Zombies are coming to Summer Reading

Zombie feltie prototype for a possible 2012 Summer Reading Teen craft. Idea taken from Appleton's former teen librarian and the book Zombie Felties.

This guy was done up out of gray, white, and a little black felt, sewed together with kind of roughly with overstitching and stuffed with some scrap felt.

His intensines are yarn, I added a few details and blood with sharpies.

What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae review

What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae is a fun and unique piece of non-fiction for children.  While not a likely source for writing a scientific paper on the lifecycle of insects, it is perfect for children who have lots of questions about baby bugs.  Covering topics like where different insects lay their eggs, what different types of adult and infant bugs eat, and what they look like; this book should answers many questions, and drive the curious child to look for further books. 

A good read aloud book, or something a child can pick up on their own, the text and information is well assembled for the younger curious child.  The illustrations are colorful and cute, though some children may want to see photos of actual baby bugs.  Some of the humor will go over younger children's heads, but adults should enjoy reading it as well.

A good purchase for a public or elementary school library.  Use along with your science unit on insects, your children's bug house, or just in spring when bugs start appearing.

Also posted at: http://www.gonzoyalibrarian.blogspot.com

Book source: ePub provided by publisher via NetGalley

Winter's End by Jean-Claude Mourlevat (contains spoilers)

Winter's End is the story of four teens who escape from a terrible orphanage/school where they've been housed after their parents rebel against the government. Three of them get to a safe house, where they are drawn in to the new rebellion, but the fourth is captured and forced to participate in a deadly game.

I was really drawn into Winter's End at first, as the set-up of the orphanage/school was interesting as were the dog-men. It continues at a decent pace with escalating excitement as the reader discovers more and more about the world; though the love story part was less believable, with two sets of teens falling in love at first sight.

For me the book really started to fall apart when everyone from the government seemed to be incompetent and easily defeated, and that all the power the government became unbelievable. The final rebellion worked out way too neatly, and the whole book wrapped up quickly in a very neat little package. If I had read this before Hunger Games, it might have worked for me, but with a weaker evil government, a way too tidy ending, and far less perilous peril, it just disappointed me in the end. It also didn't help that while it starts out being about the two girls, the boys take the lead and have all the fighting power and leadership skills, and the girls end up singing, cooking, and longing for their boys. Katniss (and Katsa from Graceling) have raised my expectations quite high for girls/women fighting evil governments.

I think that if Winter's End had been expanded into a second book, letting things play out more fully and giving the girls more of a role in the rebellion (which you really think they are going to have for a while) I would be able to recommend the book more. I'd give it 3 out 5, because it started out really well and kept me reading and wanting to see what would happen, it just didn't finish strongly. I'd give it to teens who like dystopian books, and those who are ask me for something to read while waiting for Mockingjay, but only after I had recommended Graceling and Maze Runner.

Book source: Checked out Winter's End (and all others mentioned) from my library

"Need" and "Captivate" by Carrie Jones

I will admit that I'm not big on the supernatural romance books, which is unfortunate as it is the current craze in YA and Adult publishing. It started with vampires and werewolves, and has moved on to include dark fairies, and now fallen angels. I do try and keep up by reading at least one or two of the newest ones, especially if they seem extremely popular. Even so, it is a rare event that I enjoy one enough to genuinely gush over it. So enjoy this rare double, spoiler free review/commentary on Carrie Jones' Need series.

Last fall I picked up Carrie Jone's new book "Need," attracted to it by the cover (shiny) and the positive buzz on my listservs and blogs. I devoured it, I really did. It is not a perfect book, there are some large plot holes and Zara, the main character, does some really stupid things, but it is an awful lot of fun. The Book Smugglers' review is dead-on, and so I won't try and restate the same stuff. Jones gives the characters depth and personalities, and has a good pacing to her writing. The teens feel like teenagers, and have the standard teen lack of knowledge of their own mortality, which kind of explains some of the stupid things Zara does. Jones has an interesting twist on pixies, including that the kings leave trails of gold glitter. The end was a little too neat, but that's what paves the way for the sequel. I definitely recommend this title, flaws and all, especially to fans of Twilight or any other supernatural romance.

