Vote for the 2009 Teens’ Top Ten

Voting opens today for the 2009 Teens’ Top Ten. Click the icon below to vote for up to three favorites from the list of nominees. And don’t forget to pick up a bookmark at the front desk with all of the Teens’ Top Ten nominees, and start reading!

What’s your best anagram?

Want to see what can be made of your name? Type your name into the generator here to find your funniest anagram name. Mine is “Crankiest Saint”.

For more anagram fun, visit the Internet Anagram Server and try your name out there.

Back to school

So for most of you, it’s back to school week, and I know how excited you all are. Soon, of course, you’re going to be weighed down by so much homework you’ll swear your teacher is trying to kill you…but for now, why not try reading one of these books featuring a back-to-school story?

	The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
	Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford Will Carter is about to start high school and worries about finding his place and making his mark, especially when it come to girls. Carter isn’t exactly smooth, he’s got ADD and tends to stutter, but he has a great group of friends, dogged determination, and a wise sister who’ll help him stumble through his freshman year, find his first love, face down the school bully, and learn who he really is.
	Deadline by Chris Crutcher Just before his senior year, Ben Wolf is diagnosed with a rare, incurable leukemia. At 18, he has the legal right to keep the news to himself until he’s ready to reveal it. With only his doctor and therapist in on his secret, Ben sets out to live an entire lifetime in a year. His goals are to join his brother on the football team; learn everything he can; and ask out gorgeous Dallas Suzuki.
	Looking for Alaska by John Green Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole life has been one big, boring, safe non-event, until he heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She pulls Pudge into her world…and nothing will ever be the same.
	Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley Charlotte Usher feels practically invisible at school, and then one day she really is invisible. Even worse: she’s dead. And all because she choked on a gummy bear. But being dead doesn’t stop Charlotte from wanting to be popular; it just makes her more creative about achieving her goal. If you thought high school was a matter of life or death, wait till you see just how true that is.
	Alice, I Think by Susan Juby Poor Alice. She went to kindergarten dressed as a hobbit, and life has gone downhill ever since. Now, at 15, she is about to enter alternative high school after being homeschooled by her aging hippie mother and a father who attempts to write “bodice rippers.” Naturally, all the angst is recorded in her diary.
	The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14 is a mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school. At 15, she’s got a knockout figure, a chip on her shoulder, and a gorgeous new senior boyfriend. And she’s no longer the kind of girl to take no for an answer. Especially when no means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male secret society. Especially when she knows she’s smarter than any of them. And especially when there are so many, many pranks to be done.
	Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar Scott Hudson chronicles the ups and downs of his eventful freshman year in high school, as he joins the newspaper, works as a stage manager for the spring play, learns a lot from his outstanding English teacher, tries to help a student who attempts suicide, is beaten up because of a girl, and goes to the spring dance. Along the way, he discovers that his mother is pregnant, and he writes a series of insightful letters to his soon-to-be sibling.
	The School for Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer Angela’s parents think she’s on the road to ruin because she’s dating a “bad boy.” After her behavior gets too much for them, they ship her off to Hidden Oak. Isolated and isolating, Hidden Oak promises to rehabilitate “dangerous girls.” But as Angela gets drawn in further and further, she discovers that recovery is only on the agenda for the “better” girls. The other girls will instead be manipulated to become more and more dangerous…and more and more reliant on Hidden Oak’s care.

New Manga

	Chibi Vampire, Vols. 1-2 by Tohru Kai and Yuna Kagesaki Karin Maaka can bite a throat like a proper vampire, but where others of her kind need blood, she has too much of it! Every month, she’s compelled to inject blood into her victims the way a snake injects venom. And her handsome classmate Kenta Usui makes her feel like she’s is going to spurt blood like a geyser. Talk about embarrassing! When Karin’s latest victim turns out to be as rich as he is good looking, it causes hilarious chaos at her school.
	Death Note, Vols. 5-10 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata Light Yagami is bored out of his mind. But that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?
	Silver Diamond, Vols. 1-2 by Shiho Sugiura Rakan is a lonely orphaned teen with an unusual attraction to flowers and plants. Chigusa is his surprise guest, who arrives mysteriously one day out of nowhere. Together, these two uncover secrets about each other – including the fact that Rakan may be a special prince who Chigusa insists on protecting at all costs!
	Zombie Loan, vols. 1-3 by PEACH-PIT Michiru Kita’s a girl who has a hard time saying what’s on her mind. One day, she notices mysterious, ring-like markings around the necks of two of her classmates  – two boys who survived a horrible accident six months ago. Michiru, possessing the rare ability to see these rings, knows they warn of impending death. Thinking that she can do something to save their lives, she approaches them, but it seems the boys have already made a different kind of deal and garnered a heavy debt.

Game Day

Just a reminder that Teen Game Day at the Normal Public Library is Wednesday, August 12 from 4 to 6 pm.  We’ll have the Wii out, with Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, lots of board games, and, of course, FOOD!