It’s Only Skin Deep… Or Is It?

Skin Deep Database

When you hear the word “poison” what comes to mind? Arsenic? Lead? Cyanide?

If you’re like most people, you’re not thinking “personal care product.” But maybe you should be. Did you know that the average teen girl in the United States uses somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 personal care products each day? (The average guy uses closer to 10.) Personal care products include everything that you put on your skin that isn’t a prescribed medicine. Shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, sunscreen, lip balm, shaving cream, deodorant… the list goes on and on. Someone tested these products that we use every day, right? We wouldn’t be allowed to put toxic chemicals–poisons–on our bodies, right?

Wrong, unfortunately. Not only does the FDA not require companies to test their products for safety before they are sold, it also has little authority to remove unsafe products from the market. The Cosmetics, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA) makes the decisions, and they aren’t exactly objective. The consumer group Skin Deep and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found that 87% of the ingredients in personal care products in the U.S. were not even tested by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, the industry’s internal safety panel. Another problem is that cosmetics and other personal care products often contain chemical contaminants that are not listed because they are present at very low levels. For example, sodium lauryl sulfate is a rather harsh cleanser that is often converted to the milder sodium laureth sulfate trhough the addition of a chemical called ethylene oxide. This process (called ethoxylation) produces small amounts of 1,4-dioxane, a chemical that causes cancer in animals and is also likely to cause cancer in humans. This is only one of the thousands of chemicals contained in the products you use each day. Take a closer look at the chemicals in your life with the Environmental Working Group, or get the report on your personal care products at the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/whatnottobuy/

And check out these books to learn more:

Back to the Future

Last week, I posted a list of dystopic fiction that you all might enjoy reading in conjunction with The Giver.  Today, I was reading John Scalzi’s blog Whatever, and he reminded me of another booklist I wanted to make.

In today’s post, Scalzi writes about why today’s teens and tweens aren’t reading what us adult science fiction fans read when we were teens.  His general conclusions is that you all aren’t reading the classics because you prefer to read contemporary science fiction — things like Little Brother and the other books I listed in last week’s Give It Up for “The Giver” post.

I definitely agree with Scalzi: with so many fantastic science fiction books being written for teens in the 21st century, why would you turn towards books that are 20 years (or more!) old?  A lot of the classic science fiction books are set in time periods that are already past — this makes it a little hard to suspend disbelief and imagine the premise as plausible.

However, when I think about what I was reading as a teen, I’m reminded that plenty of my favorites were set in eras that had already past and were written long before I was born.  This fact makes me think that maybe there’s another reason teens aren’t reading classic science fiction: maybe you just don’t know about it.

So, working on the assumption that one reason you’re only reading contemporary science fiction is because you’re simply not aware of what came before, here’s a list of some great stories that were written long before you were born:

Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. (1979)

Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-reading robots, and robots with a sense of humor;  of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world. (1950)

Card, Orson Scott
Ender’s Game

Ender Wiggin is recruited at the tender age of six to become a soldier engaged in the fight against the Buggers, and alien race that attacked humans decades earlier. (1977)

Christopher, John
The White Mountains

Young Will Parker and his companions make a perilous journey toward an outpost of freedom where they hope to escape from the ruling Tripods, who capture mature human beings and make them docile, obedient servants. (1967)

Dickinson, Peter
Eva

After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a chimpanzee. (1988)

Heinlein, Robert
Have Space Suit, Will Travel

One minute Kip Russell was walking about in his backyard, testing out an old space suit and dreaming about going to the Moon — and the next he was out cold, the captive of an insidious space pirate. The whole thing seemed like a bad dream until Kip discovered there were other prisoners on board, and they were all on their way to the Moon — and a fate worse than death! (1958)

Heinlein, Robert
Podkayne of Mars

While accompanying their uncle, a wily politician, on a trip from Mars to Earth, Podkayne and her brilliant but pesky younger brother are caught up in a plot to keep Uncle Tom from an important conference. (1963)

King, Stephen writing as Richard Bachman
The Running Man

Ben Richards is a contestant on the most popular television game show, The Running Man.  The winner earns fame and fortune; the loser earns death. (1982)

L’Engle, Madeleine
A Wrinkle in Time

Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg’s father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. (1962)

Sleator, William
House of Stairs

Five sixteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response. (1974)

Give it up for “The Giver”!

Each year, the Allegheny Carnegie Library Association selects one book that will be widely read throughout the community — or, “One Book, One Community.”  This year’s selection is Lois Lowry‘s classic dystopic novel for teens, The Giver.  If you’re not familiar with The Giver, here’s the description from our catalog: ” Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.”

The Giver is a fantastic book, and one that many of you are likely familiar with since it’s required reading at Pittsburgh Public Schools.  If you find yourself looking for additional books with similiar themes, here are a few you might enjoy:

Adlington, L.J
The Diary of Pelly D

When Toni V, a construction worker on a futuristic colony, finds the diary of a teenage girl whose life has been turned upside-down by holocaust-like events, he begins to question his own beliefs.

