, but I really really like the idea of writing, but rarely actually do any. So NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month has always appealed to me.  It is a great opportunity to find support online to get motivated to actually get some writing done.

This year we aren't offering any NaNoWriMo programs at our libraries, but I have got a few questions from folks about this.  If we were to offer weekly support groups next year, do you think you would participate?

What do you plan to write about if you are doing it this year?

Do you plan to do the regular NaNoWriMo, or participate in the Young Writers Program

Have you done this before?  I'd love to hear about how that went for you.