Divergent Trailer

Today I stumbled upon another trailer for the upcoming Divergent movie.  I was not thrilled with the first trailer, but this one is a lot more compelling:



What do you think?

Divergent will be released in theaters on March 21, 2014.

The Fault in Our Stars

The trailer for the movie "The Fault in Our Stars," based on the widely popular book by John Green, was recently released to the public.



Despite the fact that I feel that this trailer really focuses its attention on the more uplifting/romantic aspects of the story, it still makes be cry every time I watch it.  Perhaps the raging pregnancy hormones have something to do with that.  Hard to say for sure given the content - the book made me sob too.

The film will appear in theaters on June 6, 2014.

The Hungry Games: Catching Fur

This video parody appeared in my Facebook feed this morning:

Enjoy, and may the cookies be ever in your flavor.

Three Movie Trailers

I think today is a good day to watch some good movie trailers. First, a trailer for the recently-released movie "City of Bones," based on the book by Cassandra Clare:

 


 Next, a trailer for "The Book Thief," based on the award-winning novel by Marcus Zusak. This movie will be released in November 2013:

 


 Finally, the newly-released trailer for the upcoming movie "Divergent," based on the book by Veronica Roth. This movie should appear in theaters in March of 2014:

 


 I'm often hesitant about seeing movies based off of books that I enjoyed, but I'm actually pretty enthused about these book-to-movie adaptations. Anyone else looking forward to these?

Grow Your Own Geodes

Last week I geared up for this year's Summer Library Program with a teen program.  We grew our own geodes!

I had found instructions on how to do this project months ago (thank you, Pinterest) as I was brainstorming summer program ideas.  Take a look at the instructions yourself on the Steve Spengler Science website.  This is a very easy science project to do at home since the tools needed are generally easy to acquire.  In fact, most of the supplies are probably already in your kitchen cabinets!  The trick with doing this experiment at the library is that it takes time for the crystals to grow, so we actually had to structure this project as a recurring program where the teens met briefly every day over the course of three days.  Because of this scheduling issue and because I needed to know exactly how much I needed to buy in terms of supplies, I was sure to require registration for this event.  In the end I had seven teens in attendance for this program.

It seems kind of silly to describe the step-by-step instructions when they have already been written out so well (see the link above), so I won't do that here.  But I will post the video - created by and included on the Steve Spengler website - which briefly outlines all of the steps.



Here are a few tips for doing this project with a group:

• The alum powder is the only ingredient that was challenging to find in the quantities that I needed for a group this size.  You should be able to find small amounts of alum at the grocery store in the spice section (alum is commonly used in pickling), which should be fine if you are doing this project at home with one or two children.  But if you are doing multiple geodes, it makes good sense to buy the alum in bulk.  I was unable to find alum in bulk at local stores, but you can buy it online through multiple sources, including Amazon.  We ended up making a trip to Nasco, an art, science, and education supply company which has an outlet store located in Fort Atkinson, WI (as well as an online catalog).  It is possible that alum may be easier to acquire in bulk locally during the late-summer canning/pickling season.
• Blowing out the egg, as described in Steps 1 and 2, was a little bit tricky, but it was definitely a lot of fun.  Just be sure to remind the kids/teens to only breathe OUT, not IN, while their mouth is on the egg!  I saved all of the egg innards (waste not, want not), took them home, and made two quiches.
• To get the water heated to the near-boiling point required in Step 9, we used a simple coffee pot without any coffee grounds.  We have a very large percolator here at the library that we use for meetings, and it was absolutely perfect for this job.
• We ended up using 24 oz. glass jars as the containers where we mixed the solution and, ultimately, grew our geodes.  These worked fine, but I kind of wish that we had been able to get containers with wider openings to make it easier to drop the eggshells in and, later, fish them out.  Glass measuring cups would have been perfect, but I was unable to borrow enough of these containers to go around.
• The programming room where we did this project has a sink in it.  While this isn't exactly a requirement for this project, there were a few moments when I was very glad to have the sink nearby.  The teens rinsed out their eggs to better clean them after cutting them open, and we dumped much of the liquid out of the jars before fishing out the geodes with a spoon since the openings were fairly narrow.  This also made doing the dishes very easy.

If you read the comments to this experiment, you'll see that some users complained that their geodes did not grow at all.  Fortunately, we didn't have any problems at all with our geodes!  I truthfully don't know why these users had trouble with their experiments.  We followed the instructions to the letter and everything worked fine.  

And since you've all been waiting patiently, here are some pictures:

The teens had a lot of fun with this project.  I think they really enjoyed the hands-on aspect of this program. Several of the teens also came up with some creative ways to alter the experiment that might yield some interesting results.  It was really neat to watch the gears turn in their brains as they came up with these ideas! Ideas for variations included:

• Create new colors by mixing the food coloring.
• Don't add any food coloring at all.
• Add the food coloring later in the crystal-growing process.  Would the intensity of the color change?  Would the older, deeper crystals be clear, while newer crystals had color?  
• Crow crystals on surfaces other than eggshells.  What would happen if you were to treat an object with a different shape with the glue/alum as described in Steps 5 and 6?  What if you simply did this treatment to the inside of a bowl?

