Picture It! The Power of Art

The Teen Read Week theme is Picture It! @your library. We love the theme for all the possibilities it brings through films, artwork, photos, and so much more. Art has the power to compel us, inspire us, and inform us. We may have never set foot in France, but we all know what the Eifel Tower looks like, because we have seen photographs and paintings, maybe even miniature statues. We find beauty in the chaos of Jackson Pollock’s paintings and Tiffany’s stained glass. Like the artwork in the NEH’s Picturing America series, art can also share our history and our past with our current and our future.

In Carrie Ryan’s TheForest of Hands and Teeth, Mary is obsessed with the ocean. Raised in the confines of the village, she has never seen anything beyond the fence that keeps the unconsecrated away. Her mother would tell her stories about the ocean and once showed her a photo of her many times great grandmother standing in the ocean as a little girl. Mary describes it as a little girl surrounded by nothingness. However, even after the picture is long gone and Mary claims to no longer believe in the ocean, she still remembers her mother’s stories and that photograph. As she listens to the sound of the wind in the trees, she will close her eyes and imagines herself surrounded by the cool water.

It brings the question to mind…how important is art in your life? Leave a comment below to be entered for a chance to win a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble. All comments must be made by the end of Teen Read Week (October 22, 2011). 

Zombies vs Unicorns: Who do you think would win?

The debate started last year with young adult authors split on who would win in the ultimate battle of zombie vs unicorns. Think unicorns are nothing but rainbows and sparkles? Well, you haven’t checked out Rampant  by Diana Peterfreund. Her unicorns are bone smashing, battle brawling, monsters.

To settle the debate, bestselling authors JustineLarbalestier and Holly Black created the anthology  Zombies vs Unicorns featuring both zombie and unicorn tales from other bestselling authors like Meg Cabot, Libba Bray, Scott Westerfeld, DianaPeterfreund, Carrie Ryan, and Garth Nix.

We admit to still being on the fence about who would win, both sides make a compelling case. Who do you think would win?  Leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of the Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye graphic novel. All comments must be posted by the end of Teen Read Week (October 22, 2011). 

Are you prepared for the Zombie Author Apocalypse?

It’s Teen Read Week at the library! The theme this year is PictureIt @ your library and in celebration we are paying homage to the classic silver screen zombies. To help us celebrate, we will have an author visit, made possible through a grant from YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, the Satellite Beach Library and the Franklin T DeGroodt Memorial Library will host the author of the YA bestseller TheForest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan. That’s right, prepare yourself cause it is time for the Zombie Author Apocalypse. We invite you to join us all week as we discuss zombies, zombies, and more zombies.

From theme parks to commercials to television, zombies seem to be everywhere lately.  Why zombies? Many have said that they are a metaphor for today’s society and well, zombies are fun. This idea of survival has been used by companies to promote awareness of their product in new and interesting ways. Even the CDC has used the concept of surviving a zombie apocalypse to conceptualize on how if you are prepared for a zombie outbreak then you can survive anything (we Floridians know that this is really hurricane survival in the guise of zombie survival, so guess you could say we are ready).

To kick off our Zombie Author Apocalypse, we ask: What would you do to survive the pending zombie uprising? Comment below and you might just win a prize from our own Famous Faces and Funnies Comics and Toys.  All comments must be posted by the end of Teen Read Week (October 22, 2011). 

Zombie Author Apocalypse Events

Zombie Author Apocalypse!

     Brevard County Libraries announces that the Franklin T DeGroodt Memorial Library and the Satellite Beach Library have received a grant from YALSA and Dollar General to support Teen Read Week (October 16-22, 2011)! Teen Read Week™ is the national adolescent literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association.

     New York Times bestselling author, Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth will be talking about her books and writing on October 22nd at the Satellite Beach Library at 11am and the Franklin T DeGroodt Memorial Library at 2pm. Throughout Teen Read Week virtual book discussions and special contests will be held through the library social media outlets (i.e. Twitter & Facebook), including a Zombie Self-Defense program, and a Zombie Art contest. 

     Teen Read Week™ is held annually during the third week of October. An updated sponsors and supporting organizations list can be found at the Web site, www.ala.org/teenread.