Happy National Poetry Month!

Zombie blondes jump out of the blue/SLAM!

April is National Poetry Month and we’ve been busy with our book club, book group, and Teen Advisory Group creating short poems out of the spines of books.  We have a whole album full of them on our  Facebook page for 6th-12th graders here…but if you’d like to share your own, send it in during the month of April to armstrongm (@) crlibrary (dot) org or post in on our  Facebook wall and we’ll add it to our little collection.   Here are a few more of my favorites…enjoy!

Before I fall/Deliver us from evil

A murderous innocence/Goddess of vengeance/Left neglected/Never a bride

Sharks suckerpunch all alone

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Have you read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs yet?  Get on it!  Find more Miss Peregrine’s Valentines here.

Picture Vote

There are some new signs going up around the Westdale library to designate each area.  The Young Adult area will have a tan sign with a picture of a teen girl on it, and then they would like to add a small symbol to the sign.

For example, the Mystery section will have a person holding up a spyglass and the symbol is a fingerprint.  The children’s “Easies”  books will have a small child on it with a picture of some bumblebees, etc.  Amy, who is working on the posters, came up with three picture choices.

TAG voted and it came down to the bird and the suns (she will probably only use one sun).  Please vote on which one you think would look best on the sign below.  If you have any other suggestions, please send them to armstrongm(at)crlibrary(dot)org.  Thanks!

Read. Write. Talk.

New program alert!  Coming September 15th is a new monthly  program developed by CRPL’s Teen Advisory Group called Read. Write. Talk.  If you are a 6th-12th grader who loves to read, write or just talk with others about books and more, join us  on the third Thursdays of the month for Read. Write. Talk. where we will work on different projects throughout the year. Upcoming projects includes making ‘zines, podcasts, book club, NaNoWriMo, blogging and reviewing advanced copies of young adult fiction. Snacks will be provided and participants are welcome to bring their own writing and ideas to share with others.

What:  Read. Write. Talk.

Who:  6th-12th graders

Where:  Sendak Room at the Westdale Library

When:  The third Thursdays of the month

September 15th from 5-6:00 p.m.

October 20th from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

November 17th from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

December 15th from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Writing Prompts for the Writer in You

July is JulNoWriMo (July Novel Writing Month) the month when writers who are denied NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) due to either school, work, sheer craziness of life, writer’s block, or too much food on a certain turkey day gather to write their novels -or perhaps out there somewhere- there are writers who just have their heads so crammed full of ideas that only having one month to write one novel just isn’t enough. (Lets ignore my jealousy for a moment…) It’s not as glamorous or famous as NaNoWriMo (But what is?), but it gets the job done. So in honor of JulNoWriMo I will be posting 15 writing prompts one for everyday of the month so far…

1. Jack London once said, “You can’t wait for inspiration you have to go after it with a club”- I wish my girl friend could tell the difference between that and my name. Write what inspired this thought.

2.  Jacob walked into the room just to be welcomed by a cat. Write what lead up to this moment.

3.  You get into work and find that your boss has left a voicemail message on your phone. The message is urgent. Though, what’s peculiar is that the message is not work related. Write this scene.

4.  Write a story from the point of view of an apple, sitting in a fruit basket on your kitchen counter, observing life around it.

5.  One day you come into school and find a cookie mysteriously placed on your desk. Grateful to whoever left this anonymous cookie, you eat it. The next morning you come in and find another cookie. This continues for months until one day a different object is left–and this time there’s a note.

6.  Create a new human-esque race and describe it as thoroughly as possible. Be sure to describe appearance, culture, values, beliefs, etc.

7.  You were out running in the woods when you fell down and hit your head. You wake up to find yourself in a dark hole, surrounding by small woodland creatures who are talking amongst themselves excitedly. You realize that you can understand what they are saying, and they are all suggesting different ways to kill you. The rabbits suggest putting you in a large trap, the fox suggests letting you go and chasing you down, etc. Write this scene.

8. Flip through a magazine and create a story around the first image you see.

9. Use this line somewhere in your next scene: “Somewhere behind her the noise escalated.”

10. In your next scene include a talking teddy bear arguing with a walking stick. Bonus points if the owners of the two items gets involved as well.

11.  Write about someone you would love to see put in jail in a heroic moment.

12. Write about the person you admire most in a fictional scene that could never happen in real life.

13.  You wake up chained to the wall of a medieval torture room. The torture devices are laid out on a table in front of you. Write this scene.

14.  It’s time for you and Writer’s Block to part ways. Write a letter breaking up with Writer’s Block, starting out with, “Dear Writer’s Block, it’s not you, it’s me … .”

15. Babies typically talk in babbles that adults can’t understand. But one day, while at the park, you’re sitting on a bench next to two babies. They start their babbling, when all of a sudden you realize you can understand them. Even more, they are plotting a nefarious plan. Write this scene.

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You can find more prompts at Writer’s Digest. com (Link) or at Creative Writing Prompts.com (Link)- you may see some of these prompts because that’s where some of them came from, but you’ll see quite a few new ones as well.  I hope these assist you in breaking up with Writer’s Block or starting you in a new relationship with its cousin Success.

You can post the shorter successes (Really, the teddy bear and walking stick argued for over four page? Yeah- Sorry, that’s too long for the comments. You can bring to me in person though, ‘kay? ) that you have these in the comments below or just rant about how crazy a couple of them are.

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PS – Forget JuWriMo- There’s CAMP NANOWRIMO now! Why am I always the last to find out about stuff like this? Which one are you doing? And why? ‘Cause I haven’t got a clue what Camp NaNoWriMo is and someone has to explain it to me…  -.-

Events This Week

It All Ends

Cedar Valley Ghost Hunters

Meg Cabot

Teen Advisory Group Meeting

Things going on this week:

• Author MEG CABOT is coming!  The author of the Princess Diaries and so much more will be at Ballantyne Auditorium on the Kirkwood campus TOMORROW, July 12th at 7:00 p.m.  This is a free event.
• Teen Advisory Group meets Tuesday night in the L.T.C.
• IT ALL ENDS….Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out this week.  Get your entries in by tomorrow at noon to be eligible to win tickets for the midnight show!
• Cedar Valley Ghost Hunters will be doing a program at the Westdale library at 7:00 p.m. in the Seuss room.  Expect stories, evidence, and a really good time.  FREE and open to all!

Summer Reading Program Line Up!!!

The past few weeks I’ve been working night and day to come up with some totally cool programs for teens at the library during our Summer Reading Program.  We finalized them earlier this week, and here is a sneak peak at our line up!

Create your own Fanny Pack

Stop by the Sendak room to craft your own fanny pack from scratch!  No prior sewing skills involved, but be sure to bring the items you wish to keep closest to your waistline!

 

 

Hannah Montana:  The Movie

I know how much teens love Hannah Montana, so stop by and watch the movie version of your favorite singing sensation.

 

 

 

Vampire Jeopardy

Think you know everything about every vampire ever?  Stop by Vampire Jeopardy to part take in some biting competition of vampire knowledge.  There will also some blood-curling fruit punch (no real blood involved).

Book Discussion:  All My Friends are Dead

This book discussion will have it all – dinosaurs, sadness, and some pretty great fossil cookies as refreshments.  Stop by and be prepared to mourn the extinction of dinosaurs.

 

 

 

 

 

Gotcha!  We will not actually be making fanny packs, watching Hannah Montana, or eating fossil cookies.  But I have been planning some summer readings programs and will let you know more closer to the summer.  Happy April Fools Day!