An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Summary:

Colin has trouble with love but also with girls named Katherine, he has been dumped 17 times by girls named Katherine. Any normal guys would just stop dating girls with this name but not Colin he has to find a "cure". By figuring out a theory for anticipating break-ups. You see, Colin is a child prodigy and as much as anyone would think this is a godsend it isn't hence the keyword in this phrase being "child". Meaning only that Colin has grown out of this whiz, genius, brilliance by the time he is off to college. Colin and Hassan venture on a post-graduation road trip with no known destination in sight. They land in Gutshot, Tennessee and don't seem to be in a hurry to leave. Colin soon finds himself falling for a girl who goes by Lindsey Lee Wells, incredibly she is not named Katherine. Will he perfect his theorem before it is too late and another girl breaks his heart?
   

My Opinion:

John Green delivers again with a HILARIOUS story of wild pigs, girls named Katherine, and the word FUG. Green delivers such amazing stories that appeal to guys. It is also refreshing to have an intellectual hilarious male writer in teen literature. Not only is Colin trying to find love he is also trying to figure out who he is, as are many teens after they graduate high school. Also the relationship between Hassan and Colin is strong yet informal and comical. Both characters seem to agree to disagree and are always insulting each other, which adds to the hilarity of the story. Even though this may seem like a harsh friendship, this honesty is what makes the friendship strong, simply there is no B.S. Guys will love this story for the silly antics and witty prose, but girls will fall in love with the eccentric love story of Colin and his abundance of Katherines.   

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Summary:

"The Awakening starts with Chloe Saunders and her fellow supernatural friends Simon, Derek, and Tori making a great escape from the Edison Group. Unfortunately the supernaturals find themselves in this situation several times throughout the book, barely escaping the Edison group each time. Chloe and her fellow escapees Simon, Derek, and Tori finally decide to find a family friend that might be the only adult on their side.The stress of being a runaway is very trying on Chloe. She has to constantly control her supernatural abilities of raising the dead, which even includes raising by accident dead bats, rabbits, and humans. This is Chloe's most trying obstacle and she looks to an unlikely friend Derek to help her out. In the beginning Derek and Chloe had a very trying relationship but grows as Derek is able to help Chloe control her supernatural abilities. As Chloe and Derek's friendship blossoms,  Simon's affection for Chloe is threatened. Of course "The Awakening" ends with a cliff hanger so you will have to wait until the release of "The Reckoning" coming out May 1 2010.

My Opinion:
I have to say that I very much enjoyed the first book in this series "The Summoning" and was disappointed with second installment to the series "The Awakening". Like with a lot of series the second book always seems to be "a waiting in limbo" plot where nothing much happens. Characters create more solid relationships with each other and that is about it. This is exactly how "The Awakening" lays out, Chloe learns a little more about herself creates some solid relationships, and the supernaturals figure out a plan, the end! I just felt like there was no substance, storyline, or a solidified plot. Just a bunch of teen runaways who get into trouble but somehow get away. Armstrong could have completely left this book out of the series, and readers would be missing a whole lot of nothing. I am still going to pursue the third installment to this series as I think it will be a good one, that is to stay "The Awakening" did leave you with a great cliff hanger that makes readers want to come back for more.   

The Darkest Powers Series
The Summoning
The Awakening 
The Reckoning due May 1 2010

Teen Tech Week March 7-13 2010

This is the first year I decided to do anything for Teen Tech Week, in the past it has always been on my mind but I never actually developed or carried out any programs for it. So I was excited in my new job I had time to carry out a mini celebration. 

First I created a Teen Tech Week booklist and pathfinder which includes websites that support the teen tech week theme of Learn, Create, and Share. I had a hard time coming up with ideas for some websites. I knew I had packed away notes of techy websites from all the workshops I have been to, but couldn't find them! But I found this really great article in Young Adult Library Services journal Winter 2010 called "Free Online Tools for Serving Teens Four Verbs to Live By and Great Technologies to Try" by Mary Fran Daley. The article had some really great ideas for websites to help teens learn, create, and share technology. I was so thankful Mary wrote such a helpful article. Here is the link to the Teen Tech Page on our website and you can click on the link to get to the book list and pathfinder.


We also decided to have a contest for teens; they submit their favorite website or tech book and write a review of either to be entered to win an I-Tunes gift card. We are using Evanced for the contest and the teens submit their entries and share their reviews through our website. The reason I wanted to do this particular program is because it is easy! But alsol promotes the theme of Teen Tech Week by letting teens share and learn new tech websites and books with each other.

Enjoy!

Halloween Storytime @ Tallyn's Reach Library

We did a group storytime for Halloween, this is a tradition for us here at the library. We usually do some kind of performance because well, it is "SUPER FUN".

I linked the video of the performance so you can watch it first hand!

We adapted the story"By the Light of the Halloween Moon" by Caroline Stutson into a puppet show (with no puppet stage!). We made some puppets but we also went searching for characters in Halloween shops, etc to turn into puppets. All together we had a Spider, Ghost, Skeleton, Witch, Ghoul, and Bat. All of these creatures are trying to bite a little girl's toe (played by me). The children reacted really well to this one and were surprised by all the characters popping out of the curtain.

Next, we sang "The Monster Mash" which was super great. We even had our own choreographed moves as you can see in the video!

