Mandy Hager at next Wrappers Meeting

I'm delighted to tell you we will have a special guest at the Wrappers meeting next Friday.  Mandy Hager is an award winning author of young adult fiction and she will be speaking about her books and life as a writer. I don't know about you but I'm really excited about this - Mandy writes awesome stories!

All teens are welcome.  Our gathering is informal and I'm sure Mandy will be happy to answer your questions. We'll meet in the teens area of Paraparaumu Library from 5:30 to 7 pm.

 

Recommended Reads

It wasn't all doom, gloom and dark themed books at the last meeting. Here are some more books recommended by the Wrappers

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

The Cleaner by Paul Cleave

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

These two were not liked by the Wrappers who read them but they were mentioned because they are popular books with good ratings.  Have you read either of them?  What did you think?

We Were Liars by E Lockhart

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Dark Novels

Our last meeting was held on Friday the 13th so it seemed appropriate to talk about dark themed books.  One thing we noted was that 'dark' themes can be quite varied, from traditional witches and ghost stories to realistic fiction and also non-fiction.  Here are some titles recommended by the Wrappers as engrossing dark reads. All are available through SMART libraries.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (a series starting with The Bad Beginning)  by Lemony Snickett

The Red Tree (a sophisticated picture book) by Shaun Tan

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Born at Midnight (first in the Shadow Falls series) by C. C. Hunter

Poles Apart (non-fiction) by Gareth Morgan and John McCrystal

The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy

Answer a Question and Win

Who is the vilest villain, the darkest demon, the creepiest character in literature? There are some nasty characters out there in story land - but they do make a book interesting.   Perhaps there is a character who is particularly loathsome or scary to you. Choose one from the list below or add the name of someone you consider the greatest villain in fiction.

Complete the form to enter the prize draw (open to Kapiti District residents only). The winner will be drawn at the next Wrappers meeting on Friday 13 February.  

First Wrappers Meeting of 2015

The first Wrappers meeting of this year will be February 13th.  Although February 6th is the first Friday of the month it is Waitangi Day and the libraries will be closed.  So the Wrappers meeting will be held a week later than usual this month. 

As the date is Friday 13th the theme for this meeting will be 'dark themes'.  Bring along your favourite (if that's the right word to use) dark story for that part of the meeting. If you haven't got a copy of the book on hand that's fine, you can still talk about it.

You can also bring along a lighter read to share.  Perhaps something you read over the school holidays that was a great story.

All teens welcome and if you'd like to bring a friend or two please do. See you Friday 13th from 5:30 - 7 pm in the teens area at Paraparaumu Library.

The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner

It is a very good book but I suggest that it would be for 10 and up as there is some violence in it. This is the second book in the series and I am about to read the third.

Basically it starts off with Michael waking up in a new body from when he was in the sleep, (sleep is when you go into a coffin and they put you in a real life simulator but with games). He is a tangent, (so he is actually just a computer program, not a real person), and is put into Jackson Porter. 

He is quite confused and feels sorry for the real Jackson because that guy is gone. Jackson's girlfriend comes over and he tries to talk things out saying that he isn't Jackson. She doesn't believe him and leaves. He finds out where his friends, Sarah and Bryson from the sleep, are based and he goes to find them. He finds Sarah. Then Kaine, the evil tangent, takes them. They find Bryson and go to a secret Agent Weber VNS. She doesn't know who they are, but she is pretending because they were at an off place with people who didn't know about the Mortality Doctrine plan. 

They get captured by police because everyone thinks they are terrorists, then escape, and crash into a building in a helicopter. They escape the 60 story building and  go to the proper VNS. Weber puts them in the sleep to fight Kaine and squeezes them. (Squeezes means to squeeze them through code so they are only one sentence of code and it s very painful.) In the end, they thought they were in Life Blood Deep but really they were in real life and they blow up a building.  They are put in prison and eventually get visitors who tell them things. 

Reviewed by Peyton                                               

To This Day: For the Bullied and Beautiful by Shane Koyczan

This book began as a poem then became a You Tube video that went viral and now it’s a beautifully illustrated book. The following description is from the Good Reads website:

'To This Day is an authentic rallying cry for anyone who has been affected by bullying.

In February 2013, Shane Koyczan's passionate anti-bullying poem "To This Day" electrified the world. An animated video of the lyric narrative went viral, racking up over 12 million hits to date and inspiring an international movement against bullying in schools. Shane later performed the piece to sustained applause on the stage of the 2013 annual TED Conference.
Now this extraordinary work has been adapted into an equally moving and visually arresting book. Thirty international artists, as diverse as they are talented, have been inspired to create exceptional art to accompany "To This Day." Each page is a vibrant collage of images, colors and words that will resonate powerfully with anyone who has experienced bullying themselves, whether as a victim, observer, or participant.
Born of Shane's own experiences of being bullied as a child, "To This Day" expresses the profound and lasting effect of bullying on an individual, while affirming the strength and inner resources that allow people to move beyond the experience. A heartfelt preface and afterword, along with resources for kids affected by bullying, make this book an invaluable centerpiece of the anti-bullying movement.'
See the video version of the poem on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92DfnPY (less)

The video version of the poem is wonderful, especially Shane’s narrative (he’s an award winning spoken word poet), but I loved being able to go through the book more slowly and savour the words and illustrations.

You can find the book in the teen non-fiction section of Paraparaumu Library at call number 821. 

Reviewed by Carolyn