bullying...it's bigger than you think.

onusnetwork.ning.com

Are you being bullied?  Are you picking on others and not sure how to stop?  Are you watching other people be teased and hurt and don't know what to do?

Like many students, I was subjected to bullying and know first hand it's long-lasting effects.  I also know how easy it is to lash out at others when people are picking on you.  It's a terrible cycle and you have the power to stop it.  Tell a teacher, principal, TA, librarian, parent or good friend.  If they don't help you, tell someone else.  Keep talking about it until someone listens.  You don't deserve to be treated like you are worthless, no matter what you may have done or said in the past.

Go to onusnetwork.ning.com to find others who are going through the same thing and know you are not alone.

Peace.

Ms. Carson
HHS Librarian

Promiscuities

by Naomi Wolf
Review by Brynn Haley, grade 10

Promiscuities is a book about what it's like to grow from inexperienced girls to sexually mature women in our western culture.  The pressures and problems we run into, the experiences we have, and the feelings and confusions we encounter along the way are all in the stories in this book.

Promiscuities is filled with real-life stories from women about their experiences growing from girls into women, and everything they went through.  As a teen girl, I can easily relate to the stories, and this book gives a lot of insight from women who have been where I, and all teenage girls, are at one point.

I found Promiscuities to be a very interesting read.  I enjoyed it a lot and learned from it too.  If you're a teenage girl, there is no doubt you can relate to these women in Promiscuities and can learn from them too.

Shiver

by Maggie Siefvater
Review by Amber Morehouse, grade 11

This is book one of a triology (3 in a series).  The main characters are a werewolf, Sam, and the wolf-obsessed, Grace.  Sam saved Grace when she was a child from a wolf attack and they have been in love with each other ever since.  Grace didn't know that it was Sam who saved her, so she was just a person with a favourite wolf.  Grace meets Sam for the first time in high school at a bookstore.  Everything elevates from there.  There are rogue wolf attacks and Grace cures Sam of his werewolfism by injecting him with a meningitis infection.

I would recommend this book if you like a teenage romance that often changes perspective.

Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our Daughters from Marketer's Schemes

by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown
Review by Brynn Haley, grade 10

Packaging Girlhood is a non-fiction book about the images the media sells to girls, and the categories that it squeezes girls into at such a young age.

Packaging Girlhood explores the effects that the messages of gender roles in the media have on young girls, and those effects aren't good.  They range from low self-esteem and self-worth to underachieving and setting low standards for themselves.

According to Packaging Girlhood, girls are categorized into narrow groups such a "diva, shopper, boy-crazy, mean-girl, cute, hot, or pretty."  These concepts don't take into account the girl's entire personality, therefore they disregard girls as entire persons with unique traits and quirks.

These messages are found all over the place in our media, from movies to books to advertisements to music, sometimes in the most unexpected places.  Packaging Girlhood shows us how to recognize these hidden messages.

I really enjoyed this book and agree with its message.  I recommend this book to anyone concerned with children's wellbeing and messages in the media.

We're on CanLit!

http://www.canlitforkids.com/article;story,13;School-Library-Blogs-–-wonderful-resource-for-school-library-staff-and-students

CanLit, the go-to distributor of Canadian books for school libraries has featured our Blog on their mainpage!!

Go nerds go!!!!

Luna

by Julie Anne Peters
Review by Brynn Haley, grade 10

Luna is about a transgendered teen struggling to come out as what he really is- a girl.  Liam was born with a male body, but all his life has felt he is a girl, born with the wrong body.

Luna is Liam's true identity.  She only shows herself in the safety of her sister's room at night, hidden from the outside world and the rest of her family.  The story is told through Luna/Liam's sister's point of view, because she is Luna's confidante. 

This book is a beautiful, heartwrenching story of a person trying to break free and find acceptance.  It's a story not only of Liam/Luna's transformation as a person, but her sister's growth and learning to accept Luna for who she is as well.

Luna is an inspiring story for anyone who's ever felt they don't fit in, and shows that it's possible to find acceptance and to let their true self show through.

Witchlight - Night World Series

by L.J. Smith
Review by Amber Morehouse, grade 11

This is the story of Raksha Keller, Iliona Sominick and Galen Drachco.  Keller is a shifter, Iliona is the lost witch child and wild power and Galen is a royal shifter.  According to a prophecy, Iliona has to marry into shifter blood so that shifters will work with the witches in the millenium.  Iliona is to marry Galen but Galen's soulmate is Keller.  Eventually all this works out but it is a harrowng journey to the teenagers.
I would recommend this book if you like paranormal romances.

