Archive for the ‘Books and Such’ Category
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
App
The app this week is Learn to Draw Digital Sketchbook by Walter Foster. It’s pretty cool. Some of us in TIC can draw and some can’t but we all liked trying out this app. The app is free and so is the intro lesson. You get a couple different drawings to try. There is audio that reads the lesson to you while you trace the drawing. As you get more comfortable you can draw more on your own and eventually try doing it on paper with just the audio playing. It was so cool to actually draw something and have it look like what we were trying to draw! You can also use the app as a sketch pad to doodle whatever you want. This is a great app. The only bummer is that more lessons cost money. The price range is $2.99-6.99, but if you want to learn to draw this app is a pretty cheap way to get started. Right now you can only get this app for the iPad.
Book
Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St. by Peter Abrahams is the book that we really liked reading this week. It just came out in January and we had to wait in line to read it. We really liked reading something without vampires and romance for a change. We also liked reading something with slightly more realistic characters. Robbie is like a modern day Robin Hood, but she is not some amazing ninja girl with crazy super powers. She has her friends, the Outlaws of Sherwood St.) to help her and a worthy advisory in the form of a real estate mogul who will stop at nothing to redevelop Brooklyn and kick out the current residents. This was a fun book and a clean read. Anyone who likes adventure and a mystery would like this book. Click here to put the book on hold with you DCL library card.
Music
Marchin On by OneRepublic is the song we have been playing nonstop this week. We can’t get it out of our heads. We love the way it starts out slow and builds into a real rock song. Click here to put the CD on hold with you DCL library card.
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
App
Fruit Ninja is the app we can’t stop playing this week. You can get the lite version in the app store and try it out to see if you want to pay $2.99 for the full version. We love it when games give you a free sample so you can see if you like it. In this case the game is totally addictive! How it works is that fruit flies in the air and you use your sword to cut it up. It’s great!! You can get the game for: iPhone – iPad – Windows Phone 7 – Android – Samsung Bada – Nokia Ovi
Book
The book we love this week is Steel by Carrie Vaughn. Here is the plot: When Jill, a competitive high school fencer, goes with her family on vacation to the Bahamas, she’s magically transported to an early-eighteenth-century pirate ship in the middle of the ocean. How kick butt is that. All of the sudden she is fighting for real not just for trophies, but for her life. We can’t get enough Carrie Vaughn. Click here to check it out at the library.
Music
The song of the week is Iridescent by Linkin Park. This song is from Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. It has been playing pretty much nonstop all week in our houses. Click here to check it out at the library.
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Teen Reads for Grown Ups
This month we are reading Totally Joe by James Howe. Stop by the Aloha Teen Tower to sign up for the book club and pick up a members only copy of the book. We will meet on February 8th at Pegasus in Castle Rock to talk about the book. (Must be 18 or older to join). If you have read the book and want to leave a comment to let us know what you think just click on the title of this post and a comment box will appear at the bottom of the page.
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Read 678
This month we are reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. Stop by the Aloha Teen Tower to sign up for the book club and pick up a members only copy of the book. We will meet on February 9th @ 4:30pm at the Philip S. Miller Library to talk about the book. (Must be in the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade). If you have read the book and want to leave a comment to let us know what you think just click on the title of this post and a comment box will appear at the bottom of the page.
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
The app of the week is hands down Wattpad! O.K. so here’s how it works. You can download to iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Blackberry, and Android. (Free) Then you have access to thousands of electronic books, and poems and short stories. They have a big teen section where teens can publish their work. If you create an account (free) you can make comments on other people’s work and publish your stories. Some of books are self-published and others have been published in magazines and with publishing houses. This is a great app if you want to read something new or if you want to publish your own work.
This week we are reading The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. It’s a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Alyss goes from being a princess in Wonderland to a regular girl in the regular world. We hear the story from her point of view and find out all about the battle to control the land. It’s full of action and is an amazing take on the original story.
We will be watching the Grammy’s this year so that we can cheer for the Foo Fighters. To get in the mood we have been listening to “Walk” and all of the songs on their new album “Wasting Light”. Click here to use your Douglas County Library card to download a free MP3 of the single.
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
The holidays have been so buy your Teen Interest Council has been slacking. We have been listening to music, reading books, and hitting up the App Store, but we forgot to tell you all about it. So here is what we have been up to.
