Burlington County Library Teens

Vampires' Ball Halloween 08

2008-11-10T14:30:00.014-05:00

Teen creatures of the night had a great time at our Vampires' Ball on Halloween evening this year. Check out some of these pictures!

And yours truly, YA Librarian and faculty member from PC Cast's House of Night!

Let's do this again next year!

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

2007-12-12T12:34:00.000-05:00

Those of you who are aspiring artists and writers, check out the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards! Earn recognition, publication and scholarship opportunities - 30,000 regional awards and 1,000 national awards will be distributed.

How Manga Conquered the US

2007-11-21T13:54:00.000-05:00

For those manga fans who may not have seen this yet, check out this visual history of manga that appeared in the October issue of Wired! There's also an interesting article on dojinshi called Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex.

New York Anime Festival Coming Up in December!

2007-10-01T14:47:00.000-05:00

For all you anime fans, the first ever New York Anime Festival, billed as a celebration of classic and cutting-edge anime, manga, and Japanese culture, will be taking place at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan on December 7-9. Get more info at their website, including ticket purchase info and applications for the Anime Insider and World Cosplay Summit Masquerade, which will be Friday evening, December 7.

Stephenie Meyers Fans - Eclipse comes out August 7!

2007-08-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know many of you have been reading HP7, but for those of you out there who are big fans of Stephenie Meyers' Twilight, the third book in that series, Eclipse, is coming out on August 7. Check out this interview with the author from the Borders Book Club.

YouTube/Comic Contest

2007-05-30T09:24:00.000-05:00

If you're 11-18, enter the SuperLibrarian YouTube/Comic Contest! Create a video or draw a comic about “How you have fun at your library” or “Why you love your library" and you could win a Creative Zen Vision M MP3 Player. The contest begins May 5th and the deadline is October 31, 2007. For more details, see the SuperLibrarian website.

Librarian Music Video on YouTube

2007-04-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

Came across this one from a New Zealand group, Haunted Love, on YouTube. It's called Librarian. Enjoy!

Be Part of the In Group!

2007-04-05T12:10:00.000-05:00

Want to get free books and make a name for yourself on the Web? Henry Holt Books For Young Readers is starting a reviewing group for teens. All a teen (14 and up only) has to do is go to their website, get a parent/guardian to sign a form and then send it to Jennifer Abbots (contact info on the website). You then get free teen books. Not a ton, because HHBYR doesn't put out a lot of teen books, but at least four or five a year. What you do in return is write a review which will be posted on the Henry Holt Books website --- so in return for free books, the In Group-ers become blog-famous. Not a bad deal!

Duck Tape's Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest

2007-03-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, when you're trying to come up with the perfect prom outfit, duct tape probably isn't the first material you would think of. However, Duck brand duct tape is having their 2007 Stuck at Prom contest starting March 5, for those who dare to make a duct tape fashion statement. First place winners will take home a $6000 scholarship. If you're feeling creative, you can enter online and upload a photo of your duct tape prom outfits. If you're not feeling quite so daring, you can still vote online for the winners this year and check out entries from last year's contest under "Previous Playas" - some of these are unbelievable.

Pimp My Bookcart!

2007-02-01T11:35:00.000-05:00

Check out some of the sweet rides that libraries and their teen library groups came up with as entries in Overdue Media's Pimp My Bookcart contest! There's even an Australian spinoff contest going on now called Pimp My Book Trolley. Overdue Media produces the online comic strip Unshelved, and the contest is a spinoff of this comic and its followup. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I'm partial to Spoiler (red, flames, fuzzy dice).

And the Printz Award Winner Is ...

2007-01-30T15:47:00.000-05:00

So what's the Printz Award, anyway? It's an award the American Library Association gives to "a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature." And this year, for the first time ever, the award winner is a graphic novel! Yes, it's American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. The four honor books are M. T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party; John Green's An Abundance of Katherines; Sonya Hartnett's Surrender; and, last but not least, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. For even more info about the award and the winners, check out the ALA webpage.

Blood and Chocolate Movie

2007-01-29T16:26:00.000-05:00

So, who has seen (or is going to see) the new movie based on Blood and Chocolate, the classic YA werewolf novel by Annette Curtis Klause? If you've seen it, what do you think? I love the book, but looking at the plot descriptions and reviews of the movie, it doesn't seem as though the two have much in common.

Fanboy and Goth Girl Contest - "The Third Thing"

2007-01-25T13:40:00.000-05:00

And yet another contest, this one for fans of Barry Lyga's The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl.

