The Kill Order: When Life Burns Away

The Kill Order by James Dashner

Why did I read it?

The Maze Runner series will always be tied to my boss lol. The Kill Order (the prequel to The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, and The Death Cure) bounced across Karen's desk as a new book, and she grabbed it up because The Maze Runner series sounded familiar. But once she finished it, she was very confused hehe. As it turns out, James Dashner wrote The Kill Order after the other three, and it seems to make a little more sense if you already know the other books.

What happened?

SPOILER ALERT

Before The Glade was formed, before The Scorch was crossed, before Thomas changed the world, things were as they are now. But then the sun flares came and everyone's life was turned upside down.

A year after the sun flares, Mark and Trina are doing alright. They are a part of a close-knit group of survivors, and they are learning more and more everyday about what it will take to survive in this harsh reality.

But, nothing has prepared them for the hovercrafts that unexpectedly attack their settlement, infecting most of the people they love with a terrible mind-altering disease.

There are two realities that Mark and Trina are becoming aware of: One, they have no idea who they can trust, and Two, they don't know if they can trust themselves with an ever-evolving disease sweeping across the globe.

What did I like or not like?

When I picked up the book, I was thinking it would be a prequel about Thomas and his friends before The Glade, but this one goes even further back. By the time I figured that out, I was already a little bit confused about the timeline, even though I was able to piece it together by the end (don't make assumptions apparently =D)

Dashner once again writes a fast-paced story that keeps you guessing, but it is also invigorating to see the start of things that you figured out in the other books.

While this one isn't about Thomas exactly, it is definitely worth reading, and it definitely supports and broadens the story behind the other books.

Sortable: Compare Electronics Like A Boss

Have you ever noticed that each of your friends have the best __________ (phone, tablet, camera, laptop or tv) on the market, even though each one of them has a different device than any of the rest of them? Do you ever wonder which one really is the best?

Well, most likely they ARE the best for that particular friend because they are looking for certain features. Well how do you know what features you want and which device has those features? Both scenarios are greatly assisted by Sortable.com, a website that does a great job giving you the cold-hard facts about each electronic device you could think of (well, at least all the phones, tablets, cameras, laptops and tvs you can think of).

The website offers two main sections; sort and compare. Sort lets you select certain features that you are looking for, and tells you which electronics offer it. Compare gives you a side-by-side comparison of two different electronic items, collecting the features, differences, performance, reviews, and competition for that device. 

In addition to these two main sections, Sortable also offers reviews, sneak peaks, and discussion forums. Needless to say, when I've had an electronic question in the last couple of months, this is the first place that I've gone.

Library Teen Film Fest: How Ours Works

So here comes a combination of a program idea and shameless self-promotion. For the past four years, we've held a Library Teen Film Fest, and this year, I'm going to tell you a little bit about how we do it.

Basically, teens (ages 13-18) create a video using a theme (typically the Summer Reading theme for that year), and then we show the films at the library and give out cash prizes.

This year, the videos will all be Short Films (up to five minutes long), created around the theme, "Beneath the Surface." Once the films are created, we have teens fill out an entry form, and upload their video to our YouTube Channel.

The first year we held the festival, we allowed participants to submit on YouTube by giving us a link to their video, or giving us a DVD. But, we found it was difficult to promote these videos on social media, and also made the Red Carpet Event (where we show the films) not go as smoothly as we would like.

Now, when a participant enters the competition, they are given the username and password for our Film Fest YouTube Channel to upload their video. This allows us to keep the videos all in one place, and makes setting up the Red Carpet Event much easier.

While I've found most teens who enter the competition would have done so anyways, it never hurts to have some incentives. We ask our Friends of the Community Library Network group for funds to offer snacks, refreshments, and cash prizes.

Well that's about enough for this post, but I'll be writing next Monday about ways to make the Film Fest work better (sometimes you got to learn the hard way lol, and sometimes there are ideas that you just can't quite implement that might work for others).

The Water Nymph: A Local Author's Original Fantasy

The Water Nymph by Alysun Sanders

Why did I read it?