Anderson, M.T.
Feed

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

Collins, Suzanne
The Hunger Games

In a future North America, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place in an annual survival competition in which teens fight each other — to the death.

Doctorow, Cory
Little Brother

After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security, seventeen-year-old Marcus decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

DuPrau, Jeanne
City of Ember

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on
Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her
decaying but beloved city.

Farmer, Nancy
House of the Scorpion

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special
status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader
of a corrupt drug empire.

Goodman, Allegra
The Other Side of the Island

Born in the eighth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives
in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when
they are taken away, it is up to Honor  to uncover a terrible secret about their Island and the Corporation that runs everything.

Malley, Gemma
The Declaration

In 2140 England, where drugs enable people to live forever and
children are illegal, teenaged Anna, an obedient “Surplus”
training to become a house servant, discovers that her birth parents are trying to find her.

O’Brien, Robert
Z for Zachariah

Seemingly the only person left alive after a nuclear war, a
sixteen-year-old girl is relieved to see a man arrive into her
valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must  escape.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth
Life As We Knew It

Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes
her struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing
worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Shusterman, Neil
Unwind

In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and
eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts
harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs–and, perhaps, save their own lives.

Westerfeld, Scott
The Uglies

Tally can’t wait until her sixteenth birthday, when she’ll be
made supermodel gorgeous.  When she’s sent to the Smoke to
bring back a runaway friend, however, she learns that being pretty might not be the mosti mportant thing in the world.

Is reading about dystopias not enough for you? There are a lot of opportunities in April for you to write, think and talk about The Giver and explore your ideas about the future.

Your right to tan…

If your parents are planning on moving you to Texas anytime soon, know that your right to tan is currently under fire.  Lawmakers are trying to pass a law requiring teens to get a doctor’s permission and have their parents in the salon before getting their tan on.  Since tanning beds expose their users to a high risk for skin cancer, lawmakers are comparing it with cigarette smoking, which is illegal for those under 18 with or without a doctor’s permission.

Thoughts?

New Opportunities (and Books) for LGBTQ* Teens in Pittsburgh!

Local LGBTQ* organizations are working overtime to provide you with fun new programs and services. Here’s what’s on their calendar, including a lot of exciting FREE opportunities!

The Plague of Comic-Movies!!!

Well, ok, it’s not a plague.  Unless you meant plague as a good thing, in which case, yes.  Have you noticed this good plague of movies made from comic books?  Perhaps the title Watchmen rings a recently-advertised bell?  Or Iron Man? 

With Marvel actually producing movies in its own studio, and other titles being optioned like… hotcakes (or something that is actually currently popular), it’s safe to say this plague will not be slowing its seemingly exponential growth. 

The comic book that I’m very excited to hear is being movie-atized is The Umbrella Academy, written by My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way.  If you have never read it, 3 copies are now available at your library (at the time of my posting this).  In short, it is about a group of seven adopted children who have been brought up to be superheroes.  The first six issues focus on the siblings being reunited after their adopted father’s death.  They start to figure out that something big is coming… and it may have to do with their seventh sibling, Vanya.  A short video review of the series can be found here.

According to this L.A. Times blog interview with Way, the comic was optioned at last year’s ComiCon in San Diego, and he envisions its transition to film as looking more Sweeney Todd than Harry Potter.  And just on Tuesday it was reported that a screenwriter had been chosen to adapt  The Apocalypse Suite: Mark Bombak, whose most recent work can be seen in The Race to Witch Mountain.  A Disney film might not be the best example to pair with The Umbrella Academy, but let’s give the guy the benefit of the doubt. 

By the way, that movie is an remaking of a movie that was an adaptation of a book.  But the question of where originiality lies in moviemaking is another topic for another day.  Let us be thankful that the original book and the original movie are both available at the library in case there is a need for comparison and contrast.

Other interesting Umbrella Academy Links:

Gabriel Bá (Umbrella Academy illustrator)’s personal art site.

Umbrella Academy unofficial fan site

A list of Gerard Way’s 10 favorite graphic novels

The Ides of March – Beware the Weirdness!!!

According to Oxford Reference Online, an Ide is a “day falling roughly in the middle of each month (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months) from which other dates were calculated.” So the Ides of March seem to have been only bad luck for Julius Ceasar, but we like to warn ourselves every year anyway, which is weird.

If you’d like to indulge your curiousity for the weird during this Ides of March, the library has plenty of oddities, whether books about weird things or books that are just weird (in no particular order):

 Bat Boy Lives! : The Weekly World News Guide to Politics, Culture, Celebrities, Alien Abductions, and the Mutant Freaks that Shape Our World, by David Perel and the editors of the Weekly World News.

