4/5 Stars
Loved Songs: Love You Like a Love Song, Bang Bang Bang, and My Delemia. I would like to check it out again. I think it’s cool that one of the songs is in Spanish. Also I, think that the song “Who Says” meaning is great. Olivia B.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Want to go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman
5/5 Stars
"Want to go Private?” is the story of Abigail Johnston who is just starting high school. She is scared of changes and when her best friend seems to drift away she looks to confide in a stranger, “Luke,” who she happened upon in a teen chat room website. She becomes more and more involved with this guy who she has never met, and all the while her straight As slip and she becomes more distant from those who care for her. Abby notices “Luke” becoming possessive but she thinks it’s because he really loves her. An argument over grades between her and her parents leads to Luke convincing Abby to run away with him for a bit, “just to teach them a lesson”.
This book really opened my eyes to the risks and dangers of online chatroom. Though it is obvious that we shouldn’t talk to strangers or give them any information about ourselves, this book really brings to light what can happen even if we think we know what we’re doing. The book talks of how Abby was smart but because she was feeling a little insecure that made her the perfect target for an online predator. “Luke” had “groomed” her, a term used in the book talking of how he earned her trust and abused it for a period of two months. The book itself is split up into 3 parts. The fist part talked of how Luke really became a part of her life and emotions of both terror and disgust were raging as I read how Abby was being sucked in by this sexual predator online. The content was a bit too graphic in some parts, but I think this was to really make a point of the kind of sick people that are in these “innocent” teen chatrooms.
I finished this book within a day, just because it was so hard to put down. The story line flows well, even as the point of view switches from Abby, to her sister, to her best friend, and to another friends constantly in the last two parts. I would personally recommend this book, but would warn that it contains graphic, mature content.
Morgan D.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Size 12 is not Fat by Meg Cabot
4/5 Stars
Heather works at a residence hall where she is assistant director. Two deaths occur and she tries to uncover the mystery. She puts herself in danger trying to find the killer. The cops believe that the two girls were elevator surfing but Heather does not believe it and eventually finds the real killer.
Melissa M.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
For the Win by Cory Doctorow
4.5/5 Stars This is a book for gamers. In this book it talks about kids and people in poor countries playing video games to win prizes for a person that sells them to people in the rich countries. Some people don’t like it so they try to stop them. Read this book to find out more.
John N.
John N.
Monday, November 21, 2011
A Brief History of Montmary by Michelle Cooper
4/5 StarsA Brief History of Montmarary is a historical fiction novel. It is about an island in 1936 which is affected by the start of World War 2. The Germans came to visit and it all goes wrong. The book is written in the form of a diary, so it has a first person viewpoint. It teaches you about both sides in the war and how the war changed peoples’ lives. All in all it was a very informative book and had exciting moments as well. I would recommend it to a friend.
Kristen H.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
TAB Meeting!
Just a reminder that there will be a Teen Advisory Board meeting this Sunday, November 20, at 2pm in the McLaughlin Branch Children's Department. New and returning members are welcome to attend!
Write Across Ontario
From November 1 to February 1, 2012 you can participate in a creative writing contest for high school students in Ontario! Three young adult authors have provided story-starters. Using one of these story-starters, you can continue the tale however you see fit. One story from each grade (9-12) will be chosen as the winner, with first prize participants getting their work published online in the Open Book Magazine, as well as $500!
For full contest details, visit http://www.litontour.com/get-involved/write-across-ontario, and feel free to check out the story-starters below!
#1 Written by: Miriam Toews
My parents split up three months ago, in the fall, but they said the three of us would still go to this Mexican resort for Christmas because we already had the tickets and all that. By the time Christmas rolled around my mom said no way, she’d changed her mind and my dad said okay, it’ll just be me and him going to Mexico. Then, on the day we were supposed to leave, my dad wasn’t at his place and I couldn’t reach him on his phone and I said to myself thanks guys, you’ve really pulled out all the stops this year, and I went anyway. I mean I went into my dad’s spare room and took his “rainy day” money and my ticket and all the hotel information and I called a cab to take me to the airport.