Mysterious Skin

by Scott Heim
Review by Brynn Haley, grade 10

Brian Lackey's past is a complete mystery to him.  Pieces of his childhood are blanked out from his memory, erased as if those entire passages of time never even happened.  Brian needs to learn the truth about why-and what-his mind won't allow him to remember, and he can't move on until he does.

Neil McCormick remembers his childhood like it was yesterday.  He especially remembers secret meetings with his former baseball coach when he was only eight years old.  Today, Neil is a criminal and a hustler, exploring his sexuality with the older men he hooks up with each night.  Almost nothing fazes Neil after the things he's seen as a child.

Mysterious Skin is a story of two very different boys who share a very similar childhood, who come together to learn from each other.  This is a story of growing up and discovering oneself.

Mysterious Skin has also been adapted for film.  Check out the movie after you read the book!

Fat! So?

by Marilyn Wann
Review by Brynn Haley, grade 10

Fat! So? is a non-fiction book about self-acceptance, no matter your body size.  This book is a body-positive and very fun guide to loving yourself and to stop putting your life on hold until you lose your extra pounds.
Fat! So? is filled with trivia, pictures, quizzes, rhymes, and real-life stories of people struggling to accept their bodies.  And because this book is such a breeze to read, I recommend it for reluctant readers and book-lovers alike.
This book is definitely a self-esteem booster, but more than that it will change your mind on how you view your body altogether.  What it brings is a very welcome concept that there's nothing wrong with you, in a society that tells us to look a certain way.
So, no matter your size, take a big step towards loving yourself and pick up this book!

Library Guild Meeting

We will resume building our Medieval Castle at our meeting on Tuesday Feb 15th at 12:50pm.

Be there or be square(r).

Ms. Carson
HHS Librarian

S.E.X.

by Heather Corinna

Review by Brynn Haley, grade 10

S.E.X. is a complete, comprehensive sexual education guide that covers every topic you could ever think of, and answers just about every question you could (or have been too afraid to) ask.  From in-depth anatomy lessons to relationship advice, self-esteem to contraceptives, this book has left absolutely nothing out.

S.E.X. is inclusive of all genders, sexual identities, and sexual orientations; it leaves no one out.  And since this book is directed toward a young adult audience, it's fresh and welcoming in its design and language.  Everything is easy to understand, and it isn't clinical in nature like some sex ed. books seem to be.

Heather Corinna, the author of S.E.X., is the founder of one of the internet's most popular sex ed. websites: http://www.scarleteen.com/

S.E.X. is basically the entire website jammed into one book.  Check out the website, it is full of important info and advice.

I recommend S.E.X. to anyone, regardless of age, gender, or sexual orientation.

Being Sixteen

by Allyson Braithwaite Condie
Review by Chaya Pattison, grade 11

This book is about a girl who was excited about turning 16.  She expected that her 16th year would be the best year of her life up until that point.  She was wrong.  She spent most of her year watching out for her little sister who had an eating disorder.  It was the year she played on the varsity team in her favourite sport, basketball.  It was the year she made a new friend.  It was her year of change.  It was also the year she almost lost her best friend.
Read the book to find out what challenges she went through and what she accomplished.  Read to find out how Juliet survived being 16.
I would recommend this book because it teaches you about the struggles people go through when they have an eating disorder.  It is also a good story.

Dark Angel: Night World Series

by L.J. Smith
Review by Amber Morehouse, grade 11

This book is about the "lost witch" Gillian.  Gillian hears a child crying in the woods and drowns.  Her "Guardian Angel" lets her go back and she is rescued by her crush David Blackburn.  David is going out with Tanya, a two-faced girl who is sweet to your face but horrible anywhere else.
Gillian is a shy girl but with Angel's help she becomes really popular.  Angel helps Gillian get David as a boyfriend, but when she tries to put a stop to the rumors by casting a spell everything goes downhill fast.  Gillian's Guardian Angel is actually a ghost named Gery and he wants he wants her to be included in the "Night World" (which is a world of vampires, shifters, witches, etc...).  Gillian just wants a normal life with David who turns out to be her Soulmate. 
(Spoiler Alert!)  In the end, Gery gets forgiven and David and Gillian live happily ever after with "Circle Daybreak."  I would recommend this book if you like a light romance and the supernatural.

