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Explore the universe with the newest arrives at Mythic County Public Library! Everyone is welcome.

Movies, TV and Music:

The Martian by Andy Weir/Ridley Scott

Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón

In the Shadow of the Moon by David Sington

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan

Through the Wormhole by Morgan Freeman and Revelations Entertainment

The Golden Record. Greetings and Sounds of the Earth by NASA

Space Sessions: Songs From a Tin Can by Chris Hadfield

Audiobooks:

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

Graphic Novels and Magazines:

Space Dumplins by Craig Thompson

Space: Information Graphics by Simon Rogers, Jennifer Daniel

Laika by Nick Abadzis

Rocket Science for the Rest of Us by Ben Gilliland 

Astronomy 101: From the Sun and Moon to Wormholes and Warp  Drive, Key Theories, Discoveries, and Facts about the Universe by Carolyn Petersen

Air & Space Magazine by Smithsonian Institution

Fiction:

Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Life on Mars: Tales from the New Frontier by Jonathan Strahan

Nonfiction:

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in Space by Mary Roach

What's It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There by Ariel Waldman

Voyager's Greatest Hits: The Epic Trek to Interstellar Space by Alexandra Siy

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Neat!

Yes, You Can: Interactive Harry Potter Movie

Interactive movies are one of those topics that routinely get discussed on listservs. I knew my teens would love an interactive movie program, but never felt like I had time to prepare for it. How many times would I have to watch the movie in advance to get it right? I wondered. Every time the idea came up, I would get excited for a day, then decide it was impossible and shelve the idea for later.

That all changed when I attended Teen Think Tank in February 2016, where Rikki Unterbrink discussed her interactive screening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rikki was kind enough to share her script with all of us, and she made it seem much more doable than I originally thought. Armed with Rikki’s script, I made a few tweaks to her original plan and was well on my way.

How It Worked:

Apart from the time that I put into creating chocolate Golden Snitches, I was really surprised how low-maintenance this program turned out to be. The most time-consuming part was stuffing the bags. Upon arrival, each participant was given a bag of props and a script. I used white paper bags with handles from our craft stash, and prettied them up with a label that I printed on a standard Avery shipping label. After a little explanation about what was expected of the participants, we started the movie. Everyone was eager to participate and we had a great time!

So What’s In the Bags?

Each bag contained:

A copy of the script

An Oreo cookie (use Birthday Cake-flavored Oreos if you can find them)

A chocolate Golden Snitch (see instructions below for how to make these)

A ticket for Platform 9 ¾ (there are lots of designs online for this; I included the one I used in my public Google Drive folder for this event.)

A paper wad

A paper airplane (I used the pattern found at this link and made these out of origami paper.)

A party horn (kazoos will also work)

A Kleenex

A plastic spoon

A peppermint candy

A small bag of chips

A small bag of animal crackers

A gummy worm

In addition to the bags, I needed:

A beach ball

A squirt gun filled with water

A bag of individually-wrapped candy

Some chocolate gold coins

An individually-wrapped Twizzler for each participant

A troll costume (I appropriated a wig from our storytime props–you can make this as elaborate as you want)

A can of silly string

The Piece de Resistance: Chocolate Golden Snitches

This was the most time-consuming part of putting together this program, and you don’t have to do it this elaborately. Any gold-wrapped candy could serve as a Golden Snitch, but I used a low-temperature hot glue gun to glue feathers to the sides of Ferrero-Rocher candies. They were the talk of my office for days. They do contain nuts, however, so warn your teens in case of food allergies.

All in all, what started as a program I thought I would never be able to pull off became one of my best-attended events last summer. The teens had a blast and the interactive experience let them see an old favorite movie in a whole new way. I can’t wait to try another interactive movie, perhaps at my National Teen Lock-In event this summer!

Want to try this at your library? My scripts, tickets, stickers, and a detailed how-to are available at this link.

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I don’t have any thoughts to add to this, but if you are looking for cool programming ideas, this tumblr is a gem.

My Super-Awesome Experience with Room Escape Programming

After seeing Nicole’s amazing room escape program here on TSU, I had to try it myself.  I didn’t have the budget for a Breakout Box from Breakout EDU, so I decided to design my own.

And it was utterly, completely worth it.  I had the highest attendance I’ve ever had at a single teen program since I started three and a half years ago.  Unlike the majority of my programs, which generally attract middle schoolers but have low high schooler attendance, this program was mostly high school teens.  It beyond satisfying to reach an area of my teen population that usually doesn’t come to programming.  Even now, whenever I talk about this program, I can’t stop grinning.  As I write, I am smiling like a fiend.

I will caution that it’s not easy to put a room escape together without a prior script, but it’s certainly not impossible.  You can do it!

One thing I learned right off the bat is that everyone is going to approach planning the escape differently.  I tried using the colored index card approach, but it just didn’t make sense in my brain.  I ended up diagramming a flowchart.  I kept telling myself that I was *doing it wrong* by not using index cards, but then I got over myself and realized that as long as everything came together, then I wasn’t doing anything wrong.  So, design the program in the way that makes the most sense to you.

