Friday, August 27, 2004

WRITING CONTEST

We're sponsoring our second annual writing contest for teens in grades 7-12. Entries are due on October 17th. Pick up complete information at the library

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Translations of Beauty By: Mia Yun

This is a story that delves into the true meaning of beauty,family,home, & race. This novel demonstrates the ties that bind all families, but also writes abbout the pitfalls of the American dream.

The book relates how twin sisters have a unique relationship from South Korea-to growing up in Queen's,N.Y. The book takes the reader to Italy to find Inah the twin sister. This novel is really about immigrant children growing up in America.

There are other characters in the book, but the twins are the main personalities throughout the novel. Their are family relativees in between.

L.D.

Splintering by Eireann Corrigan

Like the glass that shattered when the knife waving intruder, foaming at the mouth breaks into mimi's apartment so do the lives of mimi, her sister, brother and parents splinter after the trauma is over. This story is written in the new popular free verse form and its very sketchy but you do get a sense of the emotions the characters are experiencing.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Story Time - Edward Bloor

George and Kate are promised the best education when they attend Whittaker Magnet School, which is in the same building as the library. The schools curriculum is based on beating standardized tests of other states, and the teachers are named only by the subject and grade they teach, like Science 6 or Math 8. The classrooms are dreary and windowless. The students are seated by how well they do on tests, from highest to lowest. The parents favor their own children over the others. There is also a librarian who only speaks in nursery rhymes. But behind all of this there is a demon being let loose on the faculty and staff of Whittaker Magnet school. Who is doing it and why? Does it have something to do with what happened ten years ago in the library, when an adult and ten children were possessed by a demon during story time. When the First lady of the United States comes to visit everything comes out into the open, and there are no more secrets. Bloor combines the state of education in todays schools with mystery to write an exceptional novel. This is one book that will not disappoint the reader.

Tom Burnham