News
TAB Minutes
December
TAB Minutes
by
Tiffany Musholt
TAB meeting was called to order at 4:04 PM on Wednesday December 12, 2007. It was a short meeting because we had our Christmas Party after TAB. The next meeting will be on January 9, 2008 and will be the “bring a friend to TAB” month.
We learned about some new changes to the library. Leo the Lion is going to be the new mascot for the library. He will go to schools and will try to get kids to sign up for library cards. In the last decade there has been a decrease in kids and teens getting Library cards. That is one problem that the library would like to change. Also, teens will eventually receive their own Young Adult library card that is different from everyone else’s library cards. Also, a brochure may be created about TAB to get more teens interested. We were then asked about the newsletter. Everyone agreed that the newsletter doesn’t need any changes.
Due to the Christmas party, the book club was moved to next month. New Moon will be discussed in January and Maximum Ride will be the novel for February. We also waited to select new books for the following months.
We then discussed future events at the library. January 19, 2008, from 1-4 p.m. will be our soap making workshop in honor of President Lincoln. Also there is a Victorian tea party in January. The tea party is for children, but anyone can come if interested. Also, the upcoming library summer reading theme will be “Get in the Game, Read”. It is, of course, not only referring to athletic games, but also video games. Also, we may go sledding in January if it snows on a weekend.
Sadly, we learned at the last meeting that Heather will be leaving TAB in January. She is becoming the Children’s Programmer, so we will still get to see her sometimes. Eventually there will be a new assistant young adult programmer. Everyone was then thanked for caroling at the library and the meeting ended at 4:30 p.m. for our Christmas party.
Mrs. Bruner from Quincy Senior High School was at our Christmas party. She showed us a slide show from her Christmas in Germany. It was very interesting. We then traded gifts, ate cookies, and socialized a bit.
Book Reviews
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.W. Rowling
Book Review by Katherine Beckett
Many people aren’t afraid of expressing their opinions of the final Harry Potter book; either they loved it, hated it, or couldn’t make up their mind. Personally, out of the entire series, this is probably my favorite book.
For one thing, I love how J.K. Rowling ties innocent things together- things that you never thought twice about such as the invisibility cloak, Ollivander, the Chamber of Secrets, or the gargoyle wearing the ugly tiara. Things that you would have never have guessed would play a part in the book.
Not only is the book exciting, but it also teaches two valuable lessons- love and death. Both have been themes throughout the series, but never as apparent as in Deathly Hallows. In fact, death has a lot to do with the book. In the book, the true master of death isn’t someone who avoids it as Voldemort does by creating horcruxes, but instead, the master of death is someone who accepts as Harry does when he willingly walks into the forest prepared to sacrifice himself for his friends. Love also plays a part. Love is the reason why Voldemort became the way he is- he was never loved, so he underestimated its power which led to his defeat. Love is also the reason why Snape became a spy for Dumbledore- because Voldemort threatened the one thing he loved most- Lily. J.K. Rowling manages to take two things that people deal with everyday and intertwined them into an exciting story that teaches the readers a lesson; something very few children authors do.
J.K. Rowling also did something else children authors don’t do very often- make complicated characters who are realistic. Until Deathly Hallows, everybody thought Dumbledore was smart and nice to everyone. However another side of him is revealed- one that wants power. The same could be said of Petunia and Dudley. Both seemed to be shallow and horrid until it’s revealed that the reason why Petunia hates magic so much, is because she wanted to be a witch but wasn’t one. Dudley shows remorse for his past actions toward Harry and even thanks him for saving his life.
Like all people, there are parts of the book I didn’t like, particularly the deaths. Hedwig, Dobby, Remus, Tonks, Fred- each one I was shocked and sad. However, there is a war going on in the book, and if people didn’t die, the book wouldn’t be realistic and wouldn’t live up to my expectations.
Overall Deathly Hallows is a great end to the series. Yes I cried, but I also laughed.
Teen Top Ten
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Love, Stargirl picks up a year after Stargirl ends and reveals the new life of the beloved character who moved away so suddenly at the end of Stargirl. The novel takes the form of "the world's longest letter," in diary form, going from date to date through a little more than a year's time. In her writing, Stargirl mixes memories of her bittersweet time in Mica, Arizona, with involvements with new people in her life.