In the novel, there are three things that Fanboy wants more than anything. He tells you two of them…but not the third.

So… You decide the third!

That’s right — you come up with that magical third thing. Explain what it is and — here’s the important part — why Fanboy wants it. Do this in under 100 words and fill out the online form and you’re entered to maybe win an iPod! Better yet, you can help determine which iPod will be the prize! If fewer than 50 people enter the contest, the prize will be an iPod shuffle. But if 51-100 enter, the prize will be an iPod nano. And if more than 101 people enter, the prize will be a full-size iPod! So, tell your friends to enter and get those entries coming in! To enter the contest, or for more info, go to the Fanboy and Goth Girl website. And while you're there, check out this Vidlit video - see Fanboy in motion!

Vote for the American Anime Awards!

2007-01-19T11:34:00.000-05:00

Vote online for your favorite anime, voice actors and actress, and manga at the website for the American Anime Awards. The Awards showcase the very best anime to make its way to North America. The winners are chosen by anime fans themselves, and the first annual American Anime Awards gala will be hosted in New York City on February 24th by New York Comic Con. The ceremony will be taped and broadcast on The Anime Network. Voting begins January 1, 2007 and ends January 31, 2007.

The Cantarella Poison Poetry Contest

2006-12-29T13:15:00.000-05:00

Go! Comi is holding a poetry contest through June of 2007. To enter, write a poem dedicated to your favorite character from the manga "Cantarella." Reach into the depths of your heart and tell the world what makes him/her so utterly irresistible. The grand prize winner will receive an original drawing of the character your poem is dedicated to, and your poem and the drawing will be published in a volume of the English-edition "Cantarella" manga! For more information about the contest, check out the Poison Poetry Contest website. And check out the beautiful new Read poster featuring Cesare Borgia that You Higuri created for the American Library Association.

Mystery Writing Contest!

2006-12-20T15:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, so you don't write fantasy fiction. How about mysteries? MWA Reads, a section of the Mystery Writers of America, is holding its second annual Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest. The contest has two Categories: Grades 2-5 and Grades 6-10. There will be two $250 cash prizes awarded, one for the Winner in each Category. Submissions for the Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest will be accepted via email beginning February 3, 2007 and ending February 28, 2007. Beginning February 3, 2007, participants can determine the contest entry email address by visiting www.mysterywriters.org/MWAreads. Only submissions sent to the contest entry email address will be considered. Students in Grades 6-10 are to submit stories of at least 250 words and no more than 1,000 words. For more details, check with the Mystery Writers of America website.

Holly Black's Flash Fiction Contest

2006-12-13T10:05:00.000-05:00

Attention Holly Black fans! Want a chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of her upcoming book Ironside (and get to read it before anyone else)? Holly is having a writing contest and three winners will receive ARCS of Ironside. Just write a piece of flash fiction (a short story of more than 100 and fewer than 2000 words) on the subject Holly has specified and submit to the comment thread on Holly Black's blog. Check out the details at her blog, Holly Black, No Longer Dry Like a Martini. There's also an excerpt from Ironside on an earlier page in the blog. Enjoy!

December Teen Advisory Board Meeting

2006-12-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

The HQ Teen Advisory Board met on Tuesday, December 5, and here's what they discussed:

The TAB agreed that the Halo tournament should be changed to a “Game Madness” program, due to complications in getting enough equipment together for Halo. We will still have Halo 1, but in addition, the DDR dancepads and game will be set up to run on the wide screen in the meeting room, and people will bring in other games such as Karaoke Revolution, American Idol, and various board games to have available on the side. Kathleen will revise the flier.

TAB decided to wait to vote on the final four titles for the literary magazine – finalists are Elemental Nocturne, Insane Flame, Feuer und Wasser, and Teen Zine. Amber brought some sample lettering for the cover. TAB felt that the best way to gather contributions would be for them to be emailed to the YA librarian so that they could be more easily put into Publisher format. For the next Tab meeting, Amber will do a sample flier soliciting contributions to the magazine.

Anime titles suggested for the Valentine’s Day program included Ah My Goddess, Supergals, Gankutsuou, Full Metal Panic Fumoku, Chobits, Gravitation, Princess Pretear and Hamtaro.

More suggestions for the lockin in August included serving Italian sodas and deviled ham and cheese sandwiches (thank you, Amy!). Activities could include showing High School Musical and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, as well as a dance contest (non-DDR), karaoke, Twister and SceneIt.

