Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Pre-Register for the Teen Madden 09 Tournament

Think you got what it takes to challenge Pittsburgh teens in Madden supremacy and win a $50 check card? Join us at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Teen space (4400 Forbes Ave., in Oakland), where 16 players will take to the field on Sunday, January 25th @ 12:30 PM for all the big plays and big hits that you could ask for.

We're offering free pizza, snacks, and drinks so that you can invite your friends to come cheer you on--or if they can't, we'll be broadcasting the tournament live online to a national audience (URL TBA).

Please read the rules carefully before entering:

- You must be in high school or high school equivalent age (14-17) to participate.
- We will update the rosters before the tournament.
- Players will be seeded randomly.
- The first two games will be 3:00 minute quarters on All-Pro difficulty; semi-finals and finals will be 4:00 minute quarters on All-Madden difficulty.
- Each player will have one minute before the game to set their audibles and depth charts.
- If the winner cannot continue, the loser with the lowest point differential (aka whoever lost by the least) will fill their slot.
- The home team of each game will be determined by a coin flip.
- Rewinds will be turned OFF.
- Negative trash talk will get a player a warning. After the first warning, the player will be disqualified. Players are welcome to get excited about their own plays, but not at the expense of others. Players' friends will be removed after their first warning.
- Players will be confirmed in the tournament on a first-come, first-serve basis on the day of the tournament. Pre-registering does not guarantee any player a spot in the tournament. The library will open at noon on the day of the tournament.

To pre-register, contact Joseph via phone (412-622-3121), e-mail (wilkj@carnegielibrary.org), or through our online events page.

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main

Saturday, December 20, 2008

As my old friend Billy Shakespeare said...


"Sweets to the sweet! Farewell."

I am sad to say that my time in the CLP Teen Department has come to an end. I will miss you all. Sadly I will no longer hear the dulcet tones of teens asking me for headphones, guest cards, or to sign up to play RockBand 2. I will merely have to help teens in eastern PA write papers and search for literary criticisms; for I am off to the faraway land know as the "high school library". Where you can be sure I will turn on any teen without a hall pass like the rabid bunny that I am. I will remember fondly the End of Summer Reading Party, listening to you sing the word "Pikachu" over and over to the tune of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", seeing you dressed as vampires to celebrate the release of Breaking Dawn and watching you eat pizza at roughly the speed of light.

Thank you all for making my 6 months in Teen totally super awesome!!

Love, books, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl,
Cat

Friday, December 19, 2008

Friday Ugly Covers Archive & Caption Contest


Once again it's time for the Ugly Covers Caption Contest! Please leave us your captions in the comments below.




Our staff has weighed in with their own captions:
"Time again for the Creepy Disembodied Head Regetta" - Corey
"The weight of the disembodied head upon my shoulders" - Karen
"I've shrunk you into a tiny man leaning against the pier -it's the greastest prank of all time! (Why am I not laughing, then?)" - Holly

Now it's your turn!
*Special thanks to Katie and Zoe for pitching in for the last edition.*


Holly

Winners! Second Annual CLP Teen Awards




Shoe-ins and stunning upsets! It was a fascinating scene at the recent Second Annual CLP Teen Awards Ceremony at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main. What do you think about the winners? Below are the categories and the winners (in bold):

Favorite Music (overall)
Tha Carter II by Lil' Wayne 43%
Kala by M.I.A. 33%
CoCo by Colbie Caillat 24%

Favorite Hip Hop
Tha Carter III by Lil' Wayne 45%
Paper Trail by T.I. 40%
Smoke N Blaze by Kev Blaze 15%

Favorite Non-fiction Book
Stick Figure : A Diary of my Former Self by Lori Gottlieb 73%
Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski 27%

Favorite Fiction Book
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer 52%
Paper Towns by John Green 40%
Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld 2 8%

Favorite Fantasy or Sci-Fi Book
Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer 50%
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells 36%
Star Trek Series by various authors 14%

Favorite Manga
Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba 63%
Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto 26%
Bleach by Tite Kubo 2 11%

Favorite Graphic Novel or Graphic Series
Spider-Man by various authors 57%
Runaways by various authors 38%
X-Men by various authors 5%

Favorite Wii Game
Mario Kart 42%
Super Smash Brothers Brawl 29%
Wii Sports 29%


Favorite Xbox or Xbox 360 Game
Rock Band 74%
Madden 09 17%
Halo 3 9%

Favorite Playstation I, II, or III Game
Guitar Hero 54%Rock Band 25%
Grand Theft Auto IV 21%

Favorite Movie
The Dark Knight 34%
Twilight 21%
Juno 17%
Wall-E 14%
High School Musical III 10%
The Incredible Hulk 3%


Favorite Website
YouTube 48%
MySpace 21%
Facebook 21%
Google 10%

Favorite Magazine
Time 50%
Seventeen 39%
Cosmo Girl 11%



Favorite Board Game
Scrabble 39%
Apples to Apples 36%
Clue 25%


Favorite Spot to Visit in Pittsburgh
The Carnegie Library (any location) 55%
Kennywood 41%
The Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History 3%


Holly

Monday, December 15, 2008

Take Home One of Our Tragically Overlooked Graphic Series! (A-M Edition)

One of the saddest things for a librarian to see is an awesome title languishing on the shelf. They might have a great cover, an awesome story, or great writing, but we see them begging day after day for somebody to check them out. This happens often in our Teen Graphic Series section, where it's hard for items to get noticed in between the Batmans and Spidermans of the world.

So if you have a heart this holiday season, take home one of these lonely little friends and see why we bought them in the first place!

