Teaser Tuesday

This is my first teaser, and you guys can get more information about Teaser Tuesdays here (and find other really cool teasers for every age group and genre.

My Teaser:

"They want us with no history and no memory. They want us empty as paper so they can write on us, so we ain't nothing but a price and an owner's name and a list of tasks."


The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday. Enjoy time with the people that you love the best and make memories that you will cherish for a lifetime. I won't be around much for the next few day. The library is closed which means I get a mini vacation and I am planning on using it to spend as much time as possible with my family (and Lis) and to catch up on some reading. Let us know how you are spending your holiday! Happy Holidays to everyone!!!

Booking Through Thrusday~ Generosity

Okay there were two sets of questions today, so I (Chelle) am going to answer the first set and then Ally is going to answer the second one.

Chelle:
1.Do you give books as gifts?

Yes I give books as gifts.

2.To everyone? Or only to select people?

It depends. If I found a book that I thought every person on my list would want or like.

3.How do you feel about receiving books as gifts?

I LOVE getting books as gifts.


Ally:
1.What is the best book you ever bought for yourself?

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

2.And, why? What made it the best? What made it so special?

It gives you a realistic view of why bad things happen in the world, and shows you that you are not tied to your past. It helped me realize that ultimately you make yourself the person that you are. Ultimately, you are responsible for the person you become. You can choose to let past or future negativity stunt your personal growth, or use those experiences to become a better person.

You guys know the drill...let us know what you think...

Movie Day and other Randomness

Quick reminder...On Friday we are playing Christmas movies for people of all ages at the Wythe County Public Library. School closes early and I know that everyone wants to celebrate Christmas break. So...tell your younger siblings and relatives, tell your parents, and tell your friends. Unlike some other events that are happening in town on Friday and Saturday this is totally FREE!!! We even provide snacks and drinks. Due to the restrictions in our movie license we can't put the movie titles down here, but here is a schedule with some really obvious hints:

1:00-2:00~ A movie about some misfits, an elf who wants to be a dentist, and a foggy Christmas Eve
2:00-2:30~ Bring your Peanuts along to hunt for the perfect Christmas Tree
2:30-4:00~ Join us and Ralphie for a classic (and remember to tell Santa you want a BB gun)
4:00-5:30~ Come see Jessica Biel before she ever knew JT and see JTT (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) before he dropped off the Hollywood radar.

If you guys can't figure out what these movies are you can always come see Ally and me at the library. We are ALWAYS here and we love seeing you guys (not that we are desperate for your company or anything)


Blog posts may be sporadic through the beginning of the year with the holidays and the library being closed several days. But we will be back in January with some excitement (we hope). Hopefully some local teens will be doing book reviews and we will have some more programs going on as well. We are kicking off our volunteer program in January as well. Don't forget about us if you need community service hours or padding for your college applications. There is a large variety of things to do here and it is indoors out of the bad weather. Also, kids are FUN!!!! So come in and fill out a volunteer application and get started today!

CONTESTS!!!

Okay you guys...I spent the weekend on various YA review blogs trying to find books to order. In addition to finding some great books to buy with library money I also found some cool contests. These are pretty great because you are entered to win books just by commenting on the posts. I entered for the library because lets face it...we have no budget and every book I get free is a book that I don't have to buy...which leaves more money for purchasing other books.


Okay first...Maelstrom is celebrating its first year online!!!! And their return to their original blog...check out their reviews and their Fiercely Fawesome First Contest.

Also celebrating her first year online is The Story Siren. Click to enter her Thank You Contest (mention that you learned about the contest here and we both get extra entries.)

Reviewer X is having an awesome contest AND an awesome week on her blog. Check out her Girl Week Celebration where she has awesome guest blogs and thoughts about strong female characters in YA lit (and in general.) Also check out her Artichoke's Heart Contest.

Okay, that's all I've got. Don't forget to check out all of these awesome blogs and have a great day!!!!

Review: 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 an disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Printz-Medalist John Green returns with the brilliant wit and searching emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers. (From the book jacket)

Why do I love John Green? 1. Because he is hilarious- but not in an obvious sort of way (unless you are a nerdfighter fangirl/boy.) 2. He doesn't write about the "cool" kids, but the kids he writes about are real and cool themselves even if they aren't part of the in crowd. 3. His books make you stop and think.

Paper Towns is another wonderful book by this fantastic YA author (if you haven't read Looking For Alaska or An Abundance of Katherines GET TO READING!!!) The main(ish) character Quentin or Q is a normal well- adjusted kid (just thank his parents who are both therapists) with a legend- Margo Roth Spiegelman (yes all three names)- as his next door neighbor. Q isn't part of the in crowd- he hates prom, is a really good student, and his best friends are band geeks. But, he isn't a shunned loser either. Instead he is what most of us are-the middle of the road who isn't' extreme at all. He is infatuated with his neighbor Margo-he loves her and he always has. But no one really knows Margo. When she disappears Q knows he has to find her. On his journey to find Margo he discovers a lot about her, himself, and love. He also discovers one of the hardest truths to learn: that people aren't what you expect them to be, but the flip side is that sometimes, people are better than you realized. John Green writes a beautiful story (that I can't really review without giving away all of the major plot twists) filled with love and true friendship. The reader had no idea how the story will end but they will wish that they had friends like Q, Ben, Radar, and Lacey. By the time the end of the book comes you know that finding Margo isn't what mattered, it was the journey on the way to finding her that counted the most. Q discovers himself on that journey.