Future programs were suggested including a Tekken tournament later in the year, a Sims party, and a mother/daughter spa program for Mother’s Day.

TAB members felt we should have another meeting before the Game Madness program to finalize arrangements. The next meeting is therefore scheduled for January 9 at 6:30 pm (instead of 7:00).

November Teen Advisory Board Meeting

2006-11-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

The Teen Advisory Board met at the Headquarters branch in Westampton on Tuesday night, November 21. Here's what we talked about:

Kathleen mentioned that the Teen Zone neon sign has been installed. She will be selecting anime DVDs for the library next year and is looking for suggestions. She also mentioned that the YA blog now has a link off the library’s teen page. TAB agreed that including book reviews and anime reviews on the blog would be a good idea. There will be a separate online calendar of teen programs on the teen page; it is currently being worked on.

There was a DDR program on Saturday afternoon, October 21 with about 6 or 7 people attending. Kathleen asked about ordering new Playstation 2 games to use for programs. TAB thought Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution would be good additions, but felt DDR Supernova wasn’t as desirable. Games will probably be part of programming for the library lockin next August.

TAB decided we should show an anime in February for Valentine’s Day. There was one vote for Inu Yasha. TAB will think about other possible titles for next month’s meeting.

Halo tournament is still on for January 13. TAB said they could come up with 4 Xboxes, assorted controllers, 2 TVs and one link cable from various sources. We still need 2 televisions, 2 link cables and 2 additional copies of the Halo game. TAB will look into locating these by the next meeting.

Kathleen mentioned that she had asked the YA librarian at Elizabeth Public Library about their literary magazine, which was done in Publisher. Artworks were photographed with a digital camera and JPGs inserted into the Publisher document. They had sent their magazine out to a printer; we would be able to have ours done at the County Print Shop. The final four selections for titles are Elemental Nocturne, Insanto Flame, Feuer und Wasser, and Teen Zine; these will be voted on at the next meeting. TAB members will also bring some sample cover illustrations. It was suggested that we post flyers at the high schools to encourage submissions. Kathleen had also talked with a member of the Teen Advisory Group at the Library Company of Burlington; they have a writing group and might also be interested in submitting writing to the literary magazine. Although the title Flashmonkey was not among the final four, TAB was enthusiastic about doing a Flashmonkey comic to be included in the literary magazine. Various sketches of Flashmonkey were produced, and Kathleen suggested Flashmonkey might be new TAB mascot (t-shirts, anyone?).

TAB said best times for programs during the school year would be early Saturday afternoons, 12-2.

TAB felt that Cardcaptor Sakura should stay in the YA section, rather than moving to Juvenile. New titles suggested for purchase were Her Majesty’s Dog and Never Give Up.

Next TAB meeting will be Tuesday evening, December 5.

Upcoming Teen Advisory Board Meeting at HQ

2006-11-13T13:12:00.000-05:00

Just to let you all know there will be a Teen Advisory Board meeting next Tuesday, November 21, at 7:00 pm at the Headquarters branch in Westampton. We're still trying to get equipment together for the January Halo tournament, and get things rolling with the literary magazine. Hope to see you there!

YouTube Silliness - Chronicles of Libraria

2006-11-09T10:38:00.000-05:00

Teen filmmakers, been thinking about submitting a video to YouTube? Check out this video created by two students for the University of Southern Florida Libraries - Chronicles of Libraria. Bad rap, smoothies, anti-plagiarism - silly but fun.

Harper Teen Fan Lit Program: Your Words, Everybody's Story!

2006-10-19T12:36:00.000-05:00

All you aspiring writers out there should take advantage of this one! From October 17 to December 15, HarperTeen is running a collaborative online story program. You and other teen writers can create an original story one chapter at a time. Guest judges Meg Cabot, Rachel Vail, Jodi Lynn Anderson, and Laura Ruby will read, rank, and vote on entries along with teen players. The short story will be published by HarperTeen as an e-book, and Fox Television Studios will produce an original animated or live-action 3-5 minute video webisode based on one teen's submitted chapter.

You can submit chapters, vote for your favorites, or just browse and get writing tips from bestselling authors. You decide on your level of involvement. But everyone has the chance to win cool prizes—all you have to do is register at Harper Teen FanLit! Check it out!

Take the Smartgirl Reading Survey!

2006-10-05T09:21:00.000-05:00

Smartgirl.org and the Young Adult Library Services Association want to know what you think about reading and books, so they're offering an online survey for young men and women 12-18 years old in connection with Teen Read Week 2006 (October 16-22). Check it out!

