Tuesday, March 31, 2009

If you build it, they will come

My esteemed colleague has decided to enter the blogging world!  Please go to her blog, have a poke around and then barrel down the digital divide with pitchforks and electronic torches to encourage her to post frequently.

... 

or just say "Whaddup gangsta?!" 

Pottertastic Parasite

Movie theater fail:

I really appreciate that Harry must use a special wand of a plastic hanger in order to achieve the infetus abortionono. Wait. Shouldn't it be a wire hanger? Photoshop fail.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Stop right there!

Super Punch is hosting a video detailing how to make a stop animation puppet from clay, wire, foam and a ping pong ball, amongst other items. So flippin' cool. When I traced it back to Glueandglitter.com I saw these bad boys:
I am very hungry just looking at them, despite being full 2.2 seconds previous.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

March Madness at the close of the month

This would be such an awesome on-going library activity! Best Week Ever has a March Madness style bracket war over 90s movies. Doing something with pop culture would be a great way to incorporate the tagline of Pop Goes the Library: using pop culture to make libraries better. If the items in the bracket were more current, say best songs of the year, teenagers would vote and hopefully come to the results program where the final votes would be cast. :)

The program clearly won't last more than five minutes if it is just the final tally, so other fun things should be happening. Perhaps music videos going on in the background? Craft tables featuring awesome crafts, like these recycled cereal boxes turned bookmark? (Thanks Craft)

Friday, March 27, 2009

Book meme time!

I've hit an impasse with a project for work, so I am hoping that upon completing this meme all the answers will be revealed to me. That or the people I want to discuss said project with are on some sort of messenger program then. Either or. ^-^

Stolen from Jill's facebook (again, how does one cite Facebook notes?) but you can view the LibrariYAn's results over here.
100 Teen Books Meme

From Karen Brooks-Reese

The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Instructions:
Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "*" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!

1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams *
2. Kit's Wilderness / David Almond
3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie *
4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson +
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson X
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
7. Thirteen Reasons Why / Jay Asher +
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway *
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor
12. Forever / Judy Blume X
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray
17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot +
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus
19. Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card *
20. Postcards from No Man's Land / Aidan Chambers
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky X
22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn *
24. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan *
25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer +
26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins *
27. The Midwife's Apprentice / Karen Cushman
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper
32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer *
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn
34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman
35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden +
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles *
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going *
38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding *
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green X
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes *
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse
42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen X
43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton X
44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins
45 The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause
47. Arrow's Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee X
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan X
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart *
52. The Giver / Lois Lowry +
53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry X
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler *
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey X
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta *
61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr
62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer X
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers *
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix
70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen +
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer *
74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman +
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison X
76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan X
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. how i live now / Meg Rosoff
79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling +
80. Holes / Louis Sachar X
81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger X
82. Push / Sapphire
83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli
87. Chanda's Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas *
90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar X
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld +
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak
100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak

Youch. I've only read 26 of the 100! Eeep! I better get crack-alackin' if I want to be a good YA librarian, huh?

This is me

This is me:This is what I will be doing in the next few weeks because the job I am applying for was previously held by someone with extreme manga and anime knowledge: not existing because I'm becoming conversant with this link

This will be me in a month:
ETA: Having tabbed browsers is wonderful until you find yourself bogged down by tabs and no clue how they relate to one another, resulting in awesome links and no one to thank. :( If not for my Materials for YA livejournal community I would be this emo when it came to catching up on my anime/manga vernacular:

Thursday, March 26, 2009

If this is how 12 year olds look these days I give up

The female lead for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief has been announced and I have to say... did they not get the memo that this chick is playing a 12 year old? No seriously, who is believing Alexandra Daddario to be prepubescent? Not me, that's who.
Seriously though, did they decide to change the age of the characters for a broader appeal? That's lame. I guess they had to because Alexandra is 23 and Logan Lerman is 17. At least Lerman is under 20. In fact, I slightly hope they are making the characters older if just because a 23 playing a 12 year old makes me feel worse about the fact that I get mistaken for a high schooler all the time. If I could be mistaken for a 12 year old too... well... let's just not go there.