When Alysun finished her first book, Talli's Tale, she was able to swing by the library to talk about it. So when she finished her second book, I was really excited when she contacted me again. We're looking forward to chatting with her this Saturday, January 19th, from 2-4pm.

What happened?

Cort Edson would rather not deal with the deaths of his father and brother. He's been keeping to himself and doing just fine for the past couple of years, and he simply wishes everyone would leave well-enough alone. But, most people can't, including his mother, who plans a spontaneous trip to Greece for a family vacation.

Little does Cort know that this harmless trip to Greece will change the entire course of his life, and force him to confront the deaths of his loved ones again. While swimming in one of the lakes his Mom wants to check out, Cort is nearly drowned by a mysterious woman. Not able to figure out if the beautiful stranger was dream or reality, Cort is even more confused when she shows up at his high school.

Things take a turn for the very strange when another beautiful girl named Seffie shows up around the same time with secrets of her own. After being pursued for a full day, Seffie confides in Cort that she isn't your typical high school student. In fact, she let's Cort know that the very fate of Heaven depends on Cort protecting her from her husband.

What did I like or not like?

While I started the book to know more about it before Alysun joins us this Saturday, I finished it because it totally sucked me in. The numbness that pervades Cort's life is turned upside down by the extraordinary women that burst into it, and the resulting story is really interesting.

Alysun has also skillfully combined elements from Christian beliefs, Greek mythology, and several other influences into an original, unique fantasy story. In addition to skillfully blending these ideas, Alysun has also continued to improve her skills as  an author and storyteller.

After reading the book, I'm even more excited about Alysun's talk this Saturday, and the sequel to The Water Nymph.

Prezi: Make Your Presentations Zoom!

Last week I talked about Slideshare and the awesome stuff you can do with PowerPoints. This week I'm going to chat about Prezi, and the awesome stuff you can do without PowerPoints.

When I was still working on my Bachelor degree in Communication Arts (which was almost 2 full years ago which is weird!) one of the final requirements was presenting our research at two different conferences. Instead of creating a PowerPoint, I had heard about Prezi from some library coworkers, and couldn't resist trying it out. Even though it didn't take too long to create, I got quite a few compliments on the Prezi (apparently some of the upgrades didn't allow the entirety of my design choices to be saved).

While PowerPoints have their place, even the most well-organized PowerPoint, with the coolest transitions, can still blend into the wave of PowerPoints that are created. So, I suggest mixing your typical presentations with some Prezi action.

How do I explain Prezi...hmmm? Start by thinking of a digital whiteboard. Now change that white background to something cool like a picture of a lake, or a gradient from white to blue. Now insert your text anywhere, any size, any direction, and just let Prezi know which order the text comes in. Prezi will start at your first point, and then zoom over to your next point.

Instead of creating presentations that are based on one slide here, another there, Prezi works with the idea of three-dimensional digital space to fundamentally change the presentation experience. Want another example? Here is a Prezi that I made for my Basics of Technology class.

Battleship Chess: Fun Without the Video Part

Okay, here's a crazy thought. Third through Fifth graders came to the Hayden Library to play chess. Even more strange is that we actually played Battleship Chess, which is a fun variation of the classic game.

Now, I know what you might be thinking: did they have a good time? Were they entertained? I would say they absolutely were, and even more, they learned something in the process.

Most of the participants were familiar with chess but didn't play too often, so I had the chance to break down the regular rules of chess play for them. Once they had a decent grasp of the game, we put a divider down the center of the boards, had the players put their pieces anywhere on their half, then removed the divider and had them go at it with normal chess rules (this was the Battleship variation).

In addition to chess, we also had Sorry! and Battleship available to play. Both games had kids laughing and enjoying their stay.

When I've done game programs for this group in the past, I had video games as the main attraction with board games on the side to fill your time. But as I kept doing that, I noticed that some kids gravitated toward the board games more than the video games, and that gave me this idea; how about I do some programs that are strictly based on board games and see what happens?

Battleship Chess was the first program like this, and it was a very encouraging experiment. Moving forward, I'm going to bounce between a video game program and a board game program and see what we see. Love live games!

