The Winner Is…

Good news! Dalia from the Salmar Theatres donated 4 free admission tickets instead of 2. That means I was able to create 2 groups and have a winner from each. The two  groups were 1. kids ages 6-11 years and 2. youth ages 12-17 years.

So, our two big winners of the Read to Win Contest are…

Peter Taylor for ages 6-11

AND

Connor Menc for ages 12-17.

Congratulations to you both, and thanks to all of you who participated. The draw box was positively stuffed with entry forms. This is definitely something we will do again!

Spring Break Read to Win!

Here’s the scoop:

Spring Reading Contest Monday, March 12 thru Saturday, March 24   

For ages 6-17. Enter your name into a draw for every book you read during spring break for a chance to win 2 FREE ticket to the Salmar Movie Theatres! The more you read, the better your chances of winning.

Rules:

1. Books must be read during spring break.

2. Books must be at an age appropriate reading level. Teens read YA, 9-12 years read JR Chapter books, and 6-8 years read JR Easy Step1 or Step 2 books.

3. Books must be read by the participating child or teen.

4. The special “Draw Form” must be filled in completely.

*This program is sponsored by the Salmar Community Association*

For more information, contact Ardie at 250-832-6161 ext. 1202 OR aburnham@orl.bc.ca

Hunger Games!

Okay, so I’ve fallen a bit behind on this blog. So sorry about that!! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that 2012 is treating you right.

As you all may be aware, the Hunger Games movie is coming out in March. If you haven’t already read this book, get your hands on a copy and get reading. This is such an intense trilogy, and I would love to hear what you liked or didn’t like. Are you on Team Peeta or Team Gale? What do you think of Katniss? Do you like her character or does she bug you?

Here’s what I think. I LOVE Hunger Games! I’m so excited to see how they pull everything off in the movie, and hope it is as amazing as I’ve imagined everything in my mind. In the first book, I was definitely a Team Gale supporter. (I won’t tell you where I stood after reading the second book.) Katniss is awesome. She’s tough and violently protective of those she loves, and yet she has an amazing heart. Her interaction with Rue almost made me cry.

So what do you think?

If you want to discuss this in a bookclub setting, just leave a message here, or email me at aburnham@orl.bc.ca, or come into the library and tell me in person. Personally, I think a bookclub would be a ton of fun!

Calling All Young Writers and Poets!

For Book Week 2012 there will be a writing contest for kids and teens. Here’s what the flyer says:

“The book Week 2012 Writing Contest for Kids & Teens invites young writers to let their imaginations soar and share their stories or poems of adventure, humour mystery and fantasy!

“Students from Grades 4 to 12 are eligible to enter and one winner from each grade will receive a $250 gift certificate to the bookstore of his or her choice!

“Writing entries will be posted on the Book Week website www.bookweek.ca.”

Here are the contest details:

• Entries must be postmarked by February 1, 2012
• The story or poem must be written during the current 2011/2012 school year.
• Entrants must be in Grades 4 to 12 at the time of the contest deadline.
• Entries must be written in English and must not exceed 1,500 words.
• All entries must be original content.
• All entries must include a fully complete ENTRY FORM. The form is available at http://www.bookweek.ca/ under “Book Week 2012″.
• No Faxed or emailed entries will be accepted.
• Due to the large volume of entries, we cannot acknowledge receipt of entry.
• Contest open to residents of Canada only.
• For more information on the Writing Contest, contact shannon@bookcentre.ca.
• Winners will be announced on May 9, 2012 during Book Week 2012.

*Please note that entries not accompanied by an ENTRY FORM will not be considered.

From My Shelf

Okay, some of you might be interested in what I’ve been reading lately, so here’s my list with my own personal ratings.

**Rating system works like this: 1= Did not like, 2= It was okay, 3= Liked it, 4= Really liked it, 5=It was amazing!

Getting the Girl by Marcus Zusak- It took me a while to get into this book, but I pushed on because, well, quite frankly, I LOVE Zusak’s I am the Messenger and The Book Thief. I’m glad I held on. It ended up being worth my time. 3.5/5

Luxe by Anna Godbersen- Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish this book. After slogging through the first 50 pages and still finding myself bored with the story, I gave up. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. It just means it wasn’t working for me at that time. So, I won’t give this a rating since I didn’t finish it.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie- Great book! I read it all in one sitting. There was humour, tragedy, and eventual self-realization. 4.5/5

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen- I can’t believe I never read this book in high school. This is such an interesting story on wilderness survival. I know. I just made it sound boring, but trust me. It’s not. 4/5

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg- True confession. I love Jane Austen, and I especially love her Pride and Prejudice. That’s why I pick up any book that sounds anything like Pride and Prejudice. A silly quirk, I know. But there you have it. (Also, chick lit can sometimes be the perfect cozy read.) Anyway, I found this book to be fun, easy to read, and over all satisfying. 3/5

New Arrivals!

Yay! New Young Adult books arrived at the library today. Come to the teen section and find these books in the “New Books” section.

Wild Geese by Caroline Pignat- This is the sequel to Greener Grass

Victim Rights: A Ryan Dooley mystery by Norah McClintock- Who doesn’t like a good mystery?

Glass by Ellen Hopkins- This is the sequel to CRANK

Deadly Little Games: a Touch Novel by Laurie Faria Stolarz- Camelia and Ben “posses the power to psychometry, the ability to see the future through touch…” Enough said.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne-A Classic story full of adventure, pursuit, and danger!

Manga

Rin-Ne volumes 2 and 3 just came into the library today. They’re brand-spankin’ new, so come be the first to check these out. They are on display in the Graphic Novel section of the library.

Cool Blog

Okay, so some of you love to stay current on what’s going on in the book/movie/teen world. There’s an awesome blog by a fantastic librarian that I thing you all should put on your blog reading list. The blog is called GreenBeenTeenQueen. (I’ll probably borrow some of my blogging ideas from here, but this is where the news came from first.)

NaNoWriMo

How many of you know about NaNoWriMo? Has anyone taken on the challenge?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically it’s 30 days of intense writing. The idea is that by the end of the month, you’ve written a novel. It’s a pretty cool concept for those who secretly dream about writing a book but need a little motivation to get started.

However, writing a book in a month can also be very intimidating. For those of you who want to try your hand at writing, but don’t want to commit to writing 1,667 words a day, try the 750 Words challenge. This seems a lot more do-able to me. In fact, this short little post alone is about 131 words. 750 seems like a breeze now!

Good luck to all who undertake this challenge!!

At the Movies

Okay, you are all probably aware that The Three Musketeers is currently in theatres. We’ll I saw it earlier this week and enjoyed it. I don’t know if it could officially be classified as steam punk, but there was a definite feel of futuristic technology mixed with technology appropriate for the era. To me, this movie was more like a graphic novel or superhero comic book brought to life, which I found to be entertaining.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, The Three Musketeers is a classic novel written by a french writer by the name of Alexandre Dumas. (Dumas also wrote The Count of Monte Cristo which is another fantastic book.) If you haven’t read this book yet, check it out. If Hollywood keeps remaking this classic, there’s got to be something interesting about the book, right?

In other news, I saw the trailers for The Hunger Game. Need I tell you how excited I am for this movie to come out? If you haven’t read it yet, get your hands on a copy and read it before it comes out in theatre. You’ll be glad you did. I promise!

I am also supremely excited about the new Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows that will open in December. You are probably already aware of this, but I just learned a year ago that this series of Sherlock Holmes is based on the graphic novels. Pretty cool! Ever since I learned that, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on those novels. I think it would make a pretty fun read!