Things we do in the summer

Niko and Michelle have made a list of things they like and don't like about the summer. Would you like to give us your thoughts on the summer?

Likes:

Trip Camp, Music Camp, go to beach, go to pool, ice cream parlor visits EVERY Day, free time hanging out with friends, sit and not do homework, waffles and ice cream for dinner if over 92 degrees, stay up later, play with dog, go to see bands, see movies, READING (obviously), watching T.V.



Dislikes:

Friends away, doing summer reading reports, heat waves, goes too fast (Two months!
Are you kidding me!), lightning interrupting pool time, waking up early for stuff

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy (almost) Fourth of July Books and Snackers! I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. I wanted to let you know that the meeting for Books and Snacks will be changing for this month. Instead of meeting on July 21st we will be meeting Tuesday July 20th at 7:30.





Also in other Books and Snacks news we are having a contest that will take place from now until September 30,2010. We are challenging you to write you own booktalk and submit it to Becky at the Paramus Public Library. You can bring in your booktalk or email it to Becky.Karpoff@bccls.org. When submitting your booktalk be sure to include your full name and phone number. This contest is only open to members of Books and Snacks and anyone in Paramus, NJ grades 6th-8th.
For those who submit a booktalk you will be entered into a raffle to win two movies passes for you and a friend. You can submit up to three booktalks. If you have any questions about how the booktalk should be done just email Becky or come into the library and ask.


So just to recap, Books and Snacks will be held on Tuesday, July 20th at 7:30pm and you can start submitting your booktalks today!

Harry Potter the Movie: in two parts

November 2010 we will be buying movie tickets for the first installment of the final chapter of the Harry Potter series. The question on our minds is where will the split take place?

One idea from Niko, is when the main characters run away from Hogwarts (Harry, Ron, and Hermione for those who are not familiar with the stories). We believe that will create a great cliffhanger for the next movies to start with. Having the spilt at this point will also allow for the next movie to still feel as full as the first.

Another idea is when Harry, Ron and Hermione are trying to find one of the horcruxes from Ravenclaw or Gryffindor (Horcruxes - an item in which Voldemort hides pieces of his soul so that he cannot be destroyed). Michelle thinks that this will create a good climax and great suspense.

While we are always excited to see the Harry Potter movies, we are also nervous because there is a lot at stake because our imaginations have taken us so far in this magic J.K. Rowling world.

Ranking of our favorite Harry Potter Movies by Niko, Michelle and Becky

1. Goblet of Fire

2. Chamber of Secrets

3. Sorcerer's Stone

4. Prisoner of Azkaban

5. Order of the Phoenix

6. Half Blood Prince

If you haven't read the books and seen the movies yet- you should run out to you local library and borrow these titles. The Harry Potter series is full of adventure, excitement, and magic; something we can all use a dose of from time to time. Happy Reading!

Vicious Villains

Three strikes you're out- and that's what Becky (librarian and moderator of the program) heard when she walked in to this months Books and Snacks meeting ready to talk about baseball novels. We agreed to share our thoughts on our favorite game day snacks instead and they are: Pop corn, cotton candy, hot dogs, chili fries, nachos, and chili dogs. As a group we do enjoy a sports novel here and there but we did not want to talk about sports novels for the whole program so instead our conversation moved to villains.

In many of the novels we read, we see the fantastic deeds that the heroes of the book perform. What we fail to realize is that a great hero always has a great villain to counter them. So what exactly makes a good villain?

Qualities of Great Villains:

Respects and sometimes manipulates their heroes
Deceitful/Sneaky

Big

Strong

Powerful

Huge

Intelligent

Fiery temper

Mercurial (vocab word: credit to Yoo Ra; having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or thievishness)

Malicious

Nefarious.(bloodthirsty)

Famous Villains:

Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter)

The Joker (Batman)

Captain James Hook (Peter Pan)

The Witch from Hansel and Gretel

Saint Dane (Pendragon)

IT (A Wrinkle In Time)

The Heffa lumps and Woozels (Winne the Pooh)

Our Favorite Villains:

James (Twilight)

Massie (Clique)
Steve Leopard (Cirque Du Freak)

Kronos (Percy Jackson)

Skeleton Man (Skeleton Man)

Mr. Curtain (Mysterious Benedict Society)

King Galbatorix (Eragon)

All villains have something in them that makes us love to hate them. Come to Books and Snacks next month, and share with us the villains you would love to hate. Stay tuned for more blogs about famous heroes, famous love stories, and sidekicks/cronies.