The sequel, "Captivate," just came out last month. I swiped it from cataloging to read it over our snowy weekend. Once again, it has a cool shiny cover, and I devoured it. It fills in some of the plot holes, and sure enough, the ending to "Need" was a little too tidy, and so there are consequences. I really enjoy that Jones doesn't take herself too seriously, and acknowledges her Buffy-Scooby Doo-esque team by have the characters make reference to it. This book brings in some larger happenings, and introduces some Norse mythology, which I'm a sucker for when it is done correctly. The teens continue to be teenagers, and Zara and her boyfriend, Nick, are so that couple that are constantly holding hands and having PDAs in the hallway. Nick is well portrayed as the macho leader of the pack, and Zara's annoyance at this is genuine. I felt like they were kids at my high school, which really makes the book work. My main problem with "Captivate" was that, it was one of those books where you get to a certain point and start looking at the number of pages left vs. where the plot is and realize that it's going to be a cliffhanger. So, now I'm hooked into another series, and have no knowledge of when the third will be out. I would definitely recommend both these books for any library serving teens. There's also nothing beyond smooching, so they are probably safe for most tweens, especially those that have read Twilight or any of the other major YA supernatural romance series.

Book source: Checked out both books from my library

Craft: Gyotaku (Fish Prints)

Gyotaku (gyo=fish, taku=rubbing) is an art invented by Japanese fishermen in the 1800’s. It allowed them to keep a record of their catches. It continues to be an art form and has been adapted as an alternative to the stuffed fish on the wall for modern sport fishers. Traditionally a real fish is used, along with high quality ink, and rice paper. Libraries can adapt the art further for a program.

Materials and supplies:

-rubber fish from Dick Blick

-paintbrushes

Option 1

-tempera paint

-paper

Option 2

-Speedball Fabric Printing Ink (heatset) (Dick Blick or Oriental Trading)

-t-shirts

-additional fabric paint, i.e. puffy paints (optional)

-iron

-paper

Steps:

1. Start with tempera paint and scrap paper to get a feel for the process.

2. Coat fish well with choosen medium. It is important to do this quickly, as the paint will start to dry and you’ll lose parts of the fish.

3. Cover fish with paper/t-shirt, pressing down and molding it around the fish.

4. Pull it up smoothly.

5. You have a print. If on fabric, follow directions on paint to heatset. Touch up with a paintbrush as needed.

6. Follow directions to heatset. You may want to use puffy paints to further decorate.

January Reads

In a crazy attempt to get and keep caught up with new youth books coming out I've decided to try and read a book a day. January went well, with 31 books read, counting graphic novels, adult titles, and audio books. Here are some highlights:

Ship Breaker - Paolo Bacigalupi (book source: ARC from publisher)
Bacigalupi is fairly new author, and this is his first youth novel and only second published novel. A post-apocalyptic adventure in a world where tsunamis and hurricanes have destroyed large amounts of the coasts, oil is extremely scarce, and the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened to the extreme. The hero of the story is a young teen who works under horrific conditions breaking apart old ships for salvageable metal and parts. He collides with a wealthy girl who becomes shipwrecked nearby (and hits many stereotypes of the character type), and gets caught up in even bigger problems when he decides that saving her might be his key out.

The beginning was a little slow, but the descriptions are good and pull you in. Definitely gets into the environmental warnings about pollution and climate change bringing the end to the world as we know it. Not the best book, or even great, but a fun read. I'd be interested in seeing more of the world, though with different characters. Recommended for teens and mature tweens who enjoy fast-paced adventures and Miyazaki movies about man vs nature.


Going Bovine - Libba Bray (book source: checked out from library)
Cameron is your typical apathetic teen, going through his day to day existence with no real goals or interest in anything other than the hot chick. That all changes when he starts to see fire giants and gets diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease. Things look pretty bleak until a punk rock angel (pink hair, combat boots, plaid skirt, and a habit of spray painting things on her wings) named Dulcie drops by and sends him off on a quest to save himself and the world. Tagging along is Gonzo, a hypochondriac video-game playing dwarf, and later a talking lawn gnome, who claims to be the Norse god Balder. The three guys set off on one of the craziest roadtrips, encountering jazz players, dimension hopping scientists, happiness cults, and reality tv.

I really enjoyed Going Bovine, so I was pleased when it won the Printz. Nothing like Bray's other books, it is a crazy ride, with lots of literary references, the whole thing being Don Quixotesque, and brings up some good discussion topics. I can see this being used in English classes, as it just has a lot, maybe a little too much, crammed into it. It is both funny and sad, and mainly unforgettable. Even if you can't get into it yourself, hand it to that 15 year old guy you know, it might just be written for him.


Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater and Wings - Aprilynne Pike (book source: both checked out from library)
Not going to get a full review on these titles, but both are good supernatural romances, Shiver with werewolves and Wings with fairies. Teen girls will likely enjoy them, as might your adult Twilight fans. They are both new authors and these are the first books in their respective series. Also, they both have very interesting takes on some classic literary creatures. Not my favorite reads, but I'll probably pick up the next in both series.


Three Cups of Tea - David Relin & Greg Mortenson (book source: checked out from library)
After nearly dying in the mountains of Pakistan, Greg Mortenson was saved by the people of the remote village Korphe. He promised to build them a school as thanks, and though it took years he kept his promise and started a campaign to bring schools to the tiny villages of the area.

This is the most amazing book I've read in ages. If you haven't read it, you should. It will open your eyes to another point of view of some of the most remote areas of the world, that we as Americans usually only see on the news in a negative light. You will be amazed that Greg Mortenson survived and continues his work. Not a read for most teens, though some might be interested in it or required to read it. Good for advanced students or those getting ready for college.

Summer Reading Programs

Summer Reading was very successful this year. I issued a challenge to the local teens that if 500 of them signed up for the Summer Reading Program (SRP) I'd bleach my hair and dye it bright pink. To get the word out about SRP I went to all the local schools and the Boys and Girls Club and told them about the reading portion, the prizes, the programs portion, and my challenge. I also used the library Facebook group to promote it.

In the end we had 520 teens sign-up. This is our third summer doing a teen SRP, and we had 372 teens sign-up the first year, 368 the second, so you can see how big of a leap it was. Now, next year, I'll have some sort of challenge based on how many hours they read. My library board has suggested I jump out of a plane, which kinda makes me wonder if they are trying to replace me or something :) My main issue with the plane idea is that it is too hard to top the next year.

The programs were also very successful. I'm very pleased with the number of teens that came to the movies, crafts, and game days.
Movies: Twilight, The Clique, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, City of Ember, Hairspray, and Prince Caspian.
Crafts: Twilight crafts, bleaching t-shirts, fish print t-shirts, t-shirt tote bags, spa crafts, and marble magnets.

Youth Book Award predictions

I like trying to guess the books that will win the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz awards. It lets me take a look at some of the titles from the year and be a little snarky. Snarky because of my feelings on the awards lately, and that like many others, I don't think they actually have much connection to what youth want to read. Back in May I talked about some of my feelings on the subject.

So my picks for the 2008 winners:
Caldecott: Always a tough category to call, especially for me. My favorites so far this year are Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea, Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex, and Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman. In the case of Dinosaur... and Katie Loves... I think the text and pictures match perfectly, which is the goal. Otherwise, I'm guessing it will be a title that's on SLJ's Best Books of 2008 list.

Newbery: I'm still going with The Underneath by Kathi Applet, which I admit I haven't read yet. I like her Bubba and Beau picture books, so I'll give Underneath a try.
I'd love to see a book like Diary of a Wimpy Kid win, something that is pure comedy. Or the new books by two of my favorite authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett could make the honor list for Newbery or Printz. Probably won't happen, but they are both making other lists at least.

Printz: Gotta say Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, which I haven't read yet, but is getting lots of buzz lately. Other ones I think are likely: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, Paper Towns by John Green, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, or Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Pratchett's Nation has a chance for an honor at least I hope. The winner will probably be something no one would have guessed, if the last two years are anything to judge by.

What titles are you predicting? We'll find out in about a month. I'll be breaking in the new children's librarian at that point, so it'll be interesting to hear her views on the winners, and we'll have to try and find time to read them.

Duct Tape

Duct Tape is one of my favorite crafts to do with me teens, and one of their favorites as well. We usually do it 2-3 times a in year. This past summer one of the tweens in the group started up a business selling purses after learning how to make them at a program. Other teens have found duct tape items are a good gift. My teens seem to like it best if I leave it up to them what to make.

Supplies needed:
-Duct tape in a variety of colors. I usually get at least three or four rolls of the standard silver-grey and half a dozen in other colors. I encourage them to use the silver-grey as the base, and add decorations with the others.
-Some good scissors. Duct tape isn't hard to cut, but if they are using things like cardboard you'll need strong scissors. And yes, you can tear duct tape, but some teens have trouble with that, and cutting it leaves a cleaner edge.
-Patterns and directions. I use ones from the Duck Tape Club and books, such as Got Tape? Many of the teens are fine to figure out what they are making on their own, but the first time they usually want directions. Make extra copies of the basic ones.
-Rulers

Optional supplies:
-Paper punches of various shapes and sizes.
-Cardboard, to use as support in some projects
-Waxpaper. If you put a piece of duct tape on wax paper, it can then be cut into shape or put in a paper punch, and then peeled off to be stuck to something else.
-Add-ons, i.e. fake flowers, gems, fringe
-Hot glue gun


To start with, I give the teens a quick lesson in making duct tape fabric, show them the patterns, and mention a few words of caution about being patient and not taping themselves or each other to things. And then it is basically up to them, and walking around helping them.

