Upcycling

Upcycling is the process of using useless products to make products of better quality. It's recycling with a twist!

- Junk Drawer Jewelry
- Green Crafts
- Cool Crafts With Old Jeans

Get Cooking!

Are you a fan of Emeril or Rachel Ray? Try your hand at preparing dishes at home:

- Teen Cuisine
- Real Food Real Fast
- Fun Food
- Teens cook: how to make what you want to eat

Youth Art Month

 

March is Youth Art Month. Express your creative side with inspiration from these great artists and get technique ideas too.
- Painting Techniques
- Mary Cassatt
- Pablo Picasso
- Jackson Pollock
- Georgia O'Keeffe   

Teen Driving

What is a fun and adventurous time for your teen can be a a nerve-wracking time for you. Get some useful information at the library:

- Crashproof your kids by Timothy C. Smith
- Safe road home by Karen Goodman
- Books for teen drivers

Teen Tech Week March 10-16th

 

This year's theme is "Check in @ your Library" and showcases all the digital resources your library has to offer you:
- Homework Help
- Research Databases
- eBooks, Music and Video Games
- Books about Online Safety and Cyberbullying

Origami

 

Ori meaning "folding" and gami meaning "paper" is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century. Learn more about it at the library:
- Books on origami
- Technique books
- Russian origami by Sergei Afonkin
- Origami videos on YouTube

Chinese New Year

 

This year, Chinese New Year is on February 10, 2013. It will be the year of the Snake. Learn more about this holiday at the library:
- Chinese New Year crafts by Karen Bledsoe
- American born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- Teen feng shui by Susan Levitt
   
Fortune Cookie Recipe:
Fortune cookies can be tricky to make - it's important to make sure that the cookie batter is spread out evenly on the baking sheet. Instead of using the back of a wooden spoon to spread the batter, it's better to gently tilt the baking sheet back and forth as needed. Wearing cotton gloves makes it easier to handle and shape the hot cookies. This fortune cookie recipe makes about 10 cookies.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons water

Preparation:
1. Write fortunes on pieces of paper that are 3 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 9-X-13 inch baking sheets.

2. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg white, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy, but not stiff.

3. Sift the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar into a separate bowl. Stir the water into the flour mixture.

4. Add the flour into the egg white mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter. The batter should not be runny, but should drop easily off a wooden spoon.
 Note: if you want to dye the fortune cookies, add the food coloring at this point, stirring it into the batter. For example, I used 1/2 teaspoon green food coloring to make green fortune cookies.

5. Place level tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet, spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Gently tilt the baking sheet back and forth and from side to side so that each tablespoon of batter forms into a circle 4 inches in diameter.

6. Bake until the outer 1/2-inch of each cookie turns golden brown and they are easy to remove from the baking sheet with a spatula (14 - 15 minutes).

7. Working quickly, remove the cookie with a spatula and flip it over in your hand. Place a fortune in the middle of a cookie. To form the fortune cookie shape, fold the cookie in half, then gently pull the edges downward over the rim of a glass, wooden spoon or the edge of a muffin tin. Place the finished cookie in the cup of the muffin tin so that it keeps its shape. Continue with the rest of the cookies.

Each serving includes (based on a total yield of 9 cookies):
Calories 93, 11 g Carbohydrates, 1 g Protein, 5 g total Fat, 1 g Saturated Fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, trace Fiber, 72 mg Sodium, 18 mg Potassium.
Source:  http://chinesefood.about.com/od/diningout/r/fortunecookie.htm

Stories with Bite

 

Looking for vampire stories? Check out these books with bite:

- Rachel Caine's Morganville vampires Series
- Teeth: vampire tales edited by Ellen Datlow
- Night world by L. J. Smith
- Sucks to be me: the all-true confessions of Mina Hamilton
- In the forests of the night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Unlucky 13?

 

Welcome to 2013! Check out these stories with 13 in the title:

- The blood of heroes : the 13-day struggle for the Alamo
- Fear : 13 stories of suspense and horror
- 13 little blue envelopes
- 13: thirteen stories of being thirteen
- The 13 clocks

Biographies of Great Scientists

This is a great selection of biographies of scientists from various fields of study:

Richard Feynman
Ibn al-Haytham
Isaac Asimov
Nikola Tesla
George Washington Carter
Elizabeth Blackwell
Rosalind Franklin
Jane Goodall
Marie Curie
Mae Jemison

Foreign Languages

If you want to learn a foreign language, the first stop you should make is your local library! See these great resources:

French
Spanish
German
Italian
Russian
Hindi
Chinese
Japanese
Arabic

Games, games and more games

 

Did you miss National Gaming Day on November 3rd? It's not too late to learn about both video and board games.
- From Atari to Xbox
- 1001 Video Game You Must Play Before You Die
- Extra lives: Why Video Games Matter
- Books about chess, board games and card games
- Looking for new games to play? Check out TableTop

Pottermore

Are you a Harry Potter fan? Have you explored Pottermore? New content was just released last week!

