The next Anime Club meeting is Tuesday, March  15th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Come watch Ouran High School Host Club:  Fujioka Haruhi is attending the prestigious Ouran High School, a school normally only available to the children of very rich and powerful people. After stumbling into a music room looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi discovers the fabled host club, a club dedicated to playing host to young ladies. After she accidently breaks a priceless vase, the club decides to let Haruhi join them in order to pay off her debt. But to do so, they must keep her gender a secret from the rest of the school.  PG-13/16.  Please note:  anime is not given typical MPAA ratings.  All anime shown in Anime Club will be reviewed and researched for ratings to the best of our ability. Ages 12+ are welcome, at parents’ discretion.

Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday, April  19th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, May 17th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, March 1st, 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the Community Room

Games for the March meeting will be: Super Mario Bros All Stars, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Super Smash Bros (all rated E:  Everyone).

Want to bring your own games?  Feel free! Please, nothing over T for Teen.  Questions?  Email Kate at kmusselman@ivpl.org

Future dates (always 6:30 – 8:30 pm):

April 5th
May 3rd
June 7th

The next Anime Club meeting is Tuesday, February  15th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Come watch Ouran High School Host Club:  Fujioka Haruhi is attending the prestigious Ouran High School, a school normally only available to the children of very rich and powerful people. After stumbling into a music room looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi discovers the fabled host club, a club dedicated to playing host to young ladies. After she accidently breaks a priceless vase, the club decides to let Haruhi join them in order to pay off her debt. But to do so, they must keep her gender a secret from the rest of the school.  PG-13/16.  Please note:  anime is not given typical MPAA ratings.  All anime shown in Anime Club will be reviewed and researched for ratings to the best of our ability. Ages 12+ are welcome, at parents’ discretion.

Do you have suggestions for what you’d like to watch?  Email Kate at kmusselman@ivpl.org.

Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday, March 15th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, April  19th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, May 17th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, March 1st, 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the Community Room

Games for the March meeting will be: Super Mario Bros All Stars, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Super Smash Bros (all rated E:  Everyone).

Want to bring your own games?  Feel free! Please, nothing over T for Teen.  Questions?  Email Kate at kmusselman@ivpl.org

Future dates (always 6:30 – 8:30 pm):

March 1st
April 5th
May 3rd
June 7th

Starting in January, Anime Club returns.  Come to the library on the third Tuesday of every month and watch your favorite series and movies on the big screen!

First up is Ouran High School Host Club:  Fujioka Haruhi is attending the prestigious Ouran High School, a school normally only available to the children of very rich and powerful people. After stumbling into a music room looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi discovers the fabled host club, a club dedicated to playing host to young ladies. After she accidently breaks a priceless vase, the club decides to let Haruhi join them in order to pay off her debt. But to do so, they must keep her gender a secret from the rest of the school.  PG-13/16.  Please note:  anime is not given typical MPAA ratings.  All anime shown in Anime Club will be reviewed and researched for ratings to the best of our ability. Ages 12+ are welcome, at parents’ discretion.

Do you have suggestions for what you’d like to watch?  Email Kate at kmusselman@ivpl.org.

Tuesday, January 18th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, February  15t – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, March 15th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, April  19th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Tuesday, May 17th – 6:30 – 9:00 pm

You can find both lists in the new brochure in the Teen Room, or you can check it out right now at http://www.ivpl.org/publications/2010%20best%20brochure.pdf

A note:  books marked with an * are coming soon!

Do you have your own Top 10 of 2010?  Let me know!  Email me at kmusselman@ivpl.org – then look for a new brochure with all new ‘best of’ lists!

“There were no surprises in Gatlin County.  We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.

Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

There was a curse.

There was a girl.

And in the end, there was a grave.  I never even saw it coming.”

Beautiful Creatures is Southern Gothic done right.  Dark and dreamy, strange and compelling, it’s easy to find yourself drawn into the world of Gatlin and its peculiar customs.  The thing is, Ethan wants out.  He hates small town life and its small minded ways.  He wants to see the world, only he can’t do that until he goes away to college.  So for the time being, he reads about it, and every time he finds a new place he wants to see, he puts a pin in the map on the wall of his room.  Ethan is not going to live the rest of his life in Gatlin; he’s not going to get stuck, the way his mother did – until she died, anyway. When she was alive, Ethan’s mom – an academic historian – was more interested in her books than she was in making a perfect pie.  She wasn’t exactly a typical Southern housewife, and the women of Gatlin looked down their noses at her.  When she died, suddenly everyone loved her, and wanted to feed and comfort Ethan and his dad.  It was only the iron hand of Amma, Ethan’s snarky-yet-grandmotherly housekeeper – who also happens to do a little voodoo – that kept them at bay.  Now a new school year is starting, and Ethan knows he won’t be just plain old Ethan Wate anymore – he’ll be that Poor Boy Whose Mother Just Died.

