Letters About Literature

Have you ever read a book that changed your life? Created a strong emotional impact? Or made you think seriously about an issue? If so, now is your chance to write a letter to the author of that book. Let them know how much their novel, poetry collection, play, etc. made an impact on you. The Library of Congress and Target are sponsoring a contest called Letters About Literature. Write a letter to the author of the work you made a personal connection with, send it to the Letters About Literature competition, and you could win a $500 Target gift card and $10,000 for your local school or public library.

Entry forms are available at the Shorewood Library or online at www.lettersaboutliterature.org.

Good luck!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

One of my favorite books of 2006 was Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. And now it's being released as a movie next month starring the amazing Micheal Cera and Kat Dennings. Check out the trailer and check out the book!

What I'm Reading: Realistic Fiction

I wanted to share a few good realistic fiction books I've read lately.

She's So Money by Cherry Cheva

Maya's always been the good girl; studies hard and gets good grades all while helping her family at their Thai restaurant. Then Maya makes a huge mistake at the restaurant, hides it from her parents, and gets into deep trouble with local hottie Camden King.


Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley

Snowboarder, Syrah, has long been defined by her father, a cell phone billionaire. After an accident that prevents Syrah from snowboarding, she begins to find a new life that allows her to step out from her father's shadow and show everyone the real Syrah Cheng.


The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman

Katie and her sister Michaela do everything together. That is until they move from New York City to small town Fir Lake and Michaela becomes Miss Popularity. Katie misses the city, her friends, and ballet, but not as much as she misses her sister.

Fall Book Groups

There are two great book groups that run during the school year.

The 6th-8th Grade Book Group has a planning meeting on September 26 to share book ideas and plan the selections for the rest of the year. If you're in 6th-8th grade feel free to stop by. We meet at 7 p.m. in the lower level meeting room of the village center/library.

The other book group we offer is for high school students. Our 9th-12th Grade Book Group meets once a month at 6 p.m. to talk about a variety of interesting books. On September 9th we'll be sharing everything we loved and hated about Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer!

And did I mention...there is always food!

Summer 2008 Prize Winners

We had a great summer here at the library!

Catch the Reading Wave: Teen Summer Reading
-- 184 teens signed up for Catch the Reading Wave
-- over 310,000 pages were read this summer by teens
-- we gave away over $300 worth of prizes

Congratulations to the Winners!
Arwen B.
Anthony S.
Chloe K.
Grace P.
Jay T.
Ben S.
Angela S.
Sarah F.
Ana-Maria R.
Namrata T.
Rachel B.
Katie H.
Ronnie E.
John S.
Esther P.
Laura G.
Katie K.
Sally S.
Chara Y.
Menachem K.
Myra W.
Grace F.
Kimberly P.

Thanks for an amazing summer!

Teens' Top Ten

Voting for the Teens' Top Ten is coming up in October! You've still got time to read the nominations before you cast your vote for the best teen books of 2008!

In case you're wondering the Teens' Top Ten is an award created and voted on by teens across the country. Selected book groups create the nomination list and during Teen Read Week in October, teens around the country vote for the books they love.

Interested in what books won in past years? Here are the Teens' Top Ten for 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Info about voting for this years winners will be posted soon.

Pandora

Looking for a radio station that always plays the songs you like? And may introduce you to some great new artists? Pandora is an amazing way to listen to music online. You create your stations based on the bands and singers you love, then Pandora finds similar music by a variety of artists. Check out their site to learn more about this fantastic, and free, online community.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The second Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie comes out in theaters today! Another addition to a summer of great movies.

Wordle

Just something fun. Wordle is a cool way to create word clouds. Here's an example using words from our del.icio.us site, ShorewoodLibrary.Teen.

Breaking Dawn

The fourth book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer is coming out in less than a month! To celebrate the library is having a Breaking Dawn Release Party on Friday, August 1 from 5-8:30 p.m. We'll talk about the books and the movie, play Twilight Trivia to win great prizes, make t-shirts, and enjoy pizza and other treats!

And if you're interested in continuing the fun, several bookstores are having midnight release parties.

Milwaukee's local bookstore, Schwartz Bookshop, is having a Breaking Dawn Prom!

If you can't get tickets to the prom, check out Barnes and Noble's event for another opportunity to meet local Twilighters and get your copy of Breaking Dawn.

Have fun!