I have previous background playing online room escape games, so I was familiar with a lot of the tropes and ideas.  If you haven’t ever played one, I highly recommend it.  One of my favorites is Submachine, which is a series.  Crimson Room and Viridian Room are classics–and don’t let the low-tech graphics fool you.  The puzzles are tricky!  The subtitles are also mildly hilarious: “No strange thing was found” indeed! Playing a few of these is especially helpful if you don’t have a live Room Escape in your area, or you don’t want to spend the money to play through a live-action one.

When brainstorming my program, I started with the end goal and worked backwards.  I knew I wanted to use a word lock, and the one I purchased has a four-letter word combination.  That meant I needed four puzzle-solving tracks for them to follow, and at the end of each track would be a letter.  They also needed to figure out in which order the letters should be entered.

The biggest obstacle for me was filling the space I was using with enough red herrings to throw the teens off and make them really think.  We don’t have a space that is pre-furnished or that has any particularly interesting features.  I had a meeting room to use, with meeting room furniture.  So I sent out a call via email to all of my coworkers asking for strange items and odd tchotchkes that they wouldn’t mind donating to a good cause.  I was very lucky and received lots of boxes, a calendar with a secret pocket, vases, and more.  Plus, I raided the youth services supply closet and put out some of our rarely used props, like giant plastic crayons and creepy dolls.

I wasn’t sure how many people to expect, so I planned on running groups of 5 through the room during a two-hour after-closing block.  To my surprise, almost forty people showed up!  They were all really excited, and several of them mentioned to my coworker Karen, who always helps me and is amazing, that they had wanted to try a room escape but the ones in the area were too expensive.  Score for the library in being accessible!  In the end, I had to run larger groups through the room so we didn’t run over three hours.

One of my major fears, aside from no one showing up, was that the puzzles would be too easy.  I needn’t have worried!  I think if I had given them more time in the room, they would have figured out more on their own, but as it was, each group was timed at 15 minutes.  I gave out so many hints, and a lot of encouragement to look under things.  No really, under.  Yes, ALL THE WAY UNDER.  TURN THE CHAIR OVER!  The teens were surprisingly timid about touching things in the room and I had to reassure them that it was okay.

The hardest puzzle?  Getting a lock combination from an analog clock.  None of them could tell time on a regular clock!

At the end of the night, the teens spontaneously gathered for a huddle and a cheer, and my heart exploded.

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This is fantastic, @darienlibrary - thank you, Mallory!

We collaged small white boxes on Saturday at our Meditation Box event and it was awesome. Attendees decorated their boxes on the outside with how they present themselves to the world and the inside with their inner hopes, dreams, desires. Each attendee left with some silly putty, a stress ball, and usb with three guided meditations to begin filling their box. 

Here’s to a mindful 2017!

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Oooooo! I bet you could do something like this as a YA program. Pick a theme and paint by black light? Story time aspect could be optional.

Glow-in-the-Dark Story Time! We read Goodnight Gorilla, Hoot Owl Master of Disguise, and The Lonely Firefly!

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Oh I love this. I’d love to try something like this geared toward teens. Maybe as part of a larger mental health and emotional literacy week/month? 

We collaged small white boxes on Saturday at our Meditation Box event and it was awesome. Attendees decorated their boxes on the outside with how they present themselves to the world and the inside with their inner hopes, dreams, desires. Each attendee left with some silly putty, a stress ball, and usb with three guided meditations to begin filling their box. 

Here’s to a mindful 2017!

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Reblog if you’re a library Tumblr!

Yay library love! Let’s see how many of us there are on here. 

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See what I’m saying about these pods tho?

New pod space, Manchester Central Library by Manchester Libraries Via Flickr: Checking the news and family crafts in the background at City Library. Image by Darren Henley

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Okay, okay that first picture is definitely a Google office, and not a library, but can you blame me? 

Ever since I started looking up teen spaces, I’ve been drawn to the collaborative spaces. Big, small, fancy, or low budget, I honestly think this might be ranked higher for me than some maker spaces or video studios I’ve seen. I’ve read a lot about third spaces and how important they are for teens, particularly in this class. Seems to me that having a comfortable spaces to do homework, host their own events, or work on projects seems like a great way to give teen patrons a stronger sense of agency, while also encouraging them to take advantage of library resources.

These kinds of spaces are easy to make on any budget, too. Most libraries probably aren’t going to have space or budget for a fancy pod, but most will be able to create partitions or re-purpose small storage rooms.

Sources: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three, Photo Four

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If/Then

If you liked “Leviathan” by Scott Westerfeld, then you might like:

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest 

Cherie Priest drives into alternative history, wherein the Civil War is dragging on and a mysterious substance is turning the air of Seattle foul and the residents into zombies. If you’re into airships, zombie warfare, and big, weird machines, this book is for you.  

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

This book is less alternative history, and more dystopian future. In this work of speculative fiction, characters deal with the deadly effects of climate change - huge City Killer storms, rising waters that drowned whole cities, and all the cultural changes that come with it. It might be more aptly considered dieselpunk, but fans of steampunk will feel at home.

Railsea by China Mieville

Railsea dabbles in steampunk, creating a dystopian narrative where the entire land is covered by train tracks and has become populated by giant rat creatures. The book has a distinct Moby Dick feeling to it, and mixed high adventure with intrigue. Mieville’s books tend to be a bit more dense than the other authors listed here, but this should by no means discourage YA readers.

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Whoops, I made a Raven Cycle-inspired playlist. 

Anyone have any suggestions, or links to their own book-inspired playlists? I’d love to hear!