Create Your Own Manga Contest at Pemberton

2006-09-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

This one is for all you aspiring manga kas out there. The Pemberton branch is having a Create Your Own Manga contest this month, and if you have a Burlington County Library card and are age 10 or older, you can participate. The contest runs until September 30th. Here are the details:

Create a short story with your own drawings and text! Pick up the Manga Contest Packet in the Young Adult Room at the Pemberton branch! There are a few rules you must follow to qualify to win:

THE RULES
1. Manga MUST be completed in ink or color. NO PENCIL!
2. You can use your favorite characters but NO TRACING!
3. Story must take the full 10 pages (5 pages back and front). You must make use of ALL frames!
4. Handwriting MUST be legible!
5. ABSOLUTELY NO OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE OR DRAWINGS!
6. Don’t plagiarize! You may draw your own version of an already published character, but DO NOT submit a chapter straight from a published title! Don’t steal, be creative!
7. Only ONE entry per person.
All entries must be turned into the Circulation Desk by September 30th!
Those who submit their finished chapters following the rules stated above will qualify to win.
2 Runners Up will win a $5 gift card to Blockbuster and 1st Place will receive a featured video game!

Upcoming Evesham Teen Advisory Board Meeting

2006-09-22T13:30:00.000-05:00

Evesham teens, the library wants you and your ideas! Evesham's Teen Advisory Board for teens ages 13 and above will be meeting Monday, November 6 from 7:00 -8:00 p.m. There will be refreshments and discussion of lots of ideas for teen programs at the Evesham branch.

Harper's New Program, First Look Teen

2006-09-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in getting to read the latest teen books before everyone else, Harper Books has a new program that may be just what you've been looking for. It's called First Look Teen, and if you sign up, every month you can get free Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) of great new YA books that haven't even been published yet. In return, they select reviewers at random from people who have signed up for the program. This month they're offering White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean; Street Love by Walter Dean Myers; Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton; The Moon Riders by Theresa Tomlinson; The New Policeman by Kate Thompson; and Breathe by Penni Russon. There are some great authors here, especially if you're interested in science fiction and fantasy, and these books aren't even going to be out in the bookstores (or the library) until October or November.

September Teen Advisory Board Meeting

2006-09-14T10:01:00.000-05:00

The Teen Advisory Board met at the Headquarters branch in Westampton on Tuesday night, September 12. Here's what we talked about:

The Teen Zone neon sign has come in and is waiting to be installed in the YA area at HQ.

HQ Programs:

The DDR program originally scheduled for November 9 has been cancelled. The DDR program on Saturday, October 21 is still on.

The Halo tournament is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, January 13. As discussed at the August meeting, the registration will be limited to 16 with 4 on the waitlist, with an age limit 13-18. Fliers will state the game’s Mature rating. We currently have 2 Xboxes, 5 controllers, 3 copies of the game and 1 24” TV volunteered. We need volunteers to bring 3 link cables, 5 hookups, 2 more Xboxes, 1 more copy of the game and 3 TVs.

The library director has said yes to a Library Lockin program. It’s currently scheduled for Saturday, August 4, 2007 and will be all night after the library closes. Permission slips will be needed.

TAB decided we wouldn’t be able to get a cosplay program together in time for Halloween. Instead there will be two cosplay costume making workshops on February 3 and 10 (15 people limit), and then a cosplay fashion show, accompanied by Jpop and other music, on March 3. YA librarian will purchase some costume making materials with money from the YA programming budget.

TAB wants to do a combined Japanese tea party/anime party. A number of anime titles were discussed, including Eureka 7, Comet Party, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Azumanga DaiOh. TAB also suggested doing a InuYasha movie marathon.

Literary Magazine – Everyone looked at an example from Elizabeth Public Library. Kathleen will contact the YA librarian at Elizabeth to find out more about how they did their magazine. There were many suggestions for a title, including the following: Freeze Frame Through Teenage Minds, Complex Omega, Reverse Flip, Dream Sword, Soft Evolution, Switch Form, Slumber Dash, Elemental Nocturne, Lost Symphony, Immediate Now, Blue Horizon, Emerald …, Marine Tear, Insanto Flame, Funky Money Monkey, Flashmonkey, Tearing Revolution, Blast, Instant Bling (Just Add Teen!), Unknown Agenda, Pink Paradise, Overdrive, Lost Halo, Infinite Rise, High Octane, Adventus Maxima, Seven Draft, Crossblade Embassy, Feuer und Wasser, Blade Curse, Maximum Magic, Omega Monsoon and TAB Drive. Teens will vote on their favorite title.

