Book Blind Date

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When we read about the Book Blind Date that the Maplewood Library held, we loved the idea so much that we decided to try it ourselves!

To celebrate National Library Week, we will be hosting our own Book Blind Date from April 8th-14th. Stop by the Reference or Youth Services Desks to pick up a selection from our collections.

It's simple! The books are wrapped in paper, so you don't know what you are going to get. Check it out, take it home to unwrap, and read. Write a short book review telling us if you loved it or hated it. Bring the review back to us by the end of the month to be entered to win a great prize!

Review: Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; Reprint edition (July 3, 2010)
• ISBN-13: 978-0439023528
• Review by Kendall L.
• The Hunger Games is a book of strategy, suspense, and action starring the main character, Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is an average 16 year-old girl living since birth in District 12. Every year the Capitol (the "control group") has a tournament called the Hunger Games (two children from each district have to compete in an organized fight and must kill to literally save their lives) and this year Katniss has to go. She enters with her opponent, Peeta Mellark, and something happens that no one ever expects...
• I really enjoyed this book. It was full of description, lots of drama, and all that fighting stuff that we teenagers like to see in a book. We crave for these kinds of books because it's appealing to the eye, which is almost like the vampire books everyone reads now, but luckily not vampires this time! There’s a cliff hanger at almost every chapter so it makes you want to read more. For example, the first time I read this book, it literally took me three days to finish it (including school in between)!!! 
• Day and night, this makes for a great escape when you want to get away from something, or just snuggle down with a good book, either way it's truly a fantastic book. In the end, I definitely recommend this book.

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). 

Beware the Apocalypse!

Did you watch the premier of season two of AMC’s Walking Dead? Have a favorite zombie chiller that you love to watch? Back in 1968, George A Romero introduced audiences to a new type of horror film like they had never seen before, a cult classic was born. Night of the LivingDead continues to thrill audiences and has even been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Hulu 's link to Night of the Living Dead (1968) NR

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is another classic zombie flick that continues to dazzle audiences. Check out the following youtube videos that pay tribute to the video.

Click here to view Thriller...with LEGOs

Of course we would have none of these without first having Richard Matheson’s classic 1954 novel, Iam Legend. The novel was influential to the development of the zombie horror genre because it introduced the theme of a disease born apocalypse. This was the inspiration behind Romero’s classic. Can you name the other two films based on Matheson’s book? What are some of your favorite zombie films? Once again, comment below for a chance to win a prize from Famous Faces and FunniesComics and Toys.  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). 

Book Review: The Shattering

The Shattering 

by Karen Healey

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (September 5, 2011)
• ISBN: 978-0316125727

Reviewed by Leah S. 

The Shattering was a magnificently written book though I would not recommend it to any child under the age of eleven due to explicit language and material used throughout the book.  Karen Healey helped to portray the reality, despair, and frustration of the situation that the main characters were in by using the tone that many teens can relate to today.  This tone made the book an easy and relatable read.  With each chapter narrated by alternating characters, the reader will be able to connect to the way the characters portray themselves and really delve into their personality traits.  Keri, Sione, and Janna (extremely different from one another but all have one thing in common) had each lost their older brother due to apparent suicides. However, when they start to put the puzzle pieces of the suicides together and discover a pattern; they come to the conclusion that their brothers did not commit suicide-- they were murdered.  Throughout the book, Healey describes obstacles that the three friends encountered throughout their journey; Sione must discover who he is and what he wants to do in life, Janna deals with her true love, and Keri reveals her best-kept secret.  Little did the friends know, there was something more than a murderer behind the deaths of older brothers over the years, something supernatural that was keeping their town of Summerton from falling apart.  People that they trust are now suspected of the murders and many stones are overturned with secrets and hints hiding beneath them.  The Shattering is recommended to anyone who wants to read a gripping and page-turning novel or anyone who had geared their preferences toward science fiction, fantasy, or mystery.  Karen Healey prevails with this thoughtfully-written, infatuating piece of literature that is sure to astound any reader.

Zombie Author Apocalypse Events

Book Review: This Brave Balance

This Brave Balance

By Rusalka Reh

Paperback: 142 pages

Publisher: AmazonCrossing (August 23, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1611090059

ISBN-13: 978-1611090055

Reviewed by Matt M.

                This Brave Balance is a book from Germany that is set in an unidentified run down city. It focuses on a teenage boy Dipper, and his group of parkour (free running) athletes: Skylark, Jay, and Corone, along with Corone’s mentally challenged sister, Kittiwake. Dipper doesn’t really have much going for him, as he’s not too good in school, works in construction, and hardly sees his mom outside of coffee at 3 in the morning. Parkour is everything to him and his friends, and everything changes when Corone’s ex-girlfriend Kite joins. Kite and Dipper get along “too well”, and a chain of events occur where the group is threatened to be taken apart, with Dipper struggling to apprehend everything going on.

                The story, though short, is decent, but maybe due to cultural and translation issues, the story feels off. To describe the good, Reh ultimately conveys a series of event s through the eyes of a teenager struggling with issues, from family, friends, romance, and parkour. The story feels real, that we may know someone who can relate to one of the characters (if not relating ourselves). While some characters are more developed than others, with Dipper being the main character that grows through the story, it does a good job making the main characters real in a short length. For the not so good, some things can be said. The story would’ve benefited being longer.  To keep spoilers to a minimum, halfway through the story, Dipper learns that Corone has family problems. This seems to be the main problem, as far as showing how powerless some of the characters are, but near the end, the last 20 pages or so, several revelations are revealed, and then settled 2 pages afterwards or so. In short, the pacing is even till the end, when everything starts happening. Also, I feel the story would have been better if it were told through the views of other characters, mainly Corone, Kite, and Kittywake as they are important to the story. One last thing that should be said is the use of strong language, just to let the reader know. All in all, for a foreign story, it’s quite different from other books I’ve read, and feels strange once finished (the ending itself is kinda hanging). A 2.5/5

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.