New year, new books ~ Happy 2015! (part 8)

Thor God of Thunder vol 3: The Accursed by Aaron Klein

It's the bloody return of one of Thor's greatest enemies: Malekith the Accursed! The former lord of the Dark Elves is freed from his otherworldly prison, and the chase is on across the Nine Realms to capture him! As Malekith begins a bloody rampage, Thor finds new allies to aid him: a Dark Elf sorceress! A gun-toting Light Elf! A gargantuan Mountain Giant! A dwarf who loves dynamite! And a particularly surly troll...?! The Wild Hunt has begun!

Training for Speed, Agility, & Quickness by Lee Brown

Today’s athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, and more agile than ever before. Exhibiting a combination of power, speed, and quickness, they’ve raised the bar on performance, competition, and training. Training for Speed, Agility, and Quickness is the complete workout guide you need in order to perform a step ahead of the competition.   With this total training package, you’ll have exclusive online access to a video library of the most effective drills and exercises for developing movement skills, and you’ll see how to perform key tests and execute the best and most complex drills from the book. 

Unfriended by Rachel Vail

When thirteen-year-old Truly is invited to sit at the Popular Table, she finds herself caught in a web of lies and misunderstandings, made unescapable by the hyperconnected social media world.

Whole Lotta Creativity Going On: 60 Fun and Unusual Exercises to Awaken and Strengthen Your Creativity by Regina Pecelli

Be your own kind of creative. Everyone has a creative core. Everyone! But, in order for it to thrive, it needs to be nurtured. That's where "Whole Lotta Creativity Going On" can help. It's not a crafts or how-to book, but rather a fun book, filled with 10 different types of unusual and thought-provoking activities and exercises, which can be used to ignite and invigorate your creative spark. 

Wild Rover No More by L. A. Meyer

In 1809, just when it looks like Jacky Faber and her beloved Jaimy will finally find their romance, Jacky is accused of treason and must flee Boston while her friends attempt to clear her name. Of course that means wild adventures for our fun-loving heroine, who manages to secure a job as a governess--and run away with the circus.

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

An aristocratic girl who is a member of a warmongering and enslaving empire purchases a slave, an act that sets in motion a rebellion that might overthrow her world as well as her heart.

Teen Book Club December Meeting and Year in Review!

Hey YAs, yesterday the TBC met to discuss this month's book, Stardust by Neil Gaiman and to watch the movie to compare!

Here are the discussion questions we used:

Pre-Movie

1.  What did you think of the book in general?
2.  Did you have a favorite character or scene?
3.  What do you think of Victoria Forester?  Is she worthy of Tristran's love?  Does Tristran love her?
4.  Have you seen the movie before?  What parts of the book are you most excited to see in the movie?
5.  Rating and final thought for the book.

Post-Movie

1.  What did you think of the movie in general?
2.  What are some of the changes between the book and the movie?  Which did you like, dislike?  Why do you think these changes were made?
3.  Were the characters how you imagined them?  Better, worse?
4.  This story is available in many forms; book, movie, audiobook, and graphic novel.  How does the format change the story?
5.  Rating and thought about the movie compared to the book?

Melanie: 10!  I love the writing and found it amazing how he could fit such a wonderful adventure story into as little as roughly 200 pages.
Miss G: 9  I listened to this on the audiobook version and loved it, but not quite as much as I love the movie.  They're almost two different stories, because of some major changes in the movie.

For January we are reading...

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories by various

A collection of fourteen fantasy stories by well-known authors, set in the age of steam engines and featuring automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never existed.

Meeting, discussion, and snack on Wednesday, January 29th 5:30-6:30pm

Now...for the year in review.  A reminder, here is what the book club read in 2013~

Everyone voted on their favorites, so, here are the overall rankings~

1.  Seraphina

2.  The Year of the Gadfly

3.  Stardust

4.  Delirium

5.  Code Talker

6.  Life as we Knew it

7.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

8.  Nobody’s Princess

9.  Bloody Jack

10.  Zom-B

11.  Skinned

12.  Trapped

Individual favorites were...

Melanie

1.  Code Talker

2.  Stardust

3.  Seraphina

Catherine

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

2. Seraphina

3.  The Year of the Gadfly

Clare

1.  Seraphina

2.  The Year of the Gadfly

3.  Delirium

MissG

1.  Seraphina

2.  Delirium

3.  Stardust

Now on to the new year!

