Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

Round Two of March Madness begins today! After four of the genres have been eliminated, we are down to our Final Four! Steampunk takes on Paranormal and Fantasy goes head to head with Realistic Fiction. I think we have some interesting battles this week since Steampunk and Paranormal fans don't always agree on things and who wouldn't get excited about a show down between Reality and Fantasy! Do we prefer reading about things in our everyday lives that we can relate to easily or wild stories about impossible things that help us escape from that? A fascinating question! So here we go: We've already found out your favorite books in each genre, so this week it's just Genre vs. Genre. I don't have permission to add polls on here, so if you want to vote, you can either come into the library or add a comment here and place your votes!

Greetings from Keith! Sti is on vacation in Spain for two weeks so I will be guest blogging today with your results from March Madness Week 4! I told Sti before she left that I thought Realistic Fiction would dominate Historical Fiction and cruise on to an easy victory, but boy was I wrong! It was a hard fought battle to the very end where Realistic came up with one more vote and won with 53%. Here are the winners within the genres: Realistic: Historical:

This week's challengers are some heavy hitters (in my opinion). Historical Fiction, books based in the past featuring fictional or even real historical figures and Realistic Fiction , books usually set in the present about the lives of normal people.  Since I read and love both genres, this is really hard for me! As usual, you can vote in the library or here on the sidebar ----->  Here are the books you'll be voting on:

I have to admit, I was not very surprised when the Paranormal genre beat the Horror genre 61% to 39%, but it was a good race for a while there. Here are the winners within the genres:  Now, onto Historical Fiction vs. Realistic Fiction!  DFTBA, Sti

It's hard to believe that today is the day! The Hunger Games movie is finally happening! As you know, to celebrate the film's release the Teen advisory Group helped me host a Hunger Games party last Friday. We had our own 'Reaping' (actually just a drawing to see what district you were in/a raffle for a prize), feasted on lots of bread and other snacks, made Mockingjay tshirts, practiced our camouflage painting and archery skills, and then we had our own non-violent Hunger Games obstacle course. We also watched trailers and listened to music from the movie's soundtrack. It was a great afternoon, thanks to everyone who came out for it!   Check the library's Flickr page for more photos! Also, I saw the movie last night at midnight and it was SO GOOD. Let me know what you think once you've seen it! DFTBA, Sti

This week Paranormal (vampires, witches, and werewolves, oh my!) is pitted against Horror (all those ghosts and monsters that go bump in the night). I hesitate to guess who the winner will be, because I've been wrong before! So, without further ado, here are the book representatives from each genre. And don't forget to vote in the sidebar!                     ------> Horror   Paranormal  

As I suspected, this was a close race. But Fantasy edged out ahead of Science Fiction with 56% of the votes.  Here are the rest of the numbers and this week's book winners! Fantasy: Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: 5%            The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima: 18% Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman: 21%      Graceling by Kristin Cashore56% Science Fiction: Across the Universe by Beth Revis 23%                      Cinder by Marissa Meyer 35% Planesrunner by Ian McDonald: 15%                          Stuck on Earth by David Klass: 28%          Thanks for voting, and stay tuned to for next week's contenders Horror and Paranormal! DFTBA, Sti

I have a feeling this week will also be a close call.  Our contenders, Fantasy and Science Fiction seem so closely connected that the lines between their genres blur at times. But for our purposes, we're defining Fantasy as taking place in mythical worlds or having magical creatures/people and Science Fiction takes place in the future with lots of technological advances . Once again, you can vote in the sidebar for your favorite of the two genres  -----> And then you can vote for your favorite book in each genre (two more votes!)  ----> Take a look at the books you get to choose from (don't forget, you can click on the book cover to be taken to our catalog!): Fantasy Science Fiction                                           ...

The competition between Steampunk and Dystopian fiction was a lot closer and fiercer than I expected. You Steampunk fans really came out of the woodwork to support your genre! The final result was:  Steampunk :        53%                       Dystopian: 47% And the results for the books were: The Compound:      21%                          Bumped: 15% Matched:                30%                             Divergent:   33% Airborn:      18%   ...

Welcome to the 2012 YA March Madness! This year we're pitting different genres against one another. Our first week features the ever popular Dystopian genre (think The Giver) against the not-so-well-known Steampunk genre (imagine Victorian England with modern gadgets). Which genre catches your fancy? Vote in the sidebar ----> To make things even more interesting, you are also invited to vote on a book within each genre. It doesn't matter which genre you voted for, you're allowed to vote for books in both categories. Our selections this week are(click a cover to get to the library catalog): Vote in the sidebar----> Dystopian  Steampunk If you haven't read any of the books, vote for the one that looks the most interesting and then check it out! And if I'm missing your favorite Steampunk or Dystopian book, let me know in the comments and I'll highlight it later! And stayed next week when Fant...

Hey girls, I've had to change the Slumber Party date to   Saturday March 10   Hope you can still make it!