Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

Hey there! Long time, no write. I think one of my resolutions for 2016 is to blog here more often. I wanted to post something really quickly about an opportunity I have for my young adults to see an advance screening of a really fun movie. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a great movie if you like Jane Austen and/or zombies. Seriously, you don't need to have read the original books (either Pride and Prejudice (though you REALLY should so we can be better friends) or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ) to enjoy this film. It's a perfect blend of humor, romance, and gore. Seriously. I made a video review about it:  If this sounds like a movie you'd like to see (FOR FREE) on Wednesday January 20th, here is the link for the RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ticVFAt6SiMnwTSIi-ftQKPbpBevzEmGnrOpPCmi7K8/viewform?c=0&w=1 DFTBA, Sti

Yes it is almost the end of April and we're just finishing the YA March Madness. Because that's how we roll.  So...the winner of the 2014 YA March Madness is.....  I know, I know, it's all a big shock. That this book, an underdog really, came out on top of all the other worthy contenders was a big surprise to all of us here at the library.*  Raven Boys  by Maggie Stiefvater was our second place. If you haven't read it yet, you really, really should! It might not have a movie deal, but Maggie Stiefvater is an excellent writer and a really weird human being and the book is so good. When you've read it, come and tell me which character is your favorite. You know, if you can choose just one. I know I can't.   And now, have we talked about The Fault in Our Stars movie yet? Because I'm pretty sure it's going to break all of us. If you want to see the new trailer you'll have to go watch a movie about a wife and two mistresses getting reven...

I know that March Madness has stretched pretty far past March, through April and into May, but there were so many excellent contenders that it just turned out that way. We started with 32 pairs of characters from different YA books and each week I challenged you to choose your favorite between the two. It was no easy task. Some hearts were broken. I had to break some ties, because you all equally loved some characters. It was difficult but so fun to see who got to move onto each new round as I tallied the votes on Tuesday nights. And I'm excited to announce our final champion! Drumroll please.... Annabeth Chase!   That's right, daughter of Athena, architect of the remodeled Mount Olympus, and long suffering girlfriend of a certain seaweed brained demigod is this year's winner of the YA March Madness!  Have you read The Mark of Athena yet? If you have, come talk to me about! And are you excited about the Sea of Monsters movie? Now. What should our theme be ...

I was going to blog about our Teen Summer Reading Club today, but that will have to wait a few minutes. I just heard some heartbreaking news. Author Ray Bradbury has passed away. He was born in 1920 and wrote some of the most amazing, fascinating and beautiful books you will ever read. He is a personal idol of mine and I'm absolutely devastated that he is no longer with us.  His most famous book, Fahrenheit 451 is a powerful dystopian story of a future where books are outlawed. The Martian Chronicles,  a collection of short stories about life of Mars is one the most important science fiction novels ever written, in my opinion. Many of his books were adapted for film (Fahrenheit 351, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suite), tv (an episode of The Twilight Zone, his own television show The Ray Bradbury Theater),  plays, radio programs, and graphic novels. If you're interested in reading some of his work for yourself, I s...

March Madness isn't all you have to look forward to this month! Our 4th Annual Girls Only Slumber Party will take place on Saturday, March 10th from 7pm to 8am. Permission slips will be available starting this Friday (March 2). Come pick up one for yourself and a friend! The Slumber Party is always a lot of fun, we try to stay up all night playing video games, watching movies, doing crafts, reading, and just hanging out! March is also the month The Hunger Games will come out in theaters! If you're as excited as I am, you'll want to join us for our Hunger Games party the week before the premiere. On Friday March 16 at 3:00 we'll be making Mockingjay tshirts (bring a blank tshirt!), creating Hunger Games inspired crafts , eating snacks, and testing our survival instincts with some physical challenges. There are plenty of things to do at the Library this March, so come out and join us! DFTBA, Sti

Amandla Stendberg reading The Hunger Games I found a great Hunger Games related interview this morning! Publisher's Weekly spoke with Amandla Stenberg about her role as Rue in the upcoming movie, as well as her opinions on the Hunger Games books, meeting Suzanne Collins and what she's reading right now. It's a great interview, I especially like when she talks about what she's reading: I’m always reading a book! Right now I’m reading Cleopatra’s Moon. I cannot put it down. It’s about Cleopatra Selene, who was Cleopatra’s only daughter. It’s a very interesting tale about how she loses everything. As soon as I finish Cleopatra’s Moon, I’m going to get Legend by Marie Lu. I’ve heard a lot about it.   I also read the Maze Runner series, another post-apocalyptic story. I’ve read the Mortal Instruments series, I was obsessed with those. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is one of my favorites. Even though it doesn’t have any monsters or crazy ...

