Twihard Fans! If You Liked Twilight You Might Just Like These Books!

Whether you are Team Jacob (YAY!) or Team Edward (Boo!) --OK, ok - i'll stay out of it...But Vote on the PollDaddy Poll below! Twihard fans must have read ALL the books by now....or you should have! And with New Moon to open tomorrow you may be hungry for more bloodthristy reads...and that's where i come in! Muuwaaa!
The following suggestions are available in our Library Media Center.... unless your GF or BF has checked them out! Not sure?
Double check using our online PAC System!


Blood & Chocolate ~ Annette Curtis Klause
Ms. Jones says: Maryland author and visitor to MHMS a few years ago...... writes a dark story that is exciting and a sure page turner! Not for 6th graders or little brothers or sisters, this scary story has all the angst of high school with places mentioned that you'll recognize as a Marylander!

from Amazon: "Blood and Chocolate chronicles the longings and passions of one Vivian Gandillon, teenage werewolf. Her pack family, recently burned out of their West Virginia home by suspicious neighbors, has resettled in a sleepy Maryland suburb. At her new school, Viv quickly falls for sensitive heartthrob Aiden, a human--or "meat-boy," as her pack calls him. Soon she is trying to tame her undomesticated desires to match his more civilized sensibilities. "He was gentle. She hadn't expected that. Kisses to her were a tight clutch, teeth, and tongue... His eyes were shy beneath his dark lashes, and his lips curved with delight and desire--desire he wouldn't force on her... he was different." But Vivian's animal ardor cannot be stilled, and she must decide if she should keep Aiden in the dark about her true nature or invite him to take a walk on her wild side."


Blue Bloods by ~ Melissa De La Cruz
Ms. Jones says: I so Heart this series! I've read both and can't wait for the third AND fourth! If you like NYC, private schools, snotty rich people (getting put in their place!) and fashion mixed with vampire horror and history...this series is for you!

"De la Cruz has revamped traditional vampire lore in this story featuring a group of attractive, privileged Manhattan teens who attend a prestigious private school. Schuyler Van Alen, 15, the last of the line in a distinguished family, is being raised by her distant and forbidding grandmother. Schuyler, her friend Oliver, and their new friend Dylan are treated like outsiders by the clique of popular, athletic, and beautiful teens made up of Mimi Force, her twin brother, and her best friend. What they have in common is the fact that they are all Blue Bloods, or vampires. They don't realize that they aren't normal until they reach age 15. Then the symptoms manifest themselves and they begin to crave raw meat, have nightmares about events in history, and get prominent blue veins in their arms. Their immortality and way of life are threatened after Blue Blood teens start getting murdered by a splinter group called the Silver Bloods. This novel constantly name-drops and is full of product placements, drinking, drugs, nonexplicit sex, and superficial characterizations, but the intriguing plot will keep teens reading. De la Cruz's explanation for the disappearance of the Colony of Roanoke is unique and the idea that models don't gain weight because they are Blue Bloods rather than anorexic is unusual."–Sharon Rawlins, SLJ


Vampire Kisses ~ Ellen Schreiber

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Ms. Jones says: haven't read this one myself but i heard it's really good...read it and tell me what you think!

"Raven, 16, doesn't fit in at school or home. This goth-girl is obsessed with vampires and when a new family moves into the old town mansion, she is convinced that the son, Alexander, is a vampire. The story swirls around and through sibling rivalry, peer relationships, friendships, and love. Raven is a feisty protagonist with a quick wit and a real sense of self. She defends herself and her friends, often besting her peers with humor and a quick tongue. As her connection with Alexander deepens, she comes to understand her family better. It is through his shadowy character that readers are kept off balance. Schreiber weaves a tale that is more about acceptance and friendship than about vampire behavior and culture, and sustains a tone that draws readers to the characters rather than to horrific plot developments that would keep them reading. There is far less intensity than in Annette Curtis Klause's Silver Kiss (Laurel-Leaf, 1992) and less moodiness than that found in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's Midnight Predator (2002) and Shattered Mirror (2001, both Delacorte). While the ending isn't tied up in a neat and pretty bow, it fits the style and tone. All in all, a good read for those who want a vampire love story without the gore." SLJ

Demon in My View (Den of Shadows) ~ Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Ms. Jones says: OMword i love ALL her books! and we have nearly every one! she started writing these when she was just in high school but she has really gotten the tone right for a well crafted, engaging story...i say read 'em ALL!

"he teen queen of horror fiction Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is on the prowl again! Continuing in much the same vampire vein that established her reputation, the young writer's sophomore novel also includes a touch of autobiography. Jessica Allodola is a high school senior who pens vampire tales under the pseudonym Ash Night. (Hmmm, sound familiar?) Because of her funereal clothing and cynical demeanor, Jessica is shunned by her sunnier classmates. No matter, she prefers the company of the undead she creates on her laptop, anyway. But Jessica is shaken when a creature from her novel, the suave vampire Aubrey (who fans will remember from In the Forests of the Night) shows up as a new student at her school. Not knowing whether he plans to seduce or harm her, Jessica plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Aubrey as she tries to discover the secret of his existence. As she delves deeper into the midnight world of her own novels, she encounters other supernatural beings, like Fala, an evil Egyptian vampire, and Caryn Smoke, a teenaged good witch. When she finally unearths the shocking truth that explains the tangibility of her imaginary world, Jessica must decide if she loves that dark world enough to leave the light forever. Atwater-Rhode's writing, while still showing strong traces of Anne Rice and Stephen King, is maturing nicely as she cleverly constructs this story within a story. Her vampires, while thousands of years old, have adolescent mood swings and tempers, which will sit well with the under-16 crowd. Demon in My View will undoubtedly find its way into many backpacks and Trapper Keepers. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert"

and for both Guys and Gals might i suggest the Cirque du Freak Series!
Ms. Jones says: Amazingly scary from the first couple chapters! I met the author and he was delightful and a bit macabre! ....Try these books but you GOTTA read 'em in order...really!

"A boy sneaks out to an illicit freak show, and his life becomes entangled with a vampire spider-wrangler. "The author mines the exploitative history of early 20th-century sideshows to create an artfully macabre 'Cirque du Freak,' " wrote PW.



Okay okay.....Still want to read Twilight series? But don't have the hard copy on hand?

Twilight full text: http://www.wattpad.com/103133
New Moon full text: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12991956/New-Moon
or if that doesn't work, http://www.wattpad.com/81624-New-Moon-by-Stephenie-Meyer (but the punctuation on this version is messed up)
or if you prefer PDF, http://api.ning.com/files/fckEFz8yUcsjcqC5rcFKy5NQqMTiR3DYoj94Co3JJ2XbtHqF9SCftup4*zTDyEx8enS8HhQBZzqRFhpcMXBmimSahpQW7wOL/StephenieMeyer2.NewMoon.pdf
Eclipse full text: http://www.scribd.com/doc/11218705/Eclipse (but the line breaks on this version are kind of annoying)
I also found this one: http://krfilm.net/f/viewthread.php?tid=36251&extra=&page=1
(neither version is ideal, but if formatting is so important to you go out and buy the goddamn books!)
Breaking Dawn full text: http://www.wattpad.com/93442-Breaking-Dawn-by-Stephenie-Meyer
Midnight Sun draft: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/midnightsun_partial_draft4.pdf
this list from the Smart People Who Like Twilight Blog

According to Mashable, Twilight New Moon Social Media Mania Nets 81,000 Tweets Per Day! Yes, dear reader... New Moon has gone totally viral!

Applications for Media Student Assistant Due Soon!

Poor Clank can't be a Library Media Student Assistant, but you can!
We need enthusiastic and hard working students to help out in the Media Center during seminar classes. If chosen, you will check out, shelve & straighten books. You will also work on special Media events, run deliveries of books & materials to teachers, and help kids find books!

If this sounds like a job you can and WANT to do, please pick up your application in the Media Center, fill out both sides - answering ALL the questions and get two signatures (one from a parent/guardian and a recommendation from a teacher) and turn it in by this coming Tuesday.

Stay tuned to MHTV for updates to see who has been chosen! Good luck!
~Miss Jones & Mrs. Black

Did You Know 4.0 and The Future

In 2007 i blogged about the first Did You Know by Karl Fisch for my you....my kids, parents, teachers & community... because when i saw it (the first one) it rocked my world!

back then it was MySpace that could have been the 8th largest company....Facebook wasn't even invented yet...nor Twitter!...so much has changed...but sometimes i feel like we're not moving fast enough to get the right technology into the hands of our kids...then trust them enough to teach them how to ethically use it. teaching kids that they need to be ETHICAL and AWARE of what they do on the intarwebs ...what their digital footprint is and what kind of footprint they're leaving (in words and in pictures)....and how people will go back and see the doofy stuff they post 5, 10, 15 and 20 years from now.

don't get me wrong: i totally respect the 2000 FTC Children's Internet Privacy Act! heck, i quoted it on my 2000 Internet Safety for Parents & Teens webpage! but things have changed DRASTICALLY since then! i'm just saying....we can't bury our head in the sand for much longer... the internet is not going away...and though i preach the use of the Databases and i uphold my county rules...i think we're doing our kids a disservice by not teaching precise and savvy Google searches or using some of the Google products and how to be smart on the social networks....cause parents...they're there already!
and though i'm a rebel, kids in many ways.....i still maintain my Back-to-school advice for safe & ethical social networking.

