Teen Poetry Contest!

Calling all rhymers, word-players and poets!

Just by writing an original poem and dropping it off to the West Allis Public Library, you can be published on this blog and enter to win a gift card to a book store.

Poems will be accepted at the Information Desk starting April 1st through April 30th. Anyone who turns in a poem will be entered to win the gift cards, and we will publish those who wish on this very blog!

Like all of our teen programs, this one is open to teens ages 12-18 (or students in grades 6-12) who live in Milwaukee Country. Check out the entry forms in the Teen Space for complete rules and the entry form!

Want to see poems and stories by other teen authors? Check out our Teen Writers page!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Check out all the poetry books at the library in the 811's and 812's! We'll have a special display starting April 2nd if you need some inspiration!)

Book Review: Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet

When Clem first sees Frankie in the strawberry fields, he is smitten.  She is gorgeous and removed, clearly unused to work, and he is a working class boy there to earn a few extra summer shillings with his buddy Goz.  Frankie's father owns the strawberry fields, and all the other fields in Bratton Morley, a small village in Norfolk, England.  This makes her untouchable to the local boys, especially Clem, whose father works for Frankie's.  But as soon as Frankie casually asks Clem if he's any good at kissing, he's lost in love with her.

Any moment Clem and Frankie can snatch to sneak away to be together, they can.  But their parents discovering their love affair isn't the only thing threatening them.  As the summer of 1962 rolls into autumn, in Cuba a man named Fidel Castro is making wild threats to launch nuclear missiles and destroy the world.  The only thing stopping him?  Equal firepower controlled by President John F. Kennedy of the United States.

From Clem's grandfather's death in World War I to Clem's own sudden and early birth brought on by the shock of an RAF Spitfire shooting up his grandmother's chimney in 1945 to the unexpected finale of Clem and Frankie's story in September of 2011, this is an unsual, moving, intricately written diagram of unexpected moments and dry, hilarious observations on the oddity of life.  Focused on the summer and fall of 1962, Clem and Frankie's intense romance dovetails with the Cuban Missile Crisis.  With wry, fly-on-the-wall conversations between Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Krushchev, and Castro, this is a take on history that completely turns the historical fiction genre on its head.  And the writing, oh the writing!  Epic in scope, this is a page turner of a book that'll keep you up late - even though you already know how it all turns out.

Megan
(who can't wait to start reading Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta, the sequel to the fabulous Finnikin of the Rock!)

Book Review: Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Perhaps you've noticed the girl who sits at the back of the classroom, who looks a bit strange. People think she is weird, the way she talks about historical people like she knew them, the way she dresses in the same dress everyday, the way things tend to happen when she is there.

Meet Kendra, disguised as a normal high school student, she is really a 300 year old witch. After surviving a break out of the plague, a run in with a ginger bread house, and a number of other historical events that nearly got her burned at the stake, she's hiding out in modern day Miami, watching Emma adjust to her new sister Lisette.

Emma lives with her mother and her father. Well, he's not her real father, but he is the only father she's ever known. She's always been a daddy's girl, and is hoping that when her new sister comes the two of them can be real sisters. Enter beautiful Lisette. Emma's mother instantly hates her, and thinks she will try to take Emma's place in her father's life.

At first things could not be better. Lisette brings Emma back to her group of friends that had ditched her. Lisette wants to be sisters and friends, however slowly things start to turn. Emma's possessions go missing, only to show up on Lisette, who claims they were always hers. Emma wants to try out for a solo in choir, and who else tries out but Lisette. Emma can't put her finger on it, but for as beautiful and kind Lisette seems to be there is clearly something rotten inside. It's shortly after Halloween that Lisette shows her true colors, and Emma has to change her life.

This is where Kendra steps in. She wants to help Emma, but sometimes her "helping" gets her in trouble, like in France all those years ago. Kendra lets Emma tell her story, only giving her opinion briefly. In between the story of Emma and Lisette, Kendra tells of past events where she learned how far she can intervene in the lives of other people.

Fans of fairy tales re-told will enjoy this look at history and the present through the eyes of Kendra. You also may remember Kendra from Beastly, which comes up from time to time in Bewitching. You may never read Cinderella quite the same after reading Bewitching, and that is a good thing.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Now reading What Boys Really Want by Pete Hautman, wishing this book was around when I was in high school!)

SSB Brawl Tournament Winners!

Congrats to our spring Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament winners!

Champion and winner of the $25 Game Stop gift card, Jake!

1st Runner-Up and $15 to Game Stop, Tyler!

2nd Runner-Up and $10 to Game Stop, Dylan!

Our next SSB Brawl tournament will be kicking of Teen Summer Reading on Saturday, June 2nd, at 2:00 PM - see you then!

Megan

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii Tournament This Saturday!

