Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Saturday Fun!!

This coming Saturday, February 18th, we're having a special day at the library. What's the occassion, you might ask? Well, there isn't one. We like to do this every once in awhile, just to remind people how cool the library is and that they should come here to hang out.

Here's what's going on: We call it Saturday Fun. From 2:00 - 5:00 we'll have all sorts of fun and games set up -- we'll hook up the x-box, maybe show a movie or two, provide snacks and board games...Ellen calls it a "free for all," which is an apt description. So come on down, and bring your friends!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Another phenomenal YA book

Sorry it's been a bit since I posted. I came down with the nasty flu that seems to be floating around Pittsburgh.

One of the good things about being sick is, when I wasn't sleeping, I could read. And one of the books I read was Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper. It was absolutely amazing, and I highly recommend it.

Copper Sun is about a fifteen-year-old African girl named Amari. She loves watching her father weave, playing with her little brother, avoiding the chores her mother gives her around the village. She's engaged to be married. And then one day a band of pale-faced men carrying firesticks comes to her village, kills all the elderly people and young children, and forces the young and healthy to walk in chains to the port. They are then sold, forced onto a boat and carried across the ocean to South Carolina. Once there, Amari is sold to a man who gives her to his sixteen-year-old son as a birthday gift.

Draper does an excellent job of relating what the every day life of a slave was like. Because the subject matter is intense, so is the story...but Amari is a proud, strong and intelligent young woman who never gives up her hope of freedom. Although her innocence is shattered by the kidnapping and subsequent degredations she experiences, she quickly learns what she must do to survive, makes friends, and discovers that not everything (or everyone) is what it seems.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week: February 6 - 10, 2006

I just found out from the good folks on the YALSA-BK listserv that this week is Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week. Here's some information about Teen Dating Violence from the American Bar Association's website:

  • One in five female high school students reports being physically or sexually abused by a partner.
  • Intimate partner violence among adolescents is associated with increased risk of substance use, unhealthy weight control behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, pregnancy and suicide.
  • The severity of violence among intimate partners has been shown to increase if the pattern has been established in adolescence.
  • Teen dating violence does not discriminate by gender, race, socioeconomic status or geography.

For more information, go here.

There are a lot of really great resources, fiction and non-fiction, that deal with issues of relationship abuse. Here are some that we have here at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. As always, clicking on the book title will take you to our catalog.

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

Sixteen-year-old Nick's suffered a lifetime of abuse from his father, but Nick knows that despite outward appearances he and his dad don't have anything in common. Until Nick begins to date Catherine, and begins to wonder if that's true after all.

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Caitlin walks through life in a dream -- because if she woke up, she'd have to face the truth about her "perfect" relationship with Rogerson Biscoe.

Fault Line by Janet Tashjian

When stand-up comedian Kip meets fellow comic Becky, they quickly become inseperable. But when Kip starts controlling every little piece of Becky's life, she quickly realizes that maybe their relationship is a little to intense.

But I Love Him: Protecting Your Daughter From Controlling, Abusive Dating Relationships by Jill Murray

Written primarily for parents but also useful for teens, But I Love Him discusses the alarming issue of teen relationship violence.

In Love and Danger: A Teen's Guide to Breaking Free of Abusive Relationships by Barrie Levy

This book helps teens learn how to identify and break away from abusive relationships.

Friday, February 03, 2006

New Books Today!

So, I think I'm going to start posting new books that have come in...probably not all of them (because we get a lot) but at least some every few days. Here's what came in today:

Massive by Julia Bell

Fourteen-year-old Carmen, with only her body-obsessed mother as a role model, battles with her own eating disorder.



South by Southeast by Anthony Horowitz

Fourteen-year-old Nick and his bumbling detective brother Tim Diamond investigate a mystery involving international spies and assassins.


The Ballad of Cauldron Bay by Elizabeth Honey

This novel from the one and only Elizabeth Honey is the third adventure involving Henni and the Stella Street mob. On holiday in a remote old house by the beach, Henni finds that being a teenager is more complicated than being a kid.

Double Dare by Cathy Hopkins

In this third title in the Truth or Dare series, Mac has three secret wishes -- but when a double dare leads him into a whole bunch of messes, he soon learns that great ambition can have great costs.



Mates, Dates, and Chocolate Cheats by Cathy Hopkins

Izzie's recent weight gain has caused her to lose her confidence -- will her obsession with her weight also cause her to lose her friends?

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Get Involved- Help Get Out the Vote

Another Opportunity to Change the World

On January 31st interested teens and young adults attended a training workshop here in the Teens area of the library. They liked our space as much as we do and wish to offer the training for those unable to attend that night or who hadn't heard about the training previously.

March 18th from 12:00 to 2:00 pm representatives from the League of Young Voters will be back here in Teens in Oakland talking about their organization and even training interested teens on how to register people to vote. They're working on finding teens to cruise around Oakland, talking to Pitt students, filling out voter registration cards, etc. You might even get paid! For more information, check out their website.