If you are a baseball fan and would like to hear more about the books Becky presented to us this month stop by the library and grab on of our monthly bookmarks or check out these titles: Mudville by Scalletta, Heat by Lupica and Rivals by Green. Hope to see you at next month's meeting on June 16th at 7:30pm.

The _ _ / _._ _/ .../ _/ ./ . _./ ../ _ _ _/ .. _ / ... Discussion

Tonight we discussed The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart at our Books and Snacks meeting and if you can't tell from the title of this blog we also learned Morse Code.

First lets talk about the book; the entire group loved it! We are all looking forward to reading the next instalment in the series and one of our members is reading the last book as we type.

So lets talk characters, the main characters in this series are Reynie Muldoon, George "Sticky" Washington, Kate Weatherall, and Constance Contraire. We don't want to give away too much for those of you who have not read The Mysterious Benedict Society, we will say that these children are very gifted in many different ways; Reynie is analytical and logical, Kate is crafty, clever and resourceful, Sticky is start and brave (even if he doesn't believe it), and Constance has more tenacity than most people three times her size (by the way Constance is no bigger than a fire hydrant). Here is a list of qualities we came up with that made someone gifted : intelligence, resourcefulness, sensibility, talent, clever, logical, will power, and most importantly being yourself and being true to who you are.

Now that we talked about the main characters we want to tell you about the bad guy of the story. Every good mystery has to have a bad guy and this bad guy is really bad. Mr. Curtain (the bad guy) is the creator of The Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. Now we know what you are thinking-- "Someone who creates a school for enlightened children can't be that bad, right?"- Wrong! Mr. Curtain is very bad and he is all about taking over the world (we'll let you read the book to find out how). The strangest thing about Mr. Curtain is that he has A LOT of similarities to Mr. Benedict. Another important trait that Mr. Curtain has is that he is very driven, he is so driven he is blinded by the power he has and the power he still needs to take over the world.

During our meeting we also learned Morse Code. We created messages and passed them around to each other, we also tried sending messages using a flash light but found that to be very difficult. If you would like to learn Morse Code on your own go you can go to KidsClick.org and type in Morse Code and click on the third link. This is the site we used to learn and practice Morse Code.

So, how does one become part of The Mysterious Benedict Society? In the novel Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance all answer the same advertisement that asks : "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?". They find themselves taking a series of mind-bending test (which you can take too when you read the novel). Some of our favorite test are the "white knight" test, the "honesty" test, and the "square foot" test.

Here is a test that we found in the back of one of our copies of The Mysterious Benedict Society. Our group gave it a try and you should too:

1. What does this spell in Morse Code?

._../ ../ _ _ _ / _.

a. Fish

b. Hare

c. Lion

d. Codes are for toads!

2. Rearrange the letters to find the correct work: uttisteni

a. Utensil

b. Institute

c. Who say "uttisteni" is not a word?

d. Tinsel

3. What day did Hawaii become the 50th state of the United States of America?

a. August 21,1959, the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years)

b. February 22, 1960, the 53rd day of the year

c. March 19t, 1958, the 78th day of the year (79th in leap years)

d. October 7, 1957, the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years)

4. Which of the following words does not belong: parsley, mint, nutmeg, or tomato?

a. Parsley

b. Mint

c. Nutmeg

d. Tomato

5. If Kate is taller than Reynie, and Sticky is shorter than Kate, and Constance is the shortest, who is the tallest member of the Mysterious Benedict Society?

