Book Review: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre made me tired, not because I didn't like it, but because I stayed up late and got up early to catch up for book club. Jane is a great character. She is extremely upright and is not afraid to hurt herself for the sake of her good morals. The ending is great and it goes just how I wanted it to.

-Zach

Book Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

An epic tale of unlikely heroes, a Hobbit is an unlikely adventurer. They tend to be lazy and don't like leaving their comfort zones. But, as Bilbo himself discovers, he finds and explorer deep within. But it takes the wildness of thirteen dwarves to bring it out.

--Keyes

Your librarian is a slacker

Can you say "slacker"?
Yeah, so I've been reading, but not blogging about reading. I blame the holidays.



If you want to catch up with everything I've read, please go here: http://www.starkville.lib.ms.us/Youngadult.html.


Otherwise, here's a happy picture of ALL OF THE BOOKS THAT I'VE READ since I last posted:

You can tell that I haven't actually finished my challenge. :/ Still plugging away, though!




























Announcements:

Anime Day today at 4 pm in the tv corner!








Book clubs meet Wednesdays at 4 for 

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum








and Thursdays at 4 for

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins








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Book Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The tale of The Hobbit begins in the quiet land of the Shire, where Bilbo Baggins is whisked into a perilous Journey by many dwarves, a mysterious wizard, and many other (possibly) mythical characters. Throughout the book, Bilbo is looking for lost gold, little did he know, he would find the greatest treasure of all...
This book filled me with images of dwarves, wizards, elves, and dragons. I highly recommend it to anyone.

--Funky Alpaca Trey W.

Book Review: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This book is kind of a retelling of The Jungle Book, but with ghosts! It tells of Nobody Owens, a boy raised by ghosts. It kept me entirely entertained the whole time. It was interesting to learn about when Bod learned to fade and do things that usually only ghosts an do. My favorite character in the book was Silas, mainly because of his mysterious countenance.

I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good story.

--Funky Alpaca Trey W.

Drabbles

"A drabble is an extremely short work of fiction exactly one hundred words in length, although the term is often incorrectly used to indicate a short story of fewer than 1000 words. The purpose of the drabble is brevity and to test the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in an extremely confined space." Drabbles

Below are a few of the drabbles written for our YA Creative Writing Club, which meets on Wednesdays @ 4 pm when we're taking a break from our novels. They had the theme of "Eye in the Sky" to work with, and could either use this as their title or just as their inspiration.

"Eye In the Sky"
-Zach

Spotlights shone through the fog. It was the shape of an eye, for the One, the Only--Eye Man. The police chatted in wait of Eye Man. There was a flash, a crack, a blink, and Eye Man was there. All eye except appendages coming out of his body, and a mouth at the pupil, Eye Man was all eye. In the blink of an eye, literally, he could beat up bad guys. The police officer said, "Sorry, Eye Man, wrong spotlight. Maybe next time."
There was a flash, a crack, a blink, and Eye Man was nowhere to be found.


"Daymares"
-Niah

Though she had an idea of where she was, she wasn't entirely sure. And she was even less sure that she truly wanted to know. But would you, when surrounded by twisted trees and flowers that towered over you like Jack's beanstalk? Though, in her opinion, everything was twisted, not just the plants but the people and even the animals as well. In front of her the air shimmered and an all-too familiar grin appeared. "How ironic," she thought, steeling herself for his appearance.
"Hello, welcome back." Her heart stopped, and Alice turned to run ,refusing to look back.


"Memoirs of a Gold Fish, Day...I'm not sure"
-Trey

Dear diary, today the human just stared at me...he-hello! Would you like some water? It's very clea--Dear diary, today the human just stared at me...he--my name is...I don't know. What's yours? I--Dear diary, I don't remember what my human did today, he--where am I? Dear diary--hello! My name is--Dear diary, I have had a good memory today. I--Hello! I'm about to make some cookies! Do you want to have--I love you. Sigh, you have beautiful eyes, you--Dear diary, the human is watching me. Just sitting there, watching--you loathesome, miserable creature--
until next time, love, Goldfish

Alphabet Poems

We had a "Writing Day" today at book club. Below are some of the anonymous creative works. We wrote "alphabet poems," which means that each poem has 26 words, one starting with each letter of the alphabet. No repeats. You have to write in order. "x" is the only letter you're allowed to fudge.

Abby
buddy
came down
eatin' freaky
great hair
irritated janky kangaroo imitation
make no one put quail robot stuff up their veil
with x-hausted yet zooish


Any bald cat diving, energetically, furiously, going headlong into jello knows luck makes no old pals. Quickly, risking some towels, unilaterally vaults, whispering x-haustedly, "You're zapped."



