Inventor's Month: Life!

How's this for the ultimate invention: artificial life!

Ramadan 2009

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is underway. Look here for more images of how it is celebrated across the globe.

Jr. Friends Registration Begins August 29

If you're in grades 6 to 10 and looking for volunteer hours for any reason, you can earn them at the Oak Lawn Public Library. The Junior Friends of the Library program allows ten teens to volunteer for an hour per week for ten weeks, from September 14 through December 5.

To sign up, register with your library card at the Library, at the Youth Services Desk. Those who register will be asked to attend an orientation meeting on Monday, September 14 from 4 to 4:30 p.m.

Deep in the Heart of High School by Veronica Goldbach

Jacket Notes:Vanna Reynolds was popular and happy back in Plano, Texas, but now she lives with her mother in a tiny apartment in San Antonio. How can she start her freshman year as a complete nobody? Fatima Garcia does well in school and helps out with her family's construction business, but is worried about her weight. So she's thrilled when a junior starts paying attention to her - but is he really interested in Fatima? Olivia Silverstein tries to make life easier for her mother. Ever since her father died two years ago, she's been the perfect daughter. When will she get to have her own life?

More Inventions for Inventor's Month

New inventions pop up everywhere around the world. Sometimes it's a new way to store energy, a way to overcome physical disabilities, or even just to get a better parking spot.

Then, of course, there's robot snakes, gloves that turn you into Spider-Man, and a smart phone app that gives you information about your surroundings as you look at them.

My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters by Sydney Salter

Jacket Notes:It's the end of junior year, and summer is about to begin. The Summer of Passion, to be exact, when Jory Michaels plans to explore all the possibilities of the future--and, with any luck, score a boyfriend in the process. But Jory has a problem. A big problem.

Keysha's Drama by Earl Sewell

Jacket Notes:Sixteen-year-old Keysha Kendall is a judge's signature away from foster care when she's sent to live with the father she never knew. Suddenly she has her own room in his big fancy house, a high-powered stepmother and a popular half brother who can introduce her to all the right people at her new school.

Shimmerby Dallas Reed

Jacket Notes:Set in the otherworldly atmosphere of a snowed-in town, this paranormal thriller features four teens who discover a mysterious box. When it is opened, a strange silver dust flies into the air, shimmers, then disappears. Soon, people in the town begin to change--and not for the better.

Limited Time Only: Download Scott Westerfeld's Uglies

Want a free book? (Besides all the ones we have free to borrow at the Oak Lawn Public Library, of course.) For a limited time, publisher Simon & Schuster is offering a free download of Scott Westerfeld's novel, Uglies. (It's in the PDF format.) The story is a future in which everyone at age 16 is transformed from an "Ugly" to a "Pretty" -- someone who conforms to an ideal of beauty and who is free to play and party. But Tally Youngblood is about to discover the secret price for becoming pretty.

If the free sample gets you hooked, you can follow up on the series with Pretties, Specials, and Extras -- available at your local library.

Inventions: The Soccer-Playing Robot

Today's invention: a robot that plays soccer.

Happy Inventor's Month!

August is National Inventor's Month! If you're interested in reading about inventors and inventions, a good place to start is in the Oak Lawn Public Library's non-fiction collections, in the 609's.

But there are all sorts of on-line resources about inventions, which we'll explore here. For example, did you know which inventions were discovered by accident? For a more recent example, you can read how scientists just discovered that blue food die can treat spinal injuries. The only problem? It turns the patient blue.

Movies: Star Wars Fan Films

Our Monday Night Movie Club may be over, but there are still plenty of ways to enjoy movies this summer. One way: The fan film. Fans of certain movies or characters will make their own films, armed only with home video equipment, really low budgets, and their own creativity.

One of the best-known outlets for fan films is theforce.net, a Star Wars fan site that features hundreds of homemade Star Wars films, as well as others. The site even discusses how you can make your own films, using legal music and sound effects, as well as homemade special effects.

Why do we bring this up now? Because the folks over at Atom Films have just announced the 2009 winners of the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. Click on the link to see this year's winners as well as past ones, including:


Star Sports - Theatrical Trailer

Atom.com: Funny Videos Spoofs Star Wars Fan Movies

Fabulous Digital Scrapbooks!

Here are some fun pages that were made in the Digital Scrapbooking Class!

by Julia by Dana


by Magdalena by Elise


by Abdallah