Our last story was "The Thirteen Days of Halloween" by Carol Greene. Gita sang the song in a terrific high pitched witches voice (it was really great) as each of us in the background held up each of the thirteen presents that are given. For the presents we just scanned the images out of the book and printed them on cardstock, decorated with glitter to create a more eye-catching effect, and glued Popsicle sticks to the back for ease of use. As we held each present up (which were very gross gooey Halloween-like) we made some kind of sound effect. For instance when we said 5 howling ghosts we made howling ghosts noises. The kids really liked this one, I think mainly for all the crazy creatures that were presents and because it is familiar to them.

Then after our last story we handed out little goody bags, which of course the kids LOVED!

Overall it went well, we didn't have as much of a turn out because the day before we were closed due to a snow storm. So I don't think grown ups wanted to go out, but it was still a nice crowd.

The "Thirteen Days of Halloween" video is in a separate post titled "Thirteen Days of Halloween" post because of the size I had to separate it. I tried to do this 5 million times and the video just won't upload not sure why but I am going to let it go! Sorry!

Catching Up

This is the first time in two years that I am burned out on reading. I know can you believe it! But I haven't read for like two weeks, until this morning when I started up "Coop" again. I guess I just have had a lot on my mind and I can't seem to concentrate. But I think I am out of my reading slump and I am back on the wagon. So get ready for some great reviews!

As a librarian I kind of feel bad about being in a reading slump I don't think we should ever feel this way? And like most people reading is an escape a stress reliever but this is not the case for me. I can't ever seem to calm my mind with reading. Is this strange? Not sure? But I actually really enjoyed my few pages of "Coop" this morning it brought a smile to my face and brightened my ever-so drifting dream of owning land and having farm animals and a garden.

The sad thing is I had to force myself to sit down and read this morning which is never the case. Usually on work days in the morning I have to rip myself from my book and wish a thousand times that I could just sit snuggled up and read all day. But now that I do have the time to read it doesn't seem to be a pleasure I long for but more of a disposable activity that I am available to do at anytime.

Well there you go a little thought from an off the wagon librarian!

"All About the Library" Storytime on Friday November 6, 2009

Even though our library system will be cutting four of it's seven libraries in the next few weeks, I thought it might be appropriate to emphasize how important libraries are with a "All About the Library" storytime. I found three really cute books about libraries but two of them were a little longer then the kids are used to so I decided to play it by ear and see how the kids were feeling.

Books

The first two are the longer stories more for K-2nd grade! Even though I wasn't certain about the length of the books, when I asked the kids if they wanted to read more or listen to a song they said with excitement, "READ MORE". Surprising Huh!

"Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library!" by Vicki Myron

I have to say this is one of the cutest books I have read, it may be because I have a little orange tabby at home. This book just gives me warm fuzzies and I wish we could have a cute orange kitten roaming around the library. Obviously this book is adapted from the adult book by the same author "Dewey: The Small Town Cat Who Touched the World". This title has great illustrations that are large and I think you just have to watch out for the length.

"Winston the Book Wolf" by Marni McGee

The kids thought this one was funny. Adapted from the Little Red Riding Hood, Winston the wolf loves devouring books at the library, he literally eats the books. Obviously the library staff puts a stop to this and kicks him out. Winston then meets a young girl named Rosie who helps him devour books with his eyes by teaching him how to read. Winston ends up sneaking into the library dressed up as an old lady and reads stories during storytime. The book ends with a cute "A note to the reader: If your story lady wears long skirts and floppy hats, she may be a wolf in disguise..." which made the kids giggle and asked me if I am a wolf.

"Read It, Don't Eat It!" by Ian Schoenherr

A fun easy book that goes through all the things you shouldn't do at a library or to your library books. For instance, "Find someplace else to sneeze" and "Don't overdue it, just renew it." The book is great because it teaches kids how to take care of their library books. After each guideline that I read I asked the kids if they ever did any of them and most of them said no, it was fun because they got to really think about their library books as highly valuable possessions.

After each story I went through some fun songs like, "Shake My Sillies Out", Teddybear Playtime" and "If You're Happy and You Know It".

Next Storytime will be our last, due to budget cuts so we are going to have a grand party to go out with a big bang.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance- Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Summary:

Grahame-Smith mixes up the high civility of Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice with ZOMBIES! He follows the same plot as the original text but just with more excitement and primal battling not just between Darcy and Elizabeth but also between the high class English and cannibalistic zombies. Grahame-Smith adds more interesting emotion to this classic by letting the characters take action with their strong feelings. For example Darcy is able to take out years of anger and frustration on George Wickham by beating him until he is crippled and bed ridden. Finally Wickham gets what he pays for and is now subjected to soiling himself in front of company.

Opinion:
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (PPZ) is my dream book come true, combining Jane Austin with supernatural beings, GENIUS! Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books of all time and PPZ is fighting for the number one spot. Combining Austen's witty attitude with a hilarious zombie atmosphere is beyond comical, I truly was laughing out loud. Grahame-Smith does too good of a job inserting zombie mayhem into this classic, I can't imagine PP without the zombies. To me, zombies have always been more comical to me then scary and I think this is one of the reasons the combination works so well. I would give anything to hear what Jane would say about PPZ, maybe "Well, zombies are quite miserable creatures, almost as miserable as a day with a selfish, ignorant man." I can't wait until "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" by Jane Austen and Ben Winters comes in for me!

Quirk Classic Series
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls