Why should you come to a Young Writer's Program?

Have you wanted to write a novel in a month? Do you want to meet others who are interested in writing? What about just wanting like-minded individuals to correspond with? Want to push and challenge yourself? Just like being at the library?

Come to October's Novel Prep Sessions on Tuesdays @ 3:30 pm. The Library is providing laptops for who can't bring their own and writing devices for those who like to hand-write everything!

The First Meeting, on October 6th, will go over what NaNo is, what most people do to prepare, signing up for the Young Writer's Program, find our Virtual Classroom, and outlining what our goals are for our October Prep and for November .

Then we will have an activity to help us lock away our Inner Editor and start to relish the insanity that will be November.

Some Key Notes: The point of this program is to push yourself on your creativity, make you fulfill a self-made promise, and nothing you write will be public. Also, everything done inside of the virtual classroom is self-contained. If at the end of November you wish to edit your novel and try to get it published, I will aid you as much as possible!

Teen Fiction Picks

Looking for a good book?

Book cover images and summaries from Goodreads.

Thirteen by James Phelen- Kidnapped from school and finding out his parents aren't who he thinks they are, Sam is suddenly running from danger at every turn. Nothing will ever be the same again.  With his life and identity shattered, Sam's salvation is tied to an ancient prophecy. He is in the final battle to save the world, up against an enemy plotting to destroy us all.  He alone can find the last thirteen.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer- Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead- When seventh grader Georges (the S is silent) moves into a Brooklyn apartment building, he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old coffee-drinking loner and self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer's first spy recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend?

Keep reading!

Shaen

Graphic Novel Picks

Looking for a good book?

Book cover images and summaries from Goodreads.

The Titan's Curse: The Graphic Novel- Rick Riordan's internationally best-selling The Titan's Curse becomes a graphic novel in the hands of comic-book luminaries Robert Venditti, Attila Futaki, and Gregory Guilhaumond.

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke- Zita the Spacegirl has saved planets, battled monsters, and wrestled with interplanetary fame. But she faces her biggest challenge yet in the third and final installment of the Zita adventures. Wrongfully imprisoned on a penitentiary planet, Zita has to plot the galaxy's greatest jailbreak before the evil prison warden can execute his plan of interstellar domination!

Lunch Lady and the School Wide Scuffle by Jarrett J. Krosoczka- Lunch Lady and Betty have been unceremoniously cut from the school budget, and the timing couldn't be worse—the villains from all nine of her previous adventures are worming their way back into Thompson Brook with a masterfully devious plan. Will the Breakfast Bunch still be able to count on Lunch Lady's superhero gadgets and abilities to save the school, or are they on their own? Don't miss Lunch Lady's swashbuckling finale!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Ironton Back to School Fair

What a great time Miss Pat and I had at today's Back to School Fair at Ironton!  Over the course of about four hours, we registered 47 new library cards!  Check out a sampling of pictures below!

We had a selection of giveaway books for participating families.

The event brought in a steady stream of activity.

Miss Pat and Miss Shaen getting ready for the next round of kiddos!

Registering patrons for new library cards.

Registering patrons for new library cards.

Keep reading!

Shaen

The Giver Trailer

If you're a fan of Lois Lowry or dystopian science fiction (think The Hunger Games, Divergent), you only have sixteen days to wait until The Giver hits movie theaters!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Teen Event- Doctor Who

First of all, a HUGE thanks to Miss Pat, for gamely taking over the Doctor Who Teen Program last week while I was out sick with the flu!  We had to cancel our Ironton session in order to give her enough to time to finish prepping materials (though if you were signed up originally to attend the event at Ironton, please drop by the front desk to pick up a craft kit to take home with you), and our Fredericktown session was packed to the brim!  Check out all the photos below (plus the cool handmade Tardis one of the attending adults brought).

Gathering before the program starts.

Getting ready to make bowties (in keeping with Matt Smith's Doctor, who proclaims "bowties are cool".).

Yep, they're cool :)

And cooler still!

The group also made paper cubee-style Tardises.

A finished Tardis (in the perfect shade of blue).

Check out the fez (if you're a Whovian, you get the reference!).

A finished paper cup Dalek.  This kid's an artist (and a superfan!).

One lucky winner found a Doctor Who picture taped under her seat during a game of Unmusical Chairs- and earned some Doctor-approved metallic glitter slime!

Posing in front of the Tardis with a finished project.

More Tardis pictures.

Keep reading!

Shaen

Summer Book Bunch

This week, we held our Summer Book Bunch at four branches and discussed Kat Fall's underwater ecological adventure, Dark Life.  In keeping with our ocean theme, we snacked on cheddar fish crackers, experimented with scale by measuring out the span of a whale (interesting fact: at an average of 100 feet in length, a whale wouldn't even fit in most of our libraries!), sorted sea animals into their proper "depth" zones, and painted glow-in-the-dark jellyfish mobiles!