What made these books so awesome was the amount of daring adventure and intellectual problem solving these characters had to do at the ages of 12 and 13! To make these characters in their late teens is cliched and doesn't give the kids on the early end of their teen years the sense of empowerment the Percy Jackson book series provides. While I doubt there are 11 year olds out there going, "Hey, that 13 year old boy just opened a can of whoop ass on a Greek god," they identify with the age better than if it was a 17 year old opening the same can.

Does anyone have confirmed information on this?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Yet more reasons to want to be a librarian

Why wouldn't you want to be an advocate for these guys?  Children's authors=my heroes.  Thanks Fuse 8 for the link!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Pottertastic Tuesday

That's right, folks!  The weekly installments are back and better than ever.  What was I thinking removing such a handy feature from the weekly rotation?!  Clearly there is much to post about, as there are whispers from the theme park within a theme park, the movie is coming out in mere months (MONTHS!) and it's Harry freakin' Potter so there is something out there I can show you, I'm sure!  This week?  Tales from an Open Book gave me this gem two months ago and I'm just showing you now.  I know, I know, high treason.  My apologies.  But, you are viewing it now, no?

The poster gives me chills!!  The rain effect is slightly overdone but the poster redeems some major points with the eerie reflection of Dumbledore in Potter's spectacles.  


Sunday, March 22, 2009

Twilight DVD Madness

I hope that my experience picking up the DVD is something along these lines.  Thanks cleolinda, for never ceasing to report upon how absurd this whole Twilight nonsense is.  And by nonsense I mean entertaining trainwreck.  Because train wrecks are entertaining now.  Either way, if there isn't a shifty-eyed guy I will be pissed.  Man, I should have just hit delete on this post but... wait for it... PUBLISH POST it is! 

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Mo' Mo please!

I really do love him.  I do.  I am aware I have never met him and probably never ever will, but I still love him.  Click here and then tell me you don't.  Go on, I triple dog dare you!

Friday, March 20, 2009

The reason it's probably a good idea I'm not actually a YA librarian yet...

...Because I would litter the Teen Myspace page with links like the following instead of homework help and other materials generally found on a library's page.  I'd be all OMG check theze out guyz! 

[Note: Any post that has no asterisk after it is the actual post title.  Anything with an asterisk indicates that I summarized the post in my own words]
BONAS JONAS:  This was in one of the professional magazines I'm supposed to read on desk at work.  Can I just say I heart libraries like woah?  Okay... because I already did.
"In 'Other' new, we had a fire in the shrubbery that was taken care of quickly and without damage. We are keeping an eye on a potential problem customer who believes the librarians are witches and the computer printer is run by Satan, and periodically lets us know this in a loud voice."

::Randallstown June Monthly Report, July 2008:quoted in Library Administrator's Digest November 2008::

Happy early birthday, Danielle!

Here is some Zac Efron love for you.  It's kidlit related (or something) because of the whole Disney aspect, so it's not blatantly littering my blog with man candy.  You can view the rest of Annie Leibovitz's gorgeous new Disney spread over on SuperPunch!  Oh yeah and there's that Hudgens chick too, oh-so-accurately depicting  Sleeping Beauty.  Made of fail there Miss Vanessa... made of fail.



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Crack? Cocaine? Nope, I'll take me some RPattz

So remember that time that Abby (the) librarian "tagged" me in her addictions meme post?  (by tagged I clearly mean we are both lazy and this is why I will do her survey.  She doesn't want to tag people and I don't want to generate something original during spring break)

Rules: Write up five things you're addicted to. 

1. Robert Pattinson.  It started off as an innocent crush--a faux-librarian getting pumped for the Twilight movie, projection and all that.  Then it moved on to watching interviews just to hear his beautiful British accent.  From there it became a full on love affair because he is hysterical and still vulnerable in a way that makes me want to stroke his hair.  People give him shit for his "poor hygiene" and awkward behavior, but I don't see how that does anything but add to his character.  Perhaps this is because I find showering only twice a week to be a common occurrence and I have taken to not leaving my house ever because of crippling social anxiety, but whatevs.  He's a dreamboat and I loves him! 

