The Library Rocks Garden and TVs….

Kindness Rock @ Library

Future Home of Library Rocks Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a simply smashing turnout of veteran and new TVs (Teen Volunteers) last night, Library Rocks Garden got it’s first boost of painting rocks and envisioning the target landscape.  TV information forms were handed out.  The tentative (almost there) summer schedule at the Library opportunities for volunteering was offered.  And, some basics about being a TV here at the Sandwich Public Library.  All good except not enough pizza had been ordered (due to -yikes- so many) but all persevered with half slices and got to painting the available beach stones.

Thank you to those who shared experiences of volunteering at the Library.  Thank you to those who were there to commit to volunteering.  Thank you to Daniela and Maxine who helped set up and to those same two and everyone else who helped tidy up after (Leah & Kara!!!! Thanks).

So, if you are at the beach, pick up a couple rocks …. preferably flatter, smooth and no larger than 3-4 inches long. Bring it to the Library.  Those stones will be stars in our upcoming Summer Reading registration drive in June.  Oh, and that tree? The future home of our Library Rocks Garden for Summer 2018.

Obviously, the Groundhog has nothing to do with waking up to Spring….

So it is May, May 4th to be exact.  The lure of the SandwichTeenBookbites Blog hasn’t pulled me anywhere lately except now.  The Future is Summer! While for YA readers (6th-12th grades) there is no particular Summer Reading sign-on, there is STILL a theme and a Hope and a Need for Teen Volunteers (TVs).  The Summer Reads theme is………..

TaDa! Libraries Rock.  Summer Jobs, Camps, learning to drive, babysitting, swimming – WHAT! The Boardwalk is not open! for good reason, hanging with friends, traveling, trying to stay out of trouble, rock climbing (I hope.  It is great.), sleeping (Oh, yes, glorious sleeps to noon are ahead sometimes.) and more.  The Library will be OPEN and please come and find your mind perks here.

The First TV meeting will be Thursday, May 10, 5:30 -7 pm.  The first half an hour is introduction to the TV opportunities.  The moments between 6 and 7 are for getting a head start on the Library Rocks Project for our younger summer reading registration participants.  Please join us if you are interested.  We will be in Room 1 of the Library.

And now that the blog has awoken, more to come. Thanks.

It is almost a new year. Remarkable.

Why an octopus? Why not? Tonight downstairs Courtney Depasquale is doing a Teen Improv workshop for 6 teens and one mom (who slipped in…).  It is very cold outside, very dark.  The books are waiting for readers, so many GREAT READS! I just read a great blog post entitled “I’m a Teenager and I don’t Like Young Adult books.” So I am going to try to post it here because it makes sense and it is funny and the writer is honest with herself. Here is the link from Huffington Post YA Lit…not for me which is what I called the article to give you something to click on.  Who even reads blogs? I am thinking positive here.  Like the octopus which may only live for three years, ah, but what a life (if one of your fellow octopuses don’t eat you). Go with the flow, I guess.

Hello, Young Writers, wherever you are….

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) commences tomorrow.  If you think of yourself as a ‘serious’ writer ( publish me, please!)  then the whole NaNoWriMo thing could be a good start to tap into.  There is lots of inspiration, support (online) and tricks of the trade.  Did you know that these books, available at your local library, started as a NaNoWriMo project?:  FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell; THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan; THE COMPOUND by Stephanie Bodeen. You can download/print/memorize the National Novel Writing Month’s Young Novelist Workbook at https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/home or just read and think about it.  I kinda wish there was a short story NaNoWriMo…NaSSWriMo, a story a day. If you write I guess the main ingredient is to just keep writing.  Sometimes writers like to keep their writing secret.  Only you can know when you want the world to read the story you’ve created.  Recently reading ‘The Scion of the Fox’ by S.M. Beiko, the author sets about creating a particular mood, a world, that furnishes the characters of the story with what they have to work with in their lives. That is one of the beauties of writing. You can create worlds.  ‘Ice Breaker’ by Lian Tanner is another book I have read where the author created a world like no other.  And so it goes.  Good Writing to you Poet, Novelist, Rapper, Songwriter, Short Story-ist, Journalist, Essayist!

It’s not over til it’s over…

A remarkable read not because of its brash title but because of its inherent humanity as expressed through two very different young men destined to die in the next 24. It is a crazy world so who knows how ‘Death Cast’ came about but Mateo and Rufus, complete strangers, get ‘the call’ that today is their last day on earth.  What DOES one do? A deftly woven story of strangers, friends, acquaintances, social media trolls and family that takes you along Mateo’s and Rufus’ last day as they meet up after finding each other on the app ‘Last Friend’. A vgr (verygoodread).  Compare it with Tuck Everlasting where your choice is to live forever – or not.

 

 

M.I.C.E….not what you think, Mickey

CAMBRIDGE, MA — MICE is back! On October 21 – 22, 2017 independent graphic novelists and cartoonists will converge on University Hall at 1815 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge’s Porter Square. The event is free, family friendly, and offers a weekend of activities as the Boston area’s only show dedicated to independent and alternative comics. This year’s show will also welcome a full line-up of special guests — professionals from the world of independent comics and graphic novels including: Michael DeForge, Kazu Kibuishi, Liz Prince, Jason Shiga, Mark Siegel and Isabel Greenberg!

