Chris H.'s blog

Makers are all about the do-it-yourself culture, often with the creative addition of technology. Come learn, discover, and create at your library with maker experts from around our community. We have Maker Days programs for all ages. Registration is open now, but hurry, as many of these programs have limited space! Read more »

Is there any going back once a world has become a dystopia? That's what I kept wondering as I read my first two books from the new batch of Rosie Award nominees. Libba Bray's Beauty Queens is set in the near future and concerns thirteen survivors of a plane crash on a tropical island. They also just happen to be contestants in the Miss Teen Dream beauty contest, sponsored by The Corporation, a company whose ubiquity in media and the marketplace make them a not-unfamiliar behind-the-scenes corporate dictatorship. Divergent, by Veronica Roth, is set in a much less-familiar future Chicago. Read more »

Each year, high school students across the state of Indiana read from a list of around 20 nominees for the Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (or the Rosie, as it's known). These books are rated by the students, who then vote through their high schools. With voting winding down for the 2012-2013 award, many people are looking forward to spending some time this summer getting to know the new nominees for the upcoming 2013-2014 award.

This new batch of nominees has something for just about everyone. Veronica Roth's Divergent is a dystopian take on Chicago in the near future, where teens are forced to choose one of five factions to spend the rest of their life in and face a deadly initiation. Romantic titles are well represented in Stephanie Perkins Anna and the French Kiss and Sarah Tregay's Love and Leftovers, a novel-in-verse. Fantasy (Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns), historical fiction (Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys and In the Shadow of the Lamp by Susanne Dunlap), and inspirational fiction (There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones) also make appearances on the list. Read more »

There are plenty of Young Adult books that portray the difficulties of being a teenager. Some are funny, some serious, and some are pretty dark. There's even a name for ones that focus on a specific issue – the problem novel (you've got your teen pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide – you name it). Some are great, but often times the more one topic takes center stage, the less realistic these books seem. It's never just one problem in real life, is it? For pretty much anyone at this age, times are hard all around. Paul Griffin writes about hard times. Read more »

What's scary about ghosts? Just like a white-sheet as a lame excuse for a costume, ghosts in horror fiction might seem to be past their prime, what with the ravenous hunger for flesh of zombies or the inexplicable appetite for torture of slashers and serial killers. Ghosts don't even have bodies – what, I'm supposed to be scared of something that can flicker the lights, or at best toss a pillow at me? Read more »

Horror fiction: There're a lot of arguments about what it is and isn't – it's bloody; it doesn't have to be bloody. It's supernatural, like werewolves and ghosts; it can have just people – they're scary enough. It's got sparkly vampires who can inexplicably run around all day; vampires don't fall in love, they fall with their fangs into your neck. Whatever version of horror you subscribe to, with Halloween coming up quickly, it's what's for dinner. Read more »

Every reader knows that once in a while, you come across a strange word, often from another language. This word may take hold of your imagination because it looks or sounds so weird, or you might be exposed to it over years and years in the most disconnected contexts, until you just have to look it up. Such is the word Bildungsroman. Read more »

Warning – Don't look for these books in the Young Adult section! These are "Adult Books," written for adults. Teens beware!

Ok, now that I've got your attention, let me also say that these books are just great for teens. So great, in fact, that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) made an award just for them, and named them after a famous Baltimore librarian – sort of. Her name was Margaret A. Edwards, but her friends called her Alex, and that's where we get the Alex Awards. The 2012 Alex Awards feature ten books written for adults, but with special appeal to teens. Read more »

Having moved on from vampires and zombies to dystopias, as heralded by the success of the Hunger Games series, many teen readers are looking for something similar but still fresh. Catherine Fisher's Incarceron (and the sequel, Sapphique) fit the bill perfectly. Variously described as fantasy, science fiction, slipstream, and steampunk, the setting of this book is both a dystopic future and a fantastical past.

Having moved on from vampires and zombies to dystopias, as heralded by the success of the Hunger Games series, many teen readers are looking for something similar but still fresh. Catherine Fisher's Incarceron (and the sequel, Sapphique) fit the bill perfectly. Variously described as fantasy, science fiction, slipstream, and steampunk, the setting of this book is both a dystopic future and a fantastical past. Read more »

 Tuesday, July 15, 12 PM - 9 PM

12 PM - 9 PM

Meeting Room 1B/1C, 1st Floor

Drop in, ages 13-20 only.

Schedule:

12-5 - Crafts, character cafe, games, anime, general shenanigans.

5-6: Pizza

6:30 - 8:30: Movie in the Auditorium - Summer Wars