a. Sticky

b. Constance

c. Reynie

d. Kate

6 What condition does Mr. Benedict suffer from?

a. His nose is like a rose -- it grows and grows!

b. Narcolepsy

c. Neurology

d. Nitrogen

7. In leap years, what is the 234th day?

a. October 7, World Smile Day

b. February 22, George Washington's Birthday

c. March 15, the ides of March

d. August 21, the same day that Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States of America

8.What word rhymes with orange?

a. Whatever I want!

b. Nothing rhymes with orange!

c. Porridge

d. Courage

9. What is the next number in this pattern: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5?

a. 8

b. 3

c. 9

d. 10

10. To be inquisitive is to be.....

a. A type of pasta

b. Brave

c. Smart

d. Curious

Answer Key 1. c 2. b 3. a 4. d 5. d 6. b 7. d 8. b 9. a 10. d

If you answered 0-3 questions correctly:

You are most like Constance! Although your answers can sometimes be a bit contrary, your creativity is sure to come in handy and your persistence often pays off!

If you answered 4-7 questions correctly:

Your are most like Kate! Your resourcefulness, sense of adventure and agility will be helpful to your friends!

If you answered 7-9 questions correctly:

You are most like Reynie! You are a natural leader and your cleverness will take you far!

If you answer 10-11 questions correctly:

You are most like Sticky! You are extremely knowledgeable about many things and are capable of more than you think!

Our whole group ended up answering 7-9 questions correctly so we are a bunch of Reynies.

We hope to see you at the next Books and Snacks Meeting on May 19th at 7:30pm.

Why read 1 when you can read 3 or 4 or 5; that's right we're talking about series.

With March being the third month in the year we decided to talk about trilogies and series. If you notice in our earlier post we listed titles that were very enjoyable, many of these titles are series. Why is it that we like series so much? Well, when you get attached to a character in a book it can be almost painful not to know the end of their story even though the novel is over. This is one of the great things about children's and Young Adult literature, more often then not there is a chance for a hopeful future. Even with this bright and sunny future you still wonder --Will this character travel elsewhere? What happens after middle school? Will they marry the character they fell in love with in this novel? When you are reading a series you get to live out the characters lives a little longer and there is a better chance that your questions will be answered.

While we love many series we only talked about five on March 17 at the Books and Snacks meeting.

*We will only give an annotation of the first book of each series so as not too give away to much.

Ember Saga written by Jeanne DuPrau

City of Ember, The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, and The Diamond of Darkhold

Over 200 hundred years has passed after a unspecified holocaust and the people of the city of Ember have lost the history of anything beyond their own area. All they know is the city they live in and all else is darkness (literally!). Now things are getting scary because even with constant rationing of supplies like clothes, food, and light the city is running out of everything and there are frequent power failures that are lasting longer and longer. When Lina, a young messenger, finds a damaged document from the mysterious Builders that describes a way out, she and her friend Doon decide that this is the only way to save the people of Ember. Unfortunately being children, most people don't take them seriously and those who do are out to stop Doon and Lina. Read The City of Ember and join in the excitement of Doon and Lina's adventure for survival.

The City of Ember was made into a movie in 2008 and both the movies and the book can be borrowed from the Paramus Public Library.

His Dark Materials Trilogy written by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass

Other related works are Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North.

Lyra Belacqua lives in a world where magic is an ordinary fact of life and people's souls live outside thier bodies in an animal form known as daemons. After Lyra's friend is kidnapped, she learns that there are strange events happening up north that involves children and their daemons's she decides to travel to the north to save her friend and the rest of the children who are being taken and experimented on. Along the journey she meets Bear Kings, witches and many other interesting and scary characters.

The first novel from this trilogy was also made into a movie and can be found at the Paramus Public Library.

Secret Series written by Pseudonymous Bosh
The Name of this Book is Secret, If You're Reading This, It's Too Late, and This Book is Not Good for You. Scheduled for release on September 21 2010 This Isn't What It Looks Like.

