At Allegheny today we have Halloween Minute to Win It:
Do you have what it takes, or are you too scared? Test yourself during our spooky Halloween rendition of “Minute to Win It.”
Monday, October 28, 2013
4:00 PM
Location:
1230 Federal Street Pittsburgh, PA 15212
this could be you today. photo via Escondido Public Library’s flickr
Tuesday you can attend the ZOMB-FEST at the Hill District:
Zomb-Fest 2013 kicks off with brain corn hole, snacks and learning the Thriller dance. Then we’ll have a professional make-up artist teach you how to Zombie-fy yourself with real theatrical makeup. Then you can hit the Photo Booth and capture the gruesome moment! Eat yummy, freaky Halloween snacks!
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
October 29, 2013
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location:
2177 Centre Avenue at Kirkpatrick Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
photo of the author as a zombie
or view a scary movie at East Liberty‘s Teen Time!
There will be a selection of movies to choose from – classics and new releases, and some popcorn and apples to snack on.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location:
130 S. Whitfield Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
not the actual selection of movies. photo via nomadic lass on flickr
There’s also face painting at Alleghenyon Tuesday:
Join local artist Lauren Toohey as she teaches you the basics of face painting. She will also talk about making a living as an artist. Have your face painted, then put your skills to use at our Halloween Carnival by painting a friend’s face!
Halloween is creeping around the corner! Put on a costume and do your part to get in the spooky spirit by partying up with us pre-Halloween.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Location:
708-710 Brookline Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15226
mutant cyborg costume by don pezzano on flickr
Then on Wednesday you can get candy at Brookline.. if you win a game:
Happy Halloween! On your way out the door to mega-candy acquisitioning, stop by the library for Teen Lounge. We’ll be distributing candy in the manner of Deal or No Deal. Will you hit it big, or will you end up with a toothbrush?
Thursday, October 31, 2013
3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location:
708-710 Brookline Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15226
a toothbrush. by dave lanovaz
And on Thursday, Knoxville is having a Spooky Teen Time:
COME OUT AND ENJOY OUR FUN ACTIVITIES AND MORE! DON’T FORGET TO BRING A FRIEND AND/OR FAMILY MEMBER ALONG!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Location:
400 Brownsville Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15210
this could be what it’s like at Knoxville’s Teen Time. You’ll never know if you don’t show up! photo by minxlj on flickr
Remember, all of this is IN ADDITION to Carrick’s Haunted Library, Labs events, regular Teen Time activities, Art Clubs, AND MORE. Check the local teen evens near you on our teen event feed!
Although Summer is wrapping up and school has begun, there’s an upside to the cold weather that’s coming. Fall movies are on the horizon and this season is shaping up to be pretty exciting.
One movie I’m really excited about isn’t what you would call a typical Blockbuster although it is filled with stars! The notoriously reclusive, aloof and wonderfully talented author J.D. Salinger is featured in a new documentary due out in September. Salinger published beloved classics filled with teenage anguish and alienation such as The Catcher in the Rye, Raise High the Roof Beam, Nine Stories, and Franny and Zooey. The new documentary features huge stars of Hollywood and of the publishing world talking about how Salinger’s work affected them. It also seems to hint at some answers to the mystery of Salinger’s life…
Meg Rosoff’s amazing 2004 book, How I Live Now is getting the Hollywood treatment this Fall as well! This Printz prize winner tells the story of Daisy an American teen visiting family in England. At first Daisy feels homesick but quickly falls in love with her new family. Her experiences in England start out idyllic but the peaceful countryside is soon shattered by a fictional Third World War. The film is mostly supported by newcomers but Daisy is played by the talented Saoirse Ronan.
I have recommended The Book Thief by Markus Zucak to more people than I can count. I can’t tell if its the beautiful language and description, the charming and lovable characters or the triumph over dire circumstances that makes it so great but it has become on of my favorite books. That’s why I’m excited and nervous for the film version to debut. The singular grace of the book may not be matched by the movie but if its even half as good we’re all in for a good ride.