Getting ready to discuss Dark Life.

Learning about the different ocean zones, which include the Sunlit, Twilight, Midnight, Abyss, and Trench zones.

Sorting ocean animals into proper depth designations.

Working on our luminescent jellyfish mobiles!

They also work well as hats.

Our bookish bunch at Ironton.

Keep reading!

Shaen

Reminder: Mad Science and Reach for the Stars Book Fair

Don't forget to mark your calendar!  Next week, the Ironton Library will be hosting two special events: Mad Science (where a professional scientist out of St. Louis will be conducting fun, interactive experiments with the kids) on Thursday, June 26th at 3 pm, and the Reach for the Stars Book Fair (with an expansive selection of colorful Usborne books for sale, plus free balloons and freshly popped popcorn!) on Friday, June 27th at 1 pm.  

Keep reading!

Shaen

Playing Catch-Up (AKA Most Rambling Blog Post Ever)

Summer has just started, and already, things are busy, busy, busy at the library!  Pat and I have both been out on the road with programming this week, so we're just now getting a chance to download some photos from the last week's events.  We'll just call this post a three-in-one special :)

Reach for the Stars Kickoff
Our first event for the summer, the Reach for the Stars Kickoff, happened on Monday and was a success with seventeen participants attending.  Usborne Books & More rep, Connie Fain, explained how the pledge-based reading club was going to work, and Pat Lewis handed out reading logs and program information to those who were interested.  The Reach for the Stars Reading Club will be open to readers from now until Monday, June 16, when reading logs and pledge sheets are due, and the Club will culminate in a gigantic Book Fair at the Ironton Library on Friday, June 27, where kids can choose prize books and help the Library pick out new books for our Youth collection.  You don't have to be from Iron County to participate; anyone with questions about the program can contact the Ironton Library for more information.

Reach for the Stars Reading Logs.  Thanks to The Mountain Echo and Cole's Funeral Home for being sponsoring businesses this summer!

The Library set up thematic book displays so the kids could check out and get reading right away!

Local Usborne rep, Connie Fain, explaining the details of the RFTS Reading Club for our patrons.

Opening Party (Look Like a Mad Scientist)
Our Opening Party took place at four branches (Steelville, Bourbon, Ironton, and Fredericktown) on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the kids made "mad scientist" costume kits to get ready for our science-based Summer Reading Program.  We had three stations set up: an Einstein wig table, a lab goggles table, and a lab coat table.  You can see the evidence of their creative crafting below!

Attendees of the Opening Party rotated between three different craft stations: Make a Lab Coat, Make Lab Goggles, and Make Einstein Hair.

Cutting out lab coats from plastic bags.

Decorating lab coats with stickers (it might not be the most scientific thing, but we had fun!).

A few patrons got creative: meet the double threat- a scientist athlete!

We also made cotton ball wigs and cardstock safety goggles.

We got a little creative with the wigs, too!

Almost finished!

We had great crowds at Crawford County...

And Fredericktown, too.

Some super scientists.

More mad scientists!

What a group!

Grow a Reader
This morning, despite a few raindrops, we held our second annual Grow a Reader story time at the Iron County Community Garden.  Linda Lane of the Community Garden gave an intro and reminded everyone about the upcoming Garden Tour, Pat and I read garden-themed stories and helped the kids make paper Mr. or Ms. Potato Heads, and Debra Henk of the University of Missouri Extension Council showed the kids how to plant potatoes in the Garden and send each child home with their own purple bush bean plant.  Much thanks also goes to Rev. Catherine (Kitty) Hillquist, who graciously invited us to use the parish porch for our crafting session, as well as provided refreshments for all the families in attendance.

A nice crowd showed up, despite the threat of rain!

Reading garden-themed stories: Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola and this one, White is for Blueberry by George Shannon and Laura Dronzek.

We played "Hot Potato" for our game.

The group gets whittled down during our game.

Down to two players!  Who will win...?

And we have a new "Hot Potato" champion!

We moved onto the covered parish porch to color and cut our Mr. and Ms. Potato Heads.

Lots of coloring and cutting for this craft!

Then we enjoyed light refreshments and headed out to the Garden to get a tour of the planting beds and to plant some potatoes of our own, to be harvested later for the local Food Bank.

The kids (and parents) hard at work in the Garden.

Also, on a sidenote, if you'd like to see a few photos from the Last Tuesday Creative Writing Event, head on over to the Ironton Facebook page.  There's talk of putting together a teen and/or adult workshopping group in the near future, so if you're interested in joining either group, please send us a message through our Facebook page with your name, age group (teen or adult), and if possible, the best weeknight evening, Monday through Friday, that you would find it most convenient to attend classes.  With enough interest, we'll be putting together a schedule soon!

Keep reading!

Shaen