Some things my teens have made: wallets, purses, roses, sculptures, hats, gloves, shirts, skirts, flip-flops, wings, and my personal favorite: a Guitar Hero style duct tape banjo.

Overall it is a decent priced craft to do. Duct tape is somewhat expensive, but it lasts awhile and is useful to have around.
Price: ~$25-$50 for 2-3 programs
Age range: 11 and up
Time: 1 hour or more

Teen Craft Resources online

While there's not a lot targeted at teen librarians, there are a tons of good craft websites on the net, some general and some specifically teen geared. Here's some of my favorite to sift through:
-Instructables - How to make cool DIY project. Instructions on how to make almost anything you can think of and lots that you never would. Some of it is pretty impractical for most library programs, i.e. too complicated and expensive.
-Not Martha - Not the sort of projects Martha Stewart would generally make. Not a ton of stuff, but fun, and has good links. Someday I will knit myself this wig.
-Cut Out + Keep - Sort of like a less tech heavy version of Instructables. Slightly more practical for library programs. Sadly, not all the projects actually have instructions. If you work with teens that sew, there's a good variety here to choose from
- Craftster - Crafting Community & Forums: Crafts, Patterns, Projects & Craft Ideas. Less instructions than I'd like, but lots of cool things to look at.
- Diary of a Crafty Chica - Blog and website with some really cool stuff. Some of it is way more complex than I'd get into with my teens, but there's some workable/adaptable ideas. She's also got a line of books and craft supplies. I really like her Crafty Diva books, and have used them with my teens.

Next time, some crafts and a book list.

Teen Crafts for Libraries

As a teen librarian, I've always got my eye out for good crafts to do with teens. And I have found that there aren't really that many resources out there targeted at crafts for teen librarians, not like what there is for children's librarians or teen book reviews. So, I've decided that that's something I can do. There is a book coming out, soon rumor has it, called, The Hipster Librarian's Guide to Teen Craft Projects, which promises to be most helpful.

Stay tuned, and if you have a good craft, please comment or contact me in some way.

Banned Books Week

It is the start of Banned Books Week, which raises awareness of challenged and banned books, and celebrates the freedom to read.

Public libraries are places for people of all walks of life to come together, and thus must cater to a wide range of interests, reading levels, and upbringings. What is right for one family might be offensive to another. The important thing is that public libraries do serve everyone and it is up to individuals to choose for themselves and their children what to read and watch, and not force their choices on the rest of population. To paraphase my father, if the library collection doesn't have some items that offend you and/or that you wouldn't want to read, then you aren't doing your job. Our freedom to choose what we want to read and to have access to it is one of the benefits of living in a democracy, and one that librarians continue to fight for.

From the ALA website here's the “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007” which reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language

4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism

6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,

7) "TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit

9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10) "The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

The ten most frequently challenged authors of 2007:

1) Robert Cormier
2) Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
3) Mark Twain
4) Toni Morrison
5) Philip Pullman
6) Kevin Henkes
7) Lois Lowry
8) Chris Crutcher
9) Lauren Myracle
10) Joann Sfar

Some authors and their books that didn't make the list this year that are frequently challenged that you may have read:

J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter

Madeline L'Engle and Wrinkle in Time

C.S. Lewis and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Dav Pilkey and Captain Underpants

Katherine Paterson and Bridge to Terabithia and The Great Gilly Hopkins

Barbara Park and Junie B. Jones

Summer movie rundown

I've been going to see a movie every weekend lately. Which is nice (though expensive) as I saw like three movies in theaters last year.

Iron Man- Best superhero movie of the last year or two, though way more violent. Marvel is laying the groundwork for something big. Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect Tony Stark. Go for the theater if possible, and remember to stay through the credits.

Get Smart- A fun film, not great but funny. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway make a nice team, though the chemistry isn't quite there. Dwayne Johnson and Masi Oka are fun. A good rental, but if you don't know the original show, you might not get some of the jokes.

WALL-E- Definitely the best of the bunch. Check out my full review. Go see this in theaters.

