Win a Basket of Books from Teen Reads!

Celebrate the season with Teenreads.com's Fourth Annual Holiday Basket of Cheer contest! You have until December 10th to enter to win a "Basket of Holiday Reading and Fun," including 10 great books and holiday-themed prizes like chocolate and warm, fuzzy things!

Having trouble finding time to read…..try an audiobook!

No one disputes the fact that teens have very little free time to read. Who does these days? So I want to let you in on a little secret that many adults have already discovered…….audiobooks. The Renton Libraries have a terrific selection of young adult audiobooks read by some really fantastic performers, oftentimes actors.

Audiobooks may not be for everyone, but if you haven’t tried one, you may be missing out on a really cool entertainment experience. And the beauty of audiobooks is that you can listen to them while you’re doing almost anything, like riding the bus, driving, or just messin’ around.

Here’s a list of some of my favorites:

Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, seventeen-year-old Jenna, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

The Immortals trilogy by Cassandra Clare
Werewolves, vampires, fairies, and a very handsome but tortured angel....what more could you ask for?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In a future where food is in very short supply, sixteen-year-old Katniss's survival skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised competition and fight to the death.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who has also been watching her.

Feed by M.T. Anderson
This story is set in a futuristic world where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment. Titus never questions the coolness of his feed even after he meets Violet, a beautiful, intelligent girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. What's great about this audiobook is that the commercials are performed as if the listener has his very own feed......Sinister!

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (performed by a full cast)
In a land where a person's soul is in the form of an animal companion, Lyra and her daemon Pan must set on on a mission to find out who is killing children's daemon's (and thus their souls) and to find the secret of "dust."

The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.

Percy Jackson and the Young Olympians series by Rick Riordan
After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
In a diary, sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

You can find these and other audiobooks in the YA section of the Renton Libraries, or you can place a hold on them in the library catalog using your Renton library card.

Teen Tuesday Goes Retro

Ready to go back in time? This Tuesday, November 24, go wayyy back...to the 1980s!

Play Frogger, the ORIGINAL Super Mario Bros., PONG, and more. As always, there will also be free snacks and prizes. Bonus points for wearing your retro '80s gear.

Teen Tuesdays are the last Tuesday of EVERY month from 3-4:30 at the Highlands library. They are always free and always for middle and high schoolers only, so see you there!

(the "joystick hand" is courtesy of freeimages.co.uk)

RPL Young Writers Group

Our next meeting will be this Thursday, November 19th from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. In the meantime, don't forget to write.

In light of the Holiday-itis with which we are undoubtably all beginning to suffer, for this week's workshop we will just plan to kick back and have fun with word games and warm-ups. Scrabble anyone? Hope to see you there!

Are you up for the challenge?

Challenge yourself, and even challenge your friends! Can you write a novel in 1 month?

November is National Novel Writing Month, an annual challenge to writers to complete an entire novel in 1 month (November 1st to 30th). Take some time out this month from the demands of school and life and exercise your your creative thinking abilities.

More info on NaNoWriMo's Young Writers program can be found at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/.

The 2009 Teens' Top Ten Picks Are In!

More than 11,000 teen voted across the United States between Aug. 24 through Sept. 18 for the Teens Top Ten Books of 2009. The winners were announced during Teen Read Week by WWE Divas Brie Bella and Nikki Bella, with a special appearance by John Green. See the video here!

And the number 1 top pick as chosen by teens? Paper Towns by John Green! Find out why teens thought these were so great. Check them all out at the Renton Library.

1. Paper Towns by John Green
2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins
6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
7. Wake by Lisa McMann
8. Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast
9. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Read Beyond Reality - Teen Read Week 2009

October once again means it’s time for Teen Read Week October 18th to 24th! Stop by the Renton Main Branch or Highlands Branch, and check out some books and audiobooks that will change your world.

Here are some suggested titles that are TOTALLY beyond reality....and super fun. You can find any of these in the Young Adult area. Check 'em out!

Evernight by Claudia Gray
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce
The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer
House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay
Zombie Blondes by Brian James
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jne Austen)
Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schrieber
Demon Chick by Marilyn Kaye
Hollow Kingdom by Clare Dunkle
Shiver by Meggie Stiefvater
Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Roar by Emma Clayton
Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill
Need by Carrie Jones
Gone by Michael Grant
Wake by Lisa McMann
Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Kin by Holly Black

Teen Tuesday at the Highlands Library Goes Spooky

Ready for Halloween? Stop by the Highlands library next Tuesday the 27th after school (3-4:30 p.m.) for some *slightly spooky* (rated TVPG) anime, free snacks, and prizes. Oh, yeah, and Halloween costumes are always welcome...shall we have a contest?

Featured New YA Book!

Forest Born by Shannon Hale
It's finally here! The 4th book in the Books of Bayern series by the Newbery Honor-winning author of Goose Girl and Princess Academy!
When her beloved forest no longer gives her comfort and her brother Razo invites her to the city to be one of Queen Ani's waiting women, young Rinna happily accepts. But war has come to Bayern again, and Rin is compelled to join the queen and her closest allies--magical girls Rin thinks of as the Fire Sisters--as they venture into the Forest toward Kel, the land where someone seems to want them all dead.

TTYL - Teen Review (with possible spoiler)

TTYL by Lauren Myracle

Review by Natalie Stembridge

"I read this book and thought it was pretty good. I did not like how the boy dumps Maddie, but it was a great thing to learn about tenth grade.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars