Battle of the Books

I'm working with area librarians to see if some young people are interested in participating in a region-wide Battle of the Books competition to be held in the spring or summer of 2009. Teams will be comprised of four young people who will represent area libraries. We're thinking of leaving this open to students currently in grades 6-12.

Read about how a competition like this might work here or here, though official rules and procedures for this competition would be provided to participating teams.

If you may be interested in participating, email Lori: lrohol[at]tds.lib.mn.us or call 359-8334. You don't need to have a team in mind to express interest!

Update: Area librarians have come up with the official reading list for our Battle of the Books competition:

1. House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
2. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
3. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
4. Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
5. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
6. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

We've also set a tentative competition date: Saturday, July 11 in Mankato. More details to come!

Recent Films

What's your take on the upcoming film "New in Town"? (See the YouTube video and viewers' comments here and the article from the Journal here).

And did you see Twilight? What did you think?