Most of the teens vocalized an interest in trying the experiment again, either as another library program or on their own at home.  Success!

Catching Fire Teaser Trailer

 

Last night at the MTV Movie Awards a teaser for the upcoming "Catching Fire" movie was finally unveiled.  Enjoy!

Cats Storytime

This week my preschool storytime was all about one of my favorite animals:  Cats!

The following books were all part of the repertoire for this story.  Depending on the group we read three or four of these stories, selected in the moment to match the audience's mood:

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens by Denise Fleming
While Mama cat and two of her kittens do all of the things that cats like to do (licking their paws, stretching, digging in the sand) the third kitten, Boris, naps.  But when Mama and the other kittens curl up to nap, what does Boris do? 

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
When Kitten sees the full moon for the first time, she mistakenly thinks that it is a bowl of milk. Then the little kitten sets off to find it. What a night! This is one of my favorite picture books of all time.  I love the black and white illustrations and the classic home/away/home format.

What Will the Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas
Will the fat cat sit on the cow? What about the chicken or the pig? This silly story got a lot of laughs and is a good excuse to make lots of animal noises.

Kittens! Kittens! Kittens! by Susan Meyers, illustrated by David Walker
Posy by Linda Newbery, illustrated by Catherine Reiner
Both of these books are more sweet depiction of things that cats like to do than they are story.  But both books also have illustrations that are lots of fun to look at.  Kittens has longer, rhyming text while Posy has very few words.  I kept both books on hand and determined which one to used based on the mood of the group.


I've been on a real fingerplay kick lately, so we did this one together:

Four Little Kittens

Four little kittens standing in a row

(extend left fingers upward, palm out)
They nod their heads to the children, so.
(bend fingers forward)
They run to the left, they run to the right,
(wiggle fingers to the left & right)
They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight.
(stretch fingers slowly)
Along comes a dog who’s in for some fun,
(move right fist slowly toward stretching fingers)
M-e-o-w, see the kittens run.
(run left fingers behind back)

As I was looking around for other songs, rhymes, etc. for this storytime I debated long and hard if we should sing "Soft Kitty." It's a cute song and I can see how it might be a good calming activity, but given it's hilarious appearances on "The Big Bang Thoery" I wasn't sure I could do it with a straight face.

Have you seen Pete the Cat yet?  He's a popular figure these days, so I was excited to have him make an appearance at storytime.  I made a flannelboard to help tell the story of Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, which was recently awarded a Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor.

To make Pete, I actually photocopied a page from the book and enlarged it until I liked his size, and then cut him out to make a template.  I traced the shape onto blue felt and cut it out.  I then cut out the shape of Pete's shirt using the same (trimmed) template and glued it to Pete's body on only the outside edges.  This allows his shirt to open, so at the end of the story we can find his belly button!

Also, you should know that after you've read this story for awhile the word "button" starts to sound a little funny.  If you'd like to hear the whole book read aloud and hear the tune of Pete's song, look for the song download on the right-hand side of this page.  And because I'm in a video-sharing mood, here's the book trailer:

After all of this cat-related fun, it was time for a craft!  We made cat faces using paper plates and construction paper cutouts.  I pre-cut all of the shapes, so all the kids needed to do was glue the pieces onto the plate and add any desired details with crayons. 

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Did everyone watch the Oscars last night? If you did, you may have seen an award presented for Best Animated Short Film. This year's winner was this delightful featurette:

It does my librarian heart proud. Enjoy!

Hugo

Not too long ago, I was given a copy of Brian Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret for Christmas. This coincided brilliantly with the release (and my subsequent viewing) of the movie "Hugo," based on this Caldecott Medal-winning book.



For those of you not familiar with the book that this movie is based on, please do yourselves a favor and track down a copy today. At 533 pages long, the books is certainly thick and heavy and may seem intimidating at first. But when you open up the book, you will quickly discover that more than half of the pages feature stunning pencil illustrations! Despite its heft, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a fairly quick read that will keep readers turning the pages.

Hugo is a young boy living in the walls of a Paris train station in 1931. An orphan, his survival relies on his ability to remain hidden and keep the station's clocks in order. But soon Hugo crosses paths with an old toy seller and his secrets are slowly revealed. What follows is a fascinating mystery connecting Hugo's dead father, a mechanical man, a key, and silent movies.