Kathleen showed printouts from the YA blog in progress (URL is http://bclsya.blogspot.com/). TAB agreed meeting minutes should go up on the blog. Several TAB members expressed interest in working on the library’s teen web page.

Next TAB meeting will be October 10.

What's Been Going on in August and What's Coming Up

2006-08-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Here are pictures from some of the programs teens did here at the library this summer. This was our teen summer spa (pictures of people getting pumpkin facials not posted in order to protect the innocent!).

And these fleece pillows - don't they look great!

Check out the Goth Sock Puppets!

And a blast from the past - tie dye!

And this doesn't even include the DDR/Karaoke program, or the anime marathon! Summer reading officially ends this Friday, so if you've been taking part, don't miss our Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundae party on Wednesday, August 23 at 1:00 pm. We'll be having drawings for Creature Feature t-shirts and two sets of passes to a Camden Riversharks home game.

The Teen Advisory Board has lots more planned for the coming year, including a possible cosplay event for Halloween, a Halo tournament, and (fingers crossed) a library lockin, so keep checking for more info.

Summer at the Library

2006-06-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

Summer's here, and so is the library's summer reading program for teens! This year's theme is Creature Feature, but you can read anything you want - books, magazines, comic books graphic novels, manga - and turn in reading logs to win prizes and be eligible for weekly drawings. Registration begins next week, June 26 and continues through the summer.

We're also running two other drawings/contests for teens. Do a review of a teen book for us, either using our paper review form or online on the library's teen page, and you'll be entered in a drawing for a gift certificate to the Burlington Regal Movie Theater. And in keeping with the Creature Feature theme, we're also having a contest for the best and funniest fake tabloid story. Entries will be posted in the YA area, and the winner will get a Hot Topic gift card. Check out the sample story below - surely you can do better than this!

Aliens Arrested for Overdue Library Books!

Westampton, NJ— New Jersey librarians are fighting mad about aliens who owe millions of dollars in library fines, and they’re not taking it anymore!

Librarians at the Burlington County Library System report that they’ve had it up to here with space aliens who check out huge numbers of books and DVDs which they then take to their home planet and never return to the library. “I don’t know how they managed to get library cards, but they’ve got to realize that library rules apply whether you’re human or not,” said librarian Kathleen Gruver. “We don’t like having to arrest anyone. All we want is to get our materials back. But we’ll do whatever we have to, including go to other galaxies. It’s not like we don’t try to make it easy for them to return what they’ve borrowed. They could just pull their spaceship up to the drive-through bookdrop after hours.”

The librarian claimed that she couldn’t legally let us know what titles the aliens had checked out, but our investigation here at Weekly Weird News revealed that alien borrowers had taken out hundreds of manga titles, including nearly all the library’s copies of Inu Yasha, Hellsing, Fruits Basket, and Full Metal Alchemist, as well as all the books about drawing manga. Aliens had also checked out all the library’s copies of the Gossip Girls books. “Well, that would explain why those books never seem to be checked in,” said the librarian when informed of this by our reporter.

Further shocking revelations about alien library use came when the librarian added, “They should realize that with overdue fines this big, they’re not going to be able to use the library computers either, and that means they can’t get to their accounts on MySpace.”

Meg Cabot on Plagiarism

2006-05-09T16:17:00.000-05:00

I don't know how many of you have been following the controversy about Kaavya Viswanathan's allegedly plagiarized novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got In (the library doesn't own it). The author is supposed to have plagiarized passages from books by authors Megan McCafferty, Salman Rushdie, Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot. Meg Cabot has a really classy, terrific response to this whole controversy in her blog, which is well worth reading.

DDR Is Here!

2006-04-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

We've just gotten Dance Dance Revolution equipment for the library, including two of the arcade-style dance pads (complete with little LED lights!) and the DDR Max 2 game! We've got a DDR program set up for sometime in August, but now I'm thinking we should do one sooner - what do you think?

InuYasha 3 at the Library

2006-04-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, all you InuYasha fans, this one's for you! We're showing InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler at the Headquarters library in Westampton on May 13 at 2 pm. See you then!

Welcome to the Blog!

2006-04-20T11:14:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our brand new blog for teens, ages 12-18! We want to hear your ideas about what we should be doing at the library for teens. Programs, books, manga titles - we want your suggestions. Enjoy!

Kathleen