2.  Craft.  While I won't shell out the dough for their magazine, they provide me with gem after gem after gem of crafting goodies that it doesn't matter.

3.  K. A. Applegate.  We know how much I loves me some Animorphs, as people have shut doors in my face to get me to shut up about it, but I freaking love her in general.  She is my favorite author because of how well she appeals to the teen market (i.e., me... despite not actually being a teen).  I am currently finishing a reread of her Everworld series and will move on to read an independent book that she did before beginning Remnants, the series she wrote after Everworld.  LOVES!

4.  Harry freakin' Potter.  Yeah, he's slipping down the list, but that doesn't mean anything.  These books have become so important to me that they are like religious texts in my absurd life.  I think in Potterisms and quote it subtly in my daily life.  I banned myself from reading the books until July 21, 209 because I didn't want to overkill it.  


BONAS JONAS:  SNL digital shorts would have to be my numba 6.  And apparently number 7 is speaking with incorrect grammar, despite being a grammarian.


Friday, March 13, 2009

New Blog Alert!

A fellow faux librarian (i.e., someone in library school inches away from a MLIS) just landed on the kidlitosphere map this year! The Almost Librarian's blog looks how I hoped mine would have turned out, you know, if Danielle hadn't ruined me with fandoms of one sort or another. So please do check out her blog and poke around. There are already several awesome booklists, among other things.

le sigh

Looking for library jobs is quite an annoying and tedious process, especially when one really wants to be lazy and cheap by finding lodging at their parents' house...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pretty, Pretty Pictures

...is almost like playing Pretty, Pretty Princess except there is no evil black ring of death and you don't get to put on annoying snap jewelry in hopes of winning a crown. It's actually nothing like Pretty, Pretty Princess, but I do what I want.

Super Punch has been kicking it up several notches these days:
And Alison Morris of Shelf Talker shows us the neatest image of all.

On Deck

The following books are waiting for me to review them: (listed in no particular order)
  • Annie on my Mind
  • Uglies
  • Feed
  • Hero and the Crown
  • Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging
  • Boy Meets Boy
  • Speak
  • Whale Talk
  • The Golden Compass
  • Gossip Girl
  • Paper Towns
  • Parrotfish
  • Persepolis
  • American Born Chinese
  • Naruto, vol. 1
As you can see, this list is daunting and I am slightly overwhelmed by this. No matter, it will be done even if I finish it over the summer. Any requests for the first one?

Meeting up with an old friend

I'm going to booktalk the Animorphs series and the top ten books librarians should read of the series (besides the final story arc) in my YA lit course.  I'm nervous because I still get teary-eyed at thoughts of one character and I think I might be too upset with another character to have a happy reunion. I'm about to go to the car to retrieve the Animorphs book that touched me the most. Begin the reread process there. Wish me luck!

Monday, March 9, 2009

::sigh::

I am so embarrassed that the last post I wrote was a week ago and about the JoBros... Sorry guys.  Here is a picture of me and my new friend at the Hoboken St. Patty's day parade to act as a bridge between the fact that I now like the Jonas Brothers and whatever librarianship type thing I am going to talk about next.


Wednesday, March 4, 2009

JoBros force me to tears

My friend Danielle sent me this in an email and I can't cope.  It is too adorable for words.  I think I've heard one Jonas Brothers song and thought it was crap, but I appreciate them as celebrities. For the record, I don't find celebrities to be real people.  I mean, sure sure they are people but the gossip? the publicity?  Fiction.  

Anyway, please view this video with a box of Kleenex and tell me you didn't use at least one thousand tissues witnessing this 9 year old with terminal cancer get not one but TWO wishes come true!

Phew

Now that my paper for School Media Management is turned in I can return to my blog, on probation. While the posts I have yet to finish are still waiting as teeny, tiny little drafty guys, the show must go on (though, I will comment on Jen Robinson's post on reading aloud if it is the Last. Thing. I. Do. Dagnabbit!)

Until then, is this not the coolest thing you've ever seen in your life?! Thanks Fuse 8 for the link!
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