Hush by Donna Jo Napoli
Melkorka is a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in mediæval Ireland -- but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Thrown into a world that she has never known, alongside people that her former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of fascination to her captors and masters, and soon realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference.
Based on an ancient Icelandic saga, award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli has crafted a heartbreaking story of a young girl who must learn to forget all that she knows and carve out a place for herself in a new world -- all without speaking a word
Killing Miss Kitty and Other Sins by Marion Dane Bauer
Life in Claire's typical Midwestern town is quiet; some would even say boring. But this is the 1950s, and things that seem calm on the surface are often churning underneath. When Claire takes a new black friend, dressed as "Liberty," to the Fourth of July parade in the town park, she realizes there can be no liberty for either girl in her all-white town. And as she grows older, she discovers that her world is more complicated than she ever imagined. Being the "new girl" in school isn't the fresh start she was hoping for. Getting a pet involves sacrifices. And falling in love is more confusing than fulfilling—especially when it is not a love that can be spoken of, least of all by Claire.
Teenage sexuality, northern segregation, differing religious beliefs, and animal cruelty are just a few of the controversial topics explored in this collection of five interrelated stories, told in a voice that is both refreshingly naive and darkly humorous. With this book, Marion Dane Bauer lives up to her reputation as a writer who is not afraid to delve into difficult material in search of the truth.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
 Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
Jake Mendoza lives at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park. Smokehill is home to about two hundred of the few remaining draco australiensis, which is extinct in the wild. Keeping a preserve for dragons is controversial: detractors say dragons are extremely dangerous and unjustifiably expensive to keep and should be destroyed. Environmentalists and friends say there are no records of them eating humans and they are a unique example of specialist evolution and must be protected. But they are up to eighty feet long and breathe fire. On his first overnight solo trek, Jake finds a dragon-a dragon dying next to the human she killed. Jake realizes this news could destroy Smokehill-even though the dead man is clearly a poacher who had attacked the dragon first, that fact will be lost in the outcry against dragons. But then Jake is struck by something more urgent-he sees that the dragon has just given birth, and one of the babies is still alive. What he decides to do will determine not only their futures, but the future of Smokehill itself.
Jinx by Meg Cabot
The only thing Jean Honeychurch hates more than her boring name (not Jean Marie, or Jeanette, just . . . Jean) is her all-too-appropriate nickname, Jinx. Misfor-tune seems to follow her everywhere she goes—which is why she's thrilled to be moving in with her aunt and uncle in New York City. Maybe when she's halfway across the country, Jinx can finally outrun her bad luck. Or at least escape the havoc she's caused back in her small hometown. But trouble has definitely followed Jinx to New York. And it's causing big problems for her cousin Tory, who is not happy to have the family black sheep around. Beautiful, glamorous Tory is hiding a dangerous secret—one that she's sure Jinx is going to reveal.
Jinx is beginning to realize it isn't just bad luck she's been running from. It's something far more sinister . …and the curse Jinx has lived under since the day she was born might just be the only thing that can save her life.
Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz
What goes up must come down, and when we last saw Alex Rider, he was as up as can be—in outer space. When he crash lands off the coast of Australia, the Australian Secret Service recruits him to infiltrate one of the ruthless gangs operating across South East Asia. Known as snakeheads, the gangs smuggle drugs, weapons, and worst of all, people. Alex accepts the assignment, in part for the chance to work with his godfather and learn more about his parents. What he uncovers, however, is a secret that will make this his darkest and most dangerous mission yet . . . and that his old nemesis, Scorpia, is anything but out of his life.
From the slums of Bangkok to the Australian Outback to the middle of the Timor Sea, Snakehead is Alex Rider's most action-packed adventure yet.