Brian Selznick's acclaimed book is a fascinating piece of storytelling. The way that words and pictures are combined to create a sort of movie in book form is absolutely inspired. I was a tad anxious about the movie version as I feared that some of the magic would be lost on the big screen. Fortunately, in the end the movie did not disappoint.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, "Hugo" manages to capture all of the brilliance of the book. The cinematography is very well done and helps to set the tone and feel of the movie in the same way that the pictures did for the book. It is also worth noting that very little in the movie seemed to be obviously computer generated. This tone of realism is necessary for a film set in this time period and is especially important given its focus on early silent films - early filmmakers didn't have access to computer graphics, so it is fitting that "Hugo" uses such graphics very little and integrates what they do use seamlessly.

The film generally stays very true to the book in terms of story, the greatest notable change being the development of the station inspector's character. Hugo's interest in magic is also greatly glossed over, allowing the movie to focus more on his relationship to his father. Even with these alterations, the story is still completely absorbing and the setting atmospheric. I highly recommend the film to all fans of the book, as well as to anyone who is a fan of movies.

Overall Grade (Book): A+
Overall Quality of the Film: A
Overall Faithfullness to the Book: A-

*disclaimer* I saw this movie in 2D, not 3D. I debate if 3D would detract from the old-fashioned, magical tone of the film. Then again, what do I know?

Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading

Of all of the awful, not-fun things in the world, Charlie Joe Jackson hates reading more than anything. He thinks it's a miserable activity and can think of plenty of other things that he'd rather be doing than sitting down with a book. He has managed to get through his entire school career without ever reading a whole book thanks to a deal he has with his friend Timmy, who reads the book and then tells Charlie all about it in exchange for snacks in the lunchroom. But when the deal is uncovered by parents and teachers, Charlie finds himself in trouble. If he can't bribe Timmy to do his reading for him, then how will he get through the school year? Because Charlie has gone this long without reading a book - he's certainly not going to start now.

I wasn't exactly expecting to like Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading very much. After all, I'm a librarian. I love reading, and it's kind of my job to help other kids learn to love reading too. The premise of this book seems to go completely against this ideal. However, I have to admit that author Tommy Greenwald has a little gem on his hands in the form of this book. It was a lot of fun watching Charlie go through such extreme lengths to avoid reading. When it comes down to it Charlie is a smart, likable character. Pair him up with a fun supporting cast of characters and some solid, funny writing and you really do have the makings of a great story.

This is a book that I would highly recommend to all kinds of readers, but especially to reluctant readers. The book's subject matter has surprisingly little to do with this recommendation. Short chapters, supporting illustrations, and a fairly fast pace make this book great for any kid who, like Charlie, just doesn't care for books. Fans of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, and Big Nate will also be pleased.

Overall Grade: A-

If you need further enticing, check out the official book trailer:



Fans will also be pleased to know that a sequel, Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Extra Credit will be available in 2012.

Hunger Games Trailer

For your viewing pleasure:



I'm more and more excited about this movie as we get closer to its release!

Sidekicks

Captain Amazing is the greatest superhero around. Unfortunately, he is also starting to feel the weight of his age and decides to hold auditions for a new sidekick. Who better to take on the role than his beloved pets, who long to spend more time with their master and help him save Metro City from evildoers. But Roscoe the dog and Fluffy the hamster's dreams may be cut short - Captain Amazing hasn't been too keen on a pet sidekick ever since an unfortunate incident with his cat Manny. Still, Fluffy is determined to make a difference and recruits Manny to train him and the Captain's new chameleon in the art of being sidekicks. But there is also a supervillain at large with a personal vendetta against Captain Amazing. Can these four pets set aside their differences and save the day?

When it comes down to it, Sidekicks is a fairly typical superhero story. But even if the story itself isn't completely surprising, it's still a ton of fun to read and will surely appeal to fans of the genre. The pacing is very tight, giving this graphic novel a bit of intensity that will keep readers turning the pages. What really makes this graphic novel stand up above the rest is author/illustrator Dan Santat's brilliant artwork. The pictures are incredibly bold and vibrant with just the right amount of extra detail. Color is used to perfect effect and really helps to set the tone of each scene.

But don't just take my world for it. Let this lovely book trailer entice you to grab a copy today:



Overall Grade: A-

I Like Big Books

This video is too funny.

Buffy vs. Edward

For all of its amazing popularity, many have criticized Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga as being anti-feminist. They often cite that Bella cooks for her father and sacrifices college for the sake of her relationship with Edward - not to mention her eagerness to marry at a young age - when making this argument. Edward himself also bothers some readers, who say that he is incredibly overprotective and stalkerish.

I'm not here to make judgements either way about Twilight being anti-feminist or not. But I think that no matter how you feel about Bella's character and the Twilight saga you will probably get a massive kick out of this video, especially if you also remember a certain teen vampire slayer:



So what do you think about Twilight? Do you think it's anti-feminist? Is Bella a weak character? Is Edward creepy and domineering? If you admitted "yes" to any of these questions, is that necessarily bad? Does this video make you think a bit more about these issues? Which to you prefer - relatively docile and romantic Bella, or kick-but Buffy? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.