Books + YouTube???

Young Adult books have found a new outlet: YouTube! Tons of kids, teens, and adults are reading YA books and posting video reviews in all forms.

Some people have even gone further with book videos. Book trailers are great new ways of giving the plot of a book in a video. Even book publishers are releasing official book trailers! Here are some great examples.... (Can you tell the official trailers from the fan-made ones?)

(Do you have a book trailer or an idea for one? Send it to us!)

It's not just book trailers and reviews that go online. Authors make videos and post them. Some are related to their books (before its release, John Green read chapters of The Fault in Our Stars--and it's hilarious hearing him talk about how cuuuute Augustus Waters is). Other videos are just for the fans. Maggie Stiefvater (who was born in Harrisonburg, thank you very much!) posted a video about how a car looked in her book The Dream Thieves:

One channel, with over 100 million views, is itself a YA book! Nick Hagen and Mercedes Rose released a video series called The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. It's about a girl who finds out she lives in a haunted house--and tries to fight off all the scary, terrible things that happen to her. Now they've adapted it into a book, which was released this month, and the Weinstein Company will be adapting that into a movie series! That's a lot of adapting. Here's the first video of the first season, but--WARNING!--it's a seriously scary series, so watch at your own risk!

And speaking of adaptations on YouTube, check out the Paper Towns trailer (which just released today!!!):

So there you have it: YouTube is the new library. (Just kidding! Please don't stop coming to the library!)
Have fun--and be safe!--on the Interwebs!

Snowflakes!

Don't you guys just love snow? Come into the Main branch to make your own snowflakes! I mean, they're made of paper, but they're cool--and we'll put them on display on our bulletin board! We have a few instructions printed out, but for awesome designs, look at samples online!

And speaking of snow, when people say, "No two snowflakes are alike," they're totally right. But they don't mention how incredible snowflakes are up close! Here are some samples from a photographer named Alexey Kljatov (who even teaches you how to photograph snowflakes on his blog!):

 

Unreal, right?!

And for more snowy weather fun, grab a mug of hot cocoa and settle in with one of these books for snowy days (all of which are available through the library system!):

• Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
• Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by Stephanie Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Matt de la Pena, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White
• Six Months Later by Natalie Richards
• Starry, Starry Night: Three Holiday Stories by Lurlene McDaniel
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen
• The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (we have the graphic novel and audiobook, too!)
• Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
• The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa
• Holiday Princess by Meg Cabot
• Tug-of-War by J.C. Pearce
• The Year the Wolves Came by Bebe Faas Rice
• The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau
• Far North by Will Hobbs
• The Trap by John E. Smelcer
• Winter On Her Own by Elizabeth Howard
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (or really any HP book; they have great winter scenes)