Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

Along with table top games we'll have other ways to entertain yourself throughout Zaki Con. Try your hand at a race or two in Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch, test out the green screen, play various board games such as Five Minute Dungeon and more! You'll also be able to make some crafts based on the movies to take home with you! Crafts like Turnip Head from Howl's Moving Castle a firefly, paper airplanes, and a witch's flower! Plus, coloring pages from the movies we'll be watching!

Zaki Con was created when a group of teens in our Teen Advisory Group decided they wanted to host a Studio Ghibli movie marathon. Movies like Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away have been favorite during Young Adult programs here at the library for years and they wanted a way to share that with more people. The idea blossomed to include crafts for kids and families, games, food, and art made by local (mostly teen) artists.  But the movies are where we started and what gave our mini convention its name. Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 and directed many of its most famous films. His birthday is January 5th and we try to hold Zaki Con as close to that date as we can.  Every year we screen four movies. Three from Studio Ghibli and a fourth highlighting a different studio that we think our attendees will enjoy. Here is some info about the movies we'll be showing this year to help you plan your Zaki Con experience. Porco Rosso 1992 Rated...

Our 3rd annual Zaki Con is on its way!  Join us Friday January 4th and Saturday January 5th for a FREE celebration of Hayao Miyazaki and the movies of Studio Ghibli! There will be movies, games (board games and table top games for beginners), a cosplay contest, an Artist Alley, Ramen bar, crafts, video games, and more! If you're an artist who would like to reserve booth space in the Artist Alley fill out this form:  Artist Alley Application This is an event for all ages, but it is planned and put on by the Friendswood Library Teen Advisory Group

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't updated this blog in a while. I thought to myself, 'That's true, I should really go look at it!' Then I came and actually looked at the page and...it's been a whole year?! Unacceptable! So my new year resolution (a little late in coming) is to regularly update this page with library happenings, book reviews, and more. We didn't do a March Madness this year, for the first time in 5+ years, but that's because the Teen Advisory Group and I have had our plates full. Back in January, we hosted our first ever Comic Convention- Zaki Con. It was a 3 day event that was both exhausting and so much fun. Looking forward to planning it again for next year!  We just had another first, our first ever SherLock In. A lock in dedicated to watching the first two seasons of the BBC Sherlock. We even had our own, original Escape the Room Challenge, created by our Technical Services Librarian, Keith! We were all in ne...