Join us this Saturday, March 24th at 2:00 PM in the library Constitution Room for our annual spring Super Smash Bros. Brawl double elimination tournament!  All items on high (yes, including the the Smash Ball!), stage on random, character choice is all yours, three lives, anywhere from 3-5 minute rounds, depending on number of competitors.  We'll get started with some no-elimination warm-up rounds to sort you into your tournament brackets and go from there!  So, get out of the rain and come test your skills against your fellow gamers - $25, $15 and $10 Game Stop gift cards to the champion, first and second runners-up.

Gamers are welcome to BYO snacks, soda, and controllers.  See you tomorrow afternoon!

Megan

Book Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Just FYI... SPOILER ALERT for Wither, Book One of The Chemical Garden Trilogy!

When we left Rhine at the end of Wither, she and Gabriel had just escaped leading geneticist Housemaster Vaughn's basement of experimental horrors.  Her sister wife Jenna is dead too early, taken by the virus that kills all girls by age 20 and boys by age 25.  And her other sister wife Cecily has just had her and their husband Linden's first child, Bowen.

Having escaped the gilded cage of her polygamous marriage to Linden Ashby (and the terrifying rule of his father), Rhine wants only to return home to New York and find her beloved twin brother, Rowan - and to show Gabriel that freedom in the real, destroyed world outside the mansion walls is better that living in enslaved splendor.  Freedom isn't easy to come by, however - after crawling out of the ocean and leaving their stolen boat behind, Rhine and Gabriel strike out toward mysterious turning lights in the distance in an effort to avoid the Gatherers' vans.  Instead of safety, they find themselves attacked and trapped in a bizarre carnival of scarlet district girls.

With Gabriel heavily sedated and the carnival surrounded by an electric fence, Rhine isn't sure how they will escape the watchful eye of Madame, the proprieter of the carnival who claims to only want to protect Rhine and the rest of her girls from the outside world.  With the friendship of Lilac and her odd daughter Maddie, Rhine learns to navigate her new world.  But when Madame betrays them all, Rhine discovers that her journey home has barely begun.

If you took crazy and put it on a cracker, you'd have the awesome that is this book!  You thought Wither was a suspenseful funhouse ride of a read?  Dudes, that book has nothing on Fever.  I devoured this in one sitting on Sunday morning, and spent most of that time thinking What is happening?!  Seriously, I think I stopped mid-chew more than once to process the labyrinthne plot of this one.  Love really weird dystopias with a touch of gothic romance and a serious creep factor?  Check out Fever @the library!

Megan
(who just finished the marvelous Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce at the urging of Katie - I can't believe I didn't read this sooner!  - and can't wait to start sequel Liar's Moon when I get home tonight!)

Hunger Games Party Prizes!

Do you have your ticket for our Hunger Games movie release party?  Why not?!!  We're celebrating the release of this sure-to-be-awesome flick on Thursday at 7PM in the Constitution Room with music, trivia, trailers, sugar cookie decorating, some Hunger Games Jeopardy, and, of course, an awesome prize raffle!  What's the loot in the raffle box, you ask?

2 paperback copies of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - one with the original and one with the movie cover
The Hunger Games Illustrated Movie Companion
The Hunger Games Tribute Guide
The Hunger Games movie soundtrack
The Hunger Games movie posters
2 copies of The Girl Who Was On Fire
2 $10 Hot Topic gift cards (they have TONS of Hunger Games stuff!)
1 $10 Best Buy gift card (pick up the movie soundtrack now, or wait and use it toward The Hunger Games DVD!)

Don't forget your ticket - not only does it grant you entrance to our release party, it's your raffle ticket for a chance to win one of these awesome Hunger Games prizes!

Ahhhhh!  Tomorrow night already!!!  See you guys soon!  And may the odds be ever in your favor...

Megan
(who is so super stoked for this party - and the movie too!!)

Hunger Games Read-a-Likes

Have you read all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy? Do you have your ticket for Thursday nights pre-movie party at the library? Do you have tickets to a showing of the Hunger Games movie this weekend?

Before your go into Hunger Games withdraw, check out some of these awesome books, that might just tide you over until Catching Fire hits theaters!

Feed by M.T. Anderson- In a world where everyone has an Internet like feed directly to their brain, Titus and his friends think they are on an ordinary trip to the moon. When things go wrong, Titus is introduced to Violet, a mysterious girl who opens his eyes to a world he never saw before.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore-Katsa is graced to kill, and works for the king. Her drive to survive is matched only by Prince Po, who is graced to fight. The two embark on an adventure to solve a mystery and maybe save the kingdom.

Maze Runner by James Dashner- Imagine waking up in a new place surrounded by a maze with no chance of escape. That's what happens to Thomas, as he tries to figure out where and who he is.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness- As Todd approaches his 13th birthday, he knows a lot will change. However a hole in the "noise" and a discovery will take him away from the town he has always known.


