A Bevy of Howl's Moving Castle Book Covers

How could there be so many book covers for one book, and yet none of them portrays the castle properly?

"Wizard Howl's castle was rumbling and bumping toward her across the moorland. Black smoke was blowing up in clouds from behind its black battlements. It looked tall and thin and heavy and ugly and very sinister indeed."
-Howl's Moving Castle, "Chapter Two: In Which Sophie Is Compelled to Seek Her Fortune"

"The castle was uglier than ever close to. It was far too tall for its height and not a very regular shape. As far as Sophie could see in the growing darkness, it was build of hugh black blocks, like coal, and, like coal, the blocks were all different shapes and sizes."
-Howl's Moving Castle, "Chapter Three: In Which Sophie Enters Into a Castle and a Bargain"

(This one is actually Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air in one volume.)

Which cover is your favorite and why?

Anna's Book of the Week

Summer's over and it's time to get

But don't fret, because there are still awesome books and book clubs at the Starkville Public Library.


Check out our updated YA library page for more info: Oooooo, pretty!


We've got new books at the library, and more new books coming soon, but here's a new book for you to try when you need some after-school fun:

The Raiders' Ransom by Emily Diamand

It's the 22nd century, and much of the world is under water. Technology was blamed for the collapse, and now there are no "modern" conveniences in the Last Ten Counties of England. Lilly lives in one of the fishing villages in England; she operates a small fishing boat with the help of her seacat, Cat. She hopes to earn enough to get a larger boat and make a living with her best friend Andy. But everything goes horribly wrong when raiders attack her village, killing her grandmother and kidnapping the Prime Minister's daughter. Now the Prime Minister blames the village for the attack and the loss of his daughter. He locks up the fishing captains and "recruits" the rest of the men into his army, planning to use them to begin an all-out war against the raiders. Lilly, afraid that her friend Andy will be killed in battle and that the fishing captains will be hung as traitors, steals a valuable jewel and sets off with Cat to ransom the Prime Minister's daughter and prove her village's innocence.


Other books worth reading:

Killer Pizza by Greg Taylor


http://killerpizzabook.com/

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman


http://www.mousecircus.com/bookdetails.aspx?BookID=18

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

http://www.rickriordan.com/kane_preview/




Find more amazing book titles here.  Get them HERE!

Read a book so awesome you think everyone should read it? Wasted your time with a book so awful you need to warn the world? Send me a review at yabookreviewsSPL@yahoo.com and I'll post it for you!

Books To Movies Coming Soon

Read the book, then watch the movie. I'm serious.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/achristmascarol
Now Playing.

http://www.twilightthemovie.com
11.20.09

http://www.fantasticmrfoxmovie.com
Thanksgiving Day.

http://www.lovelybones.com
12/11/09

http://sherlock-holmes-movie.warnerbros.com
Christmas Day










Now you know.

Books for the holidays

Looking for some books to put you in a festive mood? Try one of these!*














The Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World by Nathaniel Philbrick
: After a journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower's passengers were saved from destruction with the help of the natives of the Plymouth region. For fifty years, peace was maintained as Pilgrims and Natives worked together. But that trust was broken with the next generation of leaders, and conflict erupted that nearly wiped out English and natives alike.




Teens Cook Dessert by Megan and Jill Carle: The only full-color dessert cookbook written by and for teenagers, with more than 75 recipes. Includes 120 photos showing step-by-step procedures and finished desserts so aspiring bakers can see exactly how things are done. YUM! If you check this one out, bring me a sample!




Constance: a Story of Early Plymouth by Patricia Clapp: The journal of a young girl tells of her daily life, hardships, and romances during the first years of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth. I know this picture is terrible. Apparently our edition's cover is rare online.





Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle: In three intertwining short stories, several high school couples experience the trials and tribulations along with the joys of romance during a Christmas Eve snowstorm in a small town.




A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future. Everyone should read this book at least once!




The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: A husband and wife in their individual quests to buy each other Christmas presents.









A Very Dairy Christmas by Sylvia Hysen: Callie Michaels, the teenaged daughter of famous fashion photographer, Zoey Michaels appears to have it all—a private education, designer clothing, trips to exotic places, and opportunities to meet famous people. Still, she desperately longs for the one thing she doesn’t have—her mother’s attention! Mother-daughter tensions escalate when a work assignment foils Callie’s Christmas plans, forcing her to visit her estranged German grandparents on their small dairy farm in Deer Creek, Wisconsin.

What are YOUR favorite holiday books?


*All books are available for checkout at SPL, as long as someone else hasn't beaten you to them!

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

Neil Gaiman Coraline Movie Trailer

check it out!

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/01/heres-button-trailer.html

Books to Movies!

There are a couple of books coming to theaters in the next couple weeks:








Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, is premiering January 23rd.
http://www.inkheartmovie.com/









Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, is coming out February 6th.
http://coraline.com/









Read the book before you watch the movie!

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*

Hedgehogs

New Books at the Library!

We've got a few new books in the SPL YA section! Come by and check one out for the holiday season!

The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter

The Dream Merchant by Isabel Hoving

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson

The Living Green Series with titles such as Green Transportation, Pollution, and Durable Goods.

The Library's holiday hours are: OPEN December 19, 20, 22, 27, 29, 30, 31 and January 2 and 3.
(This means [obviously] the Library will be CLOSED December 23-26 and January 1, as well as being closed on Sundays, which is normal.)

Have a lovely break!

Happy Reading,
--Anna, the YA Librarian

Books To Movies Coming Soon

Read the books first!!!

I feel very strongly about this.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

-coming out Nov. 7th, limited (but read it anyway)

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

_coming out Nov. 21st

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

-coming out Dec. 19th

Marley & Me by John Grogan

-coming out Dec. 25th

*We have all of these at the library; I've read three out of four and can recommend them.

City of Ember--going to the movie

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Why are we taking pictures again?

Humoring the librarian

City of Ember comes out in theaters tomorrow!

For those of you who've read The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (and if you haven't, you should because it's muy entertaining), the movie version comes out in theaters tomorrow, October 10. Library bookclub groupies are going to venture out into the sunlight on Saturday, October 11, to see the movie at the 2:20 pm showing. Hopefully, it won't be a let-down.

http://www.cityofember.com/