SCPL Teen Blog! |

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Introducing Tara

Recently we added two new staff members to the

Teen Room, Tara and Ann. Here is a short bio and photo

of Tara so you can get to know her. Next time you're

in the library, stop by the Teen Room and say hi!

HOMETOWN: Hendersonville, NC (known to all outsiders as “kind of near Asheville”)

THEN WHAT?: college at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT (where I learned that I am not cut out for wintry adventures)

NOW: I live in Arden, NC (or, “Asheville…ish”) with my kittycat pal Lou Diamond Phillips. I am in grad school at Appalachian, getting my MLS.

HOBBIES: kitty-cuddling, knitting, marathon napping, pretending I am a dinosaur, pop culture consumption

FAVORITE QUOTE: “A little glitter can turn your whole day around” –Junie B. Jones

FAVORITE TEEN BOOKS: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Chbosky); Heavy Metal & You (Krovatin); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Haddon); Boy Meets Boy (Levithan); Angus, Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging (Rennison); The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ (Townsend)

FAVORITE NON-TEEN BOOKS: All Families are Psychotic (Coupland); The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky); The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner); Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married (Keyes); Diary (Palahniuk); Junie B., First Grader: Shipwrecked (Park); Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter (Pearl-McPhee); We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier (Rivenbark); Cowboy & Octopus (Scieszka); War & Peace (Tolstoy); Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (Willems)

RECENTLY READ: Eleanor Rigby (Coupland); Venomous (Krovatin); The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (Mackler); Cycler (McLaughlin); Mountain Man Dance Moves: McSweeney’s Book of Lists; Mississippi Sissy (Sessums)

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Halloween Party 2008

So our 3rd Annual Teen Halloween Party was last Saturday and I am just now posting about it...sorry it took so long. Hopefully the awesomeness of the pictures will make up for the tardiness of the pictures. :-)

The entrance

Halloween shaped sandwiches

Chocolate eclair fingers

Our graveyard cake- I didn't eat any (too busy),
but I had fun decorating it!

The pumpkin decorating table

The zombie toy supplies

An awesome tablecloth for zombie toy making.

Scary dancing/DDR

Some toys brought back from the dead.

Taking a break from zombie making to pose.

Taking a break from pumpkin painting to pose.

A bear in zombie transformation.

I think this picture is my favorite, although I am a little
frightened that I can't remember if I found the dinosaur this way,
or if I put him like this. Hmmmm....

During the mummy race game.
(I didn't do anything to this photo, they were just walking that fast!)

Another year, another great Halloween. Hope everyone had a
fun day yesterday and got to dress up and go somewhere!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Book Review by Tara (who will be formally introduced in a future post!)

The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy

I don’t read a lot of fantasy novels, but I read this book’s dust jacket and I had to check it out. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read a book with talking cockroach butlers and a cranky Russian colonel whose decisions are based on what his digestion tells him? James Kennedy’s style is much like Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) or Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth), delightfully absurd and witty. His characters are lively and engaging, and every new plot twist is hilariously surreal. The villains are as ridiculous as they are inept, and you’ll even find yourself rooting for some of them.

The book is about a 13 year-old girl named Jo who, as a child, was delivered onto her Aunt Lily’s doorstep with a note reading, “This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a DANGEROUS baby.” Jo seems to be anything but dangerous, but at Aunt Lily’s Christmas party, things start going awry. Through a crazy course of events, Jo and her aunt end up in a new, magical world as members of the Order of Odd-Fish, a group of knights who have set out to make themselves experts on any and all useless information. Jo eventually learns important information about her past, and becomes torn between her new home and what seems to be an undeniable destiny.s

This is one of those books that upsets you because it’s the author’s first and only. The Order of Odd-Fish is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time, and it’s definitely enjoyable even for those who don’t consider themselves fantasy readers. Get ready for a crazy ride, and read it. Seriously.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Teen Read Week (or Month, I guess)

Teen Read Week is celebrated nationally for one week each October, but at SCPL we celebrate it for the whole month! This year the theme is

so we are having three appropriately themed contests just for teens- a Candy Counting contest, a Bite-sized Short Story contest and a Design a Bookmark contest. For more info, the rules and what you can win, please click here. Happy reading!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Photobook: Spartanburg 2008- The Results

This year was the second year for our Photobook project where we give 50 cameras to 50 teens and have them take pictures of Spartanburg as they see it. Cameras were given out starting June 15th and due by July 31st. We developed the film, chose at least one good photo from each camera to display and selected five photos as the overall best. Those photographers received a $25 Visa giftcard for their work. All of the photos we chose are on display at the Headquarters Library in the at&t Exhibition Gallery through September.Below are the five photos selected as the best-

Stop in and check out the whole display!

SCPL Teen Blog!