Divergent Speed Dating Read-alikes

Check out these fantabulous Divergent book lists! I've wanted to host a book speed dating program for ages now and upon looking at these lists I thought it might be fun to set one up at a Divergent themed program.  I'm not sure how well this idea would work with my current batch of teens, but I think it would be neat to have teens check off which books they want to read most and sort them into factions based on their reading preferences.  If the factions aren't evenly distributed, perhaps place a teen in their second-highest ranked faction to ensure there aren't too many kids in one group over another. 

I'll keep you posted on this program in development!

Festivus for the rest of us

Actually, I lied. It's not Festivus anymore. I was really hoping to do this post yesterday, but work intervened (until about 1 AM). Don't get too mad though. Once you see the amount of awesome I unleashed on the world last night you will be okay with my abandoning you for working from home. See: AWESOME. I finished the header, html and color selection on the proposal for the SCLS Teen Blog last night. We will put it to an official vote once our YA Librarian Committee meets again in January, but I'm confident it will work out.

That said, it's not just yesterday--I've been bad for a few weeks. I needn't tell you how much of a time suck the end of the year can be. It is still not an excuse for missing out on my friend Alicia's Blogiversary over at the LibrariYAn. CONGRATS!!

I saw this ARC in our summer reading prizes earlier this year and ordered the book. I featured it in a display in the month of November. I have yet to read it ::hangs head in shame:: I think that librarian by day has finally pushed me into checking out Hold Still by Nina LaCour when I get back to the library on Saturday.

Youth Services Corner highlights all the books turned movie in the coming months with fabulous imagery to boot.

YALSA blog has been out-doing themselves lately. Their daily December postings of Dollars and Sense are beyond helpful. So helpful there are really no words for how helpful they are. I can't wait until the last one is done and a compilation* is created. I wanted to also share this inspirational story that Erin Daly wrote for YALSA about nerdfighting. It is a holiday, after all. It may be my inner nerdfighter, but this story was quite touching.

*Until such a compilation is created, instead look at their economy tag which is entirely comprised of Dollars and Sense postings now.

And that about does it today, folks! Time to get all clean and shiny to go to my mom's house and eat too much food before going to my grandma's house tomorrow to eat even more food. Happy holidays!

No one takes Shakespeare up a notch quite the same way as McSweeneys. Previously, there was Hamlet Facebook Newsfeed. Now they bring you Shakespeare Police Blotters. Hat tip to Bib-Laura-graphy for the link!

I WANT THIS SO BAD!!!! It's no secret I'm an anglophile, but I want nothing more than to use a classic red phone box for a library. Boing Boing, you completed my life with this information. Thank you for your services.

Speaking of things I want... this dictionary + me = rapture:

(via this Super Punch post that also has a nifty steam punk lego curiosity cabinet)

Potential program ideas:

• Zipper rosette headbands
• Duct Tape no-sew fabric totes (too cute!)

Reviews that made me want to read the book yesterday:

• Dark Banquet by Bill Schutt reviewed on The YA YA YAs
• Ash by Malinda Lo reviewed on Librarian by Day

BONAS JONAS*: Super Punch has been linking a lot of fabulous art lately that you need to see. Click here. And here. Initial over here.

*I almost thought I was over these johnsons, but then I remembered how brilliant it is that someone living and breathing right now is dubbed Bonas Jonas.

TAG! You're it.

My teens are super cool and wanted nothing to do with the traditional "Teen Advisory Board" name and went for the funkier Teen Action Group. It makes me feel like we shouldn't be meeting in the Bicentennial Room of the library, but instead an underground command post with a drop down plasma screen TV the mayor uses for his urgent communications. ... Or not. But still!

Anyway, the only program that regularly gets attendance is TAG. For the life of me, I don't know why. During the summer I got people, but now that it's the school year I only occasionally get people to roll up to Teen Cafe. This absence is despite the fact that the teens show interest in programs like the creative writing group when talking about them in TAG. I spent 4 potential writing programs doing other work.

Well I'm sick of that. I've decided to take action myself. If the teens are only interested in TAG, well they'll only get TAG (actually not true, but whatever). Instead of having a monthly writing program, I am going to have writing exercises at the original Monday night TAG meetings. Instead of a craft program, there will be a craft activity at the new Tuesday night TAG: The Echo meetings. BAM. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I already tried out the writing exercise this month and it went swimmingly! We ran the meeting for about 45 minutes with little to no tangents and then started an exercise I like to call Judging a Book by its Cover. The teens each got a book they most likely had not read before taken from either the juvenile, YA or adult fiction sections with nondescript or weird covers. Without turning to the back or inside jacket flap they had to create a 4 sentence synopsis. After they were all done we took turns reading first our synopsis and then the official blurb. One girl was mostly spot on and she had the weirdest cover! It was a great time and I look forward to pulling this back out in a few months. :)

Things to check out on the interwebz

• Do android librarians dream of electronic books? That I can't tell you, not having been an android at any point in my life, but I can assure you that the song with the same name is phenomz. Despite being 3256 years old in internet years, you should listen if you haven't heard it and especially listen to it again if you have because you know you love things smothered in awesome sauce (Laughing Librarian).
• Free handwriting fonts = Awesome teen posters (Craft).
• Non library related, but RPattz was in my dream last night (it was awkward, don't ask) so I figured I would share BWE's confession that Robert Pattinson is blue.
• Super Punch has outdone itself yet again. I fought the temptation (barely) to post the same image they used in a link round up because trust me, the Werewolf Nesting Transformation Dolls are gorgeous and must be viewed by everyone. EVERYONE!! Instead, I took one of the images they chose not to share created by deviantARTist spicysteweddemon and placed it below:

Express Yourself

Rutgers steals money for various things I never use and then calls it tuition. Usually I just shrug my shoulders and ignore it. What was that? $11 for a grammatically incorrect paper I never read because it makes my eyeballs bleed? Sure, why not. However much you want to take from my lazy non-gym using ass? Please! My wallet is yours.

Well not this time! I am going to use the entirety of my printing budget this year if it's the last thing I do! I made the booklist you see below last night in Fireworks and plan on printing them out with the remainder of the unused printing fund. Mwahahaha I = evil genius. Or a dork. Either way, check out my new booklist!!!!!!!exclaim!!!

* Please Note

Now that graduation is upon us (and by us, I mean me) and only a handful of days away, I would like to tell you that I am not going to be a librarian. Despite spending 2 annoying years in library school, I have decided that I just don't see myself as a librarian. Instead, I am going to take my newly minted MLIS and my fancy new jobs and become a book pimp.

What exactly is a book pimp?

A book pimp can be described as a person that pimps out books. Oftentimes one can find these creatures exclaiming things like, "OMG YOU NEED TO READ THIS!!!" with such enthusiasm that it frightens puppies. They create book displays of utter beautiousity that it could bestill even the Twits' hearts. In their spare time, the produce booklists that are so nifty, even the most reluctant reader can't just walk past it.

True, there is still the whole shebang associated with collecting money. Any good book pimp knows to delegate this task to circulation. Lest we forget about the hoe slapdown of 87, it will serve no one to have a book pimp slap hoes unless it is in the most dire situations either.

Applications for Pimp My Bookcase are now being collected.

ETA: There is also the requisite nametag worn on a gold medallion of the nametag owner wearing a gold medallion. No book pimp is complete without this regalia.