MICE attendees are invited to discover their new favorite comic books from over 200 comic creators from the Boston area and beyond. The exhibition area at MICE will present a wide range of art and books: hand-made mini-comics and zines, anthologies, graphic novels, art prints, and sketches. Panel discussions will provide insightful conversations about the world of contemporary comics and graphic novels. Artists will share techniques, tips, and tricks for creating your own comics in a variety of workshops for all ages and skill levels.

MICE will be held at Lesley University’s University Hall at 1815 Massachusetts Avenue in Porter Square. The hours of the show are Saturday, October 21st, 10 am – 6 pm, and Sunday, October 22nd, 11 am – 5 pm. Admission is free.

http://www.micexpo.org/about/

Aaaaaaa!!!! Summer to Be Like NOW!

Rolling back into the Bites again…Summer is here (soon). While there is no formal Summer Reading Sign Up for Teens (12-18), of course, reading anything you want is still very much encouraged.  Here there will be book recommendations, Teen program alerts like the June 27th Amazin’ Gamin’ Video game truck and more.  YOUR recommendations are helpful so please consider getting in touch with the Teen Reads department at yasandwichpl@yahoo.com with your reviews, cues and news.  Those interested in volunteering at the Library can come to an interest meeting Saturday, June 10th at 1 pm (30 minutes).  Of course, if you don’t make it, please contact me through email or at the Library.  So this is just a get back into the Summer Reading Game AND to let you know the theme this year is BUILD A BETTER WORLD!…which you will because you are you and that is that.

Teen Reads April ‘The Alchemyst’

Steadily this group of re-formed McBas (Massachusetts Children’s Book Award) members has met to keep the good book mojo going.  So far, they have tackled the following titles:  The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelly Pearsall; GONE by Michael Grant; The Young Elites by Marie Lu; City of Masks by Mary Hoffman and for April, ‘The Alchemyst’ by Michael Scott.  There is also a movement afoot to create a mini-movie based on one of the books read.  Keep in touch and you will know how that is going.  We meet once a month.  The group is open to new members, just please register as there is always pizza involved and it is nice to know who is attending.

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is the first in a series written by Michael Scott. Synopsis: Twin 15-year-old siblings Sophie and Josh Newman take summer jobs in San Francisco across the street from one another: she at a coffee shop, he at a bookstore owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. In the vey first chapter, armed goons garbed in black with “dead-looking skin and… marble eyes” (actually Golems) storm the bookshop, take Perry hostage and swipe a rare Book (but not before Josh snatches its two most important pages). The stolen volume is the Codex, an ancient text of magical wisdom. Nick Fleming is really Nicholas Flamel, the 14th-century alchemist who could turn base metal into gold, and make a potion that ensures immortality. Sophie and Josh learn that they are mentioned in the Codex’s prophecies: “The two that are one will come either to save or to destroy the world.” Mayhem ensues, as Irish author Scott draws on a wide knowledge of world mythology to stage a battle between the Dark Elders and their hired gun—Dr. John Dee—against the forces of good, led by Flamel and the twins (Sophie’s powers are “awakened” by the goddess Hekate, who’d been living in an elaborate treehouse north of San Francisco). Not only do they need the Codex back to stop Dee and company, but the immortality potion must be brewed afresh every month. Time is running out, literally, for the Flamels.

The Silence of the Artists…

FREE is nice. An unexpected FREE thing is nice, too.  A yellow ‘big item’ slip in my mailbox meant something. You see the two items that I received in the mailer here.  The scholastic Art & Writing Awards Catalog and The Best Teen Writing of 2016.  From all over the US.  You can find these two gems in the Teen Reads area.   Art – or the ‘arty’ pursuits – doesn’t shout at you to read or look at what it offers. Let’s face it, first reactions are pretty subjective. So the two publications won’t grab you like Devil’s Snare as you walk by but I encourage you to read and look at both.  Really, really good art and writing from real people (teens). And it’s FREE.

‘Twas the day before the day before New Year’s day….

Blogs are not what they used to be.  Still there’s a few things to share.  The Teen Reads area had a pretty quiet fall (with great circulation of reading materials and new titles coming in in person and online), Mockingjay 2 came out AND Star Wars (yet to see either) and the New Year dawns soon.

In honor of all those great Young Adult books that get made into movies – some good, some bad, some awful, some amazing – SPL is hosting a movie night and two book2movie rumbles (A book2movie rumble is a loose gathering of interested parties; interested because they like the book, they like movies, they like to write, they like to go to movies, they have a better idea when it comes to taking this book from page to screen…).  Thursday, January 28th, 6:30 pm we’ll be screening the movie based on ‘Me, Earl and the Dying Girl‘. Copies of the book will be available in the Teen Reads area. The movie is rated PG-13.  You are waaaay to young to know about ‘Love Story’, but you read and saw John Green’s ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ perhaps.  The book is akin to that scenario but, in my opinion, less flashy, more humor and more realistic.  The movie is all that and more.  If you are a film buff I think you’ll like this one.  Guys would even like this one.

Two more Book2Movie Rumbles will be held in February and April this time with books that have been optioned for filming.  Hopefully, I will snag someone to talk about writing for the screen or you will learn about creating min-movies on your smart phone or we’ll just talk about all the great things that happen in books that don’t make it to the screen.  These two titles have not been chosen yet.  Do my work for me and suggest a book that has been optioned and it will be considered for the Rumble.

Oh, by the way, The 5th Wave, Rick Yancy’s amazing dystopian novel, will be released as a movie in January of 2016.

The movie…