Wanted- I don't really like violent movies or movies with really stupid plot devices, and this movie unfortunately is both. Four words: Mystical loom of fate. It wants to be Kill Bill or the Matrix, but it would need better writing. Rent if you like mindless violence filled movies with Angelina Jolie. Rent Beowulf if you like Angelina Jolie, violent and intelligent movies.

Hellboy II- Good movie, fun characters, lots of action and humor, and a gaping plothole. However the huge fight happens so soon after the plothole that you won't have time to consider it. Great creatures throughout, though some appear to be Pan's Labyrinth leftovers. Del Toro is good at combining humor, action, and scary stuff, so I'm quite hopefully about the Hobbit. If you liked the first Hellboy go see this one in the theater, it deserves the big screen.

This weekend is The Dark Knight, which looks very promising.

Summer Reading is upon us

6/9/08 (not posted earlier due to lack of time at computer)
Across the country libraries are either beginning Summer Reading or finishing up their first week or two. My library has begun today, and is off to quite a start. With schools out and temperatures in the 90's-100's, families and groups of teens seem to be flocking to our air-conditioned library. We've got over 60 kids and 30 teens signed up for the Reading Program at the main branch, and who knows how many at the other branches. The children's librarian told me that she'd be out at the desk signing youth up all day. I am lucky enough to have teens volunteering and doing sign-up at the moment.

Teen volunteers are a great thing to have in libraries, though I fear somewhat underused and unavailable. We have use volun-teens mainly during the summer, though I'm trying to get them to work during the school year too. They currently say that they to busy to do anything more when school is on, but I'll try again in the fall.

Summer Reading is a definitely a mixed blessing for libraries. Our circs, door counts, program attendance, and reader's advisory go way up. Earlier we had at least six families in the children's area reading, looking for books, playing games, making puppets eat each other. It is chaos and it is kinda the most wonderful thing.

Printz and Newbery award books

I just finished listening to "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary Schmidt. It is the winner of both the Printz Award and a Newbery Honor, which is a pretty big honor. Now this is also tells you some things about the book with having even seen it.
-The main character will be between 11 and 14 years old
-It will very likely be historical fiction
-It will almost certainly be realistic fiction
-There will be some sort of death
-There will be issues
-It will be depressing in at least some parts
-It will likely not circ great at my library

Now I haven't read all the Newbery books or even all the Printz ones. I'm certainly making some generalizations here, but there are definite trends to be observed in the winners and honorees. Of the 2008 Newbery books, all four are historical and realistic fiction, and all deal with race, religion, or class issues. The 2007 batch brought us two of historical and two contemporary, with the issues of families and disablities thrown in. Only about 12 fantasy or sci-fi books have won the Newbery Medal going book all the way to 1922. And that is including the ones that are fantastical because they are about and told through the point of view of animals.

As my father said when I spoke to him about this the other day, the depressing nature of the books and the issues like racism, classism, and religion are things that real youth are experiencing and helps them connect them to the book.

The Printz Award is definitely edgier, but still it is fond of historical fiction, issues, and depressing bits. But they at least chose winner and honor books with good amounts of humor and interesting characters and narrators like Death, demons, the Monkey King, and ghosts.

My current bet for a Newbery this year is The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. It appears to have all the requirements, other than historical. Looks like it has some strong fantastical elements at least.

In the case of the Printz, I haven't a clue. It seems to be the book no one predicted in the past couple of years.

Summer Reading Countdown

Summer Reading is a great, wonderful, fun thing for kids, teens, and libraries. But preparing for it makes me pull out my hair.

Here's a piece of my To Do list:
- Choose movies
- Screen movies
- Choose crafts
- Make sample crafts
- Book program space
- Buy prizes
- Photograph prizes
- Write up prize descriptions
- Create bulletin board
- Make fliers for schools
- Use up all the copier toner
- Make packets (will be done as soon as more toner arrives)
- Visit schools
- Website
- Prepare a book list for visiting 4th graders
- Make drawing bins
- Print sign-up sheets

Writing it up actually makes me feel better.
Getting close to the end!

Reading lots, but not writing

Summer Reading is hurtling towards us, and I feel sort of ready. I'm trying to get a lot of things going with the Teen Advisory Board too. They have agreed to make posters promoting Summer Reading, and the review blog is finally getting off the ground. I'm very pleased that it is finally happening, so I hope it continues to grow.