Gearing Up for AASL

GoAnimate.com: The Unconference@The Blogger's Cafe by gwyneth


hey kids! Miss Jones is off to Charlotte, NC in a week or so to present at the American Association of School Librarians conference. This national conference brings together over 4,000 school librarians is held every other year and i'm honored to be presenting several times and to be named as one of the official bloggers. (no pressure there! LOL)

so anyway...just wanted to let you know that i go to these conferences to learn, share, and bring back cool ideas (like the Book Pass Reading List initiative) and new things to make our Media Center one of the best in Howard County...or heck...Maryland....wait!
why not in the US of A!

Pass the Book Website!

As mentioned in my post last week, the pass the book event is here and its site has now gone LIVE!

from the official website:

"Beginning October 19, 2009 be on the lookout for specially marked copies of The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld. Books are available at any Howard County Library (while supplies last) or from your friends who will Pass the Book. If you receive a specially marked copy of The Secret Hour, read it, register it, and pass it on to another reader. Return to the website throughout the year to track where your book has traveled and participate in online challenges. Howard County Library's Pass the Book is sponsored by Friends of Howard County Library.

Midnighter Lore: Monday October 19 at 7:00pm

Join us for the official launch of Pass the Book, and brush up on Midnighter Lore at Howard County Central Library. Create codes, ciphers, and secret writing, then pick up a copy of The Secret Hour to read, register, and pass to a friend. Ages 11-15. Please register online or by calling 410.313.7800.

---

The Author: Scott Westerfeld

The Midnighters series comes to you from the mind of author Scott Westerfeld, who you may know from Peeps, the Uglies series, and So Yesterday. Westerfeld’s latest novel is Leviathan, a novel that pits the Darwinists against the Clankers, and asks “Do you oil your war machines, or do you feed them?” Watch the book trailer, and come back here soon for a full review."

Neil Gaiman and Twittering the Exquisite Corpse

So, yesterday i got really excited about the Neil Gaiman Twitter writing opportunity the Exquisite Corpse..I instantly thought of our Writers Guild and how they could have really gotten involved with the writing experience. However, Twitter is now Blocked in HCPSS. (yes, thanks to the NEW Dickensian interweb policies of my county Twitter has now been blocked --we're going backwards not forwards, it seems...i guess no more Teacher Tuesdays at lunch for me sharing ideas with other tech peeps! :-( Doh! /rant)

anyway.... no, an Exquisite Corpse, is not about a pretty cadaver...

"An Exquisite Corpse is an old game in which people write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold it over to conceal part of it and pass it on to the next player to do the same. The game ends when someone finishes the story, which is then read aloud."

we also did the same thing with drawings in the back seat of the family wagon during long road trips....sorta like before mad libs...


2 B, or not 2 B, that is the question. OMW, LOL!

"If only the Bard were lucky enough to have had a Twitter account. Since he didn’t, we’ll just have to rely on BBC Audiobooks and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman to bring us the latest development in Twitterature. Yesterday at noon, the Coraline author tweeted the first sentence in an interactive storytelling experiment, with the hope that fellow Twitterers (Twits?) will pick up the thread and spin the rest of the story 140 characters at a time. The final product will eventually be compiled into a short story, recorded as an audiobook, and made available on iTunes for....hello....FREE! ((of course we'll give you either a link or an embed script when it's released...or you may wanna bookmark BBC Audio) - Twitter an Audio Story with Neil Gaiman!))

It’ll be interesting to see if average Twitterzens will be able to maintain a functioning narrative in this mass game of exquisite corpse, or if it will inevitably devolve into “And then a comet hit the planet and everybody died!” or “A giant POO POO-monster came out of nowhere and swallowed dear Emily whole,” as mine always did. Some hope can be gleaned from the recent success in London of the Royal Opera House’s first tweet-based opera, Twitterdammerung, which actually got some decent reviews. We lose Miley, but gain Wagner. Seems like a fair trade.

Tweets probably won’t be replacing conventional book-writing anytime soon, but it is an interesting glimpse into the possibility of open-source literary collaboration. Will BBC be able to separate the tweets from the chaff, or will we perhaps realize that all that Twitters is not gold?"
Keith Staskiewicz - EW

Finally to quote a tweeter named Smirkette: "Neil Gaiman is such a rockstar. I love how much he's embraced social media, and I can hardly wait to hear how this turns out."

& Neither can i! What do you think? Is this a promotional stunt or a best practice of Web 2.0 use of the technology craftily interwoven with interweb savvy?

GoAnimate.com: MHMS Media Adventures!

GoAnimate.com: MHMS Media Adventures! by gwyneth

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

GoAnimate is WAY cool!..but be warned..before you use this with kids... there are areas that have some questionable content....so, for elem techie teachers & Media Specialists to use with their students there's a MORE kid friendly version of GoAnimate called Domo Animate where there are preset backgrounds, characters and where kids can't upload created backgrounds or content (that could be inappropriate or copyright grey)....check it out!

For Media Specialists making animations for special events, programs, or products i suggest using regular GoAnimate.com where you can Photoshop, iPhoto or Comic Life backdrops using your own graphics & digital pics!