The best thing about this book is the characters (arguably they are the best part of any John Green book.) At the beginning everyone fills a particular slot, but by the last page no one fits in that slot anymore. Each person grows and changes the way real people grow and change. As you read the book you see yourself and you realize how life shapes you. One event, one day, one hour, one minute, one person, one conversation, one sentence, one word can change your life. What you decide to do with that change makes you who you are. This is the realization that I came to as I read Paper Towns, and it is the same realization that Q comes to over and over again. Paper Towns was awesome- I laughed out loud, I understood each of the characters, and I was involved with this book like it was a living, breathing thing. All I can say is read it and see if it comes to life for you too.

**Just to be safe: This book is written about high school seniors. It contains some strong language and some slightly mature jokes.**

Booking Through Thursday: Time Is Of The Essence

Okay, I'm trying some new stuff to get readers and to get more stuff for said readers to read. A lot of the book review blogs that I read when I'm trying to find books to order do a few cool things. They are Teaser Tuesdays (where you put in a two sentence teaser from whatever book you are currently reading), Waiting on Wednesdays (where you talk about any books you are currently waiting to read), and Booking Through Thursdays (where you answer a question that is posted on a blog devoted to "meme surveys".) Hopefully this will give you guys some insight into what's going on here at the library and with us. So here it is.

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

*No! I never get to read as much as I would like to read. When you work 8 hours a day it doesn't leave much time for fun stuff. However, I spend so much time reading that it is probably a good thing that I don't have MORE time to read because then I wouldn't get anything done...ever...

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

*I think if I did have more time to read that I would read for myself. Nine out of ten books that I read are YA or juvenile fiction books. I read them so that I can let patrons know what the heck is going on (and coming soon so that I can review it for you guys as well) So if I had extra time I would spend it reading grown up stuff, magazines, a few of my favorite classics and so on...pretty much I would just read something that I didn't feel like I had to read.

Enjoy and feel free to answer the question yourself in our comments section!!!

To Kill a Mockingbird-or as I call it BOOORRRINNGG

First of all thanks for giving some love to our new blog. We are new at blogging but I am starting to enjoy having my tangents to someone that wont roll their eyes at me. Today I was talking about how books can make you think about certain things. Before you yawn, and go check out arcade.com hear me out. I read To Kill A Mockingbird recently for the 1000th time. Everyone’s family is “special” and “dysfunctional” in some way. Mine is no different. My parents were divorced when I was 10 and my mother passed when I was 21. This book reminds me that all types of families have some beauty somewhere. In this book the main character, a girl named Scout loses her mother at a young age and lives with her brother and father Atticus. Atticus Finch reminds me a lot of my late mother. Atticus is famous in the book for treating everyone fairly. He never met a stranger. He didn’t define people by how much money they have or what their weight was or who they knew. My mom was like that. She picked up random strangers in her car (do not try that at home) and fed them dinner. She had a homeless man for Thanksgiving once. She was just kind of friends with everyone. And even though she was really strange and probably a little bit nuts, when she died over 500 people came to her viewing. It was because of how she treated everyone the same, no conditions or stipulations. Atticus is like that too. It didn’t matter to him what race or gender someone was, to him people were people. I wish things were like that now. Or at least more like that. My sister is like my mom and Atticus. She doesn't care about someone's differences and she has always defended people who couldn’t defend themselves. There is also the little old African American lady who comes to see me at the library, we don’t see color, we just see each other. I highly recommend this book, not just because its lame required reading for school, but because it reminds us to love people.

Teen Book Reviews

Hello again Wythe County teens. Ally and I are really trying to keep the blog updated and to provide you guys with information that you can use. We are going to start posting book reviews on a regular basis. We would also like you guys to contribute as well. If any of you are interested in reading a book and writing a review that we can post on here we would love to have you involved. We will be counting this as volunteer work for anyone who participates. We will start posting book reviews regularly (at least one a month) in January. If you are interested in participating please come by our office at work or email us at teentangentsblog@live.com and let us know. If you participate you will have to have parental consent if you are under the age of 18.

Twilight The Movie

Okay guys and girls...who all watched the new Twilight movie? It's been out a week and there have been a huge amount of tickets sold across the country. Did you hate it? Did you love it? Did the cast live up to your expectations? Are you glad that New Moon will soon be made into a movie as well? Would you keep the entire original cast or are there changes that you would like to see? Personally, I was really impressed with the movie, and I thought that Summit did a great job. I am hoping that New Moon is done just as well. I went into this movie fully expecting to be disappointed by the story and the cast. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I think that Kristen Stewart was wonderful as Bella, and while I was really not looking forward to picture perfect Edward being played by the goofy guy from Harry Potter, I think that in the end Robert Pattison did Edward justice. True, there were some parts that were tweaked and some stuff that was just left out, but all in all I think this is one of the best Book-to-Movie films that I have seen in a long while. Hopefully everyone who saw this movie was just as impressed as I was, and if you haven't seen it then read the books and go buy a movie ticket!!!! Let us hear your thoughts and feelings about the book, the movie, and the other three books in the series....