App
The app we can’t get enough of right now is ComiXology. ComiXology lets you read comics and graphic novels. The app is free, and there are plenty of free comics to read on it. You can also by comics and graphic novels in print or as a digital download. The best part is the views you can use. We like the frame by frame view. When you “turn the page” the app moves you to the next frame so you never read the wrong frame. Also all of the small frames are now big enough to fill the screen on your device. We also really like that you can get this app for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire.
Book
Runaways: Pride and Joy
The books we couldn’t put down this holiday season are the Runaways series. We love what Brian K. Vaughan wrote. What if you find out your boring, work every day, make you do your chores parents are Super Villains? That’s what these books are about. We love all of the books written by Vaughan. The series ended for a little while and someone else started writing the new books. So far we only read the first seven books. These graphic novels are a most read for guys and girls.
Music
Heartbreak by the Fray is on our iPods and we can’t stop listening. I guess we are feeling the local musicians. You can download it for free with your Douglas County Library card by clicking here. Or you can check out the whole CD by putting it on hold at the library. The CD comes out on February 7th, 2012.
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Teen Reads for Grown Ups
This month we are reading The Maze Runner. Stop by the Aloha Teen Tower to sign up for the book club and pick up a members only copy of the book. We will meet on January 11th at Pegasus in Castle Rock to talk about the book. (Must be 18 or older to join). If you have read the book and want to leave a comment to let us know what you think just click on the title of this post and a comment box will appear at the bottom of the page.
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
App
Pimp Your Screen is the app we love this week. It costs $1.99 and we usually are against paying, but you get a ton of screens, app shelves and skins, and other cool content. They add new backgrounds for your iPhone and iPad all the time. They just put out the holiday content and it’s so cute. This is a great app for customizing your device.
Book
If you liked Hunger Games you will like Blood Red Road by Moira Young. It’s our book for the week because we can’t get enough of the kick butt girl main character and the descriptive fight scenes. Is it wrong that we love the realistic descriptions in the hand to hand combat scenes and the strong family relationships and the survival aspect of this book? We don’t think so. Read this book!
Music
We would usually say Coldplay? No Way! The new single and video from their latest CD is pretty amazing. The song this week is Paradise by Coldplay from their new CD Mylo xyloto. Just listen even if you don’t like Coldplay. You will like this song.
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
App:
Overdrive is the app we love this week. We can check out free ebooks from the library. We love this because we don’t have to carry as many books around. Also if we can’t find a classic that we need for school, almost all of them are online and we can download them to our computer, iPhone, Droid, or iPad. This is a must have app!
Book:
The book this week is The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler. We have been waiting since 13 Reasons Why for a new Asher book and we were not disappointed. It’s not deep and gut wrenching like 13 Reasons Why, but it is a fun book. The setup is that it’s 1996, and this girl gets her first PC. She sets up AOL and when she logs on for the first time, she has Facebook. Facebook did not exist until like 2004. She is seeing her future posts and friends. It’s a crazy story. What would you do if you could see your future? The book is told in alternating chapters with her friend Josh. This book is cool for guys and girls.
Music:
This week we are feeling the love for a local band called Anareta&Apheta. The music is Hard Core so it’s not for everyone. If you like your music loud, fast, and guitar heavy this is the local band for you. They have been battling to win a national competition for a record contract. You can check them out on their record label’s webpage. Good Luck Guys. (If you visit their band page listen to Cassiopeia, it’s our favorite!) Help our guys win the Project Independent Contest by voting here. You can vote every day. Let’s help a Castle Rock band make it big!
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App, Book, & Music of the Week
App
Nyan Cat! is the app that is driving us crazy this week. It’s addictive but ANNOYING. The graphics are poor, yet somehow we can’t stop playing. Someone make it stop! Our advice is to not even try the game. You will be hooked and then you will regret you ever started playing.
Book:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is the must read book this week. We are getting excited for the movie to come out. This is our favorite of all of the Tolkien books!
Music:
“Music Sounds Better With U” by Big Time Rush is the song we can’t get out of our heads. We know, boy band, but really we can’t help ourselves. Click here and use your Douglas County Library Card to download Big Time Rush’s first CD.
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