A
big crab defended every fairy.
Good.
Happily, I joked.
Kinda.
Lovingly, my nose opposed pears.
Questioningly, Rachael sat the unhappy,
vicious, weird x-huberant youthful zoo (down).


A
beautiful, cold Diane eloped Friday.
Green Herbert is just kidding.
Love means nothing.
Other people question really strongly their union vows.
William.
Xylophone.
Young.
Zoop


Anna blasted Cullom dauntingly, euphorically, famously.
Go, Hillary, incinerate Jake.
Kayleigh, lobotomize orks.
Phill quickly, riotously, ultimately shouts 'Tim.'
Ultra-Vincent walks x-tremely 'yiddishly.'
Zebras.


A boy came doing eggdances.
Fish gulped hardily inside jellyfishes.
Killing loons makes nobody over-reactive.
People quake reassuringly, sweetly.
Together underground, Venezuelan whales x-plain your zealousness


Ants begin cautiously deciding everything for going home in January
Kindly loathing men, not oppressing persons quietly
Rather so than upholding valentine's wednesday
x-haling youthful zebras


Alfi bounces circles down everything
fun, going high, icey jumpy kicky loopy,
meandering now...
off polar quilts, really!
Stop!
Turn!
underneath violins, weather, xylophones
yellow zombies


A big, cartwheeling dog eating fries
gold, huge; I joke, kick, laugh...monkeys not observant
People quest reluctantly
So telepathic
Umbrellas valiant
Why x-treme?
Yellow zebras


At Bob's car Dad eats french goats happily
I just kept/lost my note on pigs,
quick roll sideways, turn up, vibrate with x-ray
you zora

Fantastes Spring 2009 Reading Schedule (Whoo!)

Jan. 15—intro, Recap.
Jan. 22—Prophet of Yonwood The Vision, Ch. 1-5
*Jan. 23rd: Inkheart Comes Out In Theaters*
Jan. 29—Prophet of Yonwood Ch. 6-10
Feb. 5—Prophet of Yonwood Ch. 11-15
Feb. 12—Prophet of Yonwood Ch. 16-20
Feb. 19—Prophet of Yonwood Ch. 21-25
Feb. 26—Prophet of Yonwood Ch. 26-30
Mar. 5—Prophet of Yonwood Ch. 31-33
Mar. 12—Diamond of Darkhold The Vault, Ch. 1-3
*Mar. 19— Spring Break Week: special day*
Mar. 26— Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 4-6
Apr. 2—Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 7-9
Apr. 9—Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 10-12
Apr. 16 —Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 13-15
*April 12-18 = National Library Week*
Apr. 23—Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 16-18
Apr. 30—Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 19-21
May 7—Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 22-24
May 14—Diamond of Darkhold Ch. 25-27
?May 21—End of the World/ End of the series Party

Confabulation Spring 2009 Reading Schedule (whee!)

Jan. 14— Mark Twain—A Fable

Jan. 21—Modern Poetry:
"Flame" by Billy Collins; "The Zen of Housework" by Al Zolynas; "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams; "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams; "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by William Butler Yeats; "No Second Troy" by William Butler Yeats; "Journey of the Magi" by T.S. Eliot; "Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara

Jan. 28—Edgar Allen Poe—The Black Cat

Feb. 4—O. Henry—The Last Leaf; Make the Whole World Kin

Feb. 11—Ye Olde Englishe Poetry:
"Sonnet 130" by William Shakespeare; "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare; "Song" by John Donne; "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat Drowned In a Tub of Goldfish" by Thomas Gray; "Three Ravens" by anonymous; "Cuckoo Song" by anonymous

Feb. 18—Writing Day

Feb. 25— Rudyard Kipling-- Swept And Garnished

Mar. 4—Oscar Wilde—The Model Millionaire

Mar. 11—The Romantics Aren’t So Romantic:
"A Poison Tree" by William Blake; "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" by William Wordsworth; "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; "When We Two Parted" by Lord Byron; "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley; "On the Sea" by John Keats

Mar. 18—Writing Day

Mar. 25—Leo Tolstoi—God Sees the Truth, But Waits

Apr. 1—Ernest Hemingway—A Day’s Wait; The Killers (librarian edition)

Apr. 8— Washington Irving—The Devil and Tom Walker

*Apr. 12-18 * National Library Week*

Apr. 15—Poe-Etry:All By Our Dear Friend Edgar:
"The Bells"; "The Conqueror-Worm"; "Dream-Land"; "A Dream Within a Dream"; "The Raven"

Apr. 22—Writing Day

Apr. 29—Roald Dahl—The Umbrella Man

May 6—Americana:
"Birches" by Robert Frost; "Death sets a thing significant" by Emily Dickinson; "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden; "The Dream Keeper" by Langston Hughes; "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman

May 13—Writing Day

*Summer Reading Begins*