Our last meeting of 2012 was to discuss Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter. The kids took part in a library scavenger hunt that led them to all sorts of different books that the main character, Kat, may have checked out in her adventures around the world. Then to celebrate the holidays, we made Christmas tree ornaments from the rolled up pages of books we've read this year. (Ok, copies of pages- I couldn't tear up a book!) Merry Christmas from the Nook!

2013-2014 Award Nominees are HERE!

Wait a minute, isn't it still 2012? Sure is, but the preliminary lists of nominees for the 2013-2014 Gateway and Truman Reader Awards are already out! I am happy to report that the Nook has a copy of ALL of these books, so come on in and check them out!

2013-2014 Gateway Preliminary Nominees

Cleopatra's Moon, by Vicky Alvear Schecter. Arthur A. Levine Books.

Rival, by Sarah Bennett Wealer. HarperTeen.

Ashes, by Ilsa J. Bick. Egmont USA.

Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake. Tor Teen.

Bitter End, by Jennifer Brown. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Shelter, by Harlan Coben. Putnam Juvenile.

I'll Be There, by Holly Goldberg Sloan. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Something Like Hope, by Shawn Goodman. Delacorte Books for Young Readers.

Stay With Me, by Paul Griffin. Dial.

Everybody Sees the Ants, by A.S. King. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Legend, by Marie Lu. Putnam Juvenile.

Exposed, by Kimberly Marcus. Random House.

Ashfall, by Mike Mullin. Tanglewood Press.

Shine, by Lauren Myracle. Amulet Books.

Pregnant Pause, by Han Nolan. Harcourt Children's Books.

Trapped, by Michael Northrup. Scholastic Press.

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver. HarperCollins.

This Thing Called the Future, by J.L. Powers. Cinco Puntos Press.

Clean, by Amy Reed. Simon Pulse.

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Katherine Tegen Books.

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, by Joe Schreiber. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.

Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys. Philomel.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor. Little, Brown and Company.

The Probability of Miracles, by Wendy Wunder. Razorbill.

All These Things I've Done, by Gabrielle Zevin. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.


2013-2014 Truman Preliminary Nominees

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous, by Georgia Bragg and Kevin O'Malley. Walker Childrens.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson. Greenwillow Books.

Everything I Was, by Corinne Demas. Carolrhoda Books.

The Absolute Value of Mike, by Kathryn Erskine. Philomel.

Without Tess, by Marcella Fleishman Pixley. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Cloaked, by Alex Flinn. HarperTeen.

The Eleventh Plague, by Jeff Hirsch. Scholastic Press.

Take Me to the River, by Will Hobbs. HarperCollins.

The Name of the Star, by Maureen Johnson. Putnam Juvenile.

Silhouetted by the Blue, by Traci L. Jones. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

The Death Catchers, by Jennifer Anne Kogler. Walker Childrens.

Legend, by Marie Lu. Putnam Juvenile.

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann. Aladdin.

Ten Miles Past Normal, by Frances O'Dowell Roark. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, by Richard Paul Evans. Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink.

Paintings from the Cave, by Gary Paulsen. Wendy Lamb Books.

Here Lies Linc, by Delia Ray. Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Small as an Elephant, by Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Candlewick Press.

Lost in the River of Grass, by Ginny Rorby. Carolrhoda Books.

Okay For Now, by Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion Books.

Tunnel Vision, by Susan Shaw. Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Memento Nora, by Angie Smibert. Amazon Children's Publishing.

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens. Knopf Books for Young Readers.

The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen. Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Variant, by Robinson E. Wells. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Summer Reading Program Winners!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the teen summer reading program at MPL. I'm glad to see so many teens out there who continued to challenge themselves and keep their minds active during the summer! :) Many prizes were given away to our avid readers, but only five lucky participants won our awesome raffle prizes. Congratulations to the following winners!

Maria Morris and Maggie Bears- Dinner and a Movie Combo

Bethany Christian- The Hunger Games Trilogy

Jordan Wiederholt- Mockingjay t-shirt and book

Leticia Tate- Hunger Games poster and soundtrack


Remember that a new year of the Nook Book Club is starting in September. Any 6th-10th graders who would like to join may pick up a permission slip at the front desk of the library.

Happy Reading!

Summer's Over??

Walmart may try to tell you that with its school supplies already lining the shelves, but summer is only half over at MPL! Don't forget to keep reading and turning in your time booklets for stamps and time tokens in order to receive prizes and to enter your name in our raffle drawings! Make sure you have your name in by the end of July to make sure you have a chance to win the big prizes.

We will also meet two more times for summer book club. (See times below.) Our July title is Bruiser, and August will be a book-to-movie night featuring I Am Number Four for Varsity and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for JV.

Enjoy the second half of your summer!

Summer Nook Book Club

You may be out of school, but Nook Book Club is still going strong in the summer! This would be a great time to invite new members to join us... especially those who couldn't join during the school year because of after-school activities. We will get all of our books through interlibrary loan, so there will be no charge for summer book club. New members will still need to fill out a permission slip, however.

Here are the dates for summer book club. Pay attention- some of the dates/times are a little different than our normal schedule.