We are talking about meeting at Barnes and Noble to do some end of the fiscal year shopping, as there is always money that needs to be spent quickly in May or June. The TAB has been asking about a field trip and this might be a good opportunity. I'm always asking them for purchase suggestions and understandably they have trouble thinking of specific titles. The nearest bookstore that carries teen books is about an hour away, so they aren't as easily exposed to the newest titles.

Might get a couple reviews up later.

PLA rundown

I really enjoyed PLA. There were good programs, good company, and good food. It is nice to be able to go to a conference where I actually had to chose between programs every session. Highlights included:

Reader's Advisory for Teens program- Helped confirm that I'm doing things right, and gave me some new hints.

Game Studio program- The Minneapolis Library is using a really cool program called Scratch. It is a free program that you can use to program/make some things of various types, i.e. games, videos, or other things. It uses some of the same code that the old Logo programming language used, but now the scripts are written in blocks that the user just has to select and stack. Projects are uploaded onto the Scratch website, where there's an online community like YouTube or Flickr. People can download projects to look at the coding. Minneapolis Library has a regular program where they have teens teaching other teens how to use Scratch.

Dealing with Teens Virtually- Respect the teens and respect their use of the net. Don't make the teens always come to you and your space, go to them in their's. Those two sentences sum up most of the important stuff from this program, though we also talked about ways to reach teens. Meebo, texting, e-mail, Flickr, blogs, and MySpace are just a few of the things we talked about.

Those are just a few of the programs I went to, and a very few of the ideas I picked up. Lots more to think about, consider, and do. I've gotten permission to start a blog for my teens to review books, movies, and music in. Maybe an online book group will happen as well in the future.

In a side note about PLA and to the organizers: If you are going to have a "paperless" conference, stop the daily newspapers or print them on demand, and even more importantly, don't give everyone books they don't want. This is one of three like it at the end of the conference.

Comic book rundown

Visited a number of comic book stores this weekend and picked up a bunch of stuff. Here's a rundown:

Echo- Terry Moore's new series looks interesting and science-fiction-y. Will it be good? Probably. Will it be appropriate for teens? Hard to tell so far, as really very little has happened, but I hope so. The cover of the first issue is very shiny.

Serenity: Better Days- Joss Whedon's new miniseries, which is nowhere near as good as the show, but if you are a fan of Firefly I'd suggest picking it up, or at least reading the forthcoming collection which your local public library will likely get. This one is a lost episode type mini-series, so everything is pre-movie state. *Bonus info* The letters page reveals that a Shepard Book mini-series is planned for later this year.

Teen Titans Year One- I love the art style (other than Aqualad, who looks scary) in this, and it is good to see young Ollie, Barry, and Arthur. Batman and Wonder Woman really haven't changed in appearance or even attitude (depending on who is writing them).

Tiny Titans- Adorable, short, and funny, yet somehow strangely wrong. Cyborg is not an Easy Bake Oven and Wonder Girl doesn't seem like the type to bake cakes. I'll admit that Terra throwing rocks cracked me up. When this gets collected, I'm definitely putting it on the kids' graphic novel order.

Booster Gold- I have a strong fondest for the characters from the old Justice League International. Something to do with reading the comics while I was growing up. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle were two of the leads in the series, and the ones who were always causing trouble. After both dying recently (they got better), they have ceased being simply comedic characters and are now saving the multi-verse and time. That's cool, and the series makes fun references to things and people past. It is funny and serious. Unfortunately, time travel, paradoxes, and the general current state of DC makes the whole series rather confusing and difficult for a new reader to pick-up.

Also picked up the first volume of Honey and Clover, which I haven't had a chance to read yet. It looks amusing. Wanted to buy, but couldn't find, the first volume of Pumpkin Scissors.

I also managed not to be mistaken for a bookstore employee this weekend, so that's good.

Review of Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by George

"Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow" is Jessica Day George's second book. It is a retelling of the old Scandinavian story "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," which has elements of Beauty and the Beast and the myth of Cupid and Psyche. It is a story of which I am particularly fond, and George's version did not disappoint me at all.

"Sun and Moon" is in the same vein as Gail Carson Levine's "Ella Enchanted" and Shannon Hale's "Goose Girl." They tell an old story, but make it their own story, adding new elements and making the characters well-rounded. George adds some nice backstory for our heroine, though, as usual, the male lead could have used a bit more himself. It is a book I had trouble putting down. Fast-paced, with a good supporting cast and likable lead, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes Levine and Hale's books, or enjoyed George's first book, "Dragon Slippers."

George also gets bonus points from me, as she is a Scandinavian Studies major. Maybe I should write a Scandinavian story based novel.