Literary Playlist: This Song Will Save Your Life

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales is one of the TTT books we received from YALSA. It's full of amazing music references. If you've read the book, are reading the book, are going to read the book, or just want to hear good music, listen to this playlist based on TSWSYL.

[NOTE: This is a playlist of songs the author mentioned in the book. MRL is not responsible for nor does it endorse the content of non-MRL websites. Users should use critical judgment in relying on information found in these websites and determine what information is appropriate to their needs.]

Wanted: Beta Readers!

An author is looking for beta readers for his new book! Shawn Snider wants you to read At Stake, a young adult book about vampires, and give some feedback. If you do, you can get a gift card! From the author:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read and enjoy a beta copy of my book, At Stake. There will be a question or two at the end of each chapter—but this ain't no middle school book report, people! Skip questions, scribble in the margins, read the last page first. Whatever floats your boat. And when you're done, send it back and trade in for a $5 Barnes & Noble gift card.

Synopsis:

The week Becca Sanchez discovers Uncle Don is a total whack-job begins with a moving van and ends in handcuffs. First, her creepy history teacher moves in next door. Then her uncle tries to stake him. That’s right, stake. As in vampire. When a student goes missing, Becca starts wondering if maybe crazy Uncle Don isn’t so crazy after all. She decides to find out for herself. But when she’s caught shooting her teacher with a holy water spitball, she lands herself in a whole heap of trouble with the school and, worse, her mom. Becca and her friends concoct a plan to kill the vampire before he can turn the Halloween Dance into his own personal buffet line. But she can’t get rid of the nagging voice wondering if this is all just a series of unlikely coincidences and her teacher is simply a creep. Because this is real life, and really … vampires?

Click the link to start!
http://tinyurl.com/betaread

Bonus Post: Teen Dominoes!

We're having an awesome event on Saturday. We'll be setting up books like dominoes! It will go a little like this:

Come help us make something amazing! There will be pizza!

Teen Dominoes @ Main Library

9/6/2014

Were you ever obsessed with dominoes? Put those skills to use and help us make a domino chain of books! Enjoy pizza, fun, and book dominoes! You may even end up on an impressive video to promote the library. Come back in a month for the Teen Reed Kick-off (October 11) for the video premiere!
Ages 11-17 Event.

Location:
Main Library-downtown Harrisonburg

Audiobook Dream Narrator?

Back in 2012, Flavorwire made a list of their ideal celeb narrators for classic and modern novels, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt for The Catcher in the Rye. Which got us thinking...

• What is your favorite book?
• Who would your ideal narrator be?
• Would you include sound effects/music or just stick to the narrator's voice?

A lot of movies (many of them based on books) have main characters that narrate the action. But what actor would you love to narrate your favorite audiobook?

Comment with your audiobook dreamcast!

PS don't forget that you can download audiobooks for FREE! All you need is your library card! Here's the link to the downloadable media page through our library (OneClick is for audiobooks), and here's a list of all the supported devices.
You guys, I use these services all the time. They're supercool.

Children's/YA Movie Adaptations!! (Masterpost)

There are so many YA movie adaptations hitting screens. Before we begin, I'll just say: SPOILER ALERT. Now, let's break it up by book:

The Giver - in theaters now!

• Lois Lowry did an interview...check it out!
• This article from Slate talks about things you might have missed in The Giver book. **Spoiler alert!

If I Stay - in theaters now!

• Here are some observations about If I Stay and why it did/didn't work. **Spoiler alert!

The Maze Runner - release date: September 19, 2014

• Check out this featurette explaining "the rules."

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - release date: November 21, 2014

• The director of Mockingjay Part 1 talked to Entertainment Weekly and spilled tons of info about the final two movies in the series. Apparently the new movies will break from literary canon and include scenes we never see in the book. The one thing that will stay the same? The love triangle between Katniss/Peeta/Gale.  **Spoiler alert!
• Lorde is in charge of the soundtrack for Mockingjay Part 1! She'll be picking songs for the album and will also be writing a single. She talks about the movies/soundtrack with Billboard.
• There are new posters, and they're fantastic. Mockingjay.net compiled a list of all the posters and where you can find them.

