Book Hedgehogs: Altered Books Again

So last year, we had our first experience with Altered Books by making collages. This year, we played with altered books again, but made some Book Hedgehogs instead.

Now, before you get too impressed with me, I didn't come up with this idea. I just stole it hehe. I do find that I can be moderately creative. But, there are so many people out there that are extraordinarily creative that I just bask in the awesomeness of their ideas.

I saw some pictures of Avengers Book Hedgehogs on Pinterest, so I looked up directions for them on Google. The website, Cut Out + Keep, gave some easy-to-follow instructions.

Basically, you take a book around 100 pages long (or chop up a book until it is about 100 pages long), fold a page in half, and then fold the corners down into triangles. Once you've done it once, you keep going until the entire book looks like ours =D

Now, that might seem incredibly boring, but our library participants had a great time with it. They were thrilled with the final results, and they were chatting up a storm while they were making them. Ultimately, the kids being able to provide their own conversation while folding made the program work, but the finished hedgehogs are also totally worth it!

Concerning TeenBookWorms

In my promotion, I mentioned that we would be doing Shrinky Dinks the last Monday in May. But, it turns out that we were very closed as it was Memorial Day. So, we ended programs that one week early, and my programs don't start until June 18th. So today, I'm going to tell you a little bit about our TeenBookWorms group.

Basically, this is a group for high school students who love to read. We choose one book a month, read it, and then I come up with some discussion questions (or borrow them from another reading club) and we chat about it. Some of the time, we might get a little side tracked with upcoming movies (especially with The Hunger Games and The Avengers), or crazy Youtube videos. But, we always have a great time, and we always chat about literary stuff.

Another cool part about the group is that you as the teens pick the book. We pick our titles a few months out so we aren't surprised, and I might have some suggestions if you get stuck. But ultimately, you get to decide what you would like to read.

So far we've read: The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Germ by Robert Liparulo, and Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman.

At our last meeting, we lined up the books we're going to be reading through the summer as well.
June 26, 4-5pm Wonderstuck by Brian Selznick
July 24, 4-5pm The Maze Runner by James Dashner
August 28, 4-5pm Illusion by Frank Peretti

If any of our upcoming books sound awesome to you, read it, and come chat with us :) If they don't sound interesting at all, then pop by anyways and tell us what we should read next hehe.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

The Avengers: The Ultimate Guide to Earth's Mightiest Heroes by Scott Beatty, Alan Cowsill and Alastair Dougall

Why did I read it?

Because I am so super excited to watch Marvel's The Avengers this weekend! I know that the movie has been out since May 4th, but I was waiting for my Dad to get back from a trip to watch it. But, in the meantime, this book came up on one of the lists that I watch, and I couldn't resist getting it for the library.

What happened?

This book happens to be non-fiction, so it doesn't exactly have a story line. But it does contain a ton of summaries of Avengers' comics story lines :) It brings you through the first Avengers comic in 1963, all the way through the modern story lines of the Civil War and the start of the Heroic Age.

In-between, it has hero profiles, details on super villains, the agencies that The Avengers run into, and a look at The Avengers through each decade since their inception.

Another cool feature is the Key Issues. These are the really groundbreaking comics that made The Avengers what they are today.

What did I like or not like?

While I thought the book was awesome, I read it more as a reference work instead of reading it cover to cover. Sometimes I read the text and background, and other times I just looked at the pictures lol. The pages are visually interesting, filled with comic panels and pictures of the heroes, and the authors are very knowledgeable about their source material.

I've read a couple other hero encyclopedias and guides from Scott Beatty. They were interesting and very informational, and this one is no different :)