TeenZone Blog

Sorry, no “In the middle of it…” this week because I JUST FINISHED Epic by Conor Kostick!

In Erik’s world, everyone clips into Epic—a computer game that is also the government and economic system. If you win in Epic, the easier things will be for you in the real world. If you lose, your real world life also suffers. The rich and powerful become more rich and powerful, while the working class has to slave away to survive both in the game and in the real world. Erik is fed up with this imbalance of power. When his father is exiled, Erik wants to change the rules of the game. Determined to defeat the committee, Erik leads his friends on a quest that, if completed, will grant them with enough riches to make them unstoppable.

Believe it or don’t, I LOVE playing RPGs. So, when I started reading Conor Kostick’s Epic, I was hooked. Of course, if MY life depended on how well I did in a video game, I don’t think I’d get very far. (Hey, I never said I was GOOD. :)) Gamers will sympathize when Erik groans at the tedious task of fighting low level monsters for piddling copper coins while rebels will cheer the Osterfjord players on as they challenge the authority.

The best part is Saga, the sequel is in stores now! Look for it in the library soon!

If you Google often you know that the Google team occassionally does some pretty cool things with the Google logo. These Google doodles are the work of webmaster Dennis Hwang.

Since the Google doodler receives so many requests to create differenct kinds of doodles, Google recently sponsored a contest for K-12 students across the country to submit a doodle of their for the search engine’s homepage. The finalists have been selected and the public has been invited to vote for the doodle of their choice.

Unfortunately, it’s too late for you to enter, but it’s not to late to vote! Check out the finalists and vote for your fave. Voting ends on May 18th. The winner will be announced on May 21st and the winner will be featured on the homepage on May 22nd.

Everyone knows that intrepid adventurer Indiana Jones is a world travelling archaeologist. We’ll soon be treated to his fourth cinematic outing: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

And while real life archaeology may not be a roller coaster ride like in the movies, it can still be an adventure!

Indiana Jones’ first movie dealt with the quest for the fabled Ark of the Covenant, a search that has intrigued many an archaeologist. In Indy’s second movie, he travelled to India and helped rescue enslaved children from an ancient cult. Indy’s third adventure finds him searching for the long lost Holy Grail.

The study of Archaeology can take you around the world and throughout time. Archaeologists study the remains of civilizations from misty mountain tops, to the bottom of the ocean.  Or even in your own backyard.

Archaeology not only helps us understand where we have been, but it also prepares us for where we are going.

If you don’t know who Stephenie Meyer is I have to wonder…where have you been!? The author of the fantabulous Twilight series gave a talk and signed books yesterday at Centennial High School in Frisco. Check out this video of her Frisco visit. (you gotta have Flash 9 to watch it) She is only visiting 11 cities promoting her new book, The Host, and Frisco was one of them! The Dallas Morning News’ GuideLive ran an article Saturday about her visit that you can read online.

Can you believe she was rejected by NINE agents? That’s what the article says. Or that it took a year for her book to be picked out of the slush pile at the literary agency Writers House. (When you send in a manuscript of a book you wrote that nobody asked you to send, agents and publishers put them in what they call a slush pile. Then if you’re really, really lucky, someone with absolutely no power to decide to publish your book will read enough of your book to figure out it’s good. Then that person has to convince someone who does have power that your book is good enough to publish.) Makes me want to send a thank you card to whoever found Twilight in the pile and basically discovered Stephenie Meyer!!! Of course since the agency does get a cut of the money made off all the books we bought, I think they’re probably good.

Check out these videos from Borders to hear about her new book, The Host, as well as the Twilight Movie and the final book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. Breaking Dawn comes out August 2. The library doesn’t have it on order yet so I can’t give a link for you to place a hold. Jennie or I will write a post when Jennie gets it ordered so you can start placing your holds.

The Twilight Movie comes out December 12. Check out this MTV clip to go behind the scenes on the set of the movie. Or this trailer from IMDB. Don’t forget to visit Stephenie’s Web site so you can keep up with what’s going on in her world.

I personally have never cared what movie critics say about movies. Even if they hate a movie, I’ll still go see it. How is that person supposed to know what I like? There are plenty of “bad” movies that I actually love. A movie review is OPINION not FACT. It is SUBJECTIVE — based on personal opinion and varying from person to person.

Buuuuuuut…my boyfriend DOES listen to critics. He has been excited about seeing a movie and then decided to skip it because of the reviews. Or he’ll pull the…”Let’s wait until it’s at the dollar theatre” on me. Drives me nuts.

My boyfriend and I were very excited about the Speed Racer movie coming out. We saw the previews and both thought WOW! Then Thursday I heard a bad review on the TV and told my boyfriend. When he said, “Really?” I could hear disappointment creeping into his voice.

We saw Speed Racer on Friday and it is BREATHTAKINGLY AWESOME!!! It is a colortastic treat for your eyes. And very Japanese…as well it should be since the original TV show was a Japanese show brought to the U.S. and dubbed in English. The Wachoski brothers (dudes who did the Matrix movies) did an outstanding job with the writing and directing. The casting and acting are great! It’s a superb blend of the real and the computer-generated. The race scenes are a Technicolor roller coaster that have you clutching your arm rests. There’s just the right hint of romance between Speed and Trixie…and…just enough touching family moments…and…just enough crazy-looking bad guys…and…just enough wild fights including car fights…and…just enough funny antics from Spritle (Speed’s younger brother) and Chim Chim (the chimpanzee) to make you laugh without sending you screaming out of the theatre from annoyance. When we left the theatre the real world seemed colorless and slow. Really slow.

This movie is not for everyone. I don’t think young kids will get it. I don’t think stuffy movie critics are getting it. But if you can handle fast-moving and brightly colored, then give it a try if your parents will let you. (Rated PG for sequences of action, some violence, language and brief smoking) I think you’ll LOVE IT! If you’re a fan of the old TV Show you’ll LOVE IT! We did. And we’re going to see it AGAIN on the IMAX screen.