Avalon High: Coronation
Meg Cabot

Ellie Harrison moves to a new school in a new town, ready to adjust and restart her normal life. Yet, life proves to be anything but normal when it's possible that the boy she falls for, Will, just might be the reincarnation of King Arthur. Now Ellie must convince Will to take on the mantle and fight a brewing evil. This is based off of Meg Cabot's 2005 novel Avalon High, and the lively, manga-style art will breathe new life for even seasoned readers.

Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes
Camilla d'Errico and Joshua Dysart

Hana is a lonely, quiet schoolgirl who would have nothing to distract her from her parent's dissolving marriage and the teasing of her classmates if it weren't for her imaginary best friend, Avril Lavigne. One day, Hana buys a mysterious package from the site Make5Wishes.com, which gives new meaning to the phrase "be careful what you wish for." Soon, the demon Romeo arrives, and Hana makes one regrettable wish after another!

Blokhedz
Mark Davis, Mike Davis, and Brandon Schultz

Blak has a magical ability that gives him extra-skilled fighting abilities in addition to being extraordinarily gifted in the skills of rap. Blak will need every one of these skills when he takes to the streets to battle gangs, his brother's killers, and his own personal demons--not to mention the literal demons that lurk deep within the city.

Courtney Crumrin
Ted Naifeh

Courtney Crumin was dragged from her previous life to a well-to-do suburb to live with her Great Uncle Aloysius. That wouldn't be so bad, if Aloysius wasn't creepy and strange noises weren't coming from the closets and the walls: creaks, clunks, and... groans? Suddenly, Courtney isn't just the new kid at school, she's the new kid at ghoul! Thankfully, Courtney's special brand of dark humor is enough to keep them at bay.

Girl Genius
Kaja & Phil Foglio

Adventure, romance, and mad science collide in these collections of Kaja & Phil Foglio's online webcomic Girl Genius. Agatha has no idea that she is a distant Heterodyne, a family who once "travelled the globe negotiating peace, stopping monsters, and shutting down doomsday devices." On top of that, Agatha possesses the Spark, the ability to play with the laws of physics. One day, an evil Baron comes-a-knocking, and Agatha is hurtled full-bore into an adventure that nobody could have exptected!

Grease Monkey
Tim Eldred

Robin Plotnik arrives aboard the space station Fist of Earth, ready to apprentice as a space mechanic under Mac, a super-evolved simian ready to guide her through the finer points of a monkey wrench. Together, they assist the Barbarian Squadron, the all-female team of space fighters waiting to go to war. Adventures ensue in this collected graphic series that is more fun than a barrel of humans!

Hopeless Savages
Jen Van Meter

It's hard to rebel when your parents are already punk rock superstars Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage. Thankfully, Rat Hopeless-Savage has the answer: take a 9-5 job and be as shockingly normal as possible. Of course, with parents (and friends) like Rat has, things can't stay normal for long. Can Rat keep it under wraps, or is he destined to live the life of the hopeless savage?

Roman Dirge's Lenore
Roman Dirge

Lenore isn't just your average little dead girl. Limbless cannibals, clock monsters, cursed vampire dolls, taxidermied friends, bunny impersonations, tea parties from the dark side, and an encounter with the "toof hairy" are just a few of the inhabitants of Lenore's darkly comedic world.

Livewires
Adam Warren

When the covert ops program S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to test the next generation of androids, they wanted them to look--and act--like the next generation. The team is put in action right "out of the box" and has to adjust to their new, dangerous surroundings just like a teenager would. But when you're a teenager with highly-evolved cybernetic strength and other upgrades, you'll have more than growing pains.

The Lost Colony
Grady Klein

What happened to the colonies that were off the map? For one small, isolated village in the early half of the 19th century, it means being populated by a very eccentric set of harmonious characters. One day, a sinister figure arrives to sell slaves at auction, undermining the values and daily routines of the residents. One by one, they each try to disrupt the auction, but what are their motives?

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Teen

Friday, December 05, 2008

The Ugly Covers Archive & Caption Contest

If you grew up in the 80's and 90's, your library would have looked very different. And not just because of the changes in technology, collections, and architecture that we've implemented over the last couple of decades, but because of the covers. Book covers.

They were ugly. Those book covers were so ugly that their shadows were ashamed to be seen with them. They were so ugly that they weren't just hit with the ugly stick, they got the whole log dropped on them.

We've compiled the most ridiculous of the ugly covers, from the terrible watercolor artwork to the awful 90s designs, so that we can all... make fun of them. Every Friday, we'll be presenting you a new cover from the archive and asking you to caption it. We'll hand-pick the funniest from the comments and feature them on the blog.

Okay, first up: Captain Hawaii, by Anthony Dana Arkin



We'll kick things off with some staff captions:

"Not spiders, not bullies, not even a barcode can stop... CAPTAIN HAWAII!" ~Joseph
"Captain Hawaii: Captain America's Mid-Life Crisis Baby" ~Holly
"brb i haz a waterfall in mah pantz" ~Karen
"Spiders and sharks... OH MY!" ~Cat

What do *you* have to say? Let us know in the comments, and see if you can get featured in the next edition of the "Ugly Covers Archive"!

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Second Annual CLP Teen Awards - Vote now!



M.I.A. or Colbie Caillat?
Juno or The Incredible Hulk?


It's your turn to choose the winners of the Second Annual CLP Teen Awards. We've received your nominations and narrowed down the choices to the top picks in every category. Let your voice be heard!

At an after-hours event on Friday, December 12th, we'll announce the winners!

See you there!

Holly