Now you don’t have to hide your urge to pick up Weekly World News in the grocery check-out.  All the absurdity that’s fit to print is here in this handy volume.

 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Encyclopedia of the Bizarre, Amazing, Strange, Inexplicable, Weird, and All True!,  by Julie Mooney and the editors of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!.

This is the ‘real’ version of Bat Boy, with stories like that of Randel Wise, who designed contact lenses for chickens.

 Rear Ends : Found Photos from the Collection of Roger Handy, edited by Roger Handy & Karin Elsener.

Butts, no further explanation needed.

 Odd Jobs : Portraits of Unusual Occupations, by Nancy Rica Schiff

 Ever wondered what it would be like to be a golf ball diver, body piercer, or a video game tester?  This is the book for you.

 Elephants on Acid : and Other Bizarre Experiments, by Alex Boese

Have scientists ever really tested animal resurrection?  You bet, and you can read all about that and other odd experiments here.

 The Hypochondriac’s Pocket Guide to Horrible Diseases You Probably Already Have, by  Dennis DiClaudio

A hypochondriac’s dream-come-true and worst nightmare -odd and frightening diseases.

 The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley

A classic of weirdness – learn all the ways that bunnies could die.

Read any weird books lately?  Please share them in the comments section.

 

Holly, CLP Main

One Book, One Community Essay Contest

        

     Your essay on your future could win you a $20-$100 gift card in a contest sponsored by Barnes and Nobles and the Allegheny County Library Association.  It’s part of  the One Book, One Community program that  invites everyone in the county to read The Giver by Lois Lowry.

    The Giver looks into a society that has reformed itself  to address poverty, hunger and societal problems. But as “perfect” as this society seems, it has its own flaws. It starts on a day when Jonah is feels apprehensive about the life assignment he’ll receive from the community.

       Entry blanks are available at Barnes & Nobles and libraries throughout the county for 6th graders through high school seniors.  Applications are due by April 20. For more information, call Erika Bates at 412-462-5743 or see your local librarian.

       In any case, it’s a great book and is definitely worth reading if you haven’t already.

                                                                                Tina – Beechview

Rihanna and Abuse

 I wrote this yeaterday before I read Sara Dora’s post so I was surprised what we wrote about was related.

I was taken aback last week when two 9-year-olds began looking at photo after photo of a bruised and battered Rihanna. I worry when an abusive relationship like this is seen as something to gawk at rather than the tragedy it is. If you are in a controlling relationship or think you may be, check out: http://www.wcspittsburgh.org/1.php. 

It’s natural to think the relationship will cure itself or that somehow it may be your fault especially when he apologizes and becomes more loving and generous than ever. For a while.

But there’s a cycle to abuse and it will not end until the abuser seeks help or until you leave the relationship. This article about Rihanna and Chris Brown explains it better than I can: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09066/953929-51.stm. There is help out there. Two 24-hour  hotline numbers to call are: 1-412-687-8005 or 1-877-338-8255.

Some books you might also want to read are:  In Love and in Danger: A Teen’s Guide to Breaking Free of Abusive Relationships by Barrie Levy; Date Violence by Elaine Landau; or  Everything You Need to Know about Relationship Violence by Katherine White. If you prefer to read fiction and want some idea of what abuse may be like, try Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn or Inexcusable by Chris Lynch.

                                                     Tina – Beechview

                        

Sex Ed

The Pittsburgh Public Schools recently made a proposal to change from “abstinence-only” sex education to “comprehensive” sex education. Check out this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09048/949664-298.stm

Abstinence-only sex education does exactly what its name suggests: it promotes not having sex as the only safe way to not get pregnant and/or contract STDs. Comprehensive sex education still promotes abstinence (in a world of germs and fast-swimming sperm, truly the only way to be absolutely safe), but it also provides information about ways to have safer sex, greatly reducing the risk of STDs or unwanted pregnancy.

When I was in health class at Montour High School, it was abstinence-only. I remember flipping through the health book with its gory pictures of oozing syphilis and herpes sores and being stunned by the utter lack of useful information. Being that annoying girl who always asks the question that nobody wants to hear, I raised my hand and said, “Are we going to learn about condoms at all?” The health teacher could only reply, “No, we will not. And our discussion of them ends here.”

What do you think? Do teens need more information about sex? Where can they get this information? A lot of people say that teens should learn what their parents want to teach them. But what if your parents are incredibly open-minded about sex and want to tell you everything and it grosses you out so much that you can’t imagine ever having sex with anybody? What if your parents think (like two thirty-something adults having a conversation in the library the other day) that it is the woman’s genetic input that determines the sex of the baby? (It isn’t. Females contribute two X chromosomes. Males contribute either an X or a Y.)

One place that you can get any kind of information that you want is your local library. Ask a librarian for a book if you’re not too embarrassed. If you are, ask anyway and say that you only need the book to do a school report. Or look for one of these highly-informative reads:

Sara Dora CLP-Hazelwood