A Review by the Cameron Village Regional Library Middle School Book Club

Jake Semple is a juvenile delinquent on his last last chance. E.D. Applewhite is a serious, organized planner in a family of free-spirited artists. It’s not likely that they’ll ever get along, but when Jake is taken in by E.D.’s family as a student at their Creative Academy homeschool, they have to at least try.

Can they set aside their differences to help when the Applewhite family finds itself suddenly responsible for mounting a community theater production of The Sound of Music?

With a lot humor, author Stephanie Tolan brings an unforgettable cast of characters to life, including Randolph Applewhite, the fiery-tempered theater director, Destiny Applewhite, the mischievous 4-year-old brother, Lucille Applewhite, the free-spirited family poet, Winston, the faithful hound dog who adopts Jake, and Wolfie, the baaaad billy goat.

The Cameron Village Regional Library Middle School book club awards Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan 4.5 stars (out of a possible 5) for lots of humor and for being a great story!

For more information about the Middle School Book Club, or to sign up for next month’s meeting (we’ll be reading Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix for our September 24th meeting), call the library at (919) 856-6723.

Hey guys, save the date: August 1, 2009 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.!  Cameron Village Regional Library’s Teen Advisory Board is presenting a murder mystery for you to solve!  The mystery unfolds as a live-action game of Clue, based on the classic board game!

At the end of a fabulous masquerade thrown by Cornelius Cash, fabulously wealthy billionaire, a grisly crime is discovered.  Butler, the manservant of Cornelius Cash, was a man of many secrets, none of them his own – he had the dirt on everyone at the ball.  Now Butler is dead in the mansion at the end of a long and extravagant evening, an evening where secrets are discovered and everyone has a motive for murder.

Teens in grades 6-12 are welcome to join us for murder and mayhem on August 1, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.!  Please call (919) 856-6723 to register for this event!

As I was reading Evermore by Alyson Nöel (incidentally, one of the YALSA Teens’ Top Ten nominations for 2009), I kept stopping and looking at the cover of the book.  There was something about it.  Today, it hit me: the girl on the cover of Evermore is the same as the girl on the cover of North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley.  See here:

Weird, huh?

At any rate, both books are fast reads.  They have a lot in common — themes include learning to accept yourself for who you are, living with your own imperfections, trying to create and maintain (and sometimes repair) relationships.  However, that’s where the similarities end.

Evermore is a fantasy read about a girl who can hear other people’s thoughts after the car wreck that kills her entire family.  When she relocates from Oregon to Laguna Beach, California, to live with her aunt, she has a hard time adjusting.  Not only is she in a new place, but all of a sudden, she has crazy psychic powers that she can’t turn off!  When she meets Damen, a hot transfer student, her mind-reading abilities and all of the psychic “noise” they create around her are stilled.  There’s something about Damen, but she can’t figure out quite what it is…  Evermore is the first book in The Immortals series by Alyson Nöel.  If you’ve finished reading the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer, and are looking for another fantasy series about beautiful people who can live forever, you will definitely want to check this series out!

In North of Beautiful, Terra Cooper seems to have it all — a great boyfriend, a perfect body and amazing artistic abilities.  She also has a port wine stain that covers half of her face from forehead to chin.  She manages to hide the stain pretty well with makeup, but she still feels somehow defective — probably thanks to a verbally abusive father who criticizes her at every opportunity.  A chance meeting with a family visiting the small resort town where she lives, and a good-looking Goth guy who has a cleft palate scar on his upper lip, leads Terra into uncharted territory.  Jacob and Terra become close during his family’s vacation, and when Terra and her mother accept an invitation to travel with them to China over spring break, it seems her father’s wrath will destroy her friendship and her family forever.  North of Beautiful is a powerful story about friendship, family, and finding strength and beauty within — perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen and Kelly Bingham’s Shark Girl.

Do you love Harry Potter? Do you like live music? Join us at Cameron Village Library on Wednesday, June 24, at 6:00 p.m. for a live performance by The Remus Lupins and The Whomping Willows!  These two nationally touring acts are bringing their love of Harry Potter to Cameron Village Library for the only Triangle performance this summer!

This concert will be recorded for a live podcast by Pottercast.  Pottercast is the award winning podcast of The-Leaky-Cauldron.org, which draws more than 40,000 listeners per week, and will be doing a live podcast along with the concert.

We hope for good weather, so we can hold the show outside the library, but we are prepared to host gaggles of Potter fans indoors if it rains!

Admission is free and the event is open to fans of all ages.  We hope to see you there!

Hey everyone!

Just a friendly reminder that Camicon, Wake County Public Library’s first-ever anime mini-convention is next Saturday, June 6, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Cameron Village Regional Library!

Join us for  anime screenings, Para Para dancing, karate demonstrations, fan art and cosplay contests, a performance by the Triangle Taiko drummers, prize giveaways and more.  Click here for more information.

We hope to see you next weekend!

Create your very own superhero (or superheroine) alter ego!

Go to The Hero Factory and design your super self.  There are lots of choices for hair, eyes, costumes and powers.  Choose wisely!  And, have fun!

Hey everyone!  Nikon USA is sponsoring a photography contest for all Wake County Public Libraries patrons, including teens!

The contest is called Picturing Wake: Our County in Photographs.

You live in Wake County, right?  You take pictures of stuff, right?

Enter our contest online (or submit prints to Katrina Neville at Cameron Village Regional Library), and you could become the proud owner of a new Nikon D40 Digital SLR!  That’s a prize worth over $500!

Simply submit up to three photos you have taken over the last 2 years of people, places and things in Wake County and you could win!

For complete details, click here.

In 13 Reasons Why, an intense debut novel, author Jay Asher takes us on an all-night journey of discovery through Hannah Baker’s hometown. Hannah Baker is dead; she committed suicide two weeks before we meet her. We meet Hannah, and learn of her death through the novel’s other main character, Clay Jensen, who has received a collection of cassette tapes narrated by Hannah, and sent to him before her death.

The cassettes detail the thirteen reasons why Hannah felt she had no choice, no other option, but to kill herself. She names names, points out places where things happened, and describes how other people’s treatment of her affected her sense of privacy, security and self-esteem, pushing her toward making the only decision that made sense to her.

Now, about a month after having finished reading the book, Hannah’s story remains with me. Do we honestly think about how our words and actions affect others? How can we tell when someone feels so hopeless? What can we do to help?

There are lots of resources to help people contemplating suicide and also those who have had to live through the pain of losing a loved one to suicide. Access them here:
Hopeline of North Carolina
SAVE
Metanoia

Mostly, I think about what everyone can do to help prevent others from feeling hopeless and suicidal. Be kind, be respectful, be aware. You never know how your words or actions may affect someone else. If you act and speak with kindness and compassion toward everyone, despite your differences, you just might make a difference!

Review by Katy @ Cameron Village Library