#2 Written by: Ian Rankin
He was out there again. Except maybe ‘he’ was a ‘she’ – it was hard to tell in the dark. Three nights in row, I’d looked down on to the street from my bedroom window and watched the shape standing there, almost hidden behind the tree that refused to die. I got the feeling whoever they were, they were only a year or two older than me… The first night I’d just stared for a while and then got bored. The second, I’d opened the window to shout something, but there’d been nothing there to shout at. Tonight, I was going to scramble downstairs and throw open the door. Really I was. Really.
#3 Written by Johanna Skibsrud
I don’t know which one of us saw it first. Suddenly—just—there it was. Glinting a little in the sunlight, half-hidden in the tall grass. A key. The old-fashioned kind. Parts of it rusted so badly it looked as though, if we picked it up, it might crumble away in our hands. How long had it sat out there, like that, I wondered. Rusting in the overgrown grasses at the edge of Mrs. Ellis’s front-yard. Ten years? A hundred? How many times had we just walked on by? More to the point, though—what was different about this time? Why had we both, all of a sudden, paused—our eyes drawn to the same, almost invisible fleck of light, just barely glinting on the lawn? At first, when Ben knelt to pick it up, I wanted to put out my hand to stop him. But then I didn’t. And he picked it up. And held it. It looked surprisingly heavy in his hands. He turned it in slow circles, so we could get a look at it from all sides, and when he did so all but the most rusted bits—even in the diminishing sunlight—seemed to glow. I am not sure how, but in that moment I knew: nothing, after that, was going to be the same.
For full contest details, visit http://www.litontour.com/get-involved/write-across-ontario, and feel free to check out the story-starters below!
#1 Written by: Miriam Toews
My parents split up three months ago, in the fall, but they said the three of us would still go to this Mexican resort for Christmas because we already had the tickets and all that. By the time Christmas rolled around my mom said no way, she’d changed her mind and my dad said okay, it’ll just be me and him going to Mexico. Then, on the day we were supposed to leave, my dad wasn’t at his place and I couldn’t reach him on his phone and I said to myself thanks guys, you’ve really pulled out all the stops this year, and I went anyway. I mean I went into my dad’s spare room and took his “rainy day” money and my ticket and all the hotel information and I called a cab to take me to the airport.
#2 Written by: Ian Rankin
He was out there again. Except maybe ‘he’ was a ‘she’ – it was hard to tell in the dark. Three nights in row, I’d looked down on to the street from my bedroom window and watched the shape standing there, almost hidden behind the tree that refused to die. I got the feeling whoever they were, they were only a year or two older than me… The first night I’d just stared for a while and then got bored. The second, I’d opened the window to shout something, but there’d been nothing there to shout at. Tonight, I was going to scramble downstairs and throw open the door. Really I was. Really.
#3 Written by Johanna Skibsrud
I don’t know which one of us saw it first. Suddenly—just—there it was. Glinting a little in the sunlight, half-hidden in the tall grass. A key. The old-fashioned kind. Parts of it rusted so badly it looked as though, if we picked it up, it might crumble away in our hands. How long had it sat out there, like that, I wondered. Rusting in the overgrown grasses at the edge of Mrs. Ellis’s front-yard. Ten years? A hundred? How many times had we just walked on by? More to the point, though—what was different about this time? Why had we both, all of a sudden, paused—our eyes drawn to the same, almost invisible fleck of light, just barely glinting on the lawn? At first, when Ben knelt to pick it up, I wanted to put out my hand to stop him. But then I didn’t. And he picked it up. And held it. It looked surprisingly heavy in his hands. He turned it in slow circles, so we could get a look at it from all sides, and when he did so all but the most rusted bits—even in the diminishing sunlight—seemed to glow. I am not sure how, but in that moment I knew: nothing, after that, was going to be the same.
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