Introductions and Book Discussions

Hi there! 

I am Jennifer, the new Librarian here at Highland. This is what I look like (feel free to come up to me and introduce yourself):

 

Here are a few of the books that we brought in today for our "Best Books of the Summer"  book discussion:

1. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

2. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan











3. Hereafter by Tara Hudson
(Jennifer's recommendation) 










4. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
(this title was a late entry by one of our absent members)










 5.  The Odyssey by Homer
(this is a required summer reading book...not so much a favorite) 












The book we are discussing on Wednesday September 3rd from 3:45-5 pm is Divergent by Veronica Roth There are copies here at the Highland Branch, so come by and pick one up!

 

 See you soon!
Jennifer

Rube Goldberg - Summer Reading 2014

We didn't get too many pictures because it was just toooooo exciting to see the racetracks that everyone made.  And they all worked!! They were mainly created from cardboard, duct tape, boxes and coffee cans.  We ended up with four racetracks!  And a bird!

The Bird

We raced some cars on the floor as well...a little drag racing for fun! 

Teen Advisory Meeting - not what I expected!!

 

 

This was my last Teen Advisory Board meeting before I left for Griffith.  I was in the meeting room with two of the teens, making small talk, wondering why no one was showing up...hmmmm.....

So, Lily told me she wanted to show me something in the children's room, and WOW!! what a surprise! 

I will miss you all!  You're funny, smart, ingenious, and caring - yes, and AWESOME!!!!

 

........... and David is hiding!!!

Sunrise Book Review by Lily W.

Sunrise by Mike Mullins - Reviewed by Lily

Umm, so, the series ended.  The Ashfall trilogy has come to a conclusion.  I uhhh, I need a minute to absorb this information....
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Whoa, still haven't absorbed this.  Oh well, I have places to be, things to do, a review to write (and probably rewrite).
So, as I have already established in another review, Ashfall books one and two (the second being Ashen Winter) are amazing.  This series is about sixteen year old Alex, a fairly normal teenager with a fairly normal life, until the Yellowstone Super volcano erupts.  The ashfall separates Alex from his parents and sister and the series covers his struggles with new obstacles caused by the environment.

These books are full of action (for those of you who like that, I know a lot of my friend do!), and even has the seemingly very popular post-apocalyptic theme that seems to make book sales skyrocket lately (a few examples that I love might be Ender's Game, Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.)!!  One cool thing is that the first book focuses on the eruption and the next two are like the aftermath, I mean who doesn't wonder about their favorite characters after a book ends?

Make sure you check out this book at the library soon!

Break It to Make It....but we didn't really break anything!!

This week we took out our old computer parts and ended up making squishy circuits that lit up; jewelry; played with DC motors; and looked at an Arduino at work!  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Bouquets from the skin of a keyboard

LED and a Squishy Circuit makes for a bright smile!

This isn't really Computer related, but maker-related!  It's leather from the Environmental Center and a button.  Just beautiful!!

We did the ArtBots again, this time with a more powerful DC motor

Leather, gold buttons and a hard drive disc

ArtBot

A Squishy Circuit Bow

Mythbusters

Was it a myth, or not?  Either way, everyone had a great time last night at our Mythbuster Program.  Enjoy the photos!  They are but a small sampling of our experiments....

Future Scientists!

Tornado in a bottle

Eat straws, not marshmallows!

Myth or Truth?

What a great structure....awesome!!

THE EVENT - Mad Scients on Call!!!!!!!

Lily and the Worms

A big Thank You goes out to all our teen volunteers and all the children who participated!!

So, here we are right before the children attended the science program!  We were so happy that they enjoyed the experiments! 
In case you're wondering, we did an Artbot; made a battery turn into a magnet; made a compass that worked; made a throwie (bet you don't know what that is!); blew up balloons without blowing them up; magically cleaned pennies, and levitated a ghost!

In the animal kingdoms, we adopted twelve worms of the night crawler variety.  They were quite behaved during the morning session, however, they actually tried to escape by the afternoon!!!  They were very happy when we returned them to the soil outside!  We respectfully experimented with the worms to see how they reacted when under lights - mostly they wanted to hide!!  Then we tried to learn what type of smells they like or disliked.  They hated the raisins! 

Then we had a Harry Potter potion section with Mandrakes' Restorative Solution; some Harry Potter Magic in a cup; Magic Unicorn Milk, Liquid Enemies (a density experiment); Magic Mud; and Muggle Soap! 

Give the library a call if you want to know how we did these!  Meanwhile, enjoy the photos!!! 

Making a "ghost" levitate

Being a Sneaky Throwie!

Before the Exploding Elixar!