Everything about this book is a secret, from the characters names to the name of the town they live in which they live, even the title of this book is secret and can cause major trouble for you. The author even suggests that you forget about the story as soon as you read (if you are that brave). So what is this story about might you ask- - well we can't tell you because we do not need that kind of trouble.

What? Your really want to know? Okay but we are going to have to whisper.

This is the story about two eleven year- old kids who get mixed up in magic, mystery, and kidnapping.

That's it, we don't want to say anymore; its just not safe. If you are feeling brave you might want to check out this series yourself, but don't say we didn't warn you.

The Underland Chronicles written by Suzanne Collins

Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, and Gregor and the Code of Claw

When Gregor agreed to take care of his sister, Boots, for the day he had no idea how hard it could be. While down in the laundry room Gregor tries to save Boots from being sucked down a vent, but instead of saving her they find themselves both falling for what seems to be forever. When they finally hit the bottom things really get out of control. Gregor and Boots are greeted by giant sized cockroaches who insist on bringing them to the humans. Gregor is told by the humans that he is there to fulfil their prophecy that will save them. All Gregor can think of is getting Boots and himself back home but when he finds out that his father might be held captive by the Rats he was asked to fight, Gregor decides that he can't just leave his father down in the Underland to die.

Shadow Children Series written by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Among the Hidden, Among the Impostors, Among the Betrayed, Among the Barons, Among the Brave, Among the Enemy, and Among the Free

In the distant future where it is punishable by death to have more than two children, twelve year- old Luke Garner lives his life as a shadow child. While Luke can't go to school like his brothers or go to town with his dad life isn't that horrible for him because his family lives out in the woods. Things change though when the government seizes all the land around Luke's house and cuts down the trees to make room for houses for government officials know as the Barons. Now Luke is forced to stay inside all of the time, keep the curtains closed at all times, and eat dinner while sitting on the floor so no one can see three children through the shadow of the curtain. Luke cannot bare it and he takes to looking out a tiny attic window. One day he notices someone moving around in the house after the family left for the day, he can't believe another shadow child might be living right next door. Curiosity gets the better of Luke and he decides to leave the house when no one is home so he can break into the Barons house. Pick up the Among the Hidden at the Paramus Library to find out what Luke does during his break in.

Benedict Society Trilogy by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

After answering a newspaper ad that reads "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" Four children find themselves strangely grouped together. The man who posted the ad in the newspaper is Mr. Benedict and he has recruited these children for an important mission. Their mission is to infiltrate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened because it is believed that the founder of the institute is sending hidden messages and hypnotizing the world to do as he wishes. So what are four children who seem to have nothing in common going to do about this? Read The Mysterious Benedict Society and come to our next Books and Snacks program on April 21st at 7:30pm to discuss their adventure.

If you would like to join us for our discussion of The Mysterious Benedict Society on April 21st at 7:30 stop by the library and pick up a copy of the book and sign up at the Youth Services Desk. For any questions please call 201-599-1309.

Who are we and what do we READ?!?

We are the Books and Snacks club from the Paramus Public Library in Paramus, New Jersey. We are a group of 6th-8th graders who enjoy reading, hanging out, and eating. We meet every third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 at the Paramus Public Library.

We will be using this blog to keep you up to date ono what we are reading, what we think about our favorite books that are made into movies, and of course we might write about food we like- Hey we aren't called Books and Snacks club for nothing!

If you are in 6th-8th grade and also like reading, hanging out, and eating please call the Paramus Public Library at 201- 599-1309 if you would like to sign up or have any questions about the program.

To give you a taste of the books and authors we like here are is a list of titles and series that we can't stop talking about right now:

Percy and the Olympian series- Rick Riordan
Clique series- Lisi Harrison
Harry Potter series- J.K. Rowling
Hunger Game trilogy- Suzanne Collins
Life as we knew it series- Susan Beth Pfeffer
Pendragon series- D.J. MacHale
Twilight Saga- Stephanie Meyer
39 Clues Series- Various Authors
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
No More Dead Dogs- Gordan Korman
The Uninvited- Tim Wynne- Jones