Divergent by Veronica Roth- In a world where teens must choose which faction they want to live in. Beatrice finds out she doesn't belong in any of the established factions, and must forage her own path in a future Chicago.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld- In a world where everyone has surgery to be pretty at age 16, 15 year old Tally wants nothing more than to become pretty. When she discovers a world beyond the ruins of the former society, she starts to wonder if being pretty is really everything.

Hopefully that tides you over. If not, stop in the library, we have a ton of awesome books, one will be right for you!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Now reading Bewitching by Alex Flinn, starring the witch from her book Beastly!)

Book Reviews: Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonneblick

Right before the start of high school, Peter has pitched his last baseball game. The cartilage in his elbow is damaged so badly it requires multiple surgeries and his career as a baseball player is over. Without baseball, Peter isn't sure who he will be. He's always been Peter one of the star pitchers, with his best friend AJ as the other star pitcher.

Now at the start of high school, AJ has an "in" with the popular athletes, and Peter is just a freshman. Until they show up in introduction to photography, where Peter gets kicked out of class, and into the advanced class, thanks to his grandfather who used to be a professional photographer.

With help from Angelika, the cute freshman girl also bumped into the more advanced photography class, and a little help from AJ, Peter starts to rebuild himself. Of course this would be easier if he didn't have so many secrets to keep, like that he'll never play ball again from AJ, and that his grandfather is slowly losing his memory from his parents.

New friends, new hobbies, and new experiences mean that Peter's life is changing a lot. Sometimes he handles it in a good way, and sometimes he messes up royally. Even with the seriousness of sports injuries, and aging grandparents, Curveball is still a funny read. Author Jordan Sonnenblick is a master of mixing everyday life with sad experiences, and still keeping the story light hearted and fun. Peter is an "every kid" who messes up, and comes clean.

If you've read Zen and the Art of Faking It, or any of his other books you will like Curveball. Budding photographers (and sports fans!) will also find a lot to live with Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Who else is ready for the Hunger Games movie? Get ready for the movie by signing up for the Hunger Games party March 22nd!)

The Hunger Games Release Party Tickets Available Tomorrow!

Mark your calendars!  We are throwing a fabulous party for the release of The Hunger Games movie at the library next Thursday, March 22nd at 7PM.  Of course you want to come (who doesn't?!) play Hunger Games jeopardy, decorate some District 12 cookies a la Peeta, grab some trivia, watch the trailers, grab some book trivia, and win some Hunger Games prizes.  But first you have to snag a ticket at the library, because this isn't one you can just show up for.  So!  Tickets will be available at the Info desk beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13th, at noon!  How do you get yours?

1. Tickets are FREE! But there are a limited number, so get your Hunger Games release party ticket early!

2. Tickets are available at the adult Information desk (in the middle of the library).

3. Tickets are REQUIRED for entry to The Hunger Games party on the 22nd. IF the party does not sell out early, you will be able to get one at the door. But... don't count on it, since all our other movie release parties have been full up!

4. You have to come to the library to get your Hunger Games release party ticket - no phone reservations.

5. When you come in, you can sign yourself and one friend up. So, if there are 6 of you planning to come, at least 3 of you will need to come in to sign up.

6. Your parents or guardians can sign you up for The Hunger Games release party if you can't make it to the library.

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Megan (and Blaine, who has been doing tons of planning for this awesome event, and who you will all get to meet at the Hunger Games release party!)

Book Review : The Rivals by Daisy Whitney

When we first met Alex last year, she had woken up in a unfamiliar boy’s room. Throughout her junior year she faced a trial against another student for rape, and in winning, brought justice to herself, as well as the rest of the student body.

In her senior year at Themis Academy, Alex is now the head of the Mockingbirds, the not-so-secret society who works to bring justice on campus since the administration believes that Themis students are incapable of doing anything wrong. Alex desperately wants to live up to the legacy of the Mockingbirds, but at the start of the year they are given a case unlike any they have ever faced before. Someone at Themis has started a prescription drug ring, and students are using the drugs to cheat. With no hope of help from the head of administration, who are too focused on winning a national award for the school, the Mockingbirds, and Alex as their new leader, must find a way to bring justice to Themis.

But what is Alex to do with a case where there is no obvious victim? When the facts start coming in, they begin to drive a wedge between Alex and those she loves – her boyfriend, her friends, and her fellow Mockingbirds. She is put to the test and learns many things about herself that she was unaware of before.

Whitney’s second novel speaks of friendship, loyalty, duty, and where lines must be drawn. Alex grows in her relationships, as well as in her knowledge about herself.

Blaine

Wait, who's Blaine?  She's our new made of awesome intern who will be guest blogging while she's at the WAPL!  She's a masters student at UWM and loves The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and everything YA, so welcome to the teen blog, Blaine!