I’d tell you to keep a lookout for the second installment of the Hunger Games Series, Catching Fire in November, but I have a feeling the buzz surrounding this one is gonna be huge. Things get a little more complicated in Suzanne Collins‘ second book and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out on the big screen. If the trailer is any indication it looks like another exciting ride.
Hi! My name is Noori, and I am going to be a senior at The Ellis School. I live near the middle of nowhere, my taste in music is a tad on the eccentric side, I love photography, I’m absolutely obsessed with the 1920’s, I love to read poetry and also really wish that I had the talent actually write some, I love shopping, and I do not have any pets, though I would love to have a cat! I have always loved to read, & I read as many different types of books as possible, although my favorites are mostly classics. One of my favorite authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald, once said, ““That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”, and I could not agree more. Reading is more than a hobby for me – it is a passion. It’s endless entertainment, and it is always engaging.
As I’m sure many of you have heard, a new film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novella, The Great Gatsby, is due to be released this coming Christmas. Although the hype surrounding the movie has only continued to grow larger and larger, I have to admit that I’m not very excited. The Great Gatsby is most definitely one of my favorites, if not my favorite book, and with what I have seen and heard so far of the movie, I do not think that the movie will even begin to capture the depth and passion of Fitzgerald’s book. The Great Gatsby, for those of you who have not read it, is told from the point of view of a man by the name of Nick Carraway. Nick has recently moved to the east coast, where he finds himself falling into a world that he could never have even imagined before, the world of Jay Gatsby. The novella focuses on Gatsby, a complex character, who in many ways represents the corruption of the American Dream. Nick finds himself sympathetic towards the tragedy that is Gatsby- the tragedy that Gatsby finds himself in due to his inability to let go of the past. It is through this book that Fitzgerald shows how the frivolity and carefree mantra of the 1920’s affected people’s morality.
I find that often when film adaptations are made of books that I have read, the movies leave me dissatisfied. I think the first issue with turning a book into a movie is that it takes away what the book is meant to do in the first place. Books are meant to involve the reader’s imagination. When reading a novel, a person uses the words and descriptions as guidelines to formulate their own ideas of what the story really looks like. By turning books into movies, the viewers obviously cannot do this. As viewers of a movie, we can only see what the director wants us to see. We are given one way to see a story, and a lot of the novel is usually lost in the translation from literature to film. Directors also often take “artistic liberties” on the original stories. To which one must ask, “why did you even base it off the book to begin with?”. There is no reason to make a work that is simply another person’s spin on an original work. My response to this is always “why not just make your own story?”. It makes no sense to simply take another work’s name and then change absolutely anything that the director and screenwriter want to change of it. In terms of The Great Gatsby, director Baz Luhrmann has had a number of successful movies that have proved that he is good at what he does (one of his works being Moulin Rouge). Regardless, as was seen through the trailer, he has already made many changes to Fitzgerald’s story. I do not deny that the Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of The Great Gatsby will probably be a good movie, but will it be an adequate representation of Fitzgerald’s work? That I’m not too sure of.
If you haven’t read the book before, I highly recommend reading it before the movie comes out! This way, you can read the novella with an unbiased view on the book itself, and then have the ability to judge Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the story in terms of its reflection of the original story. Feel free to compare your own opinions and views of the book to the trailer for the upcoming movie which is posted below.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard of the ultra popular “Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins and upcoming film release. If you haven’t read the books yet, then get thee to the library this very instant and pick up a copy! Everyone and their mother and their mother’s mother seems to be riding the wave of “Hunger Games” super fandom these days. And for good reason too! The books are action packed and full of heart, with characters that are completely fleshed out- including a strong female lead, and the dystopian setting seems eerily too close to full realization. The highly anticipated film version of the first novel in the series will be opening Friday, March 23rd. In anticipation of the film’s release, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Main Library will be hosting “A Night in Panem”, an after-hours event for hard-core fans of all ages on Thursday, March 22. Test your Hunger Games knowledge in trivia, train like a tribute for the battle in the arena, enjoy baked goods and cookie decorating in honor of Peeta, make a bow and arrow like Katniss’ and Gale’s, experience a Reaping with prizes instead of imminent death, and so much more!