No Impact Man

by Colin Beavan
Review by Ms. Carson, HHS Librarian

I admit I was skeptical picking up this book.  "No impact" seemed kind of, well, inflated and egotistical.  I'm not the only one who had reservations.  The New York Times initially saw Beavan's blog as a sensationalistic marketing device for his book.  And what's a historian living in a NYC apartment know about environmentalism anyway?  How often does he dig around in the dirt?

I watched the documentary, and while I found it emotionally moving (and an interesting study on modern marriage), it wasn't particularly shocking or inspiring.

But then I actually sat down and read the book and I got it.  Beavan is terrified.  Not just of water running out and global warming and asthma and pollution.  He totally sees the fragility of life.  He knows it first hand.

Some of us experence death, sickness and loss at such an early age that it imprints on us the dreaded knowledge that everything we know and love can be taken from us at any minute and there is nothing we can do about it.  So we must learn to live with uncertainty.  And often that results in an obsessive-compulsive drive to control the world around us in an attempt to ward off our despair.  But all this running around trying to make all these rules (no electricity or else I am guilty of contributing to the deaths of children in Africa!) without examining the horror that underlies our "magical thinking" will drive us (and everyone around us) insane.  And Beavan, thankfully, took the time to climb onto his meditation cushion and ask, "How shall I live?", "How shall I serve?" and "Why the heck am I driven to try so hard when everyone else is sitting in grid-lock traffic eating fast food with the AC blasting?",

The book becomes an interesting exploration of these questions and the answers Beavan self-consciously arrives at.  It is not a manifesto about how to live without toilet paper.   Read it and ask yourself, "How shall I live?"

Patron Saint of Libraries - a teen genius!

:: Saint Catherine ::

Did you know Saint Catherine of Alexandria is the Patron Saint of Libraries and Students?  She was a scholar of the sciences who vowed never to marry unless she met a man who was as beautiful, intelligent, and well-read as she was.  Lacking a sufficient mortal, she devoted herself to Jesus (he seemed to fit the bill!). 
At age 18, she tried to convince the Emperor Maximus to stop torturing Christians.  He was too intimidated by her intellectual prowress and had her imprisoned, but the Empress was most impressed!  Catherine was sentenced to die on the wheel of torture but legend has it that when she touched the wheel it broke.  The Emperor, furious, had her beheaded.

Learn more:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03445a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Alexandria

or come check out one of our many books on Medieval History at the HHS Library.

Have a great long weekend, see you at the beginning of 2nd semester!

~Ms. Carson, HHS Librarian

Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry

by Stacy Malkan
Review by Ms. Carson, HHS Librarian

The best thing I learned from this book, besides that I am never ever buying another "beauty" product without reading the label?  My new favourite website:  The Cosmetics Database http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ 
According to Malkan, we use an average of 25 personal grooming products everyday!  Go to this website and plug in every product you put on your body and be prepared to be disgusted by how many toxic chemicals they contain. 

You see, the cosmetics industry is allowed to "self-regulate", meaning we, the public, have very little say or knowledge about what we are putting on and into our bodies day after day (like toothpaste!), and the effects these products are having on our systems.  How is it that companies like Revlon and Estee Lauder can brand products with the pink "for a cure" label, urging us to buy them in order to support breast cancer research, when these same items contain known carcinogens and hormone disruptors that directly cause breast cancer? 

After reading the first chapter of this book I immediately went to the bathtub and found that my son's "Natural" body wash contained a high amount of sodium lauryl sulfate, a known cancer-causing chemical, not to mention a host of other toxic chemicals.  I had been tricked into purchasing something I thought was wholesome based on the words "natural" and "gentle" and the healthy-looking baby on the bottle.  Now I wouldn't use this to clean my toilet.

Read this book and see if it doesn't inspire YOU to think twice about what your "beauty" products are doing to make you sick.

We're in the News!

                                                                       What a team! 

go to  http://kvstyle.canadaeast.com/community/article/1372378   for the full story

Exam Week

Next week's Guild meeting is cancelled due to Exams, but we will resume taking over the world (one book at a time!) Tuesday Feb 1st for our fundraiser.  Meet in the Library at 12:50.  Good luck on your exams, I know you'll be awesome.

Ms. Carson, HHS Librarian

Hunger Games Trilogy

That's right...they're here!  First come, first serve!!

Happy reading!

Ms. Carson, HHS Librarian

Huntress - Night World Series

by L. J. Smith
Review by Amber Morehouse, grade 11

This story is about the relationship between Jez Redfern (a half-vampire) and Morgead Blackthorn (a vampire). 