Movies in production:

• The 5th Wave
• A Great and Terrible Beauty
• The Alchemyst
• Aliens on Vacation: The Intergalactic Bed & Breakfast Series
• The Amulet of Samarkand: Bartimaeus Trilogy
• Anna Dressed in Blood
• Angelfall
• Artemis Fowl
• Assassin's Creed
• A Tale Dark & Grimm 
• Attack on Titan
• Before I Fall
• Blackbird
• Blood of Eden series 
• Blood Red Road
• Catherine, Called Birdy
• Children of Paranoia
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair (in the juvenile section)
• Chronicles of Nick
• Half-Blood
• Dark Hunter series
• The Darkest Minds series
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone
• DC movies, + Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice + Justice League + Suicide Squad
• Delirium
• Divergent Series (Insurgent, Allegiant - Part 1, Allegiant - Part 2)
• The Diviners 
• Down a Dark Hall
• The DUFF
• Dumplin'
• Eleanor & Park
• Elusion
• An Ember in the Ashes
• Embrace
• Endgame
• Fae
• Fallen
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (screenplay by Queen Jo!)
• The Fire Sermon
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth
• The Finisher
• Firelight
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth
• Frankenstein (starring Daniel Radcliffe!) 
• Goosebumps
• Graceling
• Grasshopper Jungle
• The Graveyard Book
• Heist Society
• The Here and Now
• Hourglass
• House of Night series
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 
• Incarceron
• The Immortal Rules
• The Iron Trail (Magisterium series)
• The Jungle Book
• The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking trilogy)
• The Last Apprentice
• Legend
• Let It Snow
• Leven Thumps
• Lockwood and Co.
• Looking for Alaska
• Looking Glass Wars
• The Lost Books of Merlin
• Lux series
• Madman's Daughter
• Marvel movies, + Deadpool + Fantastic Four reboot
• Matched
• Maximum Ride
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
• A Monster Calls
• Monument 14
• Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes 
• Nerve
• The Night Circus
• Olivia Kidney
• On the Jellicoe Road
• Origin
• The Outliers
• The Paladin Prophecy
• Pan
• Panic
• Paper Towns
• Paranormalcy
• Peter and the Starcatchers
• Pure  
• The Queen of Tearling (with producer/star Emma Watson!)
• The Raven Boys 
• Red Rising
• The Red Queen
• The Last Apprentice series
• The Selection
• Septmius Heap: Magyk
• Shadow and Bone
• Shadow Falls series
• Shatter Me
• Significance
• Soulkeepers
• The Scorpio Races
• Shiver
• Tempest
• The Testing
• This Song Will Save Your Life - also optioned for the stage
• Tiger's Curse
• The Traveler: Fourth Realm Trilogy
• Trylle Trilogy
• Tunnels
• Uglies
• Under the Never Sky  
• Unearthly 
• Unremembered
• Unwind
• Wake
• We Were Liars
• Wicked Lovely
• Wildwood
• Wings
• Wither 
• The Scorch Trials
• If The Maze Runner does well enough, they're going to make the second book in the series into a movie, too! They want to see how much money the movie makes, then maybe start shooting this fall.
• Frostbite: A Vampire Academy Film - maybe in the works?
•  Producers started a crowdfunding campaign to get a second Vampire Academy movie made. You can pick a package and donate toward production. But the deadline is September 5, and they've only raised 15% of their goal.
• Thirteen Reasons Why - maybe in the works?

Available now:

• The Fault in Our Stars
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
• Divergent
• Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters
• How I Live Now
• THG & Catching Fire
• Beautiful Creatures
• The Book Thief
• The Spectacular Now
• Where the Red Ferns Grow
• The Golden Compass
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (in the Juvenile section)
• Old Yeller (in the Juvenile section)
• White Fang (in the Juvenile section)
• Treasure Island (in the Juvenile section)
• The Percy Jackson movies
• The Host
• Inkheart (in the Juvenile section)
• Jumanji (in the Easy section)
• The Polar Express (in the Easy section)
• Shrek (in the Easy section)
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (in the Easy section)
• Madeline (in the Easy section)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• The Neverending Story
• How I Live Now
• Mary Poppins (in the Juvenile section)
• The Borrowers (in the Juvenile section)
• The Seeker
• Tuck Everlasting
• Matilda (in the Juvenile section)
• James and the Giant Peach (in the Juvenile section)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (in the Juvenile section)
• The Witches (in the Juvenile section)
• The Wizard of Oz (in the Juvenile section)
• The Lord of the Flies
• Tiger Eyes
• The Outsiders
• Coraline
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in the Juvenile section)
• Around the World in 80 Days (in the Juvenile section)
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (in the Juvenile section)
• I Am Number Four
• The Hobbit movies (in the Juvenile section)
• The Lord of the Rings series
  
• A Series of Unfortunate Events (in the Juvenile section)
• The Twilight series
• Youth in Revolt
• The Adventures of Tin-Tin (in the Juvenile section)
• City of Ember
• Stardust
• Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
• Bridge to Terabithia (in the Juvenile section)
• A Little Princess (in the Juvenile section)
• The Secret Garden (in the Juvenile section)
• Little Women (in the Juvenile section)
• Spiderwick
• Charlotte's Web (in the Juvenile section)
• Howl's Moving Castle
• The Indian in the Cupboard (in the Juvenile section)
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies
• Eragon
• The Princess Diaries movies
• I Know What You Did Last Summer
• The Neverending Story
• Marvel movies
• DC Comics movies
• The Harry Potter series (in the Juvenile section)
• Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (in the Juvenile section)
• The Chronicles of Narnia movies (in the Juvenile section)
• ...and tons more! Check out the books, then watch the movies!