Teen Book Club August - Bloody Jack

Hey YAs,

We had the TBC meeting last night for Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer.  Here are the discussion questions we used:

1. General impressions.  What did you think of the book?
2. What did you think of Jacky (Mary)?  Who were some of your other favorite characters and why?
3. Did you have a favorite scene/part in the book?
4. Bloody Jack has been compared to classics like Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn, and Great Expectations.  What do you think makes a classic?  Would you consider this book a classic?
5. The book has some fairly comical parts.  Did you ever laugh out loud?  At what?
6. Jacky grows both physically on the Dolphin and in other ways.  How would you say Jacky grows?
7. What do you think of Jacky and Jaimy's relationship?  Both before and after Jaimy knows that Jacky is a girl.
8. Does the crew react the way you would expect when they find out that Jacky is a girl?
9. What did you think of the ending?  Do you think Jacky will like her new school?  Will you read the second book?
10. Rating and final thoughts.


Here are our ratings:


Jill - 9/10 - It really captured the feeling of being on an adventure and being on a ship and keeping a secret.

Melanie (not finished) 7/10 so far - Like the story, but couldn't get into the writing style at first.

MissG - 8/10 - Listened the audiobook and the narrator really made the book!  Fabulous high seas adventure, would definitely continue reading this series!

If you enjoy Bloody Jack then you should read the entire series!  Here they are...

1. Bloody Jack 

2. Curse of the Blue Tattoo 

3. Under the Jolly Roger 

4. In the Belly of the Bloodhound 

5. Mississippi Jack 

6. My Bonny Light Horseman 

7. Rapture of the Deep 

8. The Wake of the Lorelei Lee 

9. The Mark of the Golden Dragon 

10. Viva Jacquelina! 

11. Boston Jacky 

Our book for September is:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Our meeting will be on Tuesday, Sept. 24th at 6:30.  Copies of the book are available at the front desk.

Teen Book Club July - The Year of the Gadfly

We had an excellent Teen Book Club meeting last night!  We started out discussing the book.  Here are the discussion questions we used~

1. What did you think of the book, general impressions?
2. In the beginning of the book the author uses phrases like "The seat belt held me like a straitjack" (pg5) and "The place screamed asylum more than school." (pg8)  She also describes the houses in Nye as "in various stages of decay and abandonment." (pg5)  What kind of mood did these images create for the opening scenes?  How did this influence your reading experience?
3. In addition to speaking to the specter of Edward Murrow, Iris spends time imagining the lives of Lily and Dalia.  What do you think this focus tells us about her worldview?  What does it tell you about Iris as a character and her development over the course of the book?
4. Mr. Kaplan wants to teach students to be "extremophiles."  What inspiration does Iris find in her teacher?  What does it mean to be an extremophile?  Do you think any of the characters could be described as extemophiles?
5. Hazel talks with Iris about Socrates and his role as a gadfly (pg90).  Iris considers herself a gadfly, but what does she mean by this?  Do you think Hazel had motivations to bring it up?  How do you think it relates to the title of the book?
6. When Iris is kidnapped by the four students in pig masks, one tells her "Just because something looks sinister doesn't mean it is." (pg137)  Was Prisom's Party sinister?  Does the phrase relate to any other events in the book?
7. At one point Edward Murrow says to Iris "There is no Edward R. Murrow.  There is only the myth of him." (pg285)  What does he mean by this?  What does this change Iris?  Why do you think Iris was imagining ERM in the first place?
8. There are a number of twists, turns, and surprises in the climax of the book.  Was there one that shocked you of effected you the most?  Why?
9. The author uses different points of view and time periods in the novel.  Did you like one more than the other?  Do you think this technique added to your experience of the book or took away from it?
10. Final thoughts and ratings!

We then had an awesome Skype chat with the author, Jennifer Miller!  We spoke to her for nearly 40 minutes (more than we were supposed to!) and the book club members had lots of really great questions for her.  Such a fabulous experience I don't even know how to write about it here.  She was great!

We then sat back down and did our ratings and final thoughts.

Clare - 7.5/10 - A little slow moving but on the whole it had a very interesting storyline and impressive vocabulary.
Catherine - 8/10 - I was really pulled in by the writing style.  Although at times slow it was worth it because it was slow for a reason.
Melanie - 8/10 - Liked the mystery aspect and the words really flowed together.
MissG - 8/10 - Had trouble getting into it at first but really glad I stuck with it because when everything came together and was revealed I loved it.

THEN (yes we had a really long meeting this month!)  We voted on the books for the next several months.  Here's what we decided:

September - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
October - Zom-B by Darren Shan
November - Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
December - Stardust by Neil Gaiman (we're going to read the book, then watch the movie at our TBC meeting, then discuss both!)

Our book for August is...

Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises herself as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship set for high sea adventure in search of pirates. Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she must use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret.

We will be meeting to discuss Bloody Jack on Tuesday, August 27th at 6:30.  Copies of the book are available at the front desk.