NaNoWriMo

 

 

Or in other words, National Novel Writing Month. Take the challenge and write a novel in a month! Here is some help from your library:

- Books about Creative Writing
- Books about Storycrafting
- Books about Fiction Technique

Great Apps

Are you one of the 46% of Americans who own a smart phone?  These apps are wonderful for research, reading, cooking, learning and more.  And they are FREE!

Allrecipes.com (Android & iOS) - Search by dish, cooking time or ingredients.

Article Search (iOS) - Search for journal articles with Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic for free.  Results are given in PDF files.

Bloomberg  (Android & iOS)  - Finance news, market data, stock tracking tools and news coverage.

CamScanner  (Android & iOS) - turn your phone into a document scanner and fax machine.

Congress (Android) - Find your elected officials and respresentatives.  Research the latest bills, committe hearings and laws.

Dictionary (Merriam Webster)  (Android & iOS) - Look up words, synonyms, antonyms and more.

First Aid Red Cross  (Android & iOS)  - Offers expert advice, videos, safety tips and instructions for everyday first aid.

Goodreads  (Android & iOS) - Discover new books, rate what you have read and read others' reviews about books.

iTunes U (iOS) - University level classes and lectures, for free.

Job Search  (Android & iOS) - search for jobs in a specific area or industry with indeed.com.  Keeps track of new jobs and displays them each time you launch the app.

Khan Academy (iOS iPad only) or KhAndroid (Android) - Bring all the resources of Khan Academy with you on the go.  Excellent information for school age kids or parents looking to help with homework.

Kindle  (Android & iOS)  - ebook interface for Amazon.com

Overdrive  (Android & iOS)  - get ebooks and audiobooks directly from CCLS

Red Laser  (Android & iOS)  - See a book you like?  Scan the barcode and it will find it at a local library.

Reference USA (iOS) - Access CCLS library database on your iPad.

Shazam  (Android & iOS) - You hear a new song you like.  Use the microphone on your smart phone to record it and the app will provide the information of the song for you.

World Factbook (Android) - Provides information on the history, people, governments, economy, geography and more.

It Came from the Library...and into a movie theater!

This week is set aside each year to encourage teens to read just for the fun of it! This year's theme is "It Came From the Library".

- YALSA Teen Read Week Website

- YALSA Teen Read Week Pinterest Ideas
 
List of books that were made into movies.  Click the title to check out the item in the online catalog.

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
• Beastly by Alex Flinn.
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini.
• Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen.
• The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman.
• Holes by Louis Sachar.
• I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore.
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.
• Knight’s Tale (from The Canterbury Tales) by Gregory Chaucer.
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin.
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan.
• The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
• Rocket Boys: A Memoir by Homer H. Hickam.
• Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.
• Unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story) by Michael Ende.
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
• White Fang by Jack London.
• X-Men by Stan Lee, illus Jack Kirby.
• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Steampunk

Steampunk is a genre of writing and film that encompasses alternative history lines, sci-fi, and fantasy.

- Steampunk Fiction
- Steampunk Films
- The Steampunk Bible

Banned Books Week - September 30th to October 6th

Banned Book Week celebrates the freedom to read, highlights the benefits of open access and gives a historical perspective about censorship. 

- Books about Censorship

- History of Censorship
- Frequently challenged books

Thinking about after high school?

 

Not sure what you want to do after school? The library has resources that can help you with ideas.
- College choice Handbooks
- College Resource Book
- Occupational Guides
- Job and Career Help @ the library

Rate What You Read

Announcing a new addition to the online library catalog! 

Now when you are searching for an item in the catalog you will also be able to rate what you've read, read reviews from others, see suggested titles, see other books in the series, and more.  However, not all features are available with every title.

In order to rate or review a book, you will need to sign up for a free Goodreads.com account.  Goodreads also allows you to keep 'book shelves' of things you have read, what's on your to-read list and more!