The Iron Duke: Back When Stereotypes Were Created

The Iron Duke by L. Ron Hubbard

Why did I read it?

Stories from the Golden Age is a new series that is assembling stories from L. Ron Hubbard's time as a pulp fiction writer. My library was given some free copies, so I figured I'd read one of them. First of all because our Acquisitions Librarian nor myself selected them, and secondly because I thought L. Ron Hubbard was better known for his Scientology religious beliefs than his writing ability.

What happened?

While the phrase, Pulp Fiction might conjure images of the Quentin Tarantino movie, pulp fiction was also a craze of short stories, published in the 1930s and 1940s, on cheap paper called pulp. Although I didn't know this, L. Ron Hubbard was actually one of the most prolific and popular writers of pulp fiction during their golden age.

But enough about the background. The Iron Duke deals with Blacky Lee, a notorious arms dealer who is wanted by most of the European nations in the 1930s. Escaping from a deal gone bad, Blacky crosses into Aldoria, and is mistaken for the Aldorian Prince Philip.

Much to the chagrin of his partner, Blacky actually did this on purpose. Years before he had noticed his resemblance with the prince, and even though he couldn't use it to his advantage then, he is definitely planning something now. But, Blacky isn't the only one who has schemes for the Aldorian prince, and this time, he might be in over his head...

What did I like or not like?

I've become familiar with pulp fiction while researching the history of comic books, and I totally get the appeal of them now. The stories are short, simple, and to the point, but they keep you interested throughout the pages.

On the other hand, I couldn't help but think, "I've heard this story before." But then I remembered that pulp fiction did all of these stories first, and then stereotypes were made from them. These fly-off-the-shelves stories built the stereotypes we have today, and while he might have created Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard can definitely write a pulp!

Slideshare: Get Your Presentation Out There!

In my perusals and journeys through the library infosphere, Slideshare is a website that I have stumbled across multiple times. Basically, instead of presenting a PowerPoint and have your participants forget it in a couple of hours (unless they took notes or you just knocked them dead of course), you could just share the PowerPoint and have them look at it again and again.

While Slideshare's primary purpose is sharing presentations, it supports documents, PDFs, videos, and webinars. Slideshare allows you to easily embed a presentation on a blog or website, share on social media, or download a presentation that you found of particular interest.

The Zipcast feature allows you free, no-download web meetings, and Slidecast allows you to sync MP3 audio files with slides to create a webinar. Slideshare also boasts 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million monthly pageviews.

Although I haven't uploaded any presentations myself, I've glanced over the slides of multiple presentations that I wished I could have attended, and some places like ALA TechSource even have their webinar presentations archived on Slideshare. Needless to say, I get more and more excited the more I find out about Slideshare, and I'll definitely be uploading and browsing in the future.

High School Literary Character Brawl pt. 3

Welcome to 2013 everyone =D How were your holidays?

As promised before the New Year, here is the postmortem for our High School Literary Character Brawl. Don't get me wrong. The program was awesome, and all the participants said it was a lot of fun...but that doesn't mean it can't be done better!

1. Snacks Appreciated
Apparently some food (pizza, maybe?), and some water pitchers would have been life safers.

2. Create Character-Specific events
Our participants suggested that we make the Literary Character Brawl even more of an integral part to the program. So instead of choosing random games, have participants choose their characters before the program, and then come up with games that would be appropriate for those characters. We could even offer special points if the character won their own event.

3. A Little Less Brawl
While the beat-each-other-with-pool-noodle brawls were fun, they got a little repetitive after the first time. It was also a little frustrating to do girls versus guys, so do gender specific rounds. Most of our events were physical the first time around, so one suggestion was to mix the skills needed so the most fit person wasn't winning everything.

4. More Mind Games
The riddles were enjoyed, but differentiating between trivia, riddles, and puns would have been helpful. It would also be cool to have riddles from specific places like fantasy books or Star Wars. Going back to less physical activities, games like poker, blackjack, or other card games could help also.

Got any other suggestions? Let me know =D