 Spud by John Van De Ruit
It's 1990. Apartheid is crumbling. Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison. And Spud Milton—thirteen-year-old, prepubescent choirboy extraordinaire—is about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school in South Africa. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a senile granny named Wombat, and a wild obsession for Julia Roberts, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home. Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes readers of all ages on a rowdy boarding school romp full of illegal midnight swims, raging hormones, and catastrophic holidays that will leave the entire family in total hysterics and thirsty for more.
 November Blues by Sharon M. Draper
When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can't possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November's life forever, and now she's faced with the biggest decision she could ever imagine. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh's parents take the news? She's never needed a friend more. Jericho Prescott lost his best friend when he lost his cousin, Josh, and the pain is almost more than he can bear. His world becomes divided into "before" and "after" Josh's death. He finds the only way he can escape the emptiness he feels is to quit doing the things that made him happy when his cousin was alive, such as playing his beloved trumpet, and take up football, where he hopes the physical pain will suppress the emotional.
But will hiding behind shoulder pads really help? And will his gridiron obsession prevent him from being there for his cousin's girlfriend when she needs him?
 Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.
As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.
With Shannon Hale’s lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back. But Naomi picked heads.
 Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney
Lady Mary is a ward of Lord and Lady Macbeth whose life is forever changed when her father, Lord Cawdor, betrays the Scottish king — and is hanged as a traitor. In an instant, Mary has lost both her father and future. Now she's trapped in a castle with a power-hungry couple who will do anything to get what they want — and are willing to crush anyone in their way. Including Mary. As the murderous events of Shakespeare's play unfold around her, Mary must struggle to survive -- and do what she can to prevent more deaths. But can a lone girl save lives when a legion of Scottish lords cannot?
 What They Found by Walter Dean Myers
WALTER DEAN MYERS returns to the world of 145th Street: Short Stories to show how love can be found, and thrive, in the most unlikely places. Curtis finds love in Iraq as he struggles to stay alive in a war he doesn't want to fight, and Letha discovers her own beauty in the love of her child. There is the "good daughter" who realizes that there's only one way to help her brother and her family. Other stories center on the daily drama of the Curl-E-Que beauty shop, or capture the slapstick side of passion.
 True Talents by David Lubar
It’s been over a year since fourteen-year-old Eddie “Trash” Thalmeyer and his friends from Edgeview Alternative School found out about their special hidden talents. Trash can move things with his mind, Torchie is a fire-starter, Cheater reads minds, Lucky finds lost objects, Flinch can predict the future, and Martin can see into people’s souls. Now back home with their families, all the boys want to do is get back to their normal lives, start attending high school, and keep in touch with their friends from Edgeview.
When Trash tests his power in a bank and accidentally steals a fistful of cash, he is kidnapped by the ruthless leader of a shadowy company whose purpose is to gather information about psychic phenomena—and who is willing to do anything to get it…. Torchie, Cheater, Lucky, Flinch, and Martin join forces to rescue their friend using their hidden talents, and discover their true talents in the process
Duchessina by Carolyn Meyer
Young Catherine de' Medici is the sole heiress to the entire fortune of the wealthy Medici family. But her life is far from luxurious. After a childhood spent locked away behind the walls of a convent, she joins the household of the pope, where at last she can be united with her true love. But, all too soon, that love is replaced with an engagement to a boy who is cold and aloof. It soon becomes clear that Catherine will need all the cunning she can muster to command the respect she deserves as one of France's most powerful queens.
 Pants on Fire by Meg Cabot
Katie Ellison is not a liar. It's just that telling the truth is so . . . tricky. She knows she shouldn't be making out with a drama club hottie behind her football-player boyfriend's back. She should probably admit that she can't stand eating quahogs (clams), especially since she's running for Quahog Princess in her hometown's annual Quahog Festival. And it would be a relief to finally tell someone what really happened the night Tommy Sullivan is a freak was spray-painted on the new wall outside the junior high school gymnasium—in neon orange, which still hasn't been sandblasted off. After all, everyone knows that's what drove Tommy out of town four years ago. But now Tommy Sullivan has come back. Katie is sure he's out for revenge, and she'll do anything to hang on to her perfect (if slightly dishonest) existence. Even if it means telling more lies than ever. Even if, now that Tommy's around, she's actually—no lie—having the time of her life.
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