Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

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...

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 ...

Okay, so there's no TAG meeting tomorrow (sad, I know!) but we will meet again next Thursday! In the meantime, join us for some movies! Friday we'll be having Part 1 of a Miyazaki Movie program, you'll get to choose from some Studio Ghibli films: Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Whisper of the Heart, Ponyo and (of course) Howl's Moving Castle. We'll start the movie this Friday and finish it next Friday. On Saturday I'll be in the library all day long, so feel free to stop by and say hi! At 2:00 I'll be hosting a movie screening of Tangled which is open for all ages. If you're babysitting, or want some extra 'good child' points in your parents' eyes bring your younger siblings with you to watch Tangled here at the library! I'm very excited, I've never seen it! Hope you can make it out to watch some movies this week! DFTBA, Sti P.S. A few gifs of the movies to get you excited! Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle Ponyo...

Here's the best trailer for Coraline so far. And it's actually Neil Gaiman's (he wrote the book) favorite! The movie comes out February 6th and I'll definitely be seeing it that weekend, so if you want to see it with me let me know and we can get a group of people to see it together! I know Kathleen and Mallory are already on board! dftba, Sti

Hmm, where to start. This Friday we'll be finishing the most awesome (and one of my favorite) movies of all time: Howl's Moving Castle ! It's the extremely strange story of a girl named Sophie who has a spell put on her that makes her look like an old lady. Sophie sets out to find the Witch of the Waste who cursed her and becomes housekeeper to the mysterious Wizard Howl in his moving castle. There is a little boy apprentice, a bespelled scarecrow named Turnip Head, a fire demon named Calcifer, and many more crazy characters we have yet to meet, while Howl tries to avoid becoming part of a war and Sophie attempts to get rid of the spell on her as well as the spell that binds Calcifer to Howl. Come join us! = totally awesome movie. Try the book too! In other news, I stayed home from work yesterday because I was sick (I feel much better today, think I just needed to rest), but that meant I had a chance to catch up on some reading I've been meaning to do (you should...