dvd review; the last song

I enjoyed watching the movie "The Last Song", specially because Liam Hemsworth comes out. This movie was about Roonie Milller (Miley Cyrus) in the summer, she spends it with her father in Wrightsville Beach. In the beginning of the summer, she is 17 years old who resents her parents for their messy divorce; she is annoyed that she is being forced to spend the summer with her estranged father, to whom she has not spoken for in three years. She was so angry that she has abandoned the one thing that she and her father used to share in common, playing the piano. She has no desire to spend the summer in North Carolina; neither getting to know Will Blakelee, the good looking Volleyball player who literally bumps into her on the first day in Wrightsville. The summer she initially ends up being an opportunity for her to learn about faith, family and love.

Author Jennifer Niven coming January 9th!

The Homestead Library is excited to be hosting author Jennifer Niven on January 9th, right after the release of her new book All The Bright Things on January 6th. I was only able to read the first few chapters and I can't wait for the book to come out. Check out this review from Kirkus, and then go to GoodReads for more about reviews and reactions. Sign up in the library to get on the guest list.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Two struggling teens develop an unlikely relationship in a moving exploration of grief, suicide and young love.

Violet, a writer and member of the popular crowd, has withdrawn from her friends and from school activities since her sister died in a car accident nine months earlier. Finch, known to his classmates as "Theodore Freak," is famously impulsive and eccentric. Following their meeting in the school bell tower, Finch makes it his mission to re-engage Violet with the world, partially through a school project that sends them to offbeat Indiana landmarks and partially through simple persistence. (Violet and Finch live, fortunately for all involved, in the sort of romantic universe where his throwing rocks at her window in the middle of the night comes off more charming than stalker-esque.) The teens alternate narration chapter by chapter, each in a unique and well-realized voice. Finch's self-destructive streak and suicidal impulses are never far from the surface, and the chapters he narrates are interspersed with facts about suicide methods and quotations from Virginia Woolf and poet Cesare Pavese. When the story inevitably turns tragic, a cast of carefully drawn side characters brings to life both the pain of loss and the possibility of moving forward, though some notes of hope are more believable than others.

Many teen novels touch on similar themes, but few do it so memorably. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Weeded books become poetry

Art from discarded pages. Some examples:

Return of Lego Poetry in the library

This week, students can stop by and create poetry without writing a word. There are some profound thoughts taking place.

Developing a research strategy

There are a lot of research papers currently underway here at Homestead. One of the single most necessary and beneficial steps you can take as a researcher is to develop a good research strategy, knowing where and how to look for good information. Here's a short interactive presentation to introduce you to the process or refresh your memory.

Dan's picks #2 " An innocent solider"

I didn't read this as recently as most books I will be focusing on, but this is one of my favorite books in the library shelves and I have read it multiple times open because I enjoy it so much.

This book follows a young uneducated farmhand, who is forced to join napoleon's army under a false pretense. We join him on a riveting and appalling journey to survive and maintain his humanity through the trials and tribulations of war.

The main reason I enjoy this book is the strong descriptions that it provides about the reality of war. It vividly paints the hell of becoming a soldier, the marches and the hunger of a solider to name a few. Also, I really enjoy the first person account feel of the majority of the book, allowing you to empathize with the main character and feel his journey like you are experiencing firsthand. Though hard to spot, this book has some flaws, because this book was originally in another language and translated into english there is some awkward phrasing and words. This book teaches about the evils of war, friends/ enemies and transcending social classes. Also this book gives you insight into the world and history during this time. Overall, great read and would recommend to anyone.

Dan's picks #1 "Little Brother"

This week, among others, I read "Little Brother", a book set in the not so far off future where the government controls and monitors almost every imaginable aspect of everyday life. In this dystopian environment set in san francisco an adventure unfolds intertwining technology and danger. 
I thoroughly enjoyed this book for a couple of reasons, for starters this book was able to keep my attention from start to finish. I had a feeling that after the original excitement of the events at the beginning of the book that I would lose interest but this book kept getting more and more interesting as the plot developed. Elements that you would expect from a tech savvy society are present; hacking, coding and computer building to name a few, so much so that it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if I learned that the creation and publication of this book was directly funded by some startup trying to drum up more interest for the field of computer science. The only part that irked me was the fact that the scenes with violence are toned down in such a way that makes me think this book's author knew it needed to be pc to be let into widespread school libraries. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sick character who obsesses about the goriest of scenes, however violence and detail of such adds a certain degree of realism. All in all I enjoyed this book and recommend reading.








Any questions, comments or book suggestions can be emailed to:
dmoll384@student.fuhsd,org  or djmoll9@gmail.com