Author: edaly

Erin’s Pick of the Week (or so): Song of the Lioness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I beg you to ignore the terrible 80’s style book covers, because inside is the story of Alanna, lady of knight of Tortall, whose saga of growing up and overcoming obstacles is the equal of any fantasy hero coming into his or her own (think: Harry Potter, and the like).  In these four books we follow Alanna from ten years old, on the day she decides to disguise herself as a boy and trade places with her brother so she can go to the palace and learn to be a knight, until she is an experienced knight and sorcerer.

I am often wary of stories where girls dress as boys to get what they want, but Alanna’s secret is slowly discovered by her closest friends, and eventually comes out to the whole kingdom at the end of the second book when she becomes a knight.  The third and fourth books deal with Alanna as a knight and a woman,  becoming a desert shaman and adventuring in distant lands to bring back an artifact with important magic for her kingdom.  These are stories of action-packed battles, intense sorcery, palace intrigue, fate and destiny,  love and loyalty.  I am fond of Alanna as a person, she is at turns stubborn, wry, insecure, honest, and noble.  She gathers around herself an interesting supporting cast of friends, lovers, knights, tribesmen, and thieves.  If you love fantasy and adventure, Alanna is someone you’ll want to meet.

There are a lot of different, perhaps better, covers if you do a Google image search. I like this one:

In addition to being available on our shelves, the first book is also available through the digital catalog, in E-Audio format and each of these books are available as Audiobooks on CD through the CW/MARS catalog (That’s Central Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing, to you… which means you can order stuff from other libraries). The audiobooks are quite good, read by actress Trini Alvarado, who does a great job of giving each character a unique voice.

If you find you enjoy this series, or other timeless tales of fantasy and adventure, check out this list of Classic Fantasy I made.

Links Worth Clicking

Happy Monday, Everyone! Here are four interesting things you want to know about:

To kick off National Library Week a bunch of local librarians had a flash freeze mob at the Holyoke Mall on Sunday.  75 people froze in place reading a book, leaving mall goers to wonder, “What are they doing?” Check out this video:

Spring break is right around the corner. On Wednesday April 20 at 1:00, professional artist, Andy Fish, will be here giving a presentation on manga art and a drawing lesson.  If you like manga, if you like drawing, or if you just want to do something different with your Wednesday, you should definitely check this out. Learn more about Andy here: http://www.hebsandfish.com/Andy.html

Figment.com continues their celebration of School Library Month, with another contest.
This week’s writing prompt is: Romance happens in unusual places. Write a story or poem in fewer than 750 words (short and sweet!) about two people who meet in an unusual or downright bizarre location.
This week’s judge is Alyson Noel, author of the Immortals series (Evermore, Blue Moon, etc.)For more info and to enter this contest, go here: http://blog.figment.com/category/contests/

Last, but not least, Young Adult authors Cassandra Clare and Holly Black will be speaking and signing books at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley on Friday April 22 at 7 pm. Each has just released a new book, City of Fallen Angels, and Red Glove, respectively. If you’ve read anything by either of these fantastic authors, you should come to this event. I’m planning to go!

Erin’s Pick of the Week: Bronx Masquerade

A classroom full of teens in a Bronx High School discover poetry while studying the Harlem Renaissance.  As each student writes and shares their poetry, they learn about themselves and their classmates.  The story is told in short chapters from a variety of different voices. Each chapter includes a bit about the character from his or her point of view and a poem he or she wrote.  These teens are struggling with everything from stereotypes to poverty to teen parenthood to discovering their own identities.  This book has something for everyone.

April Writing Contests from Figment

In addition to being National Poetry Month, April is also School Library Month.  To celebrate this, the American Association of School Librarians is partnering with Figment.com, a free online community for teens to create, discover, and share new reading and writing, to present four writing contests over four weeks.  Each contest will begin with a writing prompt for a different genre of fiction, on each Monday this month.  This week’s contest is contemporary fiction and will be judged by Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay.

The writing prompt is: Write a story or poem in fewer than 750 words (short and sweet!) that takes place in the course of one day; somewhere in the story you must include original lyrics. This means that you must include lyrics that you’ve written.

For more detailed instructions on how to enter, go here.

If you decide to enter, let me know.  I would love to read your story. You can send me an email at edaly@cwmars.org
Check back next Monday for a new writing prompt.

Figment is also really cool because it has interviews with authors and sneak peaks from books, like this one: Blake Nelson’s Recovery Road. If you like what you see, you can check this book out of the library, or place a hold through the library catalog.

Digital Dare

The Chicopee Public Library is partnering with Chicopee Comprehensive High School to present a new way to learn about some of the more interesting things the Internet has to offer.  We call it Digital Dare.  Each month there will be a challenge, something to do with exploring ways to create and learn online.  If you complete the challenge you will be entered into a drawing to win a prize.

For more information and to participate in this month’s dare: click here.

December Programs for Teens

It’s getting cold out, but it’s plenty warm here in the library.  Here’s what’s happening for teens in December:

Anime Club  December 2 @ 3:00 – Screening of the first two episodes of Bleach and the first two episodes of Naruto.
Video Games December 3 @ 2:30 – play Wii games on the big screen. We have Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Rock Band 2, Beatles Rock Band and Wii Sports.  We also have Dance Dance Revolution on PS2.
Teen Advisory Board Meeting December 9 @ 3:30 – We’ll be finishing the planning for our bake sale and talking about teen programs for the winter months.  Join us if you have and idea for something you’d like to do at the library!
Holiday Crafts December 10 @ 2:30 – Make cards, wrapping paper, or something to give as a gift.
Bake Sale & Food Drive December 11 9:30-12:30 – Teen Advisory Board members will be selling treats and collecting non-perishable food to benefit Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen.  Make a food donation and get a free cookie! (while supplies last)
Low Tech Gaming December 17 @ 2:30 – Play board games & card games in the conference room.  We have Jenga, Apples to Apples, My Word, Chicopoly, and Chess.
Winter Break Movie: How to Train Your Dragon December 29 @ 2:00  Join us for popcorn and a movie in our Community Room.

Hope to see you soon!

Harry Potter Movie Marathon

Excited about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1?  It comes out next month, you know.  You can watch trailers and learn more at the official Harry Potter movie website.

Here at the library, we’re so excited about the new Harry Potter movie that we want to get caught up on everything that’s happened so far.  We’ll be showing all six of the previous Harry Potter movies, one each Wednesday night up until the week of the Deathly Hallows premiere, starrting with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, on October 13.  Movies will start at 6pm. Come early, 5:45,  for trivia, snacks and prizes.  Wear a costume, or your Hogwarts house colors.  Bring your friends, bring your parents, bring your siblings, all are welcome to celebrate the wizarding world!

Got Overdue Books?

Late summer reading books? Books you meant to return but haven’t gotten around to it?

Return a late Young Adult book to any teen program at the Chicopee Public Library – Friday Afternoons, Harry Potter movies, Anime Club, anything that’s on the schedule for teens through our October 22 Teen Read Week Event – and get your fines waived on that item.

If your library card has been blocked due to late fees, work towards clearing it up.  Your card gives you access to the library’s Internet computers, as well as our collections of books, audiobooks, movies, music, etc.  It’s a new school year, time to start fresh with your library card.

Fall Events for Teens

There’s always something happening for teens on Friday afternoons from 2:30-4. Video games! Teen Lounge!  Crafts and more!  And starting in mid- October, we’ll be showing all six Harry Potter Movies in anticipation of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Check out the newly updated Teen Events page for the full schedule.

Don’t forget to visit us on Facebook.  Prizes will be awarded when we reach 100 fans!