Want to know me?

Want to see me?

Want to call me?

Want to trust me?

Want to love me?

Want to go private?

It's the summer after 8th grade and Abby Johnson is about to enter high school. That should be exciting enough, but Abby is bored with her life. She is pretty much good at everything she does and nothing is really a challenge. She is beautiful, athletic, smart, and gets prefect grades in school.

Faith is Abby's bestfriend and has been since childhood. They spend all day together in classes and the minute they get home from school they meet up in online chatrooms at Chezteen.com, a new virtual second-life-type website for teens.

Today is like any other day chatting online to Faith except today she starts chatting with someone else in the chatroom, someone she doesn't know. It's not long before "Kyle" wants "to go private" with Abby claiming they have some much in common to talk about. This would be cool except that Kyle is 27 and Abby is only 14.  

Dixon crossing Niagara below the Great Cantilever Bridge, U.S.A. 1895-1903 -photo courtesy of NYPL

NYPL gives viewers the opportunity to take 19th century images and turn them into 21st century GIF files.

Stereograms, invented in 1838 by Charles Wheatstone, are pairs of two dimensional images shot from different angles in such a way that they mimic the vantage points of our left and right eyes. When viewed through a stereoscope, the combined images pop out in 3D.

Stereograms were hugely popular in the 19th century and often used to give audiences glimpses of parts of the world they may never have been able to see before. Even more recently, NASA has used the stereogram technology to take 3D pictures on Mars to better see what the landscape of the planet looks like.

Last month, the New York Public Library's experimental Labs department (http://www.nypl.org/collections/labs) unveiled its latest digitization project, the Stereogranimator. This cool new tool enables users to take old stereograms from the 19th century and turn them into 21st century animated images. Using the Stereogranimator (http://stereo.nypl.org), you can choose an image and then the speed and composition of your animation and start creating a flickering image that looks 3D! The Stereogranimator also gives you the option to create an old school red and blue 3D image that can be viewed through 3D glasses (not the ones you kept from that movie you saw last week!).

Check out NYPL's website for other low tech to high tech projects and start making your own animated images today! Add them to your website or next school project!

Josh and Emma are neighbors and best friends, they have been since they were little, but ever since they shared a kiss a few years back they never managed to get over the thought of "what if".  Now it's 1996 and AOL is just coming on the scene. No one in Josh and Emma's high school have the internet yet, not until a friend gives Emma the free trial 100 hours of AOL l start-up disc she recieved in the mail.  Emma is bored one day and decides to give it a shot, but when she first logs on to AOL a website called Facebook pops up onto the screen and a page opens.  A profile page of herself...15 years later.  Josh and Emma have no idea what this "Facebook" thing is, but they do know it's a look into the future and if the future doesn't look good...why not change it now.

photo courtesy of Flickr user Ben Atkin

Did you know that the Teen Lounge now has it's very own iPad for you to use!? It's already packed with tons of cool games, books, and other fun apps.

If you don't see a game on there that you would like to play, let us know!  To use the iPad while your hanging out in the Teen Lounge just stop by and ask the teen librarian if you can borrow it for a bit.

More YA books on OverDrive are here! 

We've ordered a selection of different titles, so either check out all the YA books we have in the link above, or scope out a few of the latest offerings from the list below!

But wait! What is OverDrive you ask? OverDrive is a great (FREE!) software program that allows you to download your favorite books onto your e-reader. So no matter where you are--traveling in the car with your parents and siblings for the holidays--you can download a book to your e-reader, blackberry, laptop, etc. and get reading! Don't have an e-reader? You can check-out a nook color from the library and read to your heart's content!

There are some really great books out there, and this is just another way for you guys to find, access, and read books that you'll love.

Looking for a good YA book that's sports-themed?  Look no further. 

This comprehensive list was compiled from books found in our collection.  All center on sports-related issues, anywhere from baseball, to basketball, to chess (yes! that is a sport in my book), to snowboarding, to football--with a healthy dose of angst served on the side.

Enjoy!

The Teen Advisory Board will discuss rescheduling this program. Drat you snow in October!

The Darien Library Teen Advisory Board Presents:

A Halloween Movie Marathon 

When: October 29th, 2011 from 4:00PM- 10:00PM.

What: We will be viewing: Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Sixth Sense, & The Haunting!

Where: In the Community Room of the Library.

*This program is open to all teens 13-18 years old.  Come hang with your friends, eat tons of free food, watch scary movies, and get into the Halloween spirit.*

Come dressed in your Halloween costume and you could win a prize for best costume.

Check out our page on Facebook!

Photo Courtesy of Flickr user davidsteltz

Hey Everyone!  New update for the Teen Lounge: Skull Candy headphones! 

We have two on hand, so drop by and try them out!  Just ask any of the librarians and we'll get them for you!

Banned Books Week (BBW)  September 24, 2011 - October 1, 2011

BBW is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  There are many books that have been challenged over the years--can you believe that Harry Potter has been actually challenged?  What about Twilight?  In fact, both those books and more have been challenged--and are still being protested today.

So why should you care about Banned Books week?  Simple, because you can help protect your rights by reading!  Imagine if those that were trying to ban books were successful--you would miss out on a whole lot of great reading choices.  I mean, where would you be without the Edward x Bella x Jacob drama?  Or, if one of the great reads from the list below had been banned--think of how empty your life would be!  So find out why Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was challenged, and what had people up in arms about Gossip Girl.  What is Alice saying that people don't want asked?

Stop by the YA section to find any of these books (and more) on our Banned Books Display and find out for yourself.  Happy reading!

Congratulations to Catherine, Claire, Daly and Julia winners of the first ever Teen Book Trailer Video Contest! Here are their winning videos.

First Place: Ingo

For it's creative cinemetography including underwater scenes, this video shares First Place. Filmmakers Julia Cornacchia and Catherin Gorey demonstrate excellence in storyboarding, script writing and directing. Ingo tells the story of Sapphy, who hears the call of the sea in this fantasy tale of longing, mystery and magic.

Ingo Book Trailer Submission from Darien Library on Vimeo.

First Place: Room

Filmmakers Claire & Daly Naughton share First Prize for their dramatic and suspenseful retelling of this dark and twisted tale of a captive woman and her young son. This video demonstrated excellence in video production, notable editing and strong performances by the actors.

Congratulations to our winners!