Reach for the Sky!

Last Friday was the great skyscraper building contest. Budding architects built their own structures out of popsicle sticks, glue and tape. The team with the tallest building won amazing prizes (and there was a pretty great prize for those who came in a close second).

Lessons we learned:

1) The stronger the base, the more solid the building

2) But sometime you have to take a risk and just build big

3) Tape was mightier that glue.

4) But in the long run, the glue lasted forever

Stay tunes for the next project...

Paper Planes!

Converting Kate

Converting Kate by Beckie Weinheimer

Before her father's death, Kate's entire life could be defined by one thing; the Church of the Holy Divine. After her father, a non believer dies, Kate and her deeply religious mother move to her father's hometown in Maine and it is there that Kate starts to question the authority of her mother's church and what she truly believes in.

It would be very easy for a book to handle the idea of religion in a clumsy way. But Weiheimer takes care to show the many different sides of religion in the United States and shows how very personal it is to each person. This is a very good novel, especially for readers who are interested in faith and self discovery.

If I Stay

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Before the accident, 17 year old Mia had a lot of choices to make. But she had a lot of help. She had her cool, supportive parents. She had her adoring little brother Teddy. She had the love of her life, Adam. And she had her music.

After the accident, Mia only has one choice to make. Should she stay, and live her life grieving to loss of her family. Or should she let herself go?

You know a book is fantastic when you find yourself crying in subways, at work, or telling friends about the book. Luckily you also want to laugh out loud when you read about Mia's family or sigh over her relationship with Adam.

I read this book in less than a day, but I'll be thinking about it for awhile.

Check out the book trailer!

Shiver

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Grace has always felt a deep connection to the wolves that she can see in the woods. Especially one wolf, that saved her from an attack when she was young.

Sam has been watching Grace from the forest, helplessly in love since the moment he saved her. He has resolved to stay away from her, until they meet by chance during his last summer as a human.

Once they've found each other, they will do anything to stay together.

This is a great story, especially for readers who love romance with a supernatural element (Twilight anyone?). I liked how the story was told with both perspectives (Grace and Sam), and dealt with issues other than romance like family and friendship.

Craft!!!

The Mission: Build the tallest "skyscraper" in the library

The Supplies: Popsicle sticks, glue, and paper

The Prize: To be announced!

Friday, July 24th at 4 PM

Swish: the quest for basketball's perfect shot

Swish: The quest for basketball’s perfect shot

by Mark Stewart and Mike Kennedy


I've never been a very athletic person, and because of this, I left the sports books to other kids while a read a lot of Fear Street. I’m not a huge basketball fan, but I was still very interested and entertained in this book. Swish starts with the history of basketball in the United States. Then it talks about famous last minutes shots which is pretty exciting. Then it talks about different kinds of shots used in basketball like the jump shot, slam dunks, the bank shot, and the fadeaway.

She's So Money

She's So Money by Cherry Cheva

Maya is a overachieving high school senior who's only goal is to go to Standford. Against her better judgement, she agrees to start an underground homework cheating ring with her school's most charming bad boy in order to save her family's Thai restaurant.

This book is very very funny. Maya says all the stuff that you want to say to stuck up, lazy, popular people, but you don't have the guts. Maya is great, her family is great, and I love how the story doesn't have a easy ending.

Did I mention that the book is really funny?

have you seen....

Our CD collection? That's right, the library doesn't just have old dusty copies of Gloria Estefan albums. We have a ton on new ones! Here for you to check out!


Examples:

T.I.-Papertrail

So many hits!

I Am...Sasha Fierce-Beyonce

All the single ladies!

Folie a Deux-Fall out Boy
Rock out!

Go to you library to check out all the songs you want to hear this summer!

Author Spotlight-John Green

I love John Green's books. Is it because of the cool, complex teenage girls? Or the funny, loyal and interesting guys? Is it because the diolauge is sharp and makes me laugh out loud? Or that no one in his stories are a YA novel cliche? Or maybe its because he lives in Indiana...where I am from. Nevertheless, John Green is an author you must check out. (and you should check him out on You Tube)

John's reading list is tragically short. But he just started! So I should give him a break. The plus side is that you could defenitely read all of his books this summer*:

Looking for Alaska: "Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words--and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps. "

An Abundence of Katherines: "When it comes to relationships, everyone has a type. Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. He has dated--and been dumped by--19 Katherines. In the wake of The K-19 Debacle, Colin--an anagram-obsessed washed-up child prodigy--heads out on a road trip with his overweight, Judge Judy-loving friend Hassan. With 10,000 dollars in his pocket and a feral hog on his trail, Colin is on a mission to prove a mathematical theorem he hopes will predict the future of any relationship (and conceivably win the girl). "

Paper Towns: "Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows.
After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew. "

***Yes! I copied the book blurbs from the website. I know it! But John Green can write blurbs way better than I can*******

Event! July 10th

We are having our first summer craft event for teens next Friday!

Make your own memory box!
I'll provide the materials, you decorate your own box any way you please.

Friday, July 10th @ 4pm

Tattoo

In Tattoo, four best friends, fashion crazy Delia, brainy Annabelle, tomboy Zo, and quiet Bailey buy temporary tattoos that give them special powers. Powers that they will need to defeat a sinister fairy trying to destroy the world.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes gives all four girls a chance to shine in this fast paced, exciting supernatural thriller. My only complaint was that there was a lot of information crammed into this book. There is a sequel though, Fate, so there might be more action in that one. Barnes is no stranger to this genre. She has another great set of books, Golden and Platinum about girls who discover their supernatural powers in high school.