Normally book trailers are still pictures and text, with an overlay of music and/or narration.
The trailer for Wake by Lisa McMann is a particularly good example of how effective this can be:
Neil Gaiman narrates the book trailer for The Graveyard Book and the illustrations in this not-quite-animated trailer look like they are taken from the book itself. All in all, a good showing:
The trailer for Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld takes this concept a step further to good effect:
And finally, the book trailer for Graceling (by Kristin Cashore) tries to go for the full movie trailer treatment, but just comes off as cheesy Plus, starting with a full 30 seconds of one shot is not going to make the viewers stick around for the rest of it. And I’m saying this as someone who loved the actual book.
The book trailer for Karma Club is a step up in book trailer evolution, if you will. Where Graceling‘s trailer required maybe two sets and 10 people at most and has questionable lighting, Jessica Brody’s trailer for the Karma Club is like watching a commercial for The Hills… only more interesting:
I want to go see that movie! I mean, read that book.
And don’t forget, if you want to try your hand at making a book trailer, our librarians and teen specialists will be only too happy to help you out with the project. Most branches have a Flip Camera and Windows Movie-Maker available for you to use. We can even post your work here on CLP Teensburgh!
Lately I’m noticing that Michael Cera is connected in a lot of ways to exciting developments in movies that are connected to exciting books (not coincidentally for teens). And the people that he’s connected to are also exciting. And the best part is that all of these developments have some kind of creative and funny internet offshoots. Which is to say: more than a totally fake twitter account or Facebook Group for fans or an imdb page.
photo by Flickr user wvs
Let us count the ways. It’s more like brainstorming than the Six Degrees game, but that wouldn’t have made a catchy blog title, now would it?:
2. Which is a great book by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, two authors of excellent, excellent YA books (just click their names to see what the library system has). They are also bloggers on their ownwebsites, makers of playlists for their books, etc..
3. Michael Cera co-starred in this movie with Kat Dennings, who you may also know from the movies The House Bunny and Charlie Bartlett. She also has a really funny blog that includes original illustrations. Here is an excerpt:
“When it rains, it pours, spider-wise. And I’m so glad because I was worried that I might start enjoying my life, you know? Anyway, tonight during a Netflix Instant screening of an embarrassingly 90s teen romcom I stumbled blindly into my bathroom mirror to inspect my facial situation when what should appear in my shower but a GIGANTIC ARACHNID. And it was just far enough away in the corner that it was going to have to be one of those get-on-all-fours terminations that I always find especially hideous. Therefore, I calmly and gracefully weighed my murdering options.”
5. Scott Pilgrim is a really funny comic about a boy who graduated high school but never got around to growing up, but suddenly meets this girl he really likes and has to fight her evil ex-boyfriends and also maybe come to terms with the fact that his band isn’t that good. It also has a website, and its author/illustrator-Bryan Lee O’Malley–has other comics available for reading on his webpage and a great flickr page, especially informative for aspiring comics writers.
6. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s wife, Hope Larson, also writes and draws wonderful comics. You can read some of them here on her website.
There is a great article by Corrie Pikul in the Dec/Jan ’08 issue of Bust magazine on Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis and Persepolis 2.
Pikul talks to Satrapi about her life, her books, and the making of the Persepolis movie. The story is full of great quotes by Satrapi such as:
“People who see this movie are not going to be scared of the Iranians any longer. That should make it very difficult to go and throw bombs on their heads.”
I want to see the movie while it’s still playing in Pittsburgh. As of today it’s showing at The Manor in Squirrel Hill. I couldn’t find the scheduled release date of the film onto DVD but I’m sure the library will be getting it as soon as possible.
CLPTeensburgh: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Teen Services 