And the moral of the story is...

Today at Writers' Space, we worked with the old myths and fables that so many of us know from growing up and created a few of our own. Here are a few that the writers worked on to create together, all to the moral of the importance of self expression:

A boy named Jimmy wanted to be a bird so bad. He would give anything to be a bird. Everyone kept telling him that he could never be a bird in his lifetime. Jimmy had no friends because he felt so obsessed with birds – he kept to himself a lot because of this. People made fun of Jimmy, calling him Birdman, Hawkboy and other things. Jimmy went crazy from all that name calling and everything. So one night, Jimmy ran away to the woods to be with his bird friends. Jimmy tried to climb a tree and fell down it. He was found by a lumberjack and was rushed to the hospital. He was in so much pain. Jimmy’s mom asked him why he did that and Jimmy snapped, spilling all of his feelings out. The next day, Jimmy went to surgery and when it was over, he never woke up.

Moral: Find a way to express yourself, or you might find yourself in pain.

-- Roneisha, Treayzure, and Verdiz

One day there was a guy named Keith who went to the school dance. He started to move, but couldn’t dance to save his life. Everyone started to boo and throw tomatoes at him. Keith felt so embarrassed. He cried and wound up going home. Keith went into a deep depression and never danced again. He ended up committing suicide.

Moral: Find a way to express yourself, or you might find yourself in pain.

-- Mike and Torey

Callie and her family were going on a road trip to Disneyland. Halfway there, a semi-truck blew a red light and smashed into their car. Everyone was killed except Callie, who was hospitalized for about a month or two. She emerged unscathed, except for the gashes on her heart. She continued living her life for the most part, living in the same house and continuing her job. But outside of the necessary factors, she never left her house. She never told anyone what happened, keeping it all bottled up inside of her. Eventually the pain and sorrow was just too much, and she stabbed herself in the stomach, waiting until she bled out to die.

Moral: Find a way to express yourself, or you might find yourself in pain.

-- Mimi and Roshin

Smart girls just like you

Ladies! Have you seen this awesome website? It's called Smart Girl and has all kinds of cool things for girls, by girls. There are surveys and articles as well as fun games, like the Crush Barometer, where you can find out how good your chances of being happy with your current crush are. There are reviews, craft ideas, and tips from other girls all around the world -- a great site to visit when you feel like expressing yourself, or simply connecting with other girls. Check it out!

Cosplay Craziness

Our Anime Critics and Manga Discussion Group summit was fantastic thanks to our own resident cosplay and convention expert, Naruto---er---Desiree. We discussed some ideas for the mini-con we're dreaming up for this summer. Stay tuned and we just might leak out a few of the things we're planning.

Don't think that this lone photo tells the whole story. If you want to catch up on more photos of what went down at our meeting, just follow this link for the official slide show.

http://www.slide.com/r/kH4YR193tD9mLy7Ecf0Dv5DzX_jvrqus?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Anime critics and manga readers unite!

Love that library...

This year's "Love your Library Day" was a huge hit -- thanks to everybody who came! We had a great time talking to everybody and letting you know about the things we do here, and what's coming up. In the case of the teen department, that would be Teen Tech Week, which we're all crazy excited about. Pick up a flyer or look on our website for more information about specific events here in the Youth Services Department.

Your Voice Can Be Heard!

If you're not quite ready to ditch the romance so soon after Valentine's Day, but you're tired of all of those dated teen love stories out there, this should cheer you up. Harlequin is going to introduce a new teen romance series, and they want to hear your feedback about the kind of things you'd like to see. So hey, don't miss your chance and sign up to be on their teen panel at this address:

Take me to the Harlequin Teen Panel!

After all, how many chances do you really get to tell adults what to do?

Teen Tech Week Lineup, If You Missed It

For those of you who missed it, here's our lineup for Teen Tech Week 2009! Feel free to pick up any of our bookmarks or flyers as a reminder.

Monday, March 9 @ 4:00 p.m.
Press Play Red Carpet Premiere! Your movies on display
We'll show the video entries from our teen film contest and preview our official FPPL Teens commercial! If your video is chosen as our winner it will eventually be featured on our MySpace page and on our teen blog, The Wire

Tuesday, March 10 @ 4:00 p.m.
Game Design Demonstration
Calling all future video game designers! What's better than playing a game? Creating your own game and making your own rules. We're going to be presenting a special how-to demo of Scratch, the incredible free game design software.

Thursday, March 12 @ 4:00 p.m.
Mp3 Cover Workshop
Just say no to naked ipods, Zunes and other Mp3 players. Why go bare when you can deck it out in style? Feel free to bring in old t-shirts, jeans or other scrap material (or you can use ours) and we'll show you how to create and embellish a cover your friends will envy.

Friday March 13 @ 4:00 p.m.
Open Gaming Afternoon
We kick off our Open Gaming Fridays this afternoon. Nintendo gaming
equipment will be available for in-library use to members of our Gaming Club. See a librarian for an application.

They are the champions.

Congrats to the winners of the Super Smash Bros. Tourney! No hard feelings...kinda...

25 Random Things about Us -- Two can play at that game.

In the spirit of the crazy Facebook phenomenon, we thought we might give it a shot.

25. Miss Donna has worked in the youth services department for 13 years!
24. Miss Susan is a manga/anime enthusiast.
23. Miss Vicki only bakes from scratch, so if you come to an event she's running, it will be delicious (she swears).
22. We have five computers connected to the internet, two kids' computers, and one homework computer.
21. Miss Lindsey LOVES kids' songs, and sings them all of the time -- seriously. All the time.
20. Miss Jeane works at two libraries -- ours, and a nearby school library.
19. We do so many arts and crafts that we always have glitter on clothes and skin. Always.
18. At our last video game tourney, we had 40 people. It. Was. Crazy.
17. The library has a MySpace page AND a Facebook page. FRIEND US!
16. Miss Mims makes a killer onion dip.
15. We keep copies of almost all of the textbooks you use at school -- see? No excuse not to do your homework.
14. Miss Donna knows everybody in Forest Park. (Well not everybody, but almost.)
13. Boys secretly check out Twilight.
12. We are revamping our non-fiction section for young adults -- keep checking it for new stuff, geared toward you.
11. We have lots of die cuts, including a robot one, but nobody ever seems to use it.
10. Over 30 people work at the library.
9. The website we most commonly see people using is "YouTube".
8. We have an entire bin of Lost and Found items. Anybody missing a pair of gloves?
7. We have a day devoted solely to teens each week -- Teen Thursdays. We better see you there!
6. We hate having to shush people. But we will do it.
5. We have tutors here after school -- you should come see them. They're here for you!
4. One of the largest books we have in our collection is Lincoln Shot! by Barry Denenberg -- it's three feet tall and one foot wide!
3. We have a TON of audio books. (They're mixed in with the regular books.)
2. It's always either too cold or too hot down here.
1. We love the kids who use our library -- thanks for coming.

Bring your A Game!

We're having our monthly Wii tournament this Thursday, and space is going fast, so be sure to sign up today! Don't miss out...