In the beginning, Jez thinks she is a full vampire until she has a flashback while hunting down a mortal.  She goes to find the truth from her uncle Bracken.  When he tells her she's half vampire, half human, she goes to her mother's relative's place.  Later her friend Hugh tells her about the Wild Powers and that Morgead is in suspicion of the Council of Others.  Jez goes back to Morgead and after trials and bloodletting finds out that Morgead is her soulmate and that she is a Wild Power.

I would recommend this book if you like a light romance mixed with the paranormal.

Seasons of Salvation

by Dennis L. Mangrum
Review by Chaya Pattison, grade 11

This book is based on a true story.  It is about a girl who grew up as an orphan and lived in foster homes until she was 17 years old.  None of her foster families cared for her or were kind to her in any way.  When she was 17 years old her life changed completely.  Up until that point in her life she didn't care about anyone and never trusted anyone.  Over the time period of 6 months she became a better person.  She had a perfect attendance at school, she socialized and had fun. 

Read the book to find out how she became an orphan, what thing was so special that it changed her life in such a short period of time, and to see what her life was like before it changed.
I would recommend this book because it is a heartwarming story.

Brighid's Quest

by P. C. Cast
Review by Zoe Jardine, grade 9

Brighid's Quest was a wonderful book about a centaur huntress named Brighid.  She had a tough childhood and is now a huntress for the MacCallan clan.  Her friend and Chieftan, Elphame, has a brother that was suffering great loss and set out to find the New Fomorians.  When he is gone for a long time, Elphame gets worried, so Brighid sets out to find him.  When she gets to where the New Fomorians supposedly are she gets the biggest surprise of her life.  Most of the New Fomorians are just kids.  There are a few adults, but not many.  Most of the adults died.  And the worst thing is that Brighid is not exactly good with kids; but her and Cuchulainn, Elphame's brother, have to get them all the way back to MacCallan Castle.

Soulmate - Night World Series

by L. J. Smith
Review by Amber Morehouse, grade 11

This book is about a girl called Hannah and her soulmate Thierry.  Thierry is a vampire while Hannah is an old soul (someone who has been reincarnated a lot of times).  Hannah doesn't know anything about the Night World so she thinks she is going crazy.  When she goes to a psychologist she sees one of her past lives and then she is attacked by a wolf.  Maya, Thierry's creator, has always interfered in Hannah and Thierry's lovelife.  She has killed Hannah pretending to be Thierry so that Hannah would hate Thierry in this life.  But when Hannah remembers that she goes to Vegas to find Thierry and is kidnapped by Maya.  Maya is trying to make Hannah a vampire so that she won't be reincarnated again.
(Spoiler Alert!) 
She fails, Thierry rescues Hannah, and Hannah stakes Maya.
I would definitely recommend this book if you like Vampire romance novels.

Online Storytime

Do you have kids?  A little brother or sister?  Do you do a lot of babysitting?

Check out:
http://www.gnb.ca/0003/children.asp and click on Tumblebooks

The New Brunswick Public Library Service offers FREE online interactive picture books for kids.  Hear a Robert Munsch story and watch the pictures move.  My son loves this and yours probably will too!  What a great literacy initiative.

Happy reading,

Ms. Carson
HHS Librarian

Therefore Choose

by Keith Oatley
Review by Ms. Carson, HHS Librarian

George, a medical student who is unsure about his future as a doctor, befriends Werner, a visiting German student interested in psychology and philosophy.  Werner invites George to spend the break with him in Germany, where George meets Werner's lively, intellectually stimulating friend Anna, an editor of a erudite literary magazine.  The two fall in love and Anna asks George to stay and follow his creative leanings instead of returning to England to complete his medical training.  George, being a somewhat practical fellow, carefully deliberates and decides it would be most prudent to complete his degree and visit Anna on his school breaks.  He is also leary of the political climate in Germany.  This is pre-World War II, and Hilter is rallying his troops and citizens to prove to the world that Germany is not a country to be trifled with.
Not since Martin Amis' Time's Arrow have I read such a ground-level vision of the Holocaust and its effects on the psyches of those on both side of the Channel.  Oatley reminds us how everyday decisions, in a time of political (or in present day, environmental) crisis, cause long-lasting effects to those around us, as well as ourselves. 

For those who are interested in hearing Oatley speak about his novel:

January 17, 2011: ReadingHeadliner(s): Keith Oatley
Featured title(s): Therefore Choose
7:00 pm at Ganong Hall Lecture Theatre, 100 Tucker Park Road , Saint John, NB
Keith is speaking in cooperation with the Lorenzo Reading Series. This event is free and open to the public.