I'm back again! The first thing I did when I got to work today was watch The Hunger Games trailer. Guys, I think it's going to be really good. Everything looks great and close to the book! I'm not going to lie, I cried. What do you think? Let me know in the comments! DFTBA, Sti

Some people have pointed out that this photo from Vanity Fair looks a bit more like a Banana Republic ad then a picture of Hunger Game tributes. But this may be the last time we see any of them look this clean and/or happy so let's make the best of it, shall we? From left to right: Clove , District 2 (Isabelle Fuhrman); Marvel , District 1 (Jack Quaid) Foxface , District 5 (Jacqueline Emerson); Thresh , District 11 (Dayo Okeniyi); Glimmer , District 1 (Leven Rambin [she's from Houston!]); Cato , District 2 (Alexander Ludwig); Rue , District 11 (Amandla Stenbeg); Peeta , District 12 (Josh Hutcherson); Katniss , District 12 (Jennifer Lawrence); Gale , District 12-not a tribute (Liam Hemsworth) If you head over to the Vanity Fair page and scroll over each actor there's a bit of info about their character and how they got the part in the movie. Pretty neat. And have you seen the new posters? They are amazing! Seems crazy we have to wait until March for this ...

I know I've been absent for a while, but if you've been at the library at all this summer I'm sure you understand! We've had a crazy busy summer so, at the end of June we had more people signed up for the Summer Reading Clubs then we had for the entire summer of 2010, so there's that. I've also been busy with our awesome Reading Redcoats: The British Invasion programs, which have been a smashing success if I do say so myself :) Here's a brief recap of some of the things we've been up to, in photo form: Castle Building Tea Cup Candles British Jeopardy Knight Jousting Fake Mustaches Planetarium And we can't forget about our EPIC Harry Potter Lock In !

Peeta has been cast now too! And it's Josh Hutcherson! I was really hoping it would be him, he doesn't exactly look the way Peeta does in my head, but I think he'll do a really great job. I loved him in Bridge to Terabithia Cirque du Freak and Little Manhattan (he's SOOO good in Little Manhattan !!). AND he's the voice of Markl in Howl's Moving Castle a movie that's very near and dear to all of our hearts. And Gale is going to be played by Liam Hemsworth, who I only recognize from the Miley Cyrus movie The Last Song . I hope he'll be good, but I'm definitely more excited about Josh Hutcherson! Here's our love triangle: Peeta Katniss Gale I was never really in one camp or the other (Peeta-or-Gale-wise) but now....I'm probably Team Peeta. What do you think? DFTBA, Sti

Have you heard? http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/03/17/hunger-games-gary-ross-jennifer-lawrence/ What do you think?

I was talking with my friend Sarah yesterday (mostly about Doctor Who) and she told me about a Harry Potter related site to which she contributes. It's called Magic is Might and it provides daily updates from the Ministry of Magic during the 7th and final Harry Potter book (i.e. from Voldemort's rise to powere to his demise) in real time! This is a really interactive site with lots of stuff to sift through for you loyal Harry Potter fans. So check it out! It can be a little overwhelming at first (remember, the ministry was full of lots of fear mongering against Muggles and Muggle-born wizards in the 7th book-something that always alarms me), so here is a little info before you dive in. Just click here And when you're ready here is Magic is Might! magicismight.co.uk DFTBA, Sti

Did you all know that there's going to be a film version of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones? I am super excited! Lily Collins has been cast as Clary Fray and I think she'll be pretty great, especially because she's already a huge fan of the books! Here's a short interview with her: http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2011/01/11/lily-collins-city-of-bones-mortal-instruments/