Also, check out this list of YA books that should be turned into movies! What are your thoughts? Want to see your fave YA book on the big screen? Comment with your suggestions!

Authors Sort Their Characters Into Hogwarts Houses!

At LeakyCon last weekend, BuzzFeed asked famous YA authors to sort some of their characters into Hogwarts houses, and the results are amazing. The photos are here (and the drawings are hilarious--I mean, let's just say that some of these authors should stick to writing *ahem*JohnGreenGayleForman*ahem*), but I'll type them up here:

John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
Augustus Waters - Ravenclaw
Hazel Grace Lancaster - Gryffindor

John Green (Looking For Alaska)
Alaska - Ravenclaw
Pudge - Hufflepuff

Gayle Forman (If I Stay)
Mia - Gryffindor
Kim - Ravenclaw
Adam - Gryffindor

Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park)
Eleanor - Gryffindor

Rainbow Rowell (Fangirl)
Levi - Hufflepuff

Holly Black (Magisterium: The Iron Trial)
Callum Hunt - Slytherin

Holly Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown)
Gavriel - Gryffindor

Holly Black (The Darkest Part of the Forest)
Hazel - Hufflepuff

Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss)
Anna - Ravenclaw
Etienne St. Clair - Gryffindor

Stephanie Perkins (Lola and the Boy Next Door)
Lola - Gryffindor
Cricket Bell - Hufflepuff

Stephanie Perkins (Isla and the Happily Ever After)
Isla - Ravenclaw
Josh - Ravenclaw

Scott Westerfield (Uglies)
Shay - Slytherin
David - Gryffindor
Tally - Gryffindor

Lev Grossman (The Magicians)
Julia - Ravenclaw
Janet - Slytherin
Quentin - Ravenclaw
Alice - Gryffindor


So what do you think?? Are there any that you agree with? What about ones that you disagree with? Comment with your suggestions for characters they didn't sort!

TTT Voting - Starting August 15!

You guys are definitely enjoying the Teens' Top Ten nominee books we received from YALSA. We barely have any on the shelf at any given time! (To know if you have one of these books in particular, see if it has a blue sticker on the spine. It has been chosen.)

Here is the complete list of 25 nominees, including synopses and a cool intro video.

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

Of Triton by Anna Banks

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Love In The Time Of Global Warming by Francesca Lia

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau - download it through Overdrive or OneClickDigital

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason - download it through Overdrive

Maybe I Will by Laurie Gray - download it through Freading

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

Splintered by A. G. Howard

Teardrop by Lauren Kate

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Monument 14: Sky On Fire by Emmy Laybourne

Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards - download it through Freading

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Winger by Andrew Smith

A Midsummer Night’s Scream by R.L. Stine

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tucholke

In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters - download it through OneClickDigital

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

If you see one you really want to read, put a hold on it! Check it out! Read it! Download it! Listen to it! Fall in love with it! Or maybe just have a crush on it. Then you can vote on your favorites when the Teens' Top Ten voting starts on August 15.

What better way to have your voice heard than vote for the Top Ten YA books? Oh right! Comment below with which of the 25 nominees are your faves, or which ones you think should have made the cut!

Before the Summer Ends + HARRY POTTER BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

It's the end of July! That means you've got some serious summer reading to fit into the last few weeks before school starts up again. To give you some inspiration, check out the following:

• YALSA is having a Teen Blogging Contest for Teen Read Week! If you're passionate about YA lit and love to blog, this is perfect for you. TRW isn't until October--more about that later--but you only have until August 1 (that's Friday!) to sign up for the contest! Click here for more information.
• This one isn't just for the girls! Meg Medina, author of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, and Gigi Amateau, author of Claiming Georgia Tate and Come August, Come Freedom, made a summer reading list of books about amazing girls. This list is awesome, and should be required reading for any kid, in my opinion. (I'm still working my way through some of them!) Fun fact: Both authors live in Richmond!
• Veronica Roth did an interview with Goodreads about her Divergent trilogy and subsequent prequel(ish) quartet of short stories about the male lead, Four. It has some major spoilers, so don't read it unless you've read at least up to Allegiant. Before you go back to school, this is a perfect time to get caught up on one of the hottest literary trends of the past few years! Then read the interview to get some questions answered for you.

