Food Coma…an annual occurence

If you remember from last year around this time, I was feeling the strong effects of what I like to call The Thanksgiving Food Coma.  Yeah, I so did it again this year.  It was glorious I tell you – two Thanksgiving meals in one day!  You really think that I would learn to pace myself better on Thanksgiving.  But really, it doesn’t seem to be in the stars for me.

Then, I stumbled upon this little blog that follows the adventures of two milk teeth (a.k.a. baby teeth/deciduous teeth – if you want to be technical).  Let’s just say that I pretty much looked and felt like Lardee on Thanksgiving.  Hope you escaped the annual occurrence of the Thanksgiving food coma and had a great holiday!

Teen Read, Teen Reviewed: Missing by R.L. Stine

Mark and Cara Burroughs are home alone, and their parents didn’t come home. They’re not worried at first until the terror starts. First Mark’s girlfriend Gena breaks up with him. When Gena doesn’t come to school, Mark goes looking for her at her house. But, Gena’s dad doesn’t want to tell Mark where she is. Then, the police aren’t a least interested about finding their parents. Mark and Cara’s cousin comes to stay at their house. They aren’t worried at first until, the mysteries cousin is spying on them. Then someone tries to murder them. They discover someone wants them to disappear too. They try to discover who wants to get rid of them and why. But the question is, will they live to discover the evil secrets that are hiding behind their lives?

Teen Read, Teen Reviewed: Gone by Michael Grant

Ever had the question:  “What would your life be like if you had no parents?” I did and, luckily, I found a book that would answer all those questions with a little bit of fantasy of course.

The book I found was called Gone by Michael Grant and, yes, it is a young adult book – here’s the heads up:

Sam Temple is your ordinary fourteen year old.  He goes to school like everyone else and has a mom whom he gets along with pretty well. In school, Sam doesn’t have many friends – well except Quinn.  He also has a crush on this girl called Astrid (who people call Astrid the genius because everything you don’t know SHE KNOWS).  Anyways, Astrid really isn’t attracted to him though…at least not for now.  And, for Sam, well he’s not very bright – by bright I mean not smart.

One day, Sam is at school and his teacher suddenly disappears – like “poof.”  Everybody notices that every kid in the school who is over fifteen (and yes adults too) just “poof’” and, just to add to their luck,  there’s no internet, no phones, and no TV (well except for DVD’s if you have one)!  Soon, everyone in California and maybe the whole world over fifteen is disappearing.

Some kids find it fun.  They steal, they eat, they play, and well… they don’t really care

Sam does care.

A few days pass, and the teens soon discover that they also are stuck in a dome with no way out  – except if you want to vaporize and electrocute yourself then you found your way.

Hunger begins to strike.  There’s hundreds, maybe even thousands of babies, that can’t walk in their homes without a parent.  The bullies take advantage of bullying others – even killing others – that is until Sam finds out that he has a mystical power that can burn just about anything.

Now does Sam stand up and becomes a hero helping many children…no, no he doesn’t

Then one day, an academy comes from close by making themselves leaders and doing what today we would call a government.  The academy kids  really mess up leaving children as doctors with no experience and also as fire fighters and a mayor who is called Caine leading everyone.  Soon they all start evolving powers fighting, killing disasters occur and Sam finds out a secret he never would have thought his own mother would keep from him…

If you want a book that has action and adventure well this is your book. NAH that sounds to cheesy – I’d rather say hey I am not making you read it it’s your choice you can read it or not…

“The darkness is near…” Gone

50,000+

I came into work today with a serious case of the Mondays (don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details).  THEN, I said to myself, “Self, maybe you should check the blog to see what is going” – because it is one of my favorite pastimes to see how many people looked at the blog (yes, I know this may define me as a nerd, but I fully embrace it).

Well, folks, I was checking the stats and it looks like over 50,000 people (50,240 people to be exact) have looked at our little blog that has been going for about 1 1/2 years.  Thank you to everyone who stops by to see what is going on at the blog, and everyone at GPL Teens hopes that you continue to come back for more.

Oh, and, just in case you were worried, I overcame my case of the Mondays with the following video.  The cuteness factor alone was enough to make this a great day!

First and Last Words

Take part in GPL’s First and Last Words Contest for Teens!  The Young Adult Display will feature the first and last lines of your favorite classics and YA books.  The first five participants who match the correct title with the correct lines will win a free book!

Meet the Franks

I woke up on Sunday morning to find an email from a friend in my inbox.  The email consisted of a single web address which left me a little intrigued.  I figured that if my friend was only leaving a web address without any text (such as the standard, “Hi, this made me think of you.”), then the web address must be a goldmine of endless possibilities.

And, it was, dear readers, it was.  Here is the video that I found when I clicked on the link.  Needless to say, I had a case of the giggle fits all morning.  Once the giggling stopped, I noticed that another friend sent me an email with the same link in it…I wonder if people are trying to tell me something?

Oh, and if the girl playing a famous character from a book looks familiar, she should – it’s Taylor Swift.

Pitch Black Sweepstakes

Check out the Pitch Black Sweepstakes through HarperTeen!  You could have the chance to win free books (especially those with bite) and a flip camcorder, but, you better hurry.  The content ends on December 10th!

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is more than a series of letters creating a mixed up word.  It stands for National Novel Writing Month, which begins in November!  The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel by November 30th.  This project is all about quantity not quality.  It’s O.K. to write imperfect things – you just need to let everything go and start writing.  And because I left you uninformed on the first 2 days of November, you will need to average about 1,786 words/day.  So, good luck and have lots of fun!