Winners!

Congratulations to the summer reading prize winners!

The winners of a $20 gift card to Best Buy are:
Peter D., grade 8
Marcus M., grade 7

And the winners of a $15 gift card to Newbury Comics are:
Zachary S., 7
Sarah M., 6
Diana W., 11
Marilyn C., 10
Mariana dlZ., 12
Gabby K., 9
Gustavo N., 9

Great job all! Enjoy your gift cards & congrats again!
The names were drawn by our intern and calls were made to all the winners.

Twilight Read-Alikes

I've been rushing around like a madwoman for the last week trying to get some tasks accomplished before the end of this week, which is fast approaching. So, I've been delegating some things off to my marvelous intern -- including this list:
Can't Get Enough Twilight? Try these read-alikes!
Now, I'm only including a few of the books on this blog post, but the others are posted at the library in the fiction shelves and also in the booklist binder. See what we've got to tide you over until the movie comes out and another book is born!

Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber
Thirsty by M. T. Anderson
Got Fangs? by Katie Maxwell
High School Bites by Liza Conrad
The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Sweetblood by Pete Hautman
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Vampire High by Douglas Rees

This is some good stuff - -she did a great job!

Bookends: Japan Ai (from the intern)

Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan by Aimee Major Steinberger

This is not your typical graphic novel. Basically, it’s a really cool travelogue describing Aimee Steinberger’s dream trip to Japan. Aimee (the author) is a professional animator, so she decided to illustrate the highlights from her trip. She also happens to be a major fangirl who loves all things Japanese, and she spent much of her trip to Tokyo and Kyoto dressing up as her favorite Japanese characters, watching Japanese musical theatre, and spotting scenes from her favorite anime and manga; basically soaking up the culture… especially the pop culture.

I loved reading about Aimee’s adventures. I have been to Japan, so reading the book brought back some memories for me, especially because, like Aimee, I am a fairly tall girl and definitely at times had that feeling of sticking out like a big sore thumb! “Japan Ai” is a quick and easy read, and a great book for any manga/anime lover who wants to see Japan firsthand. Er, almost firsthand! Aimee’s descriptions are very accurate and her drawings are great, and the book is full of funny stories (like Aimee trying desperately to fit her size 11 feet into tiny Japanese shoes).

PS- If you like reading the illustrated-travelogue-slash-diary-type-thing, you might also like You Can Never Find A Rickshaw When It Monsoons by Mo Willems (the “Don’t Let the Pigeon…” guy).

From the intern, Erin