Book Review: The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

When 17-year-old Campbell Cooper's cancer doctor tells her the only thing that will save her life is a miracle, she knows that's it.  Cam grew up at Disney - her dad was a career dancer for the Spirit of Aloha show at the Polynesian - and she knows magic isn't real.  Cam's mom Alicia, on the other hand, is not exactly a realist, and takes Dr. Handsome (yup, that's actually his name) at his word.  When Cam comes home early from her morning shift at work, she finds the house entirely packed up.  Alicia's yoga friend Tom told her about a mystical town in Maine rumored to have healing powers and an unusual number of miracles, so that's it - Cam, her little sister Perry, her pet canary Tweety, and Alicia are road tripping to Promise, Maine for the summer to get Cam her miracle.

With a stop in North Carolina to see Cam's BFF Lily and Hoboken to visit Nana, Cam figures it'll be an okay way to spend her last summer, and it's always been easier to just humor Alicia.  It'll also give her a chance to work on her Flamingo List she and Lily made at camp - a list of all the things to do before she dies.  Things like have an awkward moment with her best friend's boyfriend, go cow-tipping, stay out all night, and dabble in some innocent stalking behavior.

The thing about Promise is that it's not that easy to find.  You can only see the road to Promise from the drive through at a certain Dunkin' Donuts, and it's really best to order a whoopie pie and some chocolate milk to make sure you're on the right track.  Which sounds pretty ridiculous to Cam - but turns out to be true.

When Cam, Alicia and Perry (Tweety, unfortunately, was set free in Hoboken by a very sorry Perry) arrive in Promise, even Cam has to wonder if the rumors are true.  Everlasting sunsets, whales leaping in the bay at the same time every night, perfect weather, the astonishing return of Tweety, and Asher.  Gorgeous, too-good-to-be-true Asher, who let her adopt Homer the lobster from the local lobster shack.  Cam might even start to believe she might be getting her miracle - even if it's not the one she was looking for.

This quirky, magical novel about deciding to live, love and be loved, even if you're dying, will make you laugh, break your heart, want to hug your mom, and fall in love.  Cam is funny, brilliant, sarcastic, prickly and terrifying pragmatic, and you'll love her as much as Alicia, Perry, and Asher do.  If you devoured John Green's The Fault in Our Stars or adore the mix of magical realism, adventure and sweet romance in books like Laura Reseau's The Indigo Notebook and The Ruby Notebook, don't miss The Probability of Miracles @the library!

Megan
(finishing Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet and looking forward to starting the last of the 2012 MCTBA nominees and Katie's recent read, Starcrossed!)

Book Review: Starcrossed by Elizabeth Bunce

Digger is rescued by a boat full of "nob" teens while on the run from the Greenmen, after a job gone bad. Digger has no where to turn after her partner in crime, Tegan, was caught and told her to run. Now she isn't sure where is safe, and she agrees to travel with her "nob" friends to their home.

Caught between wanting to return to the city of Gerse, and wanting to run away she ends up taking a job as a lady's maid for young Lady Merista Nemair. It's not the same as her life picking purses and forging documents, but she always has a warm bed and doesn't have to worry where her next meal will come from.

In a world where magic exists, but is outlawed, and where the kingdom is ruled by religion, Digger is an asset to those who can use her to dig up secrets. While away from city life Digger, posing as Celyn Contrare a jeweler's daughter, becomes an asset. Lord Daul sees Digger for what she is, and threatens to expose her to her new employers, who she actually likes. With the country on the verge of war, not everything is as it seems and Celyn is in position to learn what really happened in the past, and what it means for an uncertain future.

Elizabeth Bunce writes a tight tale of adventure, mystery and magic. Pay attention to all the small details in Starcrossed, or you might find yourself re-reading to figure out what you missed! Digger/ Celyn is a girl with out a home or family, and her survival instincts are similar to Katniss from the Hunger Games or Katsa from Graceling. Readers will love the cast of characters in the castle, from quiet Mir to the smarmy Lord Daul.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Up next is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I loved Lips Touch Three Times and I can't to read this one!)

Announcing The Hunger Games Movie Release Party!

Okay, people, it's March, which means spring... and the release of The Hunger Games movie!  Yes!!!  To celebrate, we'll be throwing a bash on Thursday, March 22nd beginning at 7PM with trivia, trailers, music, Peeta Mellark cookie decorating (and, my favorite part, cookie eating!), and, of course, a raffle for fabulous Hunger Games prizes!

 

You'll have to pre-register for this one - your (FREE!) tickets will be available at the Information desk in the library Tuesday, March 13th at noon.  Tickets will be required for entrance to the party, so make sure you get yours early - The Hunger Games movie release party is an exclusive event with limited space.  We'll post more stuff about tickets and prizes later, so stay tuned to the blog for more info as we get closer to March 13th.

 

May the odds be ever in your favor!

 

Megan