Varsity
**Friday, June 15 2:00-3:30** (This change is to work with the high schoolers in Upward Bound.)
Thursday, July 19 4:00-5:30 (Note that this is the THIRD Thursday.)
Thursday, August 9 ***3:30-5:30*** (NOTE TIME CHANGE- We will be watching a movie that is almost 2 hours long!)

Junior Varsity
Thursday, June 21 4:00-5:30
Thursday, July 12 4:00-5:30 (Note that this is the SECOND Thursday.)
Thursday, August 16 ***3:45-5:30 (This may be the first day/week of school. Don't forget to come to book club too! Note earlier start time to make sure we have time for the whole movie!)

Our June book is Cloaked by Alex Flinn. You may pick up your copy behind the front desk of the library if you haven't done so already. PLEASE let me know if you will not be in attendance at any of our meetings.

Up All Night... Reading!

It's summer! That means it's time for MPL's summer reading program! This year's teen program is called Up All Night.... Reading! Come into the library today to get your log book to keep track of all the books you read this summer. You can earn "time tokens" for every 500 pages you read which can be redeemed for prizes (mostly books-yay!) or you can use them for chances to win one of our raffle prizes. Raffle prizes include two dinner and a movie combos, the Hunger Games trilogy, a Mockingjay t-shirt and hardcover book, and the Hunger Games soundtrack and movie poster.

Hurry! SRP runs from May 29 to July 31! Happy reading!

The End of the Hunger Games

This month was bittersweet as we discussed the final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay. There were many mixed opinions as to which of the three books is the best, but one thing everyone could agree on was that the trilogy rocks! We found that our discussions on the conclusion to these books could have lasted days. We managed to to finally cut short our discussions on war, suffering, courage, and of course, the Gale vs. Peeta debate to play a fun Hunger Games version of Catch Phrase. While it's sad that we won't have another Hunger Games book to discuss (or at least that's what we're told), we now have the movies to look forward to! The group is anxiously awaiting the premiere and excited to see it together on March 24.

See you March 24!

Nooksters will meet at the Hangar on March 24 to view the Hunger Games movie! We are all very excited to see how one of our favorite club books will transfer to the big screen!

Love is in the Air

We didn't mean to pick a romance for our February book (the boys would not like that), but Cupid must have had a hand in things because Matched by Ally Condie proved to not only be another dystopian thriller, but a bit of a lovey dovey novel as well. We should have known. After all, what's a dystopian novel without a love triangle? Surprisingly, it still got nods of approval from the majority of our male Nooksters. In fact, one stated that this was the best book we've read in book club this year. While there were undeniable similarities between this book and the original dystopian blockbuster, The Hunger Games- ruthless futuristic society that controls their citizens, rebellious teen girl standing up to the government, two boys in love with her, etc.- we found that this book had less violence and evoked more questions about human freedoms. In our groups, we made lists of everything that is "wrong" with our world and then discussed how the Society in Matched had "fixed" all of these things. At first glance, the society in Matched really did seem like the perfect society, but what happens when a society goes too far in creating a controlled environment?

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, the kids took part in a Matched matching game. :) They had to match pieces of broken hearts by using their knowledge of the book. The game got pretty intense, and the kids had a blast.

Our next book is the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay. The group will get a special treat by going to the movie premiere of The Hunger Games in March. May the odds be ever in your favor!

A Friendly Game of Football... and Quidditch

Our January meetings got a little bit physical with some friendly competition. The Varsity Nook Club read Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff. This story featured an overweight and unpopular high school boy taking his fate into his own hands by joining the football team in order to gain some popularity and hopefully win the girl of his dreams. In the spirit of the football themed story and the upcoming Super Bowl, the entire meeting pitted two teams against each other to battle for... well, bragging rights. :) We began with an exciting game of number trivia. (What did you expect? We are a book club, after all.) Nooksters tested their recall on the most minute numerical details of the book like the number of Andy's school locker and his weight at the beginning of the book. If they got the number right, they could then earn bonus points for their team by throwing a football through different hoops. Luckily, no one was injured. :) The final round of the competition was a pictionary/charades match all about football. Who says book worms don't know anything about sports?

The JV Nooksters read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. For some members, reading this book was nostalgic as they'd read the entire series before. For rookies to the series, it opened their eyes to the magical world of wizards and muggles. The JV group had a similar competition except this competition was between the Hogwarts houses of Slytherin and Gryffindor. They also competed in a numerical trivia game, and this time bonus points were earned through a game a quittitch, the game featured in the book. Quittitch proved to be much rougher than football the week before as those trying for bonus points not only had to get a much smaller ball (the quaffle) through the hoop by hitting it with a baseball bat, but they also had the added challange of the other team hurling other balls (bludgers) at the them in the process. No one was (seriously) injured. The JV also had a Harry Potter themed round of pictionary. And lastly, they searched for the Golden Snitch in a scavenger hunt throughout books upstairs in the library. Everyone had a blast in this competition, but how could we not? It's Harry Potter, after all!

Our next book is Matched by Ally Condie, the first in a new dystopian trilogy. Happy Reading!