TeenZone Blog

School begins for most of you on Thursday. You may not have time to waste after that. If you have not seen the Wordle web site, I am sure you will be able to waste some time there. The program was created by a guy from IBM and there is no charge. What the program does is take what you have written and count the number of times a word occurs. The program randomly takes the words from a text and mixes them up. The more times it occurs, the larger the word is. The picture can be edited with different color schemes and fonts. Check it out. And enjoy for last few homework free days.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Many of you participated in the "Team Read" Summer Reading Program. The following is a list of the prize winners: Limo Rides - Kyra S., Abbott Tech and Olivia D., Broadview Middle The Wii - Natasha P. Golf Quest Jose G. and Bianca M. The winner of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl was Eduardo A. Congratulations to all of you. If you participated in the Summer Reading Program we would like to know what you think. Take the survey.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

View image

Does the world know how awesome Danbury Library teens are? Teen Volunteers have put in over a thousand hours just this summer. And many of them will continue to come in to help before they go back to school and keep coming in to support programs all school year. Did any of you see the article with pictures in the Danbury News Times on Sunday? Danbury Library teens were interviewed and spoke well. I, for one, believe I am privileged to work with the teens at the Danbury Library.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer has been elevated to the status of books that are hyped and qualify for release events like those for Harry Potter. All over the country next Friday night, fans will gather in book stores dressed as their favorite characters and wait for midnight when the book goes on sale. Last February Knopf Books moved the release date of Christopher Paolini's Brisingr, the third in the Inheritance series to Friday, September 20th. This type of marketing is great for publishers, but booksellers are not as happy. The publishers, after all, don't pick up the cost of the release events and don't care if the release date conflicts with other events or summer staffing problems. If release events are more frequent, could the excitement on an individual titles dwindle to "mah, that again?" Nonetheless, fans of these two books want the book immediately. Don't forget to put a hold on the copies in the library catalog. I check the hold numbers to determine if more copies should be ordered.. Comment here or email me with your thoughts.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Many of you are writing stories, poetry and novels. I am sending you a link to TeenInk for anyone who does not know how to get their work published. Also, you can checkout what other teens are writing. There is a copy of Teen Ink in the magazine section of the Young Adult area on the second floor. Also, I would love to publish your reviews here on the TeenZone website. Email me.

Don’t be shy. Share your talent.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On, Thursday, March 20th, City Lights Digital made a film for the Barnes & Noble web program, Book Obsessed. This short film is about Young Adult Literature. The production manager chose to interview some of the teens from the Danbury Library Galley Book Discussion Group, which is only one of fifteen groups in the country. It was lots of fun watching the film crew in action, and amazing to see how much equipment they needed. The film will be on the Barnes & Noble Website on April 14th. Check it out and see how many of the teens you recognize.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, I was browsing through Wired.com today and I happened to come across a very, very, very interesting article.

Basically, a Norwegian boy survives from a Moose attack by "feigning death" which he learned from World of Warcraft.
Being a seasoned World of Warcraft player who played a few years ago before "retiring", I felt that this was such an amusing and outragous story. "Feigning death" in WoW is a Hunter's ability which literally has the hunter feign death when he/she is being attacked. To think such a useful trick in a game would be useful to survive in real life.

Thoughts: When I first saw this article, I was laughing hystericallly. Probably because I used to play World of Warcraft. How ridiculous is it when you start using skills, abilities, etc. originally from a game and applying them to your own life. Fortunately the young boy was able to escape being injured, but I sort of feel that it is amazing what some people can do... This definitely brings up the idea that video games are not completely useless (hehe) and that people can really do some outragous things, especially children.

Anyway, what are your thoughts, opinions, and ideas on this. Do you think that video games can really help people out of life or death situtations? You decide.

Maybe we should train children to learn special skills from video games so that they can use them in life. That way children can have a way to combat against moose.

-Entry by James Ngo

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am sure you all join me in thanking James for coming to our November 5th Teen Council Meeting to help clear up questions about the TeenZone Blog. Unfortunately, I am not sure many of you realize that you can start original strings to discuss movies, books, music or anything else you might like to talk about. Many of you are making your comments to different topics here on the comment area. If, however, you want to start a discussion, just email Mrs. Harrigan and she or James will put that up for you. If you want to comment on your own blog entry, please do so. Note that both James and Mrs. Harrigan have commented on their own blog subjects.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

<

Do you want to come to the library some Friday night after we close to watch a movie? Even if you have already seen the movie, you can enjoy seeing a movie with your friends. And we provide the snacks. Unfortunately, I am not sure what movie to show. So far, the most common movie suggestion from the Teen Council was License to Wed and Transformers. Also, you need to let me know if Friday nights are good for you. I am thinking of doing this on Friday, November 9th. Make your comments here or email the teen librarian

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Did you know that they are making a movie of "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman? The movie web site is really cool. You can pick your own daemon based on a few questions. I did it twice. The first time I got a monkey. The second time I got a the Fox Daemon Boreallus. It was really fun and I am definitely looking forward to the movie. As with many teen books, when they make the movie the emphasis is often on the adult(s) who often had very minor parts in the book. It looks like this movie is very much about Nicole Kidman who plays Mrs. Coulter. The movie doesn't come out until December. Let me know what you think of your daemon.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kate is the new head of technology for the library, and she just created a MySpace for Danbury Library. And you have got to seen the Danbury Library YouTubepromotional video. I hope you will check it out. She also offered to run a program for teens on how to pimp myspace. If you are interested let me know. Also, let me know what you think of the Danbury Library MySpace. Thanks...

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Many of you are writing stories, poetry and novels. I am sending you a link to TeenInk for anyone who does not know how to get their work published. Also, you can checkout what other teens are writing. There is a copy of Teen Ink in the magazine section of the Young Adult area on the second floor.

Don’t be shy. Share your talent.
.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)