Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

This is Michaela. She's been coming to my YA programs at the library since....since I became the Young Adult librarian, basically. Among other things she's been a book pirate, Professor Trelawney, Table Wrangler, Marshmallow Archer, Maker of Miraculous Yarn Creations, a great friend and an inspiration.  She just finished her first year at George Washington University in Washington DC and is leaving in a few minutes to go to GHANA to teach people about water purification with Community Water Solutions .    Her last stop before leaving? The library. How awesome is that? Almost as awesome as Michaela. You can follow her adventures in Ghana on her blog The Wandering Texan . Hey Michaela,  DFTBA, Sti

I know you're excited about summer, who can blame you? But you know who is even MORE excited about summer? ME! I've got a bunch of excellent things planned in June and July, for instance:  See that last program on the brochure? It's an overnight lock-in. That's right, 12 hours IN THE LIBRARY. No one allowed in or out but Young Adults. BUT, you have to attend 3 programs and read 21 hours in the Summer Reading Club. "But Sti, how do you join the Reading Club?", you ask. Or you would if this were an infomercial...This year we're going digital, so starting June 1 (yes, a Sunday and yes before school is technically out) you can go to the library's website  or the library (free) app  and sign up to log your hours spent reading this summer! Here's what the website will look like when you get there:  Create an account and log your hours! The website will keep track of them and tell you when you've earned a prize. Just as in

Hey guys, I have to leave work early today to help out at Comicpalooza so there will be no program. Hope I see you this weekend!

You know you can always listen to free audiobooks from Overdrive, but this summer a program called  Audio Sync  is also sponsoring two complete YA Audiobooks a week! If you're interested in audiobooks, but aren't sure where to start, this is a good way to get into them. Here's a list of this summer's selections: SUMMER 2014 SYNC TITLE LINEUP May 15 – May 21 WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library) THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library) May 22 – May 28   CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio) OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks) May 29 – June 4 CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio) THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narrated by Richard E. Grant (Harper Audio) June 5 – June 11   ALL OUR YEST

On April 26th a group of teens, Lisa, and I attended Teen Book Con hosted by Blue Willow Bookshop at Alief Taylor High School. It was a day full of lots of interactions with lots of amazing authors. I was in awe most of the time, sometimes in awe of the authors (I mean, Laurie Halse Anderson, you guys!) but mostly in awe of all the teens and the excellent questions they had and how excited they were to see and meet the authors. Basically, I love when anyone loves something.  We took tons of pictures so I thought I'd post some here and over at the TAG facebook page!  Yeah that's THE Laurie Halse Anderson talking to us (except I was in the bathroom!) Cecil Castelucci and Paige Jackson took a picture of me taking a picture of Kayla taking a picture of Andrew with Marcus Sedgewick Andrew and John Corey Whaley Jackson was brave and tried Peruvian soda! Keenan and Eliot Schrefer Paige and Shannon Hale Shannon Hale was just ve