In fact, Ethan wasn’t really so unusual before his mom died.  He had friends and teammates, he dated a cheerleader.  He kept his reading habits – and his post-high school plans – to himself.  Only his best friend, Link, knows the real Ethan, and lucky for Ethan, Link always has his back. Because once Lena Duchannes is on the scene, Ethan can’t be bothered to fit in any more.  Lena, and whatever it is that’s pulling them together, is much more interesting.  In fact, she’s downright compelling – a true mystery.  Where did she come from?  What’s the secret that makes her push Ethan away so desperately?  What is she afraid of?  And why is it that, when Lena gets mad,  the wind whips through the trees like a hurricane, the rain sheets down like the end of the world, and windows seem to break of their own volition?  It’s not so surprising that Ethan is drawn to her like a magnet, and no matter how hard she pushes him away, Lena can’t deny that she feels the same pull.  No one in Gatlin wants to see them together – not Lena’s uncle, the infamous, isolated Mason, or Ethan’s Amma, who clearly knows more than she’s letting on.  But forces beyond their control are drawing Ethan and Lena together and that haunting song, “Sixteen Moons” plays like a soundtrack in the background.

Beautiful Creatures has it all:  backwoods graveyards, secret tunnels, ghosts and demons, dark humor, terrible rock bands, nasty cheerleaders, and yes, even romance.  It’s equal parts scary,  funny and mysterious.  Once you start it, you won’t be able to put it down; you’ll be drawn into the mysterious world of Gatlin and its secrets, and just like Ethan, the more you learn, the more mysterious things become.  This is one of those books that keeps you up late at night because you can’t stop reading, and when you’re finished, the world inside the book will stick with you.  The good news is, the next book in the series, Beautiful Darkness, just came out – so you don’t have to wait to find out what happens next.  Until you get to the end of that book, anyway …

Come to the library for some old school gaming.  Are you wicked good with the Master Sword and Light Arrows?  Handy with a blaster or a hexagonal reflector?Play Nintendo Gamecube – Smash  Bros Melee.  Want to wing some fireballs or giant bananas at top speed?  Check out Mario Kart Double Dash.

Or is close quarter combat more your style?  Hit the PS2 for Street Fighter II and Street Fighter:  Third Strike.  Are you good enough to make it to the bonus round?

Show your face and your mad skillz.   Snacks provided, since wielding the Sword of Seals is hard work.

Saturday, October 16th, 2 – 5 pm in the Community Room.  Ages ~12+.  Smash Bros Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash are rated All Ages; Street Fighter games are rated T for Teen.  Please email Kate with any questions (kmusselman at ivpl.org)

In Catching Fire, the sequel to the Hunger Games, it quickly becomes clear that the Games don’t end when you leave the arena.  Katniss is still fighting for her life, and Peeta’s – but now she’s also fighting for the lives of her mother and her sister.  Snow has made it clear that if she fails to end the rebellion, everyone she loves is forfeit.  But it doesn’t end with the Victory Tour.  It’s the 75th Anniversary of the Hunger Games -75 years since the districts’ failed rebellion against the Capitol, and the Hunger Games serve as a brutal reminder that the Capitol is still calling the shots.  When the Reaping comes, the announcement shocks everyone:  this year’s Tributes will be chosen from the Tributes of the last 25 years.  Which means that Katniss and Peeta are back in the arena, and the Games are on – again.

Catching Fire has plenty of action.  Katniss, Peeta, and the other Tributes are trapped in that arena fighting for their lives in a world where the players, the rules, and the Games themselves are constantly changing.  The survival techniques she honed in the first  Hunger Games still serve Katniss well, but this time around, she’s had time to train, and she has a better idea of what to expect.  Or so she thinks.

Katniss is also still torn between Gale and Peeta, and the Capitol’s insistence on having them play the “star-crossed lovers” is only making that decision more difficult.  When she goes back into the arena, Katniss has only one objective:  to keep Peeta alive.  Unbeknownst to her, however, there are other people with their own objectives.  She thinks she knows the rules, but the rules are always changing – and so are the people in charge.

Sometimes the middle book in a trilogy is the least exciting.  Maybe that’s because it’s often just filler – a bridge between the beginning and the grand finale.  I’m happy to say that’s not the case with Catching Fire.  It’s exciting and full of action and intrigue – but Collins never shies away from what’s really underneath these stories:  the chilling and awful effect of violence.   Still, as grim as the world of the Hunger Games is – and it IS grim – it’s also fascinating.  I loved having a chance to get to know Katniss better in this second book, watching her change and adapt with each new twist.  Whether she’s strategizing in the arena, trying to understand the motivations of her fellow Tributes, or trying to understand her own heart, Katniss is a great character; I think she’s one of the best literary heroines I’ve encountered in a long time.

Catching Fire is another fast read – simply because you can’t put it down.  It also ends with one heck of a cliffhanger – so count yourselves lucky that Mockingjay, the final book in the trilogy, is out now!

If you love this series and want a chance to talk about it, email me at kmusselman@ivpl.org – a discussion group is in the works and the more the merrier!

Tuesday, September 21st, 6 – 9 in the conference room (ages 12+)