The coolest and most awesome thing you can do before July ends is come to the Harry Potter birthday party we're having at the library tomorrow night! It's going to have everything: Butterbeer, Hagrid's (cup)cakes, wandmaking at Ollivander's, the Sorting Hat, and even Quidditch. That's right--the JMU Quidditch Team is going to be here to teach us the greatest wizarding sport ever and help us play a game. It's going to be amazing, so put on your best HP costume and come to the Main branch to throw Harry Potter the best birthday party he never had!

Happy Birthday, Harry Potter!

7/31/2014

Teens (ages 11-17) are invited to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday by drinking butterbeer, making your own wand, and playing his favorite wizarding sport with the JMU Quidditch team. You'll even be sorted into one of the Hogwarts Houses!

Location:

Main Library-downtown Harrisonburg

Bonus Post: New eBooks!!

I've told you before about how you can check books out online. Well since you guys did such an awesome job of doing just that in June, we're getting some more ebooks for you guys to borrow! Isn't that amazing?! And I was allowed to give you guys a sneak peak into an eBook you can check out starting tomorrow. Wanna know what it is? Well do you? I'll give you a hint: I talk about it all the time on here.

That's right! Starting tomorrow, you can check out TFIOS through your phone, e-reader, tablet, computer--you name it! Simply go to our website, click "Downloadable Media" on the left, and click on the Overdrive button. (You have to go through our website to see what's available through your card.) You can browse through our entire online collection or just select "All Teen" to see just YA books.

Overdrive works just like the library, just through the interwebs. You can put up to three items on hold, and your checkouts last two weeks. You just don't have to worry about returning it to the library; it will disappear after your checkout time is up (which is great because I forget all the time). We get new books constantly, so keep checking to see what's available.

Also check out our other online lending services! Freading also has eBooks, Zinio has magazines, and OneClick is for audiobooks. (Don't forget that audiobooks count on your summer reading!) We also have all of these resources for you to look at/download. We're just full of free gifts!

Also, check out SYNC. They give away two audiobooks a week--one current YA and one book that's more likely to be on your summer reading list for school. It's only available until August 13, so take advantage of it now!

You only have a few weeks of summer left, so why not spend it getting some fun reading in before you have to worry about homework again?

Comic Book News!

• Marvel made some huge announcements this week:
• Thor is now a lady! (The Huffington Post has a great article about comic book representation of females and minorities, btw.)
• Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/The Falcon in Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier) will be taking over the role of Captain America in the next installment! If you've watched him on the press tour for The Winter Soldier, you'll see that he's absolutely hilarious, and he's probably the biggest fan of the movie--and his own character--than anyone else.  Check out this interview he did with NPR in April.
• Marvel also announced five new films from 2017-2019. CinemaBlend laid it out for us (adding in "two mystery projects"):

• Guardians of the Galaxy - August 1, 2014
• The Avengers: Age of Ultron - May 1, 2015
• Ant-Man - July 17, 2015
• Captain America 3 - May 6, 2016
• Untitled Project - July 8, 2016
• Untitled Project - May 5, 2017
• Untitled Project - July 28, 2017
• Untitled Project - November 3, 2017
• Untitled Project - July 6, 2018
• Untitled Project - November 2, 2018
• Untitled Project - May 3, 2019

Get excited, guys!! 

• Bad news for Archie comics fans! **Spoiler alert!
• Archie died in last week's issue. Check out CNN's article to learn how it happens, including comic panel pages.
• But don't worry! The comic won't end. It will apparently still take place in an "alternate timeline." Abed from Community would be concerned.
• Batman is turning 75!
  Well not really Bruce Wayne himself, but the comics are! How can you celebrate, you ask?
• Well, you could read them. We have Batman books in just about every section of the library.
• You could also check out the 1960's TV show. It's being released on DVD for the first time ever! POW!
• Or if you want something a little more current, they're adapting the comics into a new TV show. It's called Gotham, and it's going to air this fall. It takes a look back at Bruce Wayne as a kid but really focuses on Commissioner Gordon's start when he was still a cop. The website is already up and trailers are out. Here's one:

What do you guys think? Does it do Bob Kane's comic justice? Or does it follow too much in Christopher Nolan's footsteps? Or is it just blech? Comment with your thoughts!

(Personally I really love Batman so a Batman TV show is a big deal for me and I don't know what to think about this can't we just rewatch the Michael Keaton/Tim Burton Batman again???

 

This should keep you guys satisfied throughout ComicCon weekend, right? Right??