Okay, so I know I just blogged about rereading the Harry Potter series yesterday...but I'm already finished with the first book (I've been listening to it for a while). So here's the format I think I'll try to follow for each book. Title/Year originally published: When I originally read it: What I thought of it then: When I re-read it: What my thoughts are now: Maybe I'll do a separate blog for when I rewatch the movie for each book? I'll take your thoughts on that as well.. So here we go! Title/Year originally published: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/1997 (sorry the info in the last blog entry was wrong, so most of you were about 2 or 3...and I was 12) When I originally read it: I don't recall exactly, but it must have been it first came out because I hadn't heard any of the hype*, so I'll say 1997. What I thought of it then: Let me paint a picture for you, this was probably the summer while I was in jr. high and I was browsing through t...

I meant to report on this much earlier, but over my birthday weekend I got to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. And was it ever amazing! Probably my favorite of the movies so far. The few people I've talked to who weren't absolutely in love with it said that the slowness of it was part of the problem. While I think this is a valid point, it didn't detract from my love. There were so many things to love! Beautiful scenery, all the Harry's, Bill Weasley!, George Weasley drinking coffee (tea?) with something sticking out his ear hole, Ron gazing at Hermione, scary Nagini, crazy Bellatrix, terrified Lucius Malfoy, even more terrified Draco Malfoy, Dobby and Creacher, Ron gazing at Hermione (wait did I say that already?), the much improved acting of all 3 of our main characters,the scariness, the tears, all the Polyjuice potion, the ministry of magic, Luna and her dad, and much more! Okay, I could post a BILLION more pictures (I think these are all from listal...

In honor of Deathly Hallows coming out on Friday I'm going to post a Harry Potter related something or other everyday this week! Here's Monday's, Daniel Radcliffe singing all of the elements :)

Okay, confession time. But first, an obvious fact: there are a lot of books at the library. And here's the confession: I haven't read all of them. Shocking, I know Anyway, one series of books that I haven't read and haven't even thought to read was the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky . But now that I've seen the trailer for the movie, I might want to.... "Deep in the Forest of Tyto the adventure takes wing! Soren is born in a forest kingdom where Barn Owls have lived in peace for eons. But evil now lurks in the owl world, an evil that will shatter Tyto's peace and change Soren's life forever. In the first four books of this popular series Soren and his band make their way to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree where they will join with like-minded owls - honest, brave, wise and true - to boldly face danger and be tested in ways they never imagined." - amazon.com Sounds cool now! Here's the trailer. It's in 3-D (the movie,...

Okay, blogging every Monday is turning out to be difficult! Okay, here we go. Today's movie is a double feature. In 1964 Roald Dahl wrote a little book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , about a boy named Charlie Bucket and his adventures in the fantastic candy factory of the strange and mysterious Willy Wonka. I'm sure you've heard of it. Lots of other movies have been made from Mr. Dahl's books--but I'll save those for other blog entries. So far, there have been 2 movies based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And there seems to be a lot of controversy about which is better/more scary. My favorite is the original movie that came out in 1971 starring Gene Wilder called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory . Other people prefer the new movie starring Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Personally I think Depp (though I love him) is a creepier Willy Wonka. Also, he doesn't sing. I have a problem with that. But that's just my opinion....

It's Movie Monday again! I missed last week since we were closed but now I'm back! These entries will be dedicated to movies based on books. Upcoming movies and older movies worth remembering and the books that inspired them. I'll discuss what I think are the pros and cons of the movie vs. the book (and I want to hear your comments, so don't hesitate to speak up!). If there are any movies you think I should write about, shoot me an email at librariansti@gmail.com! But before we get to our newest featured book movie, I just wanted to announce that the teens in the Teen Reading Club have read a total of 3200 hours so far!! You guys are seriously blowing my mind! Seriously! Okay, onto the movie of the day. I put off watching the trailer for this until just now because I wanted to give you my opinions right as I had them. So here